Blank Slate

Chapter 51 - Ethan Carter

I dismissed the team to continue preparing for the protection detail tomorrow and then sat down to read through some of the data that Payton had managed to collect the night before. There really was an impressive amount of information here. It was organized logically and the investigations into her top picks was done methodically and built a complete picture of the subject. I had worked with CIA analysts that didn't produce work this good.

Payton would make an excellent member of our team, if I could figure out how to earn her trust. I needed some advice, not only on Payton but also how to deal with this Rashid bin Mohommed character. I minimized Payton's intel files and opened Skype to video called the closest thing I had to a father, Cole Bennet.

After a few moments of ringing a sleepy looking older man in a plain white t-shirt entered the frame. "Goodness Ethan, it's after eleven. The older that I get, the earlier I am allowed to go to bed, and you should know that" Cole rasped out in a voice laden with sleep. I looked down at my watch and saw that it was just after ten am local time. Cole was at his house in Montana back at Whistler headquarters. 

"Well if you don't want me to call you at all hours of the night then don't send me to stay in a kingpin's hotel halfway across the world." Cole took off his glasses and rubbed at his eyes before replying.

"I must have heard you wrong. I thought that you just said that you were staying at a kingpin's hotel," Cole said in a more alert voice.

"That's what I said."

"Hold on. You are on the Alhashmi job in Dubai. You should be staying at the Al Qasr hotel. The same hotel the summit that Alhashmi is attending will take place."

"Yes, we arrived the night before yesterday and met with Khalid Alhashmi yesterday. While doing some background scans of people going to attend the summit, Payton found that the owner of our hotel, Rashid bin Mohommed, is dirty. Like Godfather dirty. Local LEOs on payroll, drugs, guns, pickpockets, payoff money, the whole shebang." All lingering tiredness vanished from Cole's demeanor as he turned his attention towards his computer screen. I knew that he was pulling up the extensive records that Whistler kept on all their clients.

After a few moments of scanning his files, Cole looked up into the camera lens and addressed me. "We have the standard background check on Khalid Alhashmi but not much more. Alhashmi contacted us through one of our repeat, high-end clients only last week. That didn't give us much time to do research, but after the background check went through, I got a call from George Tasker." 

Now things were starting to make more sense. George Tasker was the Whistler contact within the CIA. The job prep had been rushed because the CIA had called in a favor.

"What did Tasker want us to watch out for?" I asked.

"Like I told you when you agreed to take the job, the CIA and State Department are very interested in what happens at that summit. They also found a small connection between Alhashmi and Al-Qaeda back in 01 after the towers fell. The investigation proved that while Al-Qaeda was funneling money through UAE banks, any funds that Alhashmi contributed was supposed to be for philanthropic purposes. Basically Al-Qaeda scammed Alhashmi into donating money to their cause."

"Fuck Cole," I exclaimed as I stood and started pacing before the computer. "I don't want my team anywhere near even the mention of Al-Qaeda."

"Calm down boy," Cole scolded. "I would never send you into a terrorist organization without fully briefing you first and you know that. I was just telling you why the CIA is interested in Alhashmi. Once they open a file on someone, they like to keep tabs on that person. But I looked into the job and it is a simple protection job. As a favor to the CIA I would like you to keep your eyes and ears open, but this is a relatively low risk job."