“What about Candace Axtell?”
“She’s with Ms. Rayburn.”
“And you are?”
“I’m her fiancée, Oliver Bessom.”
“You’re Ms. Rayburn’s fiancée?”
“No, Candace Axtell’s.”
“So, you were here when the suspects were detained?” asked Gostoff. He was not happy with any of this. He demanded, “I’d like to hear an explanation for what’s going on here.”
“Actually, no. I’ve just arrived. Gene Tremblay and I were following some of the terrorists to this warehouse. We arrived right after Lieutenant Saunders and his men apprehended them.” Oliver had pointed first to Gene and then to the lieutenant while explaining this.
Gostoff was getting more and more frustrated with what he perceived as a run-around. Noting the American soldier apparently in charge was only a first lieutenant, his skepticism concerning everything grew. He again demanded, “Okay, I want to know exactly what happened here. Why wasanyoneapprehended? What was the evidence suggesting WIJO terrorists were involved?” He looked around at each of those gathered in front of him. His team members, meanwhile, had crowded into the office behind him but were waiting for him to provide instructions.
Tracy stepped forward and said, “Initially, we were acting on information obtained by our task force identifying Talib Mansoor as a terrorist. This was based on phone calls made to a WIJO leader in Afghanistan. Talib owns a liquor store in Leipzig which we … Oliver, Gene, Amanda and I … we visited there this morning.”
“And, who areyou?” asked Gostoff, startled that such a young girl was explaining things. He did not hide his exasperation.
“I’m Tracy McGonagle and the others brought me with them since I understand Pashto. When we were in Talib’s liquor store, I overheard a conversation confirming the information we’d been given. Since our task force was able to locate this warehouse, operated by Talib, Amanda and I came out here to investigate.” Pointing to Amanda, she continued, “She speaks German. She and I pretended we had car trouble and came into this office and asked the two men in here for assistance.”
Gostoff looked at Amanda, then Gene, then Oliver. “You are all members of an American task force?” His tone showed he was finding this incredulous.
“They are, but I’m not. They brought me along since I know Pashto.”
Rolling his eyes, Gostoff asked, “Where did you learn Pashto? You don’t look like someone from the Mid-East.”
Tracy smiled and said, “At West Point. I’m a cadet there in my second year.” Pointing to Captain Bonomo, she introduced him as one of the TAC Officers at the academy. Then she introduced John as her boyfriend. “We came to Germany this week with Candace Axtell hoping WIJO might react to her visit. That worked, since it was phone calls about her which our task force intercepted, enabling them to identify Talib.”
“Why didn’t your task force provide us with this information? Why would you Americans visit this warehouse without contacting us?” Gostoff was clearly annoyed.
“We had no concrete evidence. Only information which we realized the German authorities would not be able to act upon since it was merely verbal, without any documentation. That’s why Amanda and I stopped in here. We hoped to find evidence which you could accept. And, we did. There’s a room full of explosives back there which we believe you can match to what was used at that nightclub in Munich.”
Not wanting to listen to this story any further without seeing this so-called evidence, he demanded, “All right. Let me see what you’ve found.”
Two minutes later, he was looking at a room full of weapons, explosives and bombing devices which indeed represented significant evidence of unlawful activity. He’d have to have their lab which had examined the debris in Munich confirm there was a match to the explosives used there, but things were now looking much better. He might not be on some wild goose chase after all.
“Let me see your prisoners,” asked Gostoff after he’d seen enough. He brought several members of his team with him to the room where Ravi and the others were being detained.
Ravi immediately began talking when Gostoff entered the room. “We are innocent. These Americans had no right to threaten us with weapons and lock us up in here. We have done nothing wrong. We don’t know anything about what you’ve found in that other room. We’re the victims here!”
-----
Linda and Candace finally arrived, along with the Army guys escorting them. They had stopped at both apartments where the terrorists had been staying for the past several weeks. They scooped up blankets, sheets, pillows plus any other items which might contain residual energy. Candace was very familiar with what items Oliver might sense energy from with his supernatural ability. Then they’d continued to the warehouse where, thanks to the call from Captain Bonomo, they were aware of how Gostoff and his team had been handling things so far.
Gostoff came out to the office to meet them, leaving the eight terrorist prisoners for his team to take care of. He’d quickly tired of listening to Ravi’s complaints and gave orders for the prisoners to be brought back to his office building in Leipzig where they’d be formally charged with various crimes, once all the evidence had been fully examined. He’d quickly realized none of them were ready to betray the others in their group and he wanted to learn what Linda Rayburn and her team might know. He’d been told there might be another bombing and wanted to get all the resources of his agency involved in stopping that, if at all possible.
After introductions were made, Linda said, “We’re quite happy to let the German authorities take full credit for this arrest, Herr Gostoff. Our task force wishes to keep all aspects of our involvement secret, due to security reasons. Some of the tools and methods which were involved are highly classified, as I’m sure you will understand.”
“Well, Tracy here did mention there were phone conversations between Talib Mansoor and some WIJO leader in Afghanistan,” replied Gostoff. “And, my supervisor says there might be another bombing attempt? What can you tell me about that?”
Linda nodded and said, “When Tracy and Amanda first arrived here, there were four other men besides Saeed and Tariq, the two you now have in custody. Ravi and the five men he brought arrived later. By that time, the van with those other four men had departed. Based on what Tracy heard before they realized she could understand Pashto, that van was headed out with bombing devices the men had loaded into it, with plans to attack their next target. Tonight.”
“Why didn’t Lieutenant Saunders and his men stop that van and arrest those terrorists as they were leaving here then?”
“At the time, it had not been established there were any explosives and bombing devices. Those were discovered after the lieutenant and his men rushed in to rescue the girls. Once they accomplished that … without any gunfire, by the way … well, then they discovered that room with the explosives during their subsequent search of the place.”
