American Terrorist (The Rayna Tan Action Thrillers Book 1) (23 page)

“Where’s anywhere, Freddy?” asked Casey, simply but with an edge.

“I don’t know. Wherever you want me to go... I’ll kill them all.”

Alex butted in. “Hey, I know all about Tim McVeigh. I can steal Scotty’s truck and he’ll never know the difference.”

The arguments about who should be the one grew more heated until Casey raised both his hands. “Stop. Now.”

The two imbeciles stopped moving their mouths.

“You know what I think, Freddy... Alex? I think you guys are too eager. One or maybe both of you is a government mole, a spy. I know a betrayer when I see one.”

The two yelled in protest. “You got it wrong, man. No way. That’s not me at all.”

Casey’s tough expression hid his inner disdain.

He exhaled. “Okay, okay. I’ll give you both a chance. Private interviews. One on one. And then I’m going to pick the guy that I’m going to make famous.”

Casey pointed to a car on the other side of the lot, “You see my T-Bird over there, Alex? Go sit in the back seat while Freddy and I go inside to talk.”

Chapter 28
 

What the hell is going on? It’s been half an hour and they're still talking.
Alex fidgeted uncomfortably in the back passenger seat, staring at the door of the McDonald’s, wondering what Freddy and Casey were talking about.
Maybe he’s knifing me in the back.
Hands starting to shake, Alex took out a joint and stuck it in his mouth.

Just as he was about light up, Alex heard a huge cacophony of cracking sounds coming from outside. Alex looked out the windshield to see restaurant patrons screaming and dashing out into the parking lot. A trashcan was on fire, emitting bursts of light like Roman candles. He saw Casey discreetly drop something into another trashcan, then go round behind the restaurant. The trashcan started spewing fire, streams of light and the sound of cracking mini-explosives filled the parking lot.

Then the sound of two gunshots shattered the air, adding to the chaos. It was crazy. Sirens screamed, growing closer.

Suddenly, the driver’s rear side door of the T-bird opened. Alex whipped his head to the creaking sound to see Freddy with a gun cocked at him. “What the heck ...” But before Alex finished, Freddy said coldly. “Goodbye, Alex.” Freddy fired. Alex had no time to duck, but it wasn’t necessary—there were no bullets.
 

Alex hurled himself on Freddy. “Asshole.” He started pounding on his so-called best friend, landing a series of blows on his head and arms. Freddy was no slouch, though—he pulled his head back to lessen the impact of Alex’s blows and kneed his friend in the head, then grabbed Alex in the midsection, squeezing as hard as he could. Alex started boxing Freddy’s ears, trying to fight his way out of the hold that threatened to crack his ribs as emergency vehicles sped into the lot.

Seemingly, out of nowhere, Casey jumped into the fight. He propelled one twisted arm punch to Freddy’s chest and one boot to Alex’s groin. Both boys reeled back in pain.
 

Casey calmly closed the rear door, got into the front passenger seat, cranked the ignition, and then unhurriedly exited the parking lot.

Alex and Freddy sat in pained silence as Casey squinted in their direction. There was a new look on Casey’s face. He was no longer the surfer dude. Alex and Freddy saw the glint of steel in his eyes. Although he landed only one solitary blow on each of them, it was enough to put them out of commission.

“Freddy, you pass. Alex, you fail.”

“What do you mean?” panted Alex in desperation.

“Freddy didn’t know there were only two bullets in the gun. I got him to fire them at the restaurant to add to the madness. He honestly thought he was going to kill you and was ready to do just that because I asked him to. That’s the kind of person I need.”

“You, Alex,” sneered Casey, “You sat in the car, picking your nose, doing squat. You paid no attention to nothin’ because you were more interested in getting high. You know I can change your life like this.” Casey snapped his fingers. “And what do you do? Nothing.”
 

With one hand on the wheel, Casey reached over and pulled the joint out of Alex’s mouth and swallowed the smoking white tube. “I need committed, serious people who realize this ain’t no game.”

“Casey, Casey,” pleaded Alex, “I swear I’m serious. You got to give me a chance. I’ll do anything. You won’t regret bringing me on.”

Casey shook his head. “You don’t get second chances in war.”

“I promise. Please, Casey, I’ll show you.”

Casey was quiet for ten seconds as the car motored down the suburban street full of half-empty strip malls, the longest ten seconds of Alex’s life. “What do you think, Freddy? You’ve known this guy longer than I have.”

Freddy didn’t even bother looking at his buddy. “He’s a loser. Always has been. Always will be.”

“No, no, no. Casey. You gotta give me a chance, man. Tell him, Freddy. Tell him.”

Casey and Freddy both began to laugh.

“What? What’s so funny?” asked Alex, freaked out at what was happening.

“You were always in, Alex,” Freddy laughed. “Casey just wanted me to get you to prove how much you wanted it.”
 

The much-relieved Alex was silent for a moment then laughed out loud. “Assholes.”

Casey’s face went serious again. “Let’s get real, guys. That was just the first step.” He pulled the car to the side to the road, leaving it running. “To really prove yourselves, you got to come up with six grand and eight burner phones from at least three different stores in the next three hours. There’s a couple of Sig Sauers in the trunk with fifty rounds for your tools. You know that turn-off half a mile away that didn’t get finished?”

“The one with concrete hanging like it’s half done? Been like that for three years,” said Alex.

“That’s the one. I’m going to be standing right under the overhang at 8:00 p.m. If you’re not there, I’ll assume you’ve failed.”

“You’re not worried we’ll keep the car?” joked Freddy.

“Nope. The car’s stolen. Saw the dude get out of it and stood behind him in line for movie tickets. He bought a double feature and I picked his pocket. Now, you don’t show up, the cops’ll find your prints on the car. So go get me some cash and then we can talk about your next steps to the horniest virgins you’ll ever taste.”

Alex got serious for a moment. “Casey. Thanks, man. For the first time, I got meaning to life. Seriously.”

“Me, too. This is not just awesome. It’s a cause.”

The three boy-men fist bumped.

***

Twenty minutes later, two robbers wearing black balaclavas, black jeans and brandishing pistols broke down the locked door of the Speedi-Mart Convenience Store that sported a handmade sign saying, “Back in 5 minutes.”

“Can’t you fucking read?” shouted Sal with his pants half-off as he rose up from behind the counter. He saw the masked marauders. “Oh, shit.”

One of the perps fired a gun at Sal’s head, missing it by six inches.

“Shit, shit. Don’t kill me. Just take whatever you want. We got a hundred bucks in the till. Take her, too.”

Sal ducked behind the counter and pulled up a topless Fanny. “She’ll do both of you right now.”

The first robber fired another shot right into Fanny’s left breast. He growled, “Bitch,” as the bleeding young slut dropped to the ground.

Sal suddenly recognized the voice. “Alex, hey, man, is that you?”

Alex whipped off his mask and grinned maliciously. “In the flesh, asshole.”

“I’ll give you whatever you want. Just don’t hurt me,” begged the now-not-so-arrogant former boss. Sal quickly opened the cash register and pulled out all the cash in the till.

“So how’s it feel to have the shoe on the other foot, Sal?” gloated Alex.

“I always liked you, Alex. I had no choice about firing you.”

“Yeah, well, I got no choice either. Not taking any chances on this.”

“No!”
 

Sal bolted for the door but didn’t last two strides before a slug found a new home in the back of his head.

There was a lot more cash than Sal said there was. Just not in the till. There was five hundred in the safe that was liberated by a couple of gunshots and seven hundred bucks in Sal’s jeans.

Alex stepped behind the counter and grinned at the bleeding Fanny.

“C’mon, Alex. Save me. I’ll be your girl,” she blubbered.

“Where I’m going, I got a zillion virgins waiting for me. Don’t need some douchebag like you.”
 

Alex jammed the gun in her crotch.

“No, Alex, no!” she screamed.

“I love it when you beg.” Alex fired. Nothing. The gun was empty. “Now ain’t you sorry you treated me so bad?”

Freddy called over. “Let’s go, Alex. Sal had a couple of ounces on him.”

The two smiling new gangstas snapped up a few bottles of wine and a couple of cases of beer, then headed out of the shop to the awaiting T-Bird.

“I kinda like this, Alex.”

“You and me both.”

Chapter 29
 

Lena and Jennah were in culture shock. Yesterday, they were in a poverty-ravaged village in the desert. While one sister tried in vain to get any of her fellow townsmen to stop a marauder from raping her younger sister, a most unlikely savior appeared—the first Chinese woman they had ever seen in their lives. When Jennah met her, Rayna was unconscious and needed surgery. An hour later, this new angel rescued her sister and helped them escape what no doubt would have been a life of eternal misery. Rayna took them for a ride on a private jet and, in moments, they would get off and step foot into their new country.

The jet door opened—surprise!

“Hi, Jennah! Hi, Lena!” Julio, Helena and a gaggle of young children waited for them at the bottom of the steps. Two of them rushed up, hugged them and said, “Hi, sister!”

“Sister? I not your sister,” said Jennah in broken English.

“She will be if you will have us as your parents,” said Helena in Arabic, glancing over to Julio, bouncing baby Marlena in his arms.

“You want to be my new father and mother?” cried Lena, not believing this possible.

“
Nan Fielaan
(Yes)!” said Helena and Julio in unison.

The two screaming girls hugged their new parents, brothers and sisters.

***

While they all wanted to spend some time to get to know each other, that would have to take a back seat until the brain trust could get any information they could from the girls. From the Resort’s parking lot, they went directly to CenCom. The girls wanted to linger and talk to their new family but Rayna insisted that would have to wait—anything they could offer might help keep what happened to them from happening to others.

It was bizarre. A portion of the massive underground room was set up with nothing more than the chairs that Jennah, Lena, Helena and Rayna sat on. A laptop was perched on Helena’s lap. While the sisters told all they remembered, Helena’s fingers flew over the keyboard, making more realistic the scariest thing the sisters had ever seen—a hologram of the naked body of the man who ravaged them.

Ahmed. Or at least some facsimile of him. The image kept evolving because the girls couldn’t agree on specific details. It was frustrating for all of them. While she kept it hidden, Rayna feared the girls were trying to wipe all memories of their traumatic experiences.

“Lena, Jennah, look closely. Is this him?” asked Helena.

Both girls shook their heads.
 

“I thought the scar was a bit bigger,” said Rayna.

“No, no,” said Lena. “He made me touch it!”

“I saw it, too, but it wasn’t so red,” disagreed Jennah. “It was almost like it was part of his skin.”

Contradictory description continued to spill out of the girls’ mouths. “He’s too tall... His arms have more hair... His eyes are smaller... The nose is more hooked... The scar on the face is closer to the eyebrow... The skin is too rough... The skin is not rough enough...”

After twenty minutes, it was getting hard to hide the mounting frustrations on both sides. The descriptions between Rayna, Lena and Jennah were similar but not good enough to give a definitive description.
 

They were starting to confuse each other and, finally, they couldn’t even agree on whether or not there was a scar. Jennah began doubting its existence but Lena was positive she saw it just hours ago. Rayna agreed with Lena but, in Rayna’s estimation, the scar was nowhere near as large as Lena believed.

The door to the room opened, and Barry and Julio walked in.

“I have some great news,” said Barry. “Neither of you is pregnant.”

“But how? He did it to me five times,” cried Jennah. “I hurt and hurt and hurt. And I have no time of month.”

“Don’t question God’s gift. Just be happy He love us. He give us Rayna, new Mommy, Daddy,” said Lena innocently. “Remember Mommy and Daddy tell us that?”

The new daddy took his new daughters’ hands. “Jennah and Lena, why don’t you join the family for lunch? We’ll leave these two ladies and Barry on their own.”

Even with his lousy Arabic, the message came through. The girls quickly got up and followed him.

“Wait!” called Barry. “Let me give you a tip. Speak in English only. It’s the only way it’ll improve.”

“You hear that, Dad?” said Lena as she and Jennah walked off with Julio.
 

“Besides, your Arabic very terrible,” said Jennah.

Barry took one of the empty seats.

“So,” began the Fidelitas boss.
 

“I don’t know where to begin,” apologized Rayna.
 

“Don’t worry about it. Here’s what I gathered. You are all flawed witnesses. Jennah said she tried to close her eyes the whole time. Lena said Ahmed used his hands to hold her eyes open. Rayna, you said someone gave you some herbal drug. Either that or the actual pain itself could have altered your judgment. And, in every case, there was almost no light if there was light at all.”

“So is the bottom line that we have no idea who the hell the American Muslim Militia is and where the hell they are going to attack?” asked Rayna. “We have no idea what the leader looks like despite three witnesses in the same room as him?”