The First Hostage: A J. B. Collins Novel

by Joel C. Rosenberg

  “Furthermore, the FBI has just arrested a suspect at the NSA’s headquarters at Fort Meade in connection to this case,” Feisal explained. “I’m told this suspect is the son of Mr. Vaughn’s mistress. Apparently he was providing the information gleaned from Vaughn back to ISIS, ironically through secure American channels.”

  “You’re absolutely certain of this?” asked the Saudi general, visibly shaken.

  “This is what we have been told,” the prince said. “Obviously the investigation is ongoing.”

  At this, the prince glanced at me. But he did not seem angry. Nor did he mention to the others that I had been considered, for a time, a suspect. Apparently I had been fully cleared. Why else would they allow me to be in this of all rooms, with the king of Jordan, no less?

  “I’ve known Jack Vaughn for a quarter of a century,” the Saudi general continued. “I cannot imagine him as a mole.”

  “None of us can,” the prince replied. “I’m sure we’ll learn more details—including motives—in due course. For now, I’m afraid that’s all I have.”

  “So three arrests thus far?” the UAE general asked.

  “Yes—Mr. Vaughn, the mistress, and the son. That’s all we’ve heard about for now.”

  “But is that it? Is the situation contained, or are the Americans saying more arrests are coming?” the UAE general asked.

  “I really couldn’t say,” the prince said.

  Clearly this didn’t satisfy the group.

  “Wait a minute, wait a minute—you’re saying ISIS has penetrated the highest levels of the CIA and the NSA?” asked General El-Badawy from Egypt.

  “That would appear to be the case.”

  “All to trigger an attack on four world leaders, including Your Majesty?” He nodded at the king.

  “I’m afraid so.”

  “I highly doubt it’s limited to three people,” El-Badawy noted.

  “I hesitate to speculate,” the prince said.

  “Fair enough, but this is an unprecedented penetration of American intelligence. Can we safely assume every member of the conspiracy has been identified and arrested? That seems highly unlikely, does it not?”

  No one said a word. I glanced at General Ramirez. He hadn’t yet said anything, but I guessed the conversation was about to shift to him.

  “Look, this story is going to break to the public in the United States in a few hours,” the prince said. “Obviously, as I said, there’s still a great deal that we don’t know. As we get more information, I will certainly pass it on to you all. For now, however, I suggest we shift to finalizing our war plans. I don’t have to remind you that time is not on our side.”

  “Not so fast, Your Highness,” El-Badawy protested. “With all due respect, we can’t just shift topics. Clearly there has been a serious breach at the CIA and NSA. Maybe it’s been contained, but maybe not. Maybe the FBI has captured everyone involved; maybe not. Either way, as I see it, this raises two immediate and very serious challenges. First, how reliable and secure is any intelligence coming from the U.S. right now? And second, what is Abu Khalif’s endgame?”

  “What do you mean?” the Saudi general asked. “Haven’t the ISIS forces caused enough damage? What more could they possibly want?”

  “Are you kidding?” El-Badawy asked. “Abu Khalif wants Mecca. He wants Medina. He wants Cairo. He still wants Amman. And that’s just for starters.”

  A hush fell over the room. The king sat back and, for the moment, remained silent. His expression was inscrutable. I was taking notes as fast as I could. No one had laid down any ground rules, but I assumed we were operating by the same guidelines the king had previously established. Everything had to run through Colonel Sharif. But if he cleared it, I could write it. I knew I couldn’t write anything about the FBI sting operation against Vaughn. But what I was watching had little to do with a crime story and everything to do with the rise of ISIS and the collapse of American credibility in the region.

  Ramirez cleared his throat. “May I, Your Majesty?” he asked, directly addressing the king.

  Abdullah nodded.

  “Gentlemen, I understand your concerns, and I share many of them,” the American general began. “But we don’t have time to get sidetracked. I received this news moments before arriving here. I realize it raises profound and disturbing questions, as many for me as for any of you. But we need to stay focused. The president of the United States is being held by ISIS. By my count, we have only seventeen hours to rescue him before he is executed on YouTube, for all the world to see, if he hasn’t been beheaded or burned alive already. I’m not interested in the long-term goals of Abu Khalif right now. I have one mission: get my president back. You all promised to help me. That’s why we’re here, and for no other reason. Now, are you going to help me or not?”

  34

  The men all nodded to Ramirez.

  Then they quickly returned to the urgent business at hand.

  Ramirez began walking the group through the latest U.S. intelligence and analysis. “We believe we’ve identified the most probable location of the president,” he said, “and all signs point to Dabiq.”

  My ears perked up at the mention of Dabiq. That was the place Abu Khalif had mentioned in his video, the site of the apocalyptic End of Days battle that he and the other ISIS leaders were hoping to trigger, according to General al-Mufti. Clearly the president’s captors would have had time to transport him there by now. Was it possible that’s where he was being held?

  The Jordanian military aide sitting behind Ramirez pulled up a map of the region on the large flat-screen monitor behind the general and marked Dabiq, a tiny city—more of a village, really—in the northwest section of Syria, not far from the border of Turkey.

  “Typically, there would be nothing to draw our attention there,” the general continued. “Dabiq is a town ordinarily populated by fewer than four thousand people, but in recent months it’s become an ISIS stronghold. We estimate they have amassed about twenty thousand jihadists there, at least half of whom are foreign fighters. They’ve murdered most of the local men under the age of sixty. They’ve taken the young girls as sex slaves and murdered most of their mothers. The rest of the able-bodied women are serving the ISIS forces in various capacities—cooking, cleaning, laundry, and the like. But more importantly, many of the heavy artillery, tanks, and other advanced weaponry ISIS has captured from Assad’s forces have been brought to Dabiq. They seem to be digging in for a major battle.”

  The aide now displayed a series of American spy satellite photos showing the buildup of forces over the past several weeks.

  “General, do you have actual proof the president is there, or is this a working theory?” El-Badawy asked.

  “I think it’s fair to say we have very compelling evidence, but I wouldn’t call it definitive proof—not yet,” Ramirez replied. “Let me explain.”

  The Delta commander told the generals about the tracking device in the president’s Jorg Gray 6500 Chronograph wristwatch. “Our satellites lost the signal coming from the transponder shortly after the president disappeared. But a few hours ago, we started picking it up again. Our tracking indicates it’s coming from an elementary school in Dabiq.”

  “But this isn’t necessarily proof of the president’s location?” the Saudi general asked.

  “No. It’s possible the watch could have been removed by ISIS forces and taken to Dabiq, while the president could have been taken someplace else.”

  “Would ISIS forces know how to disable the tracking device and then reengage it a few hours ago?” asked El-Badawy.

  “We don’t think so,” Ramirez said, “though we can’t be certain. Still, there is a growing body of additional evidence that points to Dabiq.”

  He explained that a mobile phone belonging to Jamal Ramzy, the ISIS commander in Syria, had been taken from Ramzy’s dead body during the firefight at the Al-Hummar Palace on Sunday. He didn’t mention me. It wasn’t clear he even knew I’d been involved in r
ecovering the phone. He did, however, thank the king for making the phone and all its data available to the U.S. government.

  “The very fact that the Syrian commander of ISIS was involved in a coup attempt here in Jordan is noteworthy, I think. But it’s more than that. Jordanian intelligence experts and our top guys at the NSA have examined the phone thoroughly. It took us a while to get through the phone’s encryption. But we now know that the call log indicates a total of nine outbound calls were made from the phone, and three calls were received. Of those, Ramzy—or someone else using the phone—made three outgoing calls to Dabiq and received one call from Dabiq. Not surprisingly, no one is currently answering at any of these numbers. But we have learned that the one call to Ramzy from Dabiq was placed from an apartment building less than six blocks from the school where the tracking signal is now being picked up.”

  Next, Ramirez shared some good news.

  “Mr. Collins, you’ll be glad to know that the Secret Service agent you found and rescued at the SADAFCO warehouse is going to live. He’s making a solid recovery, and he’s talking. As a sharpshooter, he’d been taking out ISIS forces as they converged on the president’s position. Unfortunately, he was shot when the enemy swarmed the building he was in. They thought he was already dead, so they left him alone. But in that time, he overheard several of the terrorists talking about Dabiq and the battle that was coming. In fact, he told me that talk of Dabiq was the last thing he remembers hearing before he blacked out.”

  Then there was the video released by Abu Khalif, Ramirez added, noting that the ISIS leader had said specifically, “We are waiting for you in Dabiq.”

  “What’s more,” Ramirez continued, “Khalif denounced the president as ‘the dog of Rome.’ These, I’m told, are references to some sort of apocalyptic theology held by the ISIS leaders that the last battle in history—sort of their version of Armageddon—will happen in Dabiq. That’s when, supposedly, the infidel forces of Rome will be defeated on the plains near this town. Does this ring true to any of you?”

  “Of course it does,” the Saudi general said. “It all comes from one of the hadiths. The Prophet—peace be upon him—said the Last Hour would not come until the Romans landed at Dabiq. An army of the best soldiers of the people of the earth will come from Medina to confront them, to fight them. This is a very well-known passage among Sunni true believers.”

  “Now, look, I confess, much of this is new to me,” Ramirez conceded—much to my relief because it was completely new to me except for what had been discussed in the bunker the day before, however briefly. “When you say ‘the forces of Rome,’ does that mean the Italians, or is the language symbolic?”

  General El-Badawy stepped in and took that one. “That question is oft debated among Sunni scholars,” the Egyptian said. “Some say it’s literal. Others say it refers more to the Vatican and the Christian forces of the West rather than to the Roman Empire or to modern-day Italians themselves. Still others say it might metaphorically refer to America, since your country has become known as the world’s most powerful Christian nation.”

  “Clearly Khalif sees the U.S. as Rome,” noted the general from the UAE, nodding to Ramirez. “As you pointed out, that’s why he described your president as the ‘dog of Rome’ in the video.”

  “Indeed,” El-Badawy said. “Not all Sunnis share this eschatology, mind you. Or if they do, most don’t take action based on their beliefs. But Khalif is convinced that the End of Days has come, that the Mahdi is about to arrive on earth and establish his kingdom of justice and peace and unity under Sharia law. That’s what’s driving him and his forces. They believe the Romans will be led by the Dajjal, a figure of extreme evil. Some scholars believe this is a specific person. Others believe this represents the forces of the Western powers. It’s possible Khalif believes your president is the Dajjal.”

  “So what exactly is supposed to happen in this apocalyptic battle?” Ramirez asked.

  The Saudi answered this. “The hadiths tell us that one-third of the Muslim forces will flee and will never be forgiven by Allah for abandoning the battle. The text says another third of the Muslim forces will die in the battle as ‘excellent martyrs.’ The final third of the Muslim forces will fight the Romans, win, and conquer Constantinople—which might literally mean modern Istanbul but is more likely code for the West. Before the Muslims win, however, they will turn to Allah in devoted prayer. As they pray, Isa will come to pray with them and then fight with them. The text says Isa will ‘break the cross’ and ‘kill the swine.’ Then he will lead the Muslims to victory at Dabiq, then to complete victory over Rome, and then the Mahdi will establish his global caliphate.”

  I was writing furiously, trying to get it all down, but at this point I leaned over and whispered to Colonel Sharif, “Who is this ‘Isa’?”

  His answer floored me.

  “Jesus.”

  35

  “What do you mean, Jesus?” I whispered back.

  “Isa is Jesus,” Sharif repeated. “The ancient prophecies say he’s coming back.”

  “To where?”

  “To earth.”

  “Why?”

  “To establish a global kingdom, the full caliphate.”

  “Muslims believe Jesus is coming back to earth?”

  “Of course.”

  “To rule the world?”

  “No, no,” Sharif said. “He won’t rule the world. He comes before the Mahdi and helps establish the conditions for the Mahdi to rule the world.”

  “The Mahdi being . . . ?”

  “Our savior, our king.”

  “Jesus isn’t the Mahdi?”

  “No. He comes—well, you heard the general—he comes to conquer Dajjal, defeat the armies of Rome at Dabiq, and help the Mahdi establish the final caliphate.”

  I had no idea what the colonel was talking about. I’d never heard any of this before. I was jotting it all down, but I suddenly felt like I was talking to my brother, Matt. We’d had this exact conversation just a few days earlier, but in reverse. Matt had tried to convince me that a bunch of old Bible prophecies indicated that a terrible, cataclysmic judgment was coming upon Jordan and the neighboring nations. Matt said these judgments would fall at the end of history, and then Jesus would come and set up his Kingdom. It had all been new to me. Now these men were saying something so similar, yet so radically different.

  “. . . and one last thing,” Ramirez was saying, wrapping up his presentation. “My team found a sermon by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who as we all know was the leader of the Islamic State’s predecessor, al Qaeda in Iraq. Zarqawi said of his terror campaign inside Iraq just after the liberation in 2003, ‘The spark has been lit here in Iraq, and its heat will continue to intensify until it burns the crusader armies in Dabiq.’ Now, as we’ve just noted, Abu Khalif, Zarqawi’s successor, is essentially saying the same thing. So the U.S. is training all our intelligence-gathering assets on Dabiq. We’re doing everything we can to confirm that the president is there and that he is alive, and of course we’re developing a battle plan to get him out. And that’s why I’ve come here to meet with you all. We could do this alone, but we believe it’s better if we work together. We believe it’s better if the world sees this as a joint American–Arab operation, and not only to rescue the president but also to capture or kill Abu Khalif. Can we count on your support?”

  El-Badawy had a question. “Where did the other calls on Jamal Ramzy’s phone lead?” the Egyptian general asked.

  “Excuse me?” Ramirez said.

  “You said three of the calls on Mr. Ramzy’s phone were made to Dabiq,” El-Badawy said. “Where did the other calls lead?”

  “Uh, well, I believe five outgoing calls were to the city of Homs, which is also in Syria, of course.”

  “To the same number?”

  “Yes.”

  “And what was the number?”

  “It turned out to be a switching station,” Ramirez answered.

  “The calls were trans
ferred elsewhere?”

  “Correct.”

  “To where?”

  “We haven’t been able to ascertain that yet.”

  “Did they go to Dabiq as well?”

  “They may have, but I’m not sure.”

  “Why not?”

  “The NSA is working on that, but they don’t have an answer for me yet.”

  “Was this person who was just arrested at Fort Meade involved in this case?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Is it possible?”

  “I doubt it.”

  “But you’re not sure.”

  “No, I’m not.”

  “Well, why should it be so difficult to know where the calls were transferred to?” El-Badawy pressed. “If your government has confirmed the number is a switching station, surely they can determine to where the calls were switched.”

  “I’m sorry; I don’t know,” Ramirez said, looking through a briefing book full of notes but apparently not finding the answer. “I will check on that and get back to you.”

  “Is it possible the president is being held in Homs?” the Saudi asked.

  “We don’t think so,” Ramirez said.

  “Why not?”

  “For all the reasons I just explained.”

  “Because all roads seem to lead to Dabiq?”

  “Now that our satellites have reacquired the tracking signal from the president’s watch, yes, we think so.”

  “But a moment ago you said you couldn’t be sure.”

  “I said we had strong evidence pointing to Dabiq, not proof,” said Ramirez. “I will stick to that assessment.”

  “But it is possible—just possible—that the watch was removed from the president and taken to Dabiq to throw us off the scent, right?” the general from the Emirates asked.

  “Possible? Sure. Probable? I don’t think so.”

  “Actually, there may be a reasonably strong case that the president is in Homs,” I said, catching everyone off guard and getting quite a few looks from those who thought I should be seen and not heard.