Agent of Influence: A Thriller by Russell Hamilton

Author:Russell Hamilton
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Russell Hamilton
Published: 2014-01-01T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 32

Anna paused for a few moments and allowed Alex to sift through the information. They grabbed some energy bars and water to snack on while she told him about her final days in Cairo.

The days after her final conversation with Colin were spent staking out the Sultan Hassan Mosque, and meandering through Islamic Cairo near Aziz’s safe house. It was a partial reliving of her childhood for Anna. Her mother grew up on the streets of Islamic Cairo. She had worked near the U.S. embassy, where she met Anna’s father, fell in love, and got married. Anna vividly remembered the days of her mother taking her through the crowded alleyways and shops, bartering for goods, and teaching Anna about her family’s humble beginnings.

The streets looked much the same as they did when she was a child. The blackish vapor of dust still hung over the city and its inhabitants, and the shopkeepers still tossed buckets of water onto their little sections to keep the roadways damp and the dust to a minimum. Unlike most major cities throughout the world where sidewalks and roadways were meant for travel, Cairo’s sidewalks were little zones of commerce that one picked their way across. Anna made her way through the maze of people, searching for her quarry.

During the afternoons she dressed like a tourist. She needed to blend in completely to the scene around her. Anna combed the streets, pretending to search the wares being sold while keeping a silent vigil for either the old man, Quasim, or the boy messenger. A foreign woman shopping alone drew much less attention than a proper Muslim woman out and about without a male member of the family squiring her around town. Of the three for whom she was looking, she preferred to find Quasim. He had a reputation for having a short fuse, and she figured a woman interrogating him would throw him off the deep end quickly and get him talking. Aziz was too frail. He could easily die if she put his body under too much pressure. Finding Quasim, however, could be difficult. She knew her best chance of seeing him would be near the mosque. She doubted the religious zealot would miss his prayer times. Her goal was to watch him for a few days and figure out his pattern. Then she would devise a plan to snatch him for a few hours.

She also continued to be on the lookout for the young teenager she caught watching her at the hotel. He appeared to be an errand boy, and although she was sure he was probably not a full-fledged member of the Muslim Brotherhood, she assumed he delivered messages for the members throughout town. He would be difficult to force to talk. The children of Cairo age early because many of them spend their adolescence laboring in stuffy and cramped workshops. The city contained over 300,000 child laborers, and this young man’s job as a delivery boy meant he likely was paid

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