“I put it on. We could hear what they were saying in there.” John barked a bitter laugh. “They were negotiating. About a couple of oil pipelines.”
“From Turkmenistan to the Arabian Sea and to Pakistan,” Neeley said.
John nodded, surprised. “Yeah.”
“Across Afghanistan,” Neeley added.
John nodded once more. “Which at the time the Taliban ruled. That was one of the groups there at the meeting. There were also a couple of Pakistanis. For their end of the one pipeline. And some Saudis about their end.”
“And the Americans?” Neeley prompted.
“The head of Cintgo, who was supposed to build the pipelines along with a couple of his people. And to broker the deal, Senator Collins.”
“Shit,” Neeley muttered.
Hannah spoke up. “Was Bin Laden there?”
The other two turned to her in surprise, so she quickly explained. “It was in the papers and magazines. He hung out in Sudan in the early 90s. He — his construction company — even built a highway there. Before they kicked him out and he went back to Afghanistan. Everyone knows that.”
“No,” Neeley said, “everyone doesn’t know that.” She turned to John. “Well?”
John’s eyes took on a distant look. “Yes, he was there. Brokering for the Taliban. Cintgo was worried about security for the pipelines in Afghanistan. The Russians had tried to build one in the country when they occupied it and the Mujahadeen, led by Bin Laden, had cut it so many times it failed.
“Gant was on the radio with someone. Telling them what he knew so far. Someone named Nero.”
“Who’s Nero?” Hannah cut in.
“The guy who runs the Cellar,” John said. “The organization Gant worked for.”
John looked at Neeley. “I could hear them through the headphones. And I figured out pretty quick that Gant was there for more than just listening. The laser device also could paint the target.”
“’Paint’?” Hannah asked.
“Designate whatever it’s pointed out as a target,” John explained to his wife.
“But Collins was there,” Hannah said.
“No shit,” John said. “I’ve thought about it over the years, then one time I was watching the Godfather and it came to me — Collins was like that police captain that those mob guys brought to that meeting in the Bronx. To insure safety.”
“Except in the movie they killed the cop,” Hannah pointed out.
Neeley was surprised at the other woman’s comments. She’d gotten over her surprise about her husband rather quickly.
“Well, Nero wasn’t going to kill a senator apparently,” John said. “Nero told the Navy jets that were on station to head back to their carrier.”
“Did Gant tape this?” Neeley asked.
“No.”
Neeley was surprised again.
“They all reached a basic agreement to build the two pipes,” John Masterson continued. “Then the meeting broke up. Collins and the Cintgo guys got on the chopper and flew away. The Pakistanis drove away. But we were still listening. That’s when we learned then that the Taliban had made a secret videotape of the meeting. It was in the possession of a guy named Sheik Hassan al-Turabi.”
John fell silent. Neeley gestured with the Mod-59 to Hannah. “Go make us some drinks.” Neeley went to John and untied him.
Hannah walked to the wet bar and fixed three drinks. Her hands were still, her head clear. She came back and handed one to the other two and sat on the other end of the couch from John with her own drink. For some reason learning that this wasn’t at all about her, but came from something before her time with John out-weighed the betrayal of his leaving and his lies. She felt strangely free of responsibility.
“And?” Neeley pressed.
“At the time it wasn’t that big of a deal,” John said. “The proposed Afghan pipelines. Dealing with the Taliban. Hell, even I’d heard Cintgo was trying to do this. You could read it in the trades. And we’d been supporting Bin Laden for years against the Russians.”
“But Collins being there—“ Neeley let that hang.
“Still not that big of a deal,” John said. “Gant radioed in a final report of the meeting and requested pick up. While we were packing up we got new orders. Someone wanted that videotape.”
“Collins,” Neeley said.
John shrugged. “I guess. Or Nero to use as leverage against Collins. So we hung around a little longer. Listened. Found out that al-Turabi was to keep the videotape. He was going back to Afghanistan via Somalia. Give some support to the brothers’ in-country there.”
“So you went to Somalia,” Neeley said.
“Yeah,” John said. “We pulled out of the hide sight, went back to the all-terrain and loaded up. Gant drove us into the desert and we waited. The Talon came back, landed and we drove on board. Took us to the airfield in Mogadishu where all the special operations people were stationed — the Rangers, Delta Force, and the Task Force 160 helicopters.”
John fell silent for a few moments and Neeley didn’t feel the inclination to prod him forward any more. She wasn’t sure she wanted to hear what he was going to say. Hannah was sitting, drink in hand, watching her husband. Neeley noticed the other woman had yet to take a sip of her drink.
“We saw the special ops guys running their missions. The humanitarian part, then the snatch raids when things changed. The place was getting hairy. Gant disappeared into town a couple of times, searching for al-Turabi. I guess he found him.”
John’s voice went flat once more as he recited, just as he had probably done years ago at a debriefing. “The 3rd of October. There was going to be a raid later that day. Gant was talking with Nero and he was pissed, the first time I saw him get really emotional. I was just an engineer and wasn’t sure what he was talking about, but he laid it out for me — the Ranger and Delta Force guys had no armor support and they were running their missions in daylight, negating their night vision technological advantage. And, what really ticked Gant off, was that they were using the same tactics over and over again. And Nero wanted him to use the raid that day as cover for taking out al-Turabi and getting the fucking video.
“The first wave of choppers lifted. I heard Gant ask: ‘Is this thing a go or no go, Mister Nero?’ I don’t know what Nero said, but Gant didn’t act like he appreciated the answer.”
Neeley could hear the sound of a clock chiming in another room as John Masterson continued.
“We saw the raid go into downtown. Everything seemed to be going all right. Then Gant and I loaded onto one of the Little Birds, an OH-6, to run our own little op in the middle of this. We flew downtown, to where the raid was. We landed on the roof. Delta guys had secured the building and snatched a bunch of their targets, including al-Turabi.
“Gant found the tape and some documents on al-Turabi, taped around his waist. Gant gave me the documents and stuck the tape in his pack. Then we shoved al-Turabi on board one of the Blackhawks. Things were beginning to get a little hairy. We were getting incoming fire. Gant and I were supposed to go out on the Blackhawk with al-Turabi but Gant decided against it. He felt the Delta guys could use our firepower as the ground column was caught up in some trouble and hadn’t arrived yet.
“I was pissed at him,” John said. “I wanted to get the hell out of there as fast as possible. But he saved my life by doing that. Cause that chopper lifted, and started to move away, when it got hit by rocket fire from an adjoining building and went down. Al-Turabi and several others on board were killed.”