by Finian Blake
“The Metro Station is just two more blocks down Wisconsin, do you want me to wait?”
“No thanks I will hoof it from here. Do me a favor and log me in for getting off at the bank and forget what I said about the metro.” Felix handed the cabbie a ten for the five-dollar fare. Felix decided to take out some extra cash just in case things got hot and pulled out $6,000 noticing that the account was $4,000 short. As he walked to the metro station he noticed a men’s store and bought a cheap jacket and an Orioles baseball cap. He decided not to use his rail pass just buying a basic renewable ticket, charging it with ten dollars. As Felix was waiting for the train he looked in the phone book and found a rent a wreck company taking the red line to Glennmont so as not to tip off anyone about his plans.
At the hospital Nurse Polly Hays called security. The doctor told her not to release Felix. She found the room was empty which started a broader search of the hospital. Doctor Breeze stormed into the ward straight toward the nursing station.
“You discharged my patient without my orders!”
“I didn’t discharge him! He walked out on his own.” Polly snapped back.
“Well what was he wearing?” Doctor Breeze was not at all happy with her tone.
“He was wearing the clothes that he wore in here. They were in the closet in his room. Of course you realize that this is not a security ward. Mister Owens checked himself in and put himself under your care. Since he committed himself he can check himself out. Now, if he committed some offense and was committed by the court that would’ve been a different matter. We would have admitted him to the security ward two floors up, locked up all of his personal possessions and assigned him to a locked room.”
“Mister Owens has a high level job at Justice and committing him would have ruined his career, so we allowed him to check himself in to save embarrassment. He agreed to the terms of commitment so we thought that there would not be a problem.” The hospital Administrator was standing in the door way.
“So you just let us make the standard admission without giving any special orders? Tell me why was Mister Owens pushed into committing himself?”
“Well…” Doctor Breeze froze.
“I can find out if you want me to look for myself.”
“Well he beat up a woman over at the NSA headquarters and was arrested for stalking her later the same day.” The look on the doctor’s face screamed that there was something more.
“Let’s have it all.” The Administrator was not going to let go.
“Well two days ago he allegedly hit his wife so hard that she was unconscious for six hours.”
“Were there any witnesses?”
“Yes both his kids were in the house.”
The administrator lost it. “You took a violent patient with a history of physical violence toward women. Then dumped him into a minimum security ward where half of the patients are women and seventy percent of the staff are women! I think that you need to come to my office where you can explain to me why you should have rights to practice at this hospital! Nurse Hays I offer you my profound apologies. We will have security on this floor until we are positive that there is no longer any danger.”
Felix Owens finished the paper work at the rent a wreck office he walked out to the lot and was relieved to find that ‘Rent a Wreck’ was only a name. The cars were three to five years old but in excellent shape. Felix looked over the choices and settled on a five-year-old silver Toyota Camry which he found to be quite suitable. The big problem was that he had to use a credit card to rent the car and it would only be a matter of time before they started looking for the car. Felix knew that he would have at least 24 hours before it hit the list in Maryland and four or five days before it went interstate. The good news was that the Toyota Camry was extremely popular and silver was a common color. All that Felix had to do was drive conservatively. Felix knew that Rhonda and Cherry would be at work and going anywhere near the NSA complex would be a big mistake. Checking out Four Diamonds was not feasible since he would have to get inside the building. Felix had picked up Rhonda by Tom Thomas’s place before and that was only thirty minutes away. That represented the least amount of risk. Felix pulled out of the drive and headed toward Fort Meade.
To his surprise Felix found the street almost completely blocked with construction vehicles. He parked a street away and walked down toward the house. As Felix past a pickup truck he noticed a hard hat in the bed so he grabbed it and grabbed an orange safety vest out of another truck. Felix walked into the back yard carefully looking around as he went. He was surprised to find the shell of a small barn had been erected since he was caught peeping last week. Contractors were moving in and out of the structure and a crew was erecting a fence for what appeared to be a corral in the back of the building. A tall black woman with an unbelievable body seemed to be directing the work, walking around with several rolls of paper under her arm. She pulled a bright yellow Nextel phone off of her belt and started to look around as she spoke. Her eyes fixed on Felix and started to walk toward him extending an arm as if to shake hands. Felix extended his hand and she took it smiling warmly. The strength of her grip was beyond any hand shake that Felix had ever experienced and when she grabbed his elbow all of the strength left his arm. The look in her eyes was firm and no nonsense even though her smile was warm and welcoming.
“Felix my name is Layla,” He was shocked that she called him by name. “You have one short minute to get to your silver Toyota Camry and leave. If you do not leave Tom’s welcome will not be as cordial as mine.” Felix did not understand how she knew his name and what he was driving. His lips started to form the question when Layla continued.
“Felix, either leave or die.” Layla had said it as calmly as if asking whether or not he would like cream or sugar with his coffee. Layla released her grip and the pain shot up his arm instead of receding. Felix turned immediately beating a hasty retreat looking back at Layla as he left, not understanding why the pain in his arm was getting worse. By the time he got to the Toyota he could barely grip his keys. Felix decided that it was time to go home. So he pointed his car toward Fairfax looking for any cars from Four Diamonds wanting to avoid any contact with Tom.
Edward was just returning to his body. He had called her on his Nextel as soon as he could move his arms.
“Layla, Felix is just down the street and coming your way. Watch out, he is walking down the street.” The amount of time that it took him to reconnect with his body after traveling always bothered him. Edward had to protect his wife and he was useless in this state. Edward reached Layla and saw Felix rounding the front corner of the house in hasty retreat. Starting after Felix he felt Layla grab his arm.
“I let Felix go. Your father said not to damage him. I used your handshake trick on him and it should be about a good hour before he will be able to use his arm again. If Tom were to catch him here Felix would be feeding the Maryland Crabs. I had to get him out of here. It will be hard enough to keep Tom from going hunting.”
“If the son of a bitch comes around again it will be ‘no deposit no return’ and it will look like an accident.” Edward had no intention of being as friendly as Layla was.
“I thought of that too.” Layla took his arm and dragged Edward to the nearly complete barn. “I made some changes in the office area by finishing the loft and adding a panic system since Sue may be sleeping out here. I put a doggie door in so Tom can get in any time he wants.
“She named the dog after her father!” Edward was shocked.
“Why not he’s big, beautiful, protects her and she loves him. Just like…”
“Daddy…” Edward finished the sentence.
“After she explained her logic to Helen there couldn’t be an argument.”
“How big is Tom?”
“Well he is two feet at the shoulders right now and Lynn forecasts that he will go well over three feet weighing well over one hundred pounds, but right now he is only sixty pounds. You know still a puppy. She wo
rked with Sue for three months teaching her to train Tom. He has the command protect down good. You’ll see when he arrives tomorrow from quarantine.”
Felix was just about home when his arm started to regain some usefulness again. She said that her name was Layla and he could remember that commanding look in her eyes which did not go along with her soft seductive smile. She proved that she was no easy mark when she disabled his arm with zero effort.
He shifted his attention back to his family. Felix had not heard from Betty or the kids at all, of course there were those drugs that they were giving him in the hospital. He remembered being introduced to Doctor Breeze and then everything else was fuzzy. He remembered the doctor saying something about Thorazine and giving him an injection. Felix could not remember anything after talking with the doctor. He pulled into the drive only to find both of his cars at home. Good he would be able to talk to Betty. Felix walked into a quite house. He called for Betty with no answer. He walked in the den and found that his computer was on and the display active. When Felix looked at the screen he saw the instruction ‘PRESS ANY KEY TO BEGIN RELOADING’. He called out for Betty and started searching the house finding a pile of empty liquor bottles in front of the kitchen sink. Felix ran to the bedroom finding clothes scattered everywhere with most of Betty’s clothes missing. A sickening feeling over took Felix. He ran to the children’s rooms finding that most of their clothes were missing too. All of a sudden the missing money from their savings account made sense. Betty had left him taking the kids with her. An extreme tiredness over took Felix like a freight train suddenly he could not keep his eyes open. He made it as far as Todd’s bed and collapsed from the residual effect of the Thorazine.
Doctor Breeze stalked out of the administrator’s office. The pompous asshole had informed him that he would no longer be allowed to admit patients to the hospital until a formal hearing had been completed. He couldn’t understand what happened. Felix was getting Thorazine by injection in concentrations strong enough to turn him into a zombie. It was the medical equivalent of hitting him between the eyes with a baseball bat. How in the hell was Felix able to walk let alone get out of the hospital? Doctor Breeze was the go to guy for the government when it came to sensitive cases. Felix was to rest quietly until the AG could figure what to do with him. The whole matter had become an embarrassment to Justice and he had been called to keep things under control. Felix would be placed into the medical ‘parking lot’ and would be brought out again when things had cooled down. What in the hell happened?
Rajiya stopped by the house with Safiyyah around eleven to pick up the propane truck and the cash for the rental on the warehouse. Maalik was in an ugly mood but so was she.
“Who the hell is this Sera,” Rajiya asked making no attempt to hide her displeasure.
“It is no concern of yours,” Maalik snapped.
“It is my concern if you want me to participate in this mission. I am sticking my neck out and I need to know who I am dealing with or should I ask Nabil.” Rajiya saw Maalik’s jaw flex in anger and she knew that she hit a nerve. “Nabil has been doing all the work figuring out the weapon, and telling me what kind of a garage to get. Have you selected a target?”
I was thinking of a sports event. There will be a large number of people in one place or maybe a busy intersection.” I am sure that it will have to be here in Maryland we can’t get that kind of a truck close enough to any Federal building that counts. NSA has a building here but you can’t get near it with that truck.
“Well at least you have an idea. Try not to take too long I understand that the EPA has already begun to clean that site and Nabil’s wonder weapon will lose its bang.”
“And when was Nabil going to tell me?” Maalik was close to rage so Rajiya decided to back off.
“He just found out but he did not want to discuss it over the phone. He said that you wanted to increase security so no details will be discussed over the phone as you requested. Safiyyah and I need to get moving we need to drive down to the dock district and we have classes at three.”
“Classes…!” Maalik could not believe his ears.
“Yes, we need to maintain our cover and we are here as students.”
“Go…!” Maalik was impossibly tired and had to get some sleep.
Rajiya and Safiyyah drove down to the warehouse that was in the Camden, Industrial Park pulling both the truck and the car in the ancient building. There were three windows in the front of the building that were located in what could be called an office. The sides were brick and there were two high windows that Rajiya and Safiyyah had brought spray paint to block out. The truck would sit until Maalik could find someone to work on the modifications. Nabil would purchase all of the materials necessary to modify the truck.
7.
SOLUTIONS
Sabir was sending Jibril who was one of his best oil field mechanics that was well versed in custom work. Jibril would do his work and be on a plane long before the time came to use the truck. Rajiya decided to go on line and see what big events were planned for this month. Sporting events were the most promising, since there would be a large number of people in one area but the propane truck was a problem. Large events were tightly controlled and bringing in a truck with a 3,000 gallon mounted tank was a real problem. She examined the down town area and came to the conclusion that a truck with 3,000 gallons of propane had no reason to be there. The problem was the truck.
Rajiya decided to see what a propane truck would normally do so she looked up the address of a distributor and parked across the street from the yard. The trucks were just coming in for their afternoon load. She took a sheet of paper tearing it in sixths and numbering each sheet folding each sheet tightly scattering them on the passenger seat. She picked up one looking at the number on the sheet. “Four…” Rajiya read the number aloud. She would follow the fourth truck out of the yard on its route through the city. She knew that there had to be an answer and following the truck would hopefully yield some information.
The truck pulled out of the yard with the first stop being a fair ground that was preparing for the evening crowds. Rajiya watched the truck as it serviced all of the small food service tents. After the sixth stand she decided to go back to her car and started across the parking lot looking back at the propane truck. All of a sudden she heard breaks squealing and rubber sliding across the asphalt. Rajiya caught sight of a huge blur heading her way and dove between two parked cars. She looked over her shoulder in time to see two large tires roll to a stop just in front of her. The driver jumped out and stood over her.
“Jesus Christ, are you alright.” The man’s face was white as a sheet and his eyes were bulging out of his head.
“I think that I just skinned my knee.”
The man reached out to touch Rajiya and she shrunk back. “Sorry lady but it looks like you banged your head. I didn’t mean any disrespect. Let me help you up.” The man seemed polite and respectful so Rajiya accepted his hand for assistance. “My name is Rudy. Honest to god I thought that I hit you. I am so sorry, but you just appeared out of nowhere. I’m glad that you have good reflexes. I just looked down at my paperwork for a second.”
“Sir I was thinking of something else as I was walking.” Rajiya looked at Rudy. He looked worse than she felt. She looked over his shoulder seeing that the truck had a large tank on the back. “What kind of a truck is that?”
“It’s a turd hearse.”
“What…!”
“I didn’t mean any disrespect! They call these trucks turd hearses, Honey wagons, you know Lavatory trucks. I service those little blue closets, so that they are reasonably fresh when people go to use them. We service them before the crowd gets here, and with a little bit of luck they will last for the whole night. However, sometimes we need to make a run back to do a quick service during the event.” Rajiya had a strange look on her face. “Lady, if I would have hit you it would have truly been a shitty day.” Rudy added a small smile to define his attempt at
humor.
“Sir I assure you that I am quite all right.”
“Please call me Rudy.”
“I cannot call a strange man by his familiar name. What is your family name?”
“My last name is Mann.”
“Well Mister Mann…” Rajiya covered her mouth as she started to laugh. “I think that I will call you Rudy. Mister Mann sounds cartoon like.”
“That’s better. That bump on your head seems to be growing. Can I talk you into having a seat for a few minutes just to make sure that you are alright?” Rudy looked around spotting a park bench not far from the port-a-potties. “Please have a seat and I will get this truck out of the way.”
Rudy pulled the truck up to his first stop and disappeared. After five minutes Rudy appeared carrying a small towel with a fair sized bulge in it. “One of the vendors let me have some ice. I suggest that you put this on your head.” Rudy handed her the ice from an arm’s length away.
“Thank you Mister Mann,” Rajiya said with a polite giggle.
“Well, it is good to see that your sense of humor was not damaged.” Rudy started to laugh too, “You are right Mister Mann does sound kind of cartoon like. I need to get a few of these units. Please give me a chance to see if you are alright before you leave.”
“Mister Mann, I promise that I will not leave until we talk again.” Rajiya watched as Rudy sprinted to his truck and donned his protective gear. Rajiya took out her digital camera and started taking pictures. Rudy’s carefully choreographed moves reminded her of a dance. He did three port-a-potties and removed his protective gear after which he sprinted up to her.
“How are you feeling mam?”
“I am feeling just fine Mister Mann,” Rajiya said playfully. “Please call me Rajiya.”
“Only, if you call me Rudy.”
“All right Rudy…”