The Shakarchi File

THE SHAKARCHI FILE by David B. Welsh is an action-adventure novel published by Create Space. Copyright 2012. ISBN: 978-1475084856 Eleven year old Jafar Shakarchi is orphaned during the bombing of Baghdad in 1991. His Uncle Hussan finds him the next day at the home of neighbors who found him unconscious in the street and agree to care for him until other arrangements can be made. A year passes before Hussan manages to send the boy to live with an aunt and uncle in California. Jafar, still bothered by nightmares of the bombing, harbors a deep resentment and desire for revenge. The young Shakarchi comes to love this childless couple who treat him like the son they never had. He proves very bright, does well in school, and even skips a grade. He is befriended by Ghanfani who came to the States years before, owns a small bookshop, and has his own demons which he gradually shares with Jafar. He later confides that he really makes his living by forging papers for other refugees. Shakarchi majors in computer engineering at Berkeley. Near the end of his senior year he meets Nidhal Wali and falls in love. He leaves for graduate school at the University of Wisconsin. Nidhal remains in Berkeley for grad school. She meets another man leaving Jafar angry and disconsolate. During their time apart he finds an outlet for his frustration by running computer scams. He visits Fwaze, an arms dealer he heard about from Ghanfani. Upon finishing his PhD, Shakarchi takes a job with Baxter-Collins, a Texas company, which sends him to Iraq to help rebuild an oil refinery. While there he and his boss visit Saudi Arabia where he secretly copies a disk of update files for F117 autopilots. He's later caught in a Baghdad market bombing and rescues a woman and her son. Back in Dallas, Shakarchi develops remote controlled vehicles used to locate hazardous materials. He is traumatized when his uncle is killed in an auto accident and the nightmares return. Despite his love for Nidhal he resists getting married. Sent to Fort Sill to demonstrate a device, he scopes out the place and later returns to plant BZ gas in an auditorium which causes many soldiers to become ill brieflyl. He considers trying to load his version of the Nighthawk updates at a base in New Mexico but decides the scheme is unworkable. Unaware of the Homeland Security team following him, he visits Fwaze to purchase C4. While there he learns of terrorists plotting another 9/11. He finds this unacceptable and calls the FBI hotline using a fictitious name. Sally Curtin, an FBI agent sent to speak with Shakarchi, meets with Dan and Yukiko Oldenberg, the Homeland Security agents who tracked him to Springfield.They interview Shakarchi who tells them about the terrorists and Fwaze. When at the end of the interview they call him by his real name Shakarchi knows he's in serious trouble. Curtin, despite lacking hard evidence of wrongdoing, bullies him into wearing a tracking device in lieu of arrest. Shakarchi realizes he must get the laptop where Fwaze keeps records. When the FBI and police raid Fwaze's warehouse, he follows them in and steals the laptop. Shakarchi copies the data then deletes and wipes the hard drive. He deletes all files that refer to him in his copy and then re-installs the altered files. He turns the machine over to Curtin and the Oldenbergs. After grilling him about the laptop they decide there's no hard evidence and even feel sympathy towards him. They decide to let him go with the understanding that Curtin will keep tabs on him. Shakarchi phones Nidhal, tells her he wants to move back to the Bay Area, and asks if she'll marry him.