Read Online Witness to Death by Dave White - Free Book Online

never heard of him. Who is he?”
“According to Ibrahim, he’s the guy who planned this whole thing. Lives in J. C.”
“Let’s talk to him.”
Callahan radioed over to the van and told them not to leave yet. He drove over to it and stood outside the double doors. He could hear muffled voices through them, and it sounded like arguing. The conversation stopped when Callahan opened the doors. Al-Fariq turned his head toward Callahan, while Ibrahim stared at the floor.
“I want to talk to your superiors,” Ibrahim said.
“Shut up,” Al-Fariq hissed.
“Doesn’t matter what you want. We’re gonna put you away for a long time. Guantanamo, you hear of it? It’s not nice there. I’ve been there.”
Sweat dripped off Ibrahim’s nose. Al-Fariq swore.
“I will tell you something. I will give you a piece of free information. And when you find I’m right, you’ll come back to me,” Ibrahim said.
Callahan waited, widening his eyes so they knew he was intrigued. Manfra leaned against the van, sniffed, and wiped at his nose.
“The man who planned this. He is an angry man,” Ibrahim said. “Omar Thabata. He contacted us through our Mosque in Irivington. We’ve not been in touch since.”
“I’ve never heard of him,” Callahan said. “If he’s as dangerous as you make him sound, he’d be in our database. Like you two idiots.”
Manfra shook his head, then wiped his nose again.
“We were told we could contact him in Jersey City. Where he lives.” Ibrahim rattled off the an address in Jersey City. Turned out to be another Mosque. “I’ve only met him once. When I picked up—“
“Shut up!” Al-Fariq screamed. Ibrahim listened this time.
Turned out Ibrahim wanted to cut a deal to stay out of Guantanamo. He’d heard the stories of military prisons and wanted nothing to do with them. He was supposed to die at the airport that day. For his cause. Not be tortured by Americans. He wanted to cut a deal to go to Newark State Penitentary.
Not that the inmates would treat him any better. But Ibrahim didn’t need to know that at the moment.
The following Thursday, Callahan and two feds raided a Mosque in Jersey City. Omar wasn’t there. But his name started to pop up in emails and phone taps. There were whispers of him. Informants said he was planning something big, but it had to be foolproof, something that wouldn’t fail. He would wait until the right moment.
But Callahan didn’t remain on the case. Weller reassigned him, put him undercover, doctored the files to make it look like he went back to the CIA and Afghanistan. His file said he was killed in the line of duty three weeks later. His superiors didn’t even know he existed.
The DHS was a nebulous part of the government. It controlled many different agencies such as the Secret Service, the Coast Guard and Customs and Border Protection. Weller sold Callahan on the job, saying how easy it’d be to hide one person in a beauracracy and have him get the dirty work done. Callahan assumed there were others like him throughout the country, but never asked about it.
****
And Omar Thabata remained just a name, until tonight.
“What the hell have you gotten yourself into?” Candy said, when she got him on the line.
“That’s what I’m trying to figure out.”
“What do you need?”
“Omar Thabata. Weller gave me an address of a Mosque where he’d been seen last. Maybe two weeks ago. I wanted to see if you had anything more recent.”
Candy took a deep breath. He’d heard that sound too many times over the years. Every time he was in a tough spot and called her for help, she’d take a deep breath and get him the answer he needed.
“We haven’t heard a peep from him. No emails. No phone calls. He went off the grid,” she said.
Callahan took a deep breath himself.
“I saw him tonight.”
He told her about the meeting he was supposed to witness and then what happened on the docks.
“So, I guess he’d be an important guy to catch up with.” He could hear