The hunt is on

Fon Du, the Chinese agent turned songbird, did not know the point of origin for the flight carrying a female al-Qaeda operative he was to pick up at the airport, only that he was to meet her outside the international arrivals exit.

"I checked beforehand," he said. "Several planes were scheduled to come in about the same time. My guess? Manila."

It was a start. HPD Detective Sherlock Gomes and his FBI pal Charlie Garrison, working together on the Joint Terrorism Task Force, quickly put together a battle plan. First, they'd check the manifests for each of the flights arriving at HNL that evening. Second, they'd watch security camera tapes of all arrivals, the scene at each of their baggage claim areas and loading areas outside.

Not exactly like curling up with a good book or catching a good movie. Ain't anti-terrorism thrilling? Yet the men and women tasked with what might seem a tedious chore got down to business with purpose and professionalism. There was a known al-Qaeda operative loose on the streets of Honolulu, had been for three days now, and they had to find her before she could fulfill her mission, whatever it was. God knows Hawaii had enough targets.

And all they knew about their terrorist was that she was young and had beautiful eyes. That narrowed it down, didn't it?

It turned out that flights had come in from Manila, Narita and Sydney all at about the same time. Flight manifests included a number of Arabic/Muslim names. So while some agents continued watching hours and hours of grainy security camera footage, others went out to find and interview those folks.

Was it profiling? You get a report that Osama bin Laden personally sent a female al-Qaeda op to Honolulu, what else could you do? Alert the media -- and her and Osama? Upon investigation, the list included an HPU student, a Honolulu businessman, a military wife and an Indonesian government official. None would prove a terror threat.

Eventually the JTTF would check each of the names on each flight arriving that evening. When they came to Fatima San Marcos on the Manila manifest, it was discovered that she had a valid Philippines passport and student visa, and was registered at UH-Windward with an impressive academic class load. Nothing to worry about there.

So the race was on. Could the good guys hunt her down and stop her before she was able to carry out her mission?

At that moment, Fatima bin Laden, a k a San Marcos, was just finishing a study session with her target in the school library.

"I have to get back to the base," Lt. Basel Zakly Faris, USMC, said. "But maybe tomorrow after class we could go for coffee?"

Averting her eyes, blushing, she said yes. Her uncle would be so pleased.