Chapter 62

SPOV

I woke up feeling relaxed if not a little bit sore remembering how Ranger had made me forget everything from the previous evening. The problem was that I was starting to feel nervous, which was silly really, but I think that it was because Ehsan was meeting with Calhoun this morning. I knew that Ranger was worried because this was the only way we could see to get to Calhoun and having to rely on a man we hardly knew wasn't sitting comfortably.

In my heart I was sure that we could trust Ehsan, but my head wasn't cooperating with that idea. I suppose it was because we'd have no idea what was being said and would have nothing to corroborate anything that Ehsan told us. For all we knew he could be leading us into a trap, a trap devised by the two of them together.

I opened my eyes at the sound of the door opening to see Ranger walk in, trying to be quiet as he walked toward the bathroom. He was wearing his gym gear and was covered in sweat and to be honest looked totally delectable as his muscles glistened in the pale light of the room. I was almost tempted to join him but decided that we probably had too much work to do to be side tracked this morning.

I knew that Ranger had a pile of Rangeman work to do and that Tank was busy looking at prospective applications for roles in the new structure. Me? I wanted to know the connection between Jari, Calhoun and Beth. I knew that maybe it didn't matter, seeing as two of them were dead, but in the back of my head maybe I also wanted to assure myself that Jari had nothing to do with Ehsan.

It also meant that I would keep myself busy in the building. There was no way that I was going to even think about venturing out or talking with people, not after yesterday. I hated to think what rumors were going around town. I chose to dress in my Rangeman uniform before heading to the kitchen and finding something for breakfast. The coffee was ready in the machine so maybe Ranger had done that before he went to shower. I was searching the fridge when I felt Ranger's hands on my hips and taking some yoghurt from the fridge turned into him.

"I didn't expect you to be up Babe"

"I was awake. Do you want some yoghurt and fruit?"

He shook his head as he picked up a smoothie from the counter and proceeded to start to drink it.

"No thanks, I need to get back downstairs and try to clear my desk. What are you planning?"

"I just want to tie up a few lose ends"

Deciding that maybe he didn't need to know what I was thinking. As he finished his drink, he kissed me, the taste of his smoothie in my mouth as he deepened the kiss. It didn't deter from pushing myself against him and feeling the heat rise through me. I'm sure I moaned as he pulled away.

"I have to go"

Was said in a husky voice assuring me that he was affected as well.

I decided that Ranger would need some peace and quiet if he was busy and probably wouldn't want me interrupting him as he worked in his office, so I ended up sat in the conference room with my laptop. It was probably better anyway because it meant that I'd have access to all the work that had been done. I eventually found some notes on Jari, hidden underneath some other papers. No doubt they'd been put there so that I wouldn't see them and get upset.

It was weird really how as I read the notes and looked at a photo of him that I had no feeling of panic or rushes of memories. I suppose I'd never really looked at him closely enough when I was being hurt, because my attention had been on Beth and Ehsan.

I looked at the board and the connections that we had found so far, so now on a piece of paper I wrote each name again and how they connected. Ferdinand had been the catalyst. He knew Calhoun from his earlier days and then Ehsan had rescued him. Beth had probably treated Ferdinand and introduced him to her brother. When Ehsan had reconnected with Ferdinand, they'd hatched their fraud scheme together. Calhoun had then contacted Ehsan after he was released from prison. That made me wonder what made Calhoun know to do that. Was it Beth or Ferdinand who had informed Calhoun of Ehsan's new skill set in the middle east?

From what I could remember of what Ehsan had told us it was Calhoun who had set it up so that he worked with Beth and Andrews. The search I'd done to find any links between Beth and Calhoun hadn't come up with anything, but maybe that was because Calhoun could sensor what was made available. Maybe Calhoun had needed counselling after the death of his family, and it had been Beth? No, she would have been too young after 9/11. I suppose that he could have met her when she was treating Ferdinand but that seemed too vague as an opportunity for them to get to know each other and looking at it logically, she would have been fresh out of university, so not equipped to treat someone as ill as Ferdinand.

I sat back and put my feet on the table as I tried to figure out another angle, trying to get a timeline into my head. The company Apollo had taken over the franchise of Devils Delight a year ago and for whatever reason I thought that was significant. I rooted through the files until I found the one on Beth Andrews. Ranger had done the search on her because I was scared that she would turn out to be Tasha. I'd never read what he'd discovered so knowing that she was dead and could no longer hurt me I started to read through her details. I knew that she was younger than her brother Alan but hadn't put her at being 37, I thought that she looked younger than that to me.

Of course, I immediately latched on to her parents. Her father had been in the army and her mother had been from Egypt. I spent some time on Google looking for instances when American troops might have been deployed to Egypt and I found a Congressional research paper headed "Instances of Use of United States Armed Forces Abroad, 1798-2020" I have to say I got a little side tracked with all of the support America gave to various countries but found what I was looking for.

On March 19, 1982, President Reagan reported the deployment of military personnel and equipment to participate in the Multinational Force and Observers in the Sinai. Participation had been authorized by the Multinational Force and Observers Resolution. I researched further and discovered that a peacekeeping force provided by the US called the Sinai Field Mission initially went to Sinai in 1979. They were there as part of the Egypt – Israeli peace treaty.

That would have tied into my theory but only if Beth and Alan's father had been part of the military personnel that was sent there. I went back to the files and found Alan's information and as I read it knew that I was right. Alan had been born in Egypt while Beth was born in America, how the hell had I missed that? Then as I thought about it, I deflated when I asked myself, did it really matter?

I suppose the language they had used was Arabic and Beth had probably learnt that through her mother. I looked at the information we had on Jari, which wasn't very much. And assumed by how it was written that it had been Fin who had put the report together. It seemed his parents had come into the country before Jari had been born. His father had died when he was young leaving his mother to juggle several jobs to look after Jari and an older brother. It seemed both boys had presented problems. Jari had become introvert, having few friends and not doing well at school. Whilst the brother got involved with the local gang and ended up in trouble. He was currently serving time for aggravated assault.

After their mother had died Jari stayed on in the small apartment, rarely going out and becoming very isolated and depressed. He'd found a chat room where the friendly voice of al-Qaeda was waiting. Jari's name had been identified by Homeland as they followed various chat sites and his involvement with what were seen as major participants had him being put onto the Homelands watch list. Jari was all talk, as far as they knew, and after a few years of keeping track of him they decided that he wasn't going to cause any trouble.

Yeah right, they did a good job in making that assessment. From memory Jari had seemed extreme in his behavior. He was the one who beat me up and then he executed Shane for the cause. I shuddered as I thought what might have happened to me had Ranger not found me. Going back to where I was with my reading the report had said that Jari was good with computers but not a major hacker. The files that were found on his laptop were mainly Islamic preaching and copies of news articles of successful attacks along with a copy of the video that Beth had made at the farm. There was also a file on Sarah Heap. That had me curious as to where he'd got that information from and I would have liked to have known how he got that. A file like that could have been sent by email.

At the end of the report Fin had included the passwords that he'd found hidden in Jari's apartment. It seemed Jari had five favorite words that he used and next to the passwords were the sites that he visited. I had no interest in those, but my eyes lit up when next to the password, khilāfah, was written email. Okay now to decide what his email address had been.

Gmail, Outlook and Yahoo were the ones that I'd come across the most. I opened the laptop and found the log in page for the three providers, having a page open for each and then started the arduous task of trying to guess what his email address would be. I started with the obviously his full name in small case along with the password. Repeating this on the three open pages. None of them worked so I added a full stop after his name and did the same.

I was onto my sixth attempt and to be honest was getting fed up now when looking at the notes that Fin had put together I noted the year that Jari's mother had died. Two attempts later I hit the jackpot with Gmail and was looking into his inbox. I wasn't surprised to see that it was empty but was surprised when I found the archive box to see that it was full. Jari may have known his way around a computer but either he was naïve of what went into the archive box or he didn't want to lose them.

My stomach growling told me loudly that it needed food and a look at the clock told me it was nearly 2pm. I was surprised, and a little disappointed, that Ranger hadn't been in and suggested lunch with him. I added the email address to the information from Fin and then made sure everything was tidied away. With printed copies of the emails that I'd printed I went in search of food. Of course, the fridge in the breakroom had nothing that particularly appealed and I admit I did look out of the window and lick my lips at the sight of the diner across the street. So I headed for the elevator, to where I knew I was certain to find something that I liked.

RPOV

Having spent most of the morning going through Rangeman business I actually felt that for the first time in a while I had just about got on top of it. I was planning on going upstairs for some lunch and to see what Steph had been up to but that plan was interrupted with a call from Tank asking for advice.

I'd been sat with Tank for over an hour looking through the applications that had come in from the men with regards to the positions that we'd sent out. I have to say that I was surprised yet pleased with what I had read.

"What do you think Ranger?"

"That you have some excellent candidates"

"I know that and for one of the positions the man I expected is the only one to apply so that makes life easy"

"You're worried about the top positions aren't you?"

"Yes"

"Okay, you have three applicants and three positions, so what's the problem?"

"I expected Ram to apply"

I could sense that Tank was disappointed but to be honest it was obvious that Ram wanted to do something different.

"I think his idea is excellent. To have a forensic department would be an excellent idea. The way he explains how he could pull in contract work would certainly move the company forward and from his projective income be very lucrative"

"I can see that. Hal though, I never expected him to apply"

"He's quiet. So am I. I think this would enable him to show exactly what he could do"

"Okay, maybe he is more detail orientated than I gave him credit for but would the men respect him, listen to him?"

"That's something that you have to nurture"

I saw the sigh escape from Tank as he realized what his role would be as the core member overseeing Trenton. Personally, I could see Hal in a position of authority, though to start with maybe as a deputy manager until he established himself.

"Slick has an excellent rapport with the men but maybe not strong enough yet to detach himself if he was to make an executive decision"

"So you think Miguel would make a good manager?"

"Yes. Don't you?"

I was actually pleased to see that Miguel had applied for one of the leadership roles. He'd worked in all of the areas of business that we handled so understood each area. He was actually savvy when it came to delegation and would often resolve conflicts that arose. His experience was maybe limited but then so were most of the men having come here straight from the army. I looked up as Tank took the papers from in front of me and placed them back into a file that was then locked up in the top drawer of his desk.

"I've got a couple of days to mull it over before the next deadline. Maybe you're right, but first I want to observe them"

"Don't make it too obvious Tank"

"Fine"

Now was definitely time to find Steph and grab a bite to eat, though I was sure that she had probably eaten already. Her appetite seemed to be back to normal, even though she was eating mainly healthy meals, she was enjoying her food again.

"I'm going to find Steph and see what she may have found"

"What was she looking for?"

"I'm not sure, she just said that she wanted to tie up some lose ends"

Leaving Tank's office, I went to the stairs and up to seven looking forward to some time with Steph. I knew that she was nervous about today, about what would happen with Ehsan and Calhoun and to be honest now that I was thinking about it so was I. I knew Ehsan had said he was meeting with Calhoun at 10am so that meeting should have finished by now. It was going to be a waiting game until he sent through any information.

Entering the apartment, I was surprised at how quiet it was and suspected straight away that Steph wasn't there. After looking in all of the rooms I thought maybe she'd gone to my office when I went to look for Tank.

Finding my office deserted I walked through to the monitoring room and to the screen that showed the internal cameras.

"Binkie, any idea where Steph is?"

"No, but I only came on duty 30 minutes ago"

I felt stupid for asking, for not knowing and then I remembered what she'd said, that I had to trust her. I'd not been in my office had she come to look for me, so I had to trust that she was somewhere in the building and hadn't gone out. I decided to check in the gym just in case she'd gone there and walked in to only a few men working out. Of course, Santos was just on his way out and had noticed me give the place a cursory look. As I turned to leave, he was following me and had obviously guessed what I might have been there for.

"You lost something Ranger?"

He asked with a smirk across his face, obvious that he knew exactly why I was looking in the gym.

"Last time I saw her she was with Ella. I was doing a stint on monitors"

I hadn't realized I'd been that obvious but didn't respond to him, instead I made for the stairwell and headed back up to the apartment. As I entered the apartment my phone sounded with an incoming email, so I looked quickly hoping it was from Ehsan. The address he had told me about showed in the inbox and opening it I also noticed that there was an attached audio file. The message simply said to listen to the file and then we would talk. I wanted to download the file onto my laptop first so going through to the office I did that straight away, very tempted to open it and listen to it there and then. I was very tempted to do it but knew that Steph would be annoyed with me. She had just as much invested in the outcome of Ehsan's meeting as I did.

As I closed down my laptop I was about to call down to Ella's apartment when the door opened, and Steph came in. She was smiling to herself as she put some papers down on the kitchen worktop and opened the fridge to get out a bottle of water. I watched her from the doorway and saw the minute that she knew I was there from the way her hand went to back of her neck.

"How long have you been here?"

"Not long. A message came through from Ehsan so I'd just downloaded it so that we could we listen to it"

That had her turning around quickly and looking at me

"You haven't read what he sent?"

"There was an audio file"

"Can we listen to it now?"

I stepped back into my office and brought my laptop through to the lounge noticing another bottle of water on the table. Opening the laptop and starting the audio file I sat back on the couch with my water and pulled Steph to me as I leant back.

I was just hoping that there wasn't going to be anything that would cause her to get upset. The sound of a car door closing was the first thing that we heard followed by what I presume was the clicking of the central locking system. Footsteps on gravel and maybe branches breaking.

"Where are they"

I wasn't too sure but knew it would have to be somewhere quiet and with no possibility of being seen or heard, yet with a clear view around them.

"Could be West Front Lawn of the U.S. Capitol or Rock Creek Cemetery, both are good places to meet without anyone eavesdropping"

I knew that Steph wouldn't have any idea of where I meant but I knew of these places quite well. The footsteps stopped and there was the rustle of clothing as Ehsan was sitting down. He was like me, he was waiting. Was he waiting for Calhoun to arrive or for Calhoun to start the conversation?

It was Calhoun's voice that came first, and it sounded as though he was sat very close to Ehsan.

"It didn't go as planned"

"I disagree, it went exactly as planned. You misjudged how the FBI would deal with the fallout"

"I suppose you're right. That man Crayson is keeping the whole damn thing close to his chest"

"What were you expecting?"

"That they received the video and experienced the explosion so why not put the two together and be screaming terrorist attack?"

"Maybe the distraction to attempt to steal millions of dollars of diamonds"

"That would never have happened if that Plum woman hadn't turned up"

I felt Steph stiffen next to me as Calhoun said that, did he really think that Steph could possibly be responsible for the way that Beth had behaved?

"From what I hear Beth deviated from the plan and jeopardized the whole thing"

There was a silence after Ehsan had said that making me wonder if Calhoun was thinking about what had been said.

"She'll have done that for a very good reason"

"Good or not it got her and Isaac killed. You should never have put so much trust in her"

"I trusted her, god damn it, she managed everything, the club and the people involved"

"Like that man Jari? He was a fucking liability"

"How was I supposed to know he'd be such an extremist. The report on him said he was low key, a loner looking for some sort of cause. We got what we needed"

"Those are always the most dangerous ones. You and Beth should have researched him better"

From what I was hearing it seemed that Calhoun had found Jari and then Beth had taken him on to play the part for the video.

"Isaac had it figured out right, it would have been perfect if it had worked. The Plum woman and half of those Rangemen in prison would have guaranteed Manoso came back into the fold"

"It didn't. Isaac was being optimistic as to how people would react. Anyway, it's over, so what now?"

This was what we were waiting for, somehow, we had to use whatever plan Calhoun thought up and turn it against him. I wasn't too sure that what we had on audio would stand up in a court of law plus I was very sure that Ehsan wouldn't want to be involved and be on the run from the authorities here.

"I want you to cause another explosion"

The fact that Ehsan was quiet mirrored my own thoughts. Was he mad, did he really think that he had the right to do that? He was looking at killing innocent people for what? To justify his own form of vendetta against terrorism.

"Where?"

"I want you to set off an explosion in that Rangeman building"

"Kill Manoso?"

"No. I'll arrange that he's not there"

"Then why?"

"From what I heard that woman never leaves the building. Set the scene. Make it look as though a terrorist cell is working out of there. I hear there are some people around there that see them as thugs and criminals"

"Where the hell did you hear that?"

"Beth was very good at collecting intel"

"Joe, he was always saying that about you. He must have told her that"

I nodded at Steph because I knew she was right. Morelli had even said it to me on occasion and I was sure he would have spread the rumor around as much as he could to do us damage. I focused back into the conversation that we were listening to as I heard Ehsan's voice.

"Then you'll know that I wouldn't have a chance of getting past the front door. That place is more secure than the White House"

"There has to be a way. I want Manoso back working for me and the only way to do that is to get rid of that woman. I have photos of her with Beth and Sophia. Her as a sleeper and some of those men as part of a cell is the ideal way to do it. You'll think of something"

"You know I have enough money and with the diamonds that Beth hid I could be out of here"

"You won't do that. You owe me, I tell you when you finish. You love the work I give you too much to quit now"

Clever, Ehsan had just got Calhoun to admit that he was the one that was ordering him to do the jobs that he did.

"Maybe. I have a better way of achieving what you want then"

"Go on"

"I'll provide you with an explosive device, one that uses a phone signal as a trigger. You'll be able to get into Rangeman to see Manoso, he'd probably show you around the place. Leave the device and when you know Manoso is out of the building then trigger the bomb"

There was quiet again as Calhoun thought through what Ehsan had suggested. It was risky, having Calhoun in the building, especially if Steph was here but if she was somewhere safe then maybe we could catch Calhoun red handed with the explosives.

"Same makeup as the one in New York?"

"Yes, they'd be able to identify the components as the same and would then assume it had been made by the same person"

"It could work, I could let lose some false chatter"

"Okay, I need a couple of days to make the device"

"What about those diamonds, you know they belong to me don't you?"

"I wasn't aware of that"

"Yes. Beth was going to keep some back for me, for my retirement fund"

"You'll never retire"

"I might do, in a few years when I was certain that those peace talks were seen for the sham that they are"

"You and Beth?"

There was no reply from Calhoun and what I wouldn't have given to be able to see his face when Ehsan had said that.

"I'll arrange to visit Rangeman the day after tomorrow. Does that give you enough time?"

"Where do you want the package delivered to?"

"Motel reception"

"Okay, it'll be in a locked case, so no one is tempted to look inside"

"The number to call?"

"False cover on the bottom"

I could hear footsteps and assumed that one of them was leaving at the sound of a car door I assumed that it had been Ehsan who had walked away from Calhoun. As the door closed the audio from the file came to an end, leaving me wondering how Ehsan would contact me and exactly what he was planning on happening now.

"Would he do it?"

"Who Babe?"

"Ehsan. Would he give Calhoun a bomb that would blow up in here?"

"I don't think so Babe. From what we learnt from that conversation Ehsan found out more information for us, but he also got himself a get out of jail card as well"

Steph sat forward and turned to me, her expression a mixture of emotions that even I couldn't work out.

"I got that Calhoun found Jari and that Beth was the one in charge. What did I miss?"

"That Calhoun gives the orders for the jobs that Ehsan does"

"So that means that Ehsan basically got Calhoun to admit that he sends him on clandestine jobs and even got Calhoun to say why"

"Yes. This audio could finish Calhoun's career"

But I don't think that it would stop him from coming after Steph. Yes he was obsessed with proliferating the missions to take out terrorist cells and for some stupid reason thought that I should be a part of that team, but it seemed that he may have been closer to Beth than any of us realized and he was blaming Steph for her death and the failure of their plan.

"I found a connection between Beth and Jari but I'm missing something, I'm missing the connection between her and Calhoun"

Steph thrust the papers that she'd brought into the apartment into my hands and was on her feet heading out of the apartment. If I didn't know better, I'd say that she was annoyed with herself.

Looking through the papers I saw that they were printouts of emails that had been sent from Tasha to Jari. I shook my head at how she'd used that name again, was that something that Steph could follow up on? I was sure she would have seen the use of that name and having heard what was said by Calhoun no doubt she would be determined to find the link.

I now had to think through what Ehsan had suggested to Calhoun. It seemed that Calhoun was prepared to go through with it but for some reason I was feeling very nervous about the whole thing. Was it that I didn't trust Ehsan, that he might actually try to plant a bomb here in Rangeman? That the bomb he made for Calhoun could actually explode or was it Calhoun? Did Calhoun trust Ehsan enough that the explosive he gave him would detonate?

This wasn't something that I would manage on my own, it needed to be done with the core team. They had as much to lose as I did if this went wrong, so I took my phone out and messaged for them to meet with me ASAP.