Chapter 19

Khaled was stripped naked, before ropes were tied to each wrist and ankle then pulled apart by two guys at each rope. This kept Khaled’s legs spread apart and prevented him from being able to kick. His arms were also pulled out to each side keeping him from being able to hit or move them much.

Each woman now took a turn stabbing Khaled with a box cutter. The angled blade was only about an inch long and didn’t hit anything vital, so they avoided arteries and veins. These small stab wounds did bleed a lot, which was the intended purpose since he was going to be swimming with sharks. All the corpses had already been thrown overboard, and that had attracted a lot of sharks. All of the blood on board had been cleaned up as well since there was not much to begin with.

Khaled begged, pleaded, threatened, and even tried bribing us not to throw him to the sharks. The final insult was when the women insisted he jump in himself and threatened to continue to stab him until he did.

It only took four stabs to convince him to jump, or rather he backed away from being stabbed, and ended up flipping over the side and into the water. It took a lot longer for the sharks to finish him than I thought it would, and when he was completely gone we motored back to the marina.

WEUSALL had used the satellite phone to access records for the yacht and created a trail of apparent sales, including one transferring the yacht to Henry’s business. Since all of his group had been added to WEUSALL, Henry asked if we would be part of his business or could his business be part of ours?

I laughed and said we did not have a business really but said we would always be friends and help him whenever he needed it.

It had been almost a month since dealing with Khaled. Henry’s group had done several different security jobs, all being one-to-three-day long jobs. There were no long-term jobs available at the moment, it seemed.

Then there was a new aspect of enquiries. Various ‘alphabet’ government groups started asking questions. FBI was first, wanting to know if Henry’s security business had experienced any run-ins with a Syrian businessman. Henry calmly and casually said he had never worked for anyone that was not American, and they accepted his statement as fact.

Suits with dark glasses were next (most likely NSA or CIA, at a guess) and they impudently asked who Henry had done business with over the last year. That could be a long list, we thought.

Henry laughed and demanded, “Provide a warrant or subpoena, with probable cause as to why you are seeking private confidential information.”

The suits asked why he would not answer such a simple question. Henry in reply asked them, as another simple question, who they worked for and why they were pursuing this investigation.

They told him brusquely they were the ones asking questions, not him. He then told them that as a Bar certified lawyer he had client privileges with all his past, present and future clients. He suggested that they all have a nice day, and not to let the door hit them in the ass on their way out!

WEUSALL began to investigate, aiming to try to find out who was investigating and why they were investigating. The strange thing that came out was that there was NO official and/or unofficial investigation on record at any of the ‘alphabet’ offices.

The only reference to Khaled that could be found was on the State Department’s computers and it was only a basic inquiry from Syria as to where ‘Khaled Nahmad’, one of their diplomats was, as they had not heard from him for some time. The State Department had replied that local law enforcement agencies had no idea; and there was no medical or legal information that they were aware of about a ‘Khaled Nahmad’, and the enquirer was asked if a missing person report needed to be instigated on their behalf.

Syria refused the option of any action at this time and stated they would be in contact later if they felt it necessary.

Everyone who needed to know all this information was included by WEUSALL.

It took a while before WEUSALL was able to hack into Syria’s encrypted diplomatic and military networks. This search led to the discovery that it was family and business partners that had instigated the inquiry as to Khaled’s whereabouts. They were trying to find out why Khaled had not delivered any goods, nor replied to calls, texts, or emails; and other individuals that they knew in America were also silent or had not heard from or knew where Khaled currently was.

The Syrian embassy staff and Syrian government were actually pleased at this development since a previous national leadership of suspect values had granted the ‘diplomatic status’ and Khaled had subsequently caused unwanted trouble for them with his dangerously illegal business. The current government was not in any hurry to find Khaled. They preferred the ambiguity that now existed.

It was about this time when Yun So Lee was approached by two suits with dark glasses, who curtly asked her to go with them. When she refused, they made their second mistake; the first mistake was in bothering Yun. After she refused, dumb shit #1 grabbed her left upper arm. Yun calmly, but loud enough for witnesses in the immediate area to hear, said, ‘LET GO OF MY ARM’. When an SUV pulled up and dumb shit #2 opened the rear door, that was their third mistake.

Yun had speed dialed her cell phone calling Henry as soon as she was approached. Yun high kicked dumb shit #2 in his head hard enough to spin him into the open SUV. She followed it with a windmill-like move with her left arm which freed her from dumb shit #1’s grasp, and actually put his arm in her control, locking it at the elbow and shoulder, which made him bend over at the waist. Two quick punches to his temple, and she let him drop to the ground.

The whole time she was screaming “I DON’T WANT TO GO WITH YOU! STOP TOUCHING ME!” over and over, which was drawing all the people in the area to look her way and take note of what was happening.

Someone witnessing the situation had called 911, and a nearby police car was on the scene just as dumb shit #1 dropped to the ground. Henry arrived just after the police. When dumb shit #2 presented Federal Marshal ID, they were released with a stern word from the lieutenant detective who showed up after Henry. Once he had spoken to the officers that were first on the scene, this officer got reports from witnesses collaborating with what Yun said happened. A business owner brought out a tablet that was connected to his video security cameras. It had caught the entire scene from start to finish, further confirming Yun’s account and had the suits not already left the area the lieutenant would have arrested them on charges of attempted kidnapping. He did plan to file a report with the DA to put the Marshal agency on notice.

Henry took Yun down to the courthouse, filed a restraining order against said agency using this event and other events that he had previously reported to the police, plus evidence he had been collecting on this situation. Henry was able to get a hearing right then, due to a judge being present in the courtroom waiting for a defendant to show for a pre-trial hearing. He was not a fan of the agency involved and was more than happy to hear the evidence and approve the restraining order immediately.