A time to reveal

Fatima bin Laden was rapidly reaching the point where she would have to reveal herself to Lt. Basel Zakly Faris, USMC. Not in a physical way, of course -- though she hoped that might come one day as his wife. But as they exchanged bits of personal information, there would come a time not far away when she ran out of things to say about her alleged youth in the Philippines. And he, as she, was an Arabic Muslim. It was one thing to fool an infidel, quite another to veil her true faith from a fellow speaker of the language of Allah.

And from that moment of revelation to fully exposed would be a very short span.

Then what?

If she'd been a professional, Fatima would have known to keep her search for other targets and opportunities open, not to focus on this one handsome young man whom she could very easily imagine as her husband. And perhaps if she had the security of the Chinese secret police providing assistance, as her uncle arranged, she might have taken a wider, slower approach to her mission. But with the Chinese behind bars it was as if Allah, praise his name, was testing her. Yet the Most Merciful also seemed to be providing a way, starting with the unlikely angel Jennifer Hira coming to her rescue.

So instead of her uncle's desire to see an explosion or mass poisoning, Fatima now began to focus on Baz's access to the Navy brig on Ford Island. As an MP assigned there, he would have access to her uncle's colleague Muhammed Resurreccion.

The first choice, she decided, would be to free the former secret mastermind of Abu Sayaf. What a victory for international jihad that would be!

And if for some reason that simply was not possible, then a PED -- personal-explosion device -- should be sneaked in, allowing him the opportunity to die a martyr, destroying the brig and sending a few Americans to hell in the process. Truly that would also be a great victory.

These were Fatima's thoughts as she arrived early for Journalism 101 and took a seat in the second row, reminding herself that she was Fatima San Marcos, a simple Filipina from Davao, not an international jihadist.

She managed not to grin when Baz came in a minute later and took the seat directly in front of her, merely exchanging a knowing glance. Today, instead of the basketball look, he was wearing a green camouflage uniform, sleeves rolled up, decorated with various insignia and badges, "B.FARIS" stenciled above his right breast.

Baz really was a Marine. She'd never doubted it, but the reality of the uniform made her heart race. Things were about to get serious.

Which is exactly what Baz was hoping.