31 |

Somewhere over the Continental United States
Present Day

 

“I’ve traced those SUVs that left the embassy.”

Somebody knocked on the door of the bathroom Chris Leroux had jammed himself and too much equipment into. He was sitting on the toilet, a laptop propped up on his knees, his secure satphone tethered to it to provide him access to Langley’s servers, and an encrypted voice connection to his team.

None of which he could take advantage of sitting out in coach with an audience.

“Occupied!”

“Hurry the hell up! You’ve been in there long enough to work up a second shit!”

Leroux stifled a chuckle. “Sorry! Just returning from Mexico. Montezuma’s revenge.”

Sympathy immediately replaced the impatience. “Sorry, had that. Good luck, dude!”

I’ll have to remember to look like shit when I come out of here.

“Umm, can you repeat that?”

Leroux laughed at Tong’s puzzled tone, his live mike forgotten during his exchange with the passenger. “Nothing, just buying myself time.”

“Boss, if you need some private crunch time, Sonya’s doing a bang-up job here.”

Leroux shook his head at his youngest team member’s joke. “Thanks, Randy, but I’m fine. Back to business. Where’d they go?”

“Bromma Airport. A private terminal,” replied Tong.

“Did they get on a plane?”

“We don’t know yet, but a Saudi flagged diplomatic flight left there a few minutes later.”

“Headed for?”

“Dubai.”

Leroux’s eyes widened slightly. “Interesting. I would have thought Riyadh.”

“Could it just be a coincidence?”

Leroux pursed his lips, listening to his famous gut. “Could be, but I doubt it. The timing is too tight, and we know he didn’t come out of the embassy the way he went in. He’s either still in there, or was in one of those SUVs.”

“Dead or alive.”

Leroux nodded at Randy Child’s observation. “Let’s hope the latter, but history suggests the former. When does the plane land?”

“Less than three hours.”

“Okay, since he’s a Swedish citizen, we’ll have to hand this over to them, or possibly Interpol.”

Child grunted. “There goes the neighborhood.”

Leroux suppressed a chuckle, though his underling was right. With the Saudis a member of Interpol, and the regime likely behind the kidnapping or murder, they would be privy to the investigation. “Yeah, I’ll talk to the Director, but there’s no way Washington is going to authorize anything beyond electronic surveillance with there being no Americans involved.”

“What about Professor Acton?” asked Tong.

“He hasn’t done anything stupid yet.”

Child laughed. “Just wait.”