helped carry it up the stairs and into the aircraft.
The ultra-high-speed, ultra-long-range G650 was considered the gold standard of business jets. The wide, fold-flat, first-class-style seats as well as the walls were wrapped in white leather. The tables, cabinets, trim, and doors were bird’s-eye maple. The thick, café-mocha-colored carpet sported a motif that looked like lines drawn with twigs in wet sand. The cabin had one divan that folded flat into a nice-sized bed. The ambassador made a beeline straight for it. Harvath and the other three passengers picked the remaining chairs and settled in.
Though Harvath had locked the zippers of the luggage with the TamperTell seals provided by Chuck Godwin, he knew you could still pierce a zipper seam with a ballpoint pen, get into the bag, look around, and zip the seam back together with no one the wiser. He didn’t think the ambassador would be that vindictive, or that stupid, but he didn’t know for sure.
His concern caused him to sleep fitfully, waking every time he heard something unusual, or sensed someone was near the luggage. It made for a long flight.
In the ultimate twist, Ambassador Conrad’s fold-out bed was right next to the main lavatory. Every time his assistant or one of his security team passed by to go to the bathroom, it woke him up and Conrad shot them angry looks.
Harvath had no idea if the man thought he deserved to have the bathroom all to himself and everyone else should use the crew lav up front, or if he just resented people traipsing through “his space.” He figured it was probably a little bit of both and took a perverse pleasure in seeing the ambassador being awakened each time nature called.
Listening to how he talked to his people, Harvath could see the guy was a bully. He had always hated bullies. He was glad he didn’t have to work for the ambassador.
Conrad, though, didn’t seem to realize or care that Harvath didn’t work for him. When Harvath got up to use the restroom, the ambassador stopped him and proceeded to dress him down. “You’re a pretty smug guy, aren’t you?”
“Excuse me, sir?” Harvath replied.
“You heard me,” the ambassador snapped. “You’re a pretty smug SOB, aren’t you? Who do you think you are?”
Harvath didn’t care for the man’s tone, but he kept his temper in check. “Mr. Ambassador,” he said politely, “if you prefer I use the forward crew lav, I don’t think they’ll mind.”
“If you prefer I use the forward crew lav,” the man mocked. “This isn’t about the fucking lavatory. This is about you coming into my country and operating completely unauthorized.”
“I wasn’t aware that the UAE was your country, or that you were the only one allowed to authorize operations there.”
“Don’t get cute with me. You know what I’m talking about. You violated protocol.”
Protocol. Harvath shook his head. “I’m just catching a ride back to the States, Mr. Ambassador. That’s all.”
“Bullshit,” Conrad spat. “I want to know what you’ve been up to.”
“Shopping, sir.”
“Shopping, my ass. You think I don’t know people? You think I can’t make your piece-of-shit life difficult?”
“I am sure you could, sir,” Harvath replied.
“Who are you to have me dragged out of bed in the middle of the night?” he demanded.
As he moved to the side a bit, Harvath noticed the drink caddy next to his bed. Someone had been getting into the bourbon.
“I’m no one, Mr. Ambassador,” Harvath said as he proceeded to the lavatory.
As he reached for the knob, the ambassador grabbed his wrist. Bad move.
“I want some straight answers,” Conrad ordered. “Do you understand me?”
Harvath’s eyes flicked to the nearest member of the ambassador’s security team. The man was pretending to be asleep, but he was watching the whole thing. Harvath shook his head as if to say stay out of this. The man acknowledged by rolling over in his seat to face the window.
In a flash, Harvath had slipped the ambassador’s boozy grasp and now had him in a wristlock. Applying pressure, Harvath sat down on the edge of the bed and looked him square in the eye.
The ambassador grimaced in pain.
“Let me make one thing perfectly clear,” said Harvath. “I don’t work for you. If I show up in your country unannounced, it’s because someone a lot more important than you is very worried about something. Does that make sense?”
Conrad was about to sneer at him until Harvath applied more pressure to the man’s wrist. The ambassador started nodding like his head was on