Niaz Rasouli, vice-president of Afghanistan, surveyed the men in the room with a slight smile. The leader of the Taliban sat across from him, while behind ranged his security people, all of them heavily armed.
‘What?’ The terrorist leader finished his juice with a loud slurp.
‘All these times we have been meeting here, and no one suspects.’
‘Why would they? We assured secrecy by building the secret passage between this apartment and the one in the next building. Laila is our conduit to you whenever we need to set up a meeting. Your bodyguards … all they do is check the inside, see that there is no one else here other than the woman, and that’s enough for them. They think you call your Taliban informer.’
‘Fools,’ one of the terrorists spat in disgust.
Ahmadzai had first showed up in Laila’s apartment a year ago, during the vice-president’s visit. Rasouli, thinking at first it was a kidnap attempt, had tried to escape but had been barred by one of the bearded killers.
‘Relax,’ the Taliban leader had growled at him. ‘If we wanted to behead you, we would have done it long ago. We knew about you and Laila …’ At that, his lips had twisted in an evil smile. ‘Did you know she is one of us?’
Rasouli, stunned, had turned on his lover, who bowed her head in shame and left the apartment.
‘We are not here to kidnap you. Listen carefully. You want to be president. We want power. Our interests align.’
The vice-president of Afghanistan began colluding with the Taliban that evening.
‘Clayton Farley will be in Kabul tomorrow,’ he told the terrorist leader.
‘Yes, I know. We’ll be there for the meeting.’
‘He’ll try to convince you to drop your demand.’
‘We will,’ Ahmadzai said, smiling wolfishly, ‘in return for another demand.’
‘Will it work?’
‘Does Rahmani have a choice? The Americans want to pull out of our country. Without a peace deal and without those soldiers, Kabul will be gone. My people will start bombing attacks. I am sure he will give in, and when we get our man back’—his eyes filled with fervor—‘the Taliban will be united and more powerful than ever before.’
‘That’s when you will kill the president.’
‘Which will make you the head of the country. You will reach out to us and broker a power-sharing agreement with us.’
‘We’ll both rule Afghanistan.’
Rasouli filled their glasses again and raised his in a toast.