Food and servants were not the only things housed here. Enough ammunition and material to wage a devastating terrorist attack had been built up over the years. The caves had also given the local peasants shelter from many an invading army, and were set up to take in a large number of people with little or no advance notice. Any invader gained control only of the plains and river valleys. The Pashtun people, Yousseff’s people, had never been controlled or ruled by anyone. They had not been conquered or dominated by Alexander the Great, the Mongols, the English, the powerful and mechanized Soviet Army, the Taliban, or the Americans, with all their fabulous war technology. The caves were vast and complex, and unarguably under the sole dominion of the Pashtun mountain people. Many countries had conquered Afghanistan; none had conquered these mountains, the caves within them, or the people who took shelter there.
The upper caves were more than a mile removed from the lower entrance, and over 1,000 feet higher. The routes were complex; there were many paths and tunnel openings along the climb. Only the experienced guides knew the route from the lower caves to the upper. The Emir made this walk daily, for exercise and discipline. The upper cave opened onto the northeastern wall of the mountain, and provided a breathtaking view of the Kabul River Valley, with Kabul in the distance, and the soaring Hindu Kush beyond. It broke into a cliff wall that was more than 3,000 feet in height and was so sheer that no man had yet climbed it. The opening was more than 20 feet wide, and 12 feet high, and the cliff wall angled out over it, making the cave invisible from the sky. Only a low flight pass through the valley, with dangerous and unpredictable crosswinds and along precisely the correct angle, would reveal it. Even then it appeared to be only an innocent recession in the cliff wall. The Emir had spent many hours on this very cliff edge, in solitary study and silent meditation, without fear of discovery. There was seldom any activity in this highest reach. It was here that the meeting was going to take place.
When Yousseff entered the chamber, he found the Emir sitting robed and cross-legged on the floor, his beard long, his one living eye a deep black orb, recessed in a crevassed face. The other eye was white and dead, burned and destroyed by torturers many years earlier. He sat with his Egyptian and Pakistani engineers. At the outer perimeter of the large cave stood the Emir’s armed guards.
The Emir saw Yousseff appear in the doorway, and motioned for him to sit down. The cave floor was richly carpeted, and tapestries hung on the walls. It was lit with soft lights, creating fleeting reflections on weathered tribal faces. One set of electrical cables ran along the wall, leading to the other caves. Yousseff observed all of this silently, making himself familiar with his surroundings, and then sat down across from the Emir.
The Emir had been born Gul Zhar Samaradan. As a child he studied in the Madrasas in Pakistan, but in the early ’80s he had joined with many of his colleagues and taken up arms against the invading Soviets. He fought courageously and well and was held in high regard by his clan when the Soviets left. He had been an important part of the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan. Then, in the wake of the terrorist attacks on America, he’d been captured by the Americans. It was thought at the time that he knew the whereabouts of the terrorists responsible for the attacks. The Americans sought to extract this information from him, but to no avail. The CIA had eventually decided to send him to a military base in Uzbekistan. The secret police of that nation were advanced and very effective in the art of questioning their prisoners.
The Emir had ultimately escaped, but not before losing, in a most painful way, toes from both feet, a number of fingers, and the sight in one eye. His back was a mass of scars, and his genitalia were covered with the scars of third-degree electrical burns. He returned to the mountains of the Sefid Koh a changed man, harder, more determined, and consumed with rage against, above all, the Americans.
This was the man with whom Yousseff was now doing business. For several minutes after his entrance, no one spoke. Yousseff was intently studying the plans and diagrams he had been handed, and hadn’t yet greeted the others. At length the Emir broke the silence.
“Can you do it?” he asked Yousseff.
“Yes, I think I can. We already have the Semtex. But this plot will take much planning, and many people will have to be involved,” Yousseff replied. His face remained passive, but his brain had kicked into overdrive. The possibilities. The magnificent possibilities. When he had first received the messages from the Emir, inviting him to take control of this mission, he had been doubtful. He had put some of his people to work on it, and had quickly uncovered the Emir’s plans. With the pieces the Emir already had in place, and the connections and funding Yousseff himself possessed, he had quickly realized that the plan would work. And that he would make a fortune in the execution of the mission. It had all started with the simple theft of the Semtex. This hadn’t been difficult. The Emir’s tendrils ran far afield, and were powerful enough to find supporters within Libya’s Benghazi Marine Base, in the warehouse where a substantial portion of the Semtex had been stored. From the point of the theft it would be a race against time; his people would be running a gauntlet, focused on a destination that would take them through dangers too numerous to mention. But it could be done. And the Emir would make it worthwhile.
Yousseff was here to finalize the arrangements, and to start negotiations regarding control of the mission and payment for his time and efforts. He didn’t tell the Emir that he had already set his own pieces in motion.
“We have six people undercover in California,” the Emir said, interrupting Yousseff’s thoughts. “Four of them have been in place for many years. Here is the name of the leader, and his telephone number, and the code sequence. Two of them are licensed and have experience driving large trucks.” The Emir handed Yousseff a sheet of paper with the information. “The other two live at the Grand Mosque of south Los Angeles. Here is the number of their caretaker. You should use them for any delivery needs.”
“Thank you, this will help.” Yousseff tucked the folded sheet of paper into a pocket. He looked at the blueprints and then at the engineers. “Are you certain that a bomb of this design can destroy the structure?” he asked the engineers.
“Yes,” replied one. “But the tolerances must be exact. There can be no deviation. Even a change by as little as one millimeter would alter the focus of the blast, and the structure would withstand the attack. And more importantly, the weapon must be placed at precisely the right spot. Again, small deviations will cause the mission to fail.” He pointed to a number of the plans scattered around the floor of the cave.
Yousseff looked at the Emir. “I can have the weapon built. I will use your people to deliver the explosives. If your engineers are correct, I can do the rest.”
“I can assure you, sir, that if you build the weapon according to these specifications, and place it where we say it should be placed, the structure will fail catastrophically. We have obtained the weapon design directly from Livermore Laboratories in the United States. We have independently reached the same result. This weapon will destroy that structure,” one of the engineers said, with some vigor. “That is a certainty.”
“Once the structure is destroyed, a large part of America will fall into chaos, and the loss of life and property will be significant. It will far surpass what our warriors have already done,” said the Emir. He gazed directly at Yousseff with a smoldering look. “Far surpass.”
Yousseff shook his head at the madness that burned in the man’s eye. He was not doing this for religious or political reasons, and could not understand those who did. “I will have great expenses, and will incur grave risk. Any of my men may be injured, incarcerated, or killed,” he replied in soft and even tones. “My ships might be seized, my airplanes shot down. Men have already died. I require funds for this operation.”