As had happened on the last visit to Hashim’s mother, Rollie was let in by a young veiled woman who was then dismissed.

“Is there something wrong, Rollie?” Kamilah asked.

“Well, um, I need to ask you about something,” the Aussie said uncomfortably.

The Saudi woman looked at him in puzzlement.  “You seem ill at ease.  What is this about?”

“I, uh. . . .  Hashim told me that you warned him before he left for New York that his life was in danger.  He also said that you seemed to want him to go anyway.”

A look of understanding came to Kamilah’s face.  “I see.  And you want to know what made me think he was in danger and why I didn’t try to make him stay at home.”

“Yeah.  I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t for all this stuff that’s going on, but anything I can find out might help us.  I’m sorry.”

“No, please do not apologize, Rollie.  I understand.  I did not tell my son what I knew because I did not want the knowledge to influence his actions.  But it is right that you should know since you are a large part of it.”

“I am?  How’s that?”

“Perhaps we should sit down.”  The Saudi woman sat with Rollie across from her.  “I was going to tell you these things when I felt the time was right.  It seems that the time has now come.  A few days before my son left for your country, I had a dream.  It showed him in great danger.  He stood upon a high cliff, alone and without protection.  A great vulture with talons like a lion’s claws dove at him, seeking to kill him.  But then, an eagle appeared from nowhere and struck at the vulture, driving it to the ground.”

“An eagle?” Rollie asked, shocked.

“Yes, Rollie, it was you.  You are the eagle.  It is the symbol of your spirit.”

“I know.  When I see myself in a vision, it’s usually as an eagle.  According to the beliefs of the Aborigines, the eagle is my totem animal.  If I was an Aborigine, I would be part of the Eagle clan.  The vulture in your vision must be Luther Syman, the assassin.  I guess it’s fitting to have a man who lives off death be portrayed as an animal that feeds upon the dead.  And the lion’s claws make sense too, with what we now know.”

Kamilah nodded.  “Dreams are not always as indecipherable as we sometimes think.  We only have to have the eyes to see them clearly.”

“So, you saw me save Hashim.”

“Yes, but that was not all.  When I awoke that morning, I decided to tell Hashim not to go on his trip.  I would have done so immediately, but he was away on business and was not going to return until the next day.  That night, I had another dream.  I saw my son again, and, again, his life was in danger, only this time, there was no eagle to save him.  I knew, then, that I had to let him go to the United States, for it was there that the eagle would be.”

“In other words, if Hashim hadn’t gone to New York, these people who want him dead would have struck at him here and succeeded.”  Rollie stood and walked away a couple of steps.  “We’ve been wondering why they waited until Hashim got to the States before going after him.  I thought that maybe they wanted him to be killed in the U.S. because of some political reason, but now I know that isn’t the case.  There must be some other reason.”  He looked back at the woman and noticed an odd expression on her face.  “What’s wrong?”  He looked at her more closely.  “You saw something else, something about me.”

Kamilah stood and walked away toward the balcony.  There was something about her demeanor that worried him.

“You saw me die, didn’t you,” Rollie said, already knowing the answer.

He heard the woman give a deep sigh.  “It was just before Hashim returned from the States.  I saw two eagles, a male and female.”

“Angie and me.”

Kamilah nodded.  “They were soaring together when, suddenly, something I could not see reached up and snatched the female eagle from the air.  The male eagle fought against the force imprisoning his mate, but he, too, was grabbed.  Then the evil that had captured them ripped open the breast of the male eagle and left his torn body to be swallowed up by the earth.”

Rollie sat down, his mind filled with the revelation of his own death.  “And Angie?”

“I do not know.  I awoke, and the dream ended.”  Kamilah came up, sat beside him, and took his hands.  “Remember what I said, Rollie.  The future can be changed.  What I saw does not have to happen.”

“But will I be able to stop it?  Will I be able to recognize what’s happening in time?”

“God willing,” the Saudi woman replied.

Rollie returned to his and Angie’s quarters.  He tried to hide the worry from his wife, but didn’t do a very good job.

“What is it, Rol?  What did you find out?”

The Aussie recounted the dreams Kamilah had about her son.

“So, that’s why she let him go,” Angie said.  “She knew that, if she didn’t, he’d die.”

“Yeah.  This also means that we can check one reason off the list of possibilities of why these extremists waited to kill Hashim.  It wasn’t political or to cause trouble for the U.S.”

“So, what else did she say, Rol?  There’s something you’re not telling me.”

Rollie gathered her in his arms and held her tight.  He buried his face in her hair.  “You know that I love you and that I’d do anything to protect you, don’t you?”

Angie pulled his head up.  Holding his face in her hands, she stared into his eyes.  “Rollie, you’re scaring me.  What else did Kamilah tell you?”

Closing his eyes for a moment, he then told her about the third dream Hashim’s mother had experienced.  Angie’s body stiffened when he got to the part where he died.

“Well, it’s not going to happen, Rol.  It’s just not!  I’m not going to lose you.”  There was a slight tremor in Angie’s voice.

“Ange, listen to me.  If it comes to me having to die to save you--”

“No!”  Angie ripped away from him and strode away, her chest heaving.

“Ange--”

“No!”  She spun around and glared at him, her eyes burning with rage and tears.  “I won’t let you, do you hear me?!  I won’t let you die for me!  You already almost did.  You came so close, Rollie.  I still have nightmares about seeing you and all that blood, feeling you die in my arms.  I couldn’t take it if it happened again.  I’d rather be dead.”  Angie choked on the last word and turned away from him again.

Rollie came up behind her and wrapped his arms about her, pulling her close against him.  He just held her for a long time, then, trying to keep his tone light, he said, “Well, since you’re not going to let me die, and I’m not going to let you die, then I guess we’ll just have to live forever, right?”

“I guess so,” Angie agreed softly.  “That seems to be the only solution.”

“Well, since we’ve got that little problem solved, how about if we see how much newlywed stuff we can squeeze in before dinner.”  Rollie started caressing her lower belly.

Angie caught his hand and wrapped his arms more tightly about her.  “I love you,” she whispered.

Rollie pressed his cheek against hers.  “And I love you.”

She turned in his arms.  “Now, about that newlywed stuff.”

“What newlywed stuff?” Rollie murmured as his lips covered hers.

They made love with quiet intensity, filling each other’s hearts with passion.  They kissed and caressed ceaselessly, as if each of them was trying to forever imprint upon their memory the taste and feel of the other.  As their minds and bodies joined, they lost themselves in the ecstasy, forgetting for a few precious moments the dangers and enemies that threatened them.

In the quiet that followed, they held each other tightly, not wanting to break contact for even an instant.

“Rollie, have you ever really thought about the Dreaming?” Angie asked softly.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, it isn’t something that just anyone can do, you know.  Have you ever really thought about why and how it is that you can?”

There was a pause before Rollie answered.  “Not really.  When Mangela first started teaching me about the Dreamtime, I just accepted it.  To the People, things like that are a normal way of life, and Mangela made me believe that it was perfectly natural for me to have those abilities.  Back then, my whole life revolved around Mum and the People.  Mangela was, well, my father, far more than Dingo was.  When he told me about the Dreaming and the songlines and showed me how to hear the songs and see the dreams, I didn’t give much thought to the fact that it was something most people don’t or can’t do.  After the things that happened with Mum, and Luther Cale, and . . . everything else, I didn’t want the songs or the dreams anymore.  I drove them out of my mind.”

“Until Loubar came back, and you started having the dreams again,” Angie said.

“Yeah.”

“Why don’t you want it, Rollie?  I mean, it’s like you wish that you didn’t have these abilities.  Why?”

Angie felt her husband’s body stiffen at the question.  He didn’t speak for quite some time, and when he finally did, his voice was strained.

“Sometimes, I . . . see terrible things in a Dreaming, Ange.  It is so hard to see those things and know that, if I can’t stop them, they’ll come true, that, no matter how hard I try, there are some things I won’t be able to stop.  People think that being able to see the future would be cool.  Well, it’s not.  It can be hell.”

Angie thought about what Rollie had said.  It was true that a lot of people thought that being able to predict the future would be great.  They could see stock market futures, what horses were going to win races, what teams would win games, and get rich from their knowledge.  But they failed to think about the other things that they might see.  The death of loved ones, terrible calamities, horrible things that they could not stop.  The fantasy and the reality of seeing the future were two entirely different things.  You wouldn’t always be able to pick and choose what you saw.  All at once, Angie realized that she wouldn’t want Rollie’s ability, not for all the riches on Earth.  And yet, that ability had saved them before, and it might save them again.

Angie tightened her arms about her husband’s waist.  “If you ever want to talk, Rollie, about anything, I’m always here.”

Rollie’s embrace tightened as well.  “I know, Ange.  When this thing is over with, I want to tell you some stuff.  It’s just. . . .”  His voice trailed off helplessly.

“I know.  You can’t yet.  It’s okay, Rol.  I do understand.”  Something had hurt Rollie deeply, so deeply that just the thought of it still brought him tremendous pain.  She wished that she could take the pain away, make him forget.

Angie slid upward and captured Rollie’s lips in a passionate kiss.  With a groan, he returned it with feverish abandon.  His fingers dug into her hair as they searched each other’s mouths deeply.  Then he reached down to her waist and pulled her up so that he could cover her throat and breasts with his kisses.  Angie moaned as the fire in her veins spread throughout her body.  She began to stroke his shoulders and chest as his hands wandered down to her hips and thighs.

Rollie rolled over and imprisoned her beneath him.  His lips traveled down to her stomach as his hands touched and caressed her in places that made her wild with desire.  Then, with a quick movement, she rolled back over on top of him.  Angie pressed him down into the softness of the bed and, with her hands, mouth, and body, made Rollie Tyler forget, if only for a while.

The lion stood proud and alone, its eyes blazing with the light of hatred.  Its mouth opened in a mighty roar, but no sound came forth.  Defiantly, it raised its head to the sky above where hundreds upon hundreds of stars shone brightly.  The lion focused its gaze upon the stars, and, suddenly, many of them changed from white to an angry red.  A look of triumph on its face, the lion roared again, and, this time, the whole world heard. . . .

Rollie awoke with a start, a shudder passing through him as the last remnant of sleep was ripped from his mind.  He looked down at Angie who lay beside him, still lost in slumber.  Picking up his watch, he saw that he’d been asleep only a little over an hour.  In another hour, it would be time for dinner.  Careful not to wake her, he slipped out from under Angie’s arm and went into the bathroom where he splashed some cold water on his face.  Three different Dreamings in the space of a week, each one filled with danger or the feeling of a threat.  If this kept up, he’d be afraid to go to sleep.

The Aussie sat on the edge of the tub and thought about this latest dream.  The lion again, only, this time, it was not striking at him.  What did the stars represent, and why had they turned red?  There was no way of knowing.  The image was too vague.  There were too many things that it could mean.  The one thing that he did understand, though, was the final roar the lion gave.  He knew it meant that, when the lion finally did carry out its plans, the entire world would know what had happened.  Rollie felt dread fill him.  He had a terrible feeling that what the extremist group was planning to do would cause widespread calamity.

Rollie took a quick shower and got dressed.  He then sat in a chair and watched Angie sleep.  They were rushing toward something that could very easily destroy them, and, though he had never believed in fate, the feeling that he was fated to collide with the lion was strong within him.  Could he turn his back on that fate and leave it all in the hands of someone else?  No, he couldn’t--and that’s why he was fated to battle the lion.  But Angie wasn’t.  She could be taken somewhere where she’d be safe.  What Rollie had told David about them not spending their honeymoon in hiding had just been words spoken as a display of his defiance against the events that were taking their lives out of their control.  The truth was that, if he could keep Angie safe by putting her on a plane and sending her back to the States, he’d do it in an instant, the honeymoon be damned.  But, even if he could get her to go, something he seriously doubted, would she really be safe in the U.S.?  He didn’t know if it was because of what they’d learned about the extremists or something else, but he had a feeling that home would not be safe for her--or for anyone else if they did not succeed in stopping the extremists’ plans.

Angie began to stir.  Rollie got up from the chair and laid down on the bed, his head next to hers, and watched her awaken. Her eyelids fluttered and opened, revealing the eyes he loved so much.

“Hey there,” he murmured.

“Hi,” Angie murmured back.  She stretched luxuriously, making the sheet fall away from her bare breasts.  Not able to help himself, Rollie leaned over and started kissing them tenderly.

“Mmm.  What time is it?” she asked.

“Almost six-thirty,” Rollie replied between kisses.

“Then you’d better stop doing that, otherwise we’ll miss dinner,” Angie commented with a smile.

The Aussie lifted his head with a grin.  “You know, food is highly overrated.  There are lots of much more important things.”

“Well, I think you’d get an argument from my stomach on that.”

“Killjoy,” Rollie muttered, his eyes sparkling.

While Angie showered, Rollie tried to decide if he should wait until after dinner to tell her of his latest Dreaming.  He never even considered not telling her about it.  Every journey he now took into the Dreamtime was too important to keep to himself.  Deciding that there was no sense in adding more worry to the evening, he chose to wait until later.

By an unspoken agreement, no one talked about anything having to do with the extremists or their plans.  Instead, they eventually ended up on the subject of children.

“Do you and Angela plan on having children, Rollie?” Kamilah asked.

“Sure do, at least a doz . . . uh, three or four,” the Aussie replied, quickly changing what he was going to say after receiving a glare from his wife.

“Children are one of the great joys of life,” Hashim said.  “But they can also be your greatest heartache.  This world has become a dangerous place for the little ones.  I read so many stories of children and teenagers disappearing, most of them never to be seen again.  It must be a terrible thing to lose a child, especially like that.”  There was a look of sadness on the sheik’s face that made Rollie think there was something very personal to Hashim in this topic of conversation.  The Aussie looked at Kamilah and saw the sadness there as well.

The sheik quickly changed the conversation to something lighter.  A short time later, they headed to the sitting room where they chatted some more while listening to music.

“I fear that my poor assistant, Rabi, is quite ill now,” Hashim announced, a smile on his face.  “My doctor says that he will be completely incapacitated for a good week.”

“What a shame,” Angie said, fighting down a snicker.  “I hope you’re taking good care of him.”

“Oh, very good care, Angela, I assure you.  Rabi will be getting all the consideration he deserves.  Kareem is seeing to that personally.”

Rollie choked down a laugh.  He guessed that, by the time this week was over, the traitorous assistant would be more than happy to be turned over to the police.

As the evening drew to a close, Rollie considered mentioning his dream while everyone was there together.  He was about to speak when he suddenly got an odd feeling, an abrupt sensation of danger.

“Are you all right, Rollie?” Hashim asked, noticing the strange look that had passed over the Aussie’s face.

“Yeah, I’m okay.  I. . . .  It’s nothing.”  Rollie looked at Angie.  “Well, I guess we’d better go on to bed.  It’s been a long day.”  The couple said goodnight, then headed up to their quarters.

“So, what is it?” Angie asked once they were there.

“Hmm?  Oh.  I don’t know.  I just got a funny feeling, that’s all.  I was about to tell everyone that I had another Dreaming.”

“You had another one?  When?”

“During that nap we took.  I’m afraid this one’s really got me stumped.”  Rollie went on to recount the dream, including his thoughts on what some of it meant.

“Well, I don’t have a clue on those stars either.  With the way your dreams work, they could be actors, for all we know.”

“Why, that must be it, Ange.  They’re going to destroy the television and movie industry.  The horror of it!  There’ll be rioting in the streets!  Total anarchy!”

“And we’ll be out of a job!”  Angie added.

They both laughed, then slowly grew quiet as the seriousness of the situation forced itself back into their minds.  Not wanting to talk about it anymore, the couple got dressed for bed, then, snuggling up together under the covers, talked about all the wonderful things that they were going to do on their honeymoon.  They finally fell asleep, and the only dreams that came to Rollie that night were the kind that held no portents of the future.
 

CHAPTER TWELVE -- BARGAIN

Rollie didn’t know if it was paranoia or something else, but when he got up the next morning he had a feeling that they should check the estate for bugs again.  Fortunately, this time they wouldn’t have to do it by sight since among the things that David had shipped to them were two detectors.  While Rollie swept the first floor, Angie checked upstairs.  Every downstairs room came up clean--until the Aussie got to the sitting room.

Rollie stared at the listening device that had been stuck under the table, wondering how it had gotten there.  He was certain that it hadn’t been there when they checked before.  Then he remembered the odd feeling that he’d had the previous night.  If he had ignored it and spoken about the Dreaming and the extremists, the ones who planted the bug would have heard everything.

Just then, Angie and Hashim came in.  Rollie quickly made a shushing motion with his finger and pointed under the table.  The three went outside.

“Did you find anything upstairs?” Rollie asked Angie.

“No, nothing,” she replied.  “Who could have planted that bug, Rol?  Do we have another informant here?”

“I don’t know.”  The Aussie turned to Hashim.  “Was anyone here yesterday?”

“Yes, an associate of mine was here for a short time in the afternoon while you and Angela were in your quarters.”

“Did he have access to the sitting room?”

“Yes, we sat in there to discuss some business.  But I cannot believe that he would be involved in this.  I have known Omar for three years.”

“At this point, I’m afraid that we have to suspect just about everyone,” Rollie said regretfully.  “Was this business meeting planned or a last minute thing?”

“No, it was not planned.  Omar showed up unexpectedly with some papers he said needed to be signed right away.  Thinking about it now, there was actually nothing that could not have waited a day or two.”

“I’m afraid there’s a good chance then that he planted the bug,” Rollie said.  “If it had been someone on your staff, I’d think that they would have planted more than one.”

Hashim turned away, a distressed look on his face.  “I can no longer trust anyone.  People that I have known for years are turning out to be enemies.”  He turned back to Rollie.  “What do we do about the listening device?”

“Leave it.  If they know we found it, they’ll realize that we know about them.  Besides, it might be useful if we have to pass on some false information.”

“Why do you think they planted it now?” the sheik asked.

“Because they lost their informant,” Angie replied.

Rollie nodded in agreement.  “They lost their human ears, so they had to resort to electronic methods of eavesdropping.  Frankly, I don’t know why they didn’t do that in the first place.  It’s a good thing they didn’t, though, or we’d be in big trouble.  But they sure do work fast.  They must have sent Omar over as soon as they found out they’d lost Rabi.  Did Omar ask about your assistant?”

“Yes, he did.  I told him what we have been telling everyone, that Rabi is very ill.  I think he believed me.  I hope he did.”

“Well, at least we can now be pretty certain that these extremists don’t have any more people in your staff,” Angie pointed out.  “If they did, Omar wouldn’t have had to plant that bug.”

“All the same, we still need to be careful with what we say around other people,” Rollie cautioned.

“What now?” Hashim asked.

“Now, we check all the phones,” the Aussie said.  “I want to make certain that no one is listening in when David calls.”

The phones turned out to be clean.  They spent the rest of the morning discussing Rollie’s latest dream and trying to come up with more theories on why Hashim was so important to the extremists.

The call from David came in just before one o’clock, which meant that it must have been pretty urgent considering how early in the morning it was in New York.  Rollie, Angie, and Hashim all went into the temporary workshop to take the call.  There was no need for the Aussie to hook the phone up to their scrambler since it was already being encrypted by the feds.

“Rollie, I have several other people here with me.  This is Randall Travis.  He’s one of our agency heads.”

“Mister Tyler,” greeted a new voice.

Rollie could instantly tell by the tone in the man’s voice that this guy was going to be difficult.  “Mister Travis,” he responded in the same stiff, unfriendly tone.

“We checked into that name you gave us, Rollie, and hit pay dirt,” David told them.  “It is definitely the name of our secret extremist group.”

“And, now, we want to know how you knew that name, Mister Tyler,” Travis stated firmly.

“Did Agent Rain tell you what I told him?” Rollie asked.

“Yes, but we are not in the habit of allowing civilians to extort us.  I would advise that you give us the information, Mister Tyler.”

“Or what?  If we don’t get the info that we need, there’s a good chance that we’ll end up dead.  What can you threaten us with that’s worse?  Either tell us what you know about all this stuff or you can hang up right now, Mate.”

There was a long silence on the other end as Rollie was put on hold.  When Travis came back on the line, the tone of his voice was subtly different.  He now sounded resigned and a bit testy.

“All right, we’ll give you what you want, though you’re not going to be happy with it.  The truth is that we don’t know what Silent Lion’s plans are.”

“What?!  You couldn’t tell us that in the first place?”

“It is not something we want to get out.  We have been trying to gather intel on this group for four months now and have had next to no success.  All we know is that they are planning a major strike sometime next week and that it’s going to involve not just the U.S., but several other Western nations as well.  We also know that their code name for this operation is Blood Star.”

Rollie just about jumped out of his seat at the mention of the code name.

“Rollie, that’s--” Angie began, then quickly cut herself off.

The Aussie nodded energetically.  “Do you have any idea why they named it that?” he asked Travis, not quite able to keep the excitement out of his voice.

“No, none, though what little we’ve learned points to an attack involving some kind of new technology.  We also know that it doesn’t involve nuclear weapons.”

“That makes sense,” Rollie stated.

“How so?”

“Well, think about it.  These people want to destroy the U.S. and all Western governments.  Even if they nuked the capitals of every Western nation, it wouldn’t destroy the countries.  Things would be a mess for a while, but the underlying operation of the governments would only be temporarily crippled, not killed.  From what I’ve been told by you and David, these guys want to play for keeps.  A massive nuclear strike, one that would wipe out whole countries, would cause huge radioactive clouds that would poison the entire planet, including wherever these extremists are.”

“What about biological weapons, Rollie?” Hashim asked.

The Aussie shook his head.  “I don’t think so.  If you’re talking about some kind of noncontagious toxin or virus, you’d have to use an awful lot to wipe out the population of a whole country, especially one the size of the U.S.  I don’t know if it would be possible, not without enormous resources.  If it’s a contagious viral or bacterial agent, then there’s the danger that someone infected will get on a plane and spread the plague all over the place.  You could wipe out everyone.  This has to be something that they can limit to the targeted countries.”

“You seem to have been giving this quite a bit of thought, Mister Tyler,” Travis commented.  “We have been discussing these same things for nearly a month and a half now.”

“I haven’t really thought about it that much, not that part of it, anyway.  It just makes sense that they aren’t going to want to do anything that will threaten their own country, and it’s also pretty certain that their resources are limited.  Now, what about Hashim?  Do you know why these extremists want him dead?”

“We are not certain, but we believe that Sheik Alafa may have information that is a threat to them.”

“I have no information,” Hashim insisted.  “I did not even know about all of this until I heard about it from your people.”

“Nevertheless, with what we know, that is our best guess.  It could be that you possess information and are not even aware of it.”

“Then why haven’t they tried to kill me again?”

“We’re not certain.”

“Does this have something to do with the lie you propagated about the reason a hit was put out on Hashim?” Angie asked.

There was a pause.  Before they could deny it, Rollie spoke up.

“We know that the real reason Hashim was targeted has to do with this organization that’s involved with Western/Middle East relations.  Was it because of the organization itself or the meeting he was going to?”

“We were told that someone in the organization had important information about the extremist group, but we did not know who it was,” Travis explained.  “We were also told that this person had passed all or part of the information on to one or more other members of the organization.  A few days before the meeting, we learned that Sheik Alafa might have been one of the people given the information.”

“I’m surprised that you didn’t drag him in for questioning,” Angie commented.

“Well, for one thing, that would have caused serious diplomatic problems.  For another, we weren’t certain if he knew anything, not until they actually tried to kill him.  Afterwards, we found out things that drew our attention away from him.”

“What do you mean?” Hashim asked.

“A fellow member of your organization here in the States was mysteriously killed by an assailant the night before the assassination attempt on you.  We had thought that this man was out of the country on an extended vacation, but when his body was found, we realized that had not been the case.  Then, later, we learned that another member, one in Canada, died when his car ran off the road the same day that the other man was killed.”

A look of shock spread across Hashim’s face.  “Who were they?” he asked.

“Martin Winslow and Dean Forrest.”

Hashim sat down abruptly.  “I talked to Martin only a couple of weeks before the meeting.  He called to make sure that I was going.”

“That’s interesting,” Travis said.  “We’ve since learned that Mister Winslow was the man who originally had the information about Silent Lion.  We have no idea where he was for the six months prior to his death.  How often within that time did he contact you?”

“Not often, though more than he usually did.  He called me sometime back in December, then perhaps four or five times after that.”

“Did he ever send you anything?  A letter or package?  Something by e-mail?”

“No, nothing.  We only talked.”

“Perhaps the information was sent to someone else who was supposed to give it to you,” Travis suggested.  “Obviously, it’s something you don’t know you have.”

“So, you definitely think that Hashim has it?” Angie asked.

“We’re pretty certain.  And the extremists must think so as well since they are watching him.”

“Which brings us back to why they haven’t tried to kill him again,” Angie said.

“It could be that this group’s knowledge was as uncertain as ours was about who had the information.  The fact that they waited five months to carrying out a hit on him seems to support that.”

Rollie got to thinking about Hashim possibly having information that he didn’t know he had and why the extremists didn’t kill him as soon as they suspected he was involved.  These people obviously wouldn’t have any qualms about killing someone who might later turn out to have been no threat to them.  Why did they wait?  A more puzzling question was how could Martin Winslow have given Hashim the information?  It would have to be something that Hashim would find out about if it became necessary.  If there was no way for him to learn what the information was, then there would be no point to him having it in the first place.  Rollie’s thoughts were interrupted by Travis.

“All right, Mister Tyler, we’ve held up our end of the ‘bargain’.  Now, we want to know how you learned the name of the organization.”

Rollie paused.  They were now to the part that he’d dreaded.  He knew that they weren’t going to believe him if he told the truth, but what lie could he give them that they couldn’t disprove?  Tell them that he has an anonymous informant?  They probably wouldn’t buy that either.  Besides, he had agreed to tell them how he knew.

“You knowing this isn’t going to help you in the least,” Rollie explained.  “It isn’t a, um, resource or informant that you can use for more info.  Oh, speaking of informants, we’ve identified another person involved with this group.”

“Who?” David asked.

Hashim gave them the man’s name and some other information about him, then Rollie told them about the bug.

“Well, this could help,” Travis said, sounding hopeful.  “We might be able to trace some other members though him, and that bug could come in handy, too.  Now, you were saying, Mister Tyler?”

“You’re not going to believe me,” Rollie said in a final attempt to avoid telling them about the Dreaming.

“We’ll make that determination,” Travis said, an edge of impatience in his voice.

Rollie sighed.  He just wasn’t going to get off the hook.  “All right, you asked for it.  I learned the name in a dream.”

There was about five seconds of dead silence on the other end, then, “I don’t believe we heard you right.  It sounded like you said you found out in a dream.”

“That’s what I said.  I had what the Australian Aborigines call a Dreaming.  It’s kind of a way of seeing the future.”

“What are you trying to pull, Tyler?!” Travis yelled.  “We told you what we know about these extremists, and you come back with this load of crap about tarot cards and crystal balls?  We want the truth!”

“It is the truth, Travis, and I never said anything about tarot cards, crystal balls, tea leaves, astrology, or anything else like that!” Rollie yelled back, suddenly filled with an instinct to protect the beliefs of the people who had adopted him.  “The Aborigines have been practicing Dreaming for thousands of years.  It’s as normal and accepted a thing to them as listening to the weather forecast is to Americans.  I’m sure you have access to lots of information on just about anything.  Check it out.  Broaden your mind--if that’s possible.”

“Tyler, you’d better--” Travis began threateningly, but was interrupted by David, who said something that Rollie didn’t quiet catch.  The Aussie was suddenly put back on hold.

“Rol, that guy is really pissed,” Angie said.  “You know, if he really wanted to, he could send someone here to drag us back to the States by force.”

“Yeah, he could, but then what?  If he did that, then Silent Lion would know that something’s up.  This Travis might be a bureaucratic, bullying, arrogant jerk, but I doubt he’s stupid.  If he is, then we’re in even more trouble than I thought.”

It took about two minutes for Travis to get back on the phone.  When he did, Rollie could actually feel the tension and anger coming from the other end of the line.

“All right, Mister Tyler, for now, we’re going to assume that you’re telling the truth.  Tell us about this dream you had.”

Rollie told the man what he saw in the dream about the lion and cobra, then revealed what the dream he’d had yesterday showed him.  He did not mention the first dream he had upon arriving in the country, the dream about the hot wind.

“You saw more than one star turn red, Rollie?” David asked.

“Yeah, quite a few of them did,” the Aussie replied, happy that at least David believed him.

“Is there any other information that you have?” Travis asked.

“No,” Rollie replied.  He wasn’t about to tell them about Kamilah’s dreams.

“Then we will be in touch as necessary, and if you have any more of these dreams, contact us immediately.”

“Wait.  I have another question for you.  You said that you found out about these extremists four months ago, but that you’ve been thinking about ways that they could destroy the U.S. and other Western nations for less than a month and a half.  What’s the story there?”

“We knew that there was an anti-West organization that we had no intel on and that they were very serious about what they wanted, but we didn’t know that they had an actual plan of attack until shortly after the attempted hit on Sheik Alafa.  Before then, the threat was vague.  We knew that we had to find out more, but we didn’t know how big a threat this group was.  Now we do.  As I said before, we’ll contact you when necessary.”  The call disconnected.

Rollie sat down, running a hand over his face.

“Whew!  That was an interesting conversation,” Angie commented.

“I am finding what they said about Martin and Dean hard to believe,” Hashim said.  “If Martin was the one who had the information about the extremists, why did they kill Dean?”

“Maybe he’s someone else whom Martin gave the information to,” Rollie suggested.  “What do you know about this Martin Winslow?”

“He was a genius.  He had at least a dozen degrees in a wide variety of fields.  He was also a professor at Illinois State University, and he wrote several books.”

“What kind of books?” Angie asked.

“Most of them were either about psychology or chaos theory.  I have copies of them in my library.”

“Psychology and chaos theory?  That’s an interesting combination,” Rollie commented.

“He was an interesting man,” Hashim said softly.

“He never said one word to you about this?”

“No, nothing.”

“Those times he called, what did he talk about?”

“He spoke mostly about the organization and the importance of our work.  He also asked about me, things I was involved in.”  Hashim paused.  “There was one thing he asked that I thought was strange, though.”

“What’s that?” Angie asked.

“He asked me if something happened where it was in my hands to save the lives of others but doing so would cost me my freedom or perhaps even my life would I do it anyway.  I told him that I would.”

“What was his reaction?” Rollie asked.

“If I remember correctly, his response was, ‘I am glad.  I envy your courage.’  He never said anything more about it.”

“Rollie, do you think he knew what Silent Lion’s plans are?” Angie asked.

“It could be, but the question is how?  How does an Illinois professor find out the plans of a Middle Eastern extremist group when the U.S. government can’t?”

“Could he have been involved with them?”

“Not a chance,” Hashim declared.  “Martin would not have knowingly been involved with a group like that.”

“Maybe he didn’t know he was involved,” Rollie suggested.

“What do you mean?  That they somehow used him without his knowledge?” the sheik asked.

“It’s possible.  What if he had a skill or knowledge that they wanted, so they either tricked him into helping them or stole the information from him?  When he realized what happened, he would have been afraid that they’d kill him, which would explain why he disappeared for six months.”

“But why didn’t he tell someone?” Angie asked.  “I mean, if he knew that this group was going to do something that could kill a lot of people, why didn’t he go to the authorities?”

“Maybe that question he asked Hashim tells us why.  It might be that coming forward with what he knew could have either landed him in jail or put his life at risk, and he didn’t have the courage to face that.”

“So he was going to let who knows how many people die to protect himself?”  There was anger in Angie’s voice.

“I don’t know.  Maybe he was waiting for something that would protect him so that he could tell what he knew and still be safe,” Rollie suggested.  “What I find interesting is the fact that he wanted to make sure Hashim was going to be at the meeting.”

“Yeah.  It’s like something was going to happen, and he needed Hashim to be there.  Maybe he was going to be there, too.”

“The last time he called, he looked tired and ill at ease,” the sheik commented.

“Wait a second.  You have a vid phone?” Rollie asked.

“I have a digital video camera on my computer.  I use it for video conferencing.”

“The call came in through your computer?” Angie asked excitedly.

“Yes.  Every time he called he asked if we could talk face to face.  I would then get things set up with my computer and he would call back.  He told me that it was just an affectation of his that he preferred to see the person he was talking to.”

Angie looked at Rollie.  “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“I sure am,” he replied.

Hashim looked back and forth between them.  “What?”

“It’s possible that Martin downloaded something into your computer while he was talking, something that’s hidden in the system so that you won’t accidentally stumble across it, but is programmed to become active or reveal itself at a certain time or if a certain command is or isn’t sent,” Angie explained.

“If he did, would you be able to find it?” the sheik asked.

A slow smile spread across the blonde’s face.  “Oh yeah.”

Hashim’s gaze went to Rollie, whose features were sporting a big grin.

“When it comes to computers, there isn’t anything that Angie can’t do,” the Aussie declared with pride.

“Then, let us see what she can find,” the sheik said with a smile of his own.
 

CHAPTER THIRTEEN--MESSAGE

“Damn it!” Angie cursed.  “I can’t find anything!”  She’d been at it for three hours and had run every search she could think of short of taking the computer apart piece by piece, yet she hadn’t found a single byte of information that wasn’t supposed to be on the system.

At that moment, Hashim came back in.  He took one look at the expression on the faces of the newlyweds and knew that they didn’t have good news.  “You did not find anything?”

“There’s nothing here.  Your friend didn’t transmit any files to this computer.”  Angie’s frustration level had just about maxed out.

“I don’t understand it,” Rollie said.  “Why did he insist that you use the computer?”

“Perhaps it was exactly the reason he gave,” Hashim suggested.

“I suppose that’s possible, but I thought for sure that there was something more to it.”

“Would it help if you saw the actual conversations?” the sheik asked.

Both Rollie and Angie perked up.  “You recorded them?” the Aussie asked.

“Yes.  I have the system set up to automatically record all calls.  Sometimes, I like to go back over a conference call to make notes.  I did not think to turn it off for Martin’s calls.  I had been intending to erase them, but I never got around to it.”  Hashim went to a drawer and pulled out two storage disks.  He handed them to Angie who put the first one into the drive.  As the picture came up, Rollie and Angie stared at the man who was responsible for getting them all into the situation they were now in.  With his thick-rimmed glasses, thinning hair, and cheesy clothing, he looked like the classic nerdy professor, not the kind of man who would be involved with a dangerous extremist group.

Two hours later, Rollie’s frustration had returned, along with a pounding headache.  They’d watched every minute of Hashim’s conversation with Martin, but had neither seen nor heard anything suspicious.  In the end, Angie even boosted the background sounds to see if they could get an idea on where Winslow had been at the time of the calls.  From this, they came to the conclusion that he had been out in the woods somewhere, something that surprised Hashim.  Apparently, Winslow had not been big on the great outdoors.

“Which is probably why he went where he did,” Rollie suggested.  “It was someplace that no one would think to look for him.”

“So, what now?” Angie asked.  “We’ve hit a dead end here.”

“I think I’d like to take a look at those books Winslow wrote,” Rollie said.  “If he had something to do with what Silent Lion is going to use against us, maybe we can find a clue somewhere within them.”

Hashim got the books, four in all, and gave them to the newlyweds, who took them to their rooms, along with their dinner.

“Okay, I’ll take ‘Love and Hate: The Fine Line’ and ‘Chaos of the Mind’, and you take ‘Chaos is NOT a Theory’ and ‘There is No Order’,” Rollie said.

“How come you get the psychology books and I have to wade through the ones on Chaos Theory?” Angie asked, frowning.

“Because you took a class in it when you were in college, and I didn’t, that’s why.”

“The only reason I took that class was because my life was in chaos at the time, and I wanted to understand why,” Angie told him.  “Two months later, I realized that there wasn’t a human being on the planet who knew enough about Chaos Theory to explain the most chaotic element in existence.”

“What’s that?”

“You,” Angie replied with a grin, quickly ducking to avoid the orange that had been thrown at her.

They spent the better part of the evening skimming through the books.

“Listen to this,” Rollie said.  “‘If there is anything that proves Chaos Theory, we need look no further than ourselves, for the nature of humankind is the very essence of chaos.’  According to this, he took test groups and put them in all kinds of situations, some potentially life-threatening, to study their responses.  He found that people who had been raised in the same kind of environment, with the same general personality type still reacted differently.  He even tested identical twins.  Then he ran the same people through similar tests a second and even a third time and found that their reactions often differed from the previous times.  He seemed to be really interested in proving that you cannot fully predict how a person is going to act in any given situation, even if you think you know what kind of person he is.  That’s the exact opposite attitude that a lot of psychologists and psychiatrists have.”  The Aussie sighed.  “But this isn’t getting us anywhere.  This was a waste of time.”  He rubbed his eyes.  “I’m stuck, Ange.  Tomorrow is Monday, and we haven’t the slightest idea what these extremists are going to do.”  He looked at her, his eyes dark with fear and helplessness.  “What if we can’t stop them?  What if they succeed and millions of people die because we couldn’t stop them?”

Angie put down the book she was reading and knelt beside her husband.  “That isn’t going to happen, Rol.  We’ll figure this thing out.  But . . . if it does happen, you have to know that it isn’t your fault.  You didn’t cause it, and you did everything you could possibly do to stop it.  No one could do more than that.”

Rollie hugged Angie close.  She was right, of course, but he still couldn’t help feeling responsible for what might happen if they failed.

“I’m beat.  I think I’ll turn in early,” he said.

“That sounds like a good idea to me.  Who knows what tomorrow will bring?”

The Aussie stood and headed for the bedroom.  About halfway there, he was suddenly hit with violent intensity by the strangest sensation that he’d ever experienced.  It was as if a thousand people were talking to him all at once, speaking so fast that their voices were just a cacophony of sound.  A wave of dizziness struck him, and he went to his knees.

“Rollie!” he heard Angie cry.  Then he felt her hands gripping his shoulders.  His own hands were clutching his head as a blinding pain burned through his brain.

“I can’t. . . .  Stop!  Please, stop!” he cried.  Then, with a moan, he fell forward into darkness.

Bright filaments of fire streaked around and through him like lightning bolts, each one crying out words he could not understand.  Pictures flashed before him like a strobe light, searing his eyes.  Pounded by the ceaseless roar of sound and the endless flood of images, Rollie felt himself slipping over the edge into the dark abyss that lay at his feet.

But then, a single voice cut through the chaos, a voice that Rollie had known most of his life.

“Don’t let it take over, Rollie!  You have the power to control it.  Use what you learned of the Dreamtime, Boy!  Let it guide you back.”

Listening to Mangela’s words, Rollie fought the chaos, battling to block out the clamoring that was boring into his mind.  In desperation, he sought the peace of the Dreamtime.  Slowly, the noise and images faded away to be replaced by a quiet stillness that seeped into Rollie’s soul.  He saw a light before him and walked eagerly toward it.

Rollie’s eyes blinked open.  Three very concerned faces were peering down at him.  The Aussie’s gaze fixed upon one of them.  “Ange,” he croaked.  Immediately, a hand grasped his.

“Rol,” his wife whispered, her voice shaking.  “We were so worried.”

“What happened?”

“You collapsed.  You looked as if you were in terrible pain.  You’re in the hospital.”

Rollie’s eyes went to Hashim’s doctor.  “What happened to me?”

“We do not know.  You experienced some kind of violent neurological disturbance.  It was a little like a storm inside your brain.  Your EEG reading was alarmingly violent and erratic for a while.  We need to run some tests to find out why it happened.”

Rollie immediately remembered another time when the same thing happened.  Only, that time, he had been in a coma and was in the midst of making love to Angie on a spiritual level.  What had caused it this time?  “How long have I been out?”

“Almost an hour,” Hashim replied.  “We flew you here in the helicopter.”

Rollie looked back at Angie.  He now noticed that her face was very pale.  “It was like hundreds of voices were talking to me all at the same time, and I couldn’t understand any of them.  I kept seeing images, but they were changing so fast that I couldn’t tell what they were.”

The doctor nodded.  “These things are understandable, considering what your brain was experiencing.  I was quite worried for a while there.  I was equally concerned when your condition suddenly reversed, and the EEG dropped to below normal.  But then, you pulled out of it and regained consciousness.  I have to say that I have never seen anything like this.  We should be getting the x-rays back soon.  I will let you know if they reveal anything.  For right now, try to get some rest.  We will be putting you into a room shortly.”

“I will be right out in the waiting room, Rollie,” Hashim said.  “If you want me or if you need anything, have someone come get me.”

“Thanks, Hashim.  I appreciate it.”

The two Saudis left, leaving the newlyweds alone.

“You scared me half to death, Rollie.  I thought you were dying.”  Angie’s voice was strained almost to the breaking point.

The Aussie opened his arms, and she went into them.  He held her close for a couple of minutes.

“I went into the Dreamtime,” he said finally.

Angie raised her head and looked at him.

“I felt myself going over the edge,” he continued.  “It was driving me insane.  Then, I heard Mangela.  He told me to go into the Dreamtime, that it would save me.  And it did.  That must have been the moment where the doctor said that the EEG reading dropped.”

“Rol, this was like what happened before, when you were in the coma and we . . . made love.”

“Yeah, I know.  But what happened to me this time wasn’t even remotely like that time.”

“Do you really think that it was Mangela who was talking to you?”

“I don’t know.  I wouldn’t say no.  On the other hand, it could be that it was just my own subconscious using whatever technique that was necessary to save me.”  Rollie shook his head.  “I can’t believe this happened.  I’ve been feeling fine.”

“Doctor Habib wants to do an encephalograph, and he said something about a CT scan, too.”  She didn’t mention that one of the things they were both used for was to detect the presence of tumors.  But then, Rollie probably already knew that.

Rollie looked at Angie’s face.  He knew that she was really worried.  What if they found something serious?  What if. . . .  No.  He was not going to start thinking the worse until they knew something for sure.

A few minutes later, Hashim’s doctor came in.  “We could not see anything visible on the x-rays, but that was only the first step.  I have scheduled an encephalograph for 7 a.m.  We will see what that shows.”

Rollie was taken to a room, and a cot was set up for Angie.  She didn’t use it, though.  Instead, she curled up beside her husband, holding onto him tightly as he slept.  Thoughts of what they might find out in the morning kept coming into her mind no matter how hard she tried to keep them out.  What if she lost him?  Her mind went back to when he was shot, to those terrible minutes when he lay dead in her arms.  It had almost destroyed her.  It would have if he had not come back from death.  What if she was now going to lose him forever?

‘No!  Don’t think that!  He’s going to be all right.  He has to be,’ she told herself.

With her head laying upon Rollie’s chest, Angie finally fell into a fitful sleep as she listened to her husband’s heartbeat.

A buzzing filled Rollie’s ears.  Gradually, the buzzing became voices, then a single voice.  But the Aussie couldn’t understand what it was saying.  It was hopelessly garbled.

“I can’t understand you,” he said.

“Find the trigger,” someone whispered.

“Trigger?  I don’t understand.  What trigger?”

There was no answer, and all the sounds started to fade away.

Rollie opened his eyes.  He looked around in confusion, then remembered where he was.  His gaze went to Angie, who was still asleep.  He didn’t understand what was happening to him.  Was this some new kind of Dreaming or something else?  Or was there something physically wrong with him that was causing it?  Was he going insane?  ‘Well, that would be bloody terrific.  After everything that we’ve gone through and me finally finding Angie, I now go balmy?’

The Aussie lay holding Angie in silence for several minutes.  At last, he felt her awaken.  He leaned down and kissed her eyelids open.  She looked up at him and smiled.

“Good morning,” she said before pulling his head down for a kiss.

“Mmm.  Good morning,” Rollie murmured against her lips.  Then he pulled her upward and the kiss deepened, their tongues intertwining.  By the time they drew apart, they were both breathless.  “You don’t know how much I wish that hospital doors had locks on them.”  Rollie’s voice was deep with longing.

Angie grinned.  “Well, if someone came in, we could just explain that we were playing doctor.”

Someone chose that precise moment to do the very thing that the couple was wishing they could prevent.

The nurse glanced at the newlyweds, obviously aware of what they had been doing before he came in.  “We will be taking you for your encephalograph now, Mister Tyler.”

Rollie and Angie immediately sobered.  Angie wanted to accompany them, but the nurse told her that it was against regulations, so she remained alone in the room, sitting on the bed where she had lain with her husband.  Though it was warm in the room, she felt chilled.  Again, thoughts of what the doctors might find filled her mind.  By the time Rollie was returned to the room, she was feeling physically ill from fear.

Rollie took one look at his wife’s face and knew what she had been thinking the entire time he was gone.  As soon as the nurse was gone, he pulled her into a tight embrace.

“How long before we know anything?” she asked.

“I’m not sure.  Doctor Habib said that he and the neurologist would come see us the moment they’d finished analyzing the results.”

They waited in silence, both of them too nervous for small talk, but unwilling to speak of more serious things.  When the door finally opened to admit Hashim’s doctor, the eyes of the newlyweds fixed unblinkingly upon him.

“I have good news, Mister Tyler.  The encephalograph came out perfectly normal.  There was no sign of any irregularity.”

Rollie and Angie stared at him for several seconds, both afraid that they’d somehow heard wrong.  At last, Rollie spoke.  “Normal?  There’s nothing wrong with me?”

“The encephalograph came back normal, but something caused you to have that episode last night.  I want to run a CT scan, just to be safe.  Fortunately, I was able to get you in immediately.”

Again, Rollie was wheeled off, leaving Angie alone, but this time, the hope that the encephalograph results had given her kept most of the worry away.

Sometime later, Rollie was returned, and they once again waited for the doctor to come tell them the results.

When Doctor Habib returned, they could see that it was with good news.  “The CT scan was normal as well.  There is no sign of any kind of growth or physical irregularity in the brain or brain stem,” he informed them.

The newlyweds looked at each other, smiles spreading across their faces.  “So, what now?” Angie asked, relieved beyond words.

“It is possible that the problem is chemical,” the doctor explained.  “We will need to run more tests to determine that.  You will have to stay here for the next day or two.”

“I can’t,” the Aussie said.

“Rollie, you should do what he says,” Angie cautioned.

“Angie, you know why I can’t stay here.  We know that they are going to make their move this week.  I can’t be sitting here in this hospital while who knows what happens.”

Angie sighed.  He was right, of course.  The lives of countless millions could be riding on what they did and did not do.  But would saving them end up costing Rollie his life?

Doctor Habib was looking at them in puzzlement.  “Does this have something to do with Hashim’s assistant?  Hashim would not give me any details when he asked me to make Rabi appear ill.”

“Um, yeah, that’s part of it,” Rollie admitted.  “Believe me when I tell you that it’s safer for you if you don’t know any more.”

“I see.  Well, I can see that whatever it is, it is very important.  I will send someone in to draw some blood at least, and I will see about getting you discharged.  However, if you experience any more episodes, I want you to return here immediately.  Whatever is causing this is potentially life-threatening.”

Rollie called the sheik, who had gone home after Rollie was moved to a room.  Two hours later, he and Angie were flying back to the estate.  As they got off the plane, a servant came running up to them to tell them that they had a phone call.  They took it in their workshop.

“Rollie!  They said that you were just released from the hospital.  What happened?”  David’s voice was full of concern.

“Um, it’s kind of tough to explain.  It doesn’t have anything to do with this other stuff, though.  Hold on a second, will you?”  Rollie attached the telephone to the scrambler.  “There, now we can talk.  So, what’s up?”

“Well, um, I wanted to ask you something.”  There was a strong note of discomfort in the young FBI agent’s voice.

“You want to know about the dreams, right?” Rollie asked.

“Uh, yeah.  I know that you said you had a vision about Victor Loubar, and then there’s what happened with the pressure plate in his hideout, but we never talked about it.  And now . . . well, I’ve kind of stuck my neck out on this for you, and I. . . .”  He cleared his throat.  “I hope you understand.”

“Sure I do.  I really appreciate you stepping in like you did with Travis.  To answer your question, what I told Travis was the truth.  In the past, I’ve had . . . visions of things that were going to happen.  They have all come true except for the ones that I prevented from doing so.”

There was a moment of silence.  “That’s amazing.  I mean, I know that there are people who profess to be psychics that help law enforcement agencies, but I never really thought that one of them would end up being somebody I knew personally.”

Psychic?  Rollie’s mind balked at that term being used for him.  It just wasn’t like that.  He tried to explain this to David, but wasn’t sure if the agent understood what he was trying to convey.

“So, have you, um, had any more dreams?”

“No, not really.”  Rollie still wasn’t sure what that incident with the voice was.  “Have you gotten any more info on your end?”

“Actually, we have.  After we learned that Martin Winslow was the man who had the information about the extremists, we started digging into his life, trying to find a connection somewhere.  We found out that he was spending a lot of time in one of the college labs after hours.  Nobody knew what it was that he was working on, but we did learn that he had an assistant who appeared to be of Middle Eastern descent.  We finally found out the assistant’s name, and it turns out that he’s known to have anti-West sympathies.”

“So, you think that this assistant used Winslow to make something that the extremists wanted?” Angie asked.

“That’s our best guess.  Winslow probably didn’t know that he was being used until it was too late.  Unfortunately, we still don’t know what they were working on.”

“David, is there some kind of new technology that the government is working on that these people could conceivably get control of and use?” Rollie asked, knowing that the FBI agent probably wouldn’t be able to answer him even if he knew.

“I truly do not know, Rollie.  My security level is not that high.  If such a weapon existed, I wouldn’t be told about it.  But, by the way that the higher ups are acting, I’d say that the answer is no.  There’s something else that we found out.  Word has leaked out that Silent Lion plans to ‘get rid of their problems’ sometime tomorrow.  I don’t think that I have to tell you what that ‘problem’ is.”

Rollie’s and Angie’s eyes met.  “No, I think we know what that is,” Angie replied.

“I want you guys to have some protection.  There’s a military base--”

“David,” Rollie interrupted, “you know we can’t chance this group getting suspicious, and I think that a bunch of soldiers running around the estate would do that.”

The agent sighed.  “I’m afraid that you’re right about that.  But I can’t just leave you naked out there.  If something happened, I’d never forgive myself.  Look, I’m going to arrange something.  I’ll get back to you later.”

Rollie disconnected the call.  “So, they’re going to go after us tomorrow.  At least we know that much.”

“Yeah, but we don’t know how or where,” Angie said.  “If these extremists have a rocket launcher, they could wipe out this whole estate in a matter of seconds, and there wouldn’t be much that we could do to stop it.”

“I think that it’s time we start setting up the cameras and motion detectors,” Rollie said.

“I’ve been thinking about that, Rol.  What if we’re being watched by someone?  They’re going to get suspicious of what we’re doing.”

The Aussie thought about that for a moment.  “Well, the estate is surrounded by a high wall, and all the trees on the grounds help to obscure most of the property.  No matter where someone was spying on us from, they’re not going to see what we do on the walls very well.  We’ll have to act casual, like we’re just strolling through the oasis.  We could have several of Hashim’s men leave the equipment for us at places around the wall with the most cover.  In that way, anyone watching us won’t see us carrying the stuff.”

“How are we going to get up the wall?  Toting a ladder around is out of the question.”  Angie grinned.  “I could always stand on your shoulders.  I just know how you love to carry me around on your shoulders,” she said, remembering a time when Rollie had complained while she sat on his shoulders because she was taking a long time to rig a lightbulb to explode.  He had very hastily denied that it was because she was getting heavy, saving himself from her wrath.

“Har har, Angela,” Rollie responded, smiling sarcastically.  He then sobered.  “There is another problem, though.  If someone is watching the estate, they may see us as we mount some of the cameras and motion sensors on the wall.  The trees won’t hide our actions if the lookout can see us over the top of the wall.”

A thoughtful look came to Angie’s face.  “What if they’re led to believe that the cameras are being mounted simply for the purpose of added security for the estate?”

A smile grew on Rollie’s face as he understood what his wife was suggesting.  “Great idea, Ange.”

Angie shrugged.  “I do get one every once in a while.”

In the workshop, Rollie and Angie explained the idea to Hashim.  They then went to the sitting room to put on another show for the people listening in with the bug.

“Rollie, I got some additional security devices for the estate, some cameras and other equipment that I want to have mounted on the wall that goes around the grounds,” Hashim said.  “I know that you are knowledgeable in these things.  Would you mind very much if you oversaw the installation of the equipment?  I was going to have the company that I purchased the equipment from do the installations, but they would not be able to do it for another three days.”

“What’s the purpose of the added security, and why the rush to get it done?” Rollie asked.

“I received a threat from a former business associate who believes that I cheated him.  Mother is very worried about it and made me promise that I’d take extra precautions.”

“Is this something really serious?” Rollie asked, making his voice sound worried.

“I do not believe so.  I think that it is just an empty threat, but if doing this will make my mother rest easy, then it is worth the time and effort.”

“Well then, sure, I’d be happy to help,” Rollie said.

“Me too,” Angie added.

“Thank you.  I will have my men aid you in the installation.”

They left the sitting room, smiling.

“Well, that should take care of things,” Rollie said in a low voice as they stopped a few yards down the hall.

“Yes, it should,” Hashim agreed.  “If someone is watching, they should not get suspicious now.”

The rest of the day was spent setting up the surveillance equipment with the help of two of Hashim’s men.  There were not enough cameras to cover the entire perimeter of the oasis, so there were going to be gaps in the coverage.  To help fill the gaps, Rollie and Angie placed the motion detectors between the places that the cameras were mounted.  Their effective range was not nearly as large as the cameras, but they were better than nothing.

“What if they strike at night?” Hashim asked as Rollie and Angie sat taking a break in the dining room.

“The cameras have infrared capabilities,” Angie explained.

“And we’ll give night goggles to your men,” Rollie added.

“You use these kinds of things in the movies?” the sheik asked in surprise.

“Well, not all of it is stuff we use in our job,” the Aussie admitted.  “With all the work that we do for the police, we’ve made sure that we’re prepared for just about any contingency.”

“It is a good thing that you are.”

A few minutes later, the newlyweds got back to work.  Rollie had just finished setting up the last motion sensor and was heading over to where Angie was overseeing the placement of the final camera when he was suddenly hit again by the sensation that thousands of people were clamoring inside his head.  With a gasp, he staggered, fighting to stay on his feet.  His hands went up to his head, and he groaned.  He sensed rather than heard Angie run up to him. She grabbed hold of him.

“Rollie!  Oh no, it’s happening again, isn’t it.  I’m getting you back to the hospital right now.”

“No!  No, I . . . don’t need . . . to go to. . . .”  The Aussie’s voice trailed off as he fought to regain control of his mind.  He closed his eyes and willed the chaos away, using every trick Mangela had taught him for clearing the mind.  Gradually, the voices faded away.  He straightened and took a deep, shaky breath.  “It’s gone now.”

“Rollie, we have to get you back to the hospital.  You heard what the doctor said.”

“Angie, I just can’t do that, not with what’s going to happen tomorrow.  It’s just so strange.  I heard the voices again, just like before.  And I saw the images, too.  I can’t figure out what’s causing this.”

“Doctor Habib said that the voices and pictures were a result of the abnormal brain activity, like your conscious mind is being bombarded with. . . .  Rollie, what’s wrong?”

The Aussie’s eyes had widened with realization.  “That’s it!  Why didn’t I think of that before?”

“What’s it?  What are you talking about?”

“Come on, we’ve got to get back to the house,” Rollie said, not answering her question.

The moment they were inside, Rollie excitedly told a servant to get Hashim.  As soon as the sheik appeared, they went to the workshop.

“We’ve been looking at this thing that happened to me last night all backwards.  The doctor said that the barrage of voices and images was caused by the violent brain activity.  But it wasn’t.  It’s the other way around.  The brain activity was caused by the voices and images.”

“What do you mean?” Hashim asked.

“Winslow did send the information during those conversations.  We just couldn’t see or hear it.”

Angie’s eyes widened as she realized what Rollie was saying.  “Subliminal messages?”

“Exactly!  But at a level far greater and more complex than anything I know presently exists.  It makes sense, Ange.  Scientists have been trying for years to come up with a way to download information instantly into the human brain by tapping into the subconscious through high speed subliminal methods.  What if Winslow succeeded?”

Angie was getting excited.  “That’s why he insisted on the video connection.  He’d need both audio and video to pass on the information.”

“And when we watched the tapes, that information was downloaded directly into our brains.”

“Do you mean that I have been carrying around this information in my mind all these months?” Hashim asked, shocked.  “But, why did I not remember any of it?”

“Because it’s beyond the level of conscious thought,” Rollie explained.  “Scientists believe that everything you see or hear throughout your entire life is recorded in your subconscious mind, but that the conscious mind can’t get to it unless you tap into it through the use of hypnosis or some other means.  Years ago, advertisers dabbled with placing subliminal messages within commercials to get customers to buy their products.  The customers would not be able to consciously see the subliminal images because they were on the screen for just a fraction of a second, but the subconscious mind would see them and remember.  The viewer would end up having an urge to go out and buy whatever it was that the company was selling.  This was later made illegal, but only for commercials.  It is occasionally used in movies, like The Exorcist, and on some audio recordings for purposes ranging from weight loss tapes to the backwards masking that some artists use on their albums.  We even used it once.”  Rollie’s mind was briefly filled with the image of his dead friend Jimmy Swan.  He pushed it aside and continued.  “But what Winslow did was far beyond anything that’s ever been done before.  Within the space of those conversations, he probably downloaded right into your subconscious everything he knew about the extremists and what they were going to do.  It would then sit there and wait for whatever it was that would trigger the information to come out of hiding.”

That’s when Rollie remembered the words he had heard in the not-quite-dream he’d had the previous night.  “Find the trigger,” the voice had said.

“Then you are saying that what happened to you is that the information was ‘leaking’ into your conscious mind?  Is that possible?” Hashim asked.

“The reaction to subliminal messages varies from person to person,” Angie said.  “Some people are very susceptible to it, while others aren’t affected at all.  It could be that there’s something a little different about Rollie that made Winslow’s information suddenly start leaking into his conscious mind.”

“But it was too much data, and it was coming too fast, so it caused a kind of overload,” Rollie finished.  He couldn’t be certain, but he had a feeling that whatever it was that was different about him had to do with, or was also responsible for, the Dreaming and the other things that he was able to do.  “The important thing is that, now that we know what to look for, Angie can go through the recordings and get the information off them.”

Angie immediately got to work on the tapes.  They didn’t know if being subjected to the subliminal messages a second time would make matters worse for Rollie, but they didn’t want to take the chance, so Angie used headphones, and the Aussie made a point of not looking at the screen.

“Well, you guessed right, Rol,” Angie announced a while later.  “Look at this.”  Rollie turned to the screen.  “See that?  There is definitely something in these recordings that’s well below--or above, depending on how you look at it--the level that a person could consciously see or hear.  Now, I just have to slow it down and convert it to something that we can see and hear.”

As Rollie fetched them some dinner, Angie continued to work.  She kept right on working as they ate.  Shortly after they finished their meal, Hashim joined them.  He watched the blonde’s single-minded intensity for a while, then shook his head.  He and Rollie went to another room so as not to disturb her.

“Is she always like that with computers?” the sheik asked.

“Pretty much, especially when she’s got something really interesting that she’s working on.  When it comes to computers, there isn’t anyone better than Angie.  She’s the best.”

“You are very proud of her,” Hashim commented.

“Yeah, I am.  She was only eleven when we met.  Even then, she was as smart as they come.  I got to watch her grow up and become what she is now.  Her father died when she was eighteen.  After that, I kind of took over watching out for her, sort of like a big brother.  No father could have been more proud when she graduated from college with honors.”

“Yet, now, you are her husband.”

Rollie chuckled.  “Believe me, Hashim, that little change in our relationship took us both by surprise.”

A sound of frustration from the other room made them return to Angie’s side.

“I can’t get it, Rol.  The data’s got some weird kind of encoding that I can’t crack.  I can make it audible and visible, but it’s just gibberish.  The thing is, this message was specifically created for downloading into a human brain, and there is no way that I can fully simulate that with a computer.  I also think that there is a code or key that is needed to decrypt the data.”

“Trigger,” Rollie murmured.

“What?”

“Last night I had a kind of dream.  In it, someone told me to find the trigger.  My guess is that there is some message or subliminal command that Hashim was supposed to receive that would unlock everything.  The problem is that, now that Winslow is dead, we have no way of knowing what it was or how it was to be delivered.”

“In other words, we might have the information, but no way of understanding it,” the sheik said.

“I’m afraid so,” Angie admitted.  “Should we tell David what we found?”

“I guess we should, though it isn’t going to do them any good,” Rollie replied.

David was very excited about the news and asked if they would be able to transmit the messages to him.  Angie set it up, then she, Rollie, and Hashim went next door to the couple’s quarters.

“Well, at least we’ve got one question answered,” Rollie said.  “Now if we just knew how Silent Lion plans on killing us tomorrow and what their other plans are.  Hashim, is there anything at all special about tomorrow?”

“There was a meeting that I was going to attend.  It has been kept secret since it involves counter-terrorism, and some very important people in that field will be there.  We feared that it would be targeted by a terrorist group.  It was going to be today, but when I found out that Rabi had told the extremists about it, I called the chairman and told him that it might be wise to reschedule.”

“Counter-terrorism?  Didn’t you say that was one of the things that this organization was involved in?” Rollie asked.

“Yes.”

“Will any other members of your group be there?”

“I do not know.  I do not have a list of all the guests.  It is possible.”

Rollie looked at Angie.  “That must be it,” she said.

The sheik gazed at them.  “You think that they plan on killing me while I am at the meeting?”

“I’d bet money on it,” Rollie replied.  “In fact, they probably plan on wiping out everyone.”

“But how did they know that the meeting had been changed to Tuesday?” Hashim asked.

“There could be only two ways,” Rollie told him.  “One, they intercepted your call to the chairman, or, two, there is a spy among the guests.  I have a feeling it’s the latter.”

“What are we going to do then?” the sheik asked.

Matching grins came to Rollie’s and Angie’s faces.  “A little movie magic,” they said in unison.
 

CHAPTER FOURTEEN -- UNEXPECTED COMPANY

The following morning, one of the guards reported that a carload of loud, high-spirited Americans was waiting at the entrance to the estate, claiming that they had been invited by Rollie.  Actually, high-spirited was not the word the guard used.  His was a bit less complimentary.  Wondering what was going on, Rollie went to check it out.  His mouth dropped open when he saw Chuck Green and seven other men, some of whom he recognized from the party, piled in and around a pickup truck.  All of the men were wearing civilian clothes and big grins.  Upon seeing Rollie, Chuck came forward and gave him a hearty pat on the back.

“Rollie!  Hey, bud!  Well, we’re here!  I know you said to call first, but we decided to surprise you.”  As he spoke, he gave the Aussie a look that said “play along.”

“Uh, well, you sure did do that,” Rollie replied, following the lieutenant’s lead.  “It’s a good thing that Angie and I hadn’t decided to go somewhere today, otherwise this would have been a wasted trip for you.”

“You mean you guys actually go places?  I’d have thought that you’d be spending all your time in the bedroom.”  Chuck’s eyebrows waggled.

The flush that came to Rollie’s cheeks was genuine.

“So, can we come in or are you going to make us go home?”

“No, come on in.”  Rollie got back into the jeep that had brought him there, and they headed back to the estate with the truck following them.

Angie’s reaction to seeing the men was about the same as Rollie’s had been.

“Chuck, what are you doing here?” she asked.

Instead of answering her, the lieutenant looked at one of the other servicemen.  The man was staring at something in his hand that he was keeping hidden by his body.

“It’s all clear, sir,” he said after a moment.

“Good.”  Chuck turned to the newlyweds and Hashim, who had just come out.  “Sorry about the uninvited company, but we were told that you needed a bit of protection.”

“Why that little. . . .”  Rollie shook his head.  “I told David not to call anyone in on this.  It’s too risky.”

“More risky than leaving you guys to fend for yourselves?  I don’t think so.  Besides, with that entrance we made, I doubt any onlookers would get suspicious.  So, any more intel on what we’re up against?”

“Well, we’ve figured out where they’re going to strike at Hashim.  I don’t know how much you were told, but he is attending an important meeting concerning counter-terrorism today, and several other people that this group might have targeted may be there, too.”

“I see.  Other members of the organization that Martin Winslow was a part of?”

Rollie’s eyebrows rose.  “Well, it appears that David didn’t hold anything back from you.”

Chuck got a sheepish look on his face.  “Uh, well, actually, I’ve been involved with this all along.  I was assigned to this post after the attempt on Sheik Alafa’s life to keep my eyes and ears open for anything regarding these extremists.”

“Don’t tell us that you’re an agent, too,” Angie said.

“No, no.  I’m just what I said I was.  I just have a bit higher security clearance than the usual lieutenant, and I have a few, um, extra duties regarding national security.”

“So, I suppose that our meeting in that restaurant was no accident,” Rollie said.

“Afraid not.  We’ve had somebody watching you since you arrived.  Sorry about lying to you.  It was necessary.”

“And all that stuff about recognizing the name Tyler F/X from the movies was an act, too.”  Rollie felt a moment of disappointment.

“No, that was the truth,” Chuck said earnestly.  “I really did know about Tyler F/X before I got involved with this.  I’m a big movie buff.  I can’t wait for your latest one, White Light, to come out.  It sounds awesome.”

A pleased grin spread across the Aussie’s face.

“Shall we go inside?” Hashim asked.

Since it was the most secure place in the estate, Rollie and Angie took everyone up to the workshop.

“Whoa!  Is this stuff you use to make your special effects?” Chuck asked, his eyes glowing like a child’s.

“Most of it is.  Some of the other things we use mostly when we help out the police and the FBI,” Rollie replied.

The lieutenant wandered around for a few seconds, peering at the equipment.  When he returned, his demeanor had changed.  He was now all business.  “All right.  So, Silent Lion is going to hit the counter-terrorism meeting.  I’d say that they’ll use explosives.  The bombs may already be placed.  What time is the meeting?”

“Four o’clock,” Hashim replied.

Chuck looked at his watch.  “Seven hours.  Not a whole lot of time to build a solid plan.”

“Actually, we’ve already got a plan in the works,” Angie said.

“Oh?  I guess you’d better fill me in, then.”

Rollie and Angie explained the plan, telling how they were going to accomplish each part of it.  As they finished, an approving smile came to the lieutenant’s face.

“I can tell that you’ve done stuff like this before.  Have you ever thought about working for law enforcement full time?  You could do a lot of good.”

“Too much red tape,” Rollie replied.  “Besides, Angie and I are F/X artists, not police, even if we do keep ending up playing cops and robbers.”

Chuck nodded.  “Okay, so how can my men and I be worked into this plan?”

The newlyweds looked at each other, then turned to Hashim.  “Are there going to be people serving refreshments at the meeting?” Angie asked.

“Yes.  Coffee, cold drinks, and snacks.”

“That’s it, then,” Rollie said.  He turned back to Chuck.  “You guys will be the waiters.  We’ll have to disguise you as Saudis, but that won’t be tough.  In fact, I’m glad you showed up, because this is going to make it easier for me to get there ahead of time.”

“How’s that?” Chuck asked.

Instead of answering, Rollie studied the other men and selected the one who was closest to his height and build.  “What’s your name?” he asked.

“Patrick Carter, sir”

“Well, Patrick, how would you like to be Rollie Tyler for a few hours?”

“Excuse me?” the man replied.

The newlyweds grinned, then got to work creating masks of both Patrick’s face and Rollie’s. As they waited for the masks to form, Chuck dismissed his men, who, once again acting like carefree civilians, spread throughout the estate.  The newlyweds, Hashim, and the lieutenant then began gathering the stuff that would be needed.  Every once in a while, the Aussie caught Chuck watching him.  Finally, he asked why.

“Sorry,” the young man replied.  “It’s just that, well, David told me about this thing you call the Dreaming.  What I said before about being into that kind of stuff was true.”

“He told you that?” Rollie asked, shocked.

“Yeah, he knows that I’m into the paranormal big time and figured that I might have some insights on that facet of this case.”

“You two are friends?” Angie asked.

“Actually, we’re cousins.”

Rollie shook his head, again surprised.  “Got any more revelations?”

Chuck smiled.  “Nope, not at the moment.”  He focused his attention fully on Rollie again.  “So . . . how does this Dreaming thing work anyway?”  Noticing the expression on the Aussie’s face, he quickly said, “I’m sorry.  That was prying.  Forget I asked.”

Rollie paused, studying the young man’s face.  He had never really tried to explain Dreaming and the Dreamtime to anyone before.  He’d never really wanted to.  But Chuck’s obvious interest in the subject made Rollie decide that maybe it was time that he did.  But he wouldn’t talk about himself.  Instead, he would tell what Dreaming was to the People.

Rollie opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by a knock on the door.  A serviceman who had been left stationed outside the room stuck his head in.

“Sir, there is a Saudi woman here who says that she is Kamilah Alafa.”

“Why would my mother come here?” the sheik wondered.

“Let her in, Crawford,” the lieutenant ordered.

Kamilah came in silently.  She was, of course, veiled and wearing the black outer cloak that was required in the presence of unrelated men.

“Is there something wrong, Mother?” Hashim asked.

“No, my son, all is well.  I sensed that I should be here now, so I am.”  She found a chair and sat down.

Rollie glanced at Chuck and noticed surprise on the lieutenant’s face.  He wondered if the surprise was because the woman’s actions were so unlike most Saudi women or if it was because of her mysterious statement.

The Aussie looked at Kamilah, now uncertain if he should continue with what he was going to talk about.

Hashim’s mother met his gaze.  Her eyes smiled at him gently.  “Please, carry on with whatever you were doing before.  Do not let my presence dissuade you.”

Rollie returned the smile, then began talking about the beliefs that Mangela had taught him.  “The Dreamtime and Dreaming have many meanings to the Australian Aborigines, but each of those meanings is connected to the others.  First and foremost, the Dreamtime is the Beginning, the time when the Ancestor Spirits walked across the Earth and created all things, the sun, moon, and stars, the land, rivers, lakes, and oceans, the animals and the people.  This time is sometimes also called the Dreaming.  The Aborigines of today still tell the Dreaming stories, they still sing the songs that recount the time of creation.

“But it is more than this.  The Dreaming is life to the Aborigines.  It is all important to them.  It tells the meaning of life, the reasons why things are as they are.  It gives them their law, explaining what’s right and wrong.  The Dreaming shows them how to treat others, teaches them their relationships with fellow humans, the land, the animal, all things, tells them how to live with and take care of the land.  It teaches the life cycles of the plants and animals.  Their entire social structure, all that they are, their values and beliefs, are taken from the Dreaming.  The Dreaming is also a kind of map to the land.  In the stories and songs of the Dreaming, every part of Australia is recorded.  No Aborigine who has been raised in the Dreaming can ever get lost within their territory.  Through the songlines, the songs of the Dreaming, they know where every riverbed, every water hole, every landmass within their territory is.  Even though the creation stories and beliefs are different in each territory of Australia and Torres Strait Island, the Dreaming binds all Aboriginal people together.”

Angie watched her husband intently.  She found that she was fascinated with what Rollie was telling them.  All the years she had known him, he had never once talked about the beliefs of the people who had accepted him into their world.  Mangela had spoken of the Dreamtime and Dreaming, but he had never said this much, and it was also so much different hearing it from Rollie.

“All Aborigines are a part of the Dreaming.  Each Aboriginal person believes that he or she is directly linked to a particular Ancestral Being  When an Aboriginal person speaks of their Dreaming, they speak of their relationship with and link to the Dreamtime,” Rollie continued.

“What about the Dreaming being a way that a person can see the future?” Chuck asked.

Rollie looked at the lieutenant.  He had expected the man to ask that question sooner or later.  Hiding a smile, he continued.  “All Aborigines have the capacity to do things that people of many other civilizations would call paranormal or psychic.  But the Aborigines do not see it that way.  To them, they are merely tapping into their natural link with the Dreaming and the Ancestors and the forces that reside within creation and themselves.  There is nothing supernatural about it.  All Aborigines, even children, possess certain telepathic and clairvoyant abilities.  Among other things, they see dreams and dream images as messages to guide their lives.”

Rollie paused for a moment.  “In Aboriginal society, there are individuals whose abilities in these things is greater than in the average Aborigine.  These men and women possess powers that would be terrifying to some non-Aborigines.”

“Have you seen them use these abilities?” Chuck asked, clearly enthralled by the Aussie’s words.

Rollie paused again.  “Yes, I have.”  Deciding that this was a subject he didn’t want to delve into, Rollie went back to the original subject.  “There are times when an Aborigine will have a vision that reveals to them things that happened in the past or will happen in the future.  This, too, is called a Dreaming since all things--past, present, and future--are a part of the Dreamtime.  A person who is in the midst of a Dreaming is said to be within the Dreamtime.

“The way that TV shows and movies portray the visions of psychics is not the way it is with a Dreaming.  Usually, when a person sees something, it has some connection to their own lives or the lives of people they know, especially those that they are close to.  The Dreaming usually uses symbolic images and concepts to represent things.  They must be interpreted before the Aborigine who had the Dreaming can know what it meant, like my Dreaming of the lion and the cobra.  A Dreaming is not something that a person has complete control over.  It isn’t some mystical way of seeing everything that’s going to happen.  As with everything, there are limits and things that just can’t be done.”

Chuck nodded.  “But you can do this.  You can have these Dreamings, right?”

Rollie immediately felt his tension mount.  He had not wanted to talk about himself.  That was getting too close to things that he did not want to discuss.

Angie had apparently sensed the change in his mood because her hand suddenly slipped into his and gave it a squeeze.  He looked at her and sent her a silent thank you.  He then turned back to Chuck.  “When I was a child, I was taught the beliefs and ways of the People.  My teacher showed me how to go into the Dreamtime, how to have a Dreaming.  But that was a long time ago.  Until recently, I hadn’t had a Dreaming in many years.  I don’t . . . consciously enter the Dreamtime anymore, but, sometimes, I do have a Dreaming, usually when I am asleep.  I have no real control over it.  It just happens.”  The Aussie decided that it was time to put a halt to the conversation before Chuck asked any question that Rollie did not want to answer.  “We’d better get back to work now.  It’s getting late.”

The lieutenant nodded again.  “Thanks for telling us all this.  I appreciate it.”

Rollie returned the nod, then looked at Kamilah, curious to see what her reaction to what he’d said had been.  There was a very odd expression in her eyes, and the Aussie wished that he could see her whole face.  She was not really looking at him, but was gazing off at some distant point.  Suddenly, she seemed to return to the present.  Her eyes focused on him for a moment, then she stood.

“I will take leave of you now.  I can see that you have a great deal of work to do.  Do not forget to eat, though.”

Rollie smiled at the last comment.  For a moment there, she had sounded just like an ordinary mom counseling her children not to skip meals.

Hashim left with her, explaining that he wanted to find out more details on who was going to be serving the refreshments and when they would be arriving to set things up.

“Whoa!  She is spooky!” Chuck said after the door closed behind the two Saudis.

“Wait until you get to know her better, then she’s even more spooky,” Angie said with a smile.

As soon as the masks were finished, Patrick was called back in.  A short time later, he had the Aussie’s face and Rollie had his.  Fortunately, there had been a wig among the ones shipped to them that was close enough in appearance to the serviceman’s hair.

Chuck stared back and forth between the two of them.  “Amazing.  Absolutely amazing.”

Rollie and Patrick quickly exchanged clothing.  Chuck then called his men in and they all loaded the back of the pickup with the equipment and materials that they would be taking.  The stuff was then covered with a tarp.

Rollie, Angie, and Hashim went back inside and took care of one last thing, making a recording of Rollie’s voice that would be used by Angie later.  Afterwards, the sheik left the newlyweds so that they could have a few moments alone.

“This is going to work, Ange.  Everything will be fine,” Rollie assured his wife.

“I know it will.”  Angie wrapped her arms around his waist.  “Be careful, all right?”

Rollie hugged her close, pressing his cheek against her hair.  “You bet I will.  We still have a lot of honeymoon left to go.  Speaking of the honeymoon, I don’t think we’re going to make our flight on Thursday.”

“I wouldn’t give up on it completely,” Angie said.  “Why, we might have this whole thing wrapped up by Wednesday afternoon.”

Rollie smiled down at her, then their lips met in a long kiss.

“I love you,” Angie murmured.

“And I love you,” Rollie murmured back.  His smile returned.  “Even if you did just kiss ‘another man’.”

Angie grinned.  “Mmm, yes.”  She reached up and stroked the mask that Rollie was wearing.  “You know, I kinda like this face.  I could definitely get used to it.”

“Sorry to disappoint you, but you won’t be seeing this face for much longer.  And just don’t forget that the man who’s got my face isn’t really me.”  Rollie’s eyes were twinkling.

“I’ll try really hard not to, but I’ve been having memory problems lately.”

“Well, in that case, I’ll have to refresh your memory on what the real Rollie Tyler looks like tonight.”

“All of him?”  Angie’s voice had dropped to that husky purr that made Rollie’s pulse race.

“Every last inch,” he replied in an equally husky tone.

They kissed again.  As they drew apart, the newlyweds grew serious.  With a final embrace, Rollie and Angie left their quarters, then went outside.  Rollie climbed into the cab of the pickup truck beside Chuck as the rest of the men settled into the bed, effectively hiding from view the covered equipment.  Hashim handed Rollie a basket containing their lunch.  They would have to eat on the way to Riyadh.

Angie watched as the pickup drove away.  She continued to stand there for several seconds after it had disappeared from view.  Then she turned to the man who was going to play her husband for the next few hours.

Seeing the look on her face, Patrick smiled.  “Don’t worry, ma’am.  My buddies are the best.  They won’t let anything happen to your husband.”

Angie nodded, forcing a smile to her lips.  They went inside with Hashim.  After lunch, the three went into the sitting room and played out the second part of their plan.

“I will be attending a meeting later this afternoon on counter-terrorism.  I would be honored if you would join me,” Hashim said, loud enough to be certain that the listening device Omar had planted would pick up his voice.

Angie pressed the play button on the tape recorder she had in her hand.  Rollie’s voice came out of the speaker.

“Thank you, Hashim.  I’d like to be there.  How about you, Ange?”

“Sure, Rol.  It sounds interesting,” Angie said.

“Well, if you will excuse me, I have some things to attend to,” Hashim said.

“No problem,” Angie replied.  “Come on, Rollie.  Let’s go back to our rooms.” She pushed the play button again.

“Sounds like a plan to me,” Rollie’s taped voice said.

The three of them left the sitting room and closed the door behind them.

“Okay, now they’ll think that they can get us all at the same time, so we won’t have to worry about a separate attack.” Angie said.  She turned to the serviceman.  “Come on, Patrick.  We’ve still got work to do.”

They went up to the workshop and got to work.

“Ma’am, do you mind if I ask how you and your husband got involved in all this?” Patrick asked after a few minutes.  “Lieutenant Green only briefed us on what we needed to know.”

“Well, it’s kind of a long story, but I guess we’ve got the time.”  She then started telling him the story, skimming over or completely leaving out all of the personal things.  As she finished, the young man shook his head.

“That’s an incredible story,” he said.  “Your husband sounds like an amazing man.”

“Yes, he is.  He’s the best there is.”

Rollie stared at the road before them.  They would be in Riyadh soon.  Most of the trip had been made in silence.  He knew that Chuck was dying to ask him more about the Dreaming, but, fortunately, the man had apparently picked up on the fact that the Aussie didn’t want to talk about it.

Rollie’s thoughts had frequently turned to Mangela and the People during the trip.  It had been so long since he’d been back there.  Until recently, he hadn’t wanted to go back.  He’d been to Australia only once since he and his father left when he was fifteen.  It was shortly after Manny’s death, and he and Angie had both been depressed.  Rollie had decided to take Angie to his homeland, hoping that it would work its magic on both of them.  It had, in a way, but being back there had also brought back to Rollie’s mind all the memories that he had tried so hard to forget--and along with them the fear.  Angie had wanted to visit the area where he grew up, but the Aussie had managed to make excuses on why they couldn’t.  He hadn’t been back to Australia since.

The first thing they did when they got to Riyadh was find a secluded spot where Rollie got to work on turning the servicemen and himself into Saudis.  With the use of makeup and a little latex, he quickly made the transformation.  The men all donned Arab clothing over theirs, then got back into the pickup and continued on to where the meeting would be held.  Hashim had told them that there was an alley on one side of the building that was mostly hidden from the street.  As they drew close to the building, Chuck stopped to let the other men out.  The men separated into ones and twos and continued toward their destination on foot.

Rollie and Chuck drove on to the building and pulled up in the alleyway.  Grabbing as much of the equipment as they could, they covered the rest back up with the tarp.  They went in a service entrance and took the stairs up to the second floor.

The entire floor was devoted to a single conference/meeting area that was split into four sections, a conference room, a kitchen where serving staff could prepare refreshments and meals, a small restroom, and a large room with rows of seats and a podium.

The first thing Rollie and Chuck did was sweep the place for bugs.  Finding none, they then started looking for explosives.  As they searched, the other men began to arrive, bringing in armfuls of equipment that they had retrieved from the truck.  They set down the equipment and joined the search.

A short time later, Rollie found something.  He peered at the bomb that was under the podium.  “A timer.  Good.  I was afraid that it would be a remote detonator.  It’s set to go off at 4:30.”

“Here’s another one, sir!” someone called from inside the conference room.

“Two?  I guess they wanted to make sure that they got everyone.”  Rollie removed his mask, wig, and the Saudi garments, then returned his attention to the bomb under the podium.  “Do any of your men have training in explosives?” he asked Chuck.

“Baker does,” he replied.  “Baker!”

One of the men ran up.  “Yes, sir?”

“Can you handle the other device?” Rollie asked.

“Certainly, sir.  Do you have tools?”

Rollie handed him the tools he would need and a headset so that they could keep in touch with each other.

“I’m in position, sir.” Baker said a couple of minutes later.

“Let’s get the plates removed,” the Aussie instructed.  Carefully, Rollie removed the cover plate from the bomb he was working on, then began studying the guts of the device.  “All right, I don’t see any failsafe devices.  It seems like a straight forward. . . .  Wait a sec.  Oookay, we don’t want to be moving these things around much.  Do you see it, Baker?”

“Yes, sir.”

“What is it?” Chuck asked.

Rollie pointed to a tiny glass vial containing a silvery liquid.  “That’s a variation of a mercury switch.  A mercury switch opens or closes a circuit by shifting a vial of mercury.  This does the same thing, except that it’s designed to be extremely sensitive to motion.  In other words, if we move the bomb, kaboom!”

“Uh huh.  Well, that’s not good.”

“It wouldn’t be tough to disable it, though,” Craig Baker said over the headset.

“I know, which has me worried.  If they were concerned that the bombs would be discovered, then they should have made them tougher to disarm, yet I can’t see any kind of failsafe system.  Before we do anything, I think that we’d better check a little further.  I have a bad feeling here.”

Cautiously, Rollie started pushing wires aside to get a look at what was hidden underneath them.  He was about ready to admit that his feelings were wrong, when he caught sight of something that made him stiffen.  He studied it for several seconds, hoping that it wasn’t what he thought it was.  Unfortunately, it was.

“Um . . . okay, we’ve got a problem here,” he said.

“What is it?” Chuck asked again.  He was sitting on the floor beside Rollie, watching him work.

“You see this?  If this bomb is disabled, that will instantly send a signal.  My guess is that it’s to the other bomb, to detonate it.  In order to prevent that from happening, both bombs would have to be disarmed at exactly the same time.  But there’s another problem.  It looks like the bombs might also send a signal to something else, probably a unit that one of the extremists is carrying to warn them if the devices are tampered with.”

“Is there any way to disable it?”

“I’m afraid not, and I’d bet everything I own that this is set up so that if we disable any of this bomb’s systems, the signal will be transmitted.”

“So, what you’re saying is that, even if we can disable the bombs without causing one of them to detonate, we’ll be sending a warning to the extremists,” Chuck said, his voice full of concern.  “What are we going to do, then?”

“I hate to say this, but I don’t know,” the Aussie replied.
 

CHAPTER FIFTEEN -- SOLUTION

Rollie stared at the bomb, trying to figure out what he was going to do.  Every time he thought of something, he dismissed it as being too risky or just plain impossible under the circumstances.  Finally, he got up and went into the conference room.  Craig Baker looked up from where he sat on the floor beside the second bomb.

“Do you know what we’re going to do?” he asked.

“Not yet.  But don’t worry.  There has to be a way.  I just haven’t thought of it yet.”  Rollie moved past Craig to a telephone on the other side of the room.  He dialed the number for the estate, let it ring once, then waited.  That was the code he had worked out with Angie and Hashim to let them know that he was the one calling and give Angie time to hook the phone up to the scrambler.  When he called back five minutes later, it was Angie who answered.  Rollie told her about the bombs.

“Any ideas?” he asked hopefully.

“I’m afraid not, Rol,” Angie said.  “Besides, you know more about explosives than I do.”

“Yeah, I was just hoping that there was something I was overlooking.  The problem is that mercury switch.  If I could just figure out a way to get the mercury out of the vial or keep it from. . . .”  Rollie’s voice faded away as a thought came to him.  There was silence on the other end of the line, and, somehow, he knew that Angie had just thought of the same thing, as if their minds were linked.  “Do you think it would work?” he asked.

“Oh, it would work, but the question is, would the warning sensors in the bomb detect it?”

“I don’t think so.  They look to be set up to detect tampering with the circuits and wiring.  The problem is where would we get something like that around here?  If we were in New York, I’d know right where to go.”

“Let me get Hashim.  He might have an idea,” Angie said.

As Rollie waited, he began running through his mind the kind of places where they would most likely be able to get what he needed.

“Rollie?” came the sheik’s voice over the phone.  “Angela told me what you need.  I fear that I do not know where something like that could be obtained.”

The Aussie mentioned a few possibilities.

“I will start making some calls,” Hashim said.

“If you find it, will you be able to arrange for Rollie to get it?” Angie asked.

“Do not worry.  If I can find it, you will have it.”  There was confidence in the sheik’s voice.

“I don’t know what the number is here, so I’ll call back in half an hour,” Rollie said.  He hung up the phone and looked over at Craig, who had risen from the floor and was now watching him.

“So, what was that about?” the corporal asked.

“A possible way out of our dilemma, or at least part of it.  I still have to work on the other part.”  Rollie looked down at the device sitting on the floor.  “There’s nothing that we can do with these things right now, so let’s start getting set up.  I could use a hand putting some of it together.”

Angie busied herself with packing the equipment up, trying not to think of the bombs that Rollie was attempting to disarm.  She wished