Bulletproof Mascara: A Novel

by Bethany Maines

  “Z’ev,” said Nikki. “He said he was named after his grandfather and that Jim was his middle name.”

  “Makes me wonder about that Sarkassian fellow,” said Ellen.

  “Good point,” Jenny agreed. “Look him up, too, Jane.”

  “Sure, what’s his name?”

  “Jirair Sarkassian,” said Nikki. “He said he was in shipping. Armenian. Seemed bitter about it.”

  Jane typed, and the girls waited. Eventually Jane shook her head.

  “This is going to take longer. I’m dealing with a lot more databases and a lot fewer details.”

  “Well, let’s get some details,” said Ellen. “What exactly happened tonight, Nikki? And where’s Mrs. Robinson?”

  “With them,” said Nikki. Briefly she sketched an outline of the day for Jane and the girls.

  “That all sounds extremely suspicious,” Ellen said when she was done.

  “I know!” agreed Nikki.

  “And I don’t like this Victor guy at all,” Jenny said.

  “I know!” said Nikki.

  “But Z’ev sounds kind of hot,” said Jane.

  “I know,” Nikki said with a sigh.

  “But what is Val thinking, running off without you?” Ellen demanded. “You’re supposed to be a team.”

  “I know,” repeated Nikki, shifting uncomfortably in her chair, “but someone had to distract them and someone had to take Laura home. It just worked out that way.”

  “But really, she should have left right after you, and then you all should have regrouped outside the club and left together,” Jenny said.

  “Oh,” said Nikki. “I didn’t think of that. Yeah, you’re probably right. I wish you guys were here. I totally forget everything I know when I’m standing next to Val. She just sounds so certain all the time.”

  “Well, just stay calm and you’ll make it through,” said Ellen. “You can do it.”

  “Yeah,” said Jenny. “You’re our fearless leader. You can do anything!”

  “Right, sure,” Nikki said, rolling her eyes. “Outright lies about my abilities aside, what am I supposed to tell Val?”

  “About what?” asked Jenny, her brows furrowing.

  “About Z’ev and Canada!” Nikki exclaimed. “What have we been talking about for the last hour?”

  “Jeez, Jenny, keep up here,” said Jane, crunching through another handful of popcorn.

  “Don’t make me come over there,” said Jenny, and Jane grinned. “Sorry,” Jenny continued. “I just didn’t realize Val didn’t know. Personally, I say don’t tell her anything.”

  “You have to tell her,” Ellen said. “His behavior sounded suspicious when you first told us about it, and now I’m even more convinced. It affects the mission, and Val should know.”

  “Hell, no,” said Jenny. “If she tells Val, then Val might pull her out of the mission.”

  “Well, what if she tells Val, but skimps on the details,” suggested Jane. “Just be all, ‘I went to lunch with this guy and the other guy assumed we were married.’ Spin it like Nikki has this contact that they should pursue.”

  “Well, that could work, I guess,” agreed Jenny grudgingly, then she looked over her shoulder and ducked a little. “Uh . . . time to go. Love you guys. Don’t die!”

  “Love you, too,” Nikki said, startled by the proclamation, but feeling good about it. Jenny’s screen went dark, and Nikki looked back at Ellen.

  “I’d better go, too,” said Ellen, looking thoughtful. “Jane, I’ll be around the computer a lot this week. Can you keep me updated?”

  “I . . .” Jane looked uncomfortable, but shrugged. “Sure, what the hell?”

  “Be careful, Nikki,” Ellen said. “Call if you need help. I still say tell Val.”

  “I will,” agreed Nikki. Ellen disappeared and Nikki was left staring at Jane.

  “Good friends,” Jane said. “I’ll keep looking into these guys. It’d help if you got pictures of Sarkassian and the Victor guy.”

  “I’ll see what I can do. In the meantime, I guess I’ll just wait for Val to come back.” Jane nodded. “Have you ever worked for her before?” Nikki asked. “Is she always like this?”

  “Pretty much,” said Jane with a shrug. “She just likes to do things her own way.”

  “Yeah,” said Nikki. “Seems like.”

  There was a knock on the door as Nikki hung up on Jane. And Nikki took a deep breath as she went to the door. They said confession was good for the soul, but she wasn’t looking forward to this.

  THAILAND VI

  Gun Shopping

  The morning’s mission of procuring guns had seemed exciting and exotic, and Nikki entered the hotel lobby riding a small wave of adrenaline, which Val had squashed immediately by entering a very prosaic cab and proceeding to ignore her. Being ignored by a grumpy partner in a cab that smelled slightly of poultry was not at all the adventure Nikki had hoped for. And more than that, it gave her too much opportunity to make the confession she had somehow managed to avoid the night before. Nikki rationalized in her head that she’d barely had time to get a word in before Val had gone to her own room and so therefore it was not her fault, but the other half of her wasn’t buying the rationalization at all.

  Nikki sat in the cab, scratched at the bead of sweat that was slowly forming on the inside of her arm, and stole sidelong glances at Val. Val sat on the other side of the cab and watched the traffic through the glass. The street was packed with an endless stretch of vehicles. People on bikes jockeyed for position among scooters, motorcycles, tuk-tuks, cars, and trucks.

  “Er,” said Nikki, which she knew was not a strong beginning, but it was better than silence.

  “Yes?” said Val, sighing, as if talking to Nikki made her tired.

  “There’s something I should probably tell you.” Val grunted in a way that Nikki interpreted as an entreaty for her to continue. “Um . . . you know those guys? From last night?”

  Val actually turned her face in Nikki’s direction, and Nikki stared into the vortex of Val’s black sunglasses. They seemed to swallow her reflection like a black hole.

  “Yes?” said Val again, her voice flat.

  “I’ve met them before,” said Nikki, forging ahead, intending to follow Ellen’s advice and tell the whole truth.

  Val continued to stare at her.

  “In Canada,” said Nikki, and abruptly chickened out. “I was at a bar and that lawyer guy was trying to pick me up and then the other guy came in and assumed we were married, and Jim said that if I played along I’d get a free lunch out of it. He said it was important because it was kind of an interview for him.”

  “I see,” Val said slowly. “Why you didn’t tell me about this before?”

  “I didn’t know it was pertinent,” said Nikki. Val didn’t sound mad, but Nikki was never very certain of Val’s emotions. “I mean, he was just this guy at a bar and it’s not like I ever saw him again. I mean, till now.”

  “Hmm,” said Val.

  “But there was one odd thing,” Nikki said, creeping up to the truth, hoping to attack it from the rear. “The lawyer, when he was trying to pick me up, he used a different name. Different from the one he used with the Sarkassian guy.”

  Val frowned. “What did he say it was?”

  “Z’ev,” said Nikki, feeling slightly guilty, as if she were telling the wrong person a secret. Which was silly.

  “I always thought that was odd,” she continued, “but now that we know he’s connected with the Victor guy, well, it’s downright suspicious.”

  Val opened her mouth as if to speak, but then shut it again and turned again to look out the window, her lips twisting and her fingers drumming as if in concentrated thought.

  “You said this was in Canada? That wasn’t the trip where you won the starter kit, was it?” asked Val.

  “That was later,” said Nikki, waving her hand to put it in the past. “They weren’t related or anything.” Were they?

  “Right,” said Val, fidd
ling with her lighter the way she did when she was trying to put her thoughts together.

  The cab crossed out of the tourist area and into the scrambling warren of buildings, street vendors, and shops. The car’s pace became slower as the streets became narrower and the pedestrian traffic thicker. They drove past a cluster of monks in orange robes and sunglasses. Nikki wished she’d brought her camera.

  “What did he say last night when you saw him?” Val asked abruptly.

  “He asked to see me so that he could ‘explain.’” This was where things got sticky. Last night Nikki’s version of events had been very brief, and while she could gloss over Canada, she knew Val would be irritated that she hadn’t been fully honest about last night. “And I figured we needed to find out about these guys anyway, so I told him I was staying at the Mandarin and agreed to see him.”

  “And you couldn’t have told me this last night?” Val snapped.

  “Well, you sort of rushed in and out,” Nikki said weakly. “I told you about the phone and what they said in the room and everything.”

  “Right. Yeah, the cell phone. You mentioned that. Jane’s working on that?” Val fiddled with her lighter a bit more.

  “Yeah, she said she’d have information soon. But don’t you think we should find out who they are? And who Jim Webster really is? And what their connection to Lawan is?” Nikki asked hopefully.

  Val flipped the lighter through her fingers and didn’t look at Nikki. The cab was slowing, as if it was searching for their destination.

  “I already know him after all, and he’s agreed to talk to me. It seems worth pursuing.”

  Val finally looked at Nikki and nodded as if reaching a decision. “Yeah, I think we should. It is suspicious. We should find out everything we can about this lawyer. You can’t trust a guy like that. He could be very dangerous.”

  “I don’t know,” protested Nikki. “He never made any threats or anything. I mean, he lied, but . . .”

  “The dangerous ones don’t make threats. Besides, everyone knows you can’t trust lawyers.”

  Nikki laughed weakly as the cab pulled to a stop in front of a store with grimy windows displaying undusted carvings of Thai elephants.

  “Is this the place?” asked Nikki, looking doubtfully at the display, as Val paid the cab driver. “It looks kind of shady.”

  “What, you expect to buy guns at the local gun emporium?” Val was looking around the area as if expecting to see someone.

  “I suppose,” Nikki said, and pushed the shop door open hesitantly. Hanging bells jangled against the doorframe as she entered. The shop was cluttered with carvings and furniture. Nothing looked organized and the place had the musty smell of disuse.

  “Kovit,” called Val, stepping in behind her, but no one answered.

  “Kovit!” Val called again, impatiently this time. “Shit,” she swore when no one answered, and Nikki felt a prickle of nervousness run across the skin on the nape of her neck.

  “Is something wrong?” Nikki asked.

  “Eh? No. Look . . . just stay here for a minute,” said Val, and she walked toward a bead-curtained doorway behind the sales counter. The curtain made clicking noises that sounded extra loud against the silence.

  Nikki walked up and down the aisles of woodcarvings, passing Buddhas, boddhisatvas, and topless princesses with their sweet smiles and heavy-lidded eyes.

  Nikki’s phone began to ring with the repetitive sound of her mother’s ring tone. She fumbled in her purse, anxious to turn off the racket, but the phone slipped from her fingers and clattered to the floor. She bent over to pick it up and was surprised by a soft popping noise and a sudden rain of splinters as the head of a statue in front of her exploded.

  Nikki yelped and scrambled in an army crawl down the aisle, diving under a table as two more carvings sustained bullet damage. She heard the footsteps before she saw him. He was dressed in black, a black gun and silencer held easily in his hand. Her view of his face was obscured by a table’s edges. All she could see was the red patch with an R sewn to the arm of his jacket. Nikki tried to quiet her breathing, which was coming in ragged gasps, and look for an escape. But all she could think was that, somewhere, her mother had clearly hit Redial without leaving a message because the phone was ringing again.

  The man was getting closer. Nikki crawled away. She ducked behind a life-size statue of a baby elephant, risking a look at her attacker through its legs. They were in the animal section now. Behind the man a life-size gazelle thing with twisted horns seemed ready to attack on her behalf and a monkey squatted, covering its eyes. She was prepared to bet that somewhere two other monkeys were covering their mouths and ears, respectively.

  There was a clicking noise and her attacker turned away from her. Nikki recognized the noise. It was the sound of Val coming back through the bead curtain. Instantly, Nikki launched herself. She wasn’t about to let her partner get shot. The man saw her coming and swung back toward her, but there was an ear-shattering report and the man’s arm and shoulder sprang up as if jerked by a rope. Unable to stop herself, Nikki hit him low. There was a tangle of limbs as both of them struggled for his gun. At last, Nikki wrenched it from him and kicked it away. The man flailed and then fell crashing through the monkey and onto the pronged horns of the gazelle statue.

  Nikki stared in horror as the man plucked at the wooden horn poking out of his chest. She was dimly aware that Val was standing beside her now, a gun in her hand.

  The man looked from the horn to them, his face an uncomprehending mask of surprise. “But why?” he said, and then stopped breathing.

  Nikki gasped, choking on her own tears, and Val slipped an arm around her shoulders, hugging her briefly.

  “You killed him,” said a new voice.

  “Shit happens,” Val said, turning to the newcomer and letting go of Nikki.

  “Yes, but does it have to happen here, Mrs. Robinson?” he asked, sounding peeved.

  Nikki tore her eyes away from the body and looked at the newcomer. He was Thai, thin, with a very round head. He took a cigarette from behind his ear and put it in his mouth.

  “So you want that gun or what?” he asked.

  “Yeah, it’ll do,” Val said.

  “The body will cost you extra. Extra, yeah?”

  “Yeah, Kovit, extra,” she agreed, and the man nodded, apparently satisfied.

  “You need anything else?” he asked.

  “A backup piece, maybe a Walther PPK,” said Val with a shrug.

  Nikki tried to pretend she wasn’t shocked. There was a dead man in front of her, and neither Val nor the shopkeeper appeared disturbed by it.

  “Sure, sure, we can do that,” said Kovit, nodding. “I’m running a great deal on some Uzis right now, any interest? How about some grenades?”

  Val shook her head. “Just the sidearms.”

  “All right, no problem, no problem. So the Glock for you, and I think I’m out of the Walthers just now, so how about a Smith & Wesson 38?”

  “It’s got to be small. I want it in an ankle holster.”

  “Sure, sure. Snub nose. No problem. You want holsters also?” Val nodded, and he made some more notes in Thai on a receipt pad. “Anything for your friend?” They both looked at Nikki. She felt frozen under the weight of their combined gaze.

  “Uh, a .45? Colt 1911, if I can.” Nikki blurted out the first gun that came to her mind. The reliable performance and stopping power of the 1911 had made it a favorite of armed forces around the world since World War I, but Nikki had liked it in practice because the slim grip made it easier for her smaller hands to control. It was amazing to her that she could focus on these small details while still wanting to throw up.

  “You bet, you bet,” answered Kovit, nodding. “The 1911. Plus shoulder holster?” He looked at Val, ignoring Nikki. Val nodded again. “Will you be needing ammo?”

  “Yeah,” agreed Val.” And spare clips.”

  Kovit nodded and disappeared into the back of the shop.
<
br />   “He’s dead,” said Nikki, pointing at the body. “I’d be dead right now if it weren’t for you. He was going to kill me, and you shot him. And then there was the falling . . .”

  “Yeah,” Val said. “I wish that hadn’t happened.”

  “What do we do?” asked Nikki.

  Val shrugged. “Kovit will take care of it.”

  Kovit returned, and Val inspected the guns, handing Nikki the .45. It seemed a huge weight in her hands. Nikki collected her now beeping phone and purse from the floor and tucked the gun into it—hammer carefully down. During moments of emotional stress it was important to adhere to safety procedures—Mrs. Boyer’s voice echoed in her mind.

  “Thanks for your time, Kovit,” Val said, and pushed Nikki toward the door.

  Kovit waved as he pinched out his cigarette and tucked it behind his ear again.

  They were four blocks away before Nikki began to have rational thoughts.

  “We should have searched the body for clues,” she said.

  Val nodded.

  “Why was he trying to kill me?”

  Val shrugged.

  “And how did he know we were there to try to kill us?”

  Val shrugged again.

  “Haven’t you got anything to say?” demanded Nikki.

  “The lawyer,” said Val. “I think we need to find out about the lawyer.”

  THAILAND VII

  Weapons of Choice

  Valerie shoved herself into a cab, and Nikki mimicked her movements, looking back over her shoulder. But what was she looking for? Her nervous glances simply took in the busy street and bustling people.

  “All right,” said Val, finishing her “international English” discussion with the cab driver—which mostly involved a lot of pointing at a map. “Let’s talk about this thing.”

  Nikki nodded. She wanted to cry, but knew that was unacceptable. Instead, she found her breath coming in short gasps as if she couldn’t get enough air. She could feel her heartbeat in her fingertips, like the fluttering wings of a hummingbird.

  “So you tell the lawyer where you’re staying, and the next thing you’ve got is someone following us and trying to kill you.”