The Dreadful Renegade: A Thrilling Espionage Novel (Techno thriller, Mystery & Suspense) (15 page)

June 26
th
, evening, Brussels

Nagib and Alia settled down in the apartment and he watched some sports on TV while she prepared a light meal from the products in the kitchen. As they were finishing their meal Nagib's phone with the SIM card given to him by Rahman rang and he saw that it was Rahman on the caller ID. He answered and was told, without mentioning any names, to expect a visit an hour later.

An hour later there was a quiet rap on the door and after looking through the peephole Nagib opened the door to let in Rahman, Junaid and an older man who was introduced as General Masood,
Head of Intelligence
. Alia offered everyone coffee or tea and they all opted for herbal tea. Masood took the lead and said that he had been briefed by Rahman and understood that Nagib had something very valuable for sale. Nagib reiterated that he was not interested in money for himself and really was interested in cooperation to strike a blow at the enemies of Islam, especially the Americans and Israelis. Masood said that they had a common cause and common enemies and therefore cooperation should be forthcoming. He then asked what Nagib had to offer and when Nagib gave an overview of the blueprints that he had downloaded describing the wide range of warheads that included tactical, extremely small "suitcase bombs" as well as "The super high yield (SHY) device".  Naturally he didn't use the word stolen blueprints and while talking he became aware of Masood's jaw dropping open. It was such a hilarious sight that he barely managed to keep a straight face. Masood excused himself and beckoned Rahman and Junaid to follow him to the bedroom. In Urdu he quietly asked them if they were sure this was not some kind of sting operation by the intelligence services of America, Israel or India and was assured by Rahman that the sample he was given in the morning was indeed the real thing. Masood remained skeptical and said that such a cornucopia must be a gift of Allah and saw nods of approval by his younger colleagues. When the Pakistanis returned to the living room Nagib could easily read their expressions and knew that he could make any demands he wanted.

Masood tried to play it cool but could not refrain from smiling when he asked Nagib what he wanted in return. Nagib and Alia held hands and repeated that they wanted revenge and justice, and they thought that the punishment should equal the crimes committed by the Americans and Israelis against the Muslims. When asked what exactly they had in mind they said that they were thinking on a scale of tens of thousands of casualties. Masood said that could only be achieved by a war or a long series of terrorist operations. Nagib said that for these types of operations he could contact any Muslim country in the world or jihadist organization, but for unconventional options he needed cooperation from Pakistan. General Masood appeared thoughtful and said that if Nagib was referring to nuclear weapons he should know that none had been used against populations since World War II in 1945. Nagib said that he was well aware of that and that he would settle for a couple of tactical warheads, preferably the size of the "suitcase bombs" with yields of a few kilotons – one for use against the Americans and one for the Israelis. Masood said that the risks were too great because if word of Pakistani involvement got out then the total destruction of his homeland was assured – if not by the Americans then by the Israelis who were believed to have a large arsenal of nuclear weapons. Nagib said that with the information he had in his possession Pakistan could build its own arsenal of advanced weapons that would ensure that no one would mess with them – in other words create a balance of mutual nuclear terror even with the US. Masood noted that the timeline was not right – if Nagib insisted on receiving the tactical warheads when he delivered the blueprints the Pakistanis would not have enough time to produce the advanced designs. Nagib said frankly that if he handed over the blueprints and waited for the warheads there was no guarantee that the Pakistanis would not renege from carrying out their part of the deal. Nagib added that he had a solution. He would first hand over only the blueprints for the smaller warheads. The Pakistanis could either supply him with two of their own tactical warheads or, if their performance was not satisfactory (meaning yields of less than 10 kilotons) then they could quickly use the blueprints to manufacture a couple of devices with advanced designs and hand them over to Nagib. Once these were received he would release the designs of the larger, strategic warheads. Nagib said that he would not use the warheads until the Pakistanis had time to produce these advanced designs. Rahman intervened and asked whether the blueprints were in a safe place and Nagib assured him that they were. The general who was still concerned with the whole deal asked if his country would be guaranteed exclusivity and Nagib promised him that he did not intend to share the designs with any other country or organization. Masood then asked how Nagib intended to transport the nuclear devices and deliver them to the target area and was told that Nagib and Alia already had preliminary plans for this, but he preferred to not to share them at this stage.

Junaid, who was a lot more practical although with less field experience than the men, asked Nagib where he intended to go into hiding with the warheads until the Pakistani scientists and engineers were ready with the modernized weapons. Nagib and Alia exchanged a long look and had to admit that they had not considered that they would need to find a safe haven, probably for several months if not for a few years. Masood who understood the problem told them that hiding in Pakistan would be an option but that he would need approval of the council for the deal in general and specifically for offering them asylum, as their very presence in Pakistan would lead to extreme pressure from the US to extradite them. Nagib said that he thought that they would be safe under the auspices of the Islamic State in parts of Iraq and Syria that were under IS control. Rahman looked at him as if he had just escaped from a mental institution and said that there was no way that he would be able to live there and stay in possession of a nuclear warhead, let alone of his own head. Alia, too, didn't like this wild idea her husband had just come up with and said that they could possibly approach the Saudis who were desperately trying to get their hands on a nuclear weapon of their own in response to Iran's efforts to develop the Shiite bomb. There were no foolproof solutions to this problem so Nagib asked for some extra time to sleep on it. They parted and agreed to meet the next day at noon and Masood promised to return with an answer about the deal and the asylum in Pakistan.

Once outside the apartment the three Pakistanis quietly discussed the matter. The senior man, Masood, said that possession of the blueprints would turn Pakistan from a second rate nuclear power into a leading one, superior to all but the American, Russians and Chinese, provided that the information was accurate and reliable. Rahman agreed and added that he was not qualified to professionally judge of the value of the data but he was convinced that Nagib believed that they were the genuine blueprints. Junaid, once again being the practical person, said that she was worried that the Americans as well as other intelligence agencies were trying to hunt down the couple and recover the files, and added that she felt they were not safe enough in Brussels. Masood then wondered aloud if there was a way to get the files without paying the requested price but Rahman said that Nagib was probably too clever to fall for such a ploy. He commented that if he would be in such a delicate position he would make sure that the access to the files was encoded in such a way that any unauthenticated attempts to open them would lead to their total self- destruction.  He added that they could go through the motions of complying with Nagib's conditions and later find a way to renege of their part of the deal. Junaid asked what he had in mind and Rahman said that they could supply inoperable or fake warheads, or even deliver genuine products but forcibly recover them.   

***

While this was taking place in the small apartment, David wondered how he could enlist the assets of the American intelligence community to locate the couple and seize the classified data for the benefit of his country. The most productive approach would be to cooperate with Harden and make a joint effort to find the couple either by hacking into the Belgian surveillance cameras or through the Pakistanis. He knew that Mossad kept a close watch on Pakistanis with ties to Al Qaeda fearing that a rogue nuclear weapon would end in the hands of the ruthless terrorist organization. He was also aware of the fact that Al Qaeda was losing favor among radical Islamists to the more extreme and callous Islamic State movement. He decided to consult with Haim Shimony, the head of Mossad, and see if there was any specific information on personnel at the Pakistani embassy in Brussels with ties to these two organizations. He returned to the offices of the Israeli delegation to the European Community and used a secure line to call Shimony. He was surprised to learn that Mossad was actively tracking a general in Pakistani intelligence and one of the most senior operatives suspected of being a sympathizer of Islamic radicals who was on a visit to Europe. Shimony added that the general, Masood Azzam, was on an official visit to Berlin when he told his German hosts that some urgent matter had come up and he had to skip the dinner party that had been arranged in honor of the newly formed German-Pakistani intelligence cooperation agreement. He excused himself and said that he had to go to Brussels to tend to a relative that had fallen sick. The Mossad team managed to place one of the agents on the same flight and called ahead to alert the agents in Brussels. David asked if they knew where the general was going and Shimony said that he would patch him in to the team in Brussels. David immediately recognized Kobi's voice and asked him what was going on. Kobi said that he received the sudden call from the Mossad office in Berlin and didn't have time to update David as he had to deploy his agents on the new pressing mission. David was angry that he wasn't informed immediately but suppressed his rage and asked Kobi for an update. Kobi told him that the general was met by Rahman Chenna who was the senior member of Pakistani intelligence in Brussels operating under the guise of the scientific attaché. Rahman was accompanied by a young woman, obviously also Pakistani that was not known to the Mossad operatives. David asked where they all went and Kobi apologetically told him that Rahman had taken aggressive evasive action and the Mossad agents lost track of him. Shimony followed the conversation and reprimanded Kobi for unprofessional behavior – first on account of failing to update David in real time and keep him in the loop and secondly for losing track of the Pakistanis. Kobi apologized and begged for another chance to prove himself worthy of his position and Shimony consented on condition that he obeyed David's orders.

David told the peevish, but repentant, Kobi to meet him immediately at the offices of the Israeli delegation that were practically empty at this time in the evening, and bring his agent Michelle who seemed to be the best acquainted with Brussels. Within half an hour the three of them were closely studying a map of Brussels using Google Earth and Street View options. They were surprised to see that the embassies of Pakistan, North Korea and Iran were located along the same thoroughfare, Chaussee de Hulpe that merges into Franklin Rooseveltlaan, and that the former two were quite close to each other. Michelle commented that it looked as if these three members of the New Evil Empire, evil at least from Israel's viewpoint, stuck close together. Anyway, they started a survey of the area close to the Pakistani embassy and saw that off the thoroughfare there were a few apartment buildings. Considering that it was quite late they expected that there would be very little regular traffic in the area and David decided that it would be a waste of time to post an agent near the Pakistani embassy at night, but told Kobi to have two of his agents in position to follow whichever employees that left the embassy in the morning. 

***

Herb Harden assembled his agents at the American embassy where the CIA had half of the basement and a small conference room that was built like a Faraday cage preventing the transmission and reception of electronic signals other than those that were not fed into the room through optical fibers. Harden asked one of the technicians on his team to present the latest photos from the ground based cameras and satellite images of the Pakistani embassy in Brussels. He was disappointed that there was not full around-the-clock video coverage but only snapshots taken at intervals by a camera positioned opposite the gates of the embassy. The CIA had a list of the Pakistani staff members and knew which diplomats were actually agents of Pakistani intelligence, and had photographs of the "scientific attaché" Rahman Chenna and his assistant Junaid. Face matching software was applied to the snapshots but the two "diplomats" were not identified in any of them. As an afterthought Harden called for the photos of Nagib and Alia and the software program came up with a hit. The two of them were seen exiting the embassy just before 4 pm on the 25
th
of June. Although they could not tell from the photos what the couple was doing in the embassy it confirmed their suspicion that they had contacted the Pakistanis. Harden asked the technician to enlarge and process the part of the photo in which the face of Nagib could be clearly seen although Alia's features were partly obscured by her scarf. A close look at Nagib's expression showed that he was concerned about something and deep in thought. The excited CIA station chief called Eugene on a secure line and told him that one of their biggest fears was substantiated. 

Eugene asked for a copy of the snapshot that was sent to him immediately. Eugene studied Nagib's worried facial expression and said that his impression was that no deal had been finalized or else Nagib would look more relieved and less concerned. Harden agreed with the interpretation and asked Eugene for further instructions. Eugene said that he would make arrangements to fly to Brussels as soon as possible and suggested that Harden should call the Israeli team and update David about the identification of Nagib and Alia at the Pakistani embassy. Harden said that to contact a foreign agent and share the information he would need a direct order from his CIA boss in Langley and Eugene said that he would arrange for the necessary confirmation and asked Harden to call his boss after 30 minutes.