Page 119 of Holmes, Margaret and Poe

“Then why not just shoot me and get it over with? Why kill innocent people?”

“Because that’s what you did. It’s the only argument men understand.”

“What?”

“An eye for an eye, Captain,” Obaid said. “It’s there in the Bible. It’s there in the Koran. An eye for an eye.”

Davis could see the colored lights that ran east to west along the southern runway, which was being plowed. He noticed for the first time that his sneakers were soaked and his feet were freezing. So were his hands.

A jet took off from the runway west of the terminal. It passed directly over them in the woods.

“Keep going,” Obaid said. “Get right up there to the edge of the trees.”

The snow was falling at a rate of two inches an hour now. White sheets of it billowed across the airport grounds and looked like smoke in the wake of the plow, which was far down the south runway when Davis got to the last line of trees.

“Put the launcher down and sit by that tree,” Obaid said. “I’m giving you the best seat in the house, Captain.”

Davis felt like puking when he set down the Stinger missile launcher and collapsed in the snow against the trunk of a leafless oak not two hundred yards from the runway.

“Hands,” Obaid said after taking off a knapsack and setting it down.

Davis held his hands out and watched the terrorist zip-tie his wrists together. “They’ll know it wasn’t me,” he said when Obaidstuffed his pistol in the pocket of his parka and picked up the Stinger launcher. “They’ll know I was held against my will.”

“It doesn’t matter in the long run,” the terrorist said, shrugging.

In the distance, from the far end of the northwest runway, a jet revved its engines and came roaring at them.

CHAPTER 101

FLASHLIGHT IN MY LEFThand, pistol in my right, I followed the tracks of the two of them moving single file along a deer trail through the snowy woods. My mind kept racing.

Who was I hunting here, just Obaid or both Obaid and Captain Davis? I believed it was just Obaid. But for the moment, I had to assume both men were part of the conspiracy.

With the flashlight on, I could move fast and close the gap between us. But unless I spotted them first, the light could attract their attention. If they were armed, one or both could shoot me before I could defend myself.

I cupped the business end of the Maglite with my left hand, aimed it directly at the ground, and moved slower. Then I heard a jet take off and cross above the woods ahead of me.

They’ve got a Stinger inside Dulles. The hell with your safety, Alex. Catch up!

Throwing caution to the storm winds, I turned the Maglite on high and ran as fast as I could along the men’s tracks. As the jet gained altitude and headed east, I heard another engine, closer and almost directly north of me, moving west.

I broke from the woods onto Willard Road, which ran diagonally toward the south runway at Dulles. The snow was three inches deep by then and untouched save for the tracks of Obaid and Davis, which crossed the road and disappeared into the next block of trees.

I saw lights slash to my north, in the direction of that second engine, and I instinctively abandoned the tracks and sprinted toward the runway.

CHAPTER 102

CAPTAIN DAVIS SAW THElights of the jet accelerating down the west runway, coming directly at them through the driving snow. Ibrahim Obaid pulled the key on the Stinger that blocked the trigger from firing.

“Even if you shoot them down, kill them all, it won’t bring your family back,” Davis said. “And it won’t shut down the airlines or the economy. Not for long.”

Obaid did not look at him. He illuminated and aimed through the sighting system mounted along the barrel of the shoulder-to-air missile launcher. “Nothing will bring my family back,” Obaid said. “That’s the point. I have nothing to go back to, Captain. And the airlines? If this doesn’t do it, I’ll shoot down another and then another.” He laughed and glanced over at Davis. “What? You don’t think I have other sources of weapons? Leslie Parks had many stashes and he told me about all of them before he died.”

The terrorist laughed again and settled behind the Stinger’s sights.

The jet was coming fast now.

Davis could see the nose rising off the runway five hundred yards away.

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