steel jacketed, military round, probably from an M-14 modified as a sniper rifle with interchangeable night and day scopes, plus silencer and flash suppressor. Just like the one Gene had.'
'Who gives a shit?'
'Just making conversation.' I added, 'Also, just like the one Ted had.'
We let that sit awhile, putting some silly thoughts out of our minds. I added, 'Of course, the M-14 is a fairly common Army surplus rifle, and I didn't mean to suggest anything by mentioning that Ted happened to have one.'
Finally, Kate said, 'He could have killed us at the VORTAC station.'
To continue the paranoid moment, I pointed out, 'He wouldn't whack us so close to where Gene dropped us off to meet him.'
She didn't reply.
Of course, I didn't really think it was Ted who was trying to kill us. Ted wouldn't do that. Ted wanted to come to our wedding. Right? But you never know. I put the spent bullet in my pocket.
We sat there for a quiet five minutes, and I figured-whoever he was-he was gone, but I had no intention of finding out for sure.
I could hear helicopters circling in the distance and hoped that eventually one of them would see us.
Despite the pain in my pelvis, I was starting to drift off. I was totally exhausted and also dehydrated, so I thought I was getting delirious when I heard a phone ring. I opened my eyes. 'What the hell…?'
Kate and I stared down the slope to where the phone was ringing. I still couldn't see it, but I had a general idea of where it was. I could tell now that it wasn't more than twenty feet away. It was actually directly in front of us, and if I ran out to it, I'd be blocked from Khalil's line of sight by the boulder. Maybe.
Before I could decide if I wanted to risk it, the phone stopped ringing. I said, 'If we can get that phone, we can call for help.'
Kate replied, 'If we go out to get that phone, we won't need any help. We'll be dead.'
'Right.'
We kept staring at the spot where the phone had been ringing. It began ringing again.
It's a fact that a sniper can't continually stare through a telescopic lens without getting eye and arm fatigue, so he has to take short breaks. Maybe Khalil was on a break. In fact, maybe Khalil was calling us. He can't shoot and talk at the same time. Right?
Before I thought about it too much longer, I sprang forward in a crouch, covered the twenty feet in two seconds, located the ringing phone, scooped it up, spun around, and charged back toward the boulder, keeping the boulder between me and Khalil's line of fire. Before I reached the boulder, I pitched the ringing phone to Kate, who caught it.
I hit the boulder, spun, and fell into a sitting position, wondering why I was still alive. I took a few deep breaths.
Kate had the phone to her ear and was listening. She said into the phone, 'Fuck you.' She listened again and said, 'Don't tell me how a woman should talk. Fuck you.'
I had the feeling that wasn't Jack Koenig.
She put the phone to her chest and said to me, 'Are you very brave, or very stupid? How could you do that without consulting me? Would you rather be dead than married? Is that it?'
'Excuse me, who's on the phone?'
Kate handed the phone to me. 'Khalil wants to say goodbye.'
We looked at each other, embarrassed, I think, by our brief suspicions that it was Ted Nash, our compatriot, who had been trying to kill us. I had to get out of this business.
I said to her, 'You ought to get your number changed.' I put the phone to my ear and said, 'Corey.'
Asad Khalil said to me, 'You're a very lucky man.'
'God is looking after me.'
'He must be. I don't often miss.'
'We all have off days, Asad. Go home and practice.'
'I admire your courage and your good humor in the face of death.'
'Thanks so much. Hey, why don't you get out of that tree, put down your rifle, and come across that field with your hands up? I'll see that you get treated fairly by the authorities.'
He laughed and said, 'I am not in the tree. I am on my way home. I just wanted to say good-bye and to remind you that I will be back.'
'Looking forward to a rematch.'
'Fuck you.'
'A religious man shouldn't talk like that.'
'Fuck you.'
'No, fuck you, Asad, and fuck the camel you rode up on.'
'I will kill you and kill that whore you are with, if it takes me all of my life.'
I'd obviously gotten him angry again, so to direct his anger toward more constructive goals, I reminded him, 'Don't forget to first get things straightened out with Uncle Moammar. Also, it was a guy named Habib Nadir who killed your father in Paris, on orders of Moammar. You know this guy?'
There was no reply, and neither did I expect one. The phone went dead, and I handed it back to Kate. 'He and Ted would like each other.'
So, we sat there, not quite trusting Khalil to be hotfooting it through the mountains, especially after that last conversation. Maybe I needed to take a Dale Carnegie course.
Kate called the Sea Scape Motel and got Kim Rhee on the phone. She explained our situation and present position sitting behind a boulder, and Kim said she'd get some Secret Service people to us. Kate added, 'Tell them to be careful. I'm not sure if Khalil is actually gone.'
She signed off and said to me, 'You think he's gone?'
'I think so. The Lion knows when to run and when to attack.'
'Right.'
To lighten the moment, I asked her, 'What's the difference between an Arab terrorist and a woman with PMS?'
'Tell me.'
'You can reason with an Arab terrorist.'
'That's not funny.'
'Okay, then what's the definition of a moderate Arab?'
'What?'
'A guy who ran out of ammuniton.'
'That's funny.'
The sun got warm and burned off the remaining fog. We held hands, waiting for a chopper to get to us, or a vehicle or foot patrol to come by.
Kate said, as if to herself, 'This was a taste of things to come.'
Indeed it was. And Asad Khalil, or the next guy like him, would be back with some new grudge, and we'd send a cruise missile into somebody's house in retaliation, and round and round it goes. I said to Kate, 'You want to get out of this business?'
'No. Do you?'
'Only if you do.'
'I like it,' she said.
'Whatever you like, I like.'
'I like California.'
'I like New York.'
'How about Minnesota?'
'Is that a city or a state?'
Eventually, a helicopter spotted us, and after determining that we weren't crazed Arab terrorists, it landed, and we were carried on board.
