by Ramy Vance
Reuben spun toward the window again. The Kia was parked outside the building. They had sneaked up when he and Aki were having a moment, or whatever that had been.
Aki grabbed her shirt and slipped it back on. “Shit. We need to get down there.”
Reuben nodded, his heart aching for that moment they’d shared.
Her words had meant there was hope for the two of them.
Chapter Forty-Three
Reuben—Wednesday, February 8, 5:32 p.m.
Reuben and Aki reached the ground floor of the warehouse just as the guys stormed the building. Reuben fired the first shot. It hit the trucker in the arm and he cried out, and then with eyes full of rage, ran toward Reuben. He moved like a burly machine, but Reuben tripped him, and he fell.
Martha emerged from her closet, and the next thing Reuben knew, the three truckers and he, Aki, and Martha were all dodging each other’s bullets, hiding behind doors and barrels. He worried about Buzz but knew he would be the safest in the closet.
Reuben had one trucker cornered—the one he had held up out on the highway. “Where’s Pout?”
The trucker grinned, and they danced around the floor, holding each other at gunpoint. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You knew ten minutes ago.”
The trucker feigned surprise. “Pout? Oh, you mean Alister Pout, the one who’s supposed to be announcing his candidacy for Canadian parliament this week? I don’t know. But I’m sure you could check his Facebook page. He loves to do all the baby-kissing and glad-handing.”
Reuben scoffed. “Please, Alister Pout’s about as interested in politics as I am in needlepoint crafting.”
“Well, then I take it you’re quite the needle-pointer. They say it’s very relaxing. You could needlepoint some cliché for your wall, like ‘God answers prayer’ or something.”
“What do you know about God?”
“Not as much as you’re about to,” the trucker said.
“Nah, I don’t feel like dying today.” Reuben lunged at him and grabbed the man’s wrist to keep him from shooting. They wrestled on the ground for a few minutes, then he heard Martha scream.
One of the guys had a gun pointed at her temple.
“Shit.”
He scrambled to get up and crushed the man’s fingers with his shoe. The pressure was enough to get him to let go of the gun. Reuben grabbed the gun and rushed to help Martha. But, it was too late.
The gunman pulled the trigger, and Martha crumpled to the ground.
The gunman turned to the rest of them. “Let that be a lesson to all of you. Don’t mess with snakes. I think we’re done here. We done here, guys?”
The other two truckers rose, bloodied and dirt-smeared but fine.
“Yeah, we’re done here, boss,” one of the others said.
Then they turned and left the building.
Reuben watched as they left. They had gotten away, and he stared at Martha’s bloodied body. He thought about the moment he and Aki had shared upstairs and how he didn’t want to warp back and erase that from ever happening. But he couldn’t let Martha be dead forever. He had to go back and fix it.
Aki yelled to Buzz, “You can come out now.”
Buzz emerged from the closet, looking shell-shocked and ashen. “Reuben, I don’t think I can do this anymore. This is too real.”
He looked at his friend’s terrified face. Being held hostage in that Kia must have been the scariest moment of Buzz’s life. Before this whole thing, it would have been the scariest thing Reuben had ever encountered. But after all he’d been through, it didn’t seem that bad.
“Don’t worry. I’ll fix it.” He took the gun in his hand and dutifully pointed at his temple.
Aki shouted, “What the hell are you doing?”
Buzz grabbed her hand. “He’s immortal. Just don’t look.”
“What?”
Then Reuben pulled the trigger and died.
Chapter Forty-Four
Reuben—Wednesday, February 8, 5:19 p.m.
When Reuben came back to his body, he stood with Martha, Buzz, and Aki in the abandoned warehouse. Buzz and Martha’s phones beeped. They disregarded them.
“Someone should cover Buzz,” Aki said.
Ah, that’s where we are, Reuben thought.
This was the moment he’d ended up in the sound room with Aki. He knew then what he had done wrong this time.
Well, not with Aki. But with Martha.
Hiding out with Aki, although it had been the highlight of his year, maybe his entire life…all of his lives combined…had, in fact, given the truckers time to organize, arm, and come up with a plan. This in turn had led to Martha’s death. He had felt bad about leaving her there alone in the closet with Buzz. They probably should have stuck together.
Aki called out, “Martha, why don’t you do that?”
Reuben’s heart sank with the realization of what he had to do. He had to save Martha and couldn’t be up in a room with a half-naked woman when he knew his friend’s life was on the line. He had to save them all.
Martha loaded her gun. “I can do that.”
Reuben pushed the image of Aki and him standing so close together in that upstairs office away. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
Martha was defensive. “You don’t think I can do it?”
“It’s not that. Splitting up isn’t a good idea. We only do well when we stay together and have each other’s backs.”
“All right,” Martha said. “Let’s stick together.”
The threesome, minus Buzz, snuck toward the entrance of the warehouse. From here, they could hear the stolen rental Kia approach.
One of the truckers said, “I think they’re in there. I say, let’s go kick their asses.”
“I don’t know. What that one said about Pout scares me. How would he know?”
“He probably don’t. He probably don’t know jack shit and he’s just testing you.”
“I want to know who these guys are. Is they police, or what?”
“I don’t know. For all we know, they’re CIA or some shit.”
Reuben, Aki, and Martha continued listening while they slowly snuck out of the warehouse. The truckers had their backs to them as they were trying to force open the door. Reuben held up three fingers to the ladies and gestured back and forth.
Three of them, three of us.
There was a stack of large crates near the truckers, and Reuben motioned for his two friends to join him behind it as they continued to listen. The truckers had stopped trying to open the door and were all facing each other now.
“But I don’t like Dunkin Donuts,” one of the truckers said. “Their donuts are too cakey.”
“They’re coffee donuts,” another answered with annoyance. “Look, just shut up, OK? I just want to blast these snot-nosed kids before they go off spouting what they know.”
These guys sure were chatty. Eh, he had no room to talk. He’d been upstairs with Aki, talking, and had gotten someone killed. He shook his head to clear the image and tuned back in to the truckers’ conversation.
The third one scoffed. “We don’t know what they know. They probably don’t know nothing.”
Reuben wondered if these guys were going to say anything useful or not.
The first one answered, “They know enough. They know we’re with the Canadian, and that’s something.”
Reuben whipped around to Martha. Her mouth dropped.
“Yeah, but they don’t know who that is.”
“Would you two shut up so we can come up with a plan?”
“All right, so how many are there?”
“Four. There’s the two chicks. The hot one, and the fuckable one.”
The three truckers laughed.
“Then there’s the dudes. Couple of dorky dudes. One thinks he’s Kiefer Sutherland, the other’s a scrawny little nitwit.”
“OK, I’ll take the ladies, and you two split up and take the dudes.”
“Well, that’s not fair. Why do you get to take the ladies?”
“Can we not argue? We have seriously deadly shit in the back of our trucks. Let’s get these bastards taken care of so we can get the bomb to the boss.”
“What does Alister Pout want with bombs, anyway?”
“I dunno. I just do what the boss says.”
The guys moved on to strategies for how they would kill them. Reuben decided he wasn’t going to get any more information out of them. He motioned to the women, and they snuck forward, one behind each trucker. Then Reuben counted off three fingers.
The plan was to apprehend them with the classic, ‘Put your hands up,’ but the largest trucker was surprisingly fast. He pulled out his gun and shot Aki in the head.
Reuben sighed before turning the gun on himself.
Reuben reemerged ten minutes earlier as they snuck up on the truckers and listened to their conversation again before trying to subdue them. This time Reuben motioned for Aki to crouch. But it didn’t matter. The same trucker got her again. What was it with this guy and killing beautiful Asians? Reuben briefly wondered if he was racist before killing himself again.
Now he came to eleven minutes earlier. This time they’d hit the truckers hard. No listening to their conversation. They just went for it. This time the truckers got both Martha and Aki.
“What the fuck?” Reuben said before killing himself once again.
Again and again, Reuben tried to get the drop on them, and each time the truckers always managed to take one of them down.
Finally, Reuben knew what he had to do.
Reemerging thirty minutes earlier, he told the others to wait behind the warehouse while he went in solo. He tried to get the drop on the truckers, and this time their gunfire was focused on him. He went down, but not before seeing what they did. The largest trucker always went for the head. The middle guy always shot wide and to the right, and the third one always went for the torso.
He repeated this action again, this time approaching with his arms out. He might not be the fastest, smartest, or most deadly agent, but Reuben had something no one else did.
Reuben knew how to ballroom dance.
Anticipating the largest trucker’s headshot, Reuben did a Fallaway Rock and Swivel before twisting into a Basic Forward followed by a Basic Backward. All their shots missed, and they lined up for another volley.
No matter. Reuben was ready.
Gun in hand and one Outside Spin, two Oversways, and a Lindy Circle later, he managed to wound two of the truckers. Only the largest trucker remained.
The trucker was walking forward now, pistol right in front of him as he tried to shoot Reuben. But with every shot, Reuben dodged using the Promenade Step before he finally broke into a Reverse Fleckerl, ending the move with a Solo Spot Volta, his back to the trucker, gun in right hand, middle finger on the trigger, barrel pointed behind him at the trucker’s leg in his periphery.
He shot the trucker in the leg, and he went down with a bellowing scream.
Reuben stood over him and growled, “Ballroom dancing, bitch!”
Then he looked around. No one was there to witness his glory, and for a brief moment he thought about killing himself again just so that he could have an audience.
Maybe if I position my phone just right, I could record it…
Then he shook his head. He’d died enough for one day.
He’d died enough for a lifetime.
Chapter Forty-Five
Reuben—Wednesday, February 8, 5:43 p.m.
With the truckers captured and in the local PD’s hands, and with Buzz recovering from trauma, the foursome took the Kia back down to the border highway.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to drive?” Reuben asked Buzz.
His face was steel. “I’m fine.”
Reuben was worried about Buzz. He hadn’t been the same since he’d been hijacked. “Do you want to get a drink?”
Buzz shook his head and stared at the road. Well, it couldn’t be solved right now, anyway. Martha was going through the truckers’ phones and Aki was on hers.
She clicked her fingernails as she talked. “Right. We have confirmation that customs confiscated the vehicles. Did they get a visual on the explosives?”
Reuben and Martha whipped around to face her, waiting for an answer.
“Well, can you find out for me? No, I’ll hold.”
Martha read from the phone screens in front of her. “I’ve got so many texts on here that if we can connect this number to Pout, this guy is going down. Check this out: ‘$4,000 for delivery of package by Wednesday night.’ Of course, he could be talking about anything, but you know he’s talking about the bomb.”
“What did Alister Pout want with a bomb, anyway?” Reuben asked.
“That’s the big question.” Martha kept reading through the text.
Aki came back on her phone. “So, they did find the explosives in the trucks? And it is the missing one?” She raised her fist in silent victory, and everyone in the car applauded.
“We saved the world, guys,” Reuben said.
Martha smiled. “Well, it was mainly you.”
Reuben would have loved to have disagreed for modesty’s sake. But the truth was, it was mainly him. He had literally died again and again to save the day.
“I couldn’t have done it without you guys,” he said. “Victory lunch on me?”
The trio agreed in unison, “No.”
“We need showers and beds,” Martha groaned.
Reuben cocked his head in agreement. He wanted those things, too. Aki was still on the phone and had been listening for several minutes. “Thanks. Call me when you have an update.”
She ended her call and turned to the crew in the van. “First of all, Buzz and Martha, the CIA thanks you for your service.”
“CIA,” Martha said matter-of-factly. “That’s who I was thinking you really worked for. State Department. Ha.”
Buzz smiled for the first time since the hostage situation. “Finally, we can talk about it.”
Reuben smiled ruefully. “We’re not supposed to tell anyone.”
“Well, they helped save the world,” Aki said. “We can let them in on a little security breach.”
Reuben continued, “Not even Marshall knows, and he can’t.”
Martha zipped her lips. “My lips are sealed.”
Aki cleared her throat. “Secondly, they did confiscate the bomb, and…” She eyed Reuben carefully. “A zipped file containing damning evidence against Pout has just been forwarded to the CIA, NSA, and FBI from an unknown sender. Would you happen to know anything about that?”
Reuben exchanged a knowing glance with Buzz and Martha. Buzz beamed.
Aki’s phone beeped. “Well, that was fast. Check this out.” She pulled up a live news program on her phone, and Reuben watched.
“Canadian investor and tech mogul Alister Pout has been arrested this evening on allegations of drug trafficking and high treason. The former businessman holds residences in England, Canada, and in New York and was planning to run for public office in Canada this fall. He was arrested at a fundraiser gala in New York City. He is suspected of being connected to an experimental weapon that has been missing for a couple days now. No statement was available either from Mr. Pout’s office or his legal counsel.’”
Martha laughed. “They’re staying far, far away from him.”
“Yep,” Aki said and then smirked at Reuben and his friends.
“We did it, guys.” Martha smiled, already closing her eyes for rest. “Now, let’s get some sleep.”
“That sounds nice.” Aki yawned. “I guess I’ve got to book my flight home. What flights are you guys taking?”
Martha, Buzz, and Reuben all looked at each other.
Reuben cleared his throat. “We flew out here private.”
“Sweet.” Aki smiled.
Reuben shook his head. “But I think I’ll take commercial. This kind of private is way overrated.”
“I’ll give you a ride home, Aki.” Buzz glanced back in the rearview at her.
“What am I missing here?”
They all just laughed.
Martha, Reuben, and Aki arrived back in New York, and they chatted about the case all the way toward baggage claim. Buzz had flown back on his own, and now it was just the three of them. Aki stood at the carousel, and Reuben waited with her.
“I didn’t check anything,” Martha said. “So I’m going to head out.”
Aki smiled. “Sure. It was good to meet you. See you around.”
Martha smiled back. “Good to meet you, too.”
She left down the hall, leaving Reuben and Aki. Reuben dug his hands into his pockets. “I’m glad we solved that case.”
“Me too,” Aki said.
Reuben chuckled. “I was beginning to think it would be like my dad’s raw milk case.”
Aki tilted her head. “His what?”
“My dad’s a retired cop, and early in his career, he had this case about these kids that got sick off this raw milk from a—”
“Milk co-op in upstate?” she asked. “Early 90s?”
“Yeah.” Reuben’s eyes widened. “You know about it?”
“Sure.” She shrugged. “It’s classified, but I’ve read about it.”
Reuben frowned. “Classified?”
“Yeah,” she said. “It was this company AmeriPharm trying to test a cure for some new virus. The one that eventually came back in the early 2000s as SARS.”
“I remember SARS. Wait, the milk thing had to do with SARS?”
Aki nodded. “Yeah, everyone knows. Well, everyone who has clearance,” she said apologetically.
“Right.”
“But basically, AmeriPharm was testing for a cure for SARS and thought they had a preventative measure. They figured if they could get the population to drink it liberally, then the populace at large would build up antibodies. So as a beta test, they got a bunch of farmers to try it out in their milk co-op. A bunch of people died, and the project was abandoned. AmeriPharm, as you could guess…”