All of Port Said would be mourning its loss for years to come.
“I’m sorry,” Zahra said, feeling the need to apologize. “If I hadn’t come here, I—”
“Stop.” She did. Wally turned, fire in his eyes. “You are not at fault for this defilement.” A killer look washed onto his face. “Khaliq Ayad is to blame.” He turned and started off again. “He will not get away with this.”
“Where are we going?”
“To my place of business.”
“Your business?”
He nodded. “Yes, the Suez Shipping Company. I have some people I’d like you to meet.”
“The Suez Shipping Company? How can your shipping company help us?”
He slowed and glanced over his shoulder, and picked his words carefully. “The SSC is not what it seems.”
Zahra was certain she knew exactly what Wally meant. While he did operate a legitimate shipping company out of Port Said, it also sounded like he had a good-sized under-the-table operation, as well. Zahra was curious as to precisely what Wally moved through the shadows. He pulled out his phone and dialed. Whoever he was calling picked up immediately. The call ended after a few short words.
“We’re almost there.” He directed her, heading left around a corner. “Our ride awaits us.”
Chapter 61
Adnan
After Khaliq and the others had left, a three-man cleanup crew was ordered to the labs. The trio was armed and thickly built. They weren’t there to sanitize the gore within the exam room. These men had come to sanitize the individual responsible for it — a man named Grant Upton, apparently.
Find him, and eliminate him.
Then, the body would go on ice until it was time to dissect him.
Adnan stood tall, waiting for the elevator door to open. When it did, he stepped out with his team in tow. Haydar and Naeem weren’t as experienced as Adnan was with the job, but they were, nonetheless, effective.
“What happened?” Naeem asked. His eyes were glued to the smeared glass.
“It doesn’t matter,” Adnan replied.
Haydar opened his mouth to speak but didn’t get the chance.
His boss snapped his attention to him. “Open the door.”
It took him a moment to respond, but Haydar did so with just a nod of his head. He stepped around Adnan and drew his sidearm. He held up a shaky hand and pressed his thumb up against the biometric scanner. A click announced the doorlock’s disengagement. Adnan and Naeem fell in line behind Haydar, and all three men swiftly entered the destroyed medical suite.
It was empty, save for the body parts littering the floor.
“Adnan?” Naeem asked, gagging and swallowing his rising bile. “The door…it was locked.”
Adnan glared at Naeem. “Which means he is still here.”
“Or not,” Haydar said, getting both men’s attention. He gazed up at the ceiling, right where a section of the ceiling was missing.
“Where does that go?” Naeem asked.
“Ventilation,” Adnan replied. “The system is networked to every suite. Check them!”
Haydar and Naeem rushed out of the exam room, darting left and unlocking and entering the neighboring room. Even though his men’s voices were slightly muffled, Adnan could hear their screams, plain as day. Khaliq’s experiment had set a trap, and Adnan and his team had fallen for it.
Adnan stood his ground and waited, leveling his pistol at the doorway. There was no other way inside except for the hole in the ceiling. He sidestepped away from the opening above his head, keeping his eyes on the door. A noise similar to an angry dog halted his movements. Once more, Adnan stood his ground and waited. He wouldn’t be caught off guard as easily as Haydar and Naeem had been.
“Are you there?” he asked, hoping to entice Khaliq’s pet. “Are you unhappy with your stay?”
The growling intensified.
Adnan grinned. “Down, dog.”
Silence.
“You still there?”
No reply.
Adnan stepped lightly, heel to toe, keeping his footfalls quiet. He paused midway to the doorway and waited. He was a patient person, but he needed to exit the exam room before he was locked inside. At the very least, he needed to call in reinforcements.
He stopped just inside the door and launched himself around the corner, intent on shooting the man responsible for all the bloodshed here. Adnan leveled his firearm at the other open doorway but saw nothing. The hallway was entirely void of life. Adnan took a step backward and immediately bumped into something. He spun on a dime and had his chest caved in by a single, crushing blow.
He felt nothing, and his body suddenly stopped working. His eyes fell to the impact point, and he was stunned to see nothing but a crimson-colored fist pulling away from it. He followed it to its owner, coughing up blood as he met face-to-face with the man who used to be Grant Upton.
What…the hell?
The man’s exposed upper body rippled with dense musculature. Adnan didn’t remember the Brit being so well-built. His body mass resembled that of a steroided wrestler from the eighties and nineties.
And those eyes…
How? His mind faded. The… the virus?
The demon uttered one word. “Ayad.” But Adnan was too far-gone to formulate words, and his eyes rolled back.
Upton roared in anger, reached out, and tore Adnan to pieces.
Chapter 62
Ifza
It would typically take three hours to drive from Giza to Port Said. Ifza didn’t have that kind of time. She was currently airborne in her brother’s private helicopter, traveling directly to the area in question, and would arrive shortly. She had already received notice of her men’s failure to kill Zahra Kane. Even Waleed Badawi was still alive. Their bodies were not among the dead. Authorities had reported gunfire shortly after the lighthouse’s decimation. The only people that would be shooting back at her people would be Zahra and Waleed.
“Should I notify Khaliq?” one of her men asked.
“No!” Ifza blurted. “No… I will contact him myself.”
Ifza had no plans to tell him, either. His earlier threat still had its fangs dug into her throat.
“Don’t fail me again.”
If he did ask about the mission, Ifza would counter with an explanation that the operation was still in progress — which was true. She knew she could probably pawn off the failed op on the incompetence of her men — men that wouldn’t be alive much longer. She was going to personally end their wretched existences once she landed.
She rubbed the sleep from her eyes. I need better men. It had been nearly twenty-four hours since Ifza had last slept.
And she wouldn’t be getting any sleep anytime soon.
Chapter 63
Zahra
Wally’s operation, the SSC, was seriously impressive. All manner of heavy machinery was present, including three of the largest cranes Zahra had ever seen. The dockside gantry cranes were used to load and unload intermodal containers from container ships. The operator sat in an unsettling, glass-bottomed pilothouse directly above a mechanism called a spreader.
Machines like this had always caught Zahra’s attention. It wasn’t just mankind’s past that she was impressed with. She also enjoyed the planet’s modern ingenuities. At one time, all the things she studied from ancient times were modern ingenuities.
“We’ve come a long way, huh?” she said, staring up at the cranes in motion.