Andrew Britton: The Operative

The hooded man crossed the room to the prisoner with two large strides, raising the scalpel and then sweeping it down the front of her skirt. The skirt came apart with a whispery shredding of fabric and dropped over her ankles, revealing her bare thighs underneath as he brought the blade up again to slit open her blouse. For a moment she stood, shackled, in her bra, panties, and the plain low sneakers. Another swipe of the blade sliced the bra in half, leaving her nude from the waist up, the limp remnants of her blouse hanging from her arms and wrists above the cuffs.

Bishop wasn’t sure who was more surprised by the act, the prisoner or a visibly horrified Javert.

The photos came next, a second man in black rapidly snapping pictures of the woman with the digital camera. Bishop caught himself looking at her tanned, nude flesh and guiltily lifted his gaze. When he did, she was staring back at him, her dark, bright eyes steady, burning into his own as they had on the tarmac. There was no trace of embarrassment or submission in her expression, nothing to indicate she was at all intimidated. Just her seething anger and steadfast eyes.

Bishop could tell she was thinking. Hard.

“What’s the need for this?” Javert asked, frowning unhappily.

Bishop was glad for the distraction. “Remember our agreement, Inspector? No talking.”

“Yes, but you go too far,” Javert replied.

“You think so?” Muloni cut in. “How would you ID her if you found her dismembered body in a Pakistani street?”

Javert’s mouth snapped shut, audibly.

“Okay, Inspector,” Muloni went on. “We’ll need her out of those arm and leg cuffs.”

Javert stepped forward. The man with the scalpel backed off to make room for him. The inspector bent and opened the ankle restraints, then straightened, slipped the key into the handcuff lock, and gave it a three-quarter turn. The manacles clicked open and came loose in his hands. He took two steps back, holding them with both hands.

The man with the scalpel nodded to his teammates. “Check her. Everywhere inside,” he said in Arabic.

Bishop recognized the words. He’d heard them in more rooms like this than he could remember. They were not really instructions, since his companions knew the drill. They were meant for Veil, designed to cut away her dignity the way the surgeon’s blade had slashed away her clothes. This repatriation unit of the Pakistani Quel Affada intelligence division had been active for twenty-four months, its members handpicked from Saddam Hussein’s disbanded Mukhabarat. Amnesty International and other human rights organizations insisted the infamous secret police were the wrong people to rehabilitate criminal Pakistanis operating abroad, but the FBI had gone ahead with the plan. Part of the QA charter was to prevent Baghdad from exporting terrorists and criminals. The threat of being turned over to a unit comprised of professional torturers was credited with helping to discourage black market operators and the export of terrorists.

For the masked men, the routine was familiar. For Bishop and Muloni, it was necessary. For Javert, it was a new experience, and as two of the masked men closed on her, he let his eyes drop.

That was when Veil struck. Her left hand shot out in a palm-heel strike. It connected with Javert’s chin, causing his teeth to clap shut on his tongue. Blood oozed from the sides of his mouth as he stumbled back, dropping the shackles. Veil remained in motion. As the nearest of the Pakistanis moved forward, she sidestepped him and made for the man with the scalpel. Her right hand formed a tiger claw and raked laterally across his eyes. He screamed, temporarily blinded. As Muloni stepped toward her, Veil was already pivoting and struck her in the gut with a perfectly executed backward kick. She reached for the blade in the blinded man’s hand.

Fists pounded on the door.

“Inspector? Is everything all right?”

Cosette’s cry went unanswered as Bishop and the other masked men rushed to form a tight circle around the prisoner. She ignored them, fighting with the Pakistani for the scalpel. Veil grabbed his wrist in an effort to twist it from his hand. Before she could successfully apply the wrenching kote gaeshi maneuver, Bishop grabbed her from behind, pulled her back, twisted, and threw himself atop her body, both of them facedown. He easily outweighed the killer, but she hadn’t relented and was thrashing wildly on the floor, arms and legs flailing, her gums peeled from her teeth, trying to turn and bite the hands pressing down on her shoulders.

“Somebody get the goddamn chains!” Bishop yelled.

Recovering from her blow, Muloni spotted the shackles on the floor. She grabbed the hand restraints. The key was still in the lock as she wrestled one of Veil’s wrists into the iron band and snapped it shut. Bishop moved slightly so Muloni could get to her other arm. After some fierce wrestling, the woman’s arms were once more immobilized. Breathing heavily, Bishop sat up, still on her back. Meanwhile, one of the Pakistanis had found the ankle restraints and was working to clamp them on while Muloni held down her legs.

Five of us, Bishop thought. Five of us to bring her under control.

Cosette was still pounding on the door. Muloni opened it, disdainfully pushed the bloodied Javert out, then closed and locked it behind him. He had wanted to see the examination, and he had. What he had missed, because he wasn’t looking for it, was the start of the breaking of a high-value prisoner, one who had killed energy officials and politicians the world over but would soon be asked to kill Iranian politicians and the sons of oil sheikhs. The struggle proved that the FBI was right about her: she’d be a hell of an asset. Soon she’d be conveyed into a purgatory inhabited by other malign ghosts like herself. Confined, interrogated, if she refused to work for the good guys instead of the Iranians and oil sheikhs who had trained and paid her, she’d be eliminated.

But Bishop didn’t think that would happen. No human being who operated solely as a mercenary would endure what lay in store when the option was simply to shift their loyalties. And they still had one more card to play.

Bishop was still kneeling over Veil when Muloni crouched beside them. The agent leaned close to the Pakistani woman.

“I have some information for you,” she said, snarling.

Veil tried to spit, and Muloni punched her in the nose. There was a loud, ugly crack.

“You’ll want to listen,” Muloni said.

“ Dozakh, ” she cried.

“ Jannat! ” Muloni hissed back with a wicked smile.

Addressing her in Urdu got Veil’s attention. Bishop could see the assassin’s shoulders relax slightly.

“You will want to hear the reason we brought you in here,” Muloni continued in English. “It involves your daughter, Kamilah.”

Veil’s eyes instantly lost their fire. It was the first time Bishop had seen anything get to her.

“What about her?” the assassin demanded in thinly accented English. “What have you done?”

“What have you done, ma’am? ” Muloni corrected her.

Veil stared at her. She didn’t spit. She didn’t struggle. She was already starting to understand. The American would tell her nothing and would hit her again, and again, until she did what she was told.

“What have you done, ma’am?” Veil asked.

“Nothing, yet,” Muloni said. “But we know where she is. We’re watching her.”

“No one knew,” Veil muttered.

“Akila did,” Muloni said.

The name drained the color from Veil’s face.

“If you want to keep her safe, you’ll do everything you’re told, starting now,” Muloni said. “You’re going back to Pakistan, where you’ll tell these boys everything you know. Names, contacts, safe houses, everything. The interview will be taped, a copy given to us. If we like what we hear, Kamilah will be fine.”