CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE - Reactions
NSA operative Mike Littleton opened the case file. “DIA located the names belonging to the aadhaar numbers. This number belongs to Tracy Dobbelaere, a teacher at the University of Delhi. These three numbers belong to Amit Mehra, Shreya Mehra, and Namanda Mehra. Both Amit and his wife Shreya are musicians. Namanda is their teenage daughter. The Mehra family reside in New Delhi, or at least they did. Since RAW has enacted a search and destroy, it is logical that all four assets are defectors, and one of them RAW considers to be a strategic retrieval.”
Bob Murray, Littleton’s supervisor, replied, “We can probably rule out the teenager. What else?”
“Actually it may be the teenager that is the priority. Google back-channeled these to us, starting with an event that occurred in 2006, through the ANGRYBIRD sensitivity software.” Littleton passed the first of three printed sheets to Murray. “Namanda, at eight years of age, appeared on Indian national television. She displayed total recall on that program. The girl, just eight, mind you, could name every country in the eastern hemisphere, in alphabetical order. The show host stopped her after she named thirty countries. To substantiate her power of concentration she was handed a list of twenty items. She examined the list for three seconds, handed it back, then rattled off all twenty items with one hundred percent accuracy.”
Littleton passed a second printout to Murray. “She appeared again on the same network five years later. In that episode she was able to determine the talk show hosts thoughts while on the air. She named the man’s family members, and their ages, which rendered the show host speechless. She was only thirteen years old at the time, but already a sophomore in college, which is where Dobbelaere was one of her teachers. Apparently this girl, Namanda, not only has total recall, but also telepathic ability.”
Littleton laid the third paper on the desk. “This is a reprint of a New Delhi newspaper article that ran last year. Apparently this little gal has some understanding of middle-eastern tensions. She more or less prophesied what would happen in the Kashmir land grab skirmishes. As you will see near the end of the article, her projections were discarded as being unfounded and spurious, since she fingered the LET and even implicated Musharraf. Since the publication there have been five lethal attacks in the Kashmir/Punjab region, all suspicioned to be at the hand of Lashtar-e-taiba. We know this to be true.”
Murray rubbed his chin. “Interesting. What else?”
Dobbelaere booked a flight from Delhi to Frankfurt on 5, June. From Frankfurt to Atlanta 6, June, and on the next day, Atlanta to Orlando. Then on 9, June, Dobbelaere flew from Orlando to Knoxville.”
“What about the Mehra family? What became of them?”
“Both flights, the one to Atlanta, and the one to Orlando, had three passengers named Singh. The flight from Orlando to Knoxville had one passenger named Singh whose seat was next to Dobbelaere’s. Fairly obvious that the Mehras are now using the name of Singh.”
“First names?”
“Rakesh Singh, Divya Singh, and Rhea Singh. Rhea is the one who flew with Dobbelaere to Knoxville.”
Murray thought a few moments. “Dobbelaere did not change her name; the Mehras did, so it is the Mehras that are in hiding. I gather Rhea is the teenage girl, and I’d say she is the asset RAW wants to recover. You agree?”
“I do.”
“RAW will obtain the same information as we have. They might have it already. If this teenager is considered a security risk, they’ll want her back for obvious reasons. India wouldn’t want anyone else to tap into her abilities. Put a net in place. I want all four targets found before RAW finds them, and have all four of them brought here to Meade.”
“I’m on it.”
+ + + + +
Earlier that Sunday
Papa Joe had a love-hate relationship with the quarter-after-twelve crowd every single Sunday. It was the Baptist hour at his restaurant, the Pizza Hut, and it had been that way for the last twenty years. The Baptists always beat the Methodists to Joes’ fifty seats because the Methodists had a long winded preacher. Even so the Baptists raced each other for the six booths that lined one wall. It also meant his cash register would ring approximately four times during the next hour. And poor Sally Mae, his faithful waitress, would be lucky to pocket two dollars in tips. Yet Papa loved these people; without them his through the week business would surely fail.
“Good grief, Sally Mae, they’s full of the Holy Ghost today. Why they bein’ so raucous?”
“Sumpin’ bout Jesus comin’ to church today, Papa Joe. An’ he brung a forner with im. Ole lady Simmons ain’t none too happy ‘bout it. Said sumpin bout Jerry Lee Lewis.” Folks in Whitley City had hung the name persimmons on the old lady since no one had ever seen her smile. “An’ I heird Beulah say she cudn’t wait to tell her Methodist friend that Jesus is attendin’ her church. Then she snorted. You know how Beulah is.”
“Here’s Bubba’s cheese pizza. Take it out to him and snoop. I wanna know what the heck is goin’ on.” Bubba had ordered a medium cheese pizza every Sunday for at least the last ten years. It appeared to Papa Joe that Bubba had not passed any of them yet. Joe spotted Jeff and Janie Cook at one of the booths. He knew he could talk straight with Janie.
“How you folks doin’? Can I get you anything? And what is all this commotion about Jesus I’m overhearin’ today?”
“Oh, Papa Joe,” Janie beamed, “I saw him at the general store last evenin’. And the girl too, except she had a real pretty blonde lady with her inside the store. The Jesus-man stayed outside and talked with another man I didn’t get a good look at. And sure ‘nough, he comes to church today. You shoulda heard that girl play Herb’s fiddle. When she finished playin’ it Herb looked at his fiddle like it was a strange alien thing. An’ guess what, Papa Joe? The Jesus-man is the one who makes the NIL. I am so excited.” Janie bounced up and down on the booth while her husband Jeff rolled his eyes.
Sally Mae hurried over and tugged on Papa Joe’s sleeve. She was about to explode with laughter. She pulled him back to behind the checkout counter with a hand covering her mouth. “Harlene, you know how funny she is. She says Maggie ran so hard after church let out that her butt got ta swayin’ so big she dented in two car doors.” Sally Mae bent over and tried to not laugh, unsuccessfully. “Can’t ya just picture that? Anyways, her and Norbert followed them two. An’ it was Autry’s old truck they was drivin’ jus’ like Janie said they done the night before.”
“Speak of the devil.” Papa Joe commented as he watched Norbert and Maggie enter the store. The new arrivals stood quietly inside the door as if they were about to engage in a duet. Papa Joe was amused to see all of his patrons crooking their necks in the same direction.
“Well?” Persimmons asked in a crackly voice.
“Ya’ll ain’t gonna believe this!” Maggie loudly said and with great satisfaction. “Ya’ll know the old Park Service maintenance barn?”
“Yeah?” The crowd replied in unison.
“Well, me and this here slowpoke get up to the top of the rise, an’ here’s what yain’t gonna believe. They was a bunch a cars up there, includin’ Autry’s SUV. They was a fancy black city car there, an’ another car there too. The Jesus-man pulled in up there in Autry’s old truck and sat with the girl there for a spell. Then a bunch of people come out the barn, and I am swearin’ on the Good Book that one of ‘em was the Lieutenant Governor, that Reid lady. They was all strangers ceptin’ for Autry.”
“I knowed somethin’ funny was a goin’ on up there.” The unidentified voice came from somewhere in the rear.
The noise of curious chatter began to swell once again, then suddenly became as quiet as a Methodist church service. Autry had entered the Pizza Hut.
“Ok, folks. I saw Norbert and Maggie had followed my old truck up to the maintenance barn. So I thought I’d better get down here and do some explainin’ before you folks come up with some crazy ideas. Look, the man’s name, the one that looks like Jesus, is Joshua. I don??
?t quite recall the little girl’s name since she’s just passin’ through.” Autry fibbed about that because the less these gossipers knew, the better. “I’ve known Joshua for over three years, and I’ll tell ya, he is a right smart man with a heart of gold. He’s been makin’ the NIL for a long while now and you know you ain’t had to pay a dime for it. He makes it up there an’ I don’t want ya’ll makin’ a bee line up there to get some. You will still get it from me. There’s a bear up there an’ it ain’t safe to go snoopin’ up there, ya hear?”
“Is it true that the Lieutenant Governor was up there?” Papa Joe asked.
“Yeah, she was there and it was a surprise to me too. Put it this way. The Lieutenant Governor and Joshua have a mutual friend that was also there, so I spose that’s how that happened. And there was some folks from over Bowlin’ Green way that was there too. They brought a teenage boy there who has cancer, and they was hopin’ the NIL would be good for him. And that brings up another thing. I don’t look for the NIL to be free much longer since the word is gettin’ round real fast and far and wide. He can only make so much and it costs him a lot to make it.”
“No!” Janie stood and screamed. “How much will it cost? We can’t live without it.” Janie pointed not so discretely to Jeff, who all knew was a changed man the last two months.
“Just hold your horses. I am not a part of the business end of it. I just help deliver it since Joshua doesn’t have a car of his own. I let him borrow my old pickup since he has company. So I can’t tell you how much it will cost, but I will tell you this. If it works like we’ve seen a good number of times with different folks, it will be a lot cheaper than prescriptions over at the Rite-Aid.”
“So the young foren girl ain’t his wife?” Persimmons asked.
Autry laughed. “No, Mrs. Simmons. You see, that’s what I’m sayin’. That foreign girl came all the way up here from Florida to get some NIL. Her parents will be up there right quick to fetch her and they will be on their way.”
“She shore can play the fiddle.” Norbert said.
“Is that so?” Autry countered innocently. Ok, folks, you go back to placin’ your big orders and enjoy your Sunday.” Autry turned and left the restaurant despite the questions that were being asked behind him. The last thing he heard was….. “Well that’s a fine how do you do. I don’t recall Jesus ever sellin’ nothin’.”