The Dreadful Renegade: A Thrilling Espionage Novel (Techno thriller, Mystery & Suspense) (9 page)

They spent most of the day in a park that was very popular with Muslim women with babies, toddlers and young children. Some of the children were obviously Muslim but there were quite a few that were fair haired and others that that were evidently of African origin. They found a bench in the shade that was slightly removed from the playground that the noisy older children used. Nagib sensed that Alia was in a thoughtful mood and scarcely responded to his words. He followed her fleeting looks at the children and recognized what was on her mind. He held her hand in his and gently caressed it, saying that the world wasn't a good place for children and their mission was more important than raising a family. Their successful completion of this mission will bring immense joy to many children and adults. A tear formed in the corner of Alia's eye and she asked Nagib to hug her tightly and rested her head on his shoulder.

It was early evening when Alia and Nagib were taken by Ammer to his house, which was a large single family home. His wife, Zenab, met them at the door with a big smile and welcomed them. She showed them the way to the guest bedroom that until a couple of years earlier was their teenage daughter's room, who was now a student at the Free University of Berlin. She offered them tea before dinner, and although Nagib would have preferred a chilled beer he refrained from mentioning it in case his hosts were devout Muslims. Alia had told him that Sayed was now a follower of the Ahmadiyye sect after converting from Christianity but they had no idea what Ammer and Zenab believed in until Sayed told them earlier that they were Muslims. After the four of them sat down and had a traditional dinner that consisted of a tasty chicken dish with rice, called Maglouba, and had sweet pastries and dark, bitter coffee for dessert, they chatted. Alia and Nagib repeated the story they had told the old man about being on vacation in Europe and enquired what their hosts did for a living. Zenab said that she had been a school teacher, but after her two kids left the house she volunteered in a Muslim welfare organization that provided advice and modest financial support for immigrants who came from Arab countries to Germany. The work was organized by a community center that operated side by side with a mosque. Zenab added that her husband was very pleased with her job and, secretly, that he was one of the biggest donors of money to the organization. She told them that she was born in Germany but that her parents came from a refugee camp in Gaza to which her grandparents had fled in 1948 when the Israelis drove them away from their home in Jaffa. Ammer said that after he had met her he, too, became a Muslim. That was more or less at the time his father had also abandoned his Christian faith. He said that he had great respect for his father, Sayed, who had emigrated from Palestine when he was a young man, actually just a teenager, and established himself as a merchant in Frankfurt. He said that the sign "Sayed and sons" was no longer accurate, as he himself did not work in the store and his only brother had died in a traffic accident while driving on the autobahn under the influence of alcohol. Ammer told them that he was an electronic engineer by training and an entrepreneur by profession and his own company was one of the major suppliers of communications equipment to the German police and military. He added that his company had over 50 employees, almost all of them of Arabic origin, but said that they had a few native Germans in the sales and marketing division and, of course, in the front office and on the board of directors. He was the founder, owner and CEO of the company. Nagib asked if he had international connections and Ammer replied that his company did a lot of business with the Muslim world, especially with Iran, Turkey and Egypt and that they also dealt with North Korea. Working with North Korea and Iran was especially lucrative as they could charge a premium on merchandize that these countries could not buy on the open market. 

The women cleared the dishes and the men lit cigars and continued to talk. Nagib probed Ammer gently and asked what he thought about the situation in the Middle East and particularly in Palestine. Ammer responded in a detached manner without committing himself that the situation was not good and was getting worse. Nagib said that he felt that he was brainwashed by the American media that was generally biased towards Muslim-bashing and that objective news was hard to find, and wondered if Ammer could bring him up to date on what really was going on there. He added that his own family's history in Palestine was very sad and described how the Israelis bulldozed his parents' house and murdered his brother, Yassir the martyr, in cold blood. Ammer asked him if he intended to get back at the Israelis or forget about the injustice inflicted on his family and settle down in America. Nagib said that he was a proud man and would certainly not behave like a lamb as generations of Palestinian had done, and hinted that he may have a way of avenging the mistreatment of his people. Ammer asked what he had on his mind, but Nagib would go no further. Ammer then said that he had connections with all kinds of elements that were similarly motivated to make a point for the just cause of the Palestinian people and Islam.

Ammer and Nagib knew they were on slippery ground and behaved in the manner that two porcupines made love – very carefully. Nagib then told Ammer that he had obtained sensitive, highly valuable, classified information that could be used for bartering with suitable partners. Ammer enquired what kind of partners and Nagib responded that he would have to sleep on it before taking the next step. Meanwhile the women returned from the kitchen and joined them and the conversation shifted to other topics.

June 23
rd
, Washington, DC

Brad, the NSA operative, called Eugene and told him that the phone call from Frankfurt to Alia's parents was not recorded as the phone number was not considered as important and no "trigger words" were used. Eugene knew that by "trigger words" Brad referred to words that would obviously imply acts of terror like "bomb", "explosive", "detonate", "target" etc. or those that are indicative of illegitimate deeds like "kill" or even "eliminate", or "numbered bank account" for example. This may have worked in the Twentieth Century before even the most stupid terrorists and dumb criminals knew about the extensive network of eavesdropping by "big brother" but would not be very useful nowadays. Although the system was now operative in many languages there were very few fish that were caught in the net – the big ones completely avoided using electronic communications and the small ones got through the large holes in the netting. Eugene said that he was disappointed but not surprised as Nagib and Alia were sophisticated people who knew all about the NSA and its powerful algorithms. He said that he would send an FBI agent to interview Alia's parents and try and find out where she was calling from and what they discussed.

In the afternoon Eugene received a call from the FBI agent who interviewed Alia's parents. He reported that he was under the impression that they had been seriously intimidated by the second visit of FBI agents in less than a week and were fully cooperative. He said that he had recorded the whole interview and had it on tape and promised to send a transcript of the entire interview. Alia's father said that he had taken the phone call and repeated the conversation as best as he could remember it. The agent said that in his opinion the most important part was the sudden interest she had shown in her European relatives, especially those who lived in Frankfurt, and added that the details were in the transcript. Eugene asked him if any specific names or addresses were mentioned and the agent said the name of
"Sayed and Sons, Oriental Foods Imports" appeared to be the only
explicit point. Eugene copied the name, thanked the agent and hung up.

Eugene knew that late afternoon in Washington was close to midnight in Frankfurt and wondered who he could call for local assistance. He thought the CIA would have a large office in Frankfurt in view of the importance of the city as one of the busiest airports in the world and the main hub of Lufthansa so despite the hour called the head of the CIA office. Greg Dower was not very happy when his encrypted phone rang and at first wanted to ignore it, but as the caller persisted he picked it up and mumbled "What?" Eugene introduced himself and apologized "Sorry to wake you up in the middle of the night but we have a situation that requires immediate action" and went on to describe the importance of the classified information stolen by Nagib and Alia. Greg asked him to hold on for a minute while he washed his face and swallowed a couple of aspirins. He then said "I'll call my team first thing in the morning and check the information. Do you want to involve the BND or local police?" Eugene thought for a moment and said "No, not yet. Please use your own people and update me as soon as you find out anything about
Sayed and Sons, Oriental Foods Imports".

June 23
rd
, close to midnight, Frankfurt

As soon as Eugene hung up Greg called the office of the Director of the CIA in Langley. After mentioning that it was an urgent matter directly related to national security he was put through to the DCI. The instructions delivered were very clear: terminate the culprits with extreme prejudice and recover or destroy the memory stick. Greg asked if this included the woman and was told in no uncertain terms that she deserved the same treatment as her husband, as both were dreadful renegades and outrageous traitors. The DCI added that it was entirely up to the agency to prevent an incident that would not only be a great embarrassment to the USA but also posed a clear and present danger to national security and global interests of the USA. He blamed the bungling NNSA and its lapse of basic security concepts regarding screening the people it employed and the control of classified information. When Greg said that the FBI was also involved the DCI said that he expected them to drop the ball every time a pass was thrown in their direction, so he was not surprised. Greg Dower knew that his future in the CIA rested on his ability to handle this case and promised himself to do his utmost to succeed.  

Next, Eugene called David Avivi on his cellphone. David saw the caller's "private number" and at first hesitated whether to answer as his own people had "caller identity" (assumed names, but still a name on the screen). He decided to take the call despite the late hour in Frankfurt. He was surprised but glad to hear Eugene's voice. Eugene gave him an update on the recent developments and asked if Mossad had any assets in Germany that could be enlisted to help locate the couple without notifying the local police. He had no idea that David was in Frankfurt so when David said that
he personally would coordinate the search he was pleasantly surprised. When Eugene told David that he had also involved the CIA David said that although he had great respect for the CIA he preferred to operate independently in order not to compromise Mossad assets. Eugene said that he fully understood but proposed to give Greg Dower a heads-up about this in order to prevent "friendly fire" incidents between the CIA and Mossad operatives. David consented but had his own reservations about the capabilities of the CIA that tended to do everything with a lot of fanfare that was anathema to a secretive organization like Mossad. 

Despite the late hour in Germany and in Tel-Aviv David called the head of Mossad, Haim Shimony, on his private line, known only to a handful of people from the Prime Minister down. He told Haim that he assumed that the information stored on Nagib's memory stick would be of great importance to Israel's security. He said that Eugene never explicitly mentioned the type of information but he surmised that it was concerned with nuclear weapons, and probably with the most advanced designs in the US arsenal. Haim instructed him to try and get hold of the data and that he shouldn't worry too much about the fate of Nagib and Alia. He added that if taken alive they could become an embarrassment to the US, so as good friends the Mossad should make sure they did not talk after being captured, and cynically said that dead men didn't talk.

June 24
th
, morning in Frankfurt

Sayed descended the staircase from the little studio apartment he shared with his wife just as he had done every day for the last five decades. Although his son, Ammer, who was a wealthy businessman had pleaded with him to close the store and come and stay with him in his large house Sayed had refused to do so, saying that a man lived as long as he had a reason to get up in the morning. Sayed quoted an old proverb that said that a man was like a top (referring to the cone shaped toy with a point upon which it is spun) – as long as it continued spinning it stood upright but as soon as it stopped spinning it would fall down.  With some difficulty Sayed lifted the heavy metal shutter and opened the store. As usual, there were a few of the regular customers who were waiting for this moment to buy their daily perishable products. 

Sayed did not notice that some other people were keeping a close watch on his store.  An Israeli Mossad team sat in the back of an old van that was parked across the street from the store. They could see through the dark windows without being seen and kept an eye on the street and the storefront. In front of them a black Savana van, belonging to the CIA, also with dark windows, waited by the sidewalk with its hazard lights flashing as if the driver had just stepped out for a moment. Both teams knew of each other's presence but did not communicate directly or even acknowledge each other. Unbeknown to them were a couple of men in typical Arab garb that were also surveying the store while pretending to be engaged in an idle conversation and having a smoke. These were members of a radical Islamic faction that wanted to know what Sayed, the Ahmadiyye do-gooder, was up to. Radical Muslims hated Ahmadi Muslims and regarded them as infidels, even worse than Kafirs, as evident by the Ahmadi mosque that was destroyed in Aceh, Indonesia, by radical Islamists.  Further up the street were a couple of German youths. The boy was a skinhead dressed in leather clothes from top to bottom and his girlfriend wore a thin vest that just managed to cover her pert little breasts and displayed an impressive set of tattoos that covered her arms.  They too were trying to figure out what was going on in the store, and also keeping an eye on the two radical Muslims. Occasionally a police car drove by but did not stop. It was very disappointing for all these groups that nothing, except the routine business, was going on at the store.