You Only Love Twice (Masters and Mercenaries #8)(116)

“I’m right here, *.” Chapal had taken up the cause as well, joining Hutch at the computers.

“Ignore him. I do. Tell me more about the things you would do to a very, very bad man,” Kamdar said, his voice low. “Go into detail.”

Theo smiled. “Yeah, Erin. Kamdar there wants you to do bad things to him. From what I hear, he kind of likes a little bite of pain.”

Well, at least Theo was happy. According to Jesse, Erin was the sub and she was pretty hard-core. The only torture she was into inflicting was on the real bad guys. Otherwise, she wanted to be on the receiving end. Apparently Theo knew it, too.

“Miss Grant?” Chapal looked up from his system. “I think we have something.”

Finally. She walked over to where Hutch and Chapal had lined up a bank of laptops. “What is it?”

Hutch pointed to his screen. “We found four locations that would work. Two small, unoccupied office buildings and two residences. One of the residences is pretty big though. It’s on the outer edges of the city by the beach.”

“Could they land a helicopter there?”

Chapal nodded. “But there is also a helipad at the two office spaces. We have to consider the fact that they sent him on. It’s possible they’ve already smuggled him out of the country and into Saudi. They could drive, though it’s a long way to Riyadh, where they live.”

The door opened and Ten stepped out. There was no way to miss the blood on his hands and shirt. He was wiping his forearms off as he looked to Phoebe. “I think he’s ready to talk if you want to have a word.”

She nodded, her heart in her throat. She was trained for this, too.

She followed Ten into the room and tried not to think about how Albertson’s shirt had been white at one time.

“Bitch,” he managed between swollen lips. “Do you know what my boss is going to do to you?”

“Nothing if he wants to continue in his current role.” Phoebe kept her voice calm and even. “I can connect the senator to a group known as The Collective. I can also prove that he sold information about our troops to a man who calls himself the Caliph. If you cooperate, I’ll ensure you’re not prosecuted for high treason. Do you understand what the United States does to traitors? Especially traitors during times of war.”

It was all a big bluff, but she meant to make that case. Chelsea was pulling documents together, going through payments and looking into the senator’s accounts.

Albertson’s eyes got wide and she knew she had him. “I didn’t have anything to do with that.”

“But you know something.”

He finally nodded.

Whatever Ten had done had softened him up. “Right now, what I need to know is where the Caliph is.”

“You’re talking about Hani al Fareed. He’s a crazy motherf*cker. He’s insane and he broke our deal. If what Smith says is true, you have to know we didn’t know that f*cker was going to take Murdoch. Murdoch was supposed to be dead. When we figured out he wasn’t, he was supposed to go home. The senator pulled some strings and the Agency was supposed to call you f*ckers home. It’s your fault. You didn’t follow orders.”

She ignored all the problems with his argument because only one thing mattered. “Where would al Fareed go?”

“He’s got a place on the beach, but it’s heavily fortified. I’ve been there. It’s got armed guards all around. I can’t go to jail.” His eyes were glassy when he looked up.

“What’s he on?”

Ten’s face was a complete blank. “A little something the boys in R&D cooked up. First I gave him a shit ton of pain and then I gave him something to take it away because we’re friends, right? Aren’t we friends, Dale?”

The man in the chair nodded. “Good friends. Don’t want to go to jail. If I tell the lady everything, I won’t die here.”

Ten turned back. “The drugs have the added effect of wiping his short-term memory. He’s going to wake up outside the hotel with zero memory of how he got there. Hutch took care of the cameras so our asses are covered.”

Her stomach turned and she understood why Ten wouldn’t let her be involved past the actual questioning. This was psychological torture, the very thing that had been done to Jesse. The thing he might be going through now. It was necessary, but it was ugly and she wondered if her brother dreamed about it. A dream where he was the monster.

“What do you know about al Fareed’s travel plans?” Phoebe asked.

“He flies. He’s like a bird. Private jet.”

Simon stood and walked to the door. “I’ll have Hutch look into it.”

Albertson’s head drooped as though he couldn’t hold it up a moment longer. “You were supposed to go away. Go home. Go home.”

She stepped away and spoke to her brother in a low voice. “We don’t have the firepower to take on a compound.”

“We just have to make it seem like we do. In this case, illusion is more important than reality. We need to do what they did. Distract. We need some chaos. I’m more worried about the authorities being called in. We’re not on firm ground here,” Ten said. “We have to move fast and get him out of there and then we have to split up. We can’t go through the airport. They’ll look for us there. We need quick transport out of this country.”