<div style="text-align: center;"><a class="postlink" href="http://i.imgur.com/OwbNhYQ.png?1">[ img ]</a></div><br/><br/>"Yes, Malik," Farid spoke as he watched furtively around the Land Rover. "Let's get back to my op center." Farid was always on guard, suspicious of everything around him. Being aware of one's surroundings is what keeps you alive. Farid was taking in everything around him. He guided Malik back down the mountain and along the roads that took him to his operations center, which was nothing more than a hole in the wall in downtown Damascus.<br/><br/>At the bottom of the mountain, they encountered a Syrian Checkpoint. Armed soldiers wearing the same uniform as Farid and sporting rough unkempt beards carrying Automatic Kalashnikov, model 1947 assault Rifles pointed at both men in the Land Rover. Malik did well to bring the vehicle to a stop.<br/><br/>Farid reached for his identification and was quick to display the media brassard attached to his shoulder. The Areef (Corporal) inspected the identification, looking keenly at Farid.<br/><br/>In Arabic he asked Malik for his identification as well.<br/><br/>"He is a journalist from Istanbul, writing an article on the war for our brothers in Turkey," Farid provided. But the Syrian Areef wanted to see Malik Topcu's Identification on his own. It was his prerogative. He could not allow any of the opposition forces to slip past their check point at the north end of the city, especially, since they were about to go on the offensive in the morning.<br/><br/>When the pair did reach Farid's Op Center, then he shared the contents of the past six months of note taking. Farid and his surveillance teams had been compiling data on every move<span style="font-style: italic">Lion</span>has made. The obvious discrepancies were on Saturday. On this day of the week, Al-Assad made it a point to have dinner with his family at his residence. He often went for a late night swim. Farid provided Malik Topcu with as many details he had and would answer any and all questions. The surveillance team could assist in getting Malik into some of the better observation posts into the Lion's Den.