The Protector by Dawn Marie Snyder Page A

would have been nice to have just a hint of what was going on? If you knew Tom had sent me, then why not give me a heads up” My words were directed at Conway now. “You know maybe a picture of Hassan? You can’t tell me you don’t have pictures?” I stopped and looked around at the men who surrounded me. They all sat there, mouths closed unsure on how to deal with the crazy woman who had erupted into a wise ass bitch.   Every man who sat at the table shifted uncomfortably.  Jack had finished his oatmeal and was staring at me and I met his stare and pointed, “And you?  You followed Tom on these things all the time.  You knew the protocol; could you not have had the common courtesy to warn me?”
    “I couldn’t Alison. That is the agreement. Neither government can interfere with the handoff, only observe.  It is to be strictly an academic swapping of material. And I didn’t know you had switched out the processor.”
    “Academic swap my ass. This was a weapons swap – illegal via international treaty. There are no rules!” I paused for a moment and sucked in a deep breath, “Great, you know you guys run a really top notch operation.” I instinctively took my clip out and ran my fingers through my hair. It was still damp and cold from this morning. “Has anyone bothered to talk to Hassan and find out where the hell he was for this handoff?”  I knew the answer to the question before I even finished it.  But Seth confirmed it for me.
    “They found him dead yesterday. We think he died before you even arrived in Tel Aviv. I’m sorry.” Seth looked at Jack. “Look Alison, if we had known Hassan was dead, we would have interfered. But we had no idea until it was too late. And the Israeli’s weren’t very forthcoming with information either.”
    “So, they killed Hassan. Tell me, what stopped them from just killing me and taking the processor. Why let me do the handoff?” 
    Jack shook his head. “Us. Seth and I never let you out of our sight. Not to mention if they killed Hassan they knew the Israeli’s would start the blame game and well, we would end up exactly where we are now.”
    My head began to spin and my chest tightened.  ‘Great’ I thought to myself, ‘just what I didn’t need to have, another asthma attack.’ I suddenly felt ridiculous and it was at this point I wondered how I ever played college softball. Then I remembered that theoretically my life wasn’t in danger when I was on the softball field. 
    Jack moved closer as I shoved my body back from the table and stood up.  I tilted to one side and once again I felt his arm grab my elbow to steady me. With all the air I could muster in my lungs, I turned and pushed his arm away from me. “Back off!”
    Jack did and threw his hands up in the air. “Alison, please calm down.” His voice was calm, as I filled with pure panic. I put my hands up against the table and tried desperately to take a deep breath. But it wasn’t going to happen. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Jack take something from Conway.  Conspiracy images filled my brain as I pictured him giving me a shot to make me pass out. But it was only my inhaler he held.  He undid the cap and pumped the inhaler and tried to hand it to me. I wanted nothing from him, my inhaler or his help. Suddenly my pride consumed me.  I pushed his arm away again and the inhaler went flying across the room. It was getting harder to breathe but I didn’t care. I tried desperately to walk backwards out of the room. I wanted away from everyone and everything, but I had no clue where I was going to go.   I only managed to spit the word intelligence out before the room spun out of control.
    Jack was the first to my side, Mrs. Walker, second, with the inhaler in hand.  “She has a temper doesn’t she,” I heard Seth say somewhere in my general vicinity.
    “Do you want me to call the doc,” Conway asked.
    “No, I told you this wasn’t a good idea.” Jack shoved the