They hesitated—just for a moment—when they realized this place really didn’t look like a mosque.
“That’s because it isn’t,” Emma said, reading their thoughts. “We were going to shoot a movie here. It’s a center for Muslim religious study. There’s a difference.”
“Tomato, to-mah-to,” Batman said dryly.
And Nolan agreed. They checked their assault weapons and then they ran inside.
They came upon an unexpected scene in the lobby. Three people, two men and a woman, were lying on the floor. All three were wearing traditional Muslim garb; all three were shot dead. Nolan knew this could only be the work of the terrorist. He imagined the gunman had stormed into the building, shooting anyone who got in his way.
So much for Brotherhood.
There were at least a dozen people cowering in the lobby; they were behind chairs, hiding in corners and crouched beneath the reception desk.
There was a collective gasp from these people when Nolan and Batman burst in, Emma trailing close behind. But it was an expression of relief. Many of those in hiding thought Nolan and Batman were a NYPD SWAT team.
Several ventured out of their hiding places and greeted them with hand kissing and frantic gestures. Others simply ran for the door.
“Where is he?” Nolan was asking the people as they were fighting to kiss his hand. “Where did he go?”
All the people remaining in the lobby pointed upward.
“The roof,” one man said as he was making a quick exit. “He went up to the roof.”
Though there was a bank of elevators off to the right, Nolan, Batman and Emma made for the stairs. They climbed quickly but carefully. Emma was staying close to them; there was no way Nolan could tell her to stay behind now.
They reached the second floor and found two more dead bodies—security guards, gunned down before they could take their weapons out. Nolan took their pistols and gave one to Batman and kept one for himself.
They climbed up to the third floor. They could see people peeking out of doorways. In each case, Nolan told them to stay where they were.
On the fourth floor, they found a seriously wounded man collapsed outside the building’s mail room.
Batman covered the hall as Nolan and Emma hurried over to the wounded man. He’d been shot in the neck and shoulder, but could still talk.
“He has the box,” he said weakly. “It arrived here on overnight delivery two days ago. It was being held for him. But I didn’t think he’d shoot me for it.”
Nolan and Emma pulled the man into the mail room and closed the door.
Then they carefully returned to the stairway and resumed their climb. Seconds later, they’d reached the top floor of the building.
There was a long hallway in front of them, but off to the left was a fire exit door slightly ajar. The light and rain coming in told Nolan this door led to the roof.
Just as they were about to move, the door opened wider and Fahim Shabazz walked in from the roof.
Nolan felt his body tense up. He recognized this guy as the one he’d seen so many times through the M107’s sniper scope, if just for fractions of a second.
The terrorist took two steps and then realized there were three people in camo clothing standing ten feet away from him, two of them carrying assault rifles.
Shabazz wasn’t armed. He put his hands up, as if to say I’m innocent.
But Nolan and Batman weren’t fooled.
They cut him down in a hail of bullets before he could say a word.
Then they ran forward; Shabazz was literally full of holes. There was no need to check if he was dead or not.
They burst out onto the roof in the pouring rain. And there it was, in the northeast corner of the flat roof. The Z-box.
Nolan stopped in his tracks. They all did. This thing that had consumed their lives for what seemed like years was now right here in front of them.
All this time, Nolan had pictured it as a briefcase. A black briefcase. But of course that didn’t make sense.
It looked more like a small footlocker. Not black and shiny like it would be if this were a movie, but painted in typical dull Army olive drab.
And sure enough there was a ‘Z’ carved into its top.
But more important, the key was in the lock and it had been turned.
“It’s activated!” Batman yelled to Nolan.
Nolan ran to it, suddenly soaked by the rain again. A clap of thunder went off