Free Agents Under Fire by Dana Marton Page A

of files on his desk. He dabbed his forehead with a rag and swatted at the flies. “People think you are an American spy.”
    Not for the first time, Allison Myers considered whether it had been a huge mistake to come to Afghanistan.
    No, not a mistake. She had to find Kenneth. She hadn’t been able to save Daniel and had blamed herself all these years, had wondered every day if there’d been anything more she could have done. She wasn’t going to lose Kenneth. She couldn’t live with any more regrets.
    “ I’m looking for my fiancé. He disappeared around here six months ago.” She glanced at the two-door metal cabinet behind the man, its doors a crack open. That two-inch dark gap kept drawing her eyes.
    “ Is your fiancé a spy?” The man whacked at the flies again, and knocked over his empty coffee cup.
    The guard standing outside the open door dashed in, restored the cup to the table then returned to his post, all without making eye contact.
    Allison fanned herself. She couldn’t breathe in the mid-afternoon heat. She reached for her top button, but caught herself in time, folded her hands on her lap. “My fiancé, Kenneth Hatch, is a businessman. His company designs irrigation systems.”
    “ We don’t have any irrigation systems here. Just the old cisterns.” The man’s beady eyes never moved from her for a second, as if he was watching some loathsome snake he would have liked to cut in half.
    She looked up at the ceremonial dagger displayed on the wall behind him, probably some tribal relic, and she swallowed hard.
    He braced his stubby-fingered hands on the desk. “You’ve been bothering people with your questions. Why do you want to know so much?”
    “ I just want to find Kenneth.” Again, her gaze fell on the cabinet and her instincts prickled. She had the strangest feeling that someone was watching her from inside. The heat and stress were getting to her.
    “ Where are your brothers and your father?”
    “ I don’t have any brothers. My father is gone. Dead,” she clarified.
    His glare said he fully blamed her for having no protector . “Are you spying for an American company that wants to steal our water?”
    Not the first time he’d brought that up. People here seemed paranoid about water. Probably because they didn’t have enough. If they thought anyone threatened their water supply…
    Despite the oppressive heat, a chill ran down her spine. “I’m only in Lahedeh to take my fiancé home. I swear.” She would have loved to go back to New Hampshire. Nobody wanted her here. But she couldn’t leave until she found Kenneth.
    She hadn’t been a hundred percent sure about her feelings toward him for some time, but no matter what happened with the engagement, they would still be friends. And she wouldn’t abandon a friend. She believed in loyalty with all her heart.
    A moment of tense silence passed. The police chief measured her up, then leaned back in his chair. He seemed to have come to some sort of conclusion.
    Her muscles tightened as she waited.
    “ The police commissioner is coming tomorrow on his annual visit. He might want to talk to you.” He glanced toward the guard outside his door.
    Probably getting ready to order the man to lead her away and lock her up until the commissioner got here.
    “ I’ll be happy to come in.” She sprung to her feet and looked at her watch. “Thank you for your time. I better get back to the hotel. I have some health issues. I should take my medication, now,” she lied.
    “ And they’ll be calling me from the American embassy,” she added for extra measure. “They’ll be worried if I’m not there when they ring.”
    The man gave her another long, speculative look. He didn’t give her permission to leave, but he didn’t block her way either.
    Good enough. She took advantage of his momentary hesitation and hurried out past the guard, down a long, dingy hallway with suspicious-looking stains on the cement floor, expecting to be called