‘It is necessary to place the contents of the crate that I brought in places of importance,’ said Rehmani. ‘Can this be arranged?’
‘Did we not march into Kabul together?’ replied Dudayev. ‘Did we not travel together behind enemy lines? Did we not commit jihad?’
‘Yes, we did, and you saved my life on more than one occasion.’
‘And you, mine as well. We can move your crates wherever you require. Just tell us the plan.’
‘If the spray from the cans is released into a crowded area, then those that breathe it will die.’
‘How many will that be?’ asked Dudayev. ‘And who will they be?’
‘It depends on where you release it.’
‘It is the military, the government who are our enemy, not the people of Russia.’
‘I thought that all Russians were your enemy?’ Rehmani questioned Dudayev’s statement.
‘They are, but the Russian people do not care whether we live or die.’
‘It is their leaders that you want to die?’
‘That is correct. It is those that sit in the Kremlin that we must target.’
‘And once you have used the spray and killed them all, will they not want revenge?’
‘Those that are dead will not. Those that come after them will, and we will have no defence. Is that what you are inferring?’
‘It is,’ replied Rehmani. ‘In America, England and with the Jewish occupiers in Palestine, the deaths have been high, their economies devastated, but the disease will wither and once that has occurred, their countries will resurrect. It is then that they will seek revenge. The people who released the virus will be hunted, tortured and killed.’
‘You are one of these people?’
‘I did not release the virus, but I provided some of the people who did, and I assisted with the trial of the virus in my homeland. They will want me as well. I am a no more than a walking corpse, as are the others.’
‘It is my protection you want, not my cause. Let us be honest, my friend.’
‘I can give you the solution to your cause, and you can give me protection. It seems a fair exchange.’
‘It is, and we accept, but let us not deceive our friendship with anything less than the truth.’
‘Our friendship is cherished. I will only speak the truth,’ Rehmani said.
‘That is good. What you have done, striking a blow at the Great Satan and the Jews is only good. But we have our own Satan, and the Jews are not our focus here.’
‘Then we attack your Great Satan together.’
‘And I will provide you with a safe place to live and a Chechen woman to warm your bed.’
‘We must make a show of strength. We must kill the Russian President.’
‘If we kill their President, what security will that give us?’ asked Dudayev. ‘We will have the full force of their military here. We are an irritation to them at the present moment. Whereas we have been attacked many times over, we still remain. Kill their President and they will wipe out all of the people here, freedom fighter or otherwise.’
‘You do not understand the subtlety of my plan. Let me explain. Why do the Jews still exist in Palestine? Why does America regain its power and threaten my homeland, and why have those who committed the attacks against them failed?’
‘It is because they are no longer under any threat. They have suffered the losses, but they will recover, and any demands made on them will have no effect.’
‘That is why our solution is smarter. In these two crates, I have forty-eight cans of spray. It only requires one to kill the President, no more than three to destroy his entire senior ministry, even their heads of military.’
‘And we keep the remainder of the spray as a bargaining tool,’ said Dudayev.
‘Precisely. Is it not a beautiful plan?’
‘Yes, but how do we achieve this?’
‘Akhmad Dudayev, you ask me this. Was it not you that organised the attack on the theatre in Moscow? Was it not you who organised the attack on the school in Beslan?’
‘Yes it was, and the reprisals were at great cost to us.’
‘There will be no reprisals. They will be too afraid to attack. They will accede to your demands.’
‘The Russian military will not agree. They are a violent, vengeful people.’
‘Even when you threaten the death of millions of their people?’
‘Assuming we could, how long could we keep them hostage?’ Dudayev asked.
‘For as many years as it is necessary to mediate a peace agreement. Time forgives all and, in time, the deaths of their elite will not be remembered. An enduring peace will be remembered instead. The people of that country will vote for a more peaceful ruling class, one that is able to remove the threat from Chechnya.’ Rehmani thought his statement reasonable, although not likely to occur. The invaders of his country never forgot or forgave, why would Chechnya be any different?
‘What do you need from us to achieve this?’
‘It only requires a location where we can achieve the maximum fatalities against their leadership,’ Rehmani answered.
***
Mihai Gheorghiu regarded the task as simple. In the time that he had been an occasional employee of Mossad, they had asked very little of him. He knew they used him because he was Jewish, but he was ambivalent about the religion. Normally, he would be negotiating the traffic in Constanta, his hometown in Romania, but being paid to sit in his car on a hilltop overlooking the port below suited him fine. In his mid-thirties, he had achieved little, drank plenty and seduced more than his fair share of women. He was glad of the retainer from the Israeli government to supplement his meagre takings as a taxi driver.
He clearly saw the Sheik walk down the gangplank of the first of the two ships he was focussing on. The facial features and the slight limp in his right leg, unmistakable. He quickly phoned Uri.
‘Steve, he’s in Constanta.’ Uri was promptly on the phone after he had received confirmation.
There had been some changes with the team while the Sheik had been transiting the Black Sea. Yanny and Phil had relocated to Chechnya and we closing in on Rehmani. Harry, unable to maintain a twenty-four vigil out at the airport and Steve not willing to take Phil’s place had taken up an offer from Uri.
He knew that if Yanny had been there, she would have complained furiously. He accepted.
With Habash no longer a problem after an Israeli government plane had picked him up, Steve and Harry relocated to Bucharest, the capital of Romania, a more logical location for them to await Al- Rashid. Steve would have preferred Uri’s people to have dealt with his interception and the recovery of the crates. Uri was unable to oblige.
‘We’ve not seen the crates, and besides, our two governments are in the middle of finalising some trade deals. It would be better if we stay out of it. Given the current situation, we would be obliged to officially ask the authorities for the necessary permissions, and that would take time and unnecessary questions.’
‘That’s fine,’ replied Steve. ‘If he makes a run for it before we get there, you’ll pick him up regardless?’
‘Yes, of course. He’s going nowhere.’
‘You still have Habash?’ Steve asked. He was still a little concerned with Uri’s assurance that he would not be harmed in any way.
‘We’ll keep him safe and sound for you until you return.’
‘We couldn’t keep him locked up in the aircraft indefinitely. No special treatment until we’re certain we’ve reclaimed all the spray cans.’
‘Nothing will happen. He’ll get three square meals a day, a television in his cell and the best of care. He won’t be too popular, but I’ll keep everyone away from him.’
‘Good. We’ll bring him a cellmate within the next twenty-four hours.’
‘I cannot guarantee that he’ll not receive special treatment.’
‘That’s your concern. Once we have them both, they’re yours to do what you want. We still have
Rehmani to concern ourselves with, but I’m sure Yanny and Phil will deal with him.’
‘We’ll give Yanny and Phil all the support we can,’ Uri said. ‘We’ve given them the last known location of Rehmani. We believe he’s with the leader of the Chechen Martyrs, an especially vicious group of individuals who will stop at nothing to achieve their aims.’
‘Thanks, Uri. We’re close to Constanta. What’s the boat’s name and location?’
‘It’s a regular ferry service, operated by the Ukrainian Ferry Company. The vessel’s name is the Geroi Plevny. The ferry terminal is to the south of the city. Just plug Strada Viorelelor into your GPS. We know he’s still there, apparently trying to bribe the crates through customs without them being opened. Our man is assisting behind the scenes to facilitate.’
‘That’s great. We don’t want them being opened under any circumstances.’
‘Just one thing,’ said Uri. ‘There’s a train service out of there, heading towards Europe. He may try to catch it. The station is on Strada Garii. You better plug that into your GPS as well. Just in case he makes a run for it.’
As Steve and Harry closed in on the ferry, they could see Al-Rashid, dressed casually in dark slacks and a T-shirt. Just at that moment, he looked in their direction and recognised Harry from their meeting some months earlier in Abu Dhabi. No longer the confident and moderate Arab, he now had the appearance of a frightened and defeated man, but he was arrogant, not ready to give in.
‘Five hundred American dollars if you get me out of here now,’ he shouted and gesticulated at the driver of a small van. It was a lot of money in a country where a hundred would have been considered a good monthly wage. Soon, he was out of the port and heading towards the railway station.
‘We need to chase him.’ Harry said. He was ready to break the traffic rules in his pursuit.
‘Why?’ said Steve. ‘Where can he go? We’ll ask Uri to set up the permissions for the Romanian police to arrest him. Our only concern is those crates. We don’t want them falling off the back of the van.’
‘You’re right. Let’s maintain him in our vision, at least.’ Harry eased his foot off the accelerator pedal of the rented car they were driving.
‘We can nab him at the railway station. There’s no other exit route, and besides, there’s no way that old van could outrun this car.’
The Sheik, feeling cornered, continued to affect a getaway, but he had two crates, a belligerent van driver who wanted more money, and no means to move the crates onto the train.
Steve and Harry stood back. The heated argument they could see not twenty metres from them could have attracted the police. They did not want to be marched down the station while the crates sat unprotected on the ground. Anybody could have stolen them, not knowing what they contained.
The Sheik, armed with a back pocket full of fresh American notes gave another five-hundred to the van driver, another five-hundred to a station porter with a trolley.The crates quickly moved from the entrance of the railway station to a loading area on the platform. The train was not due for another thirty minutes.
With the situation calmer, Steve and Harry moved towards the Sheik, who froze at the sight of them.
‘We meet again,’ Steve said calmly.
‘I will give you money. As much as you want.’ Al-Rashid sweated profusely.
‘No amount of money will pay for what you have done. Anyway, Harry doesn’t need it, and I don’t want it. Your money will serve you no purpose here. And how are you going to make a run for it?’
‘I will release the virus here.’
‘How will you do that? It’s not open. Besides, there is only the three of us here on the platform.’ Harry called his bluff.
‘Then you will both die,’ Al-Rashid responded.
‘Harry, just grab him and throw him in the back seat of the car and make sure he’s restrained.’
‘With pleasure.’
With each walking either side of the Sheik, while he pushed a trolley with the crates, they frog-marched him back to the car.
‘What do we do with the crates?’ asked Harry.
‘The trunk of the vehicle is big enough,’ replied Steve. ‘Put them in there.’
‘I don’t fancy driving to Bucharest with that in the back.’
‘We’re not. Let’s head back to the port and find ourselves a nice friendly fishing boat for a trip out to sea. We’ll find some heavy weights on the way.’
‘That sounds fine. Al-Rashid is a heavy – can’t we use him?’ Harry joked while glancing at the Arab.
‘No. I will tell you everything,’ said the Sheik, his wrists firmly held together with some cable ties. ‘It was Samir Habash’s idea, not mine.’
‘He said it was yours,’ replied Steve. ‘Who’s telling the truth?’
‘You have him?’
‘He’s tucked up cosy in Israel,’ Harry said. ‘You’re going to be good company for him. You can both discuss who is to blame then.’
‘You are going to give me to Mossad?’ The Sheik stared at them, a look of desperation on his face. ‘Then I choose to die at sea with the crate. They will torture me in revenge, and then they will kill me. An honourable death is what I choose.’
‘You deserve neither an honourable death nor our pity,’ said Steve. ‘We will not kill you here. I have made a promise with our contact at Mossad.’
‘Then may Allah curse you for eternity!’ Al-Rashid almost spat the words at them.
‘Ah, your true colours are showing,’ Steve replied bitterly. ‘He may well curse me, but it seems apparent that you will be meeting with him before me.’
The fishing boat, the Marea Moschee, was old and rundown, but for a thousand dollars courtesy of Al-Rashid’s back pocket, it made the trip out five kilometres from the shoreline within thirty minutes. The captain confirmed the depth at five hundred metres and, with the weights he supplied securely attached, heavy enough to ensure the crates would never surface, they were thrown over the side. Al-Rashid, meanwhile, had been firmly locked in the trunk of the car, severely bound and gagged.
It was four in the afternoon when Steve and Harry and their unwilling passenger lifted off for Tel Aviv and the welcoming arms of Uri Weizman.
***
The flight took just over two hours. It was uneventful apart from the Sheik’s sobbing being interspersed with praying for forgiveness. He attempted to reason with Steve and Harry, but they were both too tired and disinterested to take any notice. The Sheik was secured by metal handcuffs to a sturdy metal bar fitted to the bulkhead at the rear of the plane, the only identifying mark that it was CIA.
Uri was at the airport on arrival. Steve was jubilant when he handed over Al-Rashid. ‘We’ve brought you a companion for Habash.’
Uri’s mood was in distinct contrast to Steve’s. ‘I must inform you with regret, Samir Habash has escaped.’
Steve looked at Uri in disbelief. ‘How did he do that?’ I thought he was firmly imprisoned.’
‘I could not keep him at Mossad headquarters. There would have been an official order placed on me to release him into the custody of our interrogation team. I kept him at a secure location on the outskirts of the city that we maintain for special visitors. Sometimes, it is necessary to keep the details of our actions concealed, even within Mossad.’
‘But how could he get away from there?’ Steve asked.
Uri attempted to explain what had happened. ‘He is a devious man. He tricked the guards. He managed to convince them that he was Jewish, placed undercover, and that his imprisonment was to prove to the Palestinians watching outside that he was one of them.’
‘I told you all along that it was Habash.’ Al-Rashid interrupted in an attempt at vindication. ‘It is your Sam Haberman who is the planner, the mastermind, the hater of the Jews, not me.’
‘I am afraid our Arab friend here may well be right,’ Uri admitted. ‘He may have tricked us all along.’
‘Then we have a serious problem. If he has esca
ped, that means one of two things. He is either going to disappear, or he has more of the virus,’ Steve said.
‘We better assume the worst of those two options,’ Harry said.
‘I must agree with Harry. He has made us all look like fools. Our focus must now be on finding and stopping him,’ Uri said.
‘I hope that Yanny has not been equally deceived,’ Steve said. ‘She’s not had much success with men over the years.’
‘In that matter, Samir Habash was genuine,’ Al-Rashid interjected. ‘He did care for the woman. I advised him against too close an involvement. Had he focussed more on the original plan, then the one settlement may have been enough to force the Israelis to agree to our demands. It needed his intellect to handle the situation, but he was more interested in sleeping with her. She is the only one who could possibly get close enough to him now.’
‘You were willing to take those two crates and use them. Isn’t that true? Why should we believe you?’ Steve did not trust the Sheik.
‘I am telling you the truth. I knew my fate if I returned here. I only needed a bargaining position. I do not want to kill any more people. I want to live out my remaining years in peace.’
‘I trust Al-Rashid no more than I do Habash,’ Harry said. ‘But in the matter of Yanny, he may be correct.’
It was clear the situation had yet again taken a dramatic turn. The resolution to the virus had seemed to be under control five minutes previously, but now it was as volatile as ever.
‘We need Yanny with us. We need to get her back,’ Steve said.
‘That will leave Russia exposed,’ Uri commented.
‘That’s unfortunate. We’ll give the Russians all the information we have, whatever assistance we can, but we need to go after Habash. Do we have any idea where he is, or where he’s going?’ Steve asked.
‘We’re monitoring all exit points from the country.’
‘But where to?’ asked Harry. ‘We don’t have a clue.’
‘There’s only one place.’ Al-Rashid said. ‘He regretted killing so many of his fellow Palestinians. It will not be here. He can only aim for the one country that has made Israel and the Jewish occupation possible. Without America, there is no Israel.’
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