Globusz^® Publishing 

At the American Embassy, Hoskins requested a quick meeting to tie up any loose ends before he and Frank headed back to Virginia.

Hoskins, Frank, and Deputy Chief of Mission John Evans were in the conference room reviewing some notes when the door opened.

“Well, it’s good to have you back, Ambassador Ganley,” “I’d like you to meet Jack Hoskins and Frank Prescott from the CIA, we had quite an eventful week,” Evans said as the men exchanged handshakes.

“We tried to get in here early last night, but the police had the area blockaded until midnight, and I understand that I have you to thank for that,” Ganley said as he looked at the two agents.

“We were just doing our job,” Hoskins said as he waited to see where Ganley was going with that statement.

“We’re reviewing some details for the CIA’s report, you’re welcome to stay for this meeting, or I could fill you in later,” Evans said.

Ganley poured himself a cup of coffee and said, “Coincidentally, we do have a situation that is directly related to this case that I’d like to address right now.”

As soon as he said that Ganley’s Assistant Jeremy Spak knocked and entered the room escorting Georgian Ambassador to the U.S., Giorgi Saginov, and Vladimir Shengelia, the farm owner.

After a summary of the events was concluded, Ambassador Ganley said, “Mr. Shengelia has sworn before the local judge that the terrorists misrepresented themselves as buyers from a pharmaceutical corporation that were interested in the cesium for radiation therapy processes.”

Hoskins then said, “As long as you’re satisfied that Mr. Shengelia learned a lesson from this, neither I nor the Agency are interested in seeking any punitive measures against him. He was extremely helpful in giving us information that aided us in finding the terrorists, and for this we are grateful. On the other hand, he should have been responsible for the dangerous materials that he knowingly sold. Again, it’s up to you to punish him as you see fit.”

At that moment, Agent Henry Carr entered the conference room and took a seat next to Hoskins.

Hoskins leaned over and quietly told Henry that the farmer confessed to the sale and that the Georgian Government will be responsible for his punishment.”

“What? They’re just going to let him walk?” Henry said with little concern that everyone in the room probably heard him.

“We appreciate your interest, Mr. Carr,” Evans said, “But this is an internal matter for the Georgian courts to decide.”

“What’s to decide? The cans had a radioactive symbol on the side, and I think my dead grandmother could tell you that Abdula Nassir does not walk or talk like a representative from a pharmaceutical company."

“Be that as it may, this topic is no longer open to discussion,” Ambassador Ganley said, “If Mr. Shengelia was apprehended outside of the Republic of Georgia, it would be a different matter, but as it stands his fate lies in the hands of his fellow citizens.”

“That’s bullshit,” Henry said, “This man should be charged with crimes against humanity, I’ll personally contact the UN to investigate this matter.”

“You can do as you please,” Ganley said, “But you’ll be wasting your time, neither the U.S. State Department or the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, who I’ve already spoke to about this incident, will be filing any charges.”

“I guess you’re beating a dead horse, Henry,” Hoskins said, “But we would be remiss if we left this country without some assurance that the illegal trade of these hazardous materials will no longer be tolerated in Georgia.”

“The people of Georgia have no desire to jeopardize their good relationship with the United States,” Georgian Ambassador Saginov said, “And I assure you that Mr. Shengelia will not be treated as a hero, but as someone who was deceived by terrorists. His irresponsible actions could have cost him his own life as well as that of many innocent people, Georgians included, in the process.”

“I don’t think we could ask for more than that,” Ganley said.

“Well I do,” Henry said.

“I’m sorry, but who the hell are you anyway?” Ganley asked.

“Mr. Carr is the CIA’s SWAT team leader who assisted with capturing the terrorists and the cesium,” Evans said.

“It seems to me, Mr. Ambassador, that you’re being just a bit too lenient on a man who was abetting terrorists who were going to send anywhere from one to eight dirty bombs to the United States,” Henry said.

“Unless I missed something, young man, no bombs made it to the United States, therefore the course of action that I see fit to use will be strictly in the best interest of the United States and our relationship with the Georgia Republic. And if I may add, you are in no position to question my motives or that of our host nation.”

“Considering the fact that during the search for these bombs, I was shot at and nearly killed by couple of knife throwing maniacs, I’ll question any phase of this investigation that I please.”

“You could ask all the questions that you please, but neither I nor the state department owes you or any member of the intelligence agency any answers or explanations for our decisions.”

Henry was quickly losing patience with Ganley and said, “Okay, I’ll leave the Georgian alone and I’ll direct my questions to you,” Henry said as he pulled Tafar’s big knife from his coat and threw it across the table where it stuck in the wall just missing Ganley.

“Did you ever see that knife before?” Henry asked Ganley.

“Hell no,” Ganley said, too shocked to say anything smarter.

“That knife belonged to Tafar Rasulon, do you know him?”

“No,” Ganley replied.

Henry stood up so that he could see the faces of the men around the conference table.

“I don’t understand then,” Henry said. “If you don’t know Tafar Rasulon, why are so determined to protect his uncle?”

“Did we miss something, Henry?” Hoskins asked.

“You could say that,” Henry said, “About an hour ago we rounded up two thieves that we caught grave robbing under the floor of the Cathedral of the Twelve Apostles. Coincidentally, Tafar Rasulon, who was one of Tariq Amin’s officers that I tracked from Batumi, provided information about where I would find these two men. What they were trying to steal was by my own account unimaginable.”

“What was it, Henry?” Hoskins asked.

“Would you believe the cloak of Jesus Christ?” Henry said as he looked around the room to check the expressions on the men’s faces.

“That can’t be, Mr. Carr, the exact location of the burial crypt is not known,” Ambassador Saginov said.

“I’m sure that was the case up until maybe a week ago,” Henry said, “But someone brought in a lot of expensive digging and geological underground detection equipment, and they managed to find it.”

“How do you know it was the real cloak of Christ?” Ambassador Saginov asked, “It’s not an uncommon practice to put favorite articles of clothing in coffins.”

“I was thinking the exact same thing,” Henry said, “Until I saw the face of the young girl holding the cloak. She didn’t look much different that any other Georgian teenager out there on the street, except for the fact that she’s been buried ten feet underground for the past two thousand years. I also thought it was quite interesting that a full grown man could not pull the cloak out of her dead hands.”

The room was silent as everyone just stared quietly at Henry.

“Hard to believe isn’t it,” Henry said, “You might want to see this for yourself.”

“This is all very interesting, but what does the cloak have to do with your wanting to persecute Mr. Shengelia?” Ganley asked.

“Let me spell it out for you, someone in this room knowingly sold hazardous materials to a terrorist group knowing full well that they would use the materials to produce weapons of mass destruction. They used the money from this transaction to buy the high tech equipment that was needed to find and uncover the cloak of Christ with intent to sell it for a small fortune.”

“And you’re implying that I had something to do with this?” Ganley said.

“Henry walked over near the burley Ambassador and pulled Tafar’s knife out of the wall and said, “Until you explain why you’re defending the man who perpetrated this vicious scheme, then yes, I think you were probably involved in this with Shengelia.”

As everyone in the room looked over at the farmer, he jumped out of his seat and ran toward the door, but Frank grabbed him and set him back down in his chair.

Henry walked over to the farmer and said, “It turns out that Mr. Shengelia wasn’t really robbed by the terrorists as he would have all of you believe. As it turns out, he and his nephew, Tafar Rasulon used the proceeds from the sale of the Cesium to buy some really good excavation equipment to secretly dig for the cloak. Tariq Amin already confessed that he paid Shengelia a half million dollars for the cesium, and Abdula Nassir got a half million to deliver it.”

Henry observed the bruise on his face and said, “Apparently your nephew Tafar really knows how to throw a punch too. I guess you thought it was worth taking to cover up your crime. No one would ever know that you got the half million dollars, if there was something that Tafar was really good at, it was intimidation.”

Henry paced around the conference room as he continued.

“They had an in at the Cathedral being that Victor Zurab worked there. They could dig nights and clean the place up before the worshippers would come in the morning. It was a pretty good plan, I don’t mind saying, and from what I could gather, Shengelia and Tafar were going to go to Switzerland and auction off the cloak. One small miracle was all they needed, and they could literally name their price. The first buyer they had in mind was Tafar’s current employer, Tariq Amin. If Amin didn’t buy it, some other old millionaire probably wouldn’t mind acquiring a piece of eternal salvation.”

Henry looked at Ganley and said, “That takes us back to you, what is your interest in this?”

“I swear to you, I had nothing to do with this. I owed Ambassador Saginov a favor, that is it, pure and simple, tell him Giorgi.”

“This is true, I have known the Shengelia family for years,” Ambassador Saginov said, “And we too were obviously duped by him. I thought I was doing him a small favor and here he deceived all of us, and the Cloak of Christ could have been stolen from the good Christian people of Georgia,” Ambassador Saginov said as he pointed and looked contemptuously at Shengelia, “You will burn in hell for this.”

“That was the beauty of it,” Henry said, “No one would know it was stolen. Shengelia wasn’t going to tell the buyer that he stole it, and the buyer probably wasn’t going to ask.”

“The people of the Georgian Republic are extremely grateful to you for saving the cloak, Mr. Carr,” Ambassador Saginov said, “We will help the church seal the crypt good so this never happens again.”

Vladimir Shengelia laid his head on the table and cried when he realized that he was probably going to prison.

“You should cry, you bastard,” Henry said, “You could have poisoned millions of people with that radioactive powder, you greedy bastard.”

“Well it appears that Henry gave us all the proof that we need to charge Shengelia with crimes against humanity,” Hoskins said.

“I agree,” Ganley said as he looked at Ambassador Saginov, “This could have been catastrophically embarrassing to both of our nations if Shengelia got away with this.”

“You’re right,” Ambassador Saginov said, “If we let him walk out of here, he would be on his way to Switzerland by now.”

“There are two men in prison today who will testify against him,” Henry said.

Evans called two Marines into the conference room where they handcuffed Shengelia and moved him to a guarded office until the local police arrived.

Mr. Ambassador,” Henry said to Saginov, “I strongly urge you to not delay in putting every conceivable control in place to make sure there are no more cesium canisters in Georgia.”

“You would also do well to secure your borders better,” Hoskins said. “

“Believe me, gentlemen, I will deliver all of your recommendations to our President today.”

“If you don’t mind, I would like to join you at that meeting,” Ganley said.”

“We appreciate that,” Hoskins said, “We will have our Director touch base with you later in the week.”

“Please do,” Ganley said, “It’s the least I could do.”

“If I may ask for one favor,” Saginov said, “Could we keep the information about the cloak to ourselves, we don’t want to have a large amount of people causing a commotion at the cathedral.”

“That should not be a problem,” Henry said, “No one knows about it yet. As a matter of fact, if we’re finished here, I’m going to go over and show it to the Bishop, would anyone else like to come along.”

Ambassador Saginov’s eyes lit up and Evans said, “I’ll get a van ready to take us over there right now.”