The Third Cell

by Anthony D'Egidio

  “I’m not going anywhere looking like this,” she said to the two men.

  Grabbing the metal bed Traci defiantly stated, “If you want me out of this room you’re going to have to carry me.”

  “That’s okay with us,” the two agents replied. They grabbed her arms and legs and pulled Traci from the metal bed. In the struggle the blanket ripped off exposing her half-naked body. She began crying uncontrollably, pulling the blanket over herself as she crouched on the floor.

  The agents left, but Traci couldn’t stop crying. After observing her for two hours in this state, the agents sent for a doctor who on arrival injected her with a powerful sedative.

  Traci fell into a deep and restless sleep for the first time in three days.

  A few hours later the CIA agents returned. They woke Traci and escorted her to the interrogation room. She offered no resistance this time even though the blanket was still wrapped around her lower extremities.

  Traci sat in the chair and just stared ahead not blinking her eyes or moving her head.

  After several minutes of questioning without a response they became concerned. The agents finally brought Michelle into the room to see if she could get Traci to respond. Michelle tried, but to no avail.

  Michelle shrugged her shoulders and turned to the agents. “She’s withdrawn from reality. It appears she’s in a psychogenic amnesia state from the trauma you inflicted upon her over the past three days. I’ve told you repeatedly, these men duped us. We had no idea of their past except what we were told.”

  Tears were streaming down Michelle’s face. She wiped them away with the sleeve of her blouse, continuing to lambaste the agents. “You’ve destroyed a beautiful person. Can you imagine your spouse of fifteen years lying to you from the time you met? Can’t you understand the shock this woman endured finding out her husband was a terrorist responsible for the carnage at Beekman Estates? Then you subject her to this inhuman treatment of sleep deprivation and constant humiliation. Look at her. She’s in a complete state of depression and has withdrawn from reality. She probably can’t even feed herself. You need to get a doctor in here to evaluate her.”

  Michelle stood up, defiantly looking at the agents in the room. She walked over to the nearest one, slapped him across the face with all her might, almost knocking him off his chair. She then walked to the door. The agents made no move to confront her.

  “Please take me back to my room.” Once there, she collapsed on the bed. As the door locked behind her, the light was finally turned off.

  The doctor who had previously given Traci the sedative returned to re-examine her. He turned to the interrogating agents, “She’s in a psychotic state. I recommend moving her to the state psychiatric hospital in Falls Church, Virginia.”

  The Stock Exchanges

  8:00 A.M.: The Australian Securities Exchange would be open in two hours. The White House had been barraged with phone calls from corporate executives who feared the worst if the crisis was not brought to a peaceful settlement. All were nervously looking at Sydney to see what the psychological reaction would be to stock prices. They had dodged the first bullet, but would the traders take it optimistically or would they panic?

  For Iyad and the rest of the terrorists it didn’t matter what the stock market did. Besides what money they had received in the United States during their many years there, they also had been paid in gold and it was secure in many Middle Eastern banks. Best of all, their families were being taken care of by the Muslims For Justice and this was more important than all the personal wealth they could acquire.

  In the Situation Room, all eyes were upon the Australian Stock Exchange when it opened. The room became silent as they watched the S&P/ASX lose ten percent of its value in the first fifteen minutes.

  George Martens stood up. “People, it looks like we are in for a rocky ride. Obviously the investors are nervous and though reassurances from the U.S. and Israel have been made, only the release of the hostages and securing the nuclear reactor sites will ease their apprehension.”

  The Tokyo Stock Exchange opened an hour later and the Nikkei took a huge hit. Investors in China were becoming concerned and the Chinese Government, at the last minute, decided to keep the stock exchanges closed for one more day. The London Stock Exchange management had been holding a rare meeting since six o’clock Sunday evening to watch the events taking place in the Far East. The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Secretary of His Majesty’s Treasury had called the London Stock Exchange management voicing their concerns and urging the exchange not to open. In an unprecedented move, they also closed their regional office in Hong Kong and decided to keep the London Stock Exchange closed for an additional day. This move sent shockwaves through the Australian and Tokyo exchanges and with exchange management fearful of greater sell-offs, they independently suspended trading, taking a wait-and-see position rather than let the bleeding continue.

  Across the world, business executives were calling emergency meetings to deal with the crisis, the closed markets and the vulnerability of their businesses if all the negotiations failed. There was growing concern in China that if the United States didn’t resolve the crisis many Chinese businesses would collapse, putting a massive strain on all of its government resources.

  The Air Israel Flight

  The B747 was three hundred miles north of the Azores and eight hundred miles from the northwest coast of Spain. Captain Vekret had again taken over piloting the plane after catching five hours of well-deserved sleep. They would be over Spain in two more hours on schedule to be at Cairo by eight o’clock in the morning.

  The U.S. Air Force pilots of the E-10 MC2A had been taking turns flying the plane and catching a quick nap in the cockpit. They had been in the air for over ten hours after leaving Tinker AFB. The E-10 crew commander was making sure they had the B747 on their lookdown radar, which provided a three-hundred-sixty-degree view up to a range of two hundred miles. The E-10 continued at a safe distance of twenty miles from the B747. It was a routine flight with the only thing breaking up the monotony being the rendezvous with the Boeing KC-767 for refueling. They closed the gap between them and the Air Israel plane to make up for the time they would lose during fuel transfer.

  4:10 A.M.: The refueling of the E-10 was routine with almost 21,000 gallons transferred in twelve minutes. The E-10 pilot cut off the refueling after reaching three-quarters of the aircraft’s capacity, concluding they had enough fuel to out fly the B747’s maximum range. Already sixty miles behind, the B747, the E-10 pilot didn’t want to lose any more distance. He took the aircraft up to its maximum speed.

  The E-10 crew commander plotted the change in the B747’s projected flight path. He reported his calculations. “EUCOM, EUCOM this is Tracer One. We are seventy-eight nautical miles northwest of Palermo, Italy. We have the target sighted. Projected path bearing one-one-seven, Northern Egypt. High probability Cairo, twelve hundred nautical miles, ETA two hours twelve minutes.”

  “Roger Tracer One, this is EUCOM. Acknowledged bearing one-one-seven, Northern Egypt probable destination, ETA two hours twelve minutes.”

  EUCOM, headquartered at Patch Barracks, Stuttgart, Germany, relayed the information to the Joint Chiefs.

  The Situation Room

  General Knight was addressing the potential landing site with General Braden Henderson, Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force. “What do you think about the possibility of the terrorists landing in Cairo and being greeted as heroes?”

  “Egypt has enough problems with internal strife since the overthrow of Mubarak. Allowing terrorists into the country at this time would be a major embarrassment to the Egyptian army and could fuel a backlash to the Islamic movement. I seriously doubt they will let this happen,” answered General Henderson.

  “Do you think it’s an attempt to force the Egyptian government to support a radical Islamic agenda?”

  “I think it’s a way to avoid flying near Israeli airspace which could provoke an attack b
y the Israeli Air Force. Even worse, the terrorists could, in a final Jihad try and put the plane into a populated area in Tel Aviv or some other Israeli city, forcing the IAF to shoot down the plane with the Jewish hostages. It certainly would be a dilemma for the Israelis.”

  General Henderson got up from his chair and went to the map being projected on the LCD screen. He pointed to the plane’s position. “They only have four hours of fuel left when they reach Cairo. We’re not sure if this is their final destination or they’re landing to refuel. If they continue on without refueling they could land in one of several countries.”

  The general using his pointer made a half circle on the map. “It’s a crap shoot on these potential landing sites so we need to be diligent in our tracking. If they get into the flight paths of planes leaving Cairo, it’s going to be very hard to track them. If they’re headed for Cairo, they’ll be there in about two hours.”

  The Air Israel Flight

  7:45 A.M. Cairo: Iyad entered the cockpit and gave instructions to Captain Vekret. “You’ll radio the control tower when we are two hundred miles east of the Cairo airport. At that point you’ll turn on the transponder and radio with intent to land. You’ll stay at 37,000 feet until they can identify the plane on radar. In your transmission you’ll include the words Allāh’s soldiers.”

  As the plane reached the two hundred mile mark, Captain Vekret radioed the air controllers. “Cairo Airport this is Air Israel flight with Allāh’s soldiers, Lima Yankee Zero, Zero, Eight requesting landing coordinates.” The captain was using the flight numbers usually reserved for the New York to Tel Aviv route.

  Iyad instructed the captain, “As you get closer to the airport, stay north at a ten mile distance until you hear from the air traffic controllers.”

  The E-10 Crew Commander continued to monitor the B747. With the high number of airplanes either taking off or landing at Cairo, it was becoming harder to track the Air Israel flight.

  Cairo was the second busiest airport in the Middle East. At eight o’clock in the morning, planes would be departing every three minutes and heading in several directions.

  Within ten miles of the airport Iyad told the captain, “Bring the aircraft down to 5,000 feet.”

  Captain Vekret turned to Iyad. “You’re going to get us all killed. We’ll be in the flight path of departing aircraft.”

  Iyad was unemotional. “I don’t care if we’re all killed. We are here as Allāh’s soldiers and would gladly die for him. Take the plane to where I told you and hold in that position until I tell you differently. Are you willing to sacrifice the lives of all of those aboard?”

  The captain obliged, knowing the terrorists would gladly commit suicide.

  Cairo

  Asar Sobhi Shahin was on duty at Cairo International air traffic control. His partner Hamadi Fattah Gawad was in the navigation tower. It was no accident that they would be manning their position at this time. They had requested to be on duty this week, almost a month in advance.

  The Muslims For Justice recruited both men when they were still in high school. They were excellent students, but higher education was beyond the means of either family. Always diligent in their recruiting efforts, the Muslims For Justice had been made aware of the young men’s plight and offered to pay for their education, as long as they would upon graduation work where they dictated. After graduating from university, they both applied and were accepted as trainees for air traffic controllers by the Egyptian Aviation Ministry. Retired Egyptian Air Force generals, some who were members of the Muslims For Justice, dominated the Egyptian Aviation Ministry making Asar and Hamadi’s hiring assured.

  Asar, upon hearing the radio transmission with the key words, “Allah’s soldiers,” replied to Captain Vekret, “Place code seven, zero, zero, zero in your transponder.”

  The seven thousand VFR code was used in European airspace when no other code had been assigned and would uniquely identify the Air Israel flight.

  Asar located the aircraft on the glideslope and was coordinating the Air Israel aircraft with Kenya Airlines flight 104, a B777 scheduled to fly to Nairobi. Flight 104 was posed on runway one which was thirteen thousand feet long and could easily handle the B747-400.

  Asar transmitted, “Air Israel, Lima Yankee Zero, Zero, Eight: bring your aircraft to coordinates Zero Five Romeo Two, Three Lima runway one.”

  Asar waited until the plane was two miles from touchdown turning over the final approach to his partner, Hamadi Fattah Gawad.

  Hamadi was in the tower. Seeing the airspace and runway clearly, he announced, “Kenya Airlines flight, One, Zero Four you’re approved for take off on runway one.”

  Hamadi then gave orders to the Air Israel Flight. “Approach runway one on visual.” The captain was perplexed by the statement and radioed, “Tower please repeat.” There was only silence.

  Iyad knew exactly what to do and told the captain, “Take the plane down as if you’re going to do a touch and go, but you’re not to land. You’ll be coming up fast on an aircraft taking off from runway one, which you’ll follow as close as possible. Shut off the transponder now!”

  The captain calculated at one hundred forty-five miles per hour, the plane would cover the two miles to the runway in just under a minute. “If we get too close to another aircraft, we could be in the wake turbulence and wingtip vortices which can cause rudder failure on the plane.”

  Iyad was unmoved. “This is the risk we take and I’m sure you’re up to the task. Track him as close as possible.”

  When the B747 neared the end of the runway, the Kenya Airlines flight was speeding down the runway. In perfect harmony on radar screens it looked like the B747 had just landed and the B777 had taken off.

  The captain throttled the B747 to maximum and headed directly for the Kenya Airlines plane, which was climbing to thirty-six thousand feet, its cruising altitude. The giant plane shook violently as it encountered the turbulence created by the B777. Captain Vekret with the help of his co-pilot strained to control the aircraft. Inside the passenger area both the hostages and terrorists were completely caught off guard by the maneuver, for many thought they were landing when they saw the plane so close to the ground. Iyad braced himself against the flight cabin door but was thrown to the deck.

  Aboard the E-10 the crew commander was trying to decipher where the B747 was located. He spoke over the plane’s internal phone network to the E-10 pilot. “I saw the Air Israel plane drop below 500 feet. With all the aircraft taking off and landing it’s impossible to locate.”

  “I’m breaking radio silence and contacting the airport control tower.” The E10 pilot replied. “Cairo tower, this is United States Air Force Reconnaissance. We are tracking Air Israel flight Lima Yankee Zero, Zero, Eight with a hostage situation. We believe the aircraft landed at Cairo International Airport, please verify.”

  Hamadi Fattah Gawad radioed back. “Air Israel flight Lima Yankee Zero, Zero, Eight has landed on runway one and is at the cargo terminal.” Hamadi was gloating. That’ll keep them busy for a while.

  The E-10, with all its sophisticated multi-platform radar technology, had been outwitted and didn’t observe the Air Israel plane shadowing the B777 heading south for Nairobi. The E-10 Crew Commander radioed, “EUCOM, this is Tracer One. Cairo airport has verified that the aircraft was on the ground. I repeat, on the ground in Cairo and at the cargo terminal.”

  When the report was received, General Henderson immediately contacted the Egyptian Ministry of Interior who dispatched Egyptian Central Security Forces to the cargo terminal area.

  8:14 A.M.: Captain Vekret turned to Iyad. “We have just less than four hours of fuel left. You better have someplace to land soon.”

  “Tell me when we’re at the Aswan Dam, coordinates 24°05’17” N, 32°54’51E.”

  “Aswan airport is too small for a B747.”

  The captain and his copilot, Josh Kleinstein, were debating the plane’s ability to land at the airport. Iyad, smiling, returned to the pass
enger compartment. Though barraged with questions from his men, he never answered them.

  The Air Israel Flight

  Forty-five minute’s flying time from Cairo, Captain Vekret asked Iyad to come to the cockpit. “We’re just about over Aswan. Shall I contact the control tower for permission to land?”

  Iyad paid no attention to the captain. “Set the coordinates for destination 15°11’21.98 N, 39°01’29.35 E.”

  Captain Vekret, following instructions, set the GPS navigation system to the given coordinates. The GPS indicated they were headed for Asmara, Eritrea. The system registered the flying distance at 722 miles and they had just over two hours of fuel left, roughly a 1,200-mile range. The captain looked over at his copilot. “I hope he plans to land somewhere soon or we’ll be flying on fumes.”

  Eritrea

  The Muslims For Justice chose Eritrea for logistical and political reasons. Eritrea is located in the Horn of Africa in east Africa. The coastline is on the western side of the Red Sea, across from Saudi Arabia and Yemen. It originally had been a part of Ethiopia, but after a thirty-year war it gained its independence in 1991. Two religious groups, Sunni Islamics and Oriental Orthodox Christians, dominate the country and are split almost equally. Eritrea has no private radio or television stations and the print media has been banned for several years. Journalists are few and far between, with most arrested or having simply left the country. The Eritrean Islamic Jihad Movement has been waging terrorist activities against the Eritrean government for over ten years and had killed several members of the Eritrean military.

  Muslims For Justice personnel were active in the country, only as a support organization bringing aid to the poor and providing healthcare and doctors. They also were friendly with key government and military officials, many who had been given healthy bank accounts in foreign countries. This made the existence of the Muslims For Justice tolerable in a country labeled by the U. S. State Department as a ‘Country of Particular Concern’ for the persecution of religious and personal freedoms. Eritrean President Isaias Afewerki was quick to point out that his country could now enjoy the same privileges and support that China, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia received from the United States. Those three countries had the same U.S. State Department designation.