The Dreadful Renegade: A Thrilling Espionage Novel (Techno thriller, Mystery & Suspense)

by Charles Z David

  June 15th, Pasadena, California

  Just before noon Alia and Nagib checked into a small motel in Pasadena and went to sleep for a few hours. They paid cash and told the fat woman at the reception desk that they would stay for a night or two. She acted as if she couldn't care less, which indeed was the case, and mumbled that check-out was at 11 a.m. and that the ice machine and snack dispenser were in the lobby. Nagib removed the battery from his cellphone and told Alia to remove the battery from hers and said that they would go out later, trade in their car and get an older model that would leave them with some extra cash and also purchase new SIM cards for their cellphones.

  Nagib took out the laptop and powered it on, removed his pen from his shirt pocket and took the top off exposing the memory stick. He inserted it into the USB slot of the laptop and opened the directory with the classified files. Until that moment he only had a vague idea about the blueprints and designs he had downloaded. The laptop was an old model and rather slow so the two of them waited impatiently for the directory to open. When the list of files was displayed they could barely keep themselves from shouting cries of joy. One file was called "The super high yield (SHY) device", another was named "Dial a yield lightweight (DAYLIGHT) multi-purpose device" and there were several other files with strange names and acronyms. Nagib was fascinated by something that was called a "suitcase omnipotent bomb (SOB)" that was described as a remotely controlled, powerful, portable, tactical device that could be clandestinely placed behind enemy lines or carried into enemy territory practically unnoticed. He told Alia that this particular design would be greatly suitable for their purposes if they could get their hands on such a device, or convince a friendly partner to manufacture it. Nagib connected with Wikipedia and under the heading of Suitcase_nuke found some interesting data. The website mentioned the reports attributed to General Alexander Lebed who was a high-ranking officer from the former Soviet Union about missing suitcase bombs. These reports were treated on the whole by analysts merely as gossip but no one was sure that there was no substance in them. Nagib added that there were claims by the Center for Defense Information (sometimes referred to as the Center for Disinformation) that replicas were hand-carried on domestic flights for exercise purposes. Alia asked what explosive strength such a device would have and Nagib replied that yields of several kilotons could be achieved. Nagib continued his search in Wikipedia and saw that the US had developed a lightweight device named Special Atomic Tactical Munition (ironically the acronym SADM had nothing to do with Nagib's hero, Saddam Hussein). The bare warhead allegedly weighed 23 kg and was shaped as a cylinder that was only 28 cm by 41 cm and could be placed in a suitcase. However, the advanced classified design that he had downloaded was about the same size and weight but its yield was supposedly much larger than the old SADM. Nagib said that the information they had was invaluable to countries with budding nuclear ambitions and even to countries with small arsenals of nuclear weapons. Alia said that she thought that non-government organizations like Al Qaeda or the Islamic State, not to mention Chechens, Kurds and others, would find the small device much more suitable for their purposes. Nagib thought about this for a minute and said that it was probably true but fissile materials, plutonium or high enriched uranium, were needed and as far as he could tell those non-state entities did not possess this essential component.

  Alia asked Nagib how he intended to guard the information he had downloaded. Nagib said that so far the only copy was on the memory stick that was concealed in his pen and that he had not copied it even to his own laptop. He added that presently the folder with all the classified files could be opened by anyone who possessed the memory stick and that the first thing they needed to do was limit access to the folder and protect it with a password. Alia said that this could easily be done by anyone with minimal computer skills, but could be undone just as easily even by a teenage hacker. Nagib who was an accomplished analytical chemist but not an expert in computer security was at a loss. There was nobody he could approach with the classified folder and ask for assistance in securing the information, and then Alia hit upon an idea. She told Nagib to access the internet and download pornographic material. Nagib was surprised at the suggestion made by his shy and reserved wife and asked her what she had in mind. She answered that he could then find a young hacker and tell him that he wanted to hide these files from his wife and pay him for his services, provided that he taught him how to encrypt files. Once he had the know-how and the program he could apply it to hide the classified folder. Nagib liked the idea and downloaded some erotic clips from the internet, and while on-line looked for the addresses of a nearby internet café where he could seek the help he needed.

  The couple was so elated by the wealth of information they now owned that they decided to celebrate before going out. After a long hot shower that they shared in order to save water, of course, they made love inspired by the erotic video clips that they had just watched and took a short nap. When they awoke it was getting close to 4 pm. Alia waited in the motel while Nagib drove to the internet café they had located. He took his laptop computer to the pimpled youngster who was at the desk and described his problem. The guy looked him up and down, giggled and said that it would cost him $50 to do what he requested, and Nagib managed to drive the price down to $30 in cash, with no questions asked. The guy took the laptop, hooked it to the internet and downloaded a short program. He then loaded the pornographic material into the program, showing Nagib each step of the way what to do, and within five minutes the porn files disappeared from the directory. Nagib asked the guy how to retrieve the files and the youngster smiled and said that this would cost him another $30. After some haggling the guy agreed to show him how to do the retrieval for $20. For an additional cost Nagib purchased another two memory sticks from the youngster and returned to the motel. When he told Alia about the whole affair she laughed and said that bargaining was no longer limited to the Middle East or the Far East, but that it was well worth the $50 it cost. They encrypted the classified folder and files on the memory stick that was hidden in Nagib's pen.

  After that they left the motel looking for a used-car lot. They entered the first used-car dealership they found. The salesman, dressed like a cowboy, greeted them with a false smile that displayed white even teeth, obviously the work of an orthodontist and as false as his smile. Nagib told him they were short of cash and needed to trade their new, expensive Toyota for a reliable, cheap car. The dealer exuded a few more smiles and made them an offer that would have been considered insulting under other circumstances but they were in no position to refuse. Nagib managed to increase the price by a few hundred dollars but the dealer knew they were in trouble and refused to budge any further. He said he'd sweeten the deal by selling them a cheap Nissan. Nagib asked if there was a guarantee on the car, and the dealer assured him that he offered a "5-50 guarantee" on all the cars he sold for no extra cost. Nagib asked if he meant 5 years and 50 thousand miles and with a small smile the dealer replied that he meant 5 minutes and 50 yards after they drove off the lot. Nagib did not see anything funny in that, but signed the ownership transfer papers and left in cloud of smoke from the Nissan's exhaust.

  June 18th, Los Alamos National Laboratory

  The head of security at the Lab, Colonel Groovey, looked as if he was about to have a massive coronary. His face was crimson red, his blood pressure skyrocketed and the uncontrollable tremor of his hands indicated that he may not live through the day. The security guard, Albert Danillo, stood in front of him and could barely refrain from wetting himself. Albert had been too many ball games where the unruly fans uttered a never-ending stream of curses at the referee, his mother and his whole line of ancestors whenever he ruled against their home team, but until today he had never heard anything like it off the sports field. The Colonel's tirade went on and on and the expletives were literally and figuratively a masterpiece of the English language. Had someone bothered to record what was said in the Colonel's office, it defi
nitely couldn't be described as a conversation, and used it as an example in a class on English literature, it would have certainly won the first prize in any contest. The intimidated guard tried to explain that he was convinced that no harm was done and that it was only a system error that triggered the alarm that someone had inserted a memory stick into Dr. Level's computer. He said that he intended to investigate the matter the next day when Dr. Level returned to work as no one told him that the good doctor was on his way to an extended vacation abroad. The Colonel called him a stupid, asinine, dumb idiot and added another few invectives unfit to print, and told him that he would stand trial for treason, no less, because his negligence had caused more harm to the national security than anyone since Klaus Fuchs passed the secrets of the atomic bomb to the Soviets during the Manhattan Project. Groovey picked up the phone and summoned two security guards to escort their former colleague to the local police station where he would be charged with a dozen different variations of breaking every law in the book.

  After Albert was taken away, the Colonel started to prepare his own defense in view of his pending interrogation by the DHS, FBI, CIA, NNSA security division, local police and any other law enforcement agency that had jurisdiction at the Lab, or cause for investigation of the removal of highly classified information pertaining to national security from the Lab. The Colonel had already received a detailed report on the classified material that was downloaded from the files on Dr. Level's computer. He also knew that Dr. Level was questioned in Paris by the head of the local CIA station and described what had happened that afternoon in his office. Dr. Level was already forcibly placed on a plane that was on its way from Paris to Washington. What really concerned the Colonel was that the real culprit had been identified as Dr. Nagib Jaber – the very same person whom he had personally interrogated and judged to be "an honest, hard working, loyal American". There was no doubt that Nagib was responsible for the fiasco. This was based on Dr. Level's testimony and on the fact that Nagib and Alia had disappeared from their home and work without giving any explanation. Adding insult to injury, the Colonel recalled that on the very day the event occurred he had welcomed Nagib when he visited Alia at the security office. He was stunned when he realized that at the very same time Nagib had the offending memory stick in his pocket. He murmured quietly "I should have shot the bastard on the spot" and seriously considered using his gun to shoot himself and avoid the embarrassment that was inevitable.

  The extent of the damage was still being assessed by the NNSA but it was already obvious that the most advanced and detailed designs of nuclear weapons had been copied. Two task forces had been nominated by the President himself. One team was in charge of locating and arresting Dr. Nagib Jaber and his wife Alia and recovering the sensitive files before they were distributed. This task force included representatives of the FBI, DHS and the NNSA as well as some other government agencies. They had a directive signed by the President that allowed them to enlist support from any local police force they saw fit, but at the present time they had no idea of the whereabouts of the culprits so they did not know whose help they would need. The second task force included representatives from the NNSA, NSA, DHS, CIA and other agencies that could help in finding the motives and objectives of Nagib. While the first task force had to focus on physical evidence to find the culprits the second task force had to rely mainly on intelligence and psychology.

  June 18th, Los Alamos, the First Task Force

  The first task force convened in Los Alamos. They used one of the rooms in the Bradbury Science Museum as they expected they would have to question people who didn't have the necessary security clearance and access to the Lab. The representatives had arrived from Washington that morning or the previous night and after having a light lunch got down to business. Despite the objection of the DHS, the FBI was put in charge of the task force. Its representative, Penny Grant, was a no-nonsense former field agent who had risen through the ranks by a combination of intelligence, intuition and ruthlessness. Her first order of the day was to post an all-points-bulletin with the names, photos and description of Nagib and Alia. This was immediately distributed to FBI and police forces nationwide. In addition all border crossings were alerted, especially those that were close to Los Alamos, like the point between El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. The task force members were aware of the fact that it would take only five or six hours to reach that crossing from Los Alamos, and that the culprits could be long gone, but wanted to cover that point because it was the closest crossing.

  Colonel Groovey was summoned to the conference room and was asked to provide as much background information as possible of Nagib and Alia. The Colonel knew that the only way he could redeem himself, at least partly, was by full cooperation with the task force. He was very frank about the fact that Alia was employed in his own office and that he had been grossly mistaken to trust her. He reiterated what had occurred during the two interrogations of Nagib – first the polygraph examination that he had passed with flying colors and next the session with Eugene Powers where Nagib had impressed him as a loyal patriot. The Colonel admitted that he had been negligent and did not notice any signs that there was a renegade in their midst. He said that he had believed that Nagib and Alia would be grateful to the US for giving them a real opportunity to lead a better life than their parents had in the old country, and was therefore surprised that they had turned into traitors. The main impression he left on the members of the task force was that he was totally unfit for his position as head of security in a sensitive facility like the Lab. Penny expressed the general feeling by designating the Colonel as "a stupid, narrow minded bureaucrat" who was suitable, at best, for "marching up and down the square" as in the memorable Monty Python film.

  The next person to be questioned by the task force was Renaldo, the technician who had worked with Nagib in the Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque and later followed him to the Lab. Renaldo said that he was shocked by the allegations of Nagib's misconduct – rumors had spread throughout the Lab that Nagib was wanted by the security authorities. He alleged that although he had been Nagib's best friend for many years they had drifted apart after Nagib's marriage. He added that he had felt that Nagib was reverting to his Arab heritage and had become less appreciative of his adopted country. Renaldo said that he had no real evidence for that statement and that it was more of a gut feeling. He mentioned that he was under the impression that Nagib was very curious, perhaps even overly nosy, about what was going on in areas where weapons were handled. He went so far to say that this was also the case when they worked in Albuquerque but refrained from confessing that they had connived to provide false analytical data to their GCL employer.

  The task force members had all read the Nagib's Resume but wanted to gain a less formal insight. Minnie Level was considered to be the best friend of the couple and was summoned. Her husband was still detained in Washington for further questioning but she was allowed to return to their home in Los Alamos. Minnie described how Nagib and Max had grown close at work and that their friendship gradually was extended to include their spouses. She said that the Level couple regarded the Jaber couple as their protégés and tried to help them assimilate in the small community of Los Alamos. She said that they sometimes went out to dinner together, but that due to the age difference and mentality gap they were not really that close. She added that to the best of her knowledge Alia had no close female friends and Nagib also kept pretty much to himself. Finally she said that although she did not know exactly why they had to return from Paris prematurely and why Max was detained and questioned she did figure out that it was due to something bad that Nagib had done to her husband and that she felt as if he had betrayed their friendship. Penny tried to console her by saying that Nagib had betrayed much more than friendship but promised that he would be brought to justice and made to pay for everything. This interview was not very helpful.