Kill The President's Women (Joe The Magic Man Series Book 2) (36 page)

“Change of plans, I’m afraid.” He gave the sergeant a pat on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, we won’t be saying our goodbyes to these two just yet. It seems the King wants us to escort Lady Josephine back to London. He’s afraid all the rouges and thieves of London will take advantage of the King taking all his soldiers off to war. And they might try to rob her Ladyship on the road, so we’ve got to see her to her home.”

“Who’s Lady Josephine?” Jean asked, surprised that no one had said she was on the march with them.

“She’s a distant cousin to King Henry, and her husband is one of the Lords that have got to stay up here to see to the signing or whatever they’ve got to do, but it looks like there will be no war.”

“So what’s the plan, captain?” Sergeant Jones asked and stood up straight.

“I’m to take eight of my best men to meet her ladyship tomorrow and we are to make our way to Brough docks. Apparently there are three of the King’s ships there; they came up from London with supplies.” He gave Jean a conspiratorial look. “I’m hoping my squire and his beautiful wife will join me on the voyage?”

Jean was a bit dumbstruck. It was all too much to take in. “London,” she said, looking at Steve-e-Joe in awe. “What do you think?”

“Will we sail out to sea?” It was a lot for Steve-e-Joe to take in and he had to look at the captain and exclaim, “I’ve never seen the sea!”

“Well, now you will! We’ll sail down the river Humber and stay close to the coastline and then up the river Thames to London. It will be shorter and easier than the march home; a lot quicker than it was coming up here.”

They all talked it over for Jean, excited as she was, was afraid. Just like Steve-e-Joe, she had never seen the sea and the stories she had heard in the past had frightened her, but they convinced her into going with them, or maybe she let herself be convinced at the thought of spending more time with Captain Morgan.

Jean said her goodbyes to the cook. She was ready. Beside her stood the young lad the captain had chosen to come with them as far as the docks. He would collect the captain’s horse and then hand it over to the rest of his men to take back home to Wales for him. She looked around impatiently for Steve-e-Joe had told her that three of the eight men that the captain had picked were Sergeant Evan Evans, Tom Thomas and William Williams. Jean smiled, knowing she’d finally get to see Sergeant Evans’ big thick cock. It was destiny.

They met up with the Lady Josephine and her maid. The only members of her travelling party were the two servants who drove her carriage. Captain Morgan introduced himself with a bow, and her ladyship just waved her hand dismissively. Captain Morgan paid no mind to the gesture; he concentrated on the journey ended.

It took most of the day to get to the dock. The Captain led Steve-e-Joe, Sergeant Jones and Jean in a brisk walk behind the carriage, while the young lad and the captain’s chosen men marched with their bows and arrows right behind them. Jean was sure all the men were looking at her and watching her hips as she walked; she was sure Tom Thomas had told them all about the night she went to his tent.

They all had to stay on the dock until Captain Morgan handed the letter to the ship
’s Captain, giving him new orders to sail on the next tide. Her Ladyship and her maid were taken on board and her two coachmen carried her luggage behind her. When she was safely in her cabin, Jean, and the rest of the men were allowed on board. As Jean walked up the gantry, the ship swayed and Jean looked down at the river. It was so beautiful, and the thought of falling into it, made her feel giddy and she lost her balance. Steve-e-Joe had to grab her to steady her and she hung on to him tight.

Jean sat up in bed, the image of her almost falling over into the cold water still vivid in her mind. It felt so real, she clutched at Steve and woke him.

“Are you all right?” Steve asked, half asleep.

“Yes dear, go back to sleep it was just a bad dream.”

At 2:10 am, it was still early so she lay back down. If she could go back to sleep immediately, Joe could still be there. She cursed herself for waking up, but the thought of falling in the water had frightened her so much.

She wondered what direction her adventure would take now for she had finished the book she was reading and had discovered that there was never a war; King Henry had taken York without a fight.

There had been nothing about ships in the book but it didn’t matter. She just wanted more adventures with more sex and less talk but even if Joe wanted to tell her silly sailor stories, she wouldn’t mind.

Unknown to her, Abel had deliberately given her a scare her, knowing she would wake up. It was past 2 am and even though it was early for Jean, it was late for him. He had to stop being a dream lover in his fantasy world and start helping the FBI catch the two brothers in the real world.

0230hrs

Abel (or Joe the Magic Man) had seen Khalid through the eyes of Alice earlier on, so he kept that image in his mind as he reached out calling,
Khalid Nassir, I am your friend.
Joe got into Khalid’s dream with no trouble, and found him in a café drinking tea and smoking with his friends. Joe had him under his hypnotic spell as soon as he called his name, and asked him all the questions the FBI were dying to ask.

Khalid unwittingly answered all the questions honestly and Joe let him drift back to his smoke-filled room.

Abel felt proud that he could interrogate someone under hypnosis, and extract completely honest answers from them every single time. It was something neither the police nor any other law enforcement could do and having the means to pull it off, gladdened his heart. He felt a little guilty at finding out the secrets of some of the people, but if he could get a killer like Abdul to tell him he had killed Kahn and find out that Mr. Johnson hadn’t killed his mother and brother, well then, he guessed dream stalking was worth it.

Abel had made notes after he questioned Khalid and he read through them before he contacted Alice. He had visited her mind so many times, he could easily pop in and out, nearly as quickly as changing channels on TV.

Alice was dreaming s
he was shopping with her mother and looking in the window of shoe shop. She saw Joe’s refection in the window and turned to see him standing behind her. Joe pointed to his cell phone and Alice understood. She woke up immediately.

“Joe, are you there?”

“Yes, and I don’t think those shoes would look good on you.”

Alice pretended not to hear. “Did you have any luck?” She looked at the clock. 2:55.

“Yes and you better get your pen and paper ready.”
Without waiting for her, Joe went on to give her his report.
“This Khalid is not the main man, he doesn’t know a lot. He says the less he knows concerning his daughter’s actions, the less the police will get out of him. I don’t think he approves of his daughter’s involvement.”

Alice had gotten her note pad out by now and had started writing. “So he does know that his daughter is actually involved in this plot?”

“Yes, and he knows the main man is called Azim and he’s from a mosque across town. Azim is the one who asked Yasmina and Jamil to take the two Algerian men to two different safe houses. He doesn’t know where exactly but he’s worried stiff that they’ll get caught.”

“This Azim seems to be an important lead.”

“Yes, he seems to be, and Khalid has only seen this Azim once. He believes he’s in his mid-70s and is an important man in the Muslim community. I asked him if Yasmina and Jamil are together or if they’ve split up and taken one boy each. He wasn’t sure but he thinks they’ve split up.”

“So if Frank Brubaker can find Yasmina and Jamil, then they’ll find the two bombers.”

“Yeah, I bet the FBI is hunting them down ferociously already.”

“Is there anything else to report?” Alice asked. She was very wide awake now and she was bursting with the information she had received; she couldn’t wait to phone Campbell.

“I asked him if he knew who the targets were and he told me that he only knew what his daughter had told him: that two young, Algerian brothers wanted to avenge the deaths of their brothers and father by killing Western women that speak out on TV. In their eyes and the eyes of their father, it was wrong for a woman to speak in public. So these brothers intend to kill two women that have been shooting their mouths off on TV to show America and the rest of the world that it’s wrong for women to be in politics… Yeah, those were the words spoken to me by Khalid.”

“Yeah, well we already knew all that.” Alice turned the page to review her old notes. “Did he say specifically that they were going to be congresswomen?”

“I asked him if they wanted to kill the first lady and as far as he knows it’s going to be congresswomen. They’ve both asked for a gun and their request has been granted. Azim has got them a browning 9mm pistol each.”

“Pistol? What about a bomb? I thought they were suicide bombers.”

“Khalid knows the boys have been trained by al-Qaeda in the use of firearms and are willing to be suicide bombers. The two boys are Islamic fundamentalists who have embraced the Jihad but there’s no word of a bomb yet.”

“His daughter told him this?”

“Yes, and he’s not pleased with her. He begged her not to get involved.”

“It sounds like the two boys have been brainwashed into being suicide bombers.”

“Most likely. Khalid says Azim will not hesitate to use the two boys in the name of Allah against the infidels of the Western world. If and/or when a bomb comes into the picture, he doesn’t know if it’ll be a car bomb or if they’ll wear a vest full of explosives. He doesn’t know whether the two of them will be at the same place or at two different places. He doesn’t know all of that; he just prays that Allah will look after his daughter. See, he’s real worried his daughter is going to get caught after the attack is carried out and the government comes looking for the folks that helped the brothers. He saw on TV how the police went after those bombers in Boston, and he can see that happening to his daughter. Khalid isn’t a man who likes every single little thing about America but he loves the lifestyle that he has and he loves his job. He brought his daughter up as a Muslim in America hoping she could benefit from the best of both worlds but since her marriage to Jamil she’s become more fundamentalist.”

“Let’s hope we can catch them before they get that far.” Alice tapped her pen waiting to hear more but noticed Joe was silent. “Is that it?”

“Yeah, I don’t think we can get any more out of Khalid. I don’t even think there’s any more to get out of him. Let’s hope they find Yasmina and Jamil in time.”

“Yeah, let’s keep our fingers crossed. I’d better phone Campbell and wake him up with the good news.” As an afterthought, Alice added, “You make sure you check in with me as often as you can, okay. I have no idea what they’ll want you to do next?”

“I’ll try. I’ll contact you about seven so after you’re done with Campbell, try to get some sleep, okay?

“Okay.”

“See you.”

Abel fell back into his lonely bed and, exhausted from Jean’s recent wildness, he was fast asleep in no time.

Alice had made her report to Campbell and went back to sleep. She had lain awake for an hour or two, wondering how the case would turn out in the end.

When she eventually fell asleep, it must have been sometime past 5 am. She had set her alarm for 6:30 am and when it buzzed, she was too tired to lean over and knock it off seeing as she hadn’t slept much. The alarm was relentless though and she drowsily pulled herself up and turned it off.

By the time she had managed to get to the toilet and have a wash, Joe was back in her mind for an update. Alice didn’t have nothing to report, other than Campbell was excited that Khalid had given up the name of the head man, Azim. Campbell had told her they’d call her later to let her know what was going on.

“Okay,”
Joe said and left her.

Alice watched TV in her room patiently waiting for the call and just when she was beginning to feel restless, her cell phone beeped.

“Hello,” she said, tired and eager at the same time.

“Sorry I haven’t called all this while,” Burrows said, walking into an unoccupied office. “It’s bedlam down here.”

“Where are you?” Alice had a good idea where she was but the question was out before she thought about it.

“I’m at HQ right now and we’ve got CIA, Homeland and the Secret Service all working with us to find out where Fareed Azim is. We got all our agents working the streets.”

Alice knew HQ was on Pennsylvania Avenue, and that Frank Brubaker would most likely be in charge at the moment. “Wow, so are they pleased with Joe for getting the name, Azim?”

“You bet! His name is Fareed Azim and he’s well known to the counter-terrorism division. He speaks out frequently about the way Muslims are mistreated and profiled in America. Our informer tells us Azim hasn’t been seen in the last few days, not at home, not at the mosque or even the neighborhood. He reportedly told someone he was going to visit a friend for a couple of days.”

“A couple of days,” Alice said. “Same kind of excuse as the others but they said they were going for a week or two.”

“I know. That’s why we’re desperate to find Yasmina or Jamil as well as Fareed Azim. We’re concentrating on DC because we think that’s where they’re hiding, but the truth is, it could be further afield. And what’s got us in a bit of a panic is, you said they asked for pistols. It’s only been a couple of years ago since that gunman opened fire on congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. These boys could simply branch out like lone wolves and pick different days to take out their targets. Or one day to take different targets, in different locations! Lone wolves are much hard to pick out; they could be anyone in the crowd.”

Alice shuddered as she pictured one of the boys walking up to a congress woman and shooting her at close range.

“Is that what you think they’ll do? Just pick the women out and shoot them with guns? Not blow themselves up?”