The militant held the blade still, transfixed by Ethan’s outburst, and then he abruptly stood up straight and nodded to his companion. The bearded man left the room. Ethan watched as his captor opened a bottle of water and drank deeply from it, quenching his thirst until the bearded man returned with another captive, likewise hooded and bound.
‘Release him,’ the militant ordered.
The bearded man yanked off his captive’s bonds and pulled the hood from his head. Ethan saw an elderly man blink dust from his eyes and struggle to focus on his surroundings. He looked at Ethan in surprise.
‘Who is this?’
The militant looked at Ethan. ‘Apparently, he’s looking for you.’
Ethan stared at the thin and bespectacled figure, his features drawn and lightly touched with greying stubble.
‘Stanley Meyer?’
‘Who are you?’ Meyer demanded. ‘What do they mean you’re looking for me?’
‘I’m with the Defense Intelligence Agency,’ Ethan said, flushed with relief that he was finally talking to another American. ‘Amber is with us.’
‘Amber?!’ Stanley gasped in horror. ‘She’s here?! Where?!’
‘Huck Seavers has her,’ Ethan replied, and nodded toward their captors. ‘You can thank these guys for that.’
Stanley glared at the militants. ‘My daughter, is this true?’
The militant nodded. ‘She escaped us.’
Ethan blinked in confusion as the militant moved behind him and began loosening the restraints from his wrists.
‘Is what this man has claimed the truth?’ the militant demanded of Ethan. ‘What was his device called?’
‘A fusion cage,’ Ethan replied as he stood and looked at Stanley. ‘We know what happened in Clearwater.’
Meyer staggered sideways and propped himself against the wall. ‘My God, we had to flee, to leave Amber. We tried to find her but there was no time. I never thought that… she would come so far.’
‘She held out,’ Ethan promised. ‘She’s okay. I don’t know what Seavers will do, but I don’t think that he has murder on his mind.’
‘Huck Seavers is a coward, a slave to greenbacks,’ Stanley snapped. ‘But you’re right, he’s no murderer. But it’s not him I’m worried about.’
‘Majestic Twelve?’
‘Who?’ Stanley asked.
‘Long story,’ Ethan replied as he glanced at their captors and took a gamble that they might be willing to listen to Ethan now. ‘You’re abducting the wrong people. Stanley’s work could cause the fall of the House of Saud, give you what you’re fighting for.’
‘That depends on what you think we’re fighting for,’ the militant growled. ‘The only reason you’re still alive is because you told exactly the same story as Stanley here. Either you are both equally insane, or you have something that I want.’
‘I told you,’ Stanley said wearily, ‘I don’t have a fusion cage, but I can build one for you. I just need the parts, and your promise that you’ll build more of them and distribute them to the people for free.’
Ethan looked at the insurgent, who was frowning at Stanley. ‘So you’ve said, but why would you do this?’
‘Because we’re not all oil — guzzling megalomaniacs,’ Stanley replied wearily, Ethan guessing he may have been trying to convince his captors of this for some time. ‘If you’d only let me build the damned thing, you could have had a dozen of them by now.’
The militant sighed and glanced at his companion as he left the room. ‘Americans, you are all insane.’
‘We figured you’d be abducted by insurgents eventually,’ Ethan said to Meyer. ‘Coming here was a bad idea.’
‘It was all I could think of,’ he replied. ‘To come somewhere where even America would find it hard to track me down.’
Ethan turned as Lopez was led into the room by a Saudi woman dressed from head to foot in a burqua, only her dark eyes visible. Lopez’s hair was in disarray where a hood had recently been removed. He saw the concern writ large across her face as she hurried to his side.
‘Are you okay?’ she asked.
Ethan nodded, felt warmth spread through his chest and down into his belly as he smiled at her.
‘I’m fine,’ he said, and then looked at Stanley Meyer. ‘Who are these people?’
‘This,’ Stanley said, ‘is the leadership of Saudi Dawn, a protest opposition group dedicated to exposing the corruption of the Saudi regime. They grabbed me two days ago.’
‘If the Saudi authorities knew what you’ve achieved and they got hold of you, that would probably be the last anybody would see of Stanley Meyer.’
‘I’m more than aware of that,’ Meyer replied, somewhat affronted. ‘But then I’m sure that Huck Seavers and all of the other bloodsucking corporate entities who would like to see my device eradicated from existence would also be unlikely to think that I would come here. It was a good idea, while it lasted.’
Ethan glanced at the Saudi Dawn militants. ‘While you’ve been hiding out with these guys, Seavers has somehow managed to track you down. He abandoned us with the intention of us dying at the hands of enraged Saudi protesters, and it would have looked like nothing more than another tragic militant attack on Western journalists.’
‘You were nearly torn to pieces,’ the nearest militant said. ‘I might have been one of them, were it not for Stanley’s devotion to his cause. He kept saying that Seavers Incorporated was behind his woes, and so we checked them out. You showed up a day later.’
‘Along with Amber,’ Stanley said. ‘Is it possible to get her back?’
‘Our escort prioritized her safety at our request,’ Ethan admitted. ‘As soon as they got her clear, they took off. We inadvertently assured her capture.’
‘You were acting in her best interests,’ Stanley replied without the slightest hubris. ‘Which is more than can be said for Huck Seavers.’
‘We need to get her out of there,’ Lopez said. ‘There’s no telling what Seavers will do to her.’
Stanley Meyer perched on the edge of a tired looking table and shook his head.
‘He won’t hurt her,’ he replied without concern. ‘At least I don’t think that he will. Huck Seavers is the archetypical corporate monster, the embodiment of the American dream. He inherited his fortune and empire from his father and, to his credit, he has successfully grown the business over the years and gained huge respect for his abilities as a businessman.’
Ethan’s blinked in surprise. ‘You sound like you actually like the man.’
‘Like? No. Have respect for, have sympathy for? Yes.’
‘Sympathy?’ Lopez echoed. ‘He just abducted your daughter, a teenage girl who has travelled half way round the world to find you.’
Meyer smiled fondly as he stared into the distance, clearly thinking of Amber.
‘Amber always was an adventurous soul, an outdoors woman and livewire. I’m constantly surprised that she wants to become a lawyer and not a soldier or a pilot or something. But you have to see this situation for what it really is. Huck Seavers is not a murderer, he’s a businessman and he’s way out of his depth. He’ll offer Amber money, and keep offering it to her until she takes it, which I dearly hope that she does.’
‘You want her to sell out?’ Ethan asked.