Jeff finds himself in Washington DC on business trying to close a big deal for his company where he meets up with Nancy again, the FBI agent he had fallen in love with in Atlanta nearly two years ago. Jeff is separated from his wife because of Nancy
Chapter 8 of
Saturday, 9:03 AM: The Israelis
They go to the ODS office
and then meet - Chris Lamela
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Author contact: Chris Lamela,
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K Street, Chapter 8
Saturday,
9:03 AM: The Israelis
Jeff reached into his pocket, pulled out his cell phone, nervously began
pressing 911 when Shawn put his hands on the phone, pushing it down, “No, no
cops.” Shawn glanced up and down the street, back to Jeff, “at least not yet,
we need to think first.” Jeff put the phone back into his coat pocket with a
blank expression, none of this making any sense.
Shawn looked down the street, raising his hand, a few seconds later
their limo drove up, he stepped around to the driver who lowered his window, Shawn
spoke to him in a hushed voice. The car drove away.
“Guys, follow me,” he looked up at the building a half-block down on the
left, “Man, this is convenient, come with me to the office.” Jeff and Tom
caught up with Shawn, they walked briskly toward the ODS office, were soon upstairs
in the conference room where they had met that morning. Without a word Shawn
left the conference room, Tom and Jeff sat down, in a minute Shawn appeared
balancing three cups of coffee, setting them on the table, reaching cups across
to the others.
Shawn sat down facing Jeff looking at him intently, “Tell me exactly
what happened.” Jeff told about how he had noticed the men when they first came
in, was suspicious because they both had looked over at their table. He told
about how the second Shawn went to the men’s room they walked up to the table,
about their actions. Tom told how he was watching the dancer, he wasn’t paying
attention until the men had already been at the table best he could remember. Jeff
talked about how the Arabs got up from the table followed by the men, him
running after them, seeing them being pushed into the back of a black car, then
the shot that hit near him, how he ducked behind the cars, the black car
pulling away. That was all he knew.
“Can you describe the men?”
Jeff paused trying to remember, “About my height, both in heavy coats,
like pea coats in black…no not pea coats…but heavy like that. Couldn’t see the
faces to speak of, pretty non-descript. Wait, yeah. One had a long scar on the
left side of his face, from his ear to his chin. Nasty.”
“What about the car.”
“Black Crown Vic, I am pretty sure, but not a limo.”
Shawn stroked his chin in thought. “What the hell does this mean? Who
goes around DC kidnapping Arab businessmen?”
“They weren’t businessmen, they were government, right?” Jeff posed.
“Yeah, that makes it even more interesting, huh?”
Jeff paused, “But how did they know we were there? I mean this is a big
town, it’s not likely they just happened to be there. They knew that Amid and
Hazim were there, in Archie’s, they came there looking for them.”
Tom gave a quick look between the other two, “It’s possible that they
had a snitch at the club, that’s how some of these guys work, this town is
loaded with eyes.”
Jeff sipped the coffee wrinkling
his nose at the Maxwell House flavor, he sure could use real coffee for an occasion like this.
They discussed what happened, tried to guess at why the Arabs had been
kidnapped so boldly right under their noses.
“We’ve got to call the police!” Jeff finally said.
Tom shook his head, “It doesn’t work like that here, and the police are
the last people we want involved in this to start snooping around ODS, getting
into our business.”
Shawn sighed shaking his head looking at Jeff, “He’s right. We need to
figure out what happened, who took them. Your whole deal could be in jeopardy
if we get the cops involved in this.”
“I’m sorry, but I just watched these guys get kidnapped at gunpoint
right in front of me and take a shot at me. My guess is my deal is probably
pretty damned dead.”
Shawn looked confused, exhausted, “We need to get some help, but right
now, I think we need to get you back to your hotel then we can sort this all
out in the morning.”
Tom turned to Shawn who motioned toward Jeff. Tom stood up, “Come on
Jeff, let’s get you back.” Jeff stood up following him out the door, down the
elevator. In a few minutes Jeff was alone in the back of the limo. They turned
right, back up K Street Connecticut Avenue
Soon Jeff was sitting alone in his hotel room laying on his bed. He
smiled that he hardly drank at all tonight, that his head was pretty clear. He
got up pulling his shoes off when the room phone rang.
“Jeff, you alright?” It was Nancy
“Yeah, I’m fine, but things started getting weird here, did you hear?”
“Shawn called, said that there had been a shooting.”
Jeff laughed, “Yeah, bet you can’t guess who they were shooting at?”
“Okay, you need protection. You are to bolt your door, don’t answer it
except for the signal.”
“Oh, no, not this again.”
“I’m serious. That will be in,” short pause, “about four minutes.”
“Sure, I can wait four minutes,” he laughed, “so who’s going to be here
in four minutes?” No answer, Jeff realized the line was dead.
“Okay, four minutes.” He looked at the clock, it was one twenty-three.
Walking to the window he looked down seven stories to the street below, even at
that late hour there was still some light traffic. He pulled the drapes across
the window sitting on the bed.
“Wow,” he said to himself, I get Nancy
Now she was coming here again tonight!
Just then he heard the familiar four quick knocks at the door.
He stepped to the door speaking through it, “Who’s there?”
“It’s Nancy
Heart racing, Jeff opened the door to see her standing at the door, a
man standing next to her.
“Come on in,” Jeff said backing into the room to let them pass.
“Tell me exactly what happened.”
Jeff repeated the same things he had told Shawn earlier, couldn’t think
of any other details except adding that Shawn told him not to call the police.
“Yes, actually, that was smart. We don’t need police reports flying all around.
That kind of thing happens all over this damned city so that was pretty smart
of Shawn.”
The hotel phone rang. Their eyes turned to the phone. Jeff’s eyebrows
were raised to Nancy
Jeff picked up the phone saying hello. “Jeff, it’s Shawn, you’re still
up?”
“Yeah, pretty hard to sleep after what happened.”
“Look, we’ve already had contact with the kidnappers.”
“Wow, that was fast, what’s the deal?”
“They want a meeting in the morning, I want you there. Are you up to
it?”
“Yeah, what time?”
“A driver will be there at a quarter to nine. The meeting will be at the
ODS office. Do you want a call?”
“No, I’ll just be downstairs in the lobby, we’ll figure it out.”
Jeff hung up telling Nancy Nancy said that she needed to go,
briefing Jeff on how he was to deal with her split identity telling him that
she was confident that he could manage it given how well he had done in Atlanta
She looked at the two queen beds in the room, “How did you happen to get
two queen beds?” Jeff shrugged remembering that his reservation was for a
single king bed but that he was too tired when he arrived to care. “Well, that
works out great because I don’t want him to have to sleep in the chair there,” motioning
to the corner chair, Ted with a relieved smile. “We both have a really busy day
tomorrow. Given what happened tonight I’ll arrange a little meeting tomorrow at
the ops center after your meeting at ODS, we’d like you there.”
“Another house like in Roswell
“Yes,” she smiled. “It’s a shame because we are on our home turf, but
the last thing we need is somebody tailing us to FBI headquarters. The house is
not very far from here.” He nodded slowly with eyes to ceiling trying to put
this all together, looked to Jeff. “You know the drill, you’ll do fine.”
He wanted desperately to have her reach to him, to kiss him, shake his
hand, anything to touch her. But she
stood professionally-distant, turned to Ted thanking him, disappearing through
the door.
When the door was closed Ted stepped forward to shake Jeff’s hand. Jeff
nodded silently turning to the bathroom, in a minute coming back out in
pajamas, climbed into bed.
In a second he was out.
Jeff was awakened by the drapes being pulled open, morning light flooding
into the room. He sat up, stretched seeing the agent disappear into the
bathroom with the door closing behind him, the clock said seven twenty-three.
Standing up he stepped to the window looking down at the busy street
below. He turned to his suitcase laying on the stand, rifled though it grabbing
socks and underwear. Soon Ted stepped back into the room, Jeff went into the
bathroom to do his thing.
A few minutes later they were sitting at breakfast in the hotel
restaurant. Jeff asked Ted what was the plan for the day. “We are going to one meeting
at the ODS offices then to an agency meeting after that. Not sure what else is
planned.”
“Do you have any idea what the ODS meeting is all about?”
“I guess we’ll find out in a bit.”
They finished breakfast, walked into the
lobby, Ted scanning the room as they walked. “They are only expecting you,” Ted
said turning to Jeff, “so I will stand back over there,” motioning with his
head, “you just get in when the car drives up.”
Jeff felt the danger flash in
his gut, but nodded, a second later a black limo drove up. Jeff smiled to Ted
walking through the hotel front door toward the car. The driver came around,
“Jeff?” Jeff nodded glancing back toward Ted but he was gone, he climbed into
the back door of the car.
A few minutes later he was walking through the Fifteen Street Nancy
“That man!” Jeff trembled pointing to the man with the scar.
“Yes, that was him, but it’s safe, trust me!” Jeff looked at them, the
two men with hands half-raised, some kind of sign of asking for trust. She
turned to the third man, “Hit the button,” then to the two men, “I need you
both to step away, please, give us some room, let me take him upstairs.”
The two men stepped away toward a corner of the small lobby, the man with
the scar motioning them to go ahead. A second later the elevator dinged, doors
closed, ascending, the doors opened.
“What is going on!” Jeff turned to Nancy
“Look, I know it’s confusing, things
just got really complicated, but you are safe.”
In a minute Jeff walked back into the same conference room he’d been in
before. Tom was at the head of the table with Shawn on his right, two other men
on Tom’s left looked up at Jeff. Two men facing away from Jeff turned looking
at him.
Jeff was stunned to see Amid and Hazim. Amid had a bandage over his left
eye giving Jeff a weak smile, Hazim with the faintest look of acknowledgement, they
both turned back. Jeff sat next to Hazim, Nancy to Jeff’s right.
“Coffee?” Shawn motioned for a cup from the center of the table, it was
poured from a carafe, put in front of Jeff. Nancy
Tom introduced himself, Shawn, Nancy, then Jeff. He turned to the two
strangers at the table expectantly.
The man sitting next to Tom spoke up, “My name is Yitzak Spilman, this
is my colleague Andrew Perlman. You might guess, we are Israelis.” The man
spoke with a thick Israeli accent. Andrew nodded. “Of course you have met our
other two colleagues last night, Yusef and Omit.” He looked at Jeff, “You were
the one that Yusef shot at last night?”
Jeff nodded.
“Ah yes, he is so excitable. I talk, talk, talk to the boy and tell him
that is no way to treat people. I will have another talk with him, I promise.”
The man gave an apologetic smile, sipping from his coffee. “It was just a
warning shot, really. He is quite an excellent marksman. He would not have
missed if he didn’t only mean it as a warning.” He sipped again, “Still though,
I will have another talk with him.”
Tom spoke up, all eyes turned to him. “Jeff and Nancy I guess need an
explanation for what happened last night and why you are here.”
Yitzak took a sip of his coffee, “I really do hate, how do you call it?”
He spoke in Hebrew to Andrew who replied in the same tongue, “ah, yes, cloak
and dagger. I really do hate this. But we have a little concern about the deal
that is being brokered here,” he motioned to Amid and Hazim, across the table,
“all we want is to make sure there is nothing happening here where your weapons,”
speaking directly to Jeff, “will end up in hands that will be bad for us.”
“It’s just surveillance, how can that hurt
you? It’s not weapons, it’s harmless,” Jeff shrugged.
“Information is power. We have the same saying in our country as you,
that good fences make good neighbors. That is not a bad thing. We believe
strongly that good fences keep everyone where they belong, from that we can
begin to have trust that we are safe.”
He took a thoughtful sip of coffee, motioning for the carafe which he
used to fill up his cup again. “The problem is that information can breach
fences, and information in the wrong hands can destroy fences.” He took another
sip of his coffee setting down the cup. “So, you can see, your surveillance
systems are not harmless. In fact, we view them to be quite harmful in the
wrong hands.”
“Why are you asking me? The only thing I know is what I see when I sign
the export permit application.” Jeff glanced at Amid and Hazim, “These guys are
Saudis, that’s where our gear is going. I thought you were friends with the
Saudis.”
Tom interjected, “It’s not that simple. Your gear is usually shipped on
UAV airplanes, right?”
Jeff nodded.
“But you have an order for six complete sets of aircraft outfitting.”
Jeff nodded again thinking about the six-million dollar order. Tom continued, “You
see, these gentleman are concerned that the Saudis don’t have the technology to
outfit planes with your gear, they want assurances that the equipment is not
going to end up in the hands of someone who is sophisticated enough to use it
to turn on their country.”
Jeff could feel his order for six million dollars slipping away, “I
don’t have anything to do with that. I just make the stuff. We get a valid
export permit, we ship it to where the permit says. That’s the end of it except
for repairs.” He shook his head, “And we hardly ever get repairs.”
“Yes, the reason why you don’t get repairs is because the aircraft are usually
shot out of the sky,” Yitzak replied. “I’ll bet Chevrolet would love to have
such a nice situation!” There was nervous laughter around the table.
“So why did you kidnap Amid and Hazim last night if you knew
everything?”
“We didn’t know everything. Trust me,” Yitzak smiled, “it was worth the
effort to have our little chat with these gentlemen last night. That is why we
are here this morning.”
“I don’t know,” Jeff shook his head slowly. “I don’t know why I am even
here, this sounds like something way beyond my control.” He looked around the
table to each face, “All I do is make stuff that goes on airplanes, where it
goes and who uses it is not my problem.”
Jeff stood, waved weakly around the table, in a minute they were back in
her blue Mustang.
“What the hell was that all about? There’s no way I belonged in there.
Why was I even there? I don’t belong in
this.”
“I wanted you to meet the players.”
“Meet the players, but why?”
“Because like it or not, Jeffery, you are involved in this.”
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K STREET!
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