The drive along the E19 and A1 to Paris was fast because they left Brussels after the morning rush hour. On the way Rahman explained the game plan in detail. First, he described the events that took place outside the embassy earlier that day and emphasized that there were several parties that were showing unwelcome attention to the comings and goings at the Pakistani embassy. He mentioned that he had spotted two vans, a small car and a motorcycle that were parked across the road from the embassy's back entrance and they all took off in a hurry when a local police patrol car pulled up behind the first van. Nagib asked him if he could see the people in these vehicles and Rahman said that when the guy on the motorcycle removed his goggles he could see that he had a round head and slanted eyes and was probably from the Far East, possibly Korean. He added that there were two people in the front seat of the small car and they looked Arab or oriental. Nagib said that those were probably Iranians that had already shown an interest in his merchandize. Junaid then took over and explained the rationale of moving as quickly as possible out of Europe and to the safety afforded in Pakistan. She gave a brief review of the internal politics of Pakistan and the forces behind them, saying that General Masood was one of the leaders of the movement, so far in secret, that believed that Pakistan had been short-changed by the West. The Americans in particular had humiliated Pakistan time and again and in order to restore national honor the Pakistanis had to avenge the indiscretions brought upon them by the West. To do this with impunity required the possession of an arsenal of nuclear weapons that would serve as an insurance policy and intimidate and repel attempts to intervene and disarm Pakistan. The ruling government was controlled by corrupt politicians that were more interested in acquiring a personal fortune, in Swiss banks of course, than in the welfare of the Pakistani people and in the national pride. Therefore, the classified blueprints and information that Nagib and Alia were going to deliver to General Masood and his cohorts must not fall into the hands of the government officials who would probably sell them back to the Americans and not use them to build the formidable nuclear force that Pakistan so desperately needed and deserved. Furthermore, she said, the government may directly extradite them to the Americans, or even eliminate them on Pakistani soil at the request of the CIA. Nagib wondered how their presence in Pakistan could be concealed from the authorities and Rahman said that the supporters of the movement were everywhere in Islamabad and mainly in the countryside and they would make sure that the two American tourists did not raise any suspicion. Junaid then told them about her relatives in Gandaf and said that they could have a safe and quiet vacation in a beautiful setting while the scientists and engineers of the Pakistani nuclear establishment studied the blueprints for the small portable nuclear device and manufactured two of them, as agreed upon. Once these two were handed over to Nagib and Alia the Pakistani intelligence community would help them leave Pakistan with the devices and transport them to wherever they wished to use them. Nagib asked how long it would take to complete these two devices and Rahman said that he was not qualified to answer that but that a meeting would be arranged with the top weapon designer who was privy to their movement and he would give his assessment of that.
They reached the Charles De Gaulle airport in less than two and a half hours and met a Pakistani intelligence agent from the Paris office outside the departures section of the terminal and Rahman handed over the car. They went to the PIA counter, picked up the first class airline tickets were ready for them and as they only had carry-on luggage they proceeded to go through airport security and passport control. The Pakistani couple was a few steps in front of the American couple in order not to arouse suspicion. The four of them had to wait for a short time in the first class lounge before their flight was called, but the two couples kept their distance until they boarded the PIA plane. The first leg of the flight from Paris to Milan was very short but the four travelers were all worried they might be taken off the plane in Milan if the agents that had been following them would manage to track them and have them stopped. Once the plane took off from Malpensa airport in Milan and was on its way to Pakistan they relaxed as they were certain that no force could stop them now from reaching Pakistan, barring, of course, an act of Force Majeure.
The NSA network monitoring system picked up the fact that the four passengers had gone through the passport control checkpoint at Charles De Gaulle airport. However by the time the information was relayed to the CIA station chiefs in Brussels and Paris the PIA flight with the foursome on board had already departed from Milan on the nonstop leg to Islamabad. When Harden tried to discover why the warning had been delayed so much, the NSA investigated the case and found that the four first class tickets on the PIA were booked earlier that morning under assumed names and therefore were not flagged earlier. The PIA reservation system had been instructed that the four tickets would be picked up by someone from Pakistani intelligence and ordered not to ask any questions. Harden informed David of this development and told him that Eugene's flight from Washington was scheduled to land in Brussels shortly and invited David to come meet with the two of them at the US embassy.
David called off the Mossad team that had been used in Brussels and told Kobi that they should go back to their regular duties. He also called Shimony at the Tel-Aviv headquarters and updated him. Shimony said that if Nagib and Alia were not stopped before reaching Pakistan there was little that Mossad could do until they emerged again in Europe or the US, and instructed David to return to Israel after meeting with Eugene.
David was met at the gate of the US embassy and was escorted by one of Harden's agents to a small conference room. Eugene was drinking coffee and rubbing his red eyes after the long overnight flight from the US but rose to greet David with a firm handshake. Harden reviewed the situation and said that he had contacted George (Blakey) Blakemore, the CIA station chief in Islamabad, and asked him to try and follow Nagib and Alia. David wondered if the US could not ask the Pakistani authorities to arrest the couple and extradite them to the US but Eugene said that would not be possible given the short time they had and in any case they had to assume that the Pakistanis would not be cooperative in view of the potential benefit they hoped to gain. David said that Israel had no real assets in Pakistan, which was not completely true because Mossad had a highly place scientist in Pakistan's nuclear industry. This gentleman was caught on camera in a delicate situation with the bellboy at a hotel in a major European city in which he attended a conference. He didn't know that bellboy had been recruited by Mossad specifically for this purpose when it became known that this was his weakness. Mossad offered the scientist a large sum of money for his cooperation to sweeten the deal and so far the arrangement worked well for both sides. On the other hand the US had a lot of influence in Pakistan and officially the two countries were close allies, at least theoretically. They all knew that there were some parts of Pakistan, even in the major cities like Islamabad, Peshawar and Karachi where any American was not safe if unaccompanied by bodyguards or local police.
Kim and Mahmoud did not know where Nagib and Alia were but suspected that they had been spirited out of Brussels and possibly even out of Belgium. They saw that life at the Pakistani embassy had returned to normal and when Kim asked for a meeting with the scientific attaché and was told that he was on vacation their suspicions were confirmed. Mahmoud said that there was a chance that they had been moved to Pakistan and that Iran had the support of the small Shiite minority there and he could enlist their help to search for the American couple. Kim said that North Korea also had good ties with Pakistan and that he could enquire through official channels if the American couple had showed up in Pakistan.