Sniper Elite: One-Way Trip

CHAPTER 12

Silverwood met Chou in the same hotel lounge where they normally met, finding a secluded table at the back and ordering two coffees.

“Okay,” Silverwood said, stirring a copious amount of sugar into his cup. “How familiar are you with the name Aasif Kohistani?”

“He’s the guy the Army was rehearsing to snatch out of Nangarhar when Sandra was captured. He’s supposed to be the leader of some Hezb-e Islamist group. That’s about all I know.”

“Okay, good.” Silverwood said. “So how familiar are you with Waigal Village?”

“Not very,” Chou said shaking his head. “I know its east of Shok Valley where ODA 3336 got pasted a few years back.”

ODA 3336 was an Operational Detachment A-Team that had been sent into the Shok Valley to take out Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the leader of the Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin political party. The mission had been a disaster, and a number of Rangers had nearly bought it.

“Good,” Silverwood said. “That’s actually more than I expected you to know, being attached to the Navy.”

“So educate me, Obi-Wan Kenobi.”

Silverwood laughed. “Okay. ODA 3336 was sent into the Shok Valley to take out a guy named Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. Familiar with him?”

Chou shook his head.

“He’s a sixty-five-year-old Islamic fundamentalist who founded the Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin party back in 1977. We call it HIG for short. He wasn’t too influential early on, but after the Soviets invaded, he became a big deal within the Mujahideen. There was a major problem with him, though. He killed damn near as many Afghans as he did Russians in his struggle to gain power. This made him pretty unpopular, so when the Taliban came along in the nineties, he got shoved aside. It wasn’t until we invaded and kicked the hell out of the Taliban that he was able to regain his political stature.” He saw the look on Chou’s face, nodding in agreement. “Yeah, I know. We have a way of creating these monsters with our good intentions. Anyhow, he went right back to butchering anybody who stood in his way, and his power’s been growing ever since. The failure of ODA 3336 to take him out back in ’08 only made him stronger.”

“Hold on a second,” Chou said. “Isn’t this the same nut responsible for the Badakhshan massacre?” He was referring to the massacre of ten foreign aid workers from the International Assistance Mission that had occurred in August 2010.

“Nobody knows for sure who ordered that attack,” Silverwood said, “but if it wasn’t the Gulbuddin faction, it was probably the Khalis faction — another Hezb-e Islami group that split off from HIG clear back in 1979—and it’s the goddamn Khalis faction that brings us here today! Not only has Aasif Kohistani recently become the leader of the Hezb-e Islami Khalis party — we call them the HIK — but they’re based out of Nangarhar Province where Sandra was taken.”

Chou sat back, taking a drink from his coffee. He put the cup down on the table and immediately added more sugar. “I know there’s more,” he said with a smile, “so I’m going sit patiently waiting to hear.”

Silverwood took a sip of his own. “Do you know how many parliamentary seats that the HIG and HIK parties hold between them as of this year?”

“First, tell me how many seats there are total, or the number isn’t going to impress me.”

Silverwood laughed. “They hold fifty out of two hundred and forty-six seats.”

“Okay, that’s impressive.”

“So,” Silverwood said, leaning into the table and lowering his voice, “suppose — just for the sake of conversation — that good President Karzai knows the HIK took Sandra. How likely is it that he’ll go against them holding that damn many seats in parliament?”

“That would be a big risk,” Chou agreed. “I’m sure he’d prefer to sit back and watch us work it out ourselves.”

“Or to be on the safe side?”

Chou conceded the point. “Or to be on the safe side, he could offer to act as intermediary for the ransom exchange — which is exactly what the hell he’s done. Okay, that much is clear, but there’s a flaw in your theory.”

Silverwood sat back again. “Which is?”

“I know there’s already been a positive ident on one of the bodies at the scene of Sandra’s abduction. She was taken by Taliban forces — we know that much for sure — and you just said the Taliban doesn’t get along with the HIK.”

“They didn’t when they were strong,” Silverwood said. “Now the HIK is a lot stronger than the Taliban, so teaming up with them is a good idea, considering their growing political power.”

“You know this is still all circumstantial,” Chou said, unconvinced there was a connection.

“It is, but only until you consider the fact that one of those dead Taliban fighters found at the scene of the abduction is an exact DNA match with the Kalasha people who live in the Waigal Valley… more specifically the highly inaccessible mountain redoubt village of Waigal. By the way, I haven’t shared these DNA results with the State Department yet.”

Chou pushed his coffee cup aside to rest his elbows on the table. “Is there a direct link to the HIK, or are you shooting in the dark on this?”

Silverwood allowed his imminent victory to show on his face. “Kohistani was born in the Waigal Valley, Ray. He’s not Kalasha, but he speaks their language and has family ties through marriage. And in case you’re still not convinced, we’re ninety percent certain the ISI guy we arrested yesterday has been feeding intel to Kohistani and the HIK since he started working with us in Jalalabad three months ago.”

“Say you’ve convinced me. What’s the punch line?”

Silverwood shrugged. “You’ve got the same information I’ve got now. Follow the intel stream to its logical conclusion.”

Chou took a moment to consider everything he’d just been told. “Oh, crap. You think State already knows the HIK has Sandra… maybe even where she’s being held?”

“Well, if they don’t already have some idea,” Silverwood said with a smirk, “they’re pretty fucking stupid, I’ll give you that.”

“But that doesn’t make much sense,” Chou said. “SOG hasn’t even been put on alert. No one’s even drawing up a contingency yet.”

“Which must mean DC’s decided to pay the ransom. Because unless my entire theory here is bogus, I don’t see any other explanation for the lack of military movement.”

“Good then!” Chou said. “Problem solved. The woman’s been through enough. Pay the fucking money and get her out of there. I’m all for it. Twenty-five million’s a lot, but State spends a hell of a lot more on a hell of a lot less every day. It’s not like they have to acknowledge the terms of her release.”

“I agree,” Silverwood said, “but doesn’t the ransom demand itself concern you? It does me.”

Chou sat looking at him. “Why should it? Afghanistan is full of kidnappers. Hell, it’s their leading industry.”

“Come on, Ray. If Kohistani and the HIK really do have Sandra, why would they give her up for something as trivial as money when she could so easily be used to drive a wedge between Karzai and the United States?”

“You mean by forcing him to choose sides?”

“Right.”

“Well, that’s an awfully big risk. Wouldn’t Karzai have to choose the US?”

“I’m not so sure,” Silverwood said. “Think about it. Not only does Karzai want us the hell out of his country, he wants us out before we jeopardize the alliances he’s struck over the last twelve months. If we’re leaving, he sure as hell can’t afford to galvanize fifty parliamentary seats against him over the likes of an American woman. Throughout history, Afghanistan’s been governed through alliances. It’s never going to be any different, and Karzai knows this as well as anybody… better than most, in fact.”

“So you think the ransom’s a ruse,” Chou said. “An attempt to steal twenty-five million without giving Sandra back. Or maybe an attempt to make Karzai look stupid?”

Silverwood shook his head. “I don’t have any idea. I just know I don’t trust the nature of the demand. That’s why I want you to pass this information along to your friends in DEVGRU. If you’ll agree to do that, then I can leave this godforsaken country tonight with a clear conscience.”

Chou was startled. “You’re leaving tonight. Has your wife taken a turn for the worse?”

“She’s stopping the chemo.” Silverwood gazed at his coffee cup. “She tells me the doctors say less than a month.”

“I’m awfully sorry, Brent. I wish there was something more I could say.”

Silverwood looked up again. “There’s plenty you can say, Ray. Only say it to DEVGRU because I got a really bad feeling about this ransom deal. I’m telling you.”