happened here.” I asked, “Where is this man?”
Hakim informed us, “Unfortunately, he died of his wounds.”
I asked, “Hellfire wounds or a bullet wound in his head?”
To set the record straight, and set me straight, Colonel Hakim replied, “It makes no difference.”
This guy was a cold, hard sonofabitch.
Colonel Hakim continued, “We have made this arrangement—the Americans and my government—and it has been a successful arrangement.”
I replied, “You have your dead sheik, but I don’t think we have our dead Panther.”
Hakim replied, “I think you do, but if you do not, that is no fault of mine and no fault of my government.”
Right. It’s Chet’s fault. In fact, Chet got hustled by the Yemeni government. They knew they’d get their dead sheik, and they didn’t care if the Americans got their dead Panther. Now we were on the Bedouin shit list forever, and The Panther was still out there.
I said to Hakim, “Is this Al Qaeda survivor still alive or did he die of a bullet wound?”
Hakim replied, “I believe he is still alive.”
Hakim was still trying to work the deal, but he didn’t have much left to offer. Nevertheless, I said, “If the Al Qaeda man is still alive, and if we can speak to him, then our arrangement has not changed.” You’re still not getting shit.
Colonel Hakim nodded and led us toward one of the blue trucks.
We climbed into the open truck and on the floor was an older man with a white beard who didn’t look as lucky as he was. Also, he didn’t look like a jihadist. He looked more like a Bedouin, but he was naked, so it was hard to tell by the clothing.
Someone had bandaged him up, and his wounds didn’t look too bad, and he had no burn marks on him, so he hadn’t been too close to the blasts. He seemed to be shivering, and I thought a blanket would be a good idea, but the NSB and the PSO weren’t famous for taking care of wounded prisoners, as I saw at Ghumdan.
There were bench seats in the truck, and Colonel Hakim invited us to sit, which we did, and he sat opposite us.
The wounded man was semi-conscious, but Hakim got his attention by kicking him.
The man opened his eyes, and Hakim said something to him in Arabic, and the man answered.
The man apparently wanted water, and Hakim called out to an NSB guy, who came in with a canteen and poured water on the old guy’s face, then Hakim took the canteen.
Hakim said to us, “This man calls himself Altair, which means soaring eagle.”
The guy looked more like a dying duck, but whatever.
Hakim told us, “That is his Al Qaeda name, and he will not give his true name unless he believes he is going to die. Then he asks that we tell his family of his fate.”
Altair was looking at me and Brenner now, and I had the impression he didn’t like us. Probably something to do with the Hellfire missiles.
I said to Hakim, “He doesn’t look like a jihadist.”
Hakim informed us, “Altair, who I know by name, is a senior advisor to al-Darwish.” He added, “A friend of the al-Darwish family. And perhaps not truly Al Qaeda.”
Interesting. And what did he advise The Panther about taking this meeting?
Brenner had the same thought and said to Hakim, “Ask him why he came here if he thought the Americans were not here and that this meeting could be a trap.”
Hakim informed us, “I have already asked that of him, and he tells me that he did not believe that information from the Bedouin called Yasir.”
I guess not, or he wouldn’t be lying here all fucked up.
I asked Hakim, “Did Altair get that call directly from Yasir?”
Hakim again said, “I have asked him and he says no, he received that message from one of his jihadists who received the call from Yasir.”
Right. And where would Yasir get the cell phone number of an Al Qaeda jihadist? Let me think. Well, maybe from the same person who gave Yasir those photographs. I asked, “Did Yasir make this call to a man named Nabeel al-Samad?”
Hakim replied, “In fact, it was that man.” He added, “How do you know this?”
“I’m a detective.” I asked Hakim, “Was this message, this warning, passed on to al-Darwish?”
Hakim replied, “Of course. Altair told me he delivered it personally.”
“And were the jihadists told of this warning?”
Hakim looked down at Altair, then said to me, “He has told me that the jihadists