by Finian Blake
“If you leave the other women will leave with you and then there will only be Khalid and me.”
“Then there will be fewer arguments. You do realize that once a bomb is loaded you only need one driver.”
“But I will require help loading the fuel into the tank and I cannot do this work by myself. What am I supposed to do?” Maalik was starting to show the strain.
“You need to become a leader or allow someone else to lead. The one thing that everybody has noticed is that you cannot make decisions. Allow Nabil to lead and give him your support.”
“I can lead!” Desperation was showing in Maalik’s voice.
“Have you selected a target yet?” Rajiya was not about to let up. “Have you made any decision on my suggestion about modifying the truck?”
“No…” Maalik said in a sulk.
“This is what I mean. We are running out of time and you have not committed to a single decision. I will be a grandmother before you make up your mind. I am returning with Nabil. When you have made up your mind we will return to help you if we are not dead from old age.” Maalik raised his hand to strike Rajiya venting his fury at the table instead. Rajiya jumped up striking the table also.
“Do you see that? You cannot even decide whether or not you want to hit me.” Maalik jumped up out of his chair slapping Rajiya so hard that she fell out of her chair. Rajiya looked up at Maalik from the floor.
“Congratulations you have made one decision. Now can you make any decisions about our situation?” Maalik stood silently as Rajiya stood up and walked out the door.
Layla awoke on the bed reconnecting with her body after her travels. This was a period of time that she hated because it took so long for her body and spirit to rejoin. She looked up finding that Edward was sitting on the bed next to her.
“Maalik and Rajiya just had a knock down drag out argument that resulted in Rajiya walking out the door threatening to return to Saudi Arabia. It looks like there is a possibility that the whole thing will fizzle out and we will not have to do anything.”
Edward smiled down at his wife, “I was watching Rajiya pick up Jibril and he came here in the mood to work. Jibril wants to do his job and get the hell out of town. I don’t believe the truck will be more than a few days in preparation. I think that it would be a mistake not to monitor the situation closely. Nadia and Ted are working late with Randal. Let’s give them a call and we’ll see what they’re up to.”
The phone rang at the temp service and Eden answered the phone.
“Eden, Layla and I were traveling and it looks as if the terrorists group is doing a big split up with Rajiya and Nabil going back to Saudi Arabia. Maalik wants to maintain control but is incapable of making any decisions so the whole group looks like it is unraveling.”
“Fantastic, Randall is trying to figure out which way they are going to jump. Let me put him on the phone and you can give him a complete rundown.” Layla and Edward switched the phone to speaker giving Randal a complete breakdown of all the new developments. The only piece of news that Randal was unhappy about was the fact that Jibril was in town and prepared to work.
“Could you keep an eye on the situation especially Jibril I would like to know if they are going to modify the truck or not. I would also like to know which sanitary company they’re going to be impersonating.”
“All of this out of body work is very draining on Layla and me,” said Edward. “Have somebody on your end take pictures of the truck that they want to impersonate.”
“Edward I appreciate everything that you and Layla have been doing for us. Get some sleep and we will see you in the morning.”
Felix awoke at one a.m. feeling surprisingly rested. He showered and dressed in dark clothing thinking of all the things that he needed to do tonight. He climbed in the silver Camry driving to a 7-Eleven for a cup of coffee and a cheap flashlight. When he came to Tom’s street he parked at the corner for several minutes looking for any signs of life. The neighborhood was completely still with not even a single light in any of the windows. Felix drove down the street to the dead end and turned the car around looking for any sign of movement as he did so. The neighborhood was completely dead so he moved the Camry parking it just past Tom’s house. Felix moved to the corner of the house looking down the long driveway. He looked toward the new structure in the backyard. All the lights in the house seemed to be out and there was absolutely no sign of movement anywhere around the house. Felix crept down the drive keeping his eyes out for any new developments. He checked the small outside door that led into the office finding it locked. Felix checked the large door at the center of the barn finding it open. He rolled the door to the side just wide enough for him to enter closing it immediately upon entering. The aisle down the side of the barn was almost ten feet wide and thirty feet long.
Felix snuck down the center aisle of the barn with only his cheap flashlight to illuminate the way. He located the tack room and luck was with him because the door to the room was unlocked. It took Felix only a few minutes to find his gun. He selected the 9 mm pistol checking to see that it was loaded. As he left the tack room Felix looked across the aisle he saw a large window and an office behind that. On a whim Felix decided to see if there was anything in the office that he could use. Testing the door, he found that the office door was also unlocked. Once inside the door Felix pulled the 9 mm pistol from his belt. Tom had threatened to feed Felix to the crabs and there was no way that was going to happen. He heard someone talking at the top of the stairs and decided to investigate.
Cher and Sue were lying in the bed up in the loft of the office with the dog Tom between them. They had both spent the day training the dog as grandma Lynn had shown Sue. She was excited because Tom had done so well in learning everything they had worked on. They both stroked the large German Shepard affectionately while praising him. Suddenly Tom came to his attention stance growling at the stairs leading up to the loft. Sue hesitated, but Cher’s instinct took over.
“Balls Tom…!” Felix’s flashlight illuminated the large set of teeth that were heading toward him he pulled the trigger on his pistol and found that it would not fire. He screamed loudly as the enraged dog bit into the zipper of his pants knocking him down the stairs. Cher raced down the stairs behind the dog kicking the prostate figure in the head is hard as she could. She delivered a second kick with all her might and the dark figure went slack. Tom, Ted, and Nadia ran in the room just as the lights went on.
“Are you girls are right?”
“He tried to shoot Tom,” Cher said pointing at the inert figure. Sue was standing halfway down the stairs crying.
“He tried to shoot my dog.” The dog was sitting by the inert figure proudly holding a zipper in its mouth as if it were a trophy.
Nadia looked at Cher, “did you kick him in the head?”
“Twice, I think that I knocked some of his teeth loose.” Cher pointed to three small white objects on the floor. “Nobody is going to beat me again.”
“Good girl,” Nadia said as she pulled Cher to her, reaching out to hug Sue also. Nadia picked up two of the teeth from the floor handing one tooth to Cher and one tooth to Sue. “How hard did you kick him?”
“I kicked him with all my might just as I did in the dream.” Cher looked at Nadia’s face. “And you are smiling at me now just like you were smiling in my dream.”
Tom picked up the pistol pointing it at the floor and pulling the trigger. When the gun did not fire Tom closely examine the gun.
“The trigger has been super glued and there is a round in the chamber!” Tom looked like he was going to do something extremely ugly, but Nadia put her hand on his arm to calm him.
“I know what you would like to do. I would like to see our friend Felix explain to the police how a thirteen-year-old girl kicked his teeth out. First I think we need to see whether we need the police, or the coroner that was a hell of a fall that he took.” Nadia knelt down to examine Felix noting his bloody mouth and the blood wh
ere his zipper should have been. “I think that we will need both the police and the ambulance. I believe that his manhood has sustained some damage.” Both Tom and Ted started to laugh.
“It’s no big thing!” Tom said turning his attention to the girls. “I think you will need to sleep in the house tonight.”
“No daddy,” Sue said in a pleading voice. “Tom is with us and he will protect us.” The dog sat by the bottom stair holding the zipper like a trophy.
“All right you can, but only if Nadia agrees to spend the night out here with you.” Both girls looked expectantly at Nadia hoping that she would agree. Nadia nodded her head in agreement leading the girls upstairs to bed. They spent the night watching the police clean up the mess in the office gleefully whispering back and forth to each other.
Tom was having a close look at the trigger mechanism in all of Felix’s five guns. He was surprised to find that all of the trigger mechanisms had been flooded with super glue.
“Ted have you seen anything like this?”
“No, whoever sabotaged these guns did it in a way that can be reversed and I know that Felix didn’t do this. I am just glad that somebody had done it otherwise it might’ve been a different outcome upstairs.” Ted’s smile turned into a frown as he spoke and then turned back into a smile. “Hey how about that kid of mine?”
“Yeah with the kick like that, I do believe that Cher could be a punter in the NFL.” Tom was laughing so hard he could barely continue. “I can just see Felix explaining to all those bad guys in jail how a fourteen-year-old girl kicked his teeth out.”
“That’s my girl,” Ted said with pride. Up in the loft Cher squeezed closer to Nadia saying, “I love you.”
“I love you too.” Nadia kissed Cher and Sue on top of their heads with all three craning their necks to see what was going on downstairs.
Tom and Ted were walking with the police as Felix was being loaded into the ambulance. Ted looked up pointing out a Four Diamonds Security car to Tom as the ambulance started to drive off. Both Tom and Ted recognize Maalik as he spoke.
“Sir, I hope that was not a member of your family.”
“No, Maalik that was a burglar that broke into our house.” Tom slapped Ted on the back letting out a huge burst of laughter.
“Ted’s fourteen-year-old daughter kicked his ass.”
“You are kidding me, sir.”
“Maalik, to be literal she kicked his teeth out, but to be fair I must say that was after my daughter’s dog bit him in the balls.” Maalik shuddered at the thought of being eaten by a dog. Not wishing to continue the conversation he threw the vehicle in gear and drove off quickly. Tom shook his head in amazement watching the car drive away. He was more afraid of a man getting the crap kicked out of him by a little girl than he was blowing up thousands of people.
Felix woke up in the emergency room with his head pounding. He tried to put his hands to his head to ease the nagging pain finding that he could not move his arms from his side. Felix looked down to discover that his arms and feet were tied down to the gurney by soft nylon straps. A nurse was working at cutting his clothing away and Felix panicked as he saw his blood covered pants with the zipper missing.
“My God did that dog…”
“Mister Owens I have good news for you. The dog only pinched your inner thigh and missed your most important equipment. We have given you a shot so that the Doctor can stitch you up and that is why you can’t feel anything. It appears that you are missing three teeth and when the x-rays get back I think that we will find that your jaw needs to be set. It looks like they did a really good job of kicking the crap out of you.” The policeman watching Felix started to laugh.
“The report says that it was a fourteen-year-old girl that did this.”
“I don’t require that information.” The nurse said trying to repress her laughter. “No matter who did this, the damage is extensive and that’s what we must deal with. We have a broken jaw, missing teeth, the leg is going to require several stitches and his body has several contusions from head to toe.”
“Yeah, the injuries are extensive. Next time Mister Owens should probably take on a ten-year-old. This whiz kid attacked two fourteen-year-old girls having a sleepover with their dog and Mister Owens only had a pistol.”
“Mister Owens the zipper is missing from your pants do you have any idea of what happened to it?”
“I know exactly what happened to it nurse” the patrolman said on the verge of losing all control. “The dog is flossing with it.”
“That’s it! You are out of here.” The nurse pushed the policeman out the door breaking out in full-blown laughter before the door closed.
The door opened revealing the sound of unrestricted laughter as the doctor walked in the room.
“Mister Owens I hate to be the one that tells you this but after we’re finished patching you up you will be removed to the security wing with an armed guard. Since we are using small stitches this may take a while.” The doctor had laughter in his eyes as he looked down at Felix. “Do you have anybody that you would like to notify?” Felix thought of notifying his wife but then decided against it considering the situation. He had no idea of where Betty was and was too proud to ask Ellen to pass on a message.
The phone started ringing at the AG’s house at five thirty in the morning. Bob grudgingly picked up the phone still half way asleep.
“This had better be good.”
“This is Agent Wright from the FBI. I don’t like calling anybody at this hour but I have strict orders to inform you personally that your assistant Felix Owens is in the custody of the FBI at the Bethesda hospital in Maryland. He is currently in the emergency room and as soon as they finish wiring’s jaw he will be moved to the security wing under guard.”
“Good, keep him under guard until I tell you otherwise. Why are they wiring his jaw?” Bob was still in a fog and was beginning to wake up.
“He broke into Tom Thomas’s house and one of the house guests kicked his teeth out.” Agent Wright was starting to laugh.
“Was it Ted McKenzie?” Bob was now sitting upright in bed and Ellen was trying to listen to the conversation. Bob put the phone on speaker allowing her to hear both sides of the conversation.
“No, it was Cher McKenzie. Felix broke into their guest house with a pistol where Tom’s daughter Sue and Cher were having a sleepover.” Agent Wright started laughing again. “Her dog attacked Felix and Cher kicked him in the head knocking out a few teeth, breaking his jaw. Felix was out cold with his teeth on the floor when Tom and Ted arrived or he would be in much worse condition.”
“How old are the girls?” Helen interrupted their conversation.
“They are both fourteen years old. Why do you ask?”
“It seems that Felix has a real problem with women. Are the girls alright?” The concern in Ellen’s voice was obvious.
“Well I don’t think Felix will be bothering anybody for a while. The doctor prescribed a heavy dose of Thorazine, and he is going up to the Security Ward under guard.” Helen let out a sigh of relief after Agent Wright finished his report.
“I’ll let Betty and the kids know that Felix is in custody.”
The emergency room was running to capacity and right after they had finished wiring up Felix’s jaw three patients on some unknown drug went completely out of control. The officer escorting Felix went in the hall to assist the hospital staff and during the confrontation the officer was knocked unconscious. In the confusion Felix grabbed his blood soaked pants running down to the employee’s locker room. After checking a few lockers Felix was able to find a pair of pants that would fit. He went to the emergency room entrance spotting an empty car which had just dropped off a patient and was still running. He struggled inside the car and was out of sight before anything was noticed. Felix drove to where he had parked his Camry and left the neighborhood as quickly as possible opting to return to his hotel room.
Boris was spending the evening with his mother and wa
s having a problem breaking his sleep routine of waking up at two in the morning to monitor the Russians. Knowing Boris’s habits Rhonda had set up a computer with the NSA link in the guest bedroom. Out of boredom Boris started to scan Nabil’s computer files. It was easy to crack Nabil security program since he was using a version of the NSA program that he had designed for the EPA’s security. He downloaded all of Nabil’s notes and designs for the weapon that he was planning. Boris relayed the plans to Randal in order to keep them updated. Next he went on a general shopping expedition to see if anything else was on the computer finding that Nabil had failed to delete his conversation with Sabir. It was no problem to work his way through the relays used to disguise Sabir’s location. Boris was able to track the last location to a city in Saudi Arabia called Jiddah. It was easy to extract a location which was an Internet café. This left a lot of room for guessing. He had to get to a more efficient computer so at four AM Boris was jumping in his clothes preparing to leave for the NSA building.
Boris’ hand was just an inch from the front door knob of the apartment when he heard his mother’s voice.
“And where is my only son going at 4 o’clock in the morning?”
“I need to go to work. The good computers are there, and this is what I do.” Boris smiled at his mother heading for the NSA building. Once he had settled in at his mainframe computer it only took Boris a few minutes to penetrate the security of the computer café in Jiddah. Within three minutes Boris looked up Sabir’s Internet account at the café finding out that he was part of the Royal family and a prominent member of the local community. Boris hacked into the confidential CIA files finding that Sabir was strongly suspected of two assassination attempts on members of the Kings family. Sabir was a Salafi Muslim and traditional in the extreme claiming that the King was polluting the country with foreign influences. He allowed foreigners too much latitude. Sabir would be a real problem considering his standing in the Royal family. Boris decided to turn the information over to the CIA.
It was six o’clock in the morning when Boris turned the information over to Nadia for action.