by Brad Taylor
Not wanting to derail his next steps with a debate on the Mossad, Kurt stuck with Pike’s excuse. “Al-Britani was their target. It wasn’t a question of using them. They were in the heart of the mission, and they were a known quantity.” He turned to President Warren. “Sir, you personally gave both of them awards for their help in our operation in Brazil last year. We’ve worked with them before.”
He’d deal with Pike’s little team-building exercise later, but he wanted—needed—to get a favorable opinion on Aaron and Shoshana, because they were crucial to what he wanted to do next. To that end, he’d left out Pike’s suspicions about Shoshana’s culpability in the death of al-Britani, calling it self-defense.
President Warren said, “I have no issue with using those two, specifically, but I do have a concern with the Mossad. What’s their stance? How was this left?”
“The team isn’t working directly for the Mossad anymore. They’re more freelancers now. Basically, they both ‘retired’ and now get hired through whatever shell companies and cutouts Mossad owns to do missions that are deniable. In this case, to operate in Jordan without the repercussions they’ve had in the past with active agents.”
“Sounds familiar.”
Kurt smiled and said, “Maybe on the surface, but there’s a distinct difference. We use the Taskforce because it’s offensively the best way to go about the mission, not defensively because we’re afraid of using something else. Pike thinks it’s simply a way for the Israeli government to cut them away if they get caught. Unlike the Taskforce.”
Kurt wanted to ensure that nobody in the room confused the Taskforce’s operational limits with the Israelis’, and was gently reminding the Council that their teams weren’t throwaway, no matter what happened with Mossad.
President Warren smiled at the mild rebuke. “Point noted, but you didn’t answer the question. What’s the damage with Israel? What do they know?”
“Nothing. They had a one-off contract, and the contract was fulfilled. Actually capturing al-Britani would have caused bigger issues with Israel than his death. Aaron and Shoshana reported success, and are off the leash. Mentioning us would have just caused complications they don’t need. You know what happens when intel organizations get stray voltage. They start spinning, and that might have impacted payment to the team.”
He glanced at Kerry Bostwick, the director of the CIA, and said, “No offense.”
Kerry said, “None taken, as long as you don’t hide similar things from me. What about the Jordanians? Nothing’s spiked from my guys at the station. All they’re reporting is a terrorist shootout with police and a roll-up of a bunch of thugs in Ma’an, apparently part of the Islamic State plot. What’s Pike seeing from the ground?”
“The same. Your liaison connection was a little slow, but they conveniently arrived right after the shootout. The only thing it impacted was the site exploitation. We got a computer, but had to leave before fully exploiting the apartment. Anyway, we should be clean. No compromise.”
Palmer said, “So where do we go from here? Anything that can help us with the Lost Boys?”
“We do have a new thread, but it’s not from the Lost Boys. We are no longer confident they’re a cohesive group.”
President Warren said, “That contradicts the CIA assessment. What leads you to that conclusion?”
Kurt said, “Actually, Kerry and I have talked, and I’ll defer to his judgment. He’s leaning that way, and, at this point, I tend to agree. Kerry?”
Kerry put his elbows on the table and said, “Sir, nothing is a given, but all we had before was the brief report from BOBCAT. We never got to debrief him, and Hussein being called a Lost Boy contradicts the original assessment of a group of United States citizens with no ties to the Middle East being prepped for an attack. Hussein had ties to Jordan, and that’s exactly what they used him for. If he was a member of a dedicated group, he doesn’t fit the very profile we’re afraid of. He was killed in Jordan, facilitating an attack with other Arabic men. This leads me to believe that it’s just a term they use. Something they call a type of jihadist. Maybe it’s for Westerners, or maybe just Americans, but at this time we don’t assess it as from a specific, credible group targeting the United States.”
Palmer said, “What about the White House comment on the beheading video?”
“It’s just a comment. It could be something they use to engender support. He could have easily said ‘for the crusaders’ or something else. We can’t use that to say they’re targeting the White House.”
President Warren said, “But the man in the video was a Caucasian.”
Kurt said, “Yes, sir. Using BOBCAT’s reporting, we now assess that there are several previously unknown Americans—without any Arabic heritage—now working for the Islamic State. It’s still a threat, and something for the CIA to watch, but we don’t assess they’re working as a team, targeting outside the conflict in Syria and Iraq. They may still come home, and we need to identify them, but we don’t assess it as a collective, deliberate targeting process.”
Secretary of State Billings leaned back and said, “Thank heavens for that.”
President Warren said, “That may be, but I don’t want to be caught flat-footed, like we were on 9/11. We missed indicators then, and as far as I’m concerned, this is an indicator. Stick with it. Find out who they are.”
Kerry said, “Yes, sir.”
Warren turned back to Kurt and said, “You mentioned another thread? What did you find from this operation if it wasn’t about the Lost Boys?”
“Believe it or not, a major target of the Khorasan group. You remember the alleged foreign fighter who had supposedly defected to al Qaida from French intelligence?”
“Yeah, but I thought he was a myth. He ended up being just a young French bomb-maker, and we killed him in an air strike.”
“That was the conventional wisdom, but we scanned the computer al-Britani had with him. He was using Twitter to direct message with another man, and we believe this man is Rashid al-Jaza’iri, a Frenchman of Algerian descent who has had significant training with French intelligence. We know for a fact he’s with the Khorasan group.”
Alexander Palmer said, “That’s pretty damn specific. Was there a folder called ‘My Top Secret Jihadist Friends’ on the computer? What leads you to this?”
“The Khorasan group connection is from the direct messages. Rashid was instructing al-Britani to do the attack, then claim credit in the name of Jabhat al-Nusra and Khorasan instead of the Islamic State. Apparently, there’s not a lot of love between them, regardless of all the reports of reconciliation.”
“And the name and background?”
Kurt shuffled his feet, thinking, Here goes nothing. . . .
He said, “The Israelis. While we were always wondering if he was a ghost or not, Mossad’s been tracking him. Shoshana and Aaron recognized the Twitter handle as one he uses. It’s never used for broadcast tweets. Only direct messages.”
President Warren looked at Kerry. “And they’ve been keeping this from us?”
Kerry raised his hands and said, “Sir, we don’t give them everything either.”
President Warren shook his head, muttering something under his breath, clearly aggravated.
Billings said, “Why Twitter? Why not something more secure?”
“We don’t know. Best assessment is that Rashid didn’t have an email address for al-Britani. The British guy was all over Twitter bragging about his beheadings, so it may have been the only way for Rashid to find him. We do know that al-Britani was first fighting with Jabhat al-Nusra before switching allegiance to the Islamic State, so their paths may have crossed before. The rest is just speculation.”
Palmer took over, asking Kurt, “So you want to do what, exactly?”
“I want to go get Rashid. The last ISP used is from an Internet café in Tirana, Albania. Give me Alpha authority to explore the issue, then on-call Omega to roll him up. It may not go anywhere, and I won’t do an
ything unless I can confirm it’s him, but when I do, I can’t have a long debate. The Twitter ISPs have been all over the map, and he’s probably not going to stay long. Let’s do the debate now, ahead of time.”
Billings said, “We’re going backwards with this. In Nairobi, we got a report on the situation from the ground before granting Omega.”
Kurt said, “That was going backwards. You severely restricted my ability to operate. I understand why, since we’d just conducted a separate Omega operation, but if we’d have let the Nigerian get arrested with everyone else, we wouldn’t have gotten the intelligence that led to the elimination of the Islamic State emir.”
The secretary of defense said, “How long will it take to spin up a team? If you’re worried he’s not staying, isn’t this a moot point?”
“I’m using the same element from Jordan. We have a complete Omega package there, with a support team that was supposed to transport Hussein, Pike for assault, and Blaine’s headquarters element as overarching control. It’s only a two-and-a-half-hour flight from Jordan, and I’ve already got them prepping to leave. All I need is the go-ahead. You say no, and I’ll turn them around.”
He saw Billings’s sour look and said, “I had to get them moving. All they’re doing is flying. I didn’t step on your authority.”
Palmer said, “We’re getting ahead of ourselves. How are you going to confirm that the target is correct? Surely he doesn’t have his real picture on his Twitter profile.”
“No, we don’t have any pictures of him. The profile picture is the Twitter egg.”
“Then how?”
Kurt considered his next words, the phrase boom goes the dynamite floating in his head. He ignored the rest of the room, focusing on President Warren. Needing his support.
“Sir, I . . . uh . . . have a couple of people with the team who know him on sight.”
43
I said, “Yes, sir. WILCO,” then hung up the cool, James Bond satellite phone affixed permanently to the small desk in front of me, thinking of the ramifications. I glanced at Jennifer, as usual in the window seat, watching the land of Jordan fall away as we rose into the air, her head pressed against the window like a child, the larger window facilitating a view that she’d never get on a commercial aircraft.
We were flying a Taskforce Gulfstream 650, which was conveniently leased to Grolier Recovery Services, the company Jennifer and I used for operations. While it was cool to zip around like a rock star, the plane actually had a few operational capabilities that were crucial. All of them built into an aircraft that rock stars used, and now available for us. As we say in the Taskforce, “money is no object.”
Across from me, in another plush, full-size seat that faced my direction like one on a train, Knuckles said, “Well? Where are we landing?”
I glanced toward the back of the aircraft, where Shoshana and Aaron were sitting and said, “Looks like we’re a go. How in the hell Kurt convinced the Oversight Council to let this continue is beyond me, but it was apparently a pretty good fight. Blaine says best behavior on this one.”
“Did Kurt tell them about our strap-hangers?”
“He had to. They’re the only ones who know what Rashid looks like. He couldn’t get approval for Alpha without a lead, and having an anchor of an Internet café wasn’t cutting it. At that point, apparently, things got ugly. Especially with that shithead Billings.”
Knuckles laughed and glanced back, making sure we were outside of earshot. “Billings has had a hard-on for you since Brazil. I’m sure your Israeli love interest being both there and now here caused him to shit a brick. He’s probably trying to figure out how you managed to get a Mossad team into Jordan to help your operation.”
I bristled at that, saying, “She’s not my damn love interest, and she purposely killed al-Britani. She has her own agenda, which concerns me.”
He said, “Yeah, yeah, whatever. I may not be a spoon-bender like her, but I can see the connection.”
I waited on Jennifer to defend me, and when she didn’t, I said, “Are you going to let him say that shit?”
She said, “I’ll correct him the minute he’s wrong.”
“I can’t believe I’m even talking about this. The fact remains that she ignored orders and purposely killed our target. I get she’s needed here, but I worry about what she’ll do next.”
Knuckles said, “I’m not going to second-guess what happened out there. The guy was a terrorist willing to give his life for the cause. He was apparently on a suicide run, and he held a pistol. He got what was coming.”
I turned to Jennifer and said, “You were there. I got there late, but I saw that twisted thing in Shoshana. The one that comes out when she’s killing. She looked like a damn demon. Tell me I’m wrong.”
“I know. I saw it too. What Knuckles says is true, but there was no way he was getting off the bridge alive once she showed up.”
I said, “And you let her go, when you broke orders.”
She looked like I’d slapped her, the implications clear on who was responsible for the end result. Knuckles interrupted, “She made a bad call, but the guy beheaded four Americans—that we know of. I got no issues with what happened to him.”
I said, “That shithead’s death isn’t the point. It’s the manner in which he was killed. We have zero information from him because he cracked his head like a melon on the concrete. We might as well have used a drone.”
Jennifer pursed her lips at my words but remained silent.
I said, “We have another mission, and this one is a capture to get to the heart of the Khorasan group. I don’t know if she’s capable of that. All she wants to do is kill.”
Jennifer said, “Al-Britani was her target. She talked to me about it in the van, before we left. She’ll listen to you. If she says she’ll follow orders, she will.”
“And how in the hell would you know that? Did you order her to eliminate al-Britani?”
“No! Of course not.”
“Then what’s changed? Are you psychic now too?”
She looked uncomfortable, saying nothing.
I said, “So it’s women’s intuition?”
I saw her eyes flash with anger and she said, “I lied about the bruises on my face. It wasn’t from the fight across the bridge.”
Taken aback, I went from her to Knuckles. He shrugged, unsure of where this was going.
She said, “Just get them up here. Give them the brief. She won’t fight you. I’ve seen what her word means. If she says she won’t do something, she won’t. But get her to say it. Looking back, she never told me she wouldn’t execute al-Britani. If she gives you her word, she’ll honor it.”
“You never trusted her before. What happened?”
“Let’s just say that I found a connection. Okay? If she wants to talk, she can. It’s her call.”
What the hell? Jennifer was turning into an enigma. I used to be able to predict like clockwork what she’d say or where she’d stand on an issue, but lately, she seemed to be expanding her ability to deal with ambiguity. I wasn’t sure if I liked it. That was my terrain, and I relied on her as a sounding board. It did no good to talk to a mirror for answers, and she was rapidly becoming my image in the mirror.
I said, “Get ’em up here. Just them at first. I want some words with Aaron with Shoshana present. Then we’ll bring up the team.”
Knuckles did so, giving up his seat and standing in the aisle. The team in the back looked on curiously, but knew they’d be read on soon enough. I’m sure they were spinning conspiracy theories about what was going on.
Directly across from me was Aaron, with Shoshana in the window seat across from Jennifer. With a smile, he said, “So? Are you willing to use our expertise? We are outside of a contract right now and are available.”
I said, “First question, and this is from my higher command: Are you truly independent? Or is Mossad going to get a detailed operational summary of what occurs?”
“You mean, can I be
trusted?”
“Yes, that’s exactly what I mean.”
Shoshana said, “That question was answered in Brazil. We never said a thing to Mossad about you. All they know is that we helped the United States. And got an award for doing so. They think it’s CIA.”
“How do I know that? Those are just words.”
Aaron said, “Yes, it might be just words, but it’s also irrelevant. If we were going to expose you, it would have already happened. But we didn’t. And we have much less reason to do so now. Anyway, we don’t even know who you work for.”
I considered his answer for a moment, then said, “Okay, I’ll believe you, but this is not for debate: I’ve got approval to capture Rashid. Take him down for follow-on intelligence. Is that going to be a problem?”
Confused, Aaron said, “No. Of course not. Why would we be against that?”
“Because your little assassin here wants to kill everything. That’s why.”
Shoshana bristled and started to say something. Aaron, his eyes still on mine, held out his hand and she stopped, amazing me that anyone could control her. He said, “Al-Britani was an enemy of the State of Israel. We were on a sanctioned mission. I cannot help that you interfered, but the mission comes first.”
He didn’t even question what had happened. Made no flimsy excuses. I said, “Just like the Russian in Istanbul.”
He leaned back and said, “Yes. Just like Vlad the Impaler.”
I said, “So what’s the mission here? Lay it out. I’m getting sick of the surprises.”
“Our mission now is that we work for you. I told you, I’m not under the constant employ of the State of Israel. I agreed to do this because you asked. Nothing more.”
I glanced at Shoshana and she saw something in my eyes that she didn’t like. She finally let out her feelings. “You Americans are always so superior. Always sure of your righteousness. You’ve never lived with the wolf at the door. Because of it, you put the mission second.” She looked at Jennifer and said, “You’re always willing to protect the men in your command at the expense of success.”
