Fear City by F. Paul Wilson Read Free Book Online Page A

Tommy. I can’t. I’m up to my ears with Queensboro Dodge.”
    â€œThey got hit too?”
    â€œYeah, bad.”
    He didn’t hold a policy on them. So it wasn’t just him. Maybe he wasn’t being targeted. But who…?
    â€œAny word on what’s going on?”
    â€œI heard that witnesses saw a buncha black kids—young ones—running through the lot with hammers.”
    â€œNo kidding. So you can’t help me out.”
    â€œWish I could, Tommy. If you’d called sooner, I’d be there, but I gotta take the work when it comes.”
    â€œYeah-yeah. I’ll remember that.”
    He slammed down the phone.
    A buncha black kids  … that didn’t sound like a Genovese thing. That sounded like some fucking moulie trying to move in on his business. Well, he’d soon find out he’d picked the wrong fucking guy.

 
    3
    Nasser mentally shooed the room service waiter out the door as he watched him make a few final adjustments to the tray of club sandwiches. Finally he slipped out of the suite.
    â€œReally, Nasser,” Drexler said, placing half a sandwich on a small plate. “Twice in less that twenty-four hours? That is a bit much.”
    â€œThis couldn’t wait.”
    â€œThere’s always the phone,” Trejador said, helping himself to a full sandwich. He wore a light gray turtleneck and charcoal gray slacks.
    Nasser couldn’t help the brittle laugh that escaped, sounding almost like a bray. He fairly vibrated with excitement. Eating was out of the question. He couldn’t even sit, so he paced before them.
    â€œOh, no! No, phone. You do not want to trust this to a mobile or even a landline. Once you hear it, you’ll understand why.”
    Trejador stared at him. “I am, as they say, all ears.”
    â€œI picked up three of the jihadists this morning. I was already familiar with Kadir and Mahmoud. The new one’s name is Ramzi Yousef, a trained bomb maker.”
    â€œBombs!” Drexler said around a mouthful. “I like this already.”
    Trejador’s eyebrows lifted. “A bomb? A big one, I hope.”
    â€œThey plan to fill a panel truck with a combination of nitroglycerin and a urea-based explosive.”
    â€œJust like the Beirut barracks bomb. Excellent. What’s their target? The UN, I presume.”
    â€œBetter. One of the members of their gamaii is an engineer of sorts. He inspected the parking area under the target and he’s sure they can bring the building down. Not only bring it down, but topple it into another skyscraper.”
    Drexler’s eyes widened as he lifted his green bottle of beer. “The Empire State Building?”
    â€œNo! Even better. They’re going to place the truck bomb in the basement of the north tower of the World Trade Center and position it so that the explosion tilts it off balance and topples it into the south tower, which will then crush the rest of the Trade Center.” He laughed as he clapped his hands. “Can you believe the sheer audacity of it?”
    He expected his revelation to spark an enthusiasm that mirrored his own. Instead he saw wide-eyed shock. Trejador had frozen with the sandwich poised before his lips, and Drexler’s beer had stopped halfway in its ascent to his mouth. Didn’t they think it possible?
    â€œWhat?” he said, halting his pacing. “I know they’re crazy, but they believe they can do it, and so do I.”
    â€œNo!” Trejador and Drexler cried in unison. “No!”
    Nasser’s dazed brain tried to fathom their reaction. Did they think it would be too expensive?
    â€œCompared to what’s been lost on less reliable ventures, the cost of this will be negligible. If the High Council balks, I’ll gladly put up my own—”
    â€œNo!” Again, in unison.
    Nasser felt like a punctured balloon. “I don’t understand.”
    Drexler coughed on his food