“Can you send me what you found on the other hired killers with Ish? Oh… uh… am I free to go?”
“Yes to both questions. I’ll call if there are problems. I’ll go with you to get your personals. How does Jean manage with the events like today on the walk to school?”
“Exceedingly well, my friend – frighteningly so. None of it is a game to her, but Jean’s fearless. At least Rachel doesn’t think I’m corrupting her.
“You could drive, moron.”
Nick stood. When he thought he could repeat what Jean said earlier, in tone with the way she sounded, Nick took a deep breath. “Jean told me, ‘if we avoid our regular routines, the terrorists win’.”
The two men endured a lengthy appreciation of Jean’s adlib.
*
The woman cried in muffled quietness. She had buried her husband, Ishmael Kader, that morning. Their two children slept in the adjoining room at the house of Ishmael’s relative who was also now dead. A hand gripped her shoulder, causing a brief bark of surprise, as she turned to the person clutching her shoulder. The black masked figure made hushing motions, which she obeyed instantly.
“Hello, Aara. Do you know who I am?”
“Yes… you are El Muerto,” Aara answered in whispered tones. “He told me you would come once he failed to kill you. He guessed who you were, but he could not convince his family elders to leave you alone. They threatened to kill us all for trying to escape the family. He sacrificed himself to save us, but Ishmael knew you would come. My husband foresaw his death in a dream.”
“It’s too bad Ish didn’t call me. I would have freed you all from the Kader nightmare,” Nick explained. “I have killed all the males in this house except for the children. The women have been sedated. They will awaken. I noted you were still awake. I liked your husband. He attacked me, my daughter, and my friend, after agreeing to stay away from me.”
Aara nodded in sad agreement. “Ishmael told me I might barter for my family’s lives if I gave you this.”
Nick accepted the thumb-drive from Aara’s hand. “In reality, I never would harm you or your children. I only allowed you to talk with me because I needed to warn you and the other women Kaders. Pass the word once the bodies of the male Kaders are found in the house. Plead ignorance to the police how such a thing could happen. Blame it on Islamists unhappy with the Kader’s failure to obey Sharia decree. Count your blessings, find men for husbands outside Islam. Never mention anything about me ever. Here.”
Aara accepted the envelope with reluctance. “I will never mention you again, Muerto. No one who has any sense of reality will ever speak of you again. I will warn them. I do not know if the women will heed my warning after your visit here, but I will tell them. Blaming extremists will be what I do when asked. If you post my husband’s thumb-drive contents, the police will suspect the actual men responsible for all these deaths.”
“The envelope contains a cashier’s check on a bank in the Cayman Islands for five million dollars. Use it to help free yourselves from this Kader curse. Also in the envelope is an internet drop address. Contact me there with any information or problem you have. No one else will be able to access it. Once you use it, another will be issued to you. Each time will be untraceable. Keep silent about the money, Aara. Work in silence to help the others. Do not worry about the zealots who wish to wail in the streets. Leave them to their self-pity and grief for maniacal male mutants who terrorized them daily. They will be lost. I know each of your fellow Kader women wives has been mutilated… except for you. Ishmael was the only man amongst the male Kaders to refuse the atrocity. I am sorry for your loss.”
Nick injected Aara with a syringe to sedate her until morning. He wasn’t sorry for her loss, but he felt after learning how much Ishmael had refused to do under pressure, that his wife and kids deserved more. Plus, he now had an unexpected gift Ishmael meant for his eyes only. Five more mutants were brought to room temperature this night in the house of Kader. Nick had no doubt the sudden unexplained deaths would bring the authorities pounding at his door. He also knew they would be able to prove nothing in relation to his involvement. Nick had left his own clues amongst the dead, pointing to an Isis betrayal and claiming the deaths of the males as retribution for their disloyalty. Combined with the messages of outrage posted earlier on hacked Muslim terrorist sites, Nick figured to have enough misdirection to play ignorant at the Kader killings. I’m not done by a long shot. This will be war as promised.
Nick stayed close to the house fronts with mask on. Arriving at the street perpendicular to his targeted street, Gus drove to the curb and Nick entered the back. Johnny sat next to Gus with satellite imaging while monitoring the police band. Nick passed the thumb-drive to Johnny.