The Caliphate André Gallo (list of ebook readers TXT) 📖

the conversation, Salim said, “I understand. The kind of attack you suggest will please everyone and will do Tariq a lot of good as well.”

     All Salim had to do now was to convince al Khalil.

27. Langley

Following his return from Gao, Steve had thought he had more than accomplished his mission. Back in his hotel room, he used his steganography system to hide his message in his scenic photographs of the Tuaregs.

Strongly recommend I turn over SBCALIPH/4 to Bamako COS. Return to U.S. and terminate my participation in this operation. Believe that purpose of my mission has been accomplished.

Steve could read Mel’s negativism in the reply.

Bamako COS is to depart shortly and we have decided to put SBCALIPH/4 on ice. Pls set up appropriate recontact arrangements in case SB/4 needed at some point in future.

As a result, he soon found himself at headquarters being debriefed again. Steve and his nemesis Mel, the West Africa branch chief—the Queen of Anal, as he thought of her—as well as Philip, the Maghreb branch chief, and Marshall were in the same windowless conference room as before.

     Melanie, true to her nature, said. “I don’t understand why you recruited SBCALIPH/4 without express authorization from headquarters—from me. Associating with terrorists is not right. You saw him kill people. And that report about the hidden gold,” she gave Steve a condescending smile, “We call that RUMINT, intelligence from rumors.”

     She wore the same dress with broad stripes as before, hardly flattering to her ample figure.

     Before Steve could reply, a sudden cannon-shot sound came from an eighteen-inch-square door in the wall that Steve hadn’t seen before. He almost dove to the floor, thinking it was gunfire.

     “That thing was built around 1961 when the building was constructed,” Marshall said. “I don’t know why it’s still in use. But it does keep most people from dozing during staff meetings.”

     Just then Thérèse LaFont entered, followed by a bevy of people. She moved to the center of the room and said, “Congratulations, Steve. CALIPH/4 was one of the best recruitments I’ve seen in my career. You saw an opportunity, you kept your cool, literally under fire, and you made quick, good decisions. We’re all proud of what you did. You might think about a career as a full time intelligence officer with this agency. As a result, you not only gave us a view of the target, as we asked, you went above and beyond and actually recruited the source we needed. For that, we’re awarding you the Intelligence Commendation Medal.”

     It was about five inches in diameter and bronze colored. The center design was a four-pointed star. LaFont read the certificate that accompanied the medal: “For performance of especially commendable service for an act or achievement significantly above normal duties which results in an important contribution to the mission of the Agency.”

     Everyone present, including a tight-lipped Mel, came around to shake Steve’s hand.

     Following the ceremony, Steve and Hank were joined by Philip, whom Steve had typecast as the little gray man the first time they met. Steve asked him, “I understand from Hank that al Khalil’s satellite phone password was a seven digit number. Did it mean anything?”

     “Like his social security number you mean? The number was 1141346. Most likely, those are two dates using the Muslim calendar. The first one, 14 Anno Hegira, or A.D. 732, is when the Muslim armies were defeated at Tours in France. The second number, 1346 A.H., or A.D. 1928, is when al Khalil’s grand uncle founded the Muslim Brotherhood.”

    Philip nodded, smiled an, “Excuse me,” and moved away.

     Marshall asked, “Are you ready to leave? Maybe we shouldn’t have come together, you could have stayed longer. But I’m in no hurry. This is your party.”

     Steve glanced around the room and took in the animated conversations. How many knew the Salafists first-hand and how many thought of them as an intellectual challenge to slice and dice in think pieces that were steps up the promotion ladder? He thought of Hamad’s barely contained rage in the Basilica. He thought of the sounds of the AK-47s and of the bullets hitting the bodies of his friends in the Timbuktu warehouse. He could see the muzzle of the gun barely sticking out the window of the BMW in Morocco. The catalyst who formed and harnessed the ideology behind these actions was Tariq al Khalil, the guy who almost brained the judge at the tennis tournament.

     Steve said little until he was in the car with Marshall driving off the CIA campus.

    “You know, I don’t think that the CIA is fighting the same battle as al Khalil.”

28. Paris: DGSE Headquarters

Captain Lucien Roger was in his office at the Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure when his outside line rang. He turned to pick it up, letting his eyes stop for an instant on a large photograph taken when he was still competing after graduating from France’s elite equestrian academy at Saumur in the Loire Valley. The horse’s head and front legs were already over the obstacle and he, in the uniform of a cavalry lieutenant, was looking straight ahead, holding the reins and a riding crop.

     He put the phone to his left ear. The agent on whom the captain was building his career, Tariq al Khalil, said, “We’re staying at the fort just outside Gao.”

     “Isn’t it an old Foreign Legion fort?”

     “I suppose. It is not as comfortable as a hotel but at least we have total security. Except from thieves but even hotels are not safe from thieves. There were differences of opinion from my Egyptian and Jordanian chiefs. As usual, they want action closer to home. They are like children. They don’t understand.”

    “By the way, how’s your friend Salim? Was he at the conference?”

     “Yes, he