“She was about five miles south of your current location. No. She said something about tunnels. She got out long enough to call us—well, call you. Kit’s on his way out there with a few of the guys.”
“Have them come to these coordinates. The other site that Fiona called from has to be a trap; why would they have left me alive and let Fiona slip out long enough to summon the team otherwise? They’re waiting to ambush.”
“Copy that. Rocco and Selena are somewhere on site as guests of Jafaar’s. We think he’s wherever King is. We lost contact with them once they hit the prairie. Their signals were jammed when they got to the tunnels. They’re attending a celebration honoring King’s daughter’s nuptials.”
“Oh, hell no. I’m going in. I don’t want Fiona in there another night. She is not getting engaged or married or whatever tonight.”
“Negative. You’re going to wait for the team.”
“I am not waiting. There’s a vehicle elevator in the garage that I’m in. It goes down to a parking garage, and from there, into the tunnels. I’m starting two floors down. Come find me.”
“Fiona said the complex down there was huge. How are we going to know where you went?”
“Follow the bodies.”
“Shit, K—”
Kelan cut Max off by hanging up. He slipped the MP5 over his shoulder, hit the down button, then raced back to the Range Rover and jumped inside through the open sky roof. He scanned the area as the platform descended. He could only see one guard patrolling the area. The guard came over to see who was on the elevator. Kelan rolled out of the Range Rover before it settled on the ground. He slipped behind a couple other parked cars. When the guard saw that the vehicle was empty, he called up to the guys Kelan had laid out above. Their silence made him reach for his radio. Kelan rushed him, knife in hand, and sliced his throat.
He took the guy’s AK-47 and jogged across the parking garage to the stairwell. Inside, another guard stood on alert. He tossed the AK to him, then shot him while he reached for the weapon. This guy’s pistol had a silencer. King must want to keep things quiet should Kelan and the team infiltrate the wedding proceedings. Kelan took his pistol and mags then hurried down the steps.
He came out of the stairwell into some sort of landing or utility area. The flooring wasn’t as richly appointed as that down the main hallways. He walked out of the stairwell with such authority that it took the single guard a second to become alarmed, and by then, he had a hole in his forehead.
A woman came out of the ladies’ room as he turned down the hallway toward what appeared to be a main event ballroom. She glanced up at him, not in the least afraid. She wore an evening gown that looked as if it belonged on the red carpet.
She sucked in her breath and puffed up her chest. Tucking in her chin, she smiled at him. “Oh, but aren’t you delicious,” she purred in an accent that sounded British. “King has the most fearsome guard corps I’ve yet seen at one of these functions.”
She was flushed and something wasn’t right with her eyes. They were dilated, as if she were stoned or horny as all hell, like this whole event was some big orgy. Maybe it was, and Fiona was the night’s centerpiece.
The woman rubbed her hand on his arm. “Oh. Gives me shivers.”
He had to stink from sweating during his long run that afternoon, but that didn’t seem to put her off. “Where were you headed, ma’am?”
“Just back to the ballroom. Will you walk with me?”
Kelan nodded. Wearing the clothes from the closet in Fiona’s room meant he was dressed as any of the other guards, so he didn’t stand out. They passed one of the real ones. The woman he was with smiled at that guy, too. Her flirting gave Kelan the cover he needed to get her safely back with the others. When they reached the doors to the ballroom, he pulled her hand from his arm and urged her inside, then closed the doors behind her. He was just slipping the AK-47 through the handles when the guard they’d passed noticed the dead one.
“Hey!” he shouted, starting for Kelan at a run. He didn’t make it very far before a bullet in the head dropped him in place.
The blocked door wouldn’t hold the guests very long. And there had to be other ways in and out of that big ballroom. He just needed the hallway clear a little while he retrieved Fiona from their room.
*
Rocco and Selena circulated about the ballroom. It was densely populated with celebrities, wealthy businessmen and women, and high-ranking politicians, the who’s who of international powerhouses. No phones, cameras, or technical equipment of any sort was allowed in the ballroom. All guests had been searched, and any electronics they carried were confiscated until they left the premises.
Fortunately, the tour Rocco and Selena had taken a couple of hours earlier, before anyone arrived, let them stash the two phones they now used with the hidden cameras Greer had set up for them. They were recording everything that Rocco and Selena looked at.
Their tour had let them see all of the rooms that would be in use that night, along with the security offices that monitored the public rooms.
It was a massive underground event center in a renovated silo, like the one under the White Kingdom Brotherhood’s compound, except quite a bit bigger. Most of the rooms were standard fare for an event center—kitchen, restrooms, storerooms, lobby, quiet room with wall-mounted phones. Even the multistoried parking garage was all very normal.