Chapter Seven

 

 

The vehicle he and Prentiss rode in jostled over the uneven road as Zaid drove into Kabul. It was full dark now, and that made their presence here even riskier given the present circumstances. Men with evil on their minds loved to come out after dark.

Jaliya and her boss were in the vehicle in front of them. In addition to their driver they also had an armed security agent with them. Along with Zaid and Prentiss, that gave them three hired guns to watch their backs.

Zaid got the feeling that his insistence on accompanying them here had annoyed Jaliya, but he didn’t care. He’d rather be here to guard her and risk being overbearing and overprotective than sitting back at base waiting on another assignment with his team and leaving her safety in someone else’s hands. Screw that. Thankfully, Taggart had granted him and Prentiss permission to do it.

The flash of emergency vehicle lights up ahead was visible from more than a block away as they approached the special police station. Zaid turned right to follow the other driver toward the main building.

After parking along the curb beyond the security gate he and Prentiss hopped out with their M4s. They maintained careful watch over the area as Jaliya and her boss—both armed with pistols tucked into thigh holsters—met with the acting deputy police chief outside the taped-off perimeter set up outside the headquarters.

The cold air carried the stench of scorched metal from the car burning somewhere behind the building, but he couldn’t see it as the acting deputy chief began to lead Jaliya and her boss to the other side of the compound.

To stop them from rounding a blind corner without checking what was on the other side first, Zaid intervened. “Hold it.”

The chief and Jaliya looked back at him in surprise but he ignored them and motioned to Prentiss. Together they rounded the corner of the building and swept the area out back where the targeted vehicle sat smoldering. He already didn’t like Jaliya being exposed out here; trusting that the cops had cleared the compound properly wasn’t happening.

There was no way he was letting either Jaliya or her boss near the explosion site until he was certain it was safe. If militants were responsible for the bombing, it was feasible that more IEDs might be planted nearby. Hitting first responders as they were attending to victims or clearing the site while large crowds gathered around seemed to be a favorite tactic.

His boots crunched over the gravel in the back parking lot as he turned the corner and got his first good look at the vehicle. The fire was long out but the twisted hulk of burned metal that had been the victim’s ride was still smoldering next to the small crater beside it.

Looked like the bomb had been small, and either attached to the undercarriage or maybe planted in the ground beneath it, set off remotely or by pressure plate. Zaid was betting on the former. Whoever had killed him had probably been watching from somewhere on the street, waiting for the vehicle to drive over the IED. One touch of a button on a cell phone, and boom.

Three fire crews stood next to their rigs in full gear while EOD teams scoured the area, looking for other devices. Ten yards from the ruined vehicle, an ambulance crew was busy loading a body bag into the back of a government vehicle. The charred remains of the former chief of special police.

“Got anything?” he asked Prentiss after he’d scanned the surroundings and satisfied himself that everything was secure.

“Negative. We’re clear.”

Zaid turned around and headed back to where the others waited around the side of the building. “Okay. We’re good. Go ahead.”

Jaliya gave him a small smile of thanks and nodded before following the deputy chief toward Zaid. “Could anyone on the force have been behind this?” she asked the man in Dari. “A rival maybe, someone who had a grudge against the victim, or someone who didn’t like his political views?”

“No,” the deputy chief said, his voice adamant. “Absolutely not. He was well-respected by his men and everyone at this office. No, this was done by an outsider.”

She translated for her boss before continuing with the questions. “So then why do you think he was targeted? Could he have been involved with something he shouldn’t have been? Maybe something to do with The Jackal?”

The man paused and threw her a look of complete disgust. “No. They killed him because he stood up to them. He was a good man. A hero to his people.”

Zaid slanted a glance at Jaliya to gauge her response. She was watching the man closely, but her expression gave nothing away about her inner thoughts. She was too smart for that.

He turned his attention back to his security work as she and her boss continued to question the deputy chief. The ambulance holding the deceased’s body drove off.

Zaid kept his back to the group behind him and watched everyone else, taking note of their positions and their movements. He was relieved when Jaliya and the others finally turned back and went inside the building, though he kept watch from inside as well, not about to let his guard down. For all they knew, someone within these very walls had helped plan or maybe even carried out the attack.

Jaliya, her boss and the deputy chief disappeared into an office a couple minutes later, leaving him and Prentiss standing guard out in the hallway.

Prentiss looked over at him from the other side of the door. “Think the vic was The Jackal?”

“No clue.” Was possible though. Maybe there was some serious infighting going on in The Jackal’s ranks.

The minutes ticked by as he and Prentiss stood sentry in the hall. What he wouldn’t give to be a fly on the wall inside that office right now, while Jaliya kept peppering the deputy chief with questions, trying to piece together what had happened, and maybe even catch the other man in a lie.

Zaid wanted to know what was going on as badly as she and her boss did. If the dead guy had been The Jackal, then problem solved for the moment. “Guess we’ll find out within the next few days. If his network and shipments are disrupted going forward, then it was him. It’s possible he’s already got a few lined up that can still take place without him coordinating everything. But if he’s dead, sooner or later, there’ll be a major disruption in the chain of command and the operations.”

The death of a leader like that always left a vacuum in his absence. Maybe it would allow Jaliya’s team enough time to track down someone in the network before someone else took over the operation, and collar the organization once and for all.

Prentiss nodded and went back to scanning the hall as uniformed cops passed them with hard looks they both ignored. “And if it’s not him? They got any other promising leads?”

“They’ve got a few others.” He’d seen the pictures on the wall earlier. “Not sure how promising they are, since I didn’t get all the details.”

His buddy’s mouth twitched in the hint of a grin. “Bet Agent Rabani would tell you if you asked.”

Zaid shot him a hard look but Prentiss didn’t make eye contact, so he let it drop, not wanting to talk about her. Prentiss was observant, and it shouldn’t have surprised Zaid that his buddy had picked up on Zaid’s interest in or protectiveness toward her, but Zaid didn’t want anyone talking about her or speculating about what was going on between them. He wouldn’t allow her reputation to be tarnished.

After about forty minutes, the door finally opened and Jaliya and her boss came out. Zaid looked at her, taking in her self-assured gait and posture. The woman moved with a confidence that was damn sexy. “All done?”

She nodded. “For now. You guys ready to head back?”

“Sure. Just let me contact your driver.” Zaid pulled his cell out and dialed the guy, double checked to make sure everything was still secure outside. “Yep,” he told the others, “we’re good to go.”

Outside on the front steps of the building, Jaliya’s phone rang. Zaid paused to look back at her. She pulled it out and stopped when she glanced at the screen, the overhead lights showing a slight tension taking over her body.

He moved fast, grasping her arm and pulling her into the shadows beside the building, his only thought getting her out of the light so she wasn’t an easy target for anyone lurking out here and hoping to take a shot at her.

Her dark eyes flashed up to his, a little annoyed. “I need to take this,” she argued, trying to pull her arm free as she raised the phone to her ear with her free hand.

“You can take it once you’re off these steps,” he told her, and hustled her down and into the relative safety of the shadows. She followed, barely paying attention to him.

“Barakat,” she said, causing Zaid and her boss to look at her sharply. He’d called her? There was no way she’d given him her personal cell number. Maybe she’d had another number forwarded to it. And this must be important, for him to miraculously overcome his earlier dislike of her. “Where are you?”

Zaid kept moving her toward the vehicle. The driver had pulled it up to the main gate and waited with the engine running.

But Jaliya dug in her heels and twisted away from Zaid a few yards from the main gate. She shook her head adamantly at him when he tried to grab her arm again, and began speaking in rapid Dari.

Zaid and Prentiss immediately went back into sentry mode, watching for threats while she continued her conversation. Her voice was clipped, her posture tense. “No, he’s not all right,” she told Barakat. “His body is on its way to the morgue right now. What do you know about it?”

Her boss stood a few paces from the gate, eyes glued to her. “Where is he?”

Jaliya shook her head at him and continued to talk. “No. No deal. The intel you gave us before? Useless. We sent a team out to the site you gave me and there was nothing there.” Her mouth compressed into a thin line as she listened to whatever Barakat said next. “I don’t think so. You expect me or anyone else to listen to you after what happened? No. Your words carry no weight with me.”

A tense pause followed. Jaliya’s gaze flicked between Zaid and her boss. “All right, I’m willing to meet with you. Right now. At a location of my choosing.” She named an address Zaid wasn’t familiar with, but he guessed it was somewhere in the city. “Twenty minutes. Come alone. If you don’t show up, or if you feed me more lies once you get there, I promise you’ll wish you’d never taken my call that first time.”

She hung up and strode for the truck, an air of palpable excitement radiating from her. “He’s meeting us in twenty at a café a few miles from here.”

Her boss raised his eyebrows. “Us?” He shook his head. “I’m due back at Bagram within the hour, so I’m already going to be late as it is. With this assassination under investigation, I can’t push back the meeting.”

“But he says he’s got intel that could help our investigation. He said The Jackal is still alive.”

David cursed under his breath. “And what if he’s straight up lying again, just to get more money?”

“Or trying to lure you in for a kidnapping or targeted hit?” Zaid said, unimpressed by Barakat’s sudden change of heart about “helping” them.

She turned her head to stare at him, her expression unflinching. “I need to meet with him. I want to see his face and read his body language.”

In other words, she was going with him, or without him. His choice.

Her boss’s gaze shifted to Zaid and Prentiss. “Can you go with her?”

What? Zaid stared at him. He was seriously going to allow her to jeopardize her safety for a meeting with this little asshole?

“We’ve got our own security with us, so you and Prentiss can stay with Jaliya. If your team can spare you a while longer,” David added.

Since the guy outranked him, Zaid kept what he was really thinking to himself. “You sure about this?”

David glanced at Jaliya, then back at him. “Yeah. You guys will escort her to the meeting. If it feels off, get out of there. If it feels okay, make it fast, find out what the kid knows—if anything—and leave. Call me with an update as soon as you’re done. If he really does have something for us, I want to move fast.”

“Okay.” Jaliya looked over at Zaid. “Where did you park?”

Zaid couldn’t believe they were doing this. He wanted to put her in the truck and drive her straight back to Bagram. But if she insisted on going through with this meet, then he was going with her. “You good with this?” he asked Prentiss.

His buddy nodded once. “Yeah. I’ll call Hamilton, let him know what’s going on and see what he says.”

“Okay.” He waited while his teammate made the call. There hadn’t been anything scheduled when he’d left base, and neither Hamilton nor Taggart had called them back in, but something might have come up in the past couple hours.

Prentiss ended the call and put his phone in his pocket. “Got a green light.”

Guess we’re doing this, then. Zaid turned to Jaliya, trying to be all business and ignore the invisible pull she had over him. “Stay close to me, and don’t get in the truck until we check it.”

She frowned at his brusque tone, but didn’t argue. “Fine.”

His senses were on high alert as he, Jaliya and Prentiss headed for the truck, parked outside the main gates behind the other agency vehicle. He made Jaliya stay back about twenty yards on the sidewalk while he and Prentiss checked to make sure no one had tampered with the vehicle or rigged it with wires or explosives. Only when he was satisfied that he wouldn’t blow them up by turning the ignition did he go back for her and escort her to the rear driver’s side door.

Once she was settled he scanned the street before climbing behind the wheel and starting the engine, while Prentiss rode shotgun. “Where are we headed?” he asked her.

In the rearview mirror her dark eyes sparkled with excitement in the glow of the streetlights, the thrill of the hunt revving her up. They were more alike than he’d realized, and she was unlike any woman he’d ever met. More daring. Ballsy, even. On her, it was sexy as hell.

“Go north for two blocks, then take a left,” she said.

Zaid followed her directions, winding them through the darkened streets of the crowded city center while Prentiss kept watch of what was going on around them. “You think the kid knows anything?” he asked Jaliya. Zaid had his doubts. Serious doubts, and he just hoped the kid wasn’t luring them into a trap of some sort.

“He’d better.”

Yeah, no joke. “How do we know he isn’t working for someone else now?”

“We don’t.” She gave him a little smile, her dark eyes holding a distinct gleam of anticipation. “Thanks for this. I feel way better with you guys coming with me.”

Her admission surprised him a little, because she always seemed so fearless. “Welcome. But just so we’re clear, I’m not leaving you alone with him at any time.” He didn’t care if she didn’t like it. That’s how it was going to be.

“Good. I need the intel he has, but I don’t trust him.”

Neither did Zaid. And even though he disliked this situation, he had to admit he admired her bravery and dedication. “Are you always this determined?”

Her lips twitched as she stared out the windshield. “I think so, at least when it comes to getting what I want.”

Wish you wanted me that badly. He didn’t dare say it aloud.

“I usually do, though. My father says I’ve always been headstrong.”

She claimed to have lots of friction with him, but she sure talked about him a lot. Whatever their history, she obviously loved and respected him a great deal. “What does your mom do, anyway? I never asked.”

“She teaches classical studies at a college. Yours?”

“We’re blue collar all the way. My mom has a cleaning business and my dad’s a mechanic. Their English still isn’t the greatest, even though they emigrated from here to the States when my mom was pregnant with me.”

Jaliya nodded. “Learning a new language as an adult is hard.”

True.

“Wait, your old man’s a mechanic? Then how come you suck with mechanical stuff?” Prentiss asked.

“I don’t suck at it, I’m just not as talented with machines as I am at patching up human bodies.”

Prentiss chuckled under his breath. “If you say so.”

Okay, a change of subject was in order before his ego took a beating in front of the woman he was trying to make an awesome impression on. Zaid glanced up to meet Jaliya’s eyes in the rearview. “Were your parents born in the U.K.?”

“My mom was. Dad’s family was originally from right here in Kabul.”

He shook his head. “Man, the changes our parents have seen here over the last few decades must have been mind-blowing.”

“Yeah, the country’s barely recognizable to the one they grew up in. It’s one of the reasons I took this job. I hate what’s happened over here and I wanted to make a difference.”

“Trying to make the world a better place.”

Their gazes connected in the mirror once more, and at his words her expression froze for an instant before closing up. Almost as though she was hiding something. “Exactly,” she murmured, looking away.

Make the world a better place. His gut tingled as that same phrase echoed in his mind, from a conversation he’d had months ago with the woman he’d met online.

He dismissed it and picked up the thread of conversation. “Me too. Prentiss, what about you? Why’d you take on this gig?”

“I get to play with some pretty cool toys in this job, and my teammates rock even if the assignments don’t always. Also, drugs suck.”

They totally did. “Right. Don’t do drugs.”

Even painkillers could be the start of a slippery slope for a lot of people. For that reason he never gave a patient a higher dosage than absolutely necessary during treatment and transport. Not unless they were going to die and the only act of kindness was to pump them so full of meds that they didn’t suffer in their last few minutes on earth. His hands tightened around the steering wheel as ghostly faces flashed in his mind.

Pushing them aside, he glanced in the mirror again. Jaliya was watching him, the touch of her gaze a low-grade tingle beneath his skin.

“Do your parents support your job?” she asked.

“In FAST, you mean? Or the agency in general?”

“Both.”

“Yeah, they do. They’re proud that I’m trying to make a difference for the people here and back home by cutting off funding to terrorist organizations and cartels. But they don’t love how dangerous it is.” He took in her profile for a second as she gazed out the window before focusing back on the road. “Why, you don’t think yours support your job?”

She made a face. “They like that I’m fighting for what I believe in, but they’d always hoped I’d pick something more academic.” She tossed a grin at him. “More white collar.”

“So they’re snobs,” he teased.

She laughed and he smiled in reflex. “When it comes to professions, yes, I guess they are. Mostly I think they just worry about me all the time. They want me to be safe, and to them that means a comfy, boring desk job back in the States.”

I want you safe, too. It’s why I’m here. But he would never want her to give up a job she was so well suited for and obviously loved, even if it was dangerous. He might not like that she was in danger, but he’d learn to deal with it.

“I guess that’s just something parents never stop doing—worrying about us.” He loved her laugh. And her voice, her cute British accent. Her dedication to her job and that she was a team player.

“Maybe. And, I guess you’ve probably noticed by now that I hate any kind of misogynistic bullshit.”

“I had, yes,” he answered with a straight face.

“I noticed that too, by the way,” Prentiss said with a wry smile.

She gave a soft chuckle that went straight to Zaid’s gut. “My parents and sisters share my view on that, but they hate that I’m so vocal about it. They think I should fight quietly and not be so…brash about it.”

“But then you wouldn’t be you,” Zaid said.

She turned her head to meet his gaze in the mirror then, and for a split second there was such unguarded gratefulness on her face that it sent a wave of tenderness through him. He wished they’d been alone and not riding in a vehicle so he could hug her.

“That’s exactly it.” She paused a moment, as if searching for the right words. “I tried to fit into their mold when I was younger, I really did, but I felt suffocated. We all love each other, even if my father can’t say the words, so that made it easier when I broke with tradition and went my own way.”

The friction with her father was starting to make a lot more sense now. “How many sisters?”

“Two. I’m the middle.”

He grinned. “It’s always the middle child.”

She shot him a playful glare. “What are you, then, the perfect eldest?”

“Nope. Only. Perfect? My mom thinks so. Although my cousin did come to live with us for a few years when I was in my teens, and she was like a sibling.”

“Was?”

His stomach muscles grabbed. “She…passed away the year she was supposed to graduate.” He’d never gotten over it. Or over the feeling that he could have—should have—done more to save her.

“Oh, I’m so sorry. What happened?”

Prentiss already knew the story, so Zaid didn’t mind telling her with him here. “Her ex wouldn’t take no for an answer, refused to believe they were done. So he ran her car off the road and shot her twice in the chest as she lay there pinned in the wreck.”

“Oh my God, how awful. Is he in jail?”

It had been the darkest time of Zaid’s life, knowing that he hadn’t done enough to protect her. “Yes. I think about her all the time. She had the purest heart of anyone I’ve ever known. Maybe she was too good for this earth.”

“That’s the nicest compliment I’ve ever heard someone give another person.”

Well, it was the truth.

They lapsed into silence for a few minutes as he drove them deeper into the city.

“We gettin’ warm yet?” Prentiss asked finally, checking the GPS on his phone.

“Take a right at the third street up,” Jaliya said.

Zaid did, and she swiveled in her seat to peer out her window at the buildings they passed. “Just up here on the right, about twenty metres—yards, I mean. Yes, there he is.” She pointed.

Zaid glanced over in time to see Barakat appear out of an alleyway and walk toward the building. He watched carefully to make sure no one was with him. “I want to drive around the block first, see if we have any other company.” Both his and Prentiss’s phones had tracking beacons in them, so Hamilton or Taggart would be able to follow their position, just in case.

“All right.” She unbuckled her seatbelt and got to one knee to reach for the opposite door, ready to open it. He wouldn’t have been human if he didn’t steal a glance at her sweet, round ass in the rearview mirror as she did.

Jerking his gaze back to the road, he continued past the café, turned left at the next street and doubled back around, checking for a tail. At this time of night there weren’t many people walking around—all of them men—but nothing tweaked his internal radar. Barakat was slouched against the far brick wall of the café, watching them when Zaid pulled up.

“We good?” he asked Prentiss.

“Yep.”

Jaliya opened the rear passenger door. “Get in,” she told him in Dari, pistol in her free hand.

Zaid lowered his right hand to the sidearm on his hip and kept careful watch while the kid got into the back, even though Prentiss already had her covered. Zaid didn’t question the territorial urge he felt toward her.

As soon as their passenger was aboard, he hit the gas. “Where we headed?” he asked Jaliya in English.

“Wherever. Just keep driving around while I talk to him.” She turned to Barakat, and when Zaid flicked a glance in the rearview mirror, the kid was looking nervously at her weapon. “What have you got to say for yourself?” she demanded in Dari.

“I didn’t lie,” he insisted. “I did not,” he said more forcefully when she raised an eyebrow at him. “I was told The Jackal would be in the village that night.”

“Well, he wasn’t. And not only that, we reviewed satellite imagery of the area for the week prior and every day since our last meeting, and he still hasn’t shown up. No weapons or drugs, either.”

Barakat folded his arms across his chest and seemed to curl into himself as he leaned against the corner of the door, keeping as much distance between himself and Jaliya as possible. “He should have been there,” he muttered.

Jaliya let out an irritated sigh. “What about tonight? Have you heard anything about who planted the bomb?”

“It was The Jackal.”

“How do you know that?”

He shrugged. “Everyone knows it’s true.”

Zaid mentally rolled his eyes. Seriously? That’s the best the kid could come up with in terms of evidence? Zaid had half a mind to pull over right there and throw him out on his ass.

“Why would he want to kill such a high-profile victim? He was the chief of the special police,” Jaliya said.

“Because he was working with The Jackal. And The Jackal was afraid he would talk.”

Whoa. Zaid met Jaliya’s eyes in the mirror for a moment before she focused back on Barakat. Prentiss would only be picking up words and phrases from the conversation at most, but he would be able to tell from her tone that Jaliya wasn’t taking any bullshit.

“You have proof?” Jaliya demanded.

“I overheard a conversation. I recorded it on my phone.” Barakat held it out to her.

She took it. “Who else is working with The Jackal?” she pressed.

“Lots of people. I don’t know how many.”

“How many people in a position of authority are working for him?”

“All of them.”

It confirmed what Zaid already suspected, and what Jaliya must have as well—that The Jackal had his hooks into the majority of officials in Kabul and beyond. It was the only way he could have pulled off smuggling operations on that scale without anyone stopping him. Corruption was rife in this country. It was one of the main factors hampering their efforts at uncovering and locating The Jackal.

“Who is The Jackal, Barakat?” Jaliya’s voice was hard as iron.

“I don’t know,” he muttered. “I only heard rumors in the last few days.”

“I want names. Whoever you heard about, give me their names.”

A long, tense pause followed. “I don’t know if any of it’s true.”

“I’ll find out whether it is or not. Their names, Barakat. The more you give me, the more I give you in terms of money and protection.”

“Hey, two o’clock,” Prentiss murmured to him.

Before Zaid could answer, a small, beat-up pickup zipped out into the intersection ahead of them and stopped perpendicular to them, blocking the road. Zaid hit the brakes, a warning prickle lifting the hairs on his nape. He glanced in the rearview mirror but there was no one behind them.

Prentiss sat still beside him, his attention riveted to the pickup.

“Barakat, did you tell someone you were meeting me?” Jaliya demanded, her voice stern.

“No, I swear.”

Zaid paid only partial attention to the conversation, half-turning in his seat to look through the rear window. The street behind them was clear and there was no one on the sidewalks. When he looked frontward again the pickup driver had turned the truck to face them head on, and was speeding toward them down the center of the street.

Prentiss was already lifting his M4 from the foot well.

Shit.

Either the kid was lying, or someone had followed him here without Barakat knowing. Either way, Zaid was getting them the hell out of here.

“Hang on,” Zaid muttered, swiveling in his seat to look over his right shoulder as he hit the gas. The engine responded with a throaty roar and shot them backward.

Prentiss peered out the windshield. “He’s gaining on us.”

Zaid didn’t answer, all his concentration on reversing to the nearest exit off this street as fast as possible without getting into a wreck. His boot had the accelerator pinned to the floor. The SUV’s engine screamed as he raced through the darkness, turning the wheel sharply to avoid cars parked along the curb.

“He’s pulling a weapon. Down!” Prentiss barked.

Zaid vaguely saw his teammate reach back to push Jaliya downward, but she was already shoving Barakat flat onto the back seat. Zaid scanned for an exit, but the nearest street to turn onto was still at least forty yards away.

“Shooter,” Prentiss warned.

A heartbeat later bullets pinged off the front end of the armored SUV. Sparks flew, little flashes of light in his peripheral vision.

Dammit…

A round struck the windshield, cracking the glass but not punching through it.

Screw this.

“Hold on tight,” Zaid warned as the upcoming street loomed closer.

A moment later he hit the brakes and wrenched the wheel to the right, swerving them backward in a tight arc onto the cross street. He didn’t have time to shift into drive and pull out to get ahead of the pickup—it was nearly on top of them.

“Want me to take out the driver?” Prentiss asked.

“No.” If it had been just the two of them Zaid would have driven straight at the fucker so Prentiss could smoke him, but he wouldn’t put Jaliya and her informant at further risk. The safest option was to lose the shooter.

Zaid hit the accelerator again, rocketing them backward down the darkened side street. It was narrow, with a crap ton of obstacles in their path. The back bumper smashed into a garbage bin, knocking it flying. He veered left to avoid another vehicle, just as the bright beam of a headlight cut down the alleyway in front of him.

“He’s gonna fire again,” Prentiss said.

Two more bullets struck the windshield.

Jaliya popped her head up, staying out of Zaid’s line of sight as she peered forward between the front seats. “Any other vehicles with them?” Her voice was surprisingly calm.

“Negative,” Prentiss answered, his hands steady on his weapon, no doubt itching to roll down his window and shoot back.

The alleyway opened up into a street. Zaid floored it, hoping to gain some distance on the pickup.

“He’s falling back a little now,” Prentiss said.

Zaid didn’t let up on the gas, kept going until a car pulled out behind them. He slammed on the brakes and veered left, narrowly missing it, and careened up onto the sidewalk. Something else crashed off the back bumper, but now he could see an upcoming street.

As soon as he reached it he swerved backward into it, shifted into Drive and slammed his foot down on the accelerator, hunkering in his seat to see between the cracks in the windshield. The SUV lurched forward in a powerful surge that shot them into the darkness.

Prentiss slung around to look behind them but Jaliya beat him to it. “I got him,” she said, peering out the rear window. “He’s still coming, but you’ve got almost a block on him now.”

Time for some slick evasive maneuvers.

Zaid took a hard right at the next street, the back end sliding on the pavement as he made the turn, then a sharp left two streets after that.

“He missed the turn,” Prentiss said.

Not trusting that the threat was over, Zaid sped through the darkened warren of streets, zig-zagging back and forth in an effort to lose their tail.

“No sign of him now,” Jaliya said thirty seconds later, her voice full of relief.

Zaid wasn’t counting on their hostile welcoming committee giving up so easily. “I’m getting us the hell out of here.”

“Good plan,” Prentiss muttered as Jaliya let out a sigh of relief.

In the rearview mirror Zaid glimpsed Barakat finally sitting up. Jaliya was glaring a hole through the kid, and when she spoke her normally sexy voice was like ice. “We’ll take him with us back to base,” she said to him and Prentiss in English, “and find out whether that welcoming party was meant for him, or for us.”