The Exfiltrator by Garner Simmons (read after txt) 📗

who could say how strong that friendship might yet be today?  As they approached the turn-off beside the abandoned farmhouse, Corbett finally broke the silence.

“Given what’s happened…” he began. “I just wanted to say that if there had been any other way...” Unable to find the words, he left the thought unfinished.

“There wasn’t… isn’t,” Tariq answered, his voice flat, stripped of emotion.  “Amaia and I…” he started again, then hesitated.  “We both knew the risks from the start.  We just thought if we could find someplace far enough off the grid, quiet, remote, inconspicuous-- we could disappear and no one would come looking.  Of course, we weren’t counting on you.”

“I know,” Corbett agreed. “I mean, what are the chances?”

“When the stakes are high enough...” Tariq shrugged. “Obviously, there are people out there who want me dead.  Who knows, if you had not been there today, perhaps they would have succeeded.”

“So… is that the reason you agreed to leave?  If you go, the threat goes with you?” Corbett speculated aloud, shaking his head at the irony.  “The only way you can protect your wife and child is desert them?”

“Something like that,” Tariq said looking off to his right.  “What a terrible business.”

Corbett said nothing as he turned off the main road and headed up the mountain.  As they approached the base camp, Corbett quickly went over the plan.  Tariq would join the work crew from the village following the midday meal and be sent to help Sebastian uncover and catalogue the double skeleton being excavated near the cave’s mouth.  Whenever the day’s work finally ended, Corbett would come to collect him and make the final preparations for exfiltration.  Trying to keep things simple, he decided not to go into the remaining details.

Parking the Land Rover, he escorted Tariq to the cook tent.  There he introduced him to Sebastian and the other workers as an extra hand.  Leaving them to finish eating, Corbett returned to his tent where he took out his laptop and sent a short, encrypted email to Reed:

Dear Mother -- Trouble in town but Specialist okay.  Here now ready to fly.  Send bird as planned.  Don’t be late.  Storm clouds gathering. – Sonny

*****

As the men finished eating, Sebastian collected Tariq and the two student volunteers and began the trek back up the mountain to the cave.   Having followed them outside the cook tent, Karim stared hard at the newcomer.  As a result, he was only half-listening as Roberto spoke to him.

“Ready to head back…?” Roberto asked emerging from the tent to stand beside him. “With a little luck, we can finish what we started this morning and get back to mapping the main chamber.”

“What…?” Karim replied distractedly, his attention still focused on this new laborer whom he had seen Corbett bring back with him from the village.  This was Tariq.  It had to be.  He would have to get word to the others.

Annoyed, Roberto tried again.  “Scanning the section below the entrance.  See if there is actually a path. ”

“Path…?” Karim repeated, his attention still divided.

  “Earth to Karim.  Are you reading me?” Roberto stared at him.  “Where is your head today?”

“Sorry, what were you saying?”

“The scan we’ve been working on all morning,” Roberto said, annoyed at having to repeat himself.  “The path leading downwards.  The one Sebastian suspects the Neanderthals might have used.”

“Right.  The path.  Got it.  Sorry.  Just not thinking today,” he forced a smile.  “Let’s get to it.”  Attempting to conceal his excitement at having spotted Tariq, Karim tried to stay focused.  If the son of the cleric was here, it must mean they were preparing to move him.  Allah be praised…! Here indeed was the opportunity he had prayed for.  At last, a chance to atone for his carnal transgressions.

Quickly adjusting his thoughts to accommodate this unexpected development, Karim needed a plan. With little time to waste, he would somehow have to find an excuse to slip away in time to let Jarral and the others know before it was too late.  He had only been contacted by Jarral once since arriving at the site of the university dig.  That had been to show him a photo of Tariq and inform him that al Battar, the Sword of the Prophet, now occupied the abandoned farmhouse below.  If he saw this man, Jarral had said, indicating the photo, he must get word to them immediately.  Pleased at having been included, Karim had assured him he would not fail.

Moving up the incline leading to the cave’s entrance, Karim tried to make small talk with Roberto, his mind struggling as he searched for some convenient lie, a plausible excuse that would allow him to get away.  As they entered the lift and awaited their descent, Karim seemed to wince, then pressed his hands to his stomach.

“You all right?” Roberto asked.

“Just a cramp.  Must be something I ate.”

Reaching the cavern floor, the two men moved to where the 3D Scanner stood.  As they began their work, Karim abruptly winced again, pressing his fingers against his abdomen.  Claiming the cramping was becoming worse, he blamed the old man’s cooking.  Clutching his stomach he shook his head, stopping to allow the imaginary pain to pass.  Working together, they repositioned the instrument for a final scan of the space beneath the cave’s entrance high above.  But as soon as they finished, Karim excused himself.  Urgently explaining that he had to go, he promised to see Roberto back in camp and headed for the lift.  Shaking his head, Roberto watched him step into the cage and begin his ascent.  What a slacker, he thought.  Then returning his attention to the computer, he began compiling the critical data.

*****

As the lift reached the surface, Karim stepped out.  Glancing to his left he could see Tariq now at work operating the sieve as Sebastian and the other two, Nestor and