When Darkness Falls

Theo made a mental note to nominate this jackass for Profiles in Courage, loser’s edition.

Falcon said, “Be still, everybody.” No one moved, except for Falcon himself, who couldn’t seem to make up his mind whether to aim the pistol at the door or the weatherman’s brain. They listened for another thud, any sound at all that might explain the intrusion.

A moment of loud electronic feedback resonated from somewhere in the parking lot, and the public address system clicked on. Paulo’s voice followed. “Falcon, there’s a knot of rope outside your door. Pull it, and it will draw a wagon toward you. There’s food in the wagon.”

Theo watched as Falcon calculated his next move. Not a thought passed through the guy’s head without an exaggerated blink of the eye or twitch of the mouth, as if some kind of facial contortion were part of his normal brain function.

The PA system keyed again. Paulo said, “Your necklace is in there, too.”

That clinched it.

“You,” Falcon said to the weatherman. He pressed the gun against the man’s right temple. “I want you to open the door.”

“Okay, sure. I’ll do whatever you say.”

“You’re going to open the door and pull the rope. Take what’s in the wagon and grab the rope, too. Leave the wagon outside. If you try to run, I’ll shoot smart-ass here in the head and you in the back.”

“You won’t have to shoot anyone. Just save your bullets, okay?”

“I got plenty of bullets. Now don’t move until I tell you to.” He went quickly to the bathroom door and said, “I don’t want to hear a peep from you girls.”

“You don’t have to worry about her,” said Natalia, speaking of her injured friend.

“Good.” Falcon closed the door, then turned his gun toward Theo. “You. Face down on the floor, over against that wall, away from the door.”

His ankles and wrists still bound, Theo rose up on his knees and crawled to the other side of the room. He lay on his belly, but he cocked his head to the left, so that he could still see what was going on.

Falcon cleared away the furniture that was piled up against the door. He untied the electrical cord that bound the weatherman’s wrists, and then he stepped back against the far wall, having searched out a spot that would be outside the line of SWAT sniper fire once the door opened. His gun moved back and forth from Theo’s head to the weatherman’s back. “Now open the door,” he told the weatherman, “and do exactly what I told you to do.”

The weatherman didn’t immediately comply. It seemed less an act of disobedience and more the paralysis of fear.

“Do it!” said Falcon.

The weatherman drew a breath, then let it out, clearly unaware of just how loud his breathing was. The bindings around his ankles forced him to shuffle rather than walk to the door. He turned the deadbolt, reached for the doorknob, and then stopped. “Let me go, please.”

Falcon didn’t answer.

“I have a wife. Kids, too.” The words caught in his throat, perhaps out of fear, perhaps because he was in a hotel room with two young prostitutes.

“I don’t give a shit,” said Falcon.

“Please. I want to see my family.”

“Then do as I say. If you run, hop, or try to roll yourself to safety, you and your big-mouth buddy die. Now open the damn door.”

Theo could see the man’s hand shaking as he turned the knob and pulled the door open. The room brightened, but not as much as Theo had expected. He’d either miscalculated the time of day, or it was completely overcast.

“Pull the rope,” said Falcon.

The weatherman bent over, grabbed the knot of rope at the doorstep, and started pulling.

“Faster!” said Falcon.

Hand over fist, he pulled, and Theo could hear the wagon wheels rolling on the pavement. The whirring grew louder until the wagon was at the door, and the weatherman stopped pulling.

“Quick, empty it!” said Falcon.

Everything was in one bag. The weatherman grabbed it and set it behind him on the floor.

“The rope!” said Falcon. “I want the rope!”

The weatherman untied it from the wagon and dropped it on the floor beside the bag.

“Shut the door!”

The instant it closed, Falcon hurried across the room and pushed the weatherman to the floor. He took the knife from his coat pocket, cut a two-foot length of the rope, and tied the weatherman’s hands behind his back. Then he locked the door and piled up the furniture to barricade the entrance. He was about to open the bag when Theo’s cell phone rang. Falcon dug it from his pocket and answered on the third ring. Theo was close enough to hear Jack on the other end of the line. He always kept the volume on his cell phone at the maximum setting, since he worked in a noisy bar, and Jack had one of those voices that carried like a loudspeaker. Falcon was holding Theo’s phone a good two inches away from his ear to save his eardrum.

“We made good on our end of the deal,” said Jack. “Now we need that camera-phone picture we talked about.”

“I told you, I’m not wired with explosives.”

“Good. Then just take off your coat, take off your shirt, and take a picture. Then put your coat in the wagon and send it back to us. When we see there’s no bomb, then we’ll all be happy.”

“Screw you.”

“Falcon, I won’t be able to talk the cops into meeting any more of your demands if you don’t keep up your end of the deal.”

“I said screw you!” He ended the call and stuffed the phone back into his pocket. The expression on his face went completely blank. Finally, he glared at Theo and said, “What are you looking at?”

“You should listen to Jack. He’s a straight shooter.”

“He’s a liar. They’re all liars.”

“Right now, I’d say you’re the one who looks like the liar.”

“Who asked you?” He went to the bag, opened it, and looked inside.

Theo could smell the food from across the room. He hadn’t realized how hungry he actually was. “We go

“I’m not eating this crap,” said Falcon. “The bastards probably put sleeping powder in it.”

The guy sounded paranoid, but Theo wasn’t so sure that he was wrong. Falcon grabbed a burger from inside the bag and unwrapped it. The aroma was irresistible, and Theo’s stomach growled. Falcon went to him and put the burger to his lips. “Lucky you. You’re my food tester.”

Never in his life had Theo refused food, especially if it was free. Even when he was on death row, he was the one-man exception to a prisonwide hunger strike. But the prospect of some sort of drug in the food didn’t seem so far-fetched. “I’m not hungry.”

Falcon pressed the barrel of the gun to Theo’s forehead. “I’m not asking. Eat it.”

Theo took a huge bite.

“That’s it,” said Falcon. “Let the big dog eat.”

Theo took another bite. It tasted amazing, even at gunpoint.

Theo chewed, swallowed. “What are you hiding under the coat?”

“Nothing.”

“Then take a picture and show Jack that it’s nothing.”

“Nah. I kind of like letting those jerk-offs think I have a bomb.”

“If it’s not a bomb, then what are you hiding under there?”

“What makes you think I’m hiding anything?”

“I felt it when we were wrestling on the ground. There’s something under there. Something with wires.”

Their eyes locked, and Falcon’s expression changed dramatically. He seemed less nervous, less intense, and he was suddenly more distant and vacant. It was an expression unlike any that Theo had ever seen in his life, and Theo had stared down some pretty scary characters in his checkered past. He felt a strange sensation that he had probed into another part of Falcon’s world and that Falcon was not sure how to deal with the intruder. The room seemed hotter. Falcon was sweating as he unzipped his coat, though Theo was dead certain that it had nothing to do with the room temperature. Theo braced himself-for what, he wasn’t quite sure.

“You mean these wires?” said Falcon. He held them in his fist, pulling them out from inside his coat just far enough for Theo to see.