When Garaar pressed the send button, he glanced up at the time in the corner of the screen. He had less than three minutes before the buyer was scheduled to arrive. Checking the monitors once again, he noticed someone had arrived. He enlarged the camera to fill the entire screen, studying the faces of the men in the picture slowly. The exchange was supposed to be between him and two men representing Al Hasib. But there were six men at the door with one of his guards.
“I don’t like this,” Garaar said aloud.
One of the security guards he’d hired had been standing in the room for several minutes, silent.
“What don’t you like?” the guard asked.
Garaar jumped before he spun around to look in the direction of the voice coming from the other side of the room.
“Don’t you ever scare me like that again,” Garaar said as he shook a finger at the guard.
“I thought you had seen me,” the guard replied.
Garaar stood up. “Just go get three other guards and bring them in here. I don’t like being so outnumbered.”
“There is only one other guard in the building. The rest are patrolling the perimeter and need to remain outside.”
“I don’t care. Call them off their post,” Garaar said.
“But I don’t think that’s—”
“I don’t care what you think. We have other help regarding the security of the facility that you don’t even know about. Go get three other guards, and bring them in here.”
The guard broke into a slow jog as he left the room.
Garaar watched him leave and then exhaled a long breath. He then wrung his hands as he struggled to gather his wits.
“Okay, okay,” he said aloud to himself. “This is simple. I’ve done this before. Just set up the demonstration, and it’ll be fine.”
He walked over to the sealed room where he performed the tests and made sure the guinea pig was still awake and ready. After that, he rushed back into his office and cued up the video he’d previously sent to Karif Fazil to gauge his interest. But Garaar figured it would make for a more convincing presentation.
After a few moments, the guard returned with three other men.
“We’re here, sir,” the guard said.
“Good,” Garaar said. “They’ll be here any mo—”
The main door swung open, cutting off Garaar.
“Sir, are these the men you were expecting?” the lone guard accompanying the visitors said.
Garaar nodded.
“If you have nothing else for me, I will return to my post out front,” the guard said.
“No, you can stay,” Garaar said as he walked over to meet his guests. He swallowed hard as he studied the men and their weapons.
“Are those really necessary, Rashid?” Garaar asked, gesturing toward the guns.
Rashid Qureshi smiled. “Not for you, my friend.” He motioned for his men to point their guns down. “Now, let’s get down to business, shall we?”
Garaar nodded and pointed toward a projection screen descending slowly from the ceiling.
“We came here for a product, not a movie,” Qureshi said.
Garaar shrugged. “I know. I just thought that—”
“Just give us a demonstration on one of your little animals, and we’ll call it good,” Qureshi said. “I don’t want to stay around here long.”
Garaar smiled. “You have nothing to worry about. There are men stationed outside who are the best of the best when it comes to security.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Qureshi said as he snapped his fingers. “Let’s get on with it.”
“Fine,” Garaar said as he wrung his hands again. “Follow me.”
Garaar led Qureshi and his entourage to the sealed room before opening the case containing the Sarin liquid. Donning a mask and gloves, Garaar carefully placed a few drops of liquid into a vaporizer.
“Make sure when you handle this that you always wear proper equipment,” Garaar said, glancing at Qureshi to make sure he was paying attention.
Garaar slipped inside the room and placed the vaporizer into one of the hands of the glove box. He shut the door behind him and pressed a button, sealing the room.
“Do we need to wear masks?” Qureshi asked as he shifted his weight between his feet. “If anything went wrong …”
“This is a small amount of gas,” Garaar said. “It would mess you up, but it wouldn’t kill you. This guinea pig, on the other hand, is going to die quickly.”
Garaar turned around to face the room before he slid his hands into the openings in the box. He proceeded to vaporize the Sarin and took a step back to watch the small little animal twitch and turn until it was dead. The whole process took less than forty-five seconds.
“Impressive,” Qureshi said. “It is just as you said. I’ll take it.” He held his hand open, palm up to Garaar.
Garaar held up his index finger. “Not until I get confirmation that you have sent the money to my account.”
Qureshi rolled his eyes. “You scientists can be so finicky.”
Garaar sighed and looked upward. “I’m first a jihadist before I’m a scientist—just like you.”
“We’re nothing alike,” Qureshi said. He snapped then pointed at one of the men in his party who was clutching a laptop. “Make it happen.”
The man opened his computer and started typing on the keyboard. “Can you provide me with the account number?” he asked Garaar.
Garaar grinned and placed a business card with his account number scrawled across it along with some other pertinent personal information that could help the bank identify him. “That should be all you need.”
Qureshi laughed. “It sure is,” he said.
Then he pulled out his gun and shot all the guards in formulaic fashion before training it on Garaar. Slack-jawed, Garaar watched all the men supposedly protecting him crumple to the ground.
“There isn’t going to be a transfer of funds tonight,” Qureshi said. “But I am going to test out the Sarin on you.”
Garaar looked up at Qureshi in horror. “You can’t—you wouldn’t,” Garaar stammered.
“You’re right. I won’t,” Qureshi said right before he peppered Garaar with four shots.
CHAPTER
