Chapter Two - part three

   James sat looking at the sealed packet for a long time. One of the crewmen came by to check on him. After he left James finally opened the packet. They had a long flight ahead of them. James was headed back towards familiar territory. He was headed on a two hop flight to Riyadh. From there he would be going on to Damascus, Syria. The most shocking thing was why he was going. He was going at the request of the U.N. diplomats in Syria. They seemed to think he could help with negotiations among the rival factions in Syria. James had no idea why they would think he could do that. All he knew about Syria was that a day didn't go by without some kind of fighting. The Syrian government was all but powerless. The U.N. had been functioning as the only real authority in Syria for years, and it was starting to lose what little control it had from the using NATO security forces to police things. As he continued to read he found the 'special connections' that Major General Fuller had mentioned. One of them was Captain Aadila Farah, currently assigned to NATO. The other was Captain Sabella Reed.

   James continued to read and soon found out that Sabella had become a key figure in the current negotiations. It seemed she was one of the few people among the U.N. diplomats that all of the Syrian factions trusted. That apparently was due in large part to her connection with Captain Farah. As it turned out Farah had failed to mention that her father was related to the Saudi royal family or that her mother had ties to several major families in Syria. The connection between Aadila and Sabella was what had made possible the first real progress towards any serious negotiations between the factions fighting for control in Syria. James wasn't sure how or why they seemed to think he could help, but they had requested him.  James spent most of the flight trying to figure that out, but he wasn't any closer to that when he landed in Riyadh. He did get a pleasant surprise when he got off the plane though.

   Sabella and Aadila were both there waiting for him. He hadn't expected to see them until he reached Damascus. They greeted him warmly, but gave no indication as to why he was heading on to Damascus with them within the hour. It was still good to see them both again. Sabella looked even more stunning than she had while attending the Academy. Her hair was longer and framed her entire face now. Her eyes looked brighter and her smile was just as mesmerizing. She also moved with such confidence that it was almost a shock to see her rank was only captain. Aadila on the other hand was much as he remembered her. The only real change in her took him a while to figure out. She looked much the same on the outside. Her slightly darker complexion, framed by her dark hair was enough to make a man look again. It was that second look that helped James to see what had changed about her. He saw it when he looked into those deep brown eyes again. There was a calm assurance in them now. James had seen something similar in her eyes before, but this was different. She seemed to be totally at ease, with no doubts of any kind. That was a big change! Aadila had always been timid and a bit unsure of herself, but that was gone now. James wondered what had changed Aadila so much. Whatever it was he was glad to see the changes.

   A small transport left within the hour to take them on to Damascus. Once they were there James was shown to his room. Only then did the girls talk to him about why he was there. It seemed that while Aadila had family ties inside Syria her mother's family had been gone a long time. She didn't seem to have the kind of trust she needed to help Sabella accomplish her goal. That goal was to convince the two main power groups, that weren't totally against any western involvement, to sit down and talk about forming a real government. That was what they wanted James to do, help build that trust. After listening to them James burst into laughter before he asked what he had been wondering all along. "Exactly why and how do you two think I can gain the trust of people who haven't trusted each other since the day they were born? I would really like to know, because the last time I checked they were almost all Muslims and me being a Christian is going to be another big problem for them to deal with. Seriously Sabella, you're not religious at all, you are just Aadila's friend and she is Muslim... and they still don't trust either of you enough to listen! Why would they ever trust me?"

   Now Aadila laughed. She was still grinning as she spoke. "I wish I knew for certain the answer to that, but all that really matters is that they are the ones who asked for you. James, I don't know how they knew so much, but they had heard about you and me being in the Ironman together. They also know what you did in Turkey. You have proven yourself to be both a warrior and a hero to them. I can't explain any of it, but they seem to believe that you can be trusted because of that. At least that is what they say." James had listened carefully. Aadila was serious, so he asked his next question. "Alright, now what do you say? Can we trust them? Why would they think they can trust a stranger when they don't trust people they know?" Now Sabella answered. "I can't tell you if we can trust them. We simply don't know that, not yet. I do know why they wanted you involved. They read the articles about the Ironman. They heard about you taking out five planes in a single fight. They made it very clear that in their eyes you are not just a warrior and hero, but also a man of honor. A man they can and will trust! I don't know why, but you being a man may be just as important to them. They want to trust me and Aadila, but for some reason they just won't take that next step with us. I think that may be because we are women. That is why I asked for you James. They said they could trust you enough to take that step. That is what we need you to do, take that step."

   James shook his head, but then nodded and agreed to do whatever he could. They stayed up late that night going over everything. Sabella had originally been just an aid to the U.N. negotiator in charge, but over time she had managed to connect with the people who came with the people he was actually negotiating with. Eventually she was invited to sit at the table and had been making some progress. That was partly because they had seen her talking with Aadila. Aadila had been helping U.N. to organize and direct the rebuilding of the infrastructure in Syria. She had proven to be very good at finding ways to bring things together. The progress of rebuilding was actually visible for the first time in years. Soon Aadila had been asked to join Sabella in the talks. At first their main focus had been on getting the different factions to agree to stop destroying what Aadila and the engineers were trying to rebuild. Now they were actually hoping they could get a new government in place that the people would be willing to support. No government could last for long without the backing of a majority of the people. Aadila believed that the only way a government could get that support was to show real progress at restoring the broken infrastructure of the nation. She believed that people might put aside many of their long held disputes if they could have a better and safer life.