Read Online The 56th Man by J. Clayton Rogers - Free Book Online Page A

dangerous.
    Omar, nearly forty, was an exception. It was
hard to jibe him with the scruffy kid who screamed laughingly at
incoming rockets during the Whirlwind War, somberly declared he
would kill a million Iranians with his bare hands, then cried in
outraged misery when his favorite shop ran out of sweets.
    But how many of them hadn't changed? Ghaith
doubted he would have recognized young Ghaith, that astonishingly
skeptical boy who took luck and disaster in stride, unconvinced
that fear should be a ruler of souls. Only years later, on the
Highway of Death, while American tank-busters roared with impunity
overhead and men were roasted by the bushel all around him, did
Ghaith finally have it beaten into his head that fear, on some
occasions, was a valid guiding principal.
    Ghaith had missed the key
moment in Omar's transition from a pint-sized hellion to a
dour takfiris-- one of those
self-appointed assassins (who had formed a kind of club of the
self-anointed self-appointed) who took it upon themselves to decide
who was righteous and who was not, with the intention of inflicting
the ultimate penalty upon those found wanting.
    Omar had been arrested and
tortured under the old regime, but no more than anyone who wanted
to wipe out most of mankind deserved. Ghaith had been in a position
to check the file on his old chum, who had not exactly flourished
as a killer of lukewarm Muslims. But he had a big mouth (hence his
arrest), and when the new chaos came and all the restraints were
thrown off he was ready to settle down to business and discard hope
for his immortal soul. The takfiris understood that destroying people on a large scale
might be misconstrued not only by their victims, but by the One
True Power, as well. So be it, if that meant the salvation of
humanity--or what was left after they were done with it.
    Unfortunately, Ghaith had not understood any
of this until Omar told him about the power shift in the Ministry
and pulled a gun on him.
     
    He arrived home at midnight--an iconic
moment for this house. After placing a kettle of water on the stove
he changed into the jogging suit that served double duty as
pajamas, switched the computer on, then returned downstairs.
Packing a small wad of black Assam tea into his steeper, he dropped
it into a coffee mug ( should I invest in a
proper tea cup? ), and relished the brownish red swirls
of infusion. He looked slightly devilish as lowered his head over
the cup to savor the aromatic steam.
    He rested the cup on the kitchen table (still
the only furniture in the house aside from the computer desk and
two smallish chairs), went to the back door, and studied the strip
of clear tape he had stretched between the top of the door and the
frame.
    Broken.
    With a satisfied chuckle he sat at the table
and sipped his tea.
    His complacency was disrupted by a
faint thud. Upstairs, perhaps, but he couldn't be sure. Was it
possible that he--or they --was
still here? Lowering the cup onto the table, he rose and moved
silently to the front of the house. Turning the corner to the
living room, he saw a large yellow cat descending the
stairs.
    Ari bellowed with outrage. The cat stopped,
as though amazed, then took off, squirting through the banister
rails and vanishing into the den. Ari gave chase, racing into the
den only to see the cat flitting into the kitchen, running into the
kitchen only to see it scoot down the hall, taking the hall only to
catch the briefest glimpse of it popping into the living room,
arriving in the living room to see it complete the circle, bouncing
up the stairs and disappearing from the top landing.
    Ari followed. He stopped in the upstairs
hallway and looked both ways. The doors to the Riggins boys' two
bedrooms were closed, as were all the closets. That left the master
bedroom, the bathroom, and what Ari thought of as the studio as
possible escape hatches. There was no furniture beyond the computer
desk and office chair. No place for the animal to hide. It should
be