Big bang theory

Lt. Basel Zakly Faris, USMC, had declined the offer of a Kevlar vest. If he were a true jihadist, he wouldn't care if he died. And if the four Coleman coolers packed with plastique explosives that Fatima bin Laden's new friends were loading into the trunk of his black Mustang exploded, well, Kevlar was OK with bullets, but in a big bang would be about as useful as bubble wrap.

She was, he reminded himself, Fatima bin Laden, not San Marcos. The reality of it, and the cold professionalism of these Islamicist soldiers, sent chills up and down his back. The Khomeini Sharia Unification Movement for Preaching and Combat, she called them. Think Green Berets on jihad.

The plan was for Aafiya to ride with Baz to the Navy brig at Ford Island, together disabling the on-duty MPs, and simply drive Osama's pal Muhammed Resurreccion to freedom. If they encountered problems or resistance, Aafiya could trigger the explosives. Or Saleem, back at Blaisdell Park and in touch by encrypted cell, could if she were somehow disabled.

"Aafiya," Fatima whispered to her old friend, 12 years her senior. "I want to go with you. This was my mission. If it goes well, I want to be part of victory. If you and Baz must die, I want to die with you."

"Martyrdom is not all its cracked up to be, young sister," Aafiya said in Arabic. "Better to live and fight another day. But if we die, we die for Islam."

For Islam, Fatima noted, not for Allah, bless his name. "I cannot live without Baz," she added. "I've already given him my heart." So she went.

The pretense for the VIP tour was that Aafiya was a visiting architect who wanted to see new construction happening on Ford Island, but they could have said she wanted to turn Ford Island into a a big doggie park for nudists and the tour request would have been green-lighted.

And so it was that, after a cursory inspection of the car, MPs on the bridge waved them through.

Beneath his red "Another MARINE Coming to the Rescue" T-shirt, Baz felt sweat trickling down his chest. The bridge was a secondary target, and unfortunately he didn't have either of the two cell phones that could trigger the explosives. As he drove, he prayed, asking Allah for protection and a victory in repudiating the evil Jinn who were highjacking the true Islam. Baz breathed another sigh of relief -- there had been a lot of those recently -- when they reached the terra firma of Ford Island. No immediate targets here.

On the lanai of a hillside home on Aiea Heights Drive where the owners were on vacation and from a van in the USS Arizona Memorial parking lot, two members of the Khomeini Sharia Unification Movement for Preaching and Combat tracked the Mustang as it approached the brig and parked where everyone on both sides knew it would.