by Brad Thor
Changing the subject, Harvath ran through their options once more aloud. “Now, since there’s only one road into Massoud’s camp, that doesn’t sound like it is going to work for us. The tunnels are too dangerous and we couldn’t find a guide even if we wanted one. There’s only sparse cover on the rock faces around the pasture, and to get to those, we’ve got to come over the mountains from the other side. At this point, it sounds like that is our only option.”
“Maybe not,” replied Daoud, who had been simultaneously translating as Harvath spoke. He waited for Reshteen to finish saying something to him and then stated, “There may be a way you can use the road.”
“What do you mean?”
Reshteen spoke for several more moments and then Daoud said, “As I told you, my friend does not like the Taliban or al-Qaeda. Neither do the people of his village. But they are not stupid. If he helps you, he knows what could happen to him and the rest of the people in Dagar.”
“Please tell your friend that I don’t like al-Qaeda or the Taliban either, and I am willing to make this worth his while, but we have to keep this quiet. I don’t want to run this through his shura. We’re too close now.”
Daoud smiled. “He does not want to run it through his shura either.”
“So what does he want?”
“He wants the summer grazing pasture.”
“Does he want me to help buy it for him?” replied Harvath. “Because it is not mine to give.”
Daoud’s smile remained as he said, “I have told him of your relationship with Massoud’s shura and in particular with the elder, Baseer. This grazing pasture once belonged to Reshteen’s grandfather, but he lost it to the Taliban when he couldn’t pay his debts. Reshteen’s family still graze their flocks there in the summer, but Massoud charges very heavy fees for it.
“After what you did to Massoud’s men already this evening, I have told Reshteen that I have every confidence you can do so again. If you defeat Massoud, you will be able to convince Baseer to return the pasture to its rightful owner.”
“First of all,” said Harvath, pointing at his own eyes to emphasize the point, “I only want to go up there to look.”
“For the woman,” replied Daoud.
“Exactly. Once we confirm that she is indeed there, we’ll consider our options and decide what our next move should be.”
“Na, na, na,” replied Reshteen as Daoud translated.
“What’s wrong?”
“He says he has an idea, but you would have to leave very soon.”
Something like this was extremely dangerous to rush into. “Let’s hear his idea, first.”
Daoud spoke to Reshteen and then listened as the man laid out his plan. Then he relayed the information to Harvath. “There are many Taliban up at Massoud’s camp. At least forty men. They came in a hurry, with very little supplies. They have no fuel for cooking or heating the buildings there. They have no food and no water.”
A smile spread across Harvath’s face. “And let me guess,” he said. “They asked Reshteen to gather these things and bring them to them.”
Daoud’s head bobbed from side to side and he turned his palms upward. “They asked Reshteen’s cousins, but it is the same thing. Reshteen will be one of the men traveling up to the camp to deliver the supplies.”
“Will he take us with him?” asked Harvath.
“If you promise him you will take care of Massoud and that he will get the pasture, he will take you.”
Harvath, who was sitting across from the Afghans, leaned forward and said, “Once I have the girl, I guarantee you I will take care of Massoud. And once that is done, I will do everything in my power to get that grazing pasture returned to his family or I will buy him another, even better pasture.”
As Daoud translated, Reshteen tugged at his red beard. Slowly, a smile began to form at the edges of his lips.
When the man finally nodded, indicating they had a deal, Harvath said, “Now let’s talk about how exactly Reshteen is going to get us up there.”
CHAPTER 53
ANNANDALE, VIRGINIA
Elise Campbell took a deep breath and knocked on Todd Hutchinson’s faded front door. When he didn’t answer, she began knocking louder.
Finally, a shadow passed behind the peephole and there was the scrape of the chain being undone, followed by the sound of the dead bolt unlocking.
Hutchinson must have been down in his basement, working out. “Campbell?” he said, standing there in a pair of gym shorts and a tight T-shirt. “What are you doing here?”
Elise had never before noticed how well built her colleague was. “We need to talk,” she said, as she brushed past him and entered his home uninvited.
“Come on in. I guess,” said Hutch as he closed and locked the door behind her.
Campbell had purposefully worked herself into a lather on the drive down from D.C. The more emotional she appeared, the harder it would be for him to read her. “Why’d you lie to me?”
“Wait a second, calm down. What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about you and Nikki Hale.”
Hutchinson was about to say something, but then stopped himself. Abandoning his response, he asked, “What about me and Nikki Hale?”
“Do you think I’m stupid, Hutch? Did you think nobody was going to know?”
“Know what?” demanded the man. “You’re talking in circles.”
“The night Nikki Hale died, you had sex with her.”
No sooner had the accusation sprung from her lips than the microexpression Campbell had witnessed in Lafayette Park was back on Hutchinson’s face.
“You’re out of your mind,” he stated.
“Really?” bluffed Campbell, removing the Suffolk County medical examiner’s form from her pocket. “Not only were you dumb enough to screw her, you were dumb enough to leave your DNA behind.”
Hutchinson snatched the form away from her. “That’s insane. Let me see that.”
“I’ve got a witness that saw you playing grab-ass with her near the guesthouse.”
“Who?”
“Never mind who. Did you and Nikki have an ongoing relationship, or was this just a one-nighter?”
“This is bullshit,” said Hutchinson as he crumpled the ME’s form and tossed it across the room. “I want you to leave.”
“If this is all bullshit, you’ve got nothing to lose by answering my questions, do you?”
“What’s the point? You’ve already made up your mind.”
“The point is, five people died that night and you know something you’re not telling me. If I have to drag your relationship with Nikki Hale into the light of day to get some answers, believe me, I’m going to do it.”
Hutchinson grabbed the back of his neck with his right hand and lowered his eyes to the floor.
“You’ve got thirty seconds, Hutch,” said Campbell.
“It was a mistake,” he said, walking over to his couch and sitting down. “She came on to me. I guess that should have told me right there how wasted she was.”
“So you were with her,” said Elise.
Hutchinson nodded.
“You left Mrs. Alden alone?”
“No.”
Campbell remained standing and looked down at him. “You’re not making any sense.”
“The president’s detail was with her.”
“How is that possible? You said Alden didn’t show up at the guesthouse until after Hale had left that night.”
“I lied.”
Her read of him had been right. “What else did you lie to me about?”
Hutchinson raised his eyes. “I don’t want to lose my job, Elise.”
“Right about now, I’d say that’s the least of your problems.”
“You’re probably right.”
“Tell me what happened that night.”
Hutchinson took a deep breath. “Nikki Hale had been upstairs at the guesthouse with the first lady—”
“Drinking.”
<
br /> “Yes. After a while, things got heated and they began arguing. Right about then, the president showed up.”
“What happened?”
“He went upstairs, and the argument got worse. Nikki stormed out of the room. She was mad as hell. The first lady yelled at the president to make up his mind. Either Nikki was history or she was.”
“So they were having an affair?”
Hutchinson nodded. “As Nikki came down the stairs, she had a few choice words for both of them. Alden had left his agents outside. I was the only one in the guesthouse. He saw me and told me to take Hale to her car and make sure she got the hell off the estate.”
“Did the president know she was drunk?”
“He and Mrs. Alden both did, but they didn’t care. They wanted her gone.”
“And you had an opportunity to take advantage of her,” said Campbell, the disdain evident in her voice.
“No, I wanted to find her a ride home,” Hutchinson replied. “I was walking her back to the main house, and the kiss just happened. She was pissed off at Alden and she wanted to get back at him. I shouldn’t have let it happen. It was unprofessional.”
“About as unprofessional as putting a woman that intoxicated into her car and sending her off into the night,” said Campbell.
“I told you. I was trying to find her a ride.”
She didn’t believe him. He would have done anything the Aldens asked him to and now she knew why he’d been allowed to stay on the first lady’s detail.
“I’m serious,” Hutchinson continued. “We were on our way to the main house when Alden came up behind us. Nikki had left her purse behind. Alden was still fuming and he flung it at her. They began arguing again. I tried to tell him that we needed to get her a ride home and he told me to return to my post or he’d have me fired.”
“And you chose to follow orders instead of stopping Alden from sending that girl off drunk to kill herself and the Coleman family.”
Once again, Hutchinson lowered his eyes to the floor.
There were a million things she wanted to say to the pathetic excuse for a man sitting in front of her, but she couldn’t bear the sight of him anymore. Besides, he wasn’t the one she needed to settle this with. The man she needed to confront was President Robert Alden.
CHAPTER 54
NANGARHAR PROVINCE, AFGHANISTAN
Even though Reshteen had lined the space with blankets, Harvath and Fontaine lay in the bed of his truck freezing to death. They were also dangerously close to running out of time. For their plan to work, they had to get in and get out of the camp before sunrise.
They had been hidden beneath a mountain of carefully stacked gear, which had then been lashed down with ropes. As the truck fishtailed up the icy roadway, it hit pothole after pothole and Harvath began to worry less about being discovered and executed by one of Massoud’s soldiers and more about being crushed beneath the ton of Taliban cargo swaying above them.
Theirs was one of three trucks making the supply run up to Massoud’s outpost. The Taliban commander had ordered up enough supplies for two weeks. If they didn’t take advantage of this opportunity, it was unlikely they’d get another chance.
Remembering the evil eye he’d received from the old, black-turbaned man in Surobi, he knew that no matter how authentic their clothing, there was no way he and Fontaine could pass close inspection as villagers from Dagar. Coming in sight unseen was their only bet. Harvath prayed that Massoud’s sentries would be like most soldiers standing post overnight—cold, bored, and hungry.
The security setup along the road was similar to that leading into Massoud’s village and involved two checkpoints.
When Harvath felt the truck coming to a halt at the first stop, his heart began to quicken and his hands tightened around his MP5. Next to him, he knew Fontaine was readying himself as well. Neither dared speak and they both knew what they would have to do if they were discovered.
Their bodies tense, each of the men listened for any indication that suggested the sentries suspected something was wrong. Despite the bitter cold, Harvath could feel the sweat forming on his skin as the adrenaline dumped into his bloodstream.
He heard Reshteen roll down his window and speak to the Taliban sentries. This was the first and one of the most dangerous hurdles.
Harvath listened as the Afghan did exactly what he had been told to do. Showing the sentries the box on the seat next to him, he offered them some of the hot tea, warm nan bread, and kebabs he had prepared before leaving Dagar.
There was a lull that seemed to last an eternity. Harvath couldn’t tell if the sentries suspected a double-cross or were just examining the contents of the box trying to decide what they wanted.
While the optimist in him said the sentries would take the food and allow the trucks to pass without inspection, the pessimist told him to get ready because all hell was about to break loose.
Suddenly the voices resumed and there was laughter. Harvath’s inner optimist had been correct. He felt his tension dissolve, but only by a matter of degrees. While the optimist in him had been right this time, it was by listening to the pessimist and always being ready for the worst to happen that one stayed alive.
One of the sentries pounded on the roof of the cab and the trucks were allowed to pass.
At the next checkpoint the scene was repeated. Hot tea was poured into cups, bread and kebabs were handed out by Reshteen, and the supply trucks from the village were once more allowed to pass uninspected.
While Harvath should have been relieved, at the moment he didn’t have that luxury. They were about to roll into the middle of a snake pit. Harvath had given Fontaine every excuse to stay behind in Dagar with Daoud, but the Canadian had refused. In fact, he had accused Harvath of selfishly trying to hog all the fun for himself. The remark had made Harvath laugh. Forty to one odds was not what he would call fun. Forty to two was only slightly better. The one thing they had on their side was that, at least for now, no one knew they were coming.
The truck bumped and jostled along for another five minutes before the steep road finally leveled off. When it swung to the left, stopped, and then slowly reversed, Harvath once again tightened his grip around his MP5 and made ready. They had arrived.
CHAPTER 55
Reshteen backed his truck up to the door of the small mud brick building that functioned as the camp’s kitchen. His two cousins parked their trucks on the opposite side to act as a screen and provide Harvath and Fontaine with as much concealment as possible.
Climbing out from behind the wheel, Reshteen stretched and walked casually into the cookhouse to make sure it was empty. Pushing open its heavy wooden door, he removed a box of matches and lit one of the oil lamps that hung inside. The room was just as it had been left following the first heavy snow the year before.
Stepping back outside, Reshteen called his cousins over and they set to work freeing Harvath and Fontaine from the bed of his truck.
When they had moved enough crates, the men slipped out one at a time and disappeared into the cookhouse.
The cousins continued unloading supplies while Reshteen set up two gas cook stoves and quickly warmed up more tea and nan bread. Filling his pockets with cups and wrapping the bread in a heavy cloth, he exited the kitchen and set off to soften the ground for Harvath and Fontaine.
Fifteen minutes later, he returned. Motioning for Harvath to hand him the sketch of the camp he had drawn back in Dagar, he marked on it where the camp’s interior guards were posted and how many of them there were in each group. Harvath counted three groups of three. Nine men. The rest were still asleep.
Harvath pointed at the small storage building that Reshteen had said would be the best place to hold Julia Gallo, and the Afghan man nodded and drew a dark circle around it with his pencil. That was still their primary target. It also, according to Reshteen, did not have a guard posted outside it. Considering the Taliban’s habit of relying solely on a sturdy, lockable door, Harvath wasn’t surprised,
but nevertheless he pointed to all the guard positions on the piece of paper and then back at the storage hut and said, “Na?”
“Na, Taliban,” he replied.
That was all Harvath needed to hear. Checking his weapons, he tucked his MP5 beneath his patoo, and with Fontaine right behind him, he stepped out of the cookhouse into the cold mountain air.
The two men walked with their heads down and mimicked the slow, shuffling Afghan gait.
The camp was not that large and all of the guards on duty were aware of the supply truck’s arrival. Being greeted by Reshteen with hot tea and warm nan was an act of hospitality that had not only put them somewhat at ease about the strangers in their midst, but had given Harvath and Fontaine reason to get much closer to them than would normally have been allowed.
Expanding upon the ruse they had used at the checkpoints, Reshteen visited each group of guards, handing out tea and nan and promising to send men back with hot kebabs. The hope was that if Harvath and Fontaine were seen, it would be assumed they represented the kebab wagon making its rounds.
Harvath and Fontaine understood the limits of the ruse all too well. They needed to act as quickly as possible.
Reshteen had shown them on his sketch where the Taliban normally set up their latrine. It was a long trench on the side of the camp away from the buildings. Even though the forty-plus men had not been there long, they didn’t need a map to find it. Their noses led them right to it.
The trench from last year was still filled with ice and snow that had only partially melted. That didn’t seem to bother the Taliban, who simply urinated and defecated right there as if it was a perfectly suitable latrine.
Harvath and Fontaine tried to ignore the smell as they lay down next to it and readied themselves for the next step.
There had been no way to know how many guards Massoud would have posted. Reshteen had said that Massoud normally had men walking the camp, but had never bothered to count how many. He simply had had no reason to.