Your daughter is safe.We will contact you to negotiate her release.Go to the authorities and she dies.
Brotherhood of the Scorpion.
“They have made no demands.”He furrowed his brow at Lord Helton.
“I’m aware.I think they simply intended to inform me.”Lord Helton approached Noah, his frame sagging.
Lord Helton’s gaze swept the room before he found the desk and chair.He sat, his expression haunted.“You care for Victoria.Maybe not the way she’d hoped, but you’ve always treated her with respect.And you’re the only one I would trust with this.You read the note yourself.If I go to the police or the government, they’ll kill her.I won’t wait to find out what they want.Please, Benson.I know you intended to go and find Jack on your leave.But find Victoria for me, please.”
Noah didn’t like the idea of Victoria being in the hands of anyone who might consider themselves the enemy of the British.Noah smoothed his bedsheets then sat.“Unofficially?”
“It would be a personal favor to me.I can’t afford for Victoria’s reputation to be compromised, let alone my position.I wouldn’t want anyone to know even if they hadn’t threatened her life.A spymaster with such an exposed vulnerability—I may as well hang up the entire operation and go back to England.”Lord Helton removed a handkerchief and wiped his nose.For once, he looked truly terrified.“And my daughter, in the hands of such men …” He blinked away the fear that flashed in his eyes.“I’ll pay you handsomely for it.”
“I don’t need you to pay me.”Noah considered Lord Helton’s words.He’d intended to inform Helton about his marriage to Ginger the next time he saw him, but right now wasn’t the time.Helton’s offer gave him some leverage, though.What if I can use this to defuse his fury?
“I’ll need Alastair’s help.”Noah sucked in a breath, torn by what this meant.If he could find Victoria quickly, that would be one thing.But it would keep him from going after Jack.He raked his fingers through his hair and then winced, his fingertips stumbling on the scabs from the injury Stephen had given him.
He looked back at Lord Helton.“Where’s Fisher?”
“Surely you’re not suggesting he’s involved?”
Noah gave him a skeptical look.“That’s precisely what I’m suggesting.A group of nationalists targeted Victoria and kidnapped her?Why?To what end?”He grabbed his gun and holster, then strapped them to his hip.“Can you take me to him?”
Lord Helton rubbed his thin, precisely trimmed beard.Then he stood.“Yes.We’ll go directly.Does this mean you’ll help me find her?”
Choosing between his friends was something Noah detested, particularly when one of those friends was Jack.But Victoria’s kidnapping was new, and she could be in more immediate danger.Had Jack survived this long, the Turks may not be in a hurry to kill him.
The thought of either of them in enemy hands sent chills down his spine.“I’ll help.But in return, you’ll release Ginger Whitman from her promise to you.”
Helton’s eyes shifted to his with faint surprise.“If that’s what you require.”
“It is.”Then, seeing Lord Helton’s broken look, Noah added in a softer tone, “I’ll do everything I can to find her, I promise.”
Noah finished dressing, and the two men left Shepheard’s.Lord Helton’s car waited outside, the driver keeping the engine running.As he climbed into the back, Noah thought of the Egyptian in Ezbekieh.What could the motive be to take both Ginger and Victoria?To kill them?
The thought flooded him with furious adrenaline.Stephen had to be behind this.
The only thing they had in common was Noah.Both women could be used to manipulate and hurt him—and now Lord Helton.Much as he couldn’t give Victoria what she wanted, he cared about her deeply.And he’d seen more than once what a group of men could do to a woman they kidnapped, especially a beautiful one like Victoria.
Nearby palms were dark silhouettes in the night, inky black giants that loomed over them.The car wove them through the streets of Cairo more quickly than it ever could have done during the day.The city rested—it was nearly three in the morning.Yet, even with the night, the air felt rife with brewing conflict.If he could, he would send Ginger home with her family.This wasn’t the time to be in Cairo.
With the state of the world, it didn’t seem like the time to be anywhere.
Some of the tension in his shoulders released, thinking of the evening he’d spent with Ginger.After their marriage ceremony, they’d gone back to the café, where Noah’s friend had prepared them a small feast.Noah had relished the intimacy.Then he’d been forced to return her home.Spending the night together would have to wait for now.But eating a meal with Ginger wasn’t something he took for granted.Their time together had always been so limited, especially with simple moments.
Whatever Lord Helton’s reasons for involving Ginger in the intelligence world, he loathed the thought of it.She was smart and capable.She’d already proven herself capable of rising to the challenge.The more they seemed to confront danger together, the braver she became.And if she hadn’t been the woman he loved, he would have been the first to recommend her.
But with each passing day he grew more convinced that Stephen had something elaborate planned.First Jack, now Victoria.The odds of these events coinciding with Stephen’s return seemed impossible.
Alastair had warned him not to underestimate Stephen.That wasn’t the problem.Noah knew too well Stephen was capable of anything.But Stephen’s plan seemed too disjointed for Noah’s mind to make sense of it all.He was missing something important.Some piece of the puzzle that might not be clear until it was too late.
As the motorcar sped from the heart of Cairo, Noah recognized the well-beaten path toward Giza from his younger days.Rarely did he find the occasion to go to the most famous location in all Egypt—the site of the Sphinx and the Great Pyramid—except for military business.
The pyramids themselves soon came into view, standing like sentinels in the cold moonlight.They continued past them, past the famed Mena Hotel that now served as a hospital for the Australians, past the encampments of troops.
At last they arrived at a lonely building of crumbling stone that barely seemed well-maintained enough to be habitable, let alone house a prisoner as important as Stephen.The motorcar stopped beside it.From their perch near the entrance, two guards lifted their heads, hands on their rifles.
Lord Helton led the way and the guards saluted him, clearing the way on sight.Just inside the entrance, another four guards were in a room just off the main door.One of them came to greet Lord Helton.
