Shadow Tyrants

FORTY-FIVE

Linc was shocked to see Torkan coming out of the trailer, but it lasted for only a moment.

When he saw the Iranian assassin raise his pistol, he shoved Eddie down and fired. Bullets whistled overhead as they dove behind the generator shed.

“Torkan,” Linc said to Eddie, who had already drawn his own pistol.

“Did you get him?”

“Don’t think so.”

“Why is he here?”

“He was doing something in that semi-trailer.”

Linc poked his head out and saw Torkan crouched behind the trailer. By now, the gunfire had drawn attention from the security team, and a klaxon sounded. Unlike the nearly silent gunfire shown in movies, the suppressors were still loud enough to echo through the dockyard.

“He’s cut off our escape route,” Linc said.

“What’s happening out there?” the Chairman asked. “We hear gunshots.”

“Asad Torkan blew our mission,” Eddie replied.

“He’s here?”

“Mission is aborted. Sorry, Chairman.”

Linc fired off more rounds, but he didn’t hit Torkan. He saw the assassin take off. Torkan fired three quick shots before he disappeared into the maze of equipment near the trailer.

“He’s gone,” Linc said.

“We need to get out of here. Let’s move.”

Footsteps were pounding toward them from all directions. Linc and Eddie ran to the trailer, which was in the direction of the hole they’d cut in the fence.

They reached the rear of the truck when rifle fire ricocheted off the asphalt, shot by six guards running from the front gatehouse.

Eddie and Linc slammed into the side of the trailer and crouched down.

Tires from two SUVs screeched as they tore across the dockyard.

“What do you think, Butch?” Eddie said.

“Not looking good, Sundance,” Linc replied with a wry grin.

“I’ll take the three on the left, you take the ones on the right.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

Six against two weren’t the best odds they’d ever had, but they weren’t the worst, either. They were about to rush out when a flashbang grenade skittered under the truck and came to rest just a few feet away.

Eddie made an attempt to kick it, but it went off before he could reach it. The ultra-bright light and deafening sound dazed them both, and it was in that moment Linc knew they wouldn’t make it.

He plucked the tiny comm unit from his ear and tossed it away, hoping it would end up under the trailer and out of sight.

The SUVs skidded to a stop as the six running guards rounded the corner of the truck. Linc’s blurry vision started to come back into focus, and he saw a lithe woman step from the front seat of the lead SUV, an assault rifle cradled in her arms. It was Natalie Taylor.

“Drop your weapons or I’ll kill you both right now.”

Linc looked at Eddie, who was still shaking out the cobwebs. When he could finally see, he looked at Linc and nodded. Live to fight another day was a better plan than going out in a blaze of glory.

They both let their guns fall to the ground.

“Good boys,” she said with a smile, plucking the comm unit from Eddie’s ear. “Now, what are we going to do with you?”

By this time, the deck of the Colossus 5 was a hive of activity. Guards were stationed all around the ship in anticipation of further attack.

Juan felt helpless as he heard Eddie and Linc being taken prisoner.

“Get them up,” a woman said. It had to be Natalie Taylor.

Then there was a scuffing sound, and then Taylor’s voice much louder. “Torkan, if you’re still listening, your attack didn’t work this time.”

She must have been speaking into a mic that she’d taken from Linc or Eddie’s ear, because there was a crunching sound right before it went off-line. Juan could still hear her voice, this time muffled and distant.

“Take them to the ship,” she ordered.

She said “them,” so at least that meant they were both alive.

“What do we do now?” MacD asked.

Juan peered over the edge, and the deck was still swarming with guards. In fact, one was approaching their position.

“Drop,” he said.

MacD did as ordered, falling to the water below.

“We can’t leave them,” Raven said.

“We’re not,” Juan said, his eyes boring into her. “Drop now.”

Without another word, she detached her magnets and plunged down. Juan went right after her, tapering so he’d enter the water with a minimal splash.

When he was under, he let go of his magnetic climbers and swam away from the bow. He made it fifty yards along the dock before he had to come up for air.

MacD and Raven were waiting for him. The guard who’d been right above them was still looking to where he must have heard them hit the water. He took a final cursory glance around the area, then shrugged and disappeared.

“How do we get them out of there?” Raven said. “There are dozens of guards stationed on or around the ship.”

“And they’ll be on alert the rest of the night,” MacD said.

“Eddie and Linc still have their trackers,” Juan said, referring to the beacons implanted into the thigh of every Oregon crew member so they could be located in case of abduction. “At least we’ll know where they are while we come up with a plan to get them back.”

He didn’t wait for a response and began swimming toward their exit point, Taylor’s voice playing in his mind the whole way.

“Are you sure it was them?” Mallik asked as Torkan drove away from the Limassol port.

“Positive,” Torkan said.

“What were they doing?”

“I don’t know. But our initial assessment was wrong. They weren’t with Natalie Taylor at your house, and they don’t work for Carlton.”

“Then who sent them to tap my computer?”

“Maybe a foreign intelligence agency. Impossible to say.”

“So now we’re fighting Carlton and some unknown party,” Mallik said. “At least tell me that you got the bombs planted.”

“I did,” Torkan said without voicing his secret doubts about the ultimate success of the mission.

“Good,” Mallik said. “By this time tomorrow, Xavier Carlton will be dead. Hopefully, Lionel Gupta as well. If not, we’ll take care of him some other way, though I’m not sure we’ll need to. I don’t think he’d have the guts to go forward with Colossus on his own. In any event, I need you back here. Fly out on the helicopter and meet me on the Kalinga. Then, we’ll head to the launch command ship.”

“Yes, sir.” Torkan hung up. He decided that mentioning potential snags wouldn’t help at this point since he wouldn’t get another shot at Carlton, but one little problem still bothered him.

Before they exchanged gunfire, the black man must have realized that Torkan was coming out of the trailer.