"We're sending you to Libya, the son of an oil executive who is inspecting drilling operations for Mobil out there, you're part of his cover nothing more."
"What kind of an executive takes his son to Libya with him?"
"They all do it, it's a means of ensuring succession."
"Yeah but I'm only fifteen…"
"The earlier the better."
He already knew he wouldn't squirm out of this mission very easily, he'd just finished his exams and there was no school to miss now till September.
"So what am I keeping a look out for?"
"Nothing, you're just his cover."
"So you're telling me sod all about it."
If she was shocked amused or felt anything at all about the way he'd just spoken she didn't show it. "It's better that way."
It was itching to jump out of his mouth, right on the edge of his lips. He could tell them that Yassen was alive, that he was likely to be in Libya also. He could but he didn't.
The agent was cold, professional. He barely spoke to him which he supposed was part of his cover; rich oil executives probably had little time for their sons. He spent most of the first day in the man's shadow listening to his conversations with a practiced astute look on his face, in reality it was all he could do to keep the latest conversation in his head in case he was asked about it by anyone. Mostly the agent talked to drilling inspectors about their facilities deep in the Libyan desert and when he wasn't doing that he was talking to other executives. His cover name was William Hastings, his real one unknown. That night however, he slipped out of their shared room via the window and didn't return till early morning.
"Were you caught?" Alex asked.
"No."
He turned over and tried to get some sleep.
Two days worth of talk over they travelled from Benghazi to Tripoli in a jeep; the road was too bumpy for anything other vehicle to make it. Even so the jeep's suspension seemed shot to pieces and it was a jarring ride that reminded him of the back of a mog during his SAS training. He planted his feet on the floor and leant his elbows on his knees to create his own suspension for his head. It was nearly a day's drive on the dust road and he almost nodded off as they bumped along staring out the window occasionally and wondering where exactly Yassen might be in this vast dry country. Not that he wanted to run into him, in fact he'd avoid it if possible after the way he'd touched him in Taiwan. He didn't want to think about the implications of the assassin's words that night, not if he could avoid it, they made him feel distinctly uncomfortable and left him with a weird feeling deep inside not dissimilar to nausea.
Tripoli looked strange as they approached it, some strang mix of medieval and modern with its city walls still mostly intact hemming in the inhabitants. There was a checkpoint at the city gates and they were stopped, their passports were double checked and then they were waved over to a waiting area while the officer in charge went through a door in the city's high walls to make a phone call.
People passed by them in both directions on camels or in vehicles and their driver looked nervous, tapping his fingers against the wheel as their area was patrolled by armed guards. Alex looked to the other agent and swallowed eyes narrowing, considering escape opportunities. They were surrounded by armed guards but if he could find something heavy and…
They were waved through.
"Something's wrong." Alex breathed to himself as they entered the city but it was all too late as the checkpoint closed behind them and he felt… What was it that Yassen had said? In so much fear one man can easily disappear. He felt it - the fear - it haunted the darting glances of the women in their burkas as they hurried their children along and was expressed in the thin streams of smoke breathed out by the men, as if the anxiety of everyday life had withered the potency of the tobacco's ability to sooth the nerves. Alex had a sickening feeling that if one man could easily disappear in this country then one man and a boy could just as easily enter and never be seen again.
"They knew at the gate."
"They didn't."
"They knew."
"Then why did they let us in?"
It was the most he'd spoken to Alex since they'd arrived, and he looked scared. He was pacing the hotel room while the younger of the two sat on the bed trying to get rid of the knot in his stomach.
"Because now we're trapped."
The agent froze in the act of taking a step as someone banged on the door. Alex briefly looked around the room but agreed with his earlier assessment of it's escape routes. Nil; window too small and barred with a mesh, no secondary door.
"Housekeeping!"
The two of them just looked at it for a few seconds willing footsteps to continue down the hall and then as someone started kicking it the other agent turned to him.
"What do they do to you here?" Alex asked voice even.
The agent stared at him. "God, you're just a kid."
He just stood there looking at him, eyes filled with guilt as the door was battered off its hinges and the room filled with trigger happy soldiers.