had been pressure to make the intelligence agency more accountable. Parliament had decided that the best way to avoid future scandal would be to make sure the head of the spy agency wasn't anyone too special. In other words, they wanted someone they could control. They found just the person in Air Force General Ahmed Taj. Taj's career in the Air Force had been spent almost entirely in supply and logistics. He had both a fondness and an aptitude for moving men and equipment from point A to point B.
Ashan had noticed this some time ago, as it seemed that nearly every time he was called to Taj's office he was ordered to get on a plane and go somewhere. When he'd been informed of the meeting, he called his wife and asked her to pack a bag for him just in case. The office of the director general was decadent. The space was nearly as big as a tennis court. The walls and ceiling were covered in a deep brown rosewood paneling and there were three granite fireplaces. Most of the walls were covered with bookcases, but there had been updates that included several large flat-screen monitors tastefully concealed behind tapestries.
Ashan was five minutes early and was irritated to find his friend General Durrani seated and sharing tea with their boss. It was just like Durrani to arrive early in an attempt to reform and dictate the agenda. The room was divided into three parts. To the far left was the director general's mammoth desk, a map table, and four chairs. The middle of the room was dominated by a conference table for sixteen. The most Ashan had ever seen at the table were six people. To the right was a sitting area. A massive leather couch that could seat six was centered on the fireplace. Two more couches framed the area around a large glass coffee table.
Taj greeted Ashan and asked him if he'd like some tea. Ashan graciously accepted and sat by himself on one of the shorter couches. He accepted his tea and saucer with both hands and placed it on the glass tabletop. He would very much like to know what the two men had been discussing, but would never want to seem so desperate. Besides, there was a good chance it would be revealed during the course of their conversation.
"How are things in Foreign Relations?" Taj asked.
Ashan was pleased to see that in a break from his predecessors, Taj was dressed in a light gray suit as opposed to his military uniform. "We're getting along."
"Good. So," said Taj, picking up his cup of tea and taking a sip, "I assume you've been following the recent developments in Afghanistan."
"I have."
"Any thoughts?" Taj was less than average in height, and sitting by himself in the middle of the massive couch gave him kind of a childlike appearance.
Ashan hated such open-ended questions. Especially when there was likely an agenda or at least a formed opinion behind it. His job was to offer his insights to the director general, so he took in a short breath and pushed ahead. "It appears, at least from a timing standpoint, that someone has decided to launch an operation against our American friends."
"Any idea who?"
This was where it always got tricky. Ashan decided to start out cautiously. "Beyond the usual suspects, no, sir."
"As for the usual suspects . . . I'd like to hear your list."
"The Taliban is the obvious choice, although I doubt that they have the organization to be able to conduct such a complicated operation."
"Explain, please."
"Two different targets, all individuals, which means it's very hard to predict where they will be in advance. From everything we know, the Taliban by themselves don't have the assets to pull something like this off."
"By themselves?"
"They are," Ashan started, and then stopped. There was a safer way to go about this. "All we need to do, sir, is look at a map. Afghanistan is landlocked." Ashan ticked off the neighbors. "Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, China, and us."
"Don't leave out the Americans," Durrani interjected.
Ashan was struck by the stupidity of the statement. "You think the CIA is doing this to itself?"
"I don't pretend to know the American mind. I'm simply saying they are highly invested in maintaining their influence over the region."
Ashan decided to let the stupidity of his colleague's statement stand on its own. "Historically, the Stans have had no relationship with the Taliban. If anything, they have been pulled into America's orbit.