Local time – 5:10pm, Sunday 17th June, 2011.
Islamabad, Pakistan.
Daniel walked hurriedly across the tarmac at Islamabad International Airport, having enjoyed a restful flight on his boss’s private jet. When he learnt where the stupid girl was headed, he had absolutely no doubt he would be sent there too. Daniel didn’t mind giving her a bit of a head start.
Daniel’s driver was waiting for him outside the main terminal, just as instructed. He opened the door of the black sedan for Daniel, and handed him a USB stick before getting into the driver’s seat and accelerating away from the airport. Daniel put the stick into his laptop, and brought up a series of photographs. The driver must have paid a visit to airport security before Daniel arrived. The photographs showed Alex North with three unknown men as they moved through the terminal. There was one shot that captured Alex’s strained features. Daniel was pleased to see her fear. He noticed she held one of the men’s hands, like a school girl being walked across a busy road. Maybe she felt safer with an entourage of men. But that wasn’t going to help her when Daniel caught up with them. No photos of them at customs, and no passport information. He wondered how they’d managed that. The last photograph in the series, however, showed the four of them waiting at a car rental booth. Not so smart. Daniel pointed at it and said to his driver:
‘I assume you know where they’re headed?’ The driver nodded. He spoke with a Pakistani accent.
‘They have been photographed by one of the N80 Motorway cameras.’
‘Excellent. Drive on my friend.’
Daniel relaxed in his seat. He opened his tracking software and was unsurprised to find he could trace Alex North’s position through one of Ryan’s iPad SIM cards. This was going to be even easier than he thought. Ryan had been much more use than Daniel expected. It was such fun turning a cocky know-it-all into an informant. Alex North, and her iPad, were going to make Daniel into a very, very popular man. Before he put the laptop away, he sent the photographs from the airport to the office. The techs could easily tell him who Alex’s three babysitters were. It never hurt to know who he was dealing with. As an after thought, he wrote another message asking if they had yet been able to identify the CIA agent who planted the car bomb. He knew they had their hands full that day, but he was surprised not to have heard who the fucker was.