Infernal

by F. Paul Wilson

  “Got a Tavor-two?” Jack said.

  Abe looked at him. “The model that kill—that was used at the airport? Why for?”

  Jack wasn’t sure he had an answer to that.

  “Just want to see one.”

  Abe shook his head. “Never carried them.”

  “What? You carry everything.”

  “It only seems that way. The Micro Uzi, Tec-nine, and Mac-eleven are much more popular. Not that the Tavor is any bohmer in firepower—spits five-fifty-six NATOs at something like nine hundred per minute—but no one’s ever even asked about one. I should stock something no one wants?”

  “Somebody wanted them.”

  “For reasons other than firepower, I suspect.”

  “The Israel connection.”

  “So it seems.”

  Silence hung between them.

  Finally Jack said, “What about that backup?”

  Abe stepped over to a rack and returned holding a small, sleek-looking semiautomatic with a dull gray finish.

  “You want a small nine? Smaller and lighter you don’t get than this Kel-Tec P-eleven. Double-action only with a ten-round double-column magazine.”

  Jack took it and hefted it. Light—a little under a pound; lighter even than his AMT. That would change when the magazine was in place—ten would double the number of rounds the AMT held—but still…

  “It looks a little longer…”

  “Only half an inch more than the AMT. This one’s used, but that’s good. You need to go through about fifty rounds to smooth out the action. For you that’s been done already. And note the parkerized finish. What’s not to like?”

  Jack couldn’t think of a thing. Ten backup rounds… his primary-carry Glock 19 with the extended magazine held seventeen. Keep a round in the breech of each and he’d have almost thirty shots.

  He retracted the slide, checked to make sure the breech was empty, then pulled the trigger. He guesstimated the pull at somewhere in the neighborhood of ten pounds, maybe a tad less. Just the way he liked it.

  If only he’d been there yesterday with one of these…

  “Sold. How much?”

  “It’s a gift.”

  “Abe—”

  “Considering the circumstances surrounding the loss of its predecessor, I should charge you? Your money’s no good today.”

  “It must have cost you at least a—”

  “Never mind what it cost me. Allow me a mitzvah, already, will you?”

  Jack wasn’t in a gift-getting mood, but felt obliged to let Abe do his good deed.

  “Thanks, Abe.”

  “May you never have to use it.”

  As they headed back upstairs, Abe said, “When are they releasing your father’s, you know, remains?”

  Remains… jeez.

  “Not until tomorrow.”

  Earlier this morning he’d made another call to the one-fifteenth, and this time he was referred to some city office downtown. The woman there told him that half of the bodies were being released today and the rest tomorrow. What was the deceased’s name?

  Jack told her and was informed that his father’s remains could be picked up at the city morgue after ten tomorrow morning.

  “The schmucks.”

  “Yeah. Another day, damn it. Tom left a message that he’ll be arriving on the Metroliner and I couldn’t get hold of him to tell him to wait till tomorrow. Which means he’s on his way.”

  They exited the closet and returned to the legal portion of Abe’s shop.

  “So? That’s bad?”

  “I was planning on meeting him, taking him over to the morgue to claim Dad’s body, getting it shipped to Johnson—”

  “Johnson?” Abe said as he reinstalled himself on his stool behind the counter. “Never heard of it. Jersey?”

  Jack nodded. “Our home town. Burlington County. Our mother’s buried there.”

  Mom… the man he was today could be traced back to her murder.

  “Damn.” Jack felt like hitting the counter again but didn’t want to put another scare into Parabellum. “This means he’ll have to stay over. Where am I going to put him?”

  “Well, he could stay with you.”

  Jack gave him a look.

  Abe waved his hands. “Never mind. Forget I said that. Oy, what was I thinking?”

  Jack showed his sweetest smile. “How about your place, ol’ buddy, ol’ pal?”

  “Never! Barely room for me.”

  “Which means I have to find him a hotel room.”

  “This week? One in Yonkers, maybe. Maybe not.”

  “And he’ll probably expect me to entertain him—which is not going to happen.”

  “Why not?”

  “Business.”

  “You can’t let it slide?”

  Jack shook his head. “I’d love to, but there’s only a small window of opportunity. And even if there weren’t, I want it off my plate before I start going to wakes and the funeral.” And facing his nieces and nephews. “Besides, I made a promise.”

  “Better get calling. Such an earache you’ll have.”

  “Yeah, thanks. Where’s your phone book?”

  * * *

  3

  Jack had to look twice and then a third time before he was sure this was his brother coming up the steps.

  Entering the main floor of Penn Station had triggered an almost unnerving sense of déjà vu. Yes, it was a train station instead of an airport, but the crowd of waiting travelers and expectant friends and family drew his thoughts kicking and screaming back to the baggage claim at La Guardia.

  He was glad Tom had decided on Amtrak instead of a plane. Jack had never liked airports, and after yesterday’s massacre…

  Lots of people were steering clear of airports now. But flying from Philly to New York had never made much sense anyway. Not only was the train cheaper, but when you added up all the delays and wasted time in and around the airports, it was faster. Cheaper even than driving, considering what it cost to park in Manhattan.

  He spotted a number of armed soldiers in black berets, camo suits, and combat boots patrolling the station.

  Sure, he thought with a surge of anger. Now you’re out in force. Where the hell were you yesterday?

  He shook it off.

  He’d finally found Tom a hotel room—managed to book him one right across the street from the station—but only because he’d once done a little fix-it for someone in the back office. He’d secured the room with a credit card under one of his aliases.

  He’d arrived a little early, so he killed time wandering the marble floor of the main level. He browsed the Book Corner where he saw a new Stephen Hunter book; he made a note to pick it up for some future time when he could focus on something longer than a train schedule.

  Speaking of which… he wandered toward the big arrival-departure board overhanging the main waiting area. A crowd clustered below, staring up at it like rapt worshippers before a shrine. He joined the congregation. Tom had taken the Metroliner and was due in at 1:59. The board said it was on time and ten minutes away.

  He spent the remaining time people watching.

  Folks in Penn Station looked tense, skittish. Jack figured he probably looked a little the same. What could happen at an airport could happen at a train station.

  He wondered how many of them were armed. He had the new backup strapped around his ankle and his Glock in a nylon holster tucked in the small of his back under the waistband of his jeans)

  Anyone started shooting around here was going to find someone shooting back.

  Finally the Metroliner arrived. And here was this lardy, mid-forties guy in a dark gray suit, red faced and puffing as he lugged an overnight suitcase up the stairs.

  Tom already had started putting on weight before Jack split to become nameless in Manhattan. But he’d really packed on the pounds in the fifteen years since Jack had last seen him. Looked like the “before” guy on an Overeaters Anonymous poster. But he had the same brown hair and
eyes as the brother Tom he’d known, and the features in the puffy expanse ol his face looked vaguely familiar.

  “Tom?”

  The guy looked up, blinked, then frowned. “Jackie?”

  “That’s me.” He extended his hand. “Even though I haven’t been ‘Jackie’ for a long, long time.”

  Tom’s palm was moist as they shook. His lips curved into a half smile.

  “Yeah, I should’ve figured that.” He shook his head and puffed out his cheeks. “Hell of a thing, isn’t it? One fucking hell of a thing.”

  Jack couldn’t argue with that.

  Tom looked around. “I’m going to need a drink before we head for the morgue.”

  Jack explained about the delayed release of the body.

  “Christ, why didn’t you tell me?”

  “I left you a message.”

  Tom shook his head. “I still need a drink. Anyplace around here we can grab one?”

  Jack shrugged. “You kidding? This is New York. Bars everywhere. Or, if you’re really thirsty and can’t wait…” He turned toward the string of shops and eateries framing the main floor and pointed to the glowing yellow sign over Houlihan’s entrance. “We can stop there.”

  “Looks as good as any. Let’s go.”

  * * *

  4

  Tom guzzled Grey Goose on the rocks. Jack had watched him pound back two and order a third during their first ten minutes at the bar. He was still working on the first half of his Brooklyn Lager pint. The light was low but Jack thought he could make out a fine network of dilated capillaries on Tom’s nose. Drinker’s tats?

  “You were always his favorite, you know.”

  Jack forced a laugh. “Are we going to start a Smothers Brothers routine? ‘Mom always liked you best’? That sort of thing?”

  “It’s true.” Tom stared morosely into his third vodka. He was nursing this one. “I don’t think Dad particularly cared for me. I’m not saying he didn’t love me—I’m sure he did in the paternal sense—but I never had the feeling he liked me.”

  Jack didn’t want to go there.

  “Tom…”

  “Hey, don’t get me wrong. I’m not feeling sorry for myself. I know I can be an egotistic jerk at times. Ask the Skanks from Hell.”

  “Who?”

  “My exes.”

  “How many are there?” Jack asked, though he knew the answer.

  “Two. And number three’s not so crazy about me at the moment. Anyway, they’re not important. It’s Dad who’s dead.”

  Jack didn’t respond. He was trying to get a grip on this virtual stranger who was his brother. He sensed a deep melancholy. He seemed almost… dispirited.

  Tom sighed. “Maybe I should have done what you did.”

  “Meaning?”

  “Disappear. All Dad did was talk about you and how he was going to track you down and bring you back. I was there but all he cared about was you.”

  “Cut me a break,” Jack said. “He had Kate and Kevin and Lizzie, and… and your kids.”

  Tom looked at him. “You don’t even know their names, do you. They’re your nieces and nephews and you don’t know a thing about them.”

  True. He didn’t. Hadn’t met any of his family’s next generation.

  “Yeah, well, maybe it’s time for me to start remedying that.”

  “Don’t do us any favors.”

  Jack fought a flare of anger.

  “Christ, Tom, you’re here, what, fifteen minutes, and listen to you. That why you came? To start a fight? That’s not what this is about.”

  Tom sighed again. “Yeah, you’re right. It’s not.” He drained his drink. “Sorry.”

  Jack did the same with his ale.

  “Let’s get you to your hotel room.”

  His head snapped toward Jack. “Hotel? I sort of figured I’d be staying with you.”

  “Nobody stays with me, Tom.”

  “Really?” He took on a pugnacious look. “How about Dad? Where was he going to stay?”

  “Not with me.”

  Tom shook his head. “You’re a weird one, Jackie—”

  “Jack.”

  “Okay: Jack. I talked to Dad last week about the Philly leg of his trip—during which he was going to stay at my place, by the way—and he said some strange things about you.”

  Uh-oh.

  “Like what?”

  “Well, I mean besides all the hagiographic blather about how you’d turned out and how good it was to get to know you again and all, he said something like, ‘If you ever need someone to watch your back, call Jack.’ Now what did he mean by that?”

  “Couldn’t say.”

  “What went on down in Florida that made the two of you so buddy-buddy?”

  “I guess you could say we bonded.”

  Bonded… the lump reformed in Jack’s throat, smaller this time, but definitely there. If he’d only known how little time they had left.

  “Yeah? How? I saw him a lot more than you did over the past fifteen years and we never ‘bonded.’ What happened?”

  “We took care of a problem together.”

  “What sort of problem?”

  “Not important.”

  “Shit. You’re as oblique as he was.”

  Jack shrugged. He was glad Dad hadn’t discussed it with Tom. Jack didn’t want to.

  Since Tom was making no move to pay for the drinks, Jack reached for his wallet.

  “I’ve got it,” Tom said. He pulled out a roll of bills, peeled off a twenty, and passed it to Jack. “How’s that look to you?”

  Jack recognized the workmanship—the same crew that had made the C-notes he’d passed to a pair of psychics last summer.

  “Queer.”

  “Damn it! You can tell?”

  “Stuff’s been all over town. Question is, what’s a judge, an officer of the court, doing with bogus bills?”

  Tom shrugged. “Evidence in a case. They looked fairly genuine so I pocketed a sample.”

  “Why? You haven’t been passing them, have you?”

  Another shrug. “It’s kind of a hobby. You know, to see if I can get away with it.”

  “Jesus, if you get caught—”

  “Hey, I’m a judge. I had no idea. Someone passed it to me and I innocently passed it on.” He smiled and put a hand over his heart. “I shall adopt the plaint of victimhood.”

  That might work for Tom, but Jack couldn’t risk being pulled in as an accomplice. Someone might ask him questions he couldn’t answer.

  “Well, don’t try it here.” Jack pointed to a twenty and a C-note taped to the mirror next to the cash register. “Everybody’s on the lookout for them.”

  Tom’s smile held. “No problem. I’ll bet I can work out a way around that.”

  This time he took out his wallet and removed a fifty. He waved to the barmaid and handed it to her along with the tab. Seconds later she was back with the change.

  As she turned away, Jack watched Tom pocket the real twenty and hold up the queer.

  “Oh, excuse me, miss. Can I have two tens for this?”

  She said, “Sure,” and went to the cash register and pushed in the twenty without checking it. Why would she? She thought it was the same bill she’d just given him. She returned and handed Tom the tens.

  When she was out of earshot, he grinned at Jack. “How about that for slick?”

  It took Jack about half a minute to recover. He’d seen a lot—a lot—of off-the-wall things, but his brother the judge pulling a two-bit bill switch…

  “You’ve gotta be kidding me, Tom. Are you crazy?”

  “Maybe. So what?”

  “Get that bill back.”

  “Relax. It’s a game. And it’s only twenty bucks.”

  “It’s not ‘only’ to her, and she’ll get docked for accepting it.”