"Can I offer you some water?" Gideon asked walking back into the room.
"I offer you some first" Jind Allah said, ensuring it wasn't poisoned. Gideon opened a bottle and took a sip before giving the bottle to Jind Allah and sat down opposite him.
"They only kept it there to show me what I could not have" Jind Allah said
"I'd like you to explain something to me. How can you ignore the fact that Muhammad preached passivity while he was in mecca? Do no violence" Gideon asked
"His later message from medina was perfectly clear. When violence come upon you, you must fight back with violence" Jind Allah replied
"He's quoting from the Hadith, not from the Qur'an. It's called the verse of the sword. They argue that it cancels out earlier teachings" Reid explained through the comms unit.
"Verse of the sword. Just someone's spin on the words of the prophet. It's not even part of the Qur'an" Gideon stated
"But it does say in the Qur'an fight and slay the infidels wherever you find them and seize them in every stratagem of war" Jind Allah explained
"Unless they repent. Establish regular prayers and practice regular charity" Gideon replied
"Is it your intention, Mr. Gideon, to become a man of faith and revert to Islam?" Jind Allah asked
"I am a man of faith. I have repented, I pray regularly, and I practice charity. I have never committed violence against you, so how is it that my faith would allow you to live and worship as you please, and yours would take my life and snuff it out?" Gideon asked calmly
"You are simply misguided people of the book. But if you revert to Islam... "Jind Allah started to say
"A billion Muslims... one billion Muslims manage to practice their faith in peace... for Allah is surely merciful" Gideon interrupted
"You... inquired about my childhood earlier. I will tell you... that it was a happy one until one day a bomb fell out of the sky and levelled the bazaar that I was in with my family. I was only 8" Jind Allah explained
"Must have been horrifying for such a young boy" Gideon commented
"He's opening up about himself" Lilith said
"Maybe. We need to verify what he's saying, though" Reid said before calling Garcia and putting her on loud speaker.
"Speak" She said in a sing-song voice.
"Garcia, I need you to check something for me. I'm looking for a stray bombing in a bazaar somewhere in Egypt approximately 30 years ago" Reid explained
"Ok, Reid. That's not too obscure" Garcia said confused
"I don't need you to give me details. We're just trying to set a baseline for Jind Allah's truthfulness. I just need to know if it happened at all" Reid explained
"When I know, you'll know" Garcia said
"Thank you" Reid said hanging up.
"When the rubble was cleared... half... of my family was dead. It was on that day that I swore my life to vengeance for Allah" Jind Allah said
"And for that very reason those holding you here can never let you leave. Your only hope is to tell me so I can hopefully one day share your struggle with the world" Gideon explained
"Your government won't even admit that I exist. How possibly can you tell my side of the story?" Jind Allah asked before Gideon told him it was time to pray again.
Gideon walked into the TV room just as Reid's phone started to ring.
"You got Gideon, Fallon, and me" Reid said answering his phone and putting it on loud speaker.
"It's Hotch. We're at cell location number 2. No cell members, no lab, no dispersal devices. We're still looking for escape tunnels" Hotch explained
"Call us" Gideon said as they hung up.
"We're running out of time. The attack's supposed to take place in less than 24 hours" Reid said
"So getting Jind Allah to talk is our only chance of finding them" Lilith said
"I'll confront him with the truth" Gideon said
"What are you going to do?" Lilith asked
"Show him my hand" Gideon said simply and walked back into the room with Jind Allah.
"I'm going to give you the respect of telling you what just happened. A team of Agents raided an omega cell location. Actually, both of them. Our men are in place in Annandale as we speak. You gain nothing by remaining silent" Gideon explained and as he was explaining Jind Allah relaxed his hands.
"Jihad is forever" Jind Allah replied
"Something's wrong. His hands" Reid said suddenly before picking up the comms unit.
"Gideon, something's wrong. This guy seemed relieved by what you just told him" Reid explained
"Excuse me" Gideon said calmly before walking out of the room.
"Get Hotch" Gideon said and Reid called him
"What's the problem?" Hotch said answering
"Get everybody out of there. Now! Now! Now!" Gideon yelled into the phone.
"Everybody out. It's a trap. Now! I said out! Go!" Hotch shouted on his end before a loud explosion went off.
….
"They ok?" Reid asked worried once Gideon got off the phone.
"We were right about the trap. It was rigged to explode. A SWAT agent was killed" Gideon said
"Was anthrax involved?" Lilith asked
"No" Gideon said
"Then that's not the final target" Reid stated before Gideon walked back into the room.
"You look troubled, my friend" Jind Allah said
"You killed one of my men" Gideon said simply
"I was here with you" Jind Allah replied
"The second location was a trap. One of my Agents was killed in the explosion" Gideon said sadly
"This is war. We expect casualties. Shouldn't you?" Jind Allah asked
"He was a good man" Gideon stated
"Well... if he would convert, there would be no reason for him to fear death" Jind Allah replied
"What do you say to his family?" Gideon asked
"I say... where... were you to mourn... when my son was murdered?" Jind Allah said
"His son?" Lilith asked confused
"Did you see that? When he told the story about his childhood, the bomb landing in the bazaar, his behaviour changed" Reid stated
"We know he was lying. Garcia couldn't find any record of a bombing during the time Jind Allah was a boy" Lilith explained
"Exactly, but this time when he mentioned his son, he looked at his hands, like he had to concentrate to control his anger" Reid explained
"That first story wasn't about him. It was about his son" Lilith concluded
"Which means it must have been more recent" Reid said before calling Garcia.
"Garcia. I need you to look for a bombing again in Egypt, but this time anything in the last 10 years" Reid explained
"On it" Garcia said
"We're looking for civilian casualties, an 8-year-old boy" Reid added
"Ok. I'm cross referencing bombings and child victims. 7 years ago, in the heart of Cairo, Egyptian government blamed Hezbollah, but conspiracy theories on the street claimed it was a joint U.S Israel strike that went astray. Your gross detainee's name is Jamal Abaza" Garcia explained
"How about his son's name? Do you have that?" Reid asked
"Amir abaza. 8. Killed in the blast" Garcia explained
"All right. Find out everything you can on that. I'll get back to you soon" Reid said hanging up before picking up the comms unit.
"We know his real identity" Reid said to Gideon.
"It appears that there will be no peaceful resolution to our difficulties after all" Jind Allah said simply
"I haven't given up that hope. It's time for your Salut-Ul-Isha prayers. May we speak again tomorrow?" Gideon asked
"You are asking me?" Jind Allah asked surprised
"Yes" Gideon said simply
"Tomorrow, then" Jind Allah agreed as Gideon walked out of the room.
"Jamal Abaza's been in the U.S. For a while. He volunteered as the prison imam at the dear field correctional center 3 years ago" Garcia explained on loud speaker once Gideon called her back.
"How could the CIA not know that?" Reid asked
"They're focused overseas. We're domestic" Lilith said
"Yeah. They probably sent a request for a domestic information search, and it's somewhere making its way through channels" Garcia explained
"If he was a prison Imam, he must have recruited militant Islamic society members. M.I.S. Is an atypical prison organization, they pick up an amalgam of ethnicities? Those that slip through the cracks are the ones that traditional groups won't accept. It's made up largely of American citizens. American citizens with a reason for hating the government" Reid explained
"We're looking at home grown terrorists" Gideon said before they left their office and found the CIA agents they interrupted at the start.
"What the hell do you want?" One of them snapped.
"The name Jamal Abaza. Does it mean anything to you?" Gideon asked
"Abaza was an imam in Cairo. He preached jihad to his followers, but he fell off the grid 7 years ago" The CIA agent explained
"That's because when his son died, he took the jihad name Jind Allah. He came to America to recruit sleeper cells" Gideon explained
"You're telling us that that detainee in there is Jamal Abaza?" They asked standing up
"Amazing what you learn when you talk to people" Gideon replied
"He was also a prison imam in Virginia 3 years ago. Are you familiar with the militant Islamic society?" Reid asked
"They're home grown?" An Agent asked
"We know the cell that abaza put together has access to anthrax, but we can't find any reports of any going missing in the states" Lilith explained
"We have protocols that we have to follow" The agent said simply
"You really going to allow a terrorist attack on U.S. Soil because of protocols? I told you what I learned in there because you and I, FBA, CIA, right now we have the ability to break through all the protocol and share information" Gideon explained
"Let me see what we have" An Agent said agreeing
"Coordinate with Agent Jareau and Penelope Garcia at Quantico. Please" Gideon said before they hurried back to the TV room.
"Think it'll work?" Reid asked
"I don't know" Gideon replied
"CIA's tough. They play it pretty close to the vest" Lilith explained
"Well, if we don't all work together, more people are gonna die. A lot more" Gideon said simply.
…