The first was the camp the man in the suit was being asked about. When Hans’ clandestine organization joined this team, they had offered the use of the camp for interrogations. The other organizations were not told its precise location, only that prisoners could be flown in via Nuremberg and that the camp was close enough to the Czech border they could be across it before inspectors arrived.
The Americans could not be asked to join this particular team. The politics in Russia dictated they rekindle the Cold War to enact some changes in their own country. They felt the need to do a military buildup due to the American buildup in this region, just in case the Americans decided to hang onto all of the oil. Hans thought it best the Americans were not involved anyway. They had rules of engagement and a flock of reporters following their every move. Nothing blows a covert operation like film at eleven.
Besides, not one member of this team (other than Hans) knew about the second camp. That was going to be his party’s real contribution to this effort. It was also going to be the chain that bound them all together permanently. Once the second camp was put into motion with prisoners who had completed interrogation, everyone would be locked into this operation. His party would be certain to film and document what went on there. Nothing cements a relationship like the threat of film at eleven.
September 11 had given the more extreme members of Hans’ party what they had always wanted: A license to exterminate. The current world mindset was that if you claimed someone was a terrorist and produced a few emails to support your claim, you could kill them without question. Just like Adolf before him, bin Laden had given the world license and will to kill his people en masse. It was up to Hans, and the few members of his party who knew about the second camp, to keep it quiet until after each participating nuclear power had sent people there to die. Once that happened those countries could not strike back — they could only help cover up.
Hans suspected this cover-up would turn most of the Middle East into one continuous sheet of glass. Some who thought the same had begun debating the thickness of the glass and how smooth the surface would be when polished by the shock waves of multiple nuclear blasts.
Nedim finished his day at work and began the walk home. In a few short minutes his “cousin” was walking beside him and saying nothing. There was quite a crowd leaving work that morning, and another smaller crowd coming in. Like most of the offshore technology companies, this one ran a day shift and a night shift. Some workers, like Nedim, had to toggle between the two shifts. Others did technical support only while the Americans slept.
Once he arrived home, he found that his new “friends” had actually bothered to pick up some food and drink. They ate a meal, saying little, then told Nedim to check his email before he went to bed. “I usually go to morning prayer now,” replied Nedim. “Do you want us to join you at the mosque?” came their response. In a way he did. He wanted someone who knew him to speak with him after prayer, or the cleric himself. Word would spread quickly that Nedim had new friends. His al-Qaeda contacts would disappear. Then he thought better of it. Yes, his contacts would disappear, but not before one final contact was made. Had he been taken to prison, he would be honored as a near martyr, but with these men living here, he would be branded a traitor and assassinated at the first opportunity.
He resigned himself to checking his email. This really was a no-win situation for him. Eventually his cleric would miss him at the private Quran discussions. Someone would stop by, and the truth would come out. Logic told him he had about a week to sort this out before he would die.
This email session went a little faster than the last. There were only a handful of emails to pull down, decode, and forward. His “friends” asked the same questions they had asked that morning, but mostly just to confirm what they had already written down. The one file he had to pull down for them contained fewer photos, but lots of plans and spreadsheets containing traffic counts. The traffic counts were spread over several weeks and they listed special events going on in the far right columns. Dates and descriptions of future events that could affect traffic flows were listed at the bottom.
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