or he’s our worst nightmare. Either way, let’s keep him happy and interested in our well-being.”
Kate pointed out, “He’s not going to let us out of here now until he gets his money.”
I asked her, “Do you have a blank check on you? Or do you have a better idea?”
Zamo thought that was funny. Just like old times.
Brenner assured Kate, “We’ll work something out with the embassy.”
I also informed Kate, “Hakim thinks we’re all on Predator TV.”
“Good,” said Ms. Mayfield. “And maybe we are.”
Maybe. But hopefully Chet was no longer directing the show.
Anyway, Hakim’s Humvee turned around, followed by another Humvee, and we all squeezed past the troop carriers and headed east on the straight dirt road, toward the smoke in the distance.
The third Humvee and the four troop carriers were moving now, and they continued on, west toward the plateau. I asked Brenner, “Why do you think they’re headed toward the Crow Fortress?”
“They must be acting on information.”
“What information?”
Brenner replied, “We’ll ask Colonel Hakim.”
Who was as honest and forthcoming as Chet and Buck. Everyone here carried a large sack of bullshit.
Bottom line, this was not the plan that Chet had laid out for us in Aden, but as I said then, and as we discovered, there was more to Chet’s plan than he was sharing with us. And as Chet discovered, I had a few plans of my own. And as we all discovered, man plans, God laughs.
But part of Chet’s plan had worked out. The Panther was dead, and Chet and Buck were heroes—and better yet, I was going to see what was left of Bulus ibn al-Darwish. I came a long way for this.
CHAPTER EIGHTY
On the way to the goat herder’s hut, I said to Brenner, “We can take some evidence at the scene.” We’ll stop at a 7-Eleven for Ziploc bags.
Brenner replied, “We’ll let the PSO and NSB do that and also take photos for us, and that will make Colonel Hakim think he’s earning his two and a half million.”
“Right.” Just like Sheik Musa thought he was earning his five million. I mean, even I wasn’t trusting the Americans anymore.
It took us less than twenty minutes to get to the scene of the attack, but I could see it and smell it before we got there.
Hakim’s two Humvees pulled onto the path to the goat herder’s hut and stopped.
We all got out of our vehicles and walked up the path to what remained of the stone hut. As we got closer, the smell of burnt tires and gasoline got stronger, and so did the smell of charred bodies. Kate wrapped her hijab over her face.
Despite my enthusiasm for seeing this, it was a bit jarring. Most of the bodies were intact, though they’d been ripped up by shrapnel—Bedouin bodies in their blood-drenched robes, and Al Qaeda bodies in their foutehs. The ground was strewn with AK-47s, sandals, shiwals, and even cell phones.
Where the direct hits from the Hellfires had landed, the ground was blasted away, and the human remains were scattered in all directions, making me remember what an old Vietnam vet had told me about getting an accurate body count after an air or artillery strike. “Count the arms and legs and divide by four.”
Brenner, who’d seen things like this, didn’t seem fazed, and neither did Zamo. Kate, however, was a bit shaken, and the NSB guys were eyeing her, so Zamo walked her back to the Land Cruiser.
Colonel Hakim spoke first and said, “You see what has happened here. I have secured the area and I will cooperate with the American authorities in any way they wish.”
Brenner said to Hakim, “We would like photographs of everything, and we will need your men to collect tissue samples of all the dead Al Qaeda who are identifiable by their clothing.”
Hakim didn’t seem to understand and he asked, “Why do you need that?”
Brenner explained, “We have DNA of Bulus ibn al-Darwish.” He informed Colonel Hakim, “His family lives in America.”
Colonel Hakim did not reply, and Brenner further explained, “We can identify al-Darwish by this means, and also by his fingerprints if you would be kind enough to include as many fingers as possible.”
Again, Colonel Hakim had no reply, so I took a shot at it and said, “We need a positive, scientific identification. Proof that al-Darwish died in this attack.”
Colonel Hakim nodded this time and said, “Everyone has died. None escaped.”
Well, not true. At least one Bedouin had survived and called his Bedouin buddies at the