The Hunt for Truth

by Sury Patru Viswam

  “Sania, who are you talking about? Omar and Nafisa?” Arya asked, resting her hands on Sania’s shoulders.

  An uncomfortable silence fell between them as Sania fought back the tears.

  “Sania,” Arya leaned towards Sania and embraced her.

  Sania slowly lifted her gaze towards Arya. “All of them,” she said, as tears rolled down her cheeks.

  The insinuation of Sania’s words stoked suspicions that had been circling in Arya’s head. The investigation over the last few days into Samir’s disappearance had exposed his secret life. It shined a light into his dark associations – Omar, Nafisa, and suspicious people in Culver City.

  “Samir?” Arya’s gaze was firmly on Sania.

  Sania, with tears on her eyes, slowly nodded.

  “When did you know about Samir?” Arya asked, holding her gaze at Sania. The tension in the air was palpable.

  The first responder stepped back, sensing the gravity of the situation.

  The wall holding Sania’s emotions cracked, and she began to weep uncontrollably.

  “Sania, this is important. Do you know where Samir is?” Arya held Sania’s shoulders and lifted her gaze.

  Sania was visibly shaking as she tried to hold back her tears. “I am not …”

  “What?” Arya stared at Sania.

  Sania shifted her gaze from Arya to Reza.

  “Reza,” Arya muttered as she began to walk towards Reza. She knew that time was of the essence. If Samir were still out there, the country might still be in danger.

  “Arya, you can’t believe how glad I am to see you by our side.” Reza stretched his hands wide to hug Arya.

  Arya stopped short and glared at Reza. “Where is he?”

  Reza was taken aback by Arya’s lack of warmth towards him, her college friend. “Arya…”

  Reza’s response was interrupted as loud sirens erupted.

  Both Reza and Arya turned towards the blaring sirens and noticed a stream of cars approaching their location. The vehicles were not black and whites; instead, they were all black SUVs.

  “Holy shit.” Arya recognized that she doesn’t have much time. “Reza, where is he? We don’t have much time; tell me.”

  “What do you mean?” Reza was confounded. “Are we in danger?” Reza asked, looking at the SUVs screeching to a halt near them. “Who are they?”

  “They are the FBI or CIA. Who the hell knows! They must have found out, and they must be here to take you guys in.” Arya rushed her words. “Where is he?”

  “Take us in? Where? Why?” Reza looked scared.

  “To find out what you know,” Arya said as she shifted her glance towards the SUVs and back at Reza. “Where is he?”

  “Who?” Reza looked confused and scared.

  “Samir,” Arya blurted out, almost in disbelief that Reza even asked her that question.

  “Please step back.”

  Arya looked up towards the heavy sounding voice and found a couple of men dressed in black suits approaching her.

  “Who are you?” Arya asked, holding her ground.

  Hearing Edgar’s voice, Arya shifted her glance towards her right to find Edgar in the same boat as her. He was surrounded by suits.

  The man standing in front of Arya, who looked professional and well-groomed, reached to his left jacket pocket and flashed his badge.

  No surprises. As Arya expected, the badge had the familiar three letters. FBI.

  “FBI Special Agent in charge, Damien Taylor.” The agent introduced himself in a manner that exuded authority.

  “This is a Philly PD investigation,” Arya tried to hold onto their control of the investigation.

  “Ma’am,” Agent Taylor started before he got interrupted by Arya.

  “Don’t ma’am me.” Arya never liked being called a ‘ma’am.’ That word rubs her the wrong way. “You can address me as Detective Martins.”

  Agent Taylor let out a deep sigh. “Okay, Detective Martins, let me spell it out for you. You are not in charge, nor the Philly PD.” He paused for a moment before squarely holding his gaze at Arya. “I am in charge. Got it?”

  Arya remained silent. She knew that she had no cards to play. The FBI obviously knew what she had found out during her investigation. This was a national security issue, and the FBI trumps Philly PD any day on terrorism investigations, especially given what happened on September 11th.

  Arya shifted her gaze towards Edgar and nodded, gesturing him to do the same as her. She knew fighting the turf war was not going to work out.

  As an agent reached out to handcuff Nafisa, she kicked him hard with her legs. “Don’t touch me, you, Kafir.” She yelled loudly before reaching for the rectangle pendant on her necklet.

  “Stop her,” Agent Taylor yelled, as Nafisa opened the pendant and brought it close to her mouth.

  As she was about to put the pendant in her mouth, a female agent reached in and plucked the pendant hard, pulling it away from Nafisa.

  “Kafir, you will all die,” Nafisa yelled.

  The female agent turned her gaze towards Agent Taylor after inspecting the pendant closely. “Cyanide.”

  “Cuff her. I want four eyes on her at all times; load her in the box,” Agent Taylor said, calmly walking towards Nafisa. “We know who you are, Nafisa. Get comfy; you are going to spend a long time with us and be prepared to sing like a canary.”

  “Never.” Nafisa glared at Agent Taylor. “I want a lawyer.”

  “Lawyer. Can you believe this asshole?” Agent Taylor scoffed. He turned towards Arya before shifting his glance back at Nafisa. “To the place you are going….” He paused as he leaned closer to Nafisa. “You better worship your lord.”

  “Take her away from my sight,” he yelled, prompting the agents to cuff and escort her to one of the black parked SUVs.

  Agent Taylor turned towards another agent to his side and declared, “I want this freaking building to be searched, top to bottom.”

  “Already on it. We have agents in the building,” the agent replied.

  Agent Taylor tapped the agent’s shoulder and proceeded towards Arya. “I want all the materials related to your investigation on my desk by sunrise.”

  Arya nodded. It was pretty clear who was in command of the situation.

  Agent Taylor, feeling satisfied with Arya’s compliance, gestured his appreciation. “Good. I will put in a word with your supervisor.”

  “No need,” Arya countered, drawing a glare from Agent Taylor.

  “I don’t need any favors.” Arya gazed straight at Agent Taylor. “I just need you to know that Sania did nothing wrong.”

  “How do you know that?” Agent Taylor glared. “Do you know that she visited Saudi Arabia?”

  Arya stuttered. “I don’t…”

  “Do you know her father was killed by a kafir?”

  Arya shook her head.

  Agent Taylor walked up to Arya. “I guess you don’t know a lot about your friend.”

  Arya lifted her gaze at Agent Taylor. “I know her enough to know that she could do no harm to any human being.”

  “I hope you are right,” Agent Taylor replied, walking towards Sania.

  As Agent Taylor escorted Sania towards the parked SUV, she turned towards Arya and mouthed loudly, “I am not a terrorist.”

  For a moment, Arya was lost. She knew in her heart that her friend couldn’t be a terrorist, even though she hid the facts about Samir and his disappearance.

  “I know,” Arya replied. “Just tell the agents what you know,” Arya yelled out a last piece of advice as Sania was helped into the backside of Agent Taylor’s black SUV.

  41

  Arya stormed into LT Cooper’s office, racing past the detectives in the squad room who were yelling congratulatory messages. The detectives had heard about the news of the terrorists’ arrests, and, quite expectedly, they were excited about it.

  “Where did they take them?” Arya asked in a raised voice, marching into LT Cooper’s office.

&nbs
p; Arya must have shouted as silence fell on the squad room, and all eyes in it descended on LT Cooper’s office.

  LT Cooper, who was on the phone, obviously didn’t like Arya’s tone. He glared at her for a moment before turning his attention to the phone. “Sorry about the commotion, Chief.”

  Arya couldn’t believe she almost yelled at her LT when he was on the phone with the Chief. She shook her head in displeasure as she chastised herself in her mind for acting in an unprofessional manner. Of all the people in the world, LT Cooper doesn’t deserve to be yelled at. He is a consummate professional and a fair boss.

  “Yes, I will be talking to both of them,” LT Cooper responded to the Chief on the phone. “Consider it to be handled.”

  There was no doubt in Arya’s mind that LT and Chief were talking about her and Edgar. Obviously, it was about the showdown at Stoneridge, which resulted in the death of Omar and arrests of Nafisa, Sania, and Eli by the FBI.

  As LT was having the conversation with the Chief, Arya stood by LT’s front door and made a hand gesture towards Edgar, signaling him to come to LT’s office.

  “Sorry, Chief, I should have kept you in the loop,” LT addressed the Chief on the phone.

  Listening to the conversation, it was quite obvious that LT was taking heat from the Chief. It was evident that the Chief was not pleased to be kept out of the loop in the investigation that had links to the 9/11 terrorists.

  “Yes. That is true. One of the detectives knew Sania Tariq beforehand,” LT started before getting interrupted by the Chief on the phone. The Chief was chastising him so loud that Arya could hear his voice clearly.

  Arya was immediately washed away with feelings of sadness. This was all her fault. The moment she realized the possible terrorism angle, she should have brought LT in the loop. There were too many red flags — bank accounts linked to the Middle East, multiple forged passports, Saudi associates in Culver City, and on and on. There were plenty of opportunities for her to realize that this case was bigger than a routine missing person case. Her past relationship with Sania had clouded her judgment, and she didn’t follow the procedure that she was supposed to follow.

  “What is going on?” Edgar whispered, walking into LT’s office.

  Arya raised her right index finger near her mouth, signaling Edgar to bring his voice down.

  “Chief,” Arya whispered, gesturing towards the phone.

  “Understood. I am sorry for not keeping you in the loop, Chief,” LT apologized.

  Edgar exchanged a glance with Arya, inquiring if she could make out the Chief’s end of the conversation.

  Arya shook her head before leaning towards him. “Chief seems to be unhappy with you,” she whispered.

  “Me?” Edgar looked stunned. “But why?”

  “Chief seems to think that you kept the chain of command in the dark and made the decision to visit Stoneridge.”

  Edgar’s face turned pale, and he looked perplexed. “Why would they think that?”

  “Shhh!” Arya shushed him, using a hand gesture.

  “Yes. I will be there at 9:30 PM today.” LT Cooper paused as he listened to the Chief on the other end of the line. “I will have the files with me and will give you a complete account.”

  It was another three minutes before LT hung up the phone with the Chief.

  “LT….” Arya stopped her apology mid-sentence upon looking at LT’s raised hand.

  LT used a hand gesture and pointed at the blinds near the door. “Close it.”

  As Edgar was closing the blinds, Arya fixed her gaze at LT and apologized. “Sorry, LT.”

  LT got up from his chair and walked straight up to Arya. They stood so close that they could hear the other person’s breath.

  “LT,” as Arya began, LT Cooper took a couple of steps to his left and stopped next to Edgar.

  “Edgar James,” LT repeated Edgar’s name and locked his gaze at Edgar.

  “Sorry, LT,” Edgar apologized.

  LT walked back towards his chair and sat perched on the edge of the table.

  “Arya, Edgar.” He shifted his glance from Arya to Edgar and back to Arya. “Why are you sorry?”

  “We should have kept you in the loop,” Arya said.

  LT remained silent for a long twenty seconds before he turned his gaze towards Edgar. “What about you?”

  “No excuses. Given the past week’s events, it was inexcusable that we didn’t bring it to your attention sooner. I am sorry.” Edgar sounded sincere.

  “It was my fault. Edgar wanted to bring you in, but I thought we should wait a little longer,” Arya said, trying to deflect blame from her partner.

  “That’s not true, LT. As a team, we decided we needed to get something concrete about the Middle East links before bringing it to you. To be honest, we thought we didn’t have enough.”

  LT gestured with his hand for both of them to stop talking. “What did you just say? You guys didn’t have enough.”

  LT reached down to the table and brought a file to his hand. Arya and Edgar recognized the file immediately; it was their case file.

  LT Cooper took out a photo from the file and pinned it in the center of the whiteboard.

  “Do you recognize this photo?” LT Cooper asked.

  Arya and Edgar both recognized it immediately. It was a photo taken in Culver City of two Middle Eastern men talking to Omar.

  They both nodded, and Arya jumped first to chime in. “It was from Culver City. A few months back, Samir Tariq traveled to Culver City to meet with these two guys and then traveled with them to San Diego.”

  “Then?” LT Cooper gestured for Arya to continue.

  “It seemed Samir rented an apartment for them in both the cities and even paid the rent using his secret bank account.”

  “What about this?” LT Cooper pinned another photo on the whiteboard. It was a picture of Omar, Nafisa, Samir, and Sania eating in the Dar Marrakesh restaurant.

  “LT, can you tell us where you are going with this?” Arya was getting frustrated with the classroom style of questioning.

  “Just answer me,” LT Cooper firmly said, tapping his index finger on the group photo.

  “It was taken in the Dar Marrakesh restaurant, a Moroccan restaurant frequented by Omar and Samir. Omar, Samir, Sania, and Nafisa – Omar’s wife – all having dinner in the restaurant.”

  LT Cooper nodded and proceeded to reach across the table to retrieve another folder.

  “LT, we knew all that. What are you getting at?” Arya asked.

  LT raised his hand to gesture Arya to wait. He proceeded to take two more photos, passport-sized, from the folder and pinned them on the whiteboard.

  “What about these?” LT Cooper eyed Arya and Edgar.

  Arya and Edgar both moved closer to the whiteboard so that they could get a better look at the photos.

  “These are the same two guys from Culver City,” Arya and Edgar said at the same time.

  “Khalid Al-Midhar and Nawaf Al-Hazmi,” LT Cooper said, as he tapped each of the photos when he said their name aloud.

  “Who are they? How do you have those pictures? This is not from our case file.”

  “These two pictures came from the top guys. FBI, CIA…. I don’t know. All I know is by tomorrow morning, everyone in the country would know them.”

  “CIA?” Edgar asked. “What did they do?”

  “Oh, no!” Arya exclaimed as a sudden thought dawned on her head. All of a sudden, she turned pale and had difficulty breathing. “I can’t believe this!” she muttered under her breath.

  “What? What am I missing?” Edgar asked.

  “Do you want to tell him, or should I?” LT asked, glancing towards Arya.

  “Hijackers,” Arya mumbled, reaching the table to get a grip.

  “What?” Edgar was not able to make out Arya’s words.

  “The fucking hijackers!” Arya yelled.

  “What the hell?” Edgar shifted his glance towards LT, and the expression on LT’s face confirme
d the improbable.

  “I just can’t believe we had pictures of these hijackers all these days.” Arya raised her hand to her head. “How reliable is the information?” Arya turned towards LT.

  “Very. The CIA and FBI just released pictures of all 19 hijackers, and these two were among them. We have them on tape clearing the airport security and….” LT paused like he was weighing on the enormity of his next statement. “As we speak, these pictures are being distributed to all the JTTFs in the country. And, in the next few days, the hijackers’ faces would be plastered in every newspaper.”

  “This is what they meant when they said they are going to be famous.” Edgar connected the dots in his mind. He remembered the earlier comments made by the Culver City men when they quit their jobs in the gas station.

  “What about Omar and Sa…” Arya struggled to even say Samir’s name in this context.

  “Samir?” Edgar completed Arya’s question.

  “I managed to have a word with Agent Taylor in the last thirty minutes. And,” He shifted his gaze towards Arya and added, “Agent Taylor believes that they are all somehow involved with the 9/11 attacks.”

  “No! What do you mean by all? Sania, Samir, and Eli?” Arya was losing her mind as she struggled to even imagine that her good friends from the past could be involved in the attacks.

  “I don’t know. The investigation has just started. Agent Taylor believes that Sania and Eli know more than what they have disclosed.”

  “What about Samir?” Arya asked.

  “You didn’t know?” LT said, holding his gaze at Arya. “Samir is dead!”

  42

  “Oh, God! Please don’t tell me that he was one of the hijackers!” Arya’s head was spinning as she fathomed that possibility.

  “Why don’t you take a seat?” LT Cooper put his hand over Arya’s shoulders and guided her to one of the chairs in his office.

  “No. Samir Tariq was not one of the hijackers.” LT Cooper sat next to Arya and patted on her shoulders.

  “Then… how do you know?” Edgar jumped in. “We never found his body.”