LITMIR.BIZ

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do not know this man.”

      Luke took a deep breath. Normally, he would have hours to interview a subject like this. Today he had minutes. That meant he might have to cheat a little.

      “Why is your computer bolted to the floor?”

      Nassar shrugged. He was beginning to regain his confidence. Luke could almost see it come flooding back. The man believed in himself. He thought he was going to stonewall them.

      “There is a great deal of confidential material in there. I have clients who are engaged in business deals involving intellectual property. I am also, as I indicated, a diplomat assigned to the United Nations. I receive communications from time to time that are… how would you call it? Classified. I am in these positions because I am known for my discretion.”

      “That may be,” Luke said. “But I’m going to need you to give me the password so I can take a look for myself.”

      “I’m afraid that won’t be possible.”

      Behind Nassar, Ed laughed. It sounded like a grunt.

      “You might be surprised at what’s possible,” Luke said. “The fact is, we’re going to access that computer. And you’re going to give us the password. Now, there’s an easy way to do this, and a hard way. The choice is up to you.”

      “You won’t hurt me,” Nassar said. “You’re already in a great deal of trouble.”

      Luke glanced at Ed. Ed moved over and kneeled by Nassar’s right side. He took Nassar’s right hand in his two powerful hands.

      Luke and Ed had met for the first time late last night, but they were already starting to work together without verbal communication. It was like they were reading each other’s minds. Luke had experienced this before, usually with guys who had been in special operations units like Delta. The relationship usually took longer to develop.

      “You play that piano in there?” Luke said.

      Nassar nodded. “I’m classically trained. When I was young, I was a concert pianist. I still play a bit for fun.”

      Luke crouched down so he was at eye level with Nassar.

      “In a moment, Ed is going to start breaking your fingers. That’ll make it hard to play the piano. And it’s going to hurt, probably quite a bit. I’m not sure it’s the kind of pain a man like you is accustomed to.”

      “You won’t do it.”

      “The first time, I’m going to count to three. That will give you a last few seconds to decide what you want to do. Unlike you, we warn people before we hurt them. We don’t steal radioactive material and aim to kill millions of innocent people. Hell, you’ll be getting off easy compared to what you’re doing to the others. But after the first time, there won’t be any more warnings. I’ll just look at Ed, and he’ll break another finger. Do you understand?”

      “I will have your job,” Nassar said.

      “One.”

      “You are a little man with no power. You will regret ever coming here.”

      “Two.”

      “Don’t you dare!”

      “Three.”

      Ed broke Nassar’s pinky at the second knuckle. He did it quickly, with very little effort. Luke heard the crunch, just before Nassar screamed. The pinky bent out sideways. There was something almost obscene about the angle.

      Luke put his hand under Nassar’s chin and tilted his head up. Nassar’s teeth were gritted. His face was flushed and his breath came in gasps. But his eyes were hard.

      “That was just the pinky,” Luke said. “The next one is the thumb. Thumbs hurt a lot more than pinkies. Thumbs are more important, too.”

      “You are animals. I will tell you nothing.”

      Luke glanced at Ed. Ed’s face was hard. He shrugged and broke the thumb. This time it made a loud cracking sound.

      Luke stood up and let the man shriek for a moment. The sound was ear-splitting. He could hear it echoing through the apartment, like something from a horror movie. Maybe they should find a hand towel in the kitchen to use as a gag.

      He paced the room. He didn’t enjoy this sort of thing. It was torture, he understood that. But the man’s fingers would heal. If a dirty bomb went off on a subway train, many people would die. The survivors would get sick. No one would ever heal. Weighing the two, the man’s fingers and dead people on a train, the decision was easy.

      Nassar was crying now. Clear mucus ran from one of his nostrils. He was breathing crazily. It sounded like huh-huh-huh-huh.

      “Look at me,” Luke said.

      The man did as he was told. His eyes were no longer hard.

      “I see the thumb got your attention. So we’ll take the left thumb next. After that, we’ll start on the teeth. Ed?”

      Ed moved around to the man’s left.

      “Kahlil Gibran,” Nassar gasped.

      “What’s that? I didn’t hear you.”

      “Kahlil underscore Gibran. It’s the password.”

      “Like the author?” Luke said.

      “Yes.”

      “And what is it to work with love?” Ed said, quoting Gibran.

      Luke smiled. “It is to weave the cloth with threads drawn from your own heart, even as if your beloved were to wear that cloth. We have that on our kitchen wall at home. I love that stuff. I guess we’re just three incurable romantics here.”

      Luke went to the computer and ran his finger across the touchpad. The password box came up. He typed in the words.

      Kahlil_Gibran

      The desktop screen appeared. The wallpaper was a photo of snow-capped mountains, with yellow and green meadows in the foreground.

      “Looks like we’re in business. Thanks, Ali.”

      Luke slipped an external hard drive he had gotten from Swann out of the thigh pocket of his cargo pants. He plugged it into a USB port. The external drive had huge capacity. It should easily swallow this man’s entire computer. They could worry later about breaking any encryption.

      He started the file transfer. On the screen, an empty horizontal bar appeared. On the left hand side, the bar began to fill up with the color green. Three percent green, four percent, five. Beneath the bar, a blizzard of file names appeared and disappeared as each one was copied to the destination drive.

      Eight percent. Nine percent.

      Outside in the main room, there was a sudden commotion. The front doors banged open. “Police!” someone screamed. “Drop your weapons! On the ground!”

      They moved through the apartment, knocking things over, blasting through doors. It sounded like there were a lot of them. They would be here any second.

      “Police! Down! Down! Get down!”

      Luke glanced at the horizontal bar. It seemed to be stuck on twelve percent.

      Nassar stared up at Luke. His eyes were heavily lidded. Tears streamed from them. His lips trembled. His face was red, and his almost naked body had broken out in sweat. He did not look vindicated or triumphant in any way.

      Chapter 13

      7:05 a.m.

      Baltimore, Maryland – South of the Fort McHenry Tunnel

      Eldrick Thomas woke from a dream.

      In the dream, he was in a small cabin high in the mountains. The air was clean and cold. He knew he was dreaming because he had never been in a cabin before. There was a stone fireplace with a fire going. The fire was warm and he held his hands to the flames. In the next room he could hear his grandmother’s voice. She

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