Infinite Exposure (9 page)

***

Heidi donned her nursing fatigues and set about to start the saline exchange. The pump they were using was the same pump funeral
homes used to embalm bodies. During her nurse's training she actually had to work in the morgue for a while. The only thing
different about this was the body strapped to the table was still alive. Oddly, it was that training which made her most suited
for this job.

She looked over and saw Nikolaus looking through the room's observation window. A smile shown from behind her surgical mask.
He recognized her and smiled back. Nikolaus and her father had been friends forever. They were both loyal party members and
she had been raised to be a loyal party member. Her nurse's training had been paid for by the party. As part of her payback
and continued training, she had worked as a nurse in various military medical units and served as a med tech for some clandestine
ones. She had seen first-hand the carnage caused by explosives, and had no problem with what they were doing.

Heidi knew the history of al-Qaeda on her soil. Germans had been hunting them long before the Americans started killing them
wholesale. The Americans really didn't get into it until after 9/11. Yes, they had done some monitoring, and even launched
a botched attempt to kill bin Laden prior to 9/11, but they got involved too late. Had the American's shared their information
with the people in her party, bin Laden wouldn't still be walking around. Her party had some of the best trained assassins
in the world.

From the history Heidi knew, al-Qaeda began operating in her country some time in 1992. They had a cell in Hamburg that had
defied being rooted out by normal criminal means, and turned out to be the source for most of the 9/11 hijackers or at least
selected and educated them. In 1994 al-Qaeda had killed two German intelligence agents because they were trying to dismantle
the operations al-Qaeda had in Germany. After that event, the Reformed Nazi Party started getting a lot more influential members.

In 1995 German intelligence identified a suspected leader of a Hamburg cell and found the Twaik Group was a front company
for Saudi intelligence. Several members of Saudi intelligence were suspected of being in the pocket of al-Qaeda and funneling
millions through this front into the hands of al-Qaeda. The Hamburg cell leader was accused of not only financing 9/11, but
of helping to select the hijackers.

In 1996 the Germans began going after the Hamburg cell in earnest after receiving a tip from Turkey. They began monitoring
the mosque where the 9/11 hijackers attended and the radical Moroccan imam Nedim Fazazi preached.

In 1998 the Germans arrested Mamdouh Mahmud Salim (a.k.a. Abu Hajer) in connection with the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in
Africa. He was later called “head of bin Laden's computer operations and weapons procurement.” Shortly thereafter, the CIA
and German police foiled an airplane bomb plot where al-Qaeda had penetrated airport security in Amsterdam and planned to
smuggle bombs into the cargo holds of American passenger planes.

After 9/11, the world found out about the Hamburg cell. Heidi's party got a lot more funding and a lot fewer inquiries from
government officials about their activities. Everyone knew what had to be done, and they were willing to keep their distance
in case the world didn't quite understand.

Heidi had no illusions about what was going to happen here. They were going to kill these two men, and harvest salable components
for market. As more subjects came through here, the cash influx would allow them to launch larger initiatives. Covert operations
funding had been good enough to get them this far, but you needed serious funding to carry out work of the magnitude which
had to happen.

This train of thought was interrupted by Lisa touching her arm. “They're still alive,” Lisa whispered.

“Not for long,” responded Heidi.

“I wasn't told about this,” Lisa whispered nervously. “I'm a surgical nurse, not a murderer.”

Lisa, this girl was a real piece of work. Heidi had told Nikolaus not to bring her into this operation. When people heard
Heidi's name they instantly conjured up an image of a blue-eyed, blond sex toy. Heidi's hair was somewhat blond and her eyes
a shade of blue, but she was a long way from a sex toy. Lisa was the complete image of a sex toy. She was doing a senior party
member and claimed to be a loyal party member herself, but she really just wanted to sleep her way to a better station in
life. If she kept up talking like this she would be tossed into the incinerator tonight.

“Just continue your work and keep your mouth shut,” responded Heidi. “With power comes the responsibility of doing what has
to be done.”

Lisa nervously went over to begin prepping her tray. While Nikolaus could not hear the exchange he had noticed it and Lisa's
reaction. One look in Heidi's eyes told him what he needed to know. The first wash out was in the room.

There were times when Heidi wished she looked like Lisa, but only times. She had her share of lovers in life. Better to call
them sex partners, for they were never really in love, nor was she. They exchanged laughs and orgasms when circumstances allowed,
but rarely kept in touch. One notable exception had been during an operation involving some Americans. She had heard one of
the Americans refer to her as a “closing time gal.” Another had joked the other could always “go ugly early and get a good
night's sleep.” Beauty was not her forte. She could look good, but never be beautiful and she had come to terms with that.

Still, one of the Americans had chosen to take the advice. They kept in touch for quite a few years after that. He was kind
and funny. She laughed a lot with him and was all too willing to sleep with him. Sex with him had really caused Heidi to call
into question that whole “Aryan Supremacy” thing. He was dark skinned, not black. More of a Hispanic or American Indian descent
that had been intermingled with whites for many generations. In bed, he was a ride on the multi-orgasm express. Had the party
ordered her to have as many babies as she could with him she would have done it with gusto!

Life gives and life takes away. One day the letters to Heidi simply stopped. She had written a time or two after that, but
received no reply. Oddly enough, it was the guy who had called her a “closing time gal” who wrote her back some months later
to say her lover had been killed in a fire fight. He was very sorry to be the one to tell her because his squad buddy seemed
very happy with her. He gave her some contact information and told her the squad would always look out for her. If she was
ever in trouble, they would come and get her because the squad takes care of its own. The last line had been the one which
ripped her heart out. She had only been with her lover three weeks, but on the second night they all treated her like a lady.
Now, when they had no further obligation to her, they made the largest commitment anyone in clandestine service can make.
They claimed her as one of their own.

Heidi noticed the blood was about to overflow its container. She quickly switched containers and checked the patient for life
signs. No pulse. She turned on the pump and signaled the surgeons to start work. In a few minutes she would be draining the
second patient.

All color drained from Lisa's face as the surgeons began removing the major bones like a lumber jack felling a tree. She dropped
whatever she had in her hand and tried to run out of the building. The last Heidi saw of her was a pair of special security
guys grabbing her, gagging her, and taking her out. Heidi knew that was the last she would ever see of Lisa. She wondered
how Nikolaus was going to explain it to the party member Lisa had been sleeping with.

***

John had been quite busy over the past few months. Despite the determination of India's upper classes to keep wages down,
he had gotten a raise and was now training new hires at his data center. The second building to house programmers had been
completed, or at least completed enough that they were starting to bring on development staff. His boss had left most of the
interviewing and new hire selection up to him.

He had sent multiple messages out to the cells he communicated with for them to send IT professionals to him. He could almost
ensure the people would get in as long as their paperwork was in order and they wouldn't quibble about the low wages. It had
been a hard sell. The leaders were unwilling to compromise such a crucial communications backbone. John had promised to train
another, but said he needed the people now. They were extremely reluctant until he told them his plan. The following week
he hired seven al-Qaeda members. Some of them had just returned from working under H1-B Visa status in the U.S. financial
district. They were not allowed to know he also was a member. One week later John had a new temporary roommate he began training
on how to process email.

Not long after this, John began hearing rumors that some of the workers were trying to unionize. He had heard of unions springing
up in other areas of the country and that even a few locations around this one had become union shops. This scared John to
no end. If upper management heard the rumors, security would be tightened dramatically and his plan could never be carried
out. He sent several communications back to the cell leaders for them to relay to their members working for him. They had
to crush the union at all costs if this plan was to succeed. There were now only three data centers left to migrate. Within
eight months more than one third of the world's wealth would be controlled by the systems in his care. Two of the programmers
working in the data center had already written software to generate electronic transfers as part of a migration fix for the
client. These programmers had come from the financial district in New York, so they knew how to perform wire transfers. With
some slight modifications they were certain it could be used to transfer all of the funds from all of the systems if they
had access to all of the systems. They simply couldn't risk a union fight now.

***

Ramesh returned to headquarters with the smudgy printouts from Nedim's. He told the man in the suit that they needed to put
a new printer at Nedim's if they wanted better results. The man pointed and said, “Take that one.” After finishing his report
to the team, Ramesh dutifully boxed up the printer along with some extra ink cartridges and a driver CD.

Once back at Nedim's, he installed the printer, taking his old one out to the trash down the street. He got the drivers installed
and tested out the printing function. “Much better!” he told himself.

Shortly after the installation process, Nedim returned home with his other shadow. They both wondered what Ramesh was up to
until they saw the new printer. “Where did you get that?” Umar queried.

“Don't ask,” replied Ramesh. All considered that enough conversation on the topic.

Nedim sat down to process email for his shadows. He knew that eventually he would be killed, but at least he now had a better
printer. They laughed when Nedim opened the response from his technical support service saying they believed he had a hardware
problem. Things progressed in a rather boring manner until Nedim came across one email with special phrases he had not told
the others about. He took a deep breath and said, “I guess it is good you brought that printer today.” His shadows looked
at him confused. “This is a courier pick up to happen two days from now.”

Outrage gripped both men and raised voices came out with all kind of accusations and statements about Nedim's physical relationship
with his mother. Finally, when they simmered down, he looked at them and said: “There hasn't been a courier pick up in over
two years. I didn't tell you about it because I thought we were done with that. They stopped happening once everyone embraced
the anonymity of email and hidden FTP sites. The instructions tell me to print out all of the information in the file you
took yesterday. I am also supposed to add Google aerial maps of the location along with MapQuest driving maps. I am to put
it all in a binder, then give it to the person who asks for it on the way to work.”

“We will have to add a tail to him,” both shadows said in unison.

“One thing is certain, you won't be able to follow me closely for a couple of days,” responded Nedim. “This may be a simple
way for them to kill me. They could have learned about you by now and decided to use this as a ruse so a killer can get close.”

Neither shadow had considered that possibility. The team would need to call in some resources and spread them around the path
Nedim took to work. They would also need to obtain a small courier shoulder bag. It would be the easiest thing to hide a transmitter
in. They couldn't risk a voice bug, but a passive location tag that could be tracked by either satellite or hand scanners
would allow them to follow the path the documents took, at least until they ditched the bag.

Nedim began printing out the documents from yesterday's file and visiting the map sites to obtain the correct images to print.
He knew from experience he needed to print at least four copies of the maps so others could draw on them while making plans.
They wouldn't have a copy machine in the mountains. He also started moving the images and files into a directory so he could
burn a CD to go along with the documents. They might have a laptop with a solar charger up there in the mountains.

Ramesh raced back to headquarters. A report of this magnitude could not wait. They would need enough team members to cover
the nearly two mile walk to where Ramesh worked. They would also need a cheap courier bag from one of the local vendors, then
get the locater tag sewn into it. Probably put two or four tags in the bag near some corners so if one failed or was found
they could still keep tracking the bag.

The team was somewhat shocked to hear there would be a courier pickup. All members at headquarters expressed outrage this
had not been discovered earlier. Ramesh told them Nedim said a courier hadn't been used in over two years since everyone went
on-line. He included Nedim's worry that they may have been found out and this was nothing more than an assassination attempt.
There was quite a bit of silence in the room when that bomb was dropped.