“The others?”
“Well, he pulled his wife out just before the explosion but she absorbed some of the blast. Her body probably saved his life. Nobody else got out of the vehicle.”
Leopole absorbed that information, nodding slowly. Finally he looked up. “Then his sons…”
“Salim was in the Mercedes. But Walid rode with the escort, as his father always insisted. He is unharmed.”
“Okay. I’m going to debrief my people and I need your help. Malten is our best medic but he took a round and can’t travel for a while. I’m detailing Jacobs to stay with him and provide liaison. Now we have to know, Major: can we stay here or do we need to move someplace else?”
Ayash raised a hand. “You may stay here, Colonel Leopole. Believe me, the Syrian Army would have trouble getting near this compound today.” He tossed his head. “There are measures in place that are not apparent, and some of them are — exceptional.”
“You’re saying there’s IDF forces nearby?”
The Druze liaison man did not try to hide his smile. “I am saying the measures are, ah, exceptional.”
“Okay, I’ll accept that at face value. But we still need to know: how did the Hezzies get on to this arrangement? There was some sort of security breach.”
Ayash touched Leopole’s arm and directed him away from the gathering crowd in the compound’s conference room. “Frank, you will understand how sensitive this subject is. But…” His voice trailed off and his gaze went to the far wall.
“But, you deserve to know. I spoke with Rafix on the way to the hospital. He was nearly delirious with shock and grief. But in putting together a few things he said, here is what I suspect:
“He was taking two prescriptions for pain, including morphine.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“Well, he was sobbing all the while but he indicated that the medicine clouded his judgment and he thinks he might have told the caterers more than they needed to know. If so, it would explain the timing of the attack — immediately after dinner, as he was leaving.”
The American almost reeled on his heels. “Oh, my God.” Leopole’s right hand went to his forehead. “He must be…”
Ayash gave a decisive thrust of his chin. “Yes. He is.”
“So what’s the current situation? We can’t have people walking around who know about the setup in here.”
Ayash’s face went rigid, as if carved in granite. “As of this evening, I do not believe that any of them will be walking about, Colonel.”
Leopole appreciated the sentiment but held doubts. “I can’t believe that anybody who passed the word would stick around very long.”
“It does not matter. We ask certain people certain questions, and make it clear that it is in their interest to cooperate with us. After that, it’s mainly a detective story.”
“Ending in a dark alley someplace,” Leopole prompted.
Ayash pointedly looked at his watch. “It’s time for the debrief, isn’t it?”
Ebrahim Larijani was shaken but able to function. He had not seen Moshen Yazdi’s body, and Esmaili was glad of that fact. The 168-grain hollow point had taken the boy just above the left eye.
During the fifty-minute ride back to the Hasbaya area, Esmaili had time to reflect on the operation and his men’s performance. Both of the budding snipers had executed their orders, though it was uncertain how many Druze or Zionists they had shot. There had been little opportunity to discuss details with Azizi’s security men, and Esmaili was uncertain of their competence or reliability.
At least they had taken Yazdi’s body, sparing Esmaili’s cell the doleful duty of preparing it for burial. Far better to commit the earthly remains to the care of brother jihadists.
Esmaili had seen uglier corpses in his career, but not recently. Still, he marveled at the American’s precision in what must have been a two-hundred-meter snapshot in the dark.
“Admiral, it’s Colonel Leopole. Line two.”
Derringer jabbed the button on his phone. He had received the e-mail from Beirut half an hour before.
“Frank! You all right?”
“Yes, sir. Marten’s serious but I think he’ll be okay. A couple of other guys got flash-burns and fragments.” The former Marine’s voice was low-pitched, controlled. The satellite phone connection was excellent.
“What about Kara and his people?” Derringer knew there had been losses.
“Mr. Kara’s under guard in a hospital. He should be alright but as you can imagine he’s shook about his wife and son. Two others were killed in his limo and there were two KIAs in the compound. A couple of the wounded are serious.” He decided there was no point in mentioning Jasmine, nor Ashcroft’s efforts to comfort her bereaved sister.
Derringer tried to visualize the situation and realized that he could not. “Frank, listen. It’s pretty obvious that there was a security breach. What do you know about that?”
“Most of our intel is speculation, sir. But our IDF liaison says that Kara’s medication probably overrode his judgment and he might have told the caterers more than they needed to know.” His voice trailed off, then resumed. “It’s almost midnight here. We’re doubling the watch and waiting for more information in the morning.”
Derringer found himself leaning closer to the speaker phone, almost as if he wanted to whisper in Leopole’s ear. “Listen. If things are that bad, we can’t count on maintaining operational security in the villages. You guys will be even more exposed out there.”
Leopole realized that Mike Derringer was opening the door to canceling the mission. “Yes, I know, Admiral. I discussed that with the guys during our debrief. There’s some concern, of course, but they’re willing to stay so far.” He paused, recalling the tension in the room, the anger over the security breach, though so far none of the SSI operators knew of Kara’s lapse.
“But, Admiral, the guys’ collective dander is up. There’s a lot of sentiment for payback, especially once we get to the Hezbollah op areas. I know: that’s not a good mind-set, and I’m riding herd on them with Chris Nissen. We’re reminding everybody that we’re here as trainers, not shooters.”
Derringer thought of Fred Dalton Thompson’s line as Admiral Painter in
“All right, Frank. You know the situation, and I’ll back whatever you have to do.” He squirmed in his seat. “Now look. It’s almost closing time here but I’m calling an executive session of the board for tomorrow morning. We’ll discuss options and our legal obligations in case it’s desirable to reduce our training operation or even cancel the contract. You’ll be hearing from me with a preliminary report by tomorrow evening, your time.”
“Thanks, Admiral. I appreciate that, and so do the guys. But honestly, I think we can proceed with the contract as things stand now.”
“You watch your back, Frank. That’s an order.”
“Aye aye, sir!”
The line went dead but Michael Derringer was still looking at his phone twenty seconds later.
20
“Tell me what happened.”
