Blowback by Brad Thor Read Free Book Online Page B

him down and detain him outside of Karachi. We were never able to substantiate his claims that the designs had been stolen.”
    “I still don’t see the connection.”
    “Both Mehmood and A.Q. Khan-the father of the Islamic bomb, who sold nuclear secrets to Iran and Libya-have not only been visiting professors but major fundraisers for the Islamic Institute for Science and Technology.”
    The secretary of state held out her hands in front of her, as if balancing what she’d been listening to, and said, “So we have a serious mystery illness seen only in some remote Iraqi village on one hand and a high-ranking al-Qaeda operative who killed a bunch of scientists tied to some Islamic research group on the other. I’m still not seeing any connection here.”
    General Currutt advanced to the next slide on his laptop and responded, “A few days before the people in Asalaam started becoming sick, Khalid Sheik Alomari was spotted crossing the Iraqi-Syrian border less than forty-five kilometers from the village. We believe Asalaam was a live test site for the virus.”
    That was all it took. There wasn’t a single person in the situation room who could ignore the al-Qaeda link.
    “So that’s it then,” said Jackson. “Al-Qaeda is now actively in the biowarfare game.”
    Currutt brought up an organizational chart for al-Qaeda. Those who had been killed or captured either had either a slash or a red X through their photo. “Unfortunately, it would seem so. We’ve inflicted such significant damage on them that they’re growing desperate. In a sense, we’ve forced them to branch out in drastic new directions, one of which happens to be in the realm of chemical and biological weapons. They’re using Iraq and Afghanistan as justification for employing whatever weapons they can get their hands on to drive us from all Muslim lands.”
    “Jesus,” responded Driehaus. “Talk about blowback. Every single move we make, whether successful or not, seems to come back to bite us in the ass twice as hard.”
    It was exactly what everyone around the table was thinking.
    “The good we’re doing over there far outweighs the bad,” said the secretary of state.
    “I hope so,” responded Driehaus, “but I have to be honest. I’m worried our losses may soon overshadow whatever gains we might make.”
    “What’s that supposed to mean?”
    “It means that for better or worse, I’m more concerned with the welfare of the American people than I am with the Iraqis or anyone else over in that part of the world.”
    “So what? We’re supposed to just bury our heads in the sand and hope that the terrorism problem will just go away? Because we all know that’s not going to happen.”
    “All right,” interjected the president. “I respect that we’ve got a wide range of opinions in the room, but let’s all try to settle down and focus on the matter at hand.”
    After several moments of awkward silence, the surgeon general said, “I suppose that if we don’t know what we’re dealing with, it’s pointless to ask if there’s a cure.”
    “Pretty much,” said Colonel Tranberg, relieved to get back on track.
    “How about the fatality rate? What can you tell us about that?”
    “Well, that all depends upon on how you interpret the data. If you look at the village of Asalaam, one out of every two people died, which gives us a fifty percent fatality rate, which is extremely serious.”
    “If the village is our only benchmark,” asked Plaisier, “then how else could you be looking at this?”
    “We’re looking at the village, of course, but more importantly, we’re looking at the one out of every two villagers who died. You see, the area around Mosul is one of the largest Christian enclaves in the entire country. It isn’t unusual for Christians and Muslims to live side by side there. Asalaam was a perfect example of this. So perfect, in fact, that it was about fifty-two percent Muslim and forty-eight percent