Chapter 16 #2
“Good, because you may have a problem with one of the men on your team.”
Clint sat up straight. “Did something come back on Shawn Beck?”
“Yes.” Katlin never beat around the bush.
“I put a junior team on him last night. He met an Afghan man in his early twenties who is a person of interest to us. They sat across the table at a popular Middle Eastern restaurant and often spoke with their heads nearly touching…in Pashto. Unfortunately, no one on that team was fluent in that language. Luckily for us, they used one of our new listening devices, which sent every word with nuance directly to the Ops Center and was translated last night while they did the dive on Rustam Mangal, the man in the restaurant. He came to this country two months ago with his mother, two of his three sisters, and his little brother.” She took a drink from the thermos on her desk.
“Did they enter illegally?” Clint leaned forward with his elbows on his knees.
“Not exactly, but I guarantee you they left Afghanistan illegally. No one gets out of there unless the Taliban wants them to.”
Ah, that’s why he’s a person of interest, Ashlin deduced.
Someone knocked on the door, then entered without asking. She walked directly to Katlin and handed her several sheets stapled together, turned, and left.
Katlin skimmed the papers, her smile growing with each one.
“That makes a hell of a lot of sense.” She looked up at her guests.
“It seems the Taliban believes his whole family to have died when their house exploded in the middle of the night. A rescue team of former Navy SEALs, well known in the District to those who need to know, called the State Department, asking for political asylum for them all. It was granted immediately, allowing them to enter the country, but the caveat was he was required to interview with the CIA. That’s what he was doing here in D.C.
this week. Since he passed the rigorous interrogation, they were all given new identities.
I guarantee they’ll be watched carefully for at least three years, then the frequency will taper off. ”
She flipped through the pages once again. “I still don’t see any ties to your man.” She placed the pages back in the file. “I want you to ask him. All three of you. You’re trained in catching lies. I suggest you invite him to the conference room. Kayla, make sure the eyes and ears are on.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Dismissed.”
“I’ll go get Shawn and meet you in the conference room,” Clint announced ten steps out the door.
“Thanks, that will give us time to set up the room and make sure we have a good connection to the Operations Center.” Kayla and Ashlin turned in one direction as Clint turned the other way.
Seconds after they confirmed that the Ops Center had both audio and video, Shawn Beck stepped into the room, followed by Clint.
“Have a seat,” Kayla ordered and pointed to the chair across the table from her and Ashlin. She looked at Clint and gestured to the chair next to hers. Obediently, he sat down.
“Since you are new to Clint’s team and have not been previously vetted by Homeland Security, we did our due diligence and ran you last night. Would you tell us exactly why you met with Rustam Mangal last night?” Kayla used her commanding officer voice.
Shawn glanced at Clint, but Ashlin only saw questions on his face.
“I was wondering how soon this would come up. Rustam’s father was the interpreter for my SEAL fire team during all six of our missions in Afghanistan, and he assisted several other teams in theater.
Zalmay was invaluable. He lived with us.
He became a good friend, not only to our team but to others as well.
When we realized the USA was going to pull out of Afghanistan and turn the country back over to the Taliban, we promised Zalmay that we would get him and his family out of the country.
He knew, as well as we did, what that terrorist group would do to him and to his family. ”
Ashlin watched the man visibly fight back deep emotions.
“If we had known that our country would completely pull out of Afghanistan as quickly as they did, we would never have left him there. We were stopped mid-mission deep in country, Zalmay embedded with us, when we were ordered to immediately evacuate the whole fucking country. We were so deep, we had no idea what was going on in Kabul. We were lifted out through one of the other stan countries. It wasn’t until we got to Germany that we realized what had happened.
We wanted to turn around and go back right then, but command wouldn’t let us.
” He glanced at nothing. “Zalmay wasn’t important enough to evacuate him and his family.
” His gaze held onto each of them for several seconds.
“As soon as we returned to Virginia Beach, several of us started a campaign to get them out of the country. Command wouldn’t listen.
I had worked over the years with many former SEALs who had retired and formed a group that went into Afghanistan, unauthorized, and rescued several of the interpreters.
I gave them his name and as many details as I knew, as well as other SEAL teams who had worked with him. ”
He sniffed, obviously withholding tears.
Without a word to each other, the three of them let him talk.
So far, Ashlin hadn’t seen anything that screamed lie.
Shawn continued, “Did you know the Taliban paid friends and neighbors to turn in anyone who had helped the Americans? Before the rescue team could get to him, he’d been captured and tortured.
When he wouldn’t talk, they brought in his ten-year-old daughter.
I don’t need to tell anyone in this room the things they did to her to force her father to talk.
After they publicly executed him, they literally threw his daughter into the street. ”
Rustam was able to get his battered and abused little sister and take her back to their village, but there was no medicine.
He got a message to me that his father had been murdered and asked if we would honor our promise to get him and his family out.
He told me that his sister was dying because of the brutality she’d suffered at the hands of the Taliban.
He begged me to get him drugs if we couldn’t evacuate them.
I passed this all onto the rescue team. When they looked into Zalmay’s family, they discovered rumors from several sources that the Taliban intended to kidnap his family and publicly torture them all together as a warning to others.
The retired SEALs agreed to rescue his family the following week. ”
Shawn squared his shoulders. “It cost me my career in the Navy, but dammit, I’d do it all again without hesitation.
I took last-minute leave and lied about where I was going.
I secretly went with them and rescued Rustam and his family.
His sister had died hours before we arrived.
And before you ask, the explosion was my idea.
” He held out his hands, palms up. “These hands planted every bomb. My only regret is that there weren’t any Taliban nearby to be wiped off the face of the earth with the explosion. ”
Shawn swiped tears off his cheeks and looked at his new commanding officer. “Clint, if you don’t want me on this team, I’ll leave now.”
Clint didn’t answer his question but asked one of his own. “You said it ended your Navy career. How so?”
“My commanding officer didn’t appreciate being lied to, and he threatened to court-martial me.
Thankfully, the CO of the EOD school outranked him and convinced the brass to offer me a medical retirement.
I took it. But I have a few more good years in me, so when Hank approached me with this job offer, I jumped on it.
” He stared at Clint. “You’re not old enough to start counting pennies to save for the day you decide to quit playing soldier.
I’ve got a few years on you and realize I won’t be able to crawl around under buildings for too many more years.
I need this job to save money. Anybody who thinks they can live on an E-8 medical retirement is kidding themselves.
But if I can’t work for the Riggs Corporation, somebody else will hire me.
There’s plenty of Beltway bandits out there. ”
“You still haven’t told us why you were at supper with Rustam Mangal,” Kayla pressed.
Shawn took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
“We were saying goodbye. Our government has decided to give him, his mother, and his remaining siblings, citizenship and new identities. I think we all know what would happen if the Taliban realized they were still alive and living here in the States.”
Ashlin about jumped out of her chair when the phone rang.
“Excuse me,” Kayla stood and went to the phone on the wall. “Yes ma’am.” Pause. “Yes ma’am, I understand. I’ll take care of it.”
“Boomer, you’ve been vetted by Homeland Security but understand, that has nothing to do with your employment by Riggs Corporation. Ashlin, let’s get back to work.”
Kayla met Clint’s eyes. “You can have the room for as long as you want.”
Clint’s gaze went to the cameras. “Off, please.”
She leaned over and pressed a button on the device in the middle of the table. “Black Swan out.”
“Operations out,” a man replied within seconds. She pressed another button and gave him the thumbs-up.
Ashlin and Kayla left the room.