Foreign Influence_ A Thriller - Brad Thor [144]
“Until we get confirmation on who you are, you’re not going anywhere. Why was there a camera in Nasiri’s apartment?”
“So I could have an excuse to get away from Jarrah. I wanted him to think I was going to detonate the vests on the hostages myself. If I could get away from him, then I could try to stop the shooters.”
“Why not call the cops? Why go to all this trouble?”
“Because this isn’t the end of it. There’s somebody else above Jarrah, a man named Aleem.”
“Aazim Aleem?” Harvath replied.
“That’s him. The guy with the hooks. Jarrah told me that he has networks in at least two other cities. Supposedly, he’s already left for Los Angeles and I was supposed to coordinate an attack in New York. But—” Rashid’s voice trailed off.
“But what?”
“I think he was lying to me.”
“About what?” asked Harvath. “The location of the attacks or the fact that you were supposed to coordinate the one in New York?”
“I don’t know. That’s why I wanted Jarrah alive. He was the only one who knew how to get to Aleem.”
Harvath pressed him with more questions. “Why’d you torture those cops?”
“You’re wasting time,” said Chase.
“Answer me.”
“For fuck’s sake. I’m the only reason they’re still alive. Jarrah wanted to kill them.”
“But you shot one of them.”
“It was clean. Through and through. If I’d wanted to kill him, trust me, he’d be dead.”
Harvath was about to ask another question when Cooper hailed him over the radio and told him someone at Langley wanted to talk to him.
CHAPTER 73
After Harvath had spoken to Kip Houghton, he hung up and called Reed Carlton, who contacted Bruce Selleck, director of the National Clandestine Service at CIA. Once they had both vouched for Chase and his deep-cover operation, Harvath had been instructed to remove his restraints and allow him to come along.
Chase was part of a small contingent of faux John Walker Lindhs whom the Agency had recruited from various walks of life, trained, and then set adrift in a handful of madrassas across the Islamic world hoping that they might get picked up by al-Qaeda. Several of them had, but no one had gotten as far as Sean Chase.
Trained to operate completely on his own, Chase went for long stretches without contact. The assignment and his cover always came first. His handler was used to the irregularity with which he reported in. But as well as the operation had worked, everyone was now extremely concerned that maybe they had let this go too far and that more innocent people were going to die.
Over two hours had passed and Harvath was developing a very bad feeling as Casey’s voice came over his earpiece. “Negative,” she replied to his request for a sitrep. “There’s no sign of any of them. We’re still all clear at the InterContinental.”
Across the street at the Marriott hotel, Harvath looked at Chase. “According to your timetable, they should have been here by now.”
“I don’t know where the hell they are.”
“You’re positive these were the hotels?”
“Yes,” replied the CIA operative, who was equally frustrated.
“I’m getting ready to pack it in,” said Harvath.
“I know. They should have been here by now. Give it a few more minutes. They’ll come.”
“I don’t think so.”
If the truth be told, Chase didn’t know what to think either. But why would Marwan have brought him here? What was the point?
The last words the man uttered to him were that he had lied. Was this what he had lied about? It didn’t make any sense. Marwan had six shooters. Minus the two Chase had shot in the basement of the store, there were four left, two of whom had been wounded by Levy’s shotgun blast. Where were they? If the hotels weren’t their target, what was?
All of a sudden, it hit him. “The train station! That’s the target.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I know him. He wanted this to be a dramatic attack. That’s why all the bombers were supposed to detonate in the Loop, the city’s central business district. Look at this lobby. It’s half-empty. Where are you going to get the highest body count first