Chapter Fourteen
They arrived at Tenerife South-Reina Sofia Airport late afternoon and by the evening had booked into their suite of rooms in Los Cristianos. The following day they hired a car and drove around the area familiarising themselves with their location as James had told them the area the terrorists used in the other dimension. The terrorists were already on the island and the three of them needed to be careful and act as tourists by meandering along the road taking pictures seemingly in no hurry. They needed a place to observe undetected and found a room in a small guest house overlooking the location and set up a camera directed at the building of interest. Checking the rear of the same building they identified two other entrances and knew there was a basement. James hid two small cameras where John could monitor them from the room taking note of any people entering and leaving and after a few days, a pattern emerged and he recorded the time when people entered and left and the number of boxes and other materials being delivered, some late into the night through one of the back entrances. They had face recognition software which identified who entered and left and the time. Within the week they had their pattern and were ready to move to the next stage.
They checked who had recently leased the premises and narrowed it down to three companies one being from Saudi Arabia, the other two in off-shore tax havens. Identifying potential targets, they followed likely individuals and had a name, Ghaziyah and the hotel she stayed at and established the others were staying at a rented villa. It soon became apparent that other individuals from their face-recognition surveillance cameras entered and exited, and the jigsaw of random events was fitting together. Other names soon came into the mix, and they were sure they had the right people in their sights.
John searched the names and identified two other women often found in the company of Ghaziyah, Eiliyah, a dentist, and Kanval, an infectious disease specialist. All dressed in expensive western clothes and, when by the pool, wore bikinis, not what one would expect from Islamic terrorists. Later, when the names of Hadi and Sadeen cropped up and turned out to be epidemiologists the picture coalesced.
"Should we try and get into their offices?"
She looked at James and shook her head. "We go nowhere near, from what we know it's a laboratory and that means they are doing something with the Ebola virus so we keep away."
"We could tip off the authorities and let them sort it out," suggested James.
"We stay under the radar and observe. We have only identified a few individuals, there looks to be others and we need to place names to faces. To mount an attack of this magnitude takes considerable resources and a lot of organising so at this stage, we need to focus on intelligence gathering."
"I've seen how the violence, distrust, heartache and sheer terror affects people. Let's give out the warning and stop these criminals before it goes any further."
"We will catch a few individuals here but it will rise again in another country. This is the start of the war and we need to cut off the head of the snake, not the tail or it will shed its skin and come back bigger and stronger."
James was exasperated. "We can't allow them to set the virus loose and don't know how much time we have. Is that what you want?" Knowing he'd just made a foolish remark.
"Love, I'm not deigning that remark with a reply."
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say that. I see destruction and death before us. If this virus becomes airborne here, within a few weeks... you know what I'm saying."
"These are not your standard terrorists. They have wealth, education, knowledge and people in positions of power who are helping and protecting them. It wouldn't surprise me if already other active cells are gearing up around the world."
"They must have developed a vaccine," suggested Carolyn.
"They may well have, but it would make little difference either way; as a country implodes, they'll be ready and waiting to take power."
"That makes it more important to get into their laboratory and take the vaccine and have it analysed."
Carolyn looked at John. "Still no," moderating her voice. "We haven't got the protective clothes. Even wearing them, we'd be so restricted we'd be unable to protect ourselves against attack."
James wasn't happy but what they said made sense. He trusted them and would do it their way. They were a team and by majority, he would comply. He had made his protest and aired his view and now it was time to bed down preferences and act as a united team. They brought William's investigative team into the mix, a few arriving out the following day; they watched and collected evidence, matched names to faces, identified backgrounds, family members, educational levels and professions. Planted listening devices when safe to do so, learned about the vaccine, the kidnappings, human experiments and the perfection of a canned virus.
The more the evidence built the more they realised the danger facing the world. The leader's name was Abisali, a doctor; Dr. Jul and Dr. Yar, chemists, Taban, a pathologist, Abyan, Adham, Diya a Dir, Fatik trained killers, and equally educated and the list lengthened. Money never seemed a problem. They stayed at the best hotels, had rented a villa and mixed in effortlessly with western lifestyles and when talking with anyone outside their group were tolerant of other's viewpoints, but when alone with their fellow soldiers in Allah their true colours showed. Inured, uncompromising, with a repugnant hatred of infidels, more so against homosexuals, lesbians and adultery, believing the only just sentence was death by stoning or thrown off towers. They believed in the glory and power of human suicide bombers; martyrdom was the greatest gift a true believer could donate to change the world into their distorted image of the good life.
James was resting on a lounger near the pool in the hotel where some of the terrorists stayed. Normally a few of them lunched together and he occasionally lunched in the same place. He had a small recorder that could pick up voices outside the distances of human hearing and listened as Eiliyah and Kanval talked together directing the small listening device towards them. To any casual observer, it seemed James was listening to music, but these were trained professionals and paid attention to anything that remotely looked suspicious. Soon they were joined by another woman, Yafiah; she was new and had just flown in from Turkey. James, thinking the best form of defence was attack, stood up and walked over to them and introduced himself; two women greeted him with a smile but Yafiah frowned at him and he noticed Ghaziyah move her foot towards her giving her a little nudge which got a forced smile out of her.
"I been watching you; I've seen you around before. How long are you staying?"
"Another few days, and you?" replied Kanval.
"A few days then back to work in the UK." He smiled, evading specifics.
"We are here another five days," Ghaziyah added, realising she had already said too much.
"Can I join you?" If what she said was correct James needed to move fast. They were preparing to leave the island which meant they were about to unleash their terror but James didn't know it was to be the next day.
