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Kai strode through the narrow alleys, winding her way through the old city as twilight fell over the streets. The sun was sinking, casting shadows that would soon deepen into the darkness where she felt the most comfortable. As much as she disliked this city, she still could appreciate the beauty inherent in the ancient alleys and buildings that had stood for centuries. And, as her father had once told her many years ago, that kind of cultural beauty could only truly be appreciated by exploring on foot. Her lips curved faintly in the fading light. He had spoken those wise words at the end of a very long day of sightseeing when she was exhausted and not in the mood for them. It wasn’t until years later that she began to understand the truth behind them.
Dressed in jeans and a black tank top with her head bare, she was drawing her fair share of disapproving glares from the more conservative men and women she passed, but she ignored them all. With her dark hair and deeply tanned skin, she could pass for an Egyptian herself, and often had. Along with the misconception, though, came the censure. Egyptian women were expected to wear a scarf over their hair, and most adhered to a dress code that did not include the low-cut, form-fitting tank top that Kai was wearing. Something about the set of her shoulders and her confident, measured stride prevented the elders from doing more than look, however, and she moved through the underbelly of the ancient city without a thought for the dangers that lurked there. She was familiar with those dangers, and knew her ability to defend herself from them far outweighed any risks. Anyone foolish enough to try to assault her wouldn’t walk away from that fight.
Rounding a corner, Kai’s step checked and she raised her eyebrows in surprise. The alley she had entered separated two housing establishments and ran the length of the enormous structures to end at a very busy, bustling street. Her intention was to cut through to the street and then take a taxi to within a few blocks of the hotel. Entering the alley, however, she saw that the way was blocked halfway down by a group of about seven unsavory looking men, all clustered around something, or someone. There was no way to get past them.
Her lips tightened briefly as she considered whether or not she wanted the aggravation and delay of dealing with what looked very much like a gang, or if she’d rather just turn around and find another route. And then, of course, there was the little matter of exposure; exposure that Jared was determined that she avoid. In the split second of indecision, one of the men shifted and she caught a glimpse of what was holding their attention.
Raj leaned against the side of the building, blood trickling from a gash above his eye.
Kai’s eyes narrowed, her decision made, and she evaluated the men as she continued down the alley, her stride steady. They were a rough group, and would undoubtedly not fight fair. Her lips curved again. But neither would she.
The sound of her boots on the stone echoed as she moved towards them and several of the men turned to look. The one standing in front of Raj glanced over and said something in a low voice. In response, two of the men turned and started moving towards her.
“Go back that way,” one of them called in Arabic.
“But I’m trying to get there,” she replied, motioning to the street ahead.
“I said, go back,” he repeated. “You can’t get through this way.”
Instead of turning back, Kai kept going, closing the gap between them.
“Of course I can. You just have to move out of my way.”
A second of stunned silence met that statement, then both men started to laugh.
“Move? Why would we do that?”
The smile that crossed her face was chilling, and deadly. “Because if you don’t, I’ll move you myself, and you don’t want that.”
She raised her voice as she spoke, ensuring that the rest of the group heard her. She thought she saw Raj grin, but a second later his face was expressionless again as he stared balefully at the large man in front of him.
Several of the men were laughing now as they turned to look at her. The two directly in front of her closed the distance between them, and the one who had spoken reached out to grab her arm. Kai moved so swiftly that before he knew what was happening, his left arm was broken and he was sprawled, face-down, on the ground with her boot on the back of his neck. His companion moved towards her, then froze when he found himself staring down the barrel of a Jericho 9mm.
“Think carefully about what you do next,” she said softly.
“Get her off me!” The man on the ground gasped. “Shoot her!”
Without taking her eyes off the others, Kai lifted her foot off the back of his neck and delivered a sharp kick to his temple. His cursing stopped as his body went still. The one in front of her stared down at him, then slowly lifted his eyes back to her gun. His lips curved into a snarl and he lunged for the arm holding the weapon. Squeezing the trigger, Kai fired, putting a bullet into his shoulder. As he stumbled backwards from the impact, she dropped the barrel and fired again. The round went into his thigh and his leg buckled, sending him to his knees.
With the first shot, the rest of the gang had been shocked out of their stupor and she knew she only had a second before one, or more, of them pulled out a weapon of his own. Moving quickly, she went behind the wounded man and wrapped her arm around his neck, dragging him up and against her. Using him as a shield, she placed her back to the building on her right and watched as one of the men closer to them pulled out a pistol. Before he had time to fire, one of her bullets tore into his chest. He stumbled backwards, the gun clattering to the ground as he lost his balance and fell.
Taking advantage of the momentary distraction, Raj straightened up and swung his fist at the leader’s jaw, hitting him squarely and snapping his head back. The man shook his head as if to clear it and pulled out a knife, his lips curling back over his teeth. Raj just grinned, rolling his shoulders, and lifted his hands up into a defensive position with all the appearance of a man who was about to thoroughly enjoy himself.
Kai felt the man in her arms lurch as he tried to grab the gun from her hand. She let out an almost inaudible sigh and drove her knee into the back of his good leg as she released her hold on his neck. As he fell, she hit him on the side of his head with the pistol butt and he sank, unconscious, to the ground. Before she could step over him, a meaty hand clamped around her left wrist and a large, solid man who reeked of onions and sweat twisted her arm painfully behind her, dragging her over the inanimate body of his friend. Kai sucked in her breath as pain streaked up her arm and into her shoulder. Pointing her gun downward, she fired a round into his foot. He let out a roar of pain, releasing her arm as he stumbled, balancing on his good foot. Spinning around, she raised her knee sharply into his groin, hitting him over the head with the pistol butt as he doubled over. He hadn’t even hit the ground before she was spinning away and moving towards another man closest to her.
Raj blocked a blow to his head, keeping an eye on the blade in his opponent’s other hand as he jabbed his hand forward and up into his sternum. The man doubled over, the wind forced out of him, and Raj wrenched the knife away from him. Flipping it in the air, he reversed his grip and drove the six-inch blade down into the hollow between his neck and shoulder bone. A quick movement with his wrist and the man gagged silently before his eyes slid closed, his carotid artery severed. As he fell, Raj pulled the knife out and turned to face one of the others.
Less than a minute later, Kai and Raj looked at the seven bodies strewn around the alley, some unconscious, most dead.
“You did warn them,” he said after a second of silence.
“Yes.”
“Thanks.”
“Who are they?”
“I don’t know.” Raj glanced at his watch and turned towards the busy street at the front of the alley. “They were waiting for me when I came out of a café.”
Kai looked at him sharply, falling into step beside him. “We’re supposed to be keeping a low profile,” she said. “How did they know anything about you?”
“I don’t know. The big one said he heard I was looking to buy expensive product from someone else.” Raj shrugged. “I guess I got in the middle of a trade war between suppliers.”
“Fantastic. That’s why we have Kodak get the gear. He works with less exposure and less drama. Now you’re compromised. They know you’re here, and worse, they know you’re not alone.”
“Hey, I didn’t ask you to come wading in like an avenging angel! You didn’t have to get me out of that. I would have talked my way out of it, eventually.”
“And probably got a few broken bones in the process,” she retorted. “You’re no good to us if you can’t walk.”
“While I appreciate the sentiment, it doesn’t exactly make me feel all warm inside.”
“It’s not supposed to.” They emerged from the alley and turned left, blending into the foot traffic and moving with the crowds along the busy sidewalk. “The last thing we need is for any of us to have our cover blown before we even get started. Thanks to you and your side deals, I’ve just drawn a hell of a lot of attention to myself.”
“The ones you left alive won’t be talking anytime soon. By the time they do, we’ll be long gone from Cairo.” Raj glanced down at her. “It’ll be fine.”
Kai pressed her lips together and was silent for a moment, then she pulled her cell phone out of her pocket. She swiped the screen and tapped a button, holding it to her ear. A moment later, Asher picked up.
“Hey girl.”
“I need you to get into the city CCTV,” she said, forgoing greetings. “I just had an incident. I need to make sure I wasn’t caught by a camera on the street.”
There was a moment of silence, then Asher spoke. “What’s the area?”
Kai gave him the street names, glancing at Raj. He was shaking his head, making it clear that he thought she was being overly cautious.
“All right. I’ll see what I can do,” Asher said.
“Thanks.”
Kai hung up and slid her phone back into her pocket.
“There aren’t any street cameras back there,” Raj told her. “You’re wasting Asher’s time.”
“Better that than the alternative,” she retorted. “I don’t know about you, but I happen to like being invisible. I’ve worked hard to stay that way, and I’ll be damned if I let it all go to hell now because of you.”
Kai sipped her bottled water and watched as Jared crossed the sitting room, a cup of coffee in his hand. Rina had ordered dinner and the coffee table was covered with food containers holding the remains of shredded meat, rice, slow-cooked beans and falafel. While the food was delicious, there was entirely too much of it, and Kai felt uncomfortably full.
“Raj, you’ll be glad to know that Shira checks out,” Jared said, moving towards his arm chair in the corner. “She’s clean. How are you going to get her inside the compound?”
“It’s a go, then?” Raj looked up from his second plate of food. “You’re giving it the green light?”
“Yes.” Jared sat down and sipped his coffee. “You need to move quickly though. We’re running out of time.”
“I’ve already made arrangements.”
“What kind of arrangements?” Rina asked. “How are we going to get her in?”
“The woman you caught with the drone is a cook who’s about to get a message calling her away, if she hasn’t already,” he said. “Sadly, she suffered a loss today. Her uncle had an unfortunate accident and passed away.”
Silence greeted that announcement as they all stared at him, dumbfounded. Kodak was the first one to find his voice.
“You killed her uncle?” he demanded.
Raj shrugged. “I didn’t do it,” he replied, scooping up a forkful of meat and rice. “I haven’t left Cairo. I arranged for others to do it.”
“You killed an innocent man?” Asher asked, his eyes wide. “Just to get her out of the compound?”
Raj shot him an amused look. “Asher, trust me. He was far from innocent. There’ll be few who will miss him.”
“How do we know that will get her out of the compound?” Kai asked. “Was she close to her uncle?”
“I don’t know, but he helped raise her. Her father was killed when she was ten and she went to live with her uncle and his wife. I’d assume she would go to comfort her aunt.”
“If she leaves tonight, we can move Shira in tomorrow,” Rina said after a moment. “How do you plan on inserting her?”
Raj smiled. “Don’t worry about that. We’ll take care of it. This isn’t her first rodeo.”
“Maybe not, but this isn’t something that we can risk going wrong,” Jared said. “What’s the plan?”
Raj sighed and put down his plate, wiping his hands on a paper napkin.
“She’ll present herself at the compound tomorrow morning, armed with a letter of recommendation from the cook herself,” he said reluctantly.
“How the hell is she going to get that?” Kodak demanded.
“She’ll follow the woman when she leaves the compound and, at the first opportunity, arrange a meeting. If the woman takes a bus, it will be easy. If Masha’al sends her in a car, then it’ll be trickier. If he does that, Shira will have to wait until after the woman arrives home and intercept her then.”
“And if, by some miracle, she does arrange all this, what’s going to make the woman recommend her as a temporary replacement?” Kai asked.
“You all need to stop doubting Shira,” Raj said, shaking his head. “I’m telling you, the woman has a silver tongue. She could talk a sheik into handing over his entire harem. Trust me.”
“All right. But what if she doesn’t get an opportunity to arrange a meeting? What then?” Rina asked.
Raj shrugged. “Then we move to plan B.”
“Which is?”
“She goes to the compound anyway and tells them that the woman sent her. By the time they get hold of the real cook, it’ll be too late. We’ll be in.”
“How do you figure that?” Asher asked. “If they call her right then, they’ll find out.”
“Only if they can get through to her,” Raj said pointedly.
Asher smiled. “Oh. I see. Do you have her cell phone number? I’ll need that to intercept any calls.”
“No, but I have a name.”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
“Assuming that she does talk her way in, how will you contact her?” Kai asked.
“I won’t. Once she’s in, she’ll contact me when it’s safe.”
“Which brings us to how we’re going to get ourselves in,” Rina said, looking at Kai. “You want to go over it now?”
Kai shrugged. “Sure.” She capped her water bottle and set it down. “I know we’re all uncomfortable with the idea of having a stranger inside. Rina and I think we’ve come up with a way to make it a little easier for all of us.”
“Not use her?” Kodak quipped, drawing a glare from Raj.
“No. We need her, but we can certainly minimize our exposure to her. Raj will go into the compound with one of us in the morning.” Kai looked at Raj. “This is where she’ll have to create a reason for you to be there. The only way you’re getting through the gates is if there’s an urgent need for workmen. She’ll have to create that emergency. She already knows you, so you’re the obvious choice to run point from the inside. Once inside, you’ll place what charges you can to cut down on the time later. Unlock the entrance to the tunnel for us, then leave again. Make sure the guards know you’ve left. The rest of us will come in from the tunnel. That way, she never sees us.”
“Except the poor schmuck who goes in with Raj,” Kodak said. “Still, that seems reasonable.”
“Who’s going in with Raj?” Asher asked, looking around.
“I’ll go,” Kodak said after an uncomfortable silence. “It’s fine.”
Kai nodded, meeting his eyes. “All right. Rina, Asher and I will use the tunnel. We’ll be waiting inside.”
“Do we know the tunnel is clear all the way?” Raj asked suddenly.
“We went out to Tanta today and took a look at it at the other end. It looks pretty solid,” Rina said. “It has a stone floor, so we can use a wagon or dolly to move Masha’al. The walls are dirt, but they’re reinforced every few feet with wooden beams. Same with the ceiling.”
“We went along it for a while and it seemed clear,” Kai said. “Asher, can you get a full radar scan to confirm that the middle hasn’t collapsed, or that something isn’t blocking it halfway through?”
Asher looked at Jared, who nodded. “That shouldn’t be a problem,” he said slowly, “but there’s no guarantee that the images will show everything.” He thought for a moment, then brightened. “But we can send a remote controlled car down it. That will show us if it’s clear.”
Kai nodded. “All right. Get it prepped and I’ll drive back out there.”
“I’ll go,” Rina offered. “I want to do a better scouting job around Tanta anyway, just to make sure the exit route we picked out today is the best one.”
“Where are you with the air transport?” Kai asked Kodak. “We need to know where we’re going before we can finalize the route out of there.”
“I’ll have a location by morning.”
“How are we going to get Masha’al down the tunnel and to the transport?” Asher asked. “I know you said we could use a dolly or something, but he’s not just going to go along without a fight.”
“After we stage the shooting, Rina will sedate him and we’ll move him then.”
“I have something that will knock him out for hours,” Rina said with a nod. “It won’t be a problem.”
“Great! Moving a dead weight. That sounds like fun,” Kodak grimaced. “I hope it’s a motorized dolly.”
“If that’s the only thing you think will be hard in all of this, then I want whatever you’re smoking,” Rina said with a laugh. “So far, a sedated hostage seems like the least of our worries!”
“How will we know when the SEAL team is airborne?” Asher asked suddenly. “I can’t monitor the radio frequencies from underground, and even if I could, the Americans have a closed system. There’s no way I can tap into their operational frequency.”
“I’ll let you know as soon as their birds are in the air,” Jared said.
Rina exhaled loudly and stretched her arms over her head.
“So now we just have to get a complete stranger inside the compound, finalize the transport and extraction route, put together all the explosives that will take down an entire building, run through a virtual mock-up of the building to get timing and positioning down, and then hope to God the Americans don’t change the play at the last minute.” She shook her head and dropped her arms again. “Oh yeah. Just a walk in the park.”
Kai couldn’t stop the grin that pulled at her lips.
“Are we having fun yet?”
