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“Any idea who?”
This was where it always got tricky. Ashan decided to start out cautiously. “Beyond the usual suspects, no, sir.”
“As for the usual suspects . . . I’d like to hear your list.”
“The Taliban is the obvious choice, although I doubt that they have the organization to be able to conduct such a complicated operation.”
“Explain, please.”
“Two different targets, all individuals, which means it’s very hard to predict where they will be in advance. From everything we know, the Taliban by themselves don’t have the assets to pull something like this off.”
“By themselves?”
“They are,” Ashan started, and then stopped. There was a safer way to go about this. “All we need to do, sir, is look at a map. Afghanistan is landlocked.” Ashan ticked off the neighbors. “Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, China, and us.”
“Don’t leave out the Americans,” Durrani interjected.
Ashan was struck by the stupidity of the statement. “You think the CIA is doing this to itself?”
“I don’t pretend to know the American mind. I’m simply saying they are highly invested in maintaining their influence over the region.”
Ashan decided to let the stupidity of his colleague’s statement stand on its own. “Historically, the Stans have had no relationship with the Taliban. If anything, they have been pulled into America’s orbit. It is, however, possible that Russia could be involved.”
“Do you have any evidence?”
“No,” Ashan said with a quick shake of his head. “Although they seem to be taking great joy in poking the Americans as of late, so we should at least consider them. Iran is growing in influence, and we all know they have ample hatred to attempt something so brazen. China, so far, has shown almost no interest in the region. As to why, that is fairly obvious. There are no natural resources other than the opium trade. As we’ve discussed, if Afghanistan had oil, China would be very interested.”
The director general rubbed his fingers along his mustache while he considered the analysis. “So we think it is likely that it is either the Iranians or the Russians.”
“There is one more possibility, sir. You forgot about us.” It was immediately obvious that Durrani had been waiting for this.
“I told you he would try to pull us into this sordid mess.”
“I am trying to do no such thing,” Ashan answered in a voice bereft of tension. “The director general asked for my analysis and I gave it to him.”
Durrani ignored his old friend and looked directly at Taj. “I warned you. This is dangerous. He has absolutely no evidence, yet he is willing to implicate us. How long do you think it will take until the Americans get word of this? They have spies all over this building.” Shifting his butt so he could face Ashan directly, he asked, “How many people have you told of this?”
Ashan would have burst out laughing if the entire thing wasn’t so serious. “Akhtar, you must not be listening. Let me phrase this a different way. If you were the Americans, where would you start looking?”
“I don’t give a damn about the Americans. This is not our problem. It is theirs, and we should keep it that way. Not help them try to implicate us.”
Ashan sat back and threw up his hands. “Director General, I do not understand his animosity. There is no place for it here.”
Taj looked as if he wished the entire matter would simply go away, but with these two strong-willed subordinates the chances of that were remote. “I think you both have valid points.” Looking meekly at Durrani, he added, “You really should take a less aggressive approach when it comes to the Americans.”
“I assume that when we are in your office you would like us to speak freely.” Durrani acted hurt by his boss’s admonition.
“Unless,” Ashan added quickly, “the subject involves your department’s unseemly relationship with the Taliban. Then we’re not allowed to speak freely.”
Durrani realized he had set himself up for the rebuttal and could see that his anger was pushing the director general toward Ashan’s position. Rather than speak and risk alienating the director further, he clamped his mouth shut and began a lengthy internal indictment of his friend.
Taj took a last sip of his tea, placed it on the saucer, and pushed it a few inches away. After leaning back and throwing his arm over the back of the couch, he announced, “I think we need to show the Americans our support. Nadeem, I spoke with Director Kennedy earlier. She’s at the Bagram Air Base. I’d like you to fly up there and offer our assistance.”
Durrani practically leaped to his feet. “Surely you can’t be serious. I don’t trust him. Not at all. How do you know he won’t say to her what he just said to us?”
The last time Ashan had seen his friend this upset was after the bin Laden raid. “You’ve met Director Kennedy before.” The woman’s intellect within the intelligence community was well known. “You don’t think she’s already thought of this herself? You don’t think the entire bin Laden fiasco isn’t seared into her brain?”
“Why do you keep bringing that up?”
