Chapter 18

Colonel Donna Jackson was not a happy camper. Ever since the negotiators arrived at Kabul armed forces base her command status had eroded so badly she felt as if she were barely still in charge.

First off she hadn’t gotten along with the trio who represented the world powers. One man was Russian, the other Japanese while the third was an American woman. They all seemed too mealy mouthed and more concerned about appeasing their opponent rather than doing any serious negotiations.

Secondly: She hadn’t gotten off to good footing with men acting on behalf of the terrorist called Eli. All she had to do was sit in on one session to make her suspect that Husseini, and his two aides were just playing around. She suspected that instead of being interested in making progress on the talks which were supposed to lead to the release of the hostages, the man spent most of the time leading the world power representatives around by the nose.

She had tried to point this out to the world power agents and suggested they show a little more spine, but unfortunately Husseini had gotten wind of her efforts. He had launched a series of complaints about her to the world powers which banned her from attending anymore talks. In addition, they had caved into his demands that she respect him by keeping her head covered whenever she was in his presence. Of course, as an act of defiance she refused to wear a head covering of any kind when she was in his presence. But all the satisfaction she got was watching him angrily glare at her so most of the time she tried to avoid any meetings with him.

Donna was still sitting in the cafeteria and staring at the dregs of her last cup of a morning coffee even though it was long past noon hour. She had spent the morning going through her daily exercises and then going through all the duty reports, but didn’t know how she was going to pass the afternoon.

That’s why the call on her personal cell came as a surprise and a welcome break, especially when she discovered who it was.

“Max, it that really you,” she asked although she instantly recognized his voice.

“Yup, sure is. Long-time no see. How you been keeping?”

“Fine and you Max? Don’t tell me you’re back in a shit hole like Afghanistan. What? You itching for a little more action in the field or doing a personal errand for Galaxy?”

Donna heart accelerated a little at the thought of getting together with Max. They had been lovers at one time but mutually decided to call it off because career duties kept interfering with the relationship. Although they got along well, they were forced to live with the knowledge that at any given time either one of them could be sent hundreds of miles away for weeks on end without notice. In the end they parted and went their separate ways. Max became operations manager for Galaxy Security and she stayed in the army but they still remained close friends.

“Nope, I’m not back in Afghanistan but I still control things for Galaxy from my arm chair. And guess what? In one of our current operations we’ve stumbled across something so interesting I decided to call in a favor.”

“Yeah, like what?”

Donna was disappointed she wouldn’t be able to visit with Max. She thought even a brief tryst would have been welcomed.

“It’s difficult to explain but I need you to go to my old office.”

Donna was mystified.

“What, you didn’t have any office when you worked out of Kabul,” she was about to say then caught herself when she realized what Max was talking about. The need for a favor had already piqued her interest but now she was all ears. This was sounding quite mysterious because the old office wasn’t exactly an office, but a safe house where they used to meet. She recalled that Max had kept all kinds of equipment there.

“Oh, right, the old office.” She said.

“Right,” Max said. “Have you got time to take a little trip off base to pay it a visit? I hope you remember the codes needed to enter the place without setting off the alarms.”

Donna thought of the times she stole away from the base to slip into the house and wait for Max to arrive.

“Sure, they’re still kind of fresh in my mind even though I haven’t had any use for them for the past little while,” Donna replied with a little extra dig regarding her former lover’s absence.

“Good, cuz I can explain things better there.”

As soon as Max hung up, Donna strode over to the vehicle compound and commandeered a jeep. When the Private handed her a key and offered to accompany her as driver-body guard, she shrugged him off and headed for Kabul.

Half an hour later Donna parked the vehicle in front of the safe house and hurriedly punched in the codes to open the door. Anxious to find out what Max had been so mysterious about, she quickly made her way to the room that had served as Max’s office. The computer, printer and telephone were still there but covered in such a layer of dust it made her sneeze. She looked around wondering what she should do next when she noticed the red light blinking on the phone. It meant somebody was on the line so she wiped away some of the grime and picked it up.

“Okay Max, I’m here, now what?” Donna spoke abruptly into the phone and almost sneezed into the phone as she tried to brush off the dust that was now clinging to her uniform.

“You know about the hostages and all those futile attempts to find out where they’ve been taken,” Max replied.

“Don’t I ever,” Donna fumed. “I’ve got negotiations for their release going on right in my barracks and so far it’s been nothing but one big screw up. The trio sent by the world powers act as if they couldn’t negotiate their way out of a paper bag and a strange character named Husseini is leading them around by their noses.”