The Lion's Game

"Nope."

I said, "Okay, thanks for the tour, Gene. Hey, if you're ever in New York, I'll take you to Central Park at night."

"See you later."

"Right."

Gene put the Jeep in gear and rode off into the fog.

Kate and I stood there on the open plateau, mist swirling around, not a light to be seen anywhere, except one, coming from the extraterrestrial structure sitting all by itself. I half expected a death ray to come out of that weird tower and turn me into protoplasm or something.

But, my curiosity was piqued, so off I went toward the VORTAC, Kate beside me.

Kate was looking at the structure as we walked and said, "I see some ante

She was pretty calm, I thought, given the situation. I mean, there was a crazed assassin out there somewhere, we were armed only with pistols, we had no body armor, no transportation, and we were meeting someone who I wasn't even sure was from this planet.

When we got to the concrete building, I looked inside through the one small window, which revealed this big electronics room with blinking lights and some other weird high-tech stuff. I tapped on the window. "Hello! We come in peace! Take me to your leader!"

"John, stop being an idiot. This isn't fu

I thought she had made a joke a minute before. But she was right-this wasn't fu

We walked along the base of the forty-foot-high pile of dirt and rocks, on top of which was the white upside-down fu

We came around to the far side of the mound, and as we turned a corner, I saw a man dressed in dark clothing, sitting on a huge flat rock at the base of the embankment. He was about thirty feet away, and even in the dark and fog, I could see that he was peering through a set of what must have been night vision binoculars.

Kate saw him, too, and we both put our hands on our pistols.

The man heard or sensed our presence because he put down the binoculars and turned toward us. I saw now that he had a long object lying across his knees, and it wasn't a fishing pole.

So, we all stared at each other for a few long seconds, then the man said, "Your journey has ended."

Kate said, in a barely audible voice, "Ted."

CHAPTER 55

Well, I'll be a horned-toed hoot owl. It was Ted Nash. Why was I not completely surprised?

He didn't bother to stand and greet us, so we walked over to him and stopped at this Martian-red flat rock where Ted sat with his legs hanging over the edge.

He gave a sort of half wave, as if this was an office encounter. He said, "I'm glad you could make it."

Oh, fuck you, Ted. How cool can you get? I refused to play his silly game and said nothing.

Kate, however, said, "You could have told us it was you we were meeting." She added, "You're not cool, Ted."

This seemed to deflate him a bit, and he looked a

Kate also informed him, "We could have killed you. By mistake."

He'd obviously rehearsed this moment, but Kate wasn't reading from his script.

Anyway, old Ted had charcoal on his face, a black banda

He didn't reply, but shifted the rifle on his lap. The rifle was an M-14 with a starlight scope, just like the one Gene wouldn't let me borrow.

I said to him, "Okay, talk to me, Teddy. What's up?"

He didn't answer me, probably a little put off by the Teddy thing. He reached behind him and produced a thermos bottle. "Coffee?"

I had zero patience for Mr. Cloak and Dagger. I said, "Ted, I know it's important for you to be smooth and polished, but I'm just a New York cop, and I'm really not in the mood for this shit. Say your piece, then get us a fucking vehicle, and get us out of here."

He said, "All right. First, let me congratulate you both on figuring it out."

I replied, "You knew all about this, didn't you?"

He nodded. "I knew some of it, but not all of it."

"Right. And by the way, I won ten bucks from you."

"I'll put it in as a reimbursable expense." He looked at Kate and me and informed us, "You've caused us a lot of trouble."

"Who is us?"

He didn't reply, but picked up his night vision binoculars and sca

I said, "I agree. You should stand and wave."

"And you spoke to him."

"I did. I gave him your home address."

He laughed. He surprised me by saying, "You may not believe this, but I like you."

"And I like you, Ted. I truly do. I just don't like it when you don't share."

Kate chimed in and said, "If you knew what was happening, why didn't you say something? People have been killed, Ted."

He put down the binoculars and looked at Kate. He said, "All right, here's the story. There is a man named Boris, an ex-KGB agent, who is working for Libyan Intelligence. Fortunately, he likes money, and he also works for us." Ted considered this a moment, then said, "Actually, he likes us. And not them. Anyway, some years ago, Boris contacted us and told us about this young man named Asad Khalil, whose family was killed in the nineteen eighty-six raid-"

"Whoa. Whoa," I interrupted. "You knew about Khalil years ago?"

"Yes. And we followed his progress carefully. It was apparent that Asad Khalil was an exceptional operative-brave, bright, dedicated, and motivated. And you know, of course, what motivated him."

Neither Kate nor I replied.

Ted said to us, "Should I go on? You may not want to hear all of this."

I assured Ted, "Oh, but we do. And what would you like in return?"

"Nothing. Just your word that you'll keep this to yourselves."

"Try again."

"Okay. If Asad Khalil is captured, the FBI will take charge of him. We don't want that. We need to take charge of him. I need you two to assist me in any way you can, including amnesia during official testimony, to get Khalil turned over to us."

I replied, "This may come as a surprise to you, but my influence with the FBI and the government is somewhat limited."

"You'd be surprised. The FBI and the country are very legalistic. You saw that with the World Trade Center defendants. They went to trial for murder and conspiracy and firearms violations. Not terrorism. There is no law against terrorism in America. So, as in any trial, the government needs credible witnesses."

"Ted, the government has a dozen witnesses against Asad Khalil and a ton of forensic evidence."

"Right. But I think we can work out a deal in the interests of national security whereby Asad Khalil is released and sent back to Libya in a diplomatic arrangement. What I don't want is either of you interfering with that by getting on your moral high horses."

I assured him, "My moral high horse is low to the ground, but really, Ted, Asad Khalil murdered a lot of i

"So? What are we going to do about that? Put him in prison for life? What good does that do the dead? Wouldn't it be better if we used Khalil for something more important? Something that can put a real dent in international terrorism?"

I knew where this was going, but I didn't want to go there.

Ted, however, wanted Kate and me to understand, so he asked, "Don't you want to know why we want Asad Khalil released and sent back to Libya?"

I put my chin on my hand and said, "Let me think… to kill Moammar Gadhafi because Moammar fucked his mother and killed his father."

"Correct. Doesn't that sound like an excellent plan?"

"Hey, I'm just a cop^ But I may be missing something here. Like, Asad Khalil. I think you need him in custody to make this work."