First Page-Against All Odds-Author Irene Hannon
AGAINST ALL ODDS by Irene Hannon
Book 1—Heroes of Quantico series
Prologue
“Sir? I think you need to hear this.”
With a preoccupied frown, David Callahan looked up from the security briefing in his hand. His aide, Salam Farah, stood on the threshold of his small office deep inside the fortified U.S. Embassy compound in Kabul, Afghanistan. The man was holding a tape recorder and a single sheet of paper.
“A new message from the terrorists?” David lowered the briefing to his desk.
“Yes. And another personal threat.”
“I’m not interested in threats directed at me.” David waved the comment aside. “Let our security people worry about them.”
“This one is different, sir.”
After forty years in the diplomatic service, most of them spent dealing with volatile situations in the world’s hot spots, David had learned to trust his instincts about people. And in the two months he’d been back in Afghanistan trying to help stabilize the local government, he’d come to respect Salam’s judgment. His aide wouldn’t raise a red flag unless there was good cause.
“All right.” David adjusted his wire-rimmed glasses and held out his hand. “Let’s see what they have to say.”
In silence, Salam set the recorder on the desk, pressed the play button and passed the sheet of paper to David.
As the spoken message was relayed in Pashto, the language favored by the Taliban, David scanned the translation. The warning was similar to those that had come before: Convince the country’s struggling fledgling government to release a dozen incarcerated terrorists and pay a twenty-million-dollar ransom, or the three U.S. hostages that had been kidnapped a week ago would die.
But as he read the last line, he understood Salam’s concern. The nature of the personal threat had, indeed, changed.
If you do not convince the government to meet our demands, your daughter will be our next target.
