Chet is an American diplomat based in Beirut in the early 1990s when he is tasked to retrieve a busload of people from a Palestinian refugee camp in the south. The Embassy has received word that Israel plans to bomb the camp, but they will allow the Americans to take out relatives of Embassy employees, as long as they aren’t young men, who are always perceived as potential terrorists. Unfortunately, many of the people on the approved list can’t be found, or are unwilling to trust the Americans. Knowing that this is the last chance to get people out of harms way, he tries to convince other people to go, even though they’re aren’t on the list.
That’s when Nabil approaches him, and after some discussion, the young man decides to go. Even though he will be hard to get past the guards, Chet is a little smitten with Nabil and agrees to take him. When they reach Beirut, Nabil practically forces himself on Chet. The older man knows he is being used, but the young man obviously has his charms. Fate – or something – conspires to get Chet posted back to Washington, and he agrees to help Nabil come to American, as well as get him into university. Nabil works his charms on the Lebanese and Palestinian community in Washington, but still keeps in close contact with Chet.
Twenty years later, Nabil is back in Lebanon, where he’s now a rising star in politics, with a shot at being the next president. People are naturally curious about how the charismatic man came to escape a refugee camp and get to a prestigious American university, so Chet is not surprised to be interviewed by a well know journalist. Unbeknownst to Chet, the interview is really an interrogation – a velvet interrogation – to see how much he really knows about Nabil’s true nature and what he will reveal about just how close his relationship with Nabil is. His very life, as well as Nabil’s, depends on how he answers the interviewers questions.
Having lived in Thailand for twenty years, I found it easy to identify with Chet’s situation. I’ve met my share of Thai guys who were interested in me more for what I could do for them rather than any real feeling for me. Like Nabil, they could be quite charming, and you could even convince yourself that they did have some regard for you. Chet’s situation doesn’t seem all that uncommon, so the story is quite believable. As a thriller, “The Velvet Interrogation” certainly delivers a tense atmosphere, although the fact that Chet himself is unaware of the danger he’s in, so we know about the knife-edge he’s walking largely through Nabil’s point of view. Still, this is a good, short read with an interesting twist at the end.
“The Velvet Interrogation” is available from Smashwords or Amazon
