Secret of the Oil: Prequel to the Donavan Chronicles (12 page)

OFFICE OF BRIGADIER GENERAL BERGERMEYER

0630 HOURS – THE MORNING AFTER THE RAID IN BEIRUT

Every word from the conversation at the Beirut restaurant entered a tracking computer at the NSA headquarters. They possessed the number of al-Hanbali’s phone and a directive had been placed into their computer to monitor the number. In just minutes, the computer passed the information to DIA. They now knew the location of Tewfik al-Hanbali.

Brigadier Mary Jean Bergermeyer, forty-five years of age and totally dedicated to her military job, was enjoying her morning coffee at 0630 hours at the center while she read the intercepts on her screen with obvious delight. Taking a short break, she removed her gold rim reading glasses. Reaching up to her forehead, she brushed her thick reddish hair back with a hand devoid of any rings. Then she picked up the phone and called Lieutenant Commander Glenwood McDonald, who had recently moved from the Command Center at the Pentagon to her center for anti-terrorist operations.

“Glenwood, we have a location on Tewfik al-Hanbali. Get a message to Matt Higgins to call me ASAP.”

“I was just talking to him at the base in Cyprus. He sounded a bit down. I think that attempted takedown last night didn’t go well. I’ll get back to him and tell him to call you. General, after the firefight, maybe he’s not up to continuing the mission,” Glenwood said.

Mary Jean smiled at that comment, realizing what he was up to. Glenwood was a good officer in some areas, but she was not so sure of his command abilities.

“By the way, General, I learned from my contacts over at State that the ambassador in Lebanon took some real grief from the Secretary of State. Seems the DCM over there made a phone call to cover her ass. Odds are the President won’t remove him, since he is a strong supporter and no publicity emanated from the team’s actions,” Glenwood said.

“Okay. Glad to hear that. Come up after you talk to Matt.” She hung up the phone. Rolling her eyes, she wondered if Matt could get the bastards this time. More importantly, she tried to envisage what actions on her part would facilitate the mission. First, she had to jack him up a little to get him going and to chastise him for conducting an OK Corral shootout in downtown Beirut.

Her secretary entered and informed her that Captain Higgins was on the secure phone. After exchanging hellos, she got to the point just as Glenwood entered her office.

“Captain Higgins, what the hell did you have in mind when you took on the terrorists in the middle of Beirut in a firefight? The only thing saving your butt is that no one knows who did it, so you’re still in position to go after them. I still want you to get them.”

“General, sorry about the firefight, but there was no other choice at the time. If we didn’t take them on they would have split and I had no way of following them out of country. I made a decision to take out as many as we could. You can hold me accountable, but that was what I deemed we had to do.”

“Well, you didn’t get it done and they still got away. Okay, you took out one of the leaders and that was good, but in the future, no more gun battles in the middle of cities. You got away with that one, never again. Understand?”

“Yes, ma’am. There won’t be.”

Mary Jean looked at Glenwood as she spoke to Matt and it seemed to her he was enjoying the ass chewing too much. She made a mental note for the future.

“Matt, I have a location for the leader of the terrorists. He is in Ayun, Saudi Arabia. Get your team ready to move and I’ll get imagery to you in four hours. I’ll have transport from your location to Incirlik, Turkey tomorrow morning. Lieutenant Commander McDonald will get the images to you and act as liaison officer for the operation. Any questions?” the general concluded.

“No, ma’am. We will be ready to go in the morning and I’ll get us outfitted to operate in that area.”

Mary Jean hung up and looked at Glenwood. “You make sure they have all they need to get this done. Get them satellite imagery and have the boys at NPIC (the National Photographic Interpretation Center) evaluate the images. Last thing; get the request for the air transportation over to the air liaison officer. We have to move fast.”

No one on the team knew that back in Washington Glenwood McDonald took his time in delivering the request for the aircraft to carry the team to Riyadh. Way too much time.

* * * *

Eight time zones to the east of Washington, at the RAF base in Cyprus, Matt met with his team on their impending move. They would have to wait for overhead satellite imagery of Ayun and the photo interpreter’s analysis of the terrain and the building before final plans were completed. He would finalize his movement plan and submit it for approval after receiving that information from headquarters.

Matt pulled out a map of Saudi Arabia as he talked, pointing out the location of the town of Ayun. He spoke to the assembled team, “Listen up. We are going to move to Saudi Arabia. To a town called Ayun. We have a fix on the location of Tewfik al-Hanbali. We either go in by chopper or we parachute in, depending on the analysis of the imagery and availability of assets.”

“Are we going after the bomb?” asked Lucien, “I’m a little concerned about the radiation thing. I had heard about it damaging our sex life.”

“You didn’t have one before this mission, so why worry about it now?” ribbed Gary.

Most smiled at the release of the tension in the air for the upcoming mission.

“Forget about those rumors. We are just soldiers engaging the enemy in this war. We are going to go and get these bastards, and make sure there is no one to tell about it when it is over. These terrorists could be taking an atomic weapon to New York or Washington for all we know. We can’t let that happen. And we can’t have reporters or a congressional committee asking all kind of stupid questions that are designed to make them look good.” Matt finished with a wave of his hand, indicating for them to disperse until he called them again.

Four hours later, Matt had the analysis with the photos from the national photographic interpretation center. The analysts at the NSA had fixed the location of the tri-band cell phone and the image boys had determined the geographic coordinates of the buildings in that area. Luckily, the buildings were out of the town by about two kilometers.

The team assembled for their preliminary operations order.

“Okay. Everyone gather around the table. There are three buildings on the compound. It appears there is a central house, a small shed just to the rear of the main building and another building about fifty meters down a hill from the main house.”

Matt stood next to the table with a pointer. “Here is where a garage forms part of the main house, with four bays. Five vehicles were in evidence at the time of the photo and they all appear to be SUV’s.

“There could be others in the garage not visible to the satellite. There don’t appear to be any fences, light poles, or barriers of any kind to block the approach road that connects to the main road about five hundred meters in front of the house.” Matt put the pointer down and asked if there were any questions.

“Do we have any idea if those assholes have any electronic security?” asked Peter O’Leary.

“Not for sure. It looks as if they think their isolated position in the middle of Saudi is all the security they need,” Matt replied.

"If we go in by chopper in the middle of the night they are going to hear us coming for miles," Bridget observed.

"That's right,” Matt said, “I have asked for a C-130 to transport us from here to Incirlik, Turkey, from there we will fly to Riyadh. That will take us very close to the town and we can do our parachute drop from about five miles away at ten thousand feet. That way they’ll not hear nor notice anything on the ground. With the right wind we should be able to land less than two klicks from the compound."

"I'm sure glad we did that refresher parachute training a couple weeks ago," Gary said. "We can use the wind speed from the Riyadh airport ATIS to calculate our jump position. The pilot can give us the ground wind speed from that report. We can use that in conjunction with our GPS to give us a good approximation that will put us on the ground in a good position."

"Do we know how many of them ragheads are at that location?" Lucien inquired leaning over and pointing at the main house. “I want to waste them all.”

"No, not exactly. The photo guys are going to have another look in a few hours with the next pass of the KH-11 satellite, but at the present time they’re guessing between eight and ten personnel are located there. That damn KH-11 satellite can see the name on a pack of cigarettes lying on the hood of a car from twenty thousand miles in space," Matt informed Lucien as he sat down on a folding chair near the table with the photos.

"Captain, I’ll get the satellite communications equipment we need for maintaining a continuous patch with the center. If all our weapons are silenced, we shouldn’t have too much problem getting close to the actual buildings. We can take out any exterior guards without raising an alarm," Gary said while he scrutinized the photos.

"Okay. We parachute in, land about one or two kilometers to the north of the position here.” Matt pointed at the map. “Once we’ve ditched our parachutes, I want us to concentrate on getting to the main house. Lucien and Gary, I want you to go in the lead using your night vision goggles and, yes, take out any exterior guards.”

“I’ll issue night vision devices for everyone,” Lucien said.

Matt got up from the chair and walked around the table to the other side and pointed at the imagery of the secondary building on the satellite photo. He looked up at Peter and continued with his briefing.

“Peter, you concentrate on that building. That's about fifty meters away from the main house, just in case that’s where they keep the material for the atomic weapon. Bridget, you and I will follow Gary and Lucien, so that we have our maximum power pointed at the largest building. Everyone will carry at least two flash bangs. Let’s hope we’ll be able to approach the building without being sighted. Throw the stun grenades in and then we’ll enter the building and take down any resistance. Any questions?" Matt asked.

"What's our own ETD," Bridget asked, trying to plan how much time before their estimated time of departure.

"These guys have about a three day lead after getting back to Saudi from Beirut. They must know that somebody is on to them. Maybe they found out who and maybe not. Because of that, I think they will try to accelerate their schedule and complete their operation as soon as possible. As for the ETD, I want us to be airborne out of here tomorrow morning at 0600 hours. We will fly to Incirlik, Turkey, where we will wait for our second leg transport to depart at approximately 1400 hours, putting us over the target area at about 2400 hrs. I requested that Brigadier Bergermeyer arrange for this transportation. That's the earliest time we can get a C-130 in Turkey to support this mission. All of you think about this and we’ll meet back here in two hours to make a detailed plan for all contingencies," Matt said. “Go get cleaned up.”

As the team dispersed, Matt circled the table looking at the view of the target area from every angle and trying to visualize in his mind the plan of operation they would have to execute upon reaching it. One key element that really bothered him was the number of terrorists that might be on the ground. If there were only eight or ten, he did not see any problem. More would cause a rethink of his attack plan. When it was all over, he planned to use the vehicles at the target site to transport his team to Riyadh. There they would catch a ride on the C-130 heading back to the States.

He knew this was his chance to make up for the mistakes in Beirut. He had not gotten the team into position early enough there. Matt had learned from the Beirut experience; he planned to get into position and be able to attack the target at his time of choosing. That way he would enjoy the advantage of surprise, firepower, and maneuver to ensure the success of the operation. He could not afford to be behind the power curve again.

With any luck, he would be able to neutralize another major terrorist leader, perhaps even more, and recover the material they had heard Tewfik al-Hanbali describe in Beirut. Most important, after all these years he would do a little payback for his murdered wife, Susan, and someday he would be able to explain to his daughter his drive to get these terrorists. First, he had to figure it all out himself.

YURI – AT AL-HANBALI’S COMPOUND

SEVEN DAYS BEFORE PLANNED DETONATION OF THE BOMBS

Yuri’s working space consisted mostly of tabletops. Al-Hanbali had built a lead containment chamber for the handling of radioactive material to prevent radiation poisoning or sickness. There were radiation suits available for use, as needed, during the initial preparation phases of construction on the atomic weapon. Yuri realized that all the paraphernalia in the Soviet military system, which would be more than adequate for this simple task, was lacking here. His detailed knowledge remained the sole key in constructing this bomb. He possessed all the information in his head that he needed to complete this weapon assembly. He remembered how to put the right elements together so that they would detonate at a designated time.

Yuri gazed around at the small workshop and noticed the uranium canister. Some Iranian had delivered this vital component to his workshop. He used his own skills to fabricate a container that he thought would be able to hold the amount of U-235 that he needed to put into the bomb in order to detonate with a force equal to fifty kilotons. Without his tables from the Ministry of Defense, he would not be able to be as accurate as he could in the labs in Moscow. His years of working on assembling and designing nuclear weapons allowed him to be within a very small tolerance of the accuracy required to function at close to the yield he desired.

"Hello, Tewfik,” he said looking up on hearing footsteps that interrupted his thoughts, “I'm glad you came down. We are making rapid progress and moving ahead faster than I thought we could. Would you mind telling me what you want me to do with the uranium that is left? Do you have any plans?" Yuri asked.

"Yes, I do. I want you to make me a weapon that I can push down into the oil reserves. It has to go into an oil well rig’s hole to be precise. The oil deposits that make up the oil reserves are interconnected, with oil flowing between the various deep wells. I want to place this bomb in an oil-drilling shaft, and get it down deep. Give me a detonating device that I can use to explode it. I want a very dirty bomb as they say. How much of the uranium would you need to do that?" al-Hanbali asked.

"You will have to give me a little more information than that on the geological strata in the area where you want to put this weapon down into the ground. Then I might be able to construct a rather crude, rudimentary weapon that will not require much because you're talking about basically just scattering the U-235 to contaminate – not completely destroy,” Yuri said.

“I believe the movement of the oil will force it around to the other subterranean cavities, which will contaminate it all," al-Hanbali said, “I learned this from a school teacher years ago. But can we also make another weapon with what is left over from all this material since it looks like you've used half to make the primary weapon and a half of the remaining to use in the dirty bomb? We still have enough for a third atomic bomb. Is that correct?” Tewfik asked.

Yuri walked around to the front of the table until he came face-to-face with al-Hanbali. He did not want to let his basic fear show through, in case al-Hanbali saw how extremely nervous he was about this entire project, especially about his chance of survival after completing the work.

"Yes, we have enough, but you said I would be gone for no more than a month. I can have the main weapon completed in about one more day. But to do the other two weapons I’ll need more time. Also, I’ll need some more materials, which I'm sure you can get in the same way you got it for this primary weapon. If everything is back here to me by this evening, I can probably finish what you are asking for in about six to seven days, maybe less,” Yuri said.

"It is critical that we move fast. I think the Americans are on to us and know that we are planning something big. I don’t yet know how they’re getting their information, but I plan on staying ahead of them. The longer it takes the more chances that something will give us away. And we don’t want that to happen.” Al-Hanbali walked towards the door, but Yuri put up his hand in order to delay him.

"I know this is turning into a very dangerous game, Tewfik. I just want to get this over and get out of here. I can’t even find a bottle of vodka anywhere," Yuri said.

"I'll get your bottle of vodka, if you keep working at full speed.” Al-Hanbali continued his exit from the bomb construction site and walked up to the main house.

After al-Hanbali left the workshop, Yuri returned to his laptop computer and put in the latest information that al-Hanbali had given him about his plans. He kept all the information on this entire project encrypted and buried in a file on the music CD. He did not record the possibility of a third weapon since al-Hanbali had not specifically ordered it built yet. The outside cover of the CD showed a Russian pop singer with his guitar and all of the lettering was in the Cyrillic alphabet. One of the assistants was always playing that particular CD from Yuri’s collection. He said he liked the music.

Over the last few days, Yuri’s fear, which first occurred in Moscow, had returned. He accepted the fact that he was now technically a terrorist, but he only thought of himself as a technician. He was doing it for the money, but his fear of what might happen returned. He became quite concerned about his own personal safety after completing the task that al-Hanbali had given him. Even though Tewfik had assured him of his safety. He thought that sometimes the Middle East mentality can promise you one thing today and the next day change it to reflect what is in their minds on that day, which could be contrary to what was promised the day before.

He decided that on their next meeting he would have to bring up his proposal to ensure his personal safety. He returned to his computer and wrote out in his favorite language his plans for building the dirty bomb. He quickly completed his entry and the information was encoded and transferred to the music CD. A record of the construction of two weapons was now on the disc.

* * * *

As al-Hanbali left the assembly building and walked back up the hill toward the house, he had a lot on his mind. He knew that by some twist of fate the Americans might figure out what they were up to, or someone who saw the activity around his compound, suspecting something, might go the Americans or British for a reward.

Unlikely, but he believed it might be remotely possible. He did not know how the infidels had accomplished the attack in Beirut. To forestall any such unexpected attack, he decided that it might be best if he relocated his entire operation. In the planning phase for this operation, he had prepared an alternate hideout at the same time as he had constructed the lead shielded bunkers in the building where Yuri currently worked. The alternate location was always ready for use at a moment’s notice and it had all the same facilities as the current location.

He called his men together and told them to be prepared to leave at 10:00 p.m. on the day after tomorrow. Yuri should be finished with the one weapon by then. They would take four of the land cruisers and use a trailer to tow the material from the building where Yuri worked.

Tewfik gave the cell members their basic marching orders, including who would be in each vehicle and the order of the convoy. They would travel at night.

It was now five days since he had returned and he currently planned the detonation of the weapons for one week from today. Seven more days to go. He was getting paranoid about somebody talking or passing information on and somehow the Americans would get their hands on it. He put his hands up around his temples and rubbed them, trying to smooth the stress he was feeling. It took so long to get the material, the people and Yuri all together and now he was not going to let anything or anyone stop him.

It would be better if he went back down to the workshop and told Yuri that they were going to be leaving for a new location. He knew that Yuri had come along strictly for the money, but he sensed that Yuri was not totally at ease with his situation. Maybe it was time to come to some better agreement on what he expected of Yuri in the future. He opened the door to the workshop; Yuri had his back to him, working on some computer program.

“I've come back down here to tell you that we’re going to have to leave this location. I have another place almost identical and you can use it to continue your work,” al-Hanbali said.

“I’ll have to do a little rearranging to get ready to leave here, to ensure that all of the equipment in this room goes, and that all of the containers are sealed for transport. How long will it take for us to get there?” Yuri asked.

“It’ll be about a four-hour vehicle drive to get there even though it’s not that far in real distance.”

“Okay, I’ll have everything ready for the departure. It means I have to stop working on the bomb and, based on my calculations, it will take an extra day, at least, to finish the project once we are operational again. By the way, I do have something else to talk about. Do you have a few minutes?” Yuri asked.

Al-Hanbali nodded and walked over to a chair in the corner. He sat down, crossed his legs and looked at his old classmate, who turned towards him as he tapped a pencil on the table. He stopped the tapping and fidgeted with his shirt collar, sticking one finger into the collar and circling around to the back of his neck.

“One of the things I enjoy doing is reading fiction. But I’m not so sure there’s a lot of difference between fiction and fact when it comes to what we’re doing. We are talking about atomic weapons. I’m doing something for you that is beyond illegal, will put me on a most wanted list, and is also very, very dangerous. In the novels, when I have finished doing this, you would kill me. That is not the scenario I’d like to see happen here.”

“You do not have to worry about that. I have no such plans nor would I do that,” al-Hanbali said. He looked straight into Yuri’s eyes as he said this. Yuri remembered his earlier thoughts about Middle Eastern promises but kept that to himself.

“I have trusted you so far,” Yuri said, “and I must continue to do so. I think I should be along with you when you’re taking these weapons to the target. If anything goes wrong, a connection inside the bomb has to be reattached, or something else happens, like the cell phone interface is not functioning on the final check, I must be able to immediately correct it. I believe that you have sensed that I came here with a great deal of anxiety. I’m finally getting over that scruple and I see that if I can do this successfully now, in the future I could be used again and again and become a very rich man.”

Al-Hanbali got up, walked toward Yuri and held out his hands. He took both of Yuri’s hands into his own, looked into his eyes and said, “I am glad that you have said this. I was thinking along the same lines, and I believe we can have a good partnership. I accept your offer to go along with us on this mission and the day to set off the atomic weapons we will call A-Day. Six days from now.”