Foreign Influence_ A Thriller - Brad Thor [115]
Once the convoy was ready to roll, de Roon raised his sleeve mic to his mouth and gave the command to his drivers to move out.
As the convoy sped out of the airport, Harvath asked, “What have you learned about the target?”
The Dutch intelligence officer prepared his driver and then told the rest of the team over the radio to move two lanes. He then turned around in his seat to address Harvath. “The target is an accountant named Khalil al-Yaqoubi, with no record of any sort. The only thing we could find out about him is that he does the books for one of the most radical mosques in Holland. He answered the Skype call from London in his office.”
“Is he still there?”
De Roon nodded. “He is. We have a surveillance team on him. We also have active surveillance on his apartment, as well as the mosque.”
“How close together are the locations?”
“It’s all the same neighborhood, but it’s an S-U-A.”
“S-U-A?” said Casey.
“It’s Dhimmi-speak, for Sensitive Urban Area,” replied Harvath.
De Roon looked at her. “It’s actually EU-speak, but Scot’s essentially right. The subject operates in an all-Muslim neighborhood.”
“So what? It’s still part of the city of Amsterdam, isn’t it?”
“Technically, yes. But the police won’t go there.”
“Well, as we stated upon arrival, we’re not the police and just so you know, there’s no place my team is afraid to go into.”
Harvath met de Roon’s eyes, “They’re the ones who took down the mosque in London.”
“Then maybe she should be in charge.”
Casey held up her hand. “This is Scot’s operation.”
“Do you know what a klootzak is?” he asked her.
“No, I don’t.”
“That’s what we call men like him here in Holland.”
Harvath gave de Roon the finger.
“See?” said the Dutchman. “That’s the behavior of a klootzak. They always want the most dangerous assignments and if you’re not ready to move when they are, they leave without you.”
“I think you’re referring to what we call a cowboy.”
“I suppose you could call him a cowboy, but klootzak is more offensive, and more accurate. Therefore, he is a klootzak.”
Casey looked at de Roon. “Do you two have some sort of history I need to know about?”
“It all started when Marty placed an ad in the Village Voice—” began Harvath.
“I’m not talking to you,” she said, cutting him off.
“I don’t like to think about it,” de Roon replied.
Harvath smiled. “It hurts that your boss liked me more than you.”
“He was not my boss. He was my protectee.”
“Who are we talking about?” asked Casey.
“Geert Wilders,” answered de Roon. “He’s a member of the Dutch Parliament. Scot helped us with some trouble he was having.”
Casey looked at Harvath. “What kind of trouble?”
“Do you know who Mr. Wilders is?” he asked.
“His name is familiar.”
“He produced the movie Fitna?”
Casey’s eyebrows went up. “The one the Muslims went nuts over?”
Harvath nodded.
“I watched it on the Internet and never understood the outrage. Didn’t it show scenes of Muslim terrorism alongside passages from the Qur’an that call for violence against non-Muslims?”
“It did,” said de Roon. “Mr. Wilders was holding a mirror up to the Muslim community worldwide and exposing their hypocrisy. They riot over cartoons of Mohammed, but are silent when Muslim terror attacks happen.”
“And so they want to kill him over a movie that simply shows the truth?”
The man nodded as if to say, I know. It’s ridiculous. “The hypocrisy is completely lost on them. Remember, Islam is a religion of peace and if you say it isn’t, they’ll kill you.”
“So you met through Wilders?”
“Geert was speaking at an event in New York City to raise awareness about Islamic fundamentalism,” said Harvath. “There were several other big-name speakers at the event like Robert Spencer and former Dutch Member of Parliament Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
“A group of bloggers at a site called the Jawa Report, which specializes in taking down Islamist Web sites, uncovered a terror plot against the event. I knew several of the security people involved and when they learned of the threat, they asked me to come in and consult.”
“And was there actually an attempt on