In the afternoon Eugene received a call from the FBI agent who interviewed Alia's parents. He reported that he was under the impression that they had been seriously intimidated by the second visit of FBI agents in less than a week and were fully cooperative. He said that he had recorded the whole interview and had it on tape and promised to send a transcript of the entire interview. Alia's father said that he had taken the phone call and repeated the conversation as best as he could remember it. The agent said that in his opinion the most important part was the sudden interest she had shown in her European relatives, especially those who lived in Frankfurt, and added that the details were in the transcript. Eugene asked him if any specific names or addresses were mentioned and the agent said the name of "Sayed and Sons, Oriental Foods Imports" appeared to be the only explicit point. Eugene copied the name, thanked the agent and hung up.
Eugene knew that late afternoon in Washington was close to midnight in Frankfurt and wondered who he could call for local assistance. He thought the CIA would have a large office in Frankfurt in view of the importance of the city as one of the busiest airports in the world and the main hub of Lufthansa and despite the hour called the head of the CIA office. Greg Dower was not very happy when his encrypted phone rang and at first wanted to ignore it, but as the caller persisted he picked it up and mumbled "What?" Eugene introduced himself and apologized "Sorry to wake you up in the middle of the night but we have a situation that requires immediate action" and went on to describe the importance of the classified information stolen by Nagib and Alia. Greg asked him to hold on for a minute while he washed his face and swallowed a couple of aspirins. He then said "I'll call my team first thing in the morning and check the information. Do you want to involve the BND or local police?" Eugene thought for a moment and said "No, not yet. Please use your own people and update me as soon as you find out anything about Sayed and Sons, Oriental Foods Imports".
As soon as Eugene hung up Greg called the office of the Director of the CIA in Langley. After mentioning that it was an urgent matter directly related to national security he was put through to the DCI. The instructions delivered were very clear: terminate the culprits with extreme prejudice and recover or destroy the stick memory. Greg asked if this included the woman and was told in no uncertain terms that she deserved the same treatment as her husband, as both were dreadful renegades and outrageous traitors. The DCI added that it was entirely up to the agency to prevent an incident that would not only be a great embarrassment to the USA but also posed a clear and present danger to national security and global interests of the USA. He blamed the bungling NNSA and its lapse of basic security concepts regarding screening the people it employed and the control of classified information. When Greg said that the FBI was also involved the DCI said that he expected them to drop the ball every time a pass was thrown in their direction, so he was not surprised. Greg Dower knew that his future in the CIA rested on his ability to handle this case and promised himself to do his utmost to succeed.
Next, Eugene called David Avivi on his cellphone. David saw the caller's "private number" and at first hesitated whether to answer as his own people had "caller identity" (false, but still a name on the screen). He decided to take the call despite the late hour in Frankfurt. He was surprised but glad to hear Eugene's voice. Eugene gave him an update on the recent developments and asked if Mossad had any assets in Germany that could be enlisted to help locate the couple without notifying the local police. He had no idea that David was in Frankfurt so when David said that he personally would coordinate the search he was pleasantly surprised. When Eugene told David that he had also involved the CIA David said that although he had great respect for the CIA he preferred to operate independently in order not to compromise Mossad assets. Eugene said that he fully understood but proposed to give Greg Dower a heads-up about this in order to prevent "friendly fire" incidents between the CIA and Mossad operatives. David consented but had his own reservations about the capabilities of the CIA that tended to do everything with a lot of fanfare that was anathema to a secretive organization like Mossad.
Despite the late hour in Germany and in Tel-Aviv David called the head of Mossad, Haim Shimony, on his private line, known only to a handful of people from the Prime Minister down. He told Haim that he assumed that the information stored on Nagib's stick memory would be of great importance to Israel's security. He said that Eugene never explicitly mentioned the type of information but he surmised that it was concerned with nuclear weapons, and probably with the most advanced designs in the US arsenal. Haim instructed him to try and get hold of the data and that he shouldn't worry too much about the fate of Nagib and Alia. He added that if taken alive they could become an embarrassment to the US, so as good friends the Mossad should make sure they did not talk after being captured, and laughingly said that dead men didn't talk.
Sayed descended the staircase from the little studio apartment he shared with his wife just as he had done every day for the last decades. Although his son, Ammer, who was a wealthy businessman had pleaded with him to close the store and come and stay with him in his large house Sayed had refused to do so, saying that a man lived as long as he had a reason to get up in the morning. Sayed quoted an old proverb that said that a man was like a top (referring to the cone shaped toy with a point upon which it is spun) — as long as it continued spinning it stood upright but as soon as it stopped spinning it would fall down. With some difficulty Sayed lifted the heavy metal shutter and opened the store. As usual, there were a few of the regular customers who were waiting for this moment to buy their daily perishable products.
Sayed did not notice that some other people were keeping a close watch on his store. An Israeli Mossad team sat in the back of an old van that was parked across the street from the store. They could see through the dark windows without being seen and kept an eye on the street and the storefront. In front of them a black Savana van, also with dark windows, waited by the sidewalk with its hazard lights flashing as if the driver had just stepped out for a moment. Both teams knew of each other's presence but did not communicate directly or even acknowledge each other. Unbeknown to them were a couple of men in typical Arab garb that were also surveying the store while pretending to be engaged in an idle conversation and having a smoke. These were members of a radical Islamic faction that wanted to know what Sayed, the Ahmadiyye do-gooder, was up to. Radical Muslims hated Ahmadi Muslims and regarded them as infidels, or even worse than Kafirs, as evident my the Ahmadi mosque that was destroyed in Aceh, Indonesia, by radical Islamists. Further up the street were a couple of German youths. The boy was a skinhead from top to bottom and his girlfriend wore a thin vest that just managed to cover her pert little breasts and displayed an impressive set of tattoos that covered her arms. They too were trying to figure out what was going on in the store, and also keeping an eye on the two radical Muslims. Occasionally a police car drove by but did not stop. It was very disappointing for all these groups that nothing, except the routine business, was going on at the store.