Blowback

After a few more moments of reflection, Harvath realized he had allowed himself to be blown off course and once again tried to bring the conversation back around to the matter at hand. “Why don’t we talk about what it is we’re driving into.”

With time being of the essence, Reynolds avoided any roundabout side road routes, swung onto the main access road into Riyadh, and pinned the accelerator. “As far as what’s going on in the city itself?”

“Yeah.”

“You saw the ventilation that’s been added to the back of my truck?”

“That many holes are hard to miss,” answered Harvath. “You said something about the natives getting restless?”

“The mullahs have whipped a lot of the faithful, particularly the young men, into a frenzy.”

“Over what?” asked Jillian from the backseat.

“They claim that the Royal Family has ordered the police to crack down on all militants, even the moderate ones, in response to pressure from America.”

“There’s definitely some pressure being applied here,” said Harvath, “but it’s not from America.”

“That’s just it. The Royal Family seems to be playing right into this guy Kalachka’s hands. They’re arresting militants left and right.”

“Why?”

“They seem to believe that there’s a strong possibility a coup might be afoot.”

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?”