The Secret Gate by Mitchell Zuckoff

Author:Mitchell Zuckoff [Zuckoff, Mitchell]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-04-25T00:00:00+00:00

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THAT MORNING, THURSDAY, August 26, Asad answered Sam’s suggestion from the previous day that his family might be able to enter the airport through Abbey Gate. In his reply, Asad reminded Sam that his mother and brother had already made it into the airport, but his sister, her husband, and their two children still needed help. They remained holed up in their Kabul apartment, traumatized by their previous attempts and too afraid to return to the streets.

By the time Asad replied, the U.S. State Department had already issued its warning about dangers at Abbey Gate, East Gate, and North Gate. Sam could no longer urge Asad to send his sister’s family to one of those entrances. But now, with his new understanding of Glory Gate, Sam formed the stirrings of a plan for how it might be put to even greater good, while also assuaging some of his guilt about all the people he’d turned away from Abbey Gate.

Sam’s priority remained American citizens and Afghan staff from the U.S. embassy. But in the lull between those arrivals, maybe he could do more. Maybe he could help more.

“Hey man, what’s your plan today?” Sam texted Asad. “Can I get you to be our terp [interpreter] for a few hours near [Camp] Alvarado?” By mentioning only the general location—the airport’s northwestern corner—Sam was trying to preserve Glory Gate’s secret status.

Sam added: “It may”—he put the word “may” in bold—“also help with the rest of your family if we can get them there.”

Asad answered within minutes: “How bro.”

Sam texted that he’d explain by phone or when they were together, then added: “We would have to move pretty quick this morning though—like in the next few hours.”

Without naming Glory Gate, Sam instructed Asad how and where to find him.

“I’m here now,” Sam wrote. “Outside the gate. It’s very secretive right now so please do not spread this beyond only who absolutely needs to know. It will burn the op.” For emphasis, Sam added: “Lots of shooting.”

Sam and Asad texted back and forth about how Asad could reach Sam. The rapid-fire texts resembled an exchange between two high schoolers trying to get rides to the mall.

“Can you come and pick me up?” Asad asked.

Sam: “I don’t have a car.”

“I don’t have a car too. Do you need me?”

After several more exchanges, Sam texted: “If possible please” with a praying hands emoji.

Asad got a lift from an army intelligence team member he’d been helping. When Asad arrived, he told Sam he’d already been to this location the previous night with the intelligence unit, although they called Glory Gate by one of its other names. Asad told Sam the army team had sought permission from the gate’s clandestine operators to bring in his sister and her family, but they refused.

Asad pointed out the main gatekeeper, a combat-hardened, olive-skinned, thick-bearded man in his forties who oversaw the Afghan Zero Unit guards. Asad told Sam he’d badgered the man the previous night with no luck.

“I can’t go with you,” Asad said.

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