David thought that it was too late at night to contact Herb Harden, the Brussels CIA station head, but considering that it was late afternoon in Washington DC he could call Eugene Powers. He dialed Eugene's private phone number and was immediately transferred to a voice message, so he said that he was in Belgium and left his number with a request to be called back regardless of the time. Thirty minutes later his phone rang and Eugene was on the line. David shared the information Mossad had and the conclusions, or rather speculations about the possible whereabouts of the couple. While still on the line he received a call-waiting ring and saw that it was from Kobi, so he apologized to Eugene and asked him to hang on while he took the call. Kobi told him that Michelle and her buddy had indeed found the car in the parking lot and were setting up a watch to see if anyone came to pick it up. Kobi added that they planted a miniature transmitter under the chassis so they could track it from a distance if needed. David thanked Kobi and told him that they could call off the hotel search that was quite a formidable task and may alert Nagib that they were homing in on him. David then switched back to the conversation with Eugene and updated him on this latest development. Eugene said that this new information justified waking up Herb Harden and he would do so himself and ask him to contact David. He added that although he was not a CIA field agent, only an NNSA administrator and scientist, he felt that he should be present on the site of the action. David was pleased to hear this as he feared that rivalry between the CIA and Mossad could lead to a conflict unless some high ranking government official, like Eugene, would supervise Harden and his people.
Alia and Nagib had discussed Rahman's offer of a safe apartment the previous night and had decided to accept the invitation, so they checked out of their small, smelly hotel. Nagib suggested that they take the car from the parking lot and drive over to the café, but Alia rejected the idea and said that she had a premonition that Ammer may have reported the car stolen and that it may have been located. She added that in all fairness they should inform him where the car was, because after all he was a family member who had tried to help them, and that would be the right thing to do. Nagib was not really convinced by the ethical argument but thought that the car may be more of a liability than an asset, so agreed with her. Once again they took the metro Herrmann-Debroux station and then got on tram line 94 getting off at Boitsfort Gare and walked with their light luggage to the café where they had arranged to meet Rahman for breakfast. Before leaving the hotel, Nagib had copied one small section of a blueprint on to a newly formatted disk-on-key, or thumb drive, that he kept in his pocket. Their laptop computer was stored in a shoulder bag that was part of their luggage.
They found the small café and saw that Rahman and Junaid were waiting for them. The Pakistani agents greeted the couple and Rahman said that judging by their luggage that his offer of a safe apartment was accepted. Nagib and Alia smiled and confirmed that, so they all ordered cappuccino and croissants and cut the small talk moving directly to the business on hand. Nagib took out his laptop, inserted the disk-on-key with the sample and loaded the blueprint. He then turned the screen around so that Rahman could see the schematic that was a section cut out from one of the advanced designs. Junaid also stole a glance at the screen and her mouth opened and a soft "Bismillah" escaped her lips. Rahman frowned at her and silently asked Nagib if he had the complete design. Nagib assured him that he had that as well as several other detailed blueprints. Rahman's dark skin turned red as blood rushed to his face. He realized the meaning of the information and its importance to his home country. He stammered and said that they should continue the discussion in a safer environment and suggested that they move to the apartment of Dreve des Tumuli.
They briskly walked over to the apartment building and when they reached it Rahman drew a set of keys from his pocket and let them into the building. It was quite modest and there was no doorman or concierge so they simply took the elevator up to the third floor and entered the apartment. Junaid took Alia by the hand and showed her the bedrooms, kitchen and bathroom. She opened the refrigerator and showed Alia that there were some basic supplies in the kitchen so that they wouldn't have to go out for food. Meanwhile in the small cozy living-room Rahman briefed Nagib on the house rules, stressing the importance of keeping all windows and shutters or curtains shut and secured and not opening the door to anyone else. He also mentioned that the kitchen was supplied and cautioned Nagib about going out or even having take-away food delivered to the apartment. Nagib, who by now was very conscious of security issues, listened and nodded in approval. Rahman took a SIM card out of his pocket and told Nagib that it would be used to keep in touch with one another and then asked Nagib to give him his own phone and he exchanged the SIM cards.
Rahman said that he would need to bring in his real boss, not the ambassador or anyone else from the embassy, but the Head of Pakistani intelligence, General Masood. He saw the expression of concern on Nagib's face and reassured him that Masood was to be fully trusted as he was a member of the clandestine council within the Pakistani administration that wanted to curtail the American dictate and rooted for an independent policy that would restore honor to Pakistan. Rahman added that Masood was quite indifferent to the Americans influence in Pakistan until a team of US Navy SEALs eliminated Osama Bin Laden on Pakistani soil with complete disregard of Pakistani sovereignty and without coordinating the attack with the Pakistani intelligence community. Nagib was not really assured by this story and asked how long it would take Masood to get to Brussels. Rahman said that he would be there in the evening as he was on an informal visit to Berlin to organize intelligence sharing concerning Al-Qaida terrorist with the German government and its intelligence services. Rahman said that he was impressed by the sample that Nagib had presented to him earlier but it was way above his pay-level to negotiate its price.
Meanwhile, the Mossad team that had been watching Ammer's car in the parking lot was getting more and more frustrated by the lack of action. Michelle called David and told him that no one even tried to approach the car and asked him how to proceed. Kobi heard the conversation and said that they could either start a door-to-door search of the hotels in the area or request assistance from the local police that had a network of surveillance cameras that had especially good coverage of the area near the central railway station where many illegal and criminal activities took place. David asked if they had any automatic face-recognition software and Kobi said that they had a sophisticated algorithm that could pick up facial features even in a crowd and match them with photographs of suspects. David decided to call Herb Harden, the CIA station chief and ask him to contact the Brussels police, after all the culprits were American citizens and it would not be easy to explain why Israeli agents are interested in them.
David called Harden and explained the situation and Harden acknowledged that he had received a phone call from Eugene and already had some ideas about how to proceed. Harden said that if they had to go through official channels to gain the cooperation of the local police they would have to give a reason for their request, but fortunately, he had an excellent relationship with the Belgian antiterrorist police unit and its boss, Thierry Van Der Wals. Harden added that he would tell Thierry that Nagib and Alia were wanted by US authorities in connection with their involvement with Islamic terror cells and were last seen in Brussels. David approved the plan, although he had hoped to be able to get to Nagib first and obtain the classified information he possessed before the Americans could recover it.