by Ian Wisby
“It’s me…Are we on schedule?”
“Of course, have you got the product yet?”
“Not yet. I’m heading to the location now. You should have the product within the next hour,” said Sameer, as he checked his wrist watch.
“Good. We need it soon…Allah be with you,” said the voice.
“Allah Akbar,” said Sameer, and then hung up.
CHAPTER 3
WENDY CARMICHAEL WAS a proud mother. Today, her youngest son, Daniel Carmichael was getting married, and it was about time too as she had been waiting for so long for this to happen.
Wendy was a mother of two sons; Daniel, being the youngest, and Eric Carmichael was the eldest, but only by two years.
The three of them had been through a lot this past year, having suffered the loss of their father. The Carmichael family was one of the wealthiest families in the country; the father, Harry Carmichael, was an iron ore mining magnate.
When he passed away, his wife, Wendy, inherited the company and its finances.
She lived with her sons at the family house in Sydney’s Mosman, one of the most expensive suburbs.
The house was a hidden masterpiece and was built in a majestic colonial homestead style. It was equipped with five large bedrooms with towering 13 foot ceilings.
The residence also had sculpted gardens and rolling lawns stem outwards to meet the secluded swimming pool and spa that was tucked away alongside romantic vine covered pergolas.
The Carmichaels had lived there all their lives as their father, Harry Carmichael’s Grandfather built it. The house boasted elegant views across Sydney Harbour.
Twenty-four-year-old Daniel Carmichael was getting married to Rana Denali; she was an employee of Carmichael Industries and had been living in Australia for ten years. She was a migrant from the Middle-East, but one of the lucky ones.
Rana Denali was relaxing by the pool and catching up on some work. She was Wendy Carmichael’s Chief Financial Officer and handled all the company’s finances.
As she sat there reviewing the company’s latest financial reports, a shadow crept up behind her. She jumped and turned around to see that it was only her fiancé, Daniel Carmichael.
He smiled and leaned down to give her a kiss. “Sweetheart, you scared me,” she said.
“What do you think you’re doing?” he said, noticing that she was working.
“I’m just checking up on the latest statements,” said Rana. Daniel let out a sigh. “Rana, we’re getting married in less than twelve hours…It is our wedding day!” he said.
“I know, I’m sorry. I just had to check to see if everything was in order.”
“You work too hard…Today is supposed to be our special day,” he said. He gave her another kiss.
“I’m sorry, I just couldn’t help myself,” she replied. Daniel shook his head.
“Well, you can make it up to me by following me into the bedroom,” he said, cheekily. Rana grinned with excitement and she quickly got up.
Watching from the window was twenty-six-year-old Eric Carmichael. He stood there with his arms crossed over and watched as his brother consorted with his fiancé.
Ever since they got together, Eric was somewhat wary of Rana Denali. There was something about her that he just didn’t like. It wasn’t out of jealousy, but more of a concerned brother.
He suspected that Rana Denali was involved with terrorism, and secretly, he’d hired a private investigator to look into Rana’s background.
So far, the investigator hadn’t found anything, but he wasn’t going to give up that easily. As he stood there, his mobile phone started ringing.
“Hello?” he answered.
“Mr. Carmichael, it’s Aaron Morgan.” Eric turned away from the window and went to a private area.
“Hey Aaron, what’s going on? I didn’t expect to hear from you today.”
“I know, but something came up and I had to contact you as soon as possible,” he said.
“Okay, what’s wrong? Does this have something to do with my brother’s fiancée?”
“Unfortunately, yes. I’ve been looking deeper into Rana Denali’s background like you requested. I found some irregularities that don’t add up.”
“What kind of irregularities?” he asked, becoming concerned.
“It appears that Rana Denali has had a connection with an internationally recognized terrorist by the name of Mahmoud Al-Hakim. He was responsible for several terrorist attacks in Germany, and the United Kingdom,” said Aaron. The line fell silent. Eric didn’t know what to say.
“My God…So, you’re saying that Rana Denali knows this Mahmoud Al-Hakim?” he asked.
“It’s unclear as to the extent of her connection with Al-Hakim. But in order for us to get a better understanding of Rana’s involvement, we need some more personal information,” he said.
“Like, what kind of personal information?”
“Ideally, her recent activity on the web, also, her recent banking transactions would help,” he said.
“That’s not exactly going to be easy to get a hold of. I’m certain her laptop is password protected. Not to mention her bank account details would be secured,” said Eric.
“I know this is a lot to ask, but if you want us to find out what her connection is to Al-Hakim, this is the way we’re going to do it,” said Aaron. Eric just let out a sigh. “Plus, we can send you an application that will decrypt her laptop account.” There was a pause in the conversation.
“Just how will this help with the investigation?” he asked.
“It will help us to find out what she’s been doing,” said Aaron. Eric closed his eyes. He paused for a moment and let out a deep breath.
“Okay, fine. I’ll see what I can do,” he replied.
“Good. I’m sorry to have to ask you to do this, Eric. But it’s the only way we’re going to get anywhere with this investigation.”
“I know…I’ll do it.”
“Thanks. Call me when you have those details.” Eric hung up the phone and stood there feeling a bit overwhelmed. He had no idea how he was going to do this, but he had to.
He wanted to make sure that his brother wasn’t marrying a terrorist.
* * *
Detective Sergeant Diane Faulkner was heading to meet with her undercover contact, a man named Malik Zahiri.
However, Malik Zahiri was in fact a made up name. Malik was in fact ASIO Officer Simon Harper.
Over the past six months or so, Diane had been secretly meeting up with Simon and they had been sleeping with each other. Of course, Simon kept it from his wife, Kelly, and Diane hadn’t told Ethan.
But their relationship was still relatively new, and she was finding it hard to find the right time to tell him. Today, Diane was feeling guilty about the fact that she was sleeping with a married man, and that she was betraying Ethan by cheating on him with his best friend.
Diane pulled up in the empty parking spot at the park where they usually met for discrete love making. Simon Harper was already there, and he was leaning against the side of his car, smoking a cigarette. Diane got out, and walked over to him.
“Detective, long time no speak,” said Simon, in a cheeky tone. Simon put out the cigarette, and he leaned in for a kiss. But for the first time since they’d been hooking up, Diane stopped him. “What’s wrong?”
“Look, Simon. I can’t do this anymore,” she said. Simon was quite annoyed by her reaction.
“Don’t tell me you’ve actually fallen for Cooper?” he retorted. Diane just sighed.
“Aside from the fact that you’re a married man, I actually care about Ethan,” she said.
“Fucking hell, Faulkner…If this is about Kelly, I’ll leave her,” Simon replied.
“Simon, just stop!” she snapped, getting frustrated. “I just can’t deal with this right now, I need some time to think things over,” she said.
“I don’t fucking believe this…I thought what we had was good?”
“It
was, but then I woke up and realized what we’re doing is morally wrong,” she said. Simon let out a sigh. “You’re a great guy, Simon. But I just don’t think we can keep seeing each other. At least on a romantic level.” There was an awkward moment of silence between them.
“Fine…Whatever. I guess you want your Intelligence?” he replied, abruptly.
“That would be good. We need to keep up appearances. Have you got anything?” she asked. Simon hesitated for a moment. He was reluctant to give in, but he knew she was right, about everything.
Finally, he slipped his hand into his jacket and he took out an A4 sized yellow envelope. He passed it to Diane, who quickly opened it.
She was looking at a photograph of a young looking, Middle-Eastern man.
He was wearing typical young adult attire. “Who is he?” she asked, looking down at the image.
“Sameer Amal…He’s Afghani, he migrated here two years ago,” said Simon. “He’s an engineering student at the University of Sydney. ASIO has been keeping tabs on him.” Diane’s eyes widened.
“So this Sameer Amal is behind the attack?” she asked. Simon slowly nodded, his pride now seriously wounded.
“Yes. He was the one who built the bomb that went off at Melbourne airport. But he will strike again, and next time, it will be even bigger,” said Malik. Diane just stood there, shocked by what Malik was telling her.
CHAPTER 4
ERIC CARMICHAEL WAS still a bit unsure about what he had to do. He was being asked to steal personal information about his brother’s fiancée without her knowing.
But, it was the only way he was going to find out if Rana Denali was working for terrorists. He was in the kitchen drinking a cup of coffee. He still had no idea how he was going to get the information from Rana’s laptop.
He stood there drinking his coffee, when suddenly, he almost spilt it as he was scared by his brother, Daniel, who just came wandering in.
He was buttoning up his white frilled shirt. “Hey bro, is that coffee?” he said, pointing at the cup.
“Jesus Danny, you scared the crap out of me,” he said, while cleaning himself. “Yeah, it’s coffee, why?”
“We need something a bit stronger than that. It’s my wedding day!” he said, with excitement. Daniel was somewhat a party animal and found any excuse to have a drink. He inherited the habit from his father, who was an alcoholic.
“Don’t you think it’s a bit early for that?” asked Eric, as he watched Daniel open a bottle of beer.
“It’s never too early for a beer, especially when you’re getting married,” he said. He looked at Eric oddly. “Bro, you look so tense, what’s up?” he asked. Eric immediately dismissed him.
“No, I’m fine. Just needed this,” he said, indicating to the coffee. “By the way, where’s Rana?” he asked, changing the subject.
“She’s upstairs, getting ready. Why?” Eric didn’t reply straight away.
“No reason, just thought I’d see if she wanted something to drink,” he said. Daniel just stared at him, strangely.
“Okay, well I’m going to see if they need help setting up outside. Later,” he said, and he wandered off outside with his beer. Eric watched him leave. He thought this would be his ideal moment. He made his way out of the kitchen and headed up the flight of stairs.
There were three bedrooms upstairs; one was his mother’s, the other belonged to Rana and Daniel, and the third was a study. Eric’s bedroom was downstairs.
He walked passed his mother’s bedroom and saw that she was on the phone talking with an employee at the office.
He went down the hallway and approached Daniel and Rana’s room. The door was slightly ajar and as he got closer, he could hear that the shower was on. His heart was racing the whole time, as he’d never done anything like this before.
Carefully, he pushed the door open. There was no sign of Rana, so she must have been in the shower. He went into the bedroom, and quietly walked over to the large study desk. It was covered with documents, folders, and wedding stuff.
Eric started opening the draws, quietly of course, and checked each of them to find Rana’s personal laptop. He couldn’t find it. He started to panic. Then, he opened one of the draws and saw on the top, a 15 inch leather case.
He thought for a moment and then picked it up. Unzipping it, he saw that it was her laptop inside. He couldn’t believe it. He slipped it out and turned it on.
He waited for a few moments as the computer powered up. As he did so, he quickly took out his mobile phone and accessed the software he was given by Aaron Morgan.
Even though Eric Carmichael had a degree in business and law, he had some knowledge of computers and could easily work his way around a laptop.
He placed the USB device into the laptop and almost immediately, the program that was installed on it began to do its job.
In front of his eyes, he could see the laptop’s password being typed out on the login screen. It worked. Eric was in.
All he had to do now was to download the retrieval software and copy the contents of Rana’s hard drive. This was definitely taking too long though. Any second now Rana would step out of the shower, and he’d be busted.
The program was running, and the progress bar was at sixty-five per cent. “Come on,” Eric whispered to himself. Seventy-eight per cent done. It was almost finished. Eric looked over his shoulder to check to see if anyone was coming. So far so good. Eighty-nine per cent done.
Just then, Eric heard the shower turn off, which meant Rana was stepping out. “Shit,” he cursed. Ninety-seven per cent done. “Come on, please.” Finally, the transfer was complete. He breathed with a sigh of relief.
With his blood pressure running high, and anxiety levels sky rocketing, Eric quickly took out the USB device, shut down the laptop and shoved it back in the leather case.
He then stood up and darted out of the room like nothing happened. It was a good job he left when he did, because Rana came out of the bathroom with a towel draped over her.
Eric’s heart was still racing as he headed down the hallway. But at the same time, he felt proud of himself for getting it done.
As he headed down the stairs, he took out his mobile phone and dialled a number. It rang a few times, but someone finally picked up.
“Aaron Morgan.”
“Hey Aaron, it’s Eric. I managed to access Rana’s laptop. I copied the contents of the hard drive,” he said.
“That’s great. What I need you to do now is take that USB and plug it into your laptop. Allow me access to your PC and I’ll transfer the entire contents.”
“Okay, It’ll take me a few moments.” He made his way down the hallway and went into his bedroom. There, he sat down at his computer and plugged in the USB. “Alright, the device is in.”
“Good. I’m sending you an access link to allow me to virtually take control of your system.” A few seconds went by, and Eric received the link. He opened it up and his computer was now being controlled by Aaron. Eric could see him copying the hard drive file. “Okay, once this data is copied, I’ll start sifting through it to see if there are any inconsistencies,” said Aaron.
“So, how long is this going to take?”
“I should get something in an hour, so I’ll give you a call back,” he said. Eric let out a sigh.
“Alright, thanks Aaron.” Eric hung up the phone.
* * *
Detective Sergeant Diane Faulkner was a little bit shaken by her meeting with Simon. She knew it was the right thing to do and break it off with him.
She regretted it so much that she slept with a married man, not to mention he was Ethan’s best friend from high school. Despite it being a false meeting, she still managed to get the name of a suspect and found out he was behind the Melbourne airport bombing.
Diane had since returned to the Ops Centre, feeling guilty as ever. As she headed across the floor, she took a sip of her coffee, hoping it would make her feel better. Then, she bravely went into the briefing
room where Mick Greer and Ethan Cooper were still working.
Simon Harper had gone back to the ASIO office downtown. “Ah, Detective Faulkner. How did the meet go?” asked Mick, as she sat down. She was a little thrown off by what Mick just said, but remembered she told him she was meeting Malik. She placed the yellow envelope on the table and passed it across to Mick and Ethan.
“It wasn’t as good as I hoped, but I did get something,” she said, clearing her throat. Mick was opening the envelope. “It turns out that the man behind the Melbourne airport bombing is a migrant from Afghanistan. Somehow he managed to slip into the country undetected,” she explained. Mick took out the photo, and showed Ethan.
“Who is he?” asked Detective Cooper. Diane glanced at Ethan.
“His name is Sameer Amal. According to my source, he’s an engineering student at the University of Sydney. He was the one who built the bomb,” Diane explained. “He also informed me that Al-Hakim is plotting another attack. He doesn’t know where or when, just that it’s happening soon, and somewhere here in Sydney,” she said.
“Bloody hell,” said Ethan, as he looked at the image of Mahmoud Al-Hakim. “Any known associates of Al-Hakim?” Diane shook her head.
“We know absolutely nothing about this guy. He’s a ghost. I’ve got Felicity running a background check on him now, hopefully she finds something,” she said.
“Speak of the devil,” said Mick, looking towards the door. Diane turned her head and spotted Felicity coming in. “Felicity, come in.”
“I’ve been doing a bit of digging into Mahmoud Al-Hakim’s background. It turns out he’s been living here in Sydney under a new identity, Marcus Hayman. He also works as a used car salesman at a dealership in Mascot,” said Felicity.
“That’s saying a lot…You got an address on Mr. Hayman?” asked Ethan.
“Yes, I managed to find his residential address. It’s 19 David Street, Mascot,” she said. Everyone in the room just stopped and looked at each other. It was as though they were all thinking the same thing. Then they looked at Mick.