Shadow Tyrants (Oregon Files 13)

“Can I see it?” Torkan asked.

Mallik handed the laptop over, and Torkan inspected it, turning it over slowly in his hands. Then he stopped to look at one of the USB ports. He took out a knife and pried out a tiny device embedded in the port.

Mallik leaned forward and took it from Torkan. “I’ve never seen one of these, only heard of them. I think it’s called a barnacle. How did you know?”

“Those men we saw in the stairwell back at the party,” Torkan said. “I suspected they had been in your office.”

“But why would Carlton want to access my system? He must have known it was separate from my launch computer.”

Torkan shrugged. “Maybe he wanted to use the information he downloaded to blackmail you about Colossus.”

“No, then he would implicate himself. We’ll look at what was downloaded. That might tell us.”

Torkan prepared to stand. “Is that what you wanted to talk about?”

Mallik sighed. “Unfortunately, no. This is difficult because you are the only family I have left.”

Torkan sat forward. “It’s Rasul, isn’t it?” He hadn’t heard from his brother since the covert mission on the Triton Star.

Mallik nodded. “I got a phone call from someone I know in the Indian government. They’ve received inquiries from the United States about the missing BrahMos missile. During the discussions, it was disclosed that Rasul was killed in the attack. I’m very sorry.”

Torkan slumped back in his seat, his jaw grinding back and forth as he processed what they had both feared.

“How did he die?” Torkan finally asked.

“I couldn’t get any details. The Americans are tight-lipped about the events surrounding the attack on Diego Garcia.”

“Who did it? Who killed my brother?”

“I don’t know that, either,” Mallik said. “But when Rasul was texting me, he told me about the ship that had stopped the Triton Star. He said it was a cargo ship called the Goreno.”

Torkan stared at him for a moment, his eyes flickering with both sadness and fury. Then he rose.

“Are you okay? You sure you can still carry out the mission?”

Torkan nodded and spoke with a low growl that chilled Mallik.

“First, I’m going to kill Xavier Carlton. Then I’m going to track down and annihilate the people who murdered my brother.”

FORTY-TWO

DJIBOUTI

“How are you feeling?” Juan asked Linda as they walked to the Oregon’s boardroom for a meeting of the ship’s executive officers.

“My headache is gone,” she answered. “Ten hours’ sleep helped.”

Juan had to agree. According to Julia, they had both suffered mild heatstroke, but rest and fluids were all they needed to recover.

“I just wish we could have retrieved the bag I dropped,” Juan said. Eric had tried, but by that time the lava had buried it along with the remainder of the Colossus 3.

“It wasn’t a total loss. At least we got the name of the ship, and I know Eric has been reading through that scientist’s notebook since we separated the pages and dried them out.”

“Let’s see what it can tell us about this whole mess,” Juan said as he went through the boardroom’s open door.

Waiting for them were Max, Eric, and Julia, as well as Eddie and Murph, who had arrived from Mumbai that morning. The small country of Djibouti on the Horn of Africa had the closest city to the Red Sea volcano with an international airport where Tiny could land the Corporation’s Gulfstream. The Oregon was now tied up at the port’s container terminal.

Maurice was serving dishes of local Djibouti cuisine prepared by the chef. The plates practically overflowed with Berber lamb, banana fritters, lentils, and samosas.