Terror in the Caribbean

By Joseph Frangie

Five yeas after resigning as an intelligence operative, Jeff Daher rejoins the CIA and teams with Jane Jackson (JJ) in St. Thomas and Puerto Rico to seek, locate, and take down an Islamic terrorist and find out why and who murdered their CIA assets and friends Mike Shay and his wife. Will they be able to stop this Islamic terrorist? Come, read, and discover as these characters dive in to this deadly mission that might just cost their lives.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Aug 30, 2017
• ISBN: 9781543447514

Book preview

Copyright © 2017 by Joseph Frangie.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2017913349

ISBN:      Hardcover            978-1-5434-4749-1

                Softcover              978-1-5434-4750-7

                eBook                   978-1-5434-4751-4

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 08/26/2017

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Contents

Foreword Terror In The Caribbean

Prologue The Legacy

Chapter 1

Cyril E. King Airport

St. Thomas, Us Virgin Islands

September 3, 2001

11:40 A.m.

Chapter 2

Jfk Airport, New York

Chapter 3

Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas

Us Virgin Islands

September 4, 2001

Chapter 4

Puerto Rico International Airport

September 4, 2001

Chapter 5

Puerto Rico International Airport

Chapter 6

San Juan, Puerto Rico

September 4, 2001

10:30 A.m.

Chapter 7

Later

September 4

Chapter 8

Almost Midnight

September 4

Chapter 9

Wednesday

September 5, 2001

6:00 A.m.

Chapter 10

September 5, 2001

Wednesday

Fajardo

Midmorning

Chapter 11

September 5, 2001

Wednesday

Late In The Afternoon

Chapter 12

Same Date

Chapter 13

Charles Carnation’s Office Wednesday

Late Afternoon

September 5, 2001

Chapter 14

Wednesday

September 5, 2001,

Fajardo

11:55 P.m.

Chapter 15

Thursday

September 6, 2001

7:00 A.m.

Chapter 16

Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, Usvi

Thursday, September 6

Chapter 17

Fajardo,

Thursday, September 6

Chapter 18

Fajardo Yacht Club

Chapter 19

San Juan, Puerto Rico

Friday, September 7

Chapter 20

Us Customs, Old San Juan

Chapter 21

At Khalil’s Apartment

Chapter 22

The Terrorist Is Fingerprinted Unaware

Chapter 23

Blackbeard’s Pub

Chapter 24

Khalil’s Fish And Lobster Restaurant

Puerto Real, Fajardo

Saturday, September 8

Chapter 25

At Us Naval Station Roosevelt Roads,

Saturday, September 8

Chapter 26

Police Of Puerto Rico

F. D. Roosevelt Ave. Sj

Saturday, September 8,

Late Afternoon

Chapter 27

Sunday, September 9

Locate, Apprehend, And Interrogation Strategy

Chapter 28

Richard’s Pig Farm, Fajardo

Moment Of Truth

Chapter 29

Monday, September 10 Us Naval

Station, Roosevelt Roads

Chapter 30

The Firefight

Tuesday, September 11

Chapter 31

Escape And Evasion

Chapter 32

Hotel El Conquistador, Fajardo

Wednesday, September 12

Chapter 33

Old San Juan

Chapter 34

The Takedown

Everyone sees what you appear to be, few really know what you really are.

-Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince

For Luis and his family, my longtime friends.

Foreword

TERROR IN THE CARIBBEAN

Among the various aims of Islamic terrorism, the one that stands out is to make cold-blooded premeditated murderers into selfless heroes so as to persuade opponents, unwary sympathizers, and neutrals that the terrorists’ cause is righteous and their actions are justified, no matter how horrendous are the consequences.

The United States and allied Western democracies referred to as infidels and sons of Satan are the principal targets of Islamic terrorists. Any attempt to negotiate with or appease and placate this undeterred, hostile, and ruthless enemy sworn to destroy the United States and its allies will always be interpreted as a sign of weakness or unwillingness or inability to engage and will embolden him to indiscriminately escalate his attacks to achieve his purpose.

The economies in the Caribbean United States territories are highly dependent on international tourism via foreign and domestic, privately owned and commercial aircrafts, as well as foreign registry passenger vessels. A terrorist attack targeting tourism in any of the US Virgin Islands or Puerto Rico will have a crippling effect on the economy, causing repercussions throughout the tourist industry in the Caribbean. Potential tourists will ask themselves, Where will the terrorists strike next, and will I be there when they strike?

The notion that these territories do not constitute strategic targets for terrorists and are immune to an attack is a pipe dream shared by many naively enjoying the pleasures of self-deception. Hopefully, they will continue dreaming and will never be awakened by a chaotic nightmare such as a terrorist attack.

Terror in the Caribbean is a fictional story unfolding in the United States Territories of St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico. All the protagonists, characters, and events depicted in this story as well as the Etruscan Hotel, Mona Passage Inn, Blackbeard’s Pub, Khalil’s Fish and Lobster Restaurant, Stanley’s Deli, the Pirate’s Cove Seafood Restaurant, RANFT Construction Co., and Israeli-registered passenger cruiser Gideon are fictional.

Geographical locations of the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico Police Headquarters are factual. However, the described police hierarchies are fictional.

The US Navy Station at Roosevelt Roads, Ceiba, Puerto Rico, was closed on March 30, 2004. The base was operating on September 2001. The navy personnel depicted in the story as well as a planned terrorist attack and attempted murder of an admiral are fictional.

Prologue

THE LEGACY

It was thirteenth-century Persia, now Iran, and the region had been under the yoke of the Mongols since shortly after the beginning of the century when Genghis Khan and his hordes invaded and conquered the caliphates and nomadic tribes ruled by overindulging and lackadaisical caliphs and sheiks. He arbitrarily imposed his will, guaranteeing peace under the Mongol rule and tolerating religious as well as cultural and traditional diversities, demanding in return unwavering loyalty and absolute obedience.

The Mongols were feared for their ferocity as conquerors and yet admired for their courage. Jews were envied for their business acuity while Christians were contemptuously viewed as crusaders for whom the Muslims had an inbred hatred since the First Crusade (1094–1099).

The Koran, the source of Islamic religion, law, and traditions, was embraced by many Mongols since it was more practical to worship one god than many Mongolian gods. When Muslim religious sects, such as the Sunnis, Shiites, and Kurds, warred for religious and political control, the Mongolian public order brigades, wielding their scimitars, quickly and publicly imposed tranquility, law, and order. Those found guilty of committing capital offenses were publicly decapitated as a warning to others.

Genghis Khan’s aspirations for consolidating all of Persia, particularly the northern sector bordered by the Caspian Sea, were thwarted by his death in AD 1227. His son, Halagu, the first Khan of the Khanate of Persia, continued to rule the empire, mindful of his spies’ warning of a growing threat to his empire from the north.

To the north, accentuated by steep, rugged, and jagged-edged volcanic rock, lay the Elburz Mountains. This inhospitable terrain was a stronghold for cutthroats, military deserters, and bands of brigands preying on naive, unarmed, and unsuspecting unescorted caravans laden with silk, salt, oils, and grain, lumbering oftentimes aimlessly through uncharted routes and trapped by an unforgiving and endless sweltering sea of sand. The pungent, bloated, and sunbaked putrefying flesh of many unfortunate victims never failed to disappoint the scavenging soaring vultures and prowling jackals always on the alert for an easy meal.

Notwithstanding that Halagu Khan and his father, Genghis Khan, did their utmost to rid the empire of these proscribes, a more sinister and growing threat ensued in the form of Islamic, fanatically motivated, often-for-hire terrorists: the Secret Society of Hashishians. For over 160 years, the Society had been wreaking unrivaled terror throughout Persia (now Iran), Mesopotamia (now Iraq), and other areas in the Middle East. The fundamentalists’ perverse interpretation of the Koran and jihad motivated these terrorists. A disgruntled, malcontent, and ambitious son, brother, nephew, or heir planning to murder a sheik and assassinate his heirs and personal guards to claim absolute title hired or conspired with these relentless assassins. Christians regarded as infidel sons of Satan, Jews, and moderate Muslims were also on their hit list. Hashishians gave no quarter or asked for any. Prisoners were usually decapitated on the spot, except for a wealthy and affluent few held for ransom. More often than not, they too were decapitated once the ransom was paid.

The fortified and impregnable fortress city of Alamut was located in the Elburz Mountains in Northern Persia, 2,100 feet above sea level, and was the Hashishians’ stronghold since prior to AD 1090. Alamut was built by wealthy Shiite sheik Hasan bin Sabbah, a fundamentalist extremist who preached unwavering loyalty to Islam and absolute devotion to a transcendental god. He proclaimed himself and a select few and their successors the Enlightened Mystics, as well as tacticians and strategists and the sole interpreters of the Koran. Subordinate to the Enlightened Mystics were the Fidais, the avenging self-destructive angels who never questioned the moral foundation of an order to self-destruct, attack, mutilate, torture, or assassinate. The Society advocated the destruction of Muslim moderates, all Christian sons of Satan, Jews, and other infidels, particularly Islamic caliphs who betrayed Allah by surrendering their religious convictions to the sons of Satan.

The mere suspicion of the Hashishians’ presence within a caliphate or near an oasis frequented by nomadic tribes was sufficient to spread panic and chaos. Hashishians frequently boasted of their fearlessness and invincibility. It was generally accepted as fact that Hashishians made themselves impervious to fear and pain by consuming hashish.

For decades prior to December 15, 1256, Halagu Khan’s efforts to negotiate with Hashishians to incorporate Alamut into the Khanate were arrogantly and defiantly ignored. Mongol and loyal Muslim envoys to Alamut were decapitated after their eyes and tongues were gouged. Their horridly disemboweled and savagely mutilated torsos were fed to the marauding vultures and jackals outside the city walls.

Their heads preserved in honey with testicles protruding from eye sockets and mouths stuffed with entrails were arrogantly hand-delivered by Fidais to the Mongol warlord who wasted little time in ordering their impaling with ten-foot poles lubricated with pig fat. It was Halagu Khan’s custom to order the impaling of captured Hashishians with poles lubricated with pig fat to deny their contaminated souls entry into paradise, according to the Koran. Halagu Khan did not adhere to the Koran but they did, and some avoided execution by impaling by confessing their crimes. They were subsequently executed by other methods.

December 15, 1256, has long been forgotten, but it was a day of reckoning and payback time for the impregnable fortress city of Alamut as well as for the Secret Society of Hashishians.

Alamut was besieged by the largest army amassed by Halagu Khan, which included catapults, trebuchets, and battering rams. This show of force was merely psychological, and he did not intend on taking the protected and impregnable fortress by force and risk many casualties. He had learned long ago there is no need to defeat an enemy in battle when a less costly victory can be achieved by skillfully demoralizing his enemy’s leaders and destroying their will to resist and fight.

Alamut was situated on high rocky terrain and a distance from towering cliffs, providing long-range observation for advanced warning of an approaching ally or foe. Between the cliffs was a steep and rocky corridor and the only approach to or from the heavily protected fortress. Taking the cliffs was crucial to surrounding the enemy, which the warlord accomplished silently, swiftly, and with few losses. He blocked off the corridor, denying his enemy any hope for escaping. He polluted water sources with the rotting and bloated carcasses of animals. When Alamut was contained and isolated, the warlord patiently waited for his three powerful allies: thirst, hunger, and the constant dread of not knowing what lies ahead to exhaust his enemy’s willingness to engage.

When Halagu Khan’s allies had taken their toll, emissaries were sent from Alamut to negotiate a conditional surrender and peace terms, offering an Islamic alliance for ruling Persia and the entire Middle East. Distrustful of his enemy’s intentions and apparent unwillingness to seek martyrdom, assuring their embracement by Allah and several dozen virgins in paradise, the warlord feigned his acceptance of the enemy’s conditional surrender.

After taking the fortress city of Alamut, Halagu Khan ordered the burning and destruction of the city as well as the slaughter, regardless of age, of every man, woman, and child, with the exception of a spared few, who will tell far and wide why the city and Hashishians were destroyed.

It was not so much the Mongol warlord’s intent to impose his will and seek vengeance as was his destined role as a peacekeeper. To assure peace, law, order, and tranquility in his Khanate, he had to destroy the Hashishians and their fortress city as well as the seeds that procreated them, along with their twisted and fanatically motivated dogmas.

It has been said that after Alamut was sacked, plundered, and converted into a mass of stone and rubble and its inhabitants slaughtered and left for the scavengers to feed upon, the Mongol warlord’s soothsayers recriminated his intransigence in dealing with his enemy. He was accused of creating a never-to-be-forgotten horde of martyrs and role models for the future generations to follow. His soothsayers further prophesied that someday in the far distant future, Hashishians will resurrect in other forms and terrorize humanity.

In present-day Iran, the scattered, charred, and weather-beaten remains of the Hashishians’ once impregnable fortress city of Alamut are still visible in the Elburz Mountains. Modern-day Fidais are encouraged to visit Alamut, as if it were a shrine, and pledge their absolute loyalty to their cause by beseeching Allah to grant them unwavering courage for indiscriminately seeking and destroying the infidel sons of Satan and their allies.

Islam as a religious philosophy is not flawed, but those fanatically motivated fundamentalist extremists perversely interpreting the Koran to coincide with their twisted notions of jihad fueling their agenda of destruction.

Chapter 1

CYRIL E. KING AIRPORT

ST. THOMAS, US VIRGIN ISLANDS

SEPTEMBER 3, 2001

11:40 A.M.

The American Airlines flight touched the tarmac runway several minutes ahead of schedule and taxied to a full stop some thirty meters from the passenger arrival entrance leading to Customs and Immigration. Despite September highlighting the hurricane season in the Caribbean, everyone aboard expected 2001 to be an uneventful year. No hurricane warnings or torrential rains were announced, and no clouds marred the warm sunny day. One of the passengers announced for all to hear that today, September 3, was his birthday and he and his wife were celebrating it at the Holiday Inn. Most of the passengers applauded and sang Happy Birthday.

When the captain announced that passengers may commence to disembark, the casually dressed tourists sporting various styles of sunglasses and carrying light luggage proceeded toward the left front exit. Few, if any, noticed the lone, elderly, light-complexioned, moderately built man occupying a window seat near the bulkhead. His facial contours were obscured by horn-rimmed green sunglasses, a well-trimmed silky white beard, a handlebar mustache, thick eyebrows, and white shoulder-length hair. He was wearing a typical Caribbean-style white guayabera, light-blue slacks, white socks, and light-tan casuals. Since he had no wristwatch, a casual onlooker would surmise that to him, time was not of the essence.

He waited until almost all the passengers disembarked before standing up and reaching for the latch to open the hand-carried luggage compartment and removing a canvass travel bag. Several passengers behind him conversing where they were staying in St. Thomas took little notice of him.

The taxi took him to the Mona Passage Inn along Veteran’s Drive in Charlotte Amalie at 12:25 p.m. Its nondescript exterior and accommodations have always attracted the younger tourists because of its proximity to the business district. As he approached the reception desk, he was greeted by the assistant manager. Good afternoon, Mr. Valdez. How long will you be staying this time?

Oh, only about three or four days, he answered as he took several large bills from his