“You did the right thing, Virge,” Harry said. “I’m proud of you. But I have some advice. Turn off your cell phone and don’t answer any emails. The media’s going to be gunning for you, and I reckon they can figure out your number if they try hard enough.”
As if to prove Harry right, Virgil heard his call-waiting signal.
“Thanks, Harry – I have to go. Bye.”
He hung up.
He clicked onto the other line, and it was Cheney.
“Virgil,” the familiar icy voice said. “We have to talk.”
“Yes, sir,” Virgil replied, the uncomfortable feeling growing. “What have I unleashed?” he thought.
“Be at my office at 5:30,” Cheney said. “And don’t talk to any more reporters.” He hung up.
Virgil stood there holding the phone for a moment, heart beating in his ears. He knew this would get him fired, but nevertheless, he felt like a child caught in some disgraceful act by his parents. What an odd sensation. Virgil had gone through his career saying what he thought, not worried about others’ sensitivities. And now he was shaking like a leaf. He poured himself a glass of bourbon and took a few sips. Thinking of Harry’s advice, he turned off his cell phone. Then he sat down at his cheap and chipped old desk that Linda always nagged him to replace, opened up his laptop, and clicked onto NYTimes.com. Nancy’s story was the headline, sprayed across the top of the home page. Virgil leaned forward and read.
From The New York Times, Sept. 17, 2001:
“Administration Official Says New York Skyscrapers May Have Been Target of Tuesday’s Hijackers; Warns More Attacks are Possible”
By Nancy Hanson
WASHINGTON – A top White House terrorism official has warned President George W. Bush that Tuesday’s hijackers may have been targeting buildings and monuments in New York City, and that underground “sleeper cells” of terrorists may remain in the United States planning further attacks.
Virgil Walker, the President’s chief advisor on terrorism, said in a memo to the President obtained by The New York Times that Tuesday’s attackers were likely on a suicide mission, bent on crashing the planes either into the ground or into buildings. Although all of the terrorists on the planes died in the collision, which killed 150, Mr. Walker believes the United States needs to launch an operation to find any partners of the hijackers who may still be in the country.
“Tuesday’s collision of the planes, judging from the evidence we have, appeared to have been accidental,” Mr. Walker warned in his memo to Mr. Bush. “Based on the intelligence we’ve gathered over the last five years, as well as both planes turning toward New York City, I believe the terrorists had major U.S. buildings and monuments in mind as targets. We can’t be assured that all the terrorists in this operation died in the collision. There may be others connected with the plot who are still in this country, preparing other attacks.”
Mr. Walker added that the administration needs to make finding these terrorists and capturing or killing Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden its top priority. He said he had warned the administration of possible terrorist attacks against the United States prior to last Tuesday, and that Tuesday’s attacks vindicated his fears.
“Let’s move on Al-Qaeda now,” Mr. Walker’s memo concluded. “Quickly and immediately. If we fail to take adequate, aggressive and timely measures to wipe out Al-Qaeda as a terrorist operation, our first warning of another attack here could be buildings burning in New York or Washington.”
The White House reacted quickly to Mr. Walker’s memo, issuing a statement noting that the administration is already targeting foreign terror groups, but warning the public not to panic over Mr. Walker’s prognostications.
“President Bush is committed to rooting out and bringing to justice the plotters of Tuesday’s tragic hijackings,” the White House’s statement said. “A concerted effort is already underway to locate and capture or kill terrorist leader Osama bin Laden, and to learn which countries may be sheltering him or aiding him in his attacks against us. Furthermore, we have taken measures here in the United States to protect citizens from future attacks. At this time, we have no intelligence warning of any further attacks, but we remain vigilant. We urge Americans to continue going about their lives as normal, but to remain on guard and report anything suspicious to the appropriate authorities. There is no reason to worry about flight safety, as the type of attacks we experienced last Tuesday are now impossible to replicate.”
The statement added, “Mr. Walker’s decision to reveal sensitive intelligence to the public was not constructive, and appropriate measures will be taken to ensure that important intelligence that could protect Americans is kept confidential in the future.”
A phone call to the White House inquiring about Mr. Walker’s future in the administration wasn’t immediately returned Sunday afternoon.
Mr. Walker’s memo didn’t spell out details of intelligence that led him to predict possible future attacks. Nor did it explain why he believed the hijackers may have been targeting buildings and monuments. If that indeed was the hijackers’ plan, it would mark a major new development among terrorist operatives, who previously have used individual suicide bombers to attack planes and buildings, but have never sent suicide bombers into planes with buildings as their targets. Mr. Walker didn’t provide evidence of any specific New York targets the hijackers may have been aiming at, but said the collision of the two planes was clearly not part of the hijackers’ plan. He didn’t explain how the collision had happened, or why he was convinced it was accidental. The government has not released the planes’ cockpit voice recorder transcripts, but it is believed the hijackers took the controls of both planes after killing the pilots.
Mr. Walker also made it clear that he believes Bin Laden was behind Tuesday’s plot, though he didn’t provide evidence pointing to the Al-Qaeda leader. Bin Laden, in a statement last week, denied any connection to the hijackings, but did call the hijackers, ‘holy warriors,’ for striking against the United States, which the terrorist leader called a “despicable evil empire.”
President Bush has not yet explained how he plans to target Bin Laden. In 1998, President Clinton ordered missile strikes against several targets in Sudan and Afghanistan, with the goal of killing Bin Laden, but didn’t succeed. Those strikes came after terrorist attacks targeting embassies in Africa that killed hundreds.
Last fall, a suicide mission killed 17 U.S. sailors and injured 39 others aboard the U.S.S. Cole, which at the time was harbored in the Yemeni port of Aden. Until Tuesday, that was the last significant terrorist attack against U.S. interests, and many experts believe Al-Qaeda was behind it, though the organization has never claimed responsibility. There have been no U.S. reprisals in response to the Cole attack, and according to Mr. Walker, the lack of U.S. response to that terrorist mission may have emboldened Al-Qaeda, helping to inspire Tuesday’s attack.
“Lack of a strong response to the Cole attack by both the previous and current administrations has Al-Qaeda convinced it can strike the U.S. and our allies without retribution,” Mr. Walker wrote. “We cannot afford to let Tuesday’s hijackings go unanswered as well, or we open ourselves up to further attacks.”
Walker, who has served in administrations of both political parties over the last three decades and is believed to be a Republican, also served as an adviser on terrorism to President Clinton, and remained in his current job after the new administration took over earlier this year. He is known as a “lone wolf,” with few friends in Washington, according to one associate, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“He’s dedicated his career to destroying terror organizations, and he’s very frustrated with the response to terror of both the current and previous administrations,” the associate said Sunday, referring to Mr. Walker. “I think he released this memo to force the administration to take a more aggressive response against Al-Qaeda, and also to alert the American people that they’re not out of danger.”
Mr. Walker’s
associate added that Mr. Walker has spent years focused on Al-Qaeda and Bin Laden, and may be the foremost U.S. expert on the group and its intentions.
Mr. Walker, when contacted by The New York Times, declined to add any further comments beyond those he shared in his memo to the President.
Virgil read the article twice, wondering who had called him a “lone wolf.” It had to have been Harry. Who else would have known his motivations so well? He’d never thought of himself as a lone wolf, but he supposed he’d become one over the last eight months, hiding out in his basement office so much, only surfacing to deliver dire warnings of Armageddon. He smiled to himself. In Washington, there were plenty of lone wolves. What was the old saying? If you want a friend in Washington, buy a dog. Right. He got up and prepared to head to the White House to get his head bitten off. He turned his cell phone on and it started ringing immediately. There were several messages in his voice mail. He flipped the phone closed and turned it off.
CHAPTER 8
Coming to America
The next day, around the time Nancy was writing her article about Virgil’s firing, an Air France 767 landed at JFK airport. The passengers, some of whom had been a little jittery traveling overseas to the United States less than a week after the deadly hijackings, filed off, happy to be done with their journey. Deep in the coach section, a slight man in his mid-30s, with a prominent high forehead, thinning hair and a short black beard and mustache took his carry-on bag down from the bin and put the strap over his shoulder. When his turn finally came to exit, he walked behind the other passengers to the front of the aircraft. “Merci and thank you,” the young flight attendant said as passengers disembarked. The man didn’t reward her with an answer, walking by without a word.
The Director exited the jet-way into customs and looked around. This was his first time in many years back in the United States, where he’d attended college in the 1980s, doing mediocre work and piling up a series of citations for reckless driving. His English was extremely rusty, but his Pakistani passport was a good fake put together by Jarrah some time ago. He lined up among the other foreign passengers and when he reached the front, told the attendant he had nothing to declare. The attendant, who’d been on duty for six hours and needed a break, looked over the Director’s identification quickly, saw nothing out of line, stamped his passport and waved him through. The Director left the airport in a taxi and disappeared into the streets of New York City.
Part Two – The Plot Advances: 2006
“Who knows if he’s hiding in some cave or not? We haven’t heard from him in a long time. The idea of focusing on one person really indicates to me people don’t understand the scope of the mission. Terror is bigger than one person. He’s just a person who’s been marginalized… I don’t know where he is. I really just don’t spend that much time on him, to be honest with you.”
-President George W. Bush, on Osama bin Laden, 2002
CHAPTER 1
German Connection (Summer 2006)
It was the middle of the night when Alev Asani’s cell phone rang. She hoped it was just a dream, but the sound kept piercing her sleep, and she slowly swam back to consciousness, lying alone in bed in her small apartment in downtown Munich.
By the time it had rung seven times she realized whoever it was wasn’t going to give up. She looked at her bedside clock. It was 3:47. Outside her window the sky was pitch black. She picked up the phone.
“Hello?” she said sleepily in German.
“Alev?” the familiar voice said.
“Ziad?” Alev said, suddenly wide awake. “Is it you?”
“Yes, it’s me.” Jarrah said. His voice sounded far away over the international phone line, but it was still the one Alev remembered so well. The two of them had lived together for several months in the late 1990s, but then Jarrah had left for America and almost vanished from her life. In mid-2001, out of nowhere, seemingly, he re-appeared in Germany, and they’d spent a few days going back to their old haunts, sleeping in her apartment at night. He’d been mysterious about his activities in the U.S., and wouldn’t answer her questions about what he was doing there.
But she and her parents had strongly believed he was involved in some sort of terrorist activities, and she’d urged him to stay with her. He’d seemed to be considering it, but then left to meet a friend one day and never came back. She’d called him a bunch of times after that, but got no response. This was all so unlike him, compared to the happy times they’d shared as students a year or two earlier. Back then, he’d seemed happy-go-lucky, and always was the one relaxing with a beer, staying out of arguments. He hadn’t seemed to give politics much thought, and seldom went to mosque.
When news broke of the Sept. 11 terrorist hijacking and plane collision, she’d frantically scanned the papers and Internet to see if his name was mentioned among those of the hijackers, but he wasn’t one of them. In the five years since, she’d given up on hearing from him again, and had several other boyfriends, none of them too serious. She supposed at age 28 it was time to find someone to settle down with, but she was pretty busy with her career in dentistry and just hadn’t found the time to commit to another serious relationship.
“Where are you?” Alev said into the phone. She was speaking quietly, and then realized there was no reason to do so. She was alone in the apartment and there was no one to disturb.
“I’m still in America,” Jarrah said. “I’ve been thinking about you a lot the last five years.”
“Then why didn’t you call me until now?” Alev asked, a tinge of irritation creeping into her tone. “And why did you call me in the middle of the night?”
“I knew you’d be home,” Jarrah replied. “Sorry I woke you up. I’m just glad you have the same number. I thought it might be hard to find you.”
“No, I have the same one,” Alev said. “I never changed it in case you decided to call.”
There was silence for a moment. Alev turned on the light, swung her long, light-brown hair behind her shoulders – the light reflected on her almond-colored skin.
“Are you still in Germany?” Jarrah finally asked.
“Yes, Ziad. I graduated from dental school and I’m working in a practice here in Munich. Can you come visit?”
“No, no,” Jarrah said, sounding sad. “I’m stuck here. Can you come see me?”
She thought for a minute before replying, her sleepy mind still trying to reconcile so many factors at once.
“I don’t know, Ziad. I’m booked up with patients. It’s a long trip. And it’s expensive. Why did you disappear and not call me for five years?”
“It’s complicated,” Jarrah said. “I can’t talk about it on the phone. Come see me. I’m in Chicago. I’ll pay for your ticket.”
“Ziad, we have to talk before I get on a plane,” Alev replied, propping herself up on her elbow. “I’m still angry at you. You just deserted me. And you were mixed up with something bad, I could tell.”
“I can explain things if you come here,” he said. “It’s not something we can talk about now.”
Alev sighed. He was still going to be mysterious; that much was obvious. Her bright blue eyes reflected in the glass, framed by dark eyebrows that furrowed at this sudden turn of events. She looked out the window, where the sky remained dark. Headlights of a lone car passed slowly by on the street below, casting their light into her room for a moment.
“Let me think about it,” she said.
Jarrah clicked the phone off and wondered what had made him call her. He hadn’t planned to, but for some reason, her face kept popping up in his head, and he’d found himself dialing the old number, almost to test if it still worked. His mind had been focused on planning, logistics, next steps, and his daily prayers. But sometimes it seemed as if he were going through the motions, and that’s when he’d think of Alev.
CHAPTER 2
Nancy Contemplates a Change
“I still don’t see how you can do this,” Nancy Hanson’s mother was s
aying, for the umpteenth time, it seemed. Nancy and her mother were sitting in the den of Nancy’s parents’ home in Tucson, one of about 50 one-story homes in a gated community, each with its own pool. The home was one of those modern, “open” plans, with marble floors and no distinct rooms. Kitchen, living room and dining area all blended into one, making Nancy feel a bit exposed. She preferred the small, distinct rooms of her little apartment back in D.C. She also didn’t like how her parents had decorated the place with a Southwestern motif. The walls were covered with cheap-looking paintings of cacti and cowboys. Now that her mom and dad had retired to Arizona, they suddenly fancied Frederick Remington prints. It was mid-September, five years after the events of September 2001, and still kind of early in the fall to be out here. The temperatures hit 100 every day, though it was a dry heat, like being inside of a laundry dryer, Nancy thought.
“Mom, I sometimes wonder too, but you’ve got to look at it this way – it may be my one chance to really get to the top of my profession,” Nancy replied, looking her mother right in the eyes. It was 10 p.m., and Joanna and Nancy’s dad were out seeing a movie.
“But honey, you are at the top of your profession,” said her mother, who, like Nancy, was a small, dark-haired woman. She’d been a high school English teacher until retiring a few years ago. Her hair was graying prominently, however, while Nancy’s only had a few strands of silver even at age 45. Nancy hoped she’d take after her father, who still sported a nice dark head of hair even now as he approached 70, albeit with a growing bald spot in back.
“To some extent, you’re right, mom,” Nancy replied, trying to sound calm. “Being a White House reporter for the Times is a very prominent position. But I’ve been doing this for so long, now, and I think I’ve been typecast. In journalism, if you stay in the same place for too many years, you start to get looked over.”
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