Page 94 of Acting on Instinct
“We have little time. I have questions for you.”
“Yes, of course.” Fatima laced her fingers in her lap and leaned forward toward the camera.”
“Explain in your own words what was on the audio files that you hid in the wedding album.”
“It is complicated. My background is in computer science, but this is beyond what I learned in school. Nadir and his associates had begun to deploy botnet malware targeting routers. It made the computer a zombie. It would function as normal until the infection was triggered. Because the malware was decentralized—the ways normally used to stop viruses, which is to find the place they started and shut them down—well, that wouldn’t work. If someone cleared the malware from their computer, it would simply reinfect because it lived in the router.”
“Yes, alright. Keep going,” White said. “Who is their target?”
“The industry. Everyone who had anything to do with their businesses,” Fatima said.
“Was this implemented only in Qatar?” White asked.
“When I sent the recording to the United States—”
“To Kira,” Ty corrected.
“Yes,” Fatima looked at her lap where she knotted her fingers, “to Kira.” She took a deep breath and, after releasing it in a deep sigh, looked into the screen to answer White. “It was like a terrorist network with secret soldiers ready to act when their general picked up the phone.”
“Was it only in Qatar?” White repeated. “Or do you believe it extended to the neighboring countries?”
“You’re just thinking that because our region is in the news,” Fatima said.
“I’m thinking it because of geography and the business model of making a crisis and reaping the benefits that Nadir and William seemed to be so fond of,” White countered. “May William rot in hell,” she muttered.
“But this is true.” Fatima trembled from head to foot. “Nadir and William were among the global elite controlling three products that allow the modern world to function: oil, helium, and fertilizer. He who controls those three components has global leverage.”
“That’s what changed,” White said. “The geopolitical harvest was ripe. It was go time. And you decided to stop it, Fatima, by saying that you knew what was happening and you had proof.” White glared at Fatima. “You said you had proof in a safe place, and that you would expose him if he acted, and Nadir landed on Kira.”
“That timeline doesn’t work,” T-Rex said. “This had to be in play before the region became a hot spot.”
“Fatima,” Ty said, “Kira told me that at the beginning of the month, the family was afraid that William and Nadir had drowned in a boating accident on the way from Singapore to William’s island. And that it had taken over a day to find out that William and Nadir had flown to William’s compound in Tanzania.”
Fatima rolled her lips to form a flat line and nodded her head. “Yes, their business partner, Medved’ Zoric, was on that boat. Medved’ had arranged with William to take his family on a retreat to the island. And on the way, a speedboat collided with the ferry. The entire family died together, a tragedy.”
“That tragedy was the catalyst, right?” Ty asked.
“Yes, Medved’s team was the one to develop the infection. Medved’ had frenemies—this is the word in English?”
“I understand what you’re saying,” White said.
“With the frenemies were the Prokhorov family. The Prokhorov’s had their own scheme. With the Zorics gone, the Prokhorovs were moving into position. It was act or lose their opportunity,” Fatima said as she looked around.
“What do you need?” White asked.
“A glass of water, please.”
Ty stood, moved to the sink, and filled a glass.
“They were about to pull the trigger on their operation, and you stopped it,” White re-centered the conversation.
“I did,” Fatima whispered. “I acted abruptly without thought. Nadir wasn’t with me in Qatar, so for some reason, I suppose that made me feel safe. Within minutes—minutes—men showed up in my room and told me to let the family know that Nadir requested I join him in Tanzania, and I was leaving immediately to bring him solace from the sudden and tragic deaths of his friends in Singapore. I was held captive.” Fatima set her gaze on a blank wall, and her voice quivered. “Nadir tortured me.” She sat still, her gaze fixed, then she blinked andfocused on White. “But I didnotever say Kira’s name. Nadir figured it out. I guess he knows me better than I thought he did.”
“With the update since you recorded their conversations two years ago, what was the new capacity?” White asked.
“I have no new recordings because they had stopped talking about it. But what I overheard the night before William and Nadir left for Singapore was that they could do anything to any industry at any time. They could, for example, attack desalination plants throughout the region and kill whole populations from a lack of water. They could create famine. They could crash planes. And command ships at sea. The thing you must understand is that it cannot be stopped. If this spreads wide enough, unless we go analog, they—well, Nadir is the lone survivor—Nadir has control of the world. At the time I last heard them speak, the only sticking point was that they were in league with Medved’ and Medved’ was tightly tied to Russia. It would be Russia who took world domination and, of course, William and Nadir dreamed that for themselves.”
“And when the boat accident happened …” White said.
