Enemy Among Us-A Jordan Wright Thriller (26 page)

“I realize that. More importantly, I’m realizing we aren’t going to have the time to stop Mustafa. They are too far down the road. We just need to be quick to react when they decide to move forward.”

“When do you think that will be?” William’s mouth was still full of pizza.

“I think within the next forty-eight to seventy-two hours would be my guess,” Jordan responded.

“Where?” Kate asked, with the hope Jordan would have a potential target identified.

“Kate, I wish I knew. We’re in an area that’s just too target rich. They’ve got a ton of choices, depending on what they want to do. We won’t know until they begin.”

Chapter Forty-Eight

Sharif Choufani didn’t want to get out of bed. He wasn’t looking forward to this day. He’d invested the last fifteen years of his life to get to this point because he was passionate about what he did. He knew it was important to his fellow brothers and to the group of people he served. Today would be tough, but at the end of the day he would be able to look back and see the impact he’d made. He would receive congratulations from people he didn’t even know and his picture more than likely would be on the television news and in tomorrow’s paper. He threw the covers off and walked into the bathroom. He reached into the shower and turned on the hot water. Walking over to the mirror he pulled out his scissors and began to trim his beard. Satisfied after a few minutes he rinsed out the sink and went into the shower. After almost twenty minutes he emerged, dried off, brushed his teeth, combed his hair and then went to the closet. He’d picked out appropriate attire for the day. He dressed and walked into the living room. Noticing the time, he knew he needed to be on his way. Everything meant to happen this day was on a tight and very specific time schedule. Today was a day he couldn’t be late. He grabbed his keys and left the house, jumped into his car which he’d parked at the curb in front of his house the night before and headed for his destination.

It took Sharif twenty-five minutes to get there. He found a parking place and when he exited the car, he took a few minutes to look around to see if any other members of the team had arrived. He headed up the steps and opened the door. Once inside, he climbed a second staircase and entered the second door on the right.

“Good Morning Deputy Commissioner.” His assistant called out as he entered.

“Hello Alice. Why did I know you would be here before anyone else?”

“It’s a big day, sir.”

“Yes, it is. I hope we’re ready. Do you have the latest itinerary we could review?”

“Right here, sir.”

Alice and Deputy Commander Choufani entered his office. Choufani was a fifteen year veteran of the Philadelphia Police Force. He’d started as a patrolman and had quickly moved up the ranks, having been promoted to the Deputy Commander role two years prior. He was in charge of all administrative services for the force. One of those duties was the planning of the funeral for any officer killed in the line of duty. While he hoped it would be a duty he would rarely have to perform, the last year and a half had given him more opportunity than he ever would have cared to have.

This day, he would be burying two more of Philadelphia’s finest. No two funerals had been alike, so it wasn’t as if he and his team could just pull a file and repeat the steps of the last one. Families had specific requests and there were always needs based on the decedant’s religion. Logistics were a challenge, depending on where the funeral home was for the viewing and where the burial would take place. Commander Choufani and his team had to have every detail and contingency planned and coordinated.

While the responsibility rested solely within his command, an officer’s death brought out a large number of people who felt they had the right to offer input. Choufani took as his responsibility, as any good leader should, to shield his team from the politics of planning an officer’s funeral. He would hear from the officers in the patrol district of the deceased, the Mayor’s office would have “suggestions,” typically with the attempt to politicize the event to their advantage. The Police Union would also want to be at the table. Since Choufani was a union officer before his promotion into the command ranks, he was usually able to minimize their interference.

This day, he was faced with an different challenge. Two officers who were partners were being remembered on the same day. Two different funeral homes on opposite sides of town had held the viewings. The officer’s families, who were surprisingly close, even for partners, had asked to have the service together. While at first Choufani had embraced the idea as one which would streamline the process, he found it actually had led to more significant issues, making this one of the most difficult funerals he’d planned.

The officers’ bodies would receive a full escort from the funeral home to the Cathedral Basilica. A full escort involved five police units plus a motorcycle squad for traffic control. In addition, there were on-duty officers who had served with the deceased, wishing to escort their fallen comrade to the Cathedral. This was now times two, which caused a severe depletion in officers on duty, and would be repeated at the end of the service when the two bodies would be taken to separate cemeteries in two processions, leaving the city with a greatly understaffed police force for a good part of the day.

The Commander and his team had created and reviewed every conceivable scenario to avert the shortage in coverage, but had not been able to develop any better solution. Commander Choufani would keep his fingers crossed that the criminal element of the city would be respectful of the day and keep their activities to a minimum.

Chapter Forty-Nine

Mustafa had all of the children awake by five a.m. After prayers, he had the older children fix breakfast for the others. He’d purchased eggs, bread and cereal for the children the previous day. He didn’t tell them, but he assumed that for most of them it would be their last meal. He gathered the leaders in the garage and they went over the plan one more time. The garage was filled with the backpacks each of the children had packed yesterday. Mustafa instructed each of the team members to ensure they had the packs for their team and to do a final check to make sure they had all of the equipment and supplies they needed.

At that moment, two vans pulled into the driveway. One was the van used to pick up the supplies at Akmed’s store and the other was a City of Brotherly Love Company van.

Mustafa asked the boys to gather around him. “I have assigned your teams to one of the vans. As I give you your number, please start putting your team’s bags into that van. You do not need to be concerned with the two drivers. You don’t need to know their names and they will not know yours. Get everything loaded and then join your teams inside. We will leave in thirty minutes.”

Each of the boys nodded to Mustafa as he was handed the number. The boys went to their group of bags and started moving them to the vans. Mustafa motioned for the two drivers to go with him to the back yard.

Once in the back, Mustafa spoke quietly, so they wouldn’t be overheard. “Are you ready, my brothers? Today is the day Allah has planned great things for us.” Both of the men nodded. “After you drop off the children, you will then come back to the house and pick up the supplies we need from the shed. Then, you will go to work. You must be at work on time. We cannot afford any suspicion. Our mission is critical. We must be successful. Remember the children believe they are the mission, so you must not let them know anything any different. Is that understood?”

“Yes, Mustafa.” Both men responded in almost perfect unison.

Mustafa smiled. The day had come. By the end of it, he knew he would bring honor to his country and his family but, he also knew he would provide a wonderful life for himself. He was excited, albeit he realized there was much, much work ahead.

“Go back to your vans and wait for the children.”

Chapter Fifty

Jordan and Kate arrived at the command center at the same time. Most of the task force would either be in attendance or assigned to work the funeral. It made Jordan uncomfortable to be so understaffed, but they still needed to gather more credible data in regards to the target or the timetable.

“Anything happening at the store?” Jordan inquired as he entered the room.

“No, just a typical day. Benny just arrived to open. Akmed is already in the store. We know Aziz is still with his Uncle and two vans just arrived at the house and the boys are loading the backpacks into them. All the kids seem to be up.”

“So they may be moving?”

“It looks that way; but, we have no indication where or when.”

“How about the other two drivers?” Kate inquired.

“We got pictures and sent them to your team to see if we get any hits. They weren’t familiar to us.”

“Jordan,” Kate said as she turned her attention back to him, “we were thinking that if we don’t pick up any activity today, it gives us an indication they aren’t moving soon. So, we thought it might make sense to move the command post. It’s seems Akmed’s store has served its purpose. He met Max last night at the Starbucks. It was crowded, so they had a chance to talk. He really doesn’t know anything more since Mustafa showed up and took all of his supplies. He hasn’t heard from Aziz.”

“It probably makes sense. There’s no reason to stay here,” Jordan agreed. “If they continue to stay at Mustafa’s, maybe we could get closer to there?”

“I think we could be more efficient if we just set up at the local office,” William offered. “We would be more efficient. All the resources are there and it’s easier to move in and out.”

Jordan shrugged, indicating that he didn’t really care and his mind was on other things. “I think they’re going to pull this off before we we get moved. I have a feeling Mustafa’s getting them ready to go. Of course, I don’t have any idea where! Which really sucks.”

They were all over by the window, looking out at the street below. Akmed appeared outside, sweeping his sidewalk and moving several displays out in front of the store.

Max spoke without turning her gaze away from Akmed. “He’s ready to come in. He’s afraid he’s vulnerable, since Mustafa doesn’t need him anymore. He believes there is a plan to eliminate him and possibly the other parents, so they can’t go to the authorities once the plot is carried out.”

“That makes sense. Even if we move from here, we should leave an extraction team to take care of Akmed. We can let him know where they will be. We can have a car around the block that he could either walk to or could get to him in a hurry.”

Stan nodded. “Let’s put that in place. Max? Can you get to Akmed tonight?”

“Yes, if I put a plant in the kitchen window, he knows to go to Starbucks at two o’clock and at eight o’clock. I’ll do it now and can catch him at two.”

“Kate and I are going to run over to Mustafa’s and check in. I can’t sit here all day,” Jordan told Stan.

“Okay, but keep in touch.”

Chapter Fifty-One