by D. E. Daum
“That’s the one Ali Kaba was found in this morning. Would you rather have two or three?”
“If they’re all equal, give me one and three,” said Kelly.
“Here we go, Valerie. It seems our rat died in number one. Wouldn’t you prefer number three?”
“No, don’t worry about it. One will be fine, thank you! It’s been a pleasure meeting you. When I return from my assignment, we’ll have to get together for dinner and who knows.” Valerie got up, waved goodbye, turned, and left.
Immediately, Kelly got up and went to see Rayya, asking her if she called anyone. She answered, “Starbird.” He called Jane to learn if she’d found anything out about Miss Harschkopf. Jane informed him, they were working on it, but they didn’t have anything yet.
“Where are you?” he asked.
“Next door.”
“I’ll be over in a minute”
“No! Stay there. I’ll be there in a sec.” In sixty-five seconds, Jane came up behind Kelly and hung up the phone for him.
Kelly was shocked. “How did you get in here?”
“Aliens beamed me over,” Jane said. “Follow me.”
Jane led Kelly and Rayya to the basement. Against the far wall were some storage cubicles, one with a door open. Jane ushered them through and shut the door. There appeared to be nowhere else to go. She grabbed onto some shelving and clicked something under the middle shelf. The shelves, as a unit, swung open. “None of you should be seen coming into our snoop store, so if you need to, you can come this way. The combo on the door is 0-5-0-4, and you saw where the catch is for this to open.” They went through the opening and they were in the basement of the adjacent building. Jane led them upstairs and introduced them to Henry and Bill, two of the rotating crew of four.
“So tell me, did you get our conversation?”
“Every word,” said Jane, “and interesting words they were. I thought these attacks seemed a little sophisticated for the rag heads.”
“Hey now, I am one. So is Rayya,” said Kelly.
“Speak for yourself Saleem,” said Rayya.
“That’s right. You‘re both my favorite rag heads. Kelly, you know what I mean those that are stuck in the past, those that don’t want progress for themselves or anyone else.”
“Yeah, I know. So what do you think?”
“I think another very dangerous player is getting into the game, and I don’t like it. I thought it was possible, but I wondered how terrorists could have gotten their hands on a nuke. Turns out our player is giving it to them. Did you bring the glass, so we could check her prints?”
“I guess you don’t have video in that room, eh? Valerie was wearing gloves.”
“That’s probably why she wants apartment one, to wipe it down for prints, hers and others,” said Jane.
“Maybe. So, with that picture Rayya sent and our description you haven’t found out anything about her yet?” asked Kelly.
“It’s being checked at field HQ. I left to come here. What was it she gave you?”
“It was a DVD.”
“Why don’t you grab it and meet me at the bungalow?”
“Hey, can Eldon come? He’s MI-6.”
“No, I don’t think so. Too many people traipsing through might raise suspicions.”
“What if the three of us got in your standard-size sedan, with tinted windows?”
Jane asked, “What about your cars? You can’t leave them here.”
“Haman and I walked over after the furniture was delivered this morning, and Rayya took the bus, I believe. Eldon can park his car a couple blocks away and get in with us.”
“Ok, fine. Go get the disc and Eldon, lock up, and come back through here. My car is in back behind the building, Hurry!” said Jane.
When they went to the office, they couldn’t find Eldon anywhere. “He must have left,” said Kelly. “Let’s lock up and get going.”
Chapter 2
When Jane, Kelly, and Rayya came in from the garage, Jimmy was waiting for them. He said he had a ninety percent ID on Valerie Harschkopf. “Her real name is Erica Schwartz, and she’s a member of ‘RR.’ That doesn’t stand for Rolls Royce. It’s the initials of ‘Reich Reborn.’ They are a neo-Nazi organization, but claim to have heritage back to the original Nazis. Three of the members that we know about are grandchildren of old-time Nazi sympathizers and industrialists and there may be more. They are Rudolf Eckert, who Erica is supposed to be close to, Dieter Bosch, and Helmut Engstrum. All rich boys with nothing to do except conquer the world,” said Jimmy as they were walking back to his workstation.
“Great, that’s all we need, some Nazis stirring up the Muslim crazies, like Nazis would consider Arabs their equals,” said Kelly.
“Last I heard, nobody was the Nazis’ equal,” added Jane. “Jimmy, here’s a DVD that’s supposed to fill in the gaps on the tape you analyzed. Boot it up, will you, so we can take a look at it?”
Jimmy took the disc, “Your wish is my command, seniorita.”
He put the disc in the tray, slid it closed, and opened the contents. Sure enough, it gave all the missing information to each of the corresponding terrorist operations. Now they could really go after the bad boys.
“Send by coded e-mail to Colonel Dickens, c/o Anti-Terrorism Department at Langley and then make eight copies. Then come into the conference room,” ordered Jane. “Is Evans or Denalli here?”
“I believe so, though I think Denalli is taking a nap,” replied Jimmy.
“Bring both of them with you please. Kelly, Rayya, shall we?” When they were in the conference room, Jane asked, “Well, what do you guys think?”
Kelly answered, “It looks like we have enough information to stop all the attacks before they get off the ground.”
“Yes, we could do that, but it would more than likely blow your cover. After all, you are the only one who has all the answers.”
“Well, is that so bad?” Rayya interjected. “We could stop nine deadly terrorist attacks cold and arrest or kill scores of bad guys.”
Jane was firm. “I know it sounds good when you first think about it, but damn it. We‘ve had such poor intelligence for so long. We missed 9/11 and even got into a couple wars that are dragging on because of our intelligence failures, costing hundreds of billions of dollars. Just think, in the position we find ourselves, if we played our cards right, we could affect hundreds of terrorist attacks and kill tens of thousands of terrorists. Saleem even has an opportunity to moderate radical Islam, as the spokesman for the big guy on earth.”
“What would you have us do, allow the attacks to go forward?” asked Kelly.
“Yes, if it were up to me, some of them at least, with our advance knowledge we could minimize or eliminate casualties while exaggerating the damage. Look, if we hadn’t stumbled –.”
Jimmy, Evans, and Denalli came in and took seats.
“Go on, Jane,” said Denalli.
“If we hadn’t stumbled onto that video, all of these attacks would have taken place, and we would have reacted. That is why we’re doing so poorly in the war on terror. We are strictly reacting to them. Now, we have a chance to be proactive for the duration, and we can’t just throw it away to stop nine terrorist attacks.”
“Nine serious attacks that could kill tens of thousands of people,” said Kelly.
“Kelly, you are the nexus for these operations, the only common point. I said we could minimize the damage, but if we stop all nine operations in the bud, your cover is likely blown, our best opportunity ever to deal with terrorism is down the drain, and then it’s the ‘Witless’ Protection program for you and Mariam.”
Denalli spoke, “You’re both raising some good points, but I think Starbird’s have the most weight. We have to look at the greater good here. We could stop nine operations, but then never be able to find out about another mission for a hundred years. The scores of individuals we save now could turn into five million or more lost over a period of time. In addition, you would lose
the podium to modify extremist views with your newfound celebrity status. I agree with Jane. We have to look at the big picture. I think I would let the least harmful go through as planned, try to minimize the next deadliest, and stop the most deadly. Since these attacks are scheduled over the next eighteen months, time might give us some other options.”
“Okay, Starbird, give me a rough idea of what you‘re talking about,” said Kelly.
“Take Tel Aviv. We now know that a fishing boat called Seven Seas is loaded with explosives and radioactive waste. Their plan is to sail into Tel Aviv Harbor and detonate, making the entire harbor radioactive and uninhabitable. What if an Israeli patrol boat were to board the boat, kill the crew, dump the waste overboard or put it on their boat, finish taking the trawler into the harbor, and explode it. The Israelis treat it like a car bomb on water, exaggerate the damage, and never mention radiation. The terrorists think, ‘Hey, what about the radiation? It must not have worked; we will have to skip that idea in the future. Oh well, at least the explosion went off and caused a lot of damage.’ What do you think Kelly?”
“Actually, I like that scenario, but why does anyone have to die?”
“Maybe they don’t. The Israelis are pretty good at these sort of things.”
Kelly asked, “What about the nuke?”
“Correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t you supposed to have it in your possession?”
“That’s true. Why?”
Jane thought for a moment then replied, “Nuclear bombs don’t just go off by themselves. They require a conventional explosion to trigger fusion. It’s sort of like dynamite needs a blasting cap but on a big scale. We now know the nuke is supposed to be in a van, probably in a parking lot adjacent to a major sporting event on Memorial Day weekend. What if we had an expert modify the weapon so that only the conventional explosion goes off, blows up a few cars, kills a half dozen or so unlucky people instead of a couple hundred thousand very lucky people. Only the terrorists would know that the weapon malfunctioned. Hey, shit happens, I guess it was the will of Allah!”
“I like that even better. I was wondering how we could handle that. If we do what the professor suggested, what events are the least destructive, in your estimation? If it were up to you, what events would you let proceed unabated?” Kelly asked.
“I would say the New York subway. It’s hard to imagine more than a dozen deaths, because chemicals dissipate fast. The other would be the Eiffel Tower. Again, we’re talking about a limited amount of people, and a private jet might not even cause that much damage. This target is mostly symbolic. Let them have their symbol, plus it’ll show the French that they have a stake in fighting terrorism.”
“Would you still say that if it was the Statue of Liberty or the Washington Monument?” Rayya asked.
“Yes, I would,” answered Jane.
“Which would you stop completely?” Rayya asked.
“That’s easy,” said Jane. “The dirty bomb in the Vatican. We can’t have a second malfunction. That would be improbable. The G8 summit in Tokyo, we could probably have our suicide assassin die of an overdose just before the summit. Next, we cannot have Parliament blown up. Have to stop that one and finally, the Ras Tanura oil terminal. We cannot seem to shake our addiction to imported oil, and fully ten percent of the world’s oil goes through that terminal. If that were cut off, it could be a world economic disaster.”
“That leaves the Baghdad Parliament to be minimized,” said Kelly.
“That shouldn’t be too hard, since it’s already a hot zone. Add some concrete bunkers and more guards. Put some snipers on a couple roofs. These suicide bombers are so anxious to get it over with they don’t always wait for the best location. They usually panic at the first sign of trouble. Probably just blow his truck up at a check point if he can get that close,” said Jane.
“I guess if we can substantially minimize the damage and casualties, it makes sense. Who gets to decide what we do?” Kelly asked.
“We will outline our plan of action for Colonel Dickens’ assent, and he’ll run it by his boss.”
“Who is the Colonel’s boss?” asked Kelly.
“I can’t go into that. Suffice to say it’s someone very high in the government.”
Rayya queried Jane, “That’s it? We make a recommendation to the Colonel who runs it by his boss? No National Security Advisor, no Secretary of State? Not even the Joint Chiefs of Staff? Or the Intelligence Director? What about Congress?”
“Really, Rayya! Congress? We may as well call the terrorists and tell them we’ve got their list. Congress has more leaks than a shot-gunned rain barrel. Don’t be nave. If it makes you feel any better, the Colonel’s boss is one of the ones you mentioned, and that’s all I’m going to say about that.”
“I don’t know about you and no offense to those people, but I haven’t been impressed with their judgment.” Jane looked straight at Rayya and said, “Have you? This is too important to leave up to bureaucrats. We discovered this plot, and it hasn’t gone any further than my immediate boss’s boss, that I know of, and I see no reason to muddy up the water.” Now Jane looked at Kelly and said, “Do you? Ultimately, it’s your neck that’s on the line. Do you trust that neck to those who ignored the signs of 9/11, then took us into two wars, one on a false pretext, failed to respond to the USS Cole, presided over the looting and chaos of Iraq, while soldiers stood by, too few to do anything about it?”
“No, I guess not,” Kelly answered. “It’s just that it doesn’t seem right for us to make that decision.”
“Kelly, we won’t make the decision. We’ll make a strategic recommendation to them. Do you think they’re in a better position to analyze the situation than we are?”
“Probably not!”
“Then why give them the opportunity to screw up? I’ve been there, done that, and most of the time, those in the field were able to make better, more informed suggestions.”
“Well, if they’re going to let us implement your ideas, we had better write up your recommendation and get it to Dickens. The first attack in Tel Aviv is scheduled in eight days.”
Chapter 3
Tel Aviv
Mossad Headquarters
“Yes, Ephrem what is it?” asked Major Rafin.
Ephrem didn’t particularly like the major, a short man of about forty with a Roman nose and blue eyes. A lifelong desk jockey, he was a stickler for tradition and rules.
“Sir, we have an American agent enroute from the airport to fill us in on the latest information on the terrorist threat. She is an associate of Starbird and represents him,” said an excited Ephrem.
“Excellent. When is she due to arrive?”
“In thirty minutes, sir.”
“Good. Round up Aron, Danel and your man Mordecai and make the conference room ready.”
* * * *
Jane was worried. Kelly and Haman were going to take possession of the nuke without her help. She knew Kelly could handle it, but one never knows what could go wrong. She would get the Israelis on board for her plan, meeting with them as quickly as possible. She was going to have to play hardball with them. She didn’t like the idea, but it was necessary. If they stayed with the plan approved by the Colonel, nothing would reflect upon Kelly.
When Jane arrived at Mossad Headquarters, Ephrem, who knew Starbird only by electronically modified telecommunications and thought her to be a man, greeted her warmly. He gave her a peck on each cheek and said, “Let me look at you. Starbird never mentioned that he had such a lovely associate. Have you worked with Starbird long?”
He’s trying to find out if we’re an item. If you only knew. She said, “Really, it seems I’ve been with him my whole life. We must get my briefing over so I can get back. He’s on an important mission. That’s why he sent me.”
“I see. Does that mean you will not be here long enough for me to take you to dinner?”
Jane answered, “Depends upon how long the briefing takes.”
“By all
means, allow me to show you the way to our conference room,” replied Ephrem.
In the conference room were four other men, three in suits and the fourth, apparently their superior, in uniform. Jane explained the plan. Ephrem and the other underlings seemed to be on board, but the major was not so sure. He said, “Why shouldn’t we just impound the boat and take credit for stopping the attack?”
“You want credit or to stop the terrorists? This is not the only planned attack. We finally have a very good inside source, and we can’t stop all the attacks. It would compromise our source,” Jane said.