here.” The old man pointed to a neighborhood that had not been investigated yet.
Linko knelt and opened his backpack. He took out a tablet PC and brought up Google Earth over the satellite receiver he plugged into the device. Working quickly, he entered the location of the neighborhood and zoomed in.
The picture was probably months old, but in all likelihood, not much had changed. Many of the buildings were damaged or destroyed, obvious victims of Taliban rockets and explosives. Or maybe it had been the American forces saving the Afghanistan people from the terrorists.
“You are sure?”
The old man nodded and held up his fingers again. “Three days ago. If I knew you were looking for woman before, I would have found you sooner.”
Linko was frustrated over the slowness of communication when it had to be done by word of mouth. If he could have taken out a television ad or posted the American professor’s photograph on the Internet, he would probably have located his target within minutes.
As it was, he’d lost valuable time.
“Why would she be in this building?”
The old man shrugged. “She is foreign. I do not know these things.”
Linko barely restrained himself from backhanding the old man. “Who lives in these buildings?”
“No one, sir. These buildings are used by the American soldiers and the ANA.”
“What do they use the buildings for?”
Shaking his head, the old man shrugged again. “They run through the alleys and the buildings with their guns. They shout, and they discourage anyone from going there.”
Linko smiled. The area must be a training area or a holding facility of some kind. He was confident he had them now.
“Sir?”
He looked at the old man. “What?”
“Do I get paid now?”
Linko stuffed money into the man’s hand, gathered his things, and walked around the corner to his vehicle. It was time to call in the troops.
38
Safe House
Kandahar
Kandahar Province
Afghanistan
February 19, 2013
“Put these on too.” Fitrat handed Lourds a Kevlar helmet and flack jacket similar to the ones he and his men wore.
Lourds slipped them on, hating the way the helmet strap pulled at his goatee. It also made his head feel heavy. He wore ANA fatigues like the rest of the group.
“And give me your backpack.” Fitrat grabbed it from Lourds’s hand and handed it off to another soldier.
“Be careful with that,” Lourds said. “The scrolls are in there. All my work.”
“I’ll keep it safe, sir,” the soldier said.
Lourds felt the rumble of the approaching vehicles outside in the alley before he heard them. Two of them flashed by the window, barely seen through the sliver of light under the curtain, before the third one rocked to a stop directly outside.
“All right.” Fitrat’s voice held the sharp crack of command. “Move out.”
Four men dashed through the door with their rifles close to their chests. Two went left and two went right.
“Now you.” Fisting Lourds’s shirt, Fitrat pulled him through the door with him. Still maintaining his hold, almost tripping Lourds on occasion, Fitrat propelled him toward the SUV waiting just outside the door.
Before Lourds could reach for the door, Fitrat spun him around and flattened him against the SUV hard enough to knock the breath from his lungs.
“Look out for the rooftops!” Fitrat brought his assault rifle up, and the alley was suddenly filled with the thunder of exploding rounds.
***
Atop the building at the end of the alley sixty meters from the doorway where the ANA had burst out of the building, Linko watched the line of black SUVs fill the alley and cursed the ill luck that seemed to plague him. He was certain his team had tripped no alarm. They were moving too fast for the ANA to have called for the vehicles to be ready on time.
Then he realized it wasn’t ill luck he was having, it was good. He’d gotten to the safe house just before the ANA had abandoned it. If they’d arrived a few minutes later, they would have found nothing but the empty warehouse. And maybe a few nasty surprises waiting for them that would have blown up in their faces. That was how he would have handled the situation.
He studied the men as they ran from the warehouse in two-by-two blocks. Standard movement and they executed it well. The soldiers set up at either end of the alley just as two more ran outside.
Linko swept his gaze over the men, searching for the American professor’s telltale hat, but it wasn’t visible. He waited.