Chapter 12
“Alpha team in place.”
Goran watched, his mind going through every detail of this operation, searching for errors, gaps, or vulnerabilities.
“Charlie team in place.”
“Delta team in place.”
There wasn’t a “beta” team. Goran always chuckled when his teams refused to assign a beta team to any operation. They claimed that betas were the underdogs, and no one wanted to be on that team. Hence, they all just skipped that letter of the alphabet and moved to the others.
Samir moved in beside him and Goran looked over at Shahir, the head of the intelligence department for Skyla. The man nodded and Goran gave the “go” hand signal that had been established for this operation.
Two security guards silently slipped out of the security office.
“How is your wife?” Goran asked of Samir, both of them watching the screen as the teams moved into place.
Samir, the man who had been Goran’s personal assistant for the past five months, looked up from the tablet. “She is well, Your Highness. Thank you for asking.”
“She’s due to give birth next week, correct?”
Samir’s eyes widened. After only the briefest hesitation, the man nodded. “Yes, Your Highness. She is thirty-nine weeks pregnant.”
Goran nodded, then watched the green forms move across the dark screen in front of him in infrared. His men were moving in on the mining operation. Unlike the debacle in Silar, where the mining people had scattered after the tragedy that had taken one life and destroyed almost every building in the entire village, Goran wasn’t going to allow the perpetrators of this illegal mining operation to get away. These people had kidnapped him and put Calista in danger. They’d hurt her, drugged her, hit her, tied her up and, as a last resort, someone had tried to kill Calista. Goran would have issued a severe punishment for anyone who had tried to kidnap him, but since they’d involved Calista, he wasn’t just angry. He was out for revenge!
“It must be frightening, anticipating a new baby.”
Samir once again lifted his head. “Not really. She is healthy and the sonograms have shown that the baby is developing well.”
The offered excuse for Samir’s betrayal was the last possible reason Goran could think of that would mitigate the man’s actions. The man had conspired with the enemy. Not just during the kidnapping, but the cover up after the fact. Shahir had also found evidence that Samir had conspired to hide information from Goran in the weeks before the kidnapping attempt as well as impeded the investigation after his return.
The green silhouettes on the screen moved closer, the outline of the tents now visible on the screen.
While Samir frantically tapped out something on his tablet, Goran watched as one member of the Charlie team bent low and pushed something underneath the bottom of the tent. Not even a whisper of sound would warn the occupants of the tent about what was happening.
The other two teams were performing identical actions on the other two tents. Everyone waited five minutes, then the teams moved in, gas masks in place and weapons ready. But as they moved through the interior of the tents, no one stirred. Everyone inside the tent was sound asleep and wouldn’t wake up until the sleeping gas wore off in about ten hours. By the time they woke up, every one of them would be in a jail cell.
Just in time to be interrogated. By that point, Goran anticipated several of them to turn on their bosses and coworkers in exchange for a lighter sentence.
When it was all over, Samir sighed and flipped his tablet closed. “I’d better go and check on-“
“Just a moment,” Goran interrupted his assistant. He nodded to the intelligence head and the man pressed a few buttons on a keyboard. Moments later, a series of text messages showed on the screen.
“Care to explain these messages?” Isamir asked.
Samir looked up at the large screen, his eyes bugging wide as he read the messages he’d been typing while watching the raid happen. “Get out! Skylar forces are moving in!” “You’ve been caught! Get out!” “There are three teams moving closer! Why aren’t you responding?!” “Get out! Get out!” “This silence isn’t going to save you! Just respond so I know that you’ve received this message!” “You are being gassed! Get out of the tents!”
Goran lifted his eyebrows, waiting.
Samir’s mouth fell open as horror pushed through his brain. “I can explain!” he whispered, terror making his voice crack.
“I’d like to hear those explanations,” Goran replied smoothly. “But not at this time.” He turned, nodding to the guards. “These men are going to take you to a cell. Your home has been searched. Your office as well. Your bank accounts have been frozen. So that huge deposit that arrived earlier this morning from a Caribbean bank isn’t going to help you. Not anymore.”
Samir swallowed, trying to back up. His eyes looked to the right, then the left, desperate for an escape route.
“There is no escape, Samir. Every exit to the palace has been shut down.”
The stupid man still tried to rush the guards. Seconds after that attempt, the two guards had Samir flat on his stomach with his hands pulled behind his back and handcuffs pinching the skin on his wrists.
Samir tried to yell, to explain, but Goran didn’t want to hear the traitor’s excuses. Not anymore. He’d let his security team deal with Samir. Right now, all he wanted to do was to find Calista and explain why he hadn’t been able to contact her. It was all because this bastard had been intercepting and re-routing phone calls in order to keep Goran from getting any additional information!