Pandemic

Kabaal nodded. "And you think they know where we are?"

Sabri frowned as if the question struck him as idiotic. "Of course, they know."

Rather than alarm, the news brought a sense of calm to Kabaal like a feared prophecy whose realization could not match the terror of its anticipation. "But there were only two of them in Hargeysa?" Kabaal asked.

Sabri shook his head and rolled his eyes contemptuously. "It starts with two spies, and ends with the entire might of the American army falling upon us."

Kabaal folded his arms across his chest. "What are you proposing we do, Major?"

"I am not proposing anything, Hazzir," he said unemotionally, but his pale blue eyes were ice. "I am telling you that we are leaving. Now."

"Going where?"

"First, out of Somalia," Sabri said with a disinterested shrug. "Then to America."

"America?" Kabaal grimaced. "You would really go?"

Sabri sighed. "How else will we get Dr. Aziz's virus there?"

"So we are not waiting for our ultimatum to expire?"

Sabri stared at Kabaal coolly. "Do you believe for one moment that they would come to Hargeysa looking for us if they had any intention of complying with our demands?"

"No." Kabaal shook his head slightly and, for no reason, shuffled pieces of paper on his desk. "But I do believe in the honor of a man's word."

Sabri's thick lips broke into a spiteful smile. "With the first infected carrier you dispatched, I think you conceded some of your precious honor."

Kabaal looked up at Sabri, wondering how he had so underestimated the man behind those unreadable eyes. He nodded slowly. "Regardless, I am not going with you."

Sabri scowled in response. "What made you think that you were ever invited?"

Anwar Aziz's eyes went wide and he looked frantically over at Sabri. "But, Major…"

Sabri shot out a hand to silence the scientist, but he never took his eyes off Kabaal.

Kabaal nodded calmly. He smiled at Sabri. "So, Major Abdul Sabri now leads The Brotherhood of One Nation?"

"Not just now," Sabri said evenly. "I have done so for a long time. Your role was to finance us. We do not need your money anymore."

Kabaal grunted a laugh. "And you, as our leader, will personally carry the Jihad to the infidel's soil?"

Sabri picked up his rifle and threw it over his shoulder. "I will do what has to be done."

"Do you even remember what the purpose of all of this was?" Kabaal asked.

Sabri stared back in stony silence.

"Islam!" Kabaal barked. "To preserve and protect our faith. We were going to use the one weapon at our disposal that the West did not have a superior answer for."

"So what has changed?" Sabri asked, beginning to pace the floor like a bored sentry.

"Everything has changed! Kabaal snapped. "Once the West saw what the virus was capable of, they were supposed to abide our request. To leave our lands. To allow us to restore leadership to the Caliphate, so the laws of Shari'ah could again prevail." He exhaled heavily. "It is clear though that the Americans will not withdraw. And if we release Anwar's new supervirus, who knows where it will end? Or if it ever will." He looked down at his desk, his fervor waning. "We — I—always understood people would have to die. But this?" He held up his palms. "The virus was supposed to make the world better for us, not to destroy it."

Sabri stopped pacing and shook his head slowly. "Hazzir Kabaal, you are a fool," he said coolly.

Kabaal swallowed the insult without replying.

"You remind me of those armchair generals I used to work for," Sabri hissed. "Sitting in your extravagant homes and offices. Drunk on too much food and power, and soft from pampering and wealth." He flicked a finger at the desk and the rugs decorating the walls. "From the safety and comfort of your palaces, you send true warriors like me out to fight your battles. And then you expect us to win on your weak-hearted terms. I have news for you, Abu Lahab, there is no such thing as a bloodless Jihad."

Kabaal digested Sabri's sermon with little emotion. Curious but not fearful, he asked, "What do you hope to accomplish by killing possibly millions of women and children?"

"You never have understood, have you?" Sabri said with a look that bordered on pity. "We could never achieve our cause by holding America ransom like a bunch of cowardly kidnappers. The only way we will save Islam is to empower the people to rise up and fight."

"And slaughtering leagues of women and children will accomplish that?" Kabaal asked.

Sabri nodded. "Exposing the oppressor's weakness. That is how to inspire an uprising."

Kabaal chuckled softly. "And Major Abdul Sabri will be known as the prophet who inspired the people?"

Sabri's eyes narrowed. "I will be remembered long after you are forgotten," he said in a near whisper.

The two men stared at each other while Anwar Aziz shifted nervously from foot to foot and mopped at his sweaty brow.

Finally, Sabri's face broke into a gentler smile. "But you can serve The Brotherhood for one more important purpose, Hazzir."

"Oh?" Kabaal said. "How is that?"