Prime Impact

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 6At the same time the meeting was being held at the FBI, another one was taking place a few miles away. Kevin Middleton arrived at Caribou Coffee on Ponce de Leon Avenue fifteen minutes early. He looked forward to his first cup of coffee. The stress and extra hours he’d been working at the Centers for Disease Control had changed his appearance.

Two months ago, a couple of the CDC’s female microbiologists told him they considered him dark and mysterious. The compliment caused him to smile, showing off a perfect set of straight white teeth. Lately however, he had a haggard appearance, not swarthy but sinister. Although he had just turned thirty-seven, he looked sixty. The bags under his eyes coordinated with his black mustache and perpetual five o’clock shadow.

Middleton was a regular at this coffee shop near the heart of Emory University. The coffee was good and the place was located a mile from his job. While sitting outside on the patio waiting for his coffee to cool, he opened the Atlanta newspaper and stared at the lead story. Assistant United States Attorney Kendall Briggs had been murdered. Middleton had mentioned to his new partners two weeks ago he and Briggs were acquainted, but he couldn’t risk telling them how they’d met.

“See you got here first,” Hassan Fadi said as he walked up behind Middleton, patting him on the back as Americans often did. He pulled out one of the wrought iron chairs and sat down. Fadi, tall for a Palestinian at over six feet, held a ceramic coffee cup which seemed small in his large hands. “Espresso. I like the way it heightens my senses.”

“I know what you mean.” Middleton took the Metro section of the newspaper and slid it to cover up the front-page article.

“Have you completed your arrangements?” Fadi asked.

“Everything’s been handled.”

Fadi looked directly into Middleton’s eyes as he laid a thick manila envelope on top of the newspaper. “Half of the $20,000 down payment is in that envelope. Any questions?”

“What about the other half and the balance you promised?”

“As agreed, the deposit was also made this morning. You can verify any time you want. The balance will be wired after you complete your part. We control what we can but some things depend on God. You assured us you would be able to hand over the item in a week. We must not have any delay.”

“I understand,” Middleton said.

Fadi leaned forward and said in a quiet voice, “I don’t need to remind you to be careful. I wouldn’t take that envelope into work.” Fadi grinned, showing his yellow teeth. He put a small red box on the table in front of him and tapped out a Dunhill cigarette.

“I don’t recognize the brand,” Middleton remarked.

“It’s English. Your friend in London gave me a carton. Anyway, American cigarettes are weak.”

After Fadi finished his espresso and left, Middleton waited five minutes as agreed upon before getting up, carrying the newspaper and envelope in his left hand.

Neither Middleton nor Fadi had looked in the direction of the man sitting at a corner table. The man’s appearance had been altered since he had last seen Fadi and Middleton. He had met with Fadi and one of his men in London and provided Middleton’s name and information to them. In London, the man had been clean shaven. Now he had a beard and mustache. He wore a gray Emory University tee shirt, a blue baseball cap with Emory spelled out in yellow, and wraparound sunglasses. No one paid him any attention but as Middleton left, Terry Hines got up from his corner table, walked to the front of the patio where he could observe the side street. His eyes followed his former fraternity brother until he got into his car. Hines returned to the corner table and finished his coffee.

Middleton avoided saying anything to those in the parking lot or walking on the sidewalk. He didn’t use his cell phone. He started his car and bent over to open the envelope on his lap. Inside a zip-locked plastic bag were two stacks of new hundreds along with a card. Presumably the entire $10,000 was there. He popped open the trunk of his car, walked to the rear, and placed the envelope and newspaper in a briefcase before getting back behind the wheel and pulling into traffic.

Three cars behind him was another car with two occupants. While one man drove, keeping a discreet distance behind Middleton’s Toyota Camry, his partner scanned the roads in all directions. Fadi’s orders were to follow Kevin Middleton and try to determine if Middleton was being surveilled by anyone else.

Middleton fought to contain his excitement and focused on acting naturally when driving up to the guards at the CDC. He didn’t smile or greet them when he showed his access badge. For the past month he had worked long hours documenting his research. He had been careful not to do anything that would attract attention. All required reports were submitted ahead of schedule. Middleton knew that in two weeks all of his problems would be solved and the CDC would just be a part of his past.