Page 103

It connected, and he heard, “Is this it?”

“No. Not yet.”

He heard exasperation. “Why the fuck are you calling? Every time this phone touches a satellite, it’s a potential compromise.”

Garrett exhaled a sigh of relief and said, “I know, but I had toknow. You’re good to go? You got what you needed?”

“We are. We have the drones and means to launch them. It’s going to take about forty minutes for the birds to get to you, so we’re going to need a little advance warning.”

“I got it. Don’t worry about that. I’ll give you the trigger. Just keep this phone operational.”

“There’s one other thing. We’ve killed some of Hezbollah’s men here. It’s no big deal right now, but it will be in a day or two. Somebody’s going to come looking, and we have no security to defend ourselves.”

Garrett said, “Can you hold on for a day? Until tomorrow?”

“I think so, but it might be close.”

“Do so. Tomorrow is the attack, and it’s going to be early. Wait for my call. When it comes, launch them all.”

Chapter 64

We took the rentals to the town of Sidon, about forty minutes outside of Beirut, to a café that was the same place I’d been captured years before. Jennifer saw the location and said, “I don’t think we should go in there.”

I said, “Well, we don’t have a lot of choices here.”

I clicked on the net and said, “Knuckles, Blood, you staged?”

Knuckles came back and said, “Yeah, we’re staged. But if I were you, I wouldn’t enter that damn place. Bad Ju Ju.”

I said, “Yeah, maybe.”

Sidon was a coastal city full of backpackers and foreign tourists, the promenade next to the water dotted with restaurants and nightclubs, and this café was a place that anyone would feel safe. Unless a bomb had gone off inside it years before, and you were captured by a bunch of terrorists.

The sun beginning to set, it was becoming crowded on the promenade next to the café, making it hard to see a threat. Walking to the door, I felt a little post-traumatic stress, but suppressed the feeling, holding Jennifer’s hand. Before, she’d been on the outside. Now I had her with me. I wasn’t sure if that was good or bad.

I walked into the interior, surveyed the room, and saw Samir in the back, sitting with an older guy dressed like a local, wearing a tweed jacket and a white skullcap. Samir waved, and I waved back, telling the hostess I was with him.

I went to the table, glancing around me as I did. I saw two mento my left at a table, and two men to my front against the wall. They were all young, mid-twenties, and were dressed in a more Western style, with two of them wearing ball caps, but they had a hard air about them.

Security. At least that’s what I hoped. If they were simply protection, I had no issue with it. If they were trying to roll me up like had happened the last time I was here, they would all die.

Samir stood up and hugged me, and I returned the embrace. He turned to Jennifer and did the same, truly seeming to mean it. He held her shoulders and said, “It’s good to see you, Koko. Climbed any walls recently?”

She smiled and said, “More than I care to admit.”

He said, “Sit, both of you, sit. It’s really good to see you.”

We did, and I said, “Who’s your friend?”

The man was glowering at me like he wanted to set my balls on fire. Not exactly a good start to negotiations.

The man said, “You can call me Muhammed.”

I laughed and said, “Sort of like John Smith, is that it?”

He didn’t get the joke, looking at Samir. I said, “Sorry, I’m not trying to cause a fight here.”

Muhammed said, “What do you want? Why did you come here?”