Conspiracy at Desert One
A novel
By Bernace Charles
The Iranian
Chapter Thirty
Jerusalem
Day four
As they walked to a bus stop connecting through the Jerusalem Corridor,
Roya knew she couldn't telephone Lewis to tell him she was leaving. As
Roya and Walker passed south of Zion Gate Roya asked, "If they catch
you, will they kill you?"
Walker answered, "They may. I don't know. I learned to go underground
by writing other stories. I think it was the reason The Raven came to me.
There's a home we can go to. We'll be safe there."
"I wish I could have seen him."
"The Raven?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
Roya turned to Wes Walker. She said in a sad voice, "He was my
father."
Wes looked on Roya's face and knew he found her attractive. All he could
say was, "I'm sorry. I didn't know."
Roya said, "The papers explain it. I have them with me. He lived
with my mother and I until my mother left America."
Walker asked in a disbelieving tone, "You have the papers with
you?"
"I went to Zurich yesterday morning and got them from a bank. They're
in my knapsack." It was getting into the heat of the day. Roya didn't
hand the knapsack to Walker. Instead she turned and continued toward a
bus stop.
Walker hurried to catch up with her. He did and said, "We've to
get out of here. Hopefully, we can get on a damn plane and stay ahead of
them."
Roya turned to Walker and asked, "Where are we going?"
"We're going to Scotland, Miss Southgate. We're going to Scotland."
Roya didn't correct Wes in his using the sir name of her father. Instead,
she increased her pace. A bus approached and Roya recognized it as one
to take them to Lod and Ben Gurion Airport.
Now, Walker felt a fear not experienced at the time of writing on the
PLO or IRA. He feared the might of the Central Intelligence Agency and
it angered him that it did.
***
David Rice entered the lobby of the Hotel Zurich. He presented credentials
identifying him as an inspector of the New York City Police Department.
Another card identified him as working with Interpol. He asked a young
man impressed by the identity cards, "I need to know if you remember
a female guest here the past night. She made an international call to the
U.S. It went to Chicago, Illinois."
"I'm sorry, but you need to speak to the day manager." The
young man took up a private telephone.
Two minutes passed before an older man came to stand across from Rice
and ask, "May I help you?"
David repeated his request and added, "The young woman is a member
of a drug smuggling ring out of Athens. The telephone call came from a
room here. It was made at five-fifteen p.m. your time. I need to know what
passport she carried and her address."
After looking at the American's credentials, the older man punched in
several commands on a computer terminal to check the past two days. He
read a computer screen of telephone calls and their times. He answered
in English. "The young woman registered under the name of Lori Hudgins.
She used an Israeli passport with an address in Tel Aviv." The man
wrote the name, passport identity number, Tel Aviv street number on hotel
stationary, and handed it to Rice.
David gave an official thank you. He turned to leave the counter. Before
he got three steps the young man called after him, "I remember her.
She came down after checking in and asked if I knew the hours of the Habib
Bank."
David again thanked the young man and left the hotel. He was soon in
a provided shuttle service and traveling the direction of the Zurich-Kloten
airport. He was getting, and if Roya Sanders were in Tel Aivi, he would
find her. There would be no one left to tell Wes Walker of the great betrayal.
As David rode to the airport, he was thankful Interpol hadn't picked
up Walker for the murder of the FBI agent in Tulsa. The FBI spread Walker's
face across the entirety of the world for the death, and still there was
no sighting of the man. As David exited the shuttle bus to enter the airport,
he knew there was a last person who might know where Walker would go to
write.
If he didn't find Laleh and her daughter, he would return to Chicago.
He would visit Fred Southgate's sister. A voice analysis of Walker's voice
from an interview on the "Today Show" matched the voice that
called the woman. The sister might know, and if needed, she would damn
well tell where Walker might go into hiding. >>>
Go to Chapter Thirty-One
Your feedback
is important to us.
* Back
to "Conspiracy at Desert One" main index
