“How so?” Darren came to his feet, his face a mask of confusion. “We need to find them and having the locals aid in the search can’t be a bad thing.”
“Oh really?” Colonel Nelson leaned back in his seat and shook his head. “Think about that for just a goddam minute.”
Chesterfield couldn’t clear his mind enough to put the pieces together. He stared at the colonel open mouthed, his head slowly shaking. “I don’t…”
“Let me paint you a picture.” Colonel Nelson sat forward. “You fed everybody a line of bullshit to get your op green lighted. You claimed that al-Abadi was your primary target. You and I know that he wasn’t. The damned biowarfare plant was. And you knew that if the brass was aware of your real goal, they wouldn’t green light it because of the collateral damage. But you needed that collateral damage to turn the tide of public opinion. And, in the event that the whole thing went sideways, you needed somebody to pin the flag fiasco on.”
Darren nodded. “Deputy Director Ingram said he was gonna pin the whole thing on—”
“Ingram is an idiot!” Nelson barked. “You panicked and played your hand too early.” He pulled the report from the corner of his desk and slid it across to Chesterfield. “News reports are already tying your factory with the deaths at the protest. You got what you wanted. The moderates are calling for the heads of those responsible.” He leaned forward and glared at the younger man. “And now you’ve gone and alerted every intelligence agency in the Middle East to your scapegoat and his groupies.”
Darren swallowed hard and stared at the report. “I…I thought when Mr. Ingram—”
“Bullshit! You didn’t think. You panicked. And now this whole thing may well blow up in your face.” Nelson sat back and glared at the man. “And for the record, I still know nothing about this operation of yours. If you so much as mutter my name in your sleep—”
“I know,” Darren interrupted. “It will be my balls.”
“At least.” Colonel Nelson stood and walked to the corner of his office. He pulled his coat from the hanger and slipped it on. “You got some damage control to conduct, don’t you think?”
Darren nodded as he stood, the report in his hand. “May I?” He held the report up.
Colonel Nelson waved him on. “As I stated earlier, I know nothing of your operation, Agent Chesterfield.”
He held the door open and waited on the younger man. “Fix this.” He glared as Darren slipped out of the office.
“I’m on it, sir.”
Karachi, Pakistan
“I’M TELLING YOU, all of the frequencies that tier one usually uses have been quiet.” Jeff scanned the computer screen in front of him. “To be honest, it’s spooky. There’s not even normal chatter. It’s like everyone is holding their breath to see who talks first. Then it will be assumed that they had their finger in this pie.”
Jay paced as his gears started smoking. “I don’t get it. Why would the agency alert the ISI to us?”
“You have al-Abadi, yeah? My guess is they want him for some reason.”
Jay shook his head. “How do they know that we have him?”
“Who else would have snatched him from the world?” Jeff practically laughed. “It doesn’t take a rocket surgeon to figure this one out.”
Jay huffed in the phone. “Fine. So they know that we know. I still don’t get their end game.”
Jeff shook his head as he continued staring at the screen. “My guess is that somebody dropped the ball. The timing is off on this.” He leaned forward, his eyes turning to the boards and the active actions in place. “It’s almost like…nah.”
“Finish your thought, brother.”
Jay sighed. “It’s almost like the left hand doesn’t know what the right one is doing. Like the players are working off of different time tables.” Jeff snorted a laugh. “I can’t see the agency signing off on this. It’s like amateur hour.”
“Amateur hour or not, it’s our tit caught in the wringer.” Jay glanced into the room where his crew was still sharing the bottle. “We’re screwed no matter what we do. We can’t leave with everybody looking for us. We’d never get across town, tinted windows or not.”
“You’re right there. They already have check points set up throughout the city.” Jeff switched screens and looked at the barricades on a map. “They’re searching everybody…except…”
“Except who?” Jay’s voice couldn’t hide his hopefulness.
“Military.” Jeff smiled. “US troops are just waved through.”
Jay sighed. “I’m sure you could get the uniforms, but I didn’t see any military transports parked behind that coffeeshop.”
“Let me make some calls.” Jeff paused then came to his feet. “Hold on.” He turned and rifled through his file cabinet. He pulled a file and perused it quickly. He nearly laughed as he picked up the phone again. “Your boy Abadi…he deals in arms.”
“We know that.”
“He also deals in military vehicles.” Jeff waited for the dots to connect.
“You’re shitting me.”
“Nope. Hit him up for a couple of armored Humvees and I’ll get the uniforms to you. Contact me when you have transport.” Jeff was smiling as he hung up the phone.
Jay walked back into the back room and pulled the bottle from Steve’s hand. “Time to sober up boys.” He turned to al-Abadi. “If you want to save your own skin, you need to cough up a couple of US Humvees.”
Muhammed’s eyes grew wide and he shook his head. “I don’t—”
Jay stepped closer, totally invading the man’s personal space, cutting him off. “I don’t want to hear that you can’t…I want to hear you say, ‘yes, sir, I have two armored military Humvees at your disposal.’”
Muhammed swallowed hard and forced a smile. “I may know where a military Humvee could be found.”
“You mean, ‘two military Humvees’, correct?”
Muhammed nodded nervously. “Yes, of course. Two.”
“Excellent. We just might make it out of here, after all.”
“Except…” Muhammed trailed off.
Jay sighed. “Except what?”
“We’ll have to steal them.”
Karachi, Pakistan
ASMA ABU FAQIR threw open the door of
