The Eye of Shiva

CHAPTER 13

Omar Madid was a small man, even for a Filipino. His eyes were deep brown, with large, black pupils. They should have been beautiful eyes, but there was something about them that made people turn away, as if someone you didn't want to meet lived inside him.

Omar had grown up in the poverty-stricken slums of Manila, a lawless collection of shanties, makeshift houses and desperate people. He had never known his father. As a boy, life had revolved around his mother and days spent playing along the banks of the polluted creek that ran through the shanties. Then his mother was trampled to death by a mob running from the police as they made one of their periodic sweeps through the district.

After that, life held no joy for Omar except for one thing; death. Death was always interesting. He began to torture and kill small animals unfortunate enough to cross his path. He killed his first man when he was eleven, a drunken Chinese tourist who'd been looking for a male prostitute but who had found Omar instead. The older criminals used him to carry drugs and guns, sometimes as a lookout for one of their operations. His small size meant he could get into openings no adult could climb through.

When he was seventeen, he was arrested and beaten by the hated police, then taken to Navotas Municipal Jail. The police threw him into a cell crowded with filthy, desperate men. When three of them came for him, Omar killed the first with a blow to his throat. He crippled the second with a knee to the groin and stomped on his chest. He broke the knee of the third with a vicious kick. After that, no one bothered him.

In the jail he was recruited by Abu Sayyaf. That had been eight years ago. He'd become devout in those years, a true Jihadist. It was why he'd been chosen to lead this mission.

Omar sat in the bow of a small boat piloted by one of his comrades as it bounced across the choppy waters of the bay. He kept his binoculars trained on the American Embassy passing to his right. The grounds were protected by a curving sea wall. A high, black barrier rose from the sea wall and extended the length of the embassy grounds. All that could be seen beyond the barrier were palm fronds and the tops of trees rippling in the breeze coming off the water. In the middle of the sea wall was a glassed security tower with a commanding view of the bay.

Through his binoculars Omar saw a Marine guard in the tower looking back at him through his own set of lenses. Omar lowered his binoculars, smiled a toothy grin and waved at the guard. The man was too far away to see that the smile never reached Omar's eyes.

The Americans thought their walls, their fences and their security forces would keep them safe.

They were wrong.