A puzzled look appeared on his face as he stared down at the screen. For a moment, I was afraid he’d received an alert about Gault’s demise, and not the phony text message from the Ops Center.
Hussein shook his head and walked over to me. “Where’s Jacob? I need to give him a message.”
“He and Stephen are speaking with the EAI director right now. What’s the message?”
Hussein began walking back over to the mobile trailer where he’d parked his SUV, and I immediately fell into step beside him.
He said, “Tell him another driver will be here to pick him up and take him over to his classroom. I have to return to the base and pick up a package for someone.”
When he got near the trailer, he stopped abruptly and started shaking his head. “No,” he said, “something’s not right here. I’ve never been asked to deliver a package before.”
I felt the synapses in my cerebral cortex kick into overdrive as I tried to come up with a compelling scenario he might believe. When the neurons finally sparked, I said, “Maybe it’s an important package, and you’re the only one they trust to deliver it.”
He thought about what I’d said. “You could be right. They want me to take it to Prince bin Rahman’s villa.”
“There you go. You said a delegation from the Crown Prince was at his villa today.” I quickly turned to Mitchell, who was a few steps behind me, and said, “Hussein needs to leave now, but before he goes, give him the rest of the money we promised him, and don’t forget to give him a bonus for the extra footage we shot here at the camp.”
“Of course,” Mitchell said, unzipping a side pocket on his camera bag and removing a bundle of $100 bills. “You were an excellent subject, Hussein. Thanks for helping us out.”
As Hussein took the money, he smiled and said, “You’re welcome. It was nice meeting you. If you need anything else while you’re here, let me know. I can probably get it for you.”
He gave us a quick wave and got inside the Explorer.
As he drove off, Delaney and Taylor walked up.
“So that’s it? Hussein’s gone?” Delaney asked.
“Yeah, and we didn’t even have to use Plan B,” Mitchell said.
“That makes me feel a lot better,” Delaney said.
“Me too,” I said. “I hate it when we have to use Plan B.”
* * * *
Barron was in the kitchen talking to Dave when we reentered the trailer, but since I could see the top half of his passport sticking out of his pocket, I figured he’d already been down the hall to see Carlton.
Now, it was my turn.
When I walked by the kitchen, I grabbed a bottle of water off the counter, but I declined the plate of food Dave offered me. “I need to go have a chat with Douglas. I’d prefer to do it on an empty stomach.”
“Wise move,” Dave said with a grin. “I’ll save you a plate, though.”
I thanked him and headed down the short hallway.
Unlike Dave, when I rapped a couple of times on Carlton’s door, I waited to hear him say, “Come in,” before opening the door.
Instead of sitting at his console, Carlton was standing behind Finn observing the feed from the surveillance drone flying over Prince bin Rahman’s villa.
The scene didn’t appear any different from when I’d seen it several minutes ago.
“Has anything changed?” I asked.
Carlton turned away from the monitor and shook his head. “No one has come out of the villa yet, and there’s been no sign of Samir. If you leave within the next thirty minutes, you should be in Al-Mukalla by the time anyone figures out Jacob has abandoned them.”
Carlton motioned for me to have a seat, and then he sat down at the console.
“Finn,” he said, looking back over his shoulder, “why don’t you take a break and get something to eat. Titus and I will keep an eye on the monitor.”
“Sure thing,” Finn said, scooting his chair away from the desk, “I could use a break.”
As Finn reached for the doorknob, he made eye contact with me. From the look on his face, I felt sure he knew Carlton had asked him to leave so we could have a private conversation.
I also had the feeling he already knew the topic Carlton wanted to discuss with me, but when I tried to read the expression on his face to get a hint of the subject matter, it was difficult to identify what I saw there. Maybe it was sadness.
It could have been concern.
It definitely wasn’t joy.
* * * *
The moment Finn shut the door, Carlton said he wanted to keep an eye on the monitor above Finn’s desk while we talked, so he asked me to move over to the chair Finn had just vacated.
Once I’d taken a seat and swiveled the chair around to face him, he leaned forward in his own chair and pressed both palms together.
“As you know, Titus, when the Agency receives any kind of communication from an operative’s family when a mission is running, it’s up to the division head or his handler to decide whether or not to relay that information to the operative. Today, I received some bad news about a family member associated with someone on our operational team, and now I have a decision to make.”
Had something happened to Nikki? Was it the Stadium Killer? She’d tried to tell me something about her case the other night, but I’d been so intent on letting Taylor talk to his daughter, we hadn’t had a chance to finish our conversation.
“Here’s the thing, Titus. I need to—”
“Just tell me what’s happened.”
“I’m getting to that,” he said, giving me a strange look.
“It’d be easier on me if you’d just tell me.”
“What? Wait a minute. Do you think this has something to do with you?”
“It sounded like you were about to—”
“Okay, in a way I guess it does have something to do with you, but I didn’t get any bad news about one of your family members. Is that what you’re thinking?”
“I was thinking about Nikki.”
“No, this has nothing to do with Nikki. The bad news I received was about Max Taylor, Jeremy’s father.”
“Jeremy’s father?”
“That’s right. You may not know this, but Jeremy’s wife was killed in a car accident last year, and he moved in with his father. Now, Max takes care of Jeremy’s young daughter while he’s out of the country.”
“His daughter’s name is Eleanor, and, yes, he did mention his wife’s accident to me, and he also said his father’s been diagnosed with some kind of cancer. Has something happened to his father?”
Carlton briefly glanced up at the monitor, and then he nodded. “He has stomach cancer. I learned about it when I contacted Dirk Andersen about Jeremy being on the Rebel Merchant team. Then, today, I got a call from Andersen saying Max had been admitted to the hospital. He called a neighbor who took him to the hospital, and now she’s the person taking care of Jeremy’s daughter until he gets back home.”
“Jeremy was already worried about leaving Eleanor, so I imagine this will make him even more concerned. At least he’ll be back in the States in less than forty-eight hours. What do you know about his father’s condition? Is it serious?”
“It’s very serious. Andersen told me the doctors have determined he has Stage IV stomach cancer. He may not survive the week.”
I was speechless for a moment.
“That’s terrible news,” I finally said. “I can’t imagine how Jeremy will feel when he hears this.”
“That’s what I wanted to discuss with you. You’ve spent time with Jeremy. Do you think he should be told now, or would it be better to wait until he’s back in the States?”
I had no idea what to tell him.
I took a quick glance up at the monitor to stall for time while I breathed a prayer for wisdom.
It was a simple prayer; there was nothing fancy about it.
“God, what should I say? What’s the best thing to do here?”
I looked over at
Carlton and said, “There’s nothing Jeremy can do about the situation right now, so my advice would be to wait until we’re back in the States. I don’t mind telling him myself as soon as we land.”
“Good enough,” Carlton said, standing to his feet.
He motioned up at the monitor. “Your team needs to get on the road immediately. I believe the man you see there in the middle is Samir Al-Saker, and I suspect he’s headed over to Jacob’s house.”
I glanced up at the screen just as three men dressed in white thobes walked out of Prince Rahman’s villa and headed over to one of the black Land Rovers.
It was time for the GNS crew, plus Jacob Levin, to get on the road to Al-Mukalla.
It had already been a long day; now, it was about to get even longer.
PART FIVE
Chapter 40
When I returned to the living room, I asked Taylor to move the Toyota from where it was parked at the side of the EAI trailer around to the front door.
My intention was to make it more difficult for anyone driving by the emergency aid centers to be able to identify the passengers who were about to get into the vehicle.
After Taylor left to move the SUV, I told Jacob to take off his Arabic clothing.
Underneath his thobe, he was wearing a pair of jeans and a faded red shirt. Perhaps it was just my imagination, but the moment he took off the long white tunic, he seemed to relax.
When I told him we were headed to the Saudi airbase at Al-Mukalla where we’d meet up with a small contingent of Special Operations Forces, and then be flown to our own airbase in Oman, he merely nodded his head and said, “Of course.”
He had the same reaction when I explained I wanted him to lie down in the third row of seats when he got inside the vehicle and to stay in that position until I’d issued the all-clear signal.
After I’d given Jacob these instructions, Dave walked up and handed us each a bottle of water, and then he picked up a couple of blankets, the kind the EAI organization passed out to refugees every day.
“I’d suggest you have Jacob cover himself with these blankets until you’re away from here. I know you don’t want anyone seeing him leave the camp with you.”
I motioned toward the back of the trailer. “Was that his suggestion?”
“That’s right,” he said with a smile. “He prides himself on taking care of even the smallest details, but I suppose you know that.”
“Only too well.”
I handed the blankets to Jacob, who gestured at Carlton’s door and said, “Before we leave, will I get to meet this invisible person everyone keeps talking about?”
I admit I was surprised by his question. I didn’t think he’d been that aware of what was going on.
“No, you won’t be meeting him. He prefers to stay in the shadows.”
He nodded. “I can identify.”
As we were about to walk out the door, I shook Barron’s hand and told him it had been good working with him again.
“I always try to keep it interesting,” he said.
“And you usually succeed.”
“Back at you, my friend.”
* * * *
When Taylor pulled up in the Toyota, we all piled in the vehicle together. Jacob climbed into the third row of seats, covering himself with the blankets, while Mitchell and Delaney took the second row of seats, and I sat up front with Taylor.
No one said anything until we’d driven out of the refugee camp and were back on the highway. At that point, I told Jacob he didn’t have to stay hidden any longer.
The moment he sat up, he began asking a series of random questions about various topics. The subjects ranged all the way from the price of movie tickets, to the newest features on smartphones, to the most popular nighttime comedians on television.
I left it up to Delaney and Mitchell to answer his questions, but as I listened to their conversation, it wasn’t long before I realized the overarching purpose of Jacob’s questions was to educate himself on the various cultural and technological changes which had taken place in American life during the five years he’d been away.
From there, the topics moved on to the political arena, and when that happened, I turned my attention to Taylor, who had yet to utter a single word since we’d left Somahi.
“Are you ready to get home?” I asked.
He gave me a weak smile. “I think I’ve been ready since the day we left. If there’s one thing this trip has taught me, it’s that I’m applying for a desk job as soon as we get back to the States. No more traveling for me.”
Since I knew what was facing him when he got back home, I tried to encourage him to begin thinking along those lines.
“With your experience, you won’t have any difficulty finding an intelligence job that puts you behind a desk all day.”
“Don’t get me wrong, Titus. I love my work. I just love Eleanor more, and I really feel she needs me right now.”
“You should definitely go with that feeling.”
“I’ve also made up my mind about something else. After hearing you talk about your faith last night, I’ve decided I should start taking Eleanor to church. She’s already been asking questions about God, and to be truthful, I wasn’t sure what to tell her.”
“When you were growing up, did your parents take you to church?”
“No, but I did attend a church camp when I was a teenager. I only went because some girl invited me, but I think during one of the Bible studies I said a prayer, or I might have made some kind of commitment like you talked about last night. Now, I’m sorry I never followed through with it, because if I’d taken the time to understand what I was doing, then maybe I’d be a better dad.”
“Well, it’s never too late, you know.”
“I just want what’s best for Eleanor.”
I thought it might make him feel better if he talked about her, so I asked him what he meant the other day when he said she was a precocious child.
He laughed. “I’m sure all parents think their children are super smart, but in Eleanor’s case, it turned out to be true. My wife had her tested when she was six, because she was already reading on a third-grade level. She was only four years old when she started reading.”
That sounded pretty early to me, so I said, “That’s amazing.”
“It is, isn’t it? I’m telling you, Titus, talking to her is like talking to an adult. I joke with her a lot, because she also has a great sense of humor.”
“Eleanor sounds like a really neat kid.”
Taylor’s attention was momentarily diverted by a slow-moving pickup, but once he’d passed the vehicle, he smiled and said, “One day, I was kidding her about something, and she didn’t know whether to believe me or not. The next morning, when we were having breakfast, she told me she’d come up with some special words she wanted me to use if I was telling her the truth.”
“Now there’s an idea the Agency could use.”
“She wanted me to say, ‘Kid promise, I’m telling you the truth.’ So now, if there’s even the slightest chance I could be kidding her about something, I have to remember to say kid promise.”
I suddenly remembered I’d heard him use those words in the conversation he’d had with her in my hotel room, the one the Ops Center had recorded, the one he didn’t know existed.
Taylor was quiet after that, and I began listening to what Mitchell was telling Jacob about the current political crisis in Congress.
I noticed his words were heavily weighted in favor of a bill sponsored by Senator Mitchell, but opposed by Congressman Daniel Levin, and I wondered how Jacob was going to feel once he learned the man he knew as Ralph was actually Senator Mitchell’s son.
As I considered the implications of that revelation, Taylor suddenly resumed our conversation about Eleanor.
“The night my wife was killed,” he said, with a catch in his voice, “those words took on a whole different meaning.”
Taylor sounded so emotional, it made me wonder if he could
be one of those people who had a sixth sense when a family member was dying.
On the other hand, perhaps he and his father had such a strong bond with each other, he could sense—at least on a subconscious level—his father needed him at this moment.
“When I told Eleanor about—”
He paused as he took a deep breath to compose himself, but then he continued, “When I told Eleanor about Kaylynn’s accident, my daughter was the one who tried to comfort me instead of me trying to console her.”
“That must have been strange.”
He nodded. “She said, ‘Don’t worry, Daddy. I’ll always be with you. Kid promise.’”
He quickly reached up and brushed a tear from his eye.
“Those words have become our go-to phrase to get us through the tough times.”
Seeing the intensity of his pain when he was telling me about his wife’s death made me realize how difficult it was going to be for him to lose yet another family member.
Then, I remembered I’d volunteered to give him the bad news about his father’s condition when we landed in Washington.
* * * *
For the next thirty minutes, I encouraged Taylor to talk about Eleanor.
I did it for two reasons.
First, it seemed to energize him, and, second, it was an opportunity for me to consider how I might handle a kid if Nikki and I ever had children of our own.
Hearing Taylor talk about Eleanor made me realize Nikki and I had never discussed having children. The subject hadn’t even come up.
As I thought about it, I admit this realization surprised me, and I made a mental note to mention it to her as soon as I got home.
Getting home reminded me about the last time Nikki and I had been together in Flint when she’d told me about her plans for us to decorate my house for Christmas.
We can pick out a tree together as soon as you get home.
Five Years in Yemen Page 38
