Chapter 34

Chapter 34—Roger intercepts Reginald

2:13 a.m., Monday, December 26

The man grabbed Reginald’s right arm above the elbow with his left hand.
“Roger!” Reginald exclaimed. “What’s going on? What are you doing here?”
“Just keep walking,” Roger said. “Don’t look back. Just keep going.” Roger continued to squeeze Reginald above the elbow, and directed him toward a waiting van with deeply tinted windows. As the two men approached, a side door on the van opened, and Roger virtually pushed Reginald in. He then followed Reginald, and the van sped off.
“I need to pick up some things from the hotel,” Reginald said, looking around for familiar faces, but finding only one—that was Roger’s.
“You can’t go back there,” Roger told him. “You wouldn’t make it through the front door. … You were planning to clean out Handler’s room, right?”
“That’s right,” Reginald said. “How did you know that?”
“Doesn’t matter,” Roger replied. “We’ve got a man in the hotel, same floor. He’ll take care of it for you.”
“He’ll need this,” Reginald said, showing the remote to Roger.”
“And what’s this?” Roger asked.
“Jack has a special electronic lock he uses,” Reginald explained. “This remote unlocks it.”
Roger then immediately dialed his associate inside the hotel. “Alex. Handler has an auxiliary lock on his hotel door. He uses a little remote to deactivate it. RF or IR? Reg, is this RF or IR?”
“It’s like a car remote. I would assume that it operates on radio frequency. Check it. Are there any LEDs?”
Roger checked it out. “I don’t see an LED,” he said.
“Then it has to be RF,” Reginald replied, still not comfortable with his virtual abduction.
“There’s an electronic lock on the door. It’s apparently an RF unit,” Roger told his friend on the phone. “If you’re ready, I’ll activate it. … Great. Give me forty … fifty seconds.”
Roger switched on a linear amplifier, and slid the remote into it. He then activated the remote for a few seconds. “That worked? … Great,” Roger said to the man in the hotel, as he disconnected.
“That did it,” he said. “We probably blew off every radio station in the city, but we unlocked Handler’s door.”
“Okay,” Reginald said. “So what’s the deal? Jack is not going to be happy about this.”
“Would he prefer you to be dead?” Roger asked. “Because that’s what would have happened to you had you walked into the hotel.”
“What’s going on?” Reginald persisted.
“We know all about the meetings,” Roger said. “We know about Mossad. too.”
Roger’s revelation regarding his knowledge of the meetings caught Reginald by surprise. For a moment he was unable to say anything. He knew better than to press Roger for more information, at least at this time.
“Is that who’s waiting for Jack in the hotel?” Reginald asked. “Mossad?”
“No,” Roger said. “At least not exactly.”
“What does that mean?” Reginald asked.
“The agent you stuck earlier tonight has friends in the CIA,” Roger said.
“He was working both sides?” Reginald asked.
“It gets very complicated,” Roger said. “Suffice it to say, these guys know it was you and Jack, and they’re not very happy right now.”
“I had no choice,” Reginald said. “If I wouldn’t have taken him out, he would have killed Jack.”
Roger did not respond to Reginald’s comment.
“What’s your role in this?” Reginald then asked.
“My role?” Roger repeated. “Well, tonight, this morning, it’s to save your life—and Jack’s. Beyond that, it doesn’t really matter.  … We’re going to drop you back off to meet Jack.”
“How about his stuff?” Reginald asked. “He’s not going to be very happy if I turn up empty handed.”
“I was going to have it delivered later,” Roger said. Taking his cell, he called Alex back. “Hey, you got it packed up yet? Okay, this is what you do. Get it together. Don’t have to be fancy. Just get everything. Head over to Penn Station. We’ll stop in front of the drug store, in … let’s say fifteen minutes. Can you make it by then? … Great.”
Roger then hung up and addressed the driver. “Head west toward the Hudson. Time it so that you can swing back to Penn Station in fourteen minutes.”
No one spoke for a few moments. Finally, Reginald broke the silence. “Roger, I do not think you are working for Al. Is that a safe assumption?”
“I’m not going to discuss this with you, Reg.”
“I would know if you were working for her,” Reginald replied. “That means you’re working with Bob. Just what is his involvement in this?”
“Drop it,” Roger said, obviously angry with Reginald prying into his business. “I saved your life tonight. You would be dead right now, if it weren’t for me. So just drop it.”
“This is important,” Reginald persisted. “If Bob is involved, and I now suspect he is, then that changes the whole dynamic.”
“Reg. I respect you,” Roger said. “I respect what you have done in the past for Bob, and Al. I know very well what you are capable of. I know what Jack is capable of as well. If we wanted you out of the picture, you and I would not be here discussing this right now. So just be grateful you’re still alive, and let it go. There is nothing else you need to know. We are not at odds. Our goals might be different, but they are not mutually exclusive. Just be happy to know that the people I work for wanted you and Jack to live. Hell, Reg, someday we will probably work together again.”
Just then the van they were riding in approached the place they were planning to meet Alex, to retrieve Handler’s belongings.
“There he is,” Roger said, pointing to a man standing on the corner with two suitcases. “Pull up right here,” he told the driver. Roger opened the door to let his associate in. Alex tossed the two suitcases into the open door, then fell face first on the van floor, and rolled back onto the sidewalk. Blood was oozing from his mouth, and his open eyes evidenced dilated pupils. Alex was nearly dead—apparently stabbed just before the van drove up.