My Kind of Town
>> Royal Hawaiian Center Three faces
From the third floor, Lt. Col. Chuck Ryan rode the escalator down one level, then appeared to be window-gawking until he spotted the public restroom. He found an open stall, closed the door behind him. He pulled the manila envelope -- how perfect for this operation -- from the Hermes logo shopping bag that he'd received a few minutes ago in a switch with another agent.
Inside the envelope were photos of three people. The subject of the first set of photos Ryan knew already, Muhammed Resurreccion, who would be landing in a few hours on a flight from Manila. He was behind all of this, the mover of information and money. Ryan had seen two of the photos previously, but there were some newer ones, including one taken from a secret camera at the Manila airport.
The second person, there was just one photo. Ryan knew of her, but this was the first time he'd seen the woman known only as Sandy. She had come forward, a volunteer agent, when her cousin asked her to be part of something that, although she did not know all the details, she knew it involved violence and making a statement for their Muslim cousins back in Mindanao. And she did not approve. She was an American now, grateful to the country that had taken her in and given her a chance to work and live better than she ever could in Zamboanga. So one day after work as a maid at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel she walked down the beach to the Hale Koa. She was looking for a man in a uniform, and the first one she saw happened to be a Navy officer. When the woman nervously whispered something about a plot against the U.S., the officer thought she was a kook. But she persisted, and she was so calm. The officer contacted Navy intelligence, and that's how Ryan came to be involved.
The third set of photos were also new to Ryan. This was Rey, Sandy's cousin. He also worked at the Royal, servicing the various bars and restaurants. Ryan shook his head. Too bad, he looked like a nice kid. How did he get mixed up with terrorists?
Photos of two of the bad guys was good, no question. The mystery was who was the middle man between Muhammed Resurreccion and Rey. And how did they communicate. One guess was e-mail re-mailers, Resurreccion being a computer expert who owned five Internet cafes on Mindanao. But there was no proof.
They needed to find the missing link. Hopefully Sandy could help with that.
Meanwhile, Ryan would keep his eyes open for Rey when he went back to his room at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel.
Don Chapman is editor of MidWeek.
His serialized novel runs daily in the Star-Bulletin
with weekly summaries on Sunday.
He can be emailed at dchapman@midweek.com