one
true book under heaven and no man had ever been so foolish as to try to make a
movie of it.
Ahmed's little group had been instructed to strike on the second day of the
science fiction convention. No reasons had been given for choosing this
particular event as a target and -- as far as Ahmed was concerned -- none were
required. Their leader had spoken, and his words were the words of Allah in
matters of their holy cause.
When the light turned green, Ahmed's jangling nerves caused him to goose the
gas pedal. The back tires spun uselessly on the wet pavement until he rather
shakily let up on the gas a bit.
Continuing up the street, he turned left into the covered driveway of the
Rivage Hotel's reception area and joined a line of cars waiting their turns to
load or offload passengers and luggage at the big glass doors at the top of the
driveway.
Ahmed's was the fifth car in line when a family of five came through those
doors and walked past him, evidently on their way to some part of the science
fiction convention.
The three children all wore costumes; the two boys were waving their hollow
plastic lightsabers at each other and the blonde girl -- perhaps as old as
twelve -- was wearing a Batgirl costume and slinging her cape dramatically as
she walked.
A pang of pity lanced through Ahmed, but then he remembered his teachings,
hardened his heart, and severely chastised himself for his momentary weakness.
They were just infidels. Untaught, unholy, and therefore unfit to live. He
moved forward another carlength, and again watched the family in his rearview
mirror as they stood waiting to cross the street.
The blonde girl grinningly faced into the gusting wind to make her cape
billow behind her. Too bad, Ahmed thought appraisingly. The girl might possibly
have been found worthy of conversion to Islam.
Or not, he appended, remembering the dancers at the strip club the night
before. After all, even infidel females were good for purposes of pleasure and
labor. In the pure world that he and other holy martyrs would bring into being,
their children would be raised according to the teachings of the Prophet and the
women would be allowed to live only so long as they dutifully served the
righteous and faithful.
The car by the doors moved away as people got into the car behind it. It
then moved away, as well, and Ahmed was only one carlength away from where he
could