Lion of Babylon

by Davis Bunn

  Hassan said, “I specifically ordered us not to be disturbed.”

  “Sir, forgive me. But the call is for Sameh el-Jacobi. Your honor, the woman Miss Aisha says that you have received an urgent call from the embassy.”

  This was enough of a shock to silence even the grandmother’s tears. “The American embassy?”

  “Yes, madame. She says it was from the senior official.” She glanced at the slip of paper in her hand, then mispronounced, “Dobob?”

  “Duboe,” Sameh corrected, already on his feet and headed for Hassan’s desk. “May I use your phone?”

  “There is an empty office next door.”

  “That will not be necessary.”

  The young woman said, “Miss Aisha has left the number.”

  “Thank you, but that is not required.”

  His response astonished the family yet again, as it suggested a level of personal contact few people outside the government ever had. But the assumption was incorrect. Sameh knew Barry Duboe’s number because he had phoned it repeatedly over the past four months. He had left several dozen messages and never heard back. Until now.

  The assistant CIA chief of station answered midway through the first ring. “Duboe.”

  “This is Sameh el-Jacobi returning your call.”

  “Hey, Sameh, how’re tricks?” The agent turned his name into something that sounded like Sammy. Which irritated him. And Duboe knew it.

  “I have been trying to reach you,” Sameh said. “For some time now.”

  “Yeah, tell me about it. But here’s the thing, Sameh. You’d already used up your chits and weren’t offering anything new that I wanted.”

  This was something Sameh couldn’t help but like about the man. Barry Duboe was aggressive, bullish, loud, and perpetually angry. But he was also bluntly honest. Given an Iraqi’s habit of politely promising the moon and delivering nothing, Sameh found the man’s brutal frankness to be positively refreshing. “So why are we talking now?”

  “Because for once I’ve got a favor to ask. What do you say? Put your side of the balance sheet back in the green.”

  “I’m listening.”

  “Come to my office at the embassy.”

  “With respect, that is not possible. Recently the extremists have placed watchers at all the Green Zone access points. If I come, they will know me, and I will be killed. And I won’t do you any good dead.”

  The American laughed. This was something else Sameh enjoyed about Barry Duboe, how he used his bark to defuse a situation.

  Duboe said, “So where do you want this meet to go down? And don’t tell me the middle of nowhere after midnight. I want a place I can get to inside half an hour. And it’s got to be secure, you hear what I’m saying? Safe enough I don’t need a guard detail to check out the bomber at the next table. You need to pretend I’m bringing the ambassador along.”

  “Right now I’m in a meeting.”

  “It’s now or never. Remember that tune? You were in the States when that was big, right?”

  “Perhaps ten years later.”

  “Whatever. The clock is ticking, Sameh. Either you help me now, or I go to the next name on my list.”

  “It’s always urgent with you Americans.”

  “Is that a compliment or an insult?”

  “Both, I suppose.”

  “So is this a yes or a yes?” The man actually broke into song. “It’s now or never.”

  Sameh turned to the window so he could hide his smile. “I know just the place.”

  When he had given directions to the restaurant, Duboe came back with, “My man in Baghdad. See you in thirty.”

  Sameh took his time hanging up the phone, ensuring his smirk was carefully hidden away. “With sincere regret, I must attend to this gentleman’s requirements.”

  But the little group already was up and preparing to usher him out. Sameh shook hands with each, then replied to Hassan’s unspoken plea. “Of course I will ask the American official for help. How could I not? But I want you to do something for me in return.”

  “Anything.”

  “Contact your friends in the Iraqi government.”

  The businessman made a face. “I have tried. You must believe me. But just now there is no government. The parties have been quarreling since the elections. And of course there are so many missing children.”

  All this Sameh knew. “Do not approach them with any request. Simply let them know I am trying to help you. Make them ready to receive me, in case something arises.” He offered his farewells, then made as if to be struck by a sudden notion. “Can you give me a recent photograph of your gardener?”

  In response, the family worked through a lightning series of emotions. Sameh cut off the inevitable questions about why he might need such a thing before they could be formed. “All I have is his passport, which is nine years old. I need something more recent. Perhaps you have a photograph where he was in the background.”

  “But why-?”

  “I will of course tell you if I know anything for certain. Right now, I am simply searching for clues.” Sameh started for the door, then turned back to add one final word. “Hurry.”

  Chapter Seven

  When Marc emerged from his quarters an hour later, a Jeep driven by an enlisted man sat idling by the curb. Marc pulled out his sunglasses and walked down the sidewalk, the seventy feet enough to patch his shirt with sweat. He opened the door. “Are you here for me?”

  “Sir, all I know is, the motor pool got orders to pick up a Mr. Ride Along. If that’s you, hop in.” The driver pointed to the manila envelope on the passenger seat. “I was also ordered to deliver that.”

  Marc tossed his backpack in the rear, picked up the manila envelope, and slid into the passenger seat. “Where are you taking me?”

  “Sir, my orders were very explicit.” The driver jammed the Jeep into gear. “Deliver Mr. Ride Along to his destination and keep my lip zipped.”

  They took the periphery road through the sun-blasted landscape. The concrete wall and prison-style wire fencing rose up to his right. Ten minutes into the journey, the manila envelope in Marc’s hands started ringing. The driver glanced over. “Spook central.”

  Marc tore open the envelope and dumped out a cellphone, charger, and a sheet of notepaper bearing two phone numbers. No name. Marc opened the phone and said, “Yes?”

  Barry Duboe was not the kind of man to waste time on social graces. He launched straight in with, “If you want to get a handle on what’s going down, you’re gonna have to move beyond the perimeter fence. The answers aren’t on the base, and they’re not in the Green Zone. I know. I checked.”

  Marc grabbed for the dashboard as the driver swung their Jeep around a tight corner and took aim at three massive hangars, standing alone and intentionally isolated, at the far end of nowhere. Marc said, “We’ve been through that already.”

  “And I’m saying it again, on account of how you need to think this through. This is your last chance. Just say the word while you still can. Stay inside the fence. Hang around your room, catch some z’s. Check out bingo night at the NCO club, scarf some free food. Then catch your air taxi home.”

  The Jeep hit fifty miles an hour on the empty road running straight as an arrow toward the hangars. Marc said, “Walton did not send me out here to hang around the base.”

  “You look like a smart guy. Smart guys don’t bounce from an accounting gig in civilian land to Indian country. Which is everywhere in Baghdad outside the Green Zone. Beyond that fence is just one big free-fire zone. You go in weapons hot, you stay low, you get out soon as you’re able. Any sortie you come back from alive is a success.”

  “Alex Baird is a friend. I am here to help find him.”

  Duboe’s sigh rattled the cellphone earpiece. “Okay then. To make that happen, you need to enter the wilds of Baghdad. There are two problems. One, everybody coming or going through the checkpoints is marked. So we’re going to engage in a little theater. You’re going to
be deposited in Indian country the same way we do our undercover ops.”

  The words should not have caused his adrenaline gauge to max into the red zone. Or leave him wanting to grin. “And the second problem?”

  “You need a guide. I’m meeting with an Iraqi, a Christian. His name is Sameh el-Jacobi.” Duboe spelled it. “I’ve worked with Sameh before. Some people claim he’s the most honest man in Baghdad. Other people will tell you that’s not saying a lot.”

  “How do we make this happen?”

  “I’m having lunch with the man, see if he’ll agree to meet you. Selling him is your first challenge. Sameh has every reason to turn you down, and no real reason I can think of to agree.” Duboe hesitated, then added, “Then again, the safest thing that could happen is for him to say no, so we can tell Ambassador Walton we tried, then send you off while you’re still breathing.”

  – – Sameh had always considered Baghdad to be a city of astonishments, some good, some not so much. One shocker was how many new restaurants were opening. And nightclubs. Good ones. World-class, in fact. With prices to match.

  Needless to say, such places caused the vizier and his conservative followers to foam at the mouth.

  The Lebanese Club was the latest and the most incredible of all. Located a mile outside the Green Zone, the club was part Beirut, part Miami Beach. Sameh had never been there. He would probably not even have heard of the place except for the fact that his wife had been pleading with him to take her. Until today, Sameh had always protested he would not be caught dead in such a place, or in his wildest dreams spend so much on a meal.

  But now Miriam would hear about him being at the club. Of this Sameh had no doubt. His wife had an intelligence network that put the Mukhabarat to shame.

  He pulled through the requisite blast barriers and entered the open parking area. Even the guards were dressed for a different world, in Ralph Lauren knit shirts and wraparound shades and stone-washed jeans and Nikes. Still, Sameh had no trouble identifying them as guards, for their hands carried the standard badges of office-walkie-talkies and machine pistols. The parking area’s rear wall had a metal overhang. Sameh did not even bother to ask how much it would cost to park in the shade. The shadows contained a polished assortment of modern wealth-Jeep Commanders, Humvees, Range Rovers, Land Cruisers. When the guards finished inspecting his trunk and sweeping under his car with the mirrors, Sameh pulled his Peugeot into an exposed slot, knowing the steering wheel would blister his hands when he returned.

  He waited inside the super-cooled reception area until Barry Duboe entered, looked around, and declared, “Excuse me. I thought we were supposed to be in a war zone.”

  “Wait until you get the bill,” Sameh replied. “Then you’ll see.”

  Barry Duboe unholstered his pistol and handed it to the guard without being asked. “Hey, if the food is anything like the decor, I’ll let them slip their hand in my wallet any day of the week.”

  The manager, a Lebanese with the brilliant smile of a snake oil salesman, lifted two menus and said, “Do not worry, good sir. I will not cheat you.” He led them to a table inside the VIP section, held Barry’s seat, handed them the menus, then added, “Well, I am going to cheat you. But not a lot.”

  Barry watched the man saunter away. “What do you know. An honest crook.”

  Sameh ran his eye down the prices and decided to make absolutely certain. “You are paying for this.”

  “Not me, pal. Uncle Sugar.”

  “In that case, I am going to enjoy myself very much. I will have to. My wife is going to hold my feet over a fire when she hears where I had lunch.”

  Barry Duboe had the most even teeth Sameh had ever seen, like they had been ground down to a uniform plane. “Ain’t love grand.”

  When they had ordered, Sameh repeated what he had said on the telephone, “I have been trying to contact you.”

  “Is that a fact.” Duboe frowned as a trio of young Arabs were seated across from them.

  Sameh glanced at the group and said, “Terrorists do not wear gold Cartier watches.”

  “How do we know this place isn’t wired for sound?”

  In response, Sameh flagged down a passing waiter and asked, “Who had our table last night?”

  The waiter squinted into the distance, then replied, “The French ambassador and a general from NATO.”

  Sameh thanked the waiter, then said to Duboe, “If we are being bugged, at least we are in good company. Now tell me why you failed to respond when I asked for help.”

  “We’ve been through this already. Your account was in the red. You did a good thing for Uncle Sugar, we paid you back. And another time. And another. Then you became just some guy I didn’t need on my back.”

  “I would be insulted if I did not find your frankness so refreshing.”

  “Frank’s my middle name.”

  “Really?”

  “No, Sameh, not really. Come on, man. What’s with you today?”

  “I only phoned you when a life was at stake.”

  “Hey. Welcome to Baghdad. Just breathing the air is risky.” Duboe nodded as the waiter put down his plate, took a bite, and declared, “Okay. I’m moving in.”

  They ate in silence for a time. The food was excellent. The restaurant was separated from the nightclub by a lounge. Glass walls between the chambers made for imperfect soundproofing. When music started pounding in the nightclub, it was loud enough to make Duboe wince. “What is that racket?”

  “The country’s first toy-boy band. They are called Unknown to No One. The young people know them by their cellphone call sign, which is UTN1.”

  Duboe shook his head. “You’re full of surprises.”

  Sameh watched waiters deliver a smoldering hookah and plates of food to the young Arabs. A disco, hookah, and food. At one o’clock in the afternoon. On the twenty-fourth day of Ramadan. These young men might call it freedom. But given half a chance, the vizier and his fundamentalist allies would hand these young men their heads. “My niece and her daughter live with us. The young girl has the band’s poster on her wall. Their music, if you can call it that, greets me most evenings.”

  “I would rather have a root canal.” Duboe pushed his plate to one side. “Okay, time for work. Are you still in the people-finding business?”

  “Unfortunately. I specialize in finding children. The kidnappers rarely take anyone older than four or five. The parents pay faster, and the children cause less trouble. Most are too terrified to remember anything.”

  “How do you stand it?”

  “Every child I have been sent after, I have found. But there are others who wake me at night. I hear the cries of ones whose parents do not come to me. Or cannot pay.” Sameh set down his own fork. “I pray. A great deal, actually. More even than during the wars.”

  For some reason, that caused Duboe to smile. “I knew I had come to the right man.”

  “You have a missing child?”

  “Not exactly. We have a problem. We need to hire you.”

  “We?”

  “Far as you’re concerned, I’m the client and the payee. Do not, under any circumstances, mention this to anyone else on the embassy staff. Or anybody in your own government. For that matter, take it as a blanket policy for anybody even connected to the Green Zone. Including people inside my office.”

  Sameh took his time responding. There was a significant difference between the present conversation and his earlier contacts with Duboe. Before, the American had treated Sameh with an off-hand cordiality, the overlord being nice to the help. This time, Duboe addressed him as an equal. Sameh wondered if this was simply because the U.S. presence in the country was in decline. But he did not think so.

  Sameh finally said, “As my client, you are certainly allowed to dictate all such conditions. But only as far as this case is concerned. It is not acceptable for you to deny me access to the Green Zone on any other issue.”

  “Long as you don’t blab about what’s going down here.”r />
  “Of course I agree.”

  “Okay. Let’s go.”

  Duboe asked for the bill, winced over the amount, then paid and led Sameh back outside. After the club’s cool interior, the parking lot was beyond hot. Duboe waved away the parking attendant and headed for the shaded row of cars. He climbed into a black Chevrolet Tahoe with tinted windows, turned on the motor, then pushed the A/C to full blast. “Three Americans have gone missing.”

  Sameh did not try to hide his surprise. “I thought it was just a woman.”

  Duboe showed his astonishment. “You know about this?”

  “I have heard that a lady named Claire Reeves has vanished.”

  “Tell me how you know, Sameh.”

  “Unfortunately, I cannot. That would breach another client’s confidentiality.”

  He could see that Duboe wanted to argue. The skin around his Ray-Bans was pinched and red with repressed anger. But all he said was, “Confidential does not even begin to describe this situation.”

  “Does it have to do with the American military?”

  Duboe remained silent.

  “Intelligence,” Sameh sighed.

  “One of the other missing Americans is named Alex Baird. Second in command of Green Zone security. And a good buddy of mine.”

  “Miss Reeves is a nurse, is that correct?”

  “I’d give a lot to learn how you know this.”

  “Enough to help me with my own pressing crisis?”

  “Can’t and won’t.”

  “Then with regret, I must refuse.”

  “Even if it means I take my business and my future favors elsewhere?”

  Sameh remained silent.

  “Look. Whatever it is you’ve got cooking, it doesn’t compare to the problem we’re facing here.”

  “It does to the family whose child is missing.”

  Duboe chopped the air, as though trying to cut off the words before they reached his ears. “There are people looking for a reason to take my head.”

  “Because of these missing Americans?”

  “ ’Fraid so.”

  “Does that mean I will be made a target as well?”