by James Rosone
A woman in a formal business suit appeared to be in charge. She stepped forward to extend her hand to each member of the team and introduced herself. “Welcome to London. I’m Laura Taylor, Director of Operations,” she began.
“I cannot tell you how long we have been after this guy. He used to be one of ours, before he was turned.” She bent down and unzipped the ski bag. She looked at Marwan, who was still out cold, briefly touching his face with her hand, which Diana found odd. She then zipped the bag up and thanked their team again.
Micah, who was the official head of their detail, commented, “We’re glad we were of assistance. Has Director Stone said who would be supporting you in his interrogation from our end?”
She smiled as she responded, “Yes. He has a team that is en route as we speak. I was told you would accompany me and the prisoner until they arrived for the formal handoff. Director Stone was insistent on having someone from his team present with the prisoner at all times,” she said candidly, clearly not at all offended by his persistence.
*******
With that, Micah left the rest of his team as he headed with the MI6 Director to wherever they were going to take Marwan. Micah was a bit envious of his team—they were now going to sit tight in London while they were waiting on him, enjoying some much-needed downtime in yet another spectacular European city. As they drove toward the city, one of the MI6 men handed him a folder.
“This is our background information on Omar Bishara, the man you call Marwan Kattan. I suggest you take some time to read up on him as we will begin questioning him shortly after our arrival,” the agent explained.
As they approached the MI6 building, a frantic call came over the radio from the vehicle they were following, the one that had Marwan in it. “Director Taylor, the prisoner is dead! He must have had a cyanide capsule in his tooth. We heard some rustling from the bag and then he just started to shake violently, so we opened it up, only to find him foaming at the mouth and convulsing,” the agent said, disheartened.
The MI6 Director looked at Micah with an accusatory glare. “Did your team not check to see if he had a false tooth?”
Micah felt his face begin to turn red. “Ma’am,” he said softly, “I don’t know what happened, but we did check for that.”
The Director just hung her head down. She took one long, deep breath and then looked up at Micah. “Dead men tell no tales. I’m afraid we aren’t going to get anything useful out of him now, are we?” she remarked, disgusted. “Your team failed, and I’m going to make sure Director Stone knows why. That was an amateur mistake, something that never should have happened.” Her cheeks were hot and red, and he could tell that she was containing what would have otherwise been a much more enraged response.
Micah felt horrible. There was nothing more he could say or do other than hang his head low and stay quiet.
Did we really miss that? I know we checked his mouth, he wondered. He couldn’t figure out what had gone wrong.
He did keep reading the rest of the file as they continued to drive to their intended location. What he read was truly amazing. This guy had really been a spy’s spy. After some time had passed, he dared to ask, “Could I keep the dossier for our own records? Maybe we could see if we could use anything from it to help with our own ongoing case.”
The MI6 Director just grunted. “Why not? He’s dead, so it’s of no use to us now.”
As Micah continued to pick apart every detail of the day in his mind, he couldn’t help but think about the strange moment at the tarmac when Director Taylor had touched Marwan’s cheek. It had just seemed odd.
Is there a possibility that she slipped him the cyanide? he wondered. He didn’t know if he was just creating a conspiracy theory, but something just didn’t add up.
*******
Several hours later, Laura Taylor was finally headed home for the day. She needed to grab a few things for dinner, but rather than stopping at her regular grocery store, she made a detour at an out-of-the-way location. She purchased her soup, bread and a few miscellaneous items, and then at the last minute, she added a disposable cell phone.
Those cheap phones didn’t work very well, but it didn’t matter. She only needed to send one message. She disposed of the packaging before she climbed into her car, and then quickly typed out, “Nawaf, the Ghost has been neutralized. LT.”
As she drove home, she dropped the phone out the window inside a roundabout. She was confident that the busy traffic would effectively demolish any evidence of her communications.
Chapter 37
Beginning or the End?
Sheikh Maktoum poured Prince Nawaf a glass of brandy and opened up a nice box of cigars. He figured his friend might be a bit down and need some cheering up after their recent setbacks.
“My friend, I’m so sorry to hear that we have lost our ‘Ghost,’” said the sheikh, offering to light his friend’s cigar.
Nodding slowly, Prince Nawaf replied, “I’m disappointed to lose him as well. He really did some great work in Chicago. However, I am very pleased that my source made sure everything was taken care of so he wouldn’t give away any incriminating information after his capture.”
“True. At least we’re not in any danger ourselves,” asserted Maktoum. He paused a moment. “How much do you think this will set us back? Do we have to pause our activities for a while now?”
Prince Nawaf smiled mischievously. “I’m sad that you would have so little faith in me,” he retorted. “I have a few up-and-comers that I have been working on for quite some time. We are still in business.”
From the Authors
Miranda and I sincerely hope you have enjoyed this book. If you are hungry for more, we are now working on a modern civil war series, and the first book is already available for preorder. Simply click the link here to reserve your copy of Rigged as soon as it comes out.
In the meantime, we do have several audiobooks coming out. Battlefield Ukraine, Battlefield Korea, and Battlefield Taiwan have all been released in audiobook and the rest of the books in the Red Storm Series are currently in production. The first three books of the World War III series are available on audiobook now, and the final book should be released by the end of the year.
If you would like to stay up to date on new releases and receive emails about any special pricing deals we may make available, please sign up for our email distribution list. Simply go to http://www.author-james-rosone.com and scroll to the bottom of the page.
As independent authors, reviews are very important to us and make a huge difference to other prospective readers. If you enjoyed this book, we humbly ask you to write up a positive review on Amazon and Goodreads. We sincerely appreciate each person that takes the time to write one.
We have really valued connecting with our readers via social media, especially on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/RosoneandWatson/. Sometimes we ask for help from our readers as we write future books—we love to draw upon all your different areas of expertise. We also have a group of beta readers who get to look at the books before they are officially published and help us fine-tune last-minute adjustments. If you would like to be a part of this team, please go to our author website: http://www.author-james-rosone.com, and send us a message through the “Contact” tab. You can also follow us on Twitter: @jamesrosone and @AuthorMirandaW. We look forward to hearing from you.
You may also enjoy some of our other works. A full list can be found below:
Nonfiction:
Iraq Memoir 2006-2007 Troop Surge
Interview with a Terrorist
Fiction:
World War III Series
Prelude to World War III: The Rise of the Islamic Republic and the Rebirth of America
Operation Red Dragon and the Unthinkable
Operation Red Dawn and the Invasion of America
Cyber Warfare and the New World Order
Michael Stone Series
Traitors Within
The Red Storm Serie
s
Battlefield Ukraine
Battlefield Korea
Battlefield Taiwan
Battlefield Pacific
Battlefield Russia
Battlefield China
For the Veterans
I have been pretty open with our fans about the fact that PTSD has had a tremendous direct impact on our lives; it affected my relationship with my wife, job opportunities, finances, parenting—everything. It is also no secret that for me, the help from the VA was not the most ideal form of treatment. Although I am still on this journey, I did find one organization that did assist the healing process for me, and I would like to share that information.
Welcome Home Initiative is a ministry of By His Wounds Ministry, and they run seminars for veterans and their spouses for free. The weekends are a combination of prayer and more traditional counseling and left us with resources to aid in moving forward. The entire cost of the retreat—hotel costs, food, and sessions, are completely free from the moment the veteran and their spouse arrive at the location.
If you feel that you or someone you love might benefit from one of Welcome Home Initiative’s sessions, please visit their website to learn more: https://welcomehomeinitiative.org/
We have decided to donate a portion of our profits to this organization, because it made such an impact in our lives and we believe in what they are doing. If you would also like to donate to Welcome Home Initiative and help to keep these weekend retreats going, you can do so by following this link: https://welcomehomeinitiative.org/donate/
Abbreviation Key
ACLUAmerican Civil Liberties Union
CAGIRCenter for Advancing Global Islamic Relations
CELLEXCellular Exploitation
CIACentral Intelligence Agency
CNACertified Nurse’s Assistant
CPDChicago Police Department
CTUCounterterrorism Unit
EREmergency Room
EUEuropean Union
FBIFederal Bureau of Investigations
GIDGeneral Intelligence Department (Saudi version of CIA)
GSIGulf States International
HRHuman Resources
IBAIndividual Body Armor
ICIntelligence Community
ICEImmigration and Customs Enforcement
IEDImprovised Explosive Device
ISISIslamic State in Iraq and Syria
JSOCJoint Special Operations Command
LNGLiquid Natural Gas
M & AMergers and Acquisitions
MMOMassively Multiplayer Online (Roleplaying Game)
NCTCNational Counterterrorism Center
NSANational Security Advisor, OR National Security Agency
NSCNational Security Council
RBSRoyal Bank of Scotland
RNRegistered Nurse
RPGRocket-Propelled Grenade
SASpecial Agent
SACSpecial Agent in Charge
SAPSpecial Access Program
SOGSpecial Operations Group
TFTask Force
UAEUnited Arab Emirates
WMDWeapons of Mass Destruction
