by Ethan Jones
Javin shook his head. He did not believe in coincidences. In his line of work, they never happened. “Yes, that makes sense.”
Martin said, “The team is working on discovering any connections between the two attackers and MIT or other Turkish forces that operated in, or are still stationed in, Syria and Iraq. I should have an update in the next two hours.”
Javin drew in a deep breath. “On the topic of updates, we also have a Syrian-related development.”
Javin told his boss about Ajaz’s conversation with Erkan and the latter’s offer.
Martin had more questions, most of them covering the reliability of Erkan’s claims that he had connections to MI6, and that he could tell them why the British secret agency was so eager to get its hands on the flash drive. “You’ve experienced your fair share of betrayal and backstabbing, Javin. Let’s make sure it doesn’t happen this time.”
“I agree, sir.”
“When you talk to Erkan, demand solid evidence to back up his assertions. Until we have real and sufficient proof, there will be no Damascus operation.”
“Understood, sir.”
“And even if or when he does arrange to meet, we have to take into account the price we’re paying. After all, Erkan isn’t offering us anything we can’t find in another way.”
“That’s correct,” Claudia said.
“One last thing: this operation is more likely to happen if Erkan can meet you in another location. That may not be possible, but it’s worth a try.”
“I’ll insist on that,” Javin said.
“Good. Anything else?”
“No, I’m good. Claudia? Zeki?”
They both shook their heads.
“Nothing further, sir,” Javin said.
“Good. Call me when you have something concrete.”
“Will do.”
Javin placed the phone next to his coffee cup. “Well, we have our orders. Let’s see what Erkan thinks.”
Chapter Twenty
CIS Safehouse
Istanbul, Turkey
It was not until three hours later, in the seventh attempt, that the CIS team was able to get in touch with Erkan. “Yes, who is this?” he said in a firm tone. He sounded deeply annoyed, as if interrupted while doing something extremely important. He spoke in English with a light British accent, most likely because of his undergraduate education at the University of Bristol, in the United Kingdom.
“A friend of Ajaz,” Zeki said. “He told us you were expecting our call.”
“Where’s Ajaz?”
“He’s with the doctor.”
Ajaz was being treated for the shoulder wound he had incurred during the attack earlier that day. The discreet doctor on CIS’s payroll had only arrived a few minutes ago and was in the other room with Ajaz. Claudia was giving the doctor a hand. She had a keen interest in medicine, and often said that she would have gone on to medical school if CIS had not accepted her application. On the other hand, Javin was attracted to the smoke-and-mirror world of diplomacy in spying. He had chosen those optional classes, along with advanced interrogation techniques and negotiation strategies.
“I must talk to Ajaz,” Erkan said.
“That’s not going to be possible, at least at this time,” Javin said. “But once the doctor is done—”
“Who are you?”
“My name’s Javin Pierce, and I’m a good friend of Ajaz.”
“Who do you work for, Pierce?”
“That’s irrelevant. Ajaz told us that we could have a deal.”
“A deal about?”
“The flash drive. You know the reasons why MI6 wants it badly because of your connections, right?”
A moment of hesitation, then Erkan said, “That’s correct.”
“As part of this deal, what do you want in return?”
Erkan laughed. “Pierce, you don’t waste time, but go straight for the jugular.”
Javin glanced at Zeki, who offered him a shrug. “Ajaz made it sound like there was a sense of urgency to this deal. Am I missing something?”
A tense pause followed. A faint woman’s voice came from the background, followed by what sounded like shuffling of feet across a hard floor. Then Erkan said, “No, you’ve got it right.”
“So, what’s your price?”
“I’m in Damascus, and I need to get out of Syria,” Erkan blurted his words fast and in a terse tone.
“Okay, and what is a safe place for you?”
“Anywhere in Western Europe. Germany, first choice.”
“And who’s after you?”
“I . . . I don’t understand.”
“Whom are you running from? Who is coming after you?”
“That’s not important, Pierce.”
“But it is. If we are to have a deal, I need to know how much security you need. What are the threats you’re facing?”
Erkan did not reply right away. “I’d rather not go into details, especially over the phone. It’s sufficient to say that Damascus is a bad place, and some very bad people are following me.”
“That’s not very helpful.”
“That’s all you get, Pierce.”
“All right, Erkan. But I will definitely need more if I’m coming to Syria on a rescue op. You’ve told Ajaz you know about the drive and its content.”
“That’s right.” Erkan’s voice carried an unmistakable hint of pride.
“How do you know about that?”
“Because of my MI6 friends.”
“Explain that, please.”
“Sure. I don’t know how much you know about the USB drive, but MI6 has been looking for it over the last two months. Ever since it was revealed that it contained very damaging information about senior British politicians.”
“Okay, go on.”
“So, MI6 reached out to MIT and other intelligence agencies in countries in the region, after rumors began to spread that the drive was in possession of a smuggler involved in human trafficking. That smuggler turned up dead a week ago in Istanbul, and the USB drive disappeared.”
Javin nodded. He was familiar with some of these details after reading the after-action reports of the previous CIS team sent to retrieve the flash drive.
Erkan continued, “A foreign team was dispatched to get its hands on the USB drive, but that operation was badly botched. The USB drive resurfaced a couple of days later in an Istanbul police station.”
“Yes, I know what happened from that moment on,” Javin said.
“Once I learned about it, I informed my MI6 contact—”
“Wait a moment, you’re freely admitting to me that you betrayed your agency?”
“No, and how dare you even suggest that?” Erkan erupted in a loud shout.
Javin shrugged and glance at Zeki, who gave Javin an exaggerated eye roll. “What was it, then?”
“It was an intelligence exchange. Collaboration. The British would get the intelligence after the MIT had analyzed it. Things didn’t get that far. You know what happened, about the ambush where two MIT officers died and one was kidnapped.”
“I’m familiar with the situation, yes.”
“Right, but what you may not know is that I was a part of the MIT team that stopped those foreign operatives from getting away with the flash drive in the failed operation a few days ago. I was the one who actually found it, and I made a copy, before I returned it.”
“You did?”
“Yes, but you don’t sound convinced.”
“You’re right; I’m not. It’s not because I think you’re lying; it’s just . . . this is the first time I’m hearing this story.”
“Well, this is all true. Since you’re a very distrustful man, Pierce, I will prove to you the accuracy of my words. The flash drive has an encryption that is very difficult to break. Plus, and you may know this, tracking pieces of software have been implanted into the files, to broadcast the user’s location. And to make matters worse, if a wrong password is used more than three times, the files will sta
rt to be automatically erased.”
Javin frowned and looked at Zeki. He offered a small shrug. “That’s a lot of claims, Erkan. I hope you can prove all of those.”
“Yes, I told you I was going to do that. What better way than to show you one of the drive’s files? In this way, you’ll know I’m being straightforward with you.”
“That would be conclusive evidence, if we can prove its authenticity,” Javin said.
“Well, finding sources to collaborate the document’s details will be difficult. These are top secret files. But I’ll leave the rest to you.”
“All right, how are you sending them?”
“I’ve set up a Gmail account. I’ll put the document in a draft email. You’ll log into the account and download the doc.”
“What’s the account name and the password?”
“You have a pen?”
“No, I’ll type it down.”
Erkan gave Javin the information, and he read it back to Erkan, to double-check the email and the password was the correct one. “Once we’ve reviewed the file and have made a decision, I’ll call you back,” Javin said.
“Don’t wait too long. If I don’t hear from you by midnight, I’ll approach another agency. You know there are many ones interested in the drive.”
“Oh, and you’re not going again to your MI6 friends?”
Erkan snorted. “You’re forgetting the small problem of the MI6 attack on the Turkish officers, aren’t you?”
“Not forgetting it, but ignoring it for the moment.”
“Well, I can’t ignore it. It will dishonor the memories of my teammates.”
“All right, Erkan. I’ll get back to you ASAP, definitely before midnight.”
“Waiting for your call.”
Javin ended the call and looked at Zeki. “What do you think?”
“Promising. Once we’ve checked out the file, we’ll know what to do.”
Chapter Twenty-one
CIS Safehouse
Istanbul, Turkey
Javin and Claudia walked the doctor to the gate of the house, then glanced down the narrow, dimly lit alley. It was close to ten, and the temperature had dropped almost to the freezing point. No one was in the alley, but Javin kept his eyes on the doctor until he disappeared around the corner.
Claudia said, “Well, that’s out of the way. Now, back to our main problems.” She turned around.
Javin closed the gate behind them. “Yes, but Ajaz is one of the problems. We’ll need to ditch him before we head to Syria.”
“If we head to Syria.”
Javin nodded. “The file hasn’t been uploaded yet, but then, it’s only been twenty minutes. If Erkan is true to his word, and the doc is genuine, I can’t see how Martin won’t authorize the op.”
Claudia slowed down her pace. “And what do you think, Javin?”
“About?”
“The op, what else?”
“There’s not much for me to think about.”
“Do you want to go?”
“I rarely have a choice in these matters.”
“In this case, you do. Martin will ask for your opinion, of course.”
Javin thought about his answer for a moment. “I admit, it’s a difficult op, unknown set-up, and potentially hostile contact. But it’s worth having the key to the intel.”
“If Erkan is telling us the truth about the files.”
“Of course, if we find something amiss, the whole op is scrapped.”
Claudia stepped very close to Javin. “And how do you feel about the op changing into something completely different? This is no longer a correction exercise.”
Javin looked deep into Claudia’s troubled eyes. “What’s going on? Level with me.”
“I’m not afraid, if that’s what you’re wondering. But I do have my concerns. The change of focus, location. We have people trained and equipped to run these sorts of ops.”
“We’re trained, Claudia, and we’ll get the gear we need.”
“We’ll need more than a couple of rifles.”
“Agreed. Martin will probably assign at least another person to our team, someone local, who knows the area.”
Claudia shrugged. “I don’t know, I feel we’re out of our depth here. But I’m not backing out. You know me. Just wanted to get it out there.”
“Glad you did.”
“This will be like good old times, eh?”
“Yeah. And we’ve been in worse situations.” Javin smiled.
“We have, and we’ll get through this for sure.”
“Of course we will.”
Inside the house, Zeki called at them from the kitchen. “Coffee, anyone?”
“Pretty late for me,” Claudia said.
“I’ll take a cup,” Javin said.
“Not sleeping tonight?” Claudia asked.
“Not right away.” He smiled. “We have a midnight deadline, remember? I’ll see if we got the document.”
He sat at the dining table and checked his laptop. “We got it.”
Claudia and Zeki hurried to him.
Javin downloaded the five-page-long document file. He printed two copies, and Zeki brought them from the printer. Then all three of them began to skim through the file. The first couple of pages were copies of an email exchange between the Turkish Deputy Minister of Energy and Natural Resources and the British Foreign Office Deputy Secretary. Both men were discussing a potential visit of the British Prime Minister to Turkey later in the year. The signing of a few deals was a crucial part of the visit, along with the expression of clear support for the new President of Turkey, after the country’s recent controversial election. Key among these deals was the construction of a new pipeline to bring oil from Central Asia, the Middle East, and Russia to Europe and the UK. Someone—Javin suspected either Erkan or whoever had initially obtained the files—had highlighted the oil agreement with a red pen.
The next pages gave broad details about the agreement, the names of the companies to be involved in the construction, operation, and maintenance of the pipeline, and other important players. Very obvious—circled in red pen in case someone might miss it, if that was possible—was the name of the son-in-law of the Turkish Energy Minister and his company, which operated in most of the countries in the region, including Syria and Iraq. If the agreement was concluded, the company would take the lion’s share in the pipeline’s construction.
Javin was the first one to get through all the pages. He made a few notes in the margins, then glanced at Claudia.
She removed her black-framed reading glasses, then said, “It’s pretty clear.”
“Yes, the Minister is looking after his own. And I’m sure there are others in the Turkish government who will reap colossal profits from this deal.”
“You’re right,” Zeki said. “The total cost of the Turkish section is ten billion dollars. And that doesn’t take into account the actual cost of the oil or maintenance and operations.”
Javin nodded. “Yes, and considering that the company of the Minister’s son-in-law—what’s his name? yes, Soydan. Considering Soydan owns—has subsidiaries and joint ventures—in Syria and Iraq, a vast amount of this oil could be coming from areas in the hands of terrorists.”
Turkish authorities and companies with close ties to the Turkish government, including Soydan Oil, reportedly had been profiting from the never-ending civil wars in Syria and Iraq. The government allegedly turned a blind eye to companies purchasing oil from IS-controlled areas, and mixing it with shipments coming from Turkey or other countries where Soydan Oil had legitimate production concessions.
Claudia gave Javin a deep frown. “This would be explosive if it got out, for the governments of both Turkey and the UK.”
Javin nodded again. “And I’m sure this is the tip of the iceberg. Erkan is giving us just a foretaste of what a trove of documents is in the drive.”
Zeki cursed the Minister and Soydan. “This deal could also explain why Turkey isn’t interested in s
tability in Syria and Iraq. If these had strong governments that controlled their countries’ vast riches, then Soydan and other smugglers like him would be cut off.”
Javin let out a deep breath. “This brings clarity, but also complicates the situation.”
“It sure does,” Claudia said. “Martin will have more than enough to sanction our op.” Her voice carried a tinge of uneasiness.
Zeki seemed to have missed it, but Javin was fully aware of her feelings. “Yes, but it will have to be a substantial team,” he said slowly. “Damascus is not Istanbul.”
“I’m willing to go with you,” Zeki said in a firm voice and looked first at Javin, then at Claudia.
“Good,” Javin said. “And we’ll have to drop Ajaz.”
“Yes, about him,” Zeki said in a low voice and leaned closer to Javin. “What’s the plan? We’re getting rid of him?”
“We’re not going to kill him, if that’s what you mean,” Javin replied.
“Then what? If we let him go, he’ll talk, tell MIT about us, all of us.”
“He won’t do that. Ajaz has given us a lot of intel. That would put him in deep trouble if word got out.”
“So, we’ll just let him go?”
“Yes, the cover story will be that he escaped when we were trying to transport him to another location. And Ajaz will say that he never saw our faces, since we always wore masks. And when asked about where he was held, he’ll say that there was a hood over his head most of the time, so he has no idea.”
Zeki gave Javin a sideways glance. “You think Ajaz will agree to all this, and keep his mouth shut?”
“Yes, he’ll do all that if he wants to live.”
Chapter Twenty-two
CIS Safehouse
Istanbul, Turkey
The CIS team that Martin had assigned to analyze the document spent over an hour poring over it. They compared it to intelligence they had already gathered from other sources, and they also sought the assistance of the National Security Agency, with whom the CIS had a close relationship. NSA’s reports confirmed that an oil pipeline deal had been in the works, but talks had been abruptly interrupted around the time when the flash drive with the sensitive data had surfaced.
