The Last Crusade: A Harry Cassidy Novel Page 21

“Where in Syria?” bin Yousef asked.

  “Fifteen miles away, in Al Hasakah. Shall we pay him a visit?”

  Although Karim was old, and thin and in poor health, his eyes lit up with brilliant ferocity as he grasped the hand of bin Yousef. “Praise Allah,” he said. “I hope I may be of great service to our cause.”

  “Tell us Karim,” Fasiym said. “Are these weapons still in usable condition?”

  “So far, my inspections and sample analyses have indicated at least eighty percent of them are. The cool, dry atmosphere in the cave is perfect for their preservation. I personally supervised the packing and transport of every container in there many years ago in anticipation of their use against the infidels one day.”

  “And how do you remember what is in each container?” bin Yousef asked.

  Karim chuckled and said, “Do not be fooled by my frail body, O great one. The numbering codes are all still up here in my head, and now ready to come out for the first time in a long time. And my brother Ali told those infidels nothing in his years of confinement.”

  “Will you need much assistance?” Fasiym asked.

  “Yes, I need my specialists to revitalize and refine these weapons. Our Syrian friends here have already volunteered to provide assistance to bring them here.”

  “How can this be done?” bin Yousef asked.

  “Our organization, which we have re-named The Last Crusade after we discovered these weapons, has about two dozen members that can move freely between Syria and Iraq,” Mounir said. “They can bring Karim’s scientists out willingly—or unwillingly.”

  “If you have sufficient funds for them to come here and work here,” Karim said, “I believe all of my men—and women—will come willingly.”

  “Women?” ali Hassan asked with skepticism in his voice..

  “Yes, indeed,” Karim said. “The two most important scientists who worked on our team were women. Their names are not important, but their nicknames should suffice to tell you all that is necessary about them—Doctor Poison and Mrs.Virus.”

  “Excellent,” bin Yousef said. “I have most certainly heard of them, and I’m happily surprised their talents are still available to you. We definitely have the funds, and I am prepared to pay your scientists, and you, of course, most handsomely.”

  “Then I am ready to proceed immediately.”

  “Tell me, Mounir and Hamid, when can you begin to round up these scientists?”

  “We are prepared to leave for Iraq right after we are done here,” Hamid said.

  “Tell me some more about your organization.”

  “We call ourselves the Last Crusade in recognition of the fact we believe these weapons of mass destruction will provide the means to finally bring America to its knees and renounce its support of Israel. We thought of calling ourselves The Last Jihad, but realized that our jihad will go on well after we destroy Israel.”

  “Indeed it will, Hamid,” bin Yousef said. “Until Islam rules the entire world.”

  “How many are you?” Fasiym asked.

  “We have sixty-five highly trained and dedicated members,” Mounir said.

  “And who is your leader?” bin Yousef asked.

  “You are, O great one, if you will have us.”

  “I welcome you with open arms, and in the name of Allah, we will triumph over the infidels once and for all. Get those scientists here as soon as you can so our friend here…”

  Please, Khalid,” Karim interrupted, “call me Chemical Karim in honor of my brother. Someday I want the infidels to know who killed millions of their fellow dogs.”

  Bin Yousef smiled. “As I was saying, get those scientists here so Chemical Karim may direct their labors toward the ultimate success of our Last Crusade.”

  Although Fasiym ali Hassan smiled and planned along with Chemical Karim and bin Yousef, he wondered if killing even millions, in a country of 300 million, would turn the loyalty of the American government away from Israel.

  Over the next two years the town of Al Hasakah saw its population increase by over one hundred inhabitants, split evenly between Iraqis and Syrians. The scientists worked carefully and methodically under the direction of Chemical Karim, and traveled home each night to the dwellings bought, or rented, by bin Yousef. By the end of the second year they were ready to begin field testing the deadly gases, nerve toxins, viruses and radioactive materials, and that task was delegated to the warriors of the Last Crusade.

  The position with Walt Kobak had given Harry a new lease on life. He renewed old acquaintances with his former team members, and acquainted himself with his counterparts in the West and Midwest. John McKee was running the New York Task Force with a skeleton crew, and since nothing major was on the radar, it was not necessary to ask Pop and Nick to rejoin the team. Chief Gregorovich had retired, and was replaced by Chief Duggan, who had been the chief of the transit bureau, and seemed to be a decent man. That was the good news. The bad news was McKenna got his third star and was now the chief of patrol. But as long as Commissioner Donaldson was around, Harry was probably safe in his new position, and the PC had at least three more years remaining in office.

  Three months later Harry and Susan were walking in the mall in Washington admiring the cherry blossoms. It was his third trip to DC, and this time Susan had flown down to join him for the weekend. “Aren’t they beautiful?” she said as they stopped between two exceptionally full-blossomed trees, and inhaled the sweet delicate fragrance.

  “Yes, they are,” Harry said, “and so are you.”

  “Why thank you, sir. A rare compliment from the inspector.”

  “Rare?”

  “It seems you’ve been pre-occupied lately.”

  “Have I? I’m sorry. Things have been happening. Things are beginning to heat up again.”

  “Like what?”

  “You’re looking at these beautiful trees, and so are the terrorists. They’re looking at them, and our seat of government here, and they want to destroy it all.”

  “Have they changed targets from New York?”

  “New York and DC are now both number ones to these guys. You know we stopped them not too long ago.”

  “No, I didn’t know.”

  “We intercepted four of them, about two hundred yards from where we now stand, two weeks ago. They were carrying a dirty nuclear suitcase bomb, and were heading to the Capitol.”

  “Were they connected to bin Yousef?”

  “We only know they were Middle-Eastern. Who knows if bin Yousef had a hand in it, or if the great leader is still alive. The terrorists didn’t tell us anything. They couldn’t tell us anything, since they are all dead.”

  “You killed them?”

  “They killed themselves. Poison capsules in their mouths. Thank God we got to them before they could detonate the device.”

  “Were you here? You were. Of course, you were.”

  “I was here, and we never had this conversation. You know when they hit on Independence Day weekend years ago killing over two hundred people at Penn and Grand Central Stations, it could have been much worse.”

  “How much worse?” Susan asked.

  “We never let the public know, but the attack was carried out by only two sections of OBL-911. We caught, and stopped, the other two sections before they could strike. And the one small plane that hit the Empire State Building was one of twenty similar explosive-filled ones we stopped from getting off the ground.”

  “Oh, my God,” Susan said, realizing the death and destruction that might have happened. “Now I’m not so sure I’m happy you are back in the fight with these guys.”

  “Susan, it’s time we finish them once and for all.”

  “So go get them, Hopalong Cassidy,” she said with a smile. “Ride out on your white horse and lead the crusade.” Then her smile disappeared as she reached over and hugged Harry. “But please, please, don’t get shot again.”

  As Walt Kobak had suggested, Harry had met with his two fellow antiterrorism chiefs shortly
after they were appointed. Jim Driscoll had provided them with space at FBI Headquarters in Washington, and after a get acquainted session over lunch, the three got down to business. Vince Dimino, a deputy chief of detectives in the Chicago Police Department, asked Harry to begin because most of the previous actions had been on the east coast.

  “That they have,” he said, and spent almost an hour detailing the New York’s Task Force encounters with OBL-911. Harry’s briefing was followed by one given by Kevin Longman, an assistant chief in the Los Angeles Police Department, and then by Vince Dimino.

  When Dimino finished Harry said, “We all have past histories with terrorist groups, but nothing has happened in many years. Why are we here? Am I missing something?”

  “My thoughts exactly,” Longman said.

  “I can’t believe we were put in place as a preventive measure,” Dimino said. “The government doesn’t work that way.”

  “Right on,” Harry said. “Something’s up, and I guess we’ll have to wait for them to tell us what it is.”

  They didn’t have to wait long. As they were sipping coffee and swapping war stories, Jim Driscoll entered the room. He said, “I know you’re wondering why you have been appointed to such important positions with no apparent crisis to handle.”

  “I feel like a cop on a beat with zero crime,” Harry said.

  “Good analogy. None of you has crime on your beats—yet. But when this crime descends upon you, and on all of us, may God have mercy on our souls.”

  That got their attention in a hurry. If Jim Driscoll’s comment had been meant to shake them up, it had succeeded admirably. He continued, “Intelligence has been coming in from our friends in Europe and the Middle-East. Certain occurrences over the past year and a half have given us cause for great concern. I have invited several representatives from these countries to join us tomorrow morning for a full briefing. After the briefing we will all engage in a brain-storming session to develop a plan of containment and counter attacks.”

  “Containment of what?” Longman asked.

  “Mass deaths, fear, panic, contagion.”

  “Have the occurrences you mentioned resulted in any of those?” Harry asked.

  “On a small scale, yes, but they have been publicly suppressed for the most part. They were prevented from becoming general knowledge by the military and government leaders in the countries where they happened.”

  “Jim,” Harry said, “can you be more specific? You have me worried.”

  “I think that goes for me and Kevin, too,” Vince Dimino said.

  “You’ll learn more tomorrow and over the next few days, and I assure you, if you’re concerned now, you will be terrified by the end of this week. It appears the terrorists have gotten their hands on the means to produce, deliver and employ dirty nuclear devices, chemical weapons and biological agents at levels of deadly toxicity.”

  “And these occurrences may be the initial phase of more widespread attacks?” Vince asked. “As if they’re testing their stuff out?”

  “Precisely.”

  “My God,” Harry said, “it sounds as if they discovered Saddam Hussein’s mysterious hidden cache of weapons of mass destruction.”

  “Very perceptive,” Driscoll said, “because that’s exactly what we think has happened.”

  17

  When they were all assembled the following morning, the meeting was called to order by the FBI Director, Michael Molloy. He welcomed them all, and thanked them for attending this crucial meeting. “We have kept this group small for many reasons, top secrecy being one of the most important,” he said. “I can’t impress upon you the need to keep here, what is discussed here. Our goal is simple—to discover the source of certain horrific weapons of which you will shortly learn, and to destroy them before they can be put to widespread use. Ancillary goals are to capture, or kill, if necessary, those responsible for the proliferation of these weapons, and to wipe out their organization. I will now turn this meeting over to my able associate director for counter-terrorism, Jim Driscoll. I wish you all success in your sessions this week. The country—no, make that the world—is depending on you.”

  “Thank you, Director,” Driscoll said. “We hope to bring you a plan of action by the end of this week to address your concerns and meet the threats.”

  When Molloy left the room Driscoll said. “Since I know every one here, I will make brief introductions. Please rise when I call your name so the others can see you.”

  Driscoll first introduced Avram Hivkind of “Israeli Intelligence.” Hivkind’s counterparts from Turkey, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Morocco were present, as were those from the European nations of England, Italy, Spain, Germany, Russia, and France. Four scientists were introduced whose specialties focused on the weapons to be discussed, and the group was rounded out by representatives from the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the President’s Chief of Staff and the head of the CIA. There was, understandably, not a joyous look on anyone’s face in the assemblage.

  “Several of the nations represented here have had occurrences which have been classified potentially as terrorist attacks,” Driscoll said. “I say potentially, because no one, individual or group, has attempted to take credit for the incidents. Earlier this morning we grouped them by date, and will present them in the order in which they occurred. Mr. Tagliaocu, please.”

  The representative from Turkey arose and walked to the front of the room. “Nineteen months ago, a commercial bus carrying passengers between two small cities in the southern part of my country, failed to arrive at its destination. A search team discovered the bus off the side of the road. All sixty-two passengers and the driver were dead. Several of the victims had their hands clutched to their throats. There were no signs of physical violence, and the autopsies failed to discover the cause of death. A search of the bus revealed this.” He reached into his jacket pocket and withdrew a small, dark-green colored metal canister, which he passed around the room for the group to inspect.

  “This container held no more than fifty milliliters of liquid, or two ounces of solids. The small timing device taped to its side somehow activated the contents, which were then released from the small holes at the top of the canister. Analysis of the inside and outside of it failed to detect any of the material responsible for the deaths. In fact, there was no identifiable residue of any kind at all. My government thought it best to release the news of this tragedy as a terrible accident of carbon monoxide poisoning caused by a faulty exhaust system.”

  Several hands shot into the air, but Driscoll said, “No questions now, please. Write them down on your pads. I’d like to get through all the incidents first, and then we’ll open it up for questions and discussions. Mr.Giancarlo, please.”

  “The second incident and the only one so far we know of that occurred in Europe, happened about six weeks after the first incident in Turkey. In a small crowded bar on the outskirts of Milan, several dozen people, mostly men, were watching an important soccer game on television when the incident happened—a duplicate of the attack on the bus in Turkey—and with the same results.”

  Giancarlo produced a green canister that looked exactly the same as the one shown by Tagliaocu. After they all had a chance to inspect it, Jim Driscoll placed it on a table at the front of the room next to the first one. “All our lab tests proved inconclusive, and we attributed the deaths to a faulty furnace system in the bar,” Giancarlo said.

  Avram Hivkind walked to the front of the room and said, “Israel was the scene of the next two incidents. The first occurred one month after the one in Milan, and the second about six weeks after that.” He produced a third cannistner, seemingly identical to the first two, and did not bother passing it around the room, but placed it on the table next to the other two. “No need to belabor the details of the attack near Haifa. Thirty-seven Israelis on a bus trip suffered the same fate as you’ve already heard. We also attributed the incident to a faulty exhaust system. The next incident was different from the
first three. It happened near Jerusalem in an outdoor market, and killed seventeen civilians, but in a much more horrible manner. They did not die quickly, but suffered for at least fifteen minutes, hemorrhaging blood from almost every bodily orifice, vomiting, screaming and burning up with fever. Seven people involved in the rescue and transport also came down with the same symptoms, and all died similar deaths. We were able to quarantine the dead and stop the spread of the disease. We recovered a litre-sized, square plastic container that might have held the disease producing substance, but we have no results on what it might have been, from either the container or the post-mortems.”

  As Hivkind left the podium, the horror and terrible possibilities were sinking into their brains. The Iraqi representative described two incidents that occurred—near Kirkuk where the occurrence was the choking deaths—and near Mosul where it was the disease attack, as just described by Hivkind. Yet another green canister was placed on the table and Tagliaocu returned. He smiled wryly and said, “After the horrors we have all just heard, and not to demean any citizen that was killed, I believe this last incident I will describe may be the worst of all.”

  They all drew in a breath and focused in dreaded anticipation as to what he would say. What the hell could be worse than what they just heard?

  “Four weeks ago,” he continued, “a suspicious suitcase was discovered abandoned in a busy transportation hub in Ankara. Upon inspection it was discovered the timer, set for the previous morning, had failed to detonate the device due to a faulty electrical connection. When we discovered the device was emitting a high level of radioactivity, we called upon our associate from Israel, Mr. Hivkind. Avram, if you will?”

  “We dispatched a team of specialists to Ankara, and after rendering the device inert, transported it back to Tel Aviv for analysis. Our scientists concluded the device was a dirty nuclear device. Although of low explosive power, it certainly would have killed hundreds in the immediate vicinity of the explosion. The highly radioactive coating would have poisoned thousands of Turkish citizens for many miles around, leading eventually to their deaths.”