The pressure she’d been under, not only the quandary of what to reveal of Jhana-Merise’s presence and her knowledge of Hashim, but the intense preparation and secrecy for the trial had affected her performance. She’d been reprimanded for letting slip some classified discovery materials to a member of the defense team who hadn’t obtained the requisite security clearance. Since the trial had ended when Judge Littelton brought Hashim to chambers she’d been relegated to other work outside the DOJ’s purview. She was intent on working her way back into their graces. But the presence of Nazir in her apartment brought a new terror.

“He can’t stay here,” Isabel said to Arama.

The sorrow in Arama’s eyes was something Isabel knew well from their life in Cuzco. And, Isabel read in Vincente’s regretful smile awareness that he and his daughter had overstayed their welcome.

“I’m sorry. There’s too much at stake for me to have you here.”

“Don’t abandon us. You did that when you left father and me after mother died. Don’t make your ambition and fear what the rest of your life is about.”

The shame that Isabel had sequestered in her rise to what she believed was greater than the blood that ran through her ripped open.

Arama held her sister as she sobbed.

74

74

The setting orange sun shred its way in through jagged walls as seven mujahideen walked amid the rubble of the warehouse. The crushing desert heat, fallen blocks of stone, and metal had charred and pulverized the bodies of Hashim’s insurgents who didn’t survive the explosion three weeks before.

Rumors of the newly found cuneiform by the Americans had brought them here.

As they searched through the ruins for more stones, they heard the engines of Jeeps move toward the warehouse. Seconds later, mortars and grenades exploded and white phosphorus filled the air.

In suicide mode, three of the mujahideen rushed toward the Americans, firing a blast of bullets as they came into the warehouse—killing two of the five Special Forces. In turn, those three mujahideen were ripped apart when the other three Special Forces sent a mortar screaming down the hall. The other mujahideen scattered.

The Special Forces tracked them through the rubble.

On the young leader’s signal, they sent in a barrage of mortars.

The walls of the hall collapsed.

They heard the screams of dying men.

The mujahideen were buried alive.

The violence settled.

The taste of metal, and the smell of burning flesh filled the air, as the Special Forces made their way through the rubble to make sure all mujahideen were dead.

Outside the warehouse, the commander radioed base camp and told them the targets had been eliminated.

Word came back from the Pentagon to stay put because there would be more mujahideen on the way, as well as backup Special Forces.