“They haven’t told me, no. From the way they’ve talked about it, I think it must be someone very senior. But Abu Khalid told me that if they even suspect I might betray this man, they’ll kill all my family. He showed me a picture of my house in Amman to prove he was serious.” Rashid’s black eyes were hard and desperate. “You must promise you won’t let that happen.”
“I guarantee, you get us al-Zawahiri or bin Laden, we’ll move your whole family to America. And don’t forget the reward.” The twenty-five-million-dollar reward the United States had offered for the capture of al-Qaeda’s top leaders.
“You promise that?”
“You’ll be a hero. You’ll meet the president. Now, please, tell me about the meeting with Abu Khalid.”
“After he showed me the picture of my house, he went through the man’s symptoms. That he feels tired all the time and has sharp pains in his chest that make him lie down. He asked what was wrong with the man. I told him the truth, my best guess. This man may have had a heart attack. Now his heart is giving out. Congestive heart failure, we call it. And the altitude and the cold make it worse. But I can’t be sure without seeing him. This kind of thing, you have to hear the heartbeat, touch the skin, talk to the patient.”
“What did Abu Khalid say?”
“He asked me, ‘If you see him, can you treat him?’ I told him it depends how sick he is. And the medicines he needs, some are only in Karachi or even Dubai. Abu Khalid told me to get everything that I might need. He said he would let me know in a few days whether they would bring me to the patient.”
Holm thought through the options. “Don’t push. Don’t reach out to Abu Khalid. Pressing will only scare them.”
“And if they tell me to see this man? Do you want me to bring some sort of transmitter?”
“No. If this is al-Zawahiri, they’ll strip you naked before they take you to him. Check every pill bottle you have. They may even make you take the medicine you’re giving him. One for you, one for him. They’ll be paranoid. They find anything suspicious, they’ll shoot you, be done with it.”