Nagib and Alia were excited when Junaid told them that Rahman would arrive with one of the leading physicists from PINSTECH and assured them that they would have some good news concerning the delivery of the two "gifts". The past few days had been very peaceful — they were not aware of the presence of the Iranians or that the North Koreans were desperately trying to find them. Nagib was relieved that the stick memory, or thumb drive, in his pen had not been discovered. He noticed that someone had gone through his laptop computer in search for the files with the blueprints and knew that the hidden files had not been copied because attempts to do so without the correct series of passwords would cause the computer to shut down. When Junaid was taking a shower he whispered to Alia that he had expected such an attempt and was thankful to the pimpled youngster in Pasadena for the software protection he had installed in what seemed to be ages ago but was in fact a little more than one month. His pen was in public display in his shirt pocket, as it was at all times, and he used it to write notes or sign for hotel deliveries.
Linda arrived in Karachi on a morning flight from Islamabad and joined the meeting of the American agents, not only from the CIA but from all the agencies, that was held in the Karachi office of the largest US trade partner in Pakistan. Naturally it belonged to a defense contractor whose main line of business was to sell US made armaments and spare parts to the Pakistani military. All in all there were about a dozen men and two women chatting and having coffee or sodas when the CIA station chief, George Blakemore, entered the room. Blakey proceeded to explain that their mission was to follow Dr. Anwar Usman and Rahman Chenna when they landed in Karachi later in the afternoon and see if they met with two American citizens, Nagib and Alia Jaber, and if the opportunity presented itself to snatch the Americans and bring them to a safe location. In the old days he would have handed out photographs of all the people concerned but he simply sent the photos to their cellphones. He then divided the agents into two task forces — one section consisting of eight people in four cars was responsible for following the Pakistani scientist and intelligence agent from the airport to wherever they were going and the second group was put in charge of forcibly snatching the couple and included only agents that had diplomatic immunity in case the kidnapping attempt failed and the operatives were arrested. Blakey said that the CIA had received an unconfirmed message that the renegade couple could be in one of the most expensive hotels, enjoying life at the expense of the Pakistani taxpayer, or more probably thanks to the US financial aid to Pakistan the American taxpayer was footing the bill. Blakey added that in case the couple could not be captured alive the fallback position would be to eliminate them (what used to be called "terminate with extreme prejudice" in the good old days) and retrieve the files. One of the more intelligent agents asked what would happen if there were copies of these files that they could not recover and all Blakey could say that to the best of their knowledge there were no copies. The meeting dispersed and Linda found herself in the car with Blakey and another embassy official who drove the car. They headed towards the best hotel in Karachi expecting that the trail would end there or at one of the other up class hotels on the same street.
Anwar and Rahman were on board a small private jet that belonged to the Pakistani intelligence services. As the plane landed at the Karachi airport they were met by an escort of three jeeps packed with heavily armed members of the elite unit of the Pakistani Special Forces. The drivers turned on their flashing lights and sirens and headed to the hotel in which Junaid and the couple were staying. The small convoy made so much noise and the flashing lights could be seen from miles away so the American agents in charge of following them had no difficulty in doing their job with their eyes closed. On the other hand, the second task force reached the hotel and realized that there was not a chance in hell that they would be able to snatch Nagib and Alia in view of the heavily armed guards. Blakey called off the force, thanked them for their efforts and told them to return to their routine jobs.
Nagib and Alia were waiting restlessly in the suite when Anwar and Rahman arrived with an armed escort. After a brief introduction Anwar, Rahman and Nagib retired to a corner of the suite and held a quiet conversation. Anwar told Nagib that the two small nukes had been constructed according to the blueprints and they were now in Islamabad waiting for his approval. Rahman said that shipping arrangements were made and added that the Pakistanis expected to receive the other designs after Nagib's inspection. Nagib smiled broadly and said that he appreciated the fact that the agreement had been honored by the Pakistanis and that he would fulfill his part as soon as the devices were in his custody. Meanwhile Alia and Junaid packed all their clothes and were ready to leave as soon as the men finished their little conference.
The entourage left the suite in which the American couple and Junaid had spent a very enjoyable time. For the couple this was a period of relief that afforded them a feeling of security that they had not had since they left Los Alamos over a month earlier, and both of them realized that once they left Pakistan with the devices, or even without them, they would have to constantly look over their shoulder because a myriad of intelligence services will be after them. As they made their way through the hotel's lobby they were observed by Linda and Blakey who were having coffee in the corner and by the Iranian agents who were sipping tea in the opposite corner. The North Koreans were not in the lobby although one of their agents was parked 50 meters behind the three jeeps. None of the agents bothered to follow the entourage because they had all figured out that they were on the way to the airport for a flight back to Islamabad.
The group got into the middle jeep and the convoy of three vehicles made its way back to the airport where the private jet was parked with its engines turning. Nagib and Alia accompanied by Rahman and Junaid as well as Anwar and two armed bodyguards boarded the waiting jet. Rahman told the couple that they would be taken to a safe house that belonged to the Pakistani intelligence services and would be discretely taken to see the devices at a hangar in PINSTECH. He said that the dimensions of the devices were small enough so that they could comfortably fit into a standard 29" suitcase of the type that had a rugged hard-sided shell. Rahman said that two such suitcases were ready but the devices would be placed inside them only after being inspected and approved by Nagib.
Chapter 14
Nagib and Alia spent a sleepless night in the safe house to which they were taken the previous evening. They were on the second floor of the two storey building and armed guards were placed on the roof of the building, in the lower floor and outside the front and back doors. The reason they had so little sleep was obvious — they now reached the most dangerous stage of their journey to Pakistan, because once they handed over all the designs there was absolutely nothing to prevent the Pakistanis from reneging on the deal and arresting them, or more likely just make them disappear. Alia suggested that they hand over the thumb drive with the files protected by a password and send the password only after they felt safe with the devices on European soil, or far away from Pakistan. Nagib liked the idea but was not sure the Pakistanis would accept this last minute change because of two reasons — they might fear that he would not keep his word and hand over the password and in addition they would feel offended because he didn't trust them and that would be a sign of disrespect. In addition, the Pakistanis could be justly worried about the couple's safety in view of the fact that quite a few intelligence organizations were after them, and especially the Americans would not hesitate to eliminate them on sight.