Chapter 23

The conference room was filled with lots of important acting people that irritated Ed by their superior attitudes that screamed, “I know secrets that you don’t know.” In response to half of the questions that he asked, the answer was always the same. The answer was classified and he didn’t need to know. Ed was half tempted to teach them what would happen if he really wanted to know the answers to his questions. They wouldn’t even introduce themselves to him.

One of the men asked, “So they tell me that you are a human lie detector.”

“I can recognize the truth from a lie,” replied Ed.

“Prove it,” said another man.

Going from man to man, Ed asked, “Have you ever acted against the interests of this country in exchange for money?”

After asking each man the question, Ed turned to the one man in the room that had lied. He asked, “Was the amount of money that you’ve accept more than a million?”

The man answered, “No!”

Ed looked at him and asked, “More than five million.”

“No!”

After a few more questions, Ed established that it was for a million and a half. He then asked, “Was it a government that bribed you?”

There was a reaction to that question throughout the room. Many of the people in the room were well aware of the kinds of operations headed by this man in the past. The man replied, “No. I’ve never taken a bribe.”

The first part of the question was the truth, but the second part of the question was false. Ed asked, “Was it money from a terrorist organization?”

“No!”

“A drug organization?”

“No!”

The money had come from a drug organization. The men in the room shuffled in their chairs uneasy at what they were observing. Ed continued to grill the man for the next half an hour. By the end, he sat back and said, “This gentleman has accepted over a million and a half dollars in bribes from the Colombian Kali Cartel to warn them about raids against their assets. He has deposited the money in a Cayman Islands bank.”

One of the men stepped out of the room for a minute and returned with two armed guards. They led the man that he had questioned out of the room under a cloud of suspicion. There had been no way that Ed could have known that the man had been involved in a series of ineffectual raids against the Kali Cartel over the past two years.

After things returned to normal, the man that had challenged Ed to prove his abilities said, “That was a most impressive demonstration.”

“Now, can you tell me about the man that I’m to interrogate?”

“That’s classified.”

“Then everyone here is wasting their time. I’m out of here,” replied Ed as he stood to leave. He was about to tell Colonel Grey to return him to his house.

Ed’s reaction was not what the men in the room had anticipated. One of the men shouted, “Okay, we’ll tell you everything you think you need to know.”

Ed sat down and asked, “Who is the individual that I’m supposed to interview?”

Colonel Grey answered, “His name is Hamid Huessan. He is an Iranian extremist that believes that the United States is a land controlled by Satan.”

“What religious sect?”

“He’s Shiite Muslim, and belongs to a terrorist organization that has declared Jihad against the US.”

“Do you have a hint as to what kind of action was being planned?”

Sighing, the Colonel looked around the room before he answered, “We arrested him because he was a known terrorist and is a highly wanted man in connection to other terrorist acts against the United States. When we grabbed him, he had receipts for the materials for a car bomb, but we have been unable to locate that material.”

Ed asked, “So you have no idea where and when they plan to strike.”

The Colonel answered, “That is correct.”

Looking at the men seated around the room, Ed didn’t doubt that some of them knew things of which Colonel Grey was unaware. Turning to each man in turn, he asked, “Is that the full story?”

One by one, the men answered yes. When one of them lied, Ed asked, “So what is it that you know that hasn’t been mentioned yet?”

“Damn it,” swore the man Ed had singled out. He looked around the table and said, “We have some intelligence that suggests a major attack is being planned for over the holiday seasons.”

Waving his hands in a circular fashion like he was directing a driver backing up a large truck, Ed said, “The rest of it.”

“We believe it will be on the West Coast.”

Ed said, “Thank you.”

He resumed going around the room asking each man if he had been given the full story. There were no further lies, although a few volunteered additional details knowing that trying to hide them would be useless. When they had finished, Ed said, “I will need a couple of things to expedite the interrogation.”

“What?”

Licking his lips, Ed rubbed a hand over where the medallion rested on his chest. The warm comforting feeling that permeated him let him know that his requests were consistent with his service. He answered, “I will need two Korans of historic value that would be easily recognized by a Shiite fundamentalist and a translator.”

“The man does speak English.”

“Doesn’t matter. I want a translator.”

Colonel Grey answered, “It will take us a day to do that.”

“Then it will take a day. I’ll meet the suspect when everything is ready.”

“By the time you finish questioning him, the holidays will be long gone,” exclaimed the man in frustration.

Looking at the man in distaste, Ed said, “I imagine it will be sunset tomorrow when I finish questioning him.”

“That guy lies like a snake.”

Ed stood as he said, “And I knew nothing about that man earlier, but I found out details about him that no one in this room knew in less than an hour.”

Colonel Grey stood and said, “I’ll take you to your quarters.”

As they went to a barracks, Ed looked around. It reminded him of his time spent in the Army. The Colonel said, “I saw that you were in the Army for two years as an enlisted man.”

“Yes, I was,” replied Ed as he watched a group of soldiers walking to a barracks. They walked in time with each other unconsciously. He asked, “Are you going to take me to the officer’s club for dinner?”

“Yes.”

“Good. I’ve always wondered what the inside of an officer’s club looked like,” replied Ed with a smile. He had been curious about that when he was an enlisted man and had sworn that he would get inside one at some point in his life. At least now he would have a chance.

That evening, Ed walked into the officer’s club with the Colonel. He was disappointed to see that it was little more than a fancy restaurant with a bar and dining room. An attractive hostess led them to a table. As they walked, Ed examined the men sitting at the tables. There were several Colonels, a few Captains, and a number of Lieutenants.

He examined the menu and decided that it wasn’t much better than in average restaurant. Looking through the items available, he asked, “Do they serve most of these meals with Broccoli?”

“Yes, they do,” answered the man with a puzzled expression.

“I hate restaurant Broccoli,” replied Ed.

The Colonel laughed and said, “You’re in luck. Tonight is Mongolian Barbecue night.”

Ed asked, “What is that?”

“We go over to that buffet over there and load up a bowl with sliced meats, fresh vegetables, and various sauces. They cook it for us.”

Remembering the Chinese food that he had at the wedding, he thought it might be a nice adventure. There was only one question to ask, “Do they have Broccoli?”

“Yes, but you don’t have to get any,” replied the Colonel with a smile. This guy confused him. Coming here, he had slept through most of the flight with a total lack of interest. Then he sits through that meeting without letting the intelligence asses get the better of him. The only thing that had thrown him was the Mongolian Barbecue. He added, “Let’s go up there and prepare a bowl.”

Ed followed the Colonel to the buffet. There were thin slices of beef, chicken, pork, and shrimp. Following behind the officer, Ed watched what he put in his bowl and followed suit. He hadn’t much experience with some of the vegetables that were available. Looking at the bean sprouts and bamboo sprouts, he decided to skip those.

Reaching the sauces, he read the directions twice on the various recommended mixes. The young captain in line behind him started to grumble, but stopped as soon as he saw the look on the face of the Colonel. Ed fixed one of the sauces and looked at his bowl. He followed the lead of the Colonel and set the bowl on the counter.

The cook grabbed the two bowls and put them on a large circular grill. Ed watched fascinated as the cook slowly walked around the grill, breaking up each pile of food and mixing them to cook evenly. He turned to the Colonel and said, “That’s amazing. I’ve never seen anything like this. The closest thing I’ve ever seen like this was a Chinese chef cook using a deep half sphere pot.”

He turned to look at the young captain behind him and said, “This is the neatest thing I’ve ever seen. I’m going to have to bring our cook here to see this.”

The young captain nodded as he answered, “Your cook?”

“Oh, yes. I bet she would love to see this.” Ed was very excited and watched with the enthusiasm of a young child. He turned to the Colonel and said, “I can’t wait until little Beth gets old enough to see this.”

The Colonel asked, “Was that the baby you were watching at home?”

“Yes, my wife Kelly had her a week ago. My wife Ling is expecting in eight months. I have no doubts that Linda will want to be next.”

The young captain asked, “How many wives do you have?”

“I have three wives and two husbands,” answered Ed as he watched the cook sweep the ingredients off grill and into the bowl in one simple movement. The cook set the bowl up on the counter and the Colonel picked it up. Ed watched as his food was swept into the bowl. Accepting the bowl from the cook, he said, “Wow, you are really good at that.”

He returned to the table where the Colonel was already eating his bowl of food. Ed sat down and tasted his dish. Sitting back surprised, he said, “This is pretty good. I like it much better than the sweet and sour chicken that I had.”

The Colonel shook his head and ate. As Ed ate, he tried to figure out what would make it taste even better. After a few minutes, he decided that some broccoli wouldn’t be bad added to this dish. When he had finished his bowl, he looked up and asked, “Can we go up there again?”

The Colonel laughed and answered, “Sure.”

Ed beat the officer to the buffet and started loading up his plate. When he skipped the bean sprouts, the Colonel suggested, “You might want to try a few of those this time. They taste a lot better than they look.”

Deciding to take a chance, Ed put good portion of them in his bowl. He even put a couple of pieces of broccoli in the bowl this time. It was with the same enthusiasm that he watched the cook prepare this meal. The Colonel said, “There’s a tip jar there.”

Ed dug into his wallet and pull out a fifty. He dropped it into the tip jar and accepted his bowl. The Colonel looked at the fifty and then over at Ed. Shaking his head, he accepted his bowl of food. Returning to the table, he asked, “Do you realize that you gave him a fifty dollar tip?”

“Sure! I really enjoyed it.”

It was mid-afternoon when the Colonel came to get Ed to interrogate the prisoner. Ed carried his saddlebag over his shoulder and the black box in his hands. Leading him to an isolated building surrounded by barbwire and guards, they entered through a sequence of gates. Inside, Ed was met by several of the men that had participated in the briefing, the previous day. With them was an Arabic man wearing a turban and robes; whose hand rested on two books, as though guarding them. His beard was almost as long as John’s and was a salt-and-pepper gray. He looked at Ed and then turned his face away in disgust.

At the reaction of the old man to Ed, the others in the room looked at Ed wondering how he was going to react. Ed smiled as he set down the black box. Opening one side of the saddlebags, he removed the black robe of his office, and put it on. He fished out the medallion so that it lay outside the robe and was visible. In a commanding voice, he said, “Touch my medallion.”

The old man turned and looked at Ed. His eyes narrowed and he spate, “Infidel. You will defile these books.”

Looking the old man in the eye, he said, “Touch my medallion.”

“I shall not touch it!” shouted the old man. He recognized the Druid medallion for what it was. At one time, they were known as Magi, and opinion differed as to the role of Magi in the Islamic world.

Ed challenged, “Is your faith in Allah so weak that you believe he won’t protect you?”