by J. C. Phelps
I decided I would try the people angle this time to see where it got me. I was able to find all the people on the list and print out all their information by the time he returned. He had hot coffee and a pillow to put under my leg. Then he grabbed another chair and sat beside me at the computer. I told him what I had done with the names.
“Good. I’ll get them to Mr. Red first thing in the morning. How about the satellite pictures?” he said.
“I was just getting back to them,” I explained. I took a sip of my coffee then pulled up the satellite on the computer. We sifted through all the sites and found nothing out of the ordinary. Mr. White went to the printer and we started reading through the people and the information that had come up for them. I also added Abdullah Salah and Abbas Salah, A.K.A., The Lion. Just for good measure.
With every name there was another location to check. Some of them were repeats of places we had already checked, so we skipped them. Abaas had a long list of locations displayed with the rest of his information. Someone had done their homework on this guy.
I put in each place systematically. The satellites would snap pictures as they passed over the coordinates. Mr. White had refilled our coffee cups twice and we still hadn’t found anything. He had told me while we were searching it could take several days to locate anything that could be of help, but reassured me the other guys would help speed things along. We were looking at a small village that had come up next on The Lion’s long list. We were using several different types of satellites to achieve one picture. It was complicated and time consuming. But with the different views, such as the high magnification lenses, infrared and sonic signatures we were able to see almost everything, inside and out.
In one of the buildings in this small village was a person sitting in a chair surrounded by other people. At first it didn’t look suspicious, but then the pictures showed that the man in the chair was hit in the face and slumped over in the chair.
My dad! Was that my dad getting beat up? I hoped we had found him, but I didn’t want it to be him in that chair.
“If that’s my dad,” I said with a shaky voice, but was unable to finish my sentence. I couldn’t bear to watch it anymore and walked away from the screen.
Mr. White came to my side and said; “I know this has to be especially hard for you. This is what we do though.” He walked me to the living room and we sat down on the couch.
“If you want out, I can do that for you, but I think you could be happy in this job. If you can cope,” he said.
Tears had begun to well up in my eyes and I stopped them as soon as he spoke this last part. He was right. I couldn’t be such a big baby.
“This is a special circumstance though. This is your dad, and it doesn’t get much closer to home. I know you want to do all that you can to help, but I need to know if you think you can handle this. It may not have a happy ending. Are you going to be able to confine your feelings if you need to?”
We sat in silence for a short while and then I said, “I want to be a part of this. I don’t know if I could stand not being a part of it.”
“I understand that. I know you have the physical and intellectual ability to do almost anything this job might require of you, but do you have the emotional stability and control to deal with hard decisions?” he asked.
I took a deep breath and said, “I think I do. Dealing with my dad’s kidnapping has been hard, but I think I’ve kept it together well enough.”
“Yes, but now is when it gets rough. You might see and hear things that could be hard to contend with. I just want you to know what you’re getting into.”
“This had the potential of happening before I fell into this job because of what my dad does. I guess it was just a matter of time. I’ll be fine,” I said straightening my back. Then I added, “I promise.”
“I know you’ve had a lot fall in your lap these last few days. Your mother was attacked, your dad was kidnapped and you were shot. I want you to know I think you have faired better than most and I’m glad you’re still interested in pursuing this with the rest of us. I had a lot of respect for Admiral Stanton before, but now that I know the kind of person you are, I have even more respect for the man. Now, with all that said,” he said with a relieved look and a sigh, “we better get back to C.I.C. The rest of the guys will be here anytime. I don’t want them to find us sitting here on the couch.” He stood, smiled at me and offered me a hand up.
“C.I.C.?” I asked, taking his hand.
“The Central Intelligence Center.” He pointed to the room that held the computers. “Sometimes we call it the war room.”
We got back into the room and made our way to the computer screen that had shown potential. Mr. White told me I better put my leg up on the chair or I’d have hell to pay when Mr. Blue got here. The doorbell rang just then and Mr. White left the room.
I had my leg on the chair by the time Mr. White led all the men back to the war room. They all came together and made good time too. I was studying the screen and the figure in the chair when they walked in. Mr. White had been right about Mr. Blue. The first thing he said was, “I see you heard my instructions,” and pointed at my leg.
The man in the chair hadn’t moved, but the people that had been gathered around him had disbursed. It looked as if there were two of them standing guard not too far away. Mr. Red came up to the computer monitor and said, “Certainly looks like a hostage situation. This may be a break for us.” He looked to me. “What did you find out on the names I gave you?”
I started to stand to get the paperwork and Mr. Blue said, “Sit. Tell one of us and we’ll get what you want. You need to stay off that leg if you want it to be healed enough before we go after The Lion.”
I pointed to the papers just on the other side of the desk and said, “Go after The Lion? I thought we already had him.” Mr. Blue picked up the papers and handed them to Mr. Red who immediately began leafing through them.
Mr. White said, “We retrieved him for the government. They have him.”
“Why do we need him if we know where my dad is?” I asked him.
“Can you be certain that is Admiral Stanton on the screen?” he asked.
“Okay, then what’s the plan?” I asked.
Mr. White explained to me we would have to wait until they presented their demands in full before we could be certain on where they wanted to make the drop. We were going to avoid a trade, but it might come down to that. In the meantime, there were other methods they could use to find out if the man in the chair was my father. They would send out an unmanned aerial vehicle, a UAV. Most importantly, we had to retrieve The Lion back to our custody. While that was underway we would find out if the man was my father. We couldn’t waste time by doing one at a time, the two objectives had to be achieved as soon as possible.
I was rolled to one of the other computers so we could determine exactly where The Lion was located. According to what we found, he was still located at the small military installation where we had dropped him off. I accessed the plans for the small base and we all went to work on a plan to infiltrate and remove The Lion without alerting anyone.
It was well into the next day when we had formulated a plan that was sound. Breakfast and lunch had both been ordered in for us and Mr. Blue was very observant at my antibiotic consumption. He reminded me with every meal to take them. Then he changed the bandage for me too. If he hadn’t, I may have forgotten because I was very involved in what was going on around me.
I was told I was to go on the job to retrieve The Lion. I understood why they didn’t want to send me to find out the identity of the man in the satellite picture. If it was my dad I didn’t know if I could control my emotions, especially if it was a bad scene. I made no argument against my assignment to The Lion. I wanted this to work and I didn’t want to cause any trouble.
Mr. White had already set the UAV in motion. They were on their way to finding out as much information as they could for us. I guess it’s a good thing to h
ave contacts in the military.
If they were able to determine that the man in the chair was my father, then Mr. Brown was to take Mr. Green and Mr. Black a suitable distance from the location and they were to creep into the building and extract him. If they weren’t able to determine that it was or wasn’t my father, then the three of them would take a trip to the small village to find out.
They went to another side of the room to discuss the equipment they would need before they left. Mr. Brown was to monitor the UAV until they had positive confirmation and Mr. White and myself and Mr. Blue were to leave tomorrow morning. Mr. Red was to stay behind and hold down the fort. He was needed to keep an eye on my mom and to try to get more information from the man she had shot. He said he might take another shot at Abdullah Salah to see if he could give us more. Also, if the terrorists were to contact anyone, there would have to be someone here to take the call, so to speak.
Mr. Black gave me some pointers before I was escorted out of C.I.C. to the comfortable looking couch. Always the teacher, I thought. I hoped they would find my father out there.
Mr. Blue came up to me and said, “You need some rest before we go out. We’ll be leaving in a few hours and I want your leg rested before we go.”
“I am tired,” I said. Mr. White walked up to me and handed me a cup of tea and told me to relax.
I didn’t even finish my tea before I nodded off on the couch.
*****
Chapter Seventeen
It was dark and quiet in the apartment when I woke up. Someone had given me a pillow and a blanket while I slept. I sat up on the couch and looked around. There were no signs of life.
The first thing that went through my mind was they had left me. I stood up and walked to the war room. The door was closed. I turned the doorknob and the door swung open. Inside it was dark, except for the light from a single lamp and the computer monitors. Mr. White and Mr. Blue were sitting at the desk with the lamp when I walked in. Abdullah Salah, my father’s informant, was also sitting with them.
“I was just going to come get you up,” Mr. White said. “Do you want to go over the plan again before we take off?”
“No. I think I’ve got it,” I said. “Any word from the UAV?”
“We were unable to be sure that it was or wasn’t Admiral Stanton and they left some time ago. They will contact us when they are in position. We will be leaving in about half an hour too,” he said.
He handed me some clothes with instructions to change in his bathroom. I took them and went to change. I got to the bathroom and shut the door. I hadn’t been in here yet and it was huge. It had a Jacuzzi bathtub and a shower with two heads. The tile was a cream color and covered the floor right on up the wall. Where the tile stopped a beautiful molding divided the walls from the ceiling. It had two sinks in a gorgeous marble topped vanity with a mirror that almost covered the entire wall. The toilet was set off to the side to allow for some extra privacy.
I proceeded to get undressed and wished I could take some time to sit in the tub. The thought to be uncomfortable changing clothes in a new place never even occurred to me. The clothes Mr. White had given me were all black and quite heavy. I found the reason for the weight when I pulled out a Kevlar vest. When I had finished dressing I checked myself out in the huge mirror. Not bad, I thought to myself. I need to do something with my hair though. It had been up in a braid like usual, but pieces were sticking out on the sides and in the braid itself. I took my hair out and re-braided it. There, now the image was complete. Ha, better than Lara Croft, I thought to myself. Except, I still don’t have the accent.
I made my way back to the war room, with only a slight limp. The rest had done wonders for my leg.
“Okay,” Mr. White said looking me up and down, making my stomach do flips. “Let’s get going.”
The four of us went to the roof and all boarded the helicopter. It was dark outside and before we took off I asked Mr. Blue what time it was.
“9:32. That means we should reach our destination around 1:30, 2:00 in the morning.”
The helicopter lifted off with Mr. White in the pilot’s seat and the only conversation was Mr. Blue asking how my leg was doing periodically. It had begun to hurt like hell again, but I told him I would be fine.
We flew straight on toward the base and Mr. White radioed in for permission to land.
Mr. Blue reached back from the co-pilot’s seat and handed me a pill and a canteen with instructions to take the pill. It didn’t look like the huge antibiotics he had given me before.
“What is it?” I asked.
“A pain killer. Trust me, you’ll need it because you can’t limp around when we get there,” he explained.
“It won’t make me…weird, will it?” I asked.
“No, not until it starts to wear off in about eight hours. And then all that happens is you get real tired. By then we should be on our way back to the office, if not already there,” he said.
I reluctantly put the pill in my mouth and washed it down.
“It should kick in soon,” Mr. Blue said.
Slowly the pain subsided and I stretched my leg out, testing it. It was like I had never been shot. This is great, I thought. Maybe he’d give me more when we got back.
We received permission to land and Mr. White was allowed to set us down on the helipad with no problems. Mr. Blue remained in the cockpit as Mr. White exited. Abdullah and I jumped out the side door, heads held down. The three of us ran from the helicopter bent over until we cleared the main rotor of the helicopter.
No men met us on our way to the building like they had when we brought in The Lion. Instead the three of us marched up to the heavy gray door of the brick building unescorted.
There were two men, one on each side of the door like last time. Mr. White presented them with our papers that stated we had permission to interrogate The Lion with the assistance of his cousin. Mr. White had pulled a few strings and had been able to get us authorization to see The Lion at our convenience. The powers that be couldn’t act on my father’s behalf, but were glad to know we were. If they had only known what our plan was they may not have been so accommodating.
We stepped inside and I noticed a desk to my immediate left. Mr. White presented our papers to the man sitting there. While he looked them over, I looked over the building. I had memorized the plans, but the front office was smaller than I had expected. It contained two men, one desk, several monitors for the security cameras and three doors. We had just walked through the heavy gray door behind us and to my right was a bathroom door. Not far from the desk was another door that led to the holding cells and interrogation rooms that took up the majority of the building.
When the guard finished reviewing the orders, Mr. White relieved him and the other guard of their duties. I don’t know why they listened to him, but they did, with sharp salutes. After the men had gone, Mr. White pointed toward the computer and then led Abdullah through the door toward the back of the building.
I was seated at the computer before the door shut behind them. I was to divert the camera’s recording system while Mr. White had the two men together in the back. After I finished that job, I took out the portable hard drive I had brought along. I proceeded to download everything pertaining to The Lion.
Inside of fifteen minutes, I had finished my download and the two men were in the front office waiting for me. I turned the cameras back to record and we walked out the door.
“That didn’t take long, sir,” One of the guards directed at Mr. White.
“He didn’t have anything to offer,” he replied and the three of us marched back to the waiting chopper. We lifted off and were safely on our way home, mission accomplished.
Not until we were several miles from the installation did The Lion lift his head. Mr. White had traded him for Abdullah under the pretense we were going to free him. That way he would come with us without any trouble.
Mr. Red was on top of the building waiting for us when we landed
. We all stepped out of the chopper and Mr. Red came to take custody of The Lion.
“What the hell?” Abbas, A.K.A. The Lion, screamed as Mr. Red handcuffed him.
“Relax,” Mr. Red told him.
“You told me you were going to get me out of there,” Abbas said with an accusatory tone to Mr. White.
“I did,” Mr. White replied bluntly.
The first part of the plan had gone well and I was glad to be back so we could continue. We had a lot to accomplish yet. It was planned we would use The Lion to get my father back and hopefully have him returned to the installation before the switch off was noticed. Abdullah could maybe pull this off if the powers that be didn’t want to talk with The Lion in the next few hours.
Mr. White escorted me off the elevator when we reached his floor. The other two men remained on the elevator with The Lion.
We entered the apartment and I asked Mr. White where they were taking Abbas Salah. He explained to me Suite 72 was an interrogation room and Mr. Red would begin his work there.
The war room had been locked again and Mr. White let me in. He said he’d make coffee while I examined the information on the hard drive.
I attached the external hard drive and started skimming through things. The video scenes of The Lion began with Mr. White walking him through the heavy gray door over a month ago. The Lion was quiet and calm when they placed him in his holding cell and remained that way for a couple of weeks. He didn’t say a word or bat an eye.
I had slowed the video to normal speed whenever they had removed Abbas to one of the interrogation rooms, until it became apparent he wouldn’t talk. This was my method for the first few weeks of his stay, then the screen went black. It startled me because for a second I thought I had maybe not gotten it all. I slowed the speed and there was audio available. It was obvious they were using unaccepted methods of interrogation by the thumps and screams present.
I had a hard time believing our country was party to this type of thing. They came and went to The Lion’s cell about every fifteen minutes, making sure if he fell asleep it wasn’t but for just a few minutes.