Blowback

EIGHTY-THREE

As they drove through the tracts of housing complexes outside Riyadh, Reynolds talked about the militants he had been keeping tabs on, why he had decided to follow them, and what he had learned. Then it was Harvath’s turn.

Over the next ten minutes, Harvath provided a brief summary of their investigation and everything they had been through. He finished by explaining why Reynolds hadn’t been able to find Khalid Alomari and what the man had been doing during his long absences from Saudi Arabia. When Harvath reached the point when the al-Qaeda assassin was killed, he looked in the rearview mirror and saw Jillian avert her eyes out the window.

“You did the right thing,” said Reynolds in an attempt to break the silence that had settled over them.

“I know,” said Jillian. “I know.”

“Let me ask you something else,” the man continued, “about this illness. Gary says that it has just shown up in the United States. How’d it get in and where are they seeing it?”

“As far as the FBI, DHS, CDC, and USAMRIID teams can figure out, it started with a Muslim food importer who shipped a package UPS from Hamtramck, Michigan, to Manhattan,” said Harvath. “Apparently, anyone who has come in contact with it has become infected, including the importer himself.”

Using the rearview mirror to look at Jillian, Reynolds asked, “Do you have any idea how the illness is spread?”

“No, we don’t. All we know is that according to the Aga Khan, immunity to the illness is transmitted somehow via water. A holy water of some sort that only Muslims have access to.”

“Only Sunni Muslims,” added Harvath. “Which is why Gary thought we could help each other out. You said that one of the things you discovered in that warehouse was bottled water, right?”

“Tons of it,” replied Reynolds. “The warehouse was enormous, and they had the stuff stacked floor to ceiling. There had to be over a million bottles in there, easy.”

“What about the documents you found?”

“That brings us back to my question,” he said, looking to Jillian once again. “Could the illness be spread by contact with things that had been purposefully contaminated?”

“Sure,” responded Jillian. “The ancients were very fond of lacing fields they knew their enemies were going to pass through with toxic poisons. The enemy would walk through, and the substance would enter their bodies through direct dermal contact or respiratory inhalation. They were even known to contaminate foodstuffs, water supplies, or everyday goods and leave them for the enemy to ‘discover,’ and that would be that. Why are you asking?”

“From what Gary told me, the contaminated package in the U.S. contained some sort of powdered spice made from ground cherry pits. It was being shipped to an ex — Saudi national who owns a string of very interesting businesses.”

“What kind of businesses?”

“Gas stations, convenience stores, currency exchanges, payday loan and check-cashing operations throughout the Northeast.”

“So?”

“So what do all those businesses have in common?”

After a moment, Harvath responded, “Cash. They all deal very heavily in cash.”

“Bingo,” said Reynolds. “And all of those businesses encounter little or no regulation. They’re virtual money-laundering machines.”

“Or money-dirtying machines.”

“According to the list I saw, these guys have operations throughout the United States, even in Alaska. Short of getting someone inside the Treasury Department, I can’t think of a better way to compromise large amounts of American currency. The question is, though, could they use that powdered spice to contaminate paper money?”

“If what I learned in the Secret Service is any indication,” replied Harvath, “then definitely.”

“How?”

“Our paper is very fibrous, and it doesn’t take much for things to get embedded in those fibers. The best example would be cocaine. According to statistics, trace amounts of cocaine are believed to infect four out of every five bills in circulation.”

“That’s impossible,” answered Reynolds. “There aren’t that many people doing drugs in America.”

“The drug users may be the root source, but they represent an almost negligible minority when it comes to how bills get contaminated. When a powdered substance like cocaine is very finely milled, it passes easily from one surface to another. The biggest contamination culprits are ATMs. Once infected, they were shown to spread trace amounts of cocaine to all the bills they distributed. Counting and sorting machines like those used in banks and casinos are just as bad. Even the machines tested in several Federal Reserve banks were shown to be contaminated.

“Basically, a single bill with trace amounts of a substance like cocaine can infect an entire cash drawer, and when that cash encounters a counting or sorting machine, which fans the bills, the contamination grows exponentially. It makes perfect sense.”

Reynolds looked back at Jillian. “You’re the scientist. What do you think?”

“From a personal standpoint, I think it’s terrifying. But from a strictly scientific point of view, it’s absolutely brilliant.”

Harvath hadn’t liked it when al-Qaeda’s strategic genius was praised after the September 11 attacks, and he didn’t like hearing this current terrorist strategy described in such a way either, but he understood what she meant. “So is this a viable means of infection?”

“It makes sense,” said Jillian. “Contaminated currency would be a perfect, virtually unstoppable way to spread it. It would also have a chilling psychological effect on financial markets worldwide. The American dollar would be quite literally worthless. Not only would al-Qaeda succeed in killing scores of infidels, but they would also decimate the American economy. Quite a one-two punch.”

Harvath turned to Reynolds and asked, “How much time before we get to the warehouse?”

“About five more minutes.”

“Is your cell phone secure?”

“More secure than most in the kingdom, why?”

“Just in case we don’t walk out of that warehouse, Gary needs to know what we’ve discovered.”

As Harvath raised the phone to his ear, he glanced in the Land Cruiser’s side-view mirror and watched as a blue Mercedes behind them turned off onto a small side street and another car merged into traffic three lengths back. It was the same car that had been behind them when they turned onto the main road leaving Riyadh Air Base.

Cupping his hand over the mouthpiece, he said to Reynolds, “I think we’ve got company.”