“Just the man I wanted to see.” Harry walked out of the elevator and looked up to see Ron Carter bearing down on him.
“What did you do with Agent Caruso?” the analyst asked without further preamble.
“Left him downstairs with Security. Any word on what type of investigation the Bureau is running?”
“A conference call is set up with Haskel at 0900. In the meantime, you’re to meet Carol Chambers in Conference Room #11. She’ll debrief you on this morning’s encounter and start prep for the call to Asefi.”
“We have go-mission on that now?”
“You know it.”
“I am happy to report, sir, that the American did not escape with samples of the toxin.” President Shirazi lifted his eyes to look into the monitor above his desk, displaying the video uplink from the border. He smiled. “Well done, Harun. You have confirmed this?”
“Yes, sir. Plastic vials were recovered from the saddlebags of the dead horse. They contained the blood samples he was transporting. Having brought the Americans under fire, they were unable to retrieve the vials before we closed in.”
“You have pleased me, my nephew, but your work is not yet done. I want you to return to Tehran as soon as possible.”
“As you will, sir.”
Shirazi hit a button on his remote and the monitor went black. He rose and walked across his office. Fate. Destiny.
The will of Allah. It didn’t much matter what one called it, the end result was the same. His fingers trembled at the thought of it. This was the purpose for which he had been born.
Casualty reports lay on his desk, estimates of the Jews and Muslims who would die in the attack. They were only the beginning. The world would be set aflame…
“Do you know whether this Agent Caruso was acting alone? Was his, in effect, a solo mission?” Carol Chambers asked, looking up from her notes.
Harry shook his head. “No, he had a woman follow me on my run, so that gives you two. Standard protocol would be a third person who would hang back and provide coordination and overwatch. Minimum three.”
“So that would likely be how Director Haskel found out so quickly?”
“Correct.”
She turned back to her laptop and began typing. “If you’ll give me a moment, I need to get this forwarded to the DCIA immediately. Then we’ll prepare for your call to Achmed Asefi.”
“Good.” Harry remained seated, watching her as she typed. “One thing Carter didn’t say-how did we get a current number for Asefi?”
“If Ron didn’t tell you, I’m sure you don’t need to know,” she replied, a grin tugging at the corners of her mouth.
Harry shrugged. “If that’s the way you want to be.”
“Just jerking your chain,” Carol retorted with a laugh. “Let’s put it this way. Asefi is a dirtbag.”
“I gathered as much.”
“Carter told you about the whorehouse in Bulgaria?”
“An ‘Eastern European escort service’, was I believe the delicate way he described it,” Harry responded with a smile.
“A whorehouse in Bulgaria,” she repeated, looking over the top of her computer at him. “Asefi left contact information there, updated every two months. It seems that they have periodic access to young boys, and our man wanted to stay in the loop on the hottest ‘deals’.”
“So, we’re negotiating with a pedophile,” Harry said after a moment.
“That’s right. We don’t know if the contact number will connect us directly with Asefi or whether he has a cut-out, but the director has given the go-ahead.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
Chaos. As a warrior, Hossein had always been tasked with its creation, its manipulation. Having it thrust upon him was another matter.
He looked at the model on his desk, a model of their target made from bits of wood and clay by a recruit who had been considerably more skilled at art than he was with a rifle. He was gone now, along with the rest of the ineffectives.
Hossein rose and crossed the room, carefully considering and rejecting his options each in turn. He could still hear Isfahani’s words, streaming through his mind.
“
Then why, he had asked, are we going to all this bother?
“
Hossein’s fingers stroked the dome of the model absently as he stood there, lost in thought. Somehow, pragmatist that he was, the promise of divine intervention seemed less than helpful. Semantics aside, it did nothing to conceal the truth.
