CHAPTER 9
Those who believe in the Qur’an, and those who follow the Jewish scriptures, and the Christians and the Sabians- any who believe in Allah and the Last Day, and work righteousness, shall have their reward with their Lord; on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve. Qur’an 002.060
The next morning, Toby and Trey both arrived at headquarters slightly before 7:30. Although Toby had fixed a light breakfast for Tad and himself at home, he decided to stop at Reeves’ Famous Bakery, which had recently opened under new owners after being closed for more than a decade, to pick up a dozen of their famous blueberry donuts to share with his colleagues.
“Toby, please tell me you didn’t stop at Reeves,” Trey said when he saw the two white boxes that Sullivan was carrying. “You know I have no willpower whatsoever when it comes to their blueberry donuts.”
“Don’t feel bad, Trey,” Toby responded as he opened one of the boxes and offered his partner one of the soft, warm, round pastries. “I don’t know of anyone who can resist them. But watch- everyone who comes in will make some comment about being on a diet or ‘I really shouldn’t, but.’ and then they’ll cave in to the temptation and take one or two anyway. If Reeves could convince people that their donuts are as healthy as broccoli, they could make a fortune.”
Toby and Trey stood near the box of donuts drinking coffee and savoring the mouth-watering delicacies when Margaret Peabody came in for a morning soft drink. They watched as she spotted the open white box.
“Oh, who brought in the donuts? I wish I could have one, but I really shouldn’t because I’m on a diet,” she said as she held her thumb to the print recognition pad of the drink machine and pulled out her diet cola.
After opening her drink and taking a sip, Peabody started to leave the room, but eyed the Reeves’ box one more time.
“Oh well, I don’t guess that one little donut will destroy my diet, do you?” she asked no one in particular. “These are just too good to pass up.”
“Told you,” Toby said to Trey as they headed back to their office. “They can’t be resisted. In fact, I’ll bet they are the work of the devil.”
“Now, now.” Trey said as he wiped crumbs off of his mouth with a paper towel. “You shouldn’t make fun of those who believe in the devil. I am afraid that Satan is very real.”
“Okay,” Toby responded. “Whatever you say, but no religious discussions today. We’ve got too much work to do.”
Rawlings and Sullivan spent most of the morning reviewing detailed three-dimensional electronic maps of the search area and communicating with their local law enforcement contacts- including big Hollis Richardson- to make sure that the entire area was carefully divided into manageable-size districts for canvassing. They had just completed talking to the last two sheriffs when Peabody announced that there would be a meeting in ten minutes.
After gathering some papers, Toby stopped by Tad’s office on the way to the conference room.
“I’m glad you stopped by,” she said. “Remember our discussion last night about where the terrorists came from?”
“Of course I remember,” he responded. “We didn’t drink that much.”
“Well, I contacted a friend at the CIA who said that they have people working nonstop to identify the country or countries of origin of the terrorists. So far, though, they haven’t turned up anything, in spite of the fact that five separate organizations have now taken credit for the attacks. Our people are amazed that they haven’t been able to establish any concrete ties between any of these organizations and the suspected terrorists in our country. In short, no one seems to know where these people came from.”
Toby looked puzzled. “You would think that the CIA would have some idea where these guys came from. In 2001 when our intelligence was far inferior to what it is today, we knew that bin Laden was behind the 9/11 attacks, and we knew approximately where he was. In 2005, the Brits traced the London subway bombers in just a few days and then in 2006 stopped the plot to blow up planes bound for the U.S. And a few years after that, the French identified and caught the cell that was planning to blow up the Eiffel Tower. I don’t understand why we know so little about our bombers when it has been more than a week since the first bombings. These guys must be really good or really lucky.”
“Could be some of both,” Tad answered, “but I guess we should get to the meeting. By the way, are you going to mention anything regarding the concerns you told me about after dinner last night?”
“You mean the ones about possible Christian vigilantism?” Toby asked.
“Yes, I think you have good reason to be worried,” Tad said. “These people are getting almost no training and they are being told to look for anything suspicious in their neighborhoods, including people that may be responsible for bombing a Christian church and killing innocent women and children. In my mind, that is an invitation for all kinds of mischief, including possible violence.”
“Not only are they getting virtually no training,” Toby said, “but some of their ministers are probably telling them that Islam is a tool of the devil. I heard of one minister who said openly in the pulpit that the two major obstacles to the preaching of the Gospel have been Communism and Islam, both of which he called ‘religions of Satan’. I’m very worried about this canvass, but I’ve already mentioned my concerns to Trey and to Drake and they don’t seem in the least bit worried,” Toby said as he and Tad arrived at the conference room.
After a prayer, Drake asked each of the taskforce teams to give a brief progress report on plans for the upcoming Sunday canvassing. Trey gave the report for Toby and him, and when he had finished, the taskforce leader responded with enthusiastic praise.
“I think this idea to get church congregations involved was brilliant,” Drake said to the group. “It just goes to prove that we don’t give nearly enough credit to local law enforcement personnel. They are the ones who know their communities best and how to get things done on the ground.”
If Toby had any thoughts of raising the Christian vigilantism issue again, they quickly disappeared. Instead, when the timing seemed right, he broached another issue. “Rawlings and I just finished talking with the law enforcement personnel in our sector, and it occurred to us that we might want to take their ideas about how the canvassing should be conducted and the ideas of folks in other sectors and compile them so that the best ideas are put to practice throughout the entire search area. That way, we will have a better chance of preventing things from slipping through the cracks next Sunday. We’ll only have this one opportunity, so we need to make sure it is done right.”
Drake appeared thoughtful before responding. “Not a bad idea, Sullivan. You and Rawlings touch base with the other task force teams and put the ideas together. Then give them to Davenport and she will see that they are transmitted to all of the local law enforcement teams for dispersal to the various churches and their canvassers.”
Toby looked at Tad, who, suffice it to say, was not smiling. He was certain it was taking every ounce of willpower she possessed not to scream. And he was amazed that she was able to appear so calm when addressing her question to the man she considered a male chauvinist pig of the worst kind.
“Director Drake, at your request, I spent a lot of yesterday trying to compile and search through lists of Muslim names, but came up with nothing of much value as far as I can tell. Any additional information you can give met about this terrorist cell would certainly be helpful. For example, does Desert Dan have any information about the countries of origin of the people in his cell or of those in the D.C. cell? If we knew where they came from, we might be able to trace their movements to this country and learn more about their identities and activities.”
“As I said before, the agent does not know much about the D.C. cell,” Drake answered, “but he has informed us that the cell in New Mexico is comprised mostly of Syrians and Iranians. I think there is probably better than a 50-50 chance that the same is true of the D.C. cell, but you leave that part of the investigation to your former colleagues at the CIA. In addition to contacting our local law enforcement partners, I have something else for you to do. I have just received information from Desert Dan that our D.C. terrorists have possibly been renting a house someplace in the search area. I want you to check with all of the local real estate agents to compile a master list of rental houses and then check to see if any were rented to people of mid-eastern origin within the past three months.”
Compiling lists of Muslim names. And now this - calling real estate agents. Just a few days into her new job on a high-profile terrorism task force, Tad Davenport was as frustrated as she had ever been in any job. She was upset because her assignments were not much more than clerical, but even more importantly, she was upset because she really wanted to catch the terrorists, and both her instincts and her training told her that most of what the taskforce was doing was a giant waste of time.