Based on the information available, they would focus on Hassan. Ozier el-Masri worked in the same department as Hassan and would serve as their secondary focus. That left them with Hanif Akhnaten, who worked in the medical specimen packing department, which was a subsidiary of the Laboratory Group and a separate department altogether. His role had likely been limited to providing the appropriate packing supplies and medical labels to properly camouflage the shipments.
Working together, Hassan and el-Masri were perfectly situated to manifest and hide the shipments among the thousands of deliveries transported daily to the FedEx hub on the outskirts of Frankfurt International Airport. Nearly two thousand shipments had been delivered to the United States on the day in question, and FedEx delivery records for the seven known Al Qaeda cell locations didn't provide the FBI with a discernible package manifest pattern. Each of the addresses had received four separate shipments over the course of the day, giving them twenty-eight shipping records to examine.
Unfortunately, the twenty-eight shipments had originated from twenty-eight separate batches, which had been received by the Frankfurt FedEx hub over a forty-eight-hour period. The deliveries had been scheduled to leave DBM's shipping facility in a manner that had kept most of the canisters on separate planes while crossing the Atlantic, which appeared to be no easy task. FBI investigators concluded that this kind of timing would require a detailed level of information only available within the FedEx hub, suggesting the presence of another Al Qaeda conspirator.
Given that neither FedEx nor the FBI could discern a pattern in the shipments, Task Force Scorpion would rely on "overseas assets" to help them connect the dots. Petrovich glanced back at the black nylon bag sitting against the wheel well. He could definitely see using the contents of this bag within the next thirty minutes. He reached back and pulled the bag closer. Once again, they wouldn't have much time on-site, but he would make that time count. Whoever left the apartment alive with them would be taken to the safe house, where they could go to work extracting detailed information. He wasn't hopeful that they would unravel the entire shipping pattern.
So far, the task force could officially account for the suspected delivery of only twenty-eight out of fifty-eight canisters, but they had no further leads. They just needed to extract enough information to get the FBI into the game. Even one more shipment location might tip the balance. It was all a numbers game. One link leads to the next. So far, the FBI had no links, which was an extremely frightening thought.
The team drove in silence for several minutes, arriving in front of 31 Jugenheim. Petrovich found himself once again staring down a long courtyard at what seemed like an endless sea of apartment blocks. Unlike Mazari's Gallus residence, the trees and shrubs on the street and in the courtyard blocked much of their view. Farrington talked with the surveillance team as Klinkman found a questionable parking space one building down from their target building. Farrington disconnected the call as Klinkman wedged the van into a parallel spot on the Jugenheim.
"What are we looking at?" Petrovich said.
"Luke says all three of our guys are inside. They ran traces on cell phone numbers recorded in DBM's HR database. GPS trace confirms that the phones are located about 70 meters from our current position. Fifth floor," Farrington said.
"Not good. We'll have to drag at least two of them down to ground level, and I doubt either of them will come along willingly," Petrovich said.
"Maybe we should tranquilize them upon entry. Klink can move the van up to the door through the courtyard. There's plenty of room to maneuver the van on the grass," Hubner said.
"If we drive the van up, we're going to attract a lot of attention, and Herr Klinkman will not be able to help with the takedown. We're talking about three guys up there, all likely Al Qaeda operatives. If we hit them with the neurotoxins, we'll have to wait a few hours to start the interrogation. We'll need some immediate shock and awe to impress this crew. From my experience with interrogations, the most useful information comes in the first few minutes, before the subject gets their shit together. It's either that or weeks of isolation and subtle mental games. We don't have a big window of time here. We go in hot," Farrington said.
Daniel couldn't have said this better himself. He agreed completely. They needed to jar the information out of them within the next few minutes. Even taking them to the safe house would decrease the likelihood of producing timely, accurate information. Daniel had witnessed some terrifyingly cruel torture-based interrogations during his two years in Serbia, but most of these sessions had been designed to force a confession. Easy work compared to extracting truthful information.
"We'll need Klinkman in the apartment. If we decide to move them, we can send him down for the van. It won't take more than three of us to get these assholes down to the ground level. We'll have gravity on our side. Just don't get the fucking van stuck in the courtyard," Petrovich said.
"A little more credit for my driving, please? I can pull the van through the opening between those trash dumpsters. It'll be a tight fit, but I can get this thing up into the courtyard. Straight shot down the middle. Looks clear on the other end. The only problem I see is that I'll have to turn us around in the courtyard. The other end looks blocked. It would be very easy for the police to bottle us up in this courtyard," Klinkman said.
"It's our best option at the moment. We'll know if the police are alerted and can adjust accordingly. I'm hoping to get what we need inside the apartment," Farrington said.
"Don't count on it. If Al Qaeda trusted this crew with the virus shipment, they're likely to be among the best operatives in the Al Qaeda inventory," Petrovich said.
"Agreed. We hit their door in exactly six minutes. They're about two minutes from settling in on their mats for maghrib. Sunset prayer. Luke's team will confirm that they are deeply into reciting their verses before we hit the door. If they try to resist when we bust inside, Petrovich will use his pistol to disable or kill Hanif Akhnaten. That'll give us a two to one ratio to get the others under control. Stay alert inside the apartment. We need to keep Hassan and Ozier el-Masri alive for interrogation under any circumstance. The FBI is missing a big piece of the puzzle. This crew might be the only hope of piecing the whole thing together. Any questions?"
"Suppressors for everyone?" Hubner asked.
"Negative. Just Petrovich. He's the only shooter unless something is really off in the apartment. Are we good?"
They all nodded and waited to hear from Luke's team.
Luke Fortier sat on the edge of a cheap plastic folding chair and listened intently to the array of police scanners arranged on the makeshift desk bolted into the back of the Ford transporter van. The entire cargo area behind the driver and passenger seat had been hastily converted for their use during this operation. A thick padded curtain separated the two areas, providing the team with complete privacy from anyone staring through the windshield or front side windows. From the outside, the van resembled every other compact van found throughout Europe, with the exception of the unique antenna array located toward the back. A trained observer would note that this very average van had an enhanced Wi-Fi and satellite communications capability, in addition to a combined UHF/VHF landmobile radio system. Fortier's job was to communicate with Farrington's team and scan every possible police frequency for any indication of a law enforcement response to the team's entry to the target building. The other two members of the team got to do the fun work on this operation.