The official's mouth opened and closed.
"In fact, I could simply command you—-" Khalil derived minimal satisfaction from the way the official lost color upon realizing the truth of his words. "But you see, that is the difference between you and Altair. It is why he is the commander of the royal army, and it is why I will always trust him. His loyalty to the crown is such that I never have to command him to do his duty. His service is such that the kingdom has literally run out of medals to award him with."
Khalil's dark gaze swept the war room, and it angered him to see that there were indeed a few other officials who had been as foolish as the younger man he had just chastened. The king was not a man whose temper was so easily roused, but seeing how these ungrateful bastards had truly believed the other sheikh could betray their kingdom after everything he had done—-
"My brother has laid his own life on the line countless times to defend our kingdom," the Emir Sheikh bit out. "Keep that in mind the next time any of you fucking dare to question his loyalty."
ALTAIR RECEIVED A MESSAGE from Major Asad as he, Yara, and the rest of their team suited up, and the tightness in his chest eased somewhat. There was nothing he wanted more than to see and speak to the princess before leaving, but knowing that she would be safe in the palace was better than nothing.
According to the report, Mahmud had been last sighted in a small, rundown cafe mostly known for catering to Bedouin customers. More often than not, these individuals were fairly young - late teens to early twenties - and had been tasked by the leaders of their tribes to trek down to the city for supply runs.
When Altair and his team arrived at the cafe, the place had already been shut down and cordoned off by the police. A fight had obviously broken out during Mahmud's visit, and forensics were already hard at work collecting blood samples.
The first thing that caught his eye, however, had the sheikh sharply drawing his breath.
Yara, seeing her cousin suddenly bend down, automatically reached for her gun. She had thought the sheikh was ducking to avoid being hit, but instead—-
What the hell?
Altair was now crouched down on one knee, and she saw that he was staring hard at what seemed like newly etched lines on the floor. A broken bottle was nearby, and Yara could imagine someone using one of the larger shards to draw the lines. But as to what those lines meant—-
"You remember the letter our people could not decode?" she heard the sheikh suddenly ask in a grim tone. "The one the princess had sent to her father?"
"Nem."
"He taught me the means to crack it." Altair, albeit not taking his gaze from the wooden floor, could nevertheless sense Yara's shock at his words.
"You never said—-"
"I had no reason to at that time."
A moment passed, and then Yara saw the sheikh's lip twist in a humorless smile.
"Actually, that is a lie. I did not admit it because Sheikh Mahmud had also informed me that the one pulling the strings, the one behind all of the attempts to overthrow Khalil...is one of us."
Yara frowned. "You already told us this—-"
"You misunderstand," Altair said tightly. "When I say one of us, I mean just us—-"
The sheikh's meaning finally became clear, and Yara was both stunned and incredulous. An Al-Atassi was behind this? Such a thing did not make sense at all, but as things turned out—-
Altair tapped on one of the lines on the floor. "Mahmud left us a clue, Yara."
It was not the only revelation that would shock her, and this time Yara almost felt as if she needed to ask for a break just to get a grip on things. If Mahmud had left them a clue...then did that mean he was not a traitor, after all?
Yara, seeing the sheikh suddenly rise to his feet, quickly did the same.
"We need to hurry."
And then they were running, all of them doing their best to keep up with the sheikh as he headed straight for the maze of alleyways behind the cafe.
"What are we looking for?" Yara managed to ask as the sheikh marginally slowed down and allowed her to catch up.
"Mahmud did not escape to flee us," Altair gritted out. "The old man escaped to lead us to the person directly responsible for the coup."
Since Altair had yet to explain what they were doing in the alleyway, Yara focused her attention instead on the sheikh's words—-
Oh!
If the sheikh's guess was correct, and he usually was in these cases, Mahmud's escape had merely been the older man's way of proving that he was still against the royal family. And because Mahmud had taught Altair how to crack his code, the same code was thus used to create a trail for Sheikh Altair to follow, and one which would eventually lead to—-