The Invisible

India was preparing for a prolonged conflict, having moved supplies and additional support personnel into the region. The Indian Navy had also instigated a blockade of several strategic Pakistani ports, prompting Musharraf to appeal once more for U.S. intervention. The White House had yet to issue a statement, but it didn’t look as though Brenneman was prepared to reverse his stance. A voice in Kealey’s ear snapped him back to reality. He recited an eight-digit number, asked for Harper, and was put on hold. Five seconds later, the deputy DCI picked up the phone.

“John, it’s Ryan.”

“Where are you?” Harper sounded like he was still half-asleep, but then Kealey remembered it was just after eight in the morning at Langley. If it wasn’t for the current situation, Harper wouldn’t have been there so early. “What’s happening?”

“We’re still at the house,” Kealey said. He shot a glance at his watch. “Our flight leaves at five this evening, so we’ll be out of here soon.”

“When do you land?”

“Tomorrow at one.”

“One in the afternoon?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay. Let me tell you what’s happening on this end. We’ve got a team en route to Pakistan. Obviously, they weren’t invited, so they’re traveling under false identities. I have a number for you to call once you’re on the ground.”

“Give it to me.”

Harper recited a long string of numbers, which Kealey committed to memory. He didn’t bother to tell Harper that he wouldn’t be making the call, at least not until he’d met with Machado’s man in Lahore.

“Your goal,” the deputy DCI was saying, “is to link up and start running through the list. Get eyes on all of them. Remember, these are known associates of the general, all with medical backgrounds, so we have no way of knowing which of them, if any, were brought in to work on Fitzgerald.”

“John, we don’t even know if she is being worked on,” Kealey reminded him. “All we have to go on in that direction is what the NTSB investigator put down in his statement. His preliminary statement.”

“We have the witness statements as well,” Harper said, “and there’s something else I forgot to mention yesterday. We got a look at the autopsy results on Lee Patterson. The official cause of death was the gunshot wound to the head, but there was evidence of serious internal injuries, all of which were sustained when the RPG hit the car. The medical examiner said he probably would have died even if they hadn’t shot him. So, in other words, it seems pretty clear that Fitzgerald was also injured in the attack, perhaps critically.” He seemed to sense the younger man’s doubt in the ongoing silence.

“Ryan, this is the closest thing to proof we’re going to get.”

“Maybe,” Kealey said, “but assuming you’re right, Mengal wouldn’t take her to someone in the city. He’d want her in a rural area, someplace where he could set up a good perimeter. That way he’d have time to move her quickly if it looked like he needed to.”

“Well, that’s why we have to look at each and every one of these people. There are only four names on the list, so with six people, including you and Kharmai, you should have enough manpower to get it done in a couple of days.”

Kealey felt the anger stirring inside with the mention of Naomi’s name, but he pushed it down. He was 90 percent certain that Harper knew about her addiction to morphine, yet he’d dangled her in front of him, anyway, just to draw him into the hunt for Amari Saifi. By letting her participate in the surveillance of and approach to Kamil Ghafour, Harper had risked the lives of every operative involved. Kealey wasn’t about to forget or forgive what he had done, but now was not the time to confront him. That would come later, once this whole mess was sorted out, and he was back in the States. He didn’t bother to tell Harper that he was leaving Naomi behind. He and Petain would stick out in Pakistan, especially given the ongoing tensions between Musharraf and Brenneman, but that couldn’t be helped. Petain would turn heads regardless, but her remarkably pale skin, which she’d obviously inherited from her French mother, would only increase their visibility on the ground. Worse still, neither of them spoke the local languages. In that respect, Naomi would have proved invaluable, but Kealey had made his decision. Besides, he needed to take Petain if he was going to get the access that Machado had promised.

“Who are you sending?” Kealey asked, struggling to keep the anger out of his voice.

“You only know two of them, Walland and Owen. The rest were selected mostly for their physical characteristics—dark hair, dark skin, you know the drill—but they’ve all worked in Asia. Unfortunately, none have ever operated in Pakistan, but you know that we have limited resources in the area. Plenty of informants on the payroll, of course, especially in the north, where the Taliban are dug in, but no one we can use on this. We can’t risk local law enforcement getting an anonymous tip. If they come down on you, the fallout will be ten times worse than it was in Madrid. We simply can’t afford to get caught.”

“You’re sending Owen?” Kealey was surprised. Paul Owen was a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army. He’d served as Kealey’s commanding officer when they were both stationed at Fort Bragg with the 3rd Special Forces Group. A few years later, Owen had been reassigned to the 1st SFOD-D, better known to the general public as Delta Force. They had worked together the previous year in Iraq. Kealey remembered the operation well; it had ended with Owen swearing he’d never speak to him again. “How did he get involved?”

“We’ve used him on a few things before, as you know, and he’s always worked out for us, so I made a few calls. It helped that he was in Afghanistan already, so it was a short hop. He’s in-country now, and the rest should be landing over the next ten to twelve hours.”

“Does he know I’m on the way?”

“Yes, and he’s willing to go along with it. You and Kharmai can work on your own if that makes it easier. You can give control of the other three to Owen.”

“Fine. What about weapons?”

Harper let out an audible sigh. “You’re not hearing me, Ryan. All you’re doing is trying to learn which of these people, if any, are working with Mengal. If you get too close and he has spotters, which he will, the first thing he’ll do is call his contacts at ISI. If that happens and they come after you, you can’t afford to be carrying a weapon.”

“I can’t afford not to,” Kealey said angrily. “If they catch us, they’re not going to assume we’re fucking tourists, John. You know what they’ll do to get a confession, and once they have it, they’ll use it to put the clamps on Brenneman.”

“That’s why you can’t get caught. Look, if they figure out what’s going on, you won’t be able to fight your way out of it, anyway. They’ll send every man they can spare after you, and the people they don’t send will be watching the airports and the border crossings. Having a weapon on you won’t make a bit of difference.”

“Fine.” Kealey was done arguing, but only because he could see it wasn’t getting him anywhere. Nothing—not even Harper’s half-assed rationalizations—could change the fact that he’d be looking for a weapon the second his feet touched Pakistani soil. “What happens if we find something?”

“You call it in, and I’ll take it from there.”

“John, you can’t—”

“This is the way it’s going to happen, Ryan,” Harper said, his voice turning hard. “There is a political element to this that we have to consider. I know you don’t give a shit about things like that, but it matters. If you find something, we have to make it look like it came through the Bureau ERT. Brenneman has already spoken to Emily Susskind about it, and she’s agreed. The Bureau will go along to get along, but we have to be sure that either Mengal, Saifi, Fitzgerald, or the other hostages are present. Preferably all of them. Once we know that they are, the White House will leak it, and Musharraf won’t have any other choice but to cooperate. So do it my way, okay?”

Kealey fought down another surge of anger. Part of him was wondering why he was going forward with this at all. Knowing now what he did about Naomi, he was tempted to call a halt to the whole thing. After all, he’d only come this far in an effort to watch out for her. He could tell Harper to go fuck himself, go inside, get Naomi, and fly her back to the States. Maybe he could convince her to come back to Cape Elizabeth. It wouldn’t be easy, but with time, she might be able to beat her addiction. He knew she could, and all he had to do was convince her to leave with him. . . .