Rif calculated his options should things go sideways. There weren’t many. The AKs pointed in their direction were difficult to ignore. He’d recognized General Ita Jemwa immediately from the files Hakan had on Nikos’s kidnapping.
“Let’s get you somewhere cooler. My camp is two hours west of here.” General Jemwa adjusted his beret and snapped his fingers. The soldiers sprang into action, repacking the water and supplies into the Land Cruiser.
Rif and Thea rode with the general in the newer truck. The air-conditioning was heavenly after being stuck in the unforgiving desert for hours.
Sitting next to the huge soldier, Rif experienced a flicker of sympathy for Nikos. He couldn’t imagine how frightened a twelve-year-old boy would be faced with this gigantic man as his kidnapper.
The Land Cruisers negotiated the endless sand dunes, targeting the setting sun. The general shifted his bulk to face Rif. “We intercepted your distress signal on our radio and realized you were close by. What happened?”
“Technical difficulties,” Rif said.
“Of the most serious kind, apparently,” the general said. “You’re very fortunate to have survived that crash.”
“The pilots died saving us.” Thea was smart to say that. Keep your potential enemies in the dark about a teammate’s aviation skills. She had a hell of a poker face. “We need to reach Victoria Falls Hotel in Zimbabwe by noon tomorrow. Can we arrange for a helicopter to pick us up at your camp?”
“Let’s get you showered, fed, and rested. Tomorrow will take care of itself.” The general smiled, clearly enjoying his control.
Rif sensed Thea’s unrest, understood her impatience. She was torn up about her father. Every minute she was away from cell reception was a minute she wasn’t searching for Christos. Perhaps they should take a closer look at General Jemwa. After all, he had a history of kidnapping as well as a past with the Paris family. Contrary to popular belief, it wasn’t unusual for more than one family member to be abducted by the same person or group, especially if the family acquiesced to the demands too quickly. Soft targets made kidnappers greedy. These abductions were twenty years apart, but maybe the Kanzi oil negotiations had acted as a catalyst for Jemwa. A need for money? A power move?
“Your hospitality is appreciated, but it’s urgent that we reach the hotel. Our negotiations start tomorrow,” she said.
“We’ll make sure you arrive on time. In fact, I’ll be traveling with you—I’ve been consulting on security measures for the event, and I already have an advance team in place.”
“Excellent, then it won’t inconvenience you to leave tonight.”
“We have a celebration planned for our soldiers this evening. But don’t worry: as my guests, you’ll be included in the festivities.”
“How gracious.” Her words hung in the air. “Any chance you have a satphone at the camp?”
“Absolutely. It wasn’t working this morning, but we can try again tonight.”
So, the general wanted to control their communications, but why? Was he an opportunist trying to use them as leverage in a business deal? Was he involved in Christos’s kidnapping? Or was he kidnapping them?
The caravan pulled into an encampment surrounded by electrified fencing and armed sentries. For now, they were the general’s guests.
Or, perhaps more accurately, his prisoners.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Given that General Jemwa’s training camp was in the middle of a desert, Thea was impressed by its creature comforts. Two soldiers brought hot water for the tub inside the permanent-feeling tent where she’d spend the night. After bathing, drinking another large bottle of water, eating two sandwiches, and injecting the insulin that still seemed sufficiently cool from her insulated pouch, she finally felt rejuvenated.
But concern weighed on her mind. She had Papa’s cell phone, but it’d been all day since she’d had proper service. If the real kidnapper tried to reach her and was dumped into voice mail, who knew what he would do to her father?
She also needed to discover who’d sabotaged the plane and poisoned the pilots. How many people had had access to the Gulfstream? Hakan would fly in a team to analyze the crash site and recover the remains of the flight crew. She was missing something. No ransom demand, and every effort to investigate was met with violence. The killing wouldn’t stop until they figured out who’d taken Papa and neutralized the threat.
With any luck, the plane wreckage would offer some new clues. If there was any useful evidence, her boss would find it. Hakan. He’d be so worried. She was rarely out of touch for an hour, let alone an entire day.