At the diner-
Kromkowski looks at Gonzales a long moment and shrugs it off without comments, a person use to disparaging views of his organization. "Yeah, it was a Tiger team that whacked, sliced and diced Khahshoigi a few years back. And he isn't the only one either. So you are already tangling with international hit squads. That's what I am here to explain."
He quiets as the waitress comes to the table bearing a tray of coffee and food, smiles as she gives him and others coffee, leaves a few breakfast dishes of those who orders. "I'll be back with the rest in a moment, anything else I can getcha?"
"Sure," Says Kromkowski, "Egg sandwich, two eggs, little runny, cheese, sausage and would you mind a spoon of Salsa?"
"Salsa? Sure. We got a decent Western Omelette?" She asks.
"Next time maybe, but I gotat eat and run so make it to go will ya?" He adds.
"Sure thing." She smiles at the others and turns back to the kitchen.
Kromkowski takes a sip of his coffee before he begins. "If you recall about 9-10 years ago the DEA uncovered an attempt to assassinate the Saudi Ambassador in a restaurant in Washington? Well, had they pulled it off they wouldn't have just whacked the Saudi Ambassador but scores of high level government officials and politicians. The Iranians denied it and seriously, had they gotten away with it, that would have been an act of war, and think how that might have turned out? Anyway, the Saudi's took it seriously and raised their game because the Iranians were already doing it. The Iranians had been whacking political dissidents and opposition players all over the Middle East and in Europe, but the US had generally been off-limits. So the Iranians seem keen to increased their game. End of story, the conflict between Iran and Saudi Arabia over control of the Persian Gulf and the greater Middle East has spread to the US."
(OCC- about the plot to assassinate the Saudi Ambassador in the US-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_alle ... d%20States ).
"This place you are investigating, this house that blew up? We thought it was a Saudi safehouse, placed in a convenient location where people don't often look. The Saudi's had set it up initially as a religious outreach facility, because of the connections between Saudi intelligence and their clerics, it made a convenient front. So no one really took much notice of it because that's something the Saudi's have been doing all over the US and cooperation between religious groups and governments is pretty common. Simply, no one really gives a fuck if the Saudi's want to open a religious outreach in a shithole part of town that no one gives a fuck about. But we think that that was just a cover, and once the religious folks moved out, the Saudi's turned the building into a safe house for their operators. Most people around here dont' care. Those who do could get paid off and if house drew too much official attention, they could look like some terrorist or drug running operation, and the Saudi's get plausible deniability- whatever connects the house to the Saudi's is embarrassing, but they aren't directly involved. Except.. maybe they are."
Lapis, a DEA agent, asks, "So they are running drugs and you know it?"
Kromkowski nods, "Yeah, and to be fair, it isn't that unusual either. Covert operations does dirty deeds in the dark and don't want to draw too much attention to themselves. So do drug dealers, terrorist networks, mob guys...we're here to make to make the citizens safe by keeping the dirt out. To do that, we got to get into the dirt with em otherwise we can't do our job. But you are DEA and you've been around, so don't give me any fucking guilt trip about it, because that's the job we signed up for and that's the price. For what it's worth, any drugs these guys were selling was mostly going to buyers looking to buy the high they got in the Middle East, and they were keeping it quiet and careful. Or that's at least what we thought. If you bust open that container you are likely to find, among other things, drugs from the Middle East."
"Here's the thing though. These folks using the house, they aren't all Saudi's but folks recruited from all over. Some of those you were able to identify came over from Europe and they are not religious with the usual connections. These look like contractors, not Saudi military or intel, but terrorists who are anti-Iran. Again, nothing unusual here. Fairly common for the agencies to higher outside contractors that they can refer jobs out to as necessary. But from what we can tell, this group is a bit odd."
Wade, who has been listening on the phone, asks, "The children we found?"
"Yeah, there's that. These fuckers are picking up kids and cutting them up? Why? And does that connect to that red dust?" Kromkowski shrugs. "I don't have those answers. But as I said, we keep an eye on Red Wind, the company, and they are a mover of cargo all over the Middle East. How the dust got here? My guess would be that they shipped it here on a ship by container. Someone went out into an Iranian desert, dug up the sand and shipped it here, and then they stuffed it into the house and even used it to reinforce the structure. That house is pretty old and survived here a long time, but old NY construction is pretty sturdy stuff and meant to last. They turned the house into a bunker not unlike people did in the Second World War in Russia and in France- they hid a bunker in a house. But why build a bunker at all?"
Wade chimes in as Kromkowski breaks to take a sip of coffee. "From early toxicology results, it seems that most of the children are New Yorkers, all exposed to some kind of toxic substances. Given the nature of the remains, it might take months to identify them. We got kids coming to New York all the time and disappearing, so we're not sure if their families are in the US. Could be the kids were brought to NY from out-of-state. We're running EZ pass records to track car movements in and out of the city, and it seems the cab remained in NY. But the sedan and the van left the city and the state on multiple occasions."
Kromkowski looks at Miranda, "More likely Jubier is running the Tiger, not their victim. As the local Saudi operator in chief, he's more likely to coordinate hits on Saudi targets. Saudi targets could include anti-Saudi Iranian operations, Iranian operations and possibly Iranian targets of opportunities, as well as anyone else the Saudi's want to keep tabs on. But it's mostly intelligence gathering in NY because of the UN and the Saudi's would want to keep their hands clean and distant from any wet work. More likely Jubier would be the target of the Iranians or whoever blew up the house."
"As for the church? Honestly, the priest is something of a phantom for us. Reverend Milton Ingwenya is out of Democratic Republic of Congo, a country that was dealing with a nasty war for years. He came over as a refugee. We got no records on him from the Congo that we can verify but that's no surprise given Congo records. But we got nothing that ties him to anything but a number of Congolese refugee organizations helping people come over from Africa and his connections to the local African community. Seems he also helps local kids, mostly African first generations, who get into some trouble with the police, usually over drugs. What I know of his religion is odd by my standards, but I am CIA, so really, what the fuck do I know about God? I understand there is a lot of mix of Christian and traditional African faiths in the African Zionists, and they are a bit like evengelicals- all about the spirit, but again, not my thing and the Agency hasn't considered him a person of any interest. There are ties between religious organizations and African politicians all over Africa, especially in West Africa and the Congo, but Ingwenya doesn't seem to have much political sway here. From what we've been able to draw, few real contacts back home, no family to speak of. Supposedly his entire family got wiped out by war or disease and he came over because he was the wrong ethnicity in the wrong place. In the US, he runs a small church to the local faithful. We checked his tax records and he's running on a shoe-string budget and not making a lot out of his church.
If he's up to something, it isn't on our radar but he'd be careful because he probably doesn't want to get sent back to DR Congo. That place is such a shithole it makes the Hole look serene."
The waitress come back to the table with more dishes including Kromkowski's egg sandwich in a bag. He smiles at her and nods, says, "Thanks." then watches her leave. He turns to others. "So if you got questions, ask. I don't have all the answers though. I can tell you that those contractors in the house were anti-Iran but I can't tell you what they were up to, why they brought that dust or even what was with the kids bodies. I can't tell you who lit the fire or why. I wish I had some answers for ya on that, but we want to know to because this one is strange."