bathroom,
they saw two women in their sixties lying stiffly on the bed. A man on each side
of the bed held a pistol aimed at each woman's head and Marjeel held a black
Beretta 9mm pistol aimed generally between Mandi and Cade.
In a tone dripping with disdain, Marjeel said, "Welcome, friends of the
media. Before we begin, do you understand that your function here is merely to
record my words, and not to speak unless invited to do so?"
"Yes," said Mandi.
Cade had been examining the side of his camera. He bumped it once with the
heel of his hand, listened to it for a moment, then looked up and nodded as he
said, "Sure."
"Are you having difficulties with your camera?"
"Well, it seems okay now. Your guy, there, may have yanked something too
hard while he was messing with it."
"Are you sure it will work properly? Do you need another?"
Holding the camera up and aiming at the ceiling, Cade pulled the trigger. A
red 'record' light came on at the front.
"Looks like it's working now," said Cade. "I couldn't get the one I wanted
to use for this. Somebody probably has it out on the loop, shooting traffic
footage or..."
"Quiet!" snapped Marjeel. Turning to Mandi, he asked, "Are you ready to
begin?"
"Yes," said Mandi, thumbing the mike's 'on' switch.
"Yeah. Locked and loaded," said Cade, patting the camera.
His comment drew narrow glances from Marjeel and one of the other
terrorists, which likely meant that the one who'd ignored his words hadn't
understood the term. Maybe he didn't speak English? Or maybe he just didn't
speak it well.
Mandi stood in front of the camera long enough to introduce herself as Mary
Winston of WNN and introduce Hamad Marjeel according to what he'd written on a
sheet of hotel stationery, then she stepped aside and let him have center stage.
Marjeel began reading from a prepared speech that dragged on for a good
twenty minutes. It was full of catchwords and phrases dear to the hearts of
America-bashers everywhere, but it also contained quite a bit of Islamic
religious rhetoric.
He started the speech conversationally enough in firm tones, but soon he
began to sound a bit strident, and by the time he hit the third or fourth page,
he sounded a helluva lot like Adolf Hitler, almost ranting at the camera.
The speech ended rather abruptly and Marjeel seemed to compose himself in
silence for some moments before saying, "Now it is