// 845.371.2222 take this fatal step. “Rachamim …” Jamil whispered, taking a step forward. He swayed where he stood. And then, as Rachamim rushed forward in alarm, he fell to the floor in a dead faint. Rachamim stared at his fallen friend as Arthur elbowed past him into the warehouse. “What happened?” Arthur demanded. “I think he fainted,” Rachamim said. He knelt by Jamil, and was reassured to see that he was still breathing, though his eyes remained closed. “I think he’s okay,” Rachamim reported. “That’s wonderful,” Arthur snapped, “but if we don’t find that detonator fast, no one is going to be okay!” Arthur spied the open door to the office. Just as he got inside, an ominous buzzing began to fill the room. Arthur’s shocked gaze took in the detonator sitting on the table. The sound was coming from there, and a red light was flashing on the device’s surface. “What’s that?” Rachamim had followed Arthur to the doorway. “It’s the detonator.” Arthur grabbed the device and turned it over feverishly. “Three minutes left. I guess this is the warning signal. furniture. Oddly, he still had his cell phone pressed to his ear. Somehow he had never disconnected that last call with Rachamim. Neither man said a word, but Jamil knew that Rachamim was still there. It was as if they were both under a spell. Neither wanted to be the one to break the silence. Jamil jerked to a stop as the door to the warehouse slowly swung open. The cell phone fell from his hand and clattered to the floor. Rachamim stood in the doorway, outlined in the last rays of the setting sun. Six minutes left. Bin Laden sat tranquilly in front of the screens. He had spent fifteen years dreaming of this day, fifteen years since he had first set in motion the plan to send a nuclear bomb against America. Now, at last, victory was in his grasp. The men surrounding him shared in his hopes and dreams. But only he knew the true extent of his vision. With this one blow, bin Laden would usher in a new era for Islam and the entire world. Al Zawahiri looked at the clock on the wall. “Five minutes,” he murmured. As Jamil stared at Rachamim, something seemed to explode in his brain. The powerful psychological training he had undergone decades before crumbled before the onslaught of emotion evoked by the sight of his old friend. All at once, he knew that he could not 173
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTY1MDA0