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“SPEAK.” MANNY STORMED into the living area of our hotel accommodation and spun around. He looked at Ivan and pointed at a sofa. “Sit down and speak.”
“Why don’t I make coffee first?” Vinnie walked to the kitchenette area and opened his arms when Roxy walked to him. “And kiss my Rox.”
“Good idea.” Colin walked to a sofa. “Maybe we should all settle in first.”
Manny grumbled, but also walked to the sofas. He didn’t wait until Vinnie finished making coffee. As soon as we were all seated he looked at Ivan. “So?”
Ivan looked at Phillip, who had quietly placed a financial magazine on the sofa next to him. “Please know I mean no offence, but you shouldn’t be here.”
“He bloody well should.” Manny slumped back in the sofa next to Francine. “He’s one of us. If you don’t tell him about Shahab and Chabahar, I will. Or Doc or Frey.”
“What about her?” Ivan looked at Bree, who had taken a seat next to Phillip. She’d been quiet on the way here, observing. Ivan rubbed his scar as he studied her. “Do you trust her?”
“Me? No.” Manny shrugged. “But everyone else seems to think she’s on the up and up.”
“Can one be hurt and flattered at the same time?” Bree pushed her palm against her chest.
Phillip was staring at her eye. “Are you okay?”
“This? It will give me a scar and a cool story, so I’m really okay.” Even though her words were playful, her expression was sincere and gentle when she looked at Phillip.
“I spoke to your brother’s supervisor.” Manny’s lips twitched when Bree gasped.
“No!” Her mouth dropped open and she slammed both hands over her mouth, then spoke through her fingers. “Oh, man. Why did you have to go and do that? Here I thought we were getting on so well. Please tell me you didn’t speak to my brother.”
“I did.” He looked at me. “I phoned around while you were out and the hazmat guys were all over the house. Her brother’s boss’ supervisor was my partner for two years when I was in Scotland Yard. He told me Gareth is a good sort.” He looked at Bree. “He also told me Gareth’s sister has shown amazing strength of character. Helped them a lot in a case two years ago. Your brother, on the other hand, told me that you’re never careful enough.”
Bree put her hands on top of her hat, pressing it lower on her head. “I’m never, ever, ever going to hear the end of this.”
“I don’t care.” Manny looked at Ivan. “Everyone here has been vetted by me. You’ve been vetted by Daniel. Now tell us what the bloody hell is going on.”
Ivan rubbed his eyes, then looked at Manny. “For the record, my bosses ordered me not to tell you. Not even with everything going on and not even after the house episode.”
“Oh, leave those snivelling milksops to me.” Manny lifted his chin and waited.
Ivan inhaled deeply. “Seven years ago, there was a bombing in Iran.”
“Chabahar,” Colin said softly.
“Yes.” Ivan rubbed his scar.
I narrowed my eyes as a suspicion took place in my mind. “Is this where you got your injury?”
He jerked his hands apart. He glanced again at Bree, then came to a decision as he looked at me. “No one knew we were there. My team had been in Turkey for a training exchange when we got the call. The US had received intelligence that a series of bombs were planned to go off in the Chabahar port. They were planning to destroy at least seven ships with their cargo—all from western countries.”
“Who are ‘they’?” Daniel asked.
“To this day we don’t know. It could’ve been any of the extremist terrorist factions in the area, but the fact remains that we were too late for one of those bombs.” He looked down at the scar on his hand, his eyes unfocused as if he was lost in a memory. “The US had only one SEAL team in the area to find and disarm the bombs. My team was closest of all the other allied teams, so we were deployed.
“We got eight bombs, more than originally thought, but were too late for the one in the shopping mall. We only heard of that at the last minute. The SEALs and our team rushed to the shopping mall, found the bomb and took it out of the crowded shopping centre to the parking area. We managed to get it quite far away from the shoppers, but seventeen civilians were still injured, as well as three SEALS and two on my team. One SEAL was critical.”
“Fatalities?” Manny asked.
“One woman.”
“You’re lying.” I didn’t understand why he would.
“Technically, I’m not.” He rubbed his scar. “Sahar Hatami died that day.”
“What the fuck!” Vinnie stormed over from the kitchenette. “Hatami as in Shahab Hatami?”
“Yes. She was Shahab’s wife.”
“No way!” Francine looked from her laptop to her tablet to Ivan. “We’ve been looking into Shahab for the last year and not once heard as much as a whisper that he was married.”
“Because he’d requested it to be considered top-secret information.”
“Why?”
“Because of the nature of his work in the Criminal Investigation Police of NAJA—the police force of Iran—Shahab requested all the information about his family be redacted in all documents. He didn’t want anyone to ever be able to use them against him.”
“Like he used Patrik against Doctor Jan?” Francine’s voice rose a pitch. “That sack of... scum.”
It was quiet for three seconds. Vinnie returned to the kitchenette to prepare lunch.
Then Manny swore. “She’s here, isn’t she?”
“Yes.”
“That must be what Shahab saw in the travel documentary.” Bree looked at Ivan. “Is that possible? Oh, wait. No. Before you answer that, first tell us what happened to her and why she’s here.”
“Sahar married Shahab just after he joined the police. He was determined to be an officer of integrity and help his country become better at dealing with the West. He was a devoted Muslim, but not radical at all. He wanted the West to know that most Muslims were people like everyone else. Not terrorists.”
“He must’ve been psychologically very volatile to have lost his marbles when he didn’t get promoted.” Bree thought about this for a second. She jerked, her hands balling into fists. “He beat her, didn’t he? That’s why she escaped.”
“Only one of the reasons.” Ivan sat back in the sofa. “Shahab started his illegal dealings and yes, he was physically abusive. That went hand in hand with emotional abuse that had Sahar considering suicide many times. But then she read about an NGO that helped women like her.”
“Helped them how?” Roxy was sitting on one of the barstools by the kitchenette counter.
“Escape, find refugee status in another country and try to live a normal life.”
“Natálie.” So many things were falling into place. I looked at Francine. “I wonder if we could find out if Natálie worked with women from Iran.”
“She did.” Ivan sighed. “She helped Sahar resettle. After the Americans smuggled her out.”
“After they ‘killed’ her.” Bree bit down on her bottom lip. “You said being beaten by Shahab was only one reason she left. What are the other reasons?”
“Her father.” His discomfort was increasing. “He’s the reason the West bent over backwards to accommodate Sahar. Reza Alikhani.”
“Holy bloody hellfire!”
“Who’s he?” Roxy asked.
“One of the most notorious terrorists still at large,” Ivan said. “He’s known as the architect of at least eleven bombings that we know of. He’s also wanted for conspiring to destroy the embassies of numerous Western countries and a lot more. He’s the devil.”
“Talk about jumping from the frying pan into the fire. From her dad to Shahab. Poor Sahar.” Bree shuddered.
“The moment she contacted the NGO, the US got involved. The intel Sahar could give on her father was far too valuable to let slip through their fingers.”
“Then how did she end up here?” Phillip asked.
“She wanted to be here. She had no interest in going to the US. Her father and then Shahab never allowed her to travel anywhere. But she’d had unlimited access to the internet, so she said she travelled to all the places in the world. And Prague was the city she fell in love with from the first photo she saw.
“Since we are allies, NATO partners and generally have a good relationship with the US, they agreed to let her settle here as long as one of theirs could sit in on debriefings.” Ivan looked at me. “That’s how Sahar Hatami died and Klára Bittová came to life.”
“That’s pretty much everything I discovered as well.” Francine raised both eyebrows when Manny swore and Ivan looked at her, his mouth wide open. “What? You thought I was just joking about hacking your police database to find out what was happening?” She shrugged. “I got into it this morning and poked around. I found a few emails between your bosses, showing how worried they are that they will lose their precious asset. I must say I don’t like the way they talk about Klára. It’s like they think she’s a nice little chess piece they can use to get the US to do just what they want. I wonder if she knows how she’s being used.” She turned to Ivan, her face tight with anger. “Did you know?”
He raised both hands, palms out. “Not these details. I swear. I knew about Sahar. I knew she became Klára. I knew who her father is, but that’s it. I knew the basics of the agreement between the US and us, but the rest of these details I only learned since you guys joined. Most of Shahab’s crimes I only learned of in the last few days.” He pinched the bridge of his nose and glanced at Francine. “Please tell me no one will ever know you hacked our system.”
“As if.” She relaxed back into the sofa. “Your guys are good, but I’m much, much, much better.”
“I’m a little lost here.” Roxy looked around. “Did I miss some part of the story?”
“I’ll bullet-point it for you.” Bree counted on her fingers. “Shahab marries Sahar. Around ten years ago Shahab is passed over for promotion and loses his shit. He starts his narcotics import and export business. He also starts beating poor Sahar. Seven years ago, the bomb in Chabahar gives the US and Czech the chance to get Sahar here and pump her for intel on her terrorist dad. Then a few years later—I don’t know how many—Shahab sees Sahar on a travel documentary about Prague. He loses his shit even more.”
“Do you know if this is true?” Colin asked Ivan.
“Yes. We checked that documentary and Sahar was on Charles Bridge staring up at the tower.” His expression softened. “She looked so happy.”
“Do you know when this was?” Colin asked.
“About three and a half years ago.”
Immediately I saw where Colin was going with his question. “Sirani’s Venus and Cupid was stolen from the Zemans three years ago.”
Colin nodded. “Somehow Shahab must’ve gotten intel that Natálie had helped Sahar here in Prague. And he wanted something to use against them or against her to make them tell him where Sahar was.”
“They wouldn’t have told him.” Francine’s hair glided over her shoulders as she shook her head. “Everything I’ve read about them told me they would rather have lost everything they owned than help a psychopath find his wife.”
Bree raised another finger. “So three years ago, Shahab steals the Sirani, but his blackmail plan doesn’t work, so he starts working on another plan. His opioid weapon.”
“I’m guessing it was too expensive, so he waited a bit to make more money.” Roxy drummed her fingers on the kitchenette counter. “I told you guys such research equipment is very expensive.”
“This could be where Seppo-Tommi comes in.” Francine tapped her index finger on her lips. “Shahab withdrew money from Seppo-Tommi in Finland as well as use his own income from his drug dealing.”
“But last year, we upended his plans when we froze all his assets.” Phillip nodded. “That might have... No, I don’t have a plausible explanation for the opioid weapon.”
I thought about it. “The people he’d killed in Strasbourg last year were a threat to his drug business. The people he’s been killing here in Prague were all in some way connected to Sahar or shelters for women. This doesn’t give us any indication of what he plans to do with this weapon.”
“If I were to guess at his motivation”—Francine smiled at me—“I know you don’t like it, but it seems very logical that Shahab would want to take revenge on Sahar for betraying him.”
I looked at Roxy. “What did you learn from Doctor Novotný’s journal?”
“That he’s a genius.” She closed her eyes and took a shuddering breath before looking at me. “He created a weapon from an opioid analogue that is insanely potent. When Shahab tested the delivery system and the opioid, he’d used only one five hundred thousandth of its strength. At full strength, you can spray it into a crowd and be pretty sure that everyone within a hundred-and-fifty-metre radius will be dead within a minute. Not enough time for ambulances or to get to a hospital.”
“Any antidote?” I asked.
“No.” She hugged herself. “Naloxone won’t work for this. The opioid analogue is too strong. You would have to up the Naloxone dosage many times for it to counter the effects of this drug. And I think there’s not enough Naloxone in Europe to treat even a hundred people who have been exposed to it.”
“Doc, you were going to read the last pages of that journal. Anything there?”
I swallowed and crossed my arms. I didn’t want to recall those pages.
“Doctor Novotný’s last two pages were the most difficult to read.” Roxy nodded at me. “It’s filled with regret. He’s heartbroken that this will be his legacy. Not the work he’s done helping people his whole life. Not the cure for opioid addiction he was about to finalise. This. Creating a weapon that will kill people and destroy families. And not being strong enough to kill himself before Shahab got him to successfully create this weapon. There’s a lot of self-hate and sadness on those pages.”
His words about his lack of courage to kill himself and remove the possibility of his skills being used had disturbed me greatly. The way he had phrased his emotions had revealed the conflicting logical and irrationally emotional sides of him I’d seen represented throughout the journal. I seldom made decisions based on emotions, rationality winning out almost always. It had to be great inner torment to be torn between two such strong motivators.
“There...” My voice was hoarse from the stress of remembering those pages. I cleared my throat. “There were a few things that weren’t clear.”
“Yeah, for me too.” Roxy nodded, her curls bobbing over her shoulders. “Are you talking about the ramblings on last moments?”
I nodded and looked at the others. “It started on the second-last page, which was written thirteen days before his death. Doctor Novotný sounded incoherent, but he wrote that Shahab wouldn’t last much longer. He hoped that the person who was reading his journal would see that in the end he had to do the one thing he never thought he would do—use his science against a human being.”
“Was he talking about Shahab’s opioid weapon?” Daniel asked.
“I don’t know.” And I didn’t want to speculate. “I’d rather you read that section and decide for yourself.”
“Good idea.” Francine handed me the tablet I’d used to read Doctor Novotný’s journal. “You can read it for us.”
I looked at the tablet for a few seconds before I took it. I didn’t know if I wanted to read Doctor Novotný’s last thoughts again. I swiped the screen, found the right passage and cleared my throat. “‘Shahab found out. I know this. He hasn’t said anything, but he’s changed completely towards me since last night. He knows about the cloud, but I don’t think he knows what I’ve been uploading. I’m writing this because this might be my last opportunity to express my deep regret for everything I’ve done in the last months of my life.
“‘Yes, I think these are my last days, my last moments. Shahab will return from his outing today and kill me. He hasn’t said as much, but I’m sure he killed my Patrik. Every day Shahab would remind me that Patrik’s life depended on me. He hasn’t done that since the day before yesterday. The shame is becoming too much for me to bear. In my last honest moments, I’m awaiting the bliss of death, hoping for a reprieve from this burden of my sins. How low I’ve gone to destroy my life’s work in only six months.
“‘I hope you who are reading my words will make sure that Shahab will not do this terrorist deed. I tried to outsmart him, but that didn’t work. I considered building a failsafe into the delivery system, but Shahab was testing all the time. So I did something else. Something not forced on me by a psychopathic terrorist, but something I decided to do. I only hope that it’s not too late.
“‘I wish I could tell you where the laboratory is. I don’t know. I wish I could tell you how to counter the effects of this weapon. I can’t, because there is no agent that will act fast enough against the power of this evil that I created.
“‘I’ve seen what Shahab is capable of when he wants something. The way he broke my poor Patrik’s body. I fear that is what’s waiting for me. I will embrace that pain as the punishment I deserve. And I will wait for death to end not only my selfish guilt, but also my own abilities that I have now shown to be as evil as the man who plotted all this. May the world forgive me for what I have done.’”
It was quiet in our hotel living area. My throat hurt. Not from reading these words aloud, but from the anguish I felt on Doctor Novotný’s behalf. I put the tablet down and forced my thoughts back to the case. There was a lot to consider. A lot of elements whose roles and importance in Shahab’s plan still hadn’t been completely identified. I agreed with Roxy. We knew the weapon Shahab planned to use, we knew the delivery system, but we didn’t know the when or where.
We also didn’t know the why. And more often than not the reason driving someone to such brutal acts was key to stopping him. I looked at Ivan. “I want to speak to Sahar. Klára.”
“I think she would prefer being called Klára.” Ivan looked at Manny. “My bosses won’t allow it.”
“Ninnies.” Manny took his smartphone from his pocket. “Let’s get the presidents involved. These petty bleeding fights are going to get people killed.”
