The Retrieval... Ch. 03

At this point the Chairman stepped in and had to remind his fellow Senators that they were getting off task. The Committee had not called on Leah to explain the State Department's project and they needed to stop asking the young lady to clarify aspects of it. He solemnly reminded everyone in the room that Leah was there to testify about the alleged events that occurred at a warehouse on the outskirts of the Andarab district in Afghanistan on the night in question. He turned his serious face directly towards Leah and made sure she understood that she was there to testify specifically about the actions of her Team Leader, Travis Rackley.

Leah found it hard to swallow.

She nervously reached out for the glass of water sitting on the table in front of her and took a long drink as the Chairman watched. She didn't like the way her was looking at her...she silently wondered what had happened to the nice old man who had been asking her questions. She set the glass down and took a deep breath and then met the Chairman's gaze. He raised an eyebrow and the questions continued.

By answering the Chairman's questions and then further explaining some of her answers, Leah went on to reveal that her unit's cover mission had been to pose as trainers. They were supposed to work in conjunction with two advisors from one of the big private security companies and together they were tasked with training up half a dozen members of the newly hired local police force and turn them into a tactical response unit. Leah actually had to run through the cover mission details twice so that the members of the Committee were clear on exactly who all was involved in the mission and ultimately present at the small warehouse on the outskirts of the village.

Next, the Chairman's questions and Leah's answers walked everyone through the specifics of what her unit's actual objective had been. Leah explained the specifics of their mission and then went on to answer a few more questions and confirmed a couple of the details. She took another small break by pausing for another drink of water and then surprised everyone in the room by requesting to make a statement. The Chairman thought it over and told her he would allow it.

Leah took the opportunity to boldly praise Travis Rackley for the phenomenal job he had done.

The Chairman carefully studied her face for a few moments and then went ahead and asked her to expound upon her statement. Leah did so without hesitation. She explained that their unit's entire mission, even their cover duty, had ended up putting her unit in an extremely dangerous situation. That it was Team Leader Travis Rackley's leadership and decision-making skills that had taken an overwhelmingly hostile and potentially volatile situation and managed to turn it into a successful hunt and termination of one of Al Qaeda's main financiers.

Leah finished speaking and sat back in her chair with a neutral expression on her face. She knew she had given them just enough that they couldn't possibly move on without asking follow-up questions. She wasn't going to lie, but she felt that if she could just get these men to understand the circumstances of that mission...well, maybe in the end it would help Rack. She really didn't know what else she could do...but she had to try.

She wasn't sure her gambit had paid off until one of the Senators on the Committee cleared his throat and then asked her to please clarify what she had meant by "overwhelmingly hostile" and "potentially volatile". She took a satisfied breath before answering. Leah went on to explain that her unit had been instructed not to engage with any of the local Taliban forces if they could possibly avoid it. The problem was that they had already confirmed that the Al Qaeda money man they were hunting was being hidden by the very same local Taliban forces they weren't supposed to engage with.

She went on to explain that to complicate things even further, it became very clear, very quickly that at least half of the men that they were supposed to be training as part of their cover were not only very sympathetic to the Taliban, but had familial ties to the very group who were hiding the terrorist bag man. She now had everyone in the room's attention. She detailed that not only did they have to contend with the Taliban sympathy factor, but it didn't take long to figure out that the men they were supposed to be training in tactics, these so-called Afghani "police officers", were nothing more than armed savages...so they were stuck trying to deal with a group of vicious bullies who constantly had to be reminded not to brutalize and hurt the local villagers during training exercises.

These factors had made mission success almost impossible.

No one spoke, so she continued. She explained how their trainees and the two representatives from the private security firm had established their base of operations in a small, abandoned warehouse on day one. The warehouse was nothing more than an old Quonset hut on the outskirts of the village, but was perfect for what they needed. The plan was that they would train during the day, eat on the run and then everyone would hunker down in the shelter of the warehouse for the night.

She went on to explain that even though she had carefully chosen clothes and gear to help hide her gender including long sleeves, tactical vest, sunglasses and a voodoo tactical scarf that covered her face...the fact that she was a woman had been a major issue from the jump. Team Leader Rackley had done a good job of squashing that problem early on by making sure she didn't interact with the trainees. She provided over-watch and security and kept her distance...but Rackley still saw it as something they could exploit. He used the excuse of Leah being a female to camp his team well away from the warehouse for security reasons. It made perfect sense and everyone agreed with it. It also afforded their unit the opportunity to use the cover of night to stalk their objective.

Leah looked around the room and felt like she had everyone's full attention. She went on to explain that mission success came on their third night of hunting. She emphasized that it was Rack who had been instrumental in leading his team to successfully eliminate their target. The fact that they had done so without the locals or the Taliban having the first clue as to what had happened right under their noses was a huge win. Leah almost allowed herself a smile when she said that.

"I sincerely congratulate you on that successful mission, Ms. Hartsall," the Chairman spoke up. He gave her a kind smile and then he lowered his voice. "But you do understand what you are here to testify about, don't you?"

Leah's stomach dropped.

"You're here before this committee to give testimony about the validity of accusations being brought forth by the Afghan government," the Chairman continued. He paused to look at her.

She swallowed hard and gave him a small nod.

"Accusations that United States citizen Travis Rackley in the employ of the Central Intelligence Agency executed Afghani citizens."

Leah didn't move a muscle or blink as the events of that night started to come alive in her memory.

"Further investigation by this Committee, Ms. Hartsall, has discovered that Mr. Rackley may also be responsible for the murder of two American citizens as well," the Chairman advised her. He looked up from the papers in front of him. "So if you will, please start by describing the events that happened that night in question after your team completed the mission...the events at the warehouse."

Leah closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She slowly opened her eyes, paused to take another long drink of water and then in a flat, monotone voice complied with the Chairman's request. She testified to the rest of the events that happened that night. She described everything she had seen and everything she had witnessed in detail. She sat and answered all of their follow-up questions to the best of her ability. She clarified details for the record. She told them everything.

It seemed like it would never end.

When the Committee was finally satisfied with her testimony and they had no further questions, Leah was literally exhausted. She didn't take a single break even though they had offered one several times. She had just wanted to get through it and be done with it once and for all. Now that it was over she felt like she had run a marathon on her hands and knees. She was physically shaking when security came and led her outside to be handed over to her armed escort. As she walked out of the building with her protection detail, she felt sick and literally had to stop and lean against a wall for a few moments.

She could hardly remember the ride back in the armored SUV to Jules's apartment. Leah unlocked the door and barely spoke two words to Jules. She simply undressed as she zombie-walked into the bathroom, took a long hot shower and then couldn't bring herself to do anything but crawl into bed. Jules hovered over her the entire time, but didn't bother Leah with any questions. Jules knew it would take her some time to recover and when she was ready to talk, she would talk.

For now Jules simply watched over her as she slept.

****

Jules let Leah sleep for the rest of the day and on through the night...but enough was enough.

It took the redhead an inordinate amount of pleading, coaxing and cajoling to get Leah to finally agree to get up and out of the apartment for some breakfast. Jules thought it might have been the flashing of her boobs with the promise of more to come that finally did the trick. Leah shook her head as Jules sat next to her in the backseat of the armored SUV with a smug look of satisfaction on her face. Leah didn't have the heart to tell Jules that the reason she had actually caved in and agreed to breakfast was to get Jules to just be quiet. Well...that and the boobs.

They didn't have to wait long at all as the hostess approached them with menus just as they stepped through the entrance to the restaurant. They were shown to a booth and their security escort took a nearby table. Jules had gotten to the point that she was able to mostly ignore the pairs of armed men that went with them everywhere, but Leah was constantly aware of them. They both ordered coffee from the hostess and studied the menus for a few minutes until the waiter appeared a few minutes later with their java and pulled out his order pad. Jules ordered pancakes and Leah went with eggs, bacon and hash browns. They also decided to share an order of the house special wild blueberry mini-muffins.

The waiter came right back out with their basket of mini-muffins. The intimidating men sitting at the nearby table watching his every move seemed to make the young waiter a little nervous and he ended up knocking one of their water glasses over. The water ran all over the table and started to drip down onto Jules's purse, but the waiter thoughtfully snatched it up and made a big show of wiping it off with a towel he had hanging off of his apron. The young man apologized profusely and another waitress came over to help him get everything cleaned up. They finally got the table squared away and the young waiter made it a point of handing the now dry purse back to Jules before finally leaving them to eat in peace.

After all the excitement was over, Leah sipped her coffee and waited. She knew Jules was probably going to start asking about how the testimony went and she really couldn't blame her...if their roles had been reversed, Leah would have been just as concerned. The problem was that she just really didn't feel like talking about it. Not to Jules and not to anybody else. Yesterday had been hard enough to get through without dwelling on it and rehashing all the details. So when Jules opened her mouth, Leah was not prepared for what came next.

"I think you should talk to him."

"Talk to him...who?" Leah asked suspiciously, but deep inside already knew the answer.

Jules toyed with the spoon she had used to stir her coffee with before looking up and replying. "Rackley."

Leah didn't say anything for a moment as she studied Jules's face. "Why?"

"Oh, come on," Jules scoffed with a small grin. "With everything that's happened, you can't tell me you haven't thought about it?"

"How could you possibly know what I have or haven't thought about?" Leah said in very low voice.

"No...uh-uh," Jules surprised Leah again by not backing down. "You can just put the intimidation bullshit away because I'm not scared of you, okay? I love you, Leah...and you are not going to shut me out."

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah, really...," Jules looked into Leah's eyes sincerely. "Not if you want us to work."

Leah didn't say anything.

"Do you?" Jules asked and reached across the table and held her hand out.

Leah looked down at Jules's hand and felt like she could just cry forever as she placed her hand in it. "Yes...I do."

"Then let me in," Jules pleaded. "I'm not going to push you. Go at your own pace or whatever...but you have to let me in."

"Okay," Leah blew out a somewhat shaky breath and then chuckled. "You're so damn dramatic."

"Shit," Jules grinned and bit into a mini-muffin. "You ain't seen nothin' yet."

"Great," Leah rolled her eyes. She grew quiet again. "I guess I have thought about what I would say to him...what he would say to me."

"I thought so."

"I mean..." Leah started to explain and then stopped with a small shake of her head. "It doesn't matter. I'll never see him again and I'll just have to live with that."

Jules didn't say anything.

Leah immediately picked up on the fact the curvy redhead was suddenly avoiding eye contact. "What?"

"What...what?"

"Jules."

"I, uh..." Jules hem-hawed around and then said quietly. "I sort of made a phone call."

Leah cocked an eyebrow and waited for the redhead to continue.

"I kind of..." Jules started and then stopped. She smiled guiltily. "Well, I kind of called in a favor."

Jules was granted a momentary reprieve as the waiter brought their food. The redhead enthusiastically thanked the young man and then occupied herself by meticulously putting butter and syrup on her pancakes. Leah just sat there and watched her. The waiter left and Jules kept her head down as she cut her food into little squares. Leah folded her arms.

"Jules."

"Fine," Jules sighed and put her utensils down. "Look, I was worried about you. I thought that if you could just have a chance to sit down and talk to him...it would help. So I called Hank and he pulled some strings and tomorrow we're going to some dark site thingy and you'll be able to see him."

"Dark site thingy?" Leah repeated and despite everything else couldn't help but grin. "God, you are so cute."

Jules shrugged and smiled as she took a big bite of pancake. Jules proceeded to fill Leah in on everything she knew about the trip to see Rackley tomorrow...which wasn't a lot of information. The only thing Jules knew for sure was that it was all going to be done very covertly and with a high security presence. Leah understood and changed the subject. She was starting to feel nervous all over again about the possibility of seeing Travis Rackley face to face, but for right now she just wanted to enjoy this woman's company. The woman she loved.

They spent the rest of the morning enjoying their breakfast.

****

The young waiter stopped by each of his tables and refilled coffee cups and made sure everyone had what they needed. Since his tables were good for a few minutes, he told the manager he was going to step outside and take a quick smoke break. He was lucky the manager was also a smoker and sympathized with him. He was told to go ahead, but just make it quick.

The young man dodged his way through the kitchen area and walked out the back door. He lit up and checked over his shoulder as he quickly kept walking. He hadn't lied - he was taking a smoke break. Just not quite the break his manager thought it was. He walked to the far corner of the building. Away from prying eyes, he turned around to check the back door one more time and when he turned back around the scary looking dude in the sport coat was right there.

"Shit!" the young man exclaimed and turned his head to blow out a stream of smoke. "Dude, you scared the crap out of me."

"Well?" the scary looking man asked.

"I did it," he nodded. "Slipped it into that chick's purse...the one with the big tits."

The young waiter was referring to the small black disc the man had given him - the same one he had put into Jules's purse when he was wiping it off. The thing was nothing really, slightly smaller than a dime and kind of resembled a really flat button. It was the kind of thing most people wouldn't give a second look to unless they knew what they were looking for.

"Nobody saw you do it?" Sport coat asked. He had been watching the redhead's apartment from a distance for several days and had discreetly followed the targets to this restaurant. The luck had come when he happened to see this young waiter dressed for work in the restaurant's distinctive green shirt stop for a smoke break before going into to start his shift. The rest had been easy.

"Nah," the kid shook his head and nervously sucked on the cigarette. "It's all good."

"Let me check it," Sport coat nodded and pulled out his phone. He tapped a few buttons and then intently studied the screen. Finally satisfied he smiled and handed the kid a neatly folded wad of money. "Good job, kid."

"No problem," the young waiter called after him as sport coat walked away. That was the easiest hundred bucks he'd ever made.

****

Mr. Smith answered his encrypted cell phone. "Yes?"

"The tracker is in place," the man wearing the sport coat was walking away from the restaurant as he spoke into the phone. "No issues. Strong signal too."

"Perfect, thank you," Smith allowed himself a very small sigh of relief. Placing the tracker had been the hardest part. Now he just needed to have his people monitor it and pray that at some point, somewhere along the line within the next forty-eight hours his team was presented an opportunity to take care of the target. Forty-eight hours was all the time he had because that was the maximum battery life of the small transmitter.

Smith needed a Hail Mary right now...

****

Leah was quiet.

There was nothing unusual about that...except the reason she was being so quiet was because she was more scared than she had been in a long time. It had nothing to do with the fact that she was riding in the back of a government SUV as it traveled deeper and deeper into the middle of nowhere. It wasn't even due to the stuffy black-out hood that she was being forced to wear over her head that made sight impossible and most of the sounds around her inaudible.

She was afraid because she had no idea what she was going to say when she faced him...or what he would say to her. The SUV bounced in and out of another rut, pushing her hard against the seatbelt. Leah was pretty sure most people would be having a panic attack if they had been in her situation. Leah had to admit this wasn't a first for her. She certainly couldn't say the same for Jules so Leah gave the redhead's hand a reassuring squeeze.

The SUV continued rolling along one of the few paved roads that ran amid the hundreds of miles of uncultivated fields and natural forests of Southeast Virginia. Leah sensed that the vehicle was finally slowing down. And in fact it was as the driver approached a private drive on a one hundred acre section of land where there seemed to be little more than dense vegetation and the occasional glimpse of wildlife.

What neither Leah nor Jules could see about this particular piece of privately owned property because of the hoods was the well concealed razor wire running around the perimeter of this secluded tract of land. They were also completely unaware of the multiple security monitors or the armed men and women discreetly patrolling the woods. These same concealed sentries watched in silence as the SUV rolled to a stop in front of the plain, brick building that sat all by itself in the middle of the property.