Free Sphere Of Influence by Kyle Mills

and you know it. We've stabilized that region as much as it can be stabilized, but it's still wall-to-wall with warlords, Muslim fanatics, terrorists, and people who don't know how to do anything but fight. And as far as al-Qaeda being involved, who the hell knows? These guys aren't as easy to identify as they used to be--and as you know, they were never easy to identify."
    "But there's been an increase in the frequency and scale of the attacks over the last six months, isn't that right? And they cover a pretty wide geographic area, don't they? Too wide to be an individual warlord fighting over some piece of ground."
    The silence that ensued probably lasted no more than two seconds, but it spoke volumes. Drake was trying to calculate how much she knew and the absolute minimum he could reveal without seeming evasive.
    "You're assuming that the individual battles are connected in some way, and I don't think there's any evidence of that," he said finally. "This kind of violence ebbs and flows. We may just be seeing a reaction to the American-supported regime in Afghanistan, possibly with the involvement of displaced Taliban or al-Qaeda. Or it could be more perceptio n than reality. We're just looking harder than we used to. In any event, I don't see how that would be relevant to your investigation. In fact, you could argue that if Mustafa Yasin is tying up his limited manpower in petty skirmishes on the other side of the world, he might not be involved with this rocket launcher at all."
    Mistake, Beamon thought.
    "So you don't think information relating to Yasin's possible innocence and someone else's guilt would be relevant to our investigation?"
    It was Drake's turn to flush.
    "Could al-Qaeda be trying to take control of Afghanistan again, Jonathan? Could Yasin be trying to initiate radical Islamic revolutions in the surrounding countries?"
    "I hardly think that the activity we're seeing is of that kind of magnitude. And again, we don't know that alQaeda is involved."
    "So someone over there is just feeling a little pissy," Laura said. "Sort of Muslim PMS."
    Beamon had to bite his lip to keep from laughing. "What I'm trying to tell you," Drake said angrily, "is that the people in that region like nothing better than to kill each other and anyone else they happen across. I mean, look at their stance on the United States. We pour billions into their economies and help the Afghans drive the Soviets out of their country, and now they call us infidels and run planes into our cities."
    Beamon was a little slow in stifling his laugh this time, and Drake spun toward him. "Did you have something to add?"
    Beamon had an Ivy League degree in history--something he rarely admitted to--and the CIA's revisionism always struck him as funny in kind of an absurd way.
    "I'm sorry. No, nothing."
    "Please, Mr. Beamon. If you have something to say I'm sure we'd all like to hear it."
    The guy sounded like his second-grade teacher.
    "Well, I'll tell you, Jonathan: As I remember it, the CIA armed the Afghan people to the teeth in order to fight th e Soviets and adopted a kind of 'We'll fight to the last Afghan' policy. Then, when the Soviets were driven out, we just flipped them the bird and walked out of there. In return for helping us bring down the Soviet Union and end the Cold War, we left them with half their male population dead or maimed and their country in ruins. And as far as pouring money into the economies over there, I think it's less goodwill than the fact we like to drive big cars. . . ."
    "I'm sick of people telling me that because we helped the Afghans fight off an occupying force, we somehow owe them. They had every opportunity to create a viable government after the Soviets pulled out, but they didn't, because they're a corrupt, violent, uneducated people. It wasn't our job to save them from themselves."
    "What we owed them or didn't owe them is neither here nor there, Jonathan. The fact is that al-Qaeda's mostly a bunch of