Empire of Lies

43

Kamal grabbed Nisreen and, with one hand pressed tight against her mouth, whisked her off the path and ducked behind a thick tree trunk.

“Keep quiet,” he whispered, pointing ahead.

She didn’t move as he peered out.

He could see a man—then another—by the SUV. One had his back turned to them and was speaking on his phone. The other, to the left of the SUV, was looking away, scanning the forest, waiting. Farther back, in the shadows, he spotted another agency Kartal. It had the same predatory matte-black livery as the one they had driven there.

Hafiye agents. But how—

Then he saw him. The man on the phone, turning so his face was visible.

Taymoor.

Kamal stifled a curse. He’d brought him here once, months ago. He’d invited him to accompany him on one of his walks. Allowed him into his sanctuary. A charitable act—a stupid act, he now felt—when his partner had been going through a rough patch of his own.

Had his partner given him up? Or did he just miss something? A surveillance camera, a drone, a tracker. He wasn’t sure. Either way, that was quick. Celaleddin was clearly pulling out all the stops to make sure they were found.

Kamal thought fast. The sensible choice was to retreat and slip back into the forest. He knew the woods well, knew the various paths that cut through them, where they led. Knew how to find the river, where they might be able to hop onto a passing barge. Knew where the nearby roads were. Taymoor was probably setting up a cordon around the forest on the assumption that they were still there, but it was huge, and there was too much of a perimeter to cover. But retreating meant abandoning the phone and losing the only piece of leverage they had.

They needed that phone.

There were only two men facing them, for now. Taymoor plus one, whom Kamal now recognized as Kenan Hamza, an agent in their section—a friend, in another life. And Kamal had the element of surprise.

“Don’t move,” he mouthed to Nisreen.

Her expression went wide with protest, but he pressed his hand against her mouth and held a finger in front of his own.

“Stay here and keep still,” he whispered. Then he pulled out his gun, bent into a crouch, and headed out.

Waiting until he could see that they weren’t looking his way, he crept closer to the clearing, moving from tree to tree, scanning the ground to make sure he didn’t step on anything that might rustle or snap and give his presence away, taking his time, his gun drawn and ready. He was halfway to the edge of the clearing when Taymoor and Kenan, their weapons drawn, started moving down the path, the one he and Nisreen had been on, each of them taking up one side of it, keeping as much distance as possible between them.

They were coming after him and Nisreen.

Which actually made things easier.

He stayed behind the tree, listening intently, and waited until they passed his position and had their backs turned to him. Then he emerged, slowly, quietly.

Taymoor must have heard him. His pace slowed and his face swiveled to one side, his attention pricked.

“Don’t move,” Kamal called out to them, leveling his gun at their backs. “Arms up high, where I can see them. Fingers off the triggers.”

Hesitation, for a second.

“Do it, brothers. You know the drill.”

They both raised their arms, slowly, and turned to face him.

“What are you doing?” Taymoor asked. “Have you lost your mind?”

“Put your guns down on the ground, one at a time. Kenan, you first. And slowly, please. Very, very slowly.”

Kenan started to bend down.

Taymoor said, “Kamal, come on, this is—”

And just then, just as Kamal’s eyes flicked over to Taymoor, Kenan whipped his arm out so his gun was leveled on Kamal and took his shot—only Kamal saw it and reacted just as the agent squeezed the trigger. He dropped to a sideways squat and flicked his gun around—it had less of an arc to cover than Kenan’s—and pumped a bullet out a split second before he felt the air to the left of his ear whistle and saw the red mist sprout out of the agent’s right thigh.

Kenan’s gun flew out of his hand as his leg gave way and he dropped to the ground, lopsided, like a felled tree. Kamal ignored him and pinned his attention back on Taymoor, who had also brought his arms down and was now holding his gun aimed dead straight at his partner.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Taymoor roared, darting a quick glance sideways to check on the fallen man. “He’s one of us.”

“So were the two bastards who came to my house to kill me last night,” Kamal shot back. “And so were the sons of dogs who killed my brother and his children.”

His words struck Taymoor hard, his expression changing to one of stunned confusion. “What?”

“You heard me.”

Taymoor was still in shock. “Ramazan…? And the kids?”

“Yes,” Kamal hissed.

Kenan was writhing on the ground, his hands gripping his thigh as he groaned with pain. Blood was pooling onto the soil under him, but from the amount coming out, Kamal didn’t think his shot had severed the femoral artery.

“Help me,” Kenan called out.

Taymoor ignored him. He looked heavily spooked. “How did this happen? What the hell is going on?” he asked Kamal.

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

“Try me.”

“Not enough time, brother. I doubt we’ll be alone here long enough. And Kenan needs your help.”

“Whatever it is, we can work it out.”

“It’s too late for that.”

They stared at each other, their gun barrels lined up on each other like two handles tugging at the ends of an invisible rope.

Then a voice cut through the standoff.

“Is he one of them?”

Kamal and Taymoor both glanced away for an instant to see Nisreen at the edge of the path, across from Taymoor. She was standing by Kenan, who was still squirming with pain. She was holding Kenan’s gun in a two-fisted grip and had it aimed right at Taymoor’s chest. It was shaking and looked uncomfortable and heavy in her hands.

“Nisreen, stay back,” Kamal yelled.

She didn’t flinch. “Is he one of them?” she asked again, her tone flat and hard as she tightened her grip on the gun.

“No,” Kamal told her. “Taymoor’s my partner. He didn’t know about any of this.” The instant he said it, his expression changed. He frowned uncertainly at Taymoor. “Am I right? Tell me I’m right.”

“Of course, I didn’t. Bismillah, Kamal. What’s got into you?”

“He’s still one of them,” Nisreen hissed. “He’s here to kill us, too.”

“No, he’s here to bring us in,” Kamal said.

“Same thing.”

“Nisreen, please,” Kamal insisted, then he turned to Taymoor, whose gun was flicking left and right, trying to cover them both, which was hard given that they were ninety degrees apart. “Taymoor, listen to me. Put your gun down. Kenan needs help. You need to put a tourniquet around his leg before he bleeds out.”

“You know I can’t do tha—”

A shot detonated through the trees, catching both men by surprise, but more so Taymoor, who ducked instinctively, only not before the round had whizzed by him and grazed his scalp. He spun around to face Nisreen, who looked as surprised as he was by the shot she’d just fired.

“You crazy whore,” he raged at her as he dabbed his head with his hand and checked for blood while swinging his gun arm up at her—but in that split second of chaos, Kamal grabbed his opportunity. He charged at Taymoor, reaching him just as Taymoor saw him coming, and caught him off balance.

Kamal tackled him, plowing into him and pushing his gun arm away while ramming his elbow full force into Taymoor’s jaw. Both men fell to the ground heavily, then Kamal followed through with a quick punch to keep up the sensory onslaught while wrenching the gun out of his partner’s hand and flinging it away.

He pulled back and sprang to his feet, covering Taymoor with his gun. Taymoor spat and rose to his feet more slowly. They were both out of breath and grunting heavily.

Taymoor glared at Kamal. “You’ve really lost your mind.”

“You didn’t leave me any other choice,” Kamal said as he picked up Taymoor’s gun and edged around to join Nisreen. “I’m going to need your phone, too. Both of you.”

He covered both agents while they grudgingly pulled out their phones and tossed them over to him. He didn’t bother to pick them up off the ground. He just put a bullet in each.

He looked over at Nisreen.

Her attention was still nailed on the agents, her gun sight still locked on them.

“Let’s go.”

She didn’t react at first.

“Nisreen. Time to go,” he called out more forcefully. He gave Taymoor a parting look. Only yesterday the man had been his partner and brother-in-arms. Clearly, the surreal moments were going to keep coming fast. “I’m sorry, brother,” he told him.

“So am I,” Taymoor shot back angrily.

Kamal nodded ruefully, then turned and walked away.

“I told you she was going to get you into trouble,” Taymoor called out.

Kamal glanced over at Nisreen, who was walking next to him.

He didn’t turn back or reply.

He picked up his pace and they reached the clearing. “Get in,” he told Nisreen, pointing at the SUV they’d arrived in. Then he turned to Taymoor’s vehicle and put a bullet in each of its left tires.

They drove off in a storm of dust, charging down the winding lane that led out of the forest.

“Where do we go now?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” he said, leaning over to reach into the glove compartment. “But we’ll be lucky to get out. Others are probably on their way here already.”

He pulled out her phone and showed it to her. “This is it, right?”

She took it from him. “Yes.”

“Hang on to it,” he said as the road snaked left. “It could be our only lifeline—”

His eyes shot wide. Two cars were heading toward them at speed. Police cruisers, given the white hoods and the light bars on their roofs. No sirens or strobes, though—but they were rushing.

“Hang on,” Kamal rasped as he floored the pedal, charging toward them.

The move was unexpected—and the gap between them shrank so quickly they only had a second or two to react before impact.

Kamal didn’t waver, streaking straight at them like a missile.

The front car’s driver blinked first. He veered away at the last moment, but lost control of the car, which fishtailed as he twisted the wheel and slammed sideways into a big tree, the violence of the impact causing its trunk to punch its way halfway through the cabin.

The second cruiser stayed the course, but angled away sharply at the last second, narrowly avoiding a frontal collision. It scraped against the SUV as it shot past, metal crunching against metal, but both cars made it past each other without critical damage.

“Bok,” Kamal raged as he eyed the mirror angrily and saw the second cruiser’s brake lights lit up, saw it spin around as its driver pulled a handbrake turn, saw it surging after them, its siren and strobes blaring away furiously.

Nisreen was also twisted around in her seat, eyeing the pursuing car nervously. “They’re coming back.”

“I know.” His mind was already scanning ahead, calculating, assessing, evaluating options. He was trained for this. Only he never expected to be using it in these circumstances. Not while being chased by his own brethren.

He eased off the gas just slightly, not enough to be noticeable, but enough to let them think they were reeling them in. He watched as the cruiser grew bigger in his mirror, watched as it ate up the gap between them until it was right on their tail. Then he went for it.

He yanked the wheel hard, a quick right-left flick, like he was changing lanes violently, and at the same time, with one eye in the mirror, he slammed the brakes. The cruiser did as expected—it swerved left to avoid plowing into the SUV’s tail, but it didn’t brake fast enough and ended up right alongside it. Which was when Kamal hit the gas again and flung the steering wheel left.

The heavy SUV rammed the cruiser sideways, and Kamal kept it there, wrestling the police car off its trajectory and sending it flying head-on and full force into another one of the big oaks that lined the forest lane. Then he felt something in his hands. A violent shake, a vibration coming from the steering wheel. The collision had caused some damage, twisted something. The front wheels were juddering wildly.

And in the far distance, from the edge of the forest: more sirens.

Far, but closing in.

Converging on them.

“Bok, bok, bok,” he roared. Then he saw a turnoff coming up to their right, another lane heading into the forest in another direction.

Without hesitating, he dove the SUV into it.

“Where does this lead?” Nisreen asked as she darted nervous looks behind and ahead.

He glanced at her, his scowl sinking in deeper. “We’ll soon find out.”