Victoria’s eyes widened as she took in the chaotic state of her living room. She definitely wasn’t the neatest person around, but she hadn’t left her apartment in this level of disarray. Someone had pulled her chair cushions out of the sofa, and they were now lying on the floor. Papers that she kept in neat file boxes had been dumped out and were all over the ground. The drawers of her small living room desk were open, and her books had been taken out of her bookcase and dumped onto the floor.
Walking in a daze from room to room, she saw that each one of her living spaces were in the same haphazard condition—including her bedroom. As a local reporter for a small newspaper, Victoria didn’t have many expensive items in her home for any robbers to take. The most valuable items in her apartment—the flat-screen television that she had splurged on last Christmas and a diamond necklace that Joshua had given to her on their first year anniversary—were still in their respective places.
In fact, the only item that appeared to be missing from her apartment was her laptop computer that she usually kept on the small desk in her living room. Her body tremors returning at full force, Victoria picked up her phone to dial the police to report the breakin.
Chapter Twelve
“
Hey Mark.”
Mark looked up from the new round of intelligence briefings that he had received this morning on the Haqqai network. Standing at the doorway to his office on the base was his superior officer, Captain Sean Cahill.
Cahill was only four years older than Mark and the two men had served on the same team when they were active Navy SEALs back in the late 1980s and 1990s.
Having been born and bred in South Boston, Cahill still carried the thick Southie accent at times—usually when stressed. On those occasions he used “broad a” sounds. Also, words ending in –er usually came out of Cahill’s mouth sounding like they ended with an “a.”
“Hey Sean, what’s up?”
“We’re getting reports in from all over the wire that Richard Henning and his security team were just gunned down outside of a hotel in Dallas.”
Shit. “Is he still alive? What the hell happened?” This was definitely not the news that Mark had wanted to hear this morning.
“Admiral Taylor is calling a special meeting in one hour with all of the ranking officers and select members of the FBI’s counterintelligence unit to discuss this mess. So far, Henning is alive, but barely. Someone shot him multiple times in the chest, abdomen, leg, and arm. The three bodyguards that he had with him at the time of the shooting were shot to death. This shit is going to be all over every major and minor news station in the next five minutes.”
“Damn. So basically someone tried to execute him.”
“Yeah, looks like. It for sure wasn’t some random ‘street’ crime. He was likely the main target of the shooting. We’re all going to be going over the reports your intelligence contact sent you as well as some additional intel that has just come down. One hour, Boardroom C,” Cahill repeated before he exited Mark’s office.
An hour later, Mark sat around a large oval table with five other unit commanders and senior Navy leadership. Already seated at one end of the table, Admiral Taylor watched as the men filed into the room. Sitting alongside him was Jacob Ryland, acting director of the FBI, and Michael Gerard, the Assistant Director of the FBI counterterrorism division.
As soon as Mark sat down, he noticed that Gerard was glaring at him. Mark and Gerard had bumped heads on more than one occasion on previous missions. Believe it or not, the two men had actually been good friends at one time, ages ago. However, their friendship had evaporated soon after Mark had purloined the affections of his ex-wife Deborah from Gerard. Deborah had briefly dated Gerard prior to her marriage to Mark.
Mark returned the other man’s dark stare for a few seconds before refocusing on the meeting at hand. Everyone else’s eyes in the room focused in on the man who had called the meeting, Admiral Taylor.
Taylor was an imposing man in his early sixties with gray hair that was slowing turning white. He was Yale educated and had been in the military for four decades and had been integral in the counterinsurgency strategies employed by the U.S. military in the ending of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. In other words, the man was a legend.
“As all of you have heard by now, Richard Henning was shot multiple times outside of a hotel in Dallas, Texas this afternoon,” Taylor announced. “He was transported to Parkland Memorial Hospital. He was still alive when arrived to the hospital via ambulance. The trauma team performed an emergency surgery on Henning. Unfortunately, he didn’t pull through. He flat-lined after bleeding out on the operating table approximately one hour ago. Currently, authorities are holding news of his death from reporters. But the local Dallas police and FBI will have to release the information within the next hour. His family has already been notified of his passing.”
Damn.
“Obviously, given Henning’s recent abduction ordeal, there’s a natural concern that he was targeted and executed by a localized cell of the Haqqai network,” Taylor continued. “Matters are now even more complicated because we’ve received information from the FBI counterintelligence unit, the Drug Enforcement Agency, and the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement that Richard Henning’s shipping company is currently under a joint investigation by all three agencies involving potential narcotics trafficking, involving one its clients, Nava Drug Corp, which is based out of Russia.”
What the hell. Drug trafficking? That was hard to believe. Mark wasn’t under any illusions that the former Congressman had been a saint, but a former U.S. Congressman engaged in the drug trade? That was a very hard pill to swallow—especially for a man like Mark who had a strong sense of patriotism and civic duty for his country. To have an actual U.S. government official, former or not, engaged in the narcotics trade would be a huge blow to the confidence that U.S. citizens placed in their elected officials.
“Were there any witnesses to the shooting?” commanding officer David Teprin asked. Teprin was the commanding officer of SEAL Team Eleven. Team Eleven was an elite underwater demolition team. Mark had worked with some of the SEAL Team Eleven members in the past and they were a very solid group.
“We’re not sure at the moment,” Ryland answered. “Both the Dallas FBI field office and the local Dallas PD are still canvassing the area and working to identify any possible witnesses. Also, surveillance tapes are being pulled from the surrounding businesses to see if the actual shooting was caught.”
“The most obvious direction to focus in at this juncture is on identifying the members Haqqai network. We’ve finally received some credible information from our intelligence contacts in the region on that front. It looks like there are two main players who operate at least one wing of the organization: Dr. Haseem Adil and cleric Adib Malook,” Admiral Taylor continued, pausing as one of his assistants clicked to the right slide on the PowerPoint that contain the photos of both of the men.
“Haseem Adil is the man who is in the photograph on the right side of this screen. Cleric Adib Malook is on the left. Adil is a chemist who is originally from Herat, Afghanistan. He graduated from McGill University with advanced degrees in chemistry and molecular biology. Adil got his feet wet in the Islamic extremist movement during the Afghanistan-Soviet war and lent his expertise to the Al-Jaazeez network during the most recent US-Afghanistan War. Malook was born in Saudi Arabia; however, his ancestors were from Kandahar, Afghanistan. Malook is a very wealthy man. His family owns and operates an oil company in Saudi Arabia. Malook moved to Pakistan a few years ago with his wives and children.”
“How do the two men know each other?” Cahill asked Taylor, leaning forward in his seat.
“Three years ago, both of them contributed money to a madrassa in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border town of Miranshah where former Congressman Henning was kidnapped.”
So far, Ericka had been right on the money. “Is there anything off about the cleric?” Cahill asked.
&nb
sp; “Apparently, five years ago in Saudi Arabia, Malook ran into trouble when he was accused of raping the fifteen-year-old daughter of one of his parishioners,” Taylor said. “He was convicted on the charges after he confessed, but per usual got off with a very light sentence—little to no jail time. Public sentiment, however, was against him. That’s when he packed up and left with his family to move to Afghanistan.”
Now that wasn’t surprising to Mark. There had been news of more than a few so-called men of God from different religious groups who preyed on the weak.
“Well other than being a pedophilic douchebag and a complete waste of space, does he have any ties to any groups within the extremist Jihadist movement?” Cahill asked.
“So far the information just points to a solitary madrassa,” Michael Gerard responded. “The teachings within the madrassa have been largely kept secret, but an operative on the ground has recently been able to confirm that the students of the madrassa are being indoctrinated into extremist viewpoints. One of the lessons given at the school is in the ‘art’ of suicide bombing. Also, both have ties to a pharmaceutical laboratory in a small town in Russia called Sokol in the Mtsensky region.”
Mark had been on assignment just out of Sokol a few times in the mid 1990s. The town was located in a very harsh corner of the country, and mirrored the rising poverty levels within the region. Both narcotics and human sex trafficking were strong in the area.
“That brings us to our second and most pressing concern at the moment: the potential of a bioterrorism attack by the Haqqai group on U.S. citizens on U.S. territory. We’ve finally confirmed with officials from the Russian government that not all of their samples of the smallpox virus are secure. It looks like someone managed to steal three of the smallpox specimens from a ‘secure’ facility in Moscow at least three weeks ago. Right now, members of the CIA and other intelligence agencies believe that they have pinpointed the possible location of where those samples have likely been taken.”
Damn. Ericka was two for two. “Why did it take the Russian officials so long to determine whether the samples were secure or not?” Teprin asked.
“The response that we’re getting from the Russian Federation is that over the past few months their Ministry of Health had been coordinating the safe transfer of various infectious disease agents to other secure state-operated facilities,” Taylor said. “Somehow three smallpox samples were taken. Obviously, the samples didn’t just grow legs and walk away on their own. The Russian officials that I spoke to believe that the theft was an inside job.” There was a grim expression on their leader’s face when he finished.
“How long would it take to weaponize the smallpox samples and disseminate it to cause the highest amount of casualties?” Cahill asked.
“According to our contacts at the CDC and the National Institutes of Health, it would only take a matter of days in an adequate laboratory facility to weaponize the samples,” Ryland responded to Cahill’s question. “Once the samples are weaponized then the Haqqai group will have three main ways that they could potentially get the virus into the United Sates. The first would be to transport the virus via airplanes. A lone terrorist, or group of terrorists, could theoretically pack the samples in luggage and then release them once inside the United States. The second way would be to transport the samples via shipping channels. This avenue would be less risky to them than to attempt the first scenario. The third way would be to send a terrorist to the U.S. who is already infected with the virus. If an infected passenger were to travel via plane, then that automatically exposes at least 150 people to the virus. Then those exposed persons can then transmit the smallpox virus, unaware, as they go about their day-to-day lives.”
The third scenario would be similar to a suicide bomber attack, and it would be much harder to prevent. It would be an extreme move, but Mark knew the depths that extremist Islamic groups could sink in the name of Jihad.
“What about missiles? Is it possible that this group could attempt to load a weaponized version of the virus onto missiles and then target the United States?” Mark asked, taking one of the classified briefing documents that were being distributed around the table.
“Theoretically that’s a potential form of transfer, however it’s an extremely remote possibility,” Ryland said. “In order to launch a missile effectively from either the Afghanistan-Pakistan border or Russia to the U.S., the Haqqai group would need a long-range missile. From what we’ve been able to gather about them, they do not have that capability as of yet. In addition, we still have our cutting edge “Missile Shatter” technology that is a highly advanced radar alert system that is designed to detect and destroy all launched missiles before they reach U.S. airspace.”
“Obviously, we have to move on this information quickly,” Admiral Taylor continued. “In the next twenty-four hours, we’re going to start mobilizing teams into Russia and the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. Right now, we don’t have any information to believe that the suspects have transported the virus to the United States. Our best guess is that it is still in Russia. It’s possible that the Haqqai group could have built a brand new laboratory, but it’s more likely that they are using a facility that they already have in place. We have counterintelligence agents who are infiltrating both areas to gather additional information so that we can develop an effective surgical strike plan. We’re sending a team into the Afghanistan-Pakistan border because we’ve identified some high-value targets in that region that we need taken out.”
“What are the odds that this terror network is working alone in Russia?” Mark asked. “I mean, isn’t it likely that they have had to employ some type of muscle to help them out on the ground? Like a group that is familiar with the area and who could provide the connections that they would need to keep local officials at bay while they are following through with their plans?”
“That’s an excellent point, Mark,” Ryland answered. “There are CIA agents on the ground in Russia already, who are checking that very possibility out. There are different organized crime groups within that region that would likely be willing to help for a price. Going back to the basics, we know that the opium trade funds terrorist organizations, particularly in the Middle East. This could explain the heroin found in one of Henning’s tankers approximately six months ago.”
“Well at least alleged to have been found,” Gerard interrupted “We’re still trying to gather enough evidence to create a solid case against the Henning Cooper Company.”
“Henning may have known that one of his clients was shipping heroin in his tankers, but passed up on alerting the authorities for a piece of the action,” Ryland took back over. “Then his deal with the devil blew up in his face. Right now, this is just our working theory.”
Cahill shifted in his seat to reach across the table to grab one of the additional classified documents that he hadn’t received earlier in the meeting.
“So giving Henning the benefit of the doubt that he wasn’t a piece of shit traitor, his shipping company got caught up in the international drug trade, likely for the obvious monetary incentives,” Cahill said. “But why would the Haqqai group target the Henning Cooper Company in the first place—they had to have known that it was owned by a former U.S. Congressman? Wouldn’t that be too risky for them?”
Mark answered his friend’s question saying, “Obviously, it was a risk that they were willing to take. Besides, once word of this reaches the airwaves, American citizens are going to be livid and even more disgusted with their elected officials than they already are—if that’s possible. And that’s even when the Haqqai group fails in their overall mission to attack the United States.”
“And they will fail. It’s our job to make sure that they fail,” Taylor said with a fierce look upon his face. “We’re going to be sending members of SEAL Team Eleven to the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. We’re sending members of SEAL Team Fourteen to Russia, where we believe the smallpox samples are still located. We have to keep all of our activiti
es as close to pocket as possible. We don’t want the Haqqai group to get a whiff that we know about their plans or that we are tracking down their key leaders. If they find out prematurely—before we have our strike teams in place—they could move the virus again and then we’ll be back to square one. Actually worse off than back to square one because more time will have been shaven off the clock.”
Gerard absent-mindedly drummed his fingers on his section of the desk before saying, “In regards to the federal drug investigation into the Henning Cooper Company, as a precaution we’re closely monitoring both of the ports that the company owns. We’ve already alerted the command at the U.S. Coast Guard and they are working in tandem with leadership of both the FBI and DEA. But naturally, the narcotics case is not the most pressing concern that we have at the moment.”
Having the U.S. Coast Guard on deck to monitor Henning’s ports was a piece of good news. Port security was another issue of significant national security that the American public only gave a passing glance—if they paid attention to it at all. Securing U.S. ports was one of the biggest areas of concern for counterterrorism experts.
Every year, almost two billion tons of cargo entered and exited U.S. ports. However, due to funding deficits and the lack of a sufficient labor force to maintain significant security checks at every U.S. port only a very small percentage of that freight was ever checked. This lack of oversight made the U.S. port system an attractive route for terrorists to enact their schemes.
“The bottom line is that we need to move on these fuckers and secure and destroy the virus before they are able to mobilize it for transport,” Taylor added, “Millions of U.S. citizens’ lives are at stake.”
“What happens if the worst case scenario does actually happen?” Teprin asked. “I mean what are the contingency plans for the emergency vaccination of American citizens?”
Pushed to the Edge (SEAL Team 14) Page 14
