Alex nodded. “We’ll be able to tell if we got a match within a half hour. It’ll take that long for us to process her here anyway, so she won’t notice any delay.”
Fifteen minutes later, the jet rolled up to the hangar and powered down. Once the engines had wound down for a few seconds, the door opened and the steps unfolded, Jahedah made her way to the ground and kept her head down as she strode toward Hawk and Alex.
Alex greeted Jahedah with a smile and ushered her into an office. Hawk stayed so he could translate.
“I’m sorry about your brother,” Hawk said in Arabic. “Tamir seemed like a good man. We did what we could to save him, but someone knew we were coming and ambushed us.”
Jahedah took a deep breath. “I’m confident you tried to help him. It’s just most unfortunate. But I am grateful you protected my daughter. It would’ve been a cruel fate to die on her way to America in a battle after getting injured by a bomb. It’s like she’s cursed.”
“We managed to break the curse,” Hawk said. “Now, Alex here is going to need to do a DNA test. There’s nothing to be afraid of, but we want to verify you are who you say you are. I’m sure you can understand our paranoia.”
“Of course,” Jahedah said. “I’m not offended by such a request.”
“Would you mind rolling up your sleeve then so Alex can withdraw enough blood to run a test?” Hawk asked.
Jahedah cast a wary glance at him.
"It won't hurt," Alex said.
Hawk translated what she said and nodded at her. “You’ll just feel a tiny little pinch, but you’ll be fine.”
Alex smiled while extracting the blood, and Jahedah responded in kind. When Alex finished, she capped the two vials and left the room for her testing kit, which was set up in an adjacent office.
“She’ll be right back,” Hawk said. “In the meantime, we’ve got plenty of paperwork to process.”
Hawk was joined by a pair of State Department officials who worked through all the documents necessary to get Jahedah a visa to be in the U.S. for a couple weeks.
"Can we hurry this along, guys?" Hawk asked. "Jahedah's daughter is scheduled to undergo surgery later this afternoon."
“We’ll do this as quickly as possible,” one of the men said as he looked over the top of his glasses at Hawk.
Satisfied that Jahedah was in safe hands, Hawk went to visit Alex. She said the check wouldn’t take that long, but it had been more than twenty minutes and he hadn’t heard from her.
“What’s going on?” Hawk asked.
“This stupid computer is running slow. Honestly, I don’t know why I always forget that the machines out here are from the ice age.”
“Well, I think they’re close to being done,” Hawk said.
“Okay, okay. I can’t make this thing go any faster.”
No sooner had she snipped at Hawk than the computer beeped, signaling the completion of the results. Alex clicked on the machine and scrolled down the page.
“Well, what is it?” Hawk asked.
“That’s not Evana Bahar,” Alex said slowly as she cocked her head to one side.
“And it is Jahedah, right?” Hawk asked.
“Yes,” Alex said. “It matches the sample we took from her in Istanbul.”
“Then why do you look like you aren’t necessarily convinced?”
“Nothing really. It’s just that there’s something odd about one of these markers.”
“But you’re positive that’s Jahedah?”
“Yes,” Alex said. “Everything matches what we had before. I even compared it to Evana’s DNA just to be sure. And that’s definitely notEvana Bahar.”
“So, all’s good.”
“It appears that way. Sorry, it’s just been a long day, and I’m a little rusty on my parsing of DNA data.”
“Great,” Hawk said. “I’ll go pass along the news to the two agents who are going to be watching her while she’s here.”
Several minutes later, Jahedah completed her paperwork and Hawk released her into the custody of a pair of agents.
“I want to see my daughter first,” she said.
“We can arrange that,” the agent in charge said before escorting her out of the room.
Hawk followed them. “Alex and I will stop by for a visit tomorrow, Jahedah.”
She smiled and waved before getting into the back of the car with the two operatives.
* * *
LATER THAT EVENING, Hawk was sitting on the balcony of his apartment with Alex, the two deciding which latest Bollywood film they were going to watch.
“So, what’s it going to be?” Alex called from the living room. “Happy Phirr Bhag Jayegi or Mulk? A comedy about two sisters or a thriller on terrorism?”
“I think I’ve had my share of terrorism for this week. Why don’t we watch the rom-com?”
Alex chuckled. “Look at you going all soft on me.”
“I just need to laugh, something I haven’t done much of lately.”
Alex handed Hawk a beer before clinking bottles with him. “Then let’s hope Happy Phirr Bhag Jayegi lives up to the hype as one of the best Bollywood comedies of the year.”
Hawk arranged for the movie to be streamed to their television. Seconds later, the movie opened with a scene that had both of them laughing hysterically. But it was all put on hold when Hawk’s phone buzzed. It was Blunt.
“Let me pause this,” Hawk said.
Alex shot him a glance.
“It’s Blunt,” he said. “You know we have to take this.”
She sighed. “Fine. Just make it quick. Remember, we need to laugh.”
After less than a minute of conversation, Hawk hung up the phone. All the color had vanished from his face.
“What is it?” Alex asked.
“The CIA called Blunt to let him know that when the shift change came at the safe house, the other two agents were found dead in the living room and Jahedah was gone.”
Alex shook her head. “That wasn’t Jahedah who flew in here today. That was Evana Bahar.”
CHAPTER 10
THE NEXT MORNING, PRESIDENT YOUNG greeted Mike Mitchum, his brand new chief of staff, who was one of Capitol Hill’s rising young stars. With the president’s ratings lagging among
