Greg followed David to the car and said that he had learnt a couple of lessons in a very short time. First, when time is short the most convincing arguments are non-verbal, and second even when someone swears to tell the truth by God, Allah or whoever, this is generally the beginning of a lie. David shrugged and said that sometimes brute force solves problems, especially with amateurs, but a real professional would rather sacrifice his wife and his life than disclose vital secrets. David asked Greg to call Eugene on a secure line and update him on the events that took place during the last 24 hours.
Chapter 8
Nagib and Alia found a cheap hotel near the central train station of Brussels and checked in, paying cash that waived the formalities of presenting their passports and officially registering under their real names. The owner of the hotel, an Arab from some North African country, sat in his office and kept an eye on the young blonde girl that tended to the front desk and also served coffee at the four tables of the small café. Nagib and Alia went up to their room on the second floor and were not surprised to see that it fulfilled their expectations — it was small, unclean not to say downright filthy, without air conditioning and the sheets looked as if they had served many former customers. The toilet down the hall, shared by the occupants of the five rooms on the second floor was in no better shape. Being used to American standards the hotel was not exactly their ideal place for a vacation but would be good enough as a place to hide for a short while.
Nagib considered calling Ammer and finding out whether he had other interested parties but was reluctant to tell him where they were. He felt a little uncomfortable about disappearing with Ammer's car but decided that they may still need it as a getaway car so they had best hang on to it for the time being. He even thought that if things got really bad he could sell it to car thieves that would strip it down for use as spare parts or forge a license and resell it. So Nagib purchased another prepaid SIM card and called Ammer. Ammer saw an unidentified caller and guessed that it would be Nagib and hesitated before declining the call. However, the caller was unrelenting and called repeatedly until Ammer accepted the call and answered.
Nagib didn't want to say his name, once again fearing eavesdropping by authorities, and said "Hello, it is me".
Ammer replied "I was worried sick about you, I hope you are well and enjoying the cottage".
Nagib said "We decided to leave the place because we didn't like the friends you brought last night".
"Where are you?" Ammer asked.
The answer was "Far away" and Nagib refused to give any details despite Ammer's enquiries.
Ammer was afraid of a return visit by David and Greg and refrained from even hinting that his life was threatened, so he continued "Nagib, do you need anything?"
Nagib said that they were doing fine, and then his voice was drowned by a siren and he cut the connection. Ammer tried calling back Nagib's number but there was no answer. Still under the influence of David's intimidation he called the number on the card Greg had left him and told him about the call from Nagib. Greg wanted to know exactly what was said and the number of the phone that Nagib used and Ammer supplied the information. Before hanging up Ammer added that he had heard a siren in the background and thought that it sounded like a Belgian police car, but wasn't sure.
Nagib told Alia about his conversation and said "Ammer sounded strange and unnatural as if he was under some extreme stress".
She answered "How can you tell? We only met Ammer a few days ago and hardly know him. Perhaps he was just surprised that we had left the cottage and disappeared with his car".
Nagib insisted "I am sure that something is amiss and Ammer cannot be trusted".
Once again they discussed their options. Alia said "We have to get in touch with radical Islamists. They would be willing to support our cause in return for the classified blueprints. Let's try to contact Islamic State people".
Nagib objected "IS have no interest in advanced nuclear weapons, they don't have access to the fissile materials needed even for the most elementary designs". Then Nagib came up with a new idea "The only truly Muslim state that has nuclear weapons is Pakistan. They probably have only primitive designs if we can judge the tests they openly carried out in 1998. They see India as their dire enemy and probably fear that they have fallen behind in the nuclear armament race. They would be extremely interested in obtaining our information".
Alia said "But the Pakistani government is in cohorts with the Americans…"
Nagib intervened "I am not talking about the government. I mean to contact Islamist opposition groups. I know that within the nuclear establishment there are many scientists who would gladly cooperate with any act against Israel and the United States. Remember the AQ Khan network that sold nuclear technology and equipment to Iran, Libya, North Korea and probably half a dozen other countries. I am sure we can find these elements in Pakistan". Alia was a bit reluctant but agreed with the plan as there seemed to be no better alternatives.
Nagib and Alia entered a café that had free internet service and he switched on his computer. Then, just before he could sign in, Alia stretched her hand and in a very untypical move switched the computer right off. He frowned, looked at her, and seeing the expression on her face, understood and nodded his approval, then he stood up and kissed her on her cheek. They left the café and searched for an internet store where one could buy network time without having to use one's own username and password. They paid the teenager at the desk 10 Euros and he gave them a small note with a password and directed them to a free position at the back of the small store. They pulled up a couple of chairs and sat side by side. Nagib logged on and then searched for "Pakistani nuclear weapons" and was directed to Wikipedia. At a first glance the website looked like an assortment of Khans that developed the Pakistani nuclear program — Munir Ahmad Khan who was Chairman of the Pakistani Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), Abdul Qadeer Khan the engineer who "brought" centrifuge enrichment technology from Europe and founded the "AQ Khan network", General Tikka Khan and Mr. Ghulam Ishaq Khan at the ministry of defense, and also many others, not only Khans. Nagib saw the quote attributed to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto who said in 1965 "If India builds the bomb, we will eat grass and leaves for a thousand years, even go hungry, but we will get one of our own. The Christians have the bomb, the Jews have the bomb and now the Hindus have the bomb. Why not the Muslims too have the bomb?" Nagib and added that as a young undergraduate student in Palestine this, and the fact that Pakistan actually manufactured an atomic bomb, made him proud to be a Muslim. Nagib couldn't help himself from laughing when he saw that the biggest push to develop a Pakistani nuclear force came from the test India conducted in 1974 with the codename Smiling Buddha. More to the point, they read that Pakistani nuclear forces consisted, according to estimates, of about 120 warheads. They continued reading and saw that Pakistan had produced compact plutonium bombs that could be carried by aircraft and missiles, and even nuclear weapons that had much higher yields as they were "spiked" with tritium. The Pakistanis also had produced highly enriched uranium and were working on smaller nuclear weapons that could be used in the battlefield for tactical purposes. Nagib's face lit up when he read all this and he told Alia that their blueprints would be of incomparable value to the Pakistanis, and would give them a great advantage in their conflict with India. So now their problem was how to approach the Pakistanis and make sure that they got what they wanted, and more importantly, that they got away safely. Simply presenting their goods could create such a temptation to the Pakistanis that they may just eliminate them and grab the classified information. They realized that they needed to find an honest broker that would negotiate on their behalf, but before that they wanted to get a first hand impression of the people they would be dealing with.