The Dreadful Renegade: A Thrilling Espionage Novel (Techno thriller, Mystery & Suspense)

by Charles Z David

  As soon as they got off the train at the central train station they were surrounded by a mass of people of all colors, sizes and ages who spoke at least a dozen different languages. Arabic was quite prominent among them and Nagib relaxed a little feeling secure in this crowd. They entered one of the small electronic stores and bought a couple of SIM cards with prepaid calls that they inserted into their American cellphones. It was getting late in the evening and they easily found a very cheap hotel right near the station. No questions were asked when they asked for a room and paid cash. When the young man at the reception desk spoke to them in Arabic they pretended not to understand and said they were American tourists who were trying to save money by staying in inexpensive hotels. The desk clerk was a little offended as he recognized them as Arabs but didn't make much of it and just handed them the key to their room.

  They had a short rest in the room and then showered in the rusty bathroom, and went out for a pizza and beer. After they had returned to the room Alia called her parents' store in Colorado where it was only early afternoon. Her father answered and said he was relieved and surprised to hear her voice and told her about the visit by the FBI. Alia said that it must be some big mistake as she was on a planned vacation in Europe with her husband. She said that she wanted to know if they had relatives in Europe and wanted to contact them to strengthen the family ties. Her father said that he only knew of some family members in Germany but had last heard from them quite a while ago and didn't have an address or phone number but remembered that the name of their business was "Sayed and Sons, Oriental Foods Imports" in Frankfurt. He added that Sayed was his cousin on his mother's side and that he had become an Ahmadiyyan so most of the family, who were Christians, didn't want anything to do with him, and regarded him as a traitor to the faith. He also said that Sayed was a good man who believed in justice and fairness. Alia told him not to worry about her and that she would be in touch soon and that he should not mention this phone call unless he was directly asked about it. She refrained from telling him that they were in Frankfurt and had plans to go to Turkey.

  A short web search yielded the business phone number and address of "Sayed and Sons, Oriental Foods Imports". It was too late to call the shop but they decided to go there the following morning, case the joint and then decide whether they should contact Sayed and his sons.

  June 22nd, Los Alamos and Washington, DC

  At last, the task force in charge of tracking Nagib and Alia had a breakthrough. The wider net cast by Penny had come up with information that the couple had crossed into Canada and were probably in British Columbia. The cooperation of the RCMP was pitiful at first, when they thought that the US authorities were after the couple for some trumped up allegations. However, this attitude changed when the head of the FBI personally called his opposite number in Ottawa and hinted at the kind of sensitive classified information on nuclear weapons Nagib had downloaded from a computer in one of the most secret and supposedly well-guarded facilities in the United States.

  It didn't take the RCMP more than a few hours to locate the used-car dealer who had bought the old Nissan from Nagib and only a short time to find their motel. A quick check of the passport control database at Vancouver airport showed that they boarded a flight to Frankfurt via a stopover in Reykjavik. The record showed that the ticket had been purchased at a local travel agency. The police inspector who was put in charge of the investigation in Vancouver drove over to the travel agency and was told that the agent who had sold the tickets had already left for the day. He was persistent and called her at home. She clearly remembered the nice, polite couple and after hearing their story of being robbed and about Nagib's father in Istanbul had felt sorry for them and had gone out of her way to assist them. She said that generally someone paying cash and buying a ticket for the next day would raise her suspicion – she was actually directed to call her manager in such a situation – but the couple was so nice, she repeated that, and she saw they were under real stress that she decided to act on her own volition and help them. She said that she had worked out the cheapest and fastest route would be with Icelandair to Frankfurt and from there by a low-cost airline to Istanbul that was their final destination.

  The investigator called his boss who passed the information on to the chief of the RCMP who in turn called the head of the FBI who delivered the news to Penny in Los Alamos. She told her boss that the matter was now out of her hands as her task force could not operate overseas and proposed to close down her group and reassign the responsibility to the other task force that was better suited to handle international affairs.

  By the time these events had unfolded it was close to midnight in Washington, DC, so Penny called Eugene on his private cellphone, apologized for disturbing his sleep and updated him. She said that she had checked with the airline that the plane had landed right on schedule in Frankfurt and that the two Jaber passengers had disembarked there. Eugene asked her if there was any record of them boarding the flight to Istanbul and was told that she had not checked that as the FBI did not have the connections to do so. He then enquired if the FBI had put Alia's parents under surveillance and she answered that they didn't have the manpower for that, and added that they didn't even have a court order to tap their phone. Eugene was truly disappointed and hung up after thanking her for her efforts.

  Despite the late hour Eugene called the NSA member of his task force, an engineer by the name of Brad Evans, explained the situation and asked him to check whether an international call had been placed to Alia's parents' phone. Brad said he'd get back to him shortly and then reported that no such calls were made to their home phone or cellphones, but a call from a mobile phone with a German SIM card was made to their store about 12 hours earlier. Eugene asked if the call was recorded and Brad said that he would have to check that early the next morning. Eugene thanked him and told him to update him as soon as he had the information.

  June 23rd, Frankfurt

  In the morning Nagib and Alia rose early and used public transportation to get to the store of "Sayed and Sons, Oriental Foods Imports". The storefront was very modest – the text on the sign barely fit above the narrow door and store window. It was located in a small quiet street amid a neighborhood in which many Turks and other Muslims lived. At first, there were few people on the street this early, half an hour before most stores opened for business, but gradually more and more people filled the narrow sidewalks. Nagib and Alia wandered around the block and tried to understand the ebb and flow of people and traffic. If they could ignore the signs in German and only look at the people in the street, listen to them speaking and smell the odors they could easily imagine they were in Turkey or somewhere in the Middle East, perhaps even in Palestine.

  Fifteen minutes after the store opened Alia and Nagib entered it. There was one other customer who was being served and after she had filled her basket with products and delicacies and paid the cashier, Alia approached the man who appeared to be the elderly proprietor who was seated at a table behind the cashier. In halting Arabic she asked him if he was Sayed. He looked up, saw a young woman dressed in clothes that were obviously American, and replied courteously that indeed that was his name. She introduced herself and the old man rose from his chair and greeted her with a perfunctory kiss on both cheeks and enquired about the health of her parents. Alia told him that they were well, had made a good life for themselves in Durango, Colorado, but missed the old country. Sayed said that he too missed it but did not want to return there, even for a visit, until peace prevailed in the Middle East. Alia called Nagib and introduced him. So here in Frankfurt stood the three of them – Sayed the Ahmadiyyan, Alia the Christian and Nagib the Muslim – related by family connections, but with little in common. Sayed complained that since his conversion most of his relatives did not speak to him so he was glad to see Alia. He then mentioned that his son, Ammer, had taken one step further away from his Christian roots and converted to Islam, mainly under the influence of his Muslim wife,
Zenab.

  Sayed asked them what they were doing in Frankfurt and Nagib said that they were on vacation in Europe and also planned to travel to Turkey. When Sayed enquired what they did for a living in the US, Alia replied that she worked in the office of the chemical firm in which Nagib was employed as a scientist. This was, of course, true but did not reveal the fact that they had worked in one of the most secret facilities in the US, and certainly did not disclose that they were wanted by US authorities for espionage and high treason. Nagib said that they were robbed on their way to Germany and their credit cards were stolen so were very short for cash as they could not access their bank accounts. He asked Sayed if they could stay with him for a few days until they replaced their stolen credit cards by new ones. Sayed said that he lived with his wife in a studio apartment above the store and had no room there but his son, Ammer, had a large house in a nice suburb just a few kilometers from the city center. He got on the phone and called his son explaining the situation. Ammer said that they were welcome to stay with him and that after work he would come over to the store and pick them up and take them to his home. Nagib and Alia were overjoyed to hear that and said they would go back to their hotel and bring their stuff back to the store in the afternoon.

  They spent most of the day in a park that was very popular with Muslim women with babies, toddlers and young children. Some of the children were obviously Muslim but there were quite a few that were fair haired and others that that were evidently of African origin. They found a bench in the shade that was slightly removed from the playground that the noisy older children used. Nagib sensed that Alia was in a thoughtful mood and scarcely responded to his words. He followed her fleeting looks at the children and recognized what was on her mind. He held her hand in his and gently caressed it, saying that the world wasn't a good place for children and their mission was more important than raising a family. Their successful completion of this mission will bring immense joy to many children and adults. A tear formed in the corner of Alia's eye and she asked Nagib to hug her tightly and rested her head on his shoulder.

  It was early evening when Alia and Nagib were taken by Ammer to his house, which was a large single family home. His wife, Zenab, met them at the door with a big smile and welcomed them. She showed them the way to the guest bedroom that until a couple of years earlier was their teenage daughter's room, who was now a student at the Free University of Berlin. She offered them tea before dinner, and although Nagib would have preferred a chilled beer he refrained from mentioning it in case his hosts were devout Muslims. Alia had told him that Sayed was now a follower of the Ahmadiyye sect after converting from Christianity but they had no idea what Ammer and Zenab believed in until Sayed told them earlier that they were Muslims. After the four of them sat down and had a traditional dinner that consisted of a tasty chicken dish with rice, called Maglouba, and had sweet pastries and dark, bitter coffee for dessert, they chatted. Alia and Nagib repeated the story they had told the old man about being on vacation in Europe and enquired what their hosts did for a living. Zenab said that she had been a school teacher, but after her two kids left the house she volunteered in a Muslim welfare organization that provided advice and modest financial support for immigrants who came from Arab countries to Germany. The work was organized by a community center that operated side by side with a mosque. Zenab added that her husband was very pleased with her job and, secretly, that he was one of the biggest donors of money to the organization. She told them that she was born in Germany but that her parents came from a refugee camp in Gaza to which her grandparents had fled in 1948 when the Israelis drove them away from their home in Jaffa. Ammer said that after he had met her he, too, became a Muslim. That was more or less at the time his father had also abandoned his Christian faith. He said that he had great respect for his father, Sayed, who had emigrated from Palestine when he was a young man, actually just a teenager, and established himself as a merchant in Frankfurt. He said that the sign "Sayed and sons" was no longer accurate, as he himself did not work in the store and his only brother had died in a traffic accident while driving on the autobahn under the influence of alcohol. Ammer told them that he was an electronic engineer by training and an entrepreneur by profession and his own company was one of the major suppliers of communications equipment to the German police and military. He added that his company had over 50 employees, almost all of them of Arabic origin, but said that they had a few native Germans in the sales and marketing division and, of course, in the front office and on the board of directors. He was the founder, owner and CEO of the company. Nagib asked if he had international connections and Ammer replied that his company did a lot of business with the Muslim world, especially with Iran, Turkey and Egypt and that they also dealt with North Korea. Working with North Korea and Iran was especially lucrative as they could charge a premium on merchandize that these countries could not buy on the open market.

  The women cleared the dishes and the men lit cigars and continued to talk. Nagib probed Ammer gently and asked what he thought about the situation in the Middle East and particularly in Palestine. Ammer responded in a detached manner without committing himself that the situation was not good and was getting worse. Nagib said that he felt that he was brainwashed by the American media that was generally biased towards Muslim-bashing and that objective news was hard to find, and wondered if Ammer could bring him up to date on what really was going on there. He added that his own family's history in Palestine was very sad and described how the Israelis bulldozed his parents' house and murdered his brother, Yassir the martyr, in cold blood. Ammer asked him if he intended to get back at the Israelis or forget about the injustice inflicted on his family and settle down in America. Nagib said that he was a proud man and would certainly not behave like a lamb as generations of Palestinian had done, and hinted that he may have a way of avenging the mistreatment of his people. Ammer asked what he had on his mind, but Nagib would go no further. Ammer then said that he had connections with all kinds of elements that were similarly motivated to make a point for the just cause of the Palestinian people and Islam.

  Ammer and Nagib knew they were on slippery ground and behaved in the manner that two porcupines made love – very carefully. Nagib then told Ammer that he had obtained sensitive, highly valuable, classified information that could be used for bartering with suitable partners. Ammer enquired what kind of partners and Nagib responded that he would have to sleep on it before taking the next step. Meanwhile the women returned from the kitchen and joined them and the conversation shifted to other topics.

  June 23rd, Washington, DC

  Brad, the NSA operative, called Eugene and told him that the phone call from Frankfurt to Alia's parents was not recorded as the phone number was not considered as important and no "trigger words" were used. Eugene knew that by "trigger words" Brad referred to words that would obviously imply acts of terror like "bomb", "explosive", "detonate", "target" etc. or those that are indicative of illegitimate deeds like "kill" or even "eliminate", or "numbered bank account" for example. This may have worked in the Twentieth Century before even the most stupid terrorists and dumb criminals knew about the extensive network of eavesdropping by "big brother" but would not be very useful nowadays. Although the system was now operative in many languages there were very few fish that were caught in the net – the big ones completely avoided using electronic communications and the small ones got through the large holes in the netting. Eugene said that he was disappointed but not surprised as Nagib and Alia were sophisticated people who knew all about the NSA and its powerful algorithms. He said that he would send an FBI agent to interview Alia's parents and try and find out where she was calling from and what they discussed.

  In the afternoon Eugene received a call from the FBI agent who interviewed Alia's parents. He reported that he was under the impression that they had been seriously intimidated by the second visit of FBI agents in less than a week and were fully cooperative. He said that he had recorded the
whole interview and had it on tape and promised to send a transcript of the entire interview. Alia's father said that he had taken the phone call and repeated the conversation as best as he could remember it. The agent said that in his opinion the most important part was the sudden interest she had shown in her European relatives, especially those who lived in Frankfurt, and added that the details were in the transcript. Eugene asked him if any specific names or addresses were mentioned and the agent said the name of "Sayed and Sons, Oriental Foods Imports" appeared to be the only explicit point. Eugene copied the name, thanked the agent and hung up.

  Eugene knew that late afternoon in Washington was close to midnight in Frankfurt and wondered who he could call for local assistance. He thought the CIA would have a large office in Frankfurt in view of the importance of the city as one of the busiest airports in the world and the main hub of Lufthansa so despite the hour called the head of the CIA office. Greg Dower was not very happy when his encrypted phone rang and at first wanted to ignore it, but as the caller persisted he picked it up and mumbled "What?" Eugene introduced himself and apologized "Sorry to wake you up in the middle of the night but we have a situation that requires immediate action" and went on to describe the importance of the classified information stolen by Nagib and Alia. Greg asked him to hold on for a minute while he washed his face and swallowed a couple of aspirins. He then said "I'll call my team first thing in the morning and check the information. Do you want to involve the BND or local police?" Eugene thought for a moment and said "No, not yet. Please use your own people and update me as soon as you find out anything about Sayed and Sons, Oriental Foods Imports".

  June 23rd, close to midnight, Frankfurt

  As soon as Eugene hung up Greg called the office of the Director of the CIA in Langley. After mentioning that it was an urgent matter directly related to national security he was put through to the DCI. The instructions delivered were very clear: terminate the culprits with extreme prejudice and recover or destroy the memory stick. Greg asked if this included the woman and was told in no uncertain terms that she deserved the same treatment as her husband, as both were dreadful renegades and outrageous traitors. The DCI added that it was entirely up to the agency to prevent an incident that would not only be a great embarrassment to the USA but also posed a clear and present danger to national security and global interests of the USA. He blamed the bungling NNSA and its lapse of basic security concepts regarding screening the people it employed and the control of classified information. When Greg said that the FBI was also involved the DCI said that he expected them to drop the ball every time a pass was thrown in their direction, so he was not surprised. Greg Dower knew that his future in the CIA rested on his ability to handle this case and promised himself to do his utmost to succeed.