The Puppetmasters (30 page)

The sound of several donkeys braying was a little distracting to Kendall, but she preferred that over the sound of soldiers overrunning the place.

Towards evening, both sleeping visitors awoke. Kendall looked over at Rashid and was at first embarrassed at how she must look. She sat up and attempted to smooth her tousled hair. But when her thoughts turned to her now-deceased mother, she couldn’t have cared less about her appearance. Rashid half-smiled, reading her thoughts. He was glad they were safe and quite happy that she was with him. He thought she looked beautiful as the last rays of sunshine shone into the barn.

Her demeanor changed when she thought about their predicament. She looked over to Rashid. “What were you talking about during the meal? You seemed upset.”

Rashid contemplated the question and how much he should reveal. He decided that he had withheld enough information over the past weeks. Since they could be separated by accident at any time, she had better know the truth; that way, she would be better able to deal with the present. He gave her a stern, direct look. “Our faces and names are all over the news.”

She was alarmed, and interrupted his carefully unfolding revelation. “All over the world? Everyone knows where I am now? I’ll soon be rescued? Will the U.S. rescue us, or the Israelis?”

She stopped to take a breath, and he cut in sternly. “No, Kendall. It’s not good. General Omar has assumed control over Afghanistan. He is saying that you and I killed the Shazeb family and burned down the palace. Our faces are all over the Afghanistan news. I don’t know about the rest of the world.” He let the words sink in.

Kendall was stunned into silence. Finally, she sputtered, “But how … why …?” and became silent once again.

After a few moments of collecting his thoughts, Rashid continued, “I do not understand what happened. Bombing the palace was never the plan … so far as I was told. As to why General Omar is saying that we did this, my guess is that he’s afraid the people will be loyal to me. He wants them to blame us.”

She frowned. She knew there was more bad news and sighed. “So that’s where the fire trucks were going last night. What else?”

“The Israelis have been bombing all day, so the poppy fields, manufacturing sites, and trucks have most likely been destroyed. That’s good.”

“So, let’s communicate with your Mossad contacts and get out of here.”

Rashid shook his head. “We can’t for several reasons. I lost my communication piece on the roof of the AIDC building. I do have a satellite or SAT phone, but I don’t dare use it until we get some place where the signal won’t be picked up by General Omar and the troops loyal to Shazeb.”

Kendall didn’t understand. “Who cares? We can take off … you know, leave before they arrive.”

Rashid was angry. “I will not put this farm or my friend, Jangi and his family, in jeopardy. They could lose their farm and their lives if we were discovered here. As it is, they are taking a huge risk.”

“Okay, okay, I get it and agree. But I thought Fields disabled the infrastructure?”

“Possibly, but it was never more than a short-term solution to buy us time to get away. It could very well be operable by now, since it’s been twenty-four hours. But I don’t want to chance it.”

“I thought Fields changed the passwords and deleted files. And wasn’t everything lost or damaged from the bombing?”

Rashid shook his head. “Not necessarily. Those things can be recovered from other computers located elsewhere.”

Kendall was beginning to think things were hopeless … and then it got worse. “Why did the Israelis, or the Mossad, bomb the palace?”

He was bitterly angry. “I don’t know, and I’m really angry about that.”

“Do you think the whole family died … even the women and children?”

He nodded miserably. “I don’t see how they could have survived. I just don’t understand why it was bombed. The only answer I can think of is that they could tell the troops were on the way to the AIDC building, and decided to create a catastrophic event that would keep most of the troops focused at the palace. It seemed to have worked. We got away very easily.”

She could tell there was more and prompted him, “So, what’s bothering you about how it all played out?”

“I also don’t understand why they destroyed the AIDC building. They could have just killed Imran and stopped there. It’s a miracle that you and I survived!”

Something dawned on her. “Do you think they believe we’re alive?”

“That’s what’s bothering me. I don’t know if they were planning for us to perish in the blast. I’m almost afraid to contact them.”

Kendall looked at him with eyes wide open and whispered, “What do we do?”

Rashid looked grim, and his face was drawn with worry. “We wait for another twenty-four hours. We’re safe here at least for that amount of time. But I have to decide if I want to contact Israel or someone else.”

“Who?”

He ignored that question and asked her, “Kendall, how well did you know Fields and Carson? Will they vouch for you?”

She frowned, “As a matter of fact not well at all. Our paths only crossed before by chance. We never spoke directly, though I attended meetings where Paul Fields was present. They know nothing about me, my life, my friends, etc. I just happened to stumble across them as we were all leaving the hotel separately in DC.”

She was looking down contemplating the darkness that was enveloping them. She wasn’t sure if she should voice it, but decided to forge ahead. “It’s possible they might think the mix-up at the hotel was planned.”

“What? Why? My God, we can’t have you Orion people against each other!”

“Well, that may not be helped. The fact is, we didn’t run in the same circles. You said you wanted to get things out in the open, so here it is. I don’t know where I stand with them.”

“So, you don’t know if they’ll back you up or throw you to the dogs?”

She was becoming frightened and yet angry too. “This is ridiculous! We can sort all this out once we get to a safe place.”

He grabbed her arm and gently shook it. “That’s the problem, Kendall. We need to be able to distinguish our enemies from our friends.”

Her face contorted in confusion, “Why would I have enemies? In fact, how do I figure into any of this? I’m just an innocent party caught in the middle of shit happening!”

Rashid shook his head violently. “Not anymore! Israel, Orion, General Omar … any of them could and would throw you to the wolves.”

Kendall seemed to shrink from the thought. “But why?”

“Because they want to deflect any blame away from them.”

“Not Orion! It hasn’t done anything!” She was indignant now.

He spat out, “Don’t bet on it!”

She was surprised. “What has it done? Tell me!”

“All I know is that it has to do with secret spying and somehow finding out things about others through the computer.”

Kendall gasped, “You think Orion is involved in some sort of technical spying?”

“Let’s put it this way. Its technological capability is apparently more than people think.”

“I work there. I can’t believe Orion would be part of something illegal. Besides, the U.S. government would never allow that to happen.”

“And how do you know that the government isn’t also involved?”

She stood up and angrily put her hands on her hips. “Now you’re just talking crazy! Someone’s brainwashed you, and unfortunately, you believe them. The international community is always accusing the U.S. of things.”

He stood up too and put his arms out, “And yet, here we are.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“We’ll get to the bottom of it … just not today. Have patience, Kendall.”

“I’m sick of hearing that. I’ve been patient for weeks now. Where has it gotten me? I’m now on the run, being accused of unspeakable crimes by a country or people I don’t even know … and where I was kidnapped and brought to forcibly.”

He turned and gently pushed Kendall towards the ladder from the hayloft. She burst into tears and put her hands over her eyes. He stopped and said, “What is it?”

She looked at him and tearfully said, “I don’t even have my passport!”

Rashid almost laughed. That was the least of their worries. He gave her a hug and said, “Let’s go! The passport is something we’ll worry about later. We need food and hot water.”

She nodded and moved to the ladder. They quickly descended and saw Jangi talking to his sons on the porch of the house. He was explaining the tasks to be accomplished the next day out in the field. The fields would be tested for their hydrogen ion concentration or pH levels. Because the crops were not rotated as much as they should be in an effort to farm as much of the land as possible, Jangi knew that his field could be highly alkaline. If that were the case, it would affect the skin quality of his potatoes, and he would need to deal with the resulting micronutrient deficiencies.

Jangi broke off when Rashid and Kendall approached. “Come, my friends. Let’s have supper.” He smiled at Kendall.

As they were halfway through the meal, Jangi suddenly bolted upright. Everyone froze. “Someone is coming up the drive. Come quickly.”

While he ushered Kendall and Rashid into a hidden space behind the wall of a closet of sorts, his wife removed their plates, cups, and silverware. The children spread out the family’s settings evenly on the table.

Kendall was terrified in the small, dark space while Rashid was curiously calm. She grabbed his hand. “Why aren’t you afraid?” she hissed.

“Shh! Wait!” He was holding his breath.

It seemed like they waited forever. Suddenly there were heavy footsteps in the hallway … approaching them. The closet door slid open and the hidden panel was yanked out of the wall.

D
ANIEL
B
LUMFELD FELT SICK TO
his stomach at the things he was hearing and seeing courtesy of
Prophecy.
He may not have been on the front lines and certainly wasn’t privy to all of the details, but he got the gist of it. Paul Fields and Glenn Carson had been rescued. Carson was very ill but was expected to recover. Kendall Radcliffe got left behind, and it was possible she was dead. The Mossad couldn’t tell if she had survived some huge blast to the building from which the prisoners had been rescued. There had been continued strategic bombing the entire next day. Even the Afghanistan president’s palace had been bombed. The chatter amongst the Mossad and Israeli leaders was that all of the president’s family was dead, including sons, wives, and children. That was beyond their wildest expectations.

Blumfeld felt responsible for all of it. He had created a monster,
Prophecy.
Now it was being used to kill people, which might even include his own friends. He just couldn’t imagine that Kendall was dead. She didn’t deserve this. The situation looked to be even worse than it appeared.

The Mossad was implying in not-so-subtle ways that Kendall was somehow involved in the drug trafficking. That thought was so ridiculous that Daniel wanted to use his burner phone and call them to refute the rumor. If it was anyone else, he wouldn’t get involved. He would ordinarily tell himself that it wasn’t any of his doing, and he wasn’t to blame. But because it was Kendall, his friend and co-worker—and, goddamnit, a really decent person—there must be something he could do.

Daniel knew the Mossad had altered its pathway technologically to and from
Prophecy
to ensure that no one could see into the Mossad’s communications … or so it thought. But Daniel had allowed for that possibility so that he, and he alone, would receive notice via an encrypted message that a technical modification had been made. Daniel simply followed suit, applying the technical “fix” so that he could continue to see everything from the new iteration. He might have created this monster, he told himself, but he wasn’t going to be left
in the dark and lose control. His mentors were forgetting that this technological tool was, after all, his brainchild. Did the Mossad really expect him to roll out his crowning achievement and then go away? Not for all the millions they were paying him.

Blumfeld also knew the Mossad had the power to destroy him. They could attempt to close the link, effectively disabling
Prophecy,
and then give him up to the Feds if things got too hot. So, it was paramount that whatever he did, it needed to be done covertly. Not even the slightest hint must point his way. But what could he do? Who could he talk to?

He sat back in his chair, tapping his pen against the desktop out of nervousness. He knew that eventually he would need to act. But for the time being, he would need to just watch and continue collecting data and sorting through the actions of the
Prophecy
power users.

It was evening in the Middle East at the end of the bombing missions. Mossad Agent Shane Menard had been monitoring the Afghanistan communications. The electrical grid was back up, but shaky. Blackouts were occurring at regular intervals. General Faisal Omar was about to address the Afghanistan people and the world.

Menard jumped up and yelled for his boss, Benjamin Zimmerman, to activate his dual flat-screen computer-monitor/TV and turn to the twenty-four hour international news channel. The fairly new channel had been introduced a year ago by the U.N., and it broadcasted live simultaneously in the fifty most spoken languages and dialects around the world. The location of the viewing pre-programmed the broadcast language. Conversion to the requisite desired language was instantaneous.