CHAPTER 8 – FALLOUT
20:50 (Paris Time)
Wednesday, October 21, 2020
Monaco Police Station, 9 Rue Suffren-Raymond
Principality of Monaco
When Nicolas Lerner, Director of the Direction Générale de la Sécurité Intérieure, or DGSI in short, stepped inside the lobby of the Monaco Police Station, he saw that one of the agents he had sent to Monaco was waiting for him at the reception counter. A man in his early sixties who had obviously also been waiting for him walked with the agent to Lerner and extended his right hand for a shake.
‘’Director Lerner? I am Inspector General Richard Marangoni, head of Monaco’s Public Security. Could you please tell me what the hell is going on? Your agents refused to give me more than the most basic details on this case.’’
‘’That’s because this case has an international dimension, is extremely sensitive and also highly classified. Just let me speak a bit with my agent here and I will then be able to brief you in private, Inspector Marangoni.’’
Lerner then looked at his agent and spoke softly to him.
‘’Where is Captain Larivière, Lieutenant Fortin?’’
‘’Dead, sir!’’ replied Fortin, who was obviously affected by the events of the day. ‘’We also lost Aubertin and Marchand and had two more agents seriously wounded, sir. Our wounded agents are presently being treated at the local hospital.’’
‘’MERDE! What the hell happened? This was supposed to be a simple takedown and capture operation.’’
‘’The suspects proved to be true fanatics and reacted violently at once when we tried to arrest them. They also possessed some serious firepower and did not hesitate to use it. However, all five suspects were killed in the ensuing gunfights.’’
‘’What about the Pakistanis?’’
‘’They did not resist arrest and are here, locked incommunicado in separate cells, sir. They have up to now refused to cooperate and are clamoring to speak with their embassy in Paris.’’
‘’And what about the Saudi royal yacht? The info I got about it was very sketchy.’’
This time, it was Marangoni who answered Lerner.
‘’Our maritime division has sent a number of boats to the site where the M/Y SERENE was previously anchored and only found floating debris and oil, plus a number of corpse and two surviving sailors floating on the surface. Those two survivors said that a small boat rammed the yacht and then exploded with tremendous force, breaking the yacht in two and sinking it. When asked for details about that ramming boat, they were unable to say much, as they had been on the wrong side of the ship at the time and only saw a glimpse of it just before it rammed the SERENE. This had all the hallmarks of a suicide attack. Now, what could you tell me that would explain such a devastating terrorist attack inside Monaco territorial waters, Director Lerner?’’
The way Marangoni phrased his question told Lerner that he was reminding him that French police did not have full powers inside Monaco, which had its own independent police service. Unfortunately, the political and international ramifications of this affair went well beyond the possible impacts on Monaco. He however tried to be as polite as possible with Marangoni.
‘’Inspector Marangoni, while I cannot tell you much details about this affair, due to the extreme sensitivity and high classification of the information about it, know that we are dealing here with what appears to be illegal clandestine activities involving at least Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, with possibly more countries involved as well. The two Pakistanis presently held here first came to Paris, where their presence attracted the suspicions of my services, and subsequently acted in ways which only reinforced our suspicions about the true reasons for their presence in France.’’
‘’And what about those men your agents tried to arrest here in Monaco and who then started those gunfights?’’
‘’They were ex-ISIS fighters and known war criminals wanted by Interpol.’’
‘’But those men apparently worked for Prince Bin Salman. How could they be ex-ISIS fighter?’’
Lerner looked somberly at Marangoni as he answered his question.
‘’That is one of the reasons why I consider this case so sensitive. I believe that you could understand the kind of media craziness any rumors of collusion between Saudi Arabia and ISIS would create, Inspector.’’
‘’I effectively can, Director Lerner.’’ said Marangoni after taking a deep breath.
‘’Talking of the Saudis, has the presence of Prince Bin Salman on the yacht been confirmed yet?’’
‘’Yes! The two surviving sailors told us that Prince Salman was aboard the SERENE at the time. However, his body has not been found yet and he is now part of the missing persons from the SERENE. Whatever happens next, this will create quite a wave internationally. Prince Albert has already communicated to me his deep concerns about this terrorist attack.’’
‘’Believe me, Inspector: a lot of people are also concerned by this affair, starting with the President of the Republic. I cannot emphasize enough now the need for maximum discretion and restraint in this affair. If you will now excuse me, I will go ask a few questions to the two Pakistanis held here by my men. Expect very soon an extradition request from France for these two Pakistani citizens.’’
‘’Then, Director Lerner, know that those men were allowed to call their embassy in Paris, in order to obtain consular and legal aid, as the laws in Monaco allowed them to do.’’
Lerner swore mentally about that but didn’t show his frustration to Marangoni, simply nodding his head once before following his agent into the station.
Lerner was guided to a basement wing which contained a cell block and a few interrogation rooms. In the guardroom, he found two of his agents, plus three Monaco police officers, one of the latter watching a bank of security cameras installed around the cell block and interrogation rooms. There, he addressed his junior team leader.
‘’Lieutenant Fortin, have General Khan brought to an interrogation room: I want to talk with him...with no witnesses to our conversation. Have the camera and microphone connected to that interrogation room shut off.’’
‘’Right away, sir!’’
Fortin then led him first to one of the small interrogation rooms, which was empty except for a small table and two chairs, before leaving to go get Khan. That left some time to Lerner to think about what he would ask. He was not actually hoping for much from Khan, but he still had the duty to try to learn extra information from him. Some seventy years ago, in France, that would probably have involved some very rough methods, but things had changed a lot since then. A minute later, Fortin came back with General Mohammed Khan, who had his hands handcuffed in front of him. Lerner then started the portable recorder laid on the small table and gave a cold look at Khan, who was trying to look defiant.
‘’Sit down, General Khan! We have a lot to talk about.’’
‘’I won’t say anything before a lawyer from my embassy in Paris shows up. And who are you, by the way?’’
‘’Nicolas Lerner, Director of the DGSI. Don’t expect much help from your embassy, General: you don’t hold diplomatic immunity and you are deeply involved in the illegal trafficking of nuclear weapons. That kind of trafficking is looked at very severely in France.’’
‘’We are in Monaco, not in France, and…’’ started to protest Khan, who was then cut off by Lerner, whose voice hardened noticeably.
‘’And Monaco is under French protectorate status, meaning that any question of international security and defense touching Monaco becomes the responsibility of France. We know that you came to France, then to Monaco, in order to discuss clandestinely with Saudi authorities the selling of Pakistani-built nuclear weapons to Saudi Arabia. Just that violates a number of international laws and treaties concerning nuclear weapons.’’
‘’I deny your wild accusations! Again, I won’t say anything more before I could meet with a lawyer provided by my embassy.’’
‘’Do as you please, General, but know that this will only aggravate your case in the long run.’’
‘’And what will you be charging me with? You have nothing against me!’’
‘’We might start with charges of illegal international arms trafficking, followed with association with wanted war criminals. At best, you and your colleague will be extradited and banned from French territory. Then you will be able to try to explain to your President how you attracted on him an international scandal of the first order. As for your Saudi contacts, don’t count much on their help: they will have enough trouble of their own after today.’’
Lerner didn’t tell Khan that Prince Salman was probably dead now, reserving that piece of news for later on, when it could truly shake the Pakistani. Instead, he looked at Fortin, who had been waiting and watching Khan.
‘’Lieutenant, bring the prisoner back to his cell, then bring in the other prisoner.’’
‘’Yes sir!’’
With Fortin escorting out Khan and leaving Lerner alone, the latter thought about his interrogation strategy with Ghanef. The Pakistani physicist, not having been trained for rough situations like Khan had been as a military man, should be more malleable, especially if using the right techniques. When Ghanef was brought into the small room two minutes later, Lerner was standing on his feet, his arms crossed and with a severe expression painted on his face. He was secretly satisfied to see that the scientist appeared worried, contrary to Khan’s aggressive attitude. Letting Fortin push Ghanef down on one of the two chairs, he started again his recorder and eyed coldly the thin Pakistani man in his late fifties as Fortin walked out and closed the door. Lerner kept silent for another ten seconds before speaking in a firm, assured voice.
‘’Khan told me about your plan to sell ten nuclear warheads to Saudi Arabia for 900 million dollars. You realize what selling those weapons could cause? What were you thinking, Doctor Ghanef, getting implicated in such a highly illegal international arms traffic?’’
‘’But…I accompanied General Khan simply to serve as a technical expert.’’ protested weakly Ghanef. ‘’Khan ordered me to come with him to France. If I had refused, I would have lost my position as head of our nuclear weapons design program. I didn’t really have a choice.’’
Seeing that Ghanef’s mind was focused on exonerating himself in order to avoid jail, Lerner decided to continue with his present tactic.
‘’Really, Doctor Ghanef? Those weapons could have killed eventually millions of people, most of whom would probably be innocent civilians. I don’t believe that a judge will think much of your fear of simply losing your job when balanced against that.’’
‘’But I am telling the truth! I don’t want to see millions of Iranians die in a Saudi nuclear strike, but the Saudis were becoming terrified about the threat posed by Iran and wanted something that could counter-balance that threat.’’
‘Bingo!’ thought Lerner before replying to Ghanef. ‘’And you think that only ten fission bombs would be enough to completely neutralize Iran and stop it from retaliating against Saudi Arabia? Are you this naïve?’’
‘’No, of course not! However, the Saudis wanted to get even more nuclear weapons from us, in order to build a sufficient nuclear arsenal for themselves. They wanted a second batch of ten fission warheads to follow, but I told Prince Bin Salman that our nuclear weapons program has a finite production capacity and that most of our production was geared towards providing more tactical nuclear weapons for my own government. As a result of that, he would have to wait until some of our older weapons could become available for sale once more modern designs would have replaced them.’’
‘’And how long did you tell Prince Bin Salman it would take for a second batch of nuclear warheads to become available, Doctor?’’
‘’That we were talking about a good two years, at the least. Bin Salman then insisted on getting a second batch faster, offering to double the price he would pay for each weapon to 200 million dollars, if they could be delivered within a year. General Khan actually felt quite interested by this and was ready to pass that offer to our government. Pakistan is presently hard-pressed financially and that Saudi money would have allowed us the means to acquire more modern weapons in order to face India. However, we were arrested before General Khan could pass that Saudi request to Islamabad via the radios of the SERENE.’’
Lerner kept his cold, impassive expression with difficulty as triumph nearly overwhelmed him.
‘’Very well, Doctor. I will tell the judge who will instruct your case to take into consideration your cooperation. With luck, you may end up being simply expelled from France, instead of serving up to twenty years in jail for arms trafficking. One last point: don’t tell Khan that you cooperated. He could then very well arrange for you to be killed once back in Pakistan. Just tell him that you stayed silent and only asked for a lawyer and an embassy representative. Do you understand me?’’
‘’Yes, mister!’’ answered Ghanef, who then hesitated for a moment before looking with pleading eyes at Lerner. ‘’My government may still decide to get rid of me in order to stop me for incriminating it. Would you accept to grant me asylum and protection, in exchange for my cooperation?’’
Lerner hid his jubilation at that most welcome turn of events and kept his voice neutral.
‘’I will certainly consider seriously your request, Doctor Ghanef. In the meantime, don’t say a thing to General Khan.’’
Keeping his eyes on the pale scientist, Lerner then shouted for Fortin to come in and return Ghanef to his cell. Once Ghanef was gone, Lerner stopped his tape recorder and extracted the precious tape cassette from it, eyeing it somberly: the information on it could literally prevent a nuclear war in the Middle East. Since the information that DDO Moore had provided him had allowed him to use the ‘know it all’ interrogation technique on Ghanef, pushing him to cooperate, it would be only just that Moore would get a copy of this taped interrogation. Anyway, this case was now obviously way above the sole interest of France.
20:53 (Paris Time)
Room 406, Hôtel Le Forum
Monaco
Dean gave up knocking on Farah’s door after three tries and, after checking quickly that nobody else was in the hallway, glued his left ear to the door and listened for a good ten seconds. When he heard only silence, he then moved to the next room, where Hassan and Ali were lodged, and also listened inside for a moment. Again, he heard nothing. Smelling something suspect, Dean returned to his room, where Erik, Ian and Julie were still monitoring their satellite link with Langley and the two radio frequencies used by the DGSI and the Monaco Police.
‘’Erik, I believe that Farah and Ali just pulled a PUFO{17} on us: their two rooms are completely silent and Farah did not answer my knocks.’’
Erik, while frowning at that, didn’t appear surprised by that.
‘’It would make sense for her to disappear now: her mission is basically accomplished, with Prince Salman dead and with both Khan and Ghanef arrested by the French. That planned buying of nuclear weapons is now as good as dead, unless the Saudis persist with it to the point of idiocy. Besides, the DGSI will now scour Monaco to try to find who blew up the SERENE. We should move out as well: our own mission is also pretty well completed.’’
‘’What about Khan and Ghanef?’’
‘’We will let the French take care of them: those two will have a lot to answer to the French and they don’t benefit from diplomatic immunity, so they are not out of trouble, by a long shot.’’
‘’Do you think that the French will suspect that the Iranians had a hand in blowing up the SERENE?’’
‘’They will probably think so, Dean.’’ replied Julie from her monitoring station. ‘’The suicide boat attack on the SERENE is just their style and Iran and Saudi Arabia are constantly at each other’s throat. On the other hand, the presence of ex-ISIS members in Monaco may mix the cards a bit. Someone could surmise that they infiltrated the SERENE’s crew under false pretense, then blew up the yacht and Prince Salman because Salman was advancing a number of reforms which ISIS strongly disapprove of.’’
Erik couldn’t help make a grimace at Julie’s hypothesis, while Ian gave a thumbs down sign and spoke up.
‘’I don’t buy that and I don’t think that many people would buy that too. The Middle East may be a royally screwed up place, but this is too crazy and convoluted, even for that region.’’
‘’I agree with Ian.’’ said Dean. ‘’I don’t see what advantage ISIS would gain by killing Bin Salman. The only player who wins across the board in this present situation is Iran, which makes it even more judicious for Farah to disappear from Monaco before the French start to look for an Iranian connection. I wonder where she went from here.’’
‘’Italy, maybe?’’ ventured Ian. ‘’The Italian border is near, with direct rail links available in Monaco and, with the Schengen Accord allowing for unencumbered border crossings between France and Italy, Farah and Ali could easily move to Italy, where they could take a plane out of Europe.’’
‘’That makes a lot of sense, Ian. In a way, I will be happy for Farah and Ali to escape intact: their help was not negligible during our mission and, while quite drastic and dramatic as a solution, Hassan’s suicide attack on the SERENE certainly did put the brakes on this Pakistani-Saudi nuclear deal. However, I hate to think about what kind of boiling cauldron the U.S. State Department and the White House will be like tomorrow. Well, with this said, let’s move out and disappear as well. Dean, you will travel with Julie by train and escort her back to Paris, where you will drop off our weapons suitcase at the embassy for safekeeping and future use. I will travel separately with Ian and also go back to Paris by train while carrying our electronic equipment suitcase. I am sorry, Dean, but you will have to return your bomb on wheels to the car rental agency.’’
‘’Boo ooh sniff sniff! I was starting to love that car.’’
‘’Too bad, big guy!’’ replied Erik with a smile.
Less than fifteen minutes later, Dean went down to the hotel lobby with Julie, loaded with suitcases and travel bags, where Julie cleared her room before leaving the hotel with Dean. Ten minutes later, it was the turn of Erik and Ian to come to the lobby and clear their room, explaining to the receptionist that their scientific meeting had concluded early because of the big terrorist attack early in the day. The hotel clerk apparently believed them at once, telling them that many of the other customers of the hotel had been spooked by the blowing up of the Saudi royal yacht and by the gunfights in the port area. Once out of the hotel, Erik and Ian simply walked to the subterranean SNCF{18} train station, situated only a few minutes’ walk from the hotel. There, they bought tickets to travel to Paris via the TGV service line between Monaco and Marseilles. They studiously ignore Dean and Julie, who arrived in the lineup to the ticket counters after them, and made sure to go sit on a bench along their allotted quay that was well separated from the bench Dean and Julie took. As they waited for their train to arrive, Erik kept discretely scanning his surroundings, on watch for possible French policemen or DGSI agents who would be on the hunt for suspects. He didn’t see any such suspect activity but smiled to himself after five minutes while looking at the opposite quay, where the train for Milan had just arrived.
‘’Hey, Ian,’’ he nearly whispered to his diminutive team member, ‘’I think that you would have won your bet about where Farah was going. Look who is about to board the fourth car of the Milan train.’’
Ian did look negligently in that direction and contained a grunt of surprise.
‘’Farah and Ali?’’
‘’That’s right. All the rats are jumping ship at about the same time, it seems. Good for Farah and Ali. They technically may be enemies of the United States, but their work did help our mission against a common threat.’’
‘’What if you encounter her again in the future, during a mission when Iran would be planning hostile actions towards the United States? Could you kill her then?’’
‘’Without a single hesitation! Well, I could tell her goodbye before she dies but I am sure that she would return the favor to me without hesitation. She may be beautiful and charming, but she is still a pro and I believe her to be utterly loyal to her country.’’
‘’Like us?’’ cautiously asked Ian, making Erik nod.
‘’Like us, minus the beauty and charm on our side.’’