Chapter 27
Gibbs didn't feel particularly comfortable as he walked into CIA headquarters with Levi. He hadn't been to the CIA in years, and while he'd worked with CIA agents, he himself hadn't come here. He was surprised at how much discomfort he felt. However, he didn't say a word, letting Levi do all the talking and forcing himself to match Levi's slow pace.
...and think about the fact that he'd actually suggested that Levi call him by his given name. He wasn't sure where that had come from, but it had felt strangely normal to suggest it, and it made Levi's tacit suggestion that they were genuinely working together easier to accept.
They were admitted to Roy's office and he looked at them both in surprise and then in resignation.
"You're both here about Agent McGee," he said.
"Yes, but not to ask questions necessarily," Levi said.
"What questions are you proposing to answer?"
"Tim and his family are in Saudi Arabia," Levi said bluntly.
"And just how did you find out that little tidbit?"
"Tim called," Gibbs said.
"You've been in contact with him and never told anyone? You could have saved us a lot of time," Roy said.
"Periodic contact and he was actively on the run so he couldn't give a location the first time," Levi said. "And this is only the second time he's called us...and we're here telling you."
"All right, granted," Roy said. "Where in Saudi Arabia? Or is that where I come in?"
"That's where you come in," Gibbs said.
"Ah."
"We believe he's headed for the Empty Quarter."
"Why would he go there, even on the run?"
"We think the bedouins are helping him."
"Why would they do that?"
"Because Tim has a personal connection to them. Why did they know? That we can't say."
"Any way that we can narrow the area we'd be searching down a little bit?"
"Well, we know that they were on the run out of Cairo."
"Unfortunately, we don't have any satellites that were looking at that area when this happened. We can't track in on them that way. Do you know how many are with them?"
"Them being Tim's family?" Levi asked.
"Yes."
"Two others," Gibbs said. "Maybe more, but we're figuring two."
"A group of six heading for the Empty Quarter. Al-Hurram?"
"Yes."
Roy sighed. "That's so much area to search without any way to narrow it down. Have you tried the NSA?"
"I don't know the director anymore," Levi said.
"And I don't know just how much work Agent McGee was doing for them since Gellman retired. Still, while he's not Gellman, Director Liu has been pretty circumspect. He hasn't said much."
"That's not necessarily good or bad," Levi said.
"True, but I'd be willing to go to him at least to feel him out and see what he might be willing to do."
"Will you do that?" Gibbs asked.
Roy raised both eyebrows and was silent for a moment, looking at both Levi and Gibbs. It was almost as if he was waiting for a punchline to a joke that just wasn't coming. Then, not taking his eyes off of them, he picked up his phone.
"Marjean, could you call the NSA and ask if Director Liu is available? If not, say that it's urgent and make an appointment at his earliest convenience. Thank you."
Then, he hung up the phone.
"Now, we wait. Are you going to wait here?"
"Until we know if a meeting is forthcoming," Levi said.
"All right."
There was a period of silence. Then, the phone rang. Roy answered.
"Yes, Marjean?"
He listened for a few seconds.
"Very well. Thank you."
He hung up.
"Director Liu is unavailable until after six p.m. We'll start looking now and see if we can get a lucky hit, and when it's possible, I'll ask the NSA what help they can give. I hope you're not planning on sitting in my office until then."
Levi smiled slightly.
"No, but I expect an update when it's possible to give it."
Roy returned the smile.
"Given the situation and the fact that you're the only one who has been in direct contact with Agent McGee, I'll do that."
"Good."
Levi stood and Gibbs followed suit. Levi shook Roy's hand and then left.
"You think he'll really call?" Gibbs asked as they headed for the exit.
"Yes. If only because, as he said, we're actually in contact with Tim. That makes it vital that we're on his side. So for now, I'd like to head back home."
Gibbs nodded and they walked to the car.
And Gibbs was surprised to realize that he didn't mind working with Levi at all.
x.x.x.x.x.x.x
The truck jolted to a stop and Tim came awake, instantly tense.
"What's going on?" he asked, blearily.
"End of the road, I think," Omar said.
"What?"
Zahara was also waking up and she sat up, rubbing her eyes.
"Ayn nahna?" she asked, yawning.
"The desert," Omar said. "I think we're about to get out of the truck and head off into the desert."
Then, Suhayl appeared at the back of the truck.
"It is time to leave. I apologize that we will have to walk for some distance, but it is necessary."
"We can manage," Tim said, although he could feel an ache in his feet that said he would not be managing well for long. Still, he didn't want to wake their children up to make them walk and he wasn't going to make Zahara carry Salma. She had enough to deal with. He could deal with the pain. He'd had worse.
Omar grabbed their bags while Tim and Sahara carried their sleeping children out of the truck. Tim looked around. It was the desert. Dark and foreboding as far as he was concerned. He didn't like being back in this desert. It brought back some of the most horrific memories he had. As he stood there, feeling worse and worse, Zahara spared a hand to brush her fingers over the scars around his eyes.
"We are all right, Tim," she said, softly.
"I don't know if I can believe that," he whispered. "Not out here. Too many memories."
Then, it was time to walk again. They left the road and the old truck lumbered away. What Tim saw, even in the dark, was sand dunes. He was not looking forward to having to climb these dunes.
For the first hour, he walked without complaint as they climbed up one dune and down another. There was no wind blowing the sand around this time. In fact, the night was very still. It was relatively cool and the stars sparkled overhead although Tim didn't notice them much. As easy as climbing on sand could be, it was. However, Tim was feeling the pain more and more in his feet after all the walking they'd had to do already, plus the increased weight of his sleeping daughter. Considering this was the same place where the initial damage to his feet had been inflicted, he wasn't feeling the greatest either physically or mentally. The only reason no one noticed was because it was dark. No one could see him wince as he walked.
Then, as they were walking down yet another dune, Tim stepped wrong. The sand gave way unexpectedly and he staggered, putting more weight on his foot than before as he tried to keep himself from tumbling down the dune and dropping Salma. The added strain was too much for his already-aching feet and he couldn't hold back a groan of pain as he fell to his knees, while trying not to disturb his sleeping daughter. Amazingly, Salma didn't wake, but Tim's foot was now throbbing and he couldn't make himself get up.
In a moment, Zahara was there beside him, still holding Jonathan.
"Tim, what's wrong?" she asked, softly.
"I'm okay," he whispered, but his voice was shaky and he knew it was obvious he was lying.
Suhayl and Omar came and joined them.
"What is it?" Suhayl asked.
"I'm okay," Tim said again. "Just give me a minute."
"For what?" Omar asked.
"It was a bad step. I'm okay," Tim said yet again.
Suhayl knelt in front of him.
"Your feet are hurting you," he said.
It wasn't a question, and while Tim wanted to dissemble, he couldn't with Suhayl there. Suhayl did not accept dissembling. He nodded.
"You should have spoken sooner," he said seriously. "I will carry your daughter."
"I'll be okay," Tim said. "Just give me a minute. It was a bad step, that's all."
"Repeating the same lies will not make them true. You are feeling pain and the extra load is making it worse. I will carry your daughter as we walk. It is not much further."
Tim noticed that Suhayl wasn't going to physically force him to hand Salma over, but he didn't have much patience for this kind of thing either.
"You will slow us down more by insisting on doing something you can no longer do," Suhayl said, sternly.
Finally, Tim nodded and gently passed Salma over to Suhayl who held her with equal gentleness, surprisingly enough. Even though Tim knew that Suhayl was a father himself, he still had a hard time reconciling that knowledge with the hard and stern man Suhayl generally was.
"Now, do you need to rest before we continue?" Suhayl asked.
Tim took a breath and Suhayl leaned in close enough that Tim could see his face.
"It is not weakness to need a rest," he said very quietly. "It is weakness to hide your need... when it is a need."
Tim wasn't sure if Suhayl could actually read his expression, but he knew that Suhayl was seeing right through him. His feet were still hurting.
"Just a few minutes," he whispered.
Suhayl simply nodded and sat in the sand, holding Salma in his lap. Zahara sat down beside Tim and leaned on his shoulder in silence. Omar sat but was still on alert. After five minutes, Suhayl looked at him and Tim nodded.
They all stood once more. Tim's feet were still aching but not so much as before and, without Salma's weight, he knew he could keep walking.
The walk resumed and Tim couldn't help wondering how much farther there was to go.
Finally, as they neared the top of another dune, Suhayl gave a long, low whistle and then stopped. After a few seconds, there was an answering whistle and a shadow appeared above them. A guard. They kept walking until they crested the dune, and Tim looked down and saw a number of tents.
"We are here," Suhayl said.
They walked down to the tents. Carefully, Suhayl handed Salma back to Tim and then strode ahead to a larger tent. He paused outside of it and clapped once. There was silence and then the tent flap lifted and, in spite of everything that was happening, Tim smiled.
"'Imād," he said.
The man in the tent entrance paused.
"Tim McGee," he said in wonder. "What do you do here?"
Suhayl began speaking rapidly in Arabic and 'Imād looked at Tim in concern. He nodded.
"Please, you will to come into my tent for tonight. We will get a tent for you in the morning. You may all sleep and rest."
"Shokran," Zahara said, wearily.
"This is my wife, Zahara" Tim said. "And our children."
'Imād smiled.
"I am glad to meet you," he said. "You both look very tired. Come inside. And you?" 'Imād looked at Omar.
"This is Omar. He will come in as well, if that's all right," Tim said.
"Yes. That is all right," 'Imād said, with no trace of hesitancy.
He brought them into his tent which was obviously his home and immediately began to spread out blankets for them.
Tim didn't say one word of protest. He limped to the place 'Imād had prepared for them and carefully lay Salma down. Then, he also sat down while 'Imād continued to get provisions for them.
"You must be thirsty. Please, drink," he said, handing them a water skin.
They all took a long drink and then handed back the water skin.
"Now, you may all sleep. We will watch for you until the morning."
"Thank you, 'Imād," Tim said softly.
"'Afwan, Tim," he said.
Tim lay down and Zahara lay down right beside him.
He was asleep in seconds.
x.x.x.x.x.x.x
"La 'a'rif! La 'a'rif!" Ahmed said, shaking in pain. "Lam akun... ma'ahum... 'indamā ghadarū... La 'a'rif!"
They walked away from him and began speaking in low voices, not that it mattered. Ahmed couldn't understand what they were saying at all. He didn't know if that was because they were speaking a language he genuinely didn't know or if he had forgotten how to understand English along with forgetting how to speak it in his agony. He was breathing heavily and quivering with tension.
Then, one of the men strode back to him and he tried to lean away.
"La 'a'rif," he whimpered again.
"Then, you had better hope that your brother-in-law cares about you. We can keep this up forever, and the only way we'll stop is if we have him instead. Understand?"
Knowing that the answer was supposed to be yes, Ahmed nodded. The man walked away again and spoke in low tones to the other man with him. This time, Ahmed could understand him.
"He does not know anything."
"How long will you keep him alive?"
"As long as we need to. Give him some water for now. They had better find something to tell us where he is."
The pain began to ease and the tension lessened. He was bait. He understood that now. The only reason they had taken him was to lure Tim to them, but they didn't know where Tim was and that meant that they didn't know where to set the trap. A part of Ahmed was angry about Tim's life causing this pain. Tim had brought instability to a life that had been very normal. While he knew that Zahara loved Tim and wouldn't be happy without him, Ahmed had always been unsure about having his sister married to an American (and becoming one herself). And here was a group of people who were willing to kill just to get access to Tim. What would they do to Zahara if they caught them? The same as they were doing to Ahmed himself?
Yes, a part of him was very angry.
And yet... could he allow his sister's husband and the father of her children to be harmed? That would be a terrible failure as the head of what remained of their family. He could still remember his father telling him that he needed to watch out for his mother and sister. He could still remember asking his father to stay with them and then accepting that he now had a great responsibility to care for his mother and sister. He could still remember the feeling when they learned that their father had died and would never be coming back. He could still remember the feeling when their mother had died, knowing how small the Mokrani family had become. Could he force Zahara to experience the same loss again by being willing to give her husband to these people who clearly would not treat him well?
For now, it was clear that Tim and Zahara were safely away from these people. It was a matter of whether or not they could stay that way.
And whether or not they will care to save me.
But deep inside, Ahmed knew that Zahara would not accept the loss of her brother any easier than she would accept the loss of her husband.
...but it appeared that was the choice.
And suddenly, he thought of young Jonathan who was so happy and carefree.
No, he could not allow Tim's son to lose his father.
No matter how he felt about Tim, Jonathan should not suffer that pain.
His thoughts were cut off by a man approaching him. Ahmed tensed, but then was relieved when he was given water to drink. Perhaps he shouldn't accept it. Perhaps he should be stronger.
But he was thirsty and that was all that mattered for the moment.
