The Protector (32 page)

I couldn’t see Alison from where I stood, but I imagined the look on her face. I was sure the blood drained from her face and she was wobbly on her feet.  I had kept this small little detail from her, from the beginning. I knew who killed Tom.  It wasn’t some extremist group who was angry at getting the wrong processor. It was an inside job somehow. I just wasn’t sure how deep it went.

The tall Middle Eastern man stood still and did not say a word. The look on his face confirmed everything I already knew.  He knew what was going on as much as I did. Something had gone terribly wrong.  Alison had insisted Tom was not a spy.   I had insisted she was wrong. Alison was only a pawn in a sick game of chess between two factions. 

“Kidnapping?  I chuckled at the thought.  “Let’s bring law enforcement into it why don’t we?  Have me arrested for kidnapping, she goes home and everything is fine and dandy for about a week, before she is murdered.”  The man’s face still didn’t change, but Noor’s did.

“Jack, you need to let us help you. You know you can’t do it alone at this point. Someone was working with Tom and they can’t figure it out.  You know that as much as I do. We wouldn’t be here if it were that simple.”  Noor almost pleaded with me. Or at least her version of pleading.

I had known Noor for a few years. We had worked on a few other Middle Eastern intelligence situations. She had started out as an analyst, her knowledge of different Islamic factions was immense. She understood the Israeli Palestinian conflict better than anyone in both Tel Aviv or  Washington DC.

“And I wouldn’t be here if it were that simple Noor.  It’s not that simple. If I take her back, they will get to her. Until we know who Tom was working with, she can’t go home.”

I could hear rustling in the bushes where I had left Alison. I wanted to yell for her to stay in her place but I didn’t want to draw any more attention to her. Joed had heard the same rustling and quickly turned, gun in hand and pointed the direction of the noise.  Noor followed Joed’s lead and did the same. As they both slowly took steps toward the noise, I quickly moved my gun toward them and moved faster around to the front of the car, my back facing where I knew Alison was.

“Stop!”  I shouted from in front of the car.  Both Joed and Noor stopped and lowered their weapons and looked at me. “Alison don’t move!”  I kept my gun trained on Joed.  I knew or at least had confidence enough in Noor to know she would not fire at Alison if she came out of the bushes. “Don’t !”

Joed slowly tucked his gun in his belt. “Jack, let her come out and let’s talk about this.  I don’t want her dead. His voice was sincere. He glanced back and forth toward the creek area where Alison hid.

             
Noor also tucked her gun away.

“Jack she has to be scared. Let her come out and we can all talk about this. Let’s let her decide.”  Noor took a few steps closer to me and looked past me to where I knew Alison was.

I looked over toward Alison, who had moved some and was now partly visible.  Dread and fear washed over me. They had both her and I cornered and they could take or kill her easily, after they took me out.  I thought about the situation. I didn’t want to go down without a fight, but if we went with them as they wished, I could at least stay with her awhile longer and still try and ensure her safety. I had a bargaining chip, I had the processor hidden.

I slowly lowered my gun and turned to face Alison. “Come here.” My demand was soft, and she complied. Her face was pale but her walk was not one of fear but one of confidence. She walked not toward Joed and Noor, but toward me.  Within seconds she was within in my reach and I grabbed her and pulled her to close to me. 

To my surprise, she struggled away from me. I tried to hold on to her, but the struggle was fruitless in front of the others. “Sonny?”

She shoved me away from her and glared into my eyes.  “Were you going to tell me?”

Her eyes were full of fire. Her face was no longer white, but red with rage.  “Tell you what?”

“Tom. You lied to me and told me the Islamic group killed Tom. Why were you protecting him?”

I didn’t quite understand her question, protecting him? She took a step away from me and looked at Noor. “So apparently it’s not this terrorist group I have to fear it is my own freakin government?” She yelled at no one in particular.   

I took a step closer to Alison. Her attention returned to me and I could see in her eyes the anger was intense. “Sonny?”

“You knew who killed Tom back in Albuquerque. You knew there was the possibility of him being involved didn’t you? You knew why he sent me in his place.  Unbelievable?”

I again took a step toward her as she took a step away from me.  Truth was, I had no idea who killed Tom until recently, but that didn’t matter, They were now after her. She focused her attention on Joed.  “Joed, And you? I trusted you in Tel Aviv. You said you were a colleague! You’re not a colleague. Your no better than these two!”  She waved her arms and pointed her finger at the man.

             
Joed stood in his spot, statuesque like. He didn’t move and he didn’t acknowledge her rant.  Instead he turned to me, “Perhaps we should take this elsewhere before we attract attention?”

I nodded in agreement and took the final step to grab Sonny’s arm.  I felt the sting as her hand as it connected with my face.  She said nothing as she stormed off and opened the door to the BMW and sat in the passenger’s seat.  I rubbed my hand against my burning cheek.  “Let’s head back to Truckee. We can regroup at the hotel and decide what to do from there.”

“So you trust us then?” Joed asked still unsure if I was actually going to cooperate.  I looked at the new and unexpected companions and saw the huge grin on Noor’s face.  Joed still stood there, no real reaction on his face.

“Don’t think I have a choice.” I turned and looked back toward the BMW.  I am guessing you saw where we were staying last night? “Both nodded. We can go back and get rooms for tonight and try and figure this out.”  I turned to walk to the car.  “Wipe the grin off your face Noor.”

I heard a chuckle come from the red heads mouth.  And I heard as her footsteps came increasingly close to me. “I am riding with you.”

I stopped where I stood and pivoted to look directly at her. She too had stopped and stood only inches from me.  I could see her brown eyes. She was slightly taller than Alison, but not by much.   “No. there’s no need.”

“Yes there is a need, Jack. Joed and I have a vested interest in this.” Noor continued to walk to the car.  I knew I wasn’t going to be able to stop her.

I wanted and needed to be alone with Alison. Even if it was for a short period of time. I needed to explain to her why I didn’t tell her the truth. I wanted to set things straight with her. I wasn’t sure how much time we had left together but there was so much I wanted to tell her and needed to tell her.

Noor walked to the car and got into the rear seat.  I turned and looked at Joed.  “You following?”

He nodded and turned to walk to the black car.  I took a deep breath and shoved my gun into the side of my pants and readied myself for the journey in the car.  I turned and looked into the window. Alison was looking at me but quickly turned her head as she noticed me.  It was going to be another long car ride in silence. And I wasn’t thrilled at the prospect of Alison and Noor talking.

I turned and walked to the driver’s side of the car and got in.  As I took my place behind the wheel the silence enveloped me. Alison sat in the front seat next to me. She was still which was rare.  She had taken the phone out of her pocket and put it in the console between the two seats. I quickly grabbed as I did not want Noor to have access.

Alison still didn’t acknowledge me or Noor.  She sat quietly looking out the passenger side window as I put the car in reverse and pulled out of the campsite.  I followed Joed around the curves of the campground.  Once we hit the open road I would pass him and let him follow me.  

I briefly thought about hitting the gas and driving like mad. Without the device on the car, I could outdrive him. I could get rid of Noor fairly easily, but I was pretty sure it wouldn’t do any good to lose them. Seth had sent them for a reason and although I was angry, I had to trust my friends reasoning.

“I don’t think we should head to Oregon, as you planned.” Noor leaned closer to the front seat and laid her hand on Alison’s seat back. I shrugged my shoulders. “Why are you going that way anyway, the cop?”

I waited for Alison to respond, but she said nothing. She sat there with her hands gracefully folded in her lap.  I wondered what was going through her mind. I hated the silence between us. This time was worse than times before, it was deafening. “And you call yourself an intelligence officer Noor?”

“Why the cop? Do you think he could actually protect her?”

Alison turned her head quickly and looked back at Noor. She didn’t have a look of fear on her face like I had expected, but instead it was the same rage I had seen earlier at the campground.

“Whoa  little girl. Calm down. I was merely asking about your plans. “  

Alison turned back to look out the side window. “You can’t hurt him. He has nothing to do with this.”  The anger in her voice was intense. 

“No one is planning on hurting him Sonny. I was merely curious as to why Jack picked that location.”  Alison turned to glare at me as Noor finished. “Perhaps, he wanted to check out his competition?” There was a sick smile on Noor’s face as I looked into the rearview mirror.  If Alison heard what Noor had said, she didn’t react. She just stared at me with glaring eyes.

“My name is Alison.”  She was barely able to get the words through her gritted teeth.  Her stare was burning right through me. Finally she just looked away and out the passenger side window again. The trees flew past us as I ramped up my speed to 85.  I wanted to go faster. But I didn’t. I didn’t want any further comments from the peanut gallery.

Noor sat back in her seat with a look of satisfaction on her face.  If her game was to get Alison not to trust me, she was doing a great job.  I wanted to change the subject but talking about the increasingly graying sky would do no good.  We finally reached a hotel.  I chose a different one than the night before as I didn’t want to deal with any questions. Joed and I went in and requested two rooms.  I figured Alison and I would stay in one room and Joed and Noor could stay in the other. We could keep up a façade of traveling couples. But Noor had other ideas and grabbed Alison’s arm as we stood in front of the rooms.

“Ms. Alison can stay with me and you and Joed can be roommates.” Alison looked at me in surprise.

“No,” I grabbed her arm back and pulled her closer to me. “She will stay with me.”  Noor began to protest, but Joed put his arm up to stop her.

“It is not for us to decide, it is up to Alison.  And we need to decide this inside.” Joed looked around and my eyes followed his.  A maid, cleaning a room down the hall watched our exchange.  Both Joed and I smiled, and I turned to open the door to the room. I held out my hand for Alison to go first. She looked at Joed and then at me, then went into the room.

Joed followed and opened up the other room. I could hear Noor mutter something under her breath but I didn’t know what it was. I let the door close behind me and followed Alison into the room.  This time our room had two double beds. Alison took the one closest to the window and dropped her bags onto it.  She did not turn and look at me but instead walked to the window and looked out.

I began to walk over to talk to her but stopped as I heard a knock on the door that was between the two rooms.  “Damn it!” I stammered.  “Noor, give us a few minutes! I want to talk to Alison.”  I yelled in exasperation. I wasn’t sure she had even heard me. I didn’t care.  I wanted to talk to Alison.  That was more important to me than putting up with Noor’s wretched attitude.

Alison turned to look at me. “Well aren’t you going to open it.?”

“No,“ I answered softly. “I want to talk to you. “

She crossed her arms in front of her chest and sat down on one of the beds.  “Just let it go. I don’t want to talk about it. I want this over and I want to go home Jack.”

“Alison” I walked over and sat down next to her on the bed. “I wasn’t sure who,”

She never let me finish. She stood up and walked over to her back pack.  She picked it up and began to walk to the door out of the room. “I’ m going home Jack. Give Joed the processor and I will take a bus to the airport in Reno or Sacramento. But I am done. I don’t care anymore. I will go back to Sandia and if they can protect me great. If they can’t oh well, my time here was over.”

I followed right behind her and grabbed her arm. “Kind of mellow dramatic there Sonny.” My words were sharp. She turned and looked at me as if she didn’t care what I thought. Her green eyes had turned an emerald color and they were blindingly beautiful. Her hair had pretty much fallen out of her pony tail in all the excitement of the day. She was serious but I could read the fear that radiated through her and once again that urge to pull her as close as I could and wrap my arms around her took over. I was afraid she would push me away as she did at the campsite and I was pretty sure my face wasn’t going to appreciate another hard slap.

I could hear her heart race against her chest and her steady breathing was quiet.

I reached up and pushed a strand of her hair back behind her ear out of her face. As my fingers brushed her cheek lightly, she closed her eyes. “I don’t want you to leave.” I whispered. My hand moved from her hair to the back of her neck. I held it in my hand and waited for her to open her eyes.