Jihad

CHAPTER 46

Tommy Karr had worked with Bundesnachrichtendienst, the German intelligence service also known by the abbreviation BND, in the past, but even if he hadn’t, he would have had no trouble spotting the two agents waiting for him near the customs gate when he landed in Munich. In their thirties, they were recruiting-poster types, tall, straight, and impeccable in black suits that looked custom made. They were the best dressed men in the terminal, and probably the city.

“Hey there, guys,” said Karr, walking up to them, “lookin’ for little ol’ me?”

The agents blinked in unison.

“Kjartan Magnor-Karr from America. You can call me Tommy. Do I have to go through these lines or what?”

“No” was the answer, and Karr was whisked through a side door to a Mercedes sedan for the drive to BND headquarters in Pullach. The building was probably the cleanest Karr had ever been in. He could see his reflection in the floor as he walked across the reception area, and the hallways gleamed so brightly he considered putting on his sunglasses.

Waiting in the secure conference room was Heda Hess, an Abteilung 5 supervisor who had investigated al-Qaeda for several years. Accompanying her were half a dozen other officers from Abteilung 5—Section 5 in English, it was the antiterror group. Two men from the Federal Bureau for the Protection of the Constitution (generally known by its German initials, BfV), which also investigated extremist groups, had also been invited and came in a few minutes after Karr.

“Herr Magnor-Karr, welcome,” said Hess.

The way she put out her hand made Karr think she expected him to kiss it. He resisted the impulse to click his heels — no German he had ever met had anything approaching a sense of humor — and introduced himself to the others.

Desk Three had forwarded information on Marid Dabir to the Bundesnachrichtendienst already; Karr’s job was to put the information into perspective and then help in any way he could. Referring to Red Lion only as an ongoing operation, he told the Germans that Dabir had resurfaced in Turkey. There he had met with another top al-Qaeda official, who had probably ordered Dabir to proceed on a European operation that was part of a planned fall offensive. The targets were believed to be economic, possibly related in some way to petroleum or energy assets, but they had yet to be identified.

Half of the faces in the room dropped when he said that.

“Problem?” Karr asked.

“Marid Dabir took a flight from Berlin to Baden an hour ago,” Hess told him. “Baden is about thirty miles from MiRO, the largest petroleum refinery in Western Europe.”