He heard Amir pull his jacket on.
He watched his ankles travel past the bed toward the door.
Tanner slithered toward the edge of the bed. Left elbow. Right. Left. Right…silently, until he could tilt his head to the right and see Amir entering the short hallway leading to the room door.
Tanner put his body into rapid motion, squirming the rest of the way out from under the bed and springing to his feet in one fluid motion.
“Freeze or I shoot!” Tanner leveled his gun at Amir’s back just as his hand landed on the doorknob.
“Open the door and I shoot!”
Behind him Tanner heard Danielle emerging from the bed she was under.
While Amir was frozen, Tanner reached for his radio with his free hand and brought it to his mouth. “Alpha to Bravo, 416, now.”
“Copy that, Alpha.”
To Amir he said: “Back away slowly from the door. Right now! Don’t turn around or I shoot!”
“Is that you, Mr. Kohler?”
“Shut up and do it!”
Amir took a careful step backwards.
“What is the meaning of this? Why are you in my room?”
Danielle walked up next to Tanner, her gun also pointed at Amir’s back.
“Do as we ask and you won’t get hurt,” she said.
“Both of you are in here? If you needed a place to stay, you need only have asked!” He roared with fake laughter.
Tanner pantomimed to Danielle where he wanted to move Amir.
“Step backwards, slowly, into the main room. There are two guns trained on you. Do not try to fight or we will kill you. Is that understood?”
“Yes.” He began walking backwards.
Tanner backed up into the space between the two beds, by the wall. Danielle retreated to the foot of the second bed that she’d been hiding under, giving Tanner a hard stare as she passed that said, what the fuck are we doing?
Tanner removed a folding knife from his rear jeans pocket and used it to cut the cord from one of the nightstand lamps. He took the cord over to Amir.
“Clasp your hands behind your back.”
Amir did so.
Tanner bound his wrists so fast that it surprised even Danielle, who moved over to the other bed in order to cover Amir from the front. He scowled at her while Tanner cinched the cord tight.
“What are you doing with me?” He was yelling now, starting to panic. “What do you want? You want the ten thousand dollars? I will get it for you.”
Tanner opened his mouth to say that this wasn’t about money, it was about protecting innocent lives, but then a thought struck inside his brain that caused him to close his mouth before having spoken. Did Amir have ten thousand dollars in cash on him right now? He carried no briefcase or bag with him, and he was preparing to check out of the hotel so he wouldn’t have left it in the room safe…An envelope containing hundred dollar bills would fit in a pocket, though.
Tanner started to frisk Amir, first his back pants pockets, then the front, then the suit jacket.
“You think I would carry that kind of cash on me to a meeting with people I’ve never met before?” Amir spat.
Tanner stepped back having found nothing. So far this was going exactly the way he hoped it would.
“If you don’t have it, why should I believe that you can get it?”
If Amir thought he was just a high class thug out for money, so much the better, Tanner thought.
The Hofstad agent laughed. “I can get it. You should have told me sooner you needed the money that badly. I would have gladly paid it not to have gone through this ridiculous ordeal. Now release me and I will see about providing you with the funds.”
Tanner looked over at Danielle and grinned like a Cheshire cat.
It was time to follow the money.
EIGHTEEN
Mr. Peterson stared at Stephen Shah as the embassy administrator began talking to whomever had picked up the phone on the other end.
“David, listen to me. A State Department envoy just handed me embassy shutdown orders from the White House.”
Shah heard an unintelligible line of inquiry emanate from the phone.
“Yes, shutdown orders. Right, they’re complying with the demands. At least for now.”
Peterson listened for a few more seconds and then cupped the phone, looking at Shah.
“Where are we supposed to go? Do we stay in country or report for duty in D.C.?”
Shah hadn’t considered this and had to think fast. As much as he enjoyed the vision of a couple of hundred foreign embassy workers suddenly showing up for non-existent duty in Washington, it was more consistent with his temporary closure story that they remain nearby.
“Stay in country and be prepared to resume operations when notified. You have a disaster plan in place, correct? Like if there’s an earthquake or a flood or something?”
Peterson nodded.
“Treat this like that. Those type of plans generally tell employees how to contact each other once off the premises. Put your disaster plan into effect now.”
Peterson spoke into his phone. “We need to evacuate everyone and then follow our disaster plan for coordination of activities while off-site.”
For the first time since he’d entered the embassy, Shah allowed himself the faintest of hopes that his ploy might actually work. Emboldened, he pressed on, half-expecting that at any second a team of security men would burst into the office to escort him away.
“You also need to remember to announce the closure publicly just before or after leaving, to let the terrorists know that their demands have been met.”
“Hold on a minute, okay?” Peterson said into the phone. Then he said to Shah, “Shouldn’t President Carmichael do that?”
He was right, of course. But Shah was hoping that since The Hague was Hofstad’s base of operations that a local announcement would reach their ears soon, and they would put a hold on whatever they had in store for the citizenry of the United States for at least the next few hours. Who knows, maybe the White House would follow with its own announcement if they assume the embassy acted on its own best intel. Maybe they know something the president doesn’t. But these thoughts took a backseat in Shah’s mind to the situation right here, right now. He still had some convincing to do, and even if Peterson and whomever he was talking to were fooled, he was well aware that this little charade could have the rug pulled out from under it anytime in the next few hours.
“The president will do it, but sometimes local sources are taken as more authentic by local people, so we would like the announcement to come from the embassy itself as well.”
That would have to do. Shah hoped it would be enough as Peterson conveyed the instructions to his colleague on the phone. Shah’s inner voice told him he should get while the getting was good. The ruse would either work or it wouldn’t. There wasn’t anything more he could do here. The questioning would grow more pointed, more confirmations would be requested, so it was better if he left now and hoped the plan would be carried out. Based on his knowledge of federal administration of overseas assets, Shah gave it about a forty percent chance of success.
At least Peterson and his contact were now discussing the details of implementing the shutdown.
“Excuse me, Mr. Peterson?” Shah interrupted. Peterson raised his eyebrows at Shah expectantly.
“I’ve got to be on my way. I trust you can handle things from here?”
“Yes sir, Mr. Rahimi. You can count on us.”
“Excellent. I’ll be sure to let the president know what a first rate operation you run here. Just don’t forget that announcement.”
Peterson beamed. Thank you, Mr. Rahimi. Yes, Sir!”
Shah turned and left the office, closing the door behind him.