Terror Stash (36 page)

“This is the second kitchen. Although you already know this place, don’t you?” She smiled at Montana, her eyes sparkling. “You were most ingenious. It was almost a pleasure to know someone had managed to slip past our guards like that. Most unpredictable. Unfortunately, it was still necessary to berate the guards for failing their duties.” Her face fell. “But let’s not linger on the unpleasant topics. There’s time later for all that. Come. Come.”

She’d moved off again, taking Montana to the main cave, which was the section they called the factory. It was a huge cavern, hung with stalactites and with a good collection of stalactites clinging to the floor. Some of the stalactites had been sawn off at waist and knee level and planks mounted on them; they had been turned into the supports for tables and benches.

Ria circled the cavern, pointing out the main kitchen section, the fire pits and then the factory itself. As she walked, she gave Montana a breakdown of the numbers of pounds of food processed, the total kilos of heroin processed and the revenue that tonnage produced.

“On an official spreadsheet, you’d find we have an operating capital of over thirteen million. The operation is completely self-sufficient and provides me with steady revenue.”

Montana realized that Ria was showing off. Possibly, she was the first westerner and non-resident to be shown the cave system. Ria wanted an audience. She wanted appreciation for what she had made here.

“I’m betting it was your idea to set this up, too, right?” Montana said, letting admiration creep into her tone.

Ria’s cheeks dimpled. “It was an idea I toyed with for a number of years before I put it into action. I had to refine the strategic blueprint a number of times to get it right. Then, of course, I had to convince the Arab groups and Palestinians I approached that I was quite serious about recruiting their discards.” She was using Farsi, but Montana still glanced at her royal guard to see if any of them reacted to being described that way.

“The recruits themselves were easy to persuade. All they needed to know was that their talents and passions would still be of use, that they would still achieve their purpose in life, and they came to me eagerly. Their eagerness recruited others. How could they refuse? I was giving them a second chance to live their dream.”

“Those dreams would be the projects you’ve got going now, right? You’re sending out a second team tonight, Bob said.”

“Ah, yes. The L.A. project. They leave in two hours.” Ria smiled. “Very astute of you. A single passing reference and you put it together. Caden told me you were smart, but he understated it. I’m so delighted I finally got to meet you!”

Ria spread her hands to include the whole cavern. “Four hundred and thirty-two of the fiercest, most ardent fighters in the world and they are mine to command.” She sighed. “I have waited such a long time to find someone I could share it with.”

“Me?” Montana asked, trying to sound both shocked and pleased. The shock was honest. The pleasure was difficult to fake, but Ria was too involved in her own peculiar dreams to notice.

“You are such a unique individual,” Ria said. “I could search the world—I
have
searched the world for someone like you and you were here in my own backyard.” Ria hitched up her leg and sat on one of the tables, modestly resting her feet on the bench beneath and crossing her ankles.

“You’ve only known me for a couple of hours,” Montana said. “How could you possibly know that I’m the one you’re looking for?”

“My dear, I’ve known all about you for over three years—since you came out of nowhere and won that windsurfing competition, actually. I had the most recent facts of your life in my hands within a month. Your older history took longer to piece together, but my instincts had been right all along. As I learned more about you, the more I liked what I heard. When Caden met you a few days ago and unwittingly reported back to me on you, I listened most carefully. Everything he told me merely confirmed my suspicions.”

Where
was
Caden
? Montana wondered. She had not seen him since they left the dock. She cleared her throat. “And your suspicions were...?” she asked Ria.

“You’re a seeker of power, just like me. You’ve spent your whole life looking for it. Every line on your resume shouts of your need to climb to the upper ranks, to excel, to achieve the power that goes with that success.”

“Power is something you can offer me?”

“Look around you,” Ria said. “Look at the power I command here. It has the strength to reach out around the world and be felt. No diplomatic mission in the world would give you that sort of influence.”

“The teams you’re sending out to Los Angeles,” Montana concluded. “What are their targets?”

Ria smiled a little. “Let’s not put the cart before the horse, shall we? First, the interview. Then the orientation.”

“All right, then.” Subtly, Montana adjusted the way she was standing and the attitude coloring her words. If Ria was looking for a power-hungry heir, that’s what she’d give her. “If it’s just my resume that drew your attention, I have to point out that there’s probably a thousand people out there just like me. Hundreds of them are also women.”

“Very astute. As a woman, you are more suitable. And yes, there are secondary qualities I was looking for. Your personal history is what makes you unique. You’re not American.”

“I am, actually. I became an American citizen when I was seventeen.”

“You were not born in American.”

“No one knows where I was born, including me,” Montana said flatly.

“I do.”

Montana stared at her. “You couldn’t possibly know that,” she whispered. “How could you? The State Department, the Army, even the Immigration Department and the United Nations couldn’t figure out where I came from, even with a year of investigation.”

“Oh, I don’t have details, but I know with absolute certainty that you were born and spent your early, most impressionable years somewhere in the Arab world.”

Montana felt a trickle of disappointment. “I could have told you that. It doesn’t mean I’m not American.”

“But you have a non-western point of view, to go along with your American life and love of power.”

Montana held her mouth closed against the words of protest bubbling up in her and stared at Ria. “That makes me unique?”

“Not quite. There are three other factors that make you utterly unique and so very suitable for the job. One is your lack of family. Your adoptive mother died three years ago, which leaves you completely alone in the world, with no ties to bind you to people or country. The other is your remarkable ability with languages. Do you like music, my dear?”

Montana blinked. “Well, yes.”

“Classical, especially Mozart.”

“What has that got to do with anything at all?”

“Classical music is mathematically precise. People who have strong mathematical skills like yourself often are drawn to it. Languages, to you, are simply more music to study and absorb.” Ria smiled gently. “I have spent decades listening and studying people of all types and stripes. You needn’t look so shocked that I could draw a simple conclusion from obvious facts.”

“And the third factor?” Montana prompted her. She had no intention of letting Ria ‘explore’ any more of her psyche than necessary.

“You have a well-developed ability to teach yourself any skill and master it. Windsurfing, computer programming, a strong interest in physical prowess and agility, gymnastics, self-defense arts, archery...
Need I say more?”

“I think you’ve said more than enough already. It’s uncomfortable to know that someone has been studying you.”

“I was fascinated, my dear. You remind me so much of myself, you know.”

Montana slid past that one with an evasion. “You’re proposing that I take the position as...?”

“I want to train you to take over the day to day operation of this base.”

Montana glanced at Ghenghis Bob. He was glowering at her. This was clearly not a surprise to him, but he still didn’t like it.

“Oh, don’t worry about Bob. He has his own little assignment and departs tonight.”

“I can see why you’re in a hurry, then.”

“Indeed. I need someone to take over the running of the finances and deal with our vendors.”

What a convenient name for drug dealers! Montana curled her lip up a little. “Now I can see why you decided Caden was not suitable for the job. What did you do with him, by the way?”

“All in good time,” Ria said. “First, the agreement, remember?”

“I remember. So, let’s deal. What’s my salary? I hope it isn’t just good will and access to the power you keep dangling in front of me?”

“That would be a little crass, wouldn’t it?” Ria agreed. “How does ten percent of the gross profits sound?”

“Fifteen,” Montana said instantly.

Ria lifted her brow. “I didn’t think money was all that important to you.”

“It’s not, but I don’t want to be out of pocket, either. You don’t offer health benefits and there are higher risks involved. Fifteen would barely cover it. I should hold out for twenty, but let’s settle for fifteen and agree to renegotiate in...what? A year? Six months?”

Ria laughed. “Six months,” she said. “But I have the option to drop your cut if things don’t go as well as they should. Oh, and let’s add another incentive. A thousand dollar fine for every man killed or otherwise detained.”

Montana folded her arms. “Then we should add a two hundred and fifty thousand bonus for achieving the first semester goals.”

Ria laughed even harder. “All right,” she agreed, with a wave of her hand. “Australian dollars?”

“American, of course.”

“Done.” Ria didn’t seem annoyed at the roughly fifteen percent increase the change in currency represented. She looked at Bob. “Bring the others in. It’s time,” she told him in Arabic.

He turned and called over his shoulder. “It is time.” His voice bounced around the cavern.

From the five entrances to the cavern came a murmuring, steady flow of people. Nearly all of them were men. This had to be the total population of the caves. Montana felt cold fingers run up her spine. They had badly underestimated the size and strength of Ria’s cave dwellers!

She tried to relax, to look cool, competent and wise. She had just become their leader and had to behave like one until she found a way out of this mess. But the huge numbers of men surrounding her and Ria made her wonder if that was ever going to be possible. They couldn’t possibly trust her straight away. She’d have to prove herself. The true size and shape of the jam she was in was beginning to come into focus.

The men around her fell silent.

Ria stood upon the table and held up her hands, palms up. “Thank you for attending,” she told them all. She had no need to lift her voice. The acoustics of the cave amplified it perfectly and the solid body of men halted the echoes. “This woman before me is called Montana. She has agreed to take your leader’s place when he leaves for his sacred mission tonight. However, she is untested and in your eyes, her qualities are unknown. So, in order to prove to you both her spirit and her dedication to our cause, we will have a demonstration.”

Demonstration?
Montana kept her face neutral, as she puzzled it out. How on earth did one go about demonstrating dedication? It was proved over time, through repeated tests. It wasn’t something you could put on display and say “there you go!”

Ghenghis Bob was smiling and the smile didn’t reach his eyes. Nothing touched his eyes—and if the eyes were truly windows to the soul, then nothing touched his soul, either.

She shuddered, registering the deep cold of the cavern for the first time.

There was a murmur from the back of the crowd and a shuffling of heads. Someone was coming through. They parted, making way for two men walking slowly towards her. The two men dragged Caden between them. His head was hanging down, the heavy black hair hiding his face. His jeans and tee-shirt were even more scuffed and ripped than the last time she had seen him on the dock. While she had been given the royal tour, Caden had been going through a small version of hell. What had they done to him?

Montana gritted her teeth together and forced herself to breathe slowly and normally. She knew with utter certainty that every eye in the cave was watching her, weighing every move and gesture and expression she gave them. They were testing her. What she did next would determine if they would allow her to lead them or not.

What was it they were about to demand of her?

“Bob,” Ria said. “Would you mind?”

Bob’s grin broadened, showing exceptionally white, square teeth. He reached under his dishdashah and brought out the Glock he had been carrying on the boat. With quick movements, he ejected the cartridge and pushed out nine bullets with his thumb. He did it all while staring at her.

The cave was utterly silent and the clink of each bullet on the stone at their feet was clearly heard. The silence was hushed and thick with expectancy.

With the last bullet still in the clip, Bob pushed it back into the gun and seated it with a click. He flipped the gun on its side and let her see him disengage the safety. He held the gun out to her. “Take it.”

Montana held out her hand. It would be fatal to hesitate, but already the awful shape of what lay ahead of her had suggested itself. Sweat gathered at her temples and prickled under her arms. She felt sick with the tension that had accumulated and now throbbed around her. It was almost palpable.

The Glock was heavy in her hands. A dead weight. She let it hang from her side.

Ria, still standing on the table, waved to the two men holding Caden up. A third carrying a saucepan stepped toward him and threw the contents up into his hanging face. He rolled his head back in reaction and shook it to clear the water from his eyes.

“Stand him up,” Ria ordered, in English. She repeated the order in Arabic and the men holding him lifted him up so his feet were on the ground, then kicked at his knees until he was standing. They stepped away and so did everyone around them. The space behind Caden was clear.

“Bob,” Ria said. “Repeat in Arabic what I say.”