by Jonas Saul
Beside him, Jessy twisted in her chair to glance outside.
The name flashed in his mind. Ben recognized the big man. They’d never met in person, but Ben knew what he looked like as he examined all the faces of the men he hired.
Ansgar Holm.
The private military contractor he’d hired to take out Aaron Stevens and Clara Olafson. The man who disappeared days ago after displaying a disgusting attitude.
“Ben Wilson,” Ansgar said his name. “Or should I call you Pain?”
When Ansgar spoke, most of his teeth were broken or missing. The image of a hockey player flashed into his mind.
What the hell happened to make you so fucking ugly?
Ben shot a look outside. More cops were coming. Jessica pushed her chair out to get up. Ben lurched across the table and clamped onto Jessica’s forearm, then yanked her over to him knocking his shitty cole slaw plate to the floor. With his other hand, he snatched the nickel-plated magnum out of his waistband and aimed it at Jessy’s forehead.
“Stay back,” Ben shouted.
Embarrassingly, his voice cracked. The gun shook in his hand. Jessy moaned, but to her credit, didn’t shout out. Her hair dangled into the remainder of her soup bowl in front of her.
“He’s got a gun,” Jessica said.
“Damn right,” Ben added.
“Get me out of here,” she whispered.
Ben adjusted his bulk to be more comfortable in the seat as pain shot up from his lower back. This was not the time to deal with the cancer.
“I thought you said he was weak?” the small man said. “That this guy hid behind his computer and talked all that shit.”
“I did,” Ansgar mumbled. “He is. A regular keyboard Nazi.”
“That gun doesn’t look weak. If he kills the girl, I kill you.”
“Fuck you,” Ansgar roared. “He’s mine.”
Ben couldn’t take it anymore. What were these two talking about? He glanced out the café’s windows. It looked like the authorities had the place surrounded. Cars had moved in to form a wall. Armed officers were planted behind them, only their heads and arms visible, guns pointed at the café.
He gripped Jessy’s arm tighter and turned back to Ansgar.
“What are you doing here?” Ben asked.
“I’ve come for you. That last text didn’t sound like a good deal to me.”
“Which one?” Ben asked, already knowing exactly what he had typed to Ansgar.
Ansgar had pissed him off, pushed him too far. He’d told Ansgar that he would reveal to the world who the man was. All his aliases would come out and exactly what hotel he was staying in at any given time. Ansgar had fucked with the wrong hacker. Ben had also typed that he would detail Ansgar’s jobs that he’d been hired to do so the authorities could match them up to actual crimes. Ansgar would rue the day he agreed to work for PAIN.
“You upset me,” Ben said, any strength in his voice diminished. “I just pushed back.”
“I upset you?” Ansgar moved one step closer. “I upset you?” he repeated. “And you threaten to ruin me?” He moved closer again.
“Stay back,” Ben said. “I’ll kill her.”
“I’ve met stupid before,” Ansgar said. “But you beat stupid at a professional level.”
“What?” Ben’s throat spasmed when he spoke.
“You think I care about that girl’s life?” Ansgar asked, his tongue slipping through the nubs of teeth. “The fact that you’re pointing the gun at her makes you the dumbest idiot on the planet.”
Ben scanned the windows. If it was possible, even more cops had pulled up out front. Jessy kept her head down on the table.
Ansgar moved again.
Ben swung the gun toward Ansgar. He let go of Jessy’s arm and placed two hands on the magnum.
“Stay back,” he blurted out, trying to be assertive.
“Game’s up, Mr. Pain.” Ansgar smiled. The grin was horrid with all his injuries. Even a smile like that would hurt because of the damage to his lips and face. “We’re both caught. Drop the gun.”
Jessy edged away from the table. He debated letting her go. This was falling apart too fast. How could he get to Detective Bryant now? How could he make him pay? He didn’t even have a real gun. Ansgar was going to kill him before he had a chance to do anything. And now his arms were starting to ache from holding the gun up too long.
“That’s right,” Ansgar said softly. “Let the gun fall.”
Ben forced the weapon back up. Then an idea hit him. The cops out front weren’t here for him. They were after Ansgar. They must have tracked the hitman to the café. Had to be. How would they have gotten mobilized out front that fast if they were after Ben? They must’ve followed Ansgar and now they were ready to take him. Ben just happened to get in their way.
“You’ve fucked up my plan,” Ben said.
“You fucked mine.”
Ansgar took another step, even though the gun was aimed at his chest now.
A door banged to Ben’s left. Jessica was clear of the building.
The little guy behind Ansgar touched something on the side of the big man’s neck. Ansgar tried to shake him off. He spun and drove a gnarled fist toward the little guy.
The fist was knocked wide as if it was a paper airplane flying by. The small guy released Ansgar’s neck, dropped to the floor and spun his legs in a wide circle.
Ansgar’s feet were swept into the air. His body seemed to float horizontally for the briefest of moments like a magician had levitated him, then Ansgar dropped like a block of cement. The cheap floor of the café actually vibrated. The second he hit the floor, the small guy lunged on top of him. From Ben’s vantage point, the small guy’s arms floated over Ansgar’s face, then stopped.
He looked directly at Ben. Slowly, the small man got off Ansgar and backed away from him. Ben lowered the gun until his wrist rested on his thigh, the toy gun still aimed in the small man’s general direction.
“He’s asleep,” the small man said. “Just us now.”
“Who are you?” Ben asked.
“Nobody.”
Ben raised the gun. “A name,” he shouted.
“Alex.”
The small man moved back farther until he was beside the table he’d sat at earlier. Alex was within reach of the front door.
“Stop moving,” Ben screamed. “It’s maddening. I’m trying to think.”
Ben blinked. Before he could threaten Alex again, the small man dropped and disappeared out the door.
“Shit wave,” Ben hollered to the empty café.
All that remained inside the café was a sleeping Ansgar and Ben with a toy gun.
And a bevy of police and tactical units outside.
Ben turned his attention to the café’s front window and watched as dozens of men in uniform stared back at him.
Then he saw someone he recognized. His tormenter from all those years in grade school and high school. The one man this day was supposed to end with had made his appearance. What were the odds?
Detective Bryant stood across the street, binoculars in his hand. He raised them and looked Ben’s way.
The people beside Detective Bryant made Ben blink twice to clear his eyes. It was impossible. There’s just no way it could be true.
Aaron Stevens stood to Bryant’s left, wearing a Kevlar vest. To Bryant’s right, Sarah Roberts also wore Kevlar.
The small man who’d just felled Ansgar was being fitted with a vest as everyone appeared to be drilling questions at him.
Had nothing worked over the past week? Were all his efforts to make people pay for their actions fruitless?
How could Sarah Roberts be here? It was virtually impossible. He had hacked into the government website and placed her on the no-fly list. She was detained in Denmark. Someone was playing a trick on him.
He scrambled up from the chair despite the pain in his lower back. His heart raced in his overweight, unhealthy body.
“I could use a Mars bar
right now,” he shouted. “But I’m pretty sure you stupid vegans won’t have that.”
Behind the counter of the café he frantically searched for a weapon of some kind. Something he could use against Ansgar if he woke up. Shoving cups and lids out of the way, his hand bumped into an employee’s purse. The zipper stuck, but he got it open. A quick search revealed no pepper spray, no gun.
The employees?
They must’ve ran out through a door in the back.
He marveled how funny the brain worked when under duress. Normally, back in his office, he’d cover all the bases, make sure he knew every facet, every detail of what he was doing.
But as soon as he saw the cops outside and then Ansgar, he lost track of what was happening around him. He barely noticed Jessy scampering out the door. He had no idea where his waitress or the other employees went.
He ransacked the underside of the counter in search of a real gun, but the people of Toronto rarely carried guns to work. Maybe the boss kept one in case they were robbed?
“Who would rob a vegan place?” he asked himself.
“Ben Wilson,” someone shouted on a loudspeaker outside. “Come out with your hands up. It’s over.”
“Fuck you guys.”
Ben kept looking for a weapon.
Chapter 56
As promised, Detective Bryant had given Sarah, Parkman, and Aaron a vest to wear. Since Sarah was the one who had brought them the information needed to put all the pieces together, Bryant had wanted her on point through the entire event. Not to mention, he was counting on his sister getting away from Ben unharmed.
What Sarah hadn’t accounted for was the buildup of police cars before they had arrested Ben. That was an easy way to spook the man into doing something careless.
As they arrived, Bryant spoke on the radio with the officer in charge at the café. Officer Scott Awalt had the area secure and had even extracted several people from the café. Based on his assessment, there were still two people inside, plus Jessica and Ben.
Officer Awalt handed Bryant a pair of binoculars so he could see inside the café better. When he was done, Bryant handed them to Sarah.
She scanned the inside.
“Anything we need to know?” Bryant asked.
“Yes. Ben will not shoot Jessica. Of that I’m sure. I’ve been told she will be out here with us very soon. The two men standing a few feet from the front door are Ansgar and Alex. Alex is with us.”
“What the hell?” Aaron muttered behind her. “How is Alex in there?”
Sarah lowered the binoculars, then handed them over to Bryant.
“Look at the small man. Blond. He’s one of ours. He’s in there attempting to defuse the situation.”
Bryant used the binoculars. “Any way you can get him out here?”
“I’m thinking he’ll be out here soon enough.”
“Wait,” Bryant snapped. “Wilson just turned the gun on Ansgar. He released Jessica.” Bryant appeared to be jamming the binoculars deep into his face. “Jessica has dropped out of sight. I think she’s running for the back door—”
“There she is,” Sarah blurted.
Jessica ran bent over into the arms of a tactical officer crouched five feet from the door and was escorted away from the building. From where Sarah stood, she saw Ansgar and Alex standing close to the front door, Ben still in his chair.
“They’re fighting,” Bryant shouted. “Shit. Ansgar’s down. Wow, that Alex can sure move.”
Sarah saw a flurry of activity through the café’s windows.
“All units hold,” Officer Awalt spoke into a radio on the other side of Bryant.
Alex popped back up into view and edged back toward the door. A moment later, as if Ben let him go, Alex bolted out the front door.
Ben Wilson was alone in the café with Ansgar out of sight.
When Alex approached them, Bryant yanked out a vest from the trunk of his cruiser and dropped it over Alex’s head.
“How did you come to be in there?” Bryant asked.
It was the same question on everyone’s mind.
Alex leaned over and moved past Bryant without answering. He hugged Sarah, then faced Aaron.
“When I saw you coming toward me at the hospital that night, I panicked. Ansgar had woken up. He was kicking the back window. It broke before you got half way across the parking lot. Glass everywhere. He was unmanageable. You had two cops with you. I thought,” he shrugged, “if we were going to be arrested, it would be better if it was just you. I would talk to Ansgar, learn what he knew, then help solve everything and get you out later. Both of us locked up wasn’t a good idea, I thought.”
Aaron tapped Alex on the shoulder. It was the only time Sarah ever saw anyone touch Alex.
“You did good, Alex. But how did you get here? Right now? At this café?”
“Through several painful techniques you’ve taught me, I learned everything from Ansgar. He’s in bad shape. He had done a background check on Ben Wilson as he always likes to know his clients. A private firm in the UK does this for him. A large fee and they hunt people. As it turns out, Ansgar knew Ben’s address.” Alex shrugged like it was no big deal. “Ansgar wanted to talk to Ben. I thought, hey, bring them together, see what happens.” Sarah moved closer. Bryant seemed to be listening, but he brought the binoculars back up to his eyes and stared at the café. “We waited for Ben and followed him this morning. I had no idea you guys were here, too.”
Aaron hugged him. “You did good, little man. Real good.”
Alex appeared forlorn. It was like he knew he’d done well, but it was a sad and lonely few days without communication with the special people in his life. Even though they were reunited, Sarah felt he needed to purge more.
“Ben’s behind the counter doing something,” Bryant said. He removed the binoculars from his face. Two red circular rings framed his eyes. “Give me the loudspeaker.”
Officer Awalt handed it to him.
Everyone turned to the windows as Detective Bryant brought the loudspeaker to his mouth.
“Ben Wilson,” his voice boomer. “Come out with your hands up. It’s over.”
Chapter 57
Ben headed for the kitchen in the back of the small café and found a butcher knife resting on a chopping block. He hefted it up and examined both sides. Could he use a knife on someone? If Ansgar woke, would he be able to take the knife from him with his fingers mangled up as they were?
Ben leaned against a metal counter cluttered with some kind of vegan burgers to collect his breath. What did he want to do? What was his goal? Nothing had worked. Nothing whatsoever. But how was that possible? How could he have been thwarted so masterfully?
Sarah Roberts.
Her name kept coming up. She would’ve known what Ansgar was up to. She would’ve been able to warn everyone. She flew to Denmark to be Anton’s victim so no one had to die. But how could she fake what he watched on the video Anton sent him? Unless it was edited. That had to be it. The video was doctored. Everyone was in it against him. As always, just like when he was in grade school, they were all out to get him.
He yearned to be at his computer at that moment. The damage he could do to these people. One by one he would plot and destroy their lives for what they did to him.
The loudspeaker outside called for him to voluntarily leave the building. They warned that they would be coming in soon.
The phone rang. They wanted to talk to him.
He had no plan, no backup plan, and no option out of this.
But that was what he wanted in the first place. No way out. He was dying of pancreatic cancer and wanted his school tormentor to pull the trigger. Make him live with taking the life of another human being for the rest of his life.
“Thwarted again,” Ben whispered.
He pounded his fist into his other hand as he glanced around the kitchen. Plastic utensils and party favors cluttered a table at the rear wall. It looked like someone had booked a party for later.
> “No party today, folks. Today someone dies at your little shit vegan café.”
He spied a thick roll of moving tape and an idea from a movie he saw once struck him. The plan would work. It was brilliant.
He set the butcher knife on the metal counter with the vegan burgers, ran over and pulled two small strips of tape off the roll and affixed the nickel-plated magnum to the back of his neck. In a mirror in the employee washroom, when standing straight on, he couldn’t see the gun. Later, with his hands above his head as he surrendered, a hundred guns aimed at him, they wouldn’t expect Ben to yank a gun out from between his shoulder blades and aim it at the cops.
