Title: The Plot (Flash fiction in under 700 words)
By: Tim J Rhohn-Sayers
We four agreed that we would use WhatsApp for all our
communications as it is end-to-end encrypted – meaning nobody could ever know
what content we were exchanging. The more thoughtful and intellectual of the
four of us was Mustafa and he was concerned that MI 5 might have made some deal
with the owners of WhatsApp to decrypt messages that they believed were
involved in terrorism plots but we were assured by our comrades that that was
not the case – so we went ahead and blindly used the app for everything.
We each had a role to play and we were very organised. We
all met at uni – well that’s not strictly true as we met at The Mosque but then
found out that we were all at the same uni – Sheffield Hallam and two of us
were on the same course – Electrical and Electronic Engineering. It doesn’t
really matter what the other two were doing at uni – they’d dropped out anyway.
– Dropped out and went ‘under the radar’ for training in Syria.
We four were (are) devout Muslims and we would, we hoped,
give our lives to Allah (Peach Be Upon Him) and The Muslim faith. That was our
goal and our shared vision.
We made a mistake early on I think. We got too close to a
couple of white boys that one of us had been to school with. They weren’t boys
actually – well in their twenties like us. Richard Thompson, a delivery van
driver and Mike Hampton who worked for Amazon. They seemed like OK guys and
they respected us and our faith – in fact Richard said that he might convert,
so I worked on him for months but it turned bad.
The plan was simple and we did not have any hang-ups – we all
wanted to make sure that The British Government would never forget what we did
for our faith.
I was pushing for using Richard’s van for a killing spree
but needless to say Mustafa had a much grander idea and he being just a bit
older, cleverer than us, he got his way. He along with Mo (Mohammed Abboud),
the two uni lads and still seen as mainstream by the authorities were working
on a bomb plot – in fact even building the bomb.
We met every few days, sometimes even with Richard but it
would always be somewhere safe and we would always be watching for eyes –
others watching us. We would always get rid of Richard as quickly as possible
and then move on somewhere else – usually Mo’s flat and we’d get all the plans
out.
Months went by and I was getting impatient. I had friends
that had an idea what we were about and they’d pressure me – tried to prise
information from me. Don’t get me wrong here – these were OK, good Muslims, no infiltrations
– they just wanted action – to show the British that we mattered.
We were one week off doing it.
Mo seemed hesitant for the last couple of weeks and I wondered
if he was scared. We had all prayed together and we had all shouted out our
commitment to the faith and to spreading the faith. We all had equal commitment
to the eventual setting-up of a Muslim state, just like Israel got what they wanted:
The Jews had their land – we would have ours. Ideally that land would be
Britain – The UK – but it would take time and we would be dead but Allah (Peace
Be Upon Him) would see this come to fruition.
I was fast asleep when I heard a bang. Then another much
louder bang. It was my bedroom door being smashed-in.
A dozen men with guns in black uniforms forced me down again
onto the bed covers. They all shouted at me. I was still half asleep.
That was three days ago. We were all arrested and
interrogated separately. They knew – but how did they know?
Finally, Richard Thompson walked in and faced me in the
interview room. He was in Police uniform.
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