The Crush

"Nathan, you did what?" On the phone with Hannah, Nate had just told her about his encounter with Hajji. He expected her to feel some of the same excitement as he. How often do you get to help a spy? But Hannah had been unexpectedly subdued during the telling. And he had attributed her long silence afterward to awe. But now, without the benefit of seeing her face, he wasn't sure how to read her response. Because it sounded suspiciously like a reprimand would follow that last statement.

"Yeah, I know. Crazy, right?" Nate said.

"How could you? That's aiding and abetting a terrorist."

Here we go. "A falsely accused terrorist," Nate corrected.

"You don't know that! Maybe he lied to you."

"I believe him."

"Nathan, we need to contact the authority and tell them the man they're looking for is still here in North Carolina.

"What! No! We can't do that. They'll put him away then he'll never get his information to the people who need it."

"Nathan, if they capture him, and if his story is true, the people needing his information will just go to him and verify that he's a spy. He'll be release. No harm done."

"No Hannah, it won't work that way. He's been made to look like a homegrown terrorist living with the Taliban for three years. Only two other people know the truth and one of them is missing. The only other person who can help is this General at the Pentagon. But he's never actually met Hajji. The only proof Hajji has of being a U.S. operative is on that USB."

"Right, and you said he took the place of someone else who was supposed to be on that plane?"

"Yeah, see, he got the USB in the mail. His contact sent it with a note two days before they were supposed to meet. The note said his contact's cover was blown. It to...

... middle of paper ...

...n-a-ways in a place that would be the first place a bounty hunter would look?"

"You're the history buff. Why?" Nate asked.

"Hannah said your great grand was a genius architect or something."

Nate shrugged. "I guess."

"So maybe there's something in the other part of the house that'll tell you what this stairway really is, because it wouldn't have been that secret and more than likely not a hide-a-way."

"So, he just built it for the heck of it?"

"If your great grand was really a genius, and if he was a stationmaster, then he would have known this place wouldn't conceal anything."

"But he really was a genius," Hannah said.

Again Nate got a warm fuzzy feeling like being wrapped in a blanket with love flowing through it. He got the definite impression that he wasn't the only one who really liked Hannah. Nathan Freedman the First had a crush on his girl.