King's Ransom (The Xander King Series Book 3)

by Bradley Wright

  “Marv?”

  Marv was adamant. “Sam, don’t approach the boat! We believe it’s a trap!”

  In an even tone as she kept the gun trained on Melanie, Sam said, “You don’t say?”

  “Shit, I’m sorry, is everyone all right?” Marv asked.

  At that moment, Xander walked around the back end of the boat. Without realizing it, Sam let out a sigh of relief. “I don’t really have time to talk right now. Would you please find out some real information? You’re in danger of making Xander look bad for calling you the smart one of the bunch.”

  “I’m on it.”

  Sam heard Marv’s words but didn’t reply. She ended the call and rose to her feet, both hands on her weapon now.

  Xander spoke up from behind Melanie, startling her. “Nowhere to go, Melanie. Tell us where Natalie is, or die. No more games.”

  Sam looked past Melanie and saw that Xander was holding a pistol. Melanie looked back over her shoulder at Sam, then back to Xander. Sam knew what Melanie was about to do, but there was nothing she could do to stop her. She knew that Xander would recognize the same thing.

  Sam said, “Don’t do it, Melanie. You won’t get away.”

  “Fuck you, bitch.”

  That was when Melanie did what Sam and Xander were both expecting. She knew neither of them would shoot for fear they may shoot each other, so she took one heavy step and dove over the side of the boat. Sam ran to the rail and opened fire, shooting several rounds into the dark river water below. But she may as well have been shooting into a black hole. The lights of the boat didn’t extend to the water. She shouldered the MP5, pulled out the SAT phone, and began walking toward Xander when she noticed him going for the rail.

  “Xander, don’t!”

  Xander paused midclimb on the chrome rail. He then lowered himself back down.

  “Did you hear what she called me?” Sam asked as she walked up to him. She secured the gun’s strap around her shoulder and handed the SAT phone to Xander. “This bitch is mine.”

  Xander smirked. “That water is gonna be awfully cold, Sam.”

  “Just find Natalie. I have a feeling Melanie might just lead me straight to Khatib if I can stay on her.”

  “Fine, but keep the SAT phone. Get the agent’s phone number that drove us here from Marv. I’ll be carrying that. If she leads you to Khatib, you wait for me.”

  “If I can take him out—”

  “Sam,” Xander interrupted. “Promise me you’ll wait.”

  Sam gave Xander a hug, then readied herself to jump from the rail. “Promise me when I call, you’ll be ready.”

  Xander nodded, then turned and ran toward the back of the boat, and dove right over the rail to swim back to Jack and Viktor.

  “He’s like a bloody fish,” Sam said aloud to herself. Then she dove toward the cold darkness below after Melanie—toward their best shot at finding Akram Khatib.

  Getting Off the Boat Would Be the Bomb

  “Adeline, come up here and steer the boat,” Kyle said. “Just make sure to keep it in the middle of the river, and try not to hit anyone.”

  Kyle wanted to see for himself what Adeline had found inside the large metal case. Adeline didn’t say a word; she just moved toward the captain’s chair. Karol was frozen in place, in awe of the metal box’s contents.

  When Adeline took the wheel, Kyle could see the fear fully encompassing her eyes. “K-Kyle, please tell me you know how to fix this?”

  Kyle didn’t answer, because he didn’t know what she was talking about. He walked over to the metal box and stood beside Karol. He took a deep breath and looked down.

  “Holy shit” rolled slowly out of Kyle’s mouth. He hadn’t meant to say it. He hadn’t wanted to react at all so as not to further frighten the girls. But with what he saw, he just couldn’t help it.

  “Holy shit?” Adeline began to panic. “What do you mean holy shit? You’re CIA, aren’t you, Kyle? Surely you’ve seen a bomb before! You know how to defuse it, right? Isn’t that what they teach you? Please tell me that’s what they teach you!”

  Kyle didn’t react. Again, not what he wanted. But the blocks of what he assumed were large piles of explosives, all stacked and tied together with a maze of wiring, had stolen his ability to speak. He had never seen a bomb in person before. But he and Xander rarely missed a movie. And they had seen many a movie that did have bombs, and one dead giveaway, above all others, was the little digital readout with red numbers methodically counting down toward what was always a massive explosion. And this countdown had just gone below the ten-minute mark.

  “A bomb,” Kyle said, almost unconsciously.

  “Kyle! Hello?”

  Kyle looked up at Adeline. He was certain that the fear he saw on her face paled in comparison to his own.

  “Kyle!” Adeline shouted again. “You can fix this, right?”

  “No.”

  Adeline made sure the boat was still moving straight, then turned to him.

  “No? You can’t fix this?”

  “No, I can’t fix this, and no, I am not CIA.”

  It was as if his mouth was on autopilot. Not only was he not in control of his mind, his words, and almost his bladder, he was actually saying the worst possible things he could at the moment. He took a deep breath and finally began to move past the shock and fear that had taken hold of his brain.

  “Wait, you’re not even CIA? We’re screwed, Karol. We’re dead.”

  Adeline’s last words finally snapped Kyle back to reality.

  “I can get us out of this,” Kyle told her as he reached for the burner phone in his pocket that Sam had given him from Xander’s go bag.

  Karol spoke up for the first time since the discovery of the bomb. “You can? You can get us out of this?”

  Kyle opened the phone and went to the contacts where Sarah’s number was stored. As it began to ring, he walked over to Adeline and relieved her of her station at the wheel. He began to power down the boat’s engine. He figured the only thing they could do was jump from the boat and swim for it. He didn’t want to pull the boat toward land, because if the blast was as big as the bomb looked, more innocent people may be killed. He also didn’t know if that would even make a difference. The bomb was massive. He had no idea what that meant as far a blast radius, but it looked like it was going to reach much farther than just the side of the riverbank.

  “Kyle?” Sarah finally answered.

  “Sarah!” Kyle shouted. He had never been happier to hear a woman’s voice.

  “You’re okay! How is Adeline?”

  “Sarah, I don’t have time to explain, but the boat we jumped on has a bomb on it. A bomb! What do we do?”

  “You must have jumped on the boat full of Khatib’s men. Shit! A bomb?”

  Sarah hesitated for only a moment.

  “Kyle, get off the boat! Now!” she shouted.

  It was obvious, and Kyle knew it. He also knew the answer to his next dumb question, but he asked anyway. “You don’t know how to stop it? It might be a big one. Big enough to level a couple of city blocks, or worse!”

  “Kyle, you can’t stop the bomb. Get off the boat! I’ll call Marv and tell him that the position where your burner phone is, is a bomb. We’ll do everything we can from there! Call me as soon as you are safe. That phone was in Xander’s bag, so it will be waterproof. Go now, Kyle!”

  The urgency in Sarah’s voice lit the fire in Kyle. He pocketed the phone and shut down the boat’s engine.

  Adeline shouted, “What are you doing? We can’t stop in the middle of the river!”

  Kyle walked over to her and ushered Adeline and Karol out of the cabin and moved them toward the back of the boat. “We have to get off here. We can’t risk the bomb exploding close to shore.”

  The two of them didn’t argue. Kyle glanced once more at the bomb and the red number ticked down to an even 8:00, then 7:59. They could swim to shore in eight minutes. The Seine River wasn’t all that wide. But only if they hurried. The
three of them arrived at the back of the boat, but instead of looking down over the end of the boat to the water they were about to dive into, all three of their sets of eyes were fixed on the two sets of lights that were speeding toward them out in the water.

  Adeline turned toward Kyle with a look of hope in her eyes. “They’re here to save us, right, Kyle?”

  Kyle wanted to believe it was true, but deep in the pit of his stomach, he knew that the two boats speeding toward them weren’t there to help. The only people who could know where they were that quickly were the people who had planted the bomb in the first place.

  “Adeline, you and Karol have to run.”

  “What?”

  Kyle could see the terror in her eyes now. “You have to go and jump off the front of this boat, swim to shore, and run.”

  Adeline panicked. “No, Kyle! We have to stay together! You have to keep us safe!”

  The two boats were almost to them.

  “I will. But I have to stay here to do it. Go now, Adeline. Go as fast as you can! I’ll create a distraction from here. Just go!” he shouted, then shoved the two of them toward the front of the boat.

  Karol stopped and turned toward Kyle. “Do you think these men know what Adeline looks like?”

  Kyle was baffled. “What? It doesn’t matter! Go!”

  “Wait!” Karol shouted, holding her ground. “If Adeline gets captured, they can use her to really hurt the US, right?”

  Kyle shoved the two of them again toward the front of the boat. “Exactly, now go!”

  Karol turned to Adeline. “Addie, go now! Jump off the boat and swim as fast as you can. If they have me and Kyle on this boat, and they think that I am you, they won’t keep looking for you.”

  Adeline’s jaw dropped. “No way, Karol! You can’t do that. I could never—”

  “She’s right!” Kyle interjected. “I know it’s awful, Adeline, but she’s right. I promise I won’t let them hurt her, now go!”

  Kyle knew he probably couldn’t fulfill that promise, but he would die trying if that’s what it took.

  Karol shouted at her friend. “Addie, the boats are here. Go!”

  Adeline grabbed Karol and wrapped her in a hug. Karol shucked her friend’s arms away and pushed her to the bow of the boat. “Go, Addie. Now!”

  Adeline turned, dove, and disappeared over the bow of the boat. Kyle immediately grabbed Karol and ducked back inside the cabin, frantically searching for anything he could use to distract the men on the oncoming boats. Or even better, kill them. He saw a harpoon fixed to the wall, but that wouldn’t help. There were a few fishing rods, life preservers, and a net. No help. Then he noticed a locker in the corner of the cabin. He rushed over to it, and as he sent up a silent prayer that there would be something, anything, that he could use, he heard the boats’ engines begin to slow. As he placed his hand on the metal handle of the locker, he knew that what he found inside might very well be the difference between life and death—for him and for Adeline’s brave friend Karol.

  Wild Goose Chase

  “We have found the boat. I will call you as soon as we have them. There should only be about eight minutes on the timer—”

  “Then you had better hurry! Stop the bomb, capture them, and bring them to me where I am holding the American actress. It will make the show far greater with President’s daughter as part of the cast. Do not fuck this up!” Khatib ended the call and slammed the cell phone down on the desk.

  Whoever had managed to retrieve the President’s daughter and move the boat with the bomb away from the crowded nightclub had quite possibly ruined his big plans. Khatib sat in his chair, stewing. He figured the CIA must have had one of their best operatives in Paris. But he had no idea how they found out about Wanderlust. Khatib himself hadn’t known it would be the bomb site until they found out that was where the President’s daughter would be going. Having the bomb ready to be moved from the van to the boat had been a stroke of genius on his part, but he didn’t care about that now.

  Khatib opened the laptop on his desk, and the live video feed of Natalie Rockwell strapped to the wall immediately made him feel better.

  “There you are,” he said aloud to himself. “So what if I don’t blow up nightclub? The President’s daughter will soon be in my possession, and you . . .” He touched the screen where Natalie’s face was, as if he were wiping her tears. “You are going to be all the publicity I will need.”

  Khatib moved his fingers to the keyboard, and after a few strokes the stats of who was watching the live feed on the website pulled up in front of him. He couldn’t help but smile. Even he had underestimated just how much America loved their Hollywood star. The count for active users was now up to over two hundred million worldwide. Two hundred million people were going to watch live as the spinning spikes drove through the head of their star. And America could do nothing to stop it. He knew the trickle effect of that fear would shape the rest of the world’s view of just how vulnerable the United States really was.

  He keyed back to the live feed where the spikes were getting really close to their mark. But there was so much going on that he couldn’t full enjoy it. He glanced back at his phone. Only an hour more and the spikes would reach their target. He had to make sure that it wasn’t interrupted. And that was almost a foregone conclusion now as it would be nearly impossible—even if Xander knew Natalie’s exact location—to reach her in time. Melania had just called to be picked up, so he knew that Xander had fallen for the trap. But somehow he managed to survive. Khatib wasn’t the kind of man to sit back and wait. He had been careful when he had transported Natalie to where she was being held. And even though he interrupted the cameras around the dinner boat Natalie was actually on, he knew the CIA was scouring for clues. He knew they would be picking every little detail of the feed apart and searching every public camera in the city. That is why he went to such pains to recreate the boat’s interior dining room where Natalie was. It matched perfectly the one where he had stationed Melania. That is why they sent Xander there. He knew the CIA agents, when they combed the CCTV cameras, would compare the live feed to old pictures of the dining room in the boat where Melania had posed as Natalie. And it had worked.

  But Xander escaped.

  Khatib knew Xander could never find Natalie. He had fallen for every bit of bait that had been laid in front of him. But he couldn’t believe Xander had escaped the trap on the boat. Xander was the only thing that could possibly stand in the way of this working, so he needed to ensure that the wild goose chase continued to keep him and his team guessing. That is when his phone began to ring.

  Khatib answered, “Melania.”

  “Akram, Xander’s Sam is following me.”

  Perfect.

  Khatib said, “She will relay where you go back to Xander somehow. We have them right where we want them.”

  “You should have let me kill him at warehouse earlier. It was mistakes like this that cost Vitalii Dragov and his partner, Martin King, their lives. I know you wanted to get his humiliation on camera, but it is games like these and this stupid thirst for revenge that will ruin this for you.”

  Khatib slammed his fist against the table. “You were supposed to capture him on that boat! I will be the one to kill him. He murdered my brother!”

  The both of them were silent for a moment. Khatib’s breathing was heavy. The anger he felt toward Xander had clouded his judgment. Melania was right. But Xander simply dying wasn’t enough. The world seeing that America’s best soldier could be defeated by a terrorist’s own hands was far more important to Khatib. Showing the world that the days of their enemies hiding in bunkers and striking from afar were over was what would truly bring them fear.

  Melania spoke up. “Where would you like me to lead them?”

  Khatib stood from his desk and walked over to the window. “Lead them back to the warehouse.”

  Melania sounded surprised. “The warehouse where we had the Uber car bring Xander from the airport earlie
r?”

  “Yes. I still have men there. Trap Xander and Sam there until I am finished with Natalie and President Williams’s daughter.”

  “Xander will not just be trapped there. Not while he knows that Natalie’s time alive on that wall will be coming to an end. I will have to kill him to keep him there.” Melania did her best to explain.

  Khatib let out a sigh. Everything inside of him wanted vengeance for his brother first. But he would not be like his brother and let other things get in the way of the larger plan. If Xander had to die by another’s hand, at least he would still be dead. Vengeance would still be achieved.

  Khatib finally let go of his own desires and did what was best for the cause. “Then you will kill him. You were right about what you said earlier. I cannot let revenge get in the way of my strike against America. It is far more important than Xander King. Just make sure it is painful death.”

  Melania answered without hesitation.

  “It will be my pleasure.”

  Khatib ended the call. It was time for him to go and pay Natalie a visit. And almost time to deliver his speech to America and the entire watching world while she died a violent death behind him. Bringing in Adeline Williams at the end would be the showstopper. Imagine the ransom America would pay to see her returned safely to their leader. A ransom far more valuable than money. They would be forced to break one of their most steadfast rules and finally negotiate with a terrorist. The American people’s faith in their government would forever be diminished.

  Kyle’s Main Squeeze

  “Sarah!” Kyle answered his phone.

  “Kyle! Are you all right?”

  Kyle was terribly out of breath, and his heart was racing. The two boats that had been speeding toward him had pulled up to the stern. He imagined they would be coming aboard at any moment. After finding only an iPad and a bowie knife in the locker inside the cabin, he and Karol made a break for the bow of the ship. As reality set in that he had no way to fight the men who would certainly be carrying guns, he considered jumping off the boat, and he and Karol would just swim after Adeline and take their chances. But he knew that would only get all three of them captured, or killed. He pulled Karol to the deck of the boat, and the iPad in her hand flashed a message notification on the screen.