Patriot by M.A. Rothman (summer reading list TXT) 📗

was serving on his own schedule. A smile grew on his lips as he realized that, for just a moment, he’d forgotten that his mission wasn’t about cleaning the mosque, but stopping a terrorist. What the hell was he thinking?

“What’s so funny?” she said, canting her head to the side, returning his smile.

“I just finished,” Connor said, his smile broadening. “In fact, I was about to get some biryani at the halal place down the street. Are you interested in joining me?”

Her smile broadened as she stared wordlessly at him for nearly five seconds before saying, “Okay, let’s go. I know the place. It’s one of my favorites.”

As Aliyah walked ahead of him, he was transfixed by her movement. Even her traditional, loose-fitting Muslim garb couldn’t hide the girl’s beautiful figure.

She was almost certainly a member of the mosque, and knew the people here. She might prove to be useful in many ways.

Chapter Twenty-Four

“Moving kind of fast, aren’t we?” Richards asked. “You’ve only been there two days and you already have a girlfriend? And here I thought we were paying you to spy on a terrorist.”

“Haven’t seen a paycheck yet,” Connor retorted. He stopped at the center of the Brooklyn Bridge and leaned against the railing, looking out over the East River, his cell phone to his ear. “Anyway, she’s not my girlfriend. We had Indian food together, that’s it.”

“And would you like to know more about your new girlfriend?”

Connor frowned. “I’m sure you’re going to tell me.”

Richards laughed. “You’re damn right I am. That pretty girl is none other than Aliyah… Khan.”

“Khan? As in related to Abdullah Khan?”

“None other than the sheikh’s daughter. You certainly know how to pick them, my friend. Her father is public enemy number one.”

Connor clenched his jaw and breathed deeply through his nose. “I thought the sheikh had no relatives in-country.”

“She just came into the country a couple days ago. We didn’t have her name flagged because we never expected her to leave Cairo. She’s been attending the Al-Azhar University for the past two years. She’s on track to get a medical degree.”

“Yes, she told me. She said she dropped out to follow a different path. She wants to become an artist. Her father paid for her to come over and intern at NYU’s Studio for the Arts. I’m surprised she wasn’t part of the intelligence briefing I got on this guy.”

“I told you, we figured she was a normal with a legit path that didn’t involve any crazy stuff. On the surface, she’s very clean. But we’re working through her history now, going through her connections in Cairo and tracking those back.”

“So much for the all-knowing, all-seeing eye of the world.”

“I told you, sometimes we miss things.”

“Apparently. But honestly, I didn’t get the ‘I hate America’ vibe from her. She seemed pretty normal and open with me.”

“Well, isn’t that sweet.”

“It’s nothing like that.” Connor felt his face flush. But isn’t it?

“Listen, this asshole is allergic to technology. Nothing wired up in that mosque. Hell, he uses a dial-up for Christ’s sake. You’re our only eyes and ears in there. Just stay focused on what you’re supposed to be doing there: identifying who’s working with Khan and what his targets will be.”

Connor shook his head. “Well, so far I haven’t heard him say anything even close to advocating violence, but I definitely got the vibe that some of the members of the mosque feel he’s a little too radical for their tastes. He advocates for the removal of our justice system and the widespread implementation of sharia.”

Richards laughed again. “Yeah, that’ll happen. It’s surprising that he hasn’t bound his baby girl to some jihadi and is instead actually letting her go to school. Or at least, he was.”

“Well, inconsistency when it comes to your own kid isn’t a shock. As to the sharia thing, don’t count these crazies out. It’s happening in Europe, and it’s happening pretty quietly. This guy is charismatic as hell, and people love him. I can’t believe the FBI isn’t all over him.”

“Don’t forget, we’re not allowed to profile people,” Richards said in a mocking tone. “We might hurt someone’s feelings.”

“Yeah. Feelings don’t mean crap when buildings are blowing up and people are dying.”

“Hey, you’re preaching to the choir. Tell it to the people in charge. This is specifically why we operate outside that sphere of bureaucracy.”

Connor shook his head. He knew it was true. People only cried foul when bad things happened. When people died. Then it was okay to act, but not before. It wasn’t just the federal government, either—he’d seen it in law enforcement for years. People stood up against aggressive police tactics, demeaned cops for doing their jobs… and then when the shit hit the fan, blame those same cops for not doing enough. That was when the endless stream of “they should have done” or “I would have done” posts started racing through social media and the news, and everyone had something to say about subjects they had no standing to speak about.

“Everyone loves the police when they need them,” Connor said. “Otherwise they’re oppressive pigs.”

“Exactly. So don’t bust my balls about missing the daughter coming into the country, all right?”

Connor laughed. “Deal.”

“You know the greatest thing about our job?”

“What’s that?”

“No one sees our successes, and we can blame everyone else for our failures.”

“Ha. Now that’s messed up.”

“But it’s true,” Richards said. “It’s what allows us to keep operating on the level we do. It’s why we don’t need to justify looking into the mosque, or Khan for that matter. We know he’s bad, and we don’t need to convince anyone else of that. We can just do what we need to do.”

“For what it’s worth, I can see why it’s so hard for anyone to actually get anything on him. The man hardly ever leaves the mosque, and when he does, he takes an entire entourage with him.”

“You think you’ll be able to slide in with his crew?”

“In the time we need