Chapter Two – Memories

Lee sighed as he used the phone in his apartment and called Amanda. Thankfully her Mother appeared to be in the room, so Lee simply told her that he would be away for a week or two and that he would call her when he returned. She sounded disappointed, but didn't complain. He then quickly packed his bags and headed for Dulles Airport. It wasn't the first time Lee had flown to Sri Lanka. Boy he hated this flight though. Spending at least 24 hours in a tiny airplane seat with little leg room was not his idea of a fun time. It didn't take long to check in and soon he was being boarded onto the plane. Billy had been kind and sprung for first class seats since it was a long flight. Lee was thankful for the extra leg room. He decided that he would have a few drinks to help pass the time.

In a matter of an hour, he had downed his third scotch and decided that he would try to get some sleep. It soon became clear that it was impossible to sleep since there were a few kids on the plane and it was just too loud. Soon he slipped into his memories of the last time he met up with the National Revolution Group (NRG). He had barely escaped with his life. If Ehsan Sharif had not helped him, he would not have escaped. He already owed Ehsan a lot. Would the man be willing to help him once again when it meant putting his own life on the line again? As Lee thought about Ehsan, the thought also crossed his mind that he might not even be alive. After all, it was a very dangerous environment that he was in. Sadly, there was a good chance Ehsan's luck had run out and he had been murdered.

It was about 4 years ago when Lee was sent in by the agency to infiltrate the NRG. The U.S. Government was worried about how quickly they had come to power. It was decided that they needed someone inside to find out how powerful they really were. The agency was contacted and Billy assigned Lee to the case.

Lee's cover was pretending to be a disgruntled American looking to take revenge on a Government who had caused the death of both his parents. His dad had been heavy into politics and was working on being elected to the Senate. His opponent was a very popular criminal attorney who was favored to win. The two were seen arguing in public quite often. When the lawyer's body suddenly turned up with several bullet holes in it, Lee's dad was immediately blamed for the death. He found himself arrested and thrown into a prison cell. The investigation was sloppily done and there wasn't any evidence that Lee's dad had actually killed the man. In fact, he had an airtight alibi, but it didn't matter because the Judge found him guilty anyway. The judge had been close friends to the lawyer and should have been removed from the case. It was obvious that nothing about the whole trial had been done legitimately. His mother could only watch as they railroaded the man she loved to prison for a crime he didn't commit. Three weeks later, the prison guards found Lee's dad in his bunk. He was dead with multiple stab wounds on his body. He had been still trying to prove his innocence and people had started to listen. Lee and his mother begged the Government to get involved. Even his dad's friends seemed to be a part of framing the man. No one would admit that they had punished the wrong man. In the end, his mother was so distraught that she hung herself in the garage one day. Lee found the body when he went to visit her. He swore revenge against all of those who contributed to his dad's death. It wasn't safe for him to stay in the United States though so he started looking for help in other countries. The NRG was recruiting young men and he jumped at the opportunity to learn their ways and possibly convince them later on to take up his fight for him. He fully intended to avenge his parents murder and this group seemed like his best bet to accomplish that goal.

The leaders of the group were excited to sign on someone who was so angry with the government. This man was the perfect recruit. They would channel that anger into making him a killing machine. They enlisted him in their training, boot camp, but like all new recruits, they watched him closely. Lee acted like he was a newbie for a few days and then slowly began improving his shooting, running and defense skills.

During that time Ehsan had been one of his instructors and he was really impressed with Lee's skills. He soon began showing him preferential treatment and even broke the rules and invited him to go into town with him when he went to the local bar. Lee began to gain Ehsan's trust. Lee soon realized that Ehsan was a good guy who had gotten involved with the group in hopes of changing the way Governments mistreated their citizens. Lee could sense that Ehsan was becoming less enthusiastic about the techniques they used. In private, Ehsan told Lee that he was against killing innocent people and it really upset him when children were hurt or killed. He confided in Lee that he felt that it was his duty in many ways to stay with the group just to keep them from harming innocent people. The leaders all seemed very fond of Ehsan and trusted him completely. They would usually listen to him if he demanded they pick a different target because too many civilians would be hurt.

It took a couple of months before Ehsan trusted Lee, but then he seemed to tell him almost everything. Lee soon began learning more about the group's background, other involvements and future planned activities. He told Lee that their original mission had been to join forces with other rebels against discriminatory and abusive Governments. They had wanted to help them gain freedom for the citizens of those countries. The NRG had been successful in a few small countries and soon the group's leaders decided it was time to move onto some of the larger countries. Ehsan confided in Lee that he was concerned that the group was losing their focus and becoming greedy. They were beginning to ask for money for this help. He feared that soon, the group would put themselves out to the highest bidder and become very dangerous.

The NRG had come to Sri Lanka because they knew that the Sinhalese people were treating the Tamil's horribly. They had kicked them out of any powerful positions while taking away all their rights and treating them like they didn't belong. They treated them like they were the sludge of the earth. The Tamil's were fighting back so NRG agreed to come help them. Since a lot of the group's men were Muslims, they had faced similar discrimination in other countries. They were eager to help in the fight.

At one point, Ehsan asked Lee if he was sure he wanted to be a part of this fight since he had nothing at stake in it. Lee assured him that this was the sort of thing he had come to help with. Lee was due to graduate from training boot camp in a week. After graduating, they could choose to send him anywhere so it was important that he stayed with Ehsan. During his training, Lee had been unable to get any kind of message to the agency. He desperately needed to contact them and relay all he had learned. Things were really heating up too, and soon Lee would be forced to be part of this war. That put him in a bad situation because he might be forced to kill people in order to not blow his cover. He needed to find out if Billy wanted him to stay or if they had enough information already so he could come home. Of course, this group had little regard for human life, so Lee was putting his life on the line and could be killed at any moment. As far as Lee was concerned, it was time to go home. Staying in Sri Lanka likely wouldn't gain them any more knowledge and would risk diplomatic relations with other countries if it was found out that Lee had been planted there. .

Since he was now considered Ehsan's underling, the other men mostly left him alone. He decided that the only choice he had was to sneak out that night and go to town where he could use a phone and get in contact with the agency. It meant taking a vehicle as the town was over 20 miles away. Ehsan had night guard duty that night so Lee waited until he was focused on something else and then slid into one of the jeeps. After hotwiring it, he slowly drove away into the night. After he was a quarter of a mile down the road, he turned on the headlights and raced to town. He walked into the bar where Ehsan had taken him many times and thought he would be safe since the staff recognized him. What he didn't know was that Ehsan's bosses did not trust Lee and had asked the town to keep an eye on him if he ever showed up there on his own.

Lee asked if he could use the phone and then called the number that allowed him access into the agency without having to pay. It was Francine that answered the phone that day. Lee found out that Billy was out so he told her some of the highlights of what he had found out. Lee then asked Francine to get the authorization for him to come home. He never noticed the man standing in the shadows that was listening to the phone call until it was too late. Suddenly Lee was hit full force in the face and fell to the floor. The last thing he remembered was being hit again in the nose.

When he awoke, he found himself with his hands tied behind his back and his nose and cheek hurting badly. As he looked around, he could see that there was a man standing there with a gun pointed at him. When the man realized that Lee was awake, he grunted and then opened the cabin door and yelled out to someone in Arabic. A few minutes later a man with a long scar that ran from his nose down to his cheekbone walked in and cautiously walked up to Lee.

In a thick dialect he said "Oh so you are awake. Do you want to tell us who you really are now?"

"I don't know what you are talking about. I'm Lee Steadman and I have been training to be a member of the NRG. Who are you?"

"I, Mr. Steadman, am the Commander of this organization and I don't believe you. I think you are a spy. A Spy that maybe was sent in by the Government of Sri Lanka? It would be in your best interest to confess."

"No Sir, I'm not a spy from the Sri Lanka Government. I am just an American who wanted to help your cause."

"So how do you explain the phone call that you made in town?"

Lee had been thinking about what he would say if the man who hit him had overheard the actual phone call. Lee answered "Okay, you got me. I'm actually a reporter who works for a film documentary company. I came here to check out what you folks are doing and to give you some good publicity. I was calling my boss and giving him some generic details so he could begin creating the film."

"I don't believe you. I'm having the phone line traced. My man heard most of the call but we want to know who you gave vital information to. I trust that your will is in order Mr. Steadman?"

Lee glared at the Commander but didn't say anything more.

"I'll be back once I find out who you really work for. Don't think you can escape because there will be a man posted right outside the door."

Everyone left Lee alone, but he could hear whispering just outside the door. It went on for a few minutes and then, suddenly, it was eerily quiet. It seemed like hours passed by and then Ehsan suddenly appeared in the room. He stood staring at Lee for a minute while seemingly lost in thought and then finally said "Lee, I had no idea you were an American Spy. You put yourself at a great risk to come here."

"Spy? What do you mean spy? I'm just a film documentary reporter."

"I'm not stupid Lee. I thought it was amazing that you learned everything I taught you so quickly. Now it all makes sense. There was always something about you that made me feel like I could trust you. That's why I told you more than I should have. You are in a lot of trouble right now though. You must realize that they plan to execute you in the morning, I'm sure?"

"Yeah I figured that out. You are one of them though so why do you care?"

"Well I have my own secrets."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that I'm also an Intelligence Operative. I was sent here from Italy."

"Wow, I didn't see that one." Lee said with the shock registering in his voice.

"Thankfully no one else has either. I managed to work my way pretty deeply into this organization. We are monitoring their movements and I'm trying to keep the causalities at a minimum. Unfortunately we can't shut them down as they would just start another group so my Agency decided that the best thing was for me to infiltrate the group and keep an eye on them. All those times that I told you I was going outside to smoke; I was checking in with my office. I actually don't smoke."

Lee was stunned at this newest development. He couldn't help but be in awe of the man that he now saw in a different light. "You had me fooled. You are really good at your job."

"Well you better hope so because I have to get you out of here without them suspecting it is me that helped you. Don't worry, I have a plan."

For the next 10 minutes, Ehsan told Lee how he planned to save him from sure death. He then wished him good luck as he placed a small jackknife into his hand and left. Lee hadn't seen him again or heard from him in all these years. He could only hope that he was still there.

TBC