It is, however, possible that Russia could be involved."
"Do you have any evidence?"
"No," Ashan said with a quick shake of his head. "Although they seem to be taking great joy in poking the Americans as of late, so we should at least consider them. Iran is growing in influence, and we all know they have ample hatred to attempt something so brazen. China, so far, has shown almost no interest in the region. As to why, that is fairly obvious. There are no natural resources other than the opium trade. As we've discussed, if Afghanistan had oil, China would be very interested."
The director general rubbed his fingers along his mustache while he considered the analysis. "So we think it is likely that it is either the Iranians or the Russians."
"There is one more possibility, sir. You forgot about us." It was immediately obvious that Durrani had been waiting for this.
"I told you he would try to pull us into this sordid mess."
"I am trying to do no such thing," Ashan answered in a voice bereft of tension. "The director general asked for my analysis and I gave it to him."
Durrani ignored his old friend and looked directly at Taj. "I warned you. This is dangerous. He has absolutely no evidence, yet he is willing to implicate us. How long do you think it will take until the Americans get word of this? They have spies all over this building." Shifting his butt so he could face Ashan directly, he asked, "How many people have you told of this?"
Ashan would have burst out laughing if the entire thing wasn't so serious. "Akhtar, you must not be listening. Let me phrase this a different way. If you were the Americans, where would you start looking?"
"I don't give a damn about the Americans. This is not our problem. It is theirs, and we should keep it that way. Not help them try to implicate us."
Ashan sat back and threw up his hands. "Director General, I do not understand his animosity. There is no place for it here."
Taj looked as if he wished the entire matter would simply go away, but with these two strong-willed subordinates the chances of that were remote. "I think you both have valid points." Looking meekly at Durrani, he added, "You really should take a less aggressive approach when it comes to the Americans."
"I assume that when we are in your office you would like us to speak freely." Durrani acted hurt by his boss's admonition.
"Unless," Ashan added quickly, "the subject involves your department's unseemly relationship with the Taliban. Then we're not allowed to speak freely."
Durrani realized he had set himself up for the rebuttal and could see that his anger was pushing the director general toward Ashan's position. Rather than speak and risk alienating the director further, he clamped his mouth shut and began a lengthy internal indictment of his friend.
Taj took a last sip of his tea, placed it on the saucer, and pushed it a few inches away. After leaning back and throwing his arm over the back of the couch, he announced, "I think we need to show the Americans our support. Nadeem, I spoke with Director Kennedy earlier. She's at the Bagram Air Base. I'd like you to fly up there and offer our assistance."
Durrani practically leaped to his feet. "Surely you can't be serious. I don't trust him. Not at all. How do you know he won't say to her what he just said to us?"
The last time Ashan had seen his friend this upset was after the bin Laden raid. "You've met Director Kennedy before." The woman's intellect within the intelligence community was well known. "You don't think she's already thought of this herself? You don't think the entire bin Laden fiasco isn't seared into her brain?"
"Why do you keep bringing that up?"
"Because it's relevant." Ashan couldn't believe he had to keep pointing out something so obvious. "The more I think about it, if I were them, the first place I'd look is the External Wing."
Durrani was on his feet this time, stabbing the air with his finger, threating Ashan that his career was over. "There is no room for Anglo lovers in our world anymore. We are a sovereign nation. Not their trained dogs. If I were - "
"You are not me, and I must tell you, Akhtar, you are behaving like a man who has something to hide."
"I will not stand here and take this," Durrani proclaimed, looking at the