Blunt cleared his throat, interrupting the conversation as his voice boomed over the speaker. “This is all interesting, but that doesn’t change the fact that we need to do something with this intel. Is it actionable? That’s what we need to be asking ourselves.”
“If Evana Bahar is going to Istanbul to meet with Orlovsky, we definitely need to do something about it,” Wood said. “This isn’t the kind of thing we can sit back on, especially if we can capture or eliminate two high-value targets at once.”
“I recommend we go after them,” Martina said.
“That’s like trying to find a needle in a haystack at this point,” Alex said. “Orlovsky is incredibly cautious, and if we don’t have any intel on where they’re going to meet, we’re going to come up empty.”
“Then what do you suggest we do?” Wood asked. “Just sit back and do nothing while Evana Bahar plots her revenge on the world and takes another shot at the president?”
“We can prevent the meeting from ever happening,” Blunt said. “I can call in a few favors and have the Turkish border agents be on the lookout for her.”
“And what? Just tell us that they found her?” Wood asked.
Blunt grunted. “If I ask nicely—something you know nothing about, Randy—they will detain her at the border.”
“Sounds like a reasonable compromise,” Martina said. “If we get Evana, at least we’ve prevented something that Al Fatihin could’ve done. And based on her track record, it’d likely be something devastating.”
“I’ll place a few calls,” Blunt said before he hung up.
* * *
BLUNT THUMBED THROUGH his contact list until he found Omer Demir’s number. When Blunt was serving in the senate, he met Demir once during a special Security Council envoy to Europe and the Middle East. The two connected over Demir’s love for baseball and the fact that Nolan Ryan was his all-time favorite baseball player. That sealed the friendship for Blunt, which prompted him to send Demir a ball signed by the Hall of Fame pitcher.
“Think he can really help?” Alex asked.
“We’re about to find out.”
Blunt dialed Demir’s number. He picked up after the phone rang twice.
“J.D. Blunt,” Demir said, “to what do I owe the pleasure of this call? It’s been a long time.”
“Far too long, my friend,” Blunt said. “How’s your family?”
“Getting bigger all the time. I have three grandchildren now.”
“Spoiling them rotten, I’m sure.”
“Of course,” Demir said. “Now, I doubt you just called me up out of the blue to talk about my family, so how can I help you?”
“Well, I believe I need some help detaining someone who is very much wanted for terrorism against our country.”
“I hope you have a name,” Demir said. “Those people seem to be pouring into our country by the dozens each day.”
“I’ll do even better than that,” Blunt said. “I’ll send you a picture you can upload to your database and search through facial recognition.”
“That would be helpful. And when do you expect this person to arrive in Turkey?”
“Sometime this week.”
“What is this man’s name?” Demir asked.
“Actually, it’s a woman. Maybe you’ve heard of her? Evana Bahar?”
“Evana Bahar is coming here?”
“It’d be a major coup if you can arrest her. And you’d win praise from the security community the world over if you snatch Andrei Orlovsky, too.”
“That’s who she’s meeting here?”
“From what we understand, they’re scheduled to talk sometime this week in Istanbul,” Blunt said. “It’d be nice to wait until they’re meeting together to grab them, but that’d be kind of risky. You know the saying, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush?”
“We don’t say that here in Turkey, but I know what it means. We have another saying that is appropriate for this situation—a city you can see in the distance doesn’t require a guide.”
Blunt stroked his chin. “In other words, we know where this is headed?”
“Precisely. Stopping them from meeting is of utmost importance. If we arrest both of them, their underlings will continue the business dealings, but if they never meet . . .”
“I’m sending you the photo right now. Upload it to your database, and call me back whenever you get a hit.”
“Of course. And it was good to speak with you as always, J.D.,” Demir said before ending the call.
Blunt lumbered down the hall. He told Alex to pack her bags to get ready to go to Istanbul.
“She’s already been arrested?” she asked.
“Not yet, but I want you to be there to interrogate her the minute she is. Get to the airport. Wheels up in an hour.”
He meandered back to his office and then collapsed into his chair. After blowing out a long breath, he leaned back and gazed outside at the city’s twinkling lights. He’d come in far too early for the conference call to hear the initial interview with Frank Stone and realized a cup of coffee or three was necessary to make it through the day. Yet Blunt didn’t have the energy to go to the break room and make a pot.
While he intended to use the extra time to catch up on some paperwork, he propped his feet up on his desk and fell asleep in a matter of minutes. The ring of his phone startled him awake a half hour later.
“This is Blunt,” he said, trying to sound as if he’d been awake for hours.
“We have her,” the man said.
Blunt was still groggy, and it took him a few seconds to recognize Demir’s voice. “Her?”
“Evana Bahar,” Demir said. “We got a hit at the customs office in the Istanbul airport fifteen minutes after we loaded her picture into the system.”
“I’ve got agents on the way. How long can you keep her there?”
“Well, there’s more to it than that.”
“Oh,” Blunt said. “Did you catch Andrei Orlovsky too?”
“That would’ve been nice, but there’s a problem with your Evana Bahar. We did a quick DNA test just to make sure it was her, comparing the sample against what’s in the Interpol database that
