The Dreadful Renegade: A Thrilling Espionage Novel (Techno thriller, Mystery & Suspense) (25 page)

While living in New Mexico she had travelled to Ciudad Juarez a few times to get a taste of lively Mexico. Some people jokingly regarded the Mexican city of Juarez and the Texas city of El-Paso as twin cities separated by the Rio Grande, but no one in his right mind would ever think of them as identical twins. Juarez at one time was considered as the murder capital of the world as the rivalry between the drug cartels and the police and between themselves led to the indiscriminate murder of gang members, policemen and mainly innocent bystanders. She stayed at a small hotel near the center of the city and within less than a day, with some help from the man at the front desk, arranged a meeting with a shady representative of one of the organizations that smuggled people into the United States. He was surprised that she couldn't speak Spanish and that her English was with an American accent and didn't seem to believe her story about an estranged husband who was haunting her, but as long as cash was involved he didn't ask too many questions. He told her that the next group would be crossing the border the following night and that she could join it for a reasonable fee. She said she needed to get to Tucson, Arizona and he said that would double the price as there were several roadblocks on all the highways leading from the border area into the United States and she agreed to pay the additional fees.

August 5
th
, Amman, Jordan

Nagib's boat trip from Nuweiba's small port in Egypt to the large port of Aqaba in Jordan was delightful. The mountains on both sides of this narrow strip of the Red Sea and the clear blue waters combined with the breeze created by the motion of the catamaran allowed Nagib to relax for a few hours. From the boat he could clearly see the two cities on the northern shores of the Red Sea, Jordanian Aqaba in the east and on the west shore Eilat in Israel. They were so close together and almost touching. Each had a large number of big hotels and it was almost impossible to believe that they belonged to different countries. He thought of the night he spent with the two German girls and wondered if he would ever be able to share this foretaste of paradise with Alia. For a moment he even reflected if his betrayal of her and of his adopted country were turning him into a multidimensional renegade. 

He disembarked in Aqaba and after showing his Pakistani passport was admitted into Jordan without any problem. As a former Palestinian he knew that it would be easier to find support for his plans in the slums and refugee camps near Amman than in the prosperous city of Aqaba. He checked the bus schedule and saw that the buses from Aqaba to Amman ran with a very high frequency, more than twice an hour during most of the day, so just walked over to the central bus station and boarded the first bus to Amman.

The bus ride took about five hours, mostly through sparsely inhabited desert areas although part of the ride was through spectacular mountains. Nagib dozed off and was awoken from his dreams when the bus came to a stop in the noisy and bustling central bus station of Amman. It was late evening and Nagib found a cheap hotel near the station. He was hungry so he left the room and in a narrow alleyway found a falafel stand that was still open. He bought himself a super size falafel sandwich wrapped in fresh pita bread and smeared with spicy sauce. After one bite and a sniff of the heady aroma he was transported in his mind to the time he was a youth in the mountain village near Hebron and the emotions were so powerful that he almost burst out crying. He realized that he hadn't had a good falafel sandwich since he left Palestine more than a decade earlier. In the morning he headed to
the Amman New Camp that was one of the largest 
Palestinian
 
refugee camp
s
 in 
Jordan
. 

The fact that Palestinian refugee camps still existed seven decades after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and five decades after the 1967 Six Day War was due to the self-perpetuating organization calle
d
United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
In all other parts of the world where refugee camps were established the residents assimilated in the local populations after a few years, but the dependence of the Palestinian refugees on the handouts from UNRWA made it difficult for them to leave. UNRWA was the only organization that allowed generation after generation of refugees to obtain benefits. In addition, the local Arab populations in Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon were not too keen to see their "Palestinian brethren" become full fledged citizens in their countries. These refugee camps were a breeding ground for terrorists because young men who had nothing better to do than wait for their monthly food ration and pocket money from UNRWA had a lot of time on their hands and were fertile ground for radical ideas.  The
Amman New Camp
proudly counted Ibrahim Nasrallah and Nihad Awad as two of its former residents.

August 6
th
, Amman New Camp, Jordan

Nagib took a crowded bus from the central bus station to the Amman New Camp and went to a café that was located near the largest mosque in the camp. He noted that most of the streets and alleyways were named after towns and villages in Palestine like Nablus and Al Khaleel or in Israel like Yafa and Al Ramla. He sat down under the slowly revolving ceiling fan and ordered coffee and kanafe, a cheese pastry in sweet syru
p
.
The proprietor regarded the man who was obviously a stranger but spoke Arabic with a Palestinian accent from the Hebron region. There had been several agents of the
Dairat al-Mukhabarat al-Ammah
, the Jordanian General Intelligence Directorate (GID), who had come to the café to spy or carry out surveillance on Palestinian supporters of the Islamic State terrorist group. Some of them affected a Palestinian accent and some were really Palestinian working in the service of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Nagib noticed the distrustful attitude of the proprietor that was not unexpected and just quietly sipped his coffee. He ordered another cup and when the proprietor brought it over to his table he asked if there was someone of authority he could talk to about some important business deal that involved the homeland. The proprietor now noticed the slight American accent and regarded him suspiciously, but said that he would see what he could do. Half an hour and two coffees later, three stocky men entered the café and approached Nagib. Their leader asked him to accompany them and led him to a short, dead-end alley in which the three men frisked him. They found his Pakistani passport and asked him about it, as he was obviously not a Pakistani, and Nagib told them that he was a Palestinian who had lived in the United States for many years and the passport was an assumed identity. This appeared to grip their attention and they blindfolded him and led him to a house that was surrounded by a two meter high wall. A couple of men stood at the gate and although no weapons were in plain sight it was obvious that they were armed. Nagib felt a change in temperature as the blindfold was removed and he was led down a short stairway into a basement. 

An old man was seated in an armchair in the center of the room and introduced himself "I am Sheik Tawfiq. What business proposition do you have in mind?"

Nagib answered "I have a very precious and unique package that I need to deliver in Tel-Aviv."

Sheik Tawfiq looked at him as if he had lost his mind "So why don't you send it by mail or by courier?"

Nagib laughed "No sane courier would take this package. My package is the kind that no one wants to handle, that is why I have to do this personally. I have an account to settle and this will more than compensate for it".

The Sheik thought about this for a moment and asked "Obviously you are not a Pakistani as you had admitted to my people. Who are you?"

Nagib gave him a short version of his childhood in the village near Hebron, of his studies in Las Cruces and work at Los Alamos and briefly described his trip to Pakistan and the agreement he had made with them. He went into some detail about his brother's martyrdom in the service of the Palestinian people and the price his family paid. He concluded "I now have the perfect means to avenge my brother's murder by the Zionists and to play havoc on them in the name of the Palestinian people. All I need is a way to get into Tel-Aviv with my package".

"Nagib, I am impressed by your dedication and brilliance. How big is the package you wish to deliver and when do you want to do it?"

Nagib described the suitcase and added "I think that the best way for our people to celebrate Eid al-Fitr is to see the Israelis and the Americans count their dead. The blood of the tens of thousands of infidels will cleanse the streets of Tel-Aviv and Los Angeles."

The Sheik nodded and smiled "You shall have our full cooperation".

Nagib bowed slightly and said that he would be back with the package at the end of August. He asked the Sheik if there was somewhere safe for him to spend a month in prayers and prepare himself for the ultimate sacrifice and Sheik Tawfiq assured him that he could remain in the Amman New Camp with full immunity.             

August 6
th
, Tucson, Arizona

Alia found a small motel in a quiet area of Tucson in which she could rest and relax after the border crossing from Juarez. The crossing was by far the scariest thing she had ever experienced, not so much because of the risk of getting caught by the US border patrols or arrested at one of the roadblocks but due to the fact that the two guides that led the small group of frightened people kept arguing with each other in Spanish about something she didn't understand but felt that it concerned her. The younger guide consistently tried to get her separated from the group and when they were alone tried to force himself on her, while the older guide told her to stick with him and never leave the group. There was a loud exchange of words and expletives between the guides, and the older guy even drew a knife and threatened the younger guide to stay away from Alia. The rest of the group didn't utter a word when all this was going on and she was greatly relieved when the younger guide took the rest of the group towards El Paso on foot while the older guide accompanied her in a battered pick-up truck driven by a drunk Mexican. The driver seemed to know his way and used dirt roads to circumnavigate the roadblocks and get to Tucson.

Alia thought that she would be safer in Tucson than in the Los Angeles area and decided to abide her time and make the last leg of her trip just three or four days before Labor Day of September 2
nd
. She reckoned that she would have time to go to the Pakistani Consulate, collect the luggage and find a hotel. That would also enable her to case the target area – a large shopping mall in the greater Los Angeles area, buy clothes that will help her blend in with the shoppers, plan where to leave the suitcase and decide on her escape route.

August 28
th
, Amman, Jordan

Nagib spent almost a whole month in a safe-house in the midst of the Amman New Camp among Palestinian refugees. There were very few original refugees from 1948 – most of the old generation had passed away during the last seven decades – there were many more from 1967 but the majority of the camp's population consisted of their second, third and even fourth generation descendents. There were much larger newly created refugee camps in the north of Jordan that were populated by refugees from Syria that managed to escape the ongoing conflict there that indiscriminately persecuted Syrians of all classes and religious beliefs. These camps were in much worse shape than the more established Palestinian camps, and there was no UNRWA to come to their relief only a few volunteers and some contributions from European countries.

Nagib spent most of his days studying the Koran and praying – something he had never devoted time to do in the US or in Palestine – and also studied the potential targets in Israel. He decided that a nuclear strike in the heart of Tel-Aviv would bring the Zionist state to the verge of annihilation as it was the commercial dynamo and cultural center of the country. Furthermore, a similar strike in Jerusalem or Haifa was bound to include many Arabs in the death toll, while in Tel-Aviv there were only a few Muslims and he believed that Jaffa, in which many Arabs resided, would not be heavily affected by the blast or fallout. He focused on the beachfront as it was always crowded and close to the American embassy. This would be like killing two birds with one stone. He noted that there were many hotels along Yarkon Street and some of them less than 50 meters from the American embassy and decided that he would check into one of those, arm the bomb and try to get away from Tel-Aviv. However, when he checked the availability of rooms in his selected hotels he found that there were no vacancies in most of them, so he decided to take a calculated risk and reserve a room at the Lusky Suites Hotel that was just across the narrow road from the embassy. He used his American credit card to make the reservation believing that it was no longer under surveillance.

He had made a quick trip to Cairo to retrieve his suitcase from the Pakistani embassy there. The Cultural attaché, Sadiq Ul-Haq, told him that they had almost given up on him and that he had consulted General Masood and asked him what to do with the weird suitcase. The general had told him to wait until after Eid al-Fitr and send it back to Islamabad if it was not claimed by then. Nagib smiled apologetically and said that the timing was crucial and that he wanted to stay below the radar of the US and Israeli intelligence agencies for as long as possible. Sadiq led him to the basement, handed him the suitcase and wished him luck, adding that he had already forgotten about the suitcase and Nagib…