2 cuties, 1 terrorist

After two days off, Lt. Basel Zakly Faris, USMC, arrived for duty at the Navy brig on Ford Island and was greeted by Capt. Rodrigo Hernandez, USN, with chilling news. The FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force, which included a Navy lieutenant colonel, was reporting to all law enforcement entities in Hawaii that an al-Qaeda operative sent personally by Osama bin Laden was supposed to have arrived in Honolulu four days ago.

The alert came with a police artist's rendering -- based on an informant's recollection of a photo sent by OBL -- of the would-be terrorist, and Baz had to laugh. It showed a woman whose lips, mouth, chin and neck were covered by a veil.

"Captain, this could be any Muslim girl!" Baz chortled.

Any Muslim girl? It could also have been Fatima San Marcos, the Filipina exchange student he hoped would one day be his wife. Fatima, a terrorist? Impossible. She was too sweet. Wasn't she? He stopped laughing.

Baz studied the drawing. The girl, like Fatima, had beautiful eyes.

He knew she'd just recently arrived in Hawaii, but didn't know exactly when. With a sinking feeling in his stomach, he sat down at a computer to the captain's left and logged onto the secret JTTF Web site. He typed her name in the SEARCH box, nervously waited until the computer beeped. Baz's stomach sank a little more as her file popped onto the screen. Fatima had already been checked out by the JTTF because she arrived on a flight from Manila, one of the flights the suspected terrorist was supposed to be on. What were the freaking odds of that?

The JTTF had neither time nor staffing to check the pre-arrival background of everyone on those passenger manifests, but had accounted for many of them in Hawaii. Fatima included. Fearing the worst, Baz read on. She carried a legal Philippines passport and student visa, and was registered at UH-Windward with an impressive academic load. The initial JTTF assessment: Low to no terror threat. Baz breathed a sigh of relief. Low to no. Not quite a complete bill of health, but as close as the task force got.

"One of the early theories," Capt. Hernandez said, "is that we could be a prime target."

"Our friend down the hall?" Which was how they referred to Muhammed Resurreccion, who'd been incarcerated here since his attempt to blow up the USS Arizona Memorial was foiled -- and his known ties to OBL discovered.

"You got it. Eh, why's Joe coming in on his day off?" the captain said, observing a bank of surveillance monitors on a wall. One image showed Joe's yellow Camaro convertible crossing the Ford Island bridge.

"Bringing a couple of friends for a VIP tour."

"Couple of cutie VIPs I see."

Thus would OBL's agent first gain access to his target of choice.