The Minders (24 page)
Authors: Max Boroumand
After a quick stop at the
Erbil
U.S. embassy, they airlifted Jason and Bobby to the
Ramstein Air Base
, for checkups and debriefings. Earlier, they flew in Mr. Akbari and his daughter from Turkey. They were all recovering and about to sit through a debriefing session with Warren Spencer and a succession of others, each of whom wanted a go at one of the biggest intelligence leaks out of Iran.
Before the drudgery was to begin, they were to have breakfast as a group for the first time, free and safe. Breakfast began with hugging, tears of joy, and a tearful father thanking Jason and Bobby again for saving his daughter’s life. Sitting for breakfast, they reminisced about the entire journey, focusing on the positive, the funny, and the human side of it. It was a two-hour breakfast, with eggs, bacon, sausages, fruits, fresh German pretzels and jams, and freshly brewed coffee and juice. It was good to be together, to be safe again.
“Oh, I brought your laptop back,” the little girl interrupted, as she ran to her room to fetch it.
Bringing it back, Bobby and she moved to a side table and chatted for a bit as Jason and the father talked more. Jason went over the debrief process, and asked that the father be as clear and complete in everything he remembered. He and his girl would be back home soon. Jason mentioned that his wife, Dr. Akbari, would also have to be debriefed and answer for her deeds. The father nodded in resigned agreement. Finishing with small talk, they ate their fill of breakfast.
After breakfast, they were escorted to the all-day de-briefing. The first round was one-on-ones, with later rounds as smaller groups and, finally, as the whole group.
* * *
Each of the four started in separate rooms. In each room was at least one member of the intelligence group, one psychologist, and one person from the military establishment who would have to answer for their actions, namely the rescue mission. The father and daughter were offering up all that they knew, which was very little. In their case, Yasmin was more culpable and responsible. However, the story of these two could help persuade others to be lenient with her.
They were grilling Bobby hard, but Jason had prepped him well in the days preceding the rescue. Jason instructed him to keep the encryption key to himself and specifically, to be quiet about the key’s whereabouts. Other than that, he was to speak the truth, as he remembered.
Jason’s room, unlike the others, was filled with many more people, all of whom he assumed were there to find out about The Center and its intelligence gathering operations. Jason’s de-briefing began with people asking questions, in unison, out of order, and over each other. Chaos filled the air as everyone wanted to know about The Center. They wanted to know how it might affect them and their groups. The rest be damned, politics over facts.
“One at a time!” Warren Spencer shouted.
Jason waited for calm to reign before he began. He started by first requesting that all repercussions and actions against him and his cohorts, be waived. To which, he received an absolute negative, and that judgment would have to be made later. Jason nodded knowing that in the end, he held the key to his ultimate freedom and clearing. He began to tell the story. Everyone took copious notes, even though the video recorder operated the entire time. They asked many questions, asking repeatedly, looking for validation. For each answer, many more questions popped up. Jason had no answers for some questions, and some he would not answer. Hence, his dilemma with governing laws.
* * *
Hours into it, they recapped the entire story several times, broke it into pieces, revisited parts, tested and challenged every fact. Eventually, they determined that the story was complete. However, they were still miffed about the whereabouts and condition of the minders. They wished they could have captured them alive, to be interrogated. Most importantly, they were curious about the data and its location. It was then that Jason began his negotiations.
“One last thing, about the data,” Jason opened up.
“There were two locations, as I mentioned, for which I have IP addresses. Along with the employee list that we took from their ERP system, we re-encrypted the data with our own key, all of which we stored in the cloud.”
“What do you want in return?” Spencer asked.
“I want complete and all-encompassing immunity for me and all others who helped me, from any country-specific or international laws, just as I mentioned this morning!”
The group mumbled amongst themselves and eventually agreed.
“And, it has to be in writing, signed by the U.S. Attorney General.” Jason finished.
It was late that same afternoon. They all had enough of the de-briefing for one day. They all left Jason’s debrief room except one, Warren Spencer. He waited for the last person to leave, and moved to turn the recorder off. He then made a cell call and placed the ringing phone, in speakerphone mode, on the table. Picking up the phone at the other end, was Mossad’s Director of Political Action and Liaison.
“Hello Warren. Is he on?” he said, asking about Jason.
“Yes he is, and we are alone. Ask of him what you want,” Spencer said softly.
The Mossad director asked detailed questions about the four Mossad agents who had helped Jason, and if news could be offered by Jason on their circumstances and whereabouts. Jason had very little to offer apart from what he knew, adding how helpful and supportive they had been.
“Thank you Jason. Oh, one last thing,” the Mossad director continued. “The last satellite message we received mentioned that they were in a data center, it was being destroyed, and that U.S. had access to the data. Can you elaborate?”
Spencer quickly picked up the phone, taking it off speaker and walked out of the room. He finished the conversation away from Jason. Jason was now out of the loop.
* * *
Jason’s attorneys reviewed and finalized all the paperwork back in the US, emailing him a copy for final verification. Two days later, still in Germany, having made himself comfortable with all the legal proceedings, Jason emailed the IP addresses for the two offshore data centers, Qatar and Turkey, The Center employee list, as well as the 256-bit AES encryption key to Warren Spencer.
It was now finally over for him. He could go home.
Three weeks later, there was a gathering at Mike’s house.
It was the Christmas holidays. It was to be a celebration of sorts. Mike wanted to gather all of those who helped in re-uniting Bobby with his family, to say thank you in person. Mike had purchased first class tickets for Jason and his wife, for Henry and his wife, and even offered to bring Baba and his family over, to which they replied that a visit to the U.S. would not be advisable.
They had decorated the house beautifully and smartly, for the holidays. Mike’s wife had prepared a great feast and the house was brimming with joy, as they all sat around sipping eggnog, listening to classic Christmas music, and enjoying the warmth of the fireplace. Jason was enjoying being in a larger space, as he and his wife were still in a hotel waiting for the insurance approvals, and the final check to be delivered, so that they could go about finding a new home for themselves. Mike was back to his jovial self, hugging and kissing Bobby every chance he got.
“It’s about that time,” Mike’s wife whispered. To which, Mike jumped up and fetched a gift from under the tree. It was a small box, wrapped beautifully.
“O.K. everyone, gather around, gather around,” Mike yelled over the music as he took another sip of his eggnog.
He ushered everyone around, making sure that Jason and his wife were in front. He then handed Jason the box, telling him it was in appreciation for all that he had done. Jason, as was customary, refused, handing the gift back to Mike. Henry quickly grabbed the box and proclaimed he will take it in Jason’s stead.
“No, seriously Jason, I want you to have this. It’s just a small token of my appreciation,” Mike said pulling the box, with some effort, out of Henry’s hands.
Jason, eyeing the small box, assumed it was a new watch. A watch much like what he gave Bobby. He accepted and slowly opened the box. Inside was a key, a simple nickel-plated brass key. Jason picked it out of the box, and looked inquisitively at his wife, and then at Mike.
“Open the envelope that goes with it.” Mike smiled.
Jason looked deeper into the box to find a small envelope. Inside was a picture of a house.
“It’s your new house!” Mike’s wife screamed having waited long enough for the surprise.
“What new house?” Jason’s wife, Amatis, asked in all seriousness.
Mike took the picture and handed it to Jason’s wife. This is your new house. We took all the years of chitchat, wishes and discussions about rooms, colors, and all the little details, and found a house that best fit that vision, in a gorgeous part of Monterey, overlooking the bay. Jason’s wife held the picture, with tears in her eyes. She got up and gave Mike and his wife each a long hug, all the while crying. She was overjoyed. Jason stood up shaking Mike’s hands and thanking him. He got a bear hug back, and a tearful Mike started blubbering uncontrollably over Jason’s shoulders.
Bobby got up to separate the two, also teary-eyed, saying, “O.K. dad, it’s not like he saved the world. Let the man go!”
Henry too stood up. “Where is
my
house?” he said jokingly, while grabbing another Budweiser, a drink that had never and would never again see the light of day in Mike’s house, except for that day.
This was going to be a great holiday for all.
As the U.S. celebrated the holidays, all the way around the world a group was active and working around the clock.
In the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, dozens of technology experts were sitting in a warehouse, typing away at their computers. Behind them were rows and rows of towering servers, with interconnected cables, lights blinking, fans humming. On the other end of the warehouse, trucks were being unloaded, more servers, more cables, more of everything to build out a larger data warehouse. Outside the warehouse, several fuel trucks were filling up the underground storage tanks that fed the generators. The immense power consumption would otherwise become a red flag for the local utility company, causing scrutiny and other problems.
Malaysia, the third offshore location, was up and running at full speed, adding more and more servers. The data backup was clean and only one week out of sync. As they upgraded this site, they sent the data back to Iran, to a new and more secure site.
* * *
Local forces, with full support of the U.S. government, had taken down the other two offshore sites as requested by the U.S. Once there, they found the place emptied. They took the data back for analysis, where they found it further re-encrypted and rendered useless.
* * *
Unbeknownst to them all, Vector #188 had just been initiated.
About the Author
Max Boroumand is a seasoned and experienced technologist and management consultant. His career spans over two decades, with clients in the Fortune 500, Governments, and non-profits, as well as many technology startups. His work and life have taken him all over the world, from the Middle East and North Africa, to Europe and the Americas, and to Asia.
Over the last decade, he has been the CEO of a holding company, whose portfolio includes several software companies, and most recently a publishing and media company supporting his new passion, writing books.
Max lives with his wife and boys in the northern California wine country.
