voice.
“You two wouldn’t be Bracco and McColm, would you?”
Nick remained supine and rubbed his temples. He let Matt do the introductions while he regained what little composure he had left. He heard a man suggest that they’d had an eventful trip to the desert. Matt sounded casual until Nick heard a second man say, “Looks like your partner here might need a little help. You want us to make a call?”
Matt said, “No, no, he’s fine. He just needed a little rest, that’s all.”
Nick felt Matt tugging his arm upward. He got to his feet and shook hands with four men wearing blue FBI windbreakers. They looked at him carefully, like they were in the produce aisle inspecting fruit for damages.
They looked relieved when Nick said, “We’re working on East coast time, so it’s practically time for breakfast.”
The six men exited the airport in a heavily tinted van. Nick and Matt sat in the middle bench seat of the van with two Vegas agents in front of them, two in back. The driver, Jim Evans, held the seniority of the group. “I got a call a couple of hours ago from that informant of yours,” Evans gave Nick a quick glance. “He gave us the license plate of the limo that took your brother. Turns out the limo was supposed to go home with the driver last night, only the driver lent it to a friend. A friend that the driver doesn’t know all that well, but he gets an envelope with twenty hundred dollar bills inside, so he hands over the keys. I mean the regular driver’s only a kid, maybe twenty-one tops. So we paid him a visit.”
An agent in the back seat said, “You should have seen the look on the kid’s face when we show up waving FBI badges. He nearly vomited on us.”
“Yeah, well he’s still living with his mother,” Evans continued. “So we sit down and the kid told us everything.”
“Except maybe which side of the mattress he hides his Playboy Magazines,” the voice from the back seat again.
Nick leaned toward Evans, “What did you find out?”
“That’s some informant you’ve got there back in Baltimore,” Evans said. “With extremely long-range connections. Who is he?”
“He’s an old informant from my days with the Baltimore P.D.”
“What about the kid?” Matt shifted the conversation back into focus.
“Long story short, we found the limo,” Evans said.
Matt slapped his knee, “Finally, something goes right.”
“It’s parked in front of a house in a residential area,” Evans said.
“It’s in front of a house?” Matt said.
“We’ve got a SWAT team and a couple of sharpshooters already in position.”
A new voice behind Nick said, “Do you really believe that Kemel Kharrazi is, uh. .”
Nick turned to see a young man, clean-cut, no more than twenty-three, with wide, inquisitive eyes.
“What’s your name?” Nick asked.
“Jake Henson.”
“How long you been with the bureau, Jake?”
“Six months,” Jake answered, sitting painfully upright.
“What do you know about Kemel Kharrazi?”
There was a pause, then Jake said, “Well, I know that he’s forty-two and received a journalism degree from Georgetown. His father owns the largest construction company in Turkey. He has two teenage sons, Isal and Shaquir. He’s had his hand in the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Jordan and American Airlines flight 650, to mention just a couple. And there’s a twenty million dollar reward for any information leading to his arrest.”
Nick was impressed until he saw the blue-green glow across Jake’s face and realized he was holding a small hand-held computer.
Matt twisted in his seat, stuck a piece of gum in his mouth, and pointed at the young man. “That’s pretty good. Can you get that Dr. Skin website on there? You know the one with all of the naked celebrities.”
Jake’s face became grave. “This is official FBI merchandise. I can’t use it for personal use.”
Matt looked at the older agent sitting next to Jake. “Is he for real?”
“Are you kidding me?” the agent said. “He thinks watching a woman eat a banana is considered cheating on your wife.”
“Jake,” Matt said, “you ever meet a fugitive on the List?”
“No, sir, this would be my first.”
Evans pointed his thumb over his shoulder at Jake and said, “The kid’s done a good job. He digs into that tiny machine and finds out that there’s only been one house sold in the nearby vicinity in the past six months. Guess which house?”
Jake beamed.
“That’s right,” Evans said. “The very house that limo sits in front of was sold to a businessman just four months ago. His name is Kalil Reed.”
Nick and Matt exchanged glances.
“Anyway, Jake runs the name into the computer and comes up with an alias for Mr. Reed. Anyone care to guess whose name comes up?”
Evans looked into his rear view mirror at the two agents anxious for one of them to respond.
Jake couldn’t hold it. “Abdullah Amin Shah!” he exclaimed. “He owns the house.”
Nick could see Matt about to get sarcastic, so he grabbed Matt’s arm and gave him a look.
“Come on,” Jake said. “Surely you know who Abdullah Amin Shah is? He works for Kemel Kharrazi.”
“We know,” Matt said. “I think you’ll find some of his blood on my pant leg.”
Nick turned to Jake. “Without the mechanical cheat sheet, how much do you really know about Kharrazi?”
Jake shrugged, “I’ve heard all the stories. You know, the CIA agent’s head sent to his home, the story about him slaughtering children in the streets of Ankara because they didn’t know his name. He killed his own mother for betraying him. After a while you wonder whether they’re just urban legends.”
Nick rubbed the stubble growing on the side of his face. “I used to wonder the same thing myself.”
“But you know it’s all real don’t you, Agent Bracco?”
Nick sighed. “You don’t have to worry. You won’t be setting eyes on Kemel Kharrazi tonight.”
“Why do you say that?”
Nick took a breath. He was tired, he needed a shave, he was hungry, and most of all, he wished he could turn off his brain. Just long enough to relax and make believe it was going to be all right. His brother was alive, he had to hang on to that thought.
“Sir?” Jake said. “Why won’t we see him?”
“Because,” Nick said, “when you’re dealing with terrorists, coincidences are dangerous.”
Nick could tell by the silence that his message had fallen short of its target. He added, “When you find a square peg on the ground and a few feet away you find a perfectly square hole to put it in, it’s time to look over your shoulder. Nothing is ever that easy, especially when you’re dealing with someone like Kharrazi.”
Jim Evans peered through the rear view mirror and said, “You think this is a wild goose chase?”
Nick could sense a schism developing between the two branches. Vegas dealt mostly with racketeering and organized crime. The majority of their criminals engaged in murder, extortion, bribery-spontaneous acts that lacked the planning required to escape detection. An evidence collector’s dream world, Las Vegas. But Nick and Matt’s world revolved around one thing-terrorists. A type of criminal who planned attacks eons before they were enacted. There were many cases where a terrorist would spend years infiltrating a community. They’d teach in schools, run grocery stores, repair cars. Then one day the word comes and it’s time to act. Few could prepare for that kind of operative. Nick knew he needed everyone on the same page if he was going to find Phil.
Nick said, “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.”
This brought more silence. He could hear Matt sigh.
“Napoleon,” Matt said.
“Exactly,” Nick said. “Let’s hope this limo thing is their mistake.”
