David led two agents to the large glass door that led to the garden but saw that it was firmly latched and had an additional tamperproof device, so continued to the small wooden service door that led to the kitchen. The door was covered by several layers of paint but evidently was quite fragile. Although it was locked the hinges were almost exposed to the outside. With a screwdriver that served as a chisel the wood near the hinges was peeled away and the door was quietly removed from the frame. David motioned for the two agents to follow him up to the second floor where three bedrooms were located. The doors of two of them were ajar and David could see that in one of them there was a double bed that had been recently occupied as the used sheets were still spread on the bed. David assumed that Nagib and Alia had probably slept there and whispered to one of the agents to take one of the pillow cases for DNA matching. They could hear that someone was snoring in the bedroom with the closed door. One of the agents opened the door that did not even squeak and David stood at the foot of the bed while the two agents took positions right next to the heads of Ammer and his wife, Zenab. At David's signal each agent pulled the pillow from under the head of the sleeping couple and placed it on their faces denying them of air as well as keeping them silent. Ammer wriggled, twisted and tried to turn his head while flailing with his hands but the Mossad agent held the pillow firmly until he stopped struggling. Zenab was too weak and too surprised to put up a fight, so she was quiet after less than 30 seconds. The agents tied their hands and feet with strong plastic bands known as nylon cable ties. David checked them both and found a weak pulse, so he drew a small vial with a vile smell and brought it close to Ammer's nose while holding his own breath. Within seconds Ammer opened his eyes, drew a deep breath and threw up.
David made sure that he didn't choke on his own vomit and when he saw that Ammer realized his predicament he smiled at him, and in Arabic said that he had come to send him to the Gehinem (hell), but as he was a kind man he would send his wife first, followed by Ammer's head and then the rest of his body, piece by piece. Ammer wet himself and stammered that he had a lot of money and would give it all if they let go of him and his wife. David said that he was not interested in money only in information about his guests. Ammer was embarrassed by his own loss of control of his bladder but gained a little confidence and said that they had no guests and he was free to search the house. David signaled to one of the agents to prod Zenab with a commando knife, making sure that Ammer saw it. When she gave a muffled scream Ammer said that he would tell them everything they wanted to know. He proceeded to say that his cousin Alia and her husband visited his father's store and that he offered to host them in his large house. He claimed that they left in the morning and stole his wife's car and that he had no idea where they went. David was buying none of this and told the agent with the commando knife to cut off one of Zenab's fingers. Ammer immediately cried out that he would tell them everything and David told the agent to stop. Ammer said that he had sent Nagib and Alia to his family cottage near Boppard and that they were still there. He proceeded to say that he had dinner with them the previous evening. He gave them directions to the cottage and David threatened him that they would be back if the information was not accurate. As an afterthought, David asked him who they were running from and Ammer said that they only told him that were involved in a tax fraud scheme in the US and that they were afraid that the Interpol and US tax authorities were after them. David said that if he continued with his lies they would kill them both and stage it as a murder and suicide. Ammer then understood that they were not going to believe his lies and came clean with a version of the truth — that the CIA was after them for theft of classified information.
David was pretty sure that Ammer and Zenab would not call the police to report the incident because they would have a hard time to explain why they were sheltering a couple of fugitives, and therefore did not consider leaving one of his men to guard them until the address of the cottage was verified. David left a kitchen knife in the bathroom and told Ammer and Zenab that could wriggle there and free themselves but once again threatened them that they would return to finish the job if they told anyone about their uninvited visit.
Just before dawn the two Mossad agents and David headed towards Boppard and the cottage. They reckoned they could get there before breakfast as they expected little traffic going out of Frankfurt that early in the morning. David thought about contacting Eugene in Washington to give him an update but decided to wait until he was sure that he had Nagib, Alia and the information in his hands. He had the pillowcase that was removed from the double bed in the spare bedroom of Ammer's house and wanted to send it to the forensic laboratory of the Israeli police to get the DNA profile but did not have the samples of Nagib and Alia for comparison, so despite his mistrust of the local American agents he knew that he would need the cooperation of Greg, the Frankfurt CIA station chief and decided to call him later that morning. He dreaded having to explain how he got hold of it but that was the price of cooperation among friends…
Alia and Nagib left the cottage after having a quick cup of coffee. They left the key that Ammer had given them in one of the flower pots on the veranda and planned to call him later to thank him and tell him where they left the key. The night before they had considered their options and took stock of their meager belongings. They had their passports that were in their own names and therefore quite useless for crossing borders where they would be examined as they were sure that an international alert had been issued by the US authorities. They had a few hundred Euros and some dollars in cash and credit cards that were probably also under surveillance, if not already cancelled. They had the car that Ammer had given them, that was normally used mainly by Zenab but registered to Ammer's company. This was an asset as it afforded them mobility but could quickly become a liability if Ammer or others managed to trace it. They also had the supposedly untraceable cellphone that Ammer gave them but thought it best to shut it off and remove the SIM card until they absolutely had to use it.
Worst of all, they had no direct way of contacting people who could help them facilitate their plan of bartering the classified files for a means of taking revenge. They were afraid that Ammer had put them at a great risk by bringing the Korean and the Iranian to meet them. Nagib repeated his concerns about the Korean wielding a concealed gun and about the Iranian's interest in the price of the information rather than the content. He added that as a Sunii Muslim, although not an observant one, he did not like making deals with extreme Shiites represented by the Iranian or with heathens like the Koreans. They knew that agents of those two nations could not be trusted to make a fair deal.
After some pondering they reached a decision to postpone meeting potential buyers until they could establish a safe hiding place for themselves. Anyway, the first order of the day was to get as far away as possible from Ammer's cottage. There were two alternatives: either look for a remote place in the countryside or a small village where they would be noticed as strangers but could easily pose as hikers or tourists, or lose themselves in a big city where everyone minded their own business and didn't ask too many questions. After weighing the pros and cons of each alternative they opted for the second option. Frankfurt and Keln were about the same distance from Boppard but Nagib suggested that they would be safer if they moved out of Germany where people could already be looking for them. Another look at the map showed that Brussels was the best option — it was only about three hours drive from Boppard, most of the time on busy highways, and especially attractive considering that it had a large Muslim population constituting more than one quarter of the total population of the city. Although most of those were from Turkey and Morocco there was also a significant Arab population. Nagib had read somewhere that several of the European recruits of the Islamic State movement had come from Brussels, and these included not only youngsters from Muslim families but also some adventurous Christian youths who were attracted to Islam or just sought excitement and action. So, they were on their way and expected to reach Brussels at around 0730 at the height of morning rush hour traffic which would make it almost impossible for anyone to catch up with them.