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Smith,” he said, as Joe lifted the envelope and unbent its
clasp.
    “I’m your most promising student.” Joe smiled as he craftily
cracked the envelope and withdrew its contents. He gave the enlarged map area
of Central Virginia and some typed out road directions a cursory scan. “Is this
my big test?”
    Al Fahd grinned and drummed his fingers against the desk.
“Your big test is yet to come. Prove yourself first with this little
assignment. Then maybe we’ll make party plans.”
    Joe’s eye caught the name at the bottom of the file and his
stomach plummeted. “Not much happening in Virginia, Al Hakeem. Perhaps there is
another-”
    Al Fahd brought a booming fist down on his desk. “You will not second-guess the master, Mr. Smith!   Is that clear ?! ”
    Joe froze as the mustard brown face went deadly calm.
“Crystal.”
    Joe thumbed through the papers but found nothing more. This
operation was far too important to US security to risk any slip-ups. More than
anything, especially now that Joe was getting close, he had to ensure his place
in Al Fahd’s kingdom. No matter what that took.
    “What is it you want me to do?” Joe asked, curving his lips
beneath his heavy moustache.

 
 
 

CHAPTER 7

 
    Albert Kane stood at the window of his thirteenth floor
apartment and studied the glistening oil-black waters dissected by the gleaming
lights of the Key Bridge. He took another belt of bourbon, weighing his
options. Goddamn didn’t have any. He swallowed the last of his drink and
shuddered at the deja vu.
    Three years ago he’d been in a similar position.
    Three years ago Mark Neal had not let him down.
    Three years ago, he’d had a wife and the promise of a new
beginning.
    Now he had nothing but the predawn Potomac and a heavy heart
that told him he’d always been wrong. Wrong to involve the family. Wrong to let
Ana have her way and join the DOS. Wrong to condone Ana’s marriage to somebody
else in this God-forsaken business.
    His older daughter, Emalita, had married an oil executive
and recently relocated to the Middle East taking along Albert’s three other
grandchildren. Albert knew he couldn’t call Emi about the current problem.
She’d had a hard enough time forgiving him the first time. But finally, as a
result of Mark and Ana’s intervention, Emi had grudgingly let Albert back into
her life.
    Emi was different from Ana, had been from the beginning. Emi
was a loving mother and a good one, and in that and that alone felt extremely
fulfilled. Albert supposed Emi was following in her mother’s footsteps.
    Ana, on the other hand, had always been more like her
father. And worked mightily to deny it. She’d been a
damn fine analyst and would make an even better operative, if she ever gave
herself the freedom to try it. But Ana felt hemmed in these days. Albert could
see it. Whether it was Mark or the barriers Ana had erected in her own head,
Albert didn’t know. But, whatever the problem, Ana clearly wasn’t happy with
the state of her life. And that was before... Before this God-forsaken mess Ana
had somehow gotten herself into.
    Albert thumped a hard hand against the tightness in his
chest, knowing that was a lie. Any trouble Ana had gotten herself into had
come as a direct result of her being the daughter of one DOS Assistant Director
Albert Kane.
    The timing of this fiasco couldn’t have been more
disastrous. For the first time in years, Ana had come to him- to Albert,
first- when she was in need of assistance. And foolishly, Albert had
thanked God he’d been able to play the benevolent patriarch and grant her wish.
    Albert turned a weary eye to the kitchen clock and the
too-still telephone, as if watching the pot would make it boil. But it was
Albert who was boiling instead. Fuming inside for the never-ending angst he’d
caused his family. All the far-flung consequence of his
decision to join the DOS more than fifty years ago. A
decision that, in fact, had not been Albert’s choice at