Impossible Odds

AGIC S LEEP

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
    In the ninety-three days since the kidnappings, the FBI team had accumulated a trove of secret intelligence on the kidnappers. The U.S. clandestine service keeps up an active surveillance all around the Horn of Africa region because of its importance to international shipping and vulnerability to terrorism. When working an active case, observations from the ground and the air are supervised and coordinated by the FBI’s Nairobi office, which shares the same responsibility with all foreign FBI offices representing American interests abroad. Most of the time this involves fighting complex structures of international crime, but it also applies to the protection of any individual citizen who falls victim to major crime abroad.
    In both cases, the FBI works on the premise that its law enforcement efforts not only help American citizens but also help secure the region for local people. This aids in maintaining a collaborative atmosphere that proves vital during times when a little quid pro quo is needed and local intelligence is required.
    In Jessica’s case, the FBI traced the forces behind the kidnapping to a consortium of three local clans from southern Somalia. The Habr Gidir clan region stretches from the southern part of Galkayo down toward the capital of Mogadishu. Criminalsbelonging to three of the Habr Gidir subclans, Sa’ad, Suleiman, and Ayr, were believed to have cooperated in arming and manning the operation.
    Unfortunately for the kidnappers’ venture, by the time President Obama was ready to order a raid, the Americans knew exactly how many were on the Somali side: twenty-six grown men and teenaged soldiers, all rotating through the camp in shifts.
    Information about whether an aerial surveillance drone was used in this rescue operation is classified, and there is a chance the distant engine that sounded like a generator, which Jessica, Poul, and the kidnappers sometimes heard in the distance, wasn’t a drone, but an actual generator out there in the scrub desert.
    If a drone was in fact employed, the capabilities of prevailing technology would have enabled it to circle at altitudes beyond visual range, and it would have been able to loiter over the site for hours at a time. If it was there, publicly available knowledge confirms it would have been able to transmit clear photos and video shots regardless of the lighting, day or night. When this data was combined with the information gleaned from the ground (if in fact it was), the Americans would have learned the specific kinds of weapons and ammunition available to the Somalis and the approximate level of skill and determination they were likely to display. The weaponry in the camp was that of quasimilitary militia, and the fighters had to be expected to put up stiff resistance if they had the chance.
    The Americans also knew that each of the dozen times medicine was sent in to her, the kidnappers intercepted it and refused to pass it on. The Americans knew the “doctor” claiming to be kept on hand by the kidnappers to “guarantee the health of the hostages” was doing no such thing. They knew he had done nothing for either hostage beyond checking blood pressure on one occasion. He was described by Jabreel the negotiator as “available around the clock,” but instead he spent most of his timeunavailable in the nearby “International City of Adado,” staying in the same guesthouse Jabreel was using. His cover story fooled no one, and the negotiator lied badly about his actions. Again the kidnappers failed to grasp the reality of modern surveillance.
    The FBI knew Jess’s NGO had paid more than $12,000 in “fees” to get a doctor in to see Jess, in a desperate attempt to get the life-saving medicine to her. And thanks to Erik’s tireless updates on her condition, made possible by his ability to read between the lines of what she told them to hear what she wasn’t permitted to say, the Bureau knew that internal infections from the filthy conditions had begun to wreck her kidney function. They advised the military to have the necessary medical supplies on hand at the moment of rescue.
    The FBI knew, most of all, that this complete lack of medical assistance was being inflicted strictly for the purpose of increasing the tension for Jessica’s family. The kidnappers hoped to raise the ransom level by forcing her family or friends or employers to hurry up and “save” her.
    This, as it happens, was their