“So we do nothing?” Bobby asked. He came to his feet and began pacing, his anger rising with his frustration.
“Nobody said we do nothing.” Jay tried to calm him. “We already sent a shit ton of what we had to the widow.”
Muhammed raised his hand slowly. “If I may?” He stood slowly and tried to choose his words wisely. “If I know Asma, she is probably in hiding. Whoever was expecting this biological weapon will not accept excuses in its place. She will be in fear for her life.”
“If they haven’t already gotten to her,” Steve added. “What are the odds that she got away?”
Muhammed shrugged. “There is no way to know. I doubt that even my contacts would search for her. They believe me a traitor to my own people.”
“So we’re back to being fucked,” Bobby sighed.
Karachi, Pakistan
BASSIM AL-AHMED watched as his men tossed the last of the gold into the rear of the truck. “Take it to the vault and wait for me.” He turned and eyed the palatial house one last time. “I know she has money hidden somewhere. I can feel it in my bones.”
“Bassim!”
He turned and watched as one of his men ran up to him. “What now?”
“Our man inside the ISI just sent this.” He held up a phone.
Bassim took the device and scanned it. “Muhammed al-Abadi has left the country.” He turned to his men and fought the urge to crush the phone in his hand. “He is with the Americans!”
“How will we get to him, Bassim?”
He spun and shook a fist in his face. “We have brothers there. There are cells all over that fat country. We find out where the Americans took al-Abadi and we send them to bleed him like a goat until he tells us where the widow hides her money.”
“But if he cannot be found?”
Bassim clenched his jaw and glared at the man. “He. Will. Be. Found.” He forced himself to relax and turned away from the man. “Notify the cells immediately.”
“Yes, Bassim.”
He watched as the man practically ran away, working at his phone as he left.
Bassim paced the courtyard and forced his anger down. At least now he knew where al-Abadi was. He may not be the one to hold the knife to his throat, but he knew that soon the little arms dealer would be trembling under the blade of a true believer.
28
Baltimore, MD
ROGER PACED WHILE al-Abadi continued trying to connect with Asma. He dialed every number that he knew of and a few that he prayed might be able to contact her. He lowered his head in defeat and handed his phone to Jay. “She will not answer.”
“Or can not.” Jay tossed the phone to Gregg. “Slippy, see what you can find out.”
“I suppose it’s possible that nobody likes you, Muhammed.” Gregg entered the numbers into his computer and began running his locating programs. He sat back and chewed on the end of a pen just as his program hit pay dirt. He sat up and squinted at the screen. “Hold on. I think we found her…” he trailed off as he zoomed in.
Jay and al-Abadi slipped in behind him as he continued to scroll in tighter. “That is her home. I am certain of it.”
Gregg continued to zoom in then paused. He looked to Jay who gave him a subtle nod. Switching to another program he piggy-backed off of a satellite that maintained a fairly constant vigil of the area. “Let’s see if we can get a real time idea of what’s…” Gregg paled as the image came into focus. “Either she’s bugging out or she’s got a metric shit ton of unwanted visitors.”
Muhammed tapped the screen. “Can you make this bigger?”
Gregg punched the keys and the image went out of focus before zooming in again. “That’s as good as it gets with this bird.” He glanced at his watch. “We’ve got limited time before we’re discovered on this sat.”
Muhammed blew his breath out hard and shook his head. “Those are not her vehicles. Nor are they her men.” He swallowed hard and looked to Jay. “Either they are looting her properties, or…”
“Or she’s in their custody.”
Gregg added quickly, “Or dead.” He shrugged. “It doesn’t sound like these fellows are the type to give second chances.”
Bobby pulled al-Abadi away from the computer and kept his voice low. “What about the data we sent her? It was bad enough to do a data dump to a weapons dealer, but…”
Jay rubbed at his chin. “Gregg, how damning is it to us?”
Gregg shrugged. “It was what we had at the time. Mostly how the fedgov was setting up Bridger.” He shook his head. “If it was compromised, I don’t see how they can use it against us.”
Bridger stiffened. “They’ll have the government’s info on me. That makes me a target to these assholes.”
Jay paced slowly, his head shaking. “No. It just proves that the government was willing to hang you out to dry. It doesn’t mean that they’ll actually blame you for—”
“Wake up!” Bridger practically yelled. “If these assholes know who I am, they can track me.”
“Why would they?” Jay asked.
“I’m the only lead they’ll have. Do you really think that would stop them from chopping off dangly bits or shooting me full of some kind of truth serum, then killing me when I can’t give them what they want?”
“They’d have to find you first.” Gregg closed the lid on his computer. “All they have are grainy images and a name.”
Bobby gave him a duh stare. “And what could you do with those two pieces of information?”
Gregg chuckled. “Me? I could…” His face suddenly fell. “Oh snap. He’s right. If they have any kind of hacker worth his salt, they’ll find him.”
“And us.” Jay stiffened. “Load up. We’re bugging out.”
Deric pushed off of the desk he was leaning on. “Where we headed boss?”
Jay smiled. “We’re heading home.”
Jim hesitated. “Wait…if the bad guys…well, the government
