by Jack Ford
71
Nc5 Kd6
Out in the bay the three of them bobbed. Slowly treading water in the cold sea. Needing to move so the chill didn’t begin to take over, but needing to stay as quiet as they could. They kept low. Submerging as much of their bodies as possible in the dark of the water. Their nostrils skimming the surface and their faces painted with two color camo paint, and the only thing that shone bright was the whites of their eyes.
Catching a few moments rest, and as Cooper’s muscles began to give out the warning signs of cramp, he knew there was a hell of a swim back until they could do anything like relax. He was tense. And not just because of the cold. But hell, that didn’t help. He was tense because of the wait. The watching. Assessing. Wondering whether anyone had realized yet the windows of the office had been smashed out. And waiting for Ismet’s men to come after them, hunting them down like rats in a river.
The darkness was soon going to give way to daylight, and they had to decide when it was the right time to head back to the fishing boat. By Cooper’s calculations, they probably had no more than an hour before the Turkish sun began to rise. The problem was there was suddenly so much activity in the small private port. There were the SUVs. Ismet’s men. And now a large truck had just arrived, parking carefully up by the stealth ship.
In the quietness, with only the sound of the lapping sea, Maddie whispered, ‘Oh my God, Rosedale, Tom, look!’
Stepping down off the back of the truck, thirty, forty, perhaps fifty small, bewildered and dirty-looking children were herded into the floodlit area. Their faces held fear. And to her horror, Maddie realized that none of them looked over twelve years old. So thin. So skinny. So gaunt… So lost.
‘What are we going to do?’ she said.
Rosedale spoke more to himself. His words full of pain. ‘Jesus, I don’t think there is anything we can do… Look.’
They watched the children being shunted and pushed and shoved and thrust towards the stealth ship. A little boy fell over and burst into tears, before he was roughly dragged back up. Maddie turned away. ‘I can’t watch this.’
But almost immediately she heard Rosedale say, ‘Maddie, this you have to see.’
She turned and watched a tall man with a familiar-looking face. Bearded. Dressed in a simple long shirt over simple white pants and a black and white ghutra tied loosely. He walked towards the edge of the harbor. Feet away. Almost looked at right them. Causing the trio to sink even lower in the sea. Breathing small bubbles onto the surface as their noses immersed into the water.
The man turned his head. Giving them a clear profile view of his face. Giving them the confirmation. Giving them no doubt as to who it was.
But a sudden shout had the man at the harbor’s edge turning round to watch one of Ismet’s men come hurtling down the stairs from the office block. Signaling and gesturing and waving and beckoning.
Cooper spoke urgently. ‘They must’ve seen the broken window. Come on, we gotta take our chances… Move it.’
And to the sounds of shouts and cries and running feet, and the skidding and screeching of tires, Maddie, Rosedale and Cooper sunk silently into the deep.
72
Nge4 Ke7
Back on the fishing boat, with the pink of the sun above the Turkish mountains, the three of them sat on the deck getting their breath and energy back, trying to get some clarity on the events of the night.
‘I know what it is. On the USB file,’ Rosedale said.
With a mix of intrigue and tiredness, Maddie looked at him quizzically. ‘How? But more importantly, what is it?’
‘The shapes we were looking at were actually the first overlay of a map. Or rather, an image of a particular area.’
‘When did you find this out?’
‘On Ismet’s wall there was exactly the same image, no doubt in my mind. Only difference was, on his image there were other digital layers stacked on top, which of course helped because it made it pretty damn obvious what it was. There wasn’t any labeling on it to say where the place is, but I reckon once we get back we could take it to a cartographer. There’s a great guy I’ve worked with many times over the years, when I was in the CIA. When documents came into our possession which looked anything like an area of land and we couldn’t work it out, he’d be the guy to tell us. He’d do his thing, and before you knew it you’d have everything from the coordinates to the population density of the area. He’s retired now, but I’m sure that won’t be a problem. I’ll get on to it the moment we get back.’
Trying to be discreet in passing Cooper one of his pills, but aware it was a pretty pointless exercise, Maddie stared intently at Rosedale. ‘And now the big question is about who we saw. Or who we thought we saw. Maybe we got it wrong.’
Rosedale, trying to be just as discreet in giving Cooper a disapproving look, pulled a face whilst massaging the muscle in his calf. ‘Got it wrong, how?’
‘Maybe just a massive similarity.’
‘Come on, Maddie, we all know we’re not wrong.’
‘I know it looks that way, and I’m not naïve, I get what goes on, but I can’t imagine…’
His words laced with acrimony, Cooper cut in. ‘That our President would allow it?’
Maddie nodded. ‘Exactly.’
Contempt was scrawled all over Rosedale’s face. ‘Well as we know only too well, what they tell the people and what really goes on are two different things entirely. And who we just saw, sugar, is a case in point… There’s no doubt about it, that man was Abdul-Aziz Bin Hamad.’
SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA
USA
73
Ke5 Rf1
Sitting with her legs dangling in the pool outside her sprawling single family home, north-east of Desert Mountain, Maddie sat next to Rosedale, who seemed to be enjoying drinking the pretend iced tea out of the invisible teacup which Cora had given him a few minutes ago.
Maddie said, ‘She’s gone now, so you don’t have to do that anymore.’
‘But I haven’t finished.’
‘Sometimes I wonder about you, Rosedale.’
He shrugged. ‘Why? Because I was thirsty?’
‘Shut up, Rosedale, and tell me what happened.’
Carefully putting his cup down, Rosedale wiped his mouth. ‘Firstly, I’ve spoken to the cartographer about the USB. He says he’ll have a look at it but he can’t make any promises. I also made the calls to the people that I needed to, and what came back is not what I thought. None of the guys I spoke to in central intelligence know anything. In actual fact, the resounding response was Abdul-Aziz bin Hamad is still locked up at a secret intelligence base. And, get this, one of them I spoke to actually saw Bin Hamad two weeks ago.’
‘Where?’
‘At the intelligence detention center. Locked up as he should be. He flew there from the military base just outside Tampa to question another detainee.’
‘So is Bin Hamad being kept in south-eastern Cuba?’
‘Yeah, though it’s a place they try not to talk about.’
‘Okay, so let me get this straight. Within the last two weeks Bin Hamad’s been released, and you’re saying the guys you know don’t seem to know anything about it?’
‘Right.’
‘But would they know otherwise?’
Picking up and drinking the iced-tea again, to Maddie’s distraction and befuddlement, Rosedale nodded. ‘Absolutely. Not only can I trust them, but they’re also on the front line so these people, above anybody else, should and would know.’
‘But that doesn’t make sense. Because obviously they don’t know what they should know, because we saw him.’
‘Exactly.’
‘Did you tell them why you were asking?’
‘No, but I did get a bit more information. Apparently, beyond the usual tight security for suspected terrorists, Bin Hamad had HS – heightened security. Which means he’s locked – or was locked – in a cell where he has no human contact. His food gets pushed through a hatch. A
nd so does the bowl of water he has to wash in, which also doubles up as a john. And that’s it, any communication is done via video call. No-one can let him out. It’s a coded lock. And it takes two people to release him.’
‘Is that usual?’
‘For prisoners like him it is. Back when I was in the CIA, there were so many deals and so much swapping of prisoners, nobody knew if a particular detainee from a black site had been shipped to another site, or had been freed in some kind of deal. No-one questioned it when a high-ranking central intelligence officer came to speak to a prisoner, or transfer him out with them. Top secret was and is top secret. Period. Deals were always being made. No deals means no moving forward on human intel and no preventing of terrorism. That’s just how it works in the clandestine and CTC division.’
‘And how does that fit in with having the high security?’
‘With guys like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the principal architect for 9/11, or Abdul-Aziz bin Hamad, then you have HS because they’re the ones who’ve been privy to the planning, and have given the orders to execute massive terror attacks. Therefore these guys can supply vital information, so they can’t be accessible to anybody and everybody… Only the real select few.’
Maddie trailed her hand into the water. ‘And the public never knew what was going on.’
‘Everything was so covert, which often reflected the government administration at the time, with some being more covert than others. But a lot of stuff was off record.’
‘Which it still is now?’
‘Yeah, a hell of a lot, from drone strikes to weapons deals, even proxy wars. But all this makes it difficult for the field agent, who’s putting their life on the line but doesn’t actually know what’s going on either. You couldn’t trust anybody, and you couldn’t tell anybody that you didn’t trust anybody, in case they ended up not trusting you. Paranoia was something you had for breakfast. Everything was top secret and no-one knew what was supposed to be and what wasn’t.’
‘So where does that leave us?’
‘It leaves us with the bit I haven’t told you. Like I say, to get Bin Hamad out of there, well, it needs two people, because they have two different parts of the code. One of the people is always the head of the CTC, or in this case the acting head, Chuck Harrison. A low-down bastard if there ever was one. I knew him when he was station head in Khartoum. I was only there for three months but, Miss Maddison, believe me when I say that was long enough. The other person who holds the code is never known to anybody, apart from the head of CTC, as well as the Commander-in-Chief and a couple of other people in office.’
Maddie looked at Rosedale with her warm, big brown eyes. ‘So how does any of this help?’
‘Because, as someone once said, there are always the known unknowns.’
Not wanting to sound irritated, but sounding irritated nonetheless, Maddie said, ‘Rosedale, please, just tell me.’
‘I know who the other person is. His name is Senator Michael Rubins. And tomorrow we’re going to pay him a visit.’
ALABAMA, USA
74
Bg4 Rg1
‘Sorry I’m late, guys. It took longer than I thought.’ Cooper hurried towards Rosedale and Maddie, both standing by the rental car, both looking like they were on the moderate side of pissed with him.
Rosedale asked, ‘Where the hell have you been?’
On the extreme side of pissed.
Cooper replied, ‘I had to get these.’ He held up a white envelope in front of him.
‘Problem?’
Pushing up the brim of his cowboy hat and wiping the sweat which trickled and zigzagged down the back of his neck, right to the base of his spine, Rosedale stared intensely, squinting his eyes in the Alabama sun. ‘As long as that’s the only reason why you’re late.’
‘I’m not hiding anything, alright? You know everything there is to know.’
Rosedale continued to stare at Cooper. ‘You see, whenever a man says those words, I can bet my Goddamn life on the fact there’s a hell of a lot more to know… Shall we?’ He gestured his hand towards the senator’s imposing home security gates.
Maddie gave a small smile to Cooper as they walked behind Rosedale. ‘I can’t help thinking about those kids we saw. I haven’t slept properly since. I can’t make any sense of it. Have you had any thoughts?’
Cricking the tension out of his neck, and not wanting to tell her that so much of his thoughts were taken up by Ellie, he could barely function, he said, ‘Not ones which are going to help anybody, which is the worst thing about this damn thing. Right from the beginning there’s been nobody to tell. Nobody to turn to for help because we just don’t know enough, so the pressure’s on us to find all the answers when we don’t know what questions we should even be asking. It just feels so overwhelming, honey. And I feel so tired. I’m the same as you. Keep seeing those kids washed up on the shore in their yellow tops… Who were they, Maddie? How can they have no one? Dying at such a young age but having no-one to care. And then the other kids being marched onto the ship like they were soldiers. They reminded me of those pictures taken in the war of the Jewish children on a death march, walking towards the gas chambers. Jesus, I thought I’d seen a lot, but their eyes were so sunken, full of nothing but fear, and all we did was watch.’
Maddie stopped suddenly. ‘What did you just say?’
‘When?’
‘Just now. Repeat what you said.’
‘All we did was watch.’
‘No, before that.’
Cooper quickly thought and frowned. ‘About the kids being marched on the ships like they were soldiers?’
Maddie’s eyes lit up. ‘Yes! I think that’s it. It’s gotta be.’
Joining them, Rosedale said, ‘What am I missing out on?’
‘The fact that Tom’s a genius.’
Finishing off his cigar, Rosedale nodded slowly. Felt the hot laze of the Alabama day. Glanced at the Senator’s white, Georgian colonial mansion, festooned with a multitude of pale, yellow roses climbing and exploding up the front of the building. ‘Yep, I sure as hell missed the memo on that one.’
‘But he is,’ Maddie said.
Cooper winked. ‘An unintentional one, and I hate to admit it, but how, exactly?’
Maddie grinned at him.
‘You said soldiers. The kids. That’s what they must be for. They’re using the kids for child soldiers… No, don’t look like that. Think about it. That’s what Bin Hamad was known for. His training camps… Remember? He had all those training camps in Afghanistan. They were full of refugee children… If we hadn’t seen him on the dock, I would’ve kept thinking that the kids were something to do with trafficking. But Bin Hamad isn’t interested in that. That’s not his style. He’s all about war. About terror. And what better way than to train up kids who are vulnerable, but also dispensable… He’s obviously taking them to a training camp somewhere.’
‘I think you might be onto something, Maddison. It makes sense to me. What doesn’t is why they’ve let him out to become active again,’ Rosedale said.
Determination threaded through Cooper. ‘Well, let’s go and find out.’
As they headed for the Senator’s house, Cooper pulled on Rosedale’s arm. Pulling him back. Allowing Maddie to walk ahead. Quietly he said, ‘Rosedale, when this is all over, you and I need to have a conversation about you sleeping with my wife.’
75
Be6 Re1
Senator Michael Rubins drawled each word out. Nasalizing vowel sounds and protracting each word so much, and so slowly, that Cooper wondered if he was trying to stall for time somehow. Agitated by this unnecessary affectation, which had already stretched out the niceties of formality by an extra few minutes, he chewed on his lip and listened as Rubins spoke directly to Rosedale.
‘When Jerry asked me to see you, I was more than happy to oblige. He tells me you two worked together in Islamabad. Though what he didn’t tell me was what brings you here, Mr Young.’ Rubins’ smile,
which was framed in his rotund face, was frozen and cloying.
‘Call me Rosedale, Senator. But to answer your question, the simple fact is he didn’t tell you because I didn’t tell him.’
Pointing to the leather armchairs which were already facing his locally-sourced rosewood desk, Rubins said, ‘Please, take a seat, this sounds intriguing.’
‘I could call it many things, Senator, but intriguing wouldn’t be the first word which came to mind,’ Rosedale said.
‘Excuse me? Have we got some kind of problem here?’
‘I think, to use a cliché, we should cut to the chase, don’t you, Senator?’
Rubins’ coldness was in stark contrast to the heat of the Alabama day. ‘I don’t know who you think you are, Mr Young, nor what your difficulty is, but this isn’t what I expected when Jerry asked me to open up not only my time, but also my house to you. I’m not sure how alienating me serves any purpose. But as you’re here now, let’s hear it. Let’s cut to the chase.’
‘I want to know about Abdul-Aziz Bin Hamad.’
Rubins shuffled the papers in front of him which didn’t need shuffling. ‘Okay folks, well, this meeting’s over. Show yourselves out.’
Rosedale didn’t move. ‘Not until we have some answers.’
‘You can have your answers, but down at the precinct, unless of course you leave now.’
‘I’d put that phone down if I were you, Senator, unless of course you want the whole world knowing Bin Hamad’s been released.’
In slow motion Rubins frowned at Rosedale, held the phone in mid-air and put it down gently on the cradle. ‘What the hell are you talking about?’
‘About the fact a well-known terrorist has been allowed to walk free and now it looks like he’s active again,’ said Maddie.
The Senator leant forward on his elbows and rested his chin on his hand and stared at Maddie with as much hostility as he could muster. ‘I don’t know what crazy idea you have in your heads, nor who put that crazy idea there. But even if I could talk about Bin Hamad, it would be clear to any sane and rational citizen of this great country that the notion he’s been released is beyond absurd. Y’all have lost your minds.’