by Rene Fomby
That proved to be the winning argument. The guard relented, albeit still reluctantly, and in just a few minutes Gavin and Andy drove quickly through the gates before he could change his mind, heading dead south toward the mysterious blob in the middle of the desert.
46
Sahara, South of Remada
“How much further?” Gavin glanced over at Andy, who had her face buried in what looked like a military-hardened version of a seven inch iPad.
“We should be right up on it.” She spread her thumb and forefinger on the display to zoom in. “Maybe another two hundred yards, then fifty feet or so off to our right.”
Gavin checked the GPS display on the Jeep’s dashboard, his brow knitted in confusion. “On our right? I thought when we looked at the coordinates back at the hotel, it was supposed to be on the left side of the road.”
“Well, nonetheless, the blob is definitely on the right. Maybe they moved the road since your GPS was last updated. Or maybe it’s a resolution issue. Consumer GPS units are intentionally dumbed down compared to military versions, which are accurate down to about a foot. Who knows? But I’m looking right now at a live video feed from one of our satellites.” She turned the tablet so he could see it better. “See that red spot? That’s Blobby. And the little rectangle with all the dust trailing along behind it is us. So, pull off the road right now and we can trek over on foot. Much safer than risking getting stuck in the sand.”
Gavin slowed the Jeep down to a crawl and pulled off the road to the right, careful not to get bogged down in the dunes that had drifted right up to the edge of the roadway. “You’re looking at a live video feed? How are you pulling that off? We haven’t come across a cell phone tower since we left Remada.”
Andy smiled and jerked a thumb toward her pink suitcase, now lying in the seat behind them. “Sat phone, silly. Duh, Naval Intelligence. We got all the 007 toys. And a satellite phone with Bluetooth is built right into the body of my suitcase.”
Gavin’s jaw dropped open. “The one you slammed into the AK-47 back there? That suitcase?”
“Yeah, well, there was a slight chance it could have gotten damaged, but given the fact that we were largely out of options at that point, I figured what the heck. Besides, I have a backup phone tucked into my curling iron.”
“You not only had a secret satellite phone, but also a secret backup phone? What else do you have hidden in that little suitcase of yours?”
“Oh, this and that,” she answered, hopping out of the Jeep and reaching back to grab hold of the case. “You know what our motto was, back in the Scouts. ‘Be Prepared.’ It’s a pretty useful motto, as mottos go.”
“You were in the Girl Scouts?” Gavin asked as he jumped out himself and joined her, walking westward toward their mysterious destination out in the sands.
“Girl Scouts? Hell no. Not with a name like Andie. I joined the boys in green.”
That caused Gavin to stop in his tracks. “But I thought the Boy Scouts had a rule about that. No girls allowed.”
“And you think a little bitty rule like that would stop Andie Patterson?” she answered with a snort. “No, in the end, my troop just had to settle on a don’t ask don’t tell policy. Because the alternative was not going to end up pretty. Not pretty at all. And, after all, someone had to smash through that glass ceiling, so it might as well have been me.” She stopped and set her case down. “Oh, and by the way, unless you have something better to do tonight, you might want to wander over this way.” She reached out with the toe of her boot to draw a large ‘X’ in the sand. “As they say, X marks the spot.”
47
Sahara, South of Remada
Gavin had his right knee down on the sand and was leaning forward, closely examining the ground in front of him. “Okay, so now we’re finally here, but I don’t see anything out of the ordinary. Just this confounded sand, just complete desolation for hundreds of miles around. And that would include Remada.”
“If you were supposed to see something at first glance, it wouldn’t be much of a mystery now, would it?” Andy reached into her suitcase and pulled out what appeared to be a large pink vibrator, about eight inches long, with pronounced ridges ringing it about every inch or so. A knob of sorts was attached to one end, black with raised ridges to make it easier to grip.
“Really, Andy? A vibrator?” Gavin looked aghast, and more than slightly embarrassed.
“Not a vibrator, country boy. A probe.” She turned the knob a quarter turn and the vibrator started to hum slightly. “There. That should be about right.” Leaning over, she inserted the tip of the device into the sand and pressed it down, burying it to the hilt. Almost immediately the device started to wriggle its way further down into the packed sand. “Pretty clever, don’t you think?” Andy glanced up at Gavin with a big grin splitting her face. “Anyone who came across the probe in the suitcase would take it for what it appears to be, and leave it alone. But with its unique cross-sectional shape, plus the ridges and the constant vibration, it’s perfect for digging deep into the sand to find out what’s really down there. And its tip is designed to be flexible, so I can steer it a little as it travels along on its merry little way.”
Gavin was still shaking his head in disbelief as she reached back down into her bag and pulled out the computer tablet. Her fingers danced across the screen for a few seconds, her face blank with concentration. “Ah, and a good thing, too, since it’s already veered off a little. Just a small correction … there! Moving along nicely.”
Gavin was shaking his head, not for the first time on this mission. “Who’s idea was it to make that thing—”
“Look like a sex toy?” Andy suggested. “Well, the original probe was pretty much that shape to begin with, but painted Army green. Not exactly something that would escape close scrutiny at the border. Or getting on a commercial flight, for that matter. But, believe it or not, it’s not all that uncommon for young women to travel with a little battery-powered companion. In fact, they’ve been known to go off accidentally in carry-on luggage, leading to no small amount of embarrassment when TSA agents opened up the bag in front of God and everyone and dragged it out into plain sight. So, at our planning meeting, I simply suggested we make some small cosmetic changes to let it, in effect, hide in plain sight.”
“Clever.” Gavin moved over to get a better look at the probe’s progress. “And that little booger is moving along pretty quickly, I’ll give you that. So what happens when it hits the blob?”
“Well, the tip is designed to open up a little, and it’s got a lighted camera and a sampling probe. You may not have noticed, but I attached a fifty-foot wire to the back end of the probe before I launched it, so we can haul it back up and check out what it finds. It would have been nice to have wireless streaming video, but the energy cost to shove a signal up through all that sand was just too high—the batteries are stressed out enough just getting it to work its way all the way down to where the blob is hiding. So we’ll have to analyze the video and the samples when it gets back up.”
Gavin looked down at the ground beneath him skeptically, now finally noticing the thin metal line snaking its way inexorably into the earth. “And what if the blob is radioactive? Or contains a deadly biological or chemical agent?”
Andy tapped her screen. “If it’s radioactive, we’ll get an immediate alert sent back along the retrieval line, and we’ll just let the thing stay down there and call in the cavalry. For bio and chemical threats, I’ll be using gloves. And believe me, I will be very careful in how I handle that thing once it breaks the surface.”
“And do you have some kind of advanced analytical toolkit buried in that suitcase of yours?” After what he’d seen so far, Gavin wouldn’t put it past her.
She wagged her finger at him irritatedly, but her eyes were showing something else. “No, goofball, that would be crazy. No way we could test for every possibility this far out in the desert. As a matter of fact, I have a little pi
nk cover in my things, disguised as a condom. I’ll roll the condom over the probe, covering the open tip and sealing in the samples. Plus I have an anti-biological and anti-chemical spray for the outside, just in case something manages to slip past, and then it’s back into its own little travel case for the trip back to the embassy in Tunis. After that, it’s somebody else’s problem.”
“Okay, makes sense. How are we doing so far?”
“Just a few more feet to go. Let me move it a bit more to the left … the sand down there is pretty well packed, so the going’s a bit slow …”
They stood silently together, his shoulder lightly touching hers, each quietly watching the probe slowly inch its way toward its intended target. Above them, the stars glowed brilliantly in a cloudless sky, and the brutal heat of the midday desert had finally given way to a gentle breeze, almost cold in comparison to what they had been facing the past several days. Gavin looked over a moment to study Andy’s face, now scrunched up in deep concentration as she continued to carefully and deftly guide the probe along its path. She had chosen to wear her trademark baseball cap throughout the long drive down from Remada, but several strands of hair had now managed to escape, draping down her nape line and glowing softly in the light of the nearly full moon.
“Whoo-hoo! We’re there!” Gavin returned his attention to the tablet as Andy activated the release mechanism for the probe’s tip. “Good news is, so far no indication of radiation. So it looks like we’ll be able to take my little buddy home with us.” When the probe signaled along the guide wire that the end was now completely exposed, she turned on the camera and a tiny LED light. Almost immediately an out-of-focus image popped up on her screen.
“I thought you said this thing couldn’t send real-time video, because of the density of the sand,” Gavin pointed out.
“Well, we wouldn’t want to raise your expectations too high, now, would we?” she asked. “You’re a little on the demanding side, you know. But it looks like we’re getting enough coming through the wire to at least get some low-quality images. We’ll have high-res video to pour over once this thing gets back to civilization. But this definitely helps. At least now I don’t have to steer it blind—”
The image quickly came into focus, but it still just looked like a blotchy field of white. “Okay, nothing much yet. The biggest problem is that the sand keeps getting in the way. Let me turn up the volume on the wiggle motor a hair and see if we can’t create a little more room to look around.”
All of a sudden, the image started to shake violently. “Uh, is it supposed to do that?” Gavin asked.
“Yeah, it’s just the wiggling. Here, I’ll turn it off now so we can look around.”
As she shut off the motor, the vibration quickly abated, and dead ahead of the probe was an area that looked like brown leather, punctuated by a hard, starkly whitish substance. Andy adjusted the focus, zooming in on the brown material.
“Merde,” she muttered under her breath.
Gavin bent his head closer toward the tablet, unable to make heads or tails of the image on the screen. “What is it? What do you see?”
“Well, hubby, it looks like things are about to become a lot more complicated between the U.S. and Tunisia. A lot more complicated.” She turned the tablet to face him. “That, my love, is some recently mummified flesh and what appears to be the end of a femur. It seems that our Mr. Blobby is actually a whole lot of misters. Those are dead bodies down there. Dozens of dead bodies. And maybe a whole lot more than that.”
48
Sahara, South of Remada
Gavin held the tablet tightly in his hands, still not quite believing what he was seeing. “Where do you suppose they came from? I mean, this many people. Dead. And there’s no way anyone could have snuck all these bodies past the guards in Remada without somebody knowing. And somebody else pretty high up signing off on it.”
Andy nodded, looking thoughtfully off into the distance. “Right. And based upon the amount of decomposition of the bodies, and the fact that the guards were willing to let us wander around down here with no supervision, I’m guessing this took place several years back. Probably before the current guards were ever assigned to Remada. But we’ll have to wait for a forensics team to nail that down any tighter.”
“So what do we do now? Should we pull up the probe?” Gavin asked.
“Nah, there’s not a lot to be gained by that. Especially since we don’t know what killed all those people. It could have been biological or chemical, and there’s a good chance whatever it was is still active. I don’t know about you, but I think we’ve already taken on our fair share of risks during this mission. Best to just let sleeping probes lie.” She retrieved the tablet, turning it off and placing it back in her bag. “I guess the first thing we need to do is call this thing in and get new marching orders. We’ve accomplished what we were supposed to do, which is to find out what this thing is. And my feeling is, discovering dozens of dead bodies buried in the desert is going to create a rather unfortunate and sticky situation between our government and the local authorities. A situation neither of us has been trained to deal with.”
Andy bent over her suitcase, wrestling momentarily with the contents, then stood back up, earplugs and a tube of lipstick clenched in her palm. She smiled apologetically. “If you don’t mind, I’ve got a private call I have to make.” She turned and walked a short distance off into the desert, inserting the earplugs into her ears and unscrewing the lipstick case. All Gavin could catch was her asking to be connected to a Bob Sanders, before the desert breeze finally carried her voice across the sand.
49
Tunis Airport
Tunis-Carthage International Airport was bustling for a Wednesday morning, with flights to Paris and London leaving back-to-back, and a Lufthansa flight just now disembarking passengers out of Germany on holiday. Gavin checked to see if he could get a good wifi connection, but as usual, the free wifi signal at Café Lindo was down. This made the second Monday in a row where he was forced to miss his weekly call with the kids. He sent a short apology by instant messenger to each of the kids—and to his former wife—promising to do better next week. He knew the kids would understand—after all, they had spent years getting used to his duty-bound absence, even if that pattern of drop-everything-and-go had mostly been put on hold since he had moved to Morocco. But he also knew Lisa would make sure to use this as yet one more convenient opportunity to undermine his status with the children.
Andy bounced up and grabbed a chair just across from him, setting her pink carry-on suitcase beside her on the floor. “Hey, G, why so glum? We’re on our way home. You should be happy to get back to your little man-about-town routine.”
“You mean working twelve hours a day and letting bad TV fill up the rest of my time? Yeah, really exciting.” He jerked his chin toward her case. “I see you’ve got all your spy gear tied down, ready for the next adventure. Where are you off to next?”
She shrugged, and for the first time since they’d met, Gavin noticed she seemed to have lost her trademark grin. “Oh, back to the analyst desk, I suppose. Sanders wants me in London for a few days for a full debrief. They’re still trying to work out how to break the news to the Tunisian government, and I don’t know about you, but I’ll be happy to be out of country when that happens. We broke more than just a few of the local laws during our short stay here, and with the uneasy relationship the U.S. has with Tunis these days, I’m betting the locals might like to use you and me as some kind of bargaining chip.” She glanced down at his ticket, currently being used as a coaster for the bottle of beer he was nursing. “And you?”
“I don’t even warrant a debrief, I suppose. So it’s back to guarding VIPs and handling minor dustups with American tourists. And thinking once more about what I want to be when I grow up.”
“Well, I don’t know about the FBI, but based upon what I just saw up close and personal over the last week, I’d be pleased to call you my
partner any time.” The overhead speaker announced in Arabic and English that the British Air flight to London was now boarding, so to his surprise, she leaned over to give him a quick peck on the lips. “A kiss for luck, Gavin. I hope to see you again someday, but—”
“Yeah, I know. Duty calls. But, hey, good luck to you, too. When all this started, I’ll have to admit I had some reservations, especially since we didn’t exactly seem to hit it off at first. But it was fun, even if some of the moments were a bit too—exciting. In the wrong way. But there were also a few exciting moments that weren’t all that bad …” He looked off to the side, awkwardly. “Look, Andy, this mission will always be a special memory for me. Particularly since it will probably be my last. But getting to know you, getting to work with you, that was extra special. So—thanks. And, if you’re ever in the neighborhood, don’t hesitate to drop in.”
Andy smiled at that, and he could see a thin film of silver just starting to line her eyes. “Yeah, well, the feeling is mutual, partner.”
The loudspeaker made another boarding call for her flight, and she used it as an excuse to gather up her things to leave. She leaned over and gave him another quick kiss on the forehead, then turned quickly and strode off toward her gate, pulling the little pink suitcase behind her. As Gavin watched her disappear into the throng of tourists, his last image of her began to blur, and he had to reach up to wipe away some moisture that had somehow managed to find its way into his own eyes.
