They left the compound before Cantara and parked the bike a short distance from the rendezvous point a good half hour before she was due to be there. Then they faded into opposite doorways and waited. They saw Cantara step off the bus and walk to the spot where she was supposed to be, right on time. Raoul wondered if he was the only man in the area who could see through her modest clothing to the sumptuous woman beneath it all. Hell, if anything happened to her, he’d tear the Middle East apart looking for justice!
She stood quietly waiting, not showing any outward signs of nerves, but Raoul knew her heart would be pumping, her senses on high alert. He kept a careful watch on the area, but saw nothing to concern him, as sure as he could be that no one was paying him or Zeke any attention. Ten minutes after the time when she was supposed to be collected, a modern-looking SUV pulled up. It had blacked out windows but when the rear door opened, Raoul thought he counted three men inside. Cantara climbed into the car and the driver gunned the engine as he sped away.
Raoul and Zeke double-timed it back to the bike and were two vehicles behind the one carrying the love of their lives before it reached the end of the street. They kept well back for fear of being spotted. Besides, they didn’t need to get too close. The car would head for the checkpoint leading to the occupied territories. Even so, it made them feel better to keep the car in sight, knowing Cantara was inside it.
Thanks to perfect papers and advance warning given to the checkpoint guards, Raoul and Zeke were able to bypass the queue and were on the tail of the car again very soon after it got through the formalities. The traffic thinned out as the car continued on its way. Raoul, driving the bike, was forced to drop a long way back, but that was no problem. The border guards had placed a tracking device on it while they searched the vehicle and Zeke, riding pillion, was able to chart its every move on a mobile device.
Everything was going to plan, but Raoul didn’t like it. It was too easy. Was he inviting trouble by feeling uncomfortable because nothing had gone wrong? Why wasn’t the car taking more precautions to ensure it wasn’t being followed? He sensed Zeke shaking his head on the pillion seat behind him, obviously thinking the same thing. But there was nothing they could do about their premonitions, and so kept right on following the car.
It was driven on for another ten minutes before stopping on the outskirts of a small town. They pulled off to the side of the road and he and Zeke took stock of the situation. There were a few people about, but no one paid them the slightest attention. And no one was observing them from anywhere nearby, as far as they could tell.
“They’ve gone into that old building over there.”
They were the last words Raoul heard because something hit him hard on the back of the head. Shit, he hadn’t heard anyone approaching. How the hell had they stolen a march on him, and had then gotten to Zeke, too?
His legs buckled and he was unconscious before he hit the ground.
Chapter Four
When Raoul regained consciousness, he and Zeke were stripped bare, huddled on a hard bunk in some sort of cellar. It was stifling hot, and there was no ventilation. The air was stale, smelling of sweat, blood and human misery. Raoul’s head felt as though it was about to split in two, and his vision blurred each time he tried to move it. What the fuck had they hit him with?
“How the fuck did they get to us without us seeing them?” Zeke whispered, rubbing the back of his own head. His fingers came away sticky with blood.
Raoul held a finger to his lips. There was every possibility of a listening device having been planted in the cell, otherwise they would have been separated. They both spoke fluent Arabic, and had papers to back up their cover story. Their clothing was genuine, and their weapons had nothing to do with the army. But even though their personal possessions were kosher, the bike had a few modifications that would take some explaining.
Raoul knew that wouldn’t be Zeke’s primary concern any more than it was his. Cantara was the only person who mattered. Shit, they’d failed her at the first hurdle! Raoul’s heart lurched when he thought of what she might be going through at that precise moment. She was one of theirs and if they thought she’d sold them out in some way, Raoul didn’t want to think about how they would exact revenge.
Focus, he told himself. Regrets wouldn’t get them out of this mess. He needed to concentrate on where they were, and how they’d come to be caught so easily. They hadn’t been tailed and no one had been paying them any attention when they arrived at this small village. Raoul would stake his life on that. Which meant they had been expected, and their captors must know they were Americans. It explained why they had found it so easy to tail the car Cantara was in, even without the tracking device. They had wanted them to follow and Raoul and Zeke had played right into their hands. Fuck it! Very few people knew of their plan, but someone who did had obviously sold them out. There was no way they could have been spotted otherwise. Raoul quietly seethed at his stupidity. If they got out of this alive, he would find the bastard who threw them to the lions and separate his cowardly head from his miserable body.
Two thuggish-looking guys came in not long after they had regained consciousness and one of them jerked his thumb over his shoulder, indicating they should follow him. It was obvious they wouldn’t be given any clothes, or the option to politely decline. That was standard interrogation procedure, and Raoul and Zeke wouldn’t let it worry them. Strip men of their clothing and you supposedly took their dignity with it. Nice try, assholes.
They were led into a larger room, still without windows, but a little cooler and quite well furnished. A guy sat behind a ridiculously ornate desk that was probably supposed to make him look important, playing absently with the papers that had been taken from them.
“Good afternoon,” he said politely in English.
Neither Raoul nor Zeke answered him. The man tried again in Arabic and Raoul and Zeke responded.