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

by Charles Z David

  David gathered the Mossad team and told them to focus on Sayed's family and try and learn more about him. In a short while they found out that he had lost one of his sons in a traffic accident and had a single son left, Ammer. They also discovered that Ammer was a successful businessman who lived in a large house in one of the better suburbs of Frankfurt. Later that night David sent the team to survey the house and they reported back that there was car in the two car garage. One of the agents touched the car bonnet and found that the engine was warm as if the driver had just returned from a long drive. The agent also said that the lights in the house were still on and they could see through the partially drawn curtains that a man was sitting on the sofa, smoking a cigar and holding what looked like a late night drink. The description of the man fit their information about Ammer, Sayed's son. No other person was seen from the outside. David remembered the horrendous, yet effective, interrogation method he had deployed in Greece while chasing the Dreadful Alchemist, and called the Mossad team to gather for a briefing. By the time the team arrived at the safe house it was well past midnight. David was pleased to see that the force at his disposal was larger and more experienced than the small group of operatives he had in Athens, but on the other hand their target was not a Greek businessman or a scientist, but someone who understood Arabic and knew all about the Islamic State and their methods, so he decided to make some adaptations.

  June 25th, 3 am in Frankfurt

  The Mossad team used three nondescript cars and one van to carry out the plan. David knew that they would not be able to draw Ammer away from his house and would have to gain entry quietly. Like most houses in that affluent neighborhood Ammer's house was equipped with a modern alarm system that was connected by landline to a security firm, so simply breaking and entering was not an option. Fortunately one of the agents had been trained exactly for such a situation and in less than five minutes found the telephone landline that was the connection to security firm. He knew that simply cutting it would instantly raise an alarm, as this would be the first thing even the most unsophisticated burglar would do. However, the technical division of Mossad had developed a device specifically for this purpose – all he had to do was place a special electromagnetic metallic ring around the wire and charge the circuit with a combination of DC and AC voltages. When this was in place he signaled to David that he was ready.

  David guided two agents to the large glass door that led to the garden but saw that it was firmly latched and had an additional tamperproof device, so continued to the small wooden service door that led to the kitchen. The door was covered by several layers of paint but evidently was quite fragile. Although it was locked the hinges were almost exposed to the outside. With a screwdriver that served as a chisel the wood near the hinges was peeled away and the door was quietly removed from the frame. David motioned for the two agents to follow him up to the second floor where three bedrooms were located. The doors of two of them were ajar and David could see that in one of them there was a double bed that had been recently occupied as the used sheets were still spread on the bed. David assumed that Nagib and Alia had probably slept there and whispered to one of the agents to take one of the pillow cases for DNA matching. They could hear that someone was snoring in the bedroom with the closed door. One of the agents opened the door that did not even squeak and David stood at the foot of the bed while the two agents took positions right next to the heads of Ammer and his wife, Zenab. At David's signal each agent pulled the pillow from under the head of the sleeping couple and placed it on their faces denying them of air as well as keeping them silent. Ammer wriggled, twisted and tried to turn his head while flailing with his hands but the Mossad agent held the pillow firmly until he stopped struggling. Zenab was too weak and too surprised to put up a fight, so she was quiet after less than 30 seconds. The agents tied their hands and feet with strong nylon cable ties. David checked them both and found a weak pulse, so he drew a small vial with a vile smell and brought it close to Ammer's nose while holding his own breath. Within seconds Ammer opened his eyes, drew a deep breath and threw up.

  David made sure that Ammer didn't choke on his own vomit and when he saw that Ammer realized his predicament he smiled at him. In Arabic he said that he had come to send him to the Gehinem (hell), but as he was a kind man he would send his wife first, followed by Ammer's head and then the rest of his body, piece by piece. Ammer wet himself and stammered that he had a lot of money and would give it all if they let go of him and his wife. David said that he was not interested in money only in information about his guests. Ammer was embarrassed by his loss of control of his bladder but gained a little confidence and said that they had no guests and he was free to search the house. David signaled to one of the agents to prod Zenab with a commando knife, making sure that Ammer saw it. When she gave a muffled scream Ammer said that he would tell them everything they wanted to know. He proceeded to say that his cousin Alia and her husband visited his father's store and that he offered to host them in his large house. He claimed that they left in the morning and stole his wife's car and that he had no idea where they went. David was buying none of this and told the agent with the commando knife to cut off one of Zenab's fingers. Ammer immediately cried out that he would tell them everything and David told the agent to stop. Ammer said that he had sent Nagib and Alia to his family cottage near Boppard and that they were still there. He proceeded to say that he had dinner with them the previous evening near the cottage. He gave them directions to the cottage and David threatened him that they would be back if the information was not accurate. As an afterthought, David asked him who they were running away from and Ammer said that they only told him that were involved in a tax fraud scheme in the US and that they were afraid that the Interpol and US tax authorities were after them. David said that if he continued with his lies they would kill them both and stage it as a murder and suicide. Ammer then understood that they were not going to believe his lies and came clean with a version of the truth – that the CIA was after them for theft of classified information.

  David was pretty sure that Ammer and Zenab would not call the police to report the incident because they would have a hard time to explain why they were sheltering a couple of fugitives. He therefore did not consider leaving one of his men to guard them until the address of the cottage was verified. David left a kitchen knife in the bathroom and told Ammer that he could wriggle there and free himself and Zenab but once again threatened them that he would return to finish the job if they told anyone about his uninvited visit.

  Just before dawn the two Mossad agents and David headed towards Boppard and the cottage. They reckoned they could get there before breakfast as they expected little traffic going out of Frankfurt that early in the morning. David thought about contacting Eugene in Washington to give him an update but decided to wait until he was sure that he had Nagib, Alia and the information in his hands. He had the pillowcase that was removed from the double bed in the spare bedroom of Ammer's house and wanted to send it to the forensic laboratory of the Israeli police to get the DNA profile but did not have the samples of Nagib and Alia for comparison, so despite his mistrust of the local American agents he knew that he would need the cooperation of Greg, the Frankfurt CIA station chief and decided to call him later that morning. He dreaded having to explain how he got hold of it but that was the price of cooperation among friends…

  June 25th, 4.30 am near Boppard

  Alia and Nagib left the cottage after having a quick cup of coffee. They left the key that Ammer had given them in one of the flower pots on the veranda and planned to call him later to thank him and tell him where they left the key. The night before they had considered their options and took stock of their meager belongings. They had their passports that were in their own names and therefore quite useless for crossing borders where they would be examined as they were sure that an international alert had been issued by the US authorities. They had a few hundred Euros and some dollars in cash and credit
cards that were probably also under surveillance, if not already cancelled. They had the car that Ammer had given them, that was used mainly by Zenab but registered to Ammer's company. This was an asset that afforded them mobility but could quickly become a liability if Ammer or others managed to trace it. They also had the supposedly untraceable cellphone that Ammer gave them but thought it best to shut it off and remove the SIM card until they absolutely had to use it.

  Worst of all, they had no direct way of contacting people who could help them facilitate their plan of bartering the classified files for a means of taking revenge. They were afraid that Ammer had put them at a great risk by bringing the Korean and the Iranian to meet them. Nagib repeated his concerns about the Korean wielding a concealed gun and about the Iranian's interest in the price of the information rather than the content. He added that as a Sunni Muslim, although not an observant one, he did not like making deals with extreme Shiites represented by the Iranian or with heathens like the Koreans. They knew that agents of those two nations could not be trusted to make a fair deal.

  After some pondering they reached a decision to postpone meeting potential buyers until they could establish a safe hiding place for themselves. Anyway, the first order of the day was to get as far away as possible from Ammer's cottage. There were two main alternatives: either look for a remote place in the countryside or a small village where they would be noticed as strangers but could easily pose as hikers or tourists, or lose themselves in a big city where everyone minded their own business and didn't ask too many questions. After weighing the pros and cons of each alternative they opted for the second option. Frankfurt and Keln were about the same distance from Boppard but Nagib suggested that they would be safer if they moved out of Germany where people could already be looking for them. Another look at the map showed that Brussels was the best option –it was only about three hours drive from Boppard, most of the time on busy highways. It was especially attractive due to its large Muslim population constituting more than one quarter of the total population of the city. Although most of those were from Turkey and Morocco there was also a significant Arab population. Another advantage was the notoriously inefficient police force that adopted a liberal approach and didn't harass suspects. Nagib had read somewhere that several of the European recruits of the Islamic State movement had come from Brussels, and these included not only youngsters from Muslim families but also some adventurous Christian youths who were attracted to Islam or just sought excitement and action. So, they were on their way and expected to reach Brussels at around 0730 at the height of morning rush hour traffic which would make it almost impossible for anyone to catch up with them.

  ***

  David and the two Mossad agents followed the directions given to them by Ammer and reached the cottage just a couple of hours after Alia and Nagib had left. They parked their car on a small dirt road that led to another cottage about half a kilometer from Ammer's cottage and approached silently on foot. There was no car parked at the cottage and no lights were on nor were there any sounds of activity. David motioned to one of the agents to circle the cottage while the other agent silently followed him up on to the veranda. They peeked through the windows and saw no signs of life inside. They tried the door handle and found that it was locked, looked under the doormat and on the windowsill without success but then it took them only another couple of minutes to find the key in the flowerpot. As expected there was no one at home but they saw that the master bedroom and bathroom had been in use and David collected another pillowcase from the bed while one of the agents asked him if he planned on opening a hotel. David was in no mood for jokes of this kind and gave the agent a forced smile and said that they should head back to Frankfurt.

  June 25th, late morning, Frankfurt

  On the way back from Boppard David called Greg Dower and arranged to meet him at his office. Greg wanted to know why the sudden urgency but David said that it was best not discussed on an unsecure phone line. Because of the rush hour traffic the drive back to Frankfurt was much slower than the drive to Boppard, so by the time David stepped into Greg's office it was close to ten o'clock.

  Greg offered David coffee that was gratefully accepted. Both men were reluctant to discuss the futile ambush outside Sayed's store the previous day so they chatted a little about the failed firebombing of the store by Islamists and wondered if the incident at the nearby Pakistani store by German racists was related. After these niceties, they got down to business. David presented Greg with the two pillowcases that were wrapped in plastic bags and told him the whole story, leaving out the details of the means used to extract the information from Ammer. Greg called in one of his assistants and directed her to send the pillowcases by courier to the FBI forensic laboratory and to make sure that they also had DNA samples of Alia and Nagib from Los Alamos for comparison. David said that there was little doubt that a match would be found and added that this type of forensic evidence may be needed if the case was ever brought to court. He tried to gain more definitive information on the classified data that Nagib had downloaded but Greg refused to divulge anything specific, so David was left with his own speculations.

  Greg wanted to know if David had any idea regarding the whereabouts of the couple and David said that although he had no concrete indication he reckoned that they would head to a city with a large population of Muslims, perhaps even there in Frankfurt. However, Greg said that it was unlikely that they would return to Frankfurt and suggested hauling Ammer in for further questioning. David said that involving the German authorities would be counterproductive and that formalities were unnecessary because he was sure that Ammer would be in a very cooperative mood after the persuasive treatment he had received just a few hours earlier. David invited Greg to accompany him on a return visit to Ammer's house. It turned out that, unsurprisingly, Ammer had called his office and said that he wasn't feeling well and would take another day off. After all, he was the boss so no one questioned his statement. When David and Greg appeared at his doorstep and gently knocked on the door they heard a woman sobbing and when the door opened they saw Zenab lying in a fetal position on the couch wrapped in a blanket and rocking herself back and forth with Ammer returning to her side and caressing her shoulders.

  David said to Ammer and Zenab "I hope you are feeling better, but you should have known that whoever aids and abets a criminal, may not be immune from punishment". He then introduced his colleague "This is Greg, a representative of the US authorities who has come to retrieve property of national security importance stolen from his country".

  Ammer stammered saying "I gave you all the information I had".

  David told him about the fruitless trip to the cottage. Ammer said "I didn't know about any stolen property and I had done nothing illegal. I only helped a family member who was in some kind of trouble".

  David responded "My colleague here is concerned with the laws of his country and of Germany but I haven't got the slightest interest in legal matters, as you saw last night. I want to know what Nagib and Alia are up to".

  Ammer said "I swear to Allah that I have no idea about…"

  Without a word David stood up, went into the kitchen and came back with a small paring knife, pretending to clean his fingernails. Ammer stopped in mid sentence "What are you doing?!"

  David answered "Just removing a little dirt from where it doesn't belong" and approached Zenab of the couch.

  All blood drained away from Ammer's face and he held up his hand "Stop, by God, I'll tell you everything". Greg also turned pale but refrained from speaking, as Ammer continued "OK, Nagib told me in general terms what he had and asked me to arrange buyers for his information, but I told him I had no idea what to do and where to look...".

  Once again he stopped talking when he saw David grab Zenab's left hand and pretend to slice the tip of her finger on which her wedding ring was worn. Zenab started shouting as some blood stained the blanket and Ammer couldn't quite see whether her fingertip was sliced off or
if it was just a superficial cut. However, this got him going "I took a couple of my friends to speak with Nagib yesterday evening".

  "Who were they?"

  "I don't really know them well".

  "Cut the bullshit or you'll get your wedding ring back with the whole finger" and David pulled on Zenab's left hand.

  "OK, OK. One of them was an Iranian called Mahmoud and the other was a North Korean that goes by the name Kim". Greg looked at David and nodded, implying that he knew who Ammer was referring to.

  Then David asked "Do you know where they went?"

  Ammer groaned truthfully for a change "I have no idea, but they have my car and cellphone so you should be able to find them".

  David stood up, motioned Greg to follow him and while departing said "Ammer and Zenab I hope never to see you two again, but if I do need to come back one more time then you would curse the day you were born". As an afterthought he added "If Nagib and Alia contact you be sure to inform my colleague here immediately, or else…"

  Greg left a business card with his phone number on the table and followed David to the car. He said that he had learnt a couple of lessons in a very short time. First, when time is short the most convincing arguments are non-verbal, and second when someone swears to tell the truth by God, Allah or whoever, this is generally the beginning of a lie. David shrugged and said that sometimes brute force solves problems, especially with amateurs, but a real professional would rather sacrifice his wife and his life than disclose vital secrets. David asked Greg to call Eugene on a secure line and update him on the events that took place during the last 24 hours.