The North Tower

   Terrorists:

   Mohammad Atta
   Ahmudaziz Alshehri
   Wail Alomari
   Saced Saqumi
   Waleed Alghamdar

   Although the sky had started to show the first orange rays of the sunset, the hotel “South Comfort Portland Inn” was still plunged into darkness. A light breeze blew through the leaves of the palm trees that were guarding the parking lot, in which the cars, geometrically aligned, looked as huge animals fallen asleep. Not a sound could be heard, and everyone in the hotel was still sleeping, with the exception of two travelers that had taken room 232 on the 2nd floor. It was a bit past 4 and a half a.m., but Mohammad Atta and Ahmudaziz Alshehri were awake. In fact they had not shut an eye all night long. They read most of the time from the Koran and prayed, and the on coming of the dawn found them laying on a carpet, next to each other, with their legs crossed and holding hands. “…because there is no other god than Allah. There is no other god than Allah”, Ahmudaziz Alshehri continued to repeat, a 22 year old Arab, thin, with dark hair, big eyes, wide nose and thick lips.” Allah is great…Allah is great”, murmured the Egyptian Mohammad Atta, 33 years old, with sharp eyes, wide nose, thin lips and a square like figure that denoted cruelty.
   Mohammad put down the Koran and went into the bathroom. Ahmudaziz got up, opened the wardrobe and took two leather bags which he opened one at a time. Inside each of the bags there were a few clean clothes and a small purse, which together with a dressing kit, formed a strictly necessary baggage.
   Ahmudaziz took out the small purse, opened it and checked its inside. The passport, drivers license, a folded paper sheet, and a regular knife used in biro tics, were the only things inside it. He took the knife and crossed its edge over his thumb and smiled…
   It was 5:33 a.m.. The dawn had conquered the night. The fiery sky was reflecting its color over the entire ground, that slowly started to wake up. Mohammad shivered a bit in the coolness of the morning, opened the door of a blue Nissan Altima rented a while ago, having the 3335VI license plate, and got in the divers seat. Ahmudaziz joined him immediately and now you could hear the engine start. The car started, and left the parking lot, took a right on the boulevard and headed to the Jetport international airport from Portland, where the two of them had to fly to the Logan international airport in Boston, set in at a 767 Boeing table and at 6:50 take off to Los Angeles.
   At 7:50 on the entrance door, Mohammad Attaf, Wail Alomari and Ahmudaziz Alsehehri made their appearance, and were slowly walking on the middle and right row, heading to the 21 and 22 rows in which the employees of a company were sitting. The huge motors of the plane started to get louder and louder, until the noise produced by the gigantic force of the turbines became painful, the vibrations being carried to the very last molecule of the body of the 81 passengers and 11 members of the flight crew.
   Captain Jordy Ondinski looked at his secondary man, Terry McGlamour, made a sign and asked permission from the control tower. He receives it and the enormous Boeing 767, 50 meters long and with the same wing length, whose tanks held 80 tons of kerosene, took off the Logan international airport track. It was 7:59 a.m.
   In the 25 row, in the middle, Wail Alomari, Ahmudaziz Alshehri and Mohammad Atta were sitting quietly. Ahmudaziz Alshehri, was looking at a sheet of paper, printed with Arab letters, which he was reciting engrossed: “Make oath once again with Allah, that you will give your life in his name ! Check if your knife is sharpened well. While stabbing your victim…….
May God give us what he promised, either victory, or martyrdom. Allah is great !”.
   Alshehri handed the paper to Alomari, who took it without saying anything and started reading deeply. Mohammad Atta was gazing straight to his face. He was holding his eyes half open, and his square figure, with thin lips was absolutely impassive. Several sequences of December the year before were unrolling, when he was standing at a flight simulator in Miami, at a 727 Boeing.
   At a certain point, the four stewardesses started pushing trays with breakfast and drinks down the isles.