made a phone call, which is actually what we want.” He added, “It’s good, though, that no one acted on that information while you were in an exposed situation.” He said to Brenner, “Maybe you should have had DSS backup.”
Brenner replied, a bit testily, “I felt it was safe enough to go out without backup.”
Well, it wasn’t. But safety wasn’t the point. Backup is easily spotted and scares off the bad guys, and that’s not what Paul Brenner or John Corey wanted to do.
Buck said, “All right. All’s well that ends well. So… oh, by the way, Mr. Corey, that was good of you to give the lady in the shop an extra twenty dollars. We like to support them.”
Had I mentioned that? No, I had not. So probably one of those Westerners in the shop was his snitch, or more likely he’d just called the shop and chatted in Arabic with the manager. In any case, in the world of spooks and spies, it’s all illusion, and nothing is as it seems. Old Buck had been at this game a lot longer than anyone in this room, and he wanted everyone to know it.
Point made, Buck said to me and Brenner, “Tell me and Kate what happened at Ghumdan.”
So we did. And as former cops, we got right into sync and gave Buck and Kate a clear, concise, and accurate report of our Ghumdan experience.
Buck listened intently, as did Kate, and neither of them interrupted.
When we were finished, Buck stayed silent awhile, then said, “You seem to have gotten more information than we usually do at these interrogations.” He said to me, “I suppose your past experience in Aden was helpful.”
I replied, “To the extent that I knew what to expect.” I informed him, “The prisoner was more cooperative than our ally, Colonel Hakim.”
Buck said to us, “I’ll ask Howard to put in a formal request with the Ministry of Justice to get the transcript of this prisoner’s interrogation by the PSO.” He let us know, “They won’t honor that request, but then we have something new to complain about.”
I asked Buck, “Is the PSO more cooperative with the CIA?”
He looked at me and said, “Good question. The short answer is yes.” He smiled. “Birds of a feather.” Then he added quickly, “I’m not suggesting the PSO and the CIA have anything in common.”
I thought he just said birds of a feather.
Buck informed us, “They have their own understanding between themselves. Very much quid pro quo.”
That was a little scary.
Kate, who I was certain was the only person here who had once slept with and shot a CIA officer, said, “I’m assuming our fifth team member can fill in some of our information gaps.”
Buck replied, “That is our expectation.”
Right. The CIA is happy to fill you in. Unfortunately, they lie.
Mr. Brenner had no comment on this topic, and he returned to the subject by reminding us, “The Panther could know from his fighters that one of them was taken prisoner—but he might also think Rahim was killed. So we don’t know if The Panther is worried about a prisoner talking about his location.” He added, “I hope this prisoner wasn’t mentioned in the government press release.”
Buck assured us, “The Sana’a government is not that stupid. They are, in fact, crafty, which is why they’re not all hanging from a noose. So they will report the attack, but claim four killed. Or twenty. Or whatever number they like. There will be no mention of a prisoner.”
True. But I reminded everyone, “Someone at Ghumdan could tell Al Qaeda that there’s a talking prisoner who said he saw The Panther at Marib.”
Buck replied, “That’s very possible, but let’s hope it doesn’t send The Panther running.” He reminded us again, “If there is a leak from Ghumdan to Al Qaeda, they will also mention the name of John Corey.”
Right. That’s why I was at Ghumdan.
Buck asked Kate, “Any questions for John or Paul?”
Kate asked me, “Is it possible that this prisoner was rehearsed? That what you heard was not the whole truth?”
I really don’t like being interrogated by my wife, but it was a good question and I replied, “It’s possible. But the prisoner had the appearance of truthfulness.” I looked at Brenner, who seconded that and added, “This guy was scared, hurting, and desperate.”
Kate asked Brenner, “What was Colonel Hakim’s demeanor during the interrogation?”
Brenner replied, “Not a happy guy. He really wanted us out of there, which is why I think this