Tariq pushed Amanda down into one of the chairs. Then he asked Saeed, “What’s going on? What have they done?”
Saeed was staring at Tracy and said, “Talib thinks these women were at his store earlier today. They might be spying on us.” He approached as Tracy took her seat in the other chair. Then, in Pashto, he yelled at her. “You can speak Pashto? How does a girl from Paris know our language? And, was that English just now?”
Tracy wanted to stall for time so she began talking, in Pashto. “I study languages at the university. But, we have done nothing wrong. My cousin and I stopped to buy some wine at a store in Leipzig today. This Talib person you speak of. Is he your boss? I think we met him at that store. Why does he accuse us of being spies? We have done nothing.”
While she rambled on at the two men, she glanced around the office. She noted there were several sprinkler heads mounted in the ceiling, which was only eight feet high rather than the thirty feet typical out in the warehouse.
Just then, Amanda said in English, “Now would be good.”
Tracy immediately created a small fireball just below four of the sprinkler heads near Saeed with more than enough heat to trigger each of them. As they began spraying water down, Saeed and Tariq were both caught by surprise. When the office door flew open and armed men rushed in, they were slow to react. Tracy and Amanda, meanwhile, dropped to the floor.
Before Saeed had a chance to fire his gun at anyone, he heard all the shouts from the intruders telling him to drop his weapon. Realizing he had no other option, he did so. Then, he and Tariq were forced to sit in the two chairs while others took charge of things.
Lieutenant Saunders yelled to one of his men, “Go shut off the water valve for all these sprinkler heads.” Then he asked Tracy and Amanda, “Are you two ladies okay? We came as soon as we got your text.”
Jesse could see the girls were fine. With a big grin, he said, “Lucky that sprinkler system suddenly decided to go off. I told the lieutenant not to wait for anything but to bust in here as soon as he could do so.”
The sprinkler system soon was shut off and things quickly got sorted out. The office had been thoroughly drenched and was quite a mess. Fortunately, however, none of the electrical systems had shorted out. A couple guys began mopping and cleaning up.
Tracy gave the distributor rotor for her vehicle to one of the men to reinstall. However, they decided to leave the vehicle parked where it was with the hood still up since that was what Ravi would be expecting. The other two vehicles were then brought inside the warehouse behind the bay doors to get them out of sight.
Finally, after locking up Saeed and Tariq in one of the storerooms, they began a thorough search of the warehouse. When they opened the storeroom which Amanda had scented the odor of explosives coming from, sure enough, they found it contained several bombing devices along with plenty of materials and explosives to create even more. Plus, there were various weapons. Finally, they had the proof they needed.
They alerted Linda to have Lieutenant Colonel Schermerhorn put in a call for the German authorities. Then they waited for Ravi and the men he was bringing to arrive.
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Ravi had only one of the five men with him while the other four were in the car right behind him. Since he was driving, he had the man with him accept the call coming in from Talib, telling him to put it on speakerphone. Then he answered, “Yes, Talib. This is Ravi.”
“How far away are you?”
“Probably ten minutes, fifteen at the most. Why?” He could tell from Talib’s tone that he was upset about something.
“Dhanial and those guys with him have already left. They loaded one of the vans with two of our bombing devices and are driving to Frankfurt. As you suggested earlier, they intend to bomb that nightclub we have next on our list.”
“Do you want me to try to catch up with him? Or, maybe try to get to that nightclub before he does so I can stop him?”
“No, it’s probably too late for that. Besides, Saeed tells me there are two women in his office right now. I want you to see if they might be the same ones who were in our store earlier today, right before I sent you to check on Dhanial. Remember the married couple? She had her cousin and the cousin’s boyfriend with her.”
Ravi was surprised to hear this and asked, “Why do you suspect they might be the same women? And, if they are, what about the husband and the boyfriend?”
“I’ve asked Saeed to hold them until you get there. I don’t know where their men are. But, from the descriptions he gave me, I’m pretty sure they are the same women. They claim their car broke down and they needed a tow. I actually had called and arranged for that earlier but, after Saeed described them to me, I just now cancelled that tow truck. These women might be spies and … well … you know how worried I’ve been all week.”
Yes, Ravi knew how paranoid Talib had been, ever since hearing about Candace Axtell and Oliver Bessom. He said, “Okay, I will check out these women. If they are spies, I’ll let you know. You’re still planning to come out here, right?”
“Yes, we need to all stay together right now. I have tried calling Dhanial but he doesn’t answer. We need to listen to the news to learn if he does bomb that nightclub. Meanwhile, we will need to clear everything out of our warehouse and hide everyone at one of my safe houses until we know for sure about these spies and whether Dhanial succeeds or not.”
“Okay, Talib. I will call you as soon as I’m at the warehouse and get a look at these two women. It should only be another five minutes or so.”
Chapter Twelve
Mar 19, 2020
Upon Ravi’s arrival, Lieutenant Saunders and his men quickly surrounded both cars. With weapons pointed at the occupants, the capture was without incident. In addition to being surprised, the men had not been armed and had no choice but to surrender. Ravi and all five of his men were brought inside to join Saeed and Tariq.
When Ravi spotted Tracy and Amanda, he began swearing in Pashto. Then, in German, he snarled, “Spies! Talib was right! You were at his store today. What’s the meaning of this?” He hoped to feign innocence and somehow convince the men pointing guns at him that a mistake was being made.
Amanda answered in German, saying, “We have found the explosives which Talib has been storing here, Ravi. That evidence will prove Talib has been operating a terrorist cell and that you all are responsible for that bombing in Munich. These American soldiers will be turning you over to the German authorities.”
