The Templar Reprisals (The Best Thrillers Book 3) by James Best (free ebook reader for ipad .TXT) 📗

West is fatally wrong. Only the Koran defines the correct relationship between sacred and secular, but mankind lost sight of this. How, you might ask. Qutb knew the answer.” Lewis paused dramatically. “Traditional Judaism instructed people how to live a life at one with God. How to behave in every sphere of life, very much like shariah. In Qutb's view, Judaism abandoned their divine laws and withered into ‘a system of lifeless ritual.’ Christians followed suit. Followers of Jesus emphasized his messages of spirituality and love, not divine laws. In Qutb’s opinion the truly dangerous element seeping into Arabia from the West wasn’t capitalism or foreign policy or racism. In his mind, separation of church and state presented the actual danger. Shariah meant ‘the abolition of man-made laws.’ It was freedom, justice, humanity, and divinity consolidated into a single cohesive system.”

Lewis scrunched around in his seat. “Are you satisfied, now. May I leave?”

“You’re kidding, right?” Baldwin said with a laugh. “You haven’t told us a thing I couldn’t have discovered in a half hour on the internet.”

Lewis looked at Evarts with pleading eyes. “Why won’t you join us? Your lives depend on it.”

Evarts said, “Because we don’t trust you.”

“You don’t believe we’re capable of taking on the Ikhwan, do you?”

“Not if you represent the varsity,” Evarts said.

“I’m a messenger.”

“You’re more,” Evarts answered. “This heartless plan was yours.”

He nodded slowly. “Okay, I’m more than a messenger, but I’m not a warrior Knight. We have capable fighters.”

“I’m sure … but you’re stalling.” Evarts looked out the open glass doors. “Did you call your compatriots?”

“What? How?”

Evarts shook his head in frustration. “Dammit. With a medical-alert-like button under your shirt. I saw you rub your chest a moment ago.”

Evarts leaped at Lewis and tore open his shirt. Sure enough, he had an alert button around his neck. Evarts ripped it off as he pulled out his encrypted police radio to talk to his officer in the security room.

“Incoming hostiles. Arrival imminent.”

Chapter 33

Evarts jumped up, closed, and locked the glass doors. He saw nothing outside. He then grabbed Lewis by the scruff of the neck and aimed him toward the stairs that led to their bedroom. He shoved him roughly up the steps. When he got to the landing, he aimed Lewis toward the master closet. Baldwin ran in front and tripped the hidden switch that opened the saferoom door.

“Can you handle him?” Evarts asked.

“No problem,” Baldwin answered.

“Try not to kill him. If all else fails, he’s valuable as a hostage.”

“I know. Get.”

Baldwin ducked into the room and Evarts shoved Lewis after her. He waited until he heard the deadbolts slide home. Evarts had said the last comment to make it easier for Baldwin to handle Lewis. He had tried to play them; turnabout was fair play.

He listened to his radio as he ran down the stairs. Everyone reported their section clear. Except for one. A lonely stretch of access road passed below his home as it wound up the hill. To maintain his pristine view, Evarts had installed no physical barrier at the rear. There were, however, concealed motion and sound detectors positioned up and down the hill. His officer in the security center reported activity on the steep slope.

People were coming.

Evarts burst into his home security center and peered over his officer’s shoulder at the screens.

“Three assailants,” the officer said. “I’ve alerted Matthews and Williams has taken a position alongside him.”

Matthews was the officer assigned to the rear of the estate and Williams had been closeted in the kitchen office. Good. They were both alerted and outside to meet Lewis’ rescue team.

Evarts nodded. “Still quiet in front?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Do you have a fix on their getaway car?”

“Two. Both cruising the access road. The car that dropped off our assailants now contains only the driver. The second car has three occupants.”

“Do we have video of them passing multiple times?”

“Yes, sir. And unloading men at the bottom of the hill.”

“Okay, that’s probable cause. Pull over both cars. Detain the occupants and take them to the town lock up.”

The officer issued the orders to unmarked police cars waiting at alternate ends of his access road. Evarts had stationed an officer up on a hill overlooking his home and the road. His job was to monitor traffic through binoculars and video anyone who drove or acted suspiciously. With two prior violent attacks on his property, the police would need little justification to temporarily hold multiple males cruising his neighborhood.

Evarts checked the front gate monitor one more time. Nothing.

He triggered his radio. “Butler, move around to the back of the house.”

Butler was stationed inside his van and Evarts received a double click response that meant Butler had received the message. He mentally double-checked the situation, then asked to be notified when the two roving cars had been sequestered.

Leaving his control officer to monitor the situation, Evarts left to join his men in back. The odds would be four against three. Good, not great. Would they be armed? Despite Lewis’ claim to have seasoned warriors at his beck and call, he doubted that Templars wanted a war with law enforcement. It went against their prime directive for secrecy. They were probably meant to surprise, not fight. Except … Lewis had faith in his ability to manipulate people and talk his way out of trouble. An emergency call must have been a last resort. The Templars had already demonstrated that he and his wife were expendable, and the two recent attacks would provide cover for a violent extraction. Dammit. He realized they were most probably armed. Possibly with heavy munitions. And here he and his men were with handguns.

When he got to the back, the four had a brief conference and split up two to a side. Evarts instructed them to move wide of the house and lay down behind cover or on a downward slope. When he was in position, Evarts risked radioing his security station.

“What do you see?”

“The assailants are about forty feet below the crest