Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti, Africa
The secure briefing room at the Camp Lemonnier tactical operations center was set up like a virtual boardroom. Janet and Don sat together behind a broad desk facing a wall full of screens large enough that the people they were briefing appeared life-sized. The clarity of the video connection was perfect, but there was a half-second delay in the uplink, which left Janet with the unsettling feeling that the meeting was operating in slow motion.
Only two of the screens were live. Janet recognized Dylan Mattias from the CIA’s Operations and Resources Management branch, from their meeting in DC when Michael had committed them to man-weeks of work on financial transactions. The other participant was new to her.
Janet studied Judy Simonsen, the assistant to the director for foreign intelligence relations. With a broad, open face and a ready smile, she looked more like a middle-aged housewife than a powerful CIA insider, but Don had been clear: She was the one to convince in this briefing. Her thick brown hair was cut in a curled bob and she wore a bright pumpkin-colored scarf and matching earrings.
“How are you finding Camp Lemonnier, Lieutenant Everett?” Simonsen said.
“It’s fine, ma’am,” Janet replied.
The woman laughed, a hearty guffaw. “I spent a year there one week. I did not think it was fine.”
“Are we ready yet, Don?” Mattias cut in. “I have a hard stop in thirty minutes.”
“Patience, young Jedi,” Simonsen chided Mattias. “Let the techies do their job.”
In the full-sized, high-def picture, Janet saw Mattias’s jaw muscle bunch up. The light on the wall above the screens shifted from red to green.
“I have us secure,” Don said. He nodded to Janet to put up the first slide on the shared screen.
“Finally,” Mattias muttered. “Show us what you’ve got, Don.”
The picture on the screen showed a single timeline aligning three suspected bioweapons tests with the Mahdi terrorist attacks.
“What you’re seeing here are three instances of attacks on small villages, two in Yemen and a new one in South Sudan, overlaid with terrorist attacks on installations in the Nile River basin by the terrorist known as the Mahdi.” Don was sweating, but his voice was steady.
“I thought we were here to discuss the Mahdi and Iranian connections, Don,” Mattias said. “Why are we looking at small village attacks in Yemen?”
“Maybe if you give Mr. Riley more than thirty seconds to speak, he could connect the two, Dylan,” Simonsen said.
Mattias glowered as Don continued: “We believe that all three of these attacks were possible bioweapons tests. In the first case, we have a mobile-phone call that described the entire village as dead and the bodies as ‘melted.’”
“We have a very garbled mobile-phone call, Don,” Mattias said. “I speak Arabic and the translation is suspect. Let’s not overstate the case.”
“Why can’t we confirm it?” Simonsen asked.
“The village was destroyed in a Saudi air strike, ma’am,” Don said.
“Hmm. Convenient.”
Don plowed forward. “The second attack is now considered a confirmed use of a bioweapon. An outbreak of Ebola was found in a small village in Yemen by a Doctors Without Borders advance team. The date of this incident coincided with an unexpected cease-fire in Yemen. It is possible that this cease-fire interfered with the Saudi efforts to destroy the site.”
“Your conclusion is that the Saudis are behind a bioweapons attack?” Mattias’s voice was incredulous. “That’s a very serious charge to level against a US ally.”
“You’re calling this a confirmed bioweapons attack, Don?” Simonsen asked.
“Correct, ma’am. The virus was traced to a sample taken from the World Health Organization office in Cairo.”
Janet changed the screen to show a picture of an attractive woman with dark brown skin and blazing blue eyes. Auburn hair cascaded down her shoulders in loose waves. “This is Dr. Talia Tahir from the WHO. She was transporting samples from the Cairo office to the Brazzaville office in Africa when she died in a plane crash. One of the samples she was carrying was the same strain of the Ebola virus which was used in the attack on Melaba. In the course of her duties, Dr. Tahir has been in Yemen at least ten times in the past five years.”
“And the third instance?” Mattias said.
Don cleared his throat as Janet put up a satellite photo of a burned-out village, two rows of blackened pits where structures used to be, separated by a narrow dirt track.
“This is the village of Akwar in South Sudan. We discovered this incident a few days ago. The devastation of the site suggests extreme prejudice was used to obliterate this village, probably using incendiaries.”
“And were there any indications of a bioweapons attack here?” Mattias asked.
“Unknown.” Don swallowed hard. “Even if we could get an asset there, the possibility of anything surviving a fire that intense is minuscule. These are brick houses. Whoever did this turned them into cremation ovens.”
“Do we even know if there were bodies in these structures?” Simonsen asked.
“We do not, ma’am.”
Simonsen looked stern. “Then why does this have relevance, Mr. Riley?”
“Our theory is the Mahdi terrorist attacks are being used as a distraction for the bioweapons events. Following the latest Mahdi attack in Egypt, we went looking for evidence of a bioweapons test. We found this. The size and scale of the destruction fits a pattern.”
“And your assumption is that the Mahdi was unable to use Yemen for this test because of the cease-fire,” Simonsen said.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“What would it take for us to confirm this was an actual bioweapons test site?” Simonsen pressed.
Mattias entered the conversation. “If we went through diplomatic channels it would be weeks of negotiation and some very probing questions that we do not want to answer. If we sent in a covert team, it’s a week of planning and risk of discovery. At the moment, all our assets are tied up with the Egypt situation.”
Since the Mahdi attack on the Toshka desert project, the Egyptian army had been massing along the border with Sudan. Special forces cross-border raids were reported and the international news cycle was rife with rumors of a full-scale military assault into Sudan. Even the Ethiopians were preparing for war. All of the United States’ diplomats, military commanders, and intel officers were focused on stemming the conflict within the region.
“But that’s the point we’re trying to make,” Don said. “If the Mahdi is planning something big, he needs a major distraction to shift attention away from his real purpose. What could be more distracting than a war over the Nile River?”
Don leaned forward, his voice earnest. “What we do is not an exact science. We had a theory. We tested the theory and came up with a viable answer. That alone suggests that we’re on to something.”
Mattias made no attempt to dampen his sarcasm. “And what exactly are you on to, Mr. Riley? I don’t see any evidence here. I see some circumstantial bits that might fit together if we look at them a certain way. This whole thing is flimsy.”
Simonsen plucked at her scarf. “Tell us more about the Mahdi, Mr. Riley.”
Janet showed a screenshot of the Mahdi website. “The Mahdi website has extensive cryptographic capabilities, very uncharacteristic of these types of terrorist organizations.”
“I’ve heard enough,” Mattias interrupted. “We have three possible bioweapons attacks, possibly linked to three terrorist attacks by a possible terrorist organization led by a leader of whom we know nothing. Do I have that right, Don?”
Don stared straight ahead, his mouth set in a firm line. Every word of Mattias’s assessment was landing like a hammer on Don’s skull.
“With regard to the terrorist,” Mattias continued, “we have been unable to ascertain a physical location for him and we have no clue what his next target might be.”
“The name of my group is Emerging Threats, Dylan,” Don snapped. “My team has provided an analysis that holds up to a first level of scrutiny. I realize it’s not actionable yet, but based on experience I think we’re on to something.”
“I appreciate your candor, Don,” Mattias said. The smile was thin, just short of a sneer. “But we have professionals in these regions who are looking at the same information and coming to a very different conclusion.”
“What do you propose as a next step, Mr. Riley?” Simonsen’s voice was measured.
“I’d like to bring the Israelis in on this,” Don said. “All of it.”
Mattias threw up his hands in frustration. “The Israelis? Are you out of your fucking mind?”
“I think that request deserves an explanation, Don,” Simonsen said. “After the Stuxnet incident, that’s going to be a hard sell.”
The Israelis and the Americans had worked together on a years-long, staged computer virus attack to stop the Iranian uranium enrichment project. While the project itself was successful overall, the Israelis got impatient. Without consulting the Americans, they released a modified Stuxnet virus, allowing the covert attack to be exposed in the media. Even after more than a decade, there were still people in the CIA who held a grudge.
“The cryptography used on the Mahdi website came from Israel,” Don said. “Mossad is unable to find their mole. I suggest a new plan: Instead of trying to find the mole, why not use him?”
“A sting operation, that’s what you’re suggesting?” Simonsen said.
“Exactly, ma’am.”
“What’s the price of admission?” Mattias said.
“We tell the Israelis everything we know,” Don said. “Hold nothing back. We make the Mahdi think we’re about to come through his front door. Then we see if he blinks.”