The old farmhouse was situated among rocky fields and had been abandoned by Gates’ father when he was just a boy. The failed farm was the reason that the Gates family had moved to the city in the first place, but the farm had been kept as a place to hunt and fish by Gates’ late father.
It would serve well as a place of hiding in the weeks ahead, and when the security levels returned to normal, Smith would send the men south in the very van he was driving back to Manhattan.
Smith watched the flakes grow thicker and thought what a waste the drive was that he was making. He was going to Times Square to check on the progress of his men. Rasa would be meeting him in a pre-arranged place near the edge of the pedestrian plaza to give him a status report.
If Rasa failed to show, Smith would know that something had gone horrendously wrong. In that eventuality, he would head to a secure spot that only he knew about to wait until it was safe to travel.
Smith parked the van as close as he could and changed into his own Santa suit, with the 1,000 Santas promotion going on, he couldn’t ask for a better disguise to blend in.
He walked briskly and reached the Plaza in ten minutes. Smith smiled when he saw a man he assumed was Rasa waiting for him at the rendezvous spot. The smile disappeared when Smith realized that the man was too small to be the hulking Rasa.
Still, even with the phony white beard and Santa suit, he recognized the man as he drew closer. It was Habib, one of his soldiers, and Habib’s eyes were darting about with fear shining within them.
“What has gone wrong? Where is Rasa?”
Before explaining in detail, Habib answered with one word.
“Tanner.”
***
At that moment, a hundred yards away, Tanner was not happy with himself.
He had lost Habib while following the man. Losing a target was something that hadn’t occurred in years. The failure was caused by inattention as he spoke on the phone to a 9-1-1 operator who insisted that he give her a name.
When Tanner used the phrase National Security and began talking about a gas attack at Times Square, he was transferred directly to the woman’s supervisor. In the end, Tanner had alerted the right people about the chemicals still in storage at the factory, as well as the dead Santa/terrorists strewn outside its walls.
He never mentioned the dead police officer in Sharad Jones’ apartment, on the off chance that Sharad might come out of things unscathed.
At some point during that call, Habib must have grown aware of his presence and sped the van he had been driving through a freshly turned red light, causing Tanner to sit and wait for the bumper-to-bumper traffic to disperse.
However, Habib hadn’t become aware of him until late in the game, and Tanner was certain that the man’s destination was Times Square.
Tanner walked about Times Square, concealed beneath the Santa costume, and searched for either Habib or Smith.
***
After returning the money to Francis Nash, Merle and Earl dropped the crapmobile back where they had found it and traveled on foot to Times Square.
The crowd had doubled since they had been there earlier and there were even more men dressed like Santa.
When Merle noticed that one of the Santas was glaring at them from the doorway of a store, he realized that it was Ricky Horton, and the eyes above the cheery white beard looked pissed.
“That’s Horton over there, ain’t it?” Earl asked.
“Yeah,” Merle said.
Horton raised an arm and pointed a finger at them as he rushed their way.
“Run Earl!” Merle shouted, and they did, with Horton giving chase.
***
“All of them?” Smith said in a tone laced with incredulity.
“Yes,” Habib said. “And we must assume that Rasa is dead as well, although I did not see his body.”
Smith felt nauseated. All the brilliant planning and maneuvering and one man had destroyed it all.
Tanner must have tipped the authorities to the location of the factory. If any of the men did survive, Smith knew that he would be in grave peril and his face plastered on wanted posters alongside Sharad’s.
“This is disastrous, Habib, but are you certain that the man Tanner didn’t follow you?”
When Habib didn’t answer, Smith followed his gaze and saw that he was looking at a man dressed in a Santa suit and phony beard. One look at the man’s intense eyes told Smith that he was seeing Tanner.
“Quickly Habib, move! We will lose him in the crowd.”
Smith and Habib dashed among the throngs and were swallowed by them, but Tanner was gaining while keeping them in sight.
As much as he wanted to turn and attack Tanner, Smith knew that he dared not draw attention to himself with all the security and police wandering about, and so he ran while looking for a way to shake Tanner off his trail.
Large sculptures were in the plaza as part of the celebration of the holidays, and when Smith approached one that looked like a melted pyramid, he ran to the right side of the monolith with the full intention of circling it and running back the way he’d come.
He was sure that by doubling back he would lose Tanner, but to his shock, after rounding a corner of the sculpture, a man in a Santa suit was running right towards him with his arms reaching for him.
Smith assumed that Tanner had been running faster than he realized and had circled around the sculpture first, but Smith would not be taken, and so he brought out his knife.
As a pair of strong hands grabbed Smith by the collar, he drove his knife into the man’s stomach and delighted in the look of shocked pain he saw on the man’s face.
But then, his joy and triumph both faded when he realized that he had stabbed the wrong man.
***
It wasn’t Tanner who had grabbed Smith, but rather Ricky Horton, who had mistaken the fleeing Smith and Habib for Merle and Earl.
Ricky realized his mistake, and as he sank to the ground, he spoke to Smith.
“Why’d you stab me, and where did those hillbillies go?”
Smith left the knife embedded in Horton, grabbed Habib by the arm, and disappeared into the thickening snow of a Christmas Eve.
CHAPTER 23 – Strangers in the night
When Tanner saw Smith run behind the pyramidal sculpture, he was certain that the man would try to use the thing as an opportunity to double-back, and so he ran to the left to cut him off.
Unfortunately, for Tanner, the left side of the pyramid was crowded with people listening to a street violinist, as the talented old man played a soft romantic tune.
Tanner weaved around and among the music lovers at half the speed he had been going, but smiled in triumph as he watched a pair of Santas running his way. He cleared the crowd, headed towards the pair, and extended a stiff arm to block their progress, while also slamming them against the side of the mammoth sculpture.
However, it wasn’t Smith and Habib he had pinned, but rather, Merle and Earl.
***
Ten feet to Tanner’s right, Sara stared over at him after he confronted Merle and Earl.
She and Brian Ames had been leaning back against the sculpture, embraced in a kiss, when Tanner had stopped the Carter brothers in their flight.
Sara sighed. She didn’t want to work tonight, didn’t want to be Agent Blake. She just wanted to be Sara, Sara who was falling head over heels in love. She certainly didn’t want to become involved in a drunken fight between three men dressed in Santa Claus suits.
Still, in order to keep the peace, she was about to intervene when the larger of the three men apologized to the other two, glanced her way, and then moved off in a hurry.
Sara smiled at Brian, asked, “Where were we?” and kissed him again.
***
Tanner had grabbed the Carter brothers expecting to look down into Smith’s intelligent brown eyes, but instead, he found himself staring into the dull gray eyes of Merle and Earl.
Tanner figured that he had outsmarted himself and that Smith mus
t have kept moving in a straight line instead of circling back.
Tanner released Merle and Earl.
“Sorry boys; I thought that you were someone else.”
Before leaving, Tanner gave a quick look at the couple standing a few feet away, and then rushed off to find Smith again.
***
Merle and Earl both sighed with relief as Tanner headed off. They had thought that he was Ricky Horton.
They walked by the young couple who had resumed their kissing and decided to circle back around.
That was when they stumbled across Horton sitting on the ground, leaning back against the sculpture, with the knife sticking out of his stomach. If the other people walking by had noticed him, they took no mind of it, but just continued to chatter and stroll along.
Merle knelt down beside him.
“Damn, Horton, who knifed you?”
“Don’t know, some Arab or Mexican maybe.”
“I’ll get a cop to call an ambulance,” Earl said, before rushing off to alert a pair of police officers who were approaching from the west.
Horton grabbed Merle’s hand.
“I don’t want to die.”
Merle gripped his hand and smiled.
“You won’t, but save your strength.”
“Tell me something... what’s your name, hillbilly?”
“I’m Merle and my brother is named Earl.”
“Oh, well tell me something else, Merle, where did you guys get all that money?”
“We stole it from that Secret Santa fella, but we gave it back.”
“All of it?”
“Yeah.”
“Damn.”
“Yeah.”
The cops arrived and soon Ricky was rushed off to the hospital. With nothing else to do, Merle and Earl stayed for the Santa Parade and watched the children delight in the freshly fallen snow.
Earl sighed.
“I just realized that I don’t have a gift for you and I spent the last of my money renting this Santa suit.”
“Me too,” Merle said. “But that’s okay, at least we ain’t got a knife in our guts like Horton.”
Earl pointed at a little blond girl who had her tongue stuck out to catch snowflakes.
“That little angel reminds me of Laurel Lee.”
Merle nodded in agreement, and then jumped as a man shoved something into his hand. The man did the same to Earl and then moved on after wishing them a hearty “Merry Christmas!”
The boys looked down at their hands and saw that they were both holding golden envelopes with the words, A GIFT FOR YOU printed on them in white script.
The man had been Francis Nash, the Secret Santa, and he had just brightened two more lives.
Merle and Earl laughed and then handed each other their envelopes.
“Merry Christmas, Merle.”
“And to you too, little brother, a Merry Christmas to you too.”
CHAPTER 24 – The longest of long shots
Smith and Habib had lost Tanner in the crowd and returned to Smith’s van.
Habib drove, and once they were moving, Smith took out a cell phone and called Professor Gates.
“There has been a disaster,” Smith began, as he explained to Gates that Tanner had destroyed their plans while killing most of his men and alerting the authorities.
“Does he know about me and Carly?” Gates asked.
“I do not believe so, and that will be his downfall. Although he’s denied it, I believe that Sharad hired this Tanner and that means that Tanner will be looking for him.”
“Yes, but Sharad is here with me, does that put me in danger?”
“You are safe, Professor, for now, but it is in both of our best interests to kill Tanner.”
“You have a plan, Khalid?”
“Yes, but I’ll need your daughter to help carry it out.”
“I’m listening,” Professor Gates said.
***
Gates hung up two minutes later. As a precaution, he destroyed the cell phone he’d just used to take Smith’s call. The two men had several throwaway phones that they could use to communicate, and never used any cell phone that could be traced to their own names.
Professor Gates took a new phone from his desk and handed it to his daughter, Carly.
“If there are any problems, use that to call me or Khalid, who is going by the name Smith. The numbers are pre-loaded.”
“What does Tanner look like?”
“Khalid says that he has unusual eyes, is six-feet-tall, and with dark hair. He may also be dressed in a Santa suit.”
She looked back towards the kitchen where both Sharad and her sister were bound to metal chairs.
Tears fell from her eyes and she gave her father a pleading look.
“You won’t let Khalid kill Jenny, will you?”
Gates grabbed his daughter and stared at her with the bright gaze of a fanatic.
“I will do what is necessary, and so will you, now go!”
Gates released her. After she left, he walked into the kitchen and stared down at Sharad and Jennifer.
***
Sharad greeted Gates appearance with a look of hate, one that Gates answered with a sad sigh.
“On the day you were born in this city, I told your grandfather that he should have you kidnapped and brought to him. You see, I knew that if you grew up here you would never be one of us. That stupid cow who was your mother was to blend in here as I did, but instead, she actually fell in love with your father and tried to become an American.”
Sharad was gagged, and although Gates couldn’t make out his words, he understood that Sharad was asking a question when he mumbled at him.
“Oh, you think I’m an American? No boy, I was born in your country and grew up as one of your grandfather’s best friends. My own grandfather, and my father were working there as engineers in the oil fields and my mother had worked as his secretary. When my father moved back here to become a farmer, I stayed with my mother. The saddest day in my life was when my mother dragged me back here, but I never forgot where I came from, and I never lost contact with your grandfather.”
Sharad strained against the ropes holding him in place.
“Relax Sharad and erase that look of betrayal from your eyes. I haven’t been duplicitous, rather, it’s you who have turned your back on your heritage.”
Jennifer was staring up at her father with pleading eyes while he spoke. Gates left the kitchen without even acknowledging his daughter’s presence. As far as he was concerned, she was dead to him, and his greatest failure.
While on his way out of the room, Gates cut off the lights and left Sharad and Jennifer sitting in the dark to ponder their fate.
***
Tanner gave up searching for Smith in Times Square and returned to his car.
He had no idea where Smith could be, he only knew where the man had been.
Tanner was certain that Smith wouldn’t go within a mile of the factory where the chemicals were. He would have to assume that Tanner had alerted the authorities. And so that left only one place left to look.
Tanner pointed his car in the direction of Sharad’s apartment house and hoped that Smith had, for whatever reason, returned to the scene of his crime, the murder of Officer Michael O’Leary.
It was the longest of long shots, but it was all Tanner had.
CHAPTER 25 – Tanner trap
Before Tanner approached Sharad’s apartment house, he watched it from a distance through his binoculars. If the Feds hadn’t discovered Sharad’s link to the building, they soon would.
Lights were on in many of the apartments, but there was no glow in the one belonging to Sharad, nor was there a light in the abode of Richard Wexler, who Tanner had murdered only hours ago in a neighboring apartment house.
There was a young lady pacing in front of the building. A good-looking blonde wearing a winter coat and a knit hat.
Although he couldn’t be certain, Tanner thought that she was the same woman
he had seen with Sharad in the photo he’d found in the drawer of the bedroom.
He approached her with stealth, in clothes as black as a shadow, having discarded the Santa suit. The snow had continued to fall and his footfalls were cushioned by over an inch of snow.
The girl was actually Carly Gates, pretending to be her sister, Jennifer, in order to lure Tanner into a trap created by Smith.
When Carly realized that she was no longer alone, she jumped in fright, but then she rushed towards Tanner with pleading eyes.
“Hi, do you live here? And if you do, do you know Sharad?”
“I don’t live here, but I do know Sharad.”
“Oh good, do you know where he is?”
“No, but I’m looking for him too. What’s your name?”
“I’m Jennifer. I’m Sharad’s girlfriend.”
“My name is Tanner, and tell me, would you happen to know a Middle Eastern man named Smith?”
“Mr. Smith? Yes, he’s Sharad’s friend.”
“You’ve met him?”
“No, but I saw Sharad with him once while I was riding in a car with my sister, Carly.”
“Where was this?”
“Up in Harlem; Carly spotted Sharad coming out of a vacant store that was being renovated. Sharad was with Mr. Smith and some other men, and we saw them while we were stopped at a light. When I asked Sharad about it, he said that Mr. Smith was fixing up the store to rent out and that he and the other men were helping Mr. Smith.”
“Do you think you could find this vacant store again?”
Carly started to say yes, but then she remembered her father’s instructions. Professor Gates wanted his daughter to lead Tanner into a trap, but he had also warned her that if she made it too easy that the man might grow suspicious. She was using her sister’s name in case Sharad had ever mentioned Jennifer to Tanner.
Carly pretended to look thoughtful for a moment, and then she gazed sideways at Tanner, displaying mistrust.
“How did you say that you knew Sharad?”
“I didn’t say, but we work at the same sanitation department building.”
Carly knew that was a lie, being employed there herself, but she smiled and played along.
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