Meeting Max (24 page)

“Oh my God, I didn’t know.”

“Yes, and I am so sorry for you, and India is in her debt, but you must call her family.”

Rick didn’t want to call them, at least not yet, but Meher was right. He was a doctor and had been through these things many times.

While sitting in Meher’s office, Rick made the call. He tried to think of what to say, but there was no way of cushioning it. Meher left, saying he wanted Rick to have privacy and that he would return.

I don’t know how I can do this. Elena was their flesh and blood.

“Is this Mrs. Weisz?” Rick began in a low voice.

“Yes. Who is this? You sound so far away.”

“I
am
far away. I’m in India. My name is Rick Newman.”

“Yes, yes, Elena told us so much about you, so many wonderful things. She’s a wonderful girl and I’m glad you called. How are you both doing?”

“Mrs. Weisz, I have sad news for you.” Rick cried into the phone. There was silence at the other end. He pushed his words out through his tears. “Mrs. Weisz,” he said, unable to stifle his sobs. “Please sit down.”

“What? Something happened? She’s sick?”

Rick closed his eyes. “I’m sorry. Elena died in an accident.”

He heard her phone drop and then a busy signal. He called again. The line stayed busy.

Oh God, what’s going on in her mind and heart?

Rick felt her pain, imagined her crying and shaking.

He called back a few minutes later. Mrs. Weisz could hardly speak. Her words were filled with sobs. Elena’s father was crying and yelling in the background. “I’m not hearing this! I’m not hearing this!”

“
Shuss,
Laszlo. I will tell you. Wait.” Then she said to Rick, “Where is she now?”

“She’s still here in the hospital.”

“We want her home.”

“Yes, of course.”

He cried into the phone. Rick gave her his mobile number and hung up.

Kamran was responsible for Elena’s death. He knew she didn’t really have to be at the airport. Why did he do it? His stupid mission killed her and their future together. She made a mistake, and now the lives of her loved ones have been shattered. Kamran killed people because of his insane fanatic concept of justice. Rick hoped he was dead.

If not, I will find him and kill him
.

Never in Rick’s wildest dreams could he have imagined what had taken place at the airport. A beautiful, sensitive, loving woman was taken away from him. For what?

Where is God?

Meher returned and brought him tea. Rick sipped it slowly. The warm liquid felt good as it soothed his parched throat. He was beginning to feel the calming effect of the medication, but the pain was still there.

“Thanks for the tea, Meher. You’re a good man.”

“I know how hurt you are and if there is anything you want me to do, I will do it.”

“Thank you.” Then he looked at Meher with a cold stare. “Is there someone I can talk to about the information I have regarding the attack?” Rick made a fist. “We have to kill that bastard, Kamran!”

“Kamran?”

“He was their leader.”

“You can tell me what you know, and I will pass it on to the right people. I am still involved with India’s security.”

“I may have some information about other attacks they have planned.”

“Tell me, I will write it down.”

“I know there is an attack planned sometime next month, but I don’t know where. It will be an attack against rich people, and maybe Jews. Kamran, if that’s his real name, is the man who led the team at the airport. He was a guest at the Suryagarh Hotel in Jaisalmer and I know he has a home in Delhi in an exclusive area.”

“Do you know where, exactly?”

“No, but I think it’s near the Lodi Gardens.”

“Okay. I know the area. I have spent a lot of time in Delhi.”

“Meher, I lost my woman,” Rick cried out, tears coursing down his cheeks, “the one I was going to walk through life with.”

“Let us just sit for awhile. If you don’t want to talk now, it is all right to do that.”

“No, I
do
want to talk and plan what to do about getting him.”

“Rick, please, you are not to worry. I will take some of your worries from you. I have already arranged to have Elena prepared for an Air India flight to the USA, as per your instructions.”

“Thank you, Meher. That was thoughtful of you. Let me tell you about the information that I know about the attack in Jaisalmer.

“Somehow, the authorities at the airport allowed the biplane to stay there. It was partially covered by a tarp with some tools around to make it look like it was being worked on. A man by the name of Tariq flew it there and he is supposed to be well-known at the airport.”

“Oh my God! That’s a wonderful piece of information. He is a well-known pilot, and we will find him.”

“Maybe through him you can find Kamran and the others.”

“I can only hope.”

“I’ll skip around as I tell you all that I know. My mind is still a blur.”

“That’s fine, Rick. Take your time. We did have some sketchy knowledge of the attack. We had an agent, Abhasa, not his real name, who provided us with information about other things over the years, but he had little knowledge of this attack. However, he did tell us that he knew of a spy, a man whose code name was Solitude. He was involved with Kamran.

“Solitude worked for Indian Security and Intelligence Services, but we later found out he sometimes played two sides of a game. He was a double agent and accumulated large sums of money from several countries.”

“Meher, you are a medical officer. How do you know about spies and security?”

“Before I was in the Indian Air Force, I worked for the SIS, a security and intelligence agency and, for various reasons, I am still connected”

“I see, and by ‘connected,’ you mean you still have friends there who might give you information.”

“Yes, but let us take one thing at a time and stay in touch with her family.”

“I haven’t heard back from Mrs. Weisz. It’s been two hours. I know they are in shock. They also must be in a lot of pain. I should have waited to tell them.”

“Pain is not easy, my friend, as you know. Do you want to rest for a while?”

“No, I want to tell you what I know about Kamran’s plan and some of the names I heard before those names slip into the shadows for me.

“The name of their group sounded like Mujahadeen. Elena’s role in the plan was to lure the defense minister into a relationship so that she could find out habits and details of his personal life that would aid in his abduction. I know Kamran had special operations experience and that his father lives in Islamabad. Kamran was the leader of the operation. He was a Pakistani but lived in Delhi. How is that possible?”

“Anything is possible, but keep going. I’m taking it down to make it easier later. When you talk to RAW, the Indian equivalent of your CIA, or the SIS, they will take your information and put the pieces together. You will have to speak to them directly.”

“I will help in any way that I can. There is another man, a man I met on the plane to Delhi. His name is Jassu. He worked with Elena and assisted Kamran in gathering information about the target.

“Their plan was to take the defense minister hostage in exchange for Pakistani prisoners. If the government did not reply to their demands, they would cut his finger off, leaving his official government ring on it, and send it to the prime minister. If the government still didn’t respond, they would kill him.”

“Well, then they will have nothing if they kill him.”

“Not quite. They planned to tell the government where the body could be found, and there would be a letter attached to it restating their demands. The letter would tell them they had already taken the Indian UN Ambassador hostage. They planned to kidnap the UN ambassador before they let the government know where the defense minister’s body was. I also know they had the prime minister in their sights.”

“I see. This is a well-thought plan. RAW will be very interested in this and will track them down.”

“Nasim and Tariq are other names that come to mind. I don’t know much about Nasim, but Tariq was one of the men, along with Sudar, who took us from the rooftop restaurant yesterday morning.

“I should have fought them in the restaurant. They needed Elena and they wanted me under their control. I should have attacked them in the restaurant and yelled out to call the police. It would have worked.”

“Maybe yes, and maybe no. It is difficult for an unarmed man to fight against guns. You did what you thought was right at the time, just as Elena thought what
she
did was right when she first got sucked into this plan.”

“Names that Elena mentioned come to mind: Emir, Prabahakar, Basant, and Abdul-Aleem. That last name…he was the pilot of the biplane who would fly it to Pakistan. We have to get these guys, Meher.”

“We will, I’m sure we will. When you speak to some of the RAW officers, they will be very thorough.”

“I remember her mentioning the name Abhasa, but now I know he was one of yours.”

“Yes, but he’s not a professional spy like Emir. He goes by the code name Checkmate and uses ciphers related to books by Homer. He was just somebody I met who is now helping us. He is smart and unknown. It sounds like he got to know Kamran, but maybe Kamran had his suspicions because Abhasa faded out of the picture. He is now giving us updates on possible future attacks and the things you are telling me can help.

“Abhasa has given RAW information that a major attack will take place the end of November, which is just a month from now, but he had no details. Abhasa shifted his focus to a terrorist group in which he is a trusted member and he will give us definitive information about an attack planned in Delhi in January. We are certain that his information and whatever you can add will help RAW head off the attack.”

“It seems you are still involved in Intelligence in some way.”

“Yes. When I worked for the Indian intelligence agency, I was asked to continue in that capacity in addition to my medical duties. The government felt I was well-suited for it.”

“How did you meet Abhasa? Are you allowed to tell me?”

“I met him in a strange way. I was in Jodphur, in uniform, wearing my summer semi-ceremonial dress, which included black shoes. I accidentally stepped on some fresh cow dung with both feet, which filled the deep ridges of my soles. The smell was unbearable.”

“And this is a spy story?”

“It is. Maybe I shouldn’t have started so close to the beginning. Anyway, I tried rinsing the bottoms of my dress shoes, but nothing came off. I searched for someone who would clean them and found a line of shoe repair people on a street nearby.”

“That was easy.”

“Not that easy, Rick. None of them wanted the job at any price. When I showed them my shoes, they shook their heads. One man finally agreed to do it because I answered some questions for him about his mother’s health. I watched him use different solutions and brushes until after an hour he finally got them clean.

“He accepted no money, but he asked if he could talk to me. His name was Abhasa. What he said was unexpected. He told me his job helped him support his family, but he wanted to do something for his country. He told me his dream was to be a spy.”

“What did you make of Abhasa?”

“At first I blew him off as someone who had daydreams. He didn’t have the looks of a James Bond. He was a small, unusually thin man who didn’t appear to be well-educated.

“When we talked, I learned that he had knowledge of electronics and ciphers, but I didn’t think he matched the job description of a spy. I gave him my card, pushed some money into his hand, and thanked him for cleaning my dress shoes.”

“What changed things?”

“A few months later, Abhasa came to my office and told me he had cracked an elaborate Pakistani code. He intercepted and decoded messages that were broadcast on his shortwave radio. The messages involved a plan by Pakistanis to attack a military post in the state of Jammu and Kashmir.”

“I know there is much trouble there,” Rick said.

“There is. I took it seriously and sent a request to RAW, who went to see him. At first they thought he had been tricking them and might be a double agent, giving them credible information to gain their confidence.

“They soon found out that the information was genuine. He had to have cracked a code to get it, a code RAW was unable to decipher. Abhasa was screened and double screened and was asked to spy against Pakistan. Through outrageous schemes, he tested his ability and was able to convince the Pakistanis that he would be useful to
them
as a spy. They soon became confident he was on their side because he provided them with credible misinformation, but he wasn’t. He worked for India.”

“Always testing his ability to deceive, you mean? What happened in Jammu?”

“The Pakistani commandos attacked, but the Indian army was ready and killed twenty-six of them, wounded others, and took the rest prisoners.”