Patrick silenced him with another shot of electricity. “Be quiet, Zuwayy. There is no doubt that your forces attacked those vessels—the only question now is whether or not you will die for doing so.”

“Do not kill me! Do not kill me!” Zuwayy bleated. “What do you want? Tell me!”

“You will turn them over to the Egyptians immediately,” Patrick said. “If they are not delivered within twelve hours, I will hunt you down and execute you before the entire world. And if any of them are harmed in any way, I will find you and crush you like an insect.” The stranger hammered the desk in the rectory with a gloved fist, and the heavy cedar-and-burl desktop smashed into pieces as if a wrecking ball was dropped on it. “I will burn your houses, destroy your bunkers, tap into your computer systems, and wipe out everything you own. Twelve hours. I’ll be waiting. If they are not returned, you die.” To punctuate his order, Patrick reached down, took Zuwayy’s nose between two fingers, and crushed it. Blood spurted everywhere, and Zuwayy howled in pain. The figure departed through the door to the mosque itself.

Moments later, Mekkawi returned through the secret tunnel entrance, his side arm in his hands, followed by three heavily armed soldiers. “Highness, there have been more attacks. I have relayed your orders—” He stopped in sheer horror when he saw Zuwayy lying on the floor, his hair burnt off, blood covering his face and chest. “My what happened?” He was going to call for the outside guards, but then he saw them, lying on the ground, still twitching from the voltage discharging through their bodies.

“Find out... find out..

“Find out what, Highness?”

“Find out where the prisoners that were captured off the vessels sunk in the Mediterranean are,” Zuwayy gasped, blood flowing from his mouth and shattered nose. “Find them all, alive or dead; round them up, and get them ready to move out of the country. Truck them... no, bus them ... no, fly them ... oh hell, just get them out of my country immediately! I don’t want one hair on their heads touched. Contact that peacock Khan in Egypt and tell him to get ready to pick up those prisoners.”

“Prisoners? Khan? Who did this to you, sir .. . ?”

“Just do it,” Zuwayy cried, spitting blood. Mekkawi helped him up. “Do it now!” Zuwayy found a liquor bottle, poured, and downed a glass, his hands shaking uncontrollably.

AKRANES, ICELAND
 A SHORT TIME LATER