Shadow Tyrants Read online

  One of the men walked out backward, his hands in the air slowly motioning to the other man still inside. He was followed by a chrome bumper and a couple of the tallest tail fins ever put on a production car. Its Kensington Green paint glinted in the setting sun. The car was a convertible, and the top was already down, revealing a white leather interior with custom-made front bucket seats that were original to the car. It kept coming and coming, all nineteen feet of it, until the driver stopped on the pavement.

  “That may be the biggest car I’ve ever seen,” Taylor said.

  “A 1959 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz convertible. One of the few that was ever shipped to Europe. I found it in Malta.”

  The driver handed Carlton the keys. He went around to the driver’s door and said to Taylor, “Get in.”

  He took it for a spin around the dockyard, his security team watching as the car roared along the length of the ship.

  When he stopped back at the trailer where the Bugatti was already being loaded, he said, “What do you think?”

  “They certainly don’t make cars like this anymore,” Taylor said as she stepped out. “You’ve got yourself a real prize.”

  “It’s the only one of its kind anywhere,” he noted with pride. “Make sure it arrives safely.”

  “Absolutely, sir.”

  He told the truck driver to keep the cars in the safety of the dockyard until they were ready to be loaded onto the plane the next day.

  The short drive had put him in a good mood, and for the first time in days he felt optimistic about his plans. The AI was going to be activated on schedule, and the threat of the Vajra satellite launch would be over. Carlton would be able to do whatever he wanted, and there was one thing he wanted to do more than anything else.

  He walked back to the ship with a spring in his step as he imagined all the ways he could use Colossus to kill Romir Mallik.

  FORTY-FOUR

  Juan chose three in the morning for their infiltration of the Colossus 5. It would be the time when the guards were at their most relaxed and vulnerable.

  He was already halfway between the surface of the water and the ship’s deck. The angled bow was the part of the Colossus 5 that was most deeply in the shadows, but it also made the climb more difficult. One at a time, Juan methodically pressed the magnetic grips against the steel hull, their rubber coating preventing any noise as they adhered to the metal.

  He looked down and could barely make out Raven and MacD below him. They were climbing effortlessly, their black and gray night camouflage gear making them difficult to see in the darkness. Even if someone looked over the railing, it was unlikely they’d be spotted.

  “Status?” Juan whispered into his comm unit as he approached the top of the hull.

  “Almost in position,” Eddie replied. “Two minutes.”

  “Roger that.”

  The plan was simple, but the execution would be risky. To get below deck and plant the bacteria Juan had in his pocket, he, Raven, and MacD would need something to distract the guards away from their position. An explosion or gunfire would make them realize they were under attack and just put them on full alert. They needed something more subtle but still attention-getting.

  So Eddie and Linc were going to cut the power to the dockyard. The only problem was the backup generator located inside the security area next to Colossus 5. First, they had to plant a small charge that would short out the feed coming in from the Cyprus power grid. Then, once they disabled the generator, they would blow the charge, and the entire dock would go black.

  The confusion would provide the cover and time Juan and his team needed to get into the hold and inject the bacteria that Julia had prepared. The video from the Colossus 3 gave them an idea of how the ship was laid out. If everything went well, they’d be back out and into the water without anyone knowing they’d even been aboard.

  Raven and MacD reached the top next to him and held their position. There was no sound from the deck above.

  “We’re ready,” he said.

  “We see the generator,” Eddie answered. “One minute.”

  * * *

  —

  Asad Torkan knew the best time to plant his bombs was at three in the morning, when the security guards would be at their most relaxed and vulnerable.

  At first, he tried Carlton’s mountain villa, but he couldn’t find the cars that the media mogul would be transporting on his plane in the morning. The Bugatti had already been moved, and the Cadillac was nowhere to be seen.

  Attaching the explosives at the airport in the morning, when the cars were being loaded, was impossible. They’d be watched too closely.

  Then he’d had a hunch that Carlton was actually staying on the Colossus 5 and would want his cars close by. Sure enough, he spotted the trailer and knew it was the perfect opportunity to do his work.

  He had two small devices packed with C-4. Each of them was equipped with a pressure sensor. As soon as the plane was pressurized for flight, the timers on the bombs would be activated. He thought twenty minutes was plenty of time for the Airbus A380 to reach cruising altitude. When the bombs went off and tore a hole in the fuselage, it would cause an explosive decompression, and the plane would be ripped apart in midair.

  Unlocking the trailer had been easy for Torkan, and he’d already tucked the first bomb under the chassis of the Cadillac near the gas tank. The Bugatti proved more difficult because of its low clearance and the tight confines of the trailer, but he was able to get the explosive device in place and activated.

  He switched his light off and paused at the trailer’s rear door to listen for any patrolling guards. There was nothing but the sound of a ship being loaded on a quay a quarter mile away. Still, he was prepared to fight his way out, this time with a Glock pistol equipped with a suppressor.

  He pushed the door up slowly. The area around him was clear. He climbed out and relocked the door.

  That’s when he noticed movement to his right by the shed holding the dock’s backup generator.

  Two men were stealthily approaching the building. Both of them were in night camouflage and carrying suppressed pistols like he was.

  One was a huge black man and the other was a wiry Asian. Torkan blinked in surprise when he recognized who they were.

  It was the two men who had passed him and Mallik in the stairwell during the attack in Mumbai.

  Why they were here, Torkan couldn’t guess, but he didn’t want to stick around to find out. He didn’t have time, however, to duck out of sight before the black man saw him. For a millisecond, they stared at each other in disbelief.

  Then they both started shooting.

  FORTY-FIVE

  Linc was shocked to see Torkan coming out of the trailer, but it lasted for only a moment.

  When he saw the Iranian assassin raise his pistol, he shoved Eddie down and fired. Bullets whistled overhead as they dove behind the generator shed.

  “Torkan,” Linc said to Eddie, who had already drawn his own pistol.

  “Did you get him?”

  “Don’t think so.”

  “Why is he here?”

  “He was doing something in that semi-trailer.”

  Linc poked his head out and saw Torkan crouched behind the trailer. By now, the gunfire had drawn attention from the security team, and a klaxon sounded. Unlike the nearly silent gunfire shown in movies, the suppressors were still loud enough to echo through the dockyard.

  “He’s cut off our escape route,” Linc said.

  “What’s happening out there?” the Chairman asked. “We hear gunshots.”

  “Asad Torkan blew our mission,” Eddie replied.

  “He’s here?”

  “Mission is aborted. Sorry, Chairman.”

  Linc fired off more rounds, but he didn’t hit Torkan. He saw the assassin take off. Torkan fired three quick sho
ts before he disappeared into the maze of equipment near the trailer.

  “He’s gone,” Linc said.

  “We need to get out of here. Let’s move.”

  Footsteps were pounding toward them from all directions. Linc and Eddie ran to the trailer, which was in the direction of the hole they’d cut in the fence.

  They reached the rear of the truck when rifle fire ricocheted off the asphalt, shot by six guards running from the front gatehouse.

  Eddie and Linc slammed into the side of the trailer and crouched down.

  Tires from two SUVs screeched as they tore across the dockyard.

  “What do you think, Butch?” Eddie said.

  “Not looking good, Sundance,” Linc replied with a wry grin.

  “I’ll take the three on the left, you take the ones on the right.”

  “Sounds like a plan.”

  Six against two weren’t the best odds they’d ever had, but they weren’t the worst, either. They were about to rush out when a flashbang grenade skittered under the truck and came to rest just a few feet away.

  Eddie made an attempt to kick it, but it went off before he could reach it. The ultra-bright light and deafening sound dazed them both, and it was in that moment Linc knew they wouldn’t make it.

  He plucked the tiny comm unit from his ear and tossed it away, hoping it would end up under the trailer and out of sight.

  The SUVs skidded to a stop as the six running guards rounded the corner of the truck. Linc’s blurry vision started to come back into focus, and he saw a lithe woman step from the front seat of the lead SUV, an assault rifle cradled in her arms. It was Natalie Taylor.

  “Drop your weapons or I’ll kill you both right now.”

  Linc looked at Eddie, who was still shaking out the cobwebs. When he could finally see, he looked at Linc and nodded. Live to fight another day was a better plan than going out in a blaze of glory.

  They both let their guns fall to the ground.

  “Good boys,” she said with a smile, plucking the comm unit from Eddie’s ear. “Now, what are we going to do with you?”

  * * *

  —

  By this time, the deck of the Colossus 5 was a hive of activity. Guards were stationed all around the ship in anticipation of further attack.

  Juan felt helpless as he heard Eddie and Linc being taken prisoner.

  “Get them up,” a woman said. It had to be Natalie Taylor.

  Then there was a scuffing sound, and then Taylor’s voice much louder. “Torkan, if you’re still listening, your attack didn’t work this time.”

  She must have been speaking into a mic that she’d taken from Linc or Eddie’s ear, because there was a crunching sound right before it went off-line. Juan could still hear her voice, this time muffled and distant.

  “Take them to the ship,” she ordered.

  She said “them,” so at least that meant they were both alive.

  “What do we do now?” MacD asked.

  Juan peered over the edge, and the deck was still swarming with guards. In fact, one was approaching their position.

  “Drop,” he said.

  MacD did as ordered, falling to the water below.

  “We can’t leave them,” Raven said.

  “We’re not,” Juan said, his eyes boring into her. “Drop now.”

  Without another word, she detached her magnets and plunged down. Juan went right after her, tapering so he’d enter the water with a minimal splash.

  When he was under, he let go of his magnetic climbers and swam away from the bow. He made it fifty yards along the dock before he had to come up for air.

  MacD and Raven were waiting for him. The guard who’d been right above them was still looking to where he must have heard them hit the water. He took a final cursory glance around the area, then shrugged and disappeared.

  “How do we get them out of there?” Raven said. “There are dozens of guards stationed on or around the ship.”

  “And they’ll be on alert the rest of the night,” MacD said.

  “Eddie and Linc still have their trackers,” Juan said, referring to the beacons implanted into the thigh of every Oregon crew member so they could be located in case of abduction. “At least we’ll know where they are while we come up with a plan to get them back.”

  He didn’t wait for a response and began swimming toward their exit point, Taylor’s voice playing in his mind the whole way.

  * * *

  —

  “Are you sure it was them?” Mallik asked as Torkan drove away from the Limassol port.

  “Positive,” Torkan said.

  “What were they doing?”

  “I don’t know. But our initial assessment was wrong. They weren’t with Natalie Taylor at your house, and they don’t work for Carlton.”

  “Then who sent them to tap my computer?”

  “Maybe a foreign intelligence agency. Impossible to say.”

  “So now we’re fighting Carlton and some unknown party,” Mallik said. “At least tell me that you got the bombs planted.”

  “I did,” Torkan said without voicing his secret doubts about the ultimate success of the mission.

  “Good,” Mallik said. “By this time tomorrow, Xavier Carlton will be dead. Hopefully, Lionel Gupta as well. If not, we’ll take care of him some other way, though I’m not sure we’ll need to. I don’t think he’d have the guts to go forward with Colossus on his own. In any event, I need you back here. Fly out on the helicopter and meet me on the Kalinga. Then, we’ll head to the launch command ship.”

  “Yes, sir.” Torkan hung up. He decided that mentioning potential snags wouldn’t help at this point since he wouldn’t get another shot at Carlton, but one little problem still bothered him.

  Before they exchanged gunfire, the black man must have realized that Torkan was coming out of the trailer.

  FORTY-SIX

  Carlton wasn’t pleased about being woken up in the middle of the night, but his spirits improved when he found out that an attack on the Colossus 5 had been foiled.

  The two men that Taylor had caught were brought to the ship’s meeting room. When Carlton arrived, he found the two men cuffed and being watched over by six armed guards. Taylor stood when he entered.

  He looked the intruders up and down before saying, “Who are they?”

  “I don’t know,” Taylor said. “They won’t talk. We’re not even sure they speak English.”

  “They look like soldiers to me, but they’re not Indian or Iranian. What were they doing?”

  Taylor tossed a toolkit on the table.

  “Sabotage of some kind.”

  The two men stared at Carlton with impassive faces.

  “Who do you work for?” he demanded.

  They said nothing.

  He turned to Taylor. “Do you think Mallik and Torkan would hire mercenaries?”

  “Always a possibility,” Taylor said.

  “I don’t think they know anything of use, but we should at least try to find out. We’ll take them on the plane with us. You’ll have plenty of time on the trip to get information out of them.” Carlton turned to them. “She’s very persuasive with a blade.”

  The black man finally spoke up in an American accent. “Asad Torkan was here.” The Asian man remained still.

  Carlton suppressed a smile at getting him to talk so easily. “So you work for him?”

  “No.”

  “But you know who he is?”

  “Yes.”

  “What was he doing here?”

  “We’ll show you.”

  “You’ll show us?” Taylor said.

  The black man nodded. The Asian man continued to stare, still no response.

  “Tell us here,” Carlton said.

  “We’ll show you,” the black man r
epeated. “We want Torkan as much as you do.”

  “Why?”

  At last the Asian man opened his mouth. “We know you and Romir Mallik are fighting each other.”

  “Interesting. So you’re here to what? Save me?”

  The Asian man nodded.

  “Where should we take you to show us what Torkan was doing?”

  “The dock,” the black man said. “By the generator housing. Your life depends on it.”

  Carlton looked at Taylor. She shrugged and said, “We’ll still be well protected in the dockyard.”

  “Double the number of guards.” Carlton turned back to the prisoners and leaned down. “If I’m disappointed by what you show us out there, you’re going to die.”

  The two men said nothing.

  * * *

  —

  Juan, Raven, and MacD had returned to the rendezvous point, where Tiny picked them up in a van. He found a quiet parking lot where they could formulate a plan to rescue Eddie and Linc from the Colossus 5. The first rays of dawn shone through the windshield.

  “We don’t have the manpower to go in guns blazing,” MacD said.

  “Then we have to do it quietly,” Raven said. “We’ll make another run at it tonight.”

  “No good,” Juan said. “The Colossus 5 is going to set sail today. We can’t wait.”

  “How long do you think they’ve got?” Tiny asked.

  “Natalie Taylor has a reputation for harsh measures. That’s why she was drummed out of British Intelligence. Rumors say she would have gone to jail if she hadn’t had something on a minister in Parliament. I wouldn’t be surprised if she tortures them until . . .”

  Juan paused when he heard something on his headset. He was keeping it active knowing that Linc or Eddie had tossed his comm unit away before being apprehended. It was the sound of approaching vehicles.

  “Quiet,” he said, and pointed at his headset. Everyone else put their own on.