Enemy Among Us-A Jordan Wright Thriller

by Randy Reardon

  “Sure will. Keep us posted.”

  “Commander, do we have a line to the Mint from here?” Max asked.

  “I believe we can call directly to their security center.”

  Stan walked over to Choufani. “It might expedite things, Sharif, if you made the call. I’d have to go through the crap about who I am and why I’m here. You can cut through that if you wouldn’t mind.”

  “Not a problem. Lieutenant Hall, can you connect me to the security center in the Mint?”

  The Lieutenant walked over to the phone and looked at the master list for the number.

  “If I might suggest,” Stan said to Choufani, “let’s not tell them about Mustafa. If you would just tell them two agents are coming over and want to check some things, do you think that could get them in? I want to make sure we don’t tip Mustafa off. I really want to catch him. My guess is the Mall is the diversion and the Mint is the target.”

  “Okay, I can do that. But I want to move some of my units closer as back up. Then, if something does start to go down, we can be on top of it.”

  “Sounds like a plan.”

  “I’ve got them on the line, Commander. It’s a Captain Patterson, sir.” The Lieutenant handed the phone to Choufani.

  “Jim, Sharif Choufani here. Look, I’ve got two agents coming over there just to check things out. Could you have someone meet them and take them around?” Choufani was listening to the reply. “I realize you are on lock down, but we’re facing something unique here on the Mall and we just want to cover all of our bases.” Choufani again was listening. “Thanks, Jim. It’s an Agent Jordan Wright and Agent Kate Woolrich. Two of the best and they’re on loan to us from the Feds, but we’ve turned them into Philadelphians.” Choufani laughed and hung up the phone. He looked at Stan. “They’re in. Patterson will meet them at the main entrance. Remember that steak dinner you’re buying me?”

  Stan nodded.

  “I think you owe me another.”

  “Not a problem. My pleasure.” Stan slapped Choufani on the back, startling him. “I’ll let Jordan know.”

  Chapter Seventy-One

  “I have a problem. I have a problem! Aziz! I need help! Help me!”

  Aziz heard the voice over his radio. At first, he wasn’t sure whose it was. Why had someone broken the rules and used Aziz’s name? He keyed his radio. “This is one. Who is this?

  “Aziz, this is Parijan. Our hostages are leaving. They are running out the door. What do we do?”

  Aziz couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He knew Parijan was a member of the team at the Constitution Center, but, where was the leader, Soroush, number four on their call signs. He knew Parijan wouldn’t know the codes, so Aziz had to respond and find out what exactly had happened. “Okay Parijan, first tell me what happened to Soroush.”

  “There were men here, amongst the hostages. One of them said he needed to go to the bathroom. We were taking him, but as we walked by the desk where Soroush was seated, this man jumped and grabbed Soroush and hurt him. Soroush is unconscious. He may be dead!”

  Aziz sighed. This was not good. To Aziz, it sounded like Soroush had gotten sloppy. “Parijan, tell me what happened next.”

  “More men got up from the group. Two of them charged Naseem and knocked him out. After that, they yelled at the other hostages to move and they ran to the emergency exit doors. Before we could do anything they were gone. They’re all gone Aziz! What do we do?”

  Only Naseem and Soroush had guns and it sounded like the men who had attacked them got the guns. With all the hostages gone, it would only be a matter of minutes before the SWAT team would try to breech the building. There was little Aziz could do for his cousins at this point. Perhaps he could use the distraction to his advantage. He just needed to think. “Parijan, take everyone and go to the center of the building, away from any of the doors, and barricade yourselves in a room with no windows, if possible. We will try to come get you later. You have nothing to fear.”

  “Yes, Aziz. That is what we will do.”

  Aziz knew that he could never go rescue them. There wasn’t any more he could do, but he hoped by them doing what he asked it would delay the SWAT team in their effort to take control of the building. Aziz needed to determine his own action.

  “Number one, this is three.”

  “Go ahead three.” Three was the leader in the Visitors’ Center, the building adjacent to the Constitution Center. Aziz was guessing they had seen what was taking place next door.

  “What are we going to do, one? This is bad. My team saw the hostages leave. They know the police will enter there soon. What’s our plan? What are you going to do?”

  The last thing Aziz needed now was for another one of his leaders and their team to be in a panic. This had gone from bad to worse, faster than he’d anticipated.

  “Three, nothing has changed. Stay on task. Team four made some mistakes. Keep your team focused. Take nothing for granted.”

  “Yes one, but this wasn’t supposed to happen. Mustafa said we would be in control and the enemies of Islam would try nothing.”

  “They haven’t tried anything. Team four messed up. Make sure you team doesn’t do the same. One, out.” Aziz couldn’t waste time with this conversation. He had to figure out his next steps. Mustafa was to have called forty minutes ago and he still hadn’t. Aziz wasn’t sure what that meant, but it was unlike Mustafa to not do something he said he would. Aziz walked to the far end of the building, facing north. He moved the canvas out of the way, so he could look down the Mall. He could see the eastern part of the Constitution Center that wasn’t blocked by the Visitor’s Center, which was located directly between them. He didn’t like what he saw.

  Aziz could see police units had surrounded the entrance. The police would move in a matter of minutes to capture the team and the team wouldn’t be able to hold out for long. The men who initiated the escape had more than likely told the police that they didn’t believe there were any more weapons, and since Soroush and Naseem knew how to arm the explosives, they had decided only to arm them at a later point to ensure none of them went off prematurely. He really hoped Mustafa would call since he needed his advice. They had never planned for this happening.

  “One! One! This is three. We’ve got a problem.”

  What could it be now, Aziz wondered as he turned away from the window?

  Chapter Seventy-Two

  Mustafa and his team were back at the secured door, just as they had been earlier. He assumed the guards had rotated and someone else would monitor the camera as he inserted his key and opened the door. They quickly moved inside and packed the cloth wrapped dies they had earlier pulled off the shelf. In the Engraver’s room of the U.S. Mint, a team of men and women designed, carved and manufactured the dies that stamped the coinage for the United States Monetary system. With these dies and the ability to purchase the right metals, one could duplicate the coins used everyday. Flooding the market with excess coins could have a devastating effect on the economy.

  The attempt had been made in the past to either counterfeit or steal the printing plates for the paper currency used in The United States. But, with the advent of the new designs for the major bills, it had become almost impossible to pull off credible bill duplication in the numbers necessary to cause a problem.

  Coinage in the United States had not dramatically changed in years. It was such a standard and people were so used to it, even efforts to introduce new coins — such as the Sacagawea dollar coin — had failed to be adopted by the American public. Merchants didn’t inspect counterfeit coins, as they did with currency. When Jerome first told Mustafa what he wanted, Mustafa had laughed and thought Jerome was crazy. After he heard the entire plan, Mustafa found Jerome a genius since according to Jerome, there were many places in the world where he could set up shop and mint coins without any interference. He’d also figured out an ingenious way to get the coins back into the U.S. Everything was focused on dirty bombs and drugs at ports of entr
y.

  Mustafa would be a rich man by the end of the day. He just needed to deliver the dies and the engravers to Jerome and the Cayman Islands bank account he’d opened would be filled. It would be enough to last a life time when he included the money he’d held back from the Iranians when he’d decided to switch masters. Life would be good.

  “Everything is packed, Mustafa. We’re ready to go when you are.”

  The shelves were nearly empty and the carts were even heavier. After they placed the various dies in the carts, the men had opened up more bags of dirty rags to throw over the top and fill the carts.

  Mustafa inspected the room carefully, to ensure they hadn’t left anything. He looked at each of the carts and made sure nothing was visible that would give them away. “Okay, the plan is the same. We’ll move toward the back door. Hopefully, we can get through the guard. It may still be Johnny. Those guards don’t rotate as often but, this time though, when we go out the door, you will head toward the vans. I’ll stay on the dock. When you have everything loaded, I’ll take care of the guard and open the gate. We will have to move quickly and get out. Everyone has their route, so make sure you follow it. No mistakes, no changes and you must not stop anywhere.”

  They all muttered in the affirmative to Mustafa.

  “Let’s go.”

  He opened the door and the men moved their carts out to the corridor. They didn’t encounter anyone and as they rounded the last corner, Mustafa saw that Johnny was still at his post.

  “Hi, Johnny! This is our last load. Okay for us to go out, like last time?”

  “I don’t know, Mustafa; I didn’t know you had another trip to make. We’re still in lock down.”

  “I understand. We can leave them here and get them later, if you want us to. I just don’t want you to have to deal with the odor.”

  “I know. I know. It’s just that a couple of Federal Agents just showed up and wanted to look around. I don’t want them to come by while I’ve let you out. You know what I mean.”

  “I see.” Mustafa tried to keep his composure. What did it mean that agents had come there? Maybe nothing, but it would be best for Mustafa and his men to get out immediately. “We’d just be a minute.”

  “I don’t know, Mustafa. If it was up to me, I’d let you.”

  “Well, what if we just rolled the carts out and put them on the dock. We won’t load the vans.”

  “Hey, that’s an idea. That will only take a minute, won’t it?”

  “Sure. We’ll be out and back in before you know it.”

  Johnny grabbed the phone and called out to the guard shack. “They’ve got more carts to bring out.” Johnny hung up the phone. “Okay, but be quick about it.”

  “Thanks, Johnny.”

  Johnny opened the door. Mustafa walked out and guided the men, as if he were going to show them where to place the carts. When they were out and Johnny closed the security door, Mustafa pointed his men to the vans. “Be quick.”

  The other guard walked out the doorway of the shack. “How are you, Mustafa? Looks like the SWAT team just went into the Constitution Center. This might all be over soon.”

  Mustafa almost lost his composure. He looked out across the Mall and saw the police had moved in and around the building on the Mall. He didn’t know what could have happened and how it had happened so quickly. “Did they go in and get the hostages?”

  “No, the hostages came out about fifteen minutes ago. It looks like they escaped.”

  “Really?”

  “Yep, now they’re just going in to get whoever was holding them. Maybe I’ll get home for supper.”

  “Yes, maybe you will.” Mustafa glanced over at his men. The last of the carts was being rolled into the vans. “Well, that should about do it.” Mustafa reached into his jacket for the small stun gun, drew it, fired, hitting the guard’s neck and worked the trigger.

  “What the …,” the guard gasped as he fell into a crumpled heap. His body convulsed with each pull of the trigger.

  Mustafa didn’t even wait for him to hit the ground as he stuck his hand inside the guard booth and hit the button to open the gate. The vans had already started to move forward. He turned and leaped off the dock and ran to his van. One of the men had already started it. He threw it into drive and quickly moved through the gate, as it began to close. As he headed out, Mustafa took one last look at the Constitution Center, only to see the SWAT Team emerge with the children.

  Chapter Seventy-Three

  Chaos reigned in the Independence Mall Visitor’s Center. It wasn’t the hostages who created the havoc, but the hostage takers. They had witnessed what had happened in the building next to them — the hostages escape and when the SWAT Teams had entered the building — panic had set in among the children.

  Everyone spoke at once. “What are we going to do?”

  “It’s only a matter of time before they come here!”

  “We need to leave now. This wasn’t the plan.”

  The leader, who had the radio call sign “Three,” walked over to the group of children. He wasn’t sure what had happened either, but he wasn’t about to allow his team to panic and create more problems.

  “I need all of you to listen to me! This is not over. I don’t know what happened at the Constitution Center. They made mistakes and they are now paying for them. Let’s make sure we don’t make the same mistakes. We still have control of the other three buildings. Aziz is still leading us. We will succeed.”

  “We don’t agree, Feroz. The situation is changing,” one of the boys challenged. “Look at the power they have. They aren’t afraid of us, as Mustafa told us they would be. They don’t care that we’re children. They only see us as terrorists.”

  “I don’t agree,” Feroz interrupted. “They made mistakes. They let their hostages get away. We still have ours.”

  “But what’s to stop them from doing the same thing? We only have two guns. The male hostages are bigger than most of us. Lucky for us they didn’t see what happened.” Omid interjected, the oldest female in the group.

  “We’re better organized. If we stick together, we will be fine. Uncle Mustafa told us what we need to do. We stick to the plan, until Aziz or Mustafa tells us differently.” Feroz countered

  “I don’t agree. If we stay we will die or be captured. I think we should leave now.” Nouri joined the conversation.

  “How would we do that?” Feroz demanded. “If we walk outside, we will be captured. They will know we’re kids. We can’t just walk out.”

  “We can go out through the underground parking garage. Remember, we saw it on the plans where we first were told of the mission. We can go down there and as the hostages leave, we can use the distraction to run out of the garage and away. Once they have the hostages, they might not worry about finding us.” Nouri pointed to the door leading to the garage.

  “I doubt that. They will keep looking until they find us,” Feroz advised.

  “Either way, we’re captured. Going to the garage gives us a chance.” Omid pleaded.

  Feroz had had enough of this. “I’m in charge. We stay here and complete what we have been trained to do.”

  One of the older boys came up to Feroz. “Maybe you shouldn’t be in charge any longer. I think one of us should take over.” Sanjar stood face to face against Feroz.

  “That’s not the plan!”

  “We need a new plan.” Sanjar countered.

  “Yeah, let’s vote on it.” Nouri moved over and stood by Sanjar.

  Feroz was beside himself. “We aren’t going to vote on anything. We do what I say we do.”

  “Not anymore.” The voice came from behind Feroz. It was Payam, Feroz’s second in command. “Things have changed, my cousin. We need a new plan. I believe we should leave. I’ll take those that want to go with me. If you wish to stay, you can remain with anyone else who wants to stay. I don’t think many will.”

  “I can’t believe you would do this to me! We have been through so much!” Fe
roz insisted. “We can still succeed!”

  “No, we won’t be successful. Where is Uncle Mustafa? Ask Aziz if he has heard from him. I suspect he hasn’t. We have been left here,” Payam declared.

  “No. No! Uncle would not do that! He has too much invested in this. He wants it to succeed.”

  “He dropped us off. That was never part of the plan. He never told us he would leave us. He hasn’t come back. He’s done something else.” By this point, all of the children had gathered around Feroz and Payam. Those that didn’t understand what had happened either quickly figured it out or quietly asked one of the older children. “Who wants to leave with me?” Payam turned and put his arm up in the air to signal others who wanted to leave with him to do the same.

  Only Feroz and two others didn’t raise a hand.

  “I’m going, Feroz, and these cousins seem to want to come with me. Everyone who’s going with me go over by the door.” He turned and pointed to an access door that was marked “PARKING.”

  “This is a mistake, Payam.” Feroz grabbed his radio. “One! One! This is three. We’ve got a problem.”

  “This is One. What’s the problem, three.”

  “Most of my team wishes to leave.’

  Aziz couldn’t believe it. What was going on? “Three, they can’t leave. They must stay until we’re directed to leave.”

  “I’ve told them. But they are ready to leave. There will only be three of us left. I don’t think I can keep them here.”

  “You must!”

  “We’re leaving now, Aziz!” Payam had grabbed the radio from Aziz. “This is over. We’re heading out.” Payam threw the radio down. It broke into pieces, the batteries skittered across the floor.

  Payam returned to the group. He opened the door and the group moved down the stairway and into the garage.

  Feroz stared at the broken radio. The second radio had stopped working about an hour ago. He had no way to communicate with Aziz. He knew the only way to save himself and the other two who had stayed with him was to end this. He walked over to the main entrance door and undid the chains. He opened the door slightly and gestured for the hostages to leave. He knew what he had to do. He grabbed his gun and walked to the center of the building.