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“Ibrahim’s tribe is leaving tonight for Tunisia,” Liam said, when Aidan awoke from their post-sex nap. “I think you should go with them.”
“We’ve had this discussion before,” Aidan said, yawning. “I’m staying with you.”
“No, the discussion we had before was about you staying until we met up with the Tuareg tribe,” Liam said. “And I agreed with that because we had an exit strategy in place. We don’t have that anymore.”
Aidan sat up. “So that’s it? You want to get rid of me?”
“Aidan. I want you to be safe.”
“Well, maybe I’m tired of being safe. Maybe I’m tired of being told what to do, of doing what somebody else wants all the time.”
“Don’t be a drama queen. You said it yourself. You don’t have any training in combat or espionage.”
“And you admitted that I’ve been good to have around when things get tough,” Aidan said. “If you get into that facility, and especially if you get caught, you need someone on the outside who knows what’s going on.”
Liam didn’t answer for a while.
“Liam?” Aidan asked.
Liam turned to face him. “I love you,” he said. “I didn’t mean to, and I don’t know how it happened, but I do. And I want to protect you.”
Aidan leaned up and kissed Liam’s scratchy cheek. “That’s sweet,” he said. “And I love you too. Which is why I’m not letting you do this by yourself.”
Liam tried a dozen other arguments, but Aidan wouldn’t be moved. So when the caravan continued toward the Tagant School, Aidan was on Ruby, Liam riding beside him.
They noticed that the girl, Leila, had remained with the Tuareg tribe at the campsite, though Hassan was still with them. “Good,” Liam said. “That’ll make it easier to get Hassan out of the way, if he’s alone.”
Aidan looked back over his shoulder at the Tuareg tents just once, afraid, like Lot’s wife, of turning to a pillar of salt. What was he doing, insisting on staying with Liam? The bodyguard was right; Aidan had no training that could be useful. He could prepare couscous, rake the desert sand into neat patterns. He couldn’t creep around silently like Liam, use a gun, knock a man out. He’d been lucky at the souk, when he’d disabled Gold Tooth by grabbing his crotch. But that had been a fluke.
In his heart, though, he knew he was doing the right thing. He had been too scared to defy Blake, afraid that any dissent would be grounds for a breakup. And see where that attitude had gotten him? He also felt a fiery determination, stronger than anything he’d ever felt before, to look out for Liam, to protect him, even though Liam needed protection less than any other man Aidan had ever met.
This had to be love, he thought. Not just lust—that would have evaporated the first time things got crazy. If he was following his dick, he’d have run as soon as Wahid Zubran and his thugs attacked them in the souk. But instead, he’d gotten himself in deeper and deeper.
When they halted with the rising sun and pitched their tents, Liam slipped away. Aidan was dozing as the bodyguard returned to the tent. “I liberated a few items from the stuff heading for the school,” he whispered, sliding down behind Aidan. “Three grenades and a Soviet-made hand gun. Just before we get to the school I’ll slip them into Hassan’s bags.”
Aidan was too restless to sleep. “Tell me what you know about this place,” he said. “This school.”
“Ibrahim didn’t know much,” Liam said, leaning down to wipe the sand from his feet. “He’s taken people from his tribe there for medical attention, and they saw things that didn’t belong. He wondered why they needed so many soldiers to protect school children and medical personnel.”
“Reasonable question,” Aidan said.
“Foreign visitors come in by helicopter and four-wheel drive vehicles. Some of them stay for a long time, but they never show up as either teachers or patients.”
“So how did he connect with Carlucci?”
“The Tuareg pass tribal leadership through the mother. So his mother’s brother was the Amenokal, or leader, of the tribe, before him. His uncle decided Ibrahim needed to know more about the outside world, so he sent Ibrahim to a boarding school in Tunis, where he met up with the pharmacist and the goldsmith.”
Aidan turned to face Liam. “Go on.”
“The goldsmith found The Counter-Terrorist Foundation online, and made the first contact with them. Carlucci investigated the information, thought it was credible, and made the deal.”
Liam yawned. “Let’s get some sleep,” he said, pulling Aidan close to him.
They rode for another two nights, sleeping during the heat of the day. At the last rest stop, Liam slipped the grenades and the gun into Hassan’s canvas bag, hoping that by burying them at the bottom the Libyan wouldn’t notice them.
Aidan and Ruby halted at the top of a low rise, keeping their place in line, as the caravan came to a halt at the Tagant School. Aidan shifted position, rearranging the t-shirts under his butt and pulling down the brim of the safari hat Liam had gotten him to shade his eyes from the sun. He wore what had become his regular costume in the desert; one of Liam’s long-sleeved t-shirts, to protect his arms from the sun, and a pair of Liam’s loose cotton drawstring pants, so that his calves wouldn’t chafe against Ruby’s skin as she trekked through the desert. On his feet he wore sneakers and socks.
Ifoudan left his position at the head of the caravan and walked alone up to the gate in the barbed-wire fence. The complex was larger than Aidan had expected: a single building, one story tall, with various courtyards and wings, and sentry towers at the corners. The whole facility was the size of two or three city blocks.
As Ifoudan entered the camp, Liam left the head of the caravan and climbed up to stand by Aidan. Liam was dressed for the desert, too, in a long-sleeved t-shirt and another pair of loose cotton pants, though they clung to his body in way that made Aidan shiver when he looked too closely.
Hassan sat on his camel just a few hundred feet ahead. His head slumped forward and Aidan thought he was dozing. Ifoudan walked back out through the gate a few minutes later, accompanied by a pair of guards.
The three men moved slowly toward the caravan, and Aidan’s heart rate quickened at the possibility that Ifoudan might betray the operation, or that the guards would believe Hassan and pull him and Liam in for questioning.
The three men stopped in front of Hassan, and Ifoudan began speaking and gesturing, pointing at Hassan. The two soldiers with him held their guns ready.
Hassan woke with a start as Ifoudan grabbed the ropes of his camel and brought her to her knees. The soldiers pointed their guns at him and demanded that he dismount. “Salaam aleikum,” Aidan heard him say, as he climbed off the camel with difficulty. He started to speak in Arabic, but the first soldier quieted him.
Aidan noticed Liam’s posture stiffen as he focused on the conversation between the men. Hassan began speaking again, and the soldier swung his rifle, hitting Hassan on the shoulder. While the first soldier held his gun at Hassan, the second one grabbed his bag and tore it open. After rooting around for a moment or two, he pulled out the grenades and the gun. He said something in Arabic.
Though Aidan couldn’t understand the words, he could interpret well enough. The soldiers were accusing Hassan, who looked first angry, then confused. Then the first soldier turned to the old couple and began speaking. Aidan felt a momentary pang of guilt at involving them—but then, he didn’t know they were innocent, after all. They could have been in cahoots with Hassan and Wahid all along.
The first soldier spoke into his radio, listened for a moment, then said something to his colleague.
Hassan started to argue, but the second soldier pulled out a coil of rope and tied his hands behind his back, then pulled him to his feet. A troop of six soldiers came out of the gate, marching up the rise to where the old couple cowered and pleaded, and they were bound as Hassan had been. Ifoudan accompanied the soldiers, the old couple, and Hassan el-Masri into the Tagant School. “That went as we hoped,” Aidan said to Liam as he watched them walk inside.
“It was a good plan,” Liam said. He patted Ruby on her flank. “Come on, let’s get camp set up.”
They joined the rest of the caravan in putting up tents in the shadow of the rise, a short distance from the entrance to the Tagant School, and settled down to wait. Liam and Aidan sat on the sleeping mats inside Ifoudan’s tent. Aidan was exhausted from the long trek through the desert night, but he was sure there was more they were supposed to do. “What happens now?” he asked.
“They’ll need men to carry the material into the facility,” Liam said. “Ifoudan is going to let me join the laborers. That gets me inside.”
“But what if the soldiers figure out who you are?”
“I’ll have to be good at my camouflage,” Liam said.
Aidan remembered watching him change as he’d moved away in Tunis, going back to his house to check for surveillance. Liam had been able to modify his body language and blend in with the crowd. But could he do that under close supervision?
“What can I do?” Aidan asked.
“Wait here.” Liam opened his bag. “This is a satellite phone. I have a number programmed in. If anything happens to me, call that number and tell the man on the other end everything you know.”
“Who am I calling?”
“My former boss. Colonel Hardwick. SEAL Team 12 is based in Sardinia right now. He can call in an assault if we need it.” He handed Aidan the phone. “Once you make the call, you’ve got to get the hell out of here. Stick with Ifoudan, if you can.”
Liam looked out of the tent. Ifoudan was still inside the school, and the caravan could not begin unloading and transporting the goods until he returned. “Let’s get some rest,” Liam said, lying down on the mat.
Looking at him, Aidan finally understood what they were up against, how much danger they were both in. “I’m scared, Liam.”
“Come here.”
Aidan sat on the mat, and Liam pulled him down, and curled his body against Aidan’s. “You’ve been amazing so far,” he said. “Much smarter and braver than I ever would have imagined. I wish you’d have listened to me and stayed with the Tuaregs, but you’re here now. You just have to stick it out a little longer.”
“This Colonel Hardwick. Is he the one who kicked you out of the SEALs?”
Liam licked his lips. “He didn’t have a choice. He was following policies.”
“Did you know it was going to happen?”
Aidan felt Liam’s breath on his back, the bodyguard’s leg curled against his. “I couldn’t keep on hiding any more. In the end, that was more important to me than being a SEAL.”
“I can’t imagine how hard that must have been. Losing everything like that.”
“You went through that yourself. When Blake kicked you out.”
“It’s not the same. Sure, I lost a lot. And I probably over-reacted by getting out of Philadelphia and coming here. But I didn’t lose who I was.”
“I didn’t either.” Liam snuggled against Aidan, and they both slept.
When they woke at dusk, Ifoudan still had not returned. “What do you think is going on?” Aidan asked. “Are they blaming Ifoudan for bringing Hassan here?”
“I don’t know, but I’m starting to get worried. The plan was just for Ifoudan to notify the guards. I didn’t expect them to take him in, too. Or that old couple.”
“They helped him and his girlfriend,” Aidan said. “The friend of my enemy is my enemy, too.”
“That one of the English phrases you teach your students?” Liam asked, and the ends of his mouth twitched toward a smile.
“Why don’t you get a fire started,” Aidan said, smiling back. “When Ifoudan gets back, he’s going to be hungry.”
