Page 44 of Key Of Dreams

“We have company,” I tell Wire. He looks in the rearview mirror and sees what I see. The driver gets out of the car and demands to have the gates opened so they can come through. We’ve already paid off the guards and, as a secondary precaution, locked the gates automatically through their security system. This buys us the time we need to take off.

Oman and his bodyguards are safely seated. Wire helps me lift Oyeiku and get him up the steps and through the doors of the plane. One of Oyeiku’s men begins to scale the wall, but it’s too late. I latch the plane door firmly shut.

“Go! Go!” I shout. The plane engine revs before we begin to taxi down the runway. I take a seat next to Oyeiku, who is finally waking up.

“What the fuck is going on? Is this a kidnapping? Do you know who my father is?” he says. Jesus! He’s throwing his father into the mix when it’s because of him that he’s in this position.

“You can take that shit up with your father,” I tell him. I adjust his handcuffs to make him more comfortable, then walk away from the bullshit threats he’s spewing about what his father’s going to do to me. When he sees I’m not paying attention to him, he starts in on Wire, who has less tolerance than I do and punches him in the mouth. “What the hell was that?” I ask Wire. It’s not like him to react like that.

He grimaces. “Our brothers are in danger, and he just worked my last nerve.”

I snicker. “Sure, but remember, he’s leverage,” I tease. “We’re en route, and we’ll be joining the others soon.”

Chapter21

Heading Home

Bull

The art of interrogation isn’t unknown to the Storm team. We’re all versed in how to extract information from the enemy, thanks to special ops training and having been in situations where getting the information we needed would have meant saving or losing our men’s lives.

Personally, I like to go for the jugular and get it over with. Wire hates doing it at all, but he’s also the kind who prefers it’s done quickly. Rebel and Phoenix have no problem with physical torture, within reason, of course, especially if it means saving the lives of innocents.

But Falcon, he can do it all and he does it better than any of us. He’s all about mental breakdown and intimidation tactics. He can make people tell all without ever laying a hand on them, which I find highly impressive.

Wire already found out that Oyeiku is much older than the university student he was pretending to be. We’ve looked at the thumb drive and found lists of people invited to President Obi’s personal banquets and dinners over the last six months and found that two of the men are now dead. They were killed in what seemed like accidents at the time, but we now have confirmed that they were paid to get information to Nakai, Oyeiku’s father. Once their obligation was fulfilled, they were expendable and a threat to Nakai’s plan.

It took a while to piece together why they would ransack Ubin’s office and what they were after. Ubin keeps all his confidential documents for President Obi and his family’s investments in a special safe. It is uncrackable and can only be opened by three men. This is information Nakai wasn’t privy to prior to the break-in, and his attempt to cripple Obi financially wasn’t going to work without getting close to Ubin’s son, who they would ransom for the contents of that safe.

In retrospect, we got to Oyeiku just before Nakai kidnapped Oman. Political power is an ugly game and one that President Obi would have given up for the love of his grandson. Yakubu, however, wouldn’t give in so easily if it meant betraying his country.

“It would be like leading our people to slaughter,” he spits out when we sit him and his father down to discuss what we’ve found. Yakubu is furious, but he knows that starting a war with well-known arms dealers isn’t a fight he’ll win alone. This is a much bigger problem that needs to be discussed with the neighboring countries and their leaders. Banding together would create a much bigger force with which to combat Nakai and his men.

Falcon’s been able to extract enough information to find out where and when the next attempt on President Obi will occur, but the greater target is Yakubu. Nakai already sees that Yakubu isn’t a man who will simply lie down and die. His idea is to take aim at President Obi, and when Yakubu moves to save his father, he’ll take him out as well.

“What do we do with Oyeiku?” Wire asks.

“I’ve got a thought,” I say. All heads turn to me. “Why not put him in the same car as President Obi? He can be his human shield. The president refuses to stop this parade, so when they see that Oyeiku is in the vehicle, it will rattle them enough to abort.”

“Or they take the shot anyway, and he kills his own son without a second thought,” Rebel says.

“I don’t want him anywhere near my father,” Yakubu insists.

“We can’t trust him,” Falcon agrees. “We’re going to make a few detours to the original route. Bull will drive. I’ll be with him. Rebel will be on the left and Phoenix on the right with your men to patrol the area and look for the shooter.”

“What about me?” Wire asks.

“You’ll be scanning the crowds from above. I want a helicopter tracking our movements. Any sign of danger, you need to give us an exit,” Falcon responds.

Wire doesn’t like ugly surprises, so it’s no wonder he replies with “I want to get a bird’s-eye view of the parade route now. I wanna be prepared.” Yakubu readily agrees and makes the arrangements.

“That takes us back to the original question. What do we do with Oyeiku?” I ask.

“Prison for now. Until I can get the other leaders to see that Nakai intends to take us out one by one, that’s the safest place for him,” Yakubu replies.

“Fine, but don’t for a second think that there isn’t going to be a hit to get him back. Is your prison strong enough to hold him? Do you have enough firepower to keep Nakai from getting to his son? Guy may be an asshole, but if he loves his kid, he’s coming for him,” I tell him.

“Then let him come,” Yakubu says in frustration.

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