The Last Patriot - Brad Thor [86]
After retrieving the man’s weapon, Harvath jumped out and used the camera phone he had confiscated to take two quick pictures of the driver and then one of the license plates.
He repeated the process with the corpse in the windbreaker, who as he had suspected wasn’t carrying ID either, and then pitched the men’s guns into the back of his Trailblazer.
Using two ratty towels he kept in back, he quickly wrapped them around his front and rear license plates and hopped into his SUV.
Screaming out of the parking space, he put as much distance between himself and the University of Virginia as fast as he could.
CHAPTER 60
UM AL-QURA MOSQUE
FALLS CHURCH, VIRGINIA
“What’s he doing here?” said Abdul Waleed as he walked into Sheik Omar’s office.
Matthew Dodd, his face badly scratched, was sitting on the couch. “As sala’amu alaikum, brother,” he replied. Even though he’d been wearing the female CIA operative’s vest at his apartment when he’d been shot, his chest still hurt like hell. It was difficult to speak or breathe deeply.
Waleed hesitated a moment and then replied, “Walaikum as sala’am.”
“Our operation in Paris was unsuccessful,” stated Omar. “There are other problems as well.”
Waleed’s eyes shot back to Dodd. This was not what he needed to hear right now. He had spent the morning getting grilled by the FBI about Nura Khalifa and Andrew Salam. His nerves were shot. Pointing his finger at Dodd, he said, “All of the problems have been your fault.”
“Stop,” ordered Omar as he waved the director of FAIR to a chair. The sheik didn’t want another fight in his office. He’d already gone apoplectic with Dodd and his blood pressure was just now finally coming back under control. “When what we want doesn’t happen, we must learn to want what does.”
More proverbs, thought Waleed. “Mahmood, the FBI know everything.”
“Everything?” questioned the sheik. “I don’t think so. They know only what Andrew Salam has told them and Salam is a liar and a murderer.”
“But even liars sometimes tell the truth,” replied Waleed, tossing a desert proverb right back into the imam’s lap. “I’m telling you the FBI believes what Salam is telling them.”
“How can you know this?”
“Because I saw it on every one of their faces. I heard it in their voices; in every one of their questions. They know what we have been doing. And what they don’t know, they assume and their assumptions are correct!”
“Calm down,” said Omar. “We need to remember to believe what we see and lay aside what we hear.”
Waleed shook his head in disgust. “We have underestimated them.”
“They have no evidence. The American people will never allow a Muslim witch hunt. Islamophobia, remember?”
“Omar, listen to me. The American people are not with us. They are afraid of us. But they are more afraid of being politically incorrect, and we have made that work for us. Make no mistake, though, there is a limit even to that, and we are getting very close to having overplayed our hand. If we are not absolutely careful, absolutely vigilant, the tide of political correctness will turn against us.”
The sheik laughed.
“You think this is funny?” asked Waleed.
Omar looked at the man. “You overestimate the people of this nation. They are soft and stupid. The reason political correctness and multiculturalism exists is because they are too lazy to hold others to what it once meant to be an American. This nation is dying and we are not the problem; we are the solution. Islam—true, pure Islam—is what will save America.”
“If Paris was a failure, though, there may no longer be a true, pure Islam. Not as we know it at least.”
“Paris was unsuccessful because we overreached,” said Dodd as he looked at Omar. “That is not going to happen anymore.”
The inference was clear and Waleed found it quite bold. Dodd was blaming Omar for what happened in Paris. Looking at the sheik, Waleed said, “You mentioned other problems. What other problems?