Counter Poised (26 page)

“Let’s review the plan.” Ahmed’s voice was strained, but calm and just loud enough to be heard over the drone of the Toyota’s engine and tires. “We will be entering Mecca on the Umm Al-Qura street and pass in front of the Al-Masjid al-Haram mosque, the site of the Ka‘abah, on Bab Al-umrah street. We should expect a lot of pilgrims and walking traffic, even late at night. We’ll park by the north entrance of the Ka‘abah at twelve o’four a.m. If everything goes as planned, there will be an automobile accident at exactly twelve o’five a.m., which will cut the power to the streetlights in that area. We should have about twenty seconds before people’s eyes adjust to the dark and maybe a minute before the streetlights come back on. So, we have to be ready to unload as soon as the lights go out. When I stop, what do you two do?”

Juan spoke up, “Angel and I get out and pretend to check the tires and the undercarriage. As soon as the lights go out, we lift the tailgate and start pulling out the RV.”

“Yeah,” continued Angel, “and when Juan and I have the RV about halfway out, you should be there to grab the front end. Then we run like hell to the wall by the north entrance and set it down. And then we walk back to the car. It shouldn’t take more than a couple of minutes. We should be driving away by twelve o’seven.”

Ahmed said, “We’re coming up to the cloverleaf on Third Ring Road. We should be there in about five minutes. So, remember, we walk back to the car, no hurry. If the lights come back on, we don’t want people seeing us running. If we are stopped, we say we were just stopping by on our trip into town to check out the mosque.”

“Yeah, just stopping by to leave a little message, I mean see the mosque,” Angel joked.

“Right, a tiny little message,” laughed Juan nervously.

Traffic was lighter than they expected in the area of the mosque. Ahmed slowly rolled the SUV up to the curb directly across the street from the north entrance. Angel and Juan looked at Ahmed. He studied his watch with one finger raised in a sign to wait for his signal.

12:04

“Go.”

Juan and Angel got out of the SUV and moved toward the rear. They spent about twenty seconds looking at the rear tires and the undercarriage. Both of them met at the tailgate. They had been observing the people on the streets, mostly pilgrims, and nobody gave them a second glance. The north entrance was closed and locked for the night, so the usual contingent of security personnel was gone.

12:05

They raised the tailgate and started to sweep aside the dirty laundry, exposing the RV, but the lights didn’t go out. They didn’t even flicker. Ahmed got out and walked to the tailgate.

“If the lights don’t go out in twenty seconds we need to get off the street. We can’t be…”

Blackness. The lights went out.

“Go, go, go.” Angel and Juan grabbed the wide, heavy end of the RV and pulled it out. As the tapered end emerged, Ahmed grabbed the tip and caught it as it exited the tailgate. Five seconds had passed. They started moving across the street. Still black, but there were people close enough to be heard cursing the darkness. Twelve seconds. Across the street, now twenty feet to the big palm tree next to the front entrance.

12:06

They laid the RV against the wall and then casually started walking down the sidewalk by the mosque. No one spoke. They passed a group of pilgrims in the dark headed the opposite direction. Nobody noticed the four-foot long RV between the wall of the mosque and the palm tree.

A hundred feet or so down the walkway, Ahmed signaled to cross the street. As they did so, the lights came back on.

12:07

A few of the pilgrims cheered the returning light. Ahmed and company casually made their way back to the SUV.

A feeling of panic was setting in as their hearts raced. They had an almost irresistible urge to run! In a low voice that could not be overheard, Ahmed cautioned, “Boys, continue to walk slow. If anybody spots the RV and raises a fuss, look like we’re interested, but continue to the car.”

A group of pilgrims walking toward the north entrance had stopped by the palm tree.

“Uh-oh. Time to pick up the pace. Calmly.”

They arrived at the SUV, and Angel closed the tailgate as Juan and Ahmed got in. Angel opened his door, stealing one last glance at the RV as he slid into the back seat. One of the pilgrims was looking their way.

12:08

“Let’s go, Ahmed. We have an interested party.”

Ahmed eased the Land Cruiser away from the curb and drove northeast on Bab Al-umrah. They turned onto the Second Ring Road, which took them to the Jeddah Old Road. Finally, they hit the Third Ring Road and with a sigh of relief headed back to Jeddah.

Chapter 32

The pilgrim approached the north entrance of the Ka‘abah just as three men hurriedly crossed the street and got into a Toyota Land Cruiser. One of them looked back suspiciously as the SUV quickly pulled away from the curb. They stood out in his mind because they walked stiffly, awkwardly, as if trying to walk slowly while they really wanted to run. However, he had more important things to consider because this was his pilgrimage, the one for which he had saved all his life. He couldn’t sleep. The pilgrimage was holy, and he and the others would come tomorrow to throw rocks at the devil. Approaching the entrance, he caught sight of a large cone-shaped object leaning against the wall. He approached the object and noticed a note in Arabic on the cone along with some English words and Arabic numbers. He didn’t read much English, but he was perfectly proficient in Arabic. He read:

Please call for the authorities.

Do not attempt to move the warhead.

Warhead
?! The pilgrim turned around to call for help when he almost ran into a security guard. The guard looked over the pilgrim’s shoulder, then roughly pushed him aside and moved to more closely inspect the conical object.

The pilgrim blurted out, “I saw three suspicious men cross the street from here and drive away in a large automobile—that way!” He pointed northeast on Bab Al-umrah street.

“What type of automobile? And what color?”

“It was the big Toyota with the cargo space in the back. I forget the name.”

Another pilgrim standing nearby added, “I saw it, too. It was a SUV—the really big one.”

“A Land Cruiser?” asked the guard.

“Maybe. It was mostly white, but it had dark areas where the paint had been sanded and perhaps primed.”

“Thank you, pilgrims. Praise Allah you were here to see them!”

The security guard warned everyone to move away and called for help on his radio. He had been in the security forces for two years and this was his second hajj. He had thought security was tight last year, but it was nothing compared to this year. There were thousands more security guards on duty during the day, manning checkpoints and screening the millions of pilgrims making their way to the Ka‘abah. But late at night, with most of the pilgrims in bed, security was more relaxed. Perhaps too relaxed. He keyed his radio and called his supervisor, telling him of the conical object and giving him the description of the Toyota SUV and its direction of travel.

Almost immediately, the Saudi Air Force launched armed helicopters, which had been on alert for hajj security. The Saudi military primarily used U.S.-made equipment, and their military personnel were trained in operations and tactics by U.S. advisors. Equipped with night-vision scopes and air-to-surface rockets, they began a thorough search for the suspect SUV. With so few cars on the roads at this time of night, it should not be difficult to find.

Within half an hour, one of the armed helicopters, Makkah One, spotted a SUV on the highway to Jeddah. White with dark patches, it matched the description given by the pilgrim.

“Do they appear to be aware of your presence?” the ground controller asked the helicopter pilot.

“No. They are driving at a steady speed.”

“Okay. Keep them in sight. Stand by for orders.”

Meanwhile, the Saudi Secret Service arrived at the north entrance of the Ka‘abah, and a weapons expert examined the RV. Satisfied it was an empty shell, they loaded the RV into an unmarked government van and drove away. The sinister cargo was taken to headquarters in Riyadh, where multilingual agents inspected the RV and translated an English-language identification plate. The plate included a serial number and identified the device as U.S. Government Property. Someone had stamped USS
Louisiana
SSBN 743 on the side of the device so there would be no doubt where it had come from.

“What is it?” one of the agents asked.

“It’s a reentry vehicle,” the weapons expert answered. “It’s the part of an intercontinental ballistic missile that carries the nuclear warhead. But in this instance, the warhead has been removed.”

“Why would they do that?”

“It’s a message,” said the commander as he walked up behind the two men. “The maniacs who have stolen the American submarine are sending us a message. If they had wanted, the device could have still contained the nuclear warhead, and they could have destroyed Islam’s most holy city and shrine. They are telling us that if they can get a warhead to the Ka‘abah during the hajj, they can strike any Muslim target whenever and wherever they want.”

“If they seek to avenge the strike on Washington DC, why did they not destroy us today?”

“I don’t know. Hopefully because they are more compassionate than al-Qaeda.” Turning to his aide, the commander continued, “Call the director’s office. Have them wake him up. I need to speak to him, now!” The commander thought carefully of how to choose his words for this call. He was worried about his own fate, but even more, the fate of his cousin whom he had placed in charge of security at Mecca.

On the road to Jeddah, Ahmed drove in silence as Angel dozed next to him and Juan slept in the backseat. They were three quarters of the way back to Jeddah, and there had not been any sign of increased patrols on the highway. Thankfully, it looked as though they had made it in and out without a hitch. Just ahead was a turnoff to the right for a dirt road.

“Hey you two, wake up!”

“What’s the matter?” Angel groggily asked.

“We’re here at the dirt road where we are meeting Amal with the van. In case we were spotted in Mecca, we’re going to exchange this SUV and drive the rest of the way in the van.”

Ahmed slowed and turned onto the dirt road.

In the trailing helicopter, the pilot reported the SUV’s maneuver to the ground controller.

“Roger. See where they go. They may lead us to accomplices.”

Instead, the SUV pulled up next to a non-descript van. Three occupants got out of the SUV and walked over to the van. The helicopter’s gyrostabilized telescopic night-vision scope enabled the pilot to monitor every move by the suspects while staying well outside of hearing range. With his lights off, he was completely undetectable from their position. He watched and waited.

Ahmed approached the driver’s window and asked, “Amal, did we wake you?”

The driver jumped out and gave Ahmed a big hug. “No, no, little brother. Yuusuf and I were just talking. We note that you are right on time. Things must have gone well in Mecca!”

“Yes, they did. We believe we were entirely successful, but as planned, I want to make sure we were not followed on the road to Jeddah.”

“Of course, of course. Let’s trade vehicles. You take the van and continue on to Jeddah. Yuusuf and I will take the Land Cruiser and drive back toward Mecca. If the authorities stop us, they will only find two cranky old men who happened to have an ironclad alibi. We have just ended our night shift working in the GenCon equipment staging area. We have been seen by at least twenty-five other people during the time period you were in Mecca.”

“Good. Then let’s go!”

Ahmed, Angel, and Juan started to get into the van when Ahmed stopped. “Oh wait,” he said. “Amal, my dirty laundry is piled high in the back of the Land Cruiser. Let’s put it in the van so I can get it washed when I get back to Jeddah.”

Ahmed and Amal transferred armloads of dirty laundry into the back of the van, got in their vehicles, and then drove back to the main road. Ahmed turned right in the van and continued toward Jeddah while Amal turned left in the Land Cruiser toward Mecca.

“Ground, this is Makkah One.”

“Go ahead, Makkah One.”

“The suspects have exchanged vehicles and split up. The SUV is now headed back toward Mecca with two occupants, and our three original occupants are now in a van headed toward Jeddah. I can’t follow both. They are separating rapidly. Which one do you want me to follow?”

“Stand by.”

“Also, they transferred some massive objects from the back of the SUV to the van. I could not tell what they were.”

“Roger, stand by.” After a few moments the ground controller ordered, “Follow the van. We’ll have ground forces stop the SUV. Command is concerned about the objects they transferred to the van. They could be other components of the warhead. We don’t want them to have the opportunity to assemble them.”

“Ground, there are no distinguishing features of the van. It’s like many others on the highway and in Jeddah. It will be difficult to keep track of them once they get to Jeddah.”

“Roger, stand by.” There was a short delay, and then the order, “Makkah One, Command says take them out. Weapons free.”

“Roger that. Understand weapons free?”

“That’s affirmative, Makkah One. Weapons free.”

The attack helicopter maneuvered to a position behind the van as it neared the outskirts of Jeddah in the pre-dawn darkness. The pilot locked the missile onto the target and fired. In an instant, the van and its occupants were obliterated. There was nothing but scrap metal strewn across the road and the surrounding desert sand. Ahmed, Angel, and Juan never knew what hit them.