“Let’s see here, what else…Much like the Muslim Brotherhood, the Medina Society promotes the Koran and the Hadith as being the only proper basis for a properly pious society. Also, like the Muslim Brotherhood, it rejects most forms of Westernization, modernization, or secularization. Unlike the Muslim Brotherhood, which has tried to gain power lawfully by putting up slates of candidates for election, the Medina Society attempts to accomplish its goals through force, fear, and intimidation. Among its objectives are the total elimination of the Israeli state, the reversion of Palestine to Muslim control, the banishment of non-Muslims from government, the reinstatement of Islamic theocracy…How am I doing so far?”
“Pretty good. You left out that they also favor the return of women to traditional roles, the widespread use of clitoridectomy to staunch female sexuality, and the legalization of honor killings.”
“So, basically, they’re a bunch of guys who make the Taliban look like moderates,” Storm concluded.
“Very good. Jones has prepared you well.”
“Nah, I just read the newspaper. Anyhow, what makes you think they’re behind this?”
“Because as I said, fifty million dollars buys a lot of information. And it also buys offers of assistance. I’ve yet to infiltrate the Medina Society itself, but I’ve now had several groups contact the people I’ve put on the ground in the Middle East. I’ve now heard from three separate sources that the Medina Society is behind this. And…are you ready to suspend your disbelief for a moment, Derrick?”
Storm said, “Consider my disbelief disengaged.”
Ingrid smiled and perched closer to the end of her seat. Her voice grew hushed. “According to my sources, the Medina Society has created an incredibly powerful, futuristic, high-energy laser beam. It is powered by a substance called promethium, which was previously thought to be so rare as to effectively not exist in nature. But they have apparently found a large store of it. It sounds sort of wild to me, but once again it is something we have confirmed through multiple sources.”
Storm sighed. “Well, fortunately and/or unfortunately, my intelligence lines up with yours on this one. I can confirm they have made a promethium laser beam. I captured one myself. But, obviously, they have at least one other.”
“From what I understand, they have the capacity and the materials to make more. The weapon that shot down the planes headed for Dubai is potentially just one of several. What I’ve yet to determine is how they have the expertise to make such a sophisticated weapon.”
“I have,” Storm said, who then told Karlsson about William McRae, the missing scientist.
“And no one in the United States government was even concerned this man was missing,” she said, shaking her head. “It is so typical of government: once a citizen’s usefulness is perceived to be through, the citizen is treated as disposable.”
Storm let Karlsson’s political diatribe go. “Let’s focus back on the big picture. How do we stop these lunatics before they zap anything else? Have your informants told us where we can find this Medina Society?”
“That’s the tricky part, apparently,” she said. “According to what I’ve been told, the Medina Society is very savvy. It has learned not only from its own mistakes but also from the mistakes of others, everyone from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to Osama bin Laden himself. It does not use the Internet to communicate, ever. Not even in code. It does not permit its members to use cell phones. Its leaders move around a lot and are hypervigilant about cloaking those movements. They know that the Americans have satellites powerful enough to see the dirt under their fingernails and they act accordingly. These are some of the smartest terrorists anyone has ever seen.”
Storm realized he had been clenching his lower lip in his teeth. He released it. He was in a position where he had to make a snap judgment about someone he had just met — whether to trust her or not. It was the kind of position in which a spy often found himself, and sometimes it was a life-or-death call. This time, it wasn’t just Storm’s life that was in jeopardy. It was potentially thousands. Maybe millions.
“Ingrid,” he said deliberately. “I know you and Jedediah Jones are…friends.”
“Well, I wouldn’t call us that,” she said. “I would say we’re people who have used each other for our mutual convenience from time to time. You are familiar with the story of the frog and the scorpion, I assume?”
“From Aesop’s Fables, yes? The scorpion who cannot swim needs to cross the river and asks a frog to transport him to the other side. The frog says, ‘No, you’ll sting me.’ The scorpion says, ‘No, I won’t, for if I do we’ll both drown,’” Storm said. “The frog relents, but then halfway across, the scorpion stings the frog anyway. As they go down, the frog says, ‘Why would you do this?’ And the scorpion says, ‘I am a scorpion. It is my nature.’”
“Very good. To me, Jones is the scorpion. But as long as you understand what his nature is, you can handle him accordingly.”
Storm’s smile was a knowing one. “I understand. Believe me, I understand. So I have to be honest with you: Jones’s interest in this incident may not actually align fully with yours.”
“Please explain.”
“He wants the people using this weapon to be stopped. We all want that,” Storm said. “But he also wants this technology and the resources behind it to be recovered for future military use by the United States government. And while I am a proud American citizen, that is not something I want my government to be able to deploy in the field of battle or anywhere else.”
“I concur with you,” she said. “My allegiance is not to any government but to humankind itself.”
“Good. Then what I’m about to tell you can’t reach Jones’s ears. Agreed?”
She nodded.
“I may have a lead that will help us find the source of this promethium,” he continued. “Have you or anyone in your network of informants ever heard of a company called Ahmed Trades Metal?”
Her shoulders actually slumped. “Why do you ask?”
“From what I’ve been able to learn, Ahmed Trades Metal may be the source of the promethium being used to power this laser beam.”
She was now shaking her head. “Well, you’re right and you’re not right. I’m afraid ‘Ahmed Trades Metal’ is not a company. It’s a rallying call for members of the Medina Society. It’s like when Americans say ‘Remember the Alamo’ or ‘Remember the Maine.’ A man named Ahmed was one of their earliest martyrs. Some of their leaders have actually changed their names to Ahmed or named their children Ahmed, so it’s become quite a common name within the movement. ‘Trades metal’ is one of their slang terms for making a bomb or improvised explosive device, because it’s like trading metal with the enemy. ‘Ahmed Trades Metal’ is sort of their way of saying, ‘Let’s go blow up some stuff in the name of Allah.’”
Storm felt his own posture failing, too. “So I haven’t really learned anything, have I?”
“Well, it’s one more concrete indication that the Medina Society is behind this. But other than that? I’m afraid we are lost.”
And then, in that uncanny way he had, Jedediah Jones inserted himself into the conversation via a buzzing in Storm’s pocket.
“Well, look who it is,” Storm said.
“I’ll leave you to take the call,” Ingrid said. “Find me when it’s over and we’ll discuss what to do next.”
She rose and, as she reached the doorway, paused for a moment. “I asked Jones to send me his best man. I’m glad he sent me a good man as well.”
AS THE WARRIOR PRINCESS DEPARTED the room, Storm pressed the button to receive Jones’s call.