Chapter 6
Fatima’s Tale
Fatima Cedars was a petite woman with short hair and a perfect olive complexion upon which many persons commented. Many also noticed the serene expression that was usual for her countenance. Lately, though, Fatima’s inner tranquility was being tested by a challenging situation at her workplace.
Fatima knew that there was something wrong at Sandhaven Software Solutions. Something was very wrong.
She had worked at the company for almost a year. Fatima had been hired by Elaine Sandhaven when Elaine had made a recruiting trip to the Middle East and visited Fatima’s university in Lebanon. Elaine had been very impressed by the young woman who ranked near the top of her university class.
After moving to St. Louis, Fatima had found an apartment near her workplace. The first three months on the job had gone well, and she enjoyed the intellectually challenging work. Using the simulation software, she designed clever viruses that provided a rigorous test for the Intelligent Agency program that attempted to destroy her viruses.
However, her relationships with her coworkers gradually deteriorated. The company employees were divided into cliques based on ethnicity and religion. At first Fatima was befriended by the other Muslim employees, but her lack of adherence to traditional Islamic practices eventually caused a rift with most of the other Muslims at the company.
Fatima had grown up in Turkey and attended colleges in Croatia and Lebanon. Although she still considered herself a Muslim, she dressed like an American woman and liked many aspects of western culture.
In the evenings, she liked to go dancing in the Bosnian nightclubs on Gravois Avenue near the famous Bevo Mill restaurant that was located in a windmill. She felt comfortable with the Bosnian Muslims and their European culture. The Bosnian immigrants had infused a new life and energy into the midtown area.
Fatima wished that her days were as pleasant as her evenings. At least the work here is intriguing, she consoled herself as she sat alone in the cafeteria.
Some employees at the company only spoke in Arabic to each other so that the Americans would not understand what they were saying. Fatima spoke fluent Arabic, and some of the conversations that she overheard disturbed her. Some of them were extreme fundamentalists who clearly hated the United States. These extremists apparently were occasionally having secret meetings in a conference room at Sandhaven Software.
For the past week Fatima had been working late every day on a secret assignment. Shortly after the murders of Douglas Neldt and Rebecca Wright, Dennis Sandhaven had given Fatima the task of helping to rebuild the Intelligent Agency program.
A couple programmers who had survived the explosions at Neldt’s company had also been given remote access to the mainframe computer at Sandhaven Software. Fatima had never seen either of these programmers; they were working from a hidden location in Maryland where they were in protective custody.
Shortly after seven o’clock that evening, Fatima disconnected her laptop computer from the mainframe, then logged off. She folded the laptop closed and left her office, weary from the long workday and anxious to stop by a fast-food restaurant for dinner. As she locked her office door, she debated whether to go to Kentucky Fried Chicken, McDonald’s, or Lion’s Choice.
“Working late again, Fatima?” A woman’s voice came from behind her.
Fatima turned and was surprised to see Elaine Sandhaven walking down the hallway toward her.
“Yes, Mrs. Sandhaven.”
“What are you working on?”
Fatima hesitated. Apparently Dennis had not told his wife about the secret assignment. Fatima wondered why he had not told his wife. She decided that it would be wise to be discrete.
“Is something wrong?” The tall woman loomed over Fatima, who suddenly felt ill at ease.
“No, nothing is wrong. I’m just catching up on some projects that have fallen behind schedule.” Fatima started to walk around her, but Elaine moved to block her path. Fatima looked up at her. “It has been a long day, Mrs. Sandhaven, and I’m very tired. I want to get home.”
“We all want to get home, Fatima, but there is important work that needs to be done.”
Boutros Mahdi and Rashid Fuad walked into the hallway. Fatima suspected that they had been listening from around the corner.
Elaine glanced back over her shoulder at the two men. “Just a few minutes ago, the three of us were discussing some important topics. There are many things wrong back in your homeland, Fatima. Do you ever think about your people? Do you ever think about anything besides yourself?”
Fatima had never seen this side of this woman with whom she had only spoken briefly on a couple of occasions. “Good evening, Mrs. Sandhaven,” Fatima said, moving around her.
The two men blocked her from moving further down the hallway.
“Good evening to you, too,” Fatima said to the men, who continued to stand there and did not seem inclined to move. “That means get out of my way!” she added tersely.
“We need to talk to you,” Boutros said, glancing down at the laptop computer that Fatima held. “We need access to the Intelligent Agency project. We are going to help rebuild the program.”
“I will need to check with Dennis Sandhaven before I can give you access,” Fatima said. “You need top-secret clearance to work on Intelligent Agency.”
“They have clearance,” Elaine said. “Dennis wants them to have access. Give them your laptop computer, Fatima, and get them logged onto the mainframe.”
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Sandhaven, but I will first need to discuss this with your husband.”
“Are you calling me a liar?”
“No. I am saying that there is an established procedure for how things must be done. We must follow security protocols.”
“If you disobey my orders, you will be fired!” Elaine shouted at her. “And if you are fired, you will be deported!”
“That’s not true!” Fatima declared, then darted past the two men.
She had caught them off-guard, and she dashed down another hallway that led to the parking lot. However, before she reached the exit door, Rashid caught her and shoved her forcefully against the wall.
“What is your hurry, little Fatima? Are you anxious to get to your nightclub? Are some of your American friends waiting for you?”
Boutros stepped forward and grabbed her by the hair. “You are going to give us that computer and log us in now.”
“No!”
With both arms, she pressed the laptop against her body while the two men tried to pry it away from her.
Rashid raised his arm to strike her, but he never got a chance. Seemingly out of nowhere, Marcus Augustine sprang forward and grabbed Rashid’s arm, twisting it all the way back, breaking the arm. Rashid collapsed to the floor in pain.
Boutros threw a punch at Marcus, but Marcus easily blocked the punch, grabbed Boutros by the hair, and slammed him face first into the soda machine with such force that the vending machine almost tipped over. Half-conscious, his nose broken and his face bloody, Boutros fell next to his friend on the floor.
Elaine, who had been watching from the end of the hallway, exchanged momentary eye contact with Marcus. Then she turned the corner and hurried away.
“Who are you?” Fatima asked her rescuer.
“I’m a man who doesn’t like to be deceived. Come with me. We need to get out of here.”
Fatima followed Marcus out of the side door. They paused out on the parking lot.
“I think that those people are terrorists!” Fatima exclaimed. “They might be Al Qaeda . I have been working with terrorists!”
“I believe that you are correct; they are either Al Qaeda or some similar group. And it is too dangerous for you to go back to your apartment. They will go there searching for you.”
“What can I do?”
“You’ll need to go into hiding temporarily. I have a place where you can stay.”
“What is your name?”
“My name
is Marcus Augustine. I’m a private detective. It’s a long story that I will tell you later.” He pointed toward his Lexus. “I’m parked over there. Follow me in your car. Don’t worry.”
As she pulled out her car keys, she called to him, “I feel safe with you. Thank you for helping me.”
“I’m glad to be of service,” Marcus said, getting into his car.
With Fatima following close behind, he drove to his condominium in Clayton. After walking her to the front door, Marcus handed her the key to the condo.
“I would suggest that you call your boss, Dennis Sandhaven, and tell him what happened at the company this evening. He needs to be on guard against his wife and some of his employees.”
“Yes, I’ll tell him everything.”
“Call from your cell phone. You can tell him everything except that you are staying here. You can trust him, but his phone might be bugged or his wife might be eavesdropping on him. Let everyone assume that you are returning to your apartment.”
“I am hoping that I can return to my apartment!”
“You should be able to return soon. One way or another, this matter will likely be resolved within the next few days. After what I heard at the software company today, I have a better idea what is going on. Until a couple of hours ago, I mistakenly thought that this was all about money. Now I realize that Elaine Sandhaven and her comrades don’t care about money at all.”
“They are fanatics! Extremists!” Fatima exclaimed.
Marcus nodded. “They are the same enemy that I fought in Afghanistan. However, now they are here. I suppose that they have always been here.”
Meanwhile, Elaine drove away from the software company, angry and frustrated by Marcus’s intervention. How dare he! Why did I ever hire that man?
Elaine then remembered her conversation with Jenny, the waitress at the diner. When Marcus returned my call, Jenny was about to give me the contact information for some man named Chuck. I should have hired Chuck to kill Dennis.
Elaine pulled onto a side street where she parked while she fumbled through her purse in search of the scrap of paper on which she had written Jenny’s phone number. If I can’t find that number, I suppose I could just drive over to the diner. Oh, wait, I have always spoken to Jenny there in the afternoon; I don’t know whether she works in the evening. That diner might not even be open this late in the evening.
Found it! Elaine pulled the scrap of paper out of her purse. Using her cell phone, she called the number. After a few seconds, Jenny answered.
“Hello?” There was a lot of noise in the background.
“Jenny? This is Elaine. I can barely hear you.”
“Hi, Elaine. I’m at roller derby. We don’t start for another twenty minutes, but most of the crowd is already here.”
“They are quite noisy.”
“Yes. Hold on a second. I’m skating toward the exit door. I will be able to hear you better outside.”
When Jenny got outside, she asked, “Can you hear me better now?”
“Yes. That’s much better.”
“I can only talk for a minute. I will need to start getting ready for the match.”
“I won’t keep you. I just need the phone number of that man named Chuck. The guy that I hired proved to be unsatisfactory, so I’d like to hire Chuck for that special project that we discussed.”
After a momentary pause, Jenny said, “I’ll need to talk to Chuck first to make sure that it is all right to give you his number.”
“That’s fine, Elaine, but this matter is rather urgent. I need to speak with Chuck as soon as possible.”
“I understand. I’ll tell him right now. He’s here to watch my roller derby bout. He arrived just a few minutes ago.”
“Excellent. I can come there to speak with him.”
“First I need to find him in the crowd; there are several hundred persons here. I’ll give him your number and ask him to call you as soon as he can.”
“Thanks, Jenny. And I’m sure that you understand this situation requires the utmost discretion. Please don’t mention this to anyone else.”
“You can count on my discretion.”
“Thank you. I’ll be waiting for Chuck’s call.”
“You’ll be hearing from him soon. Bye, Elaine.”
After hanging up, Jenny went back inside. For about fifteen seconds, she scanned the crowd, then spotted her friend over at the souvenir stand. Jenny skated over to him, and he glanced over his shoulder at her.
“Hey, look what I just bought.” He held up three photos of her in her Jenny Jawbreaker uniform. “I’m going to need these autographed later. I don’t want to slow you down now, though. Your teammates are already out there warming up. You probably should join them.”
“I will in a minute. But I have some news. Guess who I just got a call from?”
“If you wait for me to guess correctly, it will be a lot longer than a minute before you get to your warm-up. In fact, the match will probably be over before I correctly guess who called you.”
She laughed. “You might be right. I’d better just tell you. Elaine, that woman from the diner, just called me.”
“Oh, really, what did she want?”
“She wants to hire you to help her with her husband problem. Apparently she hired some guy who failed to help her. She did not provide any details.”
“What does she want me to do?”
“I’m not sure, but she is very anxious to speak with you. She wants to come here this evening.”
“Wow. That is short notice.”
“Will you talk to her?”
“I suppose. However, I won’t like missing some of your roller derby game.”
“You’ll see most of it. Anyway I’m not very good yet. This is just my rookie season.”
“Your rookie season? Are you planning on continuing for a second season?”
“Maybe. We’ll see.”
“Hmmm. That’s interesting.”
“Hey, I really need to start warming up.” She handed her cell phone to him. “And you need to call her -- she is freaking out. You can use my phone. I don’t want to take it all the way back to the locker room, and I don’t want to have it on me during the game. It could get smashed. Her number is the most recent incoming call.”
“Okay. Good luck with your game.”
“Thanks. Good luck with your meeting with Elaine.” With a wave, she skated away to join her teammates, who were skating in casual laps around the rink where the bout would begin in three minutes.
Anticipating the start of the game, the noise of the crowd was gradually increasing. Like Jenny had done a short while ago, Chuck decided to go outside so that he could hear better.
As soon as the exit door closed behind him, he made the call.
“Hello,” Elaine answered. “Jenny?”
“No. This is Chuck, her friend. Jenny let me borrow her phone. She said that you wanted to speak with me.”
“Yes, I’m very anxious to speak with you. Would it be possible for you to meet with me in a few minutes?”
“Yes, that will be fine.”
“Thank you. Actually, I’m only a couple of minutes from your location right now. I’m about to turn off Lindbergh Boulevard. Right after I spoke with Jenny, I started driving toward the sports complex where the roller derby game is being held.”
“Good. I’ll meet you in front of the building. What type of car are you driving?”
“A red Porsche.”
“Okay, I will meet you out front.”
Chuck was standing at the side of the sports complex, which also included an ice hockey rink. He walked around to the front of the building.
After seeing a red Porsche pull into a parking space, Chuck approached the woman getting out of the car.
“Elaine?”
“Yes.” She shook hands with him. “And you must be Chuck.”
“Right.”
“Has Jenny told you about my problem?”
“Yes. I was
sorry to hear that your husband has been abusive.”
“Extremely abusive. I’m in fear for my life.”
“That’s very unfortunate. There are some agencies that can help you with that abusive situation.”
She frowned and shook her head. “No, they can’t help me. My husband is going to kill me unless I stop him first. I’m counting on you to help me, Chuck. I need your special services.”
For a fraction of a second, Elaine thought that she saw a look of surprise on his face. As quickly as it appeared, though, the surprised expression vanished and was replaced by a pleasant, inquisitive expression.
“How can I be of service?” he asked.
“I assumed that you knew why you are here. I must have my husband killed before he kills me. Are you willing to do this for me?”
“I can take care of the matter,” Chuck assured her.
“Good. A couple of days ago I hired another man, but he wimped out on me. I need your assurance that you will follow this through to completion.”
“I won’t wimp out,” he said. “I complete what I begin.”
She smiled and nodded. “You seem like a very capable man. I’m glad that Jenny told me about you.”
“Thank you.”
“I suppose that we had better get the matter of payment out of the way,” she said. “I can pay you five thousand dollars now and ten thousand after the job is completed. Is that acceptable?”
“Yes, that will be fine.”
“I will need this job to be completed as soon as possible,” Elaine said emphatically. She discreetly handed him a manila envelope that contained the money, David Sandhaven’s photo, and some information about him. “This envelope has everything that you need.”
After conversing for another minute, Elaine said good-bye to Chuck and drove away. He watched her depart, then walked back into the sports complex where the flat-track roller derby bout was underway.
Jenny’s team, clad in violet and gold, was engaged in a close game against the opposing team, which wore red and black uniforms. Jenny was currently winning points for her team by serving as the “jammer,” the one scoring position. The jammer on each team was easy to spot because of the star worn on her helmet.
Moonlight Warriors: A Tale of Two Hit Men Page 4
