The Camel Club (Camel Club 1)

“No,” Gray said. “Let them go, but with tracers. And let it be known through discreet channels that they’ve talked to the authorities.”

“The result will be they’ll be killed by their own people,” the other woman present said.

Gray nodded. “Film the murders. We’ll use that as leverage. And if they won’t turn to our side, terrorist killing terrorist never fails to make the six o’clock news. Okay, give me the latest.”

The man charged with responding to this query was the youngest person in the room. However, in many ways he had more experience in the field than most agents far his senior. Tom Hemingway looked just as dashing and was dressed just as impeccably as he had been last night at the LEAP Bar. He was a rising star at NIC and its reigning expert in Middle East affairs. He also had an excellent grounding in the Far East, having spent the first twenty years of his life in those two places with his father, who’d been a U.S. ambassador, first to China, then Jordan, and, for a brief time, Saudi Arabia, before returning to China.

Because of his father’s travels, Tom Hemingway was one of the few operatives in American intelligence who could speak Mandarin Chinese, Hebrew, Arabic and Farsi. He had read the Qur’an in its original Arabic and knew the Muslim world as well as any American other than his father. It was these attributes, plus physical and mental indefatigability and a gift for spy craft, that had fueled his meteoric rise through the ranks to his current position as one of Gray’s inner circle.

Hemingway clicked a key on his computer, and a screen hanging on the far wall sprang to life showing a detailed satellite-imaging map of the Middle East.

He said, “As outlined here, CIA and NIC operatives on the ground have made significant inroads in Iran, Libya, Syria, Bahrain, Iraq, UAE and Yemen as well as the new Kurdish Republic. We’ve infiltrated over two dozen known terrorist organizations and splinter cells at the deepest levels. All are on track to pay big dividends.”

“It helps when your field agents aren’t all blond and blue-eyed who speak no Arabic,” one of the other men commented dryly.

“Well, for decades that’s all we had,” Gray shot back. “And we still don’t have nearly enough operatives who can speak the language.”

“Kabul and Tikrit aren’t exactly popular career paths these days,” commented one of the men.

“What are the losses currently running?” Gray asked.

“Two operatives killed per month,” Hemingway answered. “It’s as high as it’s ever been, but with more reward obviously comes more risk,” he added.

Gray responded, “I can’t emphasize enough the importance of getting these people out safely.”

There was a murmur of largely unenthusiastic agreement around the table. Middle East terrorists dealt with suspected spies very directly. They filmed the beheading of the person and released it to the world to dissuade others from replacing the fallen. It had proved a very effective strategy.

“We’re losing soldiers over there at the rate of a dozen a day, seven days a week,” Hemingway pointed out. “And with the new front that just opened on the Syrian border, the casualty rate will only get worse. Meanwhile, the Muslim independence movements in Chechnya, Kashmir, Thailand and Mindanao are allowing the spread of radical Islamic ideology to grow unabated. And Africa’s a whole other problem. Most of northern Nigeria had adopted strict sharia law. They’re stoning women to death for committing adultery and cutting the limbs off petty thieves. The terrorists’ recruiting and training operations are largely conducted over the Internet, and they use identity theft and other scams to hide their movements and conduct financing through the hawala system of informal money transfers. There’s no centralized command for our military to hit. Clandestine, undercover operations are the only viable strategy.”

“There’s a democratic government in power in Iraq, duly elected by the people,” another man said. “Despite suicide bombers and bullets flying everywhere, the people came out and voted. And look at the gains in Lebanon, Kuwait, Afghanistan and Morocco. In fact, democracy is slowly spreading across the region. That truly is a miracle and something both we and the Muslim community can be proud of.”

Hemingway looked at Gray. “It’s cost this country half a trillion dollars and counting to get to the election stage in Iraq. At that rate we’ll be bankrupt in five years. And when the Kurds declared their independence, it hardly set well in Baghdad. And the Sunnis may not be far behind in revolting from the Shia control. Meanwhile, the Baathist exiles and foreign insurgents are continuing to escalate the violence. On top of that, word is the Iraqi government will soon be asking the U.S to leave because it’s struck a deal with the Baathists for a bloodless coup. And then the Baathists will fight a final battle with the insurgents who favor a Taliban-style government. Iraq will end up far more destabilized than it ever was, with a legion of newly minted terrorists ready to attack us. So what has our money and the blood of our soldiers really bought us?”

Gray said, “I’m aware of that. We knew the day would come. Unfortunately, from our side we really can’t leave. The situation is far too volatile.”

Hemingway threw his hands up. “That’s what happens when you have a country that was artificially created by a colonial power, jamming three distinct and incompatible groups into one boundary. A one-size-fits-all democracy is not an effective foreign policy when you’re dealing with such different cultures. Western democracy is predicated on separation of church and state. That’s a difficult sell to Muslims. That’s why Mali and Senegal are the only Muslim nations rated fully free.”

Gray said calmly, “We don’t make the foreign policy of this government, Tom, we just try and clean up the mess and limit the damage. India and Pakistan?”

Hemingway drew a deep breath. “Situation continues to worsen. The current casualty estimates of a nuclear war between the two countries have twenty-five million dying the first day, with another twenty million critically injured. That is a disaster beyond the world’s collective ability to respond. And China and India are closer every day, both economically and militarily. That’s a real concern.”

“Egypt?” Gray asked.

“Ready to erupt, along with Indonesia and Saudi Arabia,” Hemingway responded. “Ever since the Temple of Hatsheput massacre, Egypt’s tourist trade’s been in the toilet. And a bad economy equals opportunities for an overthrow.”

Gray sat back in his chair. “Well, understandably, people on vacation are averse to being shot and hacked to death.”

“And then there’s North Korea,” Hemingway said.

Gray nodded. “A madman in charge, the world’s third largest army, with nukes that can hit Seattle and whose lead export is counterfeit American money. I want the updated detailed scenarios on my desk in twenty-four hours. Okay, narcoterrorism?”

Hemingway clicked another key and the wall screen changed. “In the highlighted areas Middle East terrorists are hooking up with Far East drug cartels in a much more formal way. In some cases they’re actually taking over the drug operations completely. The Central Asian republics are imploding. Drug production is the fastest-growing part of the economy. And since the republics were the former Soviet Union’s toxic waste dumps, we could soon have Middle East terrorist groups selling radioactive heroin and crack in the States.”

“Ironic considering Muslims don’t even touch liquor, much less crack,” another man said.

Hemingway shook his head. “I’ve been on flights with some Saudis where the hijab comes off and the booze comes out as soon as the plane was wheels-up.”

“Thank you for your report, Tom. Is this current hit list fundamentally accurate?” Gray asked another man.

“Yes, sir. It’s based on very credible evidence.”

“In my experience a term very often confused with incredible evidence,” Gray said. “As usual, ground-level operatives are to be given the broadest possible latitude to accommodate different tactics by the enemy. Preemptive action is encouraged whenever possible. We’ll

take care of any lingering details on the other end.”

Everyone in the room understood Gray’s words to mean: kill them and don’t worry about the legal or political niceties.

Gray next asked for and received a report on the domestic terrorist front, which included groups of militia and religious cults.

“Give me the current hot reads,” Gray ordered next.

And on it went for the next two hours as one potential crisis after another was carefully dissected. And yet at any moment all this analysis could be thrown out the window as another building or world leader toppled or a jumbo jet exploded in midair.

Gray was about to adjourn when one of the women, who’d left the room in response to a hurried summons, returned and handed him a new file.

Gray took two minutes to scan the four pages. When he looked up, he was clearly not pleased. “This happened last night. The police and FBI have been investigating since eight-forty-five this morning. And this is the first I hear of it?”

“I don’t think its potential importance was appreciated as quickly as it should have been.”

“Patrick Johnson?” Gray asked.

“He’s an analyst with—”

“I know that,” Gray said impatiently. “It’s in the report you just handed me. Regardless of how he died, does it have something to do with his work?”