Wolf Trap (Casey Reddick Book 1)

by Charles DeMaris

  Earl and Clyde pushed and dragged Talib into the elevator and into the lower level. He remained defiant the entire way. They brought him to a chair near Ahmed’s workstation and tied him to it. Ahmed turned around in his chair and addressed him in Arabic.

  “Talib Ibrahim. You disgrace your name. Ibrahim was a great man, the father of two great peoples. You dishonor that name with your actions.”

  “It is you who disgrace the name of Allah, working with the infidel.”

  “No Talib, you are the disgrace. You are a murderer. Allah is not pleased with you today.”

  “Allah is most pleased with me and with my brothers. We have struck the infidel and hurt him. We have punished the decadent Americans and…”

  Ahmed interrupted him with a severe backhand blow to the face, snapping his head around.

  “Enough of your nonsense,” he said in English, “You will only speak when I ask you a question and you will say no more than what I ask. Is that clear?”

  “I will give you nothing.”

  “We’ll see about that,” Ahmed said as he delivered another blow to his face.

  “Is this him? Is this the man who murdered my baby?” Wilma asked as she walked over.

  “Yes, Mrs. Reddick.”

  Wilma walked over and stood inches in front of Talib and gave him a look that could have melted steel.

  “My daughter was in that station..”

  “Your daughter was an infidel. She…”

  She slapped him hard across the face.

  “You keep your filthy mouth shut when I’m talkin’ to you. You hear me, boy? You think you serve God? You think your Allah is happy with you? Boy, you got another think comin’. You done messed with the wrong family. Time we’re done with you, you gonna wish you was in that station. You gonna beg Allah to take you, and when he does, he gonna take you straight to hell, and I’m gonna be there. Got me a long fork and I’m gonna be turnin’ you, make sure you cook even.”

  She sat down and Ahmed drew everyone’s attention to one of his screens. With a couple mouse clicks, he put the image on one of the big screens on the wall. On the screen was the image of a living room with a young woman tied to a chair, looking nervous. Her eyes were puffy and she had been crying. Standing next to the chair brandishing a knife, was Casey. Ibrahim’s eyes went wide as he recognized Miriam. Casey began talking.

  “Hello, Talib. Long time no see. You recognize my guest here? We’ve been having a good talk. Such a pretty girl. Shame if something were to happen to that face.”

  He held the knife close to Miriam’s face and she shied away and sobbed.

  “Whatta ya say, Talib? You gonna talk nice with Ahmed, tell him what he wants to know?”

  “I will tell you infidels nothing.”

  “Fine, have it your way.”

  Casey moved close to Miriam and positioned himself so the view of her face was blocked by his back. He moved the knife close to her face and she gave a blood curdling scream. When he stepped aside, Miriam was sobbing in pain and there was a long red mark down the side of her right cheek, not real blood, but convincing enough from that distance.

  “Come on Talib. Just answer Ahmed’s questions and it ends.”

  “If I talk, I will be dead. I can’t…”

  “Fine, have it your way.”

  Casey came close to Miriam and repeated the performance, this time with the other cheek. Her scream and subsequent sobs were once again worthy of an Oscar.

  “Please Talib, just tell them whatever they want to know. Please!”

  “She has such pretty eyes. Shame if I had to take one. You know what a knife does to an eyeball, Talib? It doesn’t take much pressure. You just push a little with the tip and…pop. You ever seen it? It does get a little messy, and I understand it doesn’t feel too good.”

  Casey held up the knife and once again shielded the view of her face as she began screaming.

  “Okay…okay…just leave her alone. She has no part in this. I’ll tell you whatever you want to know. Just don’t hurt her anymore.”

  Casey shut off the camera and wiped the fake blood off Miriam’s face with a damp cloth.

  “Wow, I’m impressed. You ever have any acting lessons?”

  “Not a single one. That looks almost like real blood. Where’d you learn that?”

  “Friend of mine in grade school. We used to freak out our parents. And you were quite convincing. Almost had me fooled.”

  “Is that right about your sister?”

  “Yes. Her fiancée was taking a bus. I tried to warn her and she got my message late. They were both there.”

  “I’m so sorry.”

  “Thank you.”

  “So, what happens now?”

  “Ahmed will question Talib and hopefully he gives us some good information about who he works for. If we can find his bosses, maybe we can prevent something like this from happening again.”

  “So, you work for the government?”

  “Uh…not exactly.”

  “But you work for people who try to stop what happened today?”

  “That’s what we do. We gather information and try to stop attacks before they happen.”

  “But you couldn't stop this?”

  “We got the information late. Long story.”

  “Sounds like an interesting place to work. How long have you been there?”

  “Would you believe just a couple days?”

  Casey’s phone rang and he picked it up.

  “Good job there,” Jenny said, “He’s quite the talkative lad at the moment. How much do you think the girl knows?”

  “She’s innocent. He kept her in the dark.”

  “Still, she might have seen something. You think you can talk to her?”

  “Sure thing.”

  “Was that your boss?” Miriam asked.

  “Yeah, Talib has become more cooperative, for the moment.”

  “She wants you to talk to me?”

  “Yes. You can get cleaned up first if you want.”

  Five minutes later she came out of the bathroom, grabbed her purse, and started toward the door.

  “We can talk on the way,” she said.

  “On the way where?”

  “To your work.”

  “Who said you were going there? We can talk here.”

  “Listen, for three months I’ve been seeing that…”

  “I understand. Our company is rather secretive…”

  “Yeah, I get that. Some sort of secret agent man stuff going on here. I want in.”

  “Are you sure you know what you want in on?”

  “Trying to stop people like that. I want to help.”

  “Man, I don’t know…”

  “I’m going with you, and that’s that.”

  “Alright, but if I get in trouble…”

  “Why would you get in trouble?”

  “The place is kind of a secret, and if you don’t work out…”

  “It will work out. I’ll work for free if I have to. I need to do this.”

  Five minutes later they were on the highway heading west.

  “So, Miriam, where you from?”

  “We came from Lebanon, when I was small. Been here most of my life.”

  “How’d you meet Talib? Most of these sleepers don’t socialize much.”

  “Eating lunch at Frisch’s. Place was packed and I was sitting at the counter. He sat down next to me. Just got to talking.”

  “He didn’t give any indication he was a radical?”

  “No, said he went to that Mosque up in West Chester. I went a couple times. That place is pretty moderate. Seemed like a sweet guy. How could I be so foolish?”

  “Don’t be so hard on yourself. It could have happened to anyone.”

  “But if I could have seen something.”

  “It’s not your fault, okay? He’s the…dirtbag…not you.”

  “You didn’t want to say dirtbag.”

  “Yeah, there were other words. Mama didn�
��t raise me to talk like that. Too much soap in my mouth growing up. Do you realize how horrible that tastes?”

  “Your mom can’t hear you now.”

  “I wouldn’t count on that. She always found out when I was a kid. Then last season a TV camera caught me saying something on the sidelines. Mama had on ESPN and she can read lips. I got an earful that night, right in front of my teammates. Never underestimate a black woman. That can be hazardous to your health.”

  “She’s a mother. They just want the best.”

  “Yeah. When I was younger I tried to see what I could get away with. Now I watch my mouth when she’s not even around. Don’t wanna let her down, especially not after this morning.”

  “Now you know how I feel. My people are constantly belittled, all because a few run around blowing things up and cutting off heads. I know all of that violent stuff in the Quran, but most of us aren’t like that now. All these years I’ve just tried to live my life and ignore those people. That crazy stuff happens over there, not here, right? Problem is people like me don’t stand up to them. We’re too afraid. I can’t do that anymore. I don’t want to be afraid.”

  “I understand. We’re not just fightin’ Muslims you know? Any threat to America. Doesn’t matter where it comes from.”

  “I know. Most people think terrorist they think Muslim. You know some of the looks I get?”

  “Maybe. I’m a young black man.”

  “Yes you are, but in Ohio you’re a famous black man. That has to be different.”

  “You’d be surprised how many people don’t recognize me without the uniform on. Went to a movie the other day, talked to a guy in the concession line with a Buckeye shirt on. Dude went on and on about the Bucks, biggest fan there ever was, watches all the games, yada yada. Saw me limping and asked me how I hurt myself. So, I told him. Then he tried to act like he knew it was me all along. Kind of funny really.”

  “Well, you all look the same, anyway.”

  “Ha ha ha. You’re a funny girl. But it’s kinda true. At least to white folk. They really don’t pay close attention.”

  Casey turned the radio up and every channel had a report on the bombings, so he turned it off and they rode in silence. When they arrived at the office, nobody was upstairs, so they took the elevator down from Jenny’s office. When they came out, Ahmed and Talib were still talking in rapid fire Arabic and Ahmed was typing furiously. Talib saw Miriam, an unharmed Miriam, and his eyes went wide. She looked his way and their eyes met. What he saw there unnerved him. There was nothing there but cold dark hate.

  She walked right up in front of Talib and held his gaze until he looked down. She said nothing, but slapped him hard with her forehand and then again with her backhand, before turning her back on him.

  “Miriam Samara, so good to meet you,” Jenny said, hand outstretched.

  “Good to meet you,” Miriam said as she shook Jenny’s hand.

  “I had a feeling you’d come. Have a seat. Ahmed, can you patch my line in over here and put it on speaker?”

  A moment later, Jenny said, “Director O’Connor, can you hear me?”

  “Loud and clear, but I’m only interim director, as of about 45 minutes ago. You said you had something for me?” Amber O’Connor said.

  “Not something, but someone. Not all of the bombers martyred themselves. I have a clever little chap here. We’ve had quite the conversation. He was clever enough to rig a cell phone detonator, but dumb enough to use his own cell phone to trigger it. Can I assume you'd like to take it from here? We’re getting rather sick of his company.”

  “We’d be glad to take him off your hands, if you can tell me where you are.”

  “Can I trust you? I can’t exactly give up our location to anyone.”

  “You will have my full cooperation. I’ve spoken with the president.”

  “Well, I’ll meet you halfway. Do you have anybody in Dayton?”

  “I’m sure that can be arranged.”

  10

  Wilma and Casey went from the public memorial service for the victims to a private family service for Keisha. Everyone from Fox Consulting accompanied them to each service, including Ahmed and Miriam, and when everyone else had left, Ahmed voiced what they were all thinking.

  “I’m going to head to the office. Got a lot of info from Talib to sort through.”

  “I’m gonna join you there,” Casey said, “as soon as I drop Mom off at home.”

  Casey arrived at the office an hour later to find everyone else already there, including Avi and Earl. They were all gathered around Ahmed’s desk.

  “I believe he told me everything he knew,” Ahmed said, “But the problem is he didn’t know much. It’s like everything was compartmentalized. He did mention one name several times, Al Thi’b.”

  “That could be a nickname,” Miriam said, “The Wolf? Who goes around calling himself that?”

  “I haven’t found much, but I haven’t looked everywhere yet.”

  “Hold off on that until we’re done. I just emailed Amber. Let her give me what she can and we’ll fill in the blanks after,” Jenny said.

  Just then the phone rang and Jenny answered.

  “Jenny, it’s Amber. First of all, thanks for the care package. I’ve always been fond of songbirds, and this one has been singing beautifully.”

  “Thanks for getting back to me so quickly. You’re on speaker, by the way. I’ve got my whole team here.”

  “You mentioned a name that came up more than once, Al Thi’b. This guy is bad news. Another in a long list of assets gone bad. Real name is Hasan Khalid. Was on the Agency payroll since late ‘01, Shi’a family, so no love for Al Qaeda. We used him in several operations against Al Qaeda and he was extremely effective. He got the best training and equipment we could provide.”

  “So, what went wrong?”

  “We got ahold of some intel that a major player was going to be in a particular village. We thought the intel was solid and ordered a strike. The target was never there, but the village was full of Shi’a, mostly women and children. Khalid’s wife and daughter were there and he saw the missiles hit the house they were in. He and two other men survived because they had been outside the village and were just coming back when the attack hit. He’s been a thorn in our side ever since. We think the intel was planted by one of Khalid’s rivals who knew he was going to be there and was hoping we would take him out.”

  “What’s he been doing since?”

  “Killing troops mostly. Small attacks. Likes to use IEDs. It’s pure revenge for him. We’ve been trying to keep track of him, but he’s hard to pin down. Uses a lot of old school tradecraft. The fellow you caught is the only member of his organization we’ve managed to take alive, but he only knows so much. It’s as bad as Washington, the way everything's compartmentalized. How did you get him anyway?”

  “He had a girl he was sweet on, wasn’t quite ready to die it seems. You saw the video. The detonation was almost five minutes after he pulled out from in front of the station. One of my guys pulled cell phone calls from that time frame and matched one number to the registration on the car. Then it was a simple matter of pinging the GPS location of the phone. We picked him up on the east side of town. He made it easy by using his own phone to trigger the bomb.”

  “You said he had a girlfriend. Did you manage to question her?”

  “She’s right here beside me. She’s working with me now.”

  “Can you trust her?”

  “She’s completely innocent. In fact, she’s the one who got him talking. Quite a masterful job, I might add.”

  “I wish we could have a talk with her.”

  “That’s not going to happen. She works for me now. You have everything she knows in the report I sent you.”

  “Well, the president seems to think I should trust you, that we should trust you, but you will pardon me if I’m still a little skeptical. We haven’t had the best experiences with private intelligence groups in the past.”


  “I can assure you we’re not like the others. Our only agenda is to protect this country from any threat we come across. I have good people working with me and we don’t have the bureaucracy you have to deal with. We can move faster than you can, but you have more manpower than we do. I think we need to work together. There may be times where a situation calls for the resources you have at your disposal, but also times where our flexibility and ability to move faster and more discreetly can be of benefit. At the very least, we provide you with deniability in such cases.”

  “Can I assume that such cooperation comes at a price?”

  “My people don’t work for free.”

  “And if we don’t cooperate?”

  “Let’s just say that we have a lot of evidence that would cause quite a stir if it became public knowledge. In light of the recent attacks, I think we can both agree that would not be good.”

  “Okay, I’ll keep in touch.”

  Jenny disconnected the call and said, “Well, this has been an eventful week. I think we’ve learned a few things.”

  “Yeah,” Casey said, “I think what we learned is that we can’t do everything from this room. We need people in here and people out there.”

  “And you are volunteering to be out there?”

  “Well, that’s a possibility, when I’m well enough. I’m still a bit gimpy.”

  “You’ve not been wearing your brace,” Avi said.

  “So, where do I fit in?” Miriam asked.

  “How’s your Arabic?” Jenny asked.

  “I was raised speaking it. I grew up bilingual.”

  “We’ll have you working with Nathan for a couple days to learn the system, and then you and Ahmed can split up the Middle East work.”

  “I will work with Casey,” Avi said.

  “Doing what exactly?” Jenny asked.

  “We need field agents, or at least people who can go in the field when needed. When his knee heals, he’s the best option at the moment. I think he proved himself so far.”

  “I don’t doubt any of that, but how can you train him? We need a spy, not a professor.”

  “I wasn’t just a professor in my younger days. Just let me work with him.”

  “Alright, when can we start?” Casey said.