CHAPTER 3 – THREAT CONFIRMATION
07:49 (Madrid Time)
Wednesday, May 27, 2015
CIA team’s operation center, decommissioned NSGA complex
United States Naval Station Rota, Spain
Erik woke up by himself and sat up on the edge of his bed for a moment in order to fully wake his brain. The Sun was well up by now, with some of its light filtering through the curtains of his room. It also looked like another bright, sunny day, like the kind of day tourists would be hoping for. However, he was very conscious that he and his team were not here for some fun time and he mentally reviewed what he already knew about the situation. One fact that stuck out right away was that they still didn’t know for sure what Graschev was due to receive and then ship to ISIS in terms of weapons. They also still didn’t know by what port of entry the Russian arms dealer was planning to deliver his weapons shipment to ISIS. After all, while ISIS presently controlled large swaths of Syria and of Iraq, all the ports in Syria were still under government control and President Bashar al Assad certainly would not let a significant cargo of weapons slip through to get to what was presently his most dangerous enemy. Neither could Graschev send his weapons to a Lebanese port: the pro-Iranian Shia Muslim Hezbollah militia, a mortal enemy of ISIS, either controlled or tightly watched all the ports on the Lebanese coast that could receive a cargo ship the size of the MV Heraklion. Further south was Israel, an even more improbable destination for an arms shipment destined to ISIS. That left Turkey, just north of Syria, but the Turks were part of NATO{9} and were an official ally of the United States. Erik however backtracked a bit then: while Turkey was indeed a NATO member country, its ruling AKP party and President Erdogan were proving lately to be way too sympathetic to Islamic hardliners in the region, something that was riling many in Washington and had triggered a few alarms at the CIA. From being friendly with Israel at the start of his mandate, then Prime Minister Erdogan and his government had gradually become more and more critical of Israel, while it had definitely dragged its feet in the fight against ISIS. Erdogan was also a vocal critic of Syrian President Assad, although he could easily be excused for that in Erik’s mind. Turkey thus looked to him at the moment to be the most probable future destination for the MV Heraklion. However, passing a sizeable shipment of weapons through Turkish customs without detection would normally be a difficult feat…unless Graschev had Turkish contacts that could facilitate the clearance and transportation of his shipment through Turkey and into Northern Syria, where ISIS held a firm hold. Those hypothetical Turkish contacts, if they existed, would certainly need to be uncovered and then ideally eliminated in order for his mission to be fully successful. Then, there was this unidentified surveillance team he and Dean had seen near the Meridian Company warehouse. Overall, he would need a lot more information before any direct action would become worthwhile, or even necessary.
Getting up from his bed and putting on his jeans and socks, Erik then grabbed his shaving kit and left his room, walking into the central room of the suite used by his team. He found Julie Prost sitting at her computer station and monitoring the feeds from the cameras and cell phone signal receivers he and Dean had installed yesterday. Julie, who was drinking a cup of coffee, turned her head on hearing him and gave him a welcoming smile.
‘’Good morning, Erik! Dean and Ian are presently sleeping.’’
‘’And good morning to you too, Julie. Anything new?’’
‘’Not yet! Graschev was quiet last night and the unloading of the Nikolai Vorontsov has resumed this morning. As for the faces of the two unknown agents you took in picture last night, I still have no positive match. I ran the pictures through the CIA, DIA and FBI databanks, with no match found. I am now running them through the State Department files and, if that doesn’t work, will then pass them through the INTERPOL database.’’
‘’Maybe they are new in the field, at least from our perspective. Keep up the good work, Julie: in the meantime I will go shave and then will eat breakfast. Alert me the moment you get something new.’’
‘’Will do!’’
Then going into the bathroom attached to the main work room, Erik took a few minutes to shave and use the toilet. After that, he returned briefly to his room to get dressed, putting on a loose, long T-shirt and a pair of sneakers. Next, he went across the hallway and into the guard room used by the Marines guarding his section, picking up and heating a field ration of ham and eggs. Staff Sergeant Chris Rohmer nodded and smiled to him when he sat down at the Marines’ table with his warm pouch of food and a cup of coffee.
‘’So, did you have a fruitful night yesterday, sir?’’
‘’Yes, but we still have many things to find or clear out. We are now in the watch phase and may not be doing much for the next day or two. How are your men taking their present job, Sergeant?’’
‘’They are understandably curious about your mission but they understand the need for secrecy and are vigilant. Nobody tried to come sneaking on your team up to now.’’
‘’Good! That’s the way I like it.’’
The conversation then turned to more mundane subjects, like national and regional pieces of news from the United States and things concerning the Marine Corps. Once he had finished his ration, Erik threw the empty bag and plastic utensil away and poured himself a second cup of coffee before returning in the team’s operations center. There, he crossed path with Dean, who still look sleepy and had his shaving kit in hand while walking towards the bathroom.
‘’Good morning, Dean! Finished with your beauty sleep?’’
‘’I could have used another hour of sleep, to be frank, but I don’t want to play the slacker.’’
‘’Then go back to bed! I will take care of relieving Julie at the monitoring station. I will wake you up if anything new shows up.’’
‘’Fine by me!’’ Replied Dean before turning around and returning into his room. Erik then went to Julie and glanced at the views of Graschev’s villa and warehouse on the computer screens. Viktor Graschev was now visible, swimming lengths in the large pool at the back of his residence while two armed guards stood watch. As for the warehouse, what appeared to be the last crates and containers aboard the Nikolai Vorontsov were being hoisted down to the quay besides it, where a pair of giant forklifts then transported them to either inside the warehouse or to a pile forming up in the open space in front of the warehouse. He was about to tell Julie to leave her place to him and to go take a break when she stiffened and raised a hand to make him keep quiet.
‘’I am intercepting an incoming call for Graschev… He is now picking it up.’’
‘’Put it on speaker!’’
Julie did so and Erik heard a female voice speaking in English to Graschev while using what appeared to be some crude prearranged code.
‘’Viktor, this is Maria. I have some news for you.’’
‘’Go ahead, Maria.’’ Replied Graschev in a neutral tone.
‘’My boss was told not to send a second gift package to Cadiz. He is not happy about it but that came from his big boss back home.’’
‘’Hum, interesting. Any idea what his boss will send instead?’’
‘’None! No parcels were received from the United States in the last four days.’’
‘’Very well. Continue to cuddle your boss: it could earn you a promotion. Thank you for calling, Maria.’’
‘’My pleasure, Viktor.’’ Replied the woman before hanging up. Having the nasty feeling of what that conversation had really meant, Erik looked down at Julie.
‘’Where you able to identify the woman calling Graschev?’’
‘’I have her number, which is from the Madrid area, and am presently running it through the Madrid directory. It should give us an answer in a mom…’’
A block of text then popped up on Julie’s computer screen, much faster than she had expected. The words in the text made her swear in anger, while Erik stiffened.
‘’Hell! That cell phone number is used by a Maria Franco, who is a local employee of our embassy in Madrid, where she works as a secretary in charge of travel arrangements for the American staff of the embassy. I am pulling up her personal file on the screen right now.’’
Erik eyed with hatred the picture of a pretty woman in her late thirties that soon appeared on the screen.
‘’A mole working for Graschev right inside our embassy. From the words used by Graschev, I bet that our Chief of Station, Ronald Atkins, is in bed with her. If that’s the case, then it is no surprise if our two agents were found out by Graschev.’’
‘’And, from her conversation, I would say that she was telling Graschev that Langley told Atkins not to send more agents, and that she was not aware of more agents arriving in Spain from the United States. The possible promotion mentioned by Graschev is probably an extra bonus for her if she finds more useful info for him.’’
‘’I think that you are right about the whole thing, Julie. That Atkins idiot! He is probably talking too much while in bed with that Maria Franco. That woman will definitely have to go before she causes more damage to us.’’
Julie gave him a cautious look then.
‘’You are going to kill that woman, Erik?’’
‘’Yes, but not right away: I don’t want to raise Graschev’s suspicions too early. I may even use her to pass some disinformation to Graschev if that could be useful. Gather all the info you can get on that woman and try to access her list of recent calls within one month. On my part, I will start composing a priority message for Mister Moore.’’
Still fuming from what they had just learned, Erik went to his own work station and started typing a message to Assistant Director Moore, to be encrypted before sending. Two minutes later, Julie transferred Maria Franco’s file to his screen, helping him in fleshing out his report to Moore. Another three minutes and Julie was also sending him a list of calls made or received on Franco’s cell phone. A number of the calls had been highlighted by Julie, who explained verbally from her station.
‘’I highlighted the calls this Maria Franco either sent by or received from Ronald Atkins, our Madrid Chief of Station. Those calls were mostly made after normal work hours. The number used by Atkins is that of his confidential cell phone, which he is supposed to use only for CIA business and is not supposed to be given to non-CIA employees. By the way, Atkins is married and his wife is presently residing with him in Madrid.’’
‘’The fucking idiot! Not content of committing adultery and exposing himself to possible blackmail attempts, that Atkins is also violating about every security rule in the CIA book. Mister Moore is going to go bonkers on learning about this.’’
‘’And so he should.’’ Replied Julie, herself angry. ‘’The stupid things some people could do just for sex…’’
The two of them were then silent for a while as they worked at their respective stations. After sending a rather damning report for Moore’s eyes only to Langley, Erik went to stand behind Julie, looking at the side screen showing the location of the GPS tracer fixed to the mysterious gray Fiat. Not surprisingly, it was shown to be parked again at nearly the same spot in the port area, near the Meridian Company warehouse.
‘’So, our unknown competitors are back at their surveillance business. Obviously, they do not have the kind of equipment that we have.’’
‘’That would jive with their pattern of activity up to now, Erik.’’ Said Julie while keeping her eyes on her computer screens. ‘’They are probably nothing more than a simple reconnaissance team and may be here only to confirm how serious or true the information they have on Graschev and an arms deal with ISIS is. If they truly wanted to commit a direct action to stop that arms deal, they would have brought a bigger team with more equipment and weapons.’’
‘’I concur with you. However, like us, that third party team will soon need to go check by themselves what that arms shipment looks like, which means that they will have to attempt to gain access inside the warehouse. The problem is that the Meridian Company warehouse is well guarded and has only a few access points that are on well-lit sides of the building. As for the windows, they are a good twelve feet above the ground and are also rather small.’’
‘’Then, how will you and Dean gain access inside without alerting Graschev?’’
‘’We actually have two options available to us: we could either quietly cut an entry hole in one of the outer walls, using a portable plasma torch, or we could use our nifty mini spy quad copter to do the job for us.’’
Before he could say more, one of Julie’s screens emitted a beeping signal, while a second image appeared beside that of the unknown woman photographed by Erik at the Puertobahia Hotel.
‘’We have a match from the State Department’s databank for that woman!’’ Exclaimed Julie, suddenly excited. She read quickly the info under the new image, only to have her jaw drop from surprise.
‘’An Iranian female agent, here?’’
‘’And not anybody.’’ Said Erik, whose face was hardening as he read the text under the picture. ‘’The daughter of the mayor of Tehran, no less! That Farah Qalibaf is actually listed simply as a child of Mohammad Qalibaf, with present occupation unknown, but her father is an ex-general in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps and was even a presidential candidate twice, losing last time to present President Hassan Rouhani but still ending second in the polls. Hell, talk about good political connections! That woman must evidently be a part of the Revolutionary Guards Corps Intelligence Bureau, in view of her family connection.’’
‘’Well, she is certainly a pretty woman. She must also be at least reasonably competent and efficient, to be selected for such a sensitive mission.’’
‘’Agreed! Another fatal beauty to deal with.’’
Julie then gave a dubious look up to Erik.
‘’Maybe we won’t need to clash with those Iranians, Erik. After all, they hate and fear the ISIS at least as much as we do, on top of being much closer to the threat that ISIS represents. Remember that the Iranians kept quite mum and didn’t protest when we started our airstrikes against ISIS in Iraq. We should simply keep our distances from her and her partner, in my humble opinion. Heck, if push comes to shove, we could even work together with those Iranians if we really have to.’’
Erik thought that over before nodding his head once.
‘’Again, you are right, Julie. Those Iranians may even end up unknowingly making things easier for us, by being a distraction to Graschev,. I definitely need to send this to Mister Moore right away: this is a big piece of the geopolitical aspect of this mission.’’
‘’Funny that you said that, Erik: her father, apart from being the mayor of Tehran, also teaches geopolitics at the Tehran University.’’
‘’Hmm, point noted.’’ Said Erik before returning to his work station to send a second message to Julian Moore.
Once his message was sent to Langley, Erik told Julie to go rest a bit and took her place at the surveillance work station. Dean woke up about one hour later and went to shave and have a late breakfast before joining Erik and getting updated by him on the latest developments. The news about the renegade local secretary at the American embassy angered him, while that about the female Iranian agent made him shake his head.
‘’What a snake pit! Do we have identifications for the male Iranian agent or for the man that accompanied Prince al Rashid during his visit to Graschev yesterday?’’
‘’Not yet! They were next in the search queue set up by Julie. Well, now that you are up and ready to work, I will let you watch the warehouse, while I concentrate on Graschev’s residence.’’
‘’Fine with me! Let me just get another cup of coffee first.’’
‘’Aaah, coffee: the universal drug of overworked people and night shift workers.’’
‘’You can say that again, partner!’’
To their disappointment, the facial recognition program failed to find a match for both the man that had accompanied Muhammad Bin Al Rashid and for the male Iranian agent seen with Farah Qalibaf. What they however found in the afternoon, when Ian woke up and started working on his computer, were the names used by the pair of Iranian agents, hacked from the Puertobahia Hotel electronic registry: Fatmeh Kadoumi and Rafik Shamoun. At about three in the afternoon, a top priority, top secret message came from Langley, signed by Julian Moore. After decoding it, Erik read it out to his assembled team members, who were as anxious as him to find out what the reaction in Washington had been.
‘’To Team Nemesis, from Julian Moore. The following orders have been vetted and approved by Director Brennan after he briefed the President on the results of your mission so far: first, you are to find out the exact nature and composition of the presumed weapons shipment received in Cadiz by Viktor Graschev, without alerting the said Graschev about your presence; second, you are also to find out the exact route planned for the weapons and the identities of the intermediaries involved, so that actions could be taken against them after the weapons shipment has been either stopped or intercepted; third, contact must be avoided as much as possible with the Iranian surveillance team. That said team may be allowed in turn to find out by itself the nature and route of the shipment and to then send the info it collected to Tehran. The geopolitical impact of this weapons deal is presently being assessed at the highest levels in Washington. The information about your team and your exact mission is however being kept tightly controlled and the Madrid Chief of Station is not to be made aware of your presence in the Cadiz area. The said Chief of Station will be relieved of his post as soon as it is possible to do so without compromising your mission. A second team from Langley will be sent to Madrid to deal discreetly with the embassy mole you unmasked, so that you will be able to concentrate your attention solely on the weapons shipment. Please advise as soon as possible once you have firm information about the exact nature of the shipment. Good luck!’’
Erik raised his nose from the text message on his computer screen and looked soberly at his three team members.
‘’Well, you have it from the horse’s mouth, guys. Our job now is to find out what is in that weapons shipment, how it is supposed to get to ISIS and find who else is involved in helping that shipment through, all in a discreet way and without alerting Graschev or the Iranians about us.’’
‘’So, lots of finesse and no boom-boom.’’ Said in turn Dean, making Erik nod his head once.
‘’That’s right! As for how we will find out about the exact nature of the shipment, I believe that our spying mini quad copter will prove to be just the tool we need for the job. We will thus go back to the port area tonight and will fly our quad copter into the Meridian warehouse, so that we can have a view of what’s inside.’’
‘’But, how will we find out about the intermediaries involved at the end portion of the weapons shipment, in Turkey?’’ Asked Julie. Erik thought for a moment before answering her.
‘’I see only two ways to do that: either we find that from Graschev or we physically follow the weapons all the way to Turkey and see who shows up to greet the shipment.’’
His statement made Ian raise an eyebrow then.
‘’Capturing Graschev and making him tell us about the route and intermediaries is bound to alert nearly at once those intermediaries, Erik. As for stealing that information from him, I strongly suspect that Graschev is too experienced as a clandestine operator to keep that on paper. He likely committed the details about that to his memory.’’
‘’Correct. That’s why I think that the only sure way to find those intermediaries is to bodily accompany those weapons all the way short of the Syrian border with Turkey.’’
‘’That means having to travel clandestinely aboard the MV Heraklion.’’ Said in turn Dean. ‘’We will have to think our moves carefully and board the ship with the right equipment and supplies. Ian, do you think that you could obtain the layout of that MV Heraklion without raising the alarm?’’
‘’That should actually be easy, Dean.’’ Answered the nerdish analyst. ‘’Being a simple commercial vessel and not a warship, its blueprints will be kept in unprotected files, both at the shipbuilder that made it and at the Stavropoulos Shipping Company. Besides, for reasons of international maritime security and insurance coverage, those blueprints may also be available at the maritime insurance company that is covering the ship and at the offices of the Greek Coast Guard. I will get on it right after this meeting.’’
‘’Do that!’’ Said Erik. ‘’You have a question, Julie?’’
‘’Yes! Once we have the information about the route and intermediaries, those weapons will have to be either destroyed or confiscated. Who will do that? Also, who will take care of Graschev after this?’’
‘’Two pertinent questions, Julie. With the level of Washington attention now on this shipment, I believe that we will most probably be able to call on one of our Navy task groups in the Mediterranean to either capture or sink the MV Heraklion if it comes to that. If we have to let the weapons be unloaded in a Turkish port, it will then be the job of me and Dean to destroy them after unmasking the intermediaries at that end. As for Graschev, I agree with you that he will have to be taken out of the picture at the end of our mission. We will however wait for further instructions about that from Mister Moore once we know more about the shipment. Well, I believe that we now have plenty of things to do to occupy ourselves until me and Dean go back to the port tonight. Dean, me and you will take a good nap once our equipment for tonight’s operation is ready: it may be a long night up for us.’’
22:53 (Madrid Time)
Graschev’s residence, Puerto Real
Viktor Graschev kept a façade of politeness and respect as he escorted his Saudi visitor to his own car, an armored Mercedes-Benz 350, so that they could go visit together his warehouse. In reality, the Russian was fuming at the stupidity and arrogance of his customer: because of his intransigence, Viktor was being forced to commit a couple of cardinal sins in terms of clandestine deal security. For one, Prince al Rashid was a recognizable figure with no obvious reasons to show himself at some commercial warehouse in a minor Spanish port. If he was seen in Viktor’s company in the port, that could be enough to raise suspicions in the minds of either the port authorities or of Spanish customs officials, thus endangering the precious and very costly weapons shipment he had just received. Secondly, because of the insistence of al Rashid to see by himself the weapons and check its inventory, Viktor’s men had to get all the weapons crates out of the sea containers in which they had been hidden up to now and then lay them out in the open inside the warehouse. If by bad luck the Spanish customs decided to pay a visit to his warehouse tonight, he would be caught literally red-handed, with no other recourse than to offer enough bribe money to the customs officials to convince them to keep their mouths shut. That last recourse was however far from being sure to work and he would then be vulnerable to future blackmail from those officials. Of course, if it came to that, he always could make those officials suffer some unfortunate accident in order to get rid of them. Still, this was not a way to do things properly.
Stupid, stupid, stupid! Thought Graschev as he opened the rear left door of his armored Mercedes-Benz for Prince al Rashid and his assistant. At least the clown had not showed up at his residence dressed in his Saudi outfit of Arabic robe and headdress. Instead, he had sensibly chosen to wear a top quality western style blue-gray suit. His assistant, some flunky who actually knew something about modern weapons and did the real work for al Rashid, also wore a western suit, albeit of lower quality. As he took place in the car beside the Saudi prince, Viktor consoled himself by thinking that the seventy million euros he was going to get as a commission for this deal would go a long way to allow him to retire for good…that is if his old friend Vladimir Putin would let him do so: Viktor had been very useful to him in the last few years and Putin may just tell him that his services were too valuable to let him retire effectively.
With a second car filled with four of his bodyguards following his Mercedes-Benz, Viktor, a heavy-set man with hard features and piercing eyes, gave a polite smile to his customer as they rolled towards the port of Santa Maria.
‘’I believe that you will be most satisfied with the merchandise I just received on your behalf, Your Highness.’’
The Saudi, a thin man in his fifties with a small, carefully-trimmed beard colored with some gray hair, made a dismissive gesture.
‘’Well, you will agree that, for a price tag of 800 million euros, a customer has the right to be demanding about the goods, Mister Graschev. Me and the other sponsors of this deal in turn expect significant strategic returns as a result of sending these weapons to the ISIS. The Americans have been dictating for far too long what to do to our own leaders, while a return to the offensive by ISIS will keep in check those damn Shiites in Iraq and will keep Iran’s attention and resources occupied there. That will in turn give us time to put some order in our own house and change things as they should be. Tell me, Mister Graschev: has there been any fallout from your killing of those two American agents that came snooping on you?’’
‘’No! My sources say that the Americans have not yet reacted in any detectable way to the death of their agents. By the time they react, if they do, the weapons will be on their way to ISIS and out of reach of the Americans.’’
‘’And when are the weapons due to leave Spain?’’
‘’The ship scheduled to carry them will arrive at quayside tomorrow and will immediately start to load the weapons aboard, Your Highness. If no delay is encountered, the ship and the weapons will leave Cadiz on Saturday morning.’’
‘’Excellent! Have you been able to get a precise list of what was sent from Russia?’’
‘’Such a list was brought by the leader of the security team that has escorted the weapons from Russia. You will be able to collect a copy of that list once at the warehouse. I will however urge you to exercise extreme caution about that list and the information it contains: if it comes to the attention of the wrong persons, it could spark a very violent storm indeed.’’
‘’Do not worry: I understand perfectly how sensitive that list is. On the other hand, I do need something to convince my co-sponsors back home and in Turkey that they are getting their money’s worth. After all, 800 million euros is no mere peanuts, even for a group of Saudi princes. Besides, I have no wish to have my head chopped off on the order of my king, may Allah curse that old fool.’’
They were then mostly silent during the rest of the short trip, until they arrived at Graschev’s warehouse. There, one of the armed guards on duty opened briefly one of the large sliding door sections facing the quays, time to let in the limousine and its escort car, before closing back the door. Al Rashid’s attention was attracted at once to long rows of crates and munitions containers, piled head high in one corner of the warehouse. Even without knowing yet for sure what was in the crates and containers, the quantity in evidence was still impressive.
‘’I see that your leaders in Russia took our requests seriously, Mister Graschev. In fact, I am still surprised at the willingness of your government to participate in this deal. After all, Russia is supposed to be supporting President Assad of Syria.’’
‘’Let’s just say that greater strategic goals of more immediate importance have influenced Moscow into choosing to support ISIS in a covert way. It has however found a way to deflect the blame if those weapons ever fall into the wrong hands.’’
‘’What do you mean?’’ Asked at once al Rashid, surprised. Viktor smiled maliciously then.
‘’You will soon see by yourself, Your Highness. You may now step out.’’
Viktor got out first, with his driver going to open the rear passenger door for his customers. He then walked with the two Saudi men towards the nearest pile of crates and containers, which were guarded by two intimidating men in black coveralls and combat boots. Each guard wore tactical vests and were armed with compact assault rifles, pistols and knives. A third man in black walked quickly to meet Graschev’s group as they arrived at the guards, stopping at attention and saluting Graschev.
‘’No security threat detected, sir, and all the items are ready for inspection.’’
‘’Thank you, Major.’’ Replied Viktor before looking at al Rashid. ‘’May I present you Major Koslov, who is in charge of the team that will