“I'm curious about one thing,” Hassan said. “For years, they have told us that your videos and recordings are laced with hidden messages. Is that true?”
“We have more reliable ways to communicate,” Omar Bashir said. “But it is ironic that you would ask because this time, I am sending a message to one of us who has been living in America for many years and is preparing a major strike. He needs to check his e-mail because I have sent him his attack orders.
“Shall we begin?” the as-Sirat leader asked before Hassan could follow up and they went to the filming area.
Omar Bashir wanted to start the video with himself speaking and then have the camera zoom out so that Hassan came into view.
“I call on all followers of the one true faith to rejoice with us on this most glorious of days. The fight against the great Satan and the Zionists has been long and difficult, but we have witnessed the beginning of the end of the imperialistic oppressors,” Omar Bashir said. The change in his personality was remarkable to Hassan. A minute ago, the as-Sirat leader had calmly discussed the logistics of the video in his chamber. Now, sitting in front of a cave background with an AK 47 leaning against the wall to his left, he had become a fire and brimstone preacher who spoke with great passion and intensity.
“One man has shown America its own weakness and ushered in a new phase in this fight. He has shown that the hundreds of billions of dollars America spends each year on killing Muslims everywhere in the world does not provide protection within its own borders,” Omar Bashir continued. “The time has come for others in America to pick up weapons and follow the example of Hassan al-Zaid. He has shown to us all what is possible for somebody who has Allah on his side, along with the determination of not allowing the great devil to keep oppressing his brothers. Hassan al-Zaid was the first American to defy his country but he believes that he will not be the last.”
Omar Bashir smiled and could not resist reveling in this moment.
“How do I know this? Because he told me over breakfast.”
With that, the camera zoomed out and panned over to Hassan but also still showed Omar Bashir, who was beaming.
“I'm Hassan al-Zaid, responsible for last week's strike against Washington. I am proud of what I have done. It is time for young Muslims to follow my lead. My message to them is simple: The tide is turning. Maybe you were once afraid of what America would do to you if you acted on your convictions. Times have changed because now America is afraid of you,” Hassan tried to speak with the same passion and conviction as Omar Bashir and also sought to copy the as-Sirat's leader sometimes rambling style. Hassan's eyes kept glancing at his notes. He had to get his speech just right.
“The U.S. government perpetuates nothing but lies. It wants you to believe that America is strong, but that is not so. For many years, the United States has spent untold sums of money on protecting itself and even more on finding our leader, who is sitting next to me in good health. Despite all of the billions invested in homeland security, which is just another name for allowing the government to spy on its citizens, Allah allowed me to strike at America right next to the Pentagon. Then, even though I was the most wanted man in the country, I got away. After that, I managed to accomplish what the supposedly awesome U.S. military has not been able to do. I found Omar Bashir. All this should show you that you, too, can do what I did. America is weak and you have Allah on your side.
I have another message. This one is to the government of the United States. The writing is on the wall, Yankees, your time is coming to an end. I could only make you look like fools because that is what you are. You think that killing my brothers will make you safer but the opposite is true. With every one of us that you kill, ten more will rise and take up arms against you. It is a tide you cannot stop. You couldn't even stop me from striking at your heart. You couldn't even find me after I did. Mark my words, America, your time is running out.”
The red light on the camera went off and Omar Bashir clapped his hands.
“Very good,” he said. “The entire world will be watching this by tomorrow. Let's look at it to make sure we don't have to do a second take.”
Omar Bashir was even more pleased when he saw the video and Hassan knew that it would make quite a splash.
“Perfect,” the as-Sirat leader said. “A courier will take this to Islamabad and it will be played all over the world by tomorrow morning. Truly a good day's work.”
***
Ken Gorsula put the clippers down and looked at his handiwork. The special ops soldiers had taken turns cutting each other's hair, and Gorsula now picked up a mirror to hold it in front of the poor man whose head he had just shaved.
“I think it looks marvelous,” Gorsula said in his best effeminate voice.
“Captain, no disrespect, but you can't cut hair worth shit,” his “victim” responded. “I think I gotta report this to an officer so they can take your expert marksmanship badge away. Seriously, you're telling me you can hit any target from a quarter mile away and yet you missed this large patch of hair behind my ear?”
“My bad,” Gorsula laughed and picked up the clippers to rectify his mistake. “It's not like it's gonna make a difference with your face. Maybe a bad haircut will distract people from noticing that train wreck you call a smile.”
It had been another quiet day for the special ops forces at Bagram. They played hoops to stay in shape and some of them had staged a shooting competition, but they were growing more restless by the day.
“Did you guys see that al-Zaid supposedly made it to Pakistan?” one of the men asked. “I hope that motherfucker is dumb enough to try to make it here so we can get him.”
“I don't give a shit if he is in Pakistan and what the politics are,” Gorsula said. “If we find out he is there, they better let us go after him and don't rely on the Pakistanis. Half of them are as-Sirat anyways.”
The other soldiers nodded. They knew that Tom Gorsula had died in the Washington attack and that his nephew was itching even more than the rest of them to find Hassan al-Zaid.
“I'm sure that, if we get intelligence on where he is, the Pakistanis will allow us to go in,” one of the men said. “Otherwise, there would be serious repercussions.”
“If our intelligence people find out where he is, I'm not gonna wait for permission from another country to go after him, I'll tell you that,” Gorsula said. “I owe my uncle that much. I just want a chance to get al-Zaid in my cross hairs.”
***
It had been a productive day for Art Kempner. He talked to a few more psychologists, all of whom had pretty much confirmed what the Harvard professor told him in the morning.
More importantly, in the course of the afternoon, Art had spoken to a dozen of the spouses of Bus 2405 passengers and asked each of them why the victims had been in Washington and whether the trip had been planned for a long time. The answers gave credence to his theory that the victims were in the nation's capital as part of a coordinated and secret effort.
All of the trips appeared to have been planned on fairly short notice and were booked at roughly the same time. In each case, the victim had told their spouses about ten days before the bombing that they had to go to Washington. Almost uniformly, they had said that the reasons for the trips were work-related, with most of them explaining that they had to attend a conference for a few days. Art always inquired about the profession of the victims and compiled a list.
He then called the Washington Convention Center and all of the area hotels that were most commonly used to host conferences to ask what kind of events they had scheduled last week. Just to be sure, he also called the various industry organizations of the victims' professions to ask if they had anything special scheduled the previous week. Art really wasn't surprised to find that there were no matches. There wasn't a single conference scheduled in DC that any of the victims would have had reason to attend.
The evidence suggested that, in a coordinated effort, several of them had booked their trips at about
the same time and lied to their spouses about why they were traveling to Washington. Art wondered where they had really been headed when they got on the bus and he was determined to find out. He had the feeling that the answer had something to do with national security. Why else did they all lie?
Throughout the day, Art had kept thinking about his theory and he felt strongly that Hassan meant to blow up a Metro train, probably right underneath the Pentagon, and only switched targets because of the power failure. The reporter wondered if the terrorist had, unknowingly, done more damage to the United States than he could have dreamed of by taking out some sort of undercover unit.
Monday, 6:00 pm ET
Apart from the faint humming of the generators and air filters as well as the sounds the as-Sirat fighters next to him made in their sleep, it was quiet in the cave when Hassan got up. Although some of the lamps were turned off at night, the tunnel was lit well enough so that he could find his way to the door through which he had first entered the “bunker.”
He unbolted and unlocked it and stepped into the storage room. It was darker there, with only some light coming from the open door to the tunnel and the moonlight that shone through. Hassan reached behind a crate near the entrance and pulled out the flashlight he had stored there earlier in the day. He turned it on, locked the secret door and looked for the small bag with the two other things he would need. When he found that as well and hid it inside the folds of his kaftan, he stepped outside.
The air was so cold in the middle of the night that the first deep breath Hassan took tingled in his lungs. He used his hand to cover the flashlight, not wanting to alert the sentries. If he was found, he would just use jet lag and the need for fresh air as an excuse for his nightly stroll. Hassan hoped that this would be enough to satisfy a sentry's curiosity and avoid suspicion. If he was searched, he would have a hard time explaining why he carried around the items in the bag.
In his exploration of Andan earlier in the day, he had found the perfect place he needed to carry out his plan and memorized how to get there. Now, he walked in that direction slowly but not in a way that indicated that he was worried about discovery. If anybody was watching, he did not want to appear as a man who has something to hide.
In Hassan's own estimation, the plan he had come up with didn't have a favorable risk-to-reward ratio. He would have preferred waiting until he thought of something better but time was a luxury he didn't have. For now, this was his only idea with any chance of success. At least it was something.
After a short walk through the darkness that took him up a small incline to the highest point of the town, Hassan reached a two-floor storage building that he noticed earlier. He went to work. The next few minutes would be crucial. If anybody saw him now, he would have no excuse.
Fortunately he was able to complete the task unnoticed. He tucked away his supplies again and headed back toward the bunker.
Once there, Hassan first hid the bag and then put the flashlight behind the crate again. He might need it again. Without being seen, he safely made his way back to the chamber.
Hassan lay awake for a long time. He figured that he would have just a few more days to make contact before he had to start taking greater risks. Maybe he would have to try to escape on foot, hoping that he would get by the sentries at night and then make his way to a settlement.
Another thought began taking hold in his head. Maybe it would have to come down to Hassan trading his life for that of Omar Bashir. Subconsciously, that idea might have been there all along. Hassan always knew that there was a good chance he would not return from the mission alive. At least if he sacrificed himself, he could guarantee that Pathfinder would not be a total failure.
The only reason that he was thinking about leaving Andan was not self-preservation, it was to get word to the U.S. military so that they could take out all of as-Sirat's leaders. If he acted alone, the damage to the terrorist group would not be as comprehensive. Hassan estimated that, at best, he would be able to kill Omar Bashir and maybe a couple more men before they would get to him.
The way he saw it, there were three options. He could stay put, try to think of a better way to communicate his position and risk getting a bullet in the head once his cover was blown. Hassan almost immediately dismissed that option. That left him with two choices.
He could try to escape and get word to the U.S. military that the terrorists were in Andan. The upside to that option was that, if it succeeded, it would almost certainly result in the entire as-Sirat leadership being neutralized. And, of course, that he would live. The downside was that, if he never made it to safety, they would have nothing.
The second choice was to grab one of the weapons, shoot Omar Bashir in the head and take as many as-Sirat fighters as possible to the grave with him. In that scenario, the damage to the terrorist group would be great but likely not fatal. That option would also end in his certain death.
Hassan thought of all of the risks that had been taken and sacrifices that had been made to get him to this point. It was up to him now to make sure all of that was not in vain.
The way he saw it, he had a window of opportunity of maybe 48 hours before he had to choose.
Tuesday, 2:30 am ET
Omar Bashir was right. The impact of the video was enormous. Within minutes of it being aired on al-Jazeera and posted on aljazeera.net, the website crashed because the servers could not keep up with the demand. And that was hours before most Americans were waking up.
Over the past years, the world had gotten used to seeing charred bus carcasses, craters in roads and blood on streets. Last week's attack had been special because it had taken place right next to the Pentagon and was the first time the U.S. had been hit since 9/11. Still, everybody had anticipated that the United States would eventually be targeted again and it was no surprise that it happened.
The video, on the other hand, showed something that had never been seen before – the world's foremost terrorist chatting with Hassan al-Zaid, who was currently the most hunted person on the planet. And the two acted like they didn't have anything to worry about, seemingly unfazed that they were the top targets of the only remaining superpower and all of its might.
The fact that Hassan looked like the recent college graduate he was and spoke in accent-free English only added to the intrigue of the video, as did the fact that he taunted America for letting him get away.
President Sweeney was woken up by his staff at 2:00 am, ten minutes after the clip first aired on al-Jazeera. DNI McClintock was already waiting by the phone and it didn't take long for the commander-in-chief to call.
“He really did it,” Sweeney said. “I mean, we were all hoping that he could, but seeing it with my own eyes is … wow!”
“I know, sir. I'm feeling the same way. I was so happy to see him alive,” McClintock said. That statement did not do his emotions justice. When he saw Hassan on the video he nearly wept. Although he had exuded confidence when talking to the president and the team in Islamabad, privately he had been very concerned about Hassan. “Now we just have to find him. I was hoping that he was trying to send us some kind of a message through the video, and it seemed to me like he wanted to tell us something, but I can't figure out what it is. Maybe it's just wishful thinking.”
“Well, knowing that he is alive and has achieved his objective should boost morale. I know I was in a bit of a funk but that's over now,” the president said. “And this will allow us to step up satellite and drone surveillance in Pakistan without it raising questions.”
“I agree, sir. And this video is dynamite,” McClintock said. “Nobody will talk about anything else for the next couple of days and that should buy us some time. I want to see the person who thinks that this is a setup when this video is out there.
“Well, I want to watch this a few more times and talk to the guys in Islamabad. You should probably get some more sleep, Mr. President. I'll make sure you will be woken up again if anything else happens.”
>
Sweeney agreed and went back to bed.
“Everything alright, dear?” the first lady asked.
“Yeah, finally some good news,” the president said.
***
The network producers certainly felt that the video was dynamite.
Between 7:30 and 8:30 in the morning, when many people on the East Coast turned on their TVs for breakfast, CNN aired the four-minute video nine times. It would have been more had it not been for time set aside for commercials. The video spoke for itself but that didn't stop the networks from bringing their security experts again.
“Quite frankly, I'm stunned by what we're seeing here,” a former administration official said on Fox. “It's not only that Hassan al-Zaid managed to find and reach Omar Bashir, it's also the brazenness of this video. It's like they are not a bit concerned about our military strength. Wherever they are, they seem to feel perfectly secure.”
***
Halfway through the day, it was obvious that the video sparked a new wave of anti-Muslim backlash in the U.S.. More than a dozen assaults had been reported throughout the country in which the attackers made reference to Hassan al-Zaid or as-Sirat. Fortunately, nobody was seriously injured. In addition, there was an attempted arson on a mosque in upstate New York and Islamic web sites were bombarded with hateful comments.
Shareef Wahed was not affected by the violence. The people at Michigan State who believed they were his friends kept going out of their way to let him know that they did not condone the backlash. A group of them had watched the video together while having coffee at the student union and then saw a report of a cab driver beaten in Boston because he was Muslim.
“It's ridiculous and narrow-minded to think that people are terrorists just because of where they were born,” one of them said. “That would mean that hundreds of millions of people would all be terrorists, even Shareef.”
The as-Sirat sleeper thanked them for their sentiments. On the inside, he just wanted to laugh. These cretins and their political correctness. He would love to see their faces when they found out that he was the one leading the attack on the nuclear power plant. Maybe he would call one of them just before it happened.