BLOOD BROTHERS - Sample Chapters

Chapter 2

Ellen cracked her eyelids just enough to see, slipping out of the room and out of the house-for the hundredth time-a man that she only idly called her husband. As soon as she heard the door catch, she sat up in bed. "That's the last time you sneak out on me, Mister."  

The next day, she roamed the streets of Morocco, poking her head in one stall after another in the marketplace. There were people definitely selling all sorts of contraband, just not the illicit items she was looking for.  

Finally, exasperated, she footed it back to the guy with the sat phones, radios, and TVs. At least it was electronics gear. He worked out of a canvas tent. "You again. You look, you look, but you don't buy anything. Get out." He shooed her out of the store with his hands. 

"An Arab merchant chasing a wealthy American out of his store? In what alternate reality?" 

"It's reverse psychology." 

"I'm looking for something hi-tech. I just don't see it here." 

"What, exactly?" 

At least he was no longer chasing her out of the store. But he hadn't precisely backed away. His brutish off-balance pot-bellied body towered more than a foot over her like the shaky edifice of a building ready to topple at any moment. "I need to do some spying. Where would I go for something like that?" 

"Look no further, madam. You have come to precisely the right place." He pressed a button on his remote and all the counters flipped over or rotated and in a flash there was nothing in the store that wasn't spy-tech.  

"Oh, my God." 

"Now, you wish to invade a small country, or start a coup right here at home? I just want to know what kind of budget we're talking." 

"I need to follow my husband." 

"Not a problem. Home? Work? Everywhere, anywhere, twenty-four-seven?" 

"I just want a homing device that'll let me follow him to wherever he's going." 

"Ah. Not a problem." He showed her a watch. "Get him to wear this. And here is your tracker. If you prefer, I have virtually any type of wearable jewelry from which you'd care to choose. I can even give you things to stitch into his clothes." 

"I think the watch'll be fine. I've been threatening to buy him one." 

"Not a problem." He bagged everything up for her. "That'll be five thousand, American." 

"I thought we agreed I wasn't invading a country or starting a coup." 

He gestured helplessly. 

"Fine." She paid the man the money and slipped back into the street. 

No sooner was she out of the tent than Fidel jumped on his cell phone. "Just to let you know, your wife bought a watch with which she could track you." 

"'With which she could track you?' Who talks like that? '...a watch she could track you with!" 

"I'll have you know, I speak perfect English, unlike you Americans." 

Fidel felt his blood pressure rise at what he was hearing on the other end of the line. He dialed down the volume on the earpiece accordingly, and patted his perspiring forehead with a handkerchief. "What do you mean, 'Did I give her a discount?' I told you we were friends. I charged her double!"

***

"What are you doing?" 

"What does it look like I'm doing?"