government involvement in the attacks on our airplanes. As you know, Abu Qatada is back in Iran. The CIA is cooperating and we hope to have a better understanding of Lawrence’s relationship with Abu Qatada and what they could be involved in.”
Rachael said, “So, Will has disappeared and the Iranian is back home. What’s the feeling about the ransom money?”
“Not sure, but everyone is probably thinking they conspired to rip off the Government.”
Peter had a different, personal, interest. “So, the rescue operation was a setup?”
“Maybe, Peter. I can’t tell you how much this pisses me off. I was fooled by Lawrence and pulled a lot of strings to get the operation approved, and you were almost killed. We’re not going to let this go unpunished.”
Peter asked, “What are we going to do about it?”
Rachael looked askance at him when Simmons answered cautiously, “We don’t know anything for sure yet, so it’s premature to think about a response. We’re not going to let CIA slow-roll this. We still might have a shot at recovering the money. The Iranian minister did something akin to national heroism in his country. For terrorists, that either means killing a lot of people or getting a lot of money. He probably did both.”
The meeting ended and Rachael walked out ahead of Peter at a brisk cadence. Peter could read the signs and rushed to catch her. Catching her, he matched her long strides, but she wouldn’t look at him.
He said, “Ah, is something bugging you?”
“No. I’m fine!”
“Well, can we talk for a minute? You look agitated.”
She stopped briefly, looking at him saying, “We can talk at home. I just want to get out of here.”
They were silent until they got inside her townhouse where she confront him saying, “Peter, we’re engaged! That means something special to me and I thought it should for you also, but I guess not!”
“Rachael, what are you talking about? Did I say something to upset you?”
“You almost jumped up in front of Simmons and volunteered to go get this guy!”
“Whoa. I didn’t!”
“You said, ‘What are we going to do about it?’ You can’t wait to be in on the action. I don’t know why I ever thought you’d change. Peter, you can’t keep risking your life! I couldn’t stand having you in danger again. My god, you’ve done enough and normal people try to live normal lives.”
“Look Rachael, why am I even in these meetings? I’m not a spook. I’m an operator, a tool. You called me today, remember?”
“Simmons wanted you there this time. It wasn’t my idea.”
He moved closer and put his hands on her shoulders, but she wouldn’t look at him as tears began to fall, “Look Rachael, you mean everything to me. You have to believe that. I asked you to marry me, which isn’t something I would do casually.”
“I made you propose.”
“No way! You just gave me the courage to ask you. I was scared that you’d say no.”
She leaned her head against his chest, still sobbing, “Will you promise me that you won’t pull any more shit jobs. Let some other macho grunt do the dirty work.”
“Rachael, I promise.”
Over the next few days, Simmons was out of the office meeting with the CIA and NSA. In the background, Rachael was meeting with Jen Richardson to keep abreast of things.
On Friday, Simmons told Rachael they were to attend a meeting at NSA in the afternoon to reveal findings and outline an action plan. She could not help feeling jittery talking about “action,” knowing that Peter had reluctantly yielded to her pleadings. At NSA headquarters, there were ten people assembled in the room with NSA and CIA represented by four each.
To Rachael’s surprise, NSA Director, Lt. Gen Max Gillen, hosted the meeting, beginning with introductions, “Welcome all of you. For the past several days, people from the intelligence community have been working together investigating a key individual at CIA for possible involvement in the airline attacks. Unfortunately, Mr. Lawrence may have disappeared, but I think the information developed so far will go a long way toward proving our case.”
Unlike a lot of bureaucrats, General Gillen was giving his own presentation.
“These are pictures of Mr. Lawrence and a fellow student at Berkeley in the early seventies. They were part of a Muslim group and are believed to have remained friends after college. Both have reached prominence in their governments, as you all know. We have concluded that these two men were involved in the terror plot against our airlines and extorted a billion dollar ransom payment.
“As I said, Lawrence is missing and the CIA can’t locate him. He was instrumental in hiding his Persian friend neatly before disappearing. Both men disappeared for a short time, then Abu Qatada re-emerged in Iran.
“The CIA was able to unwind some of Lawrence’s effort to conceal Qatada as a man in Arizona with a fake name. They were able to track the guy to the Cayman’s, then onto a flight to Russia. The trail then disappeared until he showed up in the news last weekend.
“We think Lawrence went to the Cayman’s as well, but disappeared, leaving some personal belongings at a hotel.
“We’re working with Scotland Yard and local authorities to track a large money deposit that may be the ransom money. If we’re successful, we hope to freeze the account before money transfers again.
“Most of this is verified already, so assume it’s factual.”
It was inappropriate to interrupt the General while he was speaking, but the meeting was now open for dialogue. Simmons asked, “General, a lot of Americans died either to make these guys rich or to raise money for terrorists. What should we do about it?”
Gillen answered, “We all need to think about that. This meeting only presents the facts. I’ll leave it up to the CIA and DoD to figure out how to respond.”
Frozen Funds
Over the next two days, the CIA determined that the ransom funds were being held in a numbered account in Grand Cayman awaiting transfer. Through intense diplomatic pressure, the UK Security Service, MI5, gained access to the account file. Two American owners were identified, with supporting government documents, as co-signors on the account. Either one could access the funds independent of the other. Under Cayman law, funding withdrawals greater than ten thousand dollars could be delayed up to forty-eight hours. There had been a temporary freeze on the account by the Cayman government under British request while the depositors were investigated. The freeze could only last seventy-two hours if there was a withdrawal request, or seven days if there was no request.
The two Americans, Frank Saberi and Burton Jennings, had signed numerous documents and been photographed, along with their passports. The pictures verified that Lawrence and Abu Qatada were using false names and had control of the money for themselves.
Their addresses were recorded along with phone numbers and other contact information. The bank president remembered the two men because it was such a large sum of money for two individuals to share equally. He also remembered that Mr. Jennings had not come back to the bank in the afternoon after waiting for their confirmations.
The FBI had investigated the Saberi residence in Scottsdale that same day, learning that the man had only been seen a couple of times. Tracking Burt Jennings was more difficult since the address on his documents was non-existent. There was no airline record of Jennings departing the Caymans.
The pieces of the puzzle were starting to fit together.
A meeting was called on Friday at CIA headquarters to discuss the findings. Rachael attended with Simmons, as well as Jen Richardson and several CIA people. A report concluded that Will Lawrence was a fugitive, probably connected with a plot to extort a billion dollars from the U.S. Government. He had conspired with Iranian minister Abu Qatada. The purpose of this group was to determine what options should be pursued.
Rachael asked, “This seems like an iron-clad legal case for the Justice department, why are we, intelligence agencies, involved?”
; One of the CIA men answered, “Ms. Aston, we completely agree that the evidence is overwhelming. But, we have a couple problems. For one, the evidence is classified and we cannot disclose much about our processes in obtaining it. We could never offer it in a court. Secondly, we have a chance of recovering the funds through legal channels if we take action immediately.”
Simmons asked, “Explain that.”
“Okay, we all know how long legal processes can take. For the moment, we have less than three days before the frozen funds could be transferred by one of the crooks, and we probably won’t see the money again. On the other hand, if we ‘neutralize’ the account owners, there will be time for the system to work.”
Jen interjected, “If you’re suggesting that we kill two people, one is a U.S. citizen and the other is a foreign government official.”
“We don’t think the American is alive.” It struck Rachael that the CIA didn’t refer to Will Lawrence by name. He seemed to be an inanimate object to them.
She said, “How would you plan to get around all the Executive Orders since Jimmy Carter that prohibit assassinations?
The unnamed CIA spokesman said, “We know the law. In this case, we could consider an exception granted by the Terrorist Elimination Act of 2001, on the basis that the funds are likely to be used against the U.S.. But, on the other hand, this wouldn’t be a political assassination at all. We are going after a proven terrorist and his bank account.”
Rachael was