“I got it! I got the job!” He came bounding into the house, gleeful as a child on Christmas morning.
“Oh, Tariq. How wonderful. Please, tell me all about it.” Umara Abbas became as excited as Tariq. She turned the stove down, moved the cooking food aside so it would not burn, and sat on a matching chair at the kitchen table.
“It’s amazing that I was hired.” He shook with excitement. Sitting down on a kitchen chair, he continued. “Even from another country, especially Pakistan, they still hired me! This is so good. It fits perfectly into our plan. Kamran will be pleased, no?”
“Yes, he will.” After spending so much time together, she had become enamored with Tariq. “The papers, they were okay?”
“Yes. Yes. They were good. Mr. Schuster looked them over and said they were fine. He said,” Tariq nodded, “I was smart to get a green card when I applied for my visa. He said it didn’t matter what country I was from, as long as it wasn’t Iraq, Iran or Afghanistan, and since I had my green card, it was no problem for him to hire me.” Tariq was breathing so hard, he had to stop to catch his breath. “He said they need extra help for the conference coming up. There was just enough time to train me.”
Umara smiled, very pleased. “This is exactly what Kamran planned.” She shook her head yes. “It is happening, Tariq.”
Although beginning to calm down, a still-excited Tariq could hardly believe his good fortune. His chest heaved with his heavy breathing. “I still have to qualify with a handgun.” He looked at her. “I do that on Thursday, three days from now.”
Umara’s eyes widened. “Can you do that? Can you shoot good enough to pass their qualification test?”
“Of course, woman. I think I should do that easily. You will see. They even provide the guns for their guards to carry, so they will all be the same. It’s a Sig Sauer P226 9mm semi-automatic. The magazine holds fifteen rounds of ammunition.” He shook his head again. His speech slowed as he got his breath back. “This is so perfect. I can’t believe it.”
He looked up at her. “I even get a uniform, Umara.”
She folded her hands in her lap. “Tell me about it.”
“It’s a light brown shirt with long sleeves, and those things up here on the shoulder.” He motioned.
“Epaulets.”
“Yes, that’s it. The shirt is lightweight and very smooth. Very nice. The pants are dark brown, and so is the leather belt and holster. I will have to get my own brown shoes.” He smiled again. “After I pass the shooting test, Mr. Schuster said he would order the uniform and a name tag to go over the top of the shirt pocket. Then I can start working. It will be about six days from now.”
“Will you work every day?”
“It is six days a week to start, until I learn about what to do and where everything is. Jack will even be my trainer.”
Jack resulted from an extensive search completed online by Tariq and Umara to discover who worked as security personnel for the center. Once they found the names, they searched background information on each one, until locating someone who lived reasonably close to their house.
“It worked like Kamran thought,” Umara uttered.
The plan first involved becoming friends with the other couple, then after a little while, letting the man know Tariq needed a job. As a foreigner, he did not have great prospects for a new job. His only work experience had been for a firm providing security for humanitarian aid shipments to his country.
They discovered Jack Williams had been s security guard for the Baltimore Convention Center for over four years. He and his wife Jennifer lived only about nine blocks from the house where Tariq and Umara had taken up residence. Tariq arranged for he and Umara to keep running into them so they could get acquainted. After becoming friends, Tariq let slip his work problem. Jack quickly said he would put in a good word for him at the Convention Center, and now Tariq had been hired.
“I look forward to telling Kamran about our good fortune.”
Nodding her head yes, Umara said, “You will have a lot to learn, and only a short time to do so. The conference is only two weeks away. Is the President still scheduled to speak there?”
“Yes, he is. And I know I do not have much time to prepare.” Tariq smiled broadly. “Do not worry. I will be ready. I will be there for my part of the plan.”