Chapter 11

OCTOBER 31, 2017

NEW YORK CITY

7:00 P.M.

Bizarre things are happening in Gotham.

Pounding drums and drag queens. Papier-mâché skeletons forty feet tall. Families dressed like Teletubbies. Marching bands. Stilts. Zombies, unicorns, handmaidens, Wonder Women.

It is Halloween in the Big Apple, where the annual tradition since 1974 is an outlandish parade. Fifty thousand costumed marchers now begin the festive walk up Sixth Avenue, some fueled by alcohol and the musical downbeat. Spectators line the broad thoroughfare, eager to witness the raucous spectacle.

But the parade was almost canceled, and many believe it should be. Just four hours ago and less than one mile away, New York City experienced its worst terror attack since 9/11. Today’s disaster comes five months after another vehicle ramming—this one in Times Square—in which a lone criminal drove into a thick crowd of pedestrians.*

In addition, an ISIS-sponsored magazine called Rumiyah continues to encourage its followers to use trucks, when possible, to launch even more attacks. ISIS handlers around the world spend their days at keyboards communicating with would-be terrorists, methodically feeding a recruit’s deranged desire to develop local networks or carry out attacks in their own countries. Terrorists who choose to become car killers are encouraged to subsequently leap from vehicles and stab people to death. Potential terrorists are also encouraged to carry ISIS leaflets, to show their fidelity.

In fact, ISIS media outlet the Centre Médiatique an-Nur (“The Light”), based in France, has been boasting that a killing spree will take place on Halloween—even going so far as to announce the pending murders on ISIS Twitter accounts. This attack could take place anywhere in the world, in keeping with the “kill where you are” philosophy the terrorist group encourages in its vast online following.

In the aftermath of this afternoon’s attack, New York City police are carrying automatic weapons to protect the parade. Fifty thousand marchers is a “target-rich environment”—and the cops know it.


At 2:06 this afternoon, as children are being let out of school to celebrate Halloween, an ISIS terrorist completes a pickup truck rental at a Home Depot store in Passaic, New Jersey. His name is Sayfullo Saipov, and he is twenty-nine years old, a legal resident of the United States, though born in Uzbekistan. Federal officials are aware of the young man’s ties to terror groups, and even though several men of Uzbek heritage were recently arrested because of alleged ISIS involvement, Saipov was not among them. He lives in New Jersey and makes his living as an Uber driver.

Had Saipov purchased large amounts of fertilizer and diesel fuel—two combustible agents used in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people—it would have been cause for alarm. But renting a simple pickup truck concerns no one.

At 2:43 p.m., Saipov enters Manhattan by crossing the George Washington Bridge. Within twenty minutes, the terrorist arrives at Houston Street, in full view of the Hudson River.

Calmly, he veers onto a bike path parallel to the river. He then steps on the gas. For the next mile, the terrorist runs over joggers, cyclists, walkers, and anyone else out for a leisurely Tuesday-afternoon stroll. Eight people die, their last shocking moments defined by the sight of a truck driven by a man with a long black beard, intentionally coming right at them.

Four minutes later, where the bike path crosses the road at Chambers Street, the ISIS terrorist crashes into a school bus transporting children with special needs. He leaps from the pickup truck wielding a paintball gun and pellet gun, while screaming “Allahu Akbar.”

No one is scared. The guns don’t look real, and today is Halloween. Eyewitnesses believe they are seeing a man pretending to be a terrorist.

This delusion is short lived. The carnage on the bike path is obvious. Social-media posts quickly alert the world. New York City police officers respond, and Saipov is shot in the abdomen.

As of this writing, Sayfullo Saipov is still in prison, awaiting his day in court. *


In the face of this brutal attack, New Yorkers are defiant. They have endured 9/11 and persevered. They will not let terror dictate their lives. So it is that the Village Halloween parade is not canceled. Though the party mood is more subdued than usual, the spectacle will proceed.

“Life has to go on,” one parade participant, wearing a wedding dress, tells the press.


Far away, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is very pleased by events in New York. Life has not been good for the ISIS leader, and he is badly in need of some victories. Just recently, it was reported that al-Baghdadi was killed in Syria by a Russian air strike, but in fact the brutal terrorist dodged yet another proverbial bullet. However, al-Baghdadi knows his caliphate is shrinking and that he himself is in grave danger. He is on the run not only from Western coalition forces but also from Muslim terrorists in Iran.

Iraqi government forces recently retook the ISIS stronghold of Mosul—though not before al-Baghdadi ordered the complete destruction of the Grand Mosque in that city, the scene of his long oratory in 2014. In addition, coalition forces are slowly recapturing other towns in northern Syria. It is there, in the area around Raqqa, that the remaining ISIS holdouts are dug in.

But while actual territory is being lost, the worldwide threat level brought about by al-Baghdadi’s clever use of social media means that ISIS-inspired terror attacks continue to rise. Just today, a suicide bomber in Kabul, Afghanistan, murdered eight people in the name of ISIS.

The psychopathic al-Baghdadi feels only for himself. Since the missile attack targeting him a couple of years ago, he has ignored his personal appearance, gaining about fifty pounds and letting his beard grow unkempt. Al-Baghdadi is under tremendous pressure. He well understands the brutality he has ordered and the consequences of those actions if he is caught.

But Allah will surely protect his servant, or so al-Baghdadi believes.

A reckoning, however, is coming.

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