Callsign: Bishop (Erik Somers) (Chesspocalypse #5)

“You should have turned left at that last light,” he offered, again speaking Persian.

“I don’t think so,” the driver said in English. “We lost your tail back at the airport, but they’ll look for you at a place like the Evin. It’s too obvious. I’m taking you somewhere else.”

For a moment, Bishop was too stunned to speak, then everything clicked into place. In addition to Keasling and Deep Blue, there was one other person who knew Bishop would be coming to Iran. But he would have expected that person to be in Shiraz.

“Nice to meet you, Joker,” Bishop said.

“Call me CJ,” the driver replied, smiling.

“How did you know I would be coming to Tehran?”

CJ chuckled, and Bishop took the hint. CJ knew, and that’s all there was to it. He would never reveal the source of his intel, any more than Bishop would. He smiled.

“All right, then. Where are we going?” Bishop asked.

“There is a plane waiting to fly us both out to a small village on the outskirts of the Kavir. You have the coordinates of the Manifold facility, right?”

Bishop nodded.

“Good,” CJ continued. “The village is called Hassi. There’s not much left of it, but I know a guy there who can arrange transportation for us into the desert.”

“Not much left of it? Why? What happened?”

“The men who found the Manifold site also stormed through the village. They didn’t leave much behind.”

“But there’s a guy with a car?”

“A ride,” CJ corrected. “I never said anything about a car. How are your riding skills, anyway?”

Bishop shrugged. “I can get by.”

CJ smiled. “I bet.”

“Those guys were waiting for me, weren’t they?” Bishop asked. “They know who I am and why I’m here.”

CJ nodded. “And they have friends. Lots of them. And all of them want to talk to you.”

“What do they want with me?”

“You remember that picture I sent you of Dawoud and Faiza Abbasi?”

Bishop nodded. Of course, he remembered.

“Did you ever ask yourself why the United States Government would have such a picture? Why would a Delta team place cameras inside the home of an Iranian citizen and then monitor his activities?”

Bishop hadn’t considered that. He had assumed the picture was a fluke occurrence. But now that he thought about it, it didn’t make sense. The picture had been taken from inside the Abbasi home. Why would the US Government be spying on the Abbasis in their house? Unless…

“Damn,” he said.

“Yup,” CJ replied. “I hate to be the one to break it to you, Bishop, but your biological father is a terrorist.”

***

Several miles from the airport, another taxi slowed to a stop outside the Evin Hotel. Two men stepped out of the backseat. One of them went around to the front to pay the driver, while the other pulled out a cell phone and made a call.

“Yes, he is here,” he said into the phone. “No, we do not have him. He hired a taxi at Imam Khomeini before we could…of course we followed him, but our driver was not… At this moment? We are at the Evin Hotel. Ahmad believes the man might be staying here. Do not worry. If he is here, we will find him and bring him to you.”

Ahmad stepped toward the rear of the taxi as the car sped away, putting his wallet back into his pocket. He started to speak, but closed his mouth once his partner pointed to the phone.

“I will,” the man said. “I will. I assure you, we will find him. Do not worry.”

The first man closed his phone and looked at Ahmad. “He is not happy.”

“I did not think he would be,” Ahmad said. “What did he say, Massai?”

Massai shoved the phone into his pocket. “He said we better find Somers soon, or it will be very bad for us.” He narrowed his eyes and stared at Ahmad, wanting to make sure his partner understood his full meaning. “Very bad.”

Ahmad paled, then nodded his head. “Understood. We should get to work, then.”

The two men turned toward the entrance of the Evin Hotel and started walking.

“Do you think he is here?” Ahmad asked.

“I hope so,” Massai replied. “For our sake.”

“And if he is not?”

Massai shook his head. “We will keep looking. We dare not return without him.”





5.



Bishop felt like CJ had just punched him in the gut. “You sure?”

“Oh, yeah,” CJ said, weaving around a slow moving truck. “No question. We’ve been watching him for a long time. He’s not just a terrorist, he’s also a top terrorist recruiter. He spent several years recruiting for Al Quaeda, among others. He’s pretty high up the food chain.”

“Why haven’t you taken him in?”

“No proof.”