Mano's Brief.

Chapter 4.

They had stayed away from hotels and guesthouses, hiring instead a private condominium from a private host. There were fewer records that way and more privacy.
Bima was the eldest of the five, with a smooth light brown complexion and a sharp nose. Early forties. His eyes were inquisitive and bright and like many of his countrymen he wasn't very tall. He hadn't started out earlier in his life as a radical but it was something that had developed within him in his twenties. It didn't help that he had lost his wife at a very early stage in life. She had been murdered by a drunken American sailor but that still wasn't enough to send him over the edge. The fact that the sailor had got off virtually free had changed him. Radicalised him.

Agung was a well-known name; one of the sacred mountains of Bali was known as Mount Agung. However there was no sacredness within Agung. At twenty-eight years of age he was a seasoned member of Bima's team. It was known that he was an enforcer and a martial arts exponent.
At 32 years of age, Anwar was the explosive expert. He had been trained in places like Kandahar by Al Qaeda operatives. He had been taught how to source the material needed for his bombs. He knew everything about low and high explosives, and during his younger years he had been in the military - dealing with ordinance. In his time he had handled everything from dynamite, nitroglycerin, flash powders, acetylides of heavy metals, baratol, calcium nitrate explosives, diaminotrinitrobenzene or DATB, ethylene diamine dinitrate or EDDN, gelatinized nitrocellulose, heavy metal azides, and hundreds of other compounds." Prior to his military stint he had also worked with chemicals which helped to give him a good grounding in all that kind of stuff. In school he had set off a small explosion that injured a teacher and although he had come under suspicion he had managed to evade retribution. He was a man who knew enough to keep his mouth shut - something he had picked up as a boy. Anwar's dark eyes glowed as he worked on bomb components.

In Honolulu, Major O'Malley looked at Corporal Frank Cipponeri and said: "Says here, you joined HPD in 2002?
"That's correct, Major. Shortly after 9 11."
"Did that have a bearing on your decision to become a police officer?"
"Yes, sir, it did," he admitted candidly. "I was like any proud American. I wanted to step up."
"To do your bit?" O'Malley queried.
"A very British way of putting it, sir," he answered, "but yes. That's the guts of it."
"Mano's brief from the governor is to keep terrorism out of Hawaii and he has a small squad with which to do so. Would you like to be part of such a setup? You'd be replacing Kamakani who as you probably know was killed recently in a car crash."
"Hell of a cop," Cipponeri sympathised.
"You knew him, yeah?"
"I knew him."
"Friends?"
Cipponeri shook his head. "Acquaintances," he elaborated.
O'Malley nodded and took a note. He looked up and smiled. "Well, when can you start?"
"You tell me?" Cippo queried. He smiled back.
O'Malley consulted his calendar. "We'll arrange it with your commanding officer that you start with us this coming Monday. I doubt he'll be happy about it but we need someone straight away and your name was top of the list."
"Sir," Cippo acknowledged, coming to his feet.
As O'Malley came to his feet he pointed out something. "We're pretty informal here about rank. Mano as you know is the Chief and Nui is his number two. Kai Lino was recently promoted from the ranks and holds the rank of corporal and you, because of your age and experience, will come in as Acting lieutenant."
It was a step up and Cippo knew it. His smile widened. He'd bring the wife for a meal over the weekend. It was a time to celebrate.