what he said he could.
So Abdul took the proposal to his people.
Terry thought they would come back to him with an American target, perhaps one of the usual suspects: Washington DC, New York City, LA, or maybe an American embassy or military installation abroad.
But Abdul’s associates chose someplace else.
The city of Jerusalem.
“We will bring down the Zionists,” Abdul told him, “while also putting the Great Satan in its proper place of humiliation in the eyes of the world.”
Orchestrating it so that the US rather than an Islamic nation wiped out Jerusalem was brilliant in a twisted sort of way. As far as Terry could see, in one fell swoop it accomplished nearly every goal Al Qaeda ever had- humiliating America, killing millions of Jews, devastating the US economy, and effecting all of this by turning the weapons of the world’s greatest superpower against one of its closest allies.
“What about the Muslims who live there?” Terry asked. “The Palestinians in East Jerusalem?”
“Allah will welcome any of the faithful who are martyred in his name.”
Martyred.
That was an interesting way to put it.
“And the Dome of the Rock?”
“Unwavering devotion to Allah is more important than the veneration of a shrine.”
Truthfully, Terry didn’t care about either Al Qaeda’s target or their reasons for choosing it. He cared about only two things-his freedom and his reunion with Cassandra. But he needed to know how committed Abdul would be to fulfilling his part of the bargain, so he asked him, “Your own clerics have called Islam a peaceful religion. Are you sure you’re ready to go through with something like this?”
“Anyone who calls my religion one of peace mocks it,” Abdul stated firmly. “Just as anyone who claims it is about war. Islam is not about peace or about war; it is about surrender. The name Muslim means ‘submission to God.’ Our religion is one of total submission to Allah-it is not about tolerance, it is not about appeasing others or compromising to make sinners happy. It is about devotion. We celebrate all that is in submission to the Creator, we fight all that is in opposition to Islam. You misunderstand if you think Muslims are for peace or for war. We are instead wholeheartedly surrendered to the spread of Islam because it is the will of Allah.”
“And your target threatens that?”
“Rejects it.” Now Abdul Razzaq Muhammad’s tone had turned cold and spiteful, and Terry could hear the man’s venomous hatred for Jews coming through loud and clear. “There is no greater calling than spreading the will of God to those who would scorn it or mock it or fight against it! Allahu Akbar!”
The rhetoric didn’t impress Terry, nor did the reasoning persuade him. As far as he was concerned, Islam was a religion of violence and totalitarianism. How else could you explain the deafening silence of the majority of its adherents to the daily suicide bomb attacks against civilians that their fellow Muslims carried out? How else could you make sense of the international outrage, protests, and deadly riots when someone drew a caricature of Muhammad or threatened to burn a Qur’an?
Even to Terry Manoji, for a religious person to place books and cartoons above human life was unfathomable. Sharia law? That wasn’t surrender to God; that was fascism.
But as long as he got his money, as long as he got his freedom, Terry didn’t care about their warped reasoning or their sophomoric and fustian ways of justifying violence in the name of religion.
And then, there was the matter of Israel’s response. Over the last few years, Israel had not been at all shy about their right to preemptively attack Iran if they thought Iran had nuclear weapons.
And of course, if there was a nuclear missile heading straight for the heart of Jerusalem, Israeli leaders would not hold cabinet meetings and forums, they would assume it was fired from the country that had repeatedly threatened their very existence.
Iran.
Even if the US claimed the missile had been fired by hackers or terrorists, Israel would presume who was responsible.
And they would retaliate.
Terry could only imagine how much damage they would do to that country in the eleven minutes between the time the Louisiana ’s missile was fired and when it actually struck the heart of their capital.
It would certainly be a memorable day, that much was for sure.
“It’s a deal,” Terry had said simply.
Now, with less than 150 minutes left before the ignition sequence would begin, Terry said to Abdul, “All right. You told me the consequences if I don’t deliver what I promised, now I’m going to tell you the consequences if you don’t.”
“And what are those, my friend?” Abdul’s voice did not sound friendly.
“Jerusalem will not be the only city lying in ruins. Mecca will become one giant crater and Allah will welcome 1.7 million more ‘martyrs’ home. Do we have a clear understanding here?”
“Yes, Mr. Manoji. It is quite clear indeed.”
Solstice was pleased.
The hydraulic lines that powered the lift in the concrete shaft had been disabled. All was set. The base was secure. No one would be coming down to interrupt them.
Although Equator had identified increasing chatter on JWICS about US nuclear subs, nothing specifically related to her mission or the ELF station had come up, which, given the obvious FBI interest in the site, did surprise Solstice a bit.
Since taking over the base, her team had carefully and strategically placed nearly half of the TATP ordnance, leaving, of course, one of the tunnels free of explosives so that no one would be trapped down here when they detonated.
Well, that’s what they thought, but in reality only one person was going to be leaving this base. Solstice had decided it would just be too inconvenient leaving any survivors to tell the story or to point the finger in her direction.
“Finish with the TATP,” she said into her handheld radio. “And then I want Cane, Gale, and Squall back down here so we can film that video.”
72
7:24 p.m.
1 hour 36 minutes until the transmission
The murder videos were viscerally disturbing.
When you watch things like this, knowing that they really happened, that the images weren’t created by computer graphics or by using special effects, it’s terrifying and unnerving.
I’d been at it for over an hour, but I knew that tonight I wouldn’t have time to watch all the videos in their entirety, so I played some parts but fast-forwarded through others. I recognized each of the victims’ faces from the cases I’d worked over the years as I’d tracked Basque-either while I was a detective in Milwaukee or during the last six months when he reemerged and started right where he’d left off, torturing, slaughtering, eating.
Basque was visible in all of the videos, doing his work on the women. Occasionally, I could hear slight laughter from the person filming the crimes, but interestingly enough, Basque’s partner never appeared on screen. The only indication that it might have been Reiser was the fact that we’d found the videos in his trailer home.
But that, of course, was merely circumstantial.
Reiser’s lungs were gone when they found him this week.
Gone.
Basque only abducted women.
Careful, Pat. As far as you know, Basque only abducted women.
My ringing phone interrupted my thoughts, and I received word from Angela that the Defense Department had approved raising the threat level on our fleet of nuclear subs. “I can’t find Director Wellington,” she told me.
