Harden called Thierry and requested his help in locating the couple. Thierry wondered why the CIA was involved, he thought that the Department of Homeland Security would be in charge of thwarting domestic terrorism, but agreed to search at the security cameras for a match with the photos that Harden had sent him electronically. He said that it could take several hours unless they could be more specific about the time and location. Harden replied that to the best of his knowledge, the couple arrived in Brussels around noon the previous day, left their car at a parking lot near the central railway station and probably found a cheap hotel in the same area. Thierry said this was very helpful and he will get his colleagues in the police to scan the surveillance photos taken by the cameras in the vicinity of the parking lot.
Within a couple of hours Harden received a call from Thierry inviting him to come over to the police headquarters. Harden asked if he could bring another foreign agent and was given permission to do so. It was just after noon when David and Harden entered the police station and were escorted to the room where the photos were on display. There was no doubt that Nagib and Alia were photographed by a sequence of surveillance cameras from the moment they entered the parking lot and left their car until they reached the small hotel in which they spent the night. Harden asked for a short break and summoned two of his people to go to the hotel and interview the owner about the couple. The camera nearest to the hotel recorded the couple leaving the hotel shortly after they checked in — the time was recorded as 2:20 pm — and head to the Metro station. They were seen entering the station and buying Metro tickets and then waiting for the next train at a southbound platform but it was not clear where they were heading. The same camera recorded them returning to the hotel around 6 pm and then they were spotted on another camera leaving their hotel again just before 8 pm. This time they didn't take a train but strolled on foot and Thierry said that they were probably going somewhere for dinner, most likely at a restaurant in the vicinity of the hotel. They were captured on camera later that evening as they returned to the hotel. There was no one accompanying them. They were next seen as they checked out of the hotel in the morning, just a few hours earlier, carrying their luggage to the central station and heading to the same platform they used the previous day. David asked if the photos from the cameras all along the line could be checked — the timing was easy to determine as they were seen boarding a south bound train at 8:20 am. They were observed by the surveillance camera near the Gare de Boitsfort station as they were leaving the station before 9 am. Unfortunately, there were very few other surveillance cameras in that area so there was no trace of them after they left the station. David asked Thierry if he knew what points of interest were around the station so he called for a map of Brussels and they looked at potential places in the vicinity. Harden was the first to notice that the Pakistani embassy was close to the station and speechlessly pointed his finger at it. David looked at him and saw that his face took on a pale shade, practically blanched, as he understood the potential ramifications, and hastily offered Harden a glass of cold water. David asked Thierry if the embassy was under surveillance but was told that Belgium did not spy on diplomats, which he found hard to believe.
David apologized to Thierry and said that he and Harden had to leave and that they were grateful for his cooperation. Once they were out of the police headquarters David asked Harden if his people could hack into the security cameras of the Pakistani embassy and see whether Nagib and Alia actually entered the embassy. Harden who slowly recovered from his shocked state said he would contact his NSA liaison officer and see if the footage was available. He then confided in David telling him that if the stolen blueprints were delivered to the Pakistanis then the balance of power between India and Pakistan in South Asia would be disturbed, and perhaps this could affect the Middle East and the whole world. David had reached the same conclusions himself but played dumb asking Harden what information was contained in Nagib's possession, but Harden only kept repeating that it was potentially a major catastrophe without elaborating on the content of the stolen data.
David asked Harden if the CIA had additional information on the Pakistani embassy in Brussels and was told that many people in the US administration, and especially in the intelligence community, were concerned that amongst the ruling class of Pakistan there was a strong resentment of the US policy. Although there appeared to be a large degree of cooperation between the two countries on the official level — the US supplied Pakistan with advanced weapon systems, aircraft and technology, as well as with financial aid — the undercurrents regarded the US as an unreliable ally in times of crisis, giving as examples the role played by the US during the skirmishes and wars with India. The Pakistanis felt that the US did not give them real support against India. Harden added that Pakistan had developed and tested nuclear devices despite attempts by the West to stop them from doing so and had produced a stock of several dozen warheads. The Americans found that to be particularly troublesome as the supervision of those warheads was in the hands of a special unit of Pakistani intelligence that was known to include sympathizers of fundamentalist Islamic movements. David was a bit surprised by the candid assessment of the US-Pakistan relations and repeated his question, although from Harden's outburst he could guess that the answer was affirmative. Harden then said, that of course all Pakistani official and especially unofficial institutions were watched by the US, and that included the large Pakistani mission in Brussels.
The embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Brussels is located at 15 Avenue Franklin Roosevelt and that of the Democratic People's Republic of (North) Korea or DPRK was at Chaussee de la Hulpe 175, just a short way from the Pakistani embassy and quite close to the apartment in which Nagib and Alia sought refuge. However, the meeting between Kim and Mahmood took place near the central railway station from where Ammer had thought that Nagib's phone call originated. Each participant brought with him an entourage of half a dozen people but in a cosmopolitan city like Brussels neither the dark-skin of the Iranians nor the oriental appearance of the Koreans was out of place. Kim and Mahmoud were quite familiar with life in Western Europe and felt comfortably at home in Brussels. However, they did not know where to start the search and spent about an hour discussing this issue while the members of their entourages regarded each other with suspicion and kept a fair distance between them. At the end of the discussion they were in agreement that the most probable option for the couple to barter their goods would be either with the Islamic State people or the Pakistanis. Mahmoud said that the Sunni IS Muslims were dire enemies of the Shiite Iranians so he proposed that they divide the task: the Iranians will try to contact the Pakistanis while the DPRK contact IS operatives. Kim didn't like this idea but had nothing better to propose, so that was agreed upon.
Part 4. Getting the deal
Chapter 9
Nagib and Alia settled down in the apartment and he watched some sports on TV while she prepared a light meal from the products in the kitchen. As they were finishing their meal Nagib's phone with the SIM card given to him by Rahman rang and he saw that it was Rahman on the caller ID. He answered and was told, without mentioning any names, to expect a visit an hour later.