Fly by Wire: A Novel (12 page)

^{"I know that soldier personally," General Banks said. "He doesn't miss."}

^{Graham said, "None of us here would doubt it, General. But in the weeks after this mission, incontrovertible evidence was received." A new photograph came to the screen, the terrorist lying in a hospital bed. His head was heavily bandaged, his eyes barely open. The mouth seemed to hold a smirk, and to one side was a Baghdad newspaper headlining his demise. "There were other Web postings and a number of firsthand accounts. Our analysts went over it all very carefully and determined that Caliph definitely survived."}

^{"So we almost had him," the president lamented.}

^{"Yes. And not only has he survived, but since that time Caliph has gone to ground."}

^{"We try to squish a pest, and instead we create a legend," lamented Chief of Staff Spector.}

^{"It would appear so," Graham admitted. "Unfortunately, his survival has only magnified his legend. More recent evidence suggests that Caliph has assumed a new role. No longer a trigger man, he has become a leader of sorts, an apparition who is rarely seen but controls an extensive network. We hear his name constantly when we interrogate detainees. By laying low, Caliph has become more potent than ever. He organizes the disorganized, takes loose bands of individuals and turns them into networks with common, coordinated strategies."}

^{Spector asked, "And in your opinion, what are these strategies?"}

^{Graham fingered the remote again. The next picture was of two buckets, both brimming with a gray, glutinous substance. "The photo you see was given to us by Dutch intelligence yesterday. Two days ago, on an anonymous tip, they raided an apartment outside Amsterdam. The tenant was a Yemeni national -- at the onset of the raid, the guy blew himself up in a closet with some sort of improvised explosive. The police recovered what you see here. The exact chemistry is still being analyzed, but we think it involves aluminum and an oxidizer, maybe ammonium perchlorate."}

^{"Which gives you what?" Spector asked.}

^{"A high-temperature accelerant. Someone was trying to start a very hot fire."}

^{The president said, "Do we know what this guy's plans were?"}

^{"The Dutch are going over a computer as we speak, but so far they haven't found anything about a specific target. They did, however, find a martyr's video. It is quite clear that this fellow was one of Caliph's followers. He was only in the apartment for about two weeks, but given the level of preparation you see here," Graham gestured to the screen, "we think the strike was very near."}

^{"Why the Netherlands?" General Banks asked.}

^{"We don't know. But there are two other recent arrests that could be related -- a Pakistani national who was detained in Indonesia, and an Iraqi picked up on immigration violations in Portugal. Both have been positively linked to Caliph's network, but neither has given any useful information. Chances are, they don't know much -- they were just awaiting instructions."}

^{"He
's branching out," President Townsend said, "not restricting himself to the Middle East any more "}

^{Graham replied, "It would appear so. Caliph is up to something. Perhaps something very big."}

^{The president leaned back in his chair, laced his fingers behind his head. He wished aloud, "If we could only find the bastard."}

^{The FBI director asked, "Do we know how he manages his network?"}

^{Graham said, "Much is done by way of the Internet, Arabic Web sites with coded messages. But there are occasions when direct contact is necessary." She spun to point the remote and a video clip came to life on the screen. A large, shapeless woman lumbered through a busy corridor. Her gait was almost bovine, trundling from side to side as others walked around her. The image was grainy, probably taken by a security camera, and kept replaying in a loop that repeated every ten seconds. Judging by the background, she was in an airport or a train station.}

^{"This is Fatima Adara. Some months ago, we identified her as Caliphs conduit -- his messenger, if you will. She's not very discreet, turns up regularly all across the region. And Adara doesn't make any effort to slip into places quietly -- she just uses her Iraqi passport."}

^{"Has she ever been detained for questioning?" someone asked.}

^{"We considered that, but thought it better to let her run in the hope that she would lead us to Caliph. We spot her occasionally. She's not very well trained."}

^{Spector said, "Occasionally? This implies we're not monitoring her continuously."}

^{Graham showed her first sign of discomfort. Her voice went down an octave. "We give Adara a rather long surveillance leash -- as I said, hoping that she'll lead us to Caliph. We've lost track of her a few times. But she always turns up again."}

^{General Banks gestured to the screen. "You lost track of
that?"}

^{Graham ignored the comment. "She was last seen in Jordan two weeks ago. However, one of our analysts recently made a startling connection. As you all know, we've been trying for some time to track flows of money from the sovereign wealth funds of certain oil-rich states. As petrodollars accumulate, the controllers of these funds are diversifying their holdings into a great number of businesses and investments. They are building companies, universities, even entire cities from scratch."}

^{"Not such a bad idea, if you ask me," said Spector. "Sooner or later the oil wells are going to run dry."}

^{"Yes," Graham agreed. "But we suspect that some of this largesse is being funneled to terrorist groups. And in the course of our watch, we found this--" Graham put one more photo on the screen.}

^{"It's her!" the president said.}

^{The image was high quality, and there was no mistaking Fatima Adara. She was sitting at a table at an outdoor cafe. With her was a middle-aged man -- thin hair, pale skin, high Slavic cheekbones.}

^{Someone blurted the obvious question. "Who is he?"}

^{"His name," Graham said, "is Luca Medved. He was actually the target of the surveillance. It was taken two months ago in Marseille, France."}

^{"She was in France?" Spector remarked.}

^{"Yes. It's the first time we've spotted her outside the Middle East."}

^{The president cut in. "So why were you watching this guy Medved? Is he some kind of terrorist?"}

^{"Actually, anything but. I told you we were tracking companies created with oil wealth. Luca Medved is a Russian national. And, among other things, he is the current chairman of the board of CargoAir, the new aircraft manufacturer based in France."}

^{"The chairman of CargoAir?" the president said, clearly taken aback. "He's got an association with Caliph?"}

^{"That's not clear yet," Graham said. "We're trying to find out."}

^{General Banks asked, "Wasn't it a CargoAir airplane that crashed recently?"}

^{"Yes," Graham said, "one went down in France two days ago." She quickly headed off the next question. "Right away we considered a link between this crash and the cache of explosives found by the Dutch authorities. Our experts in that kind of thing don't see any connection -- the evidence found in the Netherlands was not what anybody would use against an airliner. You'd never get it past airport security, even as cargo. And early evidence from the crash points away from any type of terrorist involvement."}

^{President Townsend looked at his watch. He had the Indian prime minister in fifteen minutes. Central Asia was a whole new set of troubles-- Tibet, Pakistan, free-trade agreements. "All right," he said, sensing Graham was at an end. "Suggestions?"}

^{The CIA director said, "We have to put the word out all over the Middle East and Europe to find Fatima Adara."}

^{The nods of agreement were unanimous.}

^{Graham added, "And once we find her, we can't lose her."}

^{Townsend took this as a measure of self-critique, one of the things he had grown to like about this DNI he'd inherited from the previous administration. "All right," the president said, "see to it."}

^{"What about this link with CargoAir?" Spector asked. "Shouldn't we be watching it?"}

^{President Townsend nodded thoughtfully and looked at Graham. He said, "Someone to take a look at the company? Maybe follow this crash investigation?"}