Peter Kirsanow - Target Omega

“When and where?”

“You name it,” Garin replied. “Iraq, Afghanistan, anywhere they found the enemy. Anyway, a week ago a nuclear facility in — you fill in the blanks — is compromised by al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters.”

“Rhymes with Baluchistan, I suspect.”

“You didn’t hear it from me. The intelligence services in that country are supposed to be on our side. Don’t get me wrong — lots of them have taken great risks to assist us. But there’s an element within the nation’s intelligence services sympathetic to al-Qaeda and the Taliban. That element assisted al-Qaeda in gaining access to a nuclear facility. Dangerous stuff. They could’ve gotten control of nuclear weapons — al-Qaeda’s holy grail.”

Olivia looked both perturbed and irritated. “That was a major threat. An off-the-charts threat. All I knew was that there was an attempt, not that they had actually gained access. Why didn’t I hear anything about it?”

“Because we neutralized it just as they were gaining access.”

“How? Why you? Why not the ISI or Pakistani military?”

“First, we weren’t sure of the allegiances of their military and intelligence services. This was a bet-the-farm situation. We couldn’t take any chances.

“Second, Omega was specifically created and designed to handle such circumstances. We are — were — not just trained for combat, but to dismantle and destroy WMD of every type imaginable, most often without the host country’s knowledge. We were airborne within two hours after RIGOR — more accurately, RIGOR’s successor program — even had a hint of a problem.

“As to how, what I can tell you is that al-Qaeda fighters had breached a nuclear facility in the unnamed country and had established control over a portion of it before my team arrived. It’s likely they would’ve gotten their hands on the nukes had we not intervened.”

It was Olivia’s turn to look down at the carpet. “Nuclear weapons in the possession of terrorists.” She shook her head. “I didn’t hear about any of this, Michael.”

“And you wouldn’t. Only a handful of people in the country knew anything about it — the president, SecDef, DNI, DCI. It’s not the kind of stuff that gets broadcast. Markets tanking and all of that. I’m pretty sure James Brandt knew about it but couldn’t share it with you. In fact, my guess is the reason the Oracle put you on my case is because he thinks there could be a connection between what happened in that unknown country and what the Russians and Iranians are up to.”

“He sometimes says that the people who call him a genius do so because they only see the end product. They don’t see all the plodding work that precedes it. The endless days, nights, and weekends sifting through mundane data…”

“The Thomas Edison quote. But I bet even Brandt didn’t expect that I’d have much information that would prove truly useful. He probably thought he was just making sure he wasn’t leaving any stones unturned.”

“He’s excruciatingly thorough.” Her tone indicated her disappointment about being in the dark about the situation at the Pakistani nuclear facility. Garin tried to soften the letdown.

“Olivia, Brandt couldn’t tell you. That’s not a reflection on you. That’s just the way things are. If he didn’t have the utmost confidence in you, he wouldn’t have assigned you the job of ferreting out the information from me.”

Olivia straightened and brushed back her impossible abundance of hair. “I’m a big girl. But thanks.” Her eyes locked on Garin. “Back to your operation. How did you stop them?”

“We destroyed the assault force and secured the facility. We fed real-time video of the dead Tangos to Langley. Some were al-Qaeda. But they ID’d at least one of the dead as Iranian Ansar Corps.”

“And what do you conclude from that?” Olivia asked.

“Nothing more than what we’ve just discussed. The Iranians and al-Qaeda work together whenever it’s in their mutual interests to do so,” Garin replied. “The Ansar Corps officer who was there isn’t what’s important. What’s important is what was on his laptop.”

“I know you’re intentionally leaving gaps in what you’re telling me, Michael, but I need you to be a bit more linear. You have an Iranian Ansar Corps officer’s laptop, and I assume it has certain information that leads you to believe that his country is planning something beyond, or in addition to, a strike in Israel.”

“I’m sorry. I sanitized the narrative a little. I’ll back up. We were in a firefight with these guys. It didn’t last very long — we went in hard, fast, and hot. About twenty of them retreated into a tunnel beneath the complex. They must’ve been working on the tunnel for quite a while — it wasn’t just a crawl space.

“Anyway, we advance and methodically take them down. After we’ve taken out the last one, we video them and examine them for intel. The Ansar Corps guy has a laptop in his backpack. I switch it on and begin examining the files. A few seconds later, one of my guys starts yelling that he’s found a timer. Turns out they’d wired the tunnel. Semtex. We had less than a minute to get clear. We’re scrambling, climbing over dead bodies, trying to get out. We barely made it. I lost the laptop in the process. A couple of my guys took some shrapnel, but everyone made it out alive.”

“What was on the laptop that makes you think the Russians and Iranians are planning something beyond an attack on Israel?”

“Photos.”

“Photos? Photos of what?”

“Jordan Manchester, Joseph Bauer, and Evan Dellinger.”

“Manchester, Bauer, and Dellinger,” Olivia repeated.

Garin could see a look of recognition washing over her face.

“Manchester and Bauer are missile defense at the Pentagon,” Olivia said. “I don’t think I know who Dellinger is.”

“He’s an expert on, among other things, EMP defense,”

Garin said.

“How did you know who they are?”

“Olivia, it’s my job to know.”

Olivia put a hand to her forehead. She understood instantly the connection that Garin had already drawn.

“Was there anything else in the file? Any text?”

“Not that I could make out. It was in Farsi.” Garin returned to the desk chair and sat down. Muscle in repose. “At first, I didn’t know what to think about the file. Thought it was peculiar, something that nagged at me. But the night after we returned from the operation, I had other concerns on my mind, like staying alive.”

“And then when the Iranians killed your team and came after you, you revisited the matter,” Olivia said. “You asked yourself why Iranian agents were so intent on destroying America’s counter-WMD capability.”

“That’s certainly part of it. Like I said before, why take out Omega if your objective is Israel? Also, taking out Omega still leaves the US with SEAL Team Six and Delta, both of which could be tasked to deal with WMD. They’ve done so before. But it’s more than that.”

“What else?” Olivia was leaning forward within inches from Garin. He thought he detected a faint scent of sandalwood.

“A couple of things. The Iranians have invested a ton in intelligence but still don’t have the assets to conduct an operation as sophisticated as eliminating Omega. The Russians do, although I’m a little surprised they farmed out the actual assassinations to second-stringers like the Iranians.

“The Iranians also don’t have a missile capable of coming anywhere near the US. So why would they be interested in our missile defense system? What do our missile defense systems have to do with their plan to hit Israel ?”

“Well,” Olivia offered weakly, “we supply Israel with certain missile defense technology.”