Ocean City HQ

The Prudential building was once the tallest structure in Boston. It was a part of the Copley Square complex near the Colonnade Hotel. It had its own underground subway station. Farsier opened his wallet and looked at the small unfolded note designating the safe room on the twenty-eighth floor of the Prudential tower.

At two o’clock Farsier walked from the elevator at floor number 28 and found the room number. The door had a stenciled title of “Continental Alliance” in large black letters beneath its number. He opened the door and walked in to face an empty reception desk with an opened office to its right.

Farsier walked into the empty office and back to the receptionist desk. A note had been placed in the middle of the framed leather blotter. It was a phone number and in Farsi characters instructions for him to call the number upon his arrival. Farsier picked up the desk phone and heard the dial tone. He dialed the number on the note and the familiar voice answered.

“What were the exact words of the man who spoke to you earlier?”

Farsier related Dakin’s queries at the restaurant.

“What did he look like and tell me his position and his title?”

Again Farsier complied.

“Go to the window of the office. It faces Mecca. Close your eyes and repeat your noon Salah prayers without kneeling. When you open your eyes Allah will reveal to you what will be next.”

He put the phone down and complied. He had prayed before without his rug and without kneeling–on planes, in classrooms, and during battlefield training. Farsier opened his eyes after acknowledging the all-knowing and ever present Allah. A descending cradled scaffolding stopped and a smiling face looked back at him.

The window washer bowed his head and looked again at Farsier’s questioning expression. The small hole produced in the window by the silenced 9mm bullet did not shatter the glass. It went straight into Farsier’s forehead releasing Farsier to his final journey, ahead of schedule, to the Paradise of his dreams.