Read Online Retribution by Anderson Harp - Free Book Online Page B

well before September 11.
    Scott absentmindedly looked up at the other titles in the shelves behind the desk. The Peloponnesian War, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, The Encyclopedia of Military History, and John Paul Jones.
    Gibbon . . . Scott remembered from his days at Godolphin House who was the greatest fan of Gibbon’s The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire : Winston Churchill. Churchill relied upon Gibbon for his sense of phrases and credited Gibbon with teaching him the perfect English language.
    In the shelf below stood Songs of America and Existence.
    â€œA soldier who reads poetry,” Scott remarked to himself . He turned and stepped out into the great room. In the bright light of day, he realized that the large windows that flanked both sides of the stacked-stone fireplace were actually glass doors that led out onto a broad slate patio. It was a crisp, brilliantly clear day. He saw the back of a man sitting in one of the chairs.
    â€œGood morning.”
    â€œWell, hello, Mr. Scott.” Parker took a sip from his cup of coffee. The bright sunlight had already warmed the day to the point that Parker was dressed in a long-sleeved shirt with the sleeves rolled up.
    â€œGood God!” Scott exclaimed as he took in the view. The porch led down to a grassy knoll, brown from the early winter chill, and beyond to a cliff looking out over a broad valley forested with pointed pine trees, oaks, and hardwoods. Below, a river cut through the valley, and off to the north he saw, well in the distance, the tall stacks of a mill of some kind. The stacks produced a streak of bright white smoke, stretching across the cloudless blue sky.
    â€œWhat river is that?” Scott said.
    â€œThe Chattahoochee.”
    â€œI’ve got no bloody idea where I am.”
    â€œGood.” Parker smiled. “Would you like coffee? Or tea?”
    â€œNeither,” Scott said.
    â€œWhat is it you want me to do?” Parker pointed to a mahogany porch chair across from his.
    â€œThat’s rather direct of you.”
    Parker smiled again. “District attorneys make their living on direct.”
    Scott nodded. “We have an idea as to how to get close to a key player. And I have been given license to conduct an operation that could cause serious harm to a network of very bad people. But, you must have credibility to get close.”
    Parker knew what he meant when he said close . Close, as in getting near the enemy, behind their lines, and all of this alone. It could even involve being the enemy.
    â€œCredibility to get close.” Parker laughed. “That may be the understatement of the year. So you think you have a way of getting to this target and doing him damage?”
    â€œThere is a newspaper in London called Al-Quds Al-Arabi . We know it’s followed by thousands upon thousands of Muslims in the Mideast. Several organizations follow it so as to monitor the Muslim community in Europe.” Scott squinted in the sunlight.
    â€œSo, what are you suggesting?”
    â€œYou are multilingual. You pick up languages with incredible ease.”
    â€œI’m still lost.”
    â€œThere is a journalist named Sadik Zabara. He has a following in his home country of Bosnia. Mr. Zabara was recently offered a job at Al-Quds. Publicly he has rather radical leanings and tends to attract those with similar views.”
    William Parker instantly saw the genius in the plan. “A Bosnian Muslim. A Caucasian as radical as any extremist.”
    â€œExactly,” Scott said.
    â€œYou said publicly . . . meaning that privately he thinks something else?”
    â€œYes.” Scott didn’t explain.
    â€œAnd you’re fishing for a big fish with this bait.”
    â€œAnd the big fish is nibbling. Zabara starts work at his new job in only a few days, and already he has been invited to a meeting with Yousef al-Qadi.”
    â€œWhy? Why so soon? And why would Yousef al-Qadi want