Publisher's Synopsis
Spying is a strategy for a Middle East country like Iraq, especially against the United States. But when an additional Middle East country, namely Iran, becomes involved, their combined efforts add another thorn in the West's side, all for the secret organization called Tariq'Allah. The book opens with a plot to steal classified scientific data from the United States. A secret pact between Iraq and Iran includes two Iranian biophysicists, Javad Ghorbani and Karim Alizadeh, disguised as Egyptians to mislead and divert possible suspicion. Paul Remmich and Eric Miller are intelligence officers who were recently targeted by Iraqi spies to become moles in service to the Tariq'Allah. They evaded the Iraqis, and are secretly working at the US Army Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM) at Fort Belvoir in Northern Virginia. Their location is discovered by two Iraqi cleaning women posing as Hispanics, who are caught rummaging through the officers' personal items. The discovery of the spies alerts the men to the fact that they are still in danger and being pursued by the same people they escaped from in Europe; people who want to kidnap them. At the same time, another government organization has a problem. The Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico is undertaking a sophisticated biophysics study. Ten scientists from various Middle East foreign countries have been invited to participate in the program. The group will work alongside LANL scientists to solve major health issues. The Lab needs someone to help teach the attending foreign scientists how to decode encrypted medical terms to provide answers to their studies. Because they are trained encryption experts, the Army lends Remmich and Miller to the LANL as instructors. While they are stationed at LANL, Remmich and Miller also become involved in a major search of the Lab's old files for a study that has now become relevant. What the officers and director at LANL don't know is that two of the visiting scientists plan to find and confiscate that same classified scientific file. While pretending to have difficulty learning to decrypt the coded words, the spies divert their instructors' attention long enough to steal the file on the missing study. Unfortunately for the spies, an incorrect code used by Ghorbani in an e-mail to his handlers about the stolen documents never makes it to the Iraqis' satellite. After much confusion, Alizadeh discovers the mistake, and their mission and safety are jeopardized. Meanwhile, the Echelon communication center in London intercepts the e-mail and forwards the information to the NSA. It's the Williams' scientific file. The FBI in Albuquerque, New Mexico is ordered to look into the matter, since they determined that the e-mail signal emanated from someplace near the LANL. The INSCOM officers on site team up with FBI agents to identify the spy that they believe is among the scientists from the Middle East. After the spies are identified through surveillance and analysis, the FBI inserts small tracking devices into their suitcases. The Iranian spies flee Santa Fe and the FBI follows them to the airport in Albuquerque. Instead of arresting them immediately, they allow them to fly to Miami in hopes that there are other spy contacts located at their destination who can be apprehended. Remmich and Miller are ordered to follow them. After the spies' arrival in Miami, they book a flight to London. The spies never make that flight. Unwilling to lose them to a foreign country, they are arrested. During an inspection of their personal articles, Remmich finds a flash drive that just happens to contain the Williams' scientific discovery. Part of the puzzle is solved, but whether this theft is part of a bigger plot is left to be determined. This novel is a military thriller, similar to The Hunt for Red October and The Camel Club, which blends realistic action with enough suspense to wonder whether it could really
