The Apostle

“Give me the woman,” added Harvath, “and we will go in peace.”

Baseer shook his head. “I warned Massoud that taking her would be bad for our village.”

“He should have listened to you.”

“The only person he listens to is himself.”

“And the Russian,” offered one of the other elders.

Harvath’s eyes studied the man as the interpreter translated his remark. “It sounds like this Russian has also caused much trouble for your village,” said Harvath.

“Too much trouble-” continued the elder until Baseer held up his hand to quiet him.

“Did Massoud order him to kill Elam Badar?”

Baseer nodded. “Massoud was afraid that Elam Badar might tell the Americans about his prisoner.”

“Who is the Russian? A mercenary?” asked Harvath.

Harvath studied the faces of the shura after his question had been translated, but none of them appeared anxious to answer it. Having already threatened to use his stick, he knew it was time to dangle a carrot.

“If you help me, I can help you,” said Harvath. “I am in a position to be extremely generous.”

“How generous?” asked Baseer.

“That all depends. What do you need?”

“We want a small hydroelectric dam built at the bottom of our valley. We also want new roads built.”

Harvath thought about it. “These are both very important projects. Control over such projects would not only increase your village’s wealth and power, but also the authority of your shura.”

“And we want generators,” said Baseer, “until we can generate enough power ourselves.”

The elder certainly wasn’t shy with his list of requests. “If you give me what I want,” replied Harvath, “I will do everything I can to help you secure these things for your village.”

Baseer listened to the interpreter’s translation and then conversed briefly with his fellow elders. Turning back to Harvath, he said, “We only know the Russian by his Afghan name, Bakht Rawan. He is not a mercenary.”

“What is he?”

“He is a Russian intelligence agent.”

Harvath looked at Gallagher and then back to the chief elder. “What’s his co

“The Russians never really left Afghanistan,” said the chief elder. “Not completely. Many supported and maintained intelligence networks throughout the country. Massoud was the Russian’s student. He helped place Massoud in the NDS.”

“Massoud was in the NDS?” replied Harvath.

“Hoo,” said Baseer. “But he grew tired of it. He wanted to change Afghanistan, and for him, the Taliban was his answer.”

“What about for you?”

“I have never believed in the Taliban,” replied the elder.

Right answer, thought Harvath. Now let’s see if he can keep them going. “And what does all of this have to do with kidnapping Dr. Gallo?”

Baseer looked at him and spoke slowly so Daoud could translate. “They offered to give you the woman back if you freed Mustafa Khan from prison, correct?”

Harvath nodded.

“What they didn’t tell you was that the Russian was the one who helped the Afghan National Army locate and capture Khan in the first place.”

“But that doesn’t make any sense. Why would they do that?”

The elder looked at Harvath and asked, “What do you know about the Lake of Broken Glass?”

CHAPTER 45

“I’ve never heard of any Lake of Broken Glass,” replied Harvath.

“It is a story,” said Baseer. “A fantasy.”

“Then why are we talking about it?”

“Because the Russian was obsessed with it.”

Harvath looked at Gallagher. “Have you ever heard of this lake?”

Baba G shook his head. “No, but I’m not exactly the resident expert on Afghan folklore.”

Harvath turned back to the elder and through Daoud said, “How does this fit in with Dr. Gallo’s kidnapping?”

“Afghanistan,” the elder responded, “can seem like a puzzle. To understand it, you must put the pieces together correctly. Even if some of the pieces are only a fantasy. Through his network, the Russian became convinced that the Lake of Broken Glass was not a fantasy, but in fact a reality.”

“So what is the Lake of Broken Glass?” Harvath asked.

“It is where Sheik Osama is said to have hidden all of his riches.”

“Bin Laden?”

Baseer nodded. “Before his attacks on New York and Washington, he knew his money would not be safe in bank accounts. People say he took all of his money from these banks and used it to buy diamonds.”

“I think I actually read something about that,” said Gallagher.

“Me too,” replied Harvath. “It’s not a bad idea. Diamonds are easy to hide. They retain their value and they’re virtually untraceable.”

“They’re also easily converted to cash and can be transported anywhere in the world without dogs being able to sniff them or setting off alarms.”

“So how does this Lake of Broken Glass fit in?” Harvath asked.

“Sheik Osama was said to have hidden his diamonds in a cave somewhere in Afghanistan. To keep them from being stolen, he then had the cave flooded with water. Eventually, the wooden cases used to store the stones rotted away and the diamonds spilled out across the cave floor. The diamonds are said to sparkle so brightly that the flooded cave looks like a lake of broken glass.”

The Afghans loved their tall tales, and while obviously the story had been embellished as it passed through the Afghan grapevine, Harvath couldn’t help but wonder if there was something there. He remembered hearing testimony released after one of the first Gitmo trials that spoke of an Afghan man who had drowned with his pockets full of diamonds. He’d also heard of a DHS alert for dive shops to be on the lookout for Arab men wanting to purchase diving equipment which was born of confusion over SCUBA tanks discovered in a terrorist stronghold along the Afghan-Pakistan border. DHS believed al-Qaeda was training men to carry out attacks on bridges, cruise ships, and other water-related targets. Now, Harvath strongly suspected those two dots might co

Whether there was fire behind all this smoke or not, Harvath had more questions he needed answered. “Explain to me why the Russian had Mustafa Khan arrested,” he said.

“It is believed that Khan is the person who encouraged the sheik to remove his money from the banks and purchase the diamonds. People said that Khan also helped the sheik hide the diamonds. He was one of his most trusted lieutenants. When money was needed for an operation, it was Khan who went and fetched the diamonds from the lake.”

“So if the Russian got hold of Khan,” said Harvath, “he believed he could force him to reveal the location of the lake?”

The chief elder nodded.

“So why not just grab Khan himself? Why kidnap Dr. Gallo and go to all of this additional trouble?”

“From what Massoud said, the Russian was warned by his country not to betray their involvement. If the lake could be discovered, the diamonds were to be removed. Even though al-Qaeda has other sources of funding, they would be greatly weakened, and so would Taliban leader Mullah Omar. Always overly ambitious, the Russians intended to transfer the money to Massoud so that he could use it to unite the other Taliban commanders under his control, purchase more weapons, build his army, and wear down the American and other Western forces in Afghanistan exactly the way the mujahideen had done to the Soviet Union.”

It was a bold plan and Harvath could see a lot of upside in it for the Russians. Al-Qaeda was the primary source of a lot of the radical Islamist trouble they were having in places like Chechnya. Also, if they succeeded and Massoud ending up ru