Выбрать главу

"Excuse me Mr. President, this is a policeman from Boston calling about Pashwari, do you mind if I take the call?"

"Later Matt" suggested Adam Scott.

"Sure thing, let’s all hear it" suggested President Connolly.

Matt pressed a button to activate the speaker.

"Peterson" said Matt.

"Greg O’Brien here, I found my notebook."

"Fantastic. I have you on speaker here. Quite a few other people are listening. What does it say?"

"Ok, I will try not to cuss too much if others are listening! They might be important people! What was the name of the guy again?"

"P A S H W A R I" Matt spelled it out.

Matt could hear O’Brien thumbing through the book.

"Ok, I found the case, let me read on a bit."

A minute or two later Greg O’Brien started to remember the case as he read his notes.

"We thought Pashwari was maybe the girl’s boyfriend, but we couldn’t prove it. None of the girl’s friends ever met her guy, but she sometimes went missing overnight. There was somebody banging her, we just could not find out who it was. We found her car, but no girl."

That brought a chuckle from President Connolly.

"What pointed to Pashwari?" queried Matt.

"Well, we asked around and it turned out that the girl used to go sailing with the Arab guy" announced the officer.

Matt went silent and rubbed his temples.

"Oh my God, strike three" whispered Matt to himself.

"Hello?"

"Sorry, thanks detective, that’s all we need. We were looking for a link to a sailing boat and you just confirmed it."

"Really?"

"Yep, that hit the spot."

"No problem, always happy to help the spooks" said O’Brien.

"Do you think you would recognize this guy if you saw him again?" asked the President.

"Excuse me but your voice sounds familiar, have we met?" asked Detective O’Brien.

"I’m not sure. Have you ever been to the White House?" asked the President.

"Oh my God" said O’Brien.

"Detective, we are in the situation room at the White House. The President, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, the Director of the CIA and lots of others like me are all here working on this" said Matt.

"Let me ask again, we got sidetracked before. Do you think you would recognize this guy if you saw him again?"

"Yes Mr. President, I believe I would."

"Lieutenant, get to Washington immediately. I will clear it with your office. We need all the help we can get. This is as important as it gets."

"Adam, you know we cannot have CIA conducting operations on U.S. soil. Clear it with Homeland Security to get Matt and Natasha temporarily assigned to them but still reporting to you."

Chapter 102

Liberty Island Ferry
New York Harbor

The statue of Liberty Enlightening the World stands on Liberty Island in Upper New York Bay. It was a gift from the people of France and was dedicated in 1886. The statue faces her identical but smaller sister who presides over the Seine River in Paris.

In years gone by, it was actually possible to take a tour of the statue and climb right up to the top. This is no longer possible due to increased security concerns.

Visitors are now only permitted to visit the museum gallery and pedestal observation levels. Those wishing to gain entry need to undergo a secondary security screening process.

The ferry trip from either the Jersey side via Ellis Island or New York side via Battery Park is a short one.

Kamal was aware of the increased security, but believed this universal symbol of freedom was a worthy target. He had a sleeper agent ready and activated him with a call from his satellite telephone.

Jonah Jordan was responsible for lassoing the bollard with his rope and making fast the ferry alongside the pier when it docked. He was a mountain of a man, and was a former marine before he was injured in a training exercise and discharged from the forces. While recuperating in a rehab centre Jonah met some American serviceman with Middle Eastern heritage also doing rehab. They were a close knit group and Jonah learned that they were Muslims.

The military was the ideal order in Jonah’s life. However, he saw it as becoming increasingly empty now that he knew his time in the service was coming to an end. He asked lots of questions of his new friends, and before long he had made the decision to convert to Islam.

The conversion came easily to Jonah and he loved the strict discipline of the religion, and the culture of its practitioners.

One of his new friends even suggested a trip overseas when his rehab was complete. His benefits funded the trip, and Jonah returned to the U.S. a very different person. He was shown "the truth" about the persecution of Islam by the U.S. and he vowed to help in the fight. He was brainwashed to the extreme.

Security at all U.S. monuments is now tight. Workers on the Liberty Island ferry were all background screened. However, this screening was much more focused on ethnic profile. As a former serviceman, Jordan passed the check with flying colors.

It was a crisp New York morning when he arrived for work with his usual backpack slung over his shoulder. Instead of leaving it in his locker at Battery Park as was his usual practice, he carried it onto the ferry and stowed it in a locked box adjacent to the engine room.

He announced that he was not feeling well and went home at 11.45am.

Fifty pounds of C4 military explosive detonated on board the ferry at 1.15pm. Fifty two passengers were killed instantly and the massive blast broke the back of the now doomed ferry.

Of the people on deck, most were plucked from the cold waters, some suffering from hypothermia.

Those below decks were not as lucky since the vessel sank almost instantly and one hundred and eight men women and children drowned inside the hull.

Police traced the plot back to Jordan, and a swat team descended on his apartment at 4pm. When they broke down the door they found Jordan lying face down on the floor in a pool of blood with a small gun in his hand. When they removed his baseball cap the small .22 caliber hole above his right ear was clearly visible.

Chapter 103

White House, Situation Room
Washington D.C.

"I wanted this get together between the three of us to decide how we will move forward. We need to get more proactive here, I want us to be doing more to counter this threat" explained President Connolly.

"Mister President, we are doing everything we can to find Pashwari" said Adam Scott CIA Director.

"With all due respect Adam, we can always do more" said the President firmly.

Next the President directed his attention to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Admiral Nelson "Horatio, how about military options?"

"Mister President, we do have a plan for an attack on the Pashwari Palace in Riyadh" explained Nelson "but as yet we have no hard evidence that the remaining weapon is there."

"Could we do a helicopter scan for alpha radiation?" asked Adam Scott.

"We would never get approval for us to do a fly over" said Nelson "there is of course the option of a clandestine ground attack, but this may be political suicide."

"Let me worry about the politics Horatio" said the President firmly "but I like that helicopter idea. We have spent a small fortune buying this scanning equipment. There must be a way we can examine the palace."

Adam Scott had an idea. "How about we disguise a chopper as Red Cross and do a low flyover. That should not cause too much fallout."

"Not a bad plan, but I think it is called Red Crescent over there" suggested President Connolly "Horatio, draw up a plan and come back to me for approval."