Chapter One
New Tools for New Terrorists
Thursday, April 22, 2003; Washington, D.C.
7:30 p.m.: Ed was not a basketball fan, but he did enjoy the hum of the
gathering crowd in the MCI Center. And he most certainly enjoyed any time he
could spend with his daughter, Samantha.
They were both overdressed for the indoor heat being pumped from a vent
nearby. As Sam pulled her sweater over her head, static electricity caused her
fine hair to float delicately toward the ceiling. Almost like a halo, Ed thought
to himself, like an angel. He thought, for a moment, of the day he and Sarah
brought Sam home from the hospital, remembering how impossibly tiny she looked
in the brand-new crib. Nine years - of diapers, day care, finger paint, birthday
cakes, bicycles - and now braces.
Sam spread the souvenir program on her lap and expertly thumbed the pages.
Finding the Washington Mystics' photo, she launched into a prac ... read full excerpt from Six Nightmares; ebook