David and the two Mossad agents followed the directions given to them by Ammer and reached the cottage just a couple of hours after Alia and Nagib had left. They parked their car on a small dirt road that led to another cottage about half a kilometer from Ammer's cottage and approached silently on foot. There was no car parked at the cottage and no lights were on nor were there any sounds of activity. David motioned to one of the agents to circle the cottage while the other agent silently followed him up on to the veranda. They peeked through the windows and saw no signs of life inside. They tried the door handle and found that it was locked, looked under the doormat and on the windowsill without success but then it took them only another couple of minutes to find the key in the flowerpot. As expected there was no one at home but they saw that the master bedroom and bathroom had been in use and David collected another pillowcase from the bed while one of the agents asked him if he planned on opening a hotel. David was in no mood for jokes of this kind and gave the agent a forced smile and said that they should head back to Frankfurt.
On the way back from Boppard David called Greg Dower and arranged to meet him at his office. Greg wanted to know why the sudden urgency but David said that it was best not discussed on an unsecure phone line. Because of the rush hour traffic the drive back to Frankfurt was much slower than the drive to Boppard, so by the time David stepped into Greg's office it was close to ten o'clock.
Greg offered David coffee that was gratefully accepted. Both men were reluctant to discuss the futile ambush outside Sayed's store the previous day so they chatted a little about the failed firebombing of the store by Islamists and wondered if the incident at the nearby Pakistani store by German racists was related. After these niceties, they got down to business. David presented Greg with the two pillowcases that were wrapped in plastic bags and told him the whole story, leaving out the details of the means used to extract the information from Ammer. Greg called in one of his assistants and directed her to send the pillowcases by courier to the FBI forensic laboratory and to make sure that they also had DNA samples of Alia and Nagib from Los Alamos for comparison. David said that there was little doubt that a match would be found and added that this type of forensic evidence may be needed if the case was ever brought to court. He tried to gain more definitive information on the classified data that Nagib had downloaded but Greg refused to divulge anything specific, so David was left with his own speculations.
Greg wanted to know if David had any idea regarding the whereabouts of the couple and David said that although he had no concrete indication he reckoned that they would head to a city with a large population of Muslims, perhaps even there in Frankfurt. However, Greg said that it was unlikely that they would return to Frankfurt and suggested hauling Ammer in for further questioning. David said that involving the German authorities would be counterproductive and that formalities were unnecessary because he was sure that Ammer would be in a very cooperative mood after the persuasive treatment he had received just a few hours earlier. David invited Greg to accompany him on a return visit to Ammer's house. It turned out that, unsurprisingly, Ammer had called his office and said that he wasn't feeling well and would take another day off. After all, he was the boss so no one questioned his statement. When David and Greg appeared at his doorstep and gently knocked on the door they heard a woman sobbing and when the door opened they saw Zenab lying in a fetal position on the couch wrapped in a blanket and rocking herself back and forth with Ammer returning to her side and caressing her shoulders.
David said to Ammer and Zenab "I hope you are feeling better, but you should have known that whoever aids and abets a criminal, may not be immune from punishment". He then introduced his colleague "This is Greg a representative of the US authorities who has come to retrieve property of national security importance stolen from his country".
Ammer stammered saying "I gave you all the information I had".
David told him about the fruitless trip to the cottage. Ammer said "I didn't know about any stolen property and I had done nothing illegal. I only helped a family member who was in some kind of trouble".
David responded "My colleague here is concerned with the laws of his country and of Germany but I haven't got the slightest interest in legal matters, as you saw last night. I want to know what Nagib and Alia are up to".
Ammer said "I swear to Allah that I have no idea about…".
Without a word David stood up, went into the kitchen and came back with a small paring knife, pretending to clean his fingernails. Ammer stopped in mid sentence "What are you doing?!"
David answered "Just removing a little dirt from where it doesn't belong" and approached Zenab of the couch.
All blood drained away from Ammer's face and he held up his hand "Stop, by God, I'll tell you everything". Greg also turned pale but refrained from speaking, as Ammer continued "OK, Nagib told me in general terms what he had and asked me to arrange buyers for his information, but I told him I had no idea what to do and where to look…".
Once again he stopped talking when he saw David grab Zenab's left hand and pretend to slice the tip of her finger on which her wedding ring was worn. Zenab started shouting as some blood stained the blanket and Ammer couldn't quite see whether her fingertip was sliced off or if it was just a superficial cut. However, this got him going "I took a couple of my friends to speak with Nagib yesterday evening".
"Who were they?"
"I don't really know them well".
"Stop the bullshit or you'll get your wedding ring back with the whole finger" and David pulled on Zenab's left hand.
"OK, OK. One of them was an Iranian called Mahmoud and the other was a North Korean that goes by the name Kim". Greg looked at David and nodded, implying that he knew who Ammer was referring to.
Then David asked "Do you know where they went?"
Ammer groaned truthfully for a change "I have no idea, but they have my car and cellphone so you should be able to find them".
David stood up, motioned Greg to follow him and while departing said "Ammer and Zenab I hope never to see you two again, but if I do need to come back one more time then you would curse the day you were born". As an afterthought he added "If Nagib and Alia contact you be sure to inform my colleague here immediately, or else…"