The General and the Elephant Clock of Al-Jazari by Sarah Black

Author:Sarah Black [Black, Sarah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2013-11-03T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

JOHN walked into the living room and opened his computer. “Jen, what’s the time difference between here and Albuquerque?”

“They’re seven hours behind us.”

Okay, that made it just after one am. He should be safe.

“Sir, you might want to see this.” Jen worked the remote control and the voice from the TV, with a very posh British accent, was saying, over the footage of his confrontation with Ali Bahktar “… and this raw footage out of CNN, a retired American Army general, travelling to Tunisia on business, was assaulted publically in the lobby of one of Tunisia’s finest resorts. General John Mitchel was recently the subject of controversy when he appeared on the cover of Out magazine and gave an interview about being gay in the army. We don’t know if the attack was motivated by anti-American feeling or if this was a gay hate crime, or if this attack was more evidence of the rising violence by the ultra-conservative Salafist group that seems to be gaining a political foothold in post-revolution Tunisia. We’ll….”

“Oh, God.” John was remembering Kim’s comment about monitoring CNN for any flares in violence in sunny Tunisia. He needed to gather some more intel. It was dangerous to operate without adequate information. An unexpected piece of information cropping up at the wrong moment was like walking across the floor in your bare feet and stepping on a nasty bit of broken glass. John stuck his head back in Eli and Daniel’s room. “Do you want coffee or a Coke?”

“Coke,” Eli said. John got him a bottle and brought it into the room. Jen followed him, but he turned to her. “Can you check on something for me? The little taping we did in the lobby—I hope the Tunisian government is going to see it and apologize by dropping charges and returning a couple of passports. Will you check if the video is getting around the places it needs to go for the people in power in Tunisia to see it? Maybe if you know how these bloggers work, you can do whatever they do.”

“Of course I know how to blog!”

John raised his hand. “Nothing can come from us, and you need to be absolutely silent. Remember operational security.” He looked at her pug nose and freckles for a moment. “Do you know what operational security is?”

She folded her arms over her chest and sighed. “Yes, General. I understand what you need. Let me get to work. Do you need me to wake up Sam?”

John shook his head. “I’ll try to get along for a few minutes without my aide.”

“What taping did you do in the lobby?” Green was waiting for his Coke, and John handed it to him. He studied the boy for a moment. He wasn’t a boy, he was a young man, probably Kim’s age, and he reminded himself he was going to have to let this younger generation grow up and be men, even when they looked as damp and fresh as newborn baby chicks.

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