by Rick Jones
“And I did.” She showed him her watch. “It’s past midnight. The night is over, and it is now morning. I was true to my word.”
Faruk started to stammer, his tones nonsensical until his tongue finally found its footing. “Perhaps you should stay the evening, Angelika. It’s late.”
“Or early, depending how you read the clock, I suppose. But my chauffer has been more than dear by waiting for me. I really mustn’t keep him too much longer.”
Faruk’s shoulder appeared to deflate as he only able to manage one word: “But . . .” He didn’t know what else to add.
Intuiting what he was about to say, Angelika gently caressed a manicured fingernail along his cheek and smiled seductively at him. “Be patient, Abesh. All good things come to those who are enduring. Besides, I like a man who is chivalrous and kind.” A moment later, she added, “This is not the last you’ll see of me. We’ll be together again soon. I assure you. Perhaps in a more public place with fine dining and a nice Chianti, yes?”
His grin widened to the point where she thought it would split his face from ear to ear.
Extending his hand for her to grab, he asked, “May I escort you to your vehicle?”
“Of course, you can.” She gingerly placed her hand inside of his.
Together, they walked out of the ballroom and into the long hallway whose walls were lined with stunning paintings and portraits, the canvasses at least twelve feet high and six feet across. With the guards in tow, Faruk merely dismissed them with a wave of his hand, the guards then redirecting to leave the two alone. Once outside, they stood upon the marble doorsill. Rico, Angelika’s chauffer, stood by the rear door waiting for her with his back rebar straight, the man highly regimented.
When Faruk leaned into her to steal a kiss or a peck on the cheek, she reared back out of range and presented a slight laugh. “Now-now-now,” she said. “Remember what I said about chivalrous men, Abesh? Have we forgotten our lesson about patience already?”
“Forgive me,” he said, releasing her hand. “It’s just that you are quite stunning. I thought there was a connection between us.”
“And perhaps there was,” she told. “But for the moment, Abesh, remember that we are still business associates. Certain affairs of the heart take time. It is never to be rushed.”
“I understand,” he told her. And then: “When will we see each other again?”
“Soon. Maybe the night after next, if that’s all right?”
“Of course.”
“Then I will call you with the details—the when and the where.”
“Excellent.”
Turning and stepping off the doorsill with her high heels crunching along the gravel, Angelika went to the Rolls where Rico obligingly opened the door for her and tipped his hat.
After Rico closed the door, Angelika looked through the tinted glass to see that Faruk was nothing but a silhouette under the cast of an overhead light. As the car began to speed away, Faruk waved to her. Angelika, however, did not reciprocate.
Once they made it through the gate, only then did she exhale in relief.
From the front seat, Rico looked at her through the rearview mirror. “How did it go?”
“It went.”
“Were you able to validate the intel?”
“Some. But not all. I’ll forward the information to my principals. And in return they inform yours.”
Rico continued to eye her through the mirror a moment longer before returning his eyes to the road.
In silence, they drove to Angelika’s residence.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Center of Vatican Intelligence
Vatican City
The co-directors of Vatican Intelligence were Fathers Auciello and Essex. After the Vatican discovered the fragmented data regarding the golden calf and provided its interpretation of the materials acquired, a joint cooperation was created between the Vatican, the Mossad and the CIA. Though the operations would be different under the mandates of each intel group, the Vatican Knights had been dispatched in a military effort to obtain the golden calf and neutralize a hostile takeover of the relic. The activities of the Mossad and the CIA would remain covert, though committed to stopping the network with opposing means.
Inside the Comm Center of Vatican Intelligence, Fathers Auciello and Essex were the overseers of assessing global intelligence through their staff of intel officers, which were made up of Jesuit priests. They were standing in a glass booth that overlooked the command center, which was a high-tech room beneath the basilica. On the far wall were twenty-four mounted plasma screens set in a grid pattern that offered multiple views of brewing hot spots around the world, which included Africa and the Middle East. The lab was also constructed in three tiers with a half-dozen techs manning computers. Currently, four smaller monitors were combined into one large one to show an overhead view from geospatial satellites of the Vatican Knights, as they made their way to Jabal Maqla. At the moment, they were monitoring Ahmadi’s terrorist faction who were moving in from the southeast.
“They’re still fifteen miles apart,” Father Essex confirmed with a British accent.
“But closing the gap,” Father Auciello quickly returned. “I’m afraid that both teams are marching towards an inevitable conclusion.” The priest, who was tall and slender and had an olive complexion to go with pewter-colored hair, turned to face Father Essex, who was shorter and stockier, and added, “When Kimball reaches the base of Jabal Maqla and sets up his BGAN, apprise him of the situation.” He turned back to face the monitors with his hands held behind the small of his back. “Were the analysts able to interpret the Chronicles of possible hints of the relic’s whereabouts?”
“Moses described the position of star configurations and the placement of the moon at the time of the burial, stating that the ‘Pagan idol was delivered unto the depths of the Earth beneath the sliver of moon with Virgo directly to the west.’ So far, the analysts are computing the correlated positions between the crescent moon—since Moses mentions the moon’s design as a ‘sliver’—in relationship to the constellation of Virgo to the west. The model approximation, however, is taking time since we’re talking thirty-five hundred years here. We need several simulations to validate a circumferential position to be within the area.”
“There’s no doubt that Abesh Faruk performed the same tasks of discovering the location of the golden calf,” Auciello stated, “since he had the information before we were able to attain it. His mercenary unit knows exactly where they’re going. We, however, remain blind when it’s paramount that we need to secure that idol before it falls into their hands.”
“The simulations are running as we speak,” Father Essex advised him. “We should have a registered site by the time the Vatican Knights reach Jabal Maqla. Still, the area will be quite extensive . . . It won’t be easy to find.”
“And the land for which it resides upon is too small for Ahmadi’s group and the Vatican Knights. Neither can co-exist with the other.”
Father Essex leaned to his right and booted a computer that was networking with the analysts’ system programming. After logging in and bringing up the simulations of celestial compilations regarding the positioning of the stars and the moon, there were three possible locations on Jabal Maqla that could be the potential site of the golden calf. All locations, however, were within a two-mile radius with one site having a possible-locality level of 36%, the second with 33%, and the last at 31%. At the moment the configurations were too close to one another, meaning that the relic could be anywhere within that two-mile range. Geometrically speaking, that was four square miles, which was still a large area with millions of places to hide something. The information, so far, was unacceptable. The Vatican Knights were running into a situation nearly blind.
Shutting off the program, Father Essex said evenly, “We have a long way to go before we get our answer.”
In silence, the Jesuits kept watch over the Vati
can Knights as their thermal images showed up nicely against a nighttime landscape.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Zurich, Switzerland
Exchanging pertinent information as soon as it’s obtained is always paramount. The moment Angelika reached her apartment, she reprogrammed her BGAN tablet with new encryption codes and rebooted the system to contact her handler.
HANDLER: DID YOU ACQUIRE THE NECESSARY DATA TO PROCEED?
ANGELIKA: I HAVE CONFIRMED MOST OF THE MATERIAL THAT WAS IN QUESTION.
HANDLER: GO.
ANGELIKA: SUBJECT HAS SUBSTANTIATED THE FOLLOWING FACTS: ONE, AN (UNKNOWN) TERRORIST FACTION IS TRADING THE GOLDEN CALF FOR THREE ‘SUITCASE NUKES.’ ALL ONE-KILOTON YIELDS. TWO, EACH NUKE HAS BEEN OVERHAULED TO REPLACE RUSSIAN COLD-WAR MATERIALS WITH CURRENT ISRAELI PARTS. THREE, PREMISE HERE IS FOR THE NUKES TO GO OFF WITH THE SUBSEQUENT INVESTIGATION BY THE WORLD COMMUNITY TO BLAME ISRAEL ONCE THE MATERIALS IN THE AFTERMATH ARE POURED OVER. ACTION TO INCITE ANGER IN THE MIDDLE EAST CAUSING FACTIONS TO UNITE AND RETALIATE AGAINST ISRAEL WITH THE SUPPORT OF THE PEOPLE.
HANDLER: WHAT ARE THE TARGETS?
ANGELIKA: UNKNOWN.
HANDLER: FACT ONE OF YOUR DISCOVERY HAS BEEN RECENTLY CLARIFIED THROUGH VATICAN INTELLIGENCE TO BE MEMBERS OF THE ISLAMIC STATE.
. . . System Waiting . . .
HANDLER: WHERE ARE THE ‘SUITCASE NUKES’?
ANGELIKA: UNKNOWN.
HANDLER: THIS IS AN AREA FOR IMMEDIATE DISCOVERY. ABESH FARUK HAS THREE KNOWN STORAGE FACILITIES, MOSTLY IN UNDERDEVELOPED THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES THAT ARE UNDER HEAVY GUARD WITH THEIR GOVERNMENTS WELL PAID TO TURN A BLIND EYE. BUT WHICH ONE?
ANGELIKA: UNKNOWN.
HANDLER: THIS MATTER NEEDS CONFIRMATION ASAP.
ANGELIKA: UNDERSTOOD.
HANDLER: WILL FORWARD INTEL TO OUR MIDDLE EAST ASSOCIATES TO ACTIVATE PROTOCOLS.
ANGELIKA: UNDERSTOOD . . . OUT.
After powering down the unit, Angelika scrubbed the contents and destroyed the files. Returning the high-tech tablet to the safe, she returned to her chair by the window. Despite the lamps that lit the streets, it was still midnight black in most areas. It was only one a.m. In six hours, she would call Faruk and lie to him with claims that she had missed him. His ego, no doubt, would be boosted. And that lascivious grin he so often displayed would most likely be something she would have to deal with during their time together.
She sighed inwardly.
Espionage had its enchantments, such as the excitement and the living-on-the-edge aspect, but it had its pitfalls, too. Sometimes, compromises had to be made by surrendering personal virtues like bedding a subject to obtain certain information, something she wouldn’t normally do. But Faruk was sitting in the captain’s chair with his finger on the button. Three low-grade WMDs were about to be handed over to a terrorist group who would have no reservations about detonating them.
Closing her eyes, she knew that she would have to get Faruk to admit two things: What are the targets and where (exactly) were the weapons being stored. Once the information was obtained, then her handler would take care of the rest.
She looked at her Rolex, which was actually a high-end knock-off worn only for aesthetics. It was only 1:14.
Angelika Hartmann would not sleep this night.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Mossad Headquarters
Tel Aviv, Israel
Mossad is the ‘Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations’ and the national intelligence agency of Israel. When it came to espionage and intel gathering, they are rivaled by few.
At approximately 2:17 a.m. in Tel Aviv, which is one hour ahead of Zurich’s time, the lead principal of the Mossad’s Political Action and Liaison Department, which is responsible for working with allied foreign intelligence services, earlier received communication from their American counterpart. It appeared that an operative had confirmed the splintered data that had been forwarded by Carl Dennison moments before he was tossed from the window of his twenty-fifth-floor residence. Since then measures had become clearer. Abesh Faruk was working in concert with a terrorist group in a barter-for-barter trade of goods. The faction would receive three low-yield suitcase nukes in exchange for the golden calf. Apparently, these weapons had been modified with parts made in Israel. The ongoing hypothesis with Langley was that Israel was not the major-event target, though this had not been verified, but minor cities within the Middle East. It was further surmised that the detonations would go unclaimed with the investigating unit supporting measures that these weapons were manufactured with Israeli parts; therefore, Israel would be held culpable and vilified within the eyes of the world community. Organizations like the Taliban, al-Qaeda and the Islamic State would band together with the support of the Middle East people to converge and conquer the Zionist state. It could also be the groundwork for potential global warfare, which was unacceptable to the Political Action and Liaison Department’s Director Immanuel Rosenberg.
Rosenberg was in his early sixties with gray hair and a developing paunch, the man’s best days obviously behind him. But in his prime he was a major player with the Mossad’s Metsada Group, which is a small unit of fighters whose missions included assassinations and sabotage. Now that he had grown older with Father Time remaining undefeated, Rosenberg’s advancing age and wisdom had sent him to the top of the department’s pecking order.
Sitting inside a conference room at such an early hour, Rosenberg and his managerial team began to discuss their options in earnest.
“And this is fact?” This came from Abraham Meier, who was also a one-time member of the Metsada. “We have verifiable proof?”
“Enough to put some of the pieces of the puzzle together,” said Rosenberg. “The CIA lost an operative in Istanbul when he attempted to transmit data, which had been interrupted. The fragmentation happened to mention Israel, Abesh Faruk, and Zahid Ahmadi, which obviously grabbed our concern. We all know that Faruk is an arms dealer with storage batteries in the Philippines, Columbia, and Tunisia. And we all know Zahid Ahmadi to be a lieutenant within the Islamic State. What we didn’t know was how Israel factored into their plans.”
Abba Lehrer, another leading principal, asked, “Tell us, how is Israel factored into the plans of Faruk and Ahmadi?”
“There’s been confirmation that there is to be a barter of items between the two. Ahmadi’s faction is searching for a Biblical relic,” Rosenberg returned. “The fabled golden calf. And in exchange for the relic once obtained, Ahmadi will trade it to Faruk for three weapons of mass destruction that have been remodeled with Israeli parts. What I’m talking about here, people, are three suitcase nukes with each portable unit containing a one-kiloton yield.”
Faces fell mostly due to genuine shock.
“Faruk is in possession of such items?” asked Lehrer.
“According to Langley’s asset, yes. It’s not that they intend to target Israel at all, but cities within the Middle East will accuse Israel as a warmonger. Ahmadi wants the Middle East to unite under a flaming banner created by animosity towards Israel.”
“Such staging would never be believed,” said Meier. “We’ll make denials before such attempts are made.”
“Denials fall on deaf ears when prejudices run deep,” Rosenberg returned. “Think about it. If we make denials and point a finger at the Islamic State before the weapons with Israeli parts detonate, summary investigations will conclude that we were trying to deflect. Yes, our allies will support us like the United States. But is that enough? Prejudices against the Jews run/ deep here. Such actions committed by the Islamic State, who in turn blames Israel, will have considerable weight to unite the entire Middle East against our nation. If a presumptive war is initiated against our state due to such detonations and should the United State intervene with military aid and support, it could also be a prelude to global warfare, which is something we need to avoid. And to avoid such a probability, we’ll need to fight this on a couple of fron
ts. First, we must find the whereabouts of these WMDs and neutralize them, if possible. Secondly, Ahmadi’s unit needs to be neutralized before they can obtain the golden calf. But the Saudi’s will obviously disallow sorties against their sovereign properties.”
“The Saudi’s?” Meier asked. “Was the golden calf not destroyed in Egypt at the site of Mount Sinai?”
“At Mount Sinai, yes. But the true Mount Sinai is not in Egypt as most believe, but in Saudi Arabia. And as for the relic, it’s believed that it survived the Exodus and was buried on top of the Mount. Regardless if it exists or not, the focus is on those nukes. Faruk is in possession of them and they need to be appropriated.”
“And if the golden calf does exist,” Meier continued, “wouldn’t it be easier to cut off the snake’s head by delivering a military blow to Zahid Ahmadi?”
“Ahmadi’s team is already at the base of Jabal Maqla,” Rosenberg answered, “which is perhaps the true Mount Sinai where it’s believed the golden calf resides. But the situation is in good hands, believe me.”
“How so?” asked Lehrer.
“We’ve received word that the Vatican has dispatched a team of Vatican Knights. As we speak, they’re closing in on Ahmadi’s team of radicals.”
“The Vatican Knights,” said Lehrer. “Some say that they’re better than our commandos.”
“Whether they are or not,” Rosenberg stated evenly, “they’re more than capable of handling events from their end. What we have to do is neutralize the threat of those weapons from ever getting into the hands of any terrorist faction, by getting our hands on those portables.”
“But we don’t know where the nukes are. Or do we?” asked Lehrer.
Rosenberg nodded. “No. Not exactly. But we have an asset in Zurich who remains close to Faruk. Right now, we have to assume that these devices are being secured in one of his three facilities either in the Philippines, Columbia or Tunisia. But our lead assumption is that they’re in Tunisia, since its closest to Ahmadi’s operations. Once the barter has been made, it’s most likely it’ll be concluded at a location that’s closed to both parties. It makes the most sense.”