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As the RV drove through the downtown area in the vicinity of Freedom square, Frank said, “Where would you like to set up, Jack?”
“Let’s find a side street off the square where we could hopefully see the boys coming or going from the apartment building, take your time and find a quiet alley or side street that will give us a good vantage point. We’d better keep off the square so Abdula doesn’t see us.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll keep an eye out for him,” Frank said as he parked the RV.
How do things look from the predator, Leslie?”
She pointed at the predator’s camera monitor that gave a clear overview of the square that is lit up from the street lights and said, “Here we are,” Leslie pointed at an aerial view of the RV, “Now let’s find the apartment building?”
“David said that it was in the northwest corner of the square, so that would put it right here,” Hoskins said as he pointed to the upper left section of the monitor.
“I think their cell phone is dead, I still can’t get through,” Frank said as he walked into the console area, “Those two are probably passed out somewhere.”
“Let’s hope that’s the case,” Hoskins said, “Leslie, zoom in on the front of the apartment building, and we’ll focus on it for the time being.”
“Abdula may know what we look like,” Frank said, “But there’s a good chance that he never saw Ronnie.”
“Good idea,” Hoskins said, “Veronica, take a walk over to the apartment building, second floor room 210. Knock on the door, and tell whoever answers that you have the wrong apartment, but see if you could get a good look at what might be going on inside.”
Within a few minutes, Veronica was at Tamara Gorridge’s apartment and knocking on the door. Inside the apartment, Abdula was sitting in an easy chair when he heard the knock. He silently got up and waited to see if the visitor would go away. He reached into his coat pocket for his pistol and continued to wait.
Outside the door, Veronica knocked again as she looked over the door’s lock. When there was no answer, she quietly placed a call to the RV to talk to Hoskins.
“No one’s answering, but the lock looks pretty easy, do you want me to break in?” Veronica asked as she got ready to put her lock-picking tool into use.
Inside the apartment, Abdula quietly walked over to the door and put his ear against it. He pulled the hammer back on the pistol, hoping that the visitor did not hear the click.
In the CIA’s RV, Hoskins thought for a moment before he said to Veronica, “No, you’d better not break in, they’re obviously not back yet, you might as well come back here and we’ll try to spot them from the predator.”
Veronica left the apartment building and went back across the square to the RV.
Inside the apartment, Abdula put his pistol back in his coat pocket and sat back down to relax on the easy chair.
A few blocks away, David, Brad, and Tamara were walking back from the club. David and Tamara were having a good time reminiscing about when they were growing up on the streets in downtown Tbilisi.
“When Tamara would send me to the store,” David said to Brad, “I had to run through the back alleys to avoid the thugs on the front streets.”
“That must have been tough.”
“It sure was, but I knew I stood a better chance against a drunk in the alley than a rough gang on the front street.”
“David could usually out run everyone,” Tamara said.
“Yeah, except for my big sister when she was chasing me with her belt for some well-deserved punishment. You were able to catch me then, Sis, but I don’t think you could catch me now,” David said as he sprinted down the street to the apartment building with Tamara and Brad giving chase.
In the CIA’s RV, Hoskins, Frank, and Leslie instinctively looked over when they heard Veronica unlock and enter the side door of the RV. In the few seconds that they looked over at the door, David, Brad, and Tamara ran into the apartment building and out of sight. The predator’s camera captured the trio, but there were no eyes on the monitor to see them enter the building.
As the trio walked through the hallway of the apartment building, David said, “That was a good time at the club, Sis, just like old times.”
“Yes, little brother, I really enjoyed it.”
“That place was really rockin’,” Brad said, “I think that everyone there had a good time.”
Brad pulled out his cell phone and saw that the battery was dead.
“Damn, I’d better call the embassy and charge this thing quick or Hoskins is going to kill me.”
When they got up to the second floor, Tamara unlocked and opened the apartment door, and she turned the light on before they walked inside. After Tamara closed and locked the door behind her, she was quickly startled and screamed when she saw Abdula standing in the bedroom doorway with a pistol aimed at them.
Tamara instinctively tried to hurry and unlock the door to run for help when Abdula yelled, “If you open that door I’ll kill every one of you.”
Tamara fearfully moved her hands away from the door.
“Now move over there by the others,” Abdula said to her.
“Who are you, and what do you want from us?” David asked.
“Please, don’t toy with me, you know who I am and I know who you are, you’re with the CIA and you’ve been watching my every move for the past three days.”
“I really think you’ve got us wrong,” Brad said, “We’re from the Agricultural exchange and the CIA brought us in to look at some radioactive containers on some farms, they forced us to work with them.”
“Shut up, you fool, I’ll tell you when to speak. Give me your wallets now, both of you, instead of a reason to shoot you.”
Brad and David looked at each other uncertain about what to do.
Abdula pulled a cushion from the sofa and used it to muffle his shot as he put a bullet through the living room wall and into the bedroom.
“Please don’t make me ask again, I’m not a patient man,” Abdula said.
Brad and David gave Abdula their wallets and he rifled through them until he found their ID’s.
“I knew you were Americans, I could tell by the smug look on your faces.”
“I told you we’re here checking on agricultural exports, our ID’s prove that,” Brad said.
Abdula laughed and said, “Please, save it for someone more gullible, I happen to have my own business in Syria where I make phony ID’s, but I must admit, this art work is quite impressive.”
Abdula stared at David then at Tamara and said, “Ah yes, I could see the family resemblance, she’s your sister, wait a minute, I know you from someplace,” Abdula said inquisitively as he walked up to Tamara and studied her face. He then paced around the room and continued to look at her.
“Please, don’t tell me, let me see if I could put this whole thing together myself. The American CIA shows up a few days after I saw this young lady. But, where was it I saw you? Of course, you were on that school bus last Thursday that passed by the farm outside of town.”
Abdula sat down and started laughing.
“Forgive me, I don’t know why I’m laughing, I really should be crying. Who, in a million years, would have guessed that the young lady on the school bus would have a brother in the American CIA that would end up coming back to the Georgia Republic and costing me a sizable fortune. What are the odds of this happening? This is absolutely incredible.”
“What do you want from us?” David asked.
“I started out just wanting some answers, and now you gave them to me. Being a professional businessman, I couldn’t understand how my plans for this operation failed, and now I know. This will prevent me from making the same mistake in the future.”
“Look, the people we were with didn’t see you do anything,” Brad said, “They were mostly after the rich old guy, if you let us go, no one will be the wiser.”
“Oh really,” Abdula said.
“Sure, as a matter of fact, if you ever need a favor, we’ll put in a good word for you when we get back to Washington.”
Abdula laughed and said, “Of course you will, why wouldn’t you.”
Abdula continued pacing until he formulated a new plan.
“I guess the least I could do, since you seem like nice people, is not make you suffer before you die.”
Brad, David, and Tamara looked at each other nervously.
“I assure you that this is nothing personal, I just need to send a message to the world that no one steals from Abdula Nassir.”
Abdula walked over to the dining table and opened the small wooden box that contained the bomb. He entered the password, and keyed in the time for the explosion on the small keypad. When he finished, the time on the LED display showed sixty minutes and immediately starts counting backwards.
“In exactly one hour, this bomb will detonate and engulf the fair city of Tbilisi in a cloud of radioactive dust. Unfortunately, I won’t be here to enjoy the festivities, and regrettably, nor will you, because you will be the first casualties of the explosion.”
Brad lunged at Abdula, but the terrorist expected this and shot him. Brad fell to the floor holding his arm, and writhing in pain.
Abdula then said to David, “Pick the fool up and put him in this first chair, use his belt to tie him up, and make sure it’s tight or you’ll be bleeding next.”
David tied Brad to the wooden dining room chair and wrapped a cloth napkin around the bullet wound in his arm.
Abdula walked up to Brad, grabbed him by the hair and said, “I offered you a virtually painless death and you provoked me to shoot you, you might have a smart mouth, American, but you’re not very smart.”
Abdula then said to David, “Now, tie up your sister in this chair.”
As soon as David finished tying Tamara, Abdula tied him up in another chair and checked the knots on the others, and then he saw the blood seeping through the cloth bandage on Brad’s arm. He took two more cloth napkins from the dining table and tied one around Brad’s head to cover his mouth so he couldn’t yell out. He then tied the other around Brad’s arm wound and pulled the napkin tight to stop the bleeding. Brad let out a muffled scream and nearly passed out from the pain.
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