“You asked to see me, sir?”
Justin did not have to turn his head. He recognized Abdul’s voice.
“Yes, I’d like you to meet Mr. Nour Milad, chief of security, and Mr. Jack Schmitt, senior security advisor at the American Embassy.”
“Pleased to meet you,” Abdul shook Nour’s hand and, after a split second of hesitation, reached for Justin’s limb frozen in mid-air. Their eyes did not meet, even though they saw face to face.
“They’re here to provide their assistance with our car bombings investigation. I’m assigning you to take these two men to our warehouse, I mean the evidence lab, where they are to inspect the vehicle of the failed suicide bomber. You’ll also take them to the hotels where these bombings took place, so they can poke around. I’m sure that’s what you were planning on doing. Correct me if I’m wrong,” the colonel said, looking more at Justin than at Nour.
Nour and Justin exchanged a quick undecided glance.
“We accept your offer to work together,” Nour said slowly. “In no way do we intend to put down the efforts of your team, only to build on their results.”
The colonel stared at Nour and Justin over his glasses. “I expect nothing less, Chief. Keep me informed.”
“By all means, sir,” Nour replied.
“Well, then, I’ll let you go. You’ve lots on your plate and so do I.” The colonel pointed at his desk.
Chapter Fifteen
Colonel Haydar wiped a drop of sweat from his forehead as he dialed Zakir’s number on his cellphone. For reasons he could not explain, he became nervous just before calling Prince Al-Farhan’s aide. It happened every time, even when things were going precisely according to plan, like now.
“Yes, what is it?” Zakir barked in his snappy voice, impatient as always.
“They just left my office,” the colonel whispered quietly, even though he was alone. “I gave them the reports as instructed.”
“Good. What did they say?”
“They said they’ll review them, draw their own conclusions, and tighten the security around their President.”
“Did you promise increased Libyan security around the convoy?”
“Yes, of course, I did. I said their President will be as protected, if not more protected than our Prime Minister.”
Zakir let out a small snicker. “Good one. Yes, their President will be extremely well protected.”
“There’s something else,” Colonel Haydar said with some hesitation. “They’re running their own investigation into this matter.”
A few seconds of pause followed and, this time, the colonel wiped a stream of sweat off his brow.
“You fool!” Zakir finally blurted. “Why did you allow that?”
“Well, we’re supposed to work together with them and… hmm… and they were going to go ahead with it anyway. I thought, in this way, we know exactly what they’re doing and whom they’re talking to.”
“Really? Like we knew where Justin’s spent last night, right?”
“It’s different this time.”
“How is that?”
“I sent one of my best men with them, to escort them at all times. He’ll report to me on their actions.”
“And you trust this man?”
“Yes, absolutely.”
The colonel swallowed hard as another tense pause followed. He could hear a few whispers over the phone and wondered whether Zakir was conveying his words right away to Prince Al-Farhan.
“OK, so where are they now?” Zakir asked.
“They’ve gone to inspect the fifth truck bomb, at one of our labs.”
“Have you made sure all traces of our involvement have been erased?”
“Yes, my men have double-checked, and there’s nothing there to make them start wondering.”
“You need to make sure they don’t find anything. We need them to believe the story we’ve told them and not grow suspicious. You understand that?”
“Yes, yes, I get it.”
“Good. They shouldn’t be allowed to discover anything. I can’t stress enough the importance that they have no doubts about the target of the Alliance.”
“I’ll do whatever it takes to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
“Good. Anything else?”
“No, that’s it.”
“Keep me informed,” Zakir hung up.
“What the hell was that?” Nour shouted at Justin as soon as he slammed shut the GMC’s door. They were alone in the privacy of the SUV’s cabin. “What part of ‘keep you big mouth shut’ was unclear?”
“The colonel asked me what I was thinking, and I simply told him,” Justin replied calmly, buckling his seat belt.
“No, you didn’t simply tell him. You accused his men of being sloppy because of a missing report. And you told the colonel we are better than them, and that we can prove it.”
“I made no such claims.”
“Really? Well, what did you mean when you asked to ‘have a look at the truck,’ huh?” Nour turned toward Justin, his brow furrowing and his eyes squinting.
“I got us permission to go over the evidence collected so far, and a chance to find new evidence. Something the mukhabarat may have missed, overlooked, or outright buried. Isn’t this what we’re supposed to do?”
“Yes, but we’re also supposed to be discreet about it. You almost blew your cover in there. And now, we have a babysitter monitoring our every move.”
Justin shrugged. He wished he could tell Nour that Abdul was, in fact, working for the CIS. Instead, he said, “Libyans were going to follow us no matter what. You really think we can get into the evidence lab and interrogate witnesses without the mukhabarat knowing about it?”
Nour heaved an expletive.
“Let’s get the hell out of here.” He shifted the SUV into gear. “And when were you going to tell me you can read Arabic?”
“When were you going to tell me you have a bad temper?”
Before Nour could utter a reply, Abdul knocked on the driver’s window. He was wearing his aviator shades.
“Don’t say a single word,” Nour warned Justin and rolled down the glass.
“The colonel wants to see you.” Abdul pointed his thin finger at Justin. “Alone,” he added, when he saw Nour unfasten his seatbelt.
Nour shook his head. “He can’t see anyone without me.”
“You want me to tell that to the colonel?” Abdul asked.
Nour ground his teeth. “Go,” he ordered Justin. “Just listen this time, OK?”
“OK,” Justin replied.
He followed Abdul inside the Agency’s main hall. Abdul pointed to the right, on the main floor, instead of upstairs. Justin realized that Abdul, not the colonel, wanted a word in private with him.
“You want us both dead?” Abdul said in a hushed voice after they entered a secured interrogation room at the end of the hall. “The colonel told me about you insulting him with your doubts. What’s wrong with you?”
“You really have iron balls pulling this stunt.” Justin leaned against the dark wall of the small room. “What if Nour marches back into the colonel’s office?”
“He won’t. And you’re the one with the iron balls defying the colonel. Did you already forget what I told you last night? Let me repeat it: The colonel is after your sorry ass, and now the two of you are crossing not only paths, but also swords.”
“What can I do? He challenged me to a duel.”
Abdul leaned so close Justin could feel the man’s tobacco breath on his face.
“It’s not funny. The colonel will not think twice about hanging us for treason.”
“Then we need to be really careful.”
“How can we do that when we’re in plain sight of him and his men?”