The Keepers of the Persian Gate (23 page)

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Thursday 11th July, 2011

The next day, Paddy and his compatriots had landed at Schippol airport and were making the journey to the city of Den Hague where the International Criminal Court was based. On route, Paddy made several phone calls to old colleagues he had worked with during his stint with the ICC to try to set up a meeting with the Mechanic. After hitting a few dead ends, he managed to speak to his former brother-in-arms Marco Montpellier, who had himself been working on another INTERPOL assignment with the ICC.

The ICC prison was based in Schenevingen and Paddy had been there before, during the previous year, when he had interviewed several other inmates in his investigation of the Mechanic. The facility itself resembled a castle more than a prison. It had hugely dramatic perimeter walls and a deep moat. As they approached the main gate they had to wait for the portcullis to lift. Fifty-plus guards lined the inner walls. There were also numerous watch towers with snipers observing the comings and goings at the gate.

After going through a lengthy security check at the main door, the group were required to surrender any weapons they had on their persons to the prison staff. After that they were led into an underground corridor by the prison’s Governor, Johann Kluivert, who had come to greet them.

“We have arranged for the Mechanic to be put into the secure interview room. We haven’t informed him who it is that is coming to see him. Would you like me to?” asked Johan.

“No! I think it will be a nice surprise for him,” said Paddy.

“Very well. How many of you will be going in?” asked Johann.

Paddy conferred with his colleagues and explained that he would prefer to go in on his own. The rest were led into a room with a mirrored window so they could view the interview. The Mechanic was sitting handcuffed to his chair and there did not appear to be any other furniture in the room.

“Good luck, Mr. Trimble. I hear if it weren’t for you then this prisoner wouldn’t be here,” said Johann as he waked away down the corridor.

A guard unlocked the door into the interview room and Paddy walked in. He stood for a moment, looking the Mechanic directly in the eyes, as the door behind him was locked. It was just the two of them in the interview room now. The Mechanic looked thinner than the last time the pair had met. His time in prison had obviously aged him greatly. He was an old man at the time of his capture, but now he looked ancient and decrepid. He would be completely bald if it weren’t for the bizarre sandy grey comb-over which protruded oddly across his forehead. The Mechanic began to smile, and then he broke into laughter.

“What’s so funny?” asked Paddy.

“Oh, you know. I never thought I’d get to meet you again, Mr. Trimble. What was your first name…Paddy the Irishman, wasn’t it?” said the Mechanic.

“You can continue to refer to me as Mr. Trimble,” said Paddy.

“Ok Paddy Irishman. So, tell me what has brought you all this way to come and see me. I’m sure it’s not to see how I am doing?” asked the Mechanic.

“Why didn’t you ever mention that you worked with an organisation called the Keepers of the Persian Gate?” asked Paddy.

The Mechanics face went from jovial to severe in an instant. Paddy slowly paced toward the Mechanic, who said nothing in response.

“I said, why didn’t you tell me? Are you deaf?” asked Paddy.

The Mechanic took a sharp intake of breath and then smiled again. “You know what, I will answer your question with my own and we’ll see if we can narrow the issues so to speak. What do you know of my involvement with the Keepers of the Persian Gate?”

“I know that you worked with them, and I know that they have parted company with the Acropolis in order to prevent an all-out war in the Middle East,” said Paddy.

“Do you now Paddy Irishman? Now I understand why you have come to see me,” replied the Mechanic.

“Stop messing around. You know all of this, don’t you?” fumed Paddy.

“Now, now, temper, temper Paddy Irishman. It is true; I did work for The Keepers of the Persian Gate. The Keepers stand for peace and freedom above all other things,” replied the Mechanic.

“Why? I mean, you were an arms dealer and a rogue scientist. You sold your expertise and materials for dirty bombs the world over. Why would you be part of an organisation that stood for peace?” asked Paddy.

The Mechanic explained that after the loss of his first wife Maheeha during childbirth in 1970 he went off the radar for a number of years. “It became clear to me that by helping Pakistan achieve the bomb, I had contributed to the stand-off, rather than minimising it. The Middle East would never be a free place if it was constantly at loggerheads with the West,” said the Mechanic.

In early 1972, the Mechanic went to work in the Gaza Strip, and in 1975, the Mechanic married his second wife. Her name was Esharaq.

“She was most unique, she was half Israeli, half Palestinian. Her mother was Jewish, making her Jewish. We lived happily together for several years as I stayed out of trouble. However, in 1979 following a brief period of civil unrest in the Gaza Strip the Israeli army were ordered to quell the unrest with a short sharp attack on various enclaves in Gaza. I can remember the night as though it were yesterday. I was travelling home from work at around 7pm when I approached the house to find it burnt out. When I found her she was barely alive. With her last dying breath, she told me how a soldier in the Israeli Army had attacked and ravaged her,” said the Mechanic.

Shortly after the burial of Esharaq, the Mechanic was visited by an Egyptian man by the name of Rafi Bashir. He was a senior case officer in GID or Egyptian Intelligence.

“He knew that I would be seeking revenge against the West, and he realised the potential I had to create a monumental blow to it.” Said the Mechanic.

Bashir explained why peace was more important than revenge. The West and Israel would never back down in controlling the region unless they could control its people.

“He made me realise that the problem was the region was controlled by Western-backed tyrants. He explained to me that it was my duty to Allah to help him and his organisation prevent those Western-backed tyrants from provoking the war that elements in the West and Israel truly wanted, that being total war in the Middle East.

He asked me to come to a meeting of his organisation in Riyadh. At that meeting, the members described themselves as the guardians of peace in the Middle East. They were ministers of governments; religious leaders, both Muslim and non-Muslim; military leaders; and businessmen from the world over. Their cause was called the Keepers of the Persian Gate. It was transnational,” said the Mechanic.

Paddy looked over to the mirrored glass and gave the group standing behind it a look as if to say “well that was unexpected”. He gathered his composure as he remembered that the Mechanic was well known for being a master manipulator, and continued his line of questioning. “And where does selling uranium to terrorists in Afghanistan come into your grand plan for peace?”

“The charges are false,” replied the Mechanic.

“There is overwhelming evidence,” replied Paddy.

“Evidence of what? That I was talking to terrorists, and that I gave them materials? Well, if that makes me guilty, then yes, I am a War Criminal. However, ask yourself, was it ever considered by the prosecutor that I might have been on my own intelligence mission?” said the Mechanic.

“What type of intelligence mission?” asked Paddy.

The Mechanic claimed that the Keepers of the Persian Gate had sent him to infiltrate terrorist networks which they suspected were planning attacks in the West. He learned as much as he could about any terrorist networks which he encountered, and reported back to the Keepers.

“That way we could track their movements from a military perspective. When they went to make their move, we were there to intercept them. Don’t you find it exceptionally odd that in the ten years since 9/11 there have only been a handful of significant terrorist attacks in the West?” asked the Mechanic.

“No,” replied Paddy.

“Well, you should. Because if it weren’t for the Keepers of the Persian Gate there would have been plenty more, and I can assure you of that fact,” replied the Mechanic.

“And you sold them Uranium to gain their trust?” asked Paddy.

“No. I fooled them,” replied the Mechanic. “What I sold them was barely enough to destroy an office block. Time after time, when they tried an attack, more often than not the materials were prepared to explode before they made their target or they were intercepted by our military and police colleagues. Evidence is only worth the weight that is attached to it, Mr. Trimble. You’ll learn that as your legal career develops.”

“Oh, and you’re a lawyer now,” replied Paddy.

“No, but I know you are only a trainee. With Dunlop & McLaine, I hear. Well done. They’re quite the outfit,” said the Mechanic.

“How do you know that?” replied Paddy.

“Oh, you know. One just hears these things. How is Mark Glover doing these days anyway?” asked the Mechanic.

“What do you know about Mark?” asked Paddy.

“He’s a close advisor to Robert Jackson. I thought you would know,” replied the Mechanic.

“No! You’re confused. That was William Dunlop.”

“Oh, no, I’m not. William Dunlop was a member of the Keepers of the Persian Gate,” replied the Mechanic.

This was earth-shaking news. The statement that William Dunlop was a member of the Keepers of the Persian Gate was the one piece of information which Paddy did not expect to hear. He needed to proceed carefully, and he was conscious that the Mechanic had a reputation for getting inside the heads of people talking to him.

The Mechanic noticed that Paddy was a little lost. “What’s wrong, Paddy Irishman?”

As Paddy was about to speak, the door into the interview room opened. Standing at the door was Jeff Bowers, who gestured for Paddy to leave the room.

“Hello. I don’t believe we have met, Mr. Spook,” said the Mechanic.

Paddy followed Jeff; the door slammed shut and Paddy was taken into the viewing room. All the while, the Mechanic sat in his chair staring at the window and smiling - occasionally laughing.

“What’s his problem?” asked McGregor.

“He’s a nut job,” replied Craig.

“You cannot give that man more information. He’s controlling this interview. He may sound like he knows what he’s taking about, but you don’t know where he got that information from. His lawyer, visitors, prison guards, newspapers, other inmates… you just don’t know,” warned Jeff.

“What do you think, Scott?” asked Paddy.

“William Dunlop, a member of the Keepers of the Persian Gate? Well, if he was, he did a bloody good job of hiding it all these years, is all I will say on the matter. Although his point about Mark Glover being a close advisor to Jackson would indeed explain a great many things, particularly given the conversation we had on the flight here.” replied Scott.

“Yeah, by making the Keepers believe that you were on the side of the Acropolis, Mark Glover would have known that the Keepers would take you out of the picture,” surmised Jeff.

“You’re forgetting something. Why would the Keepers trust Mark? Especially if they believed him to be in cahoots with Jackson and the Acropolis,” said McGregor.

“He was Will’s understudy. Why wouldn’t they trust him?” replied Scott.

“So the attack on Gigha was all a set-up?” asked Paddy.

“Seems that way,” replied McGregor.

“It’s too far-fetched,” stated Jeff.

“You know how the old saying goes, ‘when you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth,’” stated Paddy.

“I on the other hand prefer the saying ‘my enemy’s enemy is my friend,’” replied Scott.

“What are you suggesting?” asked Paddy.

Why not ask the Mechanic whether he knows this defendant, Abdullah Atwah? You never know. If he doesn’t, then he’s not much use is he?” suggested Scott.

McGregor, Scott and Bowers proceeded to write down a number of further questions for Paddy to ask. But before he could return to the interview, a man with a German accent stormed into the viewing room and began ranting and raving about how he was the Mechanic’s lawyer and that the interview was over. He was Joachim Schultz of Schultz & Schneider, a well-known criminal defence firm based in Nuremberg. His father earned the firm’s reputation during the defence of German war criminals at the Nuremberg Trials.

“Well, you’re going to have to ask your client whether he wants to talk to us,” said Scott.

A fuming Schultz stormed into the interview room. After being shouted at in German for several minutes, the Mechanic got a chance to speak.

“Mr. Schultz, if I had wanted your advice, I would have called you. You’re all hot air, Mr. Schultz, and I don’t need that now. In the immortal words of an esteemed former British Prime Minister, when the curtain falls, the best thing to do is to go away,” said the Mechanic.

“Dummer idiot!” shouted Schultz as he stormed out of the room and, seemingly, out of the building.

The Mechanic turned back to the window and smiled, gesturing for Paddy to return to the interview. Paddy walked back in and sat down.

“Does the name Abdullah Atwah mean anything to you?” asked Paddy.

“Why, yes. He was Head of the Keepers of the Persian Gate in Pakistan,” replied the Mechanic.

“Did he ever carry out missions for the Keepers of the Persian Gate outside of Pakistan?” asked Paddy.

“Yes, he regularly assisted me in getting fake materials and information to terrorists. He also played a significant role in catching terrorists planning attacks and infiltrating terrorist networks in the Hindu Kush. In my opinion, he is a hero,” replied the Mechanic.

“So, hypothetically, if the West caught him selling materials and information to terrorists for a major Western target. What would you say about that?” pressed Paddy.

“I would say if he were caught, the Keepers of the Persian Gate would act to secure his recovery using all means at their disposal,” replied the Mechanic.

“I want to turn to Clarkson for a moment. Why did you work for them? You knew that they were controlled by the Acropolis, didn’t you?” asked Paddy.