The Relentless Hero

by Angel Vane

  “There’s more to it. While we were with Paul, some chatter got picked up about Tubeec Hirad connecting with al-Harakat to bring Mena to him in exchange for a hefty cash reward,” Glaze said.

  “Which is why we don’t have time to be sitting around debating this shit,” Enzo added. “If Tubeec still had Mena, then he wouldn’t need to put the bounty up.”

  “With al-Harakat searching for Mena, we need to figure out where she is and rescue her now. Hakeem might be able to tell us where she could be,” Julian insisted, growing impatient with the resistance coming from the TIDES team. He knew his accusation wasn’t sitting well with most of the team, but he knew what he’d heard.

  “Did you ever think that this Hakeem that Mena is with could be from al-Harakat seeking to cash in on the bounty? It’s probably not our Hakeem at all,” Zale added.

  “If that’s true, then why hasn’t al-Harakat cashed in by now? You think it takes two damn days to alert Tubeec that they have the woman he wants? Trust me, it doesn’t,” Julian said, then added, “Mena could have heard me talking to Hakeem when we were hiding out at the house in Giriftu. He warned me that a rebel group was approaching the house and we needed to leave right away.”

  “You see, Hakeem was trying to help you. The bloke would never find Mena and keep us in the dark about it,” Simon added.

  Sunny, who’d been quiet over the last exchange, turned and said, “Hakeem never told us that he found out about an attack on the house in Giriftu. We didn’t hear from him until after I’d already tracked Julian down using the signal from his comms pack. I was minutes from the Giriftu house when Hakeem contacted me and I told him I already knew Julian’s location.”

  “Seriously Sunny? Now you don’t trust Hakeem either? You think we need to go behind Hakeem’s back to prove that he is where he says he is? Unbelievable,” Simon said, glaring at Julian.

  “No, that’s not what I’m saying. I don’t want to waste time doing that. Glaze and Zale, can you trace the call made to Julian’s phone? Enzo, I need you to check in with ASF and see what they’ll tell you about their hunt for Tubeec. Julian, I need to talk to you … outside.”

  Sunny’s confidence didn’t match her body language. Julian could tell something was bothering her about the whole scenario. Pieces of the puzzle that didn’t fit and didn’t exonerate Hakeem Underwood.

  Following Sunny out of the conference room, he turned into the narrow hallway and walked behind her as she pushed through the back door and out onto the alley behind the TIDES offices.

  A harsh amber glow from the crime prevention light at the corner shone down on them as he stepped in front of her.

  Facing Sunny, Julian demanded, “Tell me what’s going on. Is Hakeem in the Ukraine or not? Could he have Mena?”

  Sunny took a deep breath, then exhaled slowly. “Hakeem has worked damn hard to turn his life around.” Pointing at the building, Sunny continued, “The team is his family. The only one he has right now and I can’t let you take that away from him.”

  Turning toward the trash dumpster in the corner, Julian kicked the side of the metal container, once then twice. “Fuck! Why did he do it? What the hell is going on?”

  “I’m not sure yet. The first thing we need to do is find out where he’s hiding out with her. Hakeem knows exactly how to camouflage calls, make them appear as if they are coming from one location when he’s actually at another. Glaze and Zale aren’t skilled enough to figure it out. But you are,” Sunny said.

  “Was this his plan all along? When I called TIDES, did he set me up?” Julian asked, anger swirling through his veins as he paced back and forth along the alley.

  “I’m not sure,” Sunny admitted.

  “Why would he kidnap Mena?” Julian asked.

  “It’s complicated. Hakeem has a troubled past. One he’s been trying to run from, but it keeps coming back to haunt him. He was once part of Tubeec Hirad’s elite team of mercenaries until a joint SEAL and ASF mission bombed their training compound and got him out.”

  “He’s a mole? Has he been working with Tubeec this whole time? Plotting against everything we’ve been trying to do to save Mena?” Julian asked.

  “I don’t think so. I honestly don’t know for sure. My guess is he’s going to hand her over to Tubeec under some misguided sense of loyalty to his former leader and cash in on the bounty. But if we get a lock on that cell call, we can get to him before he does that and I can get him the help he needs. Julian, he’s been making good progress with his psychiatrist and this is a minor setback. He is a good person, deep inside,” Sunny said, gripping Julian’s hands. “Please don’t hold this against him.”

  Julian pushed away from Sunny. “I handed Mena over to him on a silver platter. The man I thought was going to help me arranged an ambush so he could get back into Tubeec’s good graces and you expect me to believe he’s a good person? Why are you protecting this asshole?”

  “Because he’s my brother!”

  “Brother? You don’t have a brother. Sunny, I’ve met your family, your dad, and your four sisters,” Julian said.

  Sunny said, “But you never met my mom. Hakeem is the baby my mother had that almost broke up my parent’s marriage. She gave him up to his father, a Kenyan man, and my Dad agreed not to get a divorce. After she passed away, I found information about Hakeem in one of her old safe deposit boxes. She knew he’d taken up with militant regimes in Africa and was trying to find him.”

  Everything was starting to make sense. Julian said, “You had the resources to do what your mother couldn’t as part of special ops. You found him.”

  “I orchestrated the joint mission with Reggie’s help to get my brother away from Tubeec. But I paid for it. Tubeec was pissed about losing Hakeem, one of his best-trained disciples. I don’t know how Tubeec found out about my connection to Hakeem, but he did. That’s why he abducted me. He wanted me to pay off the debt owed to him for taking Hakeem,” Sunny explained. “Last time I was with you in Florida, Hakeem called me. He’d finally hit rock bottom and wanted my help. That’s why I left and came back to Africa. With TIDES, I gave him an outlet to use his training for good, to help people. He’s been in therapy all this time and I know he’ll be able to get past what Tubeec did to him.”

  Rubbing the back of his neck, Julian glanced up at the sky. He understood why Sunny was so committed to Hakeem after everything she’d done to rescue him from Tubeec. But now Hakeem had turned back to his old ways. And he would be damned if he’d let Sunny’s brand new fucking brother hurt Mena.

  “Julian, I never expected this to happen. I’m not going to lose my brother to that bastard again and you’re not going to lose Mena. We have to do this my way,” Sunny said, her eyes pleading with him.

  Julian turned from Sunny and stalked back towards the door leading into the TIDES offices.

  “Get me access to each call Hakeem made into TIDES HQ over the past two days and prep the team for the rescue mission,” Julian said, stepping inside the building. His body was numb as he focused on the task at hand. A situation that could have been avoided if he’d known the truth about Hakeem Underwood and his former connection to Tubeec Hirad.

  “You’ll have them in two minutes.”

  Turning, Julian looked at Sunny and said, “If Mena gets hurt because of this—“

  “I know. I understand. But you should know that I’ll do whatever it takes to protect my brother, too,” Sunny said, then walked back toward the conference room.

  Chapter Forty-Five

  A jolt slammed into Mena’s back and her body tumbled forward, banging against hard plastic. Stunned, she opened her eyes and struggled to regain her balance. Twisted around her body was a heavy blanket that reeked of gas and mothballs. Hakeem had directed her to hide underneath the dark blanket as he drove them across Kenya, trying to avoid dangerous men who wanted to kidnap her and turn her over to Tubeec Hirad.

  The rays of the morning sun felt warm across her cheek as she grabbed the blanket and maneuvere
d onto the back seat.

  “Yes, that’s the right account number. I will be notified when the funds are transferred … Wait … You’re changing locations now? I’m halfway to Wajir … fine, I’ll head east. About a couple hours away from that airstrip.” Hakeem spoke in a low, hushed tone.

  Mena raised her head. Hakeem had a cell phone pinned between his shoulder and his ear. Where had he gotten another phone? He’d destroyed the phone after she’d made the mistake of trying to call Julian.

  “Look, you make sure you have everything ready for a quick exchange. I don’t know how much time I have before they figure out what I did,” Hakeem said, then was silent for several more minutes.

  Mena strained to see if he was still on the call. Hakeem held the cell phone in his hand, shaking his head, then slipped it into a pocket on his shirt.

  Propping herself up on an elbow, Mena stretched as if she’d just awoken. She wanted to ask Hakeem about the call, but felt herself hesitating. A strange tension in the air made her uneasy.

  “Sorry about the bumps. Didn’t mean to wake you, but I need to stay off the main roads,” Hakeem said from the driver’s seat.

  She watched his eyes through the rearview mirror watching her. “It’s okay, I’m not complaining.”

  Her throat was dry and cracked. Mena grabbed the water bottle from the floorboard. Twisting the cap off the top of the bottle, Mena pressed it against her lips and drank the sun-warmed liquid. Leaning her head back, she caught a glimpse outside the side window. The desolate landscape was littered with the occasional shrub brush or tree with mud houses in the distance. They should be close to Nairobi by now, but the landscape was still remote and rural. She was expecting to see highways, neighborhoods, and the tall skyscrapers of the modern city coming into view. It couldn’t be much longer before they entered Nairobi. Soon, she would be back with Julian, ready to put this entire nightmare behind her.

  “Any sign of threats during the night?” Mena asked.

  “A few,” Hakeem said, steering the Jeep to the left. “Lucky for me you’re a sound sleeper and don’t snore. I got stopped a couple of times and questioned by some rebels, had to pay some bribes to pass through, but nothing I couldn’t handle.”

  Mena had never been a sound sleeper and she hadn’t expected to sleep at all last night, but at some point she must have drifted to sleep although she didn’t remember when.

  “There’re some pop tarts in the knapsack if you’re hungry. Just stay low so you can’t be seen through the windows,” Hakeem said, pointing behind him.

  Mena grabbed the shiny metallic package and tore it open, sliding a cold frosted strawberry pop tart out of the package. She’d much rather be feasting on her mom’s chicken and waffles, but at this point she couldn’t turn down any type of meal. Her hunger pangs had hunger pangs.

  Stuffing a large chunk of the pastry into her mouth, Mena stole another glance out of the window. Her eyes locked on a house in the distance. Shifting to a half-sitting position, she strained to adjust her eyes to the sunlight.

  It couldn’t be possible. Could it?

  Was that the faded blue concrete home where she and Julian had hidden? As they passed the home, Mena’s eyes were drawn to the mosaic tile cross that hung above the door. The sunlight shimmered off the tiles, sending a prism of light across the porch.

  It was definitely the house.

  How could they still be near this place if they were only hours away from Nairobi? Julian had explained that the house was in the northeastern part of Kenya, hundreds of miles from the Kenyan capital. How could Hakeem be driving by the house? If he’d driven all night, like she thought, they would be far away from this house by now. What the hell was going on?

  Heart rate skyrocketing, Mena glanced over at Hakeem.

  Was Hakeem really who he said he was?

  Or had she spent the last three days with a man she should have been running from?

  “How much longer?” Mena asked, her voice low as she forced the words from the tightness in her throat.

  Hakeem glanced back at her, then looked back at the road. “Just a couple more hours. Cover up.”

  He was lying, Mena knew.

  Hakeem wasn’t taking her back to Nairobi.

  Mena looked through the window, watching the house grow smaller and smaller from view.

  Hakeem had lied to her this whole time.

  If he wasn’t part of the TIDES team with Julian, then who was he working for? Was he taking her back to that maniac, Tubeec Hirad?

  The phone call to Julian flickered through Mena’s mind.

  Hakeem hadn’t been worried about alerting Tubeec’s men. He’d been afraid Julian would find them before he had a chance to deliver her to the terrorist. From the sound of the phone call he’d made, Mena suspected Tubeec was paying him one hundred thousand dollars for his trouble.

  She’d been a fool, believing Hakeem was trying to help her.

  Mena leaned back, closing her eyes, exhaling a shaky breath.

  Think. She had one chance to make a move and she couldn’t afford to make the wrong one. She had to get away from Hakeem. Any move she made would need to be quick before he suspected what was happening.

  Turning over, Mena lifted her hands above her head covering her body with the heavy cloth. She allowed her hands to linger near the door release, hoping the blanket would obscure her attempt to escape. Gripping the handle, Mena pulled it forward. The door didn’t budge.

  “Child locks. You didn’t think it would be that easy, did you?” Hakeem asked, his voice cold and menacing.

  Mena looked up at the side of his face. His jaw clenched tight, he gripped the steering wheel with one hand and pointed a gun directly toward her with the other.

  “You lied. You’re not taking me back to Nairobi. What are you going to do with me? Take me back to Tubeec?”

  “That’s exactly what I’m going to do,” Hakeem said.

  “Do you even work for TIDES? Do you know Julian?” Mena asked, sitting up in the back seat.

  Hakeem said, “I work for TIDES. Julian is fine. If things go as I plan, then you might get your happy ending after all. If not …”

  “What if I pay you not to take me back? How much to pretend you never found me and drive me back to Nairobi? It would take a few days but I could pay you more than what Tubeec is offering,” Mena said, her voice shaking as she tried to calculate in her head how much money she and her family could liquidate in short order. She had her condo back in St. Basil and she was sure her Mom had excess funds that could be accessed. Mena could probably get two hundred, maybe three hundred thousand dollars to Hakeem within a month.

  Hakeem raised an eyebrow as he looked at her, then shook his head. “This ain’t about money. Not for me.”

  “Please don’t do this to me,” Mena barely choked out the words. She’d run out of time. Tears stung her eyes as panic gripped her.

  “Save your tears,” Hakeem said without a hint of remorse.

  Mena felt like the wind had been knocked out of her.

  What was she going to do?

  The dirt road stretched for miles ahead of them, dotted with a few trees and scrub brush. No structures for as far as the eye could see.

  She couldn’t let Hakeem take her back.

  They were approaching a cluster of trees.

  But he wouldn’t kill her, would he?

  Tubeec wanted her alive.

  Not dead.

  Hakeem wasn’t going to shoot her.

  He couldn’t.

  Heart thudding in her chest, Mena screamed and pushed through the opening between the front seats, fumbling her hands toward the steering wheel. She jerked it hard to the right, sending the Jeep careening into the trees lining the road.

  Chapter Forty-Six

  The bright sun rose above the horizon, blinding Julian as he drove the Humvee across the rugged desert land. Eyes constricting, he squinted, dipping his head low to keep his eyes on the target looming ahead.

 
; The town of Takaba.

  Enzo had uncovered the depths of Hakeem’s lies with a single phone call to Emershan Smith, the prominent art dealer Hakeem was supposed to be protecting on a trip to deliver art in the Ukraine. Smith was surprised that Enzo didn’t know he’d postponed the trip by a month. The information had been relayed to Hakeem a week ago.

  Sunny had remained stoic, insisting that Hakeem had to have a good reason for the subterfuge and the rest of the TIDES team shared her views. Everyone except Julian. He hadn’t worked side by side with Hakeem over the past few years like they had. He didn’t have the same trust in Hakeem, or any of them, for that matter.

  Separating himself from the rest of the team, Julian had gone into Sunny’s private office and started tracing Mena’s call to his cell phone. After an hour of painstaking analysis through a complex web of towers, Julian had uncovered the calls weren’t coming from Kiev. They had come from northeastern Kenya, somewhere in the vicinity of a small town named Takaba.

  Getting to Takaba presented its own difficulties. There was no airstrip close by. The only option was to fly into Mandera, northeast of the town, or into Wajir, further south of the town. Both were over a hundred miles away. After some considerable debate, they’d settled on Mandera, where Sunny had a contact that would supply a Humvee to the team once they landed.

  Julian had been driving all night, speeding across the rugged terrain and sipping watered down coffee as sleep eluded him. Mena had said they were leaving for Nairobi in the morning. He had to make it to Takaba before Hakeem took off with her. He knew for a fact Hakeem was lying to Mena. He had no plans to take her back to Nairobi. He was going to deliver her to Tubeec Hirad.

  “It ain’t money,” Enzo said, his voice startling Julian in the quiet that had settled within the Humvee over the past six hours. Glaze and Taye were snoring in the back. Enzo had been studying maps and intel on the last calls that had come in from Hakeem, trying to figure out what Hakeem’s next move would be.