That night I got a phone call from Agent Harnes. I was particularly surprised because I figured that ever since he arrested me, he would be too humiliated to approach or talk to me again. Boy was I wrong.

Agent Harnes had left a message on my answering machine; his voice sounded terrified and extremely worried like his life was about to end.

“Uh yeah, hey Agent Shah, this is Harnes… I just called because... well I don’t know exactly why I called; I have no one else to go to. My boss got a word of the recent development between us and said that I almost blew the whole case you were working on. He gave me two choices: either resign from the FBI and go into hiding or go to jail for the rest of my life. I really don’t know what to do, Agent Shah. Please help me.”

As I listened to the message, I went to the kitchen, grabbed a beer, and sat down on the couch. I thought about the message for a while and as I finished five bottles of beer, I reached over to get a sixth bottle but something stopped me. Instead of reaching for the sixth bottle, I bent over and picked up the phone from the ground and dialed Agent Harnes’s number.

“Hey Agent Harnes, we need to talk. Meet me at the New City library. Bring your sidearm.”

Before Agent Harnes could even respond, I hung up the phone, grabbed my coat, my keys and my driver’s license. As I headed out the door, I could hear my parents yelling at me in my head, “No! We said you aren’t allowed to drive when we’re not in the country!” I ignored that tiny annoying voice and continued with what I was doing. Since my parents left to go to India this afternoon, they couldn’t tell me what to do or what not to do.

As I reached for the car door, someone came up from behind and put their arm around my neck and started squeezing it. The only thing I could do was fight back, so I took my left arm and as hard as I could I elbowed them in the stomach, as the attacked clutched his stomach; I took my right fist and punched him right across the face. I could tell I had broken his jaw, because for one, he could barely keep his mouth closed and second, I heard the bones cracking.

I let my guard down for a split second and without realizing what I had just done, four more guys jumped me. I had no time to react; the next thing I knew I was face down on the floor in a prison cell. Two guys approached me,

“Agent Shah, you have two options, you either meet Agent Harnes and kill him, or we kill you. You decide.”

They released me , but I got the message.