Somewhere over the Mediterranean, Friday 22:05
This is a work of fiction.
Any resemblance to actual events or to real persons, dead or alive is, naturally, strictly coincidental.
41
Somewhere over the Mediterranean
“First, I should probably tell you a few things about myself,” said Daniel.
“Please do,” said Peter from behind. “We’ve got time, it is a long flight.”
“You don’t want to spend thirteen hours listening to me talk about myself,” said Daniel. “I am not that interesting.”
“I want to hear,” said Lara. “Go ahead.”
“Okay, you asked for it. I actually did train as a journalist, a science journalist to be precise. For a couple of years, I’ve covered health and science as a freelancer, but then some things happened in my life, and I found myself working for my government.”
“The US government,” commented Peter from behind.
“Yes, the US government,” said Daniel. “I am American. But I was actually raised in Switzerland. In Geneva, in fact. My father was stationed there. He was a military attaché.”
He paused for a few moments, and Lara waited for him to continue. She hoped that Peter would stop throwing comments from behind, although she realised he felt angry with Daniel — angry on her behalf.
“I started working for the CDC some years ago, and I was assigned a specific job. I was…” he hesitated. “I was working on biological threats.”
Lara’s eyes grew wide.
“You don’t mean to say this virus is….”
“Let the guy talk, Lara,” came Peter’s voice from behind. “It’s actually getting interesting.” Lara took a deep breath and waited.
“We got some intelligence about a group that was performing biological experiments in Pakistan,” Daniel continued. “Of course, there are many such groups, but we managed to get inside info about this one. Initially, we decided the best way to go about it was to try and stop those experiments, but then… then we lost them. They packed up and vanished before we could get our hands on them.”
“The long hand of the American government,” commented Peter from behind.
“Indeed,” said Daniel. “Anyway, they vanished.”
He stopped talking and closed his eyes.
“Why are you telling us all this?” asked Lara. “We only met twice.”
“That’s true,” said Daniel. “However, it appears that I might owe you more than an explanation. I might very well owe you my life. Or at least my freedom.”
The three of them sat in silence for another moment or two.
“You are the one who called the US embassy in Riyadh, aren’t you?” asked Daniel, looking at Lara across the aisle.
“I… I did. But that was just yesterday,” she said.
“A couple of days ago I was picked up by the Saudi internal services,” said Daniel. “It appears that I was asking a few too many questions, and I didn’t have the right papers, or so they’ve said. My journalistic credentials didn’t impress them. They picked me up from my hotel room, woke me at 5am and dragged me out of there. No one really knew where I was or where I was going, except some people back home of course…. And the US Ambassador in Riyadh. He had instructions to assist me if necessary. But my visit to Saudi was a well-kept secret. Too well kept, perhaps.”
“Except me… I knew you were here…” said Lara.
“And I am very grateful you did, Lara,” said Daniel. “If you hadn’t called, the American ambassador would have had no idea that I was arrested. He contacted the right people, and got me released late last night. But I am sorry you had to go through an unpleasant experience yourself.”
“I almost didn’t call,” said Lara. “I thought I was just over reacting, I thought I was being ridiculous worrying about you…”
“Well, you weren’t,” said Daniel. “And I thank you for that.”
Peter was suspiciously quiet behind them. Lara decided not to press the subject any further.
“So now that I’ve thanked you for what you’ve done for me,” said Daniel, “I suppose I should tell you the rest of the story.”
“Please do,” said Peter from behind.
Lara smiled.
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Link to the beginning of the series, here below:
