Casey smiled. “Parker!”
“You said Parker wasn’t the leak.”
“He’s not. But he’s in The Council. And that’s why Miller’s using him.”
“Not because he’s on the NSC?”
“No. That would make Parker a traitor. Giving classified information to a foreign government, even an ally, if it’s not an officially sanctioned intel-sharing exchange will land you in jail.” Casey looked at Cohen. “That’s what got Jonathan Pollard in hot water.”
Cohen shrugged.
“So you think the leak is from someone in The Council,” Cohen said.
“I’ve always thought that,” Casey said.
“But not Parker,” Andie said.
“No, not Parker.”
“Then who?” she asked.
Casey raised his eyebrows at Andie’s question. “If I had their membership roster, we could start going down the list.”
Andie raised her middle finger.
Casey smiled. “Okay. So we still don’t know who the leak is, but it’s looking more and more like it’s coming from The Council, and Miller is working with Parker to find out who it is.”
“If we knew who Miller suspected—if he has any suspects—we could try to find a connection between that person and Raad. Establishing that linkage might help confirm the person’s role in leaking information to Iran. Then it would be easy to hand it over to the FBI, especially if Parker blows the whistle, and we can get on with our lives,” Andie said.
“No FBI,” Cohen said. “And no police. If the leak is someone with power inside the U.S. government...”
“Like a member of Congress?” Andie interrupted.
“...the police will hesitate, and he may get away or at least cover his tracks so he will never be prosecuted.”
“But isn’t that just as good?” Andie asked. “The leak will be stopped if he doesn’t want to risk prosecution. Raad’s source of information will have dried up.”
“Maybe,” Casey said. “But only temporarily. Methods can be adjusted. More precautions taken. If Raad’s source is left unscathed, the same motivation to betray his country in the first place will likely drive him to betray it again.”
“Alright, Casey, but let me ask you this: how does killing Raad’s source help expose The Council? Isn’t that what you came here to do?”
Casey thought about that. Ever since that morning in Soren’s Deli, Casey had wanted to bring down The Council, even before he knew of its existence. An FBI arrest in an espionage case would lead to a larger investigation that would garner worldwide media attention and have several positive results. Raad would be detained or deported, his source would be imprisoned, and The Council would be brought to light and possibly dismantled. That was the positive-thinking side. The other side of getting the FBI involved was exactly what Cohen predicted. Raad’s source would skirt prosecution, and even if Raad was deported, another Iranian spy would just take his place. And The Council? “What’s The Council?” He was still wrestling with the possibilities when Cohen spoke up.
“Your obsession with The Council will have to wait. Right now we must focus on stopping whomever is giving Iran the information that is getting Mossad operatives killed.”
“You don’t want The Council to fall apart,” Casey said, a new understanding coming to mind. “If The Council is actually facilitating these assassination attempts, its demise would mean the operations are halted and Iran continues unimpeded toward a nuclear weapon.”
Cohen’s jaw muscles flared. “Israel’s operation will continue with or without American involvement. Iran must not be allowed to build a nuclear arsenal. Unless you want to see a nuclear arms race between every country in the Middle East, or another war that will have casualties in the millions, they must be stopped. If U.S. intelligence being used in these operations is being provided through this ‘Council,’ another avenue can be found. Or we will act unilaterally. Either way, I could give a fuck what happens to The Council.”
“You have been in America too long,” Andie said.
“Okay,” Casey said. “Forget exposing The Council for now. One thing at a time.” He looked at Andie.
She gave a dismissive wave of her hand. “Whatever you say. Just let me know what else I can do to help.” She shook her head.
“Thanks, Andie.”
“I’m not doing this for you, honey. I’m doing this for him,” Andie said, pointing to Cohen. “I don’t just read the news every day, I write it. And Lev is right. There are no good scenarios that begin with Iran having a nuclear weapon. Not even for Iran. So if what his people are doing is going to help prevent that from becoming reality, then I’m all for it.”
Casey smiled. Andie just reminded him how little he actually knew about her past and what made her tick. But the more he learned, the more he liked Ms. Andrea Jackson. He turned to Cohen. “So what’s next? I mean, besides you talking to Miller.”
The analyst, reporter, and assassin spent the next half-hour trying to answer that question. After they all agreed on a plan, they powered down their computers and pushed in chairs to leave the room exactly as they found it. When Andie turned off the lights and shut the door, Casey said, “First I need to go back to where the Qods thugs attacked Parker and Miller.”
“What the hell for?” Andie asked. Cohen gave Casey an equally puzzled look.
“My car’s still in the parking lot.”
Chapter 32
Inside a small coffee house around the corner from the Jennings Institute’s Washington, D.C. office, things had finally slowed down from the morning rush as the newly caffeine-charged patrons took the noise and bustle with them to their respective work places. Ten o’clock marked the slow time for maybe ninety minutes before the lunchtime marauders invaded. Davood Raad didn’t plan on being there for ninety minutes.
Raad sat at a table along the wall, away from the employees restocking pastries and baked goods and brewing more coffee. He sipped on his own cup, watching the front entrance, waiting. The place was small, and no one was assigned to greet guests or help them find a seat. There were no waiters or waitresses as all business was conducted at the counter opposite Raad. In fact, most of the customers simply paid for their drinks and muffins and left.
Raad’s “friend” arrived on time. The audible ring of the door opening didn’t even garner a reaction from the busy people behind the counter, and the man entered unnoticed. He walked over to where Raad was seated and took his own seat across the table. Raad had never seen him not wear that same black leather jacket and jeans. He wondered if the man slept in them.
“Salam,” Raad said to the younger man who quickly surveyed the room before acknowledging the greeting.
“Salam.”
The two men instinctively kept their voices down, though they conversed in Farsi. There was always a chance someone who overheard their exchange knew the Persian language, though those odds were slim. Time was short, and there was no security guard working the entrance to the coffee shop checking IDs, so Raad suggested they meet there rather than at his office.
“They still have not checked in,” the man in the leather jacket said.
“Then we must assume they are dead.”
The younger man nodded. “I will take care of Miller myself.”
“No. I will get someone else to do it. I need you to deliver a message to our asset.” He handed the man a folded envelope and watched it disappear into an inner pocket of the leather jacket.
“After you deliver that,” Raad continued, “I need you to keep a watch on him. You are to be his shadow until we are certain that Miller is dead and there is no one else working with him.”
“There are more Mossad here?”
Raad finished the last of his coffee. “We do not know that. But for now, we must assume there are. That is why I need you to make sure no one can get to the asset. You are the only one I can trust with this. The less people who know his identity the better.”
The younger
man nodded and abruptly left.
Raad rolled the empty cup in his hand. “Good luck,” he said in English. He figured the cup didn’t know Farsi either.
Chapter 33
Casey heard the sound of chains sliding free and locks turning before Andie opened the door to her apartment. He almost knocked her down as he made his way to the living area and dropped the heavy box on the coffee table.
“Easy!”
“Sorry,” Casey said as he took a seat on the edge of Andie’s couch. He removed the lid from the box and handed her a sheet of paper from inside. They were all the same. Black ink on white paper. Printed on both sides. Three thousand of them. “I got another box in the car.”
“You going on a bombing raid?”
Casey looked confused. Then he saw where Andie was looking. “Oh, this,” he said, unzipping his jacket. “Pretty cool, isn’t it? Picked this up at Goodwill this morning. I can’t believe somebody gave this away.”
“I can’t believe you paid money for that.” Andie looked at the box that almost broke her coffee table and saw it was full of paper. She turned over the flyer in her hand and saw it was identical to the contents of the box. “Truth in Hiding,” she read aloud.
“When I left last night, I checked back into the hotel, slept for four hours, then woke up at five in the morning and pumped that out,” Casey said. He watched Andie’s eyes move left and right across the text. “I brought a thumb drive to the Office Depot near my hotel as soon as it opened and had them print out six thousand copies. I figure we can hand them out or leave stacks of them at...”
“Shut up, and let me read it!” Andie ordered.
“Yes, ma’am.” Casey sat back in the couch and watched in silence.
Andie started over.
TRUTH IN HIDING
An international conspiracy is happening right under our noses. It’s not a theory, it’s a fact. This is a conspiracy that goes beyond good guys vs. bad guys. It’s more complicated than right vs. wrong. It’s a situation of life or death. The death of some in exchange for the lives of millions. But who decides who lives and who dies? Whose lives matter more? Is it just a numbers game?
Never mind. Don’t answer that. Because YOUR OPINION DOES NOT MATTER.
You have probably heard about the attempted assassinations of some of Iran’s leading scientists in recent months. I say “attempted” because you haven’t heard about the successful ones. Only the failures. Iran is quick to blame Israel for these operations, and they invariably add the United States to the list of guilty parties for good measure. But who listens to Iran anyway? Well, this time you should.
—Because Iran is right.—
Israel is conducting operations to assassinate Iranian scientists. Not just any scientists, though. The targets are scientists involved in some way or another with Iran’s nuclear weapons program. And we all know what a nuclear-armed Iran means. It means an arms race in the Middle East to establish and maintain some balance of power there. It means a nuclear-armed Hizballah. It means another U.S. war in the region to end Iran’s nuclear program once and for all, probably costing trillions of dollars and thousands of American lives. And if Iran or any of its proxies use one of those weapons? Well, let’s just say your abacus won’t be able to keep up with the body count.
So you decide. Are a few scientists worth the lives of potentially millions of people who will be killed in a nuclear strike (or counterstrike) if Iran continues on its path to becoming a nuclear-armed nation?
“But you said my opinion doesn’t matter.”
Because it doesn’t. Two things are needed to make an effective nuclear weapon along the lines Iran is pursuing. A warhead and a ballistic missile. Iran just tested a warhead, and it already has ballistic missiles. Luckily those weapons don’t yet have the range to target America. But they can hit Israel no problem. So now you see why Israel, more than most, has reason to be worried and feels justified in its actions to block Iran’s progress?
U. S. of A. — America is helping Israel in its efforts by providing key intelligence to enable these operations. Okay, not directly. That would mean the U.S. is back in the assassination business...which it’s not...for the most part. But indirectly, yes, we are helping out. Only the information isn’t coming from the White House, Congress, CIA, FBI, DoD,...it’s coming from a group known as The Council. This group is made up of people from all of those institutions, but they don’t represent their individual employers. Instead, these men and women—uniformed officers, elected officials, government civilians, academics, judges, etc.—speak and act on behalf of The Council. They make things happen behind the scenes when partisan bickering in Washington is slowing things down, or when it wouldn’t be good for the president, or America for that matter, to have his fingerprints on anything. Like assassinating Iranian scientists. They’re doing this “for” America, but without any semblance of official consent. Not the consent of the government, and by inference, not the consent of the American people. It’s what THEY think is in the best interests of America, not you. The Council likes to stay in the shadows, so you won’t find them in the Yellow Pages. But some of the front companies they operate include the Law Offices of Penrose-Klein and Horus Rhind Security Solutions. Look them up. There may be more.
Here’s where things get squirrely. The Council is an organization of people. And just like any organization, you’re going to have some (most) that are giving their best every day because they believe in what they’re doing. And, just like any organization, you may have a few disgruntled employees who complain about anything and everything and generally just suck the morale out of the room by their mere presence. But every once in a while, there is a bad apple with malicious intentions. That person may not be so easy to detect, but recent examples such as Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden are evidence that these folks do exist.
What if The Council had such a person in its midst? Someone whose loyalty no longer belonged to the organization, but to someone or something outside the organization? What would be the consequences of an insider betrayal of The Council and its off-record support of Israel’s assassination operations? Maybe this betrayal comes in the form of providing Iran with operational details of the planned assassinations. Forget “maybe.” This is exactly what’s happening.
Remember the “attempted” assassinations? Those operations failed because someone in The Council (a general, a judge, a congressman?) spilled the beans—to Iran. To Dr. Davood Raad, specifically. You see, Dr. Raad is an Iranian spy. He has been for years. Only, Dr. Raad is hiding behind his academic credentials, bestselling books, and international celebrity. He’s been hiding the truth from you, me, everyone…for decades.
“So why hasn’t Dr. Raad been arrested for spying on America all these years?”
I never said he was a good spy. Maybe he didn’t have anything worth arresting him for. But now he has a valuable asset by way of a leak in The Council. And you can see the results on the nightly news. Failed assassinations. Successful nuclear tests. It’s not a conspiracy theory, it’s a conspiracy fact.
Don’t let the truth stay hidden. Speak up, speak out, and MAKE YOUR OPINION MATTER!
“You know, you could go to jail for this,” Andie said when she was done reading.
“How?”
“You mean besides the obvious libel suit from calling Raad an Iranian spy?”
“Yeah, but it’s true,” Casey protested.
“Okay, then how about accusing the government of helping facilitate the assassinations of foreign nationals? Or accusing a congressman of treason?”
“I never mentioned Shirazi once in that whole thing!”
“But you said the traitor might be a member of congress.”
“So?”
Andie put the paper down and sat next to Casey. “But you have no proof. That’s the problem. You made a witty argument with no real proof to back up anything you said. Frankly, it kinda reads like one of your blog posts you used to do.”
&nb
sp; Casey ground his eyeballs with the heels of his hands and sighed. “Look. We were supposed to put something together that we could distribute at Raad’s lecture tonight to help stir the pot.”
“Yeah, stir the pot. Not kick the hornet’s nest.”
“Okay, maybe I was being a little self-absorbed when I wrote this. I saw a chance to put Raad on the defensive and maybe pull back the curtain on The Council at the same time. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.”
“Except you also gave away classified information by saying America was giving Israel intel to carry out its assassinations. Don’t you think someone’s going to want your ass behind bars for that?”
“I don’t know if that’s true,” Casey said. “I just took what Cohen told us and ran with it. I connected the dots and put it down on paper.”
“But if it is true, you’re in a world of hurt. Talking about it between the three of us is one thing, but printing out...how many copies?”
“Six thousand.”
“Six thousand. That’s a whole different ball game. If U.S. intelligence is being used to target these Iranian scientists, don’t you think that shit would be classified? And you want to tell six thousand people that?” Andie shook her head.
“Well, I’m hoping word of mouth will reach more than just six thousand people.”
“You are a piece of work, my friend,” Andie said. “Let’s forget about getting in trouble with the law, what about getting in trouble with Raad and his people? When those guys attacked Parker and Miller in the parking lot the other night, you were just in the way.” She picked up the flyer. “After this, you’re going to be next on the list. Hell, you might just jump to the top of that list.”
Truth in Hiding Page 17
