The Dreadful Renegade: A Thrilling Espionage Novel (Techno thriller, Mystery & Suspense) (12 page)

Greg wanted to know if David had any idea regarding the whereabouts of the couple and David said that although he had no concrete indication he reckoned that they would head to a city with a large population of Muslims, perhaps even there in Frankfurt. However, Greg said that it was unlikely that they would return to Frankfurt and suggested hauling Ammer in for further questioning. David said that involving the German authorities would be counterproductive and that formalities were unnecessary because he was sure that Ammer would be in a very cooperative mood after the persuasive treatment he had received just a few hours earlier. David invited Greg to accompany him on a return visit to Ammer's house.  It turned out that, unsurprisingly, Ammer had called his office and said that he wasn't feeling well and would take another day off. After all, he was the boss so no one questioned his statement. When David and Greg appeared at his doorstep and gently knocked on the door they heard a woman sobbing and when the door opened they saw Zenab lying in a fetal position on the couch wrapped in a blanket and rocking herself back and forth with Ammer returning to her side and caressing her shoulders.

David said to Ammer and Zenab "I hope you are feeling better, but you should have known that whoever aids and abets a criminal, may not be immune from punishment". He then introduced his colleague "This is Greg, a representative of the US authorities who has come to retrieve property of national security importance stolen from his country".

Ammer stammered saying "I gave you all the information I had".

David told him about the fruitless trip to the cottage. Ammer said "I didn't know about any stolen property and I had done nothing illegal. I only helped a family member who was in some kind of trouble".

David responded "My colleague here is concerned with the laws of his country and of Germany but I haven't got the slightest interest in legal matters, as you saw last night. I want to know what Nagib and Alia are up to".

Ammer said "I swear to Allah that I have no idea about…"

Without a word David stood up, went into the kitchen and came back with a small paring knife, pretending to clean his fingernails. Ammer stopped in mid sentence "What are you doing?!"

David answered "Just removing a little dirt from where it doesn't belong" and approached Zenab of the couch. 

All blood drained away from Ammer's face and he held up his hand "Stop, by God, I'll tell you everything". Greg also turned pale but refrained from speaking, as Ammer continued "OK, Nagib told me in general terms what he had and asked me to arrange buyers for his information, but I told him I had no idea what to do and where to look...".

Once again he stopped talking when he saw David grab Zenab's left hand and pretend to slice the tip of her finger on which her wedding ring was worn. Zenab started shouting as some blood stained the blanket and Ammer couldn't quite see whether her fingertip was sliced off or if it was just a superficial cut. However, this got him going "I took a couple of my friends to speak with Nagib yesterday evening".

"Who were they?"

"I don't really know them well".

"Cut the bullshit or you'll get your wedding ring back with the whole finger" and David pulled on Zenab's left hand.

"OK, OK. One of them was an Iranian called Mahmoud and the other was a North Korean that goes by the name Kim". Greg looked at David and nodded, implying that he knew who Ammer was referring to.

Then David asked "Do you know where they went?"

Ammer groaned truthfully for a change "I have no idea, but they have my car and cellphone so you should be able to find them".

David stood up, motioned Greg to follow him and while departing said "Ammer and Zenab I hope never to see you two again, but if I do need to come back one more time then you would curse the day you were born". As an afterthought he added "If Nagib and Alia contact you be sure to inform my colleague here immediately, or else…"

Greg left a business card with his phone number on the table and followed David to the car. He said that he had learnt a couple of lessons in a very short time. First, when time is short the most convincing arguments are non-verbal, and second when someone swears to tell the truth by God, Allah or whoever, this is generally the beginning of a lie. David shrugged and said that sometimes brute force solves problems, especially with amateurs, but a real professional would rather sacrifice his wife and his life than disclose vital secrets. David asked Greg to call Eugene on a secure line and update him on the events that took place during the last 24 hours.

June 25
th
, noon, Brussels

Nagib and Alia found a cheap hotel near the central train station of Brussels and checked in, paying cash that waived the formalities of presenting their passports and officially registering under their real names. The owner of the hotel, an Arab from some North African country, sat in his office and kept an eye on the young blonde girl that tended to the front desk and also served coffee at the four tables of the small café. Nagib and Alia went up to their room on the second floor and were not surprised to see that it fulfilled their expectations – it was small, unclean not to say downright filthy, without air conditioning and the sheets looked as if they had served many former customers. The toilet down the hall, shared by the occupants of the five rooms on the second floor was in no better shape. Being used to American standards the hotel was not exactly their ideal place for a vacation but would be good enough as a place to hide for a short while. 

Nagib considered calling Ammer and finding out whether he had other interested parties but was reluctant to tell him where they were. He felt a little uncomfortable about disappearing with Ammer's car but decided that they may still need it as a getaway car so they had best hang on to it for the time being. He even thought that if things got really bad he could sell it to car thieves that would strip it down for use as spare parts or forge a license and resell it. So Nagib purchased another prepaid SIM card and called Ammer. Ammer saw an unidentified caller and guessed that it would be Nagib and hesitated before declining the call. However, the caller was unrelenting and called repeatedly until Ammer accepted the call and answered.

Nagib didn't want to say his name, once again fearing eavesdropping by authorities, and said "Hello, it is me".

Ammer replied "I was worried sick about you, I hope you are well and enjoying the cottage".

Nagib said "We decided to leave the place because we didn't like the friends you brought last night".

"Where are you?" Ammer asked.

The answer was "Far away" and Nagib refused to give any details despite Ammer's enquiries. 

Ammer was afraid of a return visit by David and Greg and refrained from even hinting that his life was threatened, so he continued talking in the hope of finding out where they were and what plans they had. He said "Nagib, do you need anything?"

Nagib said that they were doing fine, and then his voice was drowned by a siren and he cut the connection. Ammer tried calling back Nagib's number but there was no answer. Still under the influence of David's intimidation he dialed the number on the card Greg had left him and told him about the call from Nagib. Greg wanted to know exactly what was said and the number of the phone that Nagib used and Ammer supplied the information. Before hanging up Ammer added that he had heard a siren in the background and thought that it sounded like a Belgian police car, but wasn't sure.

***

Nagib told Alia about his conversation and said "Ammer sounded strange and unnatural as if he was under some extreme stress".

She answered "How can you tell? We only met Ammer a few days ago and hardly know him. Perhaps he was just surprised that we had left the cottage and disappeared with his car". 

Nagib insisted "I am sure that something is amiss and Ammer cannot be trusted".

Once again they discussed their options. Alia said "We have to get in touch with radical Islamists. They would be willing to support our cause in return for the classified blueprints. Let's try to contact Islamic State people. The whole world knows that they are very active in Brussels and have carried out several operations to prove that".

Nagib objected "IS have no interest in advanced nuclear weapons, they don't have access to the fissile materials needed even for the most elementary designs. They are doing quite well, installing terror in the hearts of the Crusaders with conventional means". Then Nagib came up with a new idea "The only truly Muslim state that has nuclear weapons is Pakistan. They probably have only primitive designs if we can judge the tests they openly carried out in 1998. They see India as their dire enemy and probably fear that they have fallen behind in the nuclear armament race. They would be extremely interested in obtaining our information".

Alia said "But the Pakistani government is in cohorts with the Americans…"

Nagib intervened "I am not talking about the government. I mean to contact Islamist opposition groups. I know that within the nuclear establishment there are many scientists who would gladly cooperate with any act against Israel and the United States. Remember the AQ Khan network that sold nuclear technology and equipment to Iran, Libya, North Korea and probably half a dozen other countries. I am sure we can find these elements in Pakistan". Alia was a bit reluctant but agreed with the plan as there seemed to be no better alternatives.

Nagib and Alia entered a café that had free internet service and he switched on his computer. Then, just before he could sign in, Alia stretched her hand and in a very untypical move switched the computer right off. He frowned, looked at her, and seeing the expression on her face, understood and nodded his approval, then he stood up and kissed her on her cheek. They left the café and searched for an internet store where one could buy network time without having to use one's own username and password. They paid the teenager at the desk 10 Euros and he gave them a small note with a password and directed them to a free position at the back of the store. They pulled up a couple of chairs and sat side by side. Nagib logged on and then searched for "Pakistani nuclear weapons" and was directed to Wikipedia.  At a first glance the website looked like an assortment of Khans that developed the Pakistani nuclear program – Munir Ahmad
Khan
who was Chairman of the Pakistani Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), Abdul Qadeer
Khan
the engineer who "brought" centrifuge enrichment technology from Europe and founded the "AQ
Khan
network", General Tikka
Khan
and Mr. Ghulam Ishaq
Khan
at the ministry of defense, and also many others, not only Khans. Nagib saw the quote attributed to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the Pakistani Prime Minister. He said in 1965 "
If India builds the bomb, we will eat grass and leaves for a thousand years, even go hungry, but we will get one of our own. The Christians have the bomb, the Jews have the bomb and now the Hindus have the bomb. Why not the Muslims too have the bomb?
" Nagib and added that as a young undergraduate student in Palestine this, and the fact that Pakistan actually manufactured an atomic bomb, made him proud to be a Muslim. Nagib couldn't help himself from laughing when he saw that the biggest push to develop a Pakistani nuclear force came from the test India conducted in 1974 with the codename Smiling Buddha, because the Muslims had nothing to smile about. More to the point, they read that Pakistani nuclear forces consisted, according to estimates, of about 120 warheads. They continued reading and saw that Pakistan had produced compact plutonium bombs that could be carried by aircraft and missiles, and even nuclear weapons that had much higher yields as they were "spiked" with tritium. The Pakistanis also had produced highly enriched uranium and were working on smaller nuclear weapons that could be used in the battlefield for tactical purposes. Nagib's face lit up when he read all this and he told Alia that their blueprints would be of incomparable value to the Pakistanis, and would give them a great advantage in their conflict with India. So now their problem was how to approach the Pakistanis and make sure that they got what they wanted, and more importantly, that they got away safely. Simply presenting their goods could create such a temptation to the Pakistanis that they may just eliminate them and grab the classified information. They realized that they needed to find an honest broker that would negotiate on their behalf, but before that they wanted to get a first hand impression of the people they would be dealing with.

The address of the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan was
Avenue Delleur 57, 1170 Watermael-Boitsfort
, and they saw that it would be open for business in the afternoon between three and four o'clock. They decided to go to the consular section and enquire about tourist visas and also try to find out if there was a scientific attaché at the embassy, in the hope they could deal with him without having to go to Pakistan. They agreed not to divulge the fact that the information they had would put them in the Pakistani national pantheon – if such a thing existed – side by side with AQ Khan, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Abdus Salam the (only) Pakistani Nobel laureate in physics. 

June 25
th
, noon, Frankfurt

Greg called David immediately and reported the conversation that he had with Ammer. He added that his people had put a tap on Ammer's phone so he also had a recording of the call and would receive a copy shortly. David said he would come over to listen to the recording. By the time he arrived at Greg's office the recordings of both calls were ready. First, they were convinced that Ammer had given Greg a full report of Nagib's call and did not try to hide any information or even hint that he had suffered a traumatic visit. They also realized that Nagib was suspicious that Ammer may not be acting in his best interests and did not trust him. However, the most interesting part was the recording of the siren that the analysts said was indeed similar to that of the Belgian police cars, probably Opel Astra or Opel Vectra, but also similar to that of first responders in other European countries, so it wasn't conclusively in Belgium but did provide a clue. David said that this supported their supposition that Nagib and Alia would try to leave Germany and get undercover in a big city that has a large Muslim community. They searched Google Earth maps and the closest place that fit this description was Brussels. This could also explain the type of siren they heard in the background. Greg tried to put a trace on the phone from which Nagib had called but there was no active signal as it was shut off. However, the record showed that the phone had last been used somewhere in near Brussels center.

David knew that the Americans were very anxious to catch Nagib and recover the classified information before it was distributed to enemies of the United States. What was conceived as even a greater threat to national security was what would happen if the press and media became aware that this highly sensitive and classified information had leaked out from one of the most well guarded National Laboratories. Furthermore, to add insult to injury, that this was done by a person whose access to such material should never have been permitted. David heard Greg referring to Nagib as "the dreadful renegade" when he talked to Eugene. When he enquired about this Greg told him that it was the codename given to Nagib whose actions were obviously dreadful and he was considered as a renegade because he betrayed the country that gave him an education, a job and a much better life than he could have possibly dreamed of in his home country. He added that this avoided mentioning his true name in the internal communications to help limit the number of people who knew Nagib and what he had done.

David offered to help Greg in the search for the couple, but Greg said that he had no jurisdiction in Belgium and would have to hand over the case to the CIA station chief in Brussels. David said that Mossad had a strong presence in Brussels as it was the seat of several institutions of the European Community and also to counteract the operations conducted by the Arab states and their many Muslim supporters. These operations were not limited attacks on Israeli officials and tourists but also to attempts against the local Jewish community, like the 2014 shooting and murder at the Jewish Museum by a French jihadist. In addition to acts of terror against the residents of Brussels and tourists like using suicide bombers in the airport and Metro. Greg said that he appreciated the offer and will introduce David to Herb Harden, the CIA station head in Brussels. David thanked Greg and wished him a successful career with the hope that the fact that the couple was not apprehended while in Frankfurt would not end it prematurely. Greg sighed and said that if they were caught and the classified data retrieved then everybody would try to sweep the whole affair under the rug, but if the media got hold of the story then scapegoats would have be sought, found and sacrificed and he feared that he was on the short list.

David called the Mossad chief and brought Shimony up to date on the affair. Shimony told him to leave Frankfurt and focus on locating Nagib. David asked about the mission he had been assigned to concerning the Jewish community in Frankfurt that got him there in the first place and Shimony directed him to forget it as someone else would be sent from Tel-Aviv to take over the job. He assured David that he would receive full support from all Mossad agents in Europe and told him he would become a national hero, albeit only among the top leaders of the intelligence and security communities, if he could quietly obtain a copy of the information that would be considered as a national treasure in Israel.  David said that he would be on his way to Brussels immediately and expected to arrive there in the early evening and asked Shimony to instruct all available Mossad agents to gather at one of the safe houses in Brussels for a 10 pm meeting and briefing.

June 25
th
, 3 pm Brussels

Nagib and Alia took the metro train from Gare Centrale to Herrmann-Debroux station that was the last stop of Line 5 and then the short #94 tram ride towards Louise getting off at Boitsfort Gare that was very close to the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. As they exited the station and approached it on foot they did not encounter any other tourists, and there appeared to be only a few Pakistanis who had business at the embassy. They were stopped first by the Belgian policeman outside the building who just asked them for some ID and when they showed him their US passports they were allowed to continue. Then they were directed to pass through a metal detector portal by the Pakistani security officer who also looked at their passports before waving them through to the receptionist. When asked what business they had at the embassy they said that they were considering a visit to Pakistan and Nagib added that he wanted to find out more about the level of chemical sciences there. The receptionist picked up the phone, muttered something in Urdu and referred them to the person in charge of public relations. A young woman dressed in a traditional shalwar kameez with embroidery on the front politely invited them to take a seat. Nagib was quite impressed by her good looks and lithe body that could be imagined beneath the colorful clothes. In lilting English she said that her name was Junaid and asked how she could be of assistance. They repeated that they were curious about Pakistan. Junaid looked at their names in their passports and asked if they were Muslims, and both said that they were, but added that they did not practice the religion, and expected their visit to Pakistan to change that attitude. Junaid asked Nagib and Alia what kind of jobs they held in the US and they answered that both were in government service until they recently quit, and that he was an analytical chemist and she was a secretary, refraining from mentioning Los Alamos National Laboratory. Junaid who was in fact an agent of the Pakistan Intelligence Community (PIC) perceived that they were not completely forthcoming and when she saw that their home address was listed as Los Alamos, New Mexico, she decided to call the scientific attaché who was in fact the senior member of PIC at the embassy. She asked Nagib and Alia if they wanted some refreshment and when they said they would like mint tea she excused herself and went to arrange the refreshment and also speak to the attaché. Before returning with the tea she quickly gave him an update on the unusual couple that sauntered into the embassy. She introduced the scientific attaché as Rahman Chenna and he told the couple that one of his responsibilities was to collect scientific data related to advanced projects that may be beneficial to Pakistan. At that stage Nagib felt that the conversation was being conducted with both sides revealing a little information and hiding a lot more, and again thought of how porcupines made love – very carefully.