The Solomon Scroll

by Alex Lukeman

  "I don't care much for modern music," Selena said. "With Elvis I can understand what he's singing about."

  Diego rolled his eyes.

  Nick lowered the windows. "Hot," he said.

  "Be glad you're not wearing this outfit," Selena said. "It's like being in a sauna."

  "Nick, Abidi is coming out of the house."

  "Copy."

  He started the car, waited for a truck to pass by and made a U-turn back toward the villa. They saw the white BMW ahead and followed it back toward Beirut.

  Selena was reading the Arabic documents that Elizabeth had sent.

  "The villa belongs to someone called Al-Bayati," Selena said.

  "Never heard of him."

  "I have," Elizabeth said over the interlink. "He deals in black market information. Classified weapons technology, industrial spying, things like that."

  "Sounds like a real philanthropist," Nick said.

  "Go talk to Abidi."

  "Copy, Director."

  CHAPTER 12

  The heat of the night was offset by a cooling breeze from the Mediterranean. They'd parked half a block down from Abidi's building. A sodium filled street light reflected from the green storefront on the ground floor, painting the sidewalk a sickly color.

  Their dust-streaked Mercedes attracted no attention. The German cars were popular in Lebanon. Three others parked on the block were almost identical.

  "A lot of activity in that store," Diego said.

  "It's a Hezbollah front. Anybody in there is trouble."

  "Going to be hard getting through that."

  "We're not going through that," Nick said. "We'll wait for him to come out."

  He looked at his watch. "It's early yet. Nothing gets going here till 10 o'clock. Chances are he'll come out for the nightlife like he did the night before last. It's the thing to do here."

  "If he doesn't?"

  "Then we'll come back tomorrow."

  An hour later Yusuf Abidi came out with his bodyguards. Abidi wore dark slacks, polished shoes, sunglasses, a white shirt with a long pointed collar and a linen sport jacket. He had a thick gold chain around his neck. He was joking with one of the guards.

  "Man about town," Ronnie said.

  The white BMW pulled up and Abidi got in with the guards. Nick waited until the car was a block away before pulling out to follow them. The BMW was easy to keep in sight. They headed east, out of the Muslim section of the city. After twenty minutes the car pulled up in front of a nightclub. A line of men and women stretched from the entrance, corralled behind a red velvet rope. A very large man stood at the entrance letting people enter according to some inner criteria. The men were dressed in ways similar to Abidi. The women were about as far away from the Muslim standard of dress as could be. The scene could have been in Paris or New York.

  Diego whistled. "Whoa, those women are hot."

  They were. High heels, short skirts and low cut blouses seemed to be the norm. Nick thought he saw a pattern about who got in and who was turned away. Hot was in. Not so hot was out.

  Abidi got out of his car with his bodyguards. The bouncer held everyone back while the arms dealer went into the club.

  "We passed an alley next to the club," Ronnie said. "There has to be a side entrance."

  "I see what you're thinking," Nick said. "Get him into the alley and take him somewhere where we can talk to him."

  "You got it."

  "How do you plan to do that?" Selena asked.

  Nick and Ronnie looked at each other. "Use you as bait," Nick said.

  "You've got to be kidding."

  "You can lose the scarf and do something with the outfit you're wearing under that long dress," Nick said. "This isn't the Muslim section."

  "You want me to go in there?"

  "I'll go with you."

  "I don't think that's a good idea. You don't look like you belong and you don't speak Arabic."

  "I can speak it," Diego said. "I can pass for someone who might be from the Middle East."

  "Where did you learn Arabic?" Selena asked.

  "I picked it up in Afghanistan. I was going to try for Delta. Those guys all have to speak two or three languages."

  Nick drove past the club as they talked. Two blocks away he pulled to the curb and let the engine idle.

  "Diego, you go in with her. Leave the talking to Selena. Bribe the bouncer. With Selena's looks it should be all right. Ronnie and I will stay with the car and be ready to roll."

  "If they let us in, what do you want me to do?" Selena asked.

  "Find Abidi and get him outside. This is our best bet. We can't take him at his building."

  "We could go after him in his car," Diego said.

  "We could. But it will mean a shoot out on the street. You saw what those guards are packing. He's not going to start something in there, it's too crowded."

  "Makes sense."

  "Selena, what do you think?"

  "How do we get into these situations, anyway? I guess there isn't a better choice."

  "Think of it as a chance to show off your acting skills."

  "The only acting I ever did was as a daffodil in the first grade."

  "Then it's time to upgrade your resumé."

  CHAPTER 13

  Selena changed in the car. The scarf was the first thing to go. She shed the drab dress, revealing a blue silk blouse and short black skirt she was wearing underneath.

  She handed Nick her pistol.

  "You'd better take this."

  "You might need it."

  "Where am I supposed to put it? If this works, Abidi will be groping me in no time. A Sig isn't what he wants to feel."

  "You have a point," Nick said, "but I don't much like it."

  "The groping or leaving the pistol?"

  "Both."

  "Remember, this was your idea."

  She ruffled her hair with her fingers and looked in the car mirror. The way her hair was cut made it easy to turn it into something a little wild.

  "You're lucky I like to be prepared," she said. "Hand me my bag."

  From the bag she took out a pair of black spike heels and put them on. Usually Selena wore little makeup. This situation called for something different. She looked through a small cosmetics bag and chose a lipstick that accentuated her full lips. She did something with her eyes. All of it only took a few minutes.

  When she got out of the car, the transformation was startling. She looked ready for a night in Beirut.

  "Whoa," Diego said.

  Ronnie whistled.

  Nick scratched his ear. "Be careful," he said.

  She walked to the head of the line with Diego and smiled at the bouncer. Diego slipped him a hundred dollars American. A minute later they were inside.

  The club was a converted industrial warehouse, the interior huge and jammed with people. The roof overhead was thirty feet high, lined with exposed steel rafters and metal scaffolding crowded with banks of stage lights. A hothouse atmosphere of body odor, alcohol and lust assaulted their senses. A polished floor bigger than three or four basketball courts was a swirling sea of sweating people dancing to loud rock music. The volume bordered on painful.

  Colored lights swept over the crowd pulsing in time to the music and drenching the dancers in purple, green, yellow and red. From time to time the lights changed to a bright white strobe rhythm that painted the room in frozen flashes of black and white. A raised stage dominated one end of the dance floor where a DJ looked down on the horde of dancers. He grinned like a demonic maestro conducting an orchestra of the damned, rocking to the rhythms and adjusting lights and music as the mood suited him.

  To the left of the room was a long bar where people stood shoulder to shoulder three and four deep, holding their drinks and shouting at each other over the noise. To the right was an area crowded with tables. Beyond the tables was a roped off section with couches of red leather. Selena spotted Abidi on one of the couches. He had a drink in his hand. A blonde with large breast
s straining against a red blouse sat close to him on his left. His guards stood nearby, watching the crowd.

  "I see him," Selena said. "On the couch next to the blonde."

  "Looks like he's having a good time." Diego scanned the room. "The alley exit is over there. Right past the couches and next to the restrooms."

  He paused. "How do you want to play it?"

  "He hasn't seen us yet. Why don't you get us drinks. We'll separate. You get over by the restrooms and be ready. Make sure that door will open. I'll convince him that a quickie in the alley with a handsome guy like him would be fun."

  Diego raised his eyebrows. "Handsome? He looks like something out of a bad 70s movie set in Miami."

  "Men like him are predictable," she said. "I'll have to deal with the competition and it might take a little while to get the message across. Just be ready to move. His bodyguards may decide to come along for the show. That's where you come in. Don't leave me out there in the alley with that creep and his goons by myself."

  She touched the transceiver in her ear. "Nick, did you copy that?"

  Static. "Copy."

  "Why don't you get me a martini?" she said to Diego. "Vodka."

  "Shaken or stirred?"

  "Do I look like James Bond? Just so long as it's wet."

  Diego laughed. A few minutes later he was back with the drinks. Selena took the glass and sipped.

  "Lousy vodka." Selena felt the adrenaline rush kick in, the fine high that was like no other she'd ever experienced. It was one of the things that kept her working for Elizabeth.

  "Let's do it," she said to Diego.

  Outside in the Mercedes, Nick drove around the block until he came back to the front of the club. The line at the door had gotten longer. It stretched toward them and around the corner, away from the side with the alley. He eased past the club and stopped at the alley entrance. The Mercedes was just one more car double parked on the wide street.

  "I should be in there with her," Nick said.

  "She's got Diego. She's fine."

  "You think he can handle it?"

  "Yeah. So do you or you wouldn't have sent him in with her."

  "When this goes down it's going to be quick."

  "It's always quick," Ronnie said.

  Inside the club Diego sauntered over to the alley door with his drink. He shielded the door with his body and tried the handle. He felt the latch open and the door move. Gently he pulled it shut. He watched Selena.

  Selena talked her way past the first guard and stood in front of Abidi.

  "I think I know you," she said in Arabic. "Weren't you at Ibrahim's party?"

  It was a gamble. Ibrahim was a common name. If he'd been to a party, it opened the door. If he hadn't, she was ready for that as well.

  "I don't remember seeing you there," Abidi said.

  Jackpot.

  "I remember you," she said. "You were with a different woman."

  "What woman?" the blonde said.

  "Adara..."

  Abidi held up his hand. He looked guilty.

  "You son of a bitch. That's the last straw. I've had enough of your lies and women."

  She stood and looked at Selena. "Good luck, honey. You're going to need it."

  Arabic or English, it's all the same with men like this, Selena thought.

  Out in the Mercedes, Nick heard Diego's voice in his ear.

  "The woman that was sitting next to Abidi just stomped off, pissed. He's patting the couch. Selena is sitting down. Game on."

  "Copy."

  "I didn't mean to upset her," Selena said.

  She turned toward Abidi, enough to pull her blouse a little lower. He looked at her breasts and then at her face. She smiled.

  "You like what you see? Why don't you buy me another drink?"

  "Forgive me, what are you drinking?"

  "Vodka martini."

  Abidi signaled one of his guards.

  "A vodka martini for my companion. Make sure they give her the good vodka, not that crap they usually serve."

  "The good vodka?"

  "You heard me."

  The man nodded and moved off toward the bar.

  "You are quite lovely," Abidi said. "I don't understand why I don't remember you."

  "I think you may have had a bit to drink. I know I did. It was quite a party."

  "It was. I'm Yusuf."

  "Fatima."

  "Ah, one of the four perfect women."

  "Only in name," Selena said.

  "You enjoy parties, Fatima? I am going to one later. Perhaps you would like to accompany me?"

  The guard came back with Selena's drink. She took it and sipped. It was a vast improvement over the first one.

  "I think I'd like that," she said.

  She reached over and touched the gold chain around his neck. She played with the hairs on his chest.

  "Do we have to wait until later to party?"

  She sipped her martini. It really was very good and the drink helped with her nervousness. She took another sip.

  This is going to be easy, she thought.

  Yusuf gave her a calculating look. "What did you have in mind?"

  She whispered in his ear. Yusuf smiled.

  "I'm going to use the ladies room," she said.

  "I will be waiting for you."

  Yusuf half rose from the couch as Selena got up and walked away.

  The guard who had brought Selena's drink said, "I do not trust her."

  "No, Gibril, nor do I. She is either a whore or a spy. Either way, I am going to enjoy her. Go get the car and take it around back. Hassan will stay here with me. You put the drug in her drink?"

  "Of course."

  "Good. Go."

  Diego had moved a few yards from the door to the alley and away from the restrooms. He watched Selena get up and walk unsteadily to the toilets. He triggered his comm link.

  "Nick, I think Selena is drunk."

  "That can't be," Nick answered. "You haven't been there long enough. Besides, she wouldn't compromise an operation."

  "She just went into the bathroom and she's walking like she is. Abidi sent one of his guards away. Now he's getting up and coming toward the alley door with the other one."

  "Maybe she's pretending, to get him off guard," Nick said.

  "I don't think so. You can't fake the way she looks."

  Nick's ear began itching. Ronnie saw him reach up to scratch it.

  "I'll bet the son of a bitch drugged her," Nick said. "I'm going into the alley. Don't let that other guard follow her."

  "Copy that," Diego said.

  "You want me to go with you?" Ronnie asked.

  "No. Stay with the car and keep it running. We may have to leave in a hurry."

  Nick got out of the car, left the door ajar and entered the narrow alley. It was dark away from the street. The alley was paved with cobbled stones and went all the way through to the next street over. A rusted bell shaped fixture set over the alley door cast a week pool of yellow light into the darkness.

  A white car stopped at the far end of the alley. Nick recognized Abidi's BMW.

  Shit.

  He spoke into the comm link.

  "Ronnie, Diego, Selena's been made. It's a set up. Abidi's car is at the other end of the alley. The driver and the guard are getting out. They're coming into the alley."

  Nick pressed against the rough stone wall in the shadows of the alley, hoping he hadn't been seen. He took out his SIG .40, pulled back the hammer and laid his finger alongside the receiver.

  It was about ten yards to the alley door. The door opened and Selena staggered out, her arm gripped tightly by Abidi and followed by one of the guards. The two men at the other end of the alley began walking faster. Then Diego came through the open door. He piled into the guard. The door slammed shut behind them. Diego and the guard went down onto the stones and dirt.

  Abidi shouted. Guns came out at the other end of the alley and Nick fired. He missed, fired again and one of the two went down. T
he shots echoed in the narrow confines of the buildings. The second man opened fire. Nick felt the rounds pass by. He crouched down and let off three quick shots that took Abidi's man in the chest and knocked him aside. The first man was getting to his feet. Nick shot him again, twice. He stopped trying to get up.

  Abidi held Selena in front of him as a shield. He held an ugly curved knife an inch from her throat, gleaming under the light over the door. Her head lolled to the side. Her eyes were open, unfocused. Nick stood.

  "Stop," Abidi said. "I will kill her."

  Nick still held the gun in his right hand. Diego got to his feet and froze in place, standing over the unconscious body of the bodyguard. Out on the street someone was shouting. In minutes, police would be swarming the scene.

  "Okay," Nick said.

  Then he shot Abidi in the head.

  The .40 caliber hollow point blew out the back of Yusuf's skull. His arms flew wide and he went backward. Diego caught Selena as she crumpled to the ground. Nick ran forward.

  "Get her to the car," he said.

  They each took an arm and half carried, half dragged her back to the idling Mercedes. One of her black shoes came off in the alley. Ronnie had the doors open for them. He climbed back into the driver's seat as they threw Selena into the back. Nick got in with her. Diego jumped into the front.

  As soon as they were inside the car, Ronnie peeled away from the curb. Somewhere in the distance sirens sounded.

  "How is she?" Ronnie said.

  "Out of it. They used something strong. She's going to be sick when she wakes up."

  "That was a hell of a shot, Nick," Diego said.

  "He had the knife away from her throat. I wouldn't have taken it if the blade was right up against her."

  "Just the same, a hell of a shot."

  After twenty minutes they were back in front of their hotel.

  "Time to check out," Nick said. "You two clear out the rooms. I'll give the pilot a heads up and stay in the car with her."

  Later, on the way to the airport, Selena threw up.

  Nick left the car in the parking lot outside the private terminal where their plane waited. They boarded the Gulf Stream without incident. Twenty minutes later they were in the air. Selena fell asleep.

  Three hours later she was awake, drinking coffee. She held a cloth wrapped around ice on her head.