by Tony Lavely
“Then he said…” Elena pointed toward the back room. “… Al-Shazar had a meeting blow up on him, and he killed a couple of the people he couldn’t convince—as he understood it, anyway. After that, he headed back to Syria. That was a couple months ago.”
Beckie shook her head. “I swear, I’m gonna need something stronger than this if no one… If no one smacked this idiot upside the head before I shot him!”
Elena laughed. “Well, it wasn’t Mohammad. Far as he knows, the rebels didn’t do a deal with Al-Shazar before you killed him. He never released the arms, so the arms dealer still hasn’t been paid—the Syrian Daesh being more interested in spreading their gospel than keeping a kafir merchant happy, I guess.”
“Kafir?”
“Non-Muslim,” Leonid said.
“But… That can’t be right! At least, they all acted…” No, they didn’t, really. Beckie rolled her head back, then grabbed at her ponytail. While she twisted the tresses, she said, “Now that I think of it, they were really mixed. But… Pfaugh! What does it matter? They aren’t the problem or the solution right now.” Elena and Leonid were both nodding; then Elena laughed; even Leonid cracked a small grin. “Okay.” She pushed her water away. “Now I do wish we had something stronger.”
Leonid gave her a glance; however, he also opened the refrigerator and withdrew two bottles of Murree beer. “I do not recommend either of you finishing more than one by yourself.” He chuckled. “Haram, you know.”
Elena opened the bottles as Beckie washed out glasses. Nothing more was said until the two women had finished one glass each and poured a second. Leonid had opted for his flask of vodka.
“No,” Beckie said, “it’ll never replace Chardonnay in my heart. But Lena. You’d gotten to where the Monaco people needed money.”
“Right. Since they haven’t been paid, your buddy says, the Monaco people have been worried all along that the archeological work would uncover the weapons Al-Shazar had hidden. He also says that Al-Shazar tried to explain the risk of that was extremely low, but they wouldn’t listen.” She shook her head. “I guess they thought they could get the weapons back, if push came to shove.”
“I hate to say it,” Beckie said, “but he was right about that. From what Chouj told me, the scientists have found nothing that would have sent them in that direction. Everything they’ve been investigating is on the other side of the valley, hundreds of meters away, probably, even measured straight-line, through the rock.”
Leonid nodded his agreement. “So they wouldn’t listen to him? And?”
“He didn’t know why, but Al-Shazar contacted Rezaei. He was to tell Mohammad if you…” Elena pointed to Beckie. “… showed up on site here.”
Beckie grinned at Leonid. “I guess Beth gets the award for saying they were excited to see me, huh?”
He nodded. “And when Mrs. Jamse did appear?”
“Mohammad was to call Al-Shazar that very instant. He delivered the letter… I guess that’s a different letter?” Beckie nodded, saying she’d explain later. “Anyway, he delivered the letter and then, when you showed no signs of leaving, he took some of Rezaei’s men to scout. He couldn’t believe their good luck in finding you on that ridge, all alone.”
“I’ll bet they couldn’t! Stupid, stupid, stupid! Where were they supposed to find me?”
“He’d taken only a few men, figuring to survey the site and see how they might snatch you later on. They didn’t even bring anything to capture you, he said; that’s why they used the blanket.”
“A pretty good job of improvising. We should do so well. Okay, that’s past tense, since Al-Shazar’s dead and the people in France are… What’s today, anyway?”
“Friday.”
“Wow. Well, French law enforcement should have arrested the ones we knew about by… Wednesday, I guess, so they ought to be past tense, too.” She reached for her phone, then scrolled through her recent calls. “Here. Talk to Inspector Pascal; give him all the stuff you got from Mohammad. He’ll be able to sort through the stuff for info he can use.” She rose. “I’m going to take a chair in the front room and contemplate just how not to fuck up the meeting.”
Elena took the phone but instead of using it, she said, “Is that what scares you?”
Beckie stopped halfway through the door. Is that it? No. No, not at all. “No, Lena, what scares me is making the kind of mistake that gets people killed or injured. Or makes the job… unattainable, maybe. When it’s the kind of error that someone with more experience wouldn’t make. That’s what scares me.”
She turned, walking into the front room to find a chair.
Elena talked; Beckie could hear about one word in five. Those words sounded like a conversation with the Inspector, so she let it go. What are you doing here, Beck? Trying to get far enough ahead that Lyeka and his team can do the job we contracted, what do you think? I think you’re looking to be all save-the-world. No fucking way! I don’t need that! I have Ian, and Ralf, and a bunch of friends and family who I love. And they love me, too, and not as some… Some superhero bitch who sticks her nose in everywhere.
She laughed at herself. Isn’t that what you’ve been doing? Is it? You really think so? Yeah. I think it’s likely enough that you need to give it some serious consideration.
For several minutes, she did just that. No, she finally told herself. I’m here at Leonid’s request. I’m doing my best to support the team. Maybe I go overboard… but it’s not like after Ian’s… disappearance, when I was convincing the team I could do the job. That was over the top. Elena had the right idea last November, for sure. Okay. Make sure you keep it that way.
Now, Khan. How to reach him? Ha. Give him blanks he can fill in. Even better, have Leonid give him the blanks so the whole gender thing doesn’t get in the way.
“Lyeka? You available?”
Elena popped her head around the arch. “He’s up to the site to collect Fedor for the meeting. Why?”
“Oh, okay. I wanted to go over an approach to the meeting. It can wait, I guess.”
“Well, I’m here…”
Yeah. Beckie cast an inquisitorial glance at her newly-recovered friend. She’d be good, except… “You are, and I’m happy. But while we can talk, and go over things, I wanted Lyeka because part of it is to have him do the work.”
“Ah. To get over the female talking to the man thing these guys have? Good idea. Wish I’d thought of it,” she said with a laugh. “Well, tell me anyway, as practice.”
“Okaaay.” Yeah, that wouldn’t be bad. “I was gonna start by pointing out that Lyeka and his five team members managed to hold off, then drive off a couple dozen of Rezaei’s troops, with no injuries… Yeah,” she said with a giggle, “I know, but you’re not really part of Leonid’s team, and my bruises are mostly from France, not here. Or do you want to be part of his team?”
“Not with a hole in me!”
“So I drop that topic, leaving it to him to decide if his troops… if his farmers and sheepherders are orders of magnitude better than Rezaei’s.”
“What about the rebels?”
“Not gonna mention them. Between us, I don’t believe this operation is big enough for them to bother with, especially since Smythe seems determined to keep the results here in Baluchistan. That’s a big part of the rebels’ problem, that they believe the Islamabad government is riding roughshod over the resources, people and future of the territory.”
“So you don’t think he’d be able to pull them in?”
“I don’t, because that whole cave full of weapons didn’t tempt them to join Daesh. Maybe they’re smart enough to see what Daesh really offers, and that it’s not a future they’d want.” She paused to give that a moment’s thought; Elena took one of the chairs. “Of course, given their recruiting successes, there are a fair number of people, like Jose for example, who think what Daesh offers is exactly what they want, but… Khan seems a little more…”
“Educated? Stable? Or even, rational?”<
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“Yeah, some combination of those things, maybe.”
“The question is how to explain that so he thinks it’s his idea, right?”
“So right!” Beckie smirked, then wriggled on the uncomfortable chair. “So, you are patched up, right?” Elena rubbed the injured shoulder, but agreed. “I’m thinking of leaving Gill and Ben here to keep track of the weapons—the nukes, mostly. Want to help them out with that?”
Elena leaned back in her chair. “Let me talk to them about it after you decide. My inclination is yes, to give them another pair of hands, and no, because it’d take too much time for us to get comfortable with each other’s style, and this won’t be that long. At least…”
“No, a few days, that would be the plan. Okay. Let me know.”
They talked a little more, filling the time before Leonid parked out front and he and Fedor traipsed in.
“Who’s at the site now?” Beckie asked.
“Everyone except us. Anatoly’s in charge.”
“Cool. So, Rezaei’s more likely to try there? And Fab and Tark’re up there, too?”
He nodded. “Yeah. Unless we need one of them here. When Rezaei gets out, I think he’ll try the site again. We don’t have anything here that he considers important.”
Beckie chuckled. “I know that feeling. And how often it’s wrong! But we can let him go for now. Elena can take the window in my room and be ready to… to rebuff any unwanted advances.”
Elena reached for one of the AK-47’s leaning in the corner beside her. As she hefted it, she said, “My pleasure. I’m always happy to spurn those… who have the wrong idea about how their advances will be received. That room’s the one where Dinesh tried to wake you, right?”
Beckie laughed as she agreed, and Elena headed out.
“So, Mrs. Jamse, has the plan changed?”
“I think not, except for one thing. You and maybe Fedor, if you two agree, will have the lead after I open.”
“Are you sure? Not that I disagree, but…”
“I’m sure. Like an earlier job, the result has too much promise to focus on getting someone who’s got forty, fifty years of indoctrination to change his mind. And I don’t need the validation, either.”
“I heartily agree, Mrs. Jamse. On both accounts.”
“I appreciate that, Fedor. So, I’ll remind him of your success against Rezaei’s troops, and leave it to him to decide that it’d be foolish for him to challenge you, too. Oh, I need you to think if you’re gonna need additional people going forward, since I think Sam and his guys… Well, maybe I can ask Ben to stay after we decide what to do with the packages and the closet. I’m gonna ask him and Gillian to stay til that’s sorted, but then I thought about having him move here to learn some of what you’re doing…
“Anyway, think about that.
“Once I leave that in Khan’s head, I’ll back out and you guys can take it over. The points I want us to leave with him, after the futility of an armed attack on the site and the team… First, who’s on his side, here? Daesh seems like a bad answer to that… and I think he’s on-board with that, too. How about the Baluchistan rebels? Or the Islamabad government? I have my opinions, but I don’t have near enough data to inject them into the conversation, so… I guess the answer there is that either of those would be preferable to Daesh or one of the other theocratic extremist groups the Middle East is full of.”
Leonid and Fedor exchanged looks before Leonid said, “I think that’s a fair view.”
“Thanks. And if I’m at all… aware, I think Khan’s ready to agree to that as well. Rezaei… I’m not so sure about him. If weapons had been available to him, I think he’d have bowed to whomever… Until they turned and bit him, anyway. But it’d have been too late, then.
“You may have to get Chouj back in… unless there’s someone in the Islamabad government that Khan trusts? We need to convince him that Smythe has the best interests of Baluchistan in mind… After the site excavation, anyway! And that he and the scientists have the historical record’s preservation foremost. Their next highest priority is the local people, to make sure they aren’t impacted in a negative way.” She pinned the two men with a steady gaze. “Of course, this is all from my outsider viewpoint, says the girl who plans to hop on a Qatar 777 for a trip to Miami… What I really want to avoid is pushing you in a direction that will interfere with the job I’ve asked you to complete. Like I told Elena before.”
“I think another thing we should discuss with Khan…” Leonid said. “Whether he can ally with us to keep Rezaei at bay. If we can—”
“That’s excellent!” And I didn’t have to push it! “Find out if there are incentives we can offer that might make that job easier.”
“Did you have a… an offer in mind?”
“I know that medical care makes a difference in some parts of the world, especially where it’s… otherwise hard to come by. Make sure any offer of that type… Well, I hear a lot of immunization teams, for example, are attacked because the warlords or tribal leaders believe they’re spying for the US, or the central government, or who knows. Anyone who worries about that should know first, that our intel doesn’t come from Red Cross or Red Crescent or any doctor, and second; we will lay waste to anyone who even injures a Red Cross or Red Crescent worker. Or one of our medical people.” She grabbed for her ponytail. Once she’d freed it from inside the armor, she began to braid and unbraid it. “I don’t know what else might interest him, and convince him, even if we can’t be the ally he’s dreaming of, we are not the enemy he fears.”
“And we’re open to—”
“I’m open to whatever he wants. There are some budgetary constraints, and I’m not going to send you guys on missions to kill off his ‘sworn enemies,’ whoever they might be.” She flipped the ponytail over her shoulder. “Let’s say… I’ll fund whatever you think is worthwhile up to… Oh, fuck. Up to a hundred thousand euros a month, but we won’t give it to him. See what you can do with that, okay?”
Both Leonid and Fedor had a glazed expression, but Leonid recovered first. “I never thought… Sam told us you were funding a hospital in Syria, with especial concern for children. I never thought of the expense…”
Beckie smiled. “I don’t pay it all, of course; about half of it is part of the contract payment… though I suppose the contract isn’t… explicit. Likewise, here. In keeping with my belief that Smythe and his people are interested in the local conditions, a significant fraction of whatever you agree to will come from him.” She stretched her legs out before her. “So, it’s not what I consider an obscene amount of money, especially if it makes it easier for you to accomplish our work, and it makes life better for people who have nothing to look forward to.”
“I can’t imagine that the government would object, but…”
Beckie was sure her sardonic feeling showed in her grin. “I understand completely. When you have ideas from Khan or whoever else you talk to, I’ll vet them through Smythe and his contacts.”
Leonid nodded in agreement. “Make sure Smythe and his contacts understand, like the spying you mentioned before, that there will be no proselytizing in any of this.”
“Of course. But I depend on you guys to make sure that whatever we do isn’t subverted, either.”
They nodded.
Khan appeared as scheduled; the meeting went much as Beckie hoped, given that she sat off to the side, where Khan didn’t have to notice her if he chose not to.
Except for the implication that Beckie made clear: that Leonid would have support for any defensive measures required to protect the people and site, and that he was eminently capable of deploying them, Khan found himself in the position Beckie’d believed him to be, not enamored of any of the options that had so far presented themselves.
He agreed with Leonid, but wanted to discuss with his people the idea of supporting them against Rezaei before falling into line. Likewise, on his own he was uncomfortable presenting projects that might make
the team’s presence more palatable.
However, during the conversation about medical assistance, Leonid rose and waved Beckie to join him outside the building. “I apologize that Fedor and Khan are conversing in Urdu—” Beckie waved that off. Like I want to do anything to slow this down! “I think a major component of any package we can offer should be a… I’m not sure a hospital would be required, but a clinic at least.”
“I thought I sensed that,” Beckie agreed. “I also have the feeling that, no matter what she thinks, Millie needs to post a job requirement for an administrator. She’s not gonna have enough hours to even think about the work we’re signing her up for.” She sleeked her hair back to the tie holding her ponytail. “Not that you need to worry about that. That one thing, anyway,” she said with a smirk.
He returned it full-force. “So, that would meet with your approval then?”
“As I said. Just like the US State Department. I’ll spread whatever projects you believe important across the money available. If I have an issue, well, I know how to find you.” As they turned back toward the house, she said, “I thought he was not willing to take responsibility on himself; how will that affect us?”
“He’s not the alpha, true. So, he wishes to have others share his decisions. Since we beat Rezaei, I think Khan will be able to pull a coalition together, especially if he can bring… I’m tempted to say, booty? A prize? Or maybe a bribe? If those don’t bother you?”
She laughed as she caught his arm and stopped him. “While I wouldn’t use such… descriptive terms, I can’t argue with them. So, go for it!”
Back in the meeting, Beckie again sat quietly while Leonid and Fedor beat the issues she and Leonid had discussed into the floor. Khan frequently glanced at her; she did her best to be smiling or at least pleasant when he did. When Fedor was speaking in Urdu, she wondered if her, bribe? Yeah, call it what it is, a bribe to behave. She wondered if that were the topic when he looked her way. Leonid, on the other hand, needed no translation; he spoke English and she knew he was talking about the clinic and agricultural supplies.
