Hamar's failure to show up that night had been too much of a coincidence for him. He ordered the rest of his cell into hiding, to be contacted the following morning. He gave each one of them an envelope of cash and told them each to take a taxi to a motel and await instructions. In the morning, he called Hamid Muhammad's mosque and listened to the pre-recorded message on the answering machine. Something had definitely gone wrong the night before. The code words imbedded in the message told him to execute his plan immediately. He could only assume that the sudden order was somehow related to Hamar's disappearance.
It didn't matter. They would succeed regardless of the obstacles placed before them. They had been chosen by Allah to carry Jihad straight into the heart of enemy territory, and it was God's will that they would succeed. This much had always been clear to Abusir, even if their directions from Imam Muhammad had been murky at times. The Imam had served as a conduit of information from their network overseas, directing them through files imbedded in links accessible through the mosque's website or more urgently through the answering machine.
The recent slew of messages and activity gave him the sense that the timeline for their mission had been compressed. Two days ago, he had been instructed to retrieve an Internet document detailing several methods they might employ to deliver the virus at each target site. Over the past three weeks, they had familiarized themselves with the areas around each pump station, but beyond that, they knew very little about what they would find at each site. Specific details seemed nearly impossible to acquire. They had a black nylon gym bag filled with tools that they might need to access the water supply and would have to rely upon the use of generic schematics to determine the type of system they might find at the site. Once they agreed on the system, they could trace the right schematic to determine the easiest points of access to deliver the canister's deadly contents into the water supply.
He turned the car onto Old Drakeville Road and slowed. Old Drakeville Road was an unlit side road, and the service entrance came up quickly on the right side. He wasn't sure they could easily see the Morris County Municipal Utility Authority sign in the dark. The sign had been difficult enough to find in broad daylight.
"Watch for the sign," he commanded.
He had full faith in his brothers, but as soon as he received the attack order, he ceased to be their friend. He was their commander, to whom they had sworn their undying loyalty, and as such, he didn't ask them to do things. He commanded them. A few tense moments passed as they cruised slower than the speed limit. Fortunately, Old Drakeville Road was a little used side road running roughly parallel to Howard Boulevard and providing access to several smaller businesses that were closed in the evening. They were lucky in this regard. The area along Howard Boulevard was packed with restaurants and retail outlets, all doing a brisk business. Interstate 80 was less than a full kilometer away providing them with a quick escape, if Allah willed it. Abdul was not afraid to die on this mission. He had long ago prepared himself for this eventuality. There was no uncertainty regarding his place alongside fallen brothers in paradise, where a blissful eternity awaited the faithful.
"There it is!" Ibrahim Salih yelled, pointing toward a small, unlit sign partially obscured by thick bushes.
Abdul Abusir applied the brake and took the turn slowly, feeling the crunch of the minivan's suspension as they dropped off the well-maintained blacktop road onto an uneven gravel surface. Google Earth satellite photos showed him that the pump station was located roughly one hundred and fifty meters down the service road, which wound forty-five degrees to the right approximately two thirds of the way to the station. Allah had smiled upon him again. He would be able to use lights up until the turn, without alerting anyone at the station. They would cruise the last fifty meters of the road relying upon the ambient light provided by the station. They would emerge into the pump station's parking lot without warning, achieving complete surprise. He couldn't imagine that the Mount Arlington pump station would be more heavily guarded than the Morristown water complex. Even if there were three cars instead of one, they would cut through these infidel defenders with ease.
"Prepare for heavy contact in the parking lot. When we start shooting, I want it to be over in seconds. A prolonged firefight will attract unwanted attention and alert any pump station duty personnel."
"Allahu Akbar. We cannot fail," Fahid Atef said from the back seat.
Abdul glanced back into the minivan's darkened passenger compartment and saw Fahid cradle the shape of a compact AK-47 assault rifle. Upon returning his attention to the dusty gravel road, he heard Fahid retract and release the rifle's bolt mechanism, seating a 7.62mm round in the weapon's chamber. Fahid passed the rifle to Ibrahim in the front passenger seat and repeated the process with two more rifles. Whatever waited for them at the pump station didn't stand a chance. He was excited to the point of delirium that their final mission was at hand.
"Allahu Akbar!" he yelled.
Miguel Estrada watched the minivan turn off Old Drakeville Road onto the Mount Arlington pump station service road. Once the minivan's taillights disappeared into the trees, he opened the driver's door of the Explorer and stepped out into the cool air. The area was silent except for the distant symphony of spring peepers. He rested an arm on the open door and remained perfectly still.
"Do we call it in now?" his partner asked.
"Negative. We give this a minute or two," he said.
He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. Abusir's team had been slightly craftier than they had expected, almost evading his surveillance team in Parsippany. Estrada's team had planted a GPS tracking device on the car Abusir had secretly kept in a storage facility on the outskirts of East Orange. They had discovered the car three months ago when surveillance teams started following Abusir's group. In Parsippany, the team drove into a corporate parking garage and ditched their Nissan Sentra. The move had been planned in advance, since entry into the business park's garage required a pass card. Estrada's team covered both possible exits and waited. Ten minutes later, they spotted Abusir driving a dark blue Honda Odyssey minivan. He couldn't express how relieved he had been to hear that they had reacquired Abusir. Losing him would have put Estrada in a tough situation.
They had little doubt that Abusir's group had been activated to carry out their mission, but knew nothing about their specific target selection. Figuring out Abusir's target was critical to his organization's plan. They had watched him investigate a pump station in Morristown, but nobody had been surprised when the terrorist cell passed on the opportunity. The pump station was located on a busy road, highly visible from every direction, with a police cruiser parked inside the gated facility.
Estrada had put his money on the Mount Arlington pump station, after Abusir had conducted his own surveillance run down Old Drakeville Road two hours earlier. He had been so confident in his guess, that he had returned at dusk and backed the Explorer into a spot twenty feet into the trees and bushes, where he could observe the service road entrance without being detected by cars coming from either direction.
"What are we waiting for? We need to call this in and get the fuck out of here," his partner said.
"Patience, my friend. Just another minute."
They had chosen Abusir's cell for a reason. The Egyptian-born terrorist ran things differently than the other terrorist cells they had uncovered. He insisted that they all live separately and take daytime jobs. Many of the other cells lived together in the same apartment and did nothing but wait around and draw suspicion from the FBI. Most importantly, Abusir's cell had not been detected by the FBI. Leadership had figured correctly that Abusir would take immediate action to preserve his cell when Ghazi Hamar didn't show up for evening prayer.