chapter 66
TWO of the men started their escape on the Orange Line, and were out of the downtown area five minutes after the first blast. The other two had to take the Red Line and then transfer to the Orange Line, so it took a bit longer for them to clear the area, but even so, by 1:00 they had all emerged from the West Falls Church Metro Station and were boarding buses for their next destination. They traveled in pairs as they had been taught. The FedEx shirts and ball caps had been discarded and stuffed into garbage cans. The men were not concerned about leaving any DNA, just getting clear of the city. They had long-sleeved T-shirts under the FedEx uniforms to make the change easy. Karim had hammered the point over and over. The bombs would cause traffic mayhem and it was possible that out of fear of future attacks they might shut the Metro down until they got a handle on what was going on.
All four men rode the same bus to the Tysons Corner Shopping Center. One pretended to listen to an iPod while the others pretended to read newspapers. When they got off the bus, they walked in pairs away from the mall. Karim had schooled them to look casual. To laugh and smile, so as to not attract any unwanted attention. Their next destination lay a little over a mile to the northwest. Unlike the previous warehouse, this one was relatively new and in near perfect shape. It sat in an upscale mixed-use industrial office park. Farid had the keys and he entered the space from the front, where the offices were. The other three men, with their baggy pants and long-sleeved T-shirts, went around to the back, as if they were day laborers coming in to unload a truck.
Less than five minutes after their arrival, the black Lincoln Town Car and the Suburban rolled into the all-but-empty warehouse space and the big door was closed. Karim had been so thorough in his planning that he had even anticipated this moment. He had told them the reunion would be sweet, but their celebration would be silent. Karim stepped from the front seat of the sedan with a massive smile and his fist in the air. He walked steadily over to the four men. He approached Hakim first, shook his fists in the air, and then wrapped his arms tightly around the man's shoulders.
"We did it," Karim whispered in his ear. "We did it. I am so proud of you." Karim moved onto the next man and hugged him as well. He moved down the line telling each man, in a hushed emotional voice, how well he had done. When he was finished, there were tears in his eyes.
He stood in front of them and said, "I have never been so proud in all my life. This truly is a great day for us, but we are not done," he was quick to add. "You must hurry and change clothes." He clapped his hands together. "Hurry now. All of your stuff is in the back of the truck. I want guards posted on twenty-minute rotations. Eat, poop, and drink some water. You all know what to do. We've covered this a thousand times. I want to be ready to move in thirty minutes, if we need to."
Karim turned to Hakim and put a hand on his shoulder. "You have done an amazing job, my friend." He looked around the fifty-by-thirty-foot space. "This is perfect. Do you have the TVs I requested?"
"Yes." Hakim motioned toward the front. "They're in the office up front. Three of them."
"Good. Let's go." He began walking. "I want to see."
The office was good-sized with a desk, a couch, and a credenza with three 27-inch flat screens. Karim stood in front of the desk while Hakim turned on each TV. He then grabbed the remotes and turned them to the channels he thought would provide the best coverage.
Karim's eyes floated from one screen to the next. He was not surprised to see that there was no aerial footage, since the airspace over the Capitol and the White House was restricted. Most of the shots were of reporters standing behind barricades while emergency vehicles raced past. You had to look very hard to assess any damage. Karim was actually disappointed for a second and then he heard the female newsperson on one of the American channels say that early estimates of casualties were as high as five hundred. Karim was ecstatic. He had been hoping for numbers as high as three hundred. The TV on the far right switched to a new reporter and then the screen changed to what Karim at first assumed was a shot from a helicopter until he realized it was being taken from a building.
Pointing, Karim said, "Turn the volume up on that one."
"What you are seeing," said a male voice, "is what is left of one of Washington's most storied restaurants... the Monocle. It appears that the blast completely leveled the restaurant."
Karim moved closer to the screen while the reporter talked with an anchor up in New York. There was nothing left of the building except a half wall on the southwest corner. "It's gone." Karim practically giggled. "Look!" He pointed at the screen. "There is nothing left. There is no way anyone survived that."
Hakim looked at all the emergency vehicles. Men with axes and shovels were climbing over the rubble, and two dogs could be seen sniffing the pile. "I think you're right."
A new image came up on the screen of hundreds of people standing at the south end of the parking lot. A reporter was sticking a microphone in the face of a young girl who was crying. Hakim thought she couldn't have been more than twenty.
"Look where they are standing!" Karim said with great enthusiasm. He checked his watch. "This is perfect. We will have front-row seats this time."
Hakim wasn't so sure he wanted a front-row seat.
"Oh," Karim said, clapping his hands together, "I almost forgot. I must check in with Ahmed." He grabbed his mobile phone and pressed down on the number seven. The phone automatically dialed Ahmed's phone. After three quick rings, the Moroccan answered. "How are you?" Karim asked.
"Good," the man answered in a quiet voice. "Things are very busy here. I assume everything worked on your end."
"Yes... to perfection." Karim imagined the Moroccan lying in the woods, burrowed into a pile of leaves and pine straw.
"Congratulations. As you predicted, this place is busier than a beehive."
"Wonderful. We will stick to our original timetable. If anything changes, I will inform you."
"I'll see you in a little bit."