Ghost Detectives Bk. 02: Virus 21-22

His mind flipped back to the time in Tenerife when a stranger approached the two women; who was he? What did he know? How did they know about the vaccine? With hindsight, he knew they were under scrutiny while in Tenerife. He'd seen picture and video footage on the news and recognized the locations and yet he was still at large. No way would he have been allowed to board a plane and leave the island without being apprehended and concluded that the individual was a member of some criminal fraternity and after profit or blackmail. The vaccine would be worth more than gold when things started to happen, so why hadn't they made contact? Something didn't fit. They were ruthless, he'd give them that. Yafiah was killed with little difficulty. He had checked for listening devices and cameras but found nothing; still, they were there in Tenerife and he suspected nothing despite his detailed planning and secrecy so what else did he not know? He needed to find the identity of the stranger and what he wanted from him. The stranger was British and that was the sum of his knowledge, so what did he know about him? From what had happened to date, far too much. Obviously, there were more of them than just the stranger and they were showing him they had power, influence and organisational skills before approaching him with their demands, deducing they wanted the vaccine certainly, maybe money and women, suspecting all three. As to money he had plenty; women, not difficult but first he needed to play along and sing to their tune until it became time to strike back. The vaccine was something he wouldn't give them. That would undermine the entire project.

A plan started to form. "Could we alter the vaccine so it will seem to work for a short while but later kill off the recipient? he asked Kanval.

"I would need to discuss it with Hadi and Sadeen. Why?"

"We have a problem which needs sorting."

"Let me get this right. You want a vaccine that works for a little while and then kills. I can't see where this is going?"

"Yes, that's exactly what I want. The way they die is immaterial, as long as they are dead."

"What do you call a short while?"

"A month, six weeks that should be long enough."

"It took us years to develop an effective vaccine for Ebola and even then, our tests were not conclusive and now you are asking for something equally if not more difficult and you want it in a few weeks? Impossible!"

"In Allah, everything is possible."

She was silent for a few moments. "In Allah, I agree, in us, not so easy."

He explained.

"Who are these people and how do they know about us?"

"That is something I don't know but intend to find out, but first I need to work out how to eliminate the threat."

"Do they know where we are now?"

"I can't see how they can know, but I'm not sure. This is a situation I never saw coming. They knew about Tenerife and from where we operated and did nothing to stop us, killed Yafiah, stayed silent and let us leave the island unmolested. I need to find the stranger."

He text the four of them and arranged to meet up later that day to discuss this new development saying he would come to them at their flat. The afternoon saw them together brainstorming the problem.

"We have neither the time nor the resource to do what you want," said Hadi.

"If we carry on as we are, they'll succumb in any event to the power of the virus."

"I wish it was that simple, Sadeen. We need to placate and play the infidels' games but I need a tool to move them into obedience. We are dealing with a powerful organisation."

"A vaccine against Ebola combined with a delayed death hidden in the vaccine to activate six weeks later is something I cannot produce. Hadi, do you agree?"

He didn't immediately answer and looked at Kanval. "There must be another way."

She shrugged her shoulders. "I have no answer."

Abisali's face reddened in anger. "I will not accept defeat. There must be a way and we will find it."

"Be reasonable. We don't know who these people are, if they wished us harm, surely they'd have done something against us by now."

He was not to be pacified. "They already have, killing Yafiah was a warning. They are out there watching and will strike against us when they feel the time is right." He was moving into paranoia and needed to stay balanced. He was asking the impossible of them. "We carry on as normal and place our trust in Allah."

"What if they are Shia?"

He had thought himself this could be the case. His persecutors could well be Sunni Muslims as easily as Shia, both in his eyes were not true believers in the correct path. His group believed in Wahhabism, a strictly secular group advocating a purging of such widespread Sunni and Shia practices as the veneration of saints, the seeking of their intercession, the visiting of their tombs, which were practiced in the Islamic world, but which he considered idolatry. An impurity, a distortion, a false innovation in Islamist teachings and not true to Muhammed's teaching of political obedience to the one true god. The majority of mainstream Sunni and Shia Muslims strongly disagree with the interpretation of Wahhabism, and many Muslims denounced them as a vile sect of violent criminals and condemned Wahhabism as a Satanic faith, accusing them as a source of global terrorism inspiring the ideology of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and for causing disunity in Muslim communities by labelling Muslims who disagreed with the Wahhabi definition of monotheism as apostates thereby justifying their torture and killing and looked upon by their followers as worse than infidels.

Wahhabism believed in the destruction of historic shrines of saints, mausoleums, and other Muslim and non-Muslim buildings and artefacts. How far off the mark he really was in identifying his adversaries. When a mind is so focused on world change and glorified death as the highest form of worship to his god, that mind is past reason, past compromise, past everything, accepting only the destruction of the old and a rising of the new order no matter what the cost, where even the slightest deviation ends with torture or death of those who oppose. He had visions of the new world, dreams of glory days to come, and needed to remain hidden in the shadows to complete the great plan, staying within the false bounds of western culture until the glorious day arrived and he could metamorphosis into his true self and live the life of the true faithful under a world caliphate.

His mind has started to clarify and clear, to throw away confusion and self-doubt about who these people were, for already he had latched upon the answer. "Sunni or Shia pacifists against jihad, apologists for Wahhabism, mafia, imperialists, Catholics, Protestants are the same and align with the devil against the right path," he confidently voiced for it mattered not a jot. "I will find the stranger and align with falseness, give what they ask until I am able to wield the sword of justice and cut off their heads and offer them as sacrifices to strengthen the new world order. The ones we seek are erroneous Muslims." He had talked himself into the answer and from that moment his truth became an inalienable absolute.

How sometimes the clouds part and one can see the stars. This was one of those moments. He knew his premise of an altered vaccine was little more than a shot in the dark. He was back in his flat with Kanval reading a magazine she had recently purchased, and there he was, a picture of the person he sought, yet further proof Allah was at his side. The article, an analogy of how the mind acts under stress, by Dr. James David Trent, a renowned psychologist. So not an apostate, he ruminated, an infidel; wondering if he was the master or the pawn and disposable in a game of bluff and counter-bluff. He researched the name further and had a telephone number. He was married to a doctor and soon had an office address, the university where he sometimes lectured and his home address and sat to think through his next move. He text Fatik and asked to meet the next day when he filled him in on his new information.

"Do you want me to kill him?"

"No, that would bring the rest of his people down upon us. They know who we are and our objective, at least partially. They want the vaccine."

"How you do know?"

"I don't for sure but, if it was anything else, they'd have turned us in while in Tenerife. This organisation is after power and control."

"Tell me, if that is so, why haven't they contacted us? Why are they waiting?"

"They could have us under surveillance now for all we know. Their operation must have many connecting webs for they know our every move."

"I will have finished shortly. We are about ready to go, but a lot of cells have been taken down by the police and locations where we had planned to release the virus compromised. The police are everywhere and have adopted a shoot to kill mentality. They know we have the virus in spray form and are taking the blitz approach and killing us on sight."

"That is what this organisation is doing, showing us their power and reporting our locations."

"How do they know? Does this group have special powers? They definitely have something mysterious going for them."

"How many active cells do we have ready to go?"

"Seven, I should have had nearer twenty by this time. I have decided to walk away from a few locations. The police are everywhere and are waiting for us to make a move and as soon as we do their guns go blazing before we are able to do anything."

Abisali needed to move everything forward. "Change of plan. Instruct them to spray anywhere. We can't wait any longer and we'll try to get to Saudi. I will give you some contact names."

"What about this Trent guy, what do you want me to do?"

"Nothing, we all need to get out of the country. I thought we could negotiate with them but it's gone too far, nearly everything we do they are a step ahead. The Canarias will implode; at least we're getting satisfaction there. I was hoping it would happen here to the same extent but we are thwarted by the power of evil arrayed against us."

"We still have active cells and they can contaminate multiple locations so not all is lost. You haven't said about this Trent guy."

"I'll deal with him."

"No, let me, you get away or stay hidden. I am dispensable. You are not. What do you want of me?"

"We are all dispensable and work for the good of Allah and the day of reckoning when the scales are weighed."

"You are our leader and are needed to complete the grand plan and become our caliph."

"I will send a message to them, it's gone too far to negotiate. I have decided to change direction. Kill him. But before you do, we need to know where, how, and from whom they get their knowledge. Cells in other countries are also finding the same problems. This group is aligned with Jinns and Iblees." He went into a trance-like state and recited what has become a cliché, an excuse to justify their barbarity: I testify that there no God, but God and that Muhammad is the messenger of God, and we are doing his work. Followed by Fatik reciting the same words, and together they repeated the words as a chant several times proclaiming Muhammad was the seal of prophets and no prophet could follow him and all prophets before him, were of a lesser significance. "Give the word for release with what we have and Allah be praised." Punching at the air with his clenched fists, Fatik performing the same gesture of defiance. They warmly embraced and parted.