The phone rang. He picked it up.
“Hello.”
“Captain, your wife is on the line for you.”
“Thanks, Selda. Can you bring me what you have so far on the identity of Turks killed or injured in the attacks in Europe?”
“Sure.”
He heard the line click and switched the phone to speaker,
“Hello, love.”
“Hello, darling. I just called to remind you that we are supposed to go see Hamid and Ebru this afternoon. I bought a gold piece to pin on their new baby.”
“I’m sure he’ll love that. Probably melt it down and mint an Ottoman
akçe
from it. Honey, can’t you do this without me? I’m really busy.”
“Yusuf, don’t be like this. I know you don’t like his politics, but Ebru is my niece.”
“Yeah, well, she has clearly forgotten her roots. I can’t stand to see her wearing the head covering and being stepped on by that jackass.”
“Yusuf, I am surprised at you. It’s their life. She seems happy.”
“Yeah, that is the problem. How can she be happy with a person attempting to live by a seventh century moral code from Arabia?”
“Listen to yourself. He’s a handsome, charismatic young man with a bright future. Just because he belongs to the AKP, doesn’t mean he’s backward. Their family is merely going back to their roots.”
“Darling, the key phrase there is ‘going back’. The struggle for individual liberties and the rule of law in this country has been hard fought, and now they want to ‘go back’ to sharia law.”
“I don’t need to remind you that his uncle is assistant to the Minister of Interior and could be your boss someday.”
“Don’t remind me.”
“Ok darling, I’ll pick you up at three o’clock.”
“Call first. Who knows, maybe something will come up. In fact, that is something even I can pray for.”
“I know God is not going to answer a prayer that would help you avoid blessing this child. They need our example.”
“A man who rejects the example of Atatürk is not going to look to me for guidance.”
“Ok, I don’t want to talk about it anymore. They’re family and that’s enough for me.”
“Well, when they took over in Iran, being family was not enough to spare relatives from the sword. Remember what Burak said about his mother and father.”
“Stop it Yusuf. That’s morbid.”
“I didn’t say it,” he retorted. “He should know his own mother.”
“I don’t believe that he would be the first person his father and mother would hand over to an executioner if sharia law were restored.”
“No, but he does. Allah before mother, father, sister, brother. Isn’t that what they say? I’ll see you a little before three.”
“Great.”
Yusuf hung up the phone and called Selda.
“I need you to get me any information you can about the incidents in London involving Zeki. The more I know about the situation, the more assistance I will be able to lend the authorities trying to find him.”
“I’ll see what I can find, sir. I just sent you everything we had on the Turks killed in the neo-Nazi attacks in Germany.”
“Was there anything that stood out?” asked Yusuf.
“Not really, the only thing noticeable was the fact that in both places, the victims were all immigrants from the same region of Turkey. Those in Berlin were mostly from Sivas and the ones in Cologne were from Tünceli.”
“That’s odd,” said Yusuf thoughtfully. “Is there any way you can find out if they were Alevis or not?”
“Excuse me? Their birth certificates will only indicate whether or not they were Muslim, not what sect of Islam they subscribed to,” ventured Selda cautiously. “I’m not sure I understand where you’re going with that.”
Yusuf found himself shaking his head.
Poor girl.
He knew from her file that she was an Alevi. This was a sensitive issue with her. He had to proceed with caution.
“Listen, Selda, I know your family background, and I hired you anyway. You should also know me well enough by now to understand that I am not sectarian or racist. I don’t care if you are a fire-worshipper, a Christian, a Greek or a Kurd. For me, everyone is equal before the law. I know your people have suffered persecution for centuries, and that you try to keep your family history a secret. But can we put that behind us for a moment and just follow every possible lead? If there is a connection between the skin-head attacks and Bekir’s sudden re-appearance, if he is planning retaliation, then I have to stop it.”
“I understand, sir,” replied Selda calmly. “But, I don’t see what the identities of the victims have to do with Bekir. And besides, to be honest, if they all turn out to be Alevis and this information becomes public, I’m not sure the ruling party will put as much pressure on Germany to bring the perpetrators to justice.” The bitterness in her voice was palpable. “After all, a few less Alevis is not something they are really going to be concerned about.”
“I just want to find out what’s going on here. There’s no agenda. We can sit on the information if that seems more prudent. But you have to admit that Alevis make up the majority of the population in Sivas and Tünceli, and if it is more than just a coincidence, I would like to know. Obviously, German skin-heads know very little about Turkey’s internal matters, but they probably would not intentionally target the most secular group in Turkey if they were trying to make an anti-Islamic statement, now would they?” asked Yusuf.
“I don’t suppose they would,” she said.
“Nor,” he continued, “Would Bekir be very willing to avenge them by planning a retaliatory strike. So, every piece of information helps us figure out whether or not he’s connected to any of this.”
“I’ll find out everything I can about the victims, and whether or not they’re from Alevi villages.”
Yusuf didn’t have the heart to tell her that the security directorate had a database that could be searched to find out not only the religious views of every citizen, but their political affiliations going back three generations. He would have Murat do the research for him. He didn’t want to spoil her innocence and she was far too touchy about it.
><><><
C
AIRO
“I expected to hear something from you a couple of hours ago, Salih. Has the document been recovered? What have we learned from the girl?”
Salih had been racking his brain for hours wondering how he was going to answer these questions.
“I didn’t want to bother you at home on a Saturday, sir.”
“Do you honestly think I’m at home with everything we have going on? The launch of the UN initiative is just around the corner.”
“Unfortunately, we have not been in contact with the team since they made contact with the girl.”
Ahmet’s silence on the other end was uncomfortable. When he did speak, his tone raised the hair on the back of Salih’s neck.
“Salih, is there a problem?” Salih gritted his teeth and swore deep down.
“Sir, we don’t know for sure what has happened. We had a live audio feed on the operation. The last update we had from them was that they were less than fifty yards from the house and were moving in. Less than a minute later, we heard gunfire and the girl screaming. One of our men said, ‘I’m hit,’ and within ninety seconds both of our live feeds were down.”
There was another pause, more uncomfortable than the first.
“You mean we were ambushed?” Ahmet’s voice was cold and icy.
Salih said nothing. There was nothing to say.
“I see from your report,” continued Ahmet, “that Zeki Öztürk made contact with the girl yesterday from Dallas.”
“That is correct,” answered Salih, “He told her that he would be there around noon local time. Our operation would be finished long before he showed up. Our plan was to then wait for his arrival, keeping the girl alive just in case he called and we needed her to say something on the phone with the encouragement of a 9 mm pointed at her head.”
“Salih, you disappoint me. You assumed that he was the professor he appears to be, assumed that what he said on the phone was true.”
There was a third pause. Salih could feel his palms sweating on the phone and caught himself biting his lip.
“We don’t make assumptions, Salih,” said Ahmet. “This is not going to look good in your file. I am not even going to ask what you intend to do to fix this. I’m taking charge. You will immediately begin implementing the back-up plans I drew up.”
Salih took a deep breath. Ahmet’s plan was a dramatic escalation, one that he was uncomfortable with. He knew the safest course of action was to go on the record with his objections.
“An Interpol bulletin has been put out for Zeki. We’re monitoring all security channels. They may locate him faster than we can. We’ll have to improvise as new information becomes available. If they’re taken into custody, we have enough resources on the inside to make the evidence ‘disappear’ and to silence them as well.”
Salih paused. The door to Ahmet’s room opened and a senior Lieutenant walked straight to his desk, handed him a note and walked back out. Ahmet’s eyes narrowed as he read it and then turned back to Salih.
“What you say seems reasonable, but unlike your first two operations, which failed miserably, this situation now involves variables totally beyond our control. On the first two operations, we had reason to believe that the element of surprise was on our side, that the targets were unsuspecting. This is no longer the case. The brotherhood may have connections with many high-level authorities and may be able to bring its influence to bear in grand matters of state, but we do not have anyone in a local sheriff’s department, especially in Texas!”
Ahmet’s voice had been growing steadily louder, and by now, he was fairly shouting. Salih prepared himself stoically for the tongue-lashing he suspected was coming. He also noted with some dissatisfaction how Ahmet had referred to the failures as ‘your operations’. Ahmet continued, “Your operation was critical, Salih. You have exposed us to grave danger. Secrets kept for hundreds of years, ‘truths’ carefully cultivated to shepherd the
ummah
away from danger are on the verge of discovery. Do you realize what this could mean?”
Salih’s answer was textbook. “Sir, I accept all responsibility for the failure and will do everything within my power and with Allah’s help to resolve the problem I have created for the brotherhood.”
Ahmet’s response was clinical. “I expect nothing less. I see from the detailed operations plan that you have not implemented open source intelligence monitoring. This must be done immediately. You need an exhaustive list of anything Zeki or Gwyn would search for in an attempt to find out what the document is about. This could help us to pinpoint their location. Make sure this includes not only topics related to the document, but the names of all the people involved. As for the back-up plan I outlined, how long until you can put it into place?”
“The grab is easy. We can do it as soon as you give the order. The theft you mention is more intricate. It’ll take at least several days to put the whole thing together. We’ve begun to source potential assets, but the papers, the reservations, and the travel will take time to arrange. You cannot just waltz into the Augustinerlesesaal and request to see any ancient manuscript they have. The security is relatively light. If it was a simple theft you wanted, it would be a piece of cake. It becomes a bit more involved when you want us to frame the Vatican for it. This whole affair will be subjected to incredible scrutiny.”
Ahmet turned to the computer screen, located the report and pushed the send button.