Chapter 13 Chapter 11 Crossing the River

The sun rose rapidly at dawn, and Mustafa was startled awake by the bright light and the bump on the road. He shook his head to wake himself up, and when he turned his head, he saw Abdullah smiling behind the steering wheel. where have we beenThe team leader asked his most senior subordinate. We're half an hour east of Amarillo now, and the last three hundred and fifty miles have been an easy drive, but I'm probably going to need gas soon. Why didn't you wake me up an hour ago? Why did I wake you up?You slept soundly, and there was hardly any traffic on the road the whole night except those big damn trucks.These Americans are probably sleeping at night, and I don't think I've seen more than thirty cars in the last seven hours.

Mustafa checked the speed. It was only sixty-five miles an hour.So, Abdullah was not speeding and they were not stopped by any police officers.There was really nothing that displeased him, except that Abdullah disobeyed his orders and carried out exactly what he asked for. There.The driver pointed to a blue rest stop sign, and we went to get some gas and something to eat.I meant to wake you up there, Mustafa.Take it easy, my friend.Mustafa saw that the gas gauge showed that the tank was almost empty.Abdullah was stupid to let the oil go down so low, but there's really no need to scold him for such a thing.

They pulled into a big rest stop with Chevron logos on the tankers, all self-serve.Mustafa took out his wallet, inserted his credit card into the credit card slot, and filled the Ford with more than twenty gallons of premium gasoline. While refueling, the other three took turns going to the men's room to check to see what was available, but it looked like they'd have to eat donuts again.Ten minutes after leaving the interstate, they were back on the highway, heading east toward Oklahoma.Twenty minutes later, they were in Oklahoma. Rafi and Juhar were awake, chatting in the back seat of the car, and while Mustafa drove, he just listened and didn't join in on the conversation between them.

The terrain is very flat, very similar to the landform of my hometown, but the color is much greener.The horizon is surprisingly far away, and it is impossible to estimate its distance at a glance.The sun had risen above the horizon, burning his eyes until he finally remembered that the sunglasses were in his shirt pocket.Sunglasses help somewhat. Mustafa recorded his mood at this time in his heart, and found that the journey was quite comfortable. The land he passed by was very pleasing to the eye, and the work itself was as easy as before.Every ninety minutes or so, he would see a police car, usually passing his Ford at such a speed that the cops in the police car couldn't see him and his mates clearly. , asking them to drive just above the speed limit is really good advice.They are going very well, but they are always being overtaken by other cars, even big trucks are overtaking their cars.Not breaking the law even makes them somewhat invisible to the police, whose main job is to punish those who are too late.He is very confident that the safety of this mission should be very secure.If the whole situation had not been so easy, they might have been followed, or stopped on some particularly deserted stretch of road, surrounded by many guns and hosts of enemies.But none of this happened.Another advantage of driving at the speed limit is that it becomes obvious if someone is following them.All he needs to do is check the rearview mirror, and no car will linger behind him for more than a few minutes.Any policeman who wanted to follow them would have been a man. It would have been a man, probably in his twenties or thirties, and there might have been two of them, one driving and one observing.Those guys should all be in good shape, with conservative haircuts.They would follow for a few minutes, then leave, and someone else would take over.There's no question they're smart, but the very nature of their tasks makes them predictable.Perhaps some cars would disappear for a while and then reappear, so Mustafa remained vigilant, but none of them reappeared more than once.Of course, they could also be tracked from the air by planes, but helicopters are easy to spot.The only real threat was the small fixed-wing aircraft, but he couldn't worry about everything.If it was a foregone conclusion, then it was a foregone conclusion, and he couldn't do anything to fight it.For a while, the road was empty and the coffee tasted pretty good.It's gonna be a great day, the green sign says Oklahoma City, Mile 36.

The news broadcast announced that today is Barbara.Streisand's birthday, to John.Patrick.For Wren II, this is the most important piece of information to start this day.He got out of bed and walked to the bathroom. After a few minutes, he saw that his timer coffee machine was indeed functioning. He had brewed two cups of coffee and poured them into the white plastic coffee pot.He decided to go to McDonald's this morning and pick up a Muffet with Eggs and Hash Browns on the way to work.It wasn't really a healthy breakfast, but it was filling, and at twenty-three, like his father, he wasn't too worried about cholesterol and fat, which were his mother's specialty.Mom should be dressed and ready to drive (by her lead secret operator) to Hopkins to start work this morning, and if she's going to have surgery today, she won't drink coffee because she's worried The caffeine would make her hand tremble slightly, and end up slicing the poor guy's eyeball through like an olive in a martini and sticking a little scalpel in his brain (that's a joke his dad told , and usually gets him a joking slap from his mother).Dad would go and write his memoir, and a shadow writer would help him out (he hated it, but the publisher insisted).Sally was currently an intern in medical school, and he had no idea what she was doing at the moment.Katie and Kyle should both be getting dressed for school, but little Jack has to go to work.He had only recently realized that college was his last real vacation.Of course, every little boy and girl is the same, wanting nothing more than growing up and gaining proper control over their lives, and when you finally get to that point, it's too late to turn back.It's tiresome to have to go to work every day, well, yes, you get a salary, but he's rich already, and he's the scion of a great family.The money, in his case, had come in, and he wasn't one of those libertines who would squander it all and ruin himself at the same time, was he?He puts the empty coffee cup in the dishwasher and goes into the bathroom to shave.

That's the other annoying thing, fuck how happy a teenage guy is when he sees the first down turn black and thick, and after that he needs a shave once or twice a week Beard, usually before going out on a date.But how annoying it would be to have to shave every damn morning!He remembered seeing his father shave and thinking, like every little boy, how wonderful it would be to be a grown-up.Yeah, you're right, the benefits of growing up really outweigh the troubles that come with it, and it's better to have a mom and a dad to help you with all the bullshit stuff in life.However. Yet what he was doing was an important thing, and in a way it was satisfying.As long as you take care of all the chores that come with it first, like washing your shirt, picking out a tie and tying it, putting on your blazer, walking out the door, and so on.At least he still has an interesting car to drive, and maybe he'll buy himself another car, maybe a convertible.Summer is almost here and it must be cool to let the wind blow through your hair.Until some crazy guy cuts the canvas roof with a knife and you have to call your insurance company, and then the car has to be in the factory for three days.When you need to do these things, growing up is like going to the mall to buy underwear, everyone needs to do it, but there is nothing you can change, except wearing and taking them off.

The commute to work is as constant as going to driving school, the only difference is that he no longer has to worry about the next test.Unless he screwed up, then he'd lose his job, and that stain would stick with him longer than the fact that he got scammed in sociology.Therefore, he will not spoof.The problem with this job is that it takes a lot of time every day to learn rather than apply his knowledge.The biggest lie about a college education is that it will teach you what you need to know for the rest of your life.Yeah, yeah, I'm afraid it didn't work out well with his dad and mom, who, for goodness sake, almost never stopped reading her medical journals so she could learn new things.And not just American periodicals, but also English and French, because she can speak pretty good French, and she said that French doctors are also pretty good, better than their politicians.But then again, if someone judged America by its political leaders, it would probably be a mess, at least not after his dad stepped down from the White House.

He was listening to the news radio again, his favorite news station, much better than the pop music.He has listened to his mother playing the piano since he was a child, most of them are Bach and musicians of the same period, maybe John.Williams, said that she can still play some modern things, although Williams wrote more brass pieces than piano pieces. Another suicide bomber in Israel.Hell, his dad had tried so hard to get it settled down there, but even with all that zeal and effort, even with the Israelis involved, there was no way to get it all settled.Jews and Muslims just can't get along, his dad and Ali.Bing.Prince Sultan talked about these things every time they met, and it was sad to see the frustration on their faces.The Prince hadn't been chosen to take the throne of his country; that might be a good thing for him, thought Little Jack, because being a king should be harder than being a president.Still, he was an important man, and the current king did most of what he said, which made him.

Uda.Bing.Shari.There was more news about him this morning, it was from the British Overseas Intelligence Service yesterday, and he knew it was all thanks to those CIA nerds in Langley.CIA nerd?Little Jack asked himself.His own father worked there and excelled until he stepped onto the international stage.He repeatedly told his children not to believe the intelligence community stories they saw in the movies.Little Jack used to ask him a lot of questions, but often got no satisfactory answers, and now he was in the business himself, learning to understand what the intelligence community really was like.Most of the time it's boring, a lot like accounting, a lot like hunting rats in Jurassic Park, even if you have the advantage of being invisible to velociraptors.Nobody knew the park existed, so there's no doubt that everyone here is safe so far.It gave them a sense of security, but then again, it was boring.Little Jack is still young, so he still thinks that an exciting life is an interesting life.

Leave National Highway No. 29 and turn onto the road to the park.Then came the same parking spot, waved and smiled at the security guard, and went upstairs to his office.That's when it occurred to Little Jack that he'd missed McDonald's, so he grabbed two Danishes from the pastry tray, poured himself a cup of coffee on the way back to his seat, and turned on his computer to get to work. Good morning, Shari.Little Jack said to the computer screen, what did you do again?The clock on the computer showed that it was 8:25 in the morning, which was the afternoon in London's financial district.Uda.Bing.Shari had an office in the Lloyd's Building, and Jack Jr. remembers seeing that building the last time he flew over there, and it looked like a glass refinery tower, with some pretty wealthy neighbors in the neighborhood .The report didn't say which floor he was on, and Jack Jr. hadn't been in that building anyway.Insurance should be the most boring job in the world, waiting for a building to burn down all day long.So come check it out, Shari made a few calls yesterday and one aha!I remember seeing that name somewhere.Young Ryan spoke to the screen.The name was a very rich Middle Eastern guy, and he would appear once or twice in the wrong place, so he was also under the watchful eye of MI5.So what did they talk about?

There was a translation of the phone call, the conversation was in Arabic, and the translation could have been just his wife asking him to buy a quart of milk on the way home from get off work.The actual content was probably as unexciting as that conversation was, except for Chari's answer which sounded completely harmless, are you sure?outside.However, that's not the kind of thing you'd answer when your wife asks you to buy a quart of skim milk when you get home from get off work. From the tone of voice, this sentence has other meanings.The UK analyst expresses his opinion at the end of the report. Then, later that day, Shari left his office early to go to a tavern and meet up with the guy he was talking to on the phone.So, the conversation wasn't entirely innocuous by the way.But they hadn't been able to eavesdrop on the conversation in the corner of the tavern, and there hadn't been any phone calls about the meeting or the meeting place, and Sally hadn't lingered too long in that tavern. Good morning, little Jack.Wells walked into the office, greeted him and hung up his suit jacket.What's the news? Our friend Shali was swimming around like a lively fish again.Little Jack followed the printing order and passed the printed report to his colleague without even giving him time to sit down. That seems like a possibility, right? Tony, this guy is a gamer.Little Jack said with a tone of conviction. What did he do after the phone call?Any unusual money transfer transactions? I haven't checked, but if anything, it was what his friend asked him to do, and the purpose of their meeting was to take advantage of a drink of John.Smith Bitter's chance to confirm this. You're doing leaps and bounds, and we try not to do that here.Wells warned. I know.Little Jack replied loudly.It's time to check the previous day's records of money in and out. Oh, you're meeting someone for the first time today. who is it? Dave.Cunningham.An accountant with forensic expertise who worked for the Department of Justice in organized crime and stuff like that.He's pretty good at spotting unusual financial transactions. Does he think I found anything interesting?Little Jack asked in a hopeful tone. We'll find out when he comes, probably after lunch.He may be looking at your profile right now. All right.Little Jack answered.He may have caught some clues.Maybe there was something exciting about this job.Maybe they'll give him a purple exercise belt to strap to his computer.Of course it will. Every day is a routine.Physical training after morning run, followed by breakfast and a class.In terms of content, it was no different from Dominic's days at the FBI training academy, or Brian's days at the basic training center.It was this similarity that made the Marine vaguely uneasy, because Marines were trained to kill and destroy things.Same here. Dominique did a little better on the surveillance portion of the course because the FBI training academy taught that and the Marines didn't.Dominique is pretty good at pistol shooting, although Brian prefers his Beretta to his brother's Smith.Wesson.His younger brother used Smith.Wesson came to kill the bad guys, but Brian used the M6A2 rifle to complete his work at a distance of fifty meters, close enough to see the expression on the opponent's face when the bullet hit the target, but too far away Let the opponent's return fire not become a serious threat.His gunnery sergeant had scolded him once for not going to the ground immediately when an enemy AK rifle fired in his direction, but he had learned that important lesson in the only actual combat.He found that at that moment, his mind entered a high-speed state, the world around him seemed to slow down, and his thoughts became particularly clear.Instead, to his surprise, he didn't see the bullets flying and his mind was racing so fast.Let's just say that the last five rounds in the AK|47's magazine were usually tracers, and he'd seen them fly around, though never directly in his direction.His mind often returned to those busy five or six minutes, blaming himself for something he could have done better, and secretly determined not to repeat those mistakes in thinking and commanding, even after acting, Sergeant Sullivan had the same respect for his captain during the operational review at their fire base with his fellow Marines. How's your morning run going today, brethren?Peter.Alexander asked. relax and happy.Dominique replied, Maybe we should try carrying another fifty-pound backpack. This can be arranged.Alexander replied. Hey Pete, that's what we used to do in the Scout Force, and that's no joke.Brian immediately protested, don't make that kind of joke, buddy.He added another word to his brother. Having said that, it's nice to see you're still in great shape.Alexander said easily.Anyway, he didn't need a morning run anyway.So, okay? I still wish I knew more about our purpose here, Pete.After taking a sip of coffee, Brian raised his head and said. You're not the most patient person in the world, are you?The trainer countered. Look, in the Marine Corps, we train every day, but even if we don't know why we train, we know we're the Marines, not going to the Girl Scouts for a cookie sale in front of a Walmart. So what do you think you are planning to do now? Killing people off guard, with no rules of engagement I could discern, looked more like murder.Well, Brian thought, he'd rather speak his mind.What will happen next time?I'm afraid they'll have to be sent back to Camp Lehoun, where they'll go back to their grass-green uniforms again.Well, it might be even worse! Well, that's it, I think it's time.Alexander backed off. What would you do if you were ordered to end someone's life? If the order is legal, I will execute it, but the law, or the system, allows me to think about the legality of this order. Well, hypothetically, if you were ordered to end the life of a known terrorist, what would your reaction be?Alexander asked. That's easy, I'll kill him.Brian answered immediately. Why? Terrorists are criminals and there is usually no way to catch them.These people started wars in our country, and if I'm called upon to bring the war back to their land, fine, that's what I'm joining the Army for, Pete. The system usually doesn't allow us to do that.Dominic said thoughtfully. But the system allows us to kill criminals at the scene of the crime.That's what you've done, and I haven't heard of any remorse from you, buddy. Neither will you, and it’s the same if you run into one.If the President asks you to kill someone because you're in uniform and he's the Commander-in-Chief, Aldo, you have a legal right, even a duty, to kill whomever he designates. Isn't this the same as what some Germans said in 1946?Brian asked. I'm not too worried about that, if we were we might lose the war.But I don't think that's going to happen any time soon. Anzo, assuming what you just said is right, if the Germans had won the Second World War, no one would have cared about the six million Jews who were killed.Do you mean like this? Two, Alexander interrupted, this is not a legal theory class. An Zuo is a lawyer.Bryan pointed out. Dominic was hooked.If the president breaks the law, the House of Representatives will impeach him, the Senate will convict him, then he will be kicked out of office, and then he will face criminal sanctions. Well, but what happens to the people who carry out the orders?Bryan responded. It all depends on the situation.Alexander told the two of them, what responsibility would they face if the outgoing president granted them amnesty? Hearing this answer, Dominic jerked his head back.Not at all, I thought.The president has the supreme power to pardon people under the constitution, just as emperors of old did.In theory, a president could pardon himself, but that would be a big legal headache.The Constitution is the supreme law of the land.In practice, the Constitution is God, so far, there is no room for appeal.You know, outside of Ford pardoning Nixon, this is an area that no one has ever really looked at.The Constitution is designed to be reasonably applied by reasonable people, and that may be its only weakness.Lawyers are a group of advocates, which means they are not always reasonable. So, theoretically, if the president pardons you for killing someone, you won't be punished for that crime, right? That's right.Dominic's expression is a little nervous, what do you want to tell me? It's just a hypothesis.Alexander replied, visibly flinching a bit.Anyway, this also ended this legal theory class at the same time.Alexander was secretly glad that he told them many things and said nothing at the same time. The names of these cities were foreign to him, Mustafa thought to himself.Shawnee, Okma, Willika, Farao, all strange names, but after all, they were not in Egypt.Egypt is a Muslim country, although its roles are quite confused, because the country does not recognize the importance of the Islamic faith politically, but sooner or later this situation will be reversed.Mustafa stretched out on the seat and lit a cigarette. There was still half a tank of gasoline. The fuel tank capacity of the Ford was indeed quite large, but the fuel was all Islamic fuel.These Americans are ungrateful bastards, the Islamic country sold them oil, what will the Americans get in return?Give the Israelis the weapons to kill the Arabs and there is little else to do.Dirty magazines, alcohol, and other corrupt factors influence Muslims, but which one is worse?Was it corrupt or was it influenced by corruption and fell prey to heretics?One day all this will be straightened out and that is when the commandments of Allah will be spread throughout the world.The day will come, one day, and he and his fellow warriors will be at the forefront of this wave of Allah's will.Their death would make them martyrs, and that would be something to be proud of.Their families, in due course, will mourn their deaths knowing that their fate may depend on Americans to learn, but also celebrate the steadfastness of their faith.The mere thought of American police units' tendency to show their effectiveness after a battle has already been lost made him smile involuntarily. Dave.Cunningham looked just what he should have been for his age, and young Jack judged that he should be in his sixties.Thinning gray hair, poor skin, probably quit smoking, but not soon enough.The gray eyes shone with curiosity, the way a Dakota weasel looks on the prairie looking for its next meal. Are you Little Jack?Cunningham asked as he walked in. it is me.Little Jack admits, do you know anything from my numbers? Not bad for an amateur.Cunningham conceded that your target was clearly stashing and laundering large sums of money; for himself, for others, etc. Who are the others waiting for?Wells asked. uncertain.He is from the Middle East and very rich, but he doesn't let go of any money.Interesting.Everybody thinks they're throwing money like drunk sailors, some of them are, the accountant said, but some of them are misers and buffalo howl when they spend a nickel.His age was revealed in that passage, the nickel with the buffalo on it was so old that even Little Jack couldn't understand the joke.Cunningham then placed some papers on the table between Jack Jr. and Wells, and three transfers were circled in red pen. He was a bit sloppy, and all the deals in question were in the £10,000 range, making it easy for us to find them.He disguised the money as personal expenses and put it into that account, probably so that his parents would not detect it.Accountants in Saudi are usually pretty sloppy, I guess it takes a million or something to make them unhappy, maybe they think this guy or something can spend ten thousand pounds in a casino, or It was a particularly good evening with a woman.Rich young lads like to gamble, although they are not very good at it.If they lived closer to Las Vegas or Atlantic City, they might even be able to create a miracle of balanced trade. They may prefer European prostitutes to ours.Little Jack expressed his doubts. Boy, in Las Vegas, if you're looking for a blond, blue-eyed Cambodian conch, he'll show up at your door within half an hour of you putting down the phone.Even mafia tycoons have their favorite activities, Cunningham knows from years of experience.These things upset the Methodist grandfather at first, but he then learned that it was another way to track crime, and he learned how to live with the expense.Corrupt people do corrupt things, Cunningham was part of Operation Noble Anaconda, which sent six Congressmen to the Commonwealth Country Club, a prison at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, using a The same method this time to track his prey.This made them the senior brothers of the fighter pilots on the base.For those former public opinion representatives, it may be quite a good movement! Dave, is our friend Shari the right player?asked little Jack. Cunningham looked up from the papers he was looking at: "Certainly for his performance.kid. Little Jack sat back in his chair feeling very content.Would it be important that he actually accomplished something? After entering Arkansas, the terrain became a little hilly, and Mustafa found that after driving 400 miles, his reactions became a little sluggish.So he drove the car into a service area, filled the car with gas, and let Abdullah take over the steering wheel.It was good to stretch before they were back on the road.Abdullah drove very cautiously, only the car driven by the old man was slow enough to be overtaken by them, and they stayed in the outside lane to avoid being run over by the continuous flow of trucks.Apart from avoiding the attention of the police, they had nothing to worry about anyway.They still have two days to confirm the goal and complete the task, which is still a lot of time.He was a little curious as to what the other groups were doing at this time.The distance they have to drive is much shorter, and one of the groups may have already reached the target city.The order they received was to find a good and cheap hotel within an hour's drive of the target, collect intelligence on the target, and then confirm by email that they are ready, and then wait for Musta Instructions to complete tasks cannot be issued.Of course, the simpler the command, the better, and there will be less confusion or mistakes.They are all very nice people and know exactly what the mission is.He knew everyone, Shayid and Mehdi were like him, born in Saudi, and like him, kids from rich families who despised their parents for Americans and others like that A flattering attitude.Shabawi is an Iraqi, born not very rich, but became a devout Muslim.He was a Sunni Muslim like everyone else, and he wanted to remind the Shiites who make up the majority of his country's population that he was a devoted follower of the Prophet.Iraq's Shiites have only recently been liberated from Sunni rule.However, they dared to strut their heads in the country despite being liberated by the pagans, as if they were the only ones who firmly believed in Islam.Sabahwi wants to prove to them that perception is wrong.Mustafa seldom allowed himself to worry about such trifles. For him, Islam was like a big tent, all-encompassing and all-encompassing. My ass is so tired from sitting.Lafite said from the back seat. It's no use calling again, brother.Abdullah answered from the driver's seat.As the driver, he sees himself as the temporary leader at the moment. I know, but my ass is still sore.Rafi said. We haven't ridden yet, so it's probably slower and worse for your ass, my friend.Mustafa said.This sentence caused a burst of laughter, and then Lafite buried his head back in his playboy. The map showed that it was going to be easy all the way until they reached Little Rock, when they would all be awake and ready.For now, the road winds through picturesque, tree-covered hills, very different from northern Mexico.Northern Mexico is very much like their hometown with yellow sand on the hills.They will never see, never go back. For Abdullah, driving is a very pleasant thing.This car is not as exquisite as the Mercedes his father drove, but it is enough to meet the needs at this time, and the steering wheel feels smooth in his hand. He leaned back with a cigarette.It must be a great feeling to have someone in the US race a car like this on a giant oval track!Drive as fast as you want, compete with others, and beat them!That must be much more enjoyable than being with a woman.How should I put it, it should be similar, or it should be different, he corrected himself.It should be said that after winning a car race, it must be very refreshing to find a woman.He was curious whether there were cars in heaven.A good car, and a car that can drive fast, like the car that Europeans like to play in Formula One, turning a small arc, and then rushing to the straight road like a horse out of bounds, using the car and the road to allow Extreme racing.He can also try it here, maybe this car can drive up to 200 kilometers per hour, but no, their mission is the most important thing. He popped the butt out of the car window just as a white police car with blue stripes on the side flashed by, Arkansas State Troopers.At this moment, Abdullah thought, the car seemed to be the fast car, and the man in it was wearing a conspicuous cowboy hat.Abdullah, like everyone else on this planet, watched a lot of American movies, including those cowboy westerns, where a group of people rode cows on horseback, or killed people in bars with pistols, for It's just a matter of leveling the surface.That image appealed to him, but that's what that kind of movie was for, he reminded himself, another pagan seduction of the devout.To be fair, American films are primarily intended for American audiences.How many Arab movies had he seen about a Kurdish crusader in Salah al-Din?Their purpose is to tell history, inspire the masculinity of Arab men, and preferably tear Israelites to pieces.Alas, but that hasn't happened yet.So maybe in American westerns, their masculinity is not that different from Arabs, except they use revolvers instead of the more masculine swords.Of course, automatic pistols have excellent range, so the Americans are very practical fighters, not just very smart about it.Needless to say, they were no braver than the Arabs, just wiser. He had to be careful with the Americans and their pistols, Abdullah told himself.If any of them were as accurate as a sharpshooter in a western, their mission might be aborted.That is not allowed. He wondered, sitting in the white car that passed him, what was that policeman wearing on his belt?Also, is his marksmanship good?Of course they could find out, but there was only one way to provide an answer, and that might jeopardize their mission.So Abdullah watched the police car pull away until it was out of sight.他讓自己冷靜下來，看著大型拖車一輛輛飛馳而過，他則是以穩定的六十五哩時速繼續往東開，且每個小時抽三根菸，外加一個飢腸轆轆的胃。小岩城，三十哩。 蘭格利那邊又有些事讓他們興奮了。戴維斯告訴漢德雷。 What did you hear?Handley asked. 有個外勤情報官從沙烏地一個線民處聽說了件奇怪的事情，好像是說某些可疑的玩家離開了當地，說是這麼說，地點不明，但他認為是在西半球，大概有十個人左右。 有多確切？Handley asked. 以可靠度等級數來說是三，那個來源通常可信度相當好。中情局總部某些蠢貨決定把這條情報等級降低，原因不明。那是園區的問題之一，他們要靠其他人來幫他們做大部分的分析，雖然他們自己的分析室裡有一些格外優秀的人才，可是真正的工作還都是在波多馬克河另一側完成，而中情局在過去幾年裡，該說幾十年，漢德雷提醒自己，已經把自己幾次上場的機會都搞砸了。在這個聯盟裡，沒有人的打擊率是百分之百，而中情局裡有很多官僚，就算是以少得可憐的政府薪水來說，都還付他們太多錢了。但是只要他們繼續按時完成文件，沒有人會真的在乎或注意到這些。值得注意的是，沙烏地人就是有辦法把他們那些有可能製造麻煩的人趕出境，讓他們到其他地方去犯下罪行，如果他們被逮到了，沙烏地政府將會全力配合，藉此輕易地搞定所有有關方面。 what do you think?他問湯姆．davis. 老天，葛瑞，我又不是吉普賽人，也沒有水晶球，我沒辦法未卜先知。戴維斯乘機一吐胸中怨氣，國土安全部已經接到通知了，那也意味著聯邦調查局和他們其餘的分析團隊都會加入，可是這都是粗略的情報，知道嗎？沒什麼可以讓你著力的地方。三個名字，但沒有照片，任何一個白癡也能夠用新名字弄到身分證明。甚至連暢銷小說都教過人們怎麼做，你恐怕還不需要那麼多耐性，因為在這國家裡，沒有哪一州會去交叉比對出生和死亡證明，可是那應該是很簡單的事情，連政府官僚都有辦法做好。 所以，再來會發生什麼？ 戴維斯聳聳肩說：像平常一樣，機場保安人員會收到通知，要他們保持警覺。他們會騷擾更多無辜的人，好確定沒有人會試圖劫持一架飛機。各地警察會注意可疑車輛，但那多半意味著，人們只要開車出點錯就會被攔下來。太多狼來了的狀況，連警察都沒辦法認真看待每一個事件。葛瑞，誰還能去責怪他們呢？ 所以，我們一切的防衛措施都被癱瘓了被我們自己嗎？ 從所有的實際目的來看，是的。直到中情局擁有更多的外勤資源，能在他們抵達此地前把他們辨認出來為止。我們是在被動狀態下，不是主動。God knows.He made a face.過去兩星期來，我的債券交易成績愈來愈好。Tom.戴維斯已經發現，金融生意才是他的喜好；或者，至少是比較容易上手的。也許當初他一離開內布拉斯加大學就進入中情局是個錯誤，他每隔一陣子就會問自己這個問題。 中情局報告上提到後續行動嗎？ 這麼說吧，那邊的某人會建議讓另外一個人去和我們的情報來源談談，但還沒獲得七樓批准。 Oh My God!漢德雷罵道。 嘿，葛瑞，你有什麼好驚訝的？你又不像我以前在那邊工作過，可是你以前在國會山莊一定看過這類事情。 為什麼他媽的基爾惕不讓弗利繼續幹中情局局長？ 他有個他比較喜歡的律師朋友，還記得嗎？弗利是個職業情報員，因此並不可靠。聽著，我們得面對這些了或許愛德華．弗利能幫得上點忙，但真正的治本之道要花上十年。那就是我們之所以在此地的原因之一，對吧？戴維斯帶著微笑補充道，我們那兩個訓練中的殺手在沙洛斯維表現得怎麼樣？ 陸戰隊員仍然有良心譴責上的問題。 我們的大胸脯普勒（編註：Chesty Puller，是Lewis Burwell Puller的暱稱，一九一七~一九五一年服役於陸戰隊，因胸膛厚實且英勇過人，因此人稱大胸脯普勒，這裡戴維斯用他來比喻布萊恩）竟然也會有下不了決心的時候？Davis said. 這樣說好了，我們不能雇用一條瘋狗。我寧可他們現在問問題，而不是到外勤現場出任務時才問。 I think so.硬體的情況怎麼樣？ next week. 拖得也夠久了。測試階段嗎？ 在愛荷華，用豬來測試。豬有類似的心血管系統，這是我們的朋友告訴我們的。 還真湊巧呢！戴維斯暗忖。 結果小岩城並沒有構成找路的問題，他們在四十號州際公路上往西南方走了一小段後，又繼續往東北方前進。此時，換成穆斯塔法開車，至於兩個坐在後座的人，在吃飽烤牛肉三明治和喝足可口可樂以後，就都酣然入睡。 這時，除了無聊以外，已經沒什麼可說的，沒有什麼東西能夠吸引住人的注意力超過二十小時，甚至連夢想著即將在一天半以後執行的任務，都沒辦法撐開他們的眼皮，拉菲和朱哈爾都睡得像個精疲力竭的孩子一樣。他把車子往東北方開，太陽在他的左後方，而路旁已經開始出現指示到田納西州曼菲斯市的路標了。他想了一會兒之後，明白他只剩下兩個州需要跨越在開車開了那麼久以後，通常很難思考得很清楚。他們的進度很穩定，雖然有點慢。如果搭飛機的話就好多了，但讓他們的機槍通過機場安檢可能會有點困難，他帶著一抹微笑想著。身為整個行動的領導者，他需要為不只一個小組操心，這是為什麼他選了四個當中最困難也最遠的目標，才好為其他人樹立榜樣。但有時候領導這回事實在很讓人厭煩，穆斯塔法暗忖，接著他在位子上調整了一下姿勢。 隨後的半個小時過得很快，他們來到一個不論高度或尺寸都很龐大的大橋，有個標示顯示出這是密西西比河，然後就是另一個標示，歡迎他們來到田納西，志願兵之州。由於車開得太久，他的心思開始四處漫遊，穆斯塔法開始納悶這是怎麼回事。無論是怎麼回事，他都必須穿越田納西州才能抵達維吉尼拉州，剩下的路程至少還要十五個鐘頭以上。他在通過曼菲斯以後還會往東開個一百公里，然後就會把車子交給阿布都拉去駕駛。 他剛開過一條大河。在他的祖國，擎個國家都沒有一條永久的河川，只有些乾河床，偶爾碰上一次傾盆大雨時才會短暫地氾濫，隨後很快就又乾涸了。美國是多麼富裕的一個國家，那可能就是他們驕傲個性的源頭。然而，他的任務，也是其他三位同志的任務，就是要殺殺他們的傲氣。這個任務，阿拉保祐，再過不到兩天即將達成。 離天堂還有兩天。這個念頭一直盤桓在他的心頭。