Chapter 11
Back with another update. Thank you for all the support and welcome to the new readers. I have so much going through my mind of how to write and I hope it comes across good in words. Writing makes me wonder what all these professional writers go through and props to them for somehow organizing their thoughts. Although I will say story wise it can depend lol. This story is going off that deleted scene from Alana's wake with Jason and Mandy in the car. Mandy talked about her mother being a criminal so I'm playing off that. In my mind that scene happened. Enjoy!
Mandy had been interrogating al-Hazred junior for a few hours at this point. She hadn't made too much progress either. The guy didn't flinch when she tried to probe his mind and get any kind of reaction. He just had this cold look set.
"Must have been hard growing up without family," Mandy started a new tactic. "Your father was a terrorist. What do you remember about him?"
It was small but she saw a change in his eyes and a slight shift in body language when talking about his family.
"I mean I pretty much had to raise myself. My mother wasn't a good person. She wasn't a terrorist but she was con-artist. A damn good one too," Mandy said with twisted smile.
Lisa was in the observation room listening to Mandy. Despite working with Mandy for so long and seeing her outside the job, Lisa realized she didn't know much about Mandy's personal life. Mandy never talked about having a family or anyone waiting for her back home. Granted, Lisa had her own family issues she didn't talk about as well.
"Tahara is my family," al-Hazred responded as Lisa's eyes widened seeing how he finally had spoken.
"Is that so? Or did they take advantage of a young boy who just lost his father and used you to build their next network?" Mandy said. "They saw something in you that would serve their purpose. You can't change the family you're born into."
"No, but you can choose the family you surround yourself with. Isn't that right agent," al-Hazred said.
Mandy paused and regarded him. There was that look again. It was like he was looking right into her soul and knew her deepest secrets.
"I suppose you're right. Then it wouldn't matter if we round up your mother and siblings and any other relative we could find, right? See what they have to say about you," Mandy replied and watched as his hands clenched.
"And what would yours say about you," al-Hazred asked with a knowing look that shook Mandy deep within her.
"I'm not the terrorist here. I'm not killing innocent lives. Like I said, it's just me," Mandy said with as much confidence as she could.
"If you say so," al-Hazred said.
Mandy was rattled again and figured it was now late in the afternoon. She didn't have lunch yet and figured it was time for a break.
"Well, I think it's time we give you something to eat. Wouldn't want you to starve to death," Mandy said as she got up to leave the room.
"Nice talking to you," al-Hazred said when she reached the door.
"Oh, we're not done yet," Mandy replied back and walked out the door.
As soon as the door closed Mandy leaned against the nearest wall trying to calm herself down. She closed her eyes and took a couple deep breaths before hearing footsteps come towards her. She got personal while in there. Hopefully, she didn't screw it up by doing so. She couldn't quite explain how she got so personal in there. It hadn't happened before.
"Hey, you okay? Seems like it got personal in there," Lisa said next her.
"Yeah, I'm good. I was just making it up in there. Saw he had a reaction when mentioning his family," Mandy replied with fake reassuring smile.
Lisa looked at Mandy before replying, "You sure? Didn't seem fake to me."
"Just toeing the lines of truths and lies," Mandy said.
"If you want to talk," Lisa began saying.
"No, I'm good. Maybe another time," Mandy said. "We should go eat some lunch too."
Lisa nodded her head and started walking with Mandy to go grab something to eat. Just before they left the building, they ran into Reiss.
"Hey, get anything," Reiss asked both of them.
"Not much but Mandy got him to talk about family. It's a start. We're just going to grab something to eat before Mandy goes back in," Lisa replied.
Reiss nodded his head. "Good idea," he said.
"Want to join us?" Lisa asked.
In Mandy's mind she really didn't want to be around Reiss. He'd been acting on edge recently. Since Samin died she went through his other interrogations and noticed he was sloppy. His ego overshadowed his results and Samin wasn't the only asset they had recently lost. How could anyone be that sloppy, Mandy wondered?
"Nah, I'm good. I have some things to follow up on," Reiss replied.
"Okay, see you later then," Lisa said.
Reiss nodded his head and walked off. Mandy watched as he pulled out his phone and started typing quickly something. For a brief moment, Mandy observed a moment of stress or conflict on his face before he disappeared around the corner.
Mandy and Lisa had continued on their way to the dining hall. Once entering, Lisa made her way to one of the lines to get some food. Mandy was hungry but at the same time wasn't sure if she could eat anything as well. She looked around the hall and saw Bravo team sitting at one of the tables. Almost as if he knew she were there, Jason looked up to see her with a small smile. Mandy made her way over to the table.
"Well if it isn't Ms. Ellis. Is he singing like a canary?" Sonny said announcing her presence.
"Not quite but I think I can get there," Mandy sighed as she sat across from Jason.
"Well if anyone can make him talk, it'd be you," Ray said.
"We'll see about that," Mandy muttered but Jason heard it. Jason looked at Mandy and saw once again she was rattled even more so than before.
"Everything good," Jason asked. The rest of the team could tell that Jason picked up on something but chose not to make a big deal about it and let him handle it.
"When you guys went after his father, what was the intel on his family," Mandy asked as she reached over to Jason's tray and picked up the half sandwich he didn't seem to be eating.
"What do you mean," Jason asked as Lisa came and sat down next to Mandy.
"When you guys raided the house did you find anyone else?" Mandy asked looking at Jason. A silent message asking if anyone other than al-Hazred junior was there, since she knew he never really mentioned his encounter with junior to others.
"Now that I think about it, no we didn't really encounter much of the rest of the family," Ray responded.
"Yeah, I remember going in and clearing the building. Sure we came into contact with other members of the group but we didn't see the wife or any other close relatives," Jason added in. "He say something about it?"
"Just-," Mandy started saying trying to figure out in her mind what to say. "We talked about family. On one hand he says that Tahara is family but I mention his mother and he reacts. I even talked about siblings as a wild guess and he shifts his body language when I mention scooping them up."
"Meaning his family is still out there," Lisa said. "You think maybe they're in on Tahara?"
"No idea but we should probably look into them to see if we know their whereabouts," Mandy replied.
"I'll get on that," Lisa replied.
Mandy sighed and decided she'd had enough of a break. "I'm going write down some notes and continue talking to him. You work the family angle and see how far we get," Mandy said getting up from the table.
"Sounds good," Lisa said.
"That all you going to eat," Jason asked Mandy with raised eyebrows. "Take these," he said giving her some of the snacks he had on his tray. Mandy chose and couple and said thanks and left the dining hall.
"Everything good, Davis?" Jason asked Lisa once Mandy was gone.
"Honestly, I'm not sure," Lisa replied with a sigh as the rest of Bravo tuned in to listen to the conversation Jason was having with her. "Seems like things got personal during the interrogation."
"Personal, how?" Ray asked.
"You know anything about her family?" Lisa asked.
"Now that I think about it, no. I don't know much about her personally at all," Clay said looking at the rest of Bravo who all shook their head in agreement.
However, everyone noticed that Jason hadn't agreed and was sitting there frozen with a concerned look.
"Mandy got personal during the interrogation?" Jason asked Lisa.
"Seemed like it to me. She played it off like she was lying though," Lisa answered.
"I remember last time when I translated she pretended she knew what it was like to have a mother in law," Clay said.
"Yeah, well this was different. She talked about her mother," Lisa said.
"Mandy brought up her mother?" Jason asked with concern.
"So you know then," Lisa concluded.
"Know what?" Sonny asked.
Lisa looked at Jason not sure what to do. It wasn't their story to tell so Jason took the lead.
"Look, it's not our story to tell but the cliff notes version is her mother was a criminal," Jason said hoping they'd leave it at that.
"Criminal? Like how serious?" Trent asked.
"Let's just say she was a part of white collar crime. That's all I'm going to say. Like I said, it's not our story to tell," Jason replied. "What happened in that interrogation?"
"Mandy started out saying it must have been hard growing up without family. She tied it to both of them having criminals for parents. She didn't say anything about her dad though, just talked about her mother."
Jason knew why she didn't talk about her father and that was because she didn't know what victim of her mother's was her father. "He was never in the picture. What else happened?"
"They went back and forth about the family you're born into and the one you choose. At one point it was like al-Hazred turned the interrogation onto her. The way those two looked at each other like they both new each other's truth was scary," Lisa said while shaking her shoulders like she just had the chills.
Bravo seemed to sit up a little straighter hearing how close this seemed to be hitting Mandy. No one on the team could re-call a time Mandy wasn't standing tall and in command. The fact that Lisa could see the game being played between the two put them on alert.
"Should we be concerned?" Brock asked looking towards Jason.
"I'm sure it'll be okay. She has to have a plan. Just keep an eye on her Davis and let me know if anything else progresses," Jason said trying to keep the team calm and believe his own words.
"Goes without saying," Lisa said as she finished lunch and got up to head back to the interrogation and keep an eye on Mandy.
The team looked at Jason like they were waiting for orders on how to handle the situation. They were ready to protect Mandy at whatever cost like she had done for them many times.
"Stand down guys, I'm sure it'll work out. Mandy's just been a little stressed and she normally likes to have the first crack at interrogating the bad guy. She knows what she's doing and if she needs help, we'll step in," Jason said looking at them.
"You bet your ass we'll step in," Full Metal said. "Still want to punch Reiss."
The rest of Bravo laughed at his remark and Jason hoped it'd all work out. He'd give her some time to get her thoughts together and check on her later that evening.