Cyberstrike, James Barrington [short story to read .TXT] 📗

Sadir was surprised to have been given so much responsibility, but as well as his clear ability to think laterally, he had one other vitally important attribute that made the elders decide he was the ideal man for the job: he was a cleanskin. A man who had never come to the attention of the authorities in Iraq or anywhere else, his face and description would be completely unknown in the West. He also spoke fluent English, which was perhaps the clinching argument, and when he was recalled before the council once they had come to their final decision, he was told that the entire operation, both the bombing that would mark its beginning and the much more devastating attack on the other side of the Atlantic that would signal its conclusion, would now be his responsibility.

‘And there is another consideration that needs to be addressed,’ the leader of the council, an elder named Rashid, said. ‘We have no doubt that the best principal target is the one you have suggested, but the secondary target, the one that will be attacked first, is equally important to us. We need both countries to feel the full force of our anger and resolve. You will have to recruit several shahids in order to carry out that attack, but it is essential that they have no usable information about the second attack, or about you. Never use your real name unless it is unavoidable. Decide on a nom de guerre and always use that. And you must ensure that there is no possibility of them surviving the attack if it should fail.’

‘It will not fail,’ Sadir replied confidently. ‘I will make sure of that.’

‘Nevertheless,’ Rashid insisted, ‘you are to devise a way of guaranteeing their deaths. Once they are outside your direct control you must ensure that they will not live long enough to betray our jihad. Whatever method you choose must be foolproof.’

Sadir nodded. That was something he had not factored into his initial calculations, but it made sense. And he did have one idea that might well work, again based upon something he had read about in an American journal. It could also, he realised, be used in an entirely different scenario.

‘This will be a long game,’ Rashid told him as the meeting drew to a close. ‘You have much to research and investigate, and you must first ensure that you can deliver what we have discussed. If you cannot, then we will need to devise an alternative strategy to achieve our aims. For our security, you must sever all connections with your family here in Iraq until you have completed the mission.

‘You will need substantial funds, which we will provide when you require them. When possible, we will make use of hawaladars to transfer money, but once you reach your two principal targets we will have to rely on Western Union.’ Rashid smiled slightly at the idea of funding terror attacks upon the West by making use of a Western money transfer system. ‘When you leave here to begin your mission you must assume that you will be watched, so on no account are you to proceed directly to your objective. Travel slowly, watch everyone and trust no one outside the brotherhood.’

Rashid was not referring to the Muslim Brotherhood organisation but to the concept enshrined in the Hadith, the record of the sayings of the Prophet Mohammed and second only in Islamic religious authority to the Koran, that ‘the Muslim is a brother to another Muslim. He does not wrong him, nor surrender him.’ In that sense, every Muslim in every nation is a brother to every other Muslim in the world.

‘Your journey will be long. Take care and ensure you keep us fully informed through the usual channels. If we do not know where you are or what you need we will not be able to help you. And remember that this is a part of the most important jihad we have ever embarked on, so when the moment comes to strike do not hesitate.’

Mahdi Sadir left Iraq three weeks later and began a journey that would take him to places he had never even dreamed of visiting.

Chapter 1

Ten years later

Vektor, Koltsovo Naukograd, Novosibirsk Oblast, Siberia, Russia

Koltsovo is a naukograd, a Russian term meaning a ‘science city’, located in the Novosibirsk Oblast, roughly 1,800 miles due east of Moscow on the eastern outskirts of the city of Novosibirsk itself, the largest city in Siberia.

In the heyday of the USSR some naukograds were also designated as closed cities or ZATOs, meaning that specific permission was required before they could be visited by outsiders, but Vektor, as a relatively new institute established in 1974 and which only became a naukograd in 2003, twelve years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, was never a ZATO. Vektor is the core around which Koltsovo, originally the village of Novoborsk, grew. It’s a group of nondescript buildings, dominated by a main six-storey structure and all located within a boundary road. Despite its proximity to the city of Novosibirsk it’s fairly secluded, though probably not secluded enough bearing in mind what its vaults and freezers contain. Vektor holds samples of virtually all of the species-killer bugs found on the planet, including the deadliest of them all, the Filoviridae family, which includes the Ebola and Marburg filoviruses, as well as the less lethal but still profoundly unpleasant and sometimes fatal dengue, Lassa and yellow fever viruses.

Russian authorities are not big on identifying buildings, and particularly not those where activities of a classified or covert nature take place, but one fairly obvious clue that the buildings at Koltsovo contain something unusual is the permanent garrison of Russian Army soldiers who ensure that all visitors are both legitimate and expected.

The man who approached the Vektor complex that afternoon was very obviously, from his appearance alone, not a local.

The CIS, the Commonwealth of Independent States, is far and away the biggest national unit on