“Please, I can’t breathe,” she pleaded.
Hakim relaxed his hold, just barely, and she sensed his tenseness. Despite the turmoil in her mind, she had to remain calm. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and reopened them, determined to see this through. With her lips and mouth dry as sandpaper, she tried to hold back a cough, moving her head ever so slightly. As she did, Hakim brutally pulled her closer again, and pain shot into her neck.
Two large groups of passengers remained in the terminal. Their anxiety was almost palpable as they stood huddled against the wall. All at once, a man and a woman sprang away and ran toward the door. Hakim was on them immediately, aiming his gun in their direction.
“Stop or I’ll take you down right now!” he shouted.
The couple froze. “Get back over there,” Hakim ordered, motioning in the direction of the other passengers.
They promptly headed back and melded into their group. From the corner of her eye, Jessie caught sight of the bulky figure of Bruce Williams stepping cautiously into the terminal.
Hakim stiffened. “You take one more step and I’ll put a bullet in her head,” he warned, his gun back at Jessie’s temple.
The FBI agent stopped and held up both hands in defense.
“No problem. I’m not armed,” he said calmly. “I’m Special Agent Williams. Who am I speaking to?”
“You know who I am,” Hakim retorted.
“Indeed, I believe I do. Nasir Hakim. May I call you Nasir?’
Hakim didn’t answer and Williams went on. “Good, I take it you don’t mind. I’m here to talk. Work things out together. But first, Nasir, I must ask you to release Ms. Milner and the rest of the passengers.”
Hakim sneered. “Do you think I’m a fool? As soon as I turn them loose, you’ll kill me.”
Williams nodded soberly. “I understand your concern. So let me take their place and you can be assured nothing will happen to you.”
“Do you really believe I would trust you?” Hakim said.
“Then let’s work on coming to an agreement. You can start by telling me what your demands are and we will do whatever we can to accommodate them.”
Hakim didn’t hesitate. “A helicopter on the pier and $100,000 dollars in cash. Then I let the others go. The reporter stays with me until I reach my destination.”
Williams shook his head. “No problem with the chopper and the money. However, Ms. Milner is not going with you.”
Hakim’s eyes flitted nervously around the room. Pulled tightly against his chest, Jessie shared the pounding of his heart, the tightening of his muscles. She sensed his desperation and knew this was not a man who wanted to die. She glanced at the Agent and hoped he realized it as well.
“Nasir, we will not do anything to endanger the life of our pilot. When you board this helicopter, you will be safe. You have my word,” he stated calmly.
After a moment, Hakim nodded. “All right, I’ll release her when I’m ready to take off.”
Williams smiled. “Agreed. See, it’s not difficult if we work together. But before we go on, we have to talk about the nerve gas. We know you had it with you. Where is it, Nasir?”
For a moment Hakim looked surprised. Williams smiled glumly. “Yes, we know all about it and unfortunately, we can’t go any further in our negotiations unless you tell us where it is.”
“If you try to trick me, I will release it. It’s extremely potent and everyone here will die,” Hakim threatened.
“No one has to die today, Nasir, including you, and I have no intention of tricking you. Tell me where it is and tell me where your friends are.”
Hakim glanced over his shoulder. “Jenna is the only one here.”
“Okay. Where is Jenna?”
Hakim opened his mouth to respond, but everyone’s attention had shifted away from him. He turned to look. Emerging from behind the barrels, Jenna gripped a cylinder against her chest, one hand holding on to the release valve as she slowly walked toward the center of the terminal. When she got near Hakim, she came to a stop. Suddenly it seemed all sound had evaporated. A deadly silence ensued in the terminal. Jessie glanced her way. Standing perfectly still facing the entrance, the young woman was the picture of calm.
“What’s in the cylinder, Jenna?” Williams asked quietly.
She sneered. “Death… for all of you.”
The crowd gasped.
“If you release the gas, it will affect you as well,” Williams warned.
Hakim scoffed. “No, it won’t.”
The agent nodded his understanding. “I see, you both took an antidote. But, let me remind you, there are SWAT teams armed to the teeth waiting out there for you. Antidote or not, you will not make it past them.”
Hakim didn’t answer.
“It doesn’t have to come to that. We have an agreement, right? You get the money and a helicopter ride out of here, and you give us the sarin. Simple as that,” Williams said.
Hakim nodded. “We do. But if you get any ideas about shooting us, you should remember I will have ample time to put a bullet through the reporter’s brain. So, if I die, she dies as well.”
Williams sighed. “Look, as I said before, we don’t want anybody to die today. However, you have to surrender the sarin right now.”
Hakim’s breathing was getting shallower, and Jessie worried he would decide to release the gas after all. Finally he nodded.
“Jenna will hand it to you after we board the chopper.”
“No, not acceptable. Do you have any other sarin containers?”
Hakim didn’t respond.
“Unless you level with me, Nasir, we can’t go on with our agreement.” Williams said.
“There are three more cylinders behind the barrels,” Hakim said.
“We need to get those out of here. First, Jenna, please put down the tank.”
Hakim looked at the woman. “Jenna, do as he said.”
She ignored him and started walking toward Williams.
“Stop and put it down Jenna!” the agent bellowed. She kept walking, her hand now moving closer to the release valve.
“Don’t do this,” the Agent warned.
“Jenna, no!” Hakim yelled.
The woman didn’t answer, locked in a stare with the agent and getting closer.
All at once the roar of rotor blades resonated in the clear sky and a deafening noise echoed throughout the building. Caught by surprise, Hakim released his hold ever so slightly. With every inch of energy left in her body, Jessie thrust her right elbow into his rib cage. He gasped in pain and loosened his grip some more. She struck again, harder, sharper, and this time he let go. Jessie pulled away, lost her balance and stumbled forward. There was only time for one thought on her way down to the hard cement floor, guns, then blackness took over.
When she opened her eyes, blurry faces were staring at her. A far away voice kept repeated the same refrain. “Jessie! Jessie! Are you okay?”
She answered. Her mouth felt full of cotton and only garbled words came out.
“Jessie?”
She closed her eyes, took one deep breath, then another. Opened them once more to see Liam anxiously gazing at her. “Are you okay?”
This time she nodded and smiled wanly. “What happened? Did I pass out?”
He grinned in relief. “Yeah. You scared the daylights out of me.”
“Where’s—” she stopped as she caught sight of the form sprawled on the floor next to her. Nasir Hakim’s body was surrounded by a pool of blood. When she finally brought herself to look past him, she noticed another body a short distance away.
“Help me up, will you?” she said to Liam.
He pulled her to her feet and she walked over to take a look. Covered with blood, Jenna had been shot multiple times. Her thick black hair was sprawled around her, and her dark eyes were clouded by death.
“How—”
“They don’t call them sharpshooters for nothing. The SWAT team stopped her. They had no choice. She was
about to release the sarin. And the moment you pulled away from Hakim, they got him, too.” Liam said.
Jessie sighed. “Is Sam here?”
“I’m right here.”
She looked over her shoulder. The detective was standing behind her. He smiled at her.
“Did they secure all the sarin?” she asked.
“As far as we know, they got everything that was here. They carried backpacks. Each one of them had two cylinders with sarin. Besides the one Jenna had, they found three more behind the barrels.”
“Was it just Hakim and Jenna?”
Sam shook his head.
“No, there were five more. After you alerted us, the FBI blocked all exits. No one was going anywhere. Four of them were caught in the lines between the entrances and the security gates. They also had backpacks with containers of nerve gas. Their plan was to release all of it inside the terminal at the same time. One of them, Abdul Malik, was shot and killed while making a run for it. Another individual, Bobby Metzer, was an employee of the Port Authority. Somehow, he got involved with Hakim. He was found sitting in a van on a nearby street, waiting to whisk them away after the attack. This was not meant to be a suicide mission. They clearly had planned a getaway, which was fortunate for us.” What do you mean by fortunate?” Jessie asked.
“If Hakim had intended to die as a martyr, he would not have hesitated to release the sarin, even after we showed up.”
Jessie nodded. “And kill as many of us as he could.”
“He was not quite the jihadist he imagined he was,” Sam said.
“And now he’s finding out there’s no paradise or virgins waiting for him,” Liam added.
“I think hell is a more appropriate place for him anyway,” Sam said.
“How did you ever guess they were coming here?”
Jessie hadn’t noticed Bruce Williams joining them. She shook her head. “I don’t know exactly. I had a strange feeling when I saw the cruise ship pulling in the port this morning. I was wrong actually. I thought the attack was meant for the ship. Instead, it was obvious they planned on hitting the terminal all along.”
“There was no way they could have gotten past the luggage check point with those backpacks, but the damage they would have done right here would have been horrific. An hour ago, there were nearly three thousand people in this building,” Williams stated.
“Did you find out where they made the sarin?” Jessie asked.
The agent nodded. “According to one of them, Jamal Lufti, they set up their own lab, even brought in an Iraqi scientist to make the sarin. I guess they were holding his family hostage. Once he was done, they killed him. Lufti gave us the address, and a special terrorism task force unit is on their way there right now. We hope to get a lot more information once they get in there.”
Jessie sighed. “Why?”
“There is no easy answer. According to what we know right now, they were all Americans. Yet the influence of the ISIS propaganda fed their hatred, and their discontent with real or perceived grievances. Unfortunately, there will be more like them. There always will be more,” Williams said somberly.
Despite the fact that every part of her body ached from the ordeal, Jessie wanted nothing more than to get out of there. She had a job to do, and she had to do it quickly, before the rest of the media got hold of the story.
“I have to call Art, right now,” she said, then realized she didn’t have her phone. She checked her pockets, glanced around the floor.
“Is this what you’re looking for?” Liam asked, waving it in front of her.
“Where was it?”
“Right over here, you must have dropped it when Hakim got ah—you know,” he said hesitating.
She smiled. “Go ahead, you can say it. He had a choke hold on me. I had just pulled the phone out of my purse when he grabbed me. I also dropped my bag. It’s got to be around here somewhere.”
She reached for the phone impatiently and punched in Art’s number.
“Jesus, Jessie, is that you?” he yelled.
She held the phone away from her ear.
“Yes, it’s me, and you don’t have to shout. My hearing is still sound.”
“Well, I see you’ve still got the same mouth on you, so you must be all right. Perrone called and told me you were held hostage at the Port. How the hell did you get yourself into this situation?”
She went on to tell him a condensed version.
“Art, I’ll be at the office in a half hour or so—” She glanced over at Williams who was shaking his head at her.
“Sorry, you’re going to be tied up with us for a while,” he said.
“Listen, the FBI won’t let me leave yet. I’ll be there as soon as I can. Don’t go anywhere.”
“Get everything you can from them. I’ll have Susan come in and stick around until you get here.”
“Okay. She gets to write the article, but I want a personal storyline on the front page. You owe me, Art.”
“You got it.”
“See you soon,” she said with a grin of satisfaction before noticing Liam staring at her.
“What?” she asked.
“Ten minutes ago, this terrorist had you hostage, ready to kill you at the drop of a hat, and here you are, back in full reporter mode. I don’t know how you do it. Aren’t you the least bit shook up?”
She shrugged. “Of course I am. The idea of going home and taking a nap sounds great. But this is more important than my being tired and besides, there’s no way I could sleep anyway. Not after all of this.”
“Ms. Milner?”
Williams was standing at her elbow, Estrada at his side. Jessie was surprised to actually see a smile on her face.
“Is this yours?” she asked, holding up a handbag.
Jessie nodded. “Thanks.”
“Agent Estrada is going to take you through the next few steps. Just outside the building there is a medic on standby who will be checking to make sure you are physically unharmed. When you’re done, she will take your initial statement. Next, we’ll go over it to make sure we didn’t forget anything. And then you may go,” Williams said.
Jessie sighed. “Fine. You have to give me some information as well.”
Williams frowned. “About what?”
“About the terrorists.”
“Ms. Milner, I told you as much as I can right now. We don’t know if we have the whole cell yet.”
“You promised me the full story when we first met.”
“And you will get it. In due time. Right now, you’ll have to content yourself with what you have.”
She realized he wasn’t going to relent at this point, and took off for the ambulance parked outside. The medic was a slim man with a goatee. He checked her over, noted the bruises on her neck and asked her a myriad of questions, to all of which she responded in the negative. After a while, he seemed satisfied, although he shook his head. “You’re one lucky young woman. He could have easily crushed your larynx with this kind of hold.”
“He didn’t and I’m okay,” she responded, thinking only of escaping this whole routine, and getting back to the office.
When they left the medic, they went back inside the terminal and found a couple of chairs away from the throng of policemen, FBI agents and SWAT teams, all of them still coming down from the tension of a near disaster. Jessie repeated her story and Estrada took notes.
A half hour later, Williams strolled over, read her statement, asked a couple more questions, then gave her the go-ahead to leave, saying they would be in touch soon.
With a sigh of relief, Jessie started walking out, then stopped suddenly and took a last look around. The inside of the terminal was nearly empty now except for a team of investigators gathering evidence and a few FBI agents. All at once, anxiety gripped her chest and she had to leave. She found Liam and Perrone talking on the side of the building.
“I’m going to the office. Art is waiting for me,” she announced abruptly.
From the loo
ks on their faces, it was obvious they disagreed with her decision, but realized there was no point in trying to dissuade her.
“Call me later,” Liam said as she walked away, and she nodded.
Her car was still parked where she’d left it. A couple of Ft Lauderdale cops were lingering nearby and walked up as soon as she approached. Politely, one of them asked for her driver’s license, checked it and returned it with an apologetic grin. “Sorry. We have to check out everybody coming in or out, no exceptions.”
She smiled back. “Believe me, I’m glad you are doing so.”
“It was you, wasn’t it?”
When she didn’t respond, he continued. “It was you with the terrorist? I don’t know how you kept your cool like you did. Then, how you made your move so the sniper could get him.”
She shrugged. “It’s over, thank goodness.”
Driving past all the police vehicles parked along the sides of the road, she had to stop once more at the security gate for an ID check before finally reaching US1 and heading downtown. It’s over, she told herself again, irritated at the tears streaming down her cheeks. She pulled into the parking garage and killed the engine. She sat there, suddenly choked by emotions. It was everything at once, knowing death had only been steps away, the tension tightening her chest through the morning’s long and fearful hours, then seeing the lifeless bodies of Hakim and Jenna lying on the cold concrete. And now, finally letting herself acknowledge it was over indeed.
After a few more minutes, she wiped away the last of the tears, stepped out of the car and glanced up. High above, a solitary hawk, wings spread wide, glided by in a seamless blue sky. She kept her eyes on him for a while, and soon he was gone.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Stepping out of the stairwell, she spotted them sitting at her desk, Art in her chair, Susan at his side. She pushed past the glass doors and they both turned to watch her walk toward them. As she approached, he shook his head at her. “Just this once, couldn’t you have taken the elevator?”
“I take it all the time, Art. Today I needed the walk.”
“Yeah, sure. Pull over a chair and sit down,” he ordered.
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