“He can take it up with Jesus Christ if he’s so inclined. You will not question my officers without my say so, unless you want me to put you in the brig. This meeting is ended. Good day to you, Colonel. I suggest you return to your cabin.”

  Hakim was still quivering with rage, but an order from the commander of a nuclear aircraft carrier was tantamount to an order from God. He turned on his heel and stalked out of the room. Alexander looked at Talley.

  “Now, Captain, tell me what happened to that UN guy.”

  “Yes, Sir. His name was Jamal Osman, and he was the UNHCR Commissioner for Somalia. He was in league with Barre and tried to warn him, so I had to kill him before he destroyed the mission.”

  Alexander nodded. “Yeah, that’s about that I thought. Captain Walker here was talking to me before you came in.”

  Cate smiled at him, and he inclined his head in thanks.

  “We have a further problem to wrestle with, Captain Talley. Captain Walker told me of your suspicion the Commissioner knew in advance you’d be coming. That means we have a leak, and it could be coming from the Abraham Lincoln. I don’t like the idea that one of my people is leaking information. Do you care to give me your thoughts on the subject? Do you have a name?”

  Talley looked at Cate, who grimaced, and turned back to the Admiral. “If the leak is from the carrier, it’s almost certainly from the NATFOR people. It has to be someone senior, someone with the means to communicate with the shore and with the Somalis.”

  “I realize that,” Alexander said in an irritated tone. “What I want to know is who has that capability? Who could communicate with the Somalis?”

  Talley shrugged. “It could be anyone with access to a satphone, so that would mean any of Echo Six or Delta Six.”

  “And there’s me, Captain Talley.”

  He looked across at Cate and nodded. “That’s true, Captain Walker, and of course, the man in charge, NATO and the UN’s man. Colonel Hakim.”

  “Another Muslim, I believe,” Domenico Rovere offered quietly.

  Alexander stared at him and turned back to look at Talley. He felt as if his eyes were being bored into by a surgeon’s drill. Domenico had broached the subject, and now it was out of the bottle it hung between them. None of them wanted to speak it out loud. The disease of Islamic fundamentalism that had ripped through the Western world, and turned people’s lives into turmoil, may have infected this ship. Usually, they ruined and destroyed the lives of their own people; Muslims who starved and suffered wars and famines so that the fanatics could wage their own wars. But sometimes, they managed to extend their reach higher, even into Western governments and the military.

  Talley inclined his head. “Okay, Domenico, he’s a Muslim.” He paused. “But I don’t see that it makes any difference. He’s a soldier.”

  “Don’t you?” Alexander snapped. “Well maybe I do, Captain. If you’re so sure of Hakim’s innocence, why did you ask Captain Walker to quietly check his signals for the mission?”

  Talley shrugged. “It wasn’t until Captain Walker appealed to you personally that we got the support we needed. It seemed strange, and I wanted to know the sequence of events.”

  “Yeah, let me know what you find when you’ve been through those signals, Captain. And I want you to check out his service record, personal records, financial records, everything. I’ll make sure you have the proper authorizations.”

  “Sir, I should clear it with the Colonel first, it is…”

  “Not on my ship, Son. You’re an officer in the US Navy, and on a naval warship. You bring it to me first, clear? I’ll decide when to bring in Colonel Hakim.”

  “Yes, Sir.”

  “Good.” He looked at Rovere and Welland. He spoke to the Brit first.

  “You’re the SAS guy, right?”

  “Yes, Sir.”

  “You got anything to add?”

  “It seemed odd, Colonel Hakim’s behavior, Sir.”

  “Yea, well, we’ll see. You could be right.” He looked at the Italian. “You, Lieutenant Rovere, you got anything to say?”

  Rovere looked somber. ‘The world is grown so bad, that wrens make prey where eagles dare not perch.”

  “You what?” Alexander looked annoyed.

  “It’s Shakespeare, Admiral. King Richard III. I meant to say we are inundated with problems from the minnows, when mighty forces such as your own are often unable to act. First, we had the pirate Joshua Nkebe, the UN High Commissioner Jamal Osman, and then General Barre. The terrorists are enjoying their moment in the sunshine, and their pinprick attacks cause damage and disruption out of all proportion to their size. The idea behind NATFOR was a good one; to go in and destroy these wrens, to go into places and take on the enemy where huge eagles like this carrier group cannot go. But something has clearly gone wrong, and it needs to be put right. If there is a traitor, they must be found and killed, before they damage us any more. Before any more good men are sent out to die.”

  Alexander stared at him for a whole minute. “You finished?”

  He smiled. “Yes, Admiral.”

  “Good. You’re Italian, right?”

  “Yes, Sir. A land of…”

  “Cut it, Lieutenant.”

  “Yes, Admiral.”

  “Right, here’s what we’re going to do. Captain Walker, you and Talley go through those signals and let me know what you find.”

  “Admiral?”

  He looked at Talley. “Yes?”

  “How do you know you can trust us? That we’re not the leak?”

  Alexander smiled. “That’s an easy one, Mister. You were there and almost got yourselves killed. The guy we’re looking for wouldn’t stick his neck out like that. Report to me when you find something, and by the way, you’re due to fly back to the States tomorrow. We’ll get you to the nearest airport. The guys in Washington want to hear everything directly from you. They’re obviously not happy about the way this NATFOR project panned out. Captain Walker, you’re to go to too. That’s all. Dismissed.”

  They saluted, and Talley left with Cate.

  “Where do you want to do this?” she asked. “I have everything on my laptop, and we should work somewhere private.”

  “My cabin?”

  She grinned. “Okay, but I remember the last time. We have to concentrate.”

  “Oh yeah, I intend to.”

  “Later!” she warned.

  They spent two hours checking through the signals Hakim had sent and received from the Abraham Lincoln, and came up blank. There was nothing to indicate that he’d done anything other than conduct the mission in a straightforward manner.

  “This isn’t the whole story,” Cate reminded him. “He could have a satphone stashed somewhere. I’d be surprised if he didn’t, for emergencies and so forth.”

  Talley nodded. “True, but there’s no way we can find out how he used it. And there’s no way of even knowing if he’s the leak. It could be someone else.”

  “Like who?” she crinkled up her eyes in puzzlement, and he felt like grabbing her there and then, and throwing her down to the bunk.

  “I don’t know. Look at this. The Colonel is pleading for air support, and the reply from Gul is very interesting. ‘These men have invaded the sovereign territory of Somalia; we must not exacerbate the situation by making further armed incursions. They must leave immediately, or the Somalis will take their revenge, like a bolt of fire tossed from the skies.’ That phrase, it’s the same one that Barre used just before he died.”

  “We should talk to Colonel Hakim,” she said promptly. “He’ll want to investigate. If this Ismail Gul is leaking info to the Somalis, he needs to be stopped.”

  “Not yet. We still don’t know that Hakim is in the clear. Supposing he’s tied in with Gul? I suggest we wait until we’re back in the States, and we can talk to our people over there. They must be pretty pissed at the way things were run over here. It was only Alexander pulling the fat from the fire by ignoring the UN mandate that saved us.”

  “NATFOR seems to be leaking worse than a sieve. It’s gone to hell in a hand basket.”

  “Yeah, that’s true, so far. But if anything, this mission has also shown the need for a multinational Spec-ops unit to undertake these kinds of clandestine missions. Besides, the US can’t keep acting on its own.”

  “That’s maybe true. I suggest we call a halt to this as we’re going nowhere. How about some R&R?”

  He looked at her face, and she was smiling in a way that suggested only one kind of recreational activity, and it wasn’t going to be too restful. He reached for her and began unbuttoning her immaculate dress whites. There were a lot of buttons, and by the time he was finished, and she stood naked before him. He was trembling with a fierce desire. She waited while he slipped out of his khakis, and then they held each other as they slowly dropped down to the bunk. He smelled again her rich musk, the scent of a desirable and aroused young woman. His mind cleared of everything, the mission, the problems that they still had to face, even the gaunt, gray interior of the Spartan cabin. There was only her. She was his whole world.

  “Fuck me, Talley,” she murmured. “Oh, God, fuck my brains out. I need this so much. Back there, I thought we were finished. Oh, wow!” she exclaimed as he obeyed and slipped his throbbing penis inside her. “Oh, that’s amazing. Don’t stop, not for anything.”

  “I don’t intend to,” he whispered in her ear.

  Chapter Eleven

  He watched the activity in the terminal at Sana’a airport, Republic of Yemen. His first impression was that the place stank. Literally stank, the usual Middle Eastern odor of spices mingled with sweat and other aviation kerosene, to form a nauseous mix that the air conditioning fought a losing battle to overcome. The place was heavily patrolled with armed troops, as if they were expecting a revolution at any time, which they were. President Ali Abdullah Saleh, elected following massive vote rigging, was doing his best to contain his opponents; normally by means of brutal force. Ranged against him were a number of Islamic fundamentalist groups, and the ever present threat of Al Qaeda. Somehow, he managed to cling to power, despite constant attempts to assassinate him. Talley had felt uncomfortable when he’d been informed by Hakim that he had arranged for Talley and Cate to transfer from the Abraham Lincoln by helo to Yemen, where there was both a military and a civilian airfield. They were to catch a scheduled Qatar Airways flight back to Washington, by way of one stop at Doha, the capital of Qatar. For some reason, the State Department weanies had decided it was the best and most economic route home for the two officers, and so they found themselves waiting in the stifling departure lounge. Cate sat next to him, swigging iced water from a bottle they’d bought in a machine. At least it was sealed and therefore sanitary. They’d decided to delay buying fresh food or drink until they boarded the aircraft. Qatar Airways had a reputation for hygiene and efficiency. Sana’a Airport did not.

  “It’ll feel good to get back to the US,” she said as she put down the bottle. “Why does everything in the Mid East stink?”

  He smiled. “Not everything does. But this place, Yemen, is pretty bad, the worst. It’s one of the poorest countries in the world, maybe the poorest. Their oil is running out, and corruption here is endemic. It has to be seen to be believed.”

  She nodded. They’d both smiled when the emigration officer had demanded a ‘departure tax’, twenty US dollars. It went straight into his pocket, of course.

  “It’ll sure be good to breathe some clean air. I feel like I want to puke.”

  “We’ll be okay when we board the aircraft.” He looked up. “Hey, we’ve got a gate, so they’ll be calling our flight. Time to get moving.”

  They got to their feet and moved toward the gate. They were both conscious of the hostile looks they received. Although nominally an ally of the US, not everyone in Yemen was in favor of the relationship. They queued to board the aircraft. After a half hour, the queue started to move, and Talley breathed a sigh of relief. The final checks for boarding passes and passports was right before the exit door; where they would walk out onto the tarmac and cross over to use the boarding stairs. He went through first and handed over his documents. The uniformed official, a sour-looking man with pockmarked skin and a nasty squint, flicked through them slowly, and then looked up at Talley.

  “You are Lieutenant Abraham Talley, United States Naval officer?”

  Talley sighed. “That’s what it says in my documents, yeah. But it’s Captain Talley now. There wasn’t time to update the passport details.”

  He looked even more sour. “Would you step to one side, Captain Talley. Wait here, we need to examine your documents further.”

  “What’s the deal? Everything is in order. My visa is stamped, and I have a valid passport and ticket.”

  He hadn’t meant to sound aggressive. It didn’t pay to in these backwater toilets, but it just came out that way. The man used his radio, and a few seconds later, a pair of soldiers approached. They carried shortened assault rifles, and he recognized the Russian made AKSU-74s, the shortened version of the AK-74 assault rifle. The familiar curved magazines carried thirty 5.45 millimeter rounds, more than enough to tear him into little pieces. The two gomers looked as if they’d just love for him to give them the excuse. Their expressions were colder than the ice he liked in his bourbon on a hot Saturday night in downtown San Diego.

  “You come with us!”

  “What for?”

  A third soldier walked up, more slowly. He was plump, and his uniform was covered in braid and medals; a Yemeni Army officer.

  “Captain Talley?”

  “Yes. What is it?”

  “You must go with these men. You are under arrest.”

  It all seemed to happen in slow motion. Cate had pushed forward, and she snapped at the officer.

  “What’s this all about? Arrest for what? It’s absurd. This man is a United States Naval officer. You can’t just arrest him.”

  The man smiled at her, ogling her beauty.

  Why do Arabs spend so much time decrying their women looking good, yet appreciate a good-looking girl when she happens along? But then again, there’s little enough female beauty in the grim land of Yemen. That’s for sure.

  “But I can. I have all the authority I need to make the arrest.”

  Talley moved in front of her. The last thing he wanted was for Cate to be involved.

  “Which laws have I broken? I haven’t even set foot outside the terminal. We’re en-route for Washington DC, by way of Doha.”

  “You have not broken our laws, Captain Talley. But we have an arrest warrant from the United Nations. It is for the murder of one of their officials, the High Commissioner in Mogadishu. You are to be deported to Somalia to face trial.”

  Cate pushed past him again. “This is preposterous! You are not to dare to arrest this officer. I shall contact our Embassy and believe me, buster, you’ll be in a shitload of trouble if you lay a finger on him.”

  The man glared at her. “Are you trying to interfere with the arrest of a wanted man? I can have you arrested too, and I assure you our jails are not comfortable, not comfortable at all. Either you get out of the way, or you’ll be taken into custody.”

  “Cate!” Talley said to her urgently. “Leave it alone. You know who to contact when the flight lands in Doha. We’ll sort this out. It’s just a misunderstanding.”

  “Damn right it is. Take care, Talley, but I’m not leaving here. I’m going to the Embassy and sort this out, right now.”

  “Cate, no! Get out of here, and travel to Doha. You’ll be able to pull strings there that are impossible here. You have to get on that plane and leave Yemen before they trump up another charge, and you land up in a cell.”

  She finally nodded. “Okay, Talley. I’ll get things moving as soon as I board the plane. I can use my cellphone before we take off. When we land in Doha, you can be sure I’ll be on to the Embassy and the Pentagon in Washington. You can take it from me; these people will have to let you go. I’ll make the fucking earth move!”

  He smiled at her language. The officials looked horrified that an inferior woman dared to use bad language in front of them.

  Well, fuck ‘em.

  The whole country was nothing more than a heap of camel shit, despised by the world, yet they had to play along so he could get out. She allowed herself to be pushed forward by the queue, and he watched through the door to see her boarding the aircraft by the stairs. She waved once just before she disappeared into the cabin.

  “Captain Talley, you are to come with us.”

  He nodded and followed the officer. The two goons with the assault rifles followed behind. He’d no doubt they’d shoot him down like a dog if he tried to dodge away. Not that he intended to. It would all be sorted out, once Cate had contacted the Navy.

  They led him out of the departure terminal and through the exit where a military jeep waited, another piece of Russian equipment, a UAZ 469. It looked as if it had gone around Africa twice and had the bumps and dents to show for it. They drove through the suburbs and into the center of the city. Everywhere, he could see the rubble and devastation of a city divided by civil war and frequent armed uprisings. Women in black walked everywhere, carrying packages, often with small children in tow. Men lounged outside cafes and bars on the street, talking, smoking their pipes, and generally doing nothing other than cleaning the guns they all appeared to own. He grimaced. It was like a bad dream, countless Muslim’s with guns. But here it was no dream.

  Why don’t these guys find something to do, instead of tinkering with their assault rifles? There sure is no shortage of work needed to be done to tidy the place up.

  Then they reached their destination, and he faced the sober reality of what lay in store for him. A grim, gray stone building surrounded by a barbed wire fence, and a watchtower manned by a grim-faced guard with a machine gun. They drove inside. Talley was pulled out of the SUV, hustled along a long passageway, and through a steel door. He felt a hand push him from behind, and despite trying to keep his balance, he fell forward and onto the rough concrete floor. He heard the door clang shut behind him. He was imprisoned in Yemen; a state with a reputation for cruelty like no other.