My Kind of Town
>> Arizona Memorial A military matter
HPD Sgt. Mits Ah Sun was on the H-1, headed from the Pearl City station back to Queen's to visit his son Quinn, and just happened to glance over at Pearl Harbor when an explosion blew a crater in the water and kicked up a tower of salt spray. He immediately got on his radio, advised dispatch what he'd seen, added "I'm on the way."
Mits was the first cop on the scene. What caught his eye amid the pandemonium was a guy outside the visitor center near the water's edge, holding a pistol to the neck of a handcuffed guy on the ground.
"Whoa, hold it right there, sir," Mits said, jogging up, his Glock 9mm drawn.
The tall man, graying at the temples, looked up.
"Thanks for coming, officer, but this is a military matter." He flashed his ID -- Commander Chuck Ryan, Navy intelligence officer. "My friend Muhammed here triggered the explosion with a device you see bulging from his right trouser pocket. And he is going to the brig, not jail."
Mits knew what that meant -- it would keep Muhammed out of the criminal justice system and let a military tribunal handle him.
"I'm with you," Mits said. He'd had it up to here already with the liberal judges of the federal court's ninth district.
Sirens wailing, two vans of MPs unloaded. Three ran toward them, five others headed inside the visitor center. Within seconds Muhammed Resurreccion was in leg shackles and being escorted out to one of the vans.
"Catch you later, Muhammed," Ryan said just before the door closed and the terrorist was driven away to the Pearl Harbor brig. There, under rather intense questioning, he would eventually share the secrets of how Infitada Inc. finances and promotes international terror.
Muhammed sang to save his butt, prompted entirely by the damning statements of his driver, the woman Ryan and his partner Lt. Martin Luther Washington called Sandy.
Thanks also to Sandy, her cousin Rey Orlando was arrested as he went to work in Waikiki. A search of his home in Waipahu revealed a small cache of TATP plastique explosive -- the same stuff used by The Shoebomber and Palestinian homicide bombers.
Muhammed's attack had caused one death -- an elderly visitor from Japan suffered a heart attack after the explosion. Otherwise the worst injuries aboard boat No. 13 were a couple of broken arms and a few conked heads caused by the severe rocking of the boat. Within minutes after the blast Martin Luther Washington's hearing started to come back.
All in all, Ryan knew, things could have turned out a lot worse this time. He also knew there would be a next time. There always is for the enemies of America.
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