The Secret of Fatima by Peter J; Tanous Page A

head. “Sorry, Toby. No idea.”
    â€œWell, Israel won’t tell us anything, which spells trouble. We think it’s Carlos Alameda. We traced one of the phone numbers you sent me to him. He was talking to someone with a heavily encrypted phone number. We couldn’t figure it out. We know he called the Vatican, but we don’t know who in the Vatican.”
    â€œHow do you know he called somebody? I don’t see a phone,” Kevin said.
    â€œThe phone’s in his pocket.”
    â€œYou can track a phone in his pocket?”
    â€œDon’t ask. Keep your eyes on the screen.”
    A Google Maps app with an image of a blue earth now appeared and zoomed in rapidly on another city: Teheran, Iran. A close-up of a street became visible, then changed to sand colored buildings in what seemed the outskirt of Teheran, busy streets and minarets dotting the landscape. As the picture zoomed in, an image of a man wearing a coat and hat, entering a tall building, formed. “That’s the same guy from Beirut,” Toby said. “We have this guy who talks to the Vatican, then meets with an Israeli Intelligence official, then he trots over to Tehran to chat with one of leaders of the Supreme Security Council of Iran. That building is where the Council’s office is located.”
    â€œToby, I met with Cardinal Porter in the Vatican. There’s a fringe group wanting to start a nuclear war. To fulfill some Biblical prophecy,” Kevin said.
    â€œAnd they’re well underway. They might succeed. Let me give you some background,” Toby continued. “It’s no secret that Israel has nuclear weapons. The French built their nuclear facility at Dimona back in the sixties. Today the threat is Iran. Remember that message your guys intercepted that had the word ‘trigger’ in it?”
    â€œSure. You figured out that it also said something like ‘satellites in position’.”
    â€œRight,” Toby said. “Putting this all together, the ‘trigger’ must be a reference to a nuclear trigger, a special device that sets off a nuclear explosion. There are only a few countries with these triggers, including the U.S. and Israel. Iran needs them to activate nuclear warheads.”
    â€œGeez. Scary stuff,” Kevin said.
    â€œIt gets better. One scenario is that the Iranians have lassoed a source for getting these triggers.”
    â€œWell, so far as I know, the Vatican doesn’t have nuclear triggers. What source, Toby?”
    â€œMy best guess: Pakistan. Pakistan has got enough nukes to obliterate half the world. Pakistan could always use some cold, hard cash. Look at your screen again.”
    Kevin watched as a map of Iran appeared.
    â€œThe three blinking lights are the suspected nuclear sites, Kevin.” An arrow swirled around the screen and stopped. “This is Natanz, a small village; another one is over here; and the third is the Fordo facility, near the Holy City of Qum.” As Toby identified the locales, the blinking arrow darted like a firefly around the screen. “We think the reason the Israelis are mum is they’re planning a preemptive attack on a nuclear assembly facility in Iran. Only one of these facilities houses the triggers, but the Israelis don’t know which one.”
    â€œWhere does the Vatican fit in all this?”
    â€œThat coded message that your cardinal buddy gave you had the first clue. It mentioned a trigger and a date. Our guys think this Alameda character knows where the triggers are going. He’s trying to sell that information to the Israelis.”
    â€œSo why did he visit Tehran? That doesn’t make sense.”
    Toby sighed. “Yeah, we haven’t figured that out either. Working on it. Right now, the big worry is that the Israelis would bomb the shit out of the trigger site so the Iranians can’t build a nuclear bomb. That’s why the Israelis aren’t talking to us.