Cold Snap

by J. Clayton Rogers

  "The log..." Ahmad switched to a DOS screen. Ari saw the date, the time and a sequence of four numbers, followed by 'OK'.

  "Well?"

  "Theoretically, as they get closer the pings should get shorter. But we're talking microseconds here." He scrutinized the logs. "There, another packet. They're getting closer. I just don't know their starting point. Bet there's a way, though...if I could access their log...but there's no time!"

  "'Time is like a sword,'" Abu Jasim intoned, quoting an Arab proverb. "'If you don't cut it, it cuts you.'"

  "OK, so I'm not a real geek," said Ahmad. "Did I ever say—"

  Ben came back into the room. "Next door's taken," he announced.

  "Abu Jasim," said Ari.

  Moaning loudly, Abu Jasim sat up. "I hate killing people this late in the day. It disturbs my sleep."

  "Put your gun on the bed and take Elmore with you. One look at him and they'll vomit out of the room."

  "Remember that Beretta I showed you?" Lawson glowered. "And what's the plan, anyway?"

  "We want to use the next room as an ambush nest. We leave the laptop in here, they enter, and when they come out we sever them from the earth."

  "That sounds like a plan, but I'm still thinking of leaving. Look at what you're asking. Losing my license is the least of my concerns."

  "Go, then," said Ari, dismissing him with a wave. He was too preoccupied watching the inscrutable numbers of the packet log to engage in debate.

  "Mr. Ciminon...you know...this is insane? Things like this don't happen."

  "You have forgotten Iraq so quickly?"

  "I mean here...they don't happen here."

  "Hey, man, Mr. Lawson," said Ahmad. "I'm from Chicago. You know what happens in Englewood every day?"

  Abu Jasim had made it to his feet. He lurched for the door.

  "Please protect him from the innocent unarmed civilians next door," said Ari to Lawson, who dropped all of his weight on his cane and followed Abu Jasim out the door.

  "Who and what is coming?" Ben asked when they were gone.

  "Killers," said Ari. "There will probably be gunplay. You may leave if you wish. But be advised, seeing your image on this laptop makes me think you are at risk."

  "And my wife?"

  "I would be remiss to say 'no'."

  "Thanks. Thanks a lot."

  "I apologize from the bottom of my heart."

  "That's pretty deep," Ahmad sneered.

  Ari thought of knocking him upside the head, but one did not abuse one's tools.

  "So if I stay and fight, the threat ends?" Ben asked tensely.

  "I believe so."

  "Fuck, I can't turn the GPS off," Ahmad complained, leaning forward and staring at the screen as if scrutinizing his reflection in a pond.

  "Didn't I ask you not to?"

  Screams and shouts from next door announced the arrival there of Abu Jasim. Had Lawson stayed with him? Ari looked longingly at the 500 S&W Magnum Abu Jasim had left on the bed. He had told his friend to acquire an identical weapon for him. As of yet, his order was unfilled.

  The intensity of the screams rose. Lawson had arrived. A minute later, Abu Jasim came into the room and flopped on the bed, bellowing loudly when he fell on the Magnum. He pulled it out from under his back.

  "The room is ours."

  "Did you bring anything with you from up north?" Ari asked him.

  "You mean guns? I brought along a few things."

  "Then go get them and hide next door."

  "Can't I rest?"

  "Don't they have beds next door?"

  "They've been soiled."

  "Go," said Ari. "And tell Elmore to come back here for instructions."

  "Your instructions? He might run away."

  "If he stays."

  Abu Jasim once again groaned himself out of bed and left, this time with his Magnum.

  "I've got two questions," said Ben, stepping aside as Abu Jasim left. "One's a repeat: if we handle this now, does the threat to me and my wife end here?"

  "Very well, I don't know," Ari answered truthfully. "We have to find out if you have something in common with Abdul-Wali and Paul Trinity."

  "Who?"

  "Two men killed in recent bombings here."

  "I saw the news. I don't know them."

  "You have been followed," Ari continued. "I think these people want to leave you a graphic warning, or something worse, but they haven't been able to find where you live."

  "I'm not in the book," Ben smiled ruefully.

  "The Book?"

  "The phone directory." Ben lifted his shoulders and let them drop. "We're listed under my wife's maiden name. There was this girl, way long ago...I dated her. We broke up. She never got over it and kept calling me, even after I got married. When Becky and I moved to our new house, I made sure my name stayed out of the book."

  "Ah," said Ari. "We need to find out why they are interested in you. Elmore is obvious. He was probing A-Zed and became their natural enemy. I was helping him, in a manner of fashion, so they are not enamored with me, either. But you and the other two men? I'm mystified."

  "Don't forget, I'm the one who dropped Uday Hussein off at the embassy," said Ben. "Maybe I've been fingered."

  "But that doesn't explain your connection to the others. I'm quite mystified."

  "That makes two of us."

  "After tonight, we will have to sit down and discuss the matter. And your second question?"

  "Where do you want me?"

  Ari was gratified by his willingness to join them. From Ben's perspective, his involvement was an unnecessary risk.

  "Got it!" Ahmad exclaimed, pulling the external hard drive cord out of the laptop. "I didn't even need 16 gigabytes. I could have brought something smaller and cheaper."

  "That red device is expensive?" Ari asked.

  "Put me out forty bucks."

  "A noteworthy investment. Are we still being pinged?"

  "Yes." Ahmad slid the Simplex into his bag. "It's spooky. Like those old war movies where the sub commander hears the destroyer's sonar getting closer and closer..."

  "But you still don't know how close they are."

  "There must be a way. I could figure it out with time."

  "And by the time you sort it out you'll be frolicking with the virgins of Heaven. Leave the A-Zed laptop on the bed, turned on. Go next door with Ben. Your uncle will arm you."

  "But I told you—"

  "Your protest is meaningless in this environment. Ben, you are armed? Good. Keep your phone on. I will let you know when to come out."

  "Come out shooting?"

  "Of course."

  "Of course!" Ahmad threw up his hands. "What if it's the FBI? You going to shoot them, too?"

  "Elmore and I will be in the parking lot. We will assess their identity from our vehicles."

  "So it could be FBI?" Ahmad drew on his ski mask and hid.

  "Stop that! Go! And protect that information with your life. If it is stolen, I expect to find you eviscerated."

  Lawson was waiting outside when Ari followed them out. Ari thought he gave him a curious look when he told him what he wanted to do. But with his half-face, it was hard to tell. He went to his Land Cruiser and pulled off to the far end of the motel parking lot. Ari closed the room door, then drove the Sprinter to the other end. His phone vibrated.

  "What?" he answered.

  "Where's my uncle?" came Ahmad's frightened voice.

  "Isn't he with you?"

  "No. He isn't with you?"

  Ari stretched his lower jaw to his upper lip and pressed down on his moustache. Had the stupid fool gone and passed out somewhere?

  "Stay where you are," he ordered Ahmad.

  "But I have to look for him!"

  "I would agree, but it's too late. They're here."

  Ari recognized the blue van from A-Zed, the same that had almost run over him and Lawson. It pulled slowly into the lot. He clambered into the back of the van and quickly found the silenced AR-1
5 Abu Jasim had bought from Canada. The idea was to wait until Sayid Mohammed and his men went into the room. If they had sense enough to leave a lookout, Ari would take him out with one silent shot. Then he could call for Ben to come out and they would drop on the rest of the gang when they emerged with the laptop.

  His phone vibrated. It was Lawson.

  "You said four, right?"

  "Yes."

  "Four just got out on this side. The driver's staying put."

  That called for an adjustment. Ari would have to take out a lookout and the driver, unless the driver was the lookout, connected by cell phone to those inside.

  "They're playing ninja, again," said Lawson.

  "I see..." Actually, Ari saw only one man, coming out from behind the van, his arms extended. He was holding a laptop. He walked halfway down the length of the single story motel and stopped in front of the room where Ben and Ahmad lay waiting. Ari chewed his moustache a little more fiercely. It was a pencil moustache, so this was difficult. The man with the laptop was covered head to toe in black. Though he was well lit by the coach house lamps bolted next to the door, his face was invisible. Ari assumed it was Sayid Mohammed, but he couldn't be sure. Peering down at the laptop display, he backtracked to the next room. He slammed the laptop shut and began walking back to blue van. He had taken out his phone and had begun speaking when he froze. Ari followed his gaze. The motel manager was standing behind the broad office window, gaping at the ninjas in her parking lot. The man with the phone made a curt gesture and two men sprang out from behind the van, racing for the office door. The manageress took a step backwards, but otherwise did not move.

  The men reached the office and one of them pulled at the door. Nothing happened. Ari grinned. The entrance was secure. No one could get in unless the woman pressed the release buzzer. One of the men raised his gun to fire through the glass, but the man with the phone had rushed to his side. He smacked him on the side of the head. That's right, Ari thought. Start shooting and wake up everyone in the neighborhood.

  The woman rushed to the back of the office.

  "We're going to have the cops here, soon," murmured Lawson in his phone.

  Ari had foreseen none of this. He thought cautioning Lawson and Ben against being followed sufficient heads-up. The cyber age was slipping past him at light speed and planting itself like a mammoth roadblock in his path. He became even more disoriented when Lawson came back on and said:

  "Is this them already?"

  Ari shifted behind the window and saw two vans rolling up behind the first.

  "Are you seeing this?" Lawson asked.

  "To my large regret."

  A half dozen men jumped out of each van, all wearing dark balaclavas and dark outfits, all carrying weapons. The man with the laptop hastened them forward with urgent sweeps of his arm. Yes, the cops were coming. They had to work fast.

  Ari froze when he heard a sound behind him, inside the Sprinter. Imagining the barrel of a gun pointed at his head, he swiveled around slowly.

  There was a deep, throaty snore. Ari stared at the large blanket-covered hump on the cushioned bench bolted against the van's wall. A curl of frosted breath rose up at one end. Ari yanked the blanket back and saw Abu Jasim, oblivious to the world, his lip curled in a very Saddam Hussein-esqe leer.

  "Pig," Ari hissed and turned back to the window.

  The first ninja was handing his laptop to the driver of his van. Eight others split to either side of the motel room door. The rest spread out through the parking lot. Ari found himself feeling sorrow for Ben, who had gotten involved at first because it severed him from boredom, and then as a necessary defense of his wife. He also spared a brief thought for Ahmad. Lawson and Abu Jasim had had a better concept of the risks involved. But even Ari had not guessed it would come to this.

  Perhaps they could simply lay low and pray the gang would be content with leaving with the laptop. But the way the majority of them angled across the parking lot told him they were looking for much more.

  Two men were staring at the Sprinter. Ari reached out and pulled the blanket back up over Abu Jasim's head.

  "God's fool," he whispered, an incantation intended to wish his friend luck.

  One of the ninjas pressed against the wall and tested the doorknob to the room where they had left the laptop. Ari had intentionally left it unlocked, a tacit invitation.

  The door swung open. A second man flung himself inside, falling to the floor, gun raised. Ari was surprised and a little dismayed that the ninja had enough self-control not to begin shooting immediately. The man behind him jumped over and crouched against the bathroom door. That was as far inside as Ari could see. There was a shout, and a moment later the rest of the group piled into the room. Then a man came out carrying the laptop captured at A-Zed, the power cord draped over his arm.

  Ari's phone vibrated.

  "We've got a couple of squads here, Ari," came Lawson's low voice. "I don't think we can back away. Got a goon looking my way."

  "I, also," said Ari.

  "So what's the plan?"

  "Stay put," said Ari and closed the phone.

  The man from the first van came over and took the laptop. He planted it on the hood of an old Ford and studied the screen. He pressed a few buttons, then shook his head. He took out his phone and spoke into it. Startled, Ari glanced around and noted the driver of the first van had a phone raised to his head.

  The man standing next to the Ford slammed the laptop shut and stalked over to the first van. He made a giddyap motion with his arm while handing the laptop through the window to the driver. A moment later, a bound man was dragged into the middle of the lot. His head was covered by what seemed to be a gym bag. The first man whipped the bag off the prisoner's head.

  It was Sung-Soo Rhee's nephew.

  The first man drew a gun from his waistband and held it to the young prisoner's head. The nephew immediately began blubbering in Korean.

  "I know you're here!" the first man shouted. "Come out now and we'll spare him and you! We only want the copy you made!"

  Ari rang Ben.

  "Yeah?" the vet answered tensely from the motel room adjoining the first room.

  "No matter what you hear, stay where you are," Ari said. "I will deal with this swine."

  "I peeked out the window. There's a lot more than one swine."

  "I don't know the plural," said Ari, and hung up.

  From the way the two ninjas were staring at the Sprinter, it was obvious they had already spotted his silhouette through the window. With deep sadness he put the AR-15 to the side and slid open the panel door. The two men who had been watching quickly ran up when he raised his hands. He wished he could see the first man's face when he saw he wasn't Korean.

  One of the ninjas punched Ari in the stomach. He was pleased that the pain was not so very bad, but he cried out and dropped to his knees in thespian agony. Then he squirmed in his jogging outfit and thought:

  It does hurt, rather.

  The first man raced up to him and studied him closely.

  "You're the man from A-Zed," he said.

  Ari gasped dramatically. "I have...ordered...trinkets. Did you know...Virginia is for Lovers?"

  "You're working with that cripple, aren't you? Where is he? And where's your geek?"

  "My Greek...is in my other trousers."

  The first man smacked him hard, then backhanded him for good measure. Ari reeled, regained his balance, and rose from the tarmac.

  "You are a most unpleasant man."

  "Where's your geek?" the man demanded. "I can see you are a computer illiterate. Who broke the password?"

  "I am not illiterate," said Ari, offended.

  "If we have to hunt him down, we'll kill all of you."

  "Ah, but Sayid Mohammed, you are a promiscuous torturer and incinerator of humans."

  Mohammed was startled. "What are you saying, 'incinerator—'"

  "Didn't Hasan tell you? I mentioned it to him at A-Zed. He was quite
surprised."

  "He told me."

  "Would I really be foolish enough to think you would let my geek live? That is why I immediately sent him away, as soon as he told me you were...what was the word he used?...'pinging' him. I must say, that sounds rather risqué."

  "Fuck!" said Mohammed.

  "Exactly," said Ari.

  Mohammed turned to the man who had slugged Ari. "Again."

  The man punched Ari again. Ari chose to laugh it off. In his face.

  "You hit like a Baghdad whore. I'm sure you would enjoy being buggered, but my list is full."

  The man cried out and hit Ari again.

  "You're becoming a nuisance," said Ari, wondering what it would be like to be shot. It was something marvelous that it had not happened before.

  Another man came up and put a gun to the head of Rhee's nephew.

  "Do it!" Mohammed shouted.

  The young man screamed.

  "Hold on, hold on," came a new voice.

  Ari's heart sank when Lawson laboriously stepped out of his Land Cruiser and began working his way across the lot. When the man who had been eyeing his SUV raised his gun, he paused a moment to shrug.

  "You don't want me to enjoy my testosterone moment? You want to shoot a one-armed, one-eyed, one legged man? I've got a lot to lose, as you can see."

  His laugh was truly gruesome.

  "Let him pass," said Mohammed. "Come over here."

  When Lawson dragged out his approach, Sayid Mohammed grew even more impatient.

  "Hurry!"

  "Yes, you're expecting company, aren't you. I guess you've had your fill of doughnut-eating killer cops."

  "You were at A-Zed, too."

  "I'm glad you noticed. People tend to treat me like the invisible man."

  He drew up next to Ari, who murmured, "Idiot."

  Lawson grunted and turned to Mohammed. "Isn't anyone going to punch me, too? This is discrimination!"

  "You are not the geek," said Mohammed.

  "More discrimination! Who says a computer geek has to be a pimply jerkoff who doesn't know his ass from his elbow? Old cripples have uses too, you know. I sit in my office all day and hack companies like A-Zed. What else do you expect me to do? Dance the light fantastic?"

  "Is the geek observing us right now?" Mohammed demanded. "What would he think if I..." He raised his gun to Ari's head.