“That’s stretching it a little far in a modern society, isn’t it?” Cruz said as he followed suit and switched off his laptop.
“Not in their mind. ISIS follows a distinctive form of Islam whose beliefs about the path to the Day of Judgment matters to its strategy. This helps the West know its enemy and predict its behavior. Its rise to power is less like the triumph of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt than like the realization of a dystopian alternate reality in which David Koresh or Jim Jones survived to wield absolute power over not just a few hundred people, but some eight million.” She shook her head. “If I’m right and they have joined forces with the rightwing terrorist groups, they are gearing up for an invasion that’ll make Guy Fawkes Day look like child’s play.”
“So, what do we do?” Knox shifted in her chair with a halo of expectation brightening her face. She was always game for action.
“First of all, I need to find proof of such an association. My gut instinct tells me there’s more to it than meets the eye. They must have joined forces with associate groups in other countries as well.”
“Others with similar wants and desires. The kind who wants to gain ultimate power and rule the world,” Jared mused with a thoughtful look in his eyes.
“Like the Five Families of the Mafia, for example.” Brock’s voice turned gruff.
“Maybe, but their beliefs and end goals aren’t in alignment,” Tanner said.
“True, but we know Marco Boneiro to be the kind of man who takes chances, who pushes boundaries and isn’t afraid to take the road less travelled. If he is involved with ISIS and Fadhil, you can be damned sure he already has an exit strategy in place. He would ensure he’s the one with the upper hand in any game plan they might have conjured up. That I can guarantee.”
Jared got up and looked at Jordan. “You said we have to leave. Why? It would be a better strategy to capture Fadhil for your kidnapping and torture, thereby ending the association before they execute their plan.”
“Fadhil isn’t a fool and that’s what worries me. He managed to avoid capture for over twenty years. Why would he, all of a sudden, make an appearance at a public gathering and expose himself? More to the point, why at that particular moment in time and on the exact same day that we started our search for him?”
“How did the FBI catch wind of his presence in Mosul?” Brock asked.
“Come to think of it, they never said. For that matter, Darius Muller, the senior agent in charge, had been very close- mouthed from the get-go.”
She got up and started pacing. “You know what? He’s the one who pointed me in the direction of the mosque where that gathering was going to take place. If not for that, I wouldn’t have found Fadhil— not as fast, at any rate.” She glanced at Paxton. “I’m starting to share your anger at the FBI and the platoon for not coming to my rescue, Paxton. For that matter, I’m seriously starting to consider that I...,” she pointed to everyone in the room, “or rather we, were led here deliberately.”
“Are you alluding to a mole inside the FBI? That someone at top level is in cahoots with either the Mafia or ISIS and wanted us to be captured?” Kezlin stared at her as she speculated. “Why? We’re small fish in a massive pond.”
“Maybe, but we also became the biggest thorn in Boneiro’s side by single-handedly capturing some of the top leaders of the Five Families,” Brock said with a cold voice. “Apart from that, we've decimated the ranks of their soldiers over the past couple of years. The Red Reign team is on the Mafia’s hitlist because they played a major role in three of their five leaders being linked and captured in regard to a pedophile sex trafficking ring. They’re still battling in court to clear their names. I have to agree with Jordan on this. They used her as bait, knowing once she was captured we’d come in to get her.” He looked at Paxton. “Care to hazard a guess how anyone would know that?”
“Because it’s exactly what we did when Kezlin was taken.” She looked at him with alarm. “You’re right. It has to be Marco Boneiro that’s involved.” She touched Jared’s arm. “What about Luca? I know he’s the one who had issued the instruction to have me kidnapped at the time but he’s your brother. The bond you formed as children… I can only imagine how hard this must be for you.”
Jared leaned in to kiss her tenderly. “Brother or not, if he’s involved and has become as unscrupulous as his father, he will pay the same price as the rest of them.”
“Yeah, he’s as fucked up as his old man. There’s no doubt about that. Don’t look at me like that, Paxton,” Brock said as she glared at him. “Luca Boneiro might have waxed poetic about brotherhood when he came face-to-face with Jared, but make no mistake about it, he’s as monstrous as his father. We’ve chased them long enough to have stumbled over the dead bodies left in his wake.”
“Let’s move on, shall we?” Jared said, wanting to put an end to Paxton’s intention to provide a rationale regarding his feelings towards his brother.
“Jordan, how sure are you Fadhil has left the country?”
“If he hasn’t yet, he will within the next forty-eight hours. Fadhil is a strategist, first and foremost.” She looked at Tanner, who was The Cobra’s resident strategist. “What would you do if your carefully laid out plan fell flat?”
“Reconnaissance, plan, project.” His face lit up as the realization struck. “She's right. Jordan wasn’t the real bait. It's been Fadhil all along. He’s obviously invested enough in their game plan to chance being captured.”
“Okay, I’m lost. Just spit it out,” Knox said, exasperated. “It’s extremely tiring to try and keep up with you two.”
“They did their homework. They correctly figured out how firstly, Jordan would react and secondly, how her capture would draw us out. He’s either bold enough or desperate enough to challenge us on our home turf. He’s going to the States,” Tanner supplied in a quiet voice.
“That’s counterproductive, isn’t it?” Cruz looked at him. “He’s sure to be captured the moment he sets foot on U.S. soil.”
“Not if he has the protection of someone in the FBI who can slip him in undetected,” Brock said as he looked at Jordan. “That’s fucking ballsy. I have to give him that.”
“I still don’t get why he would endanger himself that way,” Kezlin said.
“Fadhil and Abu’s main aim is to cripple the U.S. in retaliation for clipping their wings in 2018, so to speak, which of course, is the exact opposite of what Boneiro would want.” Jordan sat back down.
She hissed as her sore behind made contact with the chair, reminding her of the brutal spanking she’d received earlier. It was a pity the clan had returned when they did, since it had been her aim to work on that climax Brock had promised her earlier. The lingering thought morphed into a leaden sigh that sank undetected beneath the ambient din of the room.
“My guess is that the two of them are already at loggerheads with Boneiro and Fadhil is following Abu’s directive,” she continued. “There’s no other reason why Abu would be at that compound on the day I escaped. They had to come up with a different plan to infiltrate the U.S. My guess is that they were going to force us to get them over the border unseen in exchange for releasing me and handing Boneiro to you on a platter. When they lost me, Boneiro gave them an even easier route.”