by Ian Hamilton
“Not really,” Ava said. “If he’s your go-to guy, then I can’t imagine he won’t get involved.”
“The information you have is that good?”
“Sadly, I think it is.”
“I’m here to listen.”
Ava sipped the wine, her eyes almost unconsciously darting around the room to see if anyone nearby seemed to be listening. “There are some conditions that I need to explain first,” she said.
Poirier leaned forward. “There was no mention of conditions when you asked me to come here. If there were, I might have stayed in Jakarta.”
“They aren’t in the form of demands. You can think of them as requests.”
“Concerning?”
“The main sources of the information I have. They’d like to be non-existent, or at least to have the lowest possible profile.”
“Will you tell me who they are?”
“Yes, and I think that Dulles will have to know as well, but I’d like you to keep it between yourselves — or limited to as few people as possible — until we know exactly what we’re dealing with.”
“Who is it in particular you don’t want plugged in?”
“The Philippine government, especially its intelligence services.”
“And why would your sources be so sensitive about their involvement?”
“They don’t have much faith in the intelligence services’ ability to perform,” Ava said. “It’s also fair to say that they’re afraid of repercussions.”
“Who are these sources?”
Ava looked across the table at him. He was calm enough, much as he had been in Surabaya, even when guns were going off all around them. She didn’t think of him, then or now, as a man who would panic or who was given to knee-jerk reactions.
“The Muslim Brotherhood of Mindanao,” she said.
“That is a significant name,” he said carefully. “But how on earth are you connected to them?”
“I came here as a favour for a friend. That led me to Senator Miguel Ramirez. He put me in touch with the Brotherhood.”
“I know of Ramirez. He’s a power player here,” Poirier said. “What’s the connection between your friend and him?”
“Business.”
“What kind?”
“It’s irrelevant. What matters is that Ramirez and my friend, Chang Wang, and Tommy Ordonez are in it together. One thing led to another.”
“You’re involved with that crew? How did that come to happen?”
“It isn’t worth getting into,” Ava said. “The point I’m making is that I came here with no other intention than doing a favour for Chang, and in the process I fell into this situation.”
“About which I’m still waiting to hear.”
“You obviously know something about Mindanao.”
“I do.”
“How about Tawi-Tawi, and Bongao?”
“I know they’re heavily populated with Muslims and have active terrorist groups.”
“Well, now it seems that a college called Zakat on the outskirts of Bongao has become a training centre for would-be terrorists.”
“Would-be?” he said, his face impassive.
“Would-be insofar as they haven’t yet attacked anyone or any place we know about. But they appear to have plans to do exactly that in a massive, coordinated manner sometime in May.”
Poirier had both hands wrapped around his beer glass, and it looked to Ava as if he was squeezing it. “How many would-be’s do you think there are?” he said.
“Right now we know of about 150 students who have gone through the school,” she said. “We’ve been told that they’ve been sent overseas to join existing cells.”
“Sent where?”
“Mainly to the United States, but also to countries surrounding Israel.”
“Where in the U.S.?”
“Major cities.”
“And who or what are the targets?”
“I’ve been told that the focus is on the Jewish population.”
“Fuck,” he said, closing his eyes. When he opened them again, they were hooded and his face was drawn. “And the source of this information is the Muslim Brotherhood?”
“Yes, both directly and indirectly. They’ve already helped confirm some of the things I’ve been told.”
“So you believe this is real?”
“As real as that planeload of money I believed was being flown into Surabaya.”
“Even if that’s true, I have a lot of questions.”
“I expected that you would.”
“And I don’t see any purpose in asking them twice or having you answer them twice,” he said. “I think I should phone Alasdair Dulles and ask him to join us.”
“I think you should too,” Ava said.
( 20 )
Poirier left the bar to call Dulles. When he didn’t return after five minutes, Ava began to feel nervous. By the time the five minutes had turned into twenty, she was angry.
When he finally appeared, he looked flustered and his face was flushed. “I’m so sorry, Ava,” he said, when he reached the table. “I had to wait until they pulled Dulles out of a meeting.”
“So you reached him?” she said, feeling her anger dissipate.
“He’s on his way,” he replied, glancing at the doorway. “He works nearby.”
“How did he react?”
“He’s a cool customer, but I think I rattled him a touch.”
“It’s good that you have so much credibility.”
“I’m not so sure it was mine. The instant I told him that Ramirez is involved and that Tommy Ordonez owed you a favour, your value as a source skyrocketed.”
“This has nothing to do with me directly,” Ava said. “I’m a bystander who’s been dropped into this.”
“You can explain that to Alasdair, because he’s here,” Poirier said, nodding towards the doorway.
Ava had never met a CIA agent. Her mental image was constructed from novels and films, and it was a conflicting one, flitting between dumpy intellectual and hip action hero. At first glance, Alasdair Dulles didn’t appear to fit either stereotype. He was close to six feet tall and lean and rangy. He wore sharply creased slim grey slacks and a white Lacoste polo shirt. The shirt was tight, showing off a taut abdomen and muscular arms. His face was almost square, with a wide forehead and a broad chin. His nose and mouth might have looked large on a smaller face, but on his they were perfectly proportioned. His hair was light brown and short. As he came closer to them, Ava noticed that he was freshly shaven. This is a man who cares about his appearance, she thought. In her mind, that was a good thing. Uncle believed that how you presented yourself to the world was a reflection of your inner being. He had been meticulous in his dress and manner. Dulles met that standard.
Dulles stopped just short of the table and stared at her. Ava met his gaze. His eyes were blue, like Poirier’s, but lacked the French Canadian’s sparkle. They were a darker blue and seemed to be imbued with a hint of sadness. He had fine lines under his eyes, and Ava noticed that the skin around his jaw was just starting to sag. He was forty-five, she guessed, maybe fifty.
“It’s always good to see you, Ryan, even on an unexpected occasion like this,” Dulles said.
Poirier slid out from behind the table. The two men shook hands so vigorously that it looked as if they were closing a business deal.
“This is Ava Lee,” Poirier said, turning towards her.
“Ah, the mysterious Ms. Lee,” Dulles said, his voice surprisingly gritty.
“That’s the second time I’ve been called that tonight,” she said. “There is absolutely nothing mysterious about me, and I prefer being called Ava.”
“As you like,” Dulles said.
“Is it okay to talk here, or would you rather find a less public place?” Poirier
asked.
“We seem to have the Bar pretty much to ourselves,” Dulles said. “It will do.”
They joined Ava at the table, sitting across from her. The server wasted no time making an appearance. Poirier ordered a second San Miguel beer and Dulles a Red Horse. Ava still had half of her wine left and decided that was enough for the evening.
“Tell me, how do you know Miguel Ramirez and Tommy Ordonez?” Dulles asked as soon as the server was gone.
“Does that matter?” she said.
“It might. It’s one thing to use their names if they’re simply acquaintances, but it’s another thing entirely to be able to call upon them for assistance or, God forbid, protection.”
“Do you know of Chang Wang?”
“Ordonez’s second-in-command of everything, the man they call the Hammer?”
“I call him Uncle,” Ava said. “If I phoned him now and said, ‘Uncle, I need to speak to Tommy Ordonez within half an hour, and I want Miguel Ramirez to meet me at the Peninsula Hotel this evening,’ both would happen.”
“I see,” Dulles said.
“More to your point, my former partner was a man of considerable influence. He and Chang were close from childhood, and he helped Chang and Ordonez in their climb to success. A few years ago, Ordonez had a problem that involved his family. He reached out to my partner, who in turn brought me into the picture. We saved Ordonez a lot of money, but more important, we helped him save face,” Ava said. “There isn’t much that I could ask of Ordonez and Chang that they wouldn’t do for me.”
“Former partner?”
“He died a couple of years ago, of cancer. He was in his eighties. I still miss him…He was like a grandfather to me.”
“I’m sorry,” Dulles said. “But Ramirez — where does he fit into all this?”
“He, Chang, and Ordonez are partners in a business that’s based in Mindanao. There are things going on in the region that they think threaten stability, and thus their business.”
“The college in Bongao?”
“Yes.
“So here we are,” Dulles said as the server placed their drinks on the table.
“Where do you want Ava to start?” Poirier asked.
“At the beginning.”
“That’s fine with me, but I should tell you that I don’t like to rush things,” Ava said.
“Take all the time you want, and don’t skip a detail, no matter how minor you think it is,” Dulles said.
Ava took a small sip of wine, then drew a deep breath and began. “I was in China when I received a phone call from Chang Wang asking me to do a favour for him and Tommy Ordonez . . .” Half an hour later she finished the wine and asked for a glass of water. Half an hour after that the water was gone and she had finished explaining why she’d made the phone call to Ryan Poirier. She waited for her glass to be refilled before telling them about her afternoon’s work with Elisha. Then she sat back and looked across the table at Poirier and Dulles.
She had spoken as deliberately as she could, consciously being completely factual, not drawing conclusions or implying motives, and keeping her emotions and any hint of drama out of the recital. They had listened intently, not saying a single word. A few times she thought she saw doubt in their eyes, but she didn’t react to it.
“Incredible,” Dulles finally said, and then turned to Poirier. “What do you think of this?”
“I hadn’t heard any of the details until now. Now that I have, I’m not sure ‘incredible’ does it justice.” He looked at Ava. “Do you really believe everything you’ve been told?”
“I don’t want to.”
“But you do?”
“Yes, I do, but that doesn’t mean it’s all true,” she said. “There are things we need to confirm.”
“That’s an understatement,” Dulles said.
“Perhaps, but I don’t like the feeling of being overwhelmed by anything. I’ve found that if I focus on component parts, the whole eventually becomes manageable.”
“Ryan told me that you’ve been involved in some shady escapades in the past.”
“I’m a forensic accountant by training, and I was a debt collector. There isn’t anything that isn’t shady about that profession, especially when — as in our case — the debts ran into the many millions and our customers preferred privacy. So I know a thing or two about conducting an investigation and about money trails.”
“But you obviously don’t know enough, or you wouldn’t be bringing us into this so quickly.”
“I know what I’ve found. I know what I can do. I also know what I can’t do. You, or someone like you, were going to get dragged into this sooner or later. I need help, so I thought sooner was better.”
“And if we take the information you’ve given us, say ‘Thank you very much,’ and then go off on our own?”
“You’re not that stupid.”
“Pardon?” Dulles said.
“I have the full co-operation and trust of the Brotherhood and Senator Ramirez and his staff. I wouldn’t count on those being transferable. I also have investigative skills that could prove useful,” Ava said. “My thinking — my reason for contacting Ryan — is that if we quietly and collectively gather information, we’ll end up in a better place. I mean, where does your scenario lead? You don’t work in a vacuum in this country, and almost certainly the Philippine intelligence services will be alerted that something is going on. That’s the Brotherhood’s biggest fear — not that the intelligence services find out, but that they find out prematurely. If they do, you can’t count on their showing any restraint.
“Never mind the impact on Mindanao and the Brotherhood. On a narrower scale, they would go after the college, and then what? We lose the chance to identify who’s financing and running the college and the foundation. We make it that much more difficult to identify and locate the students who’ve been sent overseas. And worse, we cause whoever is behind the college to panic and move that date in May up to early April. Right now we have time on our side, because they don’t know we’re looking into them. Let’s not throw away that advantage.”
“Have you ever been involved in politics?” Dulles asked.
“No.”
“You should think about it for your next career.”
“I don’t lie well enough.”
“That’s a problem we share.” He looked at Poirier. “Would you agree that she makes sense?”
“I would.”
“But for the record, Ava, if I did take the information and run, it wouldn’t end up in tomorrow’s CIA wash. I’m part of a special operations unit that’s not required to report through normal channels. I’m quite adept at keeping information contained.”
“I felt obliged to represent the Brotherhood’s reservations.”
“I understand, and I don’t think they’re unfounded or misplaced,” Dulles said. “The question is, if we agree to follow your advice, how do we proceed?”
“We haven’t been able to find out anything about Fileeb al-Touma, Ishak Kassab, or Imam Tariq al-Bashir. We’d like your help.”
“We’ll do what we can.”
“What is the Zakat Foundation? Who founded it? Who runs it? Does it have an aim?”
“I’ve already made a mental note of that. We’ll work on it.”
“And then there are the Zakat Foundation bank accounts in Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Who opened them? Who controls them? Where does the money originate?”
Dulles looked at Poirier. “It might be better if those enquiries came from your side. How are your contacts with the Mukhabarat and the Mabahith?”
“Good enough,” Poirier said.
“Who are you talking about?” Ava said.
“The Mukhabarat is the Jordanian secret service, and the Mabahith is the Saudi version,” Poirier said. “And don’t look so worried. You aren�
�t the only person who collects and exchanges favours.”
“I get it.”
“Well, it looks like we’ve been given our assignments,” Dulles said. “What does that leave you with?”
“The departure cards.”
“Speaking of which, I’d like copies of them.”
“Why?” Ava said quickly.
“You said they contain names and passport numbers and possible destinations?”
“They do.”
“I’ll input them into our system. If anyone listed on them has landed in the U.S., we should be able to identify when and where.”
“I’ll ask Elisha to run an extra set.”
“Thanks,” Dulles said, glancing at his watch. “As I remember, there’s a five-hour time difference between here and Riyadh. If I leave now, I might be able to start a local search for the Zakat Foundation.”
“How do you want to handle communications from now on?” Poirier asked.
“I’m working out of an office near the embassy, but since Ava is stressing security, it’s a not a good place for us to meet. Everything I do there is scrutinized,” Dulles said. “Do you mind being the middle man?”
“Not at all, but Ava might be the better choice. She’s the one linked to the Brotherhood.”
“Are you okay with that?” Dulles said.
“I guess so,” she said.
“Okay, that’s it, then. We’ll run everything through Ava and she’ll make sure everyone is in the loop.”
“I have to say that working with the CIA is a bit strange,” she said.
“There isn’t anything about this project that isn’t strange.” Dulles stood up. “Let’s hope that it’s just a false alarm, a product of the active imaginations of two young men in Bongao.”
There’s not a chance it is, Ava thought. “What’s the best way for me to get hold of you?” she said.
“You can use the email address on my card or, better still, call me at the number on the back,” Dulles said, passing her his business card.
“And here’s my contact information,” Ava said.
“Thanks,” he said, and paused. “There is one other thing I need to say to you. I operate with a reasonable amount of autonomy and I can keep this project tightly contained for now. But if we are able to confirm everything you’ve been told, you must expect that others will be very quickly brought into the picture.”
