9:01 A.M.
UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT BUILDING
FIRST AVENUE AND FORTY-SECOND STREET
NEW YORK CITY
The driver of the school bus stood up and took the lead position at the bus door. He held up his hand.
“For the Republic,” he said.
Then the ground shook like a small earthquake, kicking the bus sideways though it didn’t turn over.
The driver waved the first man through and then others, as they’d been assigned. There were thirty-four on each bus, and each man had long since made his deal with Allah.
The first gunman stepped to the sidewalk, stepping over the dead FBI agent. He was followed by other gunmen from the bus, all clutching rifles or submachine guns (SMGs). He started firing at the gathered media, pumping slugs into on-air reporters.
The other gunmen spread around the bus, shooting at anything and everything that moved. Right behind the first bus, the second yellow school bus also poured out.
Dozens of shooters remained on each bus—firing from windows to the west, away from the UN, pumping lead into people and cars, focusing in on any NYPD cruisers or official-looking vehicles, though it didn’t matter; they shot at everything they could see moving.
Gunmen on each bus faced the UN and were there to provide cover. Each gunman had on thermal optics. These soldiers were in place to soften up the interior layer of the security perimeter, the men closest to the president.
As the buses emptied out, several brigades of Hezbollah soldiers—dressed in street clothes—moved toward the UN complex, shooting in front of them as they charged forward, running at the UN building. Inside the buses remained highly trained Hezbollah snipers, who watched as the frontline gunmen moved toward the UN building.
Suddenly, glass shattered and bullets started flying from the UN back at the Iranians. A low boom, then another, and soon the Iranians charging at the tower started to drop, like dominoes.
The snipers knew how to work; there was no need for coordination. They started pounding the area behind the broken glass with slugs, even as bullets continued to fire in the direction of the men in front of them, running forward, also shooting.
A window on a higher floor in the tower shattered at the same instant one of the bus snipers was slammed in the forehead by a cartridge that opened upon impact and ripped out the back half of the man’s skull, blowing it out across the side window in a bloody mess.