Pursuit of Honor

chapter 31
THE original plan had called for three cells to hit America. In typical al Qaeda fashion they had picked New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. Ninety percent of the intel they collected pointed toward attacks on those three cities. Occasionally Chicago or another major city popped up, but al Qaeda was especially obsessed with New York and Washington, D.C., for obvious reasons. Al Qaeda was acutely aware of the role media could play in amplifying their message. Infidels were infidels, but killing a couple of hundred people in Toledo, Ohio, simply wasn't as good a story in the media's eyes as hitting a big, glitzy city.

The Brits had nabbed one terrorist cell while it was transiting through Hong Kong and the French had picked up the second cell in West Africa. Much better at keeping secrets from their elected officials, MI-6 and the DGSE took the men to black sites and proceeded to peel back the onion on what was to be a very lethal operation of three coordinated attacks. The one thing they couldn't do, however, was glean the whereabouts and identity of the third cell. The various groups had never met. The only thing they knew about each other was that they existed, and that they each had been assigned one of the three major cities. No specific targets were known to anyone other than the individual cell leaders.

Rapp wondered if they had managed to squeeze a little more information out of the men in their possession and asked Cheval, "Have you had more success with the cell you intercepted?"

"My man," Cheval said without pretext, "was heavily involved in those interrogations. Like you, he is not afraid to get his hands dirty. So I have absolute confidence in what I am about to tell you. We originally told you that these three groups didn't know each other. No crossover whatsoever. While that is still true, the men all belong to the same organization in the broad sense."

"And the majority of them earned their stripes fighting in Afghanistan," Butler added.

"Terrorists talk the same as everyone else," Cheval continued. "They were tight-lipped about operational details but there is gossip about the more trivial aspects of their lives. They looked at their best men to create these three teams. There were quite a few rivalries. The Saudis, with their usual arrogance, demanded to be in charge of all three units and fill the ranks with their own people. That, however, presented a problem."

"Let me guess," Rapp said, "they found out it was a one-way trip and the courageous sons of Arabia decided they'd pass."

"That was part of it. The other problem lay in the fact that the Saudi ranks are bloated with wealthy men who rarely see combat. They are there to provide funds and then go home and thump their chests. For this operation they needed real shooters... real veterans of combat. The best without question are the Afghan and Pakistani tribesmen, but these men didn't like the idea of dying in a strange country thousands of miles from their homes."

Rapp said, "So they looked to the Moroccans, Algerians, Syrians, Jordanians..."

"Precisely," Cheval said, "and these men talk. There is a rivalry that is not different from that in our own military services. They like to brag and inflate their successes, and of course taunt the other groups."

"And they all hate the Saudis," Butler said, "but tolerate them because they have the money."

"Yes. At any rate, my man picked up in one of his interrogations that the Moroccan contingent was very proud that three of their men had been chosen to serve on one of the teams. I checked with George," Cheval said, glancing at Butler, "and he confirmed that none of the men in his possession were Moroccan."

"So you guessed that the three men were in the third and unknown group."

"Yes. So my man went to Rabat and then Casablanca and began to beat the bushes. It took him a week, and then he found what he was looking for."

"The sibling."

"Yes." Cheval gave Rapp an uneasy look and added, "It was slow work at first."

"You mean the brother was not cooperative," Rapp said.

"That is correct. It took a little longer than my man would have liked, but you know how such things work. Eventually, even the toughest decide to cooperate."

Rapp thought of asking if the sibling was still alive, but thought better of it.

"We now know the identities of all three Moroccans who participated in the attack."

"Let me guess... they were all part of the suicide crew?"

Cheval shook her head. "Not according to my man. One of the men is still alive."

Rapp leaned in a bit. "One of the three we are looking for."

"Yes." Cheval ran her ring finger along the edge of the file and flipped it open, revealing a photograph. She spun it toward Rapp and said, "Look, but do not touch. No reason to put your fingerprints on any of this."

Rapp nodded. "Who is he?"

"Ahmed Abdel Lah. Twenty-four, born in Casablanca, spent the last three years in Afghanistan and Pakistan."

"And you're sure he's still alive?"

"As sure as one could be considering the situation."

"How?"

"He sent his brother an email yesterday."

Rapp lifted his eyes from the photograph of Ahmed. He had a you-have-to-be-kidding-me expression on his face. "What did he say?"

"He told his brother not to worry. That he is alive and well and that his mission was a total success."

"Did you get a fix on it?"

She shook her head. "Only that it originated from a server in America."

"What about the other two?"

"We have some ideas, but I think George should fill you in on what he has found out first."

Butler cleared his throat and said, "We think we know how they funded their operation."

"Saudis." Rapp had found over the years that nine out of ten times the money trail led back to Saudi Arabia.

"No. Surprisingly enough, we think it was South American drug money."

This piece of information caught Rapp off guard. "Are you sure?"

"Yes," Butler continued. "I've been able to piece together a strange string of events which I think will explain how this cell managed to get into your country."

"South American drug money?" Rapp repeated himself, still not quite buying the idea. They had looked into the possibility years ago due to the opium trade coming out of Afghanistan and Southeast Asia. The rationale was that if the cartels could run drugs and sneak them into the country, they could easily do the same with terrorists. "They're all Catholic down there," Rapp said, referring to South and Central

America. "And I mean old-school Catholic. The Church has made it very clear that it's their continent, and the Muslims aren't welcome. As strange as it sounds, the cartels are very loyal to the Church on this issue. Plus it would be bad for their business if we found out they aided a terrorist group. The leaders know it'd be a good way to get a two-thousand-pound bomb dropped on their heads."

"I've seen the same reports, and I agree with your assessment," Butler said, "but this is something different. This third cell," Butler said in an admiring tone, "they're smart. They decided to do something none of them have tried before."

"What's that?"

"They unplugged."

"Unplugged?" Rapp asked with a puzzled look. "What in the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"They cut all ties to al Qaeda. Strict operational security."