And how was the stuff smuggled out of there? Syria was high on the NSA’s watch list of terrorist-supporting states. Smuggling Semtex to a neighboring country like Lebanon was probably difficult enough, but smuggling it into the United States had to be a million times harder. It would involve lots of people. People to create fake documents and falsify cargo manifests. People to remove the Semtex from its stockpiled location. People to pack the Semtex into disguised crates. People to transport the disguised crates down to the shipping terminal. People to load the crates into a cargo container.

Nathan couldn’t remember ever seeing any type of product with a label stating Made in Syria. He knew Syria exported textiles and clothing, olive oil, and of course, crude oil. But anything leaving Syria on a direct path to the United States would be under much closer scrutiny than other exporting countries. It was unlikely the Semtex could be sent directly by container ship, so that meant the disguised crates would probably be sent to another country first, then transferred to another cargo container before being loaded onto a ship bound for the United States. Virtually all cargo containers were monitored and controlled by computerized inventory programs that both identified and tracked them as they were loaded and unloaded from ships. He supposed the Semtex could’ve been transported by a smaller private ship that met yet another ship out at sea, but how likely was that? And, again, how many people would be involved? Dozens? It simply couldn’t be done by two or three people. And it would be expensive. Nathan had no idea what a ton of Semtex sold for on the black market, but whatever the number was, he doubted it would be economical based on the scenario he’d just worked out.

The Syrian connection, now that he’d had time to think it through, was looking more and more unlikely. Okay, so if the Bridgestones hadn’t gotten it from Syria, where did they get it? Did someone within Freedom’s Echo have a connection to international arms smugglers? If so, who? Was the FBI looking at other members besides Leonard and Ernie? Surely they had to be. The bureau would be asking the same questions as Nathan: Where did the Bridgestones get the Semtex?

Chapter 17

Chapter  17

With the smell of Italian food still lingering in the air, Frank Ortega sat at his desk waiting for his phone to ring. When the damned thing finally bleeped to life, he looked at his Chelsea ship’s bell clock. Four minutes late. He pivoted his wheelchair and stabbed the speaker button.

“What the hell is going on out there?” he asked. Not hello, or good afternoon, or how are things in DC?

“We’re trying to sort it out.”

“Trying to sort it out? What kind of answer is that? They burned my grandson alive.”