Excerpt…

Dusseldorf
June 2007

If 9/11 had taught them anything it was that the simplest plan was the best plan.  A small cell, independent, autonomous, well-funded.  A clearly defined target.  A strong leader to give the cell a focus, and to help them keep it.  And most importantly, a clearly stated expectation of results, which Akil had found to be most motivational.  Not a threat of what would happen if there were no results, no, no, nothing so crude, but the implication was there, and he made sure it was frequently reinforced.

Money was the least of his worries, a huge relief, but over the past twelve months since Zarqawi’s death and his departure from Iraq, he had taken the precaution of emptying out the account in Bern in small increments and placing them into a series of other accounts in different banks in different Western nations.  He had learned a great deal answering the phone for the bank in Hayatabad all those years ago, Zarqawi had filled in the blanks he hadn’t been able to fill in for himself, and he put it all to good use now.

The result was a tidy sum of working capital resting anonymously in three different banks, one in the Grand Caymans, one in Hong Kong, and the third in the original bank in Bern, naturally under a different name.  Sooner or later, al Qaeda would come looking for that money, and he wanted to be certain it would be well out of their reach.

Sooner or later, they would come looking for him, too, and they wouldn’t stop until they found him.

Or until he returned to them, trailing clouds of glory, his own man, master of his own wildly successful organization, and owing fealty to none.  He smiled at the thought.

He opened two more accounts, one in New York and another in Miami, with the minimum balance necessary to avoid fees.  One of the things he despised most about capitalism was the rapacious capacity of Western banking institutions to bleed their customers dry in fees.  Did not the Koran say that which you give that it may increase your wealth has no increase in Allah, but that which you give in charity shall have manifold increase?

Dana sez–

I did my second ridealong with the US Coast Guard in 2007, on an Eastern Pacific (EPAC) patrol, seven weeks offshore of Central and South America doing drug interdiction and migrant mitigation. It inspired this second thriller, Prepared for Rage. I love this scene, where a terrorist waxes indignant over greedy bankers.

In the writing of this, my second thriller, I found it odd that I’d never read another book with the Space Shuttle as a terrorist target. As a scenario it seemed all too possible.

As with my 2004 Bering Sea ridealong with the US Coast Guard, the price of passage aboard Munro was a daily blog for friends and families back on the beach. I have collected blog posts from both ridealongs in an ebook, On Patrol with the US Coast Guard.

Chatter On Patrol with the US Coast Guard Prepared for Rage us coast guard