Page 63 of A Silent Reckoning

“Can you meet me somewhere? I don’t think I can find the cottage again in all that wilderness.” She paused. “Do you need groceries? Anything you can’t get in that tiny village?”

Saskia frowned. Who was she talking to?

“I have to run, Dad,” Leeza said, her voice clear as day as she stepped up to the closet, the legs of the yoga pants she’d just changed into visible to Saskia as she started to push the door closed. “I have to get back to Kristoph before he throws a fit. He doesn’t like his new tutor.”

Dad?

Saskia leaned back against the wall, stunned.

Just before the closet door shut, Saskia heard her sister say, “I love you, too.”

Which was how Saskia knew there was no way Leeza was talking to their father. Krystoff Koba did not tell his daughters he loved them.

Chapter Thirty-One

“Can I sit here?”

Jozef glanced up and nodded, closing his laptop and setting it in the empty seat on his other side.

They’d made it out of South Sudan as easily as they’d made their way in. Their trip through Somalia back to Mogadishu had been similarly without difficulty. Jozef had worried that Ayaan wouldn’t be able to keep up with him and his team during the terrain trek part of their journey, but she’d proved herself as fit and capable as his men.

When a patrol had passed on the road beneath their position, she had been one of the first to take cover, automatically reaching for a weapon. When she remembered she didn’t have one, she’d dropped her hand. Jozef had been watching her like a hawk and had noticed her unusual action. She was clearly trained in combat.

Once they’d made their way back into Mogadishu, they’d checked in at their safe house, repacked their equipment and headed to the jet for their flight. They’d been in the air for two hours and had six more to go. Jozef was planning on finishing up his operations report and then sleeping for the remainder of the flight. Apparently, his charge had other ideas.

Ayaan sat next to him, her curious gaze on first his face, then his throat. He wondered if she was looking at the scar that had led to his inability to speak or his plethora of tattoos. She didn’t seem to be afraid of him or his men, and they were an intimidating lot. He supposed hanging around her brother would expose the young woman to men who lived dangerously.

“We didn’t get a chance to talk when we were travelling,” she began. “I want to thank you for bringing me to safety, even though you hadn’t originally agreed to it.”

Jozef grunted and continued to look at her steadily. He had no quarrel with the young woman; his ire was directed at Radik for deliberately misleading Jozef.

Perhaps Ayaan sensed Jozef’s annoyance toward her brother. “You must not blame Muhammed. He knew you wouldn’t agree to transport me because you don’t deal in the flesh trade. I asked him to explain our situation, but he insisted we had to use deception. He said you wouldn’t agree because you don’t like to take responsibility for anyone outside of your team and your family. Is that true?”

Jozef nodded his acknowledgment. Radik had been correct in his assessment of the situation. Jozef wouldn’t have agreed to the job, even if he’d understood the full story. Quite aside from the potential of aiding in human trafficking, Jozef despised human cargo because they were unpredictable, difficult and often ungrateful.

“I want to tell you my story so you can understand why my brother did what he did.” She bit her lip and glanced away.

Jozef wanted to tell her he understood and might have done the same with Shaun or his cousins, had they been in danger. Just because he understood Radik’s actions didn’t mean he would forgive them. Nor did it mean he wouldn’t seek retaliation eventually.

“I know what you’re thinking. You are very similar to my brother,” she said, looking back at him, her dark eyes meeting his. They were earnest and unafraid. “I’ve lived with my brother for most of my life, except for a few years of boarding school in England.”

Jozef nodded; it was the same with his family. Leeza and Saskia had been raised in the bosom of the Koba family except for a few years each in England. It was considered finishing school for the world’s wealthy, where they would go to learn history and politics.

“I understand the dangers of living with a man like Muhammed. He has led armies into battles on both sides of the law. Sometimes he was the revolutionary and sometimes he was the military. Governmental allegiances changed, but he didn’t. He has always held the belief that freedom and democracy should take hold and flourish without corruption.”

“A dangerous belief, both admirable and naive,” Havel piped up from his seat across the aisle. He opened his eyes and pinned Ayaan with his no-nonsense stare.

Havel was in his usual position; several seats to Jozef’s left. It was both practical and symbolic. Havel always stood to Jozef’s left because Jozef was right-handed and could protect his right-hand side. Havel’s position on the airplane also put him closest to the door in case they needed to make an emergency exit.

“My brother is not naive,” Ayaan defended sharply. “And neither am I. We know that Muhammed’s work is dangerous, but he has also helped many people throughout central Africa. His work is important.”

Jozef snorted while Havel laughed out loud.

“We’ve seen the ‘important work’ he’s done in the villages he’s razed,” Havel pointed out. “You won’t convince me your brother is anything other than a mercenary.”

“Those are lies!” Ayaan said sharply. “Insurrectionists burned those villages and said it was my brother. He was trying to help them, not kill them. What does he want with a burned-out village?”

Havel shrugged, but leaned forward, balancing his elbows on his knees as though interested in the conversation. “To use them as an example to anyone else who refuses to fall in line. Sometimes a few deaths will save many more. Your brother strikes me as a man who would use this type of tactic.”