Sean looked back through the balcony door as Emily flew at the lone remaining guard.
The man raised his weapon too slowly. Emily kicked it out of his hand. The gun smacked against the wall right behind him and clacked to the floor. He reacted fast and stepped at her. She jumped to kick him in the chest, but this guy wasn’t as inept as the others. He spun around, grabbing her leg in midair. In a split second, he squeezed and twisted, flinging Emily to the ground.
She hit hard, but her side absorbed most of the blow. He raised his foot and brought it down to stomp on her head, but she rolled away and popped up.
Emily twitched her nose and shrugged the shoulder she’d landed on to work out the faint pain. She took a more conservative approach this time, stepping to the guard and lashing out with her right hand. He blocked the punch, but it was a decoy. In a flash, the base of her left hand crunched into the man’s cheek and sent him back two steps.
Her hands swirled slowly in front of her face. The guard stared at her with furious curiosity. He’d likely never seen a woman with such training. The blow to the face only served to enrage the bull, and he lunged at her full force. Emily swung her right leg, but he knocked it down with his forearm. Her movement exposed her upper body for only a second, but it was all the guard needed. He fired a hard jab at her face and struck right next to the ear.
She gasped and staggered back.
Fitz watched what happened. As soon as Emily took the shot to the face, he stepped forward to end things. Or so he thought.
He reached out and wrapped his arm around the guy’s neck. For a moment, the move worked. Fitz’s big forearm squeezed the guard’s throat and would have rendered him unconscious within half a minute had the man not shoved his thumbs back into Fitz’s eyes.
The big American yelled as the guard applied greater and greater pressure until he released his grip. Fitz stumbled backward to the railing and dropped to the floor, rubbing his eyes with both fists.
The guard stalked toward him. He stopped and stood over Fitz for a second. Then he pulled a long knife out of a sheath on his belt and held it out as if to cut the American’s throat.
“Didn’t anyone ever tell you not to hit a lady?”
Emily’s voice startled the guard, and he twisted around just in time to see the bottom of her foot flying at him. His eyes went wide for a brief second before the shoe struck at the base of his throat.
The force knocked him back against the railing and over the top. In his desperation, the guard’s fingers managed to grab the outer ledge and hang on.
Emily reached a hand down to help Fitz up. He accepted the offer and kept blinking his eyes as he stood. He shook his head back and forth as if that would help.
“Thanks,” he said.
“Right back at you.”
They heard a grunt from the other side of the railing and saw the last guard holding onto the ledge for dear life. The two glanced at each other and then stepped over to the edge. His eyes were full of fear and rage all mingled together. He glared up at the Americans with fiery hatred. They looked at one another again and nodded. Then both of them reared back and punched the guard in the head. His fingers slipped off the ledge. He yelled much louder than the other two who’d fallen as he dropped through the air, flailing his arms until he struck the ground face first.
“All clear in there?” A familiar and unexpected voice came from back in the hallway.
Tommy stuck his head through the opening with his pistol extended, gripped with both hands.
Sean looked around. During the melee he’d lost track of Khalif. Now he saw why. The billionaire who’d thought himself invincible just moments before lay in the corner of the room with his hands over his chest.
He coughed hard several times. Spurt of blood came out with the air, splattering his white suit.
Sean didn’t answer his friend. He instead ran over to the dying rich man in the corner and crouched down on one knee. Only one thought was going through Sean’s mind.
“Omar,” Sean said loudly. Khalif’s eyes were staring at the ceiling. His breaths came in labored, gurgled gasps.
“Omar, tell me where the missiles are.”
Khalif’s teeth shone through his parted lips. “Nothing….can stop… it now. My… brothers… will… will be avenged… ”
Emily, Fitz, and Tommy joined Sean next to Khalif. They stared down at him knowing that if he died, his secret of where the missiles were would die with him.
“Omar!” Sean nearly shouted as he smacked the man’s face. “Don’t you die on me.”
Khalif started laughing. It was one of the creepiest, most sinister sounds any of the Americans had ever heard. The laughter ended when Khalif was struck with another round of coughs. Then his eyes fixed on a point in the ceiling and didn’t move again. His chest ceased rising and falling.
Omar Khalif was dead.
34
Sean looked down with disdain at the dead billionaire. Anger and frustration filled him. He fought off the temptation to kick the body repeatedly.
It wouldn’t help to throw a tantrum. They had less than six hours to find the missiles and no clue how to do it.
“He must have been hit by a stray round or a ricochet,” Fitz said as he stared at Khalif.
“I’m sorry, Sean,” Tommy said. “I may have hit him.”
Sean dismissed the apology. “You saved our lives. That’s two I owe you.” He clapped his hand on Tommy’s shoulder. He turned to Emily. “Told you.”
She blushed but said nothing.
“Told her what?” Tommy asked.
“Never mind that,” Fitz interrupted. “How in the Sam Hill did you find us? I thought you stayed in Tanzania.”
“I know my friend. He tends to find himself in trouble more often than not.”
“Yeah but… ”
Sean cut Fitz off. “He called me before I got on the plane to Nairobi. I told him I had a bad feeling about the way things had been playing out, like we were pawns on a chess board. I asked him to come to Kenya and follow us from a safe distance. That’s what he did.”
Emily appeared astounded. “Seriously?”
Tommy held out both hands. “What can I say? The man can beg.” He faced Sean. “The second time you called me I knew there was trouble. So I hung back. And I did like you said. I identified the ping from the phone so that if the battery ran out, I could still triangulate it. Clever.”
Fitz and Emily’s mouths could have hit the floor.
“The rest was easy,” Tommy went on. “Sean telegraphed pretty much every move these guys made. Obviously I lost contact on the flight. But once I got here, the signal was still good. Following you was easy.”
When he was finished, Emily said, “I’m impressed. Maybe you should have been a government agent.”
“Easy. I didn’t say I liked this sort of thing. But when a friend is in trouble, I’m always gonna help.”
Sean interrupted the conversation. “I don’t mean to cut off his epic hero’s tale, but we still have the small issue of a bunch of missiles with nerve gas that are going to be launched at Israel in the next five-plus hours. Might be good if we focus on that problem.”
“Right,” Fitz agreed. “But how do we do that?”
“Those tracking transmitters should still be working, right?”
Fitz nodded. “Yeah, they’ll work for several days… Yes, the transmitters. They’ll still be sending a signal.”