Mad Dog

by William Fegan

  -Well we know who, when and how but we don’t know where the “who” is now and we don’t know the why either, - replied Harris. –It’s not good but maybe the finding of Wakefield’s body can lead us to him and one thing I am sure of is that he’s the only one who can tell us the why. -

  -Why do I get the impression that we’re missing something? - asked Harvey.

  -Well probably because we are missing something, -answered Harris, -and the worst is I think it’s something obvious. -

  The four of them just sat in silence contemplating the significance of failing to unravel the puzzle.

  -Hold on a moment-, blurted Harris bringing them all back to attention, what was it you said about him buying Howtowdie Farm DS Mann? -

  -Well, that he had bought it with what remained of the money from the sale of the ranch in Ely. The bank statements confirm it, - replied DS Mann nervously.

  -Right! And the money from the sale of Crowdie Cottage? - urged Harris excitedly.

  -That he used it to buy the flat in Manchester; I’ve got all the receipts to show it, -replied DS Mann increasingly nervous and beginning to feel as though he had committed a grave error of some sort.

  -EXACTLY!!, - shouted Harris.

  His three bemused colleagues just sat staring at him.

  -DON’T YOU SEE? -he exclaimed, -IT’S OBVIOUS! If he used all his funds to buy the farm and the flat and his only source of income that we know of was his earnings as a reporter/ journalist, then what is he living on now? I mean he’s not getting paid by anyone anymore and he doesn’t live off fresh air, so how is he funding himself? If we can find that out we can trace his income source back to him. WELL?-

  -You’re right, -agreed Harvey energetically; -he must have some sort of income be it from work, a pension fund, shares or whatever. You could be right, if we can find out what it is we may be able to get a tag on where he is, who knows we may even get an address. I suppose the only question is why the hell it took you so long to think of it? It’s like they say “if you want the right answers, ask the right questions”. -

  -Well if were going to cite sayings, how about better late than never? -

  -Fair enough, well I’ll leave you to get yourselves organised, I’ve got other things to do. -

  -Like blowing up a few more terrorists for example? -

  -You want to be careful with that,-said Harvey smiling, -that was almost like humour, the next thing we know you might even laugh. -

  -Not till we get Fowler I won’t. -

  -That’s more like the Harris I’ve grown to know and ...ermm...and...ermm well know. And by the way it’s Alan not Fowler, I thought we had agreed on that. -

  -Well actually YOU agreed on that as it happens but whatever you want to call him I’ll laugh myself to death the day we get him.-

  -Okay then get on with it and I’ll get on with blowing up my terrorists.-

  Harvey had requested that Grampian, the head of Forensics at Scotland Yard, meet him at the morgue of the City Hospital on Dudley Road, Birmingham. Having worked with Grampian before he knew that he could rely on his total discretion and what he was going to ask him to do would require exactly that.

  Harvey seemed uneasy as he quickly scanned the remains of the victims of the explosion and Grampian was more than aware of the fact.

  -Harvey, what’s on your mind? You haven’t asked for me to be here to do a simple autopsy nor because I’m better at jigsaws than most, after all that’s what is going to be required with all these bits and pieces. -

  -You’re right replied Harvey, -looking around the room to assure himself that no one else was present,- the microphone is turned off isn’t it? -

  -Yes, -assured Grampian.

  -Make sure, -instructed Harvey.

  -I am sure Harvey, don’t be so paranoid -answered Grampian starting to become nervous, -I have to plug it in for it to work and as you can see it is unplugged.-

  -Right, look I need you to do the autopsy alone, I don’t want it recorded and I don’t want the results reported officially. Now, before you say that that is impossible let me clarify a little. I want you to do the jigsaw puzzle as you call it, I want you to do the examination and I want you personally to report the results to me. You can then do an autopsy as you would do any other and report it as any other, with the exception of certain details that I may need to classify as secret. I need you to pay specific attention to any bodily markings especially tattoos and specifically in the axilla region. I believe one of these bodies is ours and if it is it must stay secret. It is of personal interest to me. What do you say? -

  -That I have work to do, could you leave me to do it please. Oh, and don’t put a guard on the door it’ll only call attention, no-one will interrupt me I can assure you of that. -

  -Thank you, -said Harvey.

  -No don’t, -interrupted Grampian, -it’s the least I can do. By the way, how is my old friend Harris? -

  -Oh he’s fine; I’ve got him doing some stuff for me from his hospital bed. I was with him this morning actually. -

  -Anything to do with this? –

  -No, good lord no, -answered Harvey amused at the mere thought of it. It was not something that would continue to amuse him.

  -Goodbye, - said Grampian dismissing him, - give the miserable old sod my regards. -

  -I will thank you. -

  6

  Imam Hussein Al Sayeghi Alam received his much awaited contact hours after the blast that ripped apart the Muslim Community House in Dudley, Al Qaeda had the clean groups that they needed and their plans were in place. He was summoned to the Al Faroug training camp in Southern Afghanistan on Monday 19th June where he was to be advised of the full details of the plans. He was to advise no one of his movements and was to travel alone. He had less than four days to make the journey.

  Travelling in the Arab countries is never an easy matter even for a man of influence, as he was, or for a seasoned traveller, which equally he was. The first thing to know is what not to do. The first and most important of the things not to do is to carry luggage, any luggage you carry is a responsibility solely of your own and you have to unload it and reload it onto the plane at each and every stop it makes and Arab flights stop like buses, leading to endless queuing in the heat of the day waiting to identify and collect your luggage to then do the reverse only a matter of minutes later.

  The Imams odyssey started on Friday 16th at the Menra airport in Marrakech where he caught the 06.15 flight to Mohamed VI in Casablanca, from there at 09.10 the flight resumed in the direction of Oran in Algeria where they arrived half an hour late at 12.00. At 12.45 he caught the Air Algerie flight to Houari where the flight continued at 17.20 to Carthage in Tunis, Tunisia arriving an hour late but still in time for him to catch his Egyptair flight at 22.35 to Cairo where he arrived at 02.35 the following morning. His next flight was not due until 09.30 and was to take him to the King Khaled International Airport in Riyadh Saudi Arabia, arriving at 12.55. After a five hour wait he then caught the Gulf Air flight to Bahrain arriving, fortunately, on time as he had only an hour in which to catch his next, two and a half hour flight at 20.10 to Imam Khomeini International in Tehran, Iran where after more than forty hours of flights, delays, and stop overs his journey was to become earth bound but no less tiring. Having immediately identified himself to the religious authorities in Tehran he was hurriedly removed from sight and smuggled out of the building and into the centre vehicle of three cars that were to drive him to Zahedan in the far south of the country, close to the Afghan border. The drive as tedious as it was long and as monotonous as it was frustrating, wove its way from Tehran to Zahedan via Qum, Kahan, Nain, Meybad, Yazd, Baghdadabad, Rafsanjan, Mahan and finally Bam, the night time landscape never exceeding the limits of mundane, endless desert landscapes occasional interrupted by brief glimpses of goat herds and barely arable strips of land before zooming in and out of the ramshackle collections of buildings that were called towns. The only benefit was that although the roads were
poor they had them virtually to themselves and that, travelling under the protection of the religious authorities, they had no need to stop at any of the numerous army road checks that littered the route and as a result the journey only took fifteen hours and he was able at 14.00h on Sunday 18th, to change cars for the far less conspicuous battered old heap in which he was to be crossing the border with Afghanistan just north of Pakistan. The two battered old men in their extremely slow battered old car drew no attention at all at the border post where they queued patiently alongside all the other travellers, all twelve of them. The final three hundred and fifty miles of the journey where the most troubling for the Imam, being stopped and searched by American Troops as part of Operation Khanjar ("strike of the sword”) as they entered Rudbar on the Helmand River north of the Zereb Depression and British Troops as part of Operation Panther's Claw as they left Khwaja Ali Sehyaka was nerve racking enough even though they had no problem on either occasion in convincing the foreign troops that the driver was taking his uncle to visit his dying brother just north of Alimardan Khan-e Bagat but worse still was the continual stalling and overheating of the heap of junk with wheels that he was sure would leave them stranded short of his destination. Shortly before one o’clock on the Monday morning his driver stopped some fifteen miles short of Alimardan Khan-e Bagat where he was invited to leave the car by his driver who quickly, or what could relatively be called quickly, turned the car around and set off in the direction of the border. The Imam sat patiently in the freezing cold of the desert night for no more that half an hour before the tribesmen collected him and led him high into the mountains to the south of the road. At 03.45 on Monday 19th after sixty nine and a half hours of travel he arrived at the Al Faroug training camp only to be advised that his host had yet to arrive. Imam Hussein Al Sayeghi Alam sat patiently in silent prayer.

  -Aasalaamu Aliekum, Kaifa haloka (Hello, how are you?), -greeted Osama interrupting his old friends meditation, it was 05.30.

  -Osama,-Qwayyis Ahlan Bik (I am well) - replied Imam Hussein Al Sayeghi Alam bowing and gesticulating with his arm. -

  -IL-Hamdu Allah (Thank be to God)-, responded Osama, - you’ve had quite a journey I imagine. I hope what I have to tell you will make it worth the trouble. -

  -I share you’re desire. -

  -I have no doubt, - replied Osama smiling, -We now have the clean cells organised, there will be three cells operating independently but simultaneously. Your son Hari will be responsible for ensuring that they act simultaneously and will be the only person other than yourself and I that will know the existence and intentions of all of the cells.

  Jiriyis will form part of the cell that will kidnap four children related to governmental employees of our enemies; this group will act first and hopefully create enough confusion to ensure freedom of movement for the other groups. The other two groups will be performing identical tasks however they will be doing so in different countries, one in England and the other in Spain. They will have the real glory; they will be the most blessed.-

  For the next hour Osama explained fully the details of each group’s components and their aims. He left out no detail as he was sure that there was little possibility of either of his friend’s sons returning alive and wanted his blessing.

  After a long silence of reflection Imam Hussein stared Osama in the eyes and asked just one question. – is it possible for Jiriyis to occupy a position in the second cell rather than the first. I would like to assure his opportunity to take his place alongside Ala and Mohammed the Prophet? -

  -I assumed you would require a representation on the first group, after all the idea was yours. -

  -Hari coordinating its actions is sufficient and neither I nor my family require honouring in such a manner. All honour should be reserved for Ala. -

  -Let it be so. -stated Osama - IL-Hamdu Allah. -

  The two old friends embraced and parted ways, Osama Bin Laden to visit the Tarnak Farm training camp where two of the groups were being instructed and Imam Hussein to a tent where he could enjoy a much deserved rest. The last he would ever take. It was 06.45.

  At 06.30 Forward Operating Base Chapman issued the authorisation for a drone missile attack on what the CIA had identified as a Taliban training camp in the mountains overlooking the Helmand River Valley close to Alimardan Khan-e Bagat. At 07.15 Operations Base Chapman watched the live link with the missile as it closed in and finally struck the largest of the tents at the northern edge of the camp. The blast and the expansive wave wiped out virtually the entire base which, as could be appreciated in the images, was starting to stir. The 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade accompanied by (if not led by as the press would later claim) Afghan troops, attacked the camp some forty minutes later, surging northwards from the Heldman Valley they encountered little resistance from the remaining troops. By mid day, after some “gentle” interrogation that most definitely “did not” involve torture, they knew that the base they had captured had in fact been an Al Qaeda/ Taliban training camp and that it was believed that Osama Bin Laden himself had visited a recently arrived Imam that very morning and that he had left only half an hour prior to the air strike. They immediately launched a massive search for him and arrested everyone and anyone that had the slightest resemblance to him, tall Arabs with beards were the order of the day and the arrest list was as long as it was useless, Osama Bin Laden having escaped through the cave and mountain routes that only the goats and the Taliban knew, long before the search for him even started.

  Imam Hussein Al Sayeghi Alam’s sons Hari Sayeghi Alam and Mustafa Akh Mahbud were advised of their father’s death in the joint American British air strike that also killed many of their innocent and defensive colleagues as they awoke. They had no opportunity to make their peace with Ala and there were no bodies to receive the martyrdom they deserved. Salat-ul Ghaa-ib (prayers for an absent one) was held for their lost brothers in arms and especially for the greatest loss of all, that of Imam Hussein Al Sayeghi Alam, one of Islam’s most respected Imams. A three day period of mourning was declared in the form of suicide attacks on American and British troops in the Helmand area but above all on the Afghan Troops that supported them. Six American Marines were killed by a car bomb at a security post, three British troops were killed as they patrolled when they were approached by a young women who ignored all the shouted attempts to keep her at a safe distance before when it was too late for them to do anything she detonated the belt she wore beneath her robes and twenty four Afghans were killed as they queued for breakfast as a bus driven by a bomb carrying nine year old drove straight into the front of the queue. In all, thirty three allied troops in less than three days had been the immediate cost of the missile attack on Al Faroug training camp and it was clear to the Intelligence Agencies both in America and Britain that the Imam they had killed had indeed been important. The day after the official mourning period ended the Taliban issued a statement denouncing the cowardly murder of Islam’s leading Imam in North Africa whilst he conducted a religious meeting in the troubled and invaded Heldman Province where he had been invited to provide solace for those that had suffered so mercilessly at the hands of the foreign invading murderers who were trying everything possible to destabilise the area. The Military and the press in Europe and America confirmed the killing of Imam Hussein Al Sayeghi Alam one of North Africa’s most feared religious leaders who was believed to have headed the most extensive drugs cartel on the continent and who was believed to have been visiting the Heldman Province for exactly that reason, Heldman Province being the worlds largest producer of Opium. He was believed to have met with Osama Bin Laden during his visit to confirm the scale of the funding that he provided for Al Qaeda through his drugs organisation.

  7

  On Friday 16th June at 18.03h whilst he read the forensic reports confirming that not only did the DNA samples found at the scene of the explosion but also the fingerprints that they had managed to obtain from the remains of the bodies coincided with the sample
s taken from 41 Firs Street leaving no realistic doubt that those killed in the explosion where the same suspects that they had been following, Harvey received the call he had been waiting for from Grampian.

  -Good afternoon Harvey, it’s Grampian here. -

  -Yes, Good afternoon, I’m just reading through the forensics reports on the DNA and fingerprinting, seems that they were indeed our men. -

  -Well, I’m not sure that I can shed much more light on the subject. Briefly, it would appear that we are talking about three male specimens two around six feet tall one somewhat smaller none of whom being overweight in fact if anything the taller two would appear to have been excessively thin. All were in good physical shape and from the musculature they would all have appeared to exercise more than regularly. In the case of one I would say obsessively. I have found no tattooing but equally I do not have all the pieces to check. They were all of Middle Eastern complexion, oh and they all ate Pizza the night before, if that’s any help. -

  -Any baldness or facial hair? -

  -No baldness but one seemed to have had a full beard, bit difficult to be sure because there are only fragments left of his face. -

  -Okay thanks very much, I don’t think we will need to classify any of the information so submit your report as you would normally, once again thanks for everything. -

  -No need, whatever I can do to help. Bye and good luck. -

  With that Grampian cut off the call and Harvey immediately phoned the head of the team at the scene.

  -Agent Bradley? -

  -Yes Sir, how can I help? -

  -Have the boys been through all the rubbish including the street bins? -

  -Yes sir, standard procedure, you know that. -

  -Good, then fax me a copy of the contents listing now.-

  Agent Bradley didn’t have time to reply as Harvey had already finished the call. Within a minute the fax started to come through. “Interesting” said Harvey to himself, “no pizza and no pizza packaging!”. He picked up his phone once more.