The Wayward Target by Susan Ouellette

Author:Susan Ouellette [Ouellette, Susan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Mostafa cracked open another energy drink. It had been hours since his encounter with the security man outside the target’s house. He should’ve stuck around and watched what, if anything, would happen next. But the encounter had been unnerving. Omar had portrayed this operation as a straightforward hit. The presence of security belied that narrative. Instead of remaining in the area, he’d gone home, changed his clothes, and headed over to the storage facility. To his dismay, the rental unit was empty except for a note from the supplier stating that he needed money to procure the supplies. After that, Mostafa had hurried home and dropped a message in the draft folder to alert his contact to this complication.

For the past hour, he’d been sitting in his car in a guest parking spot at a town house development one street over from the target’s neighborhood. Through a row of silver maple trees planted an even eight feet apart, he was able to monitor activity outside her town house. He yawned. Surveillance work was tedious. When he entered the States over the southern border with a group of Central American migrants, he’d been full of optimism, grateful that his training in the mountains of Afghanistan would finally be put to good use. Unfortunately, reality turned out to be quite different from what he’d imagined it would be. For the past two years, he’d mostly done surveillance on government VIPs and written reports on security around federal buildings and national landmarks. His day job was with a landscaping company. The cash pay was decent, but barely enough to get by on in the wealthy suburbs of northern Virginia. A friend at the mosque had suggested he apply for government benefits, but he didn’t want to elevate his profile and establish an official paper trail, even using his falsified documentation.

It had been a depressing couple of years, but today, Mostafa felt a glimmer of hope. If he succeeded in this mission, great things awaited him. Surely, he’d be well compensated for his efforts. He looked forward to moving to Florida. He’d never seen the ocean and tried to imagine the feel of waves and the smell of the salty air. And the girls in their bikinis. Beautiful, forbidden Western women.

He shook himself out of his reverie. He needed to focus and plan every step of the operation with meticulous detail. Sniping out the target was the most reasonable option, but his instructions were clear. It had to be a bomb.

A half hour earlier, he’d watched the black SUV with the tinted windows leave the target’s neighborhood only minutes after an identical car had pulled up to the house. There was still no sign of Maggie Jenkins, the woman who’d killed several of the jihadists inside a local elementary school last year. The media said she was a CIA intelligence analyst, but he had his doubts. Given the outcome of the school siege, she must have some operational training. No doubt she was going to be a tough target to hit.

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