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"Two weeks after Iran took the prisoners, following some very secret talks back and
forth between Iran and Tony Blair, Iran released the sailors unharmed. Britain carried
out no retaliation. The U.K. didn't even demand sanctions against Iran. Outside of
some meaningless bluster, Blair and his government basically hushed up the incident,
buried it as quickly as possible. Why? What was it all about? I found it baffling." She
looked at all of us again.
"Then I found the key to the whole incident!" Audrey's voice rose and her face lit up.
She glanced down at her notes. "Listen to this. In February, a month before the taking
of the sailors, an Iranian diplomat his name was Jalal Sharafi was snatched off
Baghdad's streets by men in Iraqi defense force uniforms. Immediately Iran blamed the
U.S., made all kinds of threats. They really jumped up and down in the press about it.
The U.S. vehemently denied having anything to do with it.
"Now, here's the fun part. After Iran released the British sailors, Mr. Sharafi was
spotted at his home in Tehran. Isn't that neat?" She smiled at us.
Cormac shook his head. "I don't get it."
"It's so devious it's brilliant," Audrey said. "See, I think British forces disguised as Iraqis
took Mr. Sharafi. It's not unusual, by the way. Our people Delta Force, maybe CIA
people, you know do it too, almost routinely. We kidnap a diplomat and question
him. 'Does Iran have nuclear weapons? Are they developing them?' That kind of thing.
"Now, the Iranians knew from the start that intelligence operatives from the West
snatched their diplomat. There were plenty of eyewitnesses to the kidnapping, and not
a lot of Iranians are blonds, as at least two of the perpetrators were.
"Iran blamed America, naturally, but somehow I wouldn't be surprised if our embassy
told them they found out British intelligence forces had carried out the abduction. A
month later Iran found an opportunity to take the fifteen British sailors into custody. It
gave them the bargaining chip that they used to secure Sharafi's release.
"The public had no clue what was going on. The way the media reported the seizing of
the sailors, it seemed as if the Iranians were just acting crazy. Sure they were. Crazy as
foxes!"
"Okay, I see that," Cormac agreed, leaning back in his chair like Rogue always did,
crossing his arms across his chest, and stretching his legs under the table. The trouble
was, Cormac was shorter than Rogue. Only his head poked up above the tabletop. It
was comical. Something was definitely lost in translation. "But how is all that relevant
to the Intrepid going missing?" he challenged her again.
"It's the same thing," Audrey insisted.
"Hold on there, girlfriend," Benny said. "You're sounding one can short of a six pack, if
you catch my drift."
"I mean," Audrey said, "somebody took the Intrepid because we took something of
theirs."
"Well, now, it must be a mighty big something," Benny said, still skeptical.
"Actually, Audrey may have a point." J took over the conversation. "As I informed you
all, we have had a communication that may relate to the Intrepid's disappearance. It
came through our embassy in Pakistan. An international cricket star named Shalid
Khan has asked to meet with U.S. intelligence officials when he arrives in New York City
tomorrow. He says it has to do with returning a national treasure."
Audrey's brown eyes sparkled. "I told you!"
"Here's his photo. It's a Reuters press photo taken at a fund raising gala for a hospital
charity." He passed out some eight by ten glossies. "As to what the communication
concerns, let's not leap to any conclusions," J warned. "But the director of our agency
must be thinking along the same lines as Audrey, since the message has been passed
on to the Darkwings.
"One of you is to meet with Mr. Khan. Audrey, you would be perfect to take the
assignment. We'll set it up and let you know when and where. There's only one
problem," J added.
"What's that?" Audrey asked.
"To the best of my knowledge and that's after talking to our people and the officials
of the other intelligence agencies we do have some 'persons of interest' from the
Middle East in custody at the moment, but none of them is important enough to
warrant an operation of the magnitude of stealing the Intrepid."
"So what do they want?" Audrey asked.
"That's what has everybody nervous," J said. "Maybe they want us to empty Gitmo.
Maybe they want a troop pullout from the Middle East. Your job is going to be to find
out who's behind this, and then learn what they're really after."
The meeting finished up. Audrey was like a kid about to get a pony as she anticipated
meeting with Shalid Khan. She chattered to Benny. She bounced around in her chair.
Her energy level exhausted me just looking at it.
J's mandate to the rest of us was to keep trying to find the ship. Fat chance of that
happening, I thought.
Before we dispersed I ducked into my office to retrieve the Bloomingdale's bags. They
sat undisturbed where I had stashed them. But the computer was back on my desk as
if it had never been moved. I was impressed by the layer of dust on the keyboard. It
was subtle, but it showed some nice attention to detail.
I came back out into the meeting room, my hands laden with packages. It was going to
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