Chapter 15: June 20-26, 1996 Peek-A-Boo, I See You

Whoever destroys a single life is as guilty as though he had destroyed the entire world; and whoever rescues a single life earns as much merit as though he had rescued the entire world.

The Talmud, Mishna. Sanhedrin

Lake House June 20 -21

Gaho examined the pictures carefully. "Ominotago, you continue to amaze me. You would make a great holy woman with your powerful medicine. These pictures say it all. Your song did reach him and Darryl is undoubtedly alive. You saved him. This is the message to tell you so."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes child, such a clear message, I am sure. Also, remember in your vision, you felt the cold of death when the dark cloud covered Darryl. Have you felt that?"

"No, I never have."

"If death were to actually visit him you would feel the chill to the very bottom of your soul. No, he is alive."

"If he is alive why haven't we heard that he is safe?"

"I said that he is alive, he may still be very much in danger, or in hiding. One reason I came is to help you find out."

Gaho offered to stay with Courtney, and Jaclyn and Karl were happy to spend some time together.

"How will I find him Gaho?"

"How you found him before, in a vision."

"How can I do that? If I have to go back to South Dakota and fast for days it might be too late."

"It might indeed. But that was your first time. Much of what we did was to help your mind escape the entanglements of everyday life. You have grown. Your powers of focus are much greater now. The prairie is not really your world. The lake is your special place. The day is just beginning. Let us go together to the lake and seek peace for our minds and see if our guides will visit us. Can your security people keep us undisturbed?"

"Yes, let me call and then we'll go."

Gaho and Courtney gathered up some blankets and followed around the shore of the lake until they found a suitable spot that would be well away from the lights of the house when night fell. They linked arms and began to meditate. Courtney found it much easier to find focus and escape now. She found her mind opening like a flower. Time lost all meaning. She felt herself an organic part of this lake that had watched over every step of her life. The lake knew Darryl too, and reached out for him. She watched the passage of the sun across the sky in terms of colors and shadows and rhythms of life, not time. When the sun had relinquished the sky to the soft light of the moon and her soul shared the peace that descended on the lake, she heard the soft steps of a large animal. The wolf nuzzled her and spoke.

"You have learned to sing again with your heart?"

"Yes, and I thank you for such a gift."

"I did not give you that gift. You found what was lost within yourself."

"Thank you for guiding me to find it."

"Your heart sings to the one, your mate?

"My heart sings to the one I would have as my mate."

"But you are still sad."

"My mate to be is still lost far away."

"You are now sure you want him as your mate?"

"Oh yes, I am sure, very sure."

"You want his seed in your womb, you will nurse his young."

"If only I have the chance, yes, oh yes."

"You will sacrifice and risk all for this mate?"

"I will risk my very life."

"He is still in great danger, you must send help."

"Who do I send?"

"One who is very close to you and very brave, he will be your champion."

"Where do I send him?"

"You will need all of your inner vision, no one outside of the land where they hide knows where. You are the key"

"How will I know where the vision shows me in a land I do not know?"

"How do you get those that do not want to listen, to hear?

"Tell me how."

"I cannot, I can tell you what must be, and you must supply the how."

"But I may fail."

"Then he will die."

"You are harsh."

"Life is harsh, I am just a wolf."

With that the wolf lay down and promptly went to sleep and though troubled, Courtney laid her head down on the wolf's shoulder and fell asleep. Once again she started having a dream of startling visual clarity and impact. Gradually things came into focus. It was obviously a cave, but a cave that had been designed for hiding humans. It was equipped with simple metal army cots and basic barracks furniture. Illumination was provided by several battery powered lanterns. Metal shelves surrounded the room with supplies of food and water. She recognized all of the occupants. Darryl was there, talking with the tall beautiful Afghan woman. She was ashamed at the jealousy she felt as she watched Darryl with this magnificent creature, her rival for his love. Did she really deserve Darryl? The Afghan woman was with him, helping him, supporting him, while Courtney had let him go. They had the little girl with the oud with them. They must have brought her along. Why? The American woman was also there but she was sitting at the bedside of the fifth member of the band. He was injured and partially covered in bandages but Courtney was sure she recognized him as Darryl's associate, James McNichol. Clearly, they were both alive. The attack on the American journalists had failed. So why were they hiding? And where exactly were they hiding?.

She focused in more tightly looking for any clue at all. Instead she started picking up bits of conversation. Not the whole thing just bits and pieces like a poorly tuned radio station. She listened carefully. The first thing she got was names. The Afghan beauty was named Azalea; figures that even her name would be exotic. The American woman was Cheryl and the little girl was named Nura. And yes, the injured man was James McNichol. Beyond that she could get very little. They had been there for days and expected to be there a long time yet, although they didn't know how long. They were waiting on someone named Kabir to help them, but apparently he was being watched. If anything happened to this Kabir they would be trapped. Before she could learn anymore they faded away and she awoke to dawn breaking over the lake. The wolf was gone. She awakened Gaho who had not been aware of the wolf during the night. Courtney described her vision and they agreed that the first step was to recruit Karl as Courtney's champion.

They headed straight over to his apartment and woke Jaclyn and him. Jaclyn graciously fixed everyone breakfast while they discussed the vision.

"Karl, I'm going to need your help," Courtney said, "according to the vision, they are trapped in this cave unless I send help. For help I'm supposed to send someone close who sounds very much like you. I have no right to ask you to do anything so dangerous but I have no one else to turn to. I have no idea how this can even be done but somehow you're going to have to help find this cave. Otherwise Darryl will die. Oh God, Karl, I'm asking you to risk your life on something impossible. What am I going to do" She seemed ready to break down in tears.

Karl took her in his arms. His strength reassured her. "Courtney, there is nothing that you cannot ask of me if it's in my power. I do have a background in Special Forces including hostage rescue but that was a long time ago. I don't see exactly how I can help with this. I've never even been in that part of the world. I think I had best start by calling on one of my old friends in the spook world and see what he can find out."

Karl returned in a half hour. It was a hard sell except two of your names clicked and got some attention. Anyway, we're going to have company tomorrow evening who may be able to fill in some of the blanks. Get some rest; things will probably start to move fast after that.

Courtney finally had a feeling of peace. Darryl was alive although in danger; however she was finally helping. As the wolf might have said, she was claiming her mate. Knowing that she was doing something, setting wheels in motion, let her feel closer to Darryl.

The next evening after dinner Karl, Courtney, Jaclyn and Gaho met with a handsome, rugged faced young man with steely gray eyes. "This is Dave Worthy, an old friend who works for, let's just say, a government agency dealing in foreign affairs. Courtney, I would like you to tell Dave your whole fantastic story. Then he'll help us figure out how to proceed."

Dave listened patiently and attentively to the complete account.

"Thank you Courtney, that is an amazing and almost unbelievable story. In fact, I would probably have dismissed it as fiction except for a few points. One is that we were having some doubts about the deaths, especially James because we have looked very hard for that body and just can't find it. Second, you came up with some names that you were very unlikely to have just guessed, but which put some pieces in place for us. Just to make sure I want you to look at some pictures and see if anyone looks familiar."

First Dave spread out a set of five western women. "This first set should be easier. Does anyone here look familiar?

Courtney pointed at one of the picture. "This is the one they called Cheryl, she seemed to be very attentive to James McNichol."

"Right, she's Cheryl Woodson, a veteran journalist and a notorious vamp but its been long suspected that she's been carrying a torch for James McNichol. She would very much like to be Mrs. McNichol if and when James settles down. Now try your hand with these"

Dave now set out a set of pictures of young attractive women with Middle Eastern characteristics.

Without hesitation Courtney picked up one picture. "This is the one called Azalea."

"She is in fact Azalea Durrani, a native of Kabul, Afghanistan although she has been to school in England and the United States. She is a highly qualified emergency medicine nurse but she is a lot more than that. Being very well educated and extremely intelligent, she is rather independent for a woman in her society. But then her whole family is not really typical. They are Qizilbash, a small group of perhaps 50,000 and one of the most literate groups in Afghanistan; they traditionally hold important administrative and professional positions. The Durrani family has always worked outside of official government circles. Nothing explicitly criminal, but they're not averse to working the grey areas. And they have survived by staying out of politics as much as possible. I'm not sure whether or not that's going to work with the Taliban. "

"The head of the family is her brother Kabir who they are probably waiting on to organize their escape. The problem may be that he can't. We checked with one of our agents in Kabul who knows Kabir and he believes that he is under tight surveillance and may not be in a position to help them. If so, they are effectively trapped where they are. Kabir is resourceful and he and James have worked together for years but he just doesn't have the resources to take on the Taliban. It's really just him, his four brothers and a few trusted associates."

"I hope you haven't come all this way just to make us feel the situation is hopeless, Mr. Worthy. " Courtney's tone was just this side of hostile.

"No Ma'am, I wouldn't do that to you. I've come with a plan. It's not fool-proof but it's got a chance. We're going to have an agent surreptitiously contact Kabir and confirm the situation. Then we'll get the cave's GPS location from him. With that we'll put on a covert op and send in a SEAL team and pull them out at night. There's some risk but it's manageable. The main thing is to go quickly before the Taliban find the cave."

"That sounds great Dave, but I have to ask, why? Why would the U.S. Government spend taxpayer money and risk lives to put on a rescue mission to save some photojournalists?"

"An excellent question actually. I wish I could pretend the answer was simple like we do it because American citizens are in danger but that would be bullshit. Nothing in Washington is simple. Actually there is something to what I just said. At any given moment there are more Americans traveling around the world than some nations have population. They all travel under the belief that they are protected from a world that largely hates and envies them by the strong arm of Uncle Sam.

In fact we are not in a position to directly protect them except to the extent that we can maintain a reputation and appearance of power. So when a militant group targets Americans it erodes that shield. If we can thwart their plot and rescue those Americans from under their very noses it strengthens the myth and makes Americans everywhere that much safer.

It also doesn't hurt the party in the White House politically either. Beyond that, we are very interested in this group that has assaulted Americans and rescuing the intended victims is one way of drawing them out. Mr. McNichol is a military veteran and has many years experience covering the Middle East for National Geographic. We are very anxious to get his observations about current conditions in Afghanistan. We especially want his observations on the attack on the convoy."

"It would seem that you have everything well in hand so I'm puzzled by one thing. My vision and animal guide has been very accurate but they indicated my personal champion would need to be involved in the rescue. I felt that had to be Karl but it looks like it will be strangers making the rescue."

"Not true Courtney, actually I had planned to invite Karl to join the party."

Karl looked startled. "Me? Whatever for, it sounds like a job for the regular professionals to me."

Dave laughed. "I gathered you haven't been completely open about your background. I assure you ladies that Karl is no newcomer to this type of operations. His career hasn't always been escorting around beautiful music divas. It has been a few years but his reserve training has kept him current and his competitive athletics has certainly kept him fit."

"That still doesn't explain why me, are you short of trained personnel?"

"No Karl, but we have learned the value of having someone on rescue missions who knows one of the people being rescued. It prevents unnecessary panic and tragic mistakes. Strangely enough, the first reaction of people suddenly confronted by strange creatures dressed all in black carrying huge weapons and strange devices over their eyes is not always relief and joy. It's more likely to be sheer terror. A familiar voice calling out to say 'hey Darryl, it's me Karl, we're here to rescue you' can prevent a lot of confusion and the chance of someone shooting us by mistake."

"I see your point, and of course I'm happy to join in."

"Well kiss your honey good bye, and pack your skivvies, we're leaving immediately. The sooner we can put this show on the better. It will take almost a week to gather the intel, put together and train a team, and get the choppers in place. The longer we wait the more likely they are to be discovered."

Afghanistan June 25 June 26

The power of hiding ourselves from one another is mercifully given, for men are wild beasts, and would devour one another but for this protection.