The day came when Nedim was to make the drop to the courier. His shadows had followed him from quite a distance. The rest were in place up and down the street. All of the documents and a CD were in the courier pouch they had given him. Thankfully, they had thought to buy something made locally which was used and cheap looking. It was exactly the kind of bag locals carried things in. A new leather bag from one of the big-name manufacturers would have been a major tip-off something was up.
Halfway to his office a woman he worked with walked up beside him and asked him if he had a bag for her. Nedim was shocked that this woman would be speaking with him. She was obviously not a good Muslim, speaking to a man who was not her relation and not asking him permission to do something. Still, Nedim played along. “God is great. He may have provided a bag for you.”
“God’s word lights the way and is only for me to carry,” the woman responded. With that, Nedim took the bag off his shoulder, and without stopping handed it to her. She put the bag over her shoulder and disappeared into the crowd without breaking stride.
Thankfully, many IT workers had cell phones now. As bad as cell phone service was in Pakistan, it was still more reliable than land lines. The devices receiving the tracking information looked and functioned just like cell phones. When the woman was sufficiently gone, Umar came up alongside Nedim and asked, “Did you know her?”
“She works at my company.”
“Do you have a name?”
“No, but I can get it. Her cube is four rows down from mine and we all have name tags.”
“Good. See that you get it and email it to this address first thing this morning.” He handed Nedim a slip of paper with an email address on it. “Probably an alias, but we should be able to find out where she is living from your employer.”
Nedim stopped and looked at Umar. “How?” “We have access to all employment records filed with the government. Don’t worry, your employer won’t even know we were looking.” With that, Nedim continued toward work in silence. Something bad was about to happen, he could just feel it. These people had never tried to comfort him in the past.
Some time later he arrived at work. On the way to his desk he took a different route which took him past the woman’s cube. He quickly wrote her name down on the back of the slip of paper he had been given. Once at his desk he logged in and sent the requested email. This is simply not going to be a good day, he thought.
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