MH370 The Answer? Read online

  In July nineteen ninety nine this dissatisfaction erupted into public demonstrations by the students. Unbeknown to her parents Farah had become romantically involved with a fellow student who was regarded as a leader. He started to attract the attention of the Iranian Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution (commonly known as Revolutionary Guards).

  Shortly after a secret meeting with her lover he was arrested by the Revolutionary Guards at a particularly bloody demonstration. A number of students were killed or injured and others hauled off to prison. Many of these students were never seen again. Fortunately for Farah she was not known to have close ties with Navid and no connection was made by the Revolutionary Guards.

  No further word was heard regarding Navid’s fate for three months and Farah had given up hope that she would ever see him again. When word of his return was relayed to her she was filled with joy at the thought of seeing him again but her joy was short lived. The man that was delivered back to his family was not the same confident and charismatic young man she had grown to love. The frequent beatings and mistreatment in prison had broken not only his body but his spirit. He no longer represented any danger to the regime. From that day on Farah resolved that her life would be dedicated to bringing changes to the harsh reality of living under a misguided regime. Her love for her country and the Shi’ite faith were undiminished but she knew there must be a better way to serve Allah. If Iran continued on its present policy of confrontation with Israel and the Western nations there would be little hope of Iran regaining any relevance in a modern world. The present mad rush to develop nuclear weapons could only end up in disaster for all Iran.

  PHUKET THAILAND March 4th

  It is early evening in Phuket. Two young men walk down Takua Thang alley in a rundown area of the city and stop outside the entry to a small laundry. The evening remains hot and humid after earlier showers and the two men are sweating profusely. There are few people about as the old town is not usually frequented by tourists.

  After a momentary hesitation the men enter the laundry and approach the cluttered counter.

  The man facing them is a short but powerfully built and appears distinctly unfriendly. Undeterred one of the visitors speaks softly. “I have been told to speak to Shafiq. I am known as David. Are the shirts ready?”

  The man replies in broken English. “I don’t like the name you have given me. Try again”

  “Ah! Now we understand each other. The correct name is Hariz. I would like to see the passports to make sure they will pass inspection. Allahu Akbar”

  Satisfied the pair leave the building without a backward glance and disappear in the direction of the city centre.

  MOSSAD HQ TEL AVIV March 4th

  The leader speaks. “All correct and present. This is your last chance if you are having second thoughts.

  Orel replies. “No problem there chief. The three of us have discussed the mission and we agree that this is the best way we can assist our country. There will be no turning back.”

  “I had expected nothing less, it’s now all systems go.” An eminently suitable operative has been primed to penetrate the Defence Ministry security. It will require careful planning to co-ordinate with our agent who has advised that access to top secret information is a distinct possibility. One of you will be travelling to Tehran tonight carrying a British passport.

  A number of drop boxes have already been set up and our agent will be expecting contact within the next twenty four hours. Now get going. We all have work to do.”

  MINISTRY OF DEFENCE TEHRAN March 4th

  Farah arrives early at the Ministry, passes through security screening in the entry lobby and takes the elevator to the top level. Her work as a senior legal advisor entails frequent contact with the Minister and her work station is a small cubicle on the same floor as the Minister’s office. She is aware that there a number of security cameras throughout the building but the Minister has ordered that no cameras are to be active on this floor.

  As she sits at her small desk Farah reflects on her recent activities. For the past few months she has established a pattern of movements between her desk and the office of the Minister. Two or three times each week she has made sure that a legal file is kept back until the next morning. This is a deliberate ploy to justify walking down the corridor and into the larger office shortly after the Minister arrives and walks in from the elevator. He habitually takes some time to settle in before opening his notebook to check on his day’s appointments. In the past he has paid little attention to her as she walks in and places the file on his desk. On occasions she will wait a short while, in case any explanations are necessary for the legal files being worked on, and leaves as soon as he dismisses her. Sha has also noticed that he is often uncomfortable when she is in close proximity. Today should be no different.

  LATER

  The Minister enters the building, greets the security staff and moves on to the elevators. Taking the elevator up to the top floor he follows his usual practice and strides down the corridor to his office. He seats himself, fiddles with his cellphone, and contemplates the day’s planned activities.

  The sound of sensible female shoes tapping down the corridor alerts him to the imminent arrival of his legal aide. Despite some misgivings he welcomes the intrusion by Farah. As a strict Muslim he has not fully accepted the new generation of young women who now take on many roles within the Government. His private life is quite different with his household run on traditional lines. The women in his life, a wife three daughters and a number of female servants, know their position and would not to question any of his actions. He is the total master at home. Once at work he feels threatened, to some degree, by highly educated and intelligent young women such as Farah. On the other hand he has to admit that she is a beautiful woman and can’t help but admire her work as well as her natural physical attributes. These mixed feelings cause some apprehension when Farah comes close enough for him to sense the warmth of her body and the subtle scent that she uses.

  Farah enters and the Minister sees her as particularly alluring female wearing a rather drab business suit. The cut and tailoring of the garment manages to emphasize the femininity of her body and the shape of her breasts and backside. He is used to seeing many beautiful women on his travels overseas but the presence of two alone together excites him.

  The size of the Ministerial desk is such that Farah is obliged to walk around it to place the legal file next to the Minister and wait for his instructions.

  The Minister is a little flustered but wants Farah to stay there a little longer. He reaches out and

  pulls his notebook closer, lifts the lid and quickly types in his password to access his diary for the day.

  Remembering where he is he abruptly dismisses Farah and buzzes for his secretary.

  THAT EVENING

  Farah takes the lift down from the family apartment and crosses the large square. It is still early enough for children to be out playing and married couples to be out walking together. There are also small separate groups of older girls and boys in self -conscious conversation or kicking footballs around.

  Across the square is a small park with the spray from the fountain barely disturbing the surface of the surrounding water. Farah sits on the low stone wall and notes that a flat rock amongst the gravel points in a different direction than usual. After carefully glancing around the park she lifts the stone and replaces a small piece of paper with a coded note of her own. After four or five minutes she rises and makes her way back home. Most of the children have now been gathered up by parents and the square is almost deserted

  MINISTRY OF DEFENCE TEHRAN March 5th

  Farah is sitting at her desk trying to concentrate on her work. She has received her instructions for the day. A diversion has been arranged. As the clock ticks around past twelve noon she mentally goes over the details of her plan. “Only another twenty minutes before I can get moving
.” she thinks. “I can’t think of too many problem areas. There are no security cameras around the female toilets on the lower floor. I can’t use the elevators to get back up here as any movement could be noticed so I will have to use the fire stairs. These have easy access to both floors. OK now is the time to move downstairs.” The elevator is free on the way down and Farah passes only two staff members on her way to the toilets. A quick check reveals that all the cubicles are empty. As twelve thirty nears she locks herself into the end cubicle.

  At twelve thirty one the fire alarm sirens shatter the relative quiet throughout the building.

  “Good! Right on time.” Thinks Farah. “I don’t know what was arranged but the diversion must be on a lower floor as there is no sign that the fire sprinklers are coming on here. Just wait a few minutes for the floor to clear. I know that fire drills aren’t held often and there will be a lot of commotion and little organization. Is that smoke I can smell? Good. That will make sure that everyone is out of the building for at least an hour.”

  Meantime the Minister slowly turns off his notebook and takes his time moving to the elevators. After all he has been through these drills many times. Nothing to worry about here. Taking little notice of the sign instructing him not to use the elevator during an emergency he presses the down button and waits patiently. In a few moments he is on his way down and out the main entrance along with a crush of workers. “No way am I going to wait around in the hot sun.” he thinks. “May as well go off to lunch as planned. I’m looking forward to meeting up with some of the other Ministers. Pity I can’t mention the Malaysian operation. Should be going well now Insha’Allah, I will just have to wait until my part in the glory of serving Allah is recognized in this country. On second thoughts no one else is likely to know the full story for some time.”

  Back in the female toilets Farah gathers her thoughts and then pokes her head out the door into the corridor. There is no sign of anyone and she is able to move directly to the fire stair door. With a quick glance around she moves through and climbs to the next floor. Once again she is extremely careful as she opens the door a crack. “Good. All clear” she mutters to herself as she slips through and walks quickly to her cubicle. Pulling out a drawer half full of computer accessories she pulls out an external hard drive marked “Sharia Law Articles for Use of Legal Staff Only.” In fact the drive is completely empty.

  Conscious of the need to move quickly Farah takes no time to walk along to the Minister’s office, slip on a pair of surgical gloves and lift the lid of the notebook sitting on the desk. It then takes only a moment to open the hard drive and type in the password that she had memorized the previous day. With a sigh of relief she plugs in the USB drive that she had brought with her and starts backing up the entire contents of the notebook. The backup could take up to half an hour to complete depending on the amount of information being transferred. A quick glance out the window shows the open car park with a small crowd gathered well away from the building.

  A fire appliance is still in attendance and there is no indication that the Minister’s staff will return any time soon. “Half of them must have gone off shopping or to the local cafes.” Thought Farah.

  A quick check reveals that the backup is fifty per cent completed and it is time to prepare for a quick departure.

  A loud crash in the corridor startles Farah and she jumps to the doorway with her heart beating rapidly. “Thank God, It’s only a cleaner with a trolley picking up full rubbish bins. Must have no idea what the alarms are about. She could be in trouble when she gets downstairs.” In a minute the cleaner had disappeared into the elevator without spotting Farah crouched behind the door.

  Back at the desk Farah finds that the backup has completed and she is able to remove the USB drive. She has enough experience to ensure that no trace of the download is left on the computer records and, after another quick check to ensure that nothing is left behind, moves back to her cubicle.

  Unzipping her briefcase Farah places the hard drive alongside her laptop and a small collection of law books. Now is the time to move off this floor before the all clear and leaving the briefcase behind she finds no difficulty in making her way back to the toilets

  “Now I just need to wait until the staff are back in the building” she thinks “I would have looked a bit stupid bringing a briefcase into the toilets.”

  Within half an hour she had received a coded message on her Iphone and shortly after heard movement as a number of women rushed in. “Must have small bladders’ she thought rather inappropriately. In a few minutes she is able to walk out with other women, after carefully washing her hands, and went back up in the elevator. No sign of her boss.

  After an hour catching up with her work Farah was able to pick up her belongings and move downstairs to the entry. While signing out for the day she commented to clerk behind the desk that she had a headache and was leaving early. The security guard on duty had watched her arrive and leave many times and was content to give the inside of her briefcase a quick glance. There was nothing unusual there and he waved her through.

  Arriving back at her family home Farah quickly changed out of her office clothes and put on garments more appropriate to the local setting. Taking a supermarket shopping bag out of a closet she took the elevator downstairs and walked to the supermarket half a block away. She didn’t need to buy any groceries but selected a number of items to half fill the bag and paid for them at the checkout. The small café down the road was busy and Farah sat down at a table after buying a cold drink. Other customers came in and out it was five minutes before she noticed in worn jeans and a T shirt touch his ear as he walked past without looking in her direction. “Time for me to leave” she thought. Without looking back she rose and headed back home by a roundabout route. A minute later the young man picked up the shopping bag she had left behind and strode quickly away. At the bottom of the bag was a computer hard drive wrapped in supermarket paper.

  KUALA LUMPUR March 6th

  The suburban dwelling is quiet with only Zaharie at home. He is a chief pilot with Malaysia Airlines and he is due to captain the flight to Beijing the following day. He needs to get a good night’s rest as he has had a particularly busy schedule over the past few weeks.

  The phone rings and he picks up the handset. “Good morning. I believe I am talking to Captain Zaharie Shah.” “That is correct, Zaharie replies, what can I do for you?”

  “This is Captain Johns from British Airways. I’m sorry to trouble you but I have heard that you have been successful in building a workable flight simulator and I am going to do something similar myself. Is it possible that I can look at what you have achieved?”

  “Hello Captain. I am always pleased to discuss my little project with other pilots. There is one small snag. The simulator is only partly operational and can’t be fully demonstrated. Not that interesting I’m afraid.”

  “No problem. I mainly need to get a few ideas as to how to go about the project. A friend of mine is a wiz on computers and can handle that side of it,”

  “OK I can spare half an hour or so. The setup is in a shed just a few blocks from here. Here is the address. Can you be there in ten minutes?”

  “That’s wonderful. I’ll see you there”

  Both men arrive at the address within a minute of each other and exchange greetings. Zaharie unlocks the door to a small shed and ushers his visitor inside. “Don’t take too much notice of the mess, he says. As you can see the setup is quite primitive but it was working extremely well until last week. Haven’t had time to fix the problems.”

  His visitor takes a moment to respond. “I am sorry that I have misled you. This site is impressive but I am here to broach a very difficult subject. I do not work for British Airways. I am here as an agent for another country which cannot be named at this stage.

  Please listen to me as I believe that your response to my story can have a marked effect
on world

  Peace. This is no exaggeration. Tomorrow you are to fly MH370 to Beijing. My Government has learned that an attempt will be made tomorrow to hijack your flight and divert the plane to anther destination. The hijack is in fact an elaborate hoax. There are items in the cargo that are invaluable to a country which is close to developing nuclear weapons. The country in question is unreliable and must not gain this ability. Please sit down I can see that this information is troubling you.”

  Zaharie looks alarmed and his face is ashen. He quickly moves to the chair in front of the simulator display and sits with his head in his hands. After a moment he looks up. “My first concern is the safety of the passengers and crew. I must report this to the Aviation Authority.”

  “I will detail in a moment why this will not be possible. In any case the hijack would simply take place at a different time and place which we could not predict. We have the advantage of knowing exactly when the attempt will be made and can plan accordingly. The only thing required of you is that you captain the aircraft as usual and to act calmly when the attempt is made. We will have people in place to make sure the hijack is unsuccessful and it would be unhelpful, and possibly dangerous if you are not aware of the situation. It is important that the plane remains on course for Beijing. There will be further instructions when the situation is under control. Do you understand this?”