form of money exchange. A hawala usedtrusted people around the world as a way to transfer millions of dollars in cash without documents. Money was left in a hawala and the responsible person was simply told who to give it to.
At the moment, Paxtun was holding over several million dollars in cash in an al Qaeda hawala. But that would mean little if he failed to supply Ishmael with what he needed. And Ishmael wouldnât speak to an underling, even one as highly placed as Paxtunâs second in command. Arzee was a fellow Muslim, but he hadnât proven himself in the jihad. That meant Arzee was off the hook in telling Ishmael the bad news. It was going to be Paxtunâs task, and that had him thinking quickly.
âThere were just too many things that could go wrong with the shipment,â Paxtun said, âand a number of them did. Delays due to plain bad weather made the ship late. But we planned for that possibility. Now, weâve just run out of time. Ishmael has told me to expect the time schedule to change again. He wonât tell me the operation, but heâs probably going to move the timetable ahead again.â
âHeâs probably never told you his real schedule anyway,â Arzee said. âThe man is more than paranoid about security. If anything, heâs gotten worse about holding back vital information until damned near past the last minute. He even kept the arrival schedule of his men to himself until they were practically waiting at the border. Ever since Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was captured in Pakistan back in March, Ishmael and his bunch have become even tighter about keeping things to themselves.â
âWe have to accept the situation for the time being,â Paxtun said. âWeâre in way too deep for there to be any way out for us now. Thereâs nothing we can do but carry on supporting Ishmael and his people. Besides, we owe them our lives and they have no problem in reminding us of that fact.â
âWell,â Arzee said, âat least the money has been good the last couple of years.â
âYes,â Paxtun agreed, âthereâs no question of that. But thatâs not going to help us. He wants firepower, a lot of it. And heâs going to want it right now.â
âSupplying something like thatâs going to be next to impossible,â Arzee said. âItâs not like anyone advertises heavy firepower and we canât just buy the weapons he wants. Maybe if we had enough time to go out into the underground marketâ¦.â
âWhat did you say?â Paxtun asked.
âGo into the underground market?â Arzee said. âI mean the contacts are there. But Ishmael didnât want to trust any kind of black market to supply his needs. And to get what he wants would take time we donât have.â
âNo, no,â Paxtun said with excitement rising in his voice. âWhat you said before that.â
âWhat?â Arzee said. âJust buy the stuff? Thereâs no way to really do that. Itâs not like you can just walk into a gunshop and theyâll have the kind of hardware we need. Nobody carries that kind of military weapon, no matter what the movies say. And Ishmael is going to want the real deal. Full automatic fire and lots of it.â
âSo what if we had a source of the guns and someone who could build what we wanted?â Paxtun said.
âAround here?â Arzee said. âWhere?â
âSomething Nicholas was talking about a while back,â Paxtun said.
Raising his voice, Paxtun called out, âNicholas, get in here.â
Nicholas Murat was a cousin of Arzeeâs. As such, he and his brother Amman, held positions of high trust in the organization. This wasnât a matter of simple nepotism. It was very common in the Arab community for a business to use many members of an extended family. Blood counted for a lot, and loyalties inside of a family were strong.
At
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