Chapter 3
Ahmet Orfali stared out of the window of his hotel suite, enjoying the view of the Space Needle, the Experience Music Project, and the Seattle skyline at sunset. He smiled.
He glanced to his right. He could see Honor Carpenter’s window from his position. He could hear her conversations anytime he wanted. His team had bugged her apartment three weeks earlier. She would have been so easy to capture, it was hard to resist. But the time wasn’t right, then.
Orfali was devoted to Islam and its teachings. He recited passages from the Holy Qura’n every day. He carried with him the message of Allah in the words of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wassalam. He received his formal education at Damascus University, where he met his mentor, a man of importance in ISIS, one who taught him why western culture needed to be destroyed to preserve the purity of his people’s souls.
At 45, he had many years left to fulfill his destiny, but he could ill-afford to waste time. He ran his fingers through his short, dense graying beard. His hair was curly, short and course, receding on the corners.
He had been unable to accept the way his government treated him after his first attempt to kidnap Honor Carpenter ended in disaster. He had nearly lost his job, and his life, over the failure. The appearance of the two Navy SEALS was by pure happenstance. No one could have predicted it. He had lost his brother in the melee.
His government expected total success and had no patience for excuses. He used all of his powers of persuasion to earn this second chance. He needed his government for now. He needed their resources. However, once this mission was complete, he would have resources of his own. He wouldn’t need anyone.
He hated America. He hated its wretched excessiveness, its godlessness, its rampant promiscuity, its overfed, overindulged, self-important citizens. What he did like, however, was the Jimi Hendrix Museum.
“Asu!” he called out to his second in command. “Report.”
Asu stood and approached Orfali. Asu was born and raised in Syria, recruited by ISIS at an early age. He was 34 years old, 6-foot-2 with deep black moppy curls and a full black beard.
“Everything is in a state of readiness,” he answered in Arabic. “The girl and the SEAL are back in her apartment. They had casual conversation. They had sex.”
“Again?” Orfali interjected, also in Arabic. “Did any part of their conversation lead you to believe they suspected anything?”
“Nothing,” Asu insisted. “Their conversation consisted of only gibberish about the rest of his stay. They suspect nothing. I’m certain.”
Orfali smiled, “Perfect. It all begins tomorrow morning. Are your men ready?”
“They are, indeed,” he replied. “The woman has her doctor’s appointment in the morning. She goes alone, always. There is nothing in the audio recordings to indicate the SEAL man will go along. In fact, he has been sleeping into late morning.”
“Perfect,” Orfali said. “He’s relaxed. He suspects nothing.”
Ahmet Orfali had been waiting for this day for nearly two years. The planning began the moment the first kidnapping attempt failed due to the unexpected interference of two Navy SEALS.
The news he had been fired and expelled by the Syrian Government was a lie, a ruse of his own making. He had been patient, working long and hard to make sure the American CIA believed he had been cast out and had moved on to other, smaller endeavors for ISIS.
But he had not. Not really.
The truth was, Ahmet Orfali continued to work for the Syrian government, but in name only. He truly worked for only for himself. And although it was true that he wanted Carpenter’s technology he had no intentions of simply turning him or the technology over to the Syrians. He had other plans, plans that included revenge and wealth. He needed the resources from his government to pull it off, however.
Every move he’d made over the last two years had led to this moment. At first the Syrian government wanted no part of his plan, but he convinced them that, if he were to be caught, the government would be able to easily disavow any involvement. Once he had carefully laid out his plan in complete detail, they agreed to finance the operation, and allowed Orfali to buy his own equipment and to choose and train his own team, all at substantial expense.
With the resources supplied by the Syrian government, Orfali had the weaponry he needed and the technology to bug Honor’s apartment and, thanks to a technological genius within ISIS, a way to ensure success.
ISIS had recently created a breach into the Homeland Security first responder system. It was a breakthrough of epic proportions. If, at any time, the CIA or FBI were called into action against him, he would receive advanced warning.
Orfali had made a mistake in the first attempt to kidnap Honor Carpenter. He’d been sloppy. He had believed it would be easy to kidnap the daughter of the world’s foremost propulsion engineer and use her as leverage to acquire his services for the Syrian Space Agency. He had created a sloppy plan with an untrained team, figuring the kidnapping to be easy and simple.
What he had not counted on, was the presence of two well-trained Navy SEALS, which came by total happenstance. They ruined his plan and killed his men, including his own brother.
He would not make the same mistake twice. At first, the Syrian government opposed a plan that included waiting for the SEAL Trevor Saunders to return to Seattle, but Orfali convinced them that Saunders and Matthew “Wolf” Steele had to be eliminated as well. If the mission succeeded without eliminating the two SEALS, they would never rest until they exacted revenge. It would be personal for them, and therefore much more dangerous to leave them alive. By waiting for SEAL Saunders to arrive, he could guarantee that he could pull off the operation without the FBI and CIA getting involved. He would threaten that Honor Carpenter would be killed instantly if any law enforcement agency was called. The SEAL Saunders would secretly call his buddy, Wolf, and try to save Honor Carpenter on their own. He was ready for it all.
Predictable Americans.
He had planned every last detail. He would lead them into a trap, kill both of the Navy SEALS, kill the girl and claim her father and his technology as a prize.
He would do this, or die trying.