congresswomen not the First Lady and her daughters. We wonder how MI6 found all that out in such a short time, other than by asking the boy personally.”
Alice was taking it all in and at the realization of what Campbell was implying, she blurted out, “Are you saying MI6 tortured the boy and then cut his tongue out? The British would never do such a horrible thing.”
“Yeah, sure,” Campbell said sarcastically and he waved his hand as if to say, Just forget about that.
“How MI6 got the information is none of our business, the fact remains that two trained terrorists have arrived here in San Francisco, and stopped overnight in rooms at a Thailand restaurant.” – He looked at Alice now – “And that’s where we want you and Joe to start. Homeland thinks the owners of the restaurant were too scared to talk in case of retaliation so we are going there now to ask them some more questions and it’s all an excuse for Joe to work his magic on the owner. The Deputy Director specially asked for this.”
Campbell waited for it to sink in, then he added, “He wants Joe to get into their heads and find out if they know more, okay?” He gave Alice a false smile. “How you and Joe do it, I really don’t wanna know.”
Alice heard him clearly but she told him anyway. She put her hand in her pocket and pulled out an old badge. “Joe sent this badge to me by post last week and said if the FBI wanted him to get into someone’s dreams, then I was to let that person hold this badge that Joe had touched, and once they had touched it, it would make it easier for Joe to make contact with that person.”
Agent Campbell had leaned closer to take a look at the badge when Alice had first pulled it out but he stepped back when she said Joe could use the badge to make contact.
“Do you want to touch it, sir?”Alice said, unable to resist the tease.
“Don’t try to be funny Alice,” came the stiff reply.
Agent Campbell picked up a car key from his desk and turned to Agent Burrows. “We’ve got a new car assigned to us so let’s get this show on the road.”
Alice and Agent Burrows fell in step behind him. “Alice, you didn’t tell me that Joe had posted you that badge,” Burrows said, almost accusingly.
“No, I’m sorry... Joe asked me not to tell anyone and he asked me to burn the envelope for he knew what you’d do. Being the great agent you are, you’d be interested in tracing the envelope.”
Burrows had no answer to that, she just smiled and nodded.
The badge story was another little lie that Alice had to tell John as well as the FBI. She and Joe had come up with that story as an explanation of how Joe was working his magic. The CIA was really keen on finding out and so the badge story had been concocted to throw them off.
In the drugs case they had worked on, Alice handed over a video that Joe had supposedly handled to the drug lord and that’s how they had claimed Joe worked his magic on the drug lord. The FBI seemed to buy it and so that type of misleading act had been faithfully maintained. So at the moment, Alice was in possession of an old army badge that she had bought at her neighbor’s garage sale. Hopefully, the FBI would continue to believe what they were being fed, that Joe worked through some kind of token. Alice had said to Joe that it was a totally silly idea but funny enough, neither Agent Burrows nor Agent Campbell questioned it.
Alice thought about her lies and cover-ups for Joe throughout most of the drive to the restaurant. Neither Agent Campbell nor Agent Burrows said much so she had her thoughts to herself.
Ten minutes before they arrived at the restaurant, Joe popped back into Alice’s mind.
“What have I missed and where are we going?”
Alice was in the back of the car, and she knew Joe could see right through her eyes. She turned from staring out the window to look at the two agents so Joe could see for himself. She then proceeded to fill him in on what had happened so