“The Teeth of the Tiger” by Tom Clancy (Chapter 10 – Chapter 15)

In Las Cruces Mustafa and his friends were given some instructions:  if, during their driving, the American police pulled them over, all they needed to do was to speak politely; if the police asked them to get out of the car, then they had to get out; and they had not go faster than the number on the highway signs (sixty-five miles per hour), not to be pulled over. On the road the group didn’t meet any police car and safely came to the final destination, where they stopped in a Hotel, having decided to have a little rest before starting their mission.

   Meanwhile, Brian and Dominic Caruso got another mission to track agent Michelle Peters without being spotted. There were some rules for them - if the brothers got close enough without being spotted, they won; if she (the agent Michelle Peters) said their name when they two were more than ten feet away, they lost. But just before the mission the twins went to get new shoes for Brian in American Eagle Outfitters, where during the fitting the men heard shots.

The terrorists’ first victim became the security guard; Mustafa held the trigger for but a second, but in that second, a total of nine bullets entered the black man's chest. That time Mustafa’s friend Rafi was in the Victoria's Secret store. The customers there all had to be women; he just pointed and held the trigger down. Three women were immediately hit and went down at once, others just stood still for a second, their eyes wide with shock and disbelief, not taking any action at all. Other two terrorists (Abdullah and Zuhayr) were firing as they went, killing men and women, boys and girls. Brian, facing Rafi, fired off four rounds; all four went into the thorax, below the shoulders; the terrorist’s body was fully of adrenaline and, under such circumstances, the body simply does not feel pain. Dominic was facing another one, Mustafa; the FBI man fired and the first round hit the target's weapon, the second one took him in the chest. That’s two were down. The Marine saw Abdullah, he fired off two aimed shots into the target's chest, saw no effect, and then emptied his magazine; more than twelve rounds entered the man's body. The terrorist was still moving; Brian walked over the body and fired one round right into the back of his head. The skull split open - blood and brains exploded out onto the floor. There was only one of the terrorists; in the Belk's women's store the picture was worth: the floor was defiled by numerous pools of blood, there were screams and whimpers. Zuhayr saw several alive women; and started walking toward one of them. The man tried to fire a single round into her back, but instead rippled off three rounds from a range of one meter. Brian saw the whole thing, and something just came loose; he fired three rounds, one of which got the target right in the belly, and another in center chest. Then the brothers went upstairs to be sure that there were only four terrorists, where they saw a little boy with three hits in his back. Brian turned him over; the eyes were open; but several minutes later they closed. The man gently set the body back on the counter and felt for a carotid pulse; but there wasn’t any. Later the twins knew about another news flash from a place called Citadel Mall in Colorado Springs, Colorado, then came one from Provo, Utah, and finally Des Moines, Iowa; that made it a colossal story.

   Hendly Associates’ member Jack Patrick Ryan, Jr found out that there were only sixteen total terrorists, as he read the content of some of Uda bin Sali’s e-mails and his account supported a bunch of Visa cards (their number was sixteen). The terrorists used them to buy gas across the country, and their trip originated in New Mexico. So Jack tied the man who bankrolled their expense accounts.

Individual Reading: "The Teeth of the Tiger": part 3