Surrept

by Andrews, Taylor

  "Until today I never knew where she lived or where she worked. She is real good at keeping it on the down low."

  "Reggie, how did you meet her originally, you never told me?"

  "You never asked. I was wondering when we would get to this. Okay, here is how it went. When I was doing my first tour in Afghanistan, our unit got stationed just outside of Kabul. Our unit then was assigned to provide support to a security detail for officials of the United Nations, and to the Afghani government officials to provide security. The orders were constantly in conflict, so we ended up on what we called 'something to do patrols', and sometimes we would end up in the middle of endless poppy fields and would engage Taliban fighters and drug lords not expecting us to be there. One day, we had been camped out on a recon, and a soldier who came back from night patrol told us about a big-shot drug lord who was there at the compound. He was with some locals at a compound, they were watching the meeting, and he said that there was some fine-ass woman that was with this person. And also that she was interpreting for the big shot, with the locals."

  "So when we went out on next patrol, we came to the compound, where this went down, and there she was, walking right past us to a Range Rover. So we stopped and questioned them. That was the first time I ever heard Adriana Pucci speak, and she said this guy she was working for was an official from the Arab Emirates seeking copper mining contracts with the Afghanis, and that she was an interpreter hired by his corporation, and they were on their way back to Kabul. When we questioned the man, he spoke perfect English with an British accent, and he seemed very educated, as if he went school in England or something. So we checked out their papers, and searched their ride and then cut them loose. The next time I saw her was about a week later in the Serena Hotel in Kabul. This place is one of the nicest hotels in the country. We were assisting on a security escort detail for some of our embassy officials and an Afghan government official from the Ministry of Mines. We posted men all over that place. Then out of the blue sky, here comes Miss Adriana Pucci, she was dressed in a black robe with a scarf on her head; she came out of the hotel restaurant. And she remembered me from the field interview, and came up to me, and asked me if I was following her? She had a smile that could knock down the Great Wall of China. So we talked and discovered that we were both from Colorado, so she gave me her card and said to look her up when I rotated back to the world, and that's how it all happened."

  Matt looks up as he makes notes. "Do you remember the guy's name she was with, or the name of the corporation he represented?"

  "No, but he was an Arab for sure. Very wealthy looking, like he had it going on."

  Matt continues taking notes. "So when you got back to the States you just called her up and she came over with a bunch of heroin?"

  Reggie looks at Matt with disdain. "I found her card one day and decided to call her just to check her fine ass out, and she invited me to this public television thing where she was interpreting, and said there was a dinner party afterwards. So I took her up on it, and we got to know each other and had a little thing going for a minute there. She asked me one morning in the hotel if I wanted to increase my net worth, and as soon as we started doing business that little thing came to an end real quick. Then it was all about the dollar for her."

  Dana is annoyed that he fell for Adriana. "So now we know that, what now?"

  Matt says, "You said 'hotel.' Is that where you usually met her for these little trysts?"

  "Yeah, she said it kept things uncomplicated, but the room service bills sure weren't."

  Matt throws down his pen. "There it is then. For a start, let's search the hotels here in town. Reggie, you handle that but when you call just ask for Miss Pucci's room until you get a hit. If they start to connect you, just hang up right away as not to alarm her with the ring. You can use the phone in the conference room. There is a computer in there for internet as well to get the numbers."

  Reggie gets up, and grabs a pen and a legal pad from Matt's stack on his desk. "I got that."

  "Dana, you go through this Mac and print everything, and copy it on two flash drives, too." Matt looks in his desk and finds a three pack of flash drives and sets them on the laptop and pushes it toward Dana. "Let's get at it, I have research to do."

  Chapter Fourteen

  Ahmed is packing in his basement of the market. He goes through his papers and finds his passport and visa. He places them in a bag, and he finishes with the last of his clothes and zips the bag shut. He is startled by a knock at his door.

  He throws the bag on the bed, and answers. It is Kari. He wonders why she is there so late. "Kari, what's wrong?"

  Her face is long and sullen; she sees his bag on the bed. "When are you leaving?"

  "Leaving where?"

  She looks into his eyes. "If you wish not to tell me, I understand."

  He is caught off guard by her presence there, so late without Omar. "Kari, what are you speaking about?"

  Kari moves into the room and he relents as she takes his hand. "Ahmed, I know what you have done."

  He panics internally but tries to maintain a straight face. "I saw the pictures of you in disguise on the tapes on television. I saw the bleach and chemicals here in your room, and the next day they were gone. I have seen your eyes darken with the spilling of blood. You had not killed until that day."

  Ahmed suddenly fills with the truth. "Does Omar know?"

  She stares at him. "If he does, he has not shown it to me."

  Ahmed looks to the ceiling as adrenaline fills his veins. "Are you going to tell him?"

  Kari's eyes fill with tears. "I must, Ahmed. He is my husband, and we are your family. Why have you made us your scapegoats and spit in our faces. We love you." Her tears flow down her face as he pulls his hands from hers and steps back.

  He cannot stand the guilt of the betrayal he brought them. At that moment, he realizes that their lives will be ruined. He makes the decision. "My family was murdered by the infidels, as they bombed our lands and slaughtered us in the streets like diseased sheep. They came into our homes, and beat us like undisciplined dogs in the middle of the night, helpless from their rage and greed of the great White Satan."

  Kari shows empathy in her eyes and tries to plead with him. "Yes, they came for the oil, but they rid us of that monster Saddam, and his heathen sons. We saw our people tortured and gassed. I too saw the graves covered up by the tractors. But they gave us freedom from his oppression to live as we wish, regardless of faction."

  Her argument for the west enrages him as he suddenly moves toward her. "You have been poisoned by their ways. Look at how you dress, with your nice car, and your uncovered head disrespecting Islam, living in sin every day of your life here in their land, lusting for all that you can obtain. You feed the infidels food that you prepare from your kitchen with your own hands that bear the blood of the souls of our people they have slaughtered."

  Kari backs up until her back is against the wall. She cannot believe what is happening, as fear fills her. Ahmed pulls a dagger that his father gave him from his back pocket as he grabs the woman by the hair uncovered and full of sin. He whispers as he cuts her throat from ear to ear, as the arterial spray covers the wall, "In the name of Allah."

  Ahmed arrives in the delivery van in front of Omar's modest, well kept home in Englewood, Colorado, just nine miles from the store. He goes to the door and rings the bell.

  Omar answers looking surprised. "Ahmed, is everything all right, where is Kari?"

  He smiles. "She is coming right behind me. I need to speak with you for a moment."

  Omar allows him in and closes the door. "What is it, Ahmed?"

  Ahmed can tell that Omar was probably sleeping in his chair when he arrived. Ahmed looks at the round little man. "I love you, Omar. I'm sorry." Ahmed jumps like a cat, turns Omar around, and cuts his throat as he kicks and gags. He is too heavy for him to hold as Omar lifelessly slumps to the floor; blood spills over the Persian rug in the entry of the house.
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  Ahmed pulls the van into the garage next to Omar's car and unloads Kari's body wrapped in a shower curtain and places it next to Omar's on their bed. He unrolls her from the shower curtain taken from his bathroom back at the store. He looks at them on the bed, and tears fall from his cheeks as he leaves the room. He gets the remote for the garage door from Omar's car and closes it as he pulls away.

  ***

  Adriana is sitting in a hotel room. She is repackaging her cash for deliveries to various destinations around the world. She finishes the last box and makes a mental note that she will have them loaded into the car with her in the morning and will have the lady at the UPS store in Bozeman send them off for her on her way to the family ranch.

  Adriana dials a number from the yellow pages. "I need a Town car tomorrow for a long, one way trip. I had to fly into Denver, and I need to get to Bozeman, Montana as early as possible tomorrow morning. Is four in the morning the earliest pick up time? Great, I am at the Loew's Hotel on Colorado and I-25. The name is Marie Rampino. My number is (303) 555-6138. That is right. I will be waiting in the lobby. No, it will be cash in advance. Thank you, so much."

  She hangs up one of the disposable phones she bought before she sold her BMW to that land shark in Lakewood on Colfax Avenue. He discounted five hundred bucks for the broken window after paying her twenty percent under low book value. She wondered if the thief that broke into her car would be smart enough to put the information together on her laptop the professor gave her.

  She doubted a thief would report what they found on a laptop they burglarized from a car in a parking lot. Adriana undresses as she goes in for a shower. She will only get three hours sleep before her car arrives.

  Reggie is still on the phone. He has called over forty-five hotels. He looks at the clock and its eleven-ten in the evening. "No, that's okay, thank you." He hangs up. He is tired and frustrated. He goes into Matt's office where he is researching legal precedents.

  Matt looks up as Reggie appears in the doorway. "Did we find our terrorist girl?"

  "No man, I didn't. She is a ghost. I called every damn hotel in Denver, DTC, Aurora, Westminster, Englewood, from Colorado Springs to Fort Collins. I think she is gone for sure."

  He looks at his client. "Let's try you running by her place, one more time tonight. Can you do that without any scenes coming down and just check it out?"

  "Yeah, but I don't think it's a good idea to tell Dana."

  Matt agrees. "She's doing the laptop thing anyway. Does Adriana know your car?"

  "She sure does, but I'm driving a customer's car. It's cool."

  "A customer's car. You don't want to involve innocent people with this crazy chick do you? Here." He holds up his car keys. Take my car. I'm probably going to be here all night anyway. Are you holding anything?"

  Reggie looks at his attorney. "I got my piece, and a couple of joints of chronic."

  "Leave the piece and the dope here. I cannot have you popped in my car with dope and a gun with the present charges you have. Just creep by and check it all out. You won't need your piece."

  He smiles at his attorney. "No disrespect, Mr. C., but it's the end of the night and after today, Haynes needs to burn one, you know what I'm saying, decompress."

  "Just burn it before you drive but leave the piece and the other one here."

  Reggie pulls one of his pistols out, and pops the clip and ejects a round and catches it. He sets the weapon and ammo on Matt's desk. He fishes in his cigarette pack and pulls a big joint out and tosses it next to the gun. "We cool now?"

  Matt places the gun and ammo in his desk. "Yeah, were good."

  "What kind of a car is it?"

  Matt answers as he reads, "Silver nine-eleven convertible black rag top, out back. Don't smoke that shit in my car."

  Reggie laughs at his paranoid lawyer as he leaves the office.

  Matt picks up the joint and lights it, smells it under his nose and yells down the hall, "Wow, chronic it is."

  Dana walks into the office and smells the skunk-smelling pot. "I didn't know you still smoked, Matt. I thought we all quit right after college."

  "I did, but something just told me to fire this bad boy up, so I did. Want some?"

  "No way, it just makes me hungry and paranoid, but it smells really good. I found some interesting stuff, where's Reggie?"

  "He went to check out the apartment to see if she was around."

  Dana gets fired up. "Why didn't you tell me? I wanted to go with him."

  He draws on the joint and coughs as it expands in his virgin lungs. "Dana, you lost it out there right?"

  She nods, embarrassed.

  "When you came in here earlier, you looked worse than I have ever seen you. Besides, he's just going to cruise by to check for her car and look around.."

  "No problem."

  "I think I've found something important." Matt reaches for the paper, "What you got?"

  "I found a phone number and contact information for this realtor in Montana. In addition, with it were some notes regarding a title company, and a disbursement release to transfer funds to a weird account. Therefore, I did a title search through property tax records, and came up with a property in Bozeman, Montana. The property title is in the same name that was in that report you gave me on her by e-mail. Maybe it is her adopted father."

  He scans the page as she speaks.

  She says, "Also, there is a list of about twenty-six meat processing plants all across the country, and all of them are big corporate names. There is also a list of Middle Eastern names and addresses next to each meat plant, so maybe these are a contact list of some kind." Matt Cohen is surprised by what Dana found. He puts the joint down to focus.

  Dana finishes, "I think this could be some good leads where we can start. Maybe the family's property in Montana. I bet that's where she is, if we're lucky."

  He types on his keyboard and does a search, "Bingo. You did well, Dana. LexisNexis has it all right here, why didn't I think of this? Please call Reggie and see how he is doing. We have ourselves a bona fide lead here. Ask him if he ever heard her refer to Bozeman, Montana. No, wait a minute. Don't say anything on his phone or yours for that matter. Boy, I take a few hits of weed and I become an idiot. Just tell him to get back here ASAP unless he has something. And use our phones here. His is probably monitored."

  She looks at him like a deer in the headlights.

  "What's the matter, Dana?"

  "I don't know his number."

  Matt remembers Reggie saying the same thing earlier. He leans back in his chair, "Amazing, you two have known each other for two days and are smart enough to come up with all this shit together, and you never compromised your phones, which I'm sure are monitored. I'll call him, this is great, and nobody would ever believe this." Matt calls Reggie.

  Reggie is heading back to the law offices. He found nothing at Adriana's apartment. In addition, he too is afraid she has escaped. His chances of getting short have diminished.

  ***

  Late that night in Vancouver, British Columbia, the man is meeting with his man from the warehouse at the harbor and two other men.

  "They will arrive in motor homes, they will have baggage, and they will have instructions to go into the tunnel and sit down and wait until their guide arrives to receive them. You will receive the text message, 'It looks like rain', if the plan is to go forward. You will then immediately make it rain in the tunnel. If there is a problem, you will receive the text message, 'The weather looks great', in which you will wait for further instructions. Is that clear?"

  The two men nod.

  The man reiterates, "Do you understand exactly how this must work?"

  "Yes sir. We receive the go-ahead text; we pump the fuel into the tunnel once all of the bus passengers are secured inside, under the guise of awaiting transfer through the tunnel to Canadian territory. We then ignite the fuel, and incinerate the subjects and their evidence. This order will be received by text message only, and has a go
or wait content only. Is that all of it, sir?"

  The man likes the man who is the shorter of the two.

  "Exactly right, very good." The man looks with approval to his man from the harbor at his choice of assassins to carry out this most important task of eliminating those who carried out the recent attacks in the name of Allah.

  "I'm counting on your success, for which I will reward you with five hundred thousand each." He pushes a small bag across the table. "A hundred thousand for each of you is in here, and the balance when you exterminate these evil enemies of Allah, who will find great favor in your deeds. When this task is completed and successful, then you will meet with my colleague here at the warehouse down here at the marina, and receive the balance. We will never see each other again. Are we agreed?"

  Both the men answer in unison, "Yes sir."

  The man closes his eyes for effect and raises his hands. "Give praise to Allah. Thank you, gentlemen. He will show you out."

  The men take the bag and leave as the man waits for his colleague to show them out. His colleague returns and sits.

  "Do they understand how to operate the pumps and sprinkler system in the tunnel?"

  "We trained for an entire day, and they are ready to please you with their blind loyalty, sir."

  "Make sure the petrol tanks are full, so that when they make it rain on our subjects, there is nothing left but ash. When the task is completed, eliminate them immediately at the payoff, and feed them to the crabs like the others. Your money and passports are in the bag on the chair next to the door. Do not fail at this. We need continued success in our endeavors."

  The man from the harbor gets up, he retrieves the bag on the chair and turns back to his employer. "We will not accept failure as an option, sir. We never have."

  "I have trusted in your judgment and talent for twenty-one years, but we are so close that caution and diligence is a must in all of our action. Discipline is necessary for success."

  "Rest assured on a successful and lovely day tomorrow sir. Good night."

  ***