Before Mike could speak, Tom stood. “What kind of bush-league op are you running here?” The red of his neck and face made his beard and hair more dark, as if his anger were not only reflected in his skin color but his hair as well.
That was Tom. Most of the time, Mike would let him go. When Tom got irritated at someone or something, he’d blow up. He was quick to anger and just as quick to calm down, but he always had a good point to make, if not a good solution.
“Who was that?” Tom pretended to have a pointer and waved it at the maps. “She did a time distance analysis, and she figured about a two hour movement? Last time we were there, it took the Marines 8 plus hours to move through that same terrain.”
Al’s eyes closed for a second. “I know, I know. You got to trust me on this one. She’s good people. She’s smart, dedicated, she knows every detail of what is going on, and she is more motivated than any of us for this thing to succeed. This is the first time she’s ever had the opportunity to work outside an office, and she’s as enthusiastic as hell to be a part of this. She lacks field time and tradecraft, but I’ve accepted her, so give her a chance.
The crimson abated, but the intensity in Tom’s eyes lingered.
Look.” Al stood and put his hands in his pockets. “There’s a lot here you guys don’t know yet. Julia is an analyst at Langley. She is why we're here right now. She’s the one who found out something is going on in the Tal Baz Valley. We don’t know what. That’s why you’re here.”
Mike stood too. There were a lot of negatives adding up, and Mike wasn’t so sure they could turn into a positive.
“Look, Al. I don’t know these other people, but I do know you, and you’re not giving me that sense of confidence I need to feel. I’m here because of what you offered me. And I’m willing to put up with a lot, but only if. The arraignment we had before I left the States was to find and fix the people who killed Paul. You need us.” Mike pointed at himself and Tom. “You wanted us because of our combined experience in the Tal Bez. Fine, I’m in, I’ll do whatever you need as long as I get what I want. But, you blow us off in Dubai, you blow us off when we landed here, you spring all these other people on me, and then you’re analyst decides to give us some kind of mission brief without getting our input. Come on.”
“ I hear you, brother. Just take a seat for a second and listen.” Al motioned to the seats. “Okay?”
Mike sat. This is the farthest he’d ever come in fulfilling his promise to find the Afghanis responsible for Paul’s death. He’d listen. And if he didn’t like what he heard, he’d make his own decision on what he’d do.
“Mike, of everything you hear today, I want you to keep this in mind. Regardless of everything else, we believe the HVT responsible for Paul’s death is in or going to be in the Tal Baz Valley.”
Mike gritted his teeth and looked at the map, zeroing in on the Tal Bez, the smell of burning bamboo lingering in his nostrils as if it were yesterday.
“Why do you believe,” Tom said, “that some raggedy ass HVT is still going to be in that valley all these years later?”
Al pointed to the files Julia had left on the conference table. “It’s all in there. The Agency has been tracking this guy off and on, mostly off, I’ll admit, for damn near twenty years.”
Mike looked at the files and then stared at Al. There was more. There was always more. He could see it in Al’s face. “No secrets. What else?”
“This is supposed to be, need to know, but you have that need. His name is Ashram Mahmud Hotak.” Al sat on the edge of the conference table. “He is a descendant of the Hotak Empire. His family controlled Afghanistan and parts of Iran and Pakistan, but they were so busy killing each other and mismanaging their empire they only lasted about thirty years.” He crossed his arms and shrugged. “He was born in Kandahar and emigrated to England, where he lived and went to school until 1985. The CIA contacted him after graduation and asked him to go back to Afghanistan to help free its citizens from the Soviet occupation. He became one of their top agents and leaders until some bad stuff happened, and then the Soviets decided to pitch tent and head home. After that, things get a little sketchy. Hotak’s relationship with the CIA went south, and he was involved in a few deaths. We know Hotak was near the top of the Taliban leadership at the beginning of their rise to power, he joined the opium trade, and he’s been implicated in several assassinations, but he’s a slippery one. He moves around a lot, and he builds relationships that keep him out of the limelight but with a considerable amount of power. Whenever we get info on him, it is second, third, or even fourth-hand, but Julia and I believe he is in the Tal Baz Valley.”
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
Mike and Tom straightened in their chairs.
“Julia and you.” Mike didn’t like how Al had mentioned that little tidbit. He wondered if Al and Julia were linked in another way. It didn’t look like it, the body language from both was all wrong, but it would explain why he was supporting her unless she was on to something. Yeah, maybe.
Al’s teeth and lips pressed together in a tight smile.
Mike let it go, for now, but if the two of them were bedmates, he was out. But… “Who else believes this Hotak is my guy, and he’s going to be in that valley?
“Julie has accumulated a massive amount of data from sources all over the world. She is one hundred percent sure this is our guy, and he is in that valley. I’ve seen the data, and I believe her. Mike, I wouldn’t have got you involved if I didn’t think he would be there.”
“Careful Mike,” Tom said. “His mouth is moving.”
Al ignored Tom’s comment. “She couldn’t completely convince the Director, but he still gave her this task force. Sink or swim, it’s all on you, he told her. That’s got to mean something?”
“Yeah,” Tom sat back, shaking his head. “It means I’m losing my enthusiasm for this mission.” He faced Mike. “The money was too good to pass up, and I wanted to send a few more bad guys to hell if I got the chance. But now it looks like the only way we're going to survive this goat rope is if we don’t go.”
A deep sigh escaped Mike’s outwardly emotionless facade. He looked at Al and put his elbows on the table his chin in his clasped hands. “What happened to you, man?”
“You guys got to believe me this intel is righteous.”
Tom glanced at Mike. “Are we out?”
Al's voice raised his hands in a half pleading half angry manner. “You got to believe me.” He pushed his open palms at them to prevent them from interrupting. “After our local sources fell through, I sent, on two occasions, Agency owned Russian MI-17 helicopters up there, five-man crews. They’re not just transport birds they are also set up to intercept and monitor electronic and signal communications.” He moved closer to the map. “The first one disappeared somewhere near here, we think.” He pointed to an area well south of the Tal Baz Valley. “We don’t know what happened to it. The second MI-17 we sent intercepted a cell phone conversation here.” He pointed to part of a mountain range several miles south of the valley. “The name Baabaa Afshin was mentioned before we lost contact with them.” He turned back to them, excitement accentuating his words. “This is one of the aliases your boy used when he was a CIA asset and when he was in that valley with you. We lost contact with both birds, but we got that name, and that is how I know you two were the only ones for this job.”
Mike didn’t show any outward sign, but he became more attentive, Baabaa Afshin was one of the names used by the HVT’s from the valley when everything went wrong and Paul died. He wanted that guy. He could almost believe it was the Baabaa Afshin he knew, this Hotak. His jaw continued to rest on his hands. “Lost contact?”
“I don’t know if the birds were taken down by ground fire, anti-aircraft, or if it was simple mechanical failure, but they’re gone. If it were mechanical, the crews would have contacted us as they went down. But I haven’t heard from them, and I can’t get clearance to go there. As soon as we lost contact, on each occasion, we requested a clandestine Search and Rescue mission from the Army and Air Force. Instead, what I got was got a ration of shit from Army brass. Who the hell did we think we were, they said, sending aircraft into a sovereign country without authorization? We don’t have anything to do with the Taliban or Afghanistan anymore, blah, blah, blah. After recriminations galore, Langley gave it the oaky, and they sent out the Search and Rescue Teams into Afghani airspace. They couldn’t find any evidence of a crash site, broken down bird, the crews, or anything else.”
“And the Afghani’s,' Tom said. “Didn’t they have anything to say about us sending a SAR team into their airspace?”
“Who cares?” Al’s finger skimmed across the JOG, covering the distance from Kabul to the Tal Bez. “They don’t have aircraft fast enough to cover the distance and stop us. And, Who are they going to complain to that might give a damn?”
“Didn’t the MI-17s have trackers, transponders, whatever?”
“Of course, but nothing. They didn’t find any trace whatsoever of the two helos.”
“Hmp,” Tom grunted.
“After the second bird went down, some General blew his lid and tried to shut down all Agency missions involving aircraft anywhere near Afghani airspace. I can’t send anything anywhere near the Tal Bez now without direct authorization from the Director. That General may not be in the CIA food chain, but he had some pull, and the Director isn’t prepared to pick that battle yet and allow any more flights. The flight in we’re proposing has been approved by higher ups, to that General’s chagrin.”
Al brought his hands up. “As I said, this is solid intel, and Julia is an asset for us. She knows everything there is to know and has the Director’s confidence. Don’t judge her on first impressions. She will impress you if you give her a chance.” He smiled and put his hands together, shrugging. “I think she’s a little intimidated by you, the mission, being outside of an office, and everything else.” He dropped his hands. “Trust me, she’s good people.”
Mike laid his arms on the table and looked at Tom. “I don’t know the name Hotak, but I do know Baabaa Afshin.” Mike slowly tapped his fingers on the table. “If you think he’s Hotak and he’s there, and you can convince me he’s there, then we go in.”
Tom pressed his lips together and nodded in the affirmative.
“Okay,” Mike faced Al. “I’m relying on your word Al. Your recently less reliable word.”
Al smiled and slapped his hands together. “I knew you’d come around. You’d join the devil himself if it meant getting close to the guy who killed Paul.”
Mike grimaced. “You might be right.”
“Alright,” Al said. “Let’s get everybody back in here.”