Lester decided to call France. He had done his morning duty towards re-populating the earth, and now it was time for coffee and a fruit plate on his balcony. Debi had gone upstairs for her jogging session, a Pilates class, and a stone massage. He called Jordan Michaels, using an international number Jim Webb supplied.
“Mr. Jordan Michaels? Lester McFarlin here.”
“Hello, Lester. I understand we’re working the same case,” Jordan said.
“Jordan, I feel like I’m half-ass working on it, and we appreciate the dedication you’ve put into the case. Of course, I understand from Jim Webb you have a pretty partner to work with.”
“Uh … I guess he saw her picture while he was snooping around in our files. She is pretty and a damn good officer. Listen, Lester, we have a board here in our office with all the ships and beneath them are the names of the corresponding Islamic terrorist. We don’t know what they are up to, or when they plan to blow it all up. Where does your cruise ship go next?” Jordan asked.
“Today we’ll be in Costa Rica. Tomorrow we spend the whole day going through the canal. After that is Colombia, Aruba and then Miami. Where are all your ships going and are you tracking them?”
“They’re all in the big gorilla computer, along with most of the ships in the world, including the one you’re on. We have been given remote access to the computer and can key in things from here now, since all the basic info has been fed in,” Jordan said.
“Really? Jordan, do this for me. I’m guessing you have ship itineraries of boats that are not compromised? Tell you what, ask the computer to compare the differences between our ship, the Tropic Queen, and some other bomb-infested cruise ships. See if you can ask for dissimilar qualities,” Lester said excitedly.
“Maria is doing that now. We have specs on several container ships and cruises where we tried to find differences. We haven’t asked the computer to do it, however. Just a second while Maria gets the printout,” Jordan said.
Lester could hear him in the background talking with Maria.
“Is it a large list?” Lester asked
“Different ports, different sailing dates, different days at sea—so many listings,” Jordan said.
“Read them to me, if you don’t mind.”
“Lester, it’s Maria. I think I’m in love with you and want to marry you after reading about you online,” she said, laughing.
“I hear you are very pretty, Maria, so I would take you up on the marrying part. Small bump in the road though—already married, and we’re working on having a baby.”
“I remember that—is she taking her temperature and telling you to be ready for love all the time?” Maria asked.
“Yes! How’d you know?”
“Been there. Got a teenaged daughter that way. Husband didn’t work out.”
“Sorry. Be nice to Jordan. Maybe he’s single.”
“He is, and I am—uh—will be nice to him. Okay, let me read these differences.”
Maria read some forty variances between the two vessels.
“Read that one again, Maria,” Lester said.
“The ship is Panamax-qualified but has no schedules requiring the crossing through the Panama Canal,” Maria read in a shaky voice.
“Okay, put another cruise ship in and a cargo ship that doesn’t have wackos aboard,” Lester said and could heard Maria typing and Jordan reading files to her.
“None go through the canal,” she said and was pounding on keys again.
There was silence for a while and then a scream from Maria.
“Holy fuck! I just asked how many of our one-hundred and four ships go through the canal. Care to guess how many, Lester?”
“A hundred and four is my guess, and that’s my final answer, Maria,” Lester said.
“I’m going to ask the computer which ships go through at the same time as yours,” Maria said, followed by more key-pounding. “Wow! Wow! Almost all the ships going through are bomb-laden ones. Maybe thirty or forty ships from both sides—some ten going through the old canal—about that same amount sailing through the new bigger canal. Others will be in the two man-made lakes between the canal gates. Others lined up to start through the locks and both sides of the canal. This is horrible.”
“Call your people, and I’ll call Jim. We don’t have much time. I wonder what the ships with jihadists will do that aren’t going through the canal? I can guess, but don’t want to think about them sinking in deep water.”
“Lester, call us later and let me know what’s planned,” Jordan said.
Lester had some orange juice for breakfast. Quickly, he dug into his suitcase and pulled out a couple of small bottles of vodka. He loaded his breakfast juice with the booze and gulped it down.
The tried-and-true screwdrivers created a warmth in his temples and a numbing effect of the alcohol throughout his body. Now he would call Jim. He dialed his cell phone number. Immediately he got a message from Jim that he was in a meeting with the president. Lester messaged him back.
“Tell the president I know where the Big Bang is going to take place and when.”
Lester’s phone rang within seconds.
“Lester, it’s Jim, and I have you on speaker with the president, the head of the FBI, CIA, NSA, and military liaisons. Go ahead.”
“Mr. President and other gentlemen, you all have been following the unfortunate news that a hundred and four ships at sea have Islamic terrorists planted on them. Just a few minutes ago, working in partnership with Interpol agents in Lyon, France, we plugged into the large supercomputer in Bluffdale and found the unifying component that gave us the time and location of the detonation of several of the infected vessels. Tomorrow, about twenty to thirty of these vessels on each side of the canal, all of which house Muslim terrorists, will move to transit the Atlantic and the Pacific sides of the Isthmus of Panama at about midday. We believe the explosions will occur when the maximum numbers of ships are in the locks, both in the old and the new canals. We still don’t know about the other ships not going to the canal. Most will be at the canal. We don’t know how they are going to set them off, but a good guess is that the bombs will be placed below the waterline to block the canal. All the cruise ships have a husband and wife situation. We don’t know their role, but if they are fanatical enough, suicide vests on a crowded deck are certainly possible. They have all had over a year to smuggle C4 and Emulex® onto the ships and hide it. We are all deeply disturbed about this plot, but we have to stop it, or thousands of people will die,” Lester said, wondering about the group’s reaction to his news.
“Lester, we will be in touch. Thanks so much for your work on this. You may not be aware of this, but ships only go one way at a time because of a narrow cut in the canal. They take turns every six hours. A large collection of small boats will open up two-way traffic, but it doesn’t happen often. Tell Maria and Jordan thanks as well. Goodbye,” Jim said solemnly.
Lester rarely got scared, but this situation caused him to shiver. His beautiful wife, who might already be pregnant with his first child, was running around the deck. He was on his balcony with his feet propped up against the bottom rail, drinking vodka. He had to prepare for war. How do you do that on a cruise ship? He had to call the captain. Or should I wait and get instruction from Jim? He had always received his orders on big crime busts from Jim, so he would wait. He wasn’t good at waiting—he never did that well. He would call Jordan.
“Jordan, Lester again. The president knows. I’m waiting to hear back from Jim. What’s happening on your side of the pond?’
“Same here. Frankly, I don’t know how we’re going to proceed. If we send fire teams or commando types, they may go ahead and detonate. Same with the radicals in Australia. What countries send teams? I assume we’ll concentrate on the ships in the vicinity of the canal. I will wait on orders as well. All of this is above our pay grades. Lester, call if you get any direction,” Jordan said.
Something just occurred to Lester. I’m not on anyone’s payroll to receive orders.
He wanted to help but was keenly aware—one little screw-up and the entire ship blows up. He would go back to waiting.
*****
Nazeem Dastyari took the news of the failure of two of his disciples to kill investigators of his grand plot with anger. He was determined to complete the operation. Dastyari had met with Osama bin Laden first in 2003, a couple of years after the 9/11 attack. Discussions took place on a grand scale attack that would be even more impressive than bringing down the twin towers. Sites all over the world were discussed, including the Eiffel Tower, the United Nations building, the White House, the Sydney Opera House, and the Statue of Liberty.
The bombing must affect the whole world. It had to be horrific with a huge body count and show every nation on earth how much strength was left in the Islamic movement. It would need to be years in the planning to show the patience and determination of an organization much more complex than ever thought before.
The Panama Canal was the perfect choice to accomplish all their goals. Several meetings were held, and in 2010 recruiting started for bright, radical jihadists willing to go to marine academies for four years, and then take jobs on ships that regularly passed through the Panama Canal. They were trained in explosives, combat, and communications at various host countries on their school vacation times. The death of Osama bin Laden in 2011 only served to solidify the plans that were already in force and fully funded. Al Qaeda did lose a lot of the headlines because of ISIS and their terror tactics and public beheadings on TV. Now, the hopes of splintered factions of staunch Al Qaeda members depended on the success of this bold and complex operation. Dastyari had a capable second-in-command at the canal, so if he was taken out, the master plan would proceed unfettered.
Nazeem sat at a table with a dozen Muslim men in his office outside of Sydney. He hoped the next day would shock the whole world and bring Al Qaeda into the prominent position he believed it should enjoy. The men consisted of experts from Iraq and Syria who knew more about remote improvised explosive devices than anyone else on earth. Some were weapons dealers, pilots, ship architects, designers of suicide vests, experienced military men. And strangely enough, there was one welder.
Nazeem asked one man to speak. He was Aafrin Shareef, an expert on ship design and construction.
“Tomorrow, we will bask in the glory of all our work for the past many years. Praise the name of our great teacher, Mohammad. Praise Allah. I wish to tell you how we will bring the ships down to block the canal from both sides. All cruise ships and most cargo ships are required to have a double hull. At first, we didn’t know how we were going to blow holes in two hulls to bring down the ships. If we set off explosives at the waterline, the water-tight integrity of several water doors will seal off and it will not sink. Our goal is just to sink the ship a few feet to where the clearance from the bottom of the ship and the floor of the canal meet. In most cases, it’s only a few feet.
“We finally looked at what caused most ships to sink. Usually, a breach of the hull that causes free-flowing water does the trick. Between the outer hull and the inner hull, behind the bulkhead in the engine room, a great deal of the fuel is stored. In a few places, there are access panels to the sealed fuel tanks, since they have to be replaced at times. Areas next to these sealed fuel tanks have a small space between them where the outer hull is exposed. At one of the access ports, we have placed sealed Plexiglas C4 explosives. They’re designed to magnetically attach to the inner and outer metal hulls, along with communication antennas. These thin wires have been run back through the edges of the outside before being welded and soldered in place. They are then painted and made almost invisible. Signal boosters are placed around the ship. If there is a search for explosives, they will never find them since the access panels have been welded back in place. Our people may be arrested on the ships. It won’t matter. They will soon learn that our people on board will not be triggering the blast that will sink the ship. We’ll do that from our positions on shore and from other areas. The ships will sink where they do the most damage, either in the locks or blocking the harbors on both sides. Praise Allah!”
Food was brought to the table and the men ate together and mused about the amount of shipping and loss of life that would take place the next day.