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

by Charles Z David

  ***

  The NSA network monitoring system picked up the fact that the four passengers had gone through the passport control checkpoint at Charles De Gaulle airport. However by the time the information was relayed to the CIA station chiefs in Brussels and Paris the PIA flight with the foursome on board had already departed from Milan on the nonstop leg to Islamabad. When Harden tried to discover why the warning had been delayed so much, the NSA investigated the case and found that the four first class tickets on the PIA were booked earlier that morning under assumed names and therefore were not flagged before. The PIA reservation system had been instructed that the four tickets would be picked up by someone from Pakistani intelligence and ordered not to ask any questions. Harden informed David of this development and told him that Eugene's flight from Washington was scheduled to land in Brussels shortly and invited David to come meet with the two of them at the US embassy.

  David called off the Mossad team that had been used in Brussels and told Kobi that they should go back to their regular duties. He also called Shimony at the Tel-Aviv headquarters and updated him. Shimony said that if Nagib and Alia were not stopped before reaching Pakistan there was little that Mossad could do until they emerged again in Europe or the US, and instructed David to return to Israel after meeting with Eugene.

  David was met at the gate of the US embassy and was escorted by one of Harden's agents to a small conference room. Eugene was drinking coffee and rubbing his red eyes after the long overnight flight from the US but rose to greet David with a firm handshake. Harden reviewed the situation and said that he had contacted George (Blakey) Blakemore, the CIA station chief in Islamabad, and asked him to try and follow Nagib and Alia. David wondered if the US could not ask the Pakistani authorities to arrest the couple and extradite them to the US but Eugene said that would not be possible given the short time they had and in any case they had to assume that the Pakistanis would not be cooperative in view of the potential benefit they hoped to gain. David said that Israel had no real assets in Pakistan, which was not completely true because Mossad had enlisted a highly place scientist in Pakistan's nuclear industry. This gentleman was caught on camera in a delicate situation with the bellboy at a hotel in a major European city in which he attended a conference. He didn't know that bellboy had been recruited by Mossad specifically for this purpose when it became known that this was his weakness. Mossad offered the scientist a large sum of money for his cooperation to sweeten the deal and so far the arrangement worked well for both sides. On the other hand the US had a lot of influence in Pakistan and officially the two countries were close allies, at least theoretically. They all knew that there were some parts of Pakistan, even in the major cities like Islamabad, Peshawar and Karachi where any American was not safe if unaccompanied by bodyguards or local police.

  ***

  Kim and Mahmoud did not know where Nagib and Alia were but suspected that they had been spirited out of Brussels and possibly even out of Belgium. They saw that life at the Pakistani embassy had returned to normal and when Kim innocently asked for a meeting with the scientific attaché and was told that he had gone on vacation. This confirmed their suspicions that the couple had fled the coop. Mahmoud said that there was a good chance that they had been moved to Pakistan where Iran had the support of the small Shiite minority. He hoped he could enlist their help to search for the American couple. Kim said that North Korea also had good ties with Pakistan and that he could enquire through official channels if the American couple had showed up in Pakistan.

  Chapter 10

  June 28th, early morning, Islamabad

  They landed in the renovated Benazir Bhutto airport serving Islamabad that was actually in the Chaklala area of Rawalpindi, just before dawn. Thanks to the help of Rahman and the Pakistani intelligence service the Americans cleared passport control and customs without delay and without being registered. A chauffeur driven car belonging to the intelligence service waited for them at the exit from the terminal. The driver said that he had orders to take them wherever they wanted to go and they set out for the two hour drive to Gandaf. Nagib was impressed by the modernized airport and the contrast between it and the roads they travelled on, that the further away they got from Islamabad the narrower they became and in need of urgent repair.

  They turned off Swabi road towards Gandaf that turned out to be a fairly large village in a valley with a single narrow road climbing slowly through the valley and ending in the hills to the east of the village. Junaid directed the driver to the house of her relatives in the village. She asked them to wait in the car while she went in and explained that she needed to borrow one of their houseboats for a few days. Nagib said that he had to stretch his legs after the long flight and uncomfortable drive and despite Rahman's protests opened the door and got out of the car. The first thing that struck him was the smell of goats but despite the heat, the air was clear with a light breeze from the west, the visibility was good and he enjoyed stretching his legs. After a few minutes Junaid returned with a strange expression on her face. She got back in the car and said that she had been completely wrong – her relatives had a small shack near the river and not a houseboat, as she had imagined from her childhood days. She directed the driver to a minimarket near the center of the village and invited Alia to accompany her to buy some food for a few days. They entered the store and Alia gasped when she saw the merchandise – there was almost nothing there, and certainly no real selection, so she just told Junaid to buy whatever she thought would be edible. There were no plastic bags, or for that matter no paper bags either, so the shopkeeper gave them a used cloth bag in which Junaid stuffed the meager food supplies she had bought. They returned to the car and headed to the shack that was nicely situated near the shore of the artificial lake that was created by the Tarbela Dam. When they reached the shack Nagib and Alia realized that it was almost empty of furniture – there were a couple of thin mattresses on the floor, no electricity and no running water. The toilet was an old fashioned smelly outhouse and the kitchen included a rough hewn wood table, a couple of wooden stools and instead of a sink there was a copper pot and an earthenware jar with a piece of cloth to keep out flies and other bugs. Alia announced that there was no way in the world that she would stay in a place like this and Nagib supported her. Even Rahman was speechless when he saw the living conditions in the shack and told Junaid that they would have to find somewhere else.

  They first drove back to Junaid's relatives in Gandaf and returned the key to the shack. Her relatives were a bit offended that their warm hospitality was not well received but Junaid said that they were dealing with spoilt Americans who could not survive without some of their home comforts like electricity and a toilet with running water. After some discussion the relatives said that they had heard that the best hotel in the area was the Melmastun Hotel and restaurant in Swabi, but of course they had never actually stayed there or even seen it with their eyes. Rahman took no chances and checked it on the internet and saw that it opened in 2014 and in its homepage was described as "a beautiful resort along the River Indus offering delicious Pakistani food. Hotel rooms are also available for staying." Rahman checked the map and didn't quite understand how anything in Swabi could be on the shore of the Indus River but decided not to mention that. So they headed to the hotel and were glad to see that two rooms were available. Nagib and Alia were settled in one room while the other was taken by Junaid, and Rahman pretended to be sleeping in the car. Of course, they all knew exactly where he would be spending the night. Junaid found some poor peasants near the hotel and made them very happy when she gave them the food they had bought in Gandaf. The hotel's restaurant turned out to be everything it claimed - serving delicious Pakistani food typical of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region. When they ordered their mutton Karahi the waiter asked if they wanted it mild, medium or spicy hot. Nagib said that he liked very spicy food but Junaid tried to tell him that in Pakistan spicy hot was like rocket fuel. However, Nagib prided himself on b
eing a Palestinian man and someone who was used to spicy food. Rahman intervened and warned him that spicy in Pakistan was something else but Nagib who by now could not back out of it said that he insisted on having the spiciest flavored dish of mutton. Rahman told the waiter what Nagib wanted and in Urdu told him to bring a large jug of cold water and some yogurt. The food arrived and Nagib took one bite and beads of perspiration broke out on his forehead, his face was covered with a patina of sweat and he reached out to the glass of cold water and gulped it down, refilled it and repeated the action. Rahman and Junaid giggled quietly while Alia looked at his red face with deep concern until Nagib managed to say that he was fine and perspiration was the natural reaction of his body when he consumed hot, spicy food. He didn't eat any more mutton and asked for some more yogurt to cool his throbbing mouth.

  June 28th, evening, Islamabad

  The CIA station in Islamabad was one of the largest the United States maintained in Asia, or for that matter in any country. The reasons were evident to anyone who had studied recent historical events – in Pakistan there was a large following of radical Islamist movements, including Al Qaeda, and the highly permeable border between Afghanistan and Pakistan through which supplies, weapons and terrorists moved freely caused a constant headache to the forces of the US and its allies in Afghanistan. The position taken by the Pakistani government was ambivalent – they liked US economic aid but hated Americans. The raid to eliminate Bin Laden that took place on Pakistani soil without notifying the local authorities also added to the inherent tension between the two countries. The station chief, George (Blakey) Blakemore, an experienced CIA veteran who had seen real military and antiterrorist action in Iraq and Afghanistan, was in his office when he was summoned by the Director of the CIA, Admiral John J. Johnson, III, to participate in a video conference call on a secure line. The Admiral told Blakey, as the station chief was known by one and all, that Dr. Eugene Powers from the NNSA was on his way to Islamabad and that he expected full cooperation to try and contain the dire situation that was developing in Pakistan and threatened the national security of the USA. Blakey was not too thrilled with the directive he had received but said that he would do his best. The Admiral signed off without another word leaving Blakey with a puzzled look on his face.

  Eugene's flight landed late at night and he was met by Blakey himself who was curious to know what caused all this excitement. When he heard Eugene's description of the missing classified information and what was at stake he was speechless. After some contemplation he realized that this was his chance to excel and get a promotion that would send him to a comfortable job in Langley until his retirement, much to the delight of his wife. Blakey told Eugene that he had some good contacts inside the Pakistani intelligence community but then continued to say that there were two main factions within that organization – one faction thought that closer relations with the West and strengthening democracy in Pakistan was the pathway for better life in Pakistan, and the other faction judged everything in terms of national pride. Any event that appeared to infringe on the honor of Pakistan as they perceived it, be it a defeat in a cricket match or a military skirmish with India was regarded as an insult to Pakistani manhood. Eugene said that he was familiar with this attitude as he had seen it in the Middle East and even in parts of Europe where tribal wars of old, between religions, families and people who had been neighbors for centuries, still erupted at the sight of a minor provocation. Once these started there was no telling how they would end although a bloody massacre was the usual outcome.

  Blakey wanted to move on to more practical matters and asked Eugene how he intended to find the renegade couple in the midst of a population that was not friendly, if not outright hostile to the United States. Eugene said that according to his analysis of the situation, the Pakistani Atomic Energy Commission (PEAC) would have to be involved in utilizing the information Nagib had. Blakey said that there was a scientist, codenamed Jairo, after J. Robert Oppenheimer, the legendary director of the Manhattan Project, with whom the CIA had an indirect connection. Jairo was in a close relationship with one of his co-workers, Alma, a young woman with whom he apparently had a romantic affair and she would get word to her American contact. The CIA agent who was responsible for retaining contact with Alma was a glamorous female agent, Linda Katz, whom no one suspected as being anything but an empty headed blonde, while in fact she was a very intelligent and well trained operative. Blakey said that several men had tried to hit on Linda but all were rejected out of hand and the rumor was that she was more interested in women, especially local liberated Pakistani women. Eugene said that he was not interested in rumors or in anyone's sex life and sexual preferences, and that as long as Linda maintained contact with Jairo through her relationship with Alma he was happy.

  June 29th, Swabi, Pakistan

  After a sleepless night in the uncomfortable narrow bed, Nagib and Alia met with Rahman and Junaid for breakfast that consisted of coffee, if one could call the dark fluid that was served in cracked cups coffee, and of tea that had a nice minty aroma, and some sweet pastries. In a deviation from their morning routine Nagib and Alia declined the doubtful coffee and preferred to have tea that actually tasted good and refreshing. Rahman said that he had to go to Islamabad to meet with General Masood who had returned there from Europe and had to take the sample blueprints that included the detailed design of the small nukes. He added that a meeting had been arranged with the leading scientists of the Pakistani atomic energy commission, and did not mention that only sympathizers of their nationalistic cause were selected. Nagib asked if they will be told about the source of the blueprints and Rahman assured him that sharing sensitive information will be, as it always was, on "a need to know" basis. In other words, the scientists will see the Los Alamos National Laboratory logo and the fact that it was highly classified information, but will not be told how Pakistani intelligence got hold of it and who brought it, and certainly not about their presence in Pakistan. Nagib asked how much longer they would have to stay in Swabi and Rahman said that he would make arrangements to have them transferred to a better residence at a safe place, and that they would only need to spend one more night at the Melmastun Hotel. Alia said that the quality difference between dinner that was really good and the mediocre breakfast was something she could not understand. Junaid told her that in the evening the chef did the cooking himself while in the morning one of the waiters was in charge of the kitchen and they were used to having local people who did not usually care about breakfast.

  Rahman took off with the car and the chauffer while Junaid did her best to entertain Alia and Nagib with stories about the history of Pakistan and about the political upheaval since terrorist organizations made a point of attacking government institutions and especially targeted hotels, restaurants and bars frequented by foreigners. She said that in the 1971 War with India that ended in a shameful defeat for Pakistani forces, the Americans supported Pakistan with old and outdated weapon systems while India received massive military aid from the Soviet Union. The situation worsened after a shift in the Indian government towards a Western orientation that severed the strong ties with the USSR. The Pakistanis felt as if the West and the US had betrayed them and favored relationship with India that was much larger than Pakistan and therefore presented a potentially larger market for Western goods and was also a source of cheap labor. At present, India was a major source of skilled engineers and scientists that were tempted to leave their homeland and work in the USA. The US selected the best and brightest, promised them citizenship and high salaries, and boosted their economy at the expense of the poor Indian government that educated and trained them. Pakistani scientists were not welcome in the US, mainly because after 9/11 all Muslims were suspected of being terrorists and supporters of Al Qaeda, although some European countries, especially the United Kingdom, did reluctantly accept them. Alia wanted to mention AQ Khan, who managed to copy (not to say steal) the uranium enrichment technology from his employers
in Germany and build a similar plant in Pakistan. This made him a national hero but was a case in point that exemplified the risks of employing untrustworthy foreigners in sensitive installations. Then Alia considered what she and Nagib were up to – doing practically the same thing, or even worse – wisely refrained from saying what was on her mind.

  When the two women had a moment alone, while Nagib went out for a walk to stretch his legs, Alia asked Junaid if she and Rahman intended to get married. Junaid blushed and said that Rahman already had a wife and a three year old son but according to Islamic customs he could take another wife, or three more for that matter, but she, as a liberated modern woman, could not put up with the idea of being wife number two, so marriage was out of the question although they did enjoy each other's company without any formal commitment. Alia was impressed by that and said that she admired Junaid's levelheaded approach and added that living in America had spared her from going through a similar fate. When Nagib returned he noted that the two women were feeling much more comfortable with each other and wondered what brought this about.