Kamal was never short of a word and jumped to his feet "It is an honor to come back to the Brotherhood and join you for a meal."
"You are extremely fortunate to have a place such as this to feel part of. When I first came to Boston to study, this facility was not available, and I lived on campus. This was terrible, the food was appalling, and I was even physically assaulted for being different. Follow Islam diligently and study hard. It is young people like you who can make a huge difference in shaping the world as we know it for the future."
Kamal sat to rousing applause.
He made certain that he met every student, one in particular made an impression.
"This is Omar" gestured Amir "his girlfriend is famous."
"Hello Omar, tell me about your girlfriend" said Kamal with interest.
"I have been living in Washington D.C. for two years before I came here. My girlfriend Katie graduated political science last year. She found a job working as a junior secretary with the Vice-President. She works in the White House."
"That is most impressive" said Kamal now excited "I would like to stay in touch with you."
Kamal passed a business card to the young man "Please send me an email to the address on this card, it is important to widen your network of friends."
Kamal had the feeling that someday he would like to know more about what was happening in the White House.
Chapter 35
Minsk is a port town on the Sea of Okhotsk in the Far East of Russia.
The shipyard at Minsk is adjoined by a small private boatyard. This is the place that a handful of Russian men disappear to every weekend, to work on their lifelong projects to fulfill their dreams.
Most of the part finished boats here will never ever see the water. Their owners seem to spend more time sipping vodka in the bars surrounding the waterfront than toiling over their beloved craft.
Dimitri Ostrowski was not like most of the other Russian builders, as he was to be found in the boatyard every spare moment he had. Dimitri’s daytime job was as a fiberglass worker in a factory. He helped make fiberglass furniture and refrigeration liners for the large ships in the main Minsk shipyard.
The beauty of his daytime job was that he was able to keep off cuts from the fiberglass matting rolls. As well, he smuggled out of the yard in his thermos, a liter of fiberglass resin every day. He needed six hundred liters for his project, and he was on schedule.
Dimitri was not born in Russia, but in Iran. His father was a diplomat from Ukraine and was stationed in Tehran for five years, and he married a local Iranian woman called Pasha. Unfortunately for Dimitri, his father was killed in a car accident, and Dimitri was raised as a devout Muslim.
Twenty years later, Dimitri was smuggled back to Russia by the Brotherhood. For the last two years Dimitri had worked in the factory.
He had no idea why his mission was to build a sailing boat in his spare time, but he knew he would build the best boat he could.
A custom boat hull is built upside down. He made eleven frames of shapes from the Bruce Roberts plans he had been given back in Tehran. These were mounted on what looked like a long table. Then thin timber strips were nailed to the frames and these gave the boat their shape. After that, thin foam was stitched to the strips then fiberglass mat was laid over this. The polyester resin applied in small amounts from a bucket set to give the strength to the structure. Afterwards the mat was rolled with a notched steel roller to remove the trapped air and make the finished product rock hard. Because of the cold temperatures, lots of hardener had to be mixed with the resin to initiate the chemical reaction that caused the resin to heat up and set.
The keel for his centre cockpit ketch stuck up in the air like a submarine sail.
The hull was finished today and there was much excitement in the boat yard.
All the regulars had gathered to give Dimitri a hand, as a thirty five foot boat was not an easy thing to turn over.
"Bring the gantry over here" shouted Dimitri to Ivan, the only one of his comrades that he really knew at all.
Ivan and another of the regulars pushed the gantry over the uneven ground and positioned it over the hull. They put some timber under the wheels so it would not sink into the earth.
Dimitri fastened two slings from a three ton chain block right underneath the frame then slowly pulled on the chain.
Ten minutes later despite groans from the straining timberwork underneath, the hull and frame lifted clear of the ground. Then the guys slowly rolled the hull over onto its side, then all the way over until its keel pointed to the ground. A timber cradle was hastily nailed together to keep the hull upright. The boat was lowered onto the cradle. Lastly, the timber frame was pulled out from inside the hull with the chain block.
Dimitri could not help crying when he saw the hull upright. It was a thing of beauty. As soon as his cheer squad left, he followed orders to the letter. He walked to a nearby bar, inserted a coin into a pay phone and dialed a local number, the same way he had done every week for nearly two years and reported his progress. He was surprised when he was told to stray from the building plans. Dimitri was told to build the deck before installing the lead in the keel. In addition he was told to quit his job and that he would be transferred some money to buy the rest of the materials.
Dimitri complied with his orders to the letter, and four weeks later the deck was finished.
Part III
Hide & Seek
Chapter 36
By the time President Connolly arrived, Admiral Nelson and Adam Scott, Director of the CIA were both waiting outside.
This was perhaps the only time that a President in a robe and slippers had opened the door and ushered in his own guests.
"Come in gentlemen. Please be seated. Let’s get on with this." The President motioned to the coffee table and more comfortable chairs than those that surrounded the Resolute desk.
The chief spook was the fifty seven year old CIA Director Adam Scott. He was newly appointed to the job by President Connolly and he too was still settling into his new job.
"Sir this is extremely sensitive information, we thought it best just to brief only you in the first instance."
The six feet four inch balding sixty six year old Admiral Nelson stood to his full height and began to read from his notes "Sir in the early hours of this morning in the Gulf of Arabia, a small propeller driven aircraft approached the three mile exclusion zone around our aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan. The guided missile cruiser support ship USS Port Royal determined that the aircraft was using a bogus transponder code and called the aircraft on the radio and told the aircraft to turn around and leave the area immediately.
There was no response, and Captain Johnson on board Port Royal followed emergency procedures to the letter and initiated a successful missile strike against the offending aircraft.
What makes this situation so serious Mr. President, is that our search and rescue team that were deployed to the area to search for survivors spotted dead fish in the water and did a routine radiation scan. Their Geiger counter readings were off the chart.