Five Years in Yemen

by Luana Ehrlich

  “Okay, sure,” he said, fidgeting with the paperclip. “When I left SSG five years ago, I decided to come back here to Springfield where I grew up and start my own security business. To be truthful, my wife hated it when I was away, and she was threatening to leave me if I didn’t give up my job. The irony of that is that two years ago, she divorced me. I have a couple of kids, but they’re both teenagers now, so it wouldn’t matter to them, if I took off for six months.”

  “What makes you think you’d only be gone for six months?” Nikki asked.

  He seemed surprised by her question—I was a little surprised myself—but then he smiled and said, “Are you saying this could be a long-term assignment? Frankly, that would be even better.”

  “A long-term assignment is definitely a possibility,” I said, “but before I tell you about the job, you’ll need to clear up some things about your last assignment.”

  Zachary’s eyes narrowed. “What kind of things?”

  “When we were looking at how you handled security on the MODD system project, we noticed—”

  “Oh, no, you can’t blame me for Jacob Levin’s disappearance. That wasn’t my fault.”

  “Whose fault was it?”

  Zachary began unwinding the paper clip into a single strand of wire, “I’d say it was Jacob’s fault. He was the one who agreed to the Saudi’s request to make the trip to Riyadh by himself. The Saudis told him my services weren’t needed, but he could have insisted I go with him.”

  “Walk us through how that trip came about.”

  “That was a long time ago. I haven’t thought about it in years.”

  “You must have gone over the circumstances several times with your contracting supervisor.”

  “You’re right,” he said, tossing the uncoiled paperclip into a nearby wastebasket, “and I was also interrogated by the CIA and some guys from Defense. I guess it wouldn’t be too hard to remember what happened.”

  He locked his hands behind his head and leaned back in his office chair. “It all started when the contracting supervisor at SSG notified Jacob Levin a delegation from the Saudi Defense Ministry had been given permission to attend a field test of the MODD system. The tests they carried out that day went perfectly, and when we returned to the base, Hasan, the head of the Saudi delegation, immediately contacted SSG and asked that Jacob be given permission to fly back to Riyadh with them. They wanted him to present the test results to the Saudis who run the Defense Ministry.”

  “Was there anything about that request that bothered you?”

  He shook his head. “No, not really. I understood why they wanted Jacob to make a formal presentation in Riyadh. What I didn’t understand was why he agreed not to take any security with him. Jacob always insisted on having security with him everywhere he went in Karbala.”

  “You’ve got to admit Riyadh is a lot safer than Karbala.”

  “Of course, but it still made me uncomfortable.”

  Nikki asked, “What specifically made you uncomfortable? Was it Jacob? Another person? Something about the travel arrangements?”

  Zachary stared at Nikki a moment before he replied.

  “I guess you could say it was another person. There were four other people in the Saudi delegation besides Hasan. While they were waiting to hear back from SSG, one of the Saudis—his name was Samir—began spending a lot of time alone with Jacob. He and Jacob spoke the same engineering lingo, so they were able to connect on that level, but Samir’s friendship seemed very calculated to me.”

  I asked, “In what way?”

  He shrugged. “I couldn’t figure that out, but since I was in charge of security for the project, I would have felt better if Jacob had allowed me to go with him to Riyadh, even if it were only to keep an eye on Samir.”

  I said, “Of course, as you and I both know, Jacob never made it to Riyadh. He disappeared before he even got to the airport in Karbala.”

  Zachary stared off in the distance. “I saw him get into the airport van myself, but then, a couple of hours later, I got a call from Hasan. He said their flight was getting ready to board, and he wanted to know where Jacob was.”

  “What did you tell him?”

  In an obvious attempt to show his competence, Zachary launched into a long explanation of the measures he’d taken to locate Levin in Karbala, ticking off each item on his fingers one by one.

  After he finished, he held up both hands and said, “The man just disappeared into thin air.”

  I said, “People don’t just disappear into thin air. You must have some theory about what happened to him.”

  “We could never locate the airport van, so I believe one of the jihadist groups must have kidnapped him. They probably killed him a few hours later, and then buried his body somewhere. I imagine it will turn up one of these days.”

  Nikki asked, “How did the Saudis react when Jacob went missing?”

  “They delayed their flight and offered to help me look for him. I immediately drove out to the airport and met up with them before I began my search.”

  “It sounds like you handled the situation in a very professional manner,” I said. “Thanks for clearing that up.”

  Zachary looked relieved. “I always try to take responsibility if something goes wrong on my end, but I don’t believe there was anything I could have done that would have prevented Jacob’s disappearance.”

  Nikki said, “I’m curious about how Samir reacted when Jacob didn’t make the flight to Riyadh.”

  He nodded. “It’s funny you should ask about that, because Samir wasn’t at the airport when I got there. When I asked Hasan about him, he said he’d taken an earlier flight.”

  “I didn’t read anything in your SSG report about that,” I said.

  “Is that right? Well, I know I mentioned it to someone from the Defense Intelligence Agency, and I probably did the same with the spooks over at the CIA. I figured the intelligence guys had the resources to find out if Hasan was telling the truth.”

  Zachary leaned forward. “If I’ve answered all of your questions, I’d like to hear about that assignment now.”

  I spent the next fifteen minutes giving him a detailed description of a job opening for a security officer in Afghanistan, and the moment I finished my spiel, he told me he’d be willing to accept the assignment without even asking me about the salary.

  I promised him he’d be hearing from someone at SSG with a job offer in a few days.

  Like so many promises I’d made since joining the Agency, this promise was a lie.

  Unlike those other promises, this one bothered me.

  Chapter 5

  Monday, October 19

  Although I’d been a resident of Norman, Oklahoma for the past six months, I’d been out of the country the majority of that time. Despite that, on Saturday afternoon, as soon as I took the Tecumseh Road exit off of I-35, I felt like I’d come home.

  Stormy must have felt the same way.

  He’d started barking the moment I pulled up to the remote-controlled security gate in front of my driveway, and the closer we got to the house, the more agitated he became.

  When I stopped the car in front of the garage and opened the door, he jumped out and raced back and forth across the front lawn as if he’d just had a double shot of espresso. Seconds later, he headed down to the lake at the back of the property and frightened several ducks who’d been enjoying an afternoon swim.

  His exuberance continued throughout the day on Sunday.

  Now, he was sitting out on the patio with me as I was savoring my first cup of coffee and watching the sun come up.

  Our peaceful reverie was suddenly shattered when the glass-topped table beside me started shaking from the vibration coming from my cell phone.

  Before looking down at the screen, I automatically assumed Nikki was calling me, even though she’d told me she wouldn’t have time to touch base with me today since it was her first day back at work at the Norman Police Department.

  The
phone call wasn’t from Nikki.

  “Are you awake?” Carlton asked.

  “Awake? I’ve been up for hours. In fact, I’ve already mowed ten acres this morning.”

  “Is that right? For some reason, I pictured you out on your patio drinking coffee.”

  “Nope. I was just about to grab my chainsaw and head out to the north forty to cut down a dead tree. What’s up? I’m guessing you saw my email about my visit with Travis Zachary.”

  “I read it last night. Frankly, I was surprised you didn’t call and discuss the results of your visit with me.”

  “I didn’t think there was anything to discuss. Didn’t Zachary just repeat the same information he’d already given the Agency?”

  “No, actually he didn’t. I didn’t know Samir, the Saudi guy, wasn’t around when Jacob disappeared.”

  “Are you telling me Zachary didn’t tell you about Samir?”

  “I’m telling you Zachary told our analysts about Samir, but he didn’t mention he wasn’t around after Levin went missing.”

  “Zachary insisted he’d told someone from the Agency about it.”

  I heard Carlton shuffling papers in the background.

  “There was nothing in the transcripts, and if I’m reading your email correctly, he told you he’d mentioned it to someone from Defense, but he wasn’t sure he’d told . . . wait a minute, I want to quote this directly . . . ‘the spooks over at the CIA.’”

  “You mean you’ve never seen the statements Zachary made to the DIA about Levin’s disappearance?”

  “Unfortunately, no. Those transcripts were never shared with us.”

  Perhaps this shouldn’t have surprised me.

  Although both the Central Intelligence Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency had a common goal of protecting America’s national security, they each operated under their own umbrella.

  The DIA was an organization within the Department of Defense and was primarily responsible for military matters. The CIA, on the other hand, was a civilian entity and had no parent organization over it. Plus, the CIA was concerned with a much broader range of security oversight than just military matters.

  In the last twenty years, I’d met some DIA officers who claimed Congress treated them like the black sheep of the intelligence community. That kind of attitude fostered an atmosphere of animosity between the CIA and the DIA and resulted in a minimal amount of cooperation between the two when it came to sharing intelligence.

  “Did you ever request to see the transcripts of what the DIA guys asked Zachary about Levin’s disappearance?”

  “No, that didn’t seem necessary. Like Zachary said, everyone thought Levin had been killed by one of the jihadist groups.”

  “Since we know Jacob Levin is alive and well, will you be contacting your counterpart over at Defense for those transcripts?”

  “I was already considering doing that before I asked you to stop off in Springfield and visit with Zachary. Now that I know he may have given Defense more details about Levin’s disappearance, I’ll definitely be making that request.”

  “Is that why you wanted me to have a chat with Zachary in the first place? Were you trying to find out if it would be worth the hassle you’d have to go through to get that information from the DIA?”

  He was quiet for a moment. “I’m not sure why you’d say that. I don’t believe I’ve ever made any disparaging remarks about anyone over at the DIA. Have you ever heard me say anything derogatory about our colleagues in the DIA?”

  Carlton took great pride in his refusal to engage in gossip or make cutting remarks about a colleague or even another government agency. However, that didn’t stop him from making his feelings known.

  “No, not in so many words, but when we had that joint operation with the DIA in Pakistan a few years ago, and their division chief told you that you’d have to file a request to see the documents we’d just recovered from the compound, I saw the look on your face. I imagine your reaction spoke volumes to him as well.”

  Carlton cleared his throat. “Yes, well, if I recall, he got the message and turned the documents over to us immediately.”

  “Now that we know the DIA guys were able to get more information out of Zachary than we did, will you request the transcripts of his interrogation?”

  “Yes, I plan to ask Dirk Andersen to send them over this afternoon.”

  “Is he the new Middle East division head over at the DIA now?”

  “He was appointed to that position a few months ago. The two of us have a good working relationship, so getting those transcripts shouldn’t be a problem.”

  “Let me know if something interesting turns up.”

  “I doubt if I’ll discuss Levin with you again until January.”

  “I know I’m on leave, but I don’t mind being kept up-to-date.”

  “No, Titus, the DDO hasn’t officially assigned you to this operation yet. Besides that, you and your fiancée need to be planning a wedding. Have you picked out a date yet?”

  “No, I’m leaving that up to Nikki.”

  “Smart move. You’re learning about married life already.”

  * * * *

  Before I got off the phone with Carlton, he asked me for my analysis of Travis Zachary. I told him he seemed like a solid guy, and I had the feeling he was probably an excellent security officer.

  “He has good instincts,” I said. “He wasn’t satisfied with my business card from SSG. He wanted some additional proof of my credentials before he was willing to talk to me.”

  “And you delivered that?”

  “Before I left the hotel, I printed off his work record from his file at SSG. He must think the security at SSG is so good no one could hack into their system and get those records, because that single sheet of paper convinced him I was a recruiter from their HR department.”

  “If Zachary’s that diligent, I better make sure Jared Russell is still a recruiter for Southridge. Who knows? Zachary may contact SSG and check you out.”

  “He definitely has a suspicious nature. I guess you noticed how skittish he was about the Saudis.”

  “What made you ask him about the Saudis’ reaction to Jacob’s disappearance? Are you thinking the Saudis were involved in it?”

  Actually, I hadn’t asked Zachary that question. Nikki had brought it up. However, in the email I’d sent Carlton, I’d attributed that question to me, because I’d decided not to tell him I’d allowed Nikki to be at the meeting with Zachary.

  Theoretically, there hadn’t been anything wrong with Nikki being at the meeting—at least not from a security standpoint. But, from a practical standpoint, Carlton might not have agreed with my theory, so I decided to keep quiet about it.

  Instead of answering his question, I asked, “When Levin went missing five years ago, did you consider the Saudis might be involved?”

  “Of course I considered it, but there was no evidence to back that up.” He paused a few seconds. “You didn’t answer my question, though. Why did you press Zachary about the Saudis, particularly about Samir?”

  I’d asked Nikki that same question after we’d left Zachary’s office. Even though her response had surprised me, I repeated her answer back to Carlton verbatim.

  “I was just curious, that’s all. Zachary said Jacob and Samir had become friends. I know it’s not easy making friends with someone from another culture, so I was interested in his reaction.”

  Carlton chuckled. “You’re kidding me, right? That sounds way too touchy feely for you.”

  “Really? I guess I was channeling my feminine side, but it hardly matters, does it? Won’t you have our analysts do a data run on this Samir guy?”

  “I’ve already initiated that probe.”

  He paused a second, then added, “I may not have mowed ten acres this morning, but I haven’t been sitting around drinking coffee either.”

  * * * *

  After Carlton and I had finished discussing my interview with Zachary, he told me Ben Mitchell h
ad contacted him about transferring to the Middle East division.

  “I threw a few Arabic sentences at him,” Carlton said, “and since he managed to get the gist of what I was saying, I told him I’d recommend him for the transfer.”

  “I’m sure that made him happy.”

  “He didn’t seem all that happy when I told him he’d have to spend the next three months with an Arabic tutor.”

  “Did you mention anything to him about Operation Rebel Merchant?”

  “No, he’ll have to be fluent in Arabic before I send him to Yemen. His language skills wouldn’t matter that much if he were given an assignment in Iraq or Afghanistan, but Yemen is a different story. There aren’t many Americans working over there right now, and unless his cover is airtight, he might draw attention to himself.”

  “Speaking of work, would you happen to know of any job openings for a security officer in Afghanistan?”

  “You mean with the Agency?”

  “No, I mean with SSG. I’m talking about a contract position.”

  “It sounds like you’re talking about a job for Travis Zachary.”

  “I promised him someone from SSG would give him a call with a job offer this week.”

  “It shouldn’t take him long before he figures out that’s not happening.”

  “Yeah, I’ve been thinking about that, and I was just wondering if there wasn’t a way to make it happen.”

  “If you’re trying to help Zachary get a job, he must have impressed you a lot more than I thought he did.”

  He hadn’t really impressed me all that much, but, at the moment, I was reluctant to give Carlton a detailed explanation of why I was interested in finding Zachary a job.

  “He was pretty impressive,” I said.

  * * * *

  Carlton said he would check with SSG to see if there were any openings for a security officer and disconnected the call. As he hung up, I breathed a sigh of relief because I’d expected him to ask me to be more specific about why I was so interested in following through on my promise to Zachary.