34 – The Desert by Moonlight
By the time Ifoudan crested the rise, helping the old couple make it the last few steps, Liam had built a fire, and Aidan had begun preparing dinner. Liam rose and met Ifoudan, and they moved to the side of the encampment to talk.
Aidan had learned to use a couscousiere in one of his gourmet cooking classes back in Philadelphia, and he had a decent meal ready by the time Liam and Ifoudan returned to the fire. Aidan had stripped down to one of his own t-shirts and a pair of shorts; Liam had replaced his t-shirt with his leather vest.
“So?” Aidan asked Liam. “What happened?”
They used pieces of flat bread to scoop up the couscous as Liam said, “The old couple turned on Hassan. They made it sound like he forced the girl to befriend them, and that she escaped with Ibrahim’s tribe.”
“That’s not good,” Aidan said. “She could be spying on Ibrahim and he won’t realize it.”
“That’s a problem we can’t deal with at the moment. Once we figure out what to do with our current situation, we’ll think about how to get word to him.”
“What about Hassan? Is he in custody?”
“He wasn’t a very cooperative prisoner,” Liam said, smiling. “He kept insisting that he was an intelligence officer, but he had no ID to prove it.”
“Not even his ID as a cultural attaché.”
“Exactly. He demanded that they call Wahid Zubran in Tripoli. The soldiers still hadn’t agreed by the time Ifoudan left.”
“So they didn’t try to arrest Ifoudan?” The camel herder looked up from where he sat across from them at the mention of his name. Liam smiled and nodded, and Ifoudan went back to eating the couscous.
“The old woman is a distant relation on Ifoudan’s mother’s side,” Liam said. “He felt he had to stay to make sure she and her husband were all right.”
“Kweiss,” Ifoudan said, holding up a piece of the flatbread piled with couscous.
“That means good,” Liam said.
“Shukran,” Aidan said to Ifoudan, and the camel-herder smiled, showing a gap-toothed grin, his gold tooth winking in the firelight. “That means ‘thank you,’” Aidan said to Liam, smirking.
Liam poked Aidan in the side, and they wrestled good-naturedly. Ifoudan said something in Arabic to Liam, who laughed, and said, “Shukran.”
He turned to Aidan and said, “Ifoudan says he will clean up. He suggests we might want to go for a walk together in the moonlight.”
“Shukran,” Aidan said to Ifoudan.
Liam was sure-footed, even climbing the dunes in the half-light, and when they got farther from the camp the darkness around them was complete except for the canopy of stars above. Aidan noticed that Liam was carrying a sleeping mat with him, and asked, “Are we going to sleep out here?”
“Maybe not sleep,” Liam said, and though Aidan couldn’t see his face he could tell by the tone of Liam’s voice that he was smiling once again.
They walked for a while, and then climbed another rise. From the top, they could see the firelight of the camp, and then, farther, a few electric lights at the Tagant School.
“Ifoudan says that they have a generator,” Liam said. “And an air-circulating system. There is a central courtyard, and a dormitory building for the trainees. The soldiers sleep in a different wing, and the officers in a third. There is also a row of offices, and a couple of detainment cells.”
“Ifoudan was busy,” Aidan said. He leaned up against Liam, his head resting on the bigger man’s shoulder. Liam wrapped his arms around Aidan, holding him close. It felt so good. He shut out everything else, all the danger and uncertainty, and focused on the feel of Liam’s body against his, Liam’s heart beat against his chest.
Liam used his index finger to position Aidan’s head, then leaned down to kiss him. Liam’s lips tasted like the couscous they’d had for dinner, hot and spicy. Aidan wondered how he would ever go back to kissing a man whose mouth tasted like breath freshener.
He felt Liam’s dick swelling, pressed against the top of his groin, and wanted to drop to his knees right there and take it in his mouth. But no, he wanted more than that. He wanted Liam in him, he wanted to be impaled on Liam’s dick out there in the middle of the desert, wanted to claim this man for his own no matter what happened the next day.
He stepped back from the kiss, took Liam’s hand and led him down the back side of the hill, where they would be sheltered from the camp. He spread the sleeping mat on the hard sand. In the glow of the full moon, Aidan kissed Liam once again and slipped his leather vest away. He wished that Liam still wore the nipple rings he’d seen when the bodyguard was showering; he longed to tease and play with them.
Liam ran his fingers under Aidan’s t-shirt, then pulled it over his head. The desert air was still warm, but dry, and there was no hint of a breeze on the back side of the dune. They pressed their bodies together once more, skin on skin, and Liam groaned. “I didn’t know we’d be out here so long,” he said. “Or I’d have been better prepared.”
“For infiltrating the school?” Aidan asked, leaning back to look at him.
“For this,” he said. He put Aidan’s hand on his crotch, where Aidan felt his big dick hard and pulsing. “I’d have brought more condoms. I used my last one in Matmata.”
“Before I met you, I hadn’t had sex with anyone other than Blake for eleven years,” Aidan said, pressing down on Liam’s dick, through the light cotton fabric. “He was a fanatic about health, so he insisted we get tested for HIV every year.”
“Wasn’t that insulting?” Liam asked, speaking to the top of Aidan’s head. His breath feathered Aidan’s fine hair. “Either he thought you were cheating, or he knew that he was.”
Aidan shrugged, leaning more into Liam. “Blake did so many little things like that I gave up worrying about them. But the point is, I’m healthy.”
“My last HIV test was negative,” Liam said. “And since then, you’re the only man I’ve been with.” He paused. “I’ve never had unprotected sex in my life.”
“There’s always a first time,” Aidan said. He slid his body against Liam’s so that their dicks rubbed against each other. “I wish I had some lube,” Liam whispered in Aidan’s ear. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“We’ll have to make do,” Aidan said. “Saliva works just as good as K-Y, if you’re properly motivated.”
“I’m motivated, all right,” he said.
Aidan undid his shorts, and slipped them and his boxers to his feet. He kicked off his sandals, too, and stood there naked against the desert air.
“You are so handsome,” Liam said. “Sometimes when you’re sleeping I want to sit there and watch you. Your hair’s a little mussed and you’re smiling and you remind me of one of those angels painted on a church ceiling.”
“There’s nothing angelic about me,” Aidan said. He turned his back to Liam, bent over, and pulled his ass cheeks apart. “You see this pose on church ceilings?”
“I saw it in those porn magazines I used to jerk off to before I met you,” Liam said, his voice husky. He undid the drawstring on his pants and dropped them, peeling off his jockstrap too.
Aidan got down on his hands and knees, doggy style, and Liam joined him on the sleeping mat. He began to use his tongue on Aidan’s ass, licking up and down, then curling his tongue like a miniature dick and using it to penetrate Aidan’s hole.
Aidan shivered as Liam’s stubbled chin passed against his sensitive butt cheeks. He adjusted his balance to spread his legs as far as they would go, and Liam kept licking and kissing and tonguing his puckered asshole. Warmth flowed through his body as his ass opened to Liam’s probing tongue, and he felt like throwing his head back and howling with pleasure.
“If this is too much for you, just say so,” Liam whispered, positioning himself behind Aidan. He put one big rough hand on each of Aidan’s hips and tried to guide his dick to the mark. He’d just gotten the tip inserted when the sand shifted below Aidan and his right
knee dropped an inch or two.
Liam lost his balance, too, and the force of gravity drove his dick deep into Aidan’s ass, much sooner than he expected. Aidan exhaled with a stifled whimper. “Sorry,” Liam said.
“Don’t pull out,” Aidan said. “Just fuck me, please.”
He was surprised at the note of passion and desperation in his voice. But Liam obliged, getting himself set again, then pushing in and pulling out of Aidan’s ass. The desert around them was so quiet, the air so heavy and soft, that it felt like they were in another world, just the two of them together.
Aidan had never felt such intimacy before, Liam’s skin against his, Liam’s unprotected dick invading his ass. His arms started to hurt, his back to ache, and rough grains of sand pressed against his legs, but none of it mattered. Just Liam’s urgent need matching his own.
Liam rubbed a sandy hand against Aidan’s back, and Aidan said, “Ouch!”
Liam leaned down to kiss his back. “Better there than...” He spat into his hand and moved it to Aidan’s stiff dick. “Here.”
Aidan moaned with pleasure as Liam’s hand began to jerk him. The bodyguard established a rhythm, pushing faster and faster into Aidan’s ass as he rubbed Aidan’s dick. Aidan closed his eyes and focused on sensation, the hard-packed sand under his hands and knees, the brush of Liam’s pubic hair against his ass, the distant scent of camels and the sound of one of them moaning.
“I love you, Aidan,” Liam whispered, as his dick slid deep into Aidan’s ass, then pulled back. “I’ve never felt anything like this before and it scares the shit out of me.”
“People go their whole lives without feeling like this,” Aidan panted. “Don’t be scared. Just take it in.”
“I’m supposed to tell you that,” Liam said, laughing. “Take it in, baby. Take everything I’ve got to give you.”
“I am,” Aidan said. “I’m ... I’m... gonna come.” He howled, letting himself go completely, and as his body was overcome with the power of his orgasm, the involuntary contraction of his ass pushed Liam over the edge.
“Oh, Jesus,” Liam moaned, his body shaking as he spurted up into Aidan’s ass. He’d never felt that sensation before, the come trickling back onto his dick as he stayed impaled in Aidan’s ass. He wiggled around inside for a bit, Aidan panting and whimpering, then pulled out and the two of them collapsed together to the sleeping mat.
Aidan took a couple of deep breaths, resting on his side. His ass was tender and he didn’t think he could lie back on it, at least not for a few minutes. It wasn’t the best sex he’d ever had, but it was damned close. He preferred a bed to the sand, and wished they didn’t have the specter of the next day looming over them.
Liam turned on his side, too, offering his back to Aidan, who snuggled close, wrapping one arm around the bodyguard’s chest. They lay there in the velvet darkness for a long time, cuddling together.
Aidan wondered then what it might be like if he and Liam returned to Tunis together. Would everything they had felt, shared, fade away? Tears welled in his eyes, but he forced them back. He had always looked too far ahead, at the expense of living in the moment. But now, the moment was all he and Liam might have, and he was determined to enjoy it. He nestled his head against the pile of their discarded clothing, his body pressed close to Liam’s. He stopped thinking, and just felt.
By the time they got back to Ifoudan’s tent, the caravan leader was sound asleep, and they stretched their mats out and went to sleep, too. The next morning, Ifoudan was up at first light, organizing the men to begin carrying the goods from the caravan into the facility. The camp outside was noisy, as camels lowed and men called to each other in Arabic.
Liam stretched and reached for his clothes. “Remember what I told you,” Liam said, kissing Aidan. “If I don’t come back by dusk, make the call.”
“You’ll come back,” Aidan said, and wished he believed it.
35 – The Tagant School
Liam followed Ifoudan through the entrance gates to the Tagant School and Hospital, second in the line of men leading camels to the inner courtyard, where they would be unloaded, the materials carried inside. All his senses were on alert, as he observed everything from the posture of the guards to the thickness of the walls.
One wing of the complex was used as a boarding school for tribal children, and another housed a clinic where any passing Tuareg or other tribesman could get medical attention. Boys and girls played in separate groups in the courtyard, supervised by a male teacher in a white shirt and pants. A man in hospital scrubs crossed the courtyard and entered a single-story building with ocher-colored shutters on the windows.
The line of men and camels passed by the children, and Liam noticed guards with rifles positioned around the facility’s outer walls. Ibrahim had been correct in wondering why so many guards were necessary for a school and hospital so far from civilization.
Liam wore a blue cloak he’d borrowed from Ifoudan, the better to blend in with the other men, and began to sweat underneath it. But he continued following Ifoudan, conscious that there was a line of men and camels behind him, and all he had to do was stay inconspicuous to remain unchallenged.
Ifoudan stopped before an elaborate Moorish-style archway. “We must unload the camels here, and carry the cargo into the building,” he announced in Arabic, then organized the men. Three began unloading the camels, passing the cargo to the rest. With Ifoudan in the lead, and Liam behind him, the porters walked through the arch and into the lobby of what could have been any nondescript office building in Tunis.
The inside of the building was surprisingly cool after the heat of the desert. As they walked down a wide corridor lined with offices, Liam felt the movement of cold air around him, and when he passed a doorway that led to a staircase to the lower level, he realized that the air handlers were bringing cool air up from below and circulating it through the first floor.
A group of laughing soldiers appeared to their right, startling the men. Liam looked beyond the soldiers, through an open door, to see the dormitory wing Ifoudan had described. He kept his head down, pretending that the burden on his back was much heavier, and the soldiers passed him, heading for a shift change. Ifoudan continued to lead them down the hallway, taking a left turn. As they turned the corner, Liam looked down the short hallway into a large gym. The walls were lined with posters of weapons, including exploded views that showed the interior of each gun and rifle.
Tables were lined around the perimeter of the room, and though at a quick glance Liam couldn’t be sure, he thought they held weapons and ammunition. In the center of the room, about two dozen men practiced martial arts; as they passed, one man took another down onto a mat.
Just beyond the big room, Ifoudan opened a doorway, which led to a stairway down to the ancient catacombs built by the Romans. They climbed down, past a grinning skeleton set in a niche in the wall.
Liam had been in such spaces before, and he could tell that these had been expanded and remodeled. The halls were wide enough for a group of men to assemble, and fluorescent lights hung from the ceilings. He felt the same movement of air there as upstairs.
Ifoudan directed them to storage areas off the main tunnels. As each man unloaded his cargo, he was sent back up to get the next load. Ifoudan left Liam in charge of organizing the material, giving him a few minutes between shifts to explore the lower level.
Each room had a different purpose. Some contained foods, others supplies for the soldiers. The most dangerous contained missiles, rockets, handguns, rifles, and other materiel. Each time he ventured out, Liam’s heart rate accelerated, fearful that he’d be discovered prying around.
A soldier stepped from around a corner and confronted Liam, pointing his rifle. “You! What are you doing lazing around down here!” he barked in Arabic.
Liam bowed his head and mumbled an apology. His Arabic was good, but not good enough to pass for a native. For a moment he thought of disabling the guard, knocking him out and hiding his bod
y in one of the storage caves.
But then one of the porters descended the stairs, his back bowed with a heavy load, and Liam walked away from the soldier to inspect the cargo and direct the man where to take it. His body felt like a taut cord as he kept one eye on the soldier. But by the time he was finished with the porter, the soldier had disappeared.
Liam couldn’t worry about the possibility that the soldier might come back with reinforcements and more questions. His training kicked in, and he focused on the task at hand, as one man after another descended the stairs into the cool damp catacomb. Liam kept noticing the grinning skeleton in that niche by the stairs, the rictus of his open mouth a warning of what could happen out there in the middle of the desert.
By the time he switched places with Ifoudan, an hour later, Liam had memorized the location and contents of each storage cave. He began carrying his share of the goods through the building and downstairs. Everything he saw reinforced his opinion that the Tagant School and Hospital was a front for a military facility. Then, when he was on his way back to the camels for another load, walking through the first-floor hallway past the door to the gym, he brushed an older Arab man in a Hawaiian shirt.
As part of his SEAL training, Liam had taken several anti-terrorist courses, where he was required to memorize the faces and backgrounds of many suspected terrorists. Abdul Bin-Tahari was one of those.
A high-ranking official in Al Qaeda, Bin-Tahari dropped from sight shortly before Liam left the SEALs. Rumor was that he had been killed in Afghanistan, but there was no physical evidence. Liam knew Bin-Tahari was fifty years old, five-ten and stocky, with a close-trimmed beard. He had a penchant for Hawaiian shirts, the more garish the better.
The man Liam saw could be another of similar age and build, with a similar taste in shirts. Hell, it could even be someone who was pretending to be Bin-Tahari.
Liam kept his eye on the man as he walked down the hallway and into the gym. All action stopped as Bin-Tahari entered. He said something to the men assembled there, which was received with general laughter.
Three Wrong Turns in the Desert Page 20