Seized (Hostage Rescue Team Series, #7) Read Online Free PDF Page B

the little bungalow with its walled yard. Other than her sons and her devotion to God, the garden was his mother’s pride and joy. Banana trees, palms and a plumeria in the corner provided privacy and structure, and the many orchids his mother favored bloomed in a riot of color all over the yard.
    His brothers would be back from the market soon. He wanted to be long gone by then. He didn’t like drawn-out goodbyes, and since this might be the last time he saw his family, he didn’t want to tip any of them off that something was wrong. They had no idea what he was about to do.
    Casting one last look at the house from the sidewalk, he drank in the sight of it, committing every detail to memory before walking to his car. He’d just climbed behind the wheel when his phone rang. He didn’t recognize the number, but the country code told him it had to be someone from the organization, so he answered.
    “When do you leave?” the man asked, someone Wira had spoken to several times before. They always spoke in English, since it was common to them both. Wira spoke it fluently in addition to Javanese, Malay and some French, but no Arabic as this man did.
    “In the morning. I’ll be in the States by tomorrow night, Pacific time.”
    “Good. And what about the others?”
    “Either en route or already there. We board Saturday morning.” As a long-time and trusted member of the cruise line staff, he had some authority in terms of who was placed under his command. For this voyage he’d made sure to select two members of their group to be on his team. Men he knew personally from secretly training with in a militant camp outside of Jakarta last year.
    But someone powerful behind the scenes had been pulling strings to make this operation possible as well. The Mawla . The figurehead of this cell, respected and revered by all, but especially by him.
    This particular cruise happened to have the highest density of their members on the crew, which is why the organization had chosen this one, with the added bonus of some of the passengers on board and the timing. Several American fat cats were scheduled to be aboard, all the better to leverage ransom with if they decided to go that route. And the anniversary of 9/11 was next week. The significance of the date would give their message even more media attention around the world.
    His contact made a satisfied noise. “Your equipment has already arrived in port and is scheduled to be loaded at the time given in our last correspondence.”
    “Perfect.” He glanced around to make sure no one was watching him. So far he hadn’t noticed anything unusual, but he couldn’t be too careful. One slip up, one whisper in the international intelligence community and he’d either wind up dead or face the same fate as Leo.
    Taken in the middle of the night by American commandos and whisked to a secret CIA “black” holding facility somewhere in Eastern Europe.
    The U.S. continually denied the existence of such places, but a few had recently come to light in places like Vilnius, Lithuania. Though the Americans kept denying they had anything to do with Leo’s disappearance, Wira knew better.
    They were only half-brothers, both having different fathers. Wira’s mother had given birth to Leo when she was very young and unmarried. Leo’s father had taken him away shortly after he’d been born, and Wira’s mother hadn’t seen him until a few years ago when Leo had reestablished contact with her.
    Half-siblings or not, Wira had instantly bonded with his older brother, who’d been a huge influence in his life ever since. They believed in the same things and thought the same way. Because of his ties to an Indonesian terror group Leo had been on the U.S. terror watch list for months before he was taken, but since he and Wira had different surnames and hadn’t grown up together, so far Wira had managed to avoid any attention from authorities.
    Their mistake. Now he had new and powerful allies around