silently, and only a few took their leave with proper expressions of respect.
The Panther and Altair stood alone, and Altair said, “Perhaps you should reconsider these attacks.”
The Panther replied with a question. “How can you live as a Muslim and as a Yemeni while the Americans are on the sacred soil of Yemen?”
Altair replied, “They are here because the government invited them. And they are here because you attack them here.” He advised, “Destroy the government and the Americans will leave.”
“They will not leave unless we kill them here.”
Altair had already had this discussion with al-Darwish, and he had concluded that his young friend was more interested in killing his former countrymen than in a wise strategy to free their country from the corrupt men in Sana’a.
Altair did not want to argue with this man—and if the attacks in Aden and Sana’a failed, he would not need to argue with him. But he advised, “Hate blinds us to the truth.”
The Panther had no reply.
The Panther’s junior aide Nabeel al-Samad was standing a respectable distance from the open door, and Altair motioned him to enter. Nabeel entered quickly and made proper greetings, kissing the hands of both men.
The Panther remained standing and said to Nabeel, “Tell me and tell Altair what happened with this ambush, and also about your mission in Sana’a to kill the American agents.”
“Yes, sir.”
Nabeel did not wish to make this report, but if he was truthful and direct, it would go better. As he began to describe the ambush, The Panther interrupted and said, “Tell us first about your failed mission in Sana’a.”
Nabeel licked his dry lips, then said, “Yes, sir…” He related his journey by vehicle to Sana’a after The Panther had given him the mission to kill the two Americans who had landed at the airport.
Altair interrupted, “I did not know that. Who are these Americans?”
It was The Panther who explained to Altair about John Corey and his wife, and that these two American agents were on the assassination list of the Supreme Council of Al Qaeda. The Panther explained also that the Americans were marked for death because the man Corey had killed Asad Khalil, The Lion.
Altair nodded and said to Nabeel, “Continue.”
Nabeel was surprised that The Panther had not consulted his most senior and trusted aide on this matter, but he knew why that was so; Altair did not want to provoke the Americans, thinking correctly, perhaps, that the Americans were seeking an excuse to send more forces into Yemen—as happened after the Cole attack. The Panther, however, wanted to kill more Americans.
Nabeel continued, “Friends at the airport informed me that Corey and his wife had left that location in a convoy of three armored vehicles which took them to the American Embassy, where they spent the remainder of the evening.”
Nabeel continued his report, saying that embassy watchers as well as friends in the Sheraton Hotel confirmed that the two Americans had been transported to the hotel in the late morning by a single armored vehicle, and that they had registered there and gone to their rooms.
Nabeel also said, “I arranged for our watchers in Sana’a to keep them under observation, and I also called together four jihadists with myself to assassinate the Americans at the first opportunity.”
The Panther commented, “That opportunity apparently did not present itself.”
Nabeel took a long breath and replied, “It is difficult in Sana’a—”
“Continue.”
“Yes, sir.” Nabeel related what he had heard from the watchers. “The two Americans were later met at the Sheraton Hotel by two American security men from the embassy, with an armored Land Cruiser, and they drove into the city.”
Nabeel then told The Panther and Altair of the movements of these four Americans in Sana’a—the khat souk, the Old City, lunch at Old Sana’a, the shop called Hope in Their Hands, the jambiyah shop, then the drive to Ghumdan Fortress.
The Panther already knew from his sources in the Ghumdan prison that Corey and the security man called Brenner had come to the prison and had spoken to Rahim ibn Hayyam, his jihadist, who had been taken prisoner at the Hunt Oil installation. This was troubling, because if Rahim ibn Hayyam had given information to the Americans, or to the Political Security Organization, then perhaps Rahim ibn Hayyam had revealed that The Panther was in Marib province on the night of the attack. If that were the case, then he, The Panther, could expect more Predator drones and perhaps more government activity, or even the presence of