The Bin Laden Plot

Harrison examined the road through his night vision goggles. Approaching in the distance was a van containing only the driver; no passenger. When the vehicle’s headlights became visible, Khalila moved onto the road and started walking, pretending to be in a doped-up stupor, toward the van. Once her figure was illuminated by the van’s headlights, the vehicle slowed, stopping a few feet before her.

Khalila continued toward the van, babbling as the driver lowered his window. When she reached the driver’s door, she pulled her pistol from the small of her back and aimed it at the man’s head.

She opened the door, then pulled the man from the van, where he was met by Meyer and Narehood, who searched him for weapons and any special access cards that might assist with gaining entry to the facility. They found none. After Khalila checked his wallet for his name, Narehood zip-tied his hands behind his back and gagged his mouth. Khalila explained the plan to the man: he would wait in the bushes by the road until morning, then head to the beach.

The van’s rear doors were opened, revealing several pallets of food and other items, which were unloaded to make room for all eight SEALs and Harrison. The SEALs and Harrison climbed into the back of the van while Khalila hopped into the driver’s seat. Kuwait was one of the least restrictive Muslim countries when it came to gender, with women being allowed to drive since 1979, so the team had decided that Khalila should be the driver, since her mastery of the region’s languages was superior to Hacker’s.

They were also concerned that the same driver, or set of drivers, made the facility’s nightly supply run, and a strange Caucasian driver would cast suspicion. An attractive Arab woman would have better odds of talking her way into the facility without raising suspicion.

Once the SEALs were inside the van and the rear doors closed, Khalila put the vehicle in gear and started down the road.

* * *

In the distance, the van’s headlights illuminated the road sloping down toward the facility entrance, guarded by two men, one on each side of the road. As Khalila approached, the man to the left stepped from the guardhouse and waited. An uneasy feeling settled over her as she examined both men. It was the way they carried their weapons. These men weren’t paramilitary professionals. They were run-of-the-mill thugs for hire. Not what she was expecting.

She stopped the van beside the man.

“Who are you?” he asked in Arabic.

“Khalila,” she said, “Omar’s girlfriend. He couldn’t make it tonight, so he asked me to make the run.”

The man pulled a flashlight from his pocket and turned it on, examining Khalila’s face. The van was a commercial vehicle with the front sealed off from the back, so none of the SEALs or Harrison were visible. If the man checked the back, he’d be in for a surprise, but Khalila hoped that surprise would be delayed until they gained access. Otherwise, they’d have to blast their way in, giving away the element of surprise.

The man shone the light in Khalila’s face again. “Omar’s married.”

Khalila shielded her eyes from the light with her left hand, moving her right hand down to within easy reach of her pistol, which was slid inside the waistband of her pants behind her back again.

“Well,” she said, “let’s not tell Omar’s wife.”

The man grinned and turned off the flashlight, then stepped back into the guardhouse. He made a call, informing someone that tonight’s supply van had arrived, then the entrance doors opened with a rumble, pulling slowly apart.

Once the doors opened wide enough, Khalila pulled forward into a loading dock illuminated by bright white lights, containing several pallets of boxes that would almost fill the entire van. It looked like the nightly van run didn’t just drop off supplies; it picked up material as well. She parked the vehicle as the entrance doors closed behind her.

No one else was present in the loading dock, so Khalila tapped the metal partition behind her, providing the all-clear signal. The SEALs and Harrison emerged from the back of the van and moved forward as a metal roll-up door in the middle of the far wall began rising. The SEALs reached the wall just in time, taking position on each side of the door as four men armed with submachine guns appeared in the opening.

Khalila stepped from the van, hoping the keep the men’s eyes on her and not on the periphery as they entered the loading dock. The SEALs on both sides, weapons aimed at the men, surged forward as Hacker shouted in Arabic to drop their weapons. Khalila drew her pistol as well. Faced with ten armed opponents, the four men wisely dropped their firearms.

Their hands and feet were quickly tie-wrapped, and Khalila stopped beside them, probing them for information. When all four men refused to answer, she put a bullet in the head of the nearest man.

The other three started talking.