Zantar sighed. “Okay, so you think that there are some additional, illegal efforts that could affect Citran?” he asked. He turned to look at Nasir. “And why are you here? What’s Minar’s connection to these debacles?”
Astir and Goran leaned into the map a bit more. Astir explained, “My mining agency investigators have determined that the efiasia deposits are enormous.” He looked at each man for a moment, then pointed to the map. “The deposit covers all four of our countries. Whoever is behind these efforts, they aren’t stopping.”
Zantar thought about the unexplained seismic activity as well as the trucks that had been seen traveling in strange areas. Areas where there shouldn’t be large trucks. “And you think that, whoever is doing this, has decided to reach the deposit through Citran now.” It wasn’t a question.
Goran nodded. “That’s our assumption.” He turned to Nasir. “We also suspect that, if this company fails in Citran, you might be next.”
Nasir sighed, rubbing his jawline. “So far, I haven’t heard anything about illegal mining operations in Minar.”
Zantar shook his head. “It doesn’t have to be mining,” he announced. He pointed to the town he’d just been briefed on. “There are several dozen large trucks here,” he said, pointing to a small dot on the map. “My investigators haven’t seen any drilling equipment. Not yet.”
Astir smiled slightly. “But you have some suspicions?”
Zantar nodded, finally understanding what prompted his invitation to this additional meeting. “I didn’t believe the news about you and Princess Calista going off to have some private time.” He looked over at Astir with a chuckle. “I know you,” he said to his friend. “You’d never let your sister go off, alone, with this brute.”
Astir chuckled, but didn’t deny the comment. Goran didn’t react in any way, he simply glared right back at Zantar.
Nasir stepped in. “But after news about Silar and Skyla’s problems, you’ll start digging into the truck issue a bit more?”
Zantar shrugged slightly. “I think it would be prudent. I can’t stop a company from driving trucks along the highway, though. However, my agents can be a bit more aggressive and find out what they’re up to.”
Goran pointed to the long road. “My investigators are interested in the trucks as well. At first, we’d thought maybe someone was stealing oil.”
Zantar tilted his head slightly as they all studied the map. “That wouldn’t make sense. There are easier and more efficient ways to steal from oil rigs rather than tunneling underground. Reaching the oil pipelines is easier than most people realize.”
Astir nodded in agreement. “Exactly. We discarded that idea pretty quickly.” He pointed to the area on the map where their four countries touched. “Besides, the areas where the disturbances have been reported aren’t near any drilling operations or pipelines. It would require hundreds of miles of underground tunnels and piping in order to siphon off the oil. It just doesn’t make any sense.”
“So what have you come up with?” Zantar asked, intrigued and more than a little eager to find who was doing this and stopping them. So far, it hadn’t affected his country very much. At least, he didn’t think so. There were reports of something going on, but…! “My intelligence chief mentioned a series of trucks moving from here late at night,” he said, pointing on a site right on the edge of the border, “that are driving eastward towards this area.” He let his finger move over the satellite image towards the mountains. “But we haven’t figured out where the trucks came from or where they are going.”
Astir moved, looking at the map. “Trucks going from the middle of nowhere to the mountains? Why the hell would they do that? There’s nothing out there.”
“Nothing that we know of,” Astir filled in, his voice cautious.
They all turned and looked towards the man, but no one had any immediate answers. Everyone’s eyes narrowed as they each considered the possibilities.
Finally Astir spoke up. “I think it’s time that we all get our intelligence people together. We’re working separately. But if we pool our resources, maybe we could figure this out more effectively.”
Goran smiled slightly, nodding his head with agreement. “I know that’s a good idea and would probably be the most efficient. But I don’t think that our intelligence heads would play well together.” The four of them laughed at the idea of the super-secretive heads of each of their intelligence agencies actually sharing information with each other. It just wouldn’t happen.
“That’s why I brought the four of us together. Astir and I met together initially when we first discovered something was going on.” Astir explained.
Goran chuckled. “That’s when I ran into his lovely sister again, which is why Astir is an angry bear.” The other two men glanced over at Astir and he merely lifted an eyebrow. Nasir and Zantar both nodded with understanding. “Which is why I think we should each speak with our various groups, then come back together so that the four of us can share our information.”
“That would be smoother,” Nasir replied. He looked towards Zantar.
Goran continued, “Astir and I have already started sharing information with each other and are on friendly terms, despite Astir’s continued growling.” There was a heavy sigh and Zantar glanced over at Astir, smothering his amusement when the big man rolled his eyes. Zantar noticed that Astir didn’t deny the statement. Which, in this kind of a situation, was as good as confirmation.
He then turned his attention towards Nasir. “Do you think that the four of us might work together to stop another tragedy?”
Zantar and Nasir both glanced at each other, both of them standing with their feet braced wide and their arms crossed over their chests. Zantar pinned the other man with a look for a long moment. They’d never been friends, but they hadn’t been enemies either. There had always been a healthy competition between the four countries, although there hadn’t been any violence. At least, not for several centuries.
Nasir was eyeing Zantar in the same way, both men taking each other’s measure. In the end, both men nodded sharply, agreeing to cooperate.
“Excellent,” Astir replied, clapping his hands together. “Let’s get started.”
For the next several hours, the four men brainstormed, excused themselves to private rooms where they could speak with their intelligence chiefs, then came back to the table with new information. Each time one of the leaders left, they arrived back at the table with another piece of the puzzle. It wasn’t that anyone was holding back on information. It was merely that each new piece of information resulted in more clues, bringing a bit more clarity to the larger picture.
Food was brought in but barely consumed. Pots of coffee transitioned to beer and wine. Around midnight, they all stared at the map. The conference room table had been shoved out of the way to make room to walk and examine the satellite image on the wall. The chairs had been pushed around the room, papers scattered wildly over the polished surface of the table, but the four men kept coming back to the large, digital map on the wall, each of them discussing the possibilities.
Around one in the morning, Zantar was speaking with the head of his intelligence office and stopped. “An explosion?” he asked. The word caused everyone in the room to stop speaking. They all looked over at him and Zantar shook his head. “What about an underground explosion?” he asked, speaking into the phone as well as to the three men in the room.
The other leaders stared at him for a long moment, the silence almost shattering as they processed the possibilities. Moments later, they all started speaking into their phones once again. Astir wrote something down on a sticky note, then smacked it onto the map. “Underground explosion!” He also wrote “Didn’t register on Richter scale” on the bottom.