Hidden Threat (13 page)

“
Judge, may I treat the young lady as a hostile witness?” Riley turned toward the window wall, as if there was a judge there.

“
Okay. Okay. He didn’t miss a child support payment.”

Riley walked over to her desk, leaned forward with her hands on the matting, stared directly at a Peggy Hopper painting, and said, “Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, Colonel Zachary Garrett never missed a child support payment.” Turning toward Amanda, she said, “Witness, you are excused until tomorrow.”

With a long slender arm, full of bracelets, she pointed at the door. “Go see that hunk boyfriend of yours.”

Amanda wrinkled her forehead, stood, and walked out of the door. “Whatever.”

Riley watched her depart, waited a few minutes, and then sat at her desk. She opened her desk drawer and held the framed photo in her hands for what seemed an eternity. Tears were streaming down her face as she placed the photo back on her desk where it had been for two years.

Why, damnit? Why?
Then, a moment later, after a few more tears, she shook her head.
I can’t do this by myself.

Riley punched her intercom box and told her assistant to go home. She pulled a bottle of red wine from the cabinet opposite the window wall, poured a glass, and took a long sip.

She cried and drank. Her thoughts swung from one end of the spectrum to the other. She was flattered and privileged that she could honor Zachary’s death by helping his daughter. On the other hand, was it an unfair burden to place on her?

No, it was a privilege, she concluded. It was what he’d wanted, and she would give him that. There were so many other things she had wanted to give him.

She poured the last of the wine. Standing, she picked up her glass and walked to the window.
You get one shot at true love
, she thought to herself.
One shot
.

She recalled the day Zachary was leaving for Afghanistan. She was crying, holding him tight. She had driven him from his house in Sanford to Fort Bragg. He was dressed in his Army combat uniform with a Special Forces patch on his shoulder. They were parked outside of the headquarters.

He pulled her to him, kissed her on the lips and then the forehead.

“
I’ll miss you,” she said, crying into his uniform, “again. Last time was hard, but this time, Zach. I don’t know; just be careful.”

“
One last time, baby. I’ve got to go do this. Then I’ll come down to Charlotte, we’ll get married.”

“
I want that for us, Zach. I want to meet Amanda. And I want to give her a brother or sister, you know.”

“
We’ll do that, Riley. That’s what I want.”

“
You be careful.”

Zach pulled away, grabbed his rucksack, and kissed her one more time. He got out of the car, walked around to the driver’s side and leaned into the window to kiss her face, wet with tears. He smiled at her with his crooked grin as he pulled away.

“
Don’t worry, babe, I’m good to go.”

CHAPTER 13

Northwest Frontier Province, Pakistan

Tuesday

Colonel Zachary Garrett opened his eyes. He had been dreaming about Amanda. She was five years old and wearing red shorts and a green T-shirt with a single flower in the center.

“
Daddy’s got to go to work, baby girl.”

The young Amanda grabbed her daddy’s watch and said, “Five minutes.” She held up her small hand, spreading her fingers, and then she leaned into her father, hugging him. “You’re not going anywhere for five minutes.”

“
Daddy’s not going anywhere, ever, baby girl.”

The pain surged through his body as if carried by an electrical current. He was wounded, but not in a debilitating way, he prayed. Amanda’s face hovered in front of him for an instant, smiling, loving, and pure. What hurt more, his wounds or the memories?

To the best of his knowledge he had been held in this stone cave prison for at least three days. He remembered the helicopter taking off without him and the blinding whirl of snow all around. Had he been able to leave behind the weapon? Had they found it? Perhaps he would never find out. Then two men were upon him so quickly that he was unable to maneuver against them. He knew he had been shot twice as he was carrying Jergens to the helicopter. Then the explosion, and all hell broke loose. Two men, screaming Arabic at him, one holding a knife to his throat. He’d resisted, but one of the men had apparently butt-stroked him on the head, knocking him unconscious.

He heard unintelligible voices beyond the pile of rocks that blocked his egress. On three sides of his confines was solid rock, a cave. Stacked to his front were large boulders that allowed him only small slivers of light. Occasionally he would see a dark shadow pass across the tiny gaps between the rocks. Twice, he had been given food. The first time, a pair of hands had removed a flat rectangular rock about the size of a laptop and slid a tray of rice and cold lamb onto the ledge. The second time, he had been given an American combat ration, Meal Ready to Eat, or MRE.

Zach calculated that the preponderance of Arabic and lack of Pashto or Dari languages indicated he was being held by Al Qaeda. There were other groups operating in the area, such as the Taliban, but Al Qaeda was imported, and they spoke Arabic.

If it was Al Qaeda, then they had been right about their target. They had been onto bin Laden.

The rocks began shifting in front of him. One by one, two pairs of hands removed smaller rocks, followed by larger ones. Soon there was a hole large enough for him to crawl through. The bore of an AK-47 assault rifle poked through, then shook twice away from him. It was, he figured, the international symbol for “get over here, asshole.”

He looked down at himself. His uniform was shredded, his feet bare. He had no weapon. They had even found the knife he kept strapped to his ankle. They had cut his pant leg, and someone had performed minor surgery on him. The bullet wounds were covered with dirty gauze.

Again, the weapon shook in front of him, followed by a voice ordering him forward. “Come. Come.”

For a moment, he thought of grabbing the muzzle of the AK-47 and snatching it from his captor’s hands. Surely though, there were others behind this one. He wouldn’t stand a chance backed into the corner of this cave.

“
Boots,” Zach called out. “I need my boots.”

A deafening blast exploded in his makeshift cell. The muzzle emitted flame, and the bullet struck the wall.

“
Okay, okay, I’m coming.” He looked through the hole and saw more than five men dressed in traditional tribal garb. The flowing white robes, sheepskin vests, and brown wool
Pakols
,
or black turbans, all reinforced his conviction that his captors were Al Qaeda.

As he crawled through the hole, two men on either side roughly grabbed him and yanked him through. The sharp rock scraped at his bullet wounds, causing him to grimace. One of the guards immediately pushed him against the wall and snapped plastic flex cuffs around his wrists.

Once he was standing, another man came into the cave. He could see about fifty feet of large cavern to his front, then the tunnel took a turn to his right. He saw ammunition boxes stacked high along the walls. Every man he could see had at least one weapon. Light was minimal but passable. Everyone stared at him for a moment and then turned toward the new figure in the cave.

“
Colonel Garrett, I am the Scientist. Our leader has instructed me to talk to you. Won’t you follow me, please?”

Garrett paused. The Scientist? They had a complete dossier on this man, Mullah Rahman.

“
Rahman?” Garrett’s voice echoed in the cave.

Rahman, who had moved to within ten feet of him, smiled a yellow-toothed grin. “I see you have studied hard, Colonel. Knowing my name should only make you more fearful.”

Zach was impressed with the man’s English. It was practiced and smooth. He knew Rahman had studied in Great Britain. He knew that Rahman was revered by the jihadists as one of their most brutal leaders.

“
Then I think I’ll join you,” he growled.

As he began to walk, the six guards fell in behind him. Rahman was to his immediate front, preceded by two more guards.

They stopped while the lead guard moved a large curtain out of the way and the other stood to the opposite side. Someone checked his flex cuff. It was secure.

Rahman led him past the drapes and into a brightly lit bowl of rock. They had exited the cave, for the most part, but were still surrounded on all four sides by solid granite.

There was an AK-47 leaning against the rocks next to a man sitting on a prayer mat. Zach could not determine how tall he was, but he seemed lanky. The man’s face was covered so that only his eyes were visible. They were black holes against the dirty white sheet wrapped across his face.

This can’t be happening. Is this bin Laden?
Zach’s mind reeled. He looked at Rahman and back at the man seated on the prayer mat. He knew that Rahman was just behind Zawahiri on the Al Qaeda organization chart and it was Rahman who was escorting him.
This is crazy!
Then he looked to his right and saw a man holding a small digital video camera. Again, looking down at the mat, he saw a newspaper with Arabic writing, and he quickly began to understand.

“
Are you done taking in your surroundings?”

“
Just wishing I had a GPS device on me right now,” Garrett quipped.

“
I want to introduce you to a man you have been seeking but are unable to find. You are in the presence of the great one, so pay proper respect. Please bow.”

Zach looked at the Scientist and scoffed. “Kiss my ass.”

He felt a swift blow to his rib cage. He gasped for air as he doubled over, hugging his stomach. He hadn’t been hit like that since Billy Johnson took a cheap shot at him in high school football.

“
Now, please bow,” the Scientist said calmly, “or we will make you bow.”

Zach stood erect again and remained motionless, spitting up small amounts of blood. Two men fell upon him in a torrent of boots and rifle butts, pushing him back down to the ground. He thought he saw the digital camera guy filming the entire scene.

Please don’t let Amanda see this
, was his first and only thought before a foot into his sternum forced the wind from his lungs. He buckled to his knees.

“
Ah, I see you are a wise man, Colonel.”

“
Go to hell,” he spat, blood seeping from the corners of his mouth.

“
We are already there, my friend, trust me.” The Scientist lowered his face to within an inch of Zach’s.

The seated man on the mat waved his hand and said something that Zach did not understand. The guards moved forward and dragged Zach on his knees to within a few feet of the man on the mat.

They want to film me on my knees in front of bin Laden,
Zach thought to himself.
No way in hell
. With his hands cuffed behind his back, he struggled to regain his footing, leaning forward and then lifting his right knee. The two men tackled him, beating him again, then lifting him to his knees again.

“
I’m not kneeling, so you’ll just have to keep beating the shit out of me,” Zach groaned.

There were ten guards in the open area, all prepared to kill Colonel Garrett if he made a single move against the man on the mat.

A knife came from out of nowhere and pressed into his neck, drawing blood. He felt the warmth sliding down his chest.

“
You will kneel before the master. America will kneel before the master.”

And the camera rolled.

CHAPTER 14

Spartanburg, SOUTH CAROLINA

Tuesday Afternoon

Amanda had endured another drama filled day at school, returned home quickly and now bounced down the steps from her bedroom, cinching her backpack over her shoulder. As she stepped into the foyer, her mother stood in front of the door, blocking her exit.

“
I don’t want you to go back to see this woman, Amanda.”

Amanda stopped, looked at her mother, and then found it hard to hold her stare. Twenty-four hours had passed since Amanda’s first visit with Riley Dwyer. During her classes today the child support issue clawed at the back of her mind like a dredge. She dismissed it, though, as inconsequential. What difference did it make?

“
Mom, Jake’s waiting in the driveway. I don’t want to do this either, but if we want that money, I have to.” Amanda was dressed in a long pink skirt with a tight-fitting, matching tee underneath a denim jacket. She had snapped a Tiffany bracelet on her left wrist. She looked at her mother and then at Gus Randel sitting next to her.

Gus had wavy, light-brown hair that was swept back onto his collar. He had a baby-smooth face that made Amanda wonder if he shaved. He was wearing a black polo shirt and Levis.