Truth is stranger than fiction... (Part I)

A telephone rang in the distance...
He woke up from a tired sleep, quickly glanced over the big fluorescent dial of his Timex. 0313 the watch displayed. Cursing slightly he picked up the receiver.
"Agent Smith.. hello? who's.."
"Stop. Read tomorrow's paper.. right now."
"Is this a joke? who the hell is.."
The line went dead.

Smith had had enough instances of silly pranks played by drunken teenagers; but something told him this was not it. There was a distinct urgency in the hoarse voice. Urgency or not, how does one read the next day's paper?! He stood up quietly and walked to the front door. Not to his surprise, a paper was half slid under the door before he came. He peered through the eye hole, then opened the door slightly, looked in both directions, picked up the half folded paper and shut the door behind him as he came in.

He was now wide awake. He sat on his bed and flicked the light switch on and started going over the headlines page by page. He had read the date on the paper while it was lying down in the door itself; the phone caller was not in a mood for pranks. The first page had a big photograph of what appeared to be the remains of a crashed airliner in some corn field, an article about US-Russia technology exchange deal, a photograph of the local rugby team with a trophy and some other news. Subsequent pages had an equally wide array of news, nothing that would otherwise catch the eye of the general reader. There was however, one pamphlet of a newly opened shopping complex which fell out of the paper as Smith turned pages. It had photographs of various items on sale the coming weekend, along with prices.

This was what he was looking for - the photograph of a mobile phone had been encircled; the exact same model that he owned, out of ten other phones in the advertisement. Someone had obviously done their homework well. In the pamphlet were encircled some letters out of seemingly unconnected words. Smith knew. He lifted the receiver and started pushing the numbers corresponding to each letter's number in the English alphabet.
Before he had finished, a recorded voice announced "Diese Zahl ist nicht mit dem nationalen Telefonnetzes...... This number is not listed with the national telephone network...... Diese Zahl ist nicht.." He hung up. "Not so easy Michael!" he murmured to himself. There were virtually endless possibilities with these letters. But first he had to be sure he was not going to scuffle the haystack with the needle right in his finger; he reached under his pillow. Feeling the familiar metallic touch of his Beretta he moved over to pull out his cell phone next to it. He started pushing the numbers in the same sequence again; only this time there was no message heard till the last digit. There was a tone; of a connected call. He smiled a little.