by David Kersey
CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT
The two men waited until every last shard of light disappeared from the evening sky. They had enough bang with them to waste anything animal, vegetable, or mineral within two hundred feet of the blast. The house and garage would be severely damaged, but the two cars would be unrecognizable. If they were lucky the two targets, the bird and the bee would be close together when the bee started his car. They left the corn field and started toward the house, but noticed what looked like a mule walking slowly at a diagonal toward the dirt road. The ordinance was heavy but they’d been on more difficult assignments before. This should be an easy score, a soft war, as the terrorists liked to call an op that offered no resistance. The night was very dark, with no wind, and noiseless except for the sound of a bird that could be heard shrieking at times.
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“We know about your son you named Robert but is now called Adnan Omar Phalah. We know of the rape on Christmas Eve of 1990. We know that you gave the illegitimate baby away to the Saudi family that raised him. We know that you are in John’s house in order to help your illegitimate son determine if John can implicate him and others in last year’s terrorist attacks. We know that you asked for this assignment and are now furloughed and the twenty grand is not going to come from Uncle Sam.” Actually that’s more than John knew.
Marlene looked at John. “I was going to tell you. If I could show you my phone I could prove it to you.”
“Please keep listening, Marlene, there is a whole lot more to say to you. Mr. Phalah is a very bad man. As a U.S. citizen and one sworn to protect your country I would be shocked if you agreed to help him if you really knew how bad he is. Do you know how bad he is?”
“He is being blackmailed and being held captive,” Marlene said softly. “His captors are the ones who would be paying me. He said they would agree to free him if I could make sure his captors would not be identified as being part of the ant attack last year. John, please believe me, I was going to tell you tonight and leave tomorrow. Let me show you my phone and I’ll prove it to you.”
Chip looked at John and raised an eyebrow. Both men wanted to believe her. But her words could be a well-rehearsed response for this type of situation.
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I noticed the men approaching John’s car. I barked twice with my warning voice, but Guido slapped me across my snout. I got it. Don’t give up our position. Guido stood motionless and stared at the two men who had crouched behind the car. Sylvester opened the front door and looked out into the night. He walked down the steps. One of the men screwed on the silencer as the other man rose high enough to see through the car window. Sylvester stopped at my kennel and said, “You alright Buck?” I had already laid down and made no response. I hoped that Sylvester would go back into the house and not get hurt. It was when Sylvester had turned to go back into the house that all of us, including the two men, heard loud bangs echoing across the fields. “What the hell,” all of us thought simultaneously? Then more bangs, with each one about five seconds delayed from another one, and each bang was followed by two echoes. Bang, bang, bang. Bang, bang, bang. It was difficult to pinpoint the location because of the echoes in triplicate, but I thought I knew. Sylvester hurried into the house and immediately picked up the phone. The men resumed their mission. One of them laid himself under the car and affixed the IED to the car frame while the other kept watch.
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Mort was satisfied that both car doors were sufficiently caved in and could not be opened. He watched the family of raccoons chewing at each of the four tires and he could hear the gnawing from under the hood from the mice and rabbits and squirrels. Penny was keeping watch from the edge of the corn field. Oliver was watching the men plant the explosives from his perch atop the garage.
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“Look at this, Marlene.” Chip handed her the picture of Adnan on the Most Wanted Terrorist list. She looked at it for a few moments. She would have had time to read the indictments, and the monetary reward. “Do you know how bad of a man Adnan is now? Marlene, he is not a captive. He is as we speak recruiting jihadists to wreak havoc at another site known to us. You are being duped.” Chip noticed her about to speak and held his hand up. “Please, let me continue. This will be painful for you. We have valid, confirmed information that if you don’t reveal to us where to find Adnan that your son Charles will be killed. I was told that the exact location of Charles’s unit in Afghanistan was known.
“What? How can I believe you? Maybe you’re making this up. I will need proof of that. And am I under arrest?”
“No, I am not arresting you. I am warning you, and not only that, I am going to make you an offer. But before I do I want to make sure you understand that nothing I have said or will say is made up. It is the truth. I’d like to see you nod your head that you believe me.”
“I’m listening.”
“There are very powerful people who have a top priority interest in stopping Adnan from his planned attack in February. I can’t stress enough that these are extremely powerful people who play for keeps.”
Marlene again looked at John. “Did you know about all this stuff?”
“Most of it, yes, I did. A little bit more each day.”
“Then the wine, the opera, all the talks we’ve had, they were all a game? I feel like I’m being raped all over again.”
“Marlene,” Chip interrupted, “You and John will have time to discuss that. I want you to know that both John and I are talking with you because we care about you and want to protect you. Ok?”
“At this point I find that hard to believe.”
“A man has made an offer to you that I think you should take without hesitation. Don’t ask who he is because I don’t know. He will offer you one-half million dollars, all cash, with no tax consequence, if you’ll lead him to the whereabouts of Adnan.”
“In other words you want me to kill him, someone that came out of my own womb, isn’t that what you’re getting at?”
“In essence, you are correct, but you must consider your son Charles. I’m afraid it is going to be one or the other.”
“And if I agree to that, how do I know the money is real, you don’t even know the man making the offer or if he’s genuine? I need to have a turn speaking, will you give me that? I need to stand and walk around. I need to relax.”
“I will give you that, but first I want you to know that I would not reveal Adnan’s location until I had the money in hand, and it would be all yours. I’ve already worked out some the details, in my head, about how to insure there’s no double-cross. Do you know what a half million dollars would do for you for the rest of your life? And, I may be able to get you some of the million dollar reward from the CIA. I can’t guarantee that, I wouldn’t count on a penny from them if I were you.”
John’s cell phone rang. John listened, said we’d be on our way, and hung up. “There’s something going on at the house and Sylvester is concerned. I think we should head that way now, Chip. John reached into his pocket and produced the license plate number. “I haven’t had time to show you this, or that there is a danger I know of that I haven’t told you, but I think we’d better make a speed run with your lights on.”
“You take the Mercedes. Marlene will ride with me in the SUV.” Chip opened the office door and said, “Lykins, follow me in the squad car and light it up all the way.” The Sergeant at the desk handed Marlene her purse, but handed the HK pistol to the Sheriff. “You need to see this,” the Sergeant said. Chip saw the text message on her cell phone. So she was telling the truth, he thought.
As the three cars sped down Highway Nine, Chip talked to Marlene most of the way. “I hope you are listening real hard, girl, this isn’t child’s play. What I didn’t say in front of John is t
hat I think, in fact I know, that your life is in clear and present danger, and so is John’s. You understand? I didn’t want to upset John, he cares for you more than you know. In fact, he told me that he could fall in love with you.” Chip fibbed yet he could read John and knew there could be some truth in that, plus he wanted to save this woman’s life. That was his job
“What?” Marlene was flabbergasted. She already knew she could fall in love with John. If what Chip just said was true it would make the decision for her. It would make all the difference in the world. She expressed that to the Sheriff, and he smiled. Marlene expressed shock when she learned that Adnan controlled a bank account with twenty million dollars in it, and that in just a few hours some of it would be moved to finance his terror plot. Chip asked her if she thought twenty thousand and twenty million were about the same amount of money. She got his point.