The Bin Laden Plot

51 LANHAM, MARYLAND

Seated at the desk in his hotel room a block from the Capital Beltway surrounding Washington, D.C., Lonnie Mixell took a break from planning the next al-Qaeda-sponsored terrorist attack on U.S. soil, an event that, if executed successfully, would exceed 9/11 in its impact. In the interim, another effort paid the bills, and he pulled up a status report on the shipment from Snyder Industries to Iran. Everything was proceeding as planned, and the equipment should offload at its destination port in two days.

He was about to return to the complicated but rather enjoyable al-Qaeda plot when a notification appeared on his computer display, indicating he’d received an encrypted transmission. He clicked on the note, which launched a portal to a secure messaging site.

Good work on the first four men. But you need to finish the job. Your friend Harrison is back in the U.S., staying at the Intercontinental in southwest D.C. You should pay him a visit. Sooner rather than later.

Mixell typed a response: “Understand. But I was hoping for something more dramatic, requiring the presence of his wife. Harrison working solo on the East Coast complicates things.”

His wife is with him at the hotel for the next few days.

Mixell took a moment to reconsider his plans, then replied: “Would tonight make you happy?”

Very.

“What’s his room number?”

Don’t know.

“Do you have any other helpful information?”

No.

Mixell signed off from the app, and the messages disappeared from his computer. He pulled up a map of Washington, D.C., zoomed in to the vicinity of the Intercontinental and shifted to satellite view, then studied the area.

It didn’t take long to devise a plan.