Jess Walter - The Zero

Markham stepped up to the man. “Hey there, Assan. My name’s Doolittle.” He pointed at Remy. “And this is Poppins. Do you know why we’re here?”

Assan just stared.

“Because your name showed up on some checks, Assan. Some big checks.”

“My brother asked me to write those checks. Years ago. I told the other guys-” Assan began.

“The other guys ? Those other guys are pansies, Assan. They can’t close the deal. Have you been in America long enough to know what happens when a used car dealer goes to get the manager to close the deal? Well, that’s us. We’re the closers. So what’s it gonna take to get you to drive off the lot today, huh?”

“What?” Assan looked around wildly.

“What’s it gonna take for me to get you down and pitch you overboard?”

Assan shook his head no.

“See, those other guys, Assan? They’re just interns. We’re the partners at the firm. They’re the JV. We’re the varsity.”

“P-please…” Assan’s lips were caked with white scum. He spoke with a faint accent, falling a bit heavily on the consonants. “Please… I have done nothing wrong.” He struggled against the bar and fell back.

“You hear that?” Markham turned to Remy. “Assan’s done nothing wrong.” He turned back to the man. “So what. You always tip fifteen percent, never cheat on your taxes, always pick up your litter? Is that what you mean, Assan?”

Assan’s bottom lip quivered as he looked from one man to the other.

“Are you some kind of police?”

“No. We’re no kind of police.”

Assan’s voice cracked. “This is wrong. I was taken… from my home. At night. I have not been charged. This is… not right. It is illegal. I demand to speak to a lawyer.”

“I’m a lawyer,” Markham said. “He’s a lawyer. The guys you were playin’ with before? Lawyers. Captain of the ship is a lawyer. Hell, everyone in America is a lawyer, Assan. I’d have thought you’d know that by now.”

He struggled on the bar.

“I’ll tell you what, Assan. The next civil rights lawyer I see on this boat I’m going to send in here. Okay? Now… why don’t you tell me why your name shows up on checks to Bishir Madain?”

“I have…” Assan’s cracked lips slid back over bright teeth, his head fell forward and he began crying, like a child. “…explained… my brother is in Saudi Arabia. He used to raise money for Islamic studies. He worked with Bishir on a program with exchange students.”

“I don’t care about that, Assan.” Markham got closer, until his voice was hardly more than a whisper. “I care about one question. Answer one question and it gets better. Where is Bishir?”

“I told them… I do not know where Bishir is.”

“You haven’t told me, Assan.”

He looked up, took short, shallow breaths, and said: “I have no idea where Bishir is. I promise you! He is my brother’s friend. I have not seen him in more than a year. I swear it. Now, please !”

Markham turned to Remy. “Wow. That’s pretty convincing. What do you think, pardner? Is Assan telling the truth?”

Remy felt the boat lurch and then fall back. His mouth tasted like salt and bile. He tried to say something, but there was nothing.

Suddenly Assan struggled against the bar, his feet running in place, his head swinging back and forth. After this burst, he roared at the ceiling: “There are laws!”

“True enough.” Markham nodded to the stern of the ship. “Two hundred yards west of here, anyway. But out here-”

Assan’s head fell again.

There was a knock on the door. Markham stepped away from the prisoner and listened as one of the guys whispered something in his ear. Then Markham approached Remy, walking like John Wayne. “What do you think, pardner?”

“I don’t believe this,” Remy said. “We can’t do this…”

“Yeah, yeah. I know. It’s sloppy. My apologies. I’m gonna go up deck and find out if this asshole said anything useful before. I’ll be right back. You watch him.”

Remy watched Markham open the white metal door and listened to his footfalls in the hallway outside and on the steps leading back above deck. The walls seemed to leach salt. Finally, Remy moved.

Assan’s skin was cold and clammy. “Come on,” Remy whispered. He lifted the man off the bar and lowered him to the ground, removed his own jacket and put it around Assan’s shoulders. “You’re going to be okay.” The man stunk like urine and sweat.

Assan lay in a pile on the floor, his back shuddering as he cried. His hands were bound with a zip-tie. Remy found a pocketknife in his front pants pocket and cut the plastic off his wrists. Assan opened and closed his fists.

“Thank you-” Assan began.

“We have to go fast,” Remy said. “Come on.”

He draped Assan’s arm over his shoulder and pulled the smaller man through the door, edging sideways down the hallway. When they reached the stairs Remy peered up, but he didn’t see Markham or the other two. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do once they got above deck. He didn’t think he had a weapon. He patted himself down – nothing but the pocketknife. “Wait here,” he whispered to Assan.

It was dark now, the night sky lit with stars and a three-quarter moon. Remy emerged from below deck and looked around. He counted four silhouetted heads in the pilothouse, and guessed they wouldn’t be able to see out into the dark. He reached back and grabbed Assan by the armpits. He winced again as Remy lifted him through the opening. The air was cool and briny. They crept along the deck, with the creak of the tight, wet planks beneath them and the smack of small waves against the side, until they reached the rope ladder, still slung over the stern of the ship. Remy looked down. Chuck, the pilot of the cabin cruiser, was sitting on the back of his chair, working another cigar. “Follow me!” Remy whispered to Assan, and began lowering himself over the edge of the freighter.

“Where’s Shawn?” the pilot of the cabin cruiser asked Remy when he’d dropped down into the smaller boat.

“He’s gonna stay a while. He wants us to take this guy back to shore.”

“Doesn’t the guy have any clothes?”

“He fell overboard,” Remy said. “They’re all wet.”

If the pilot registered the strangeness of this he didn’t show it. “Am I supposed to come back for Markham?” he asked.

“First thing tomorrow morning,” Remy said. “They’re having a party.”

The pilot stared at Remy for a long time before shrugging. “Okay.”

Remy helped Assan down the last steps of the rope ladder and then pushed him down onto the floor of the boat and covered him with the jacket.

He pushed off and they drifted away. The smaller boat started with a lurch, and soon they were speeding off. Remy looked over his shoulder. He could see the men still in the wheelhouse of the bigger ship, apparently looking the other way. Only now did Remy notice how quickly his heart was beating, how short were his breaths.

Remy crouched down on the floor of boat. Assan was sobbing. He rearranged his jacket on the shaking man.

“It’s okay,” Remy said. “You’re gonna be okay.”

Assan grabbed his wrist. “Listen to me. I don’t know where Bishir is. I swear. You’ve got to tell them. I barely knew him… in his dress and speech, he is very… American.” Assan shrugged. “I hadn’t heard from Bishir until maybe two years ago, when he suddenly contacted me.”

Remy’s voice was hoarse over the churn of the boat motor. “What did he want?”

“He had gotten my name from Kamal. He was raising money for charity from American Muslims. He wanted me to donate.”

“Did you?”

“Yes. A little. I told the men on the boat this. But I have not spoken to Bishir since that day. I swear it.” The boat jumped against the edge of some bigger swells and the pilot turned to angle across the chop. Remy stood and looked back over his shoulder, but he could see nothing in the dark. Not even the lights from the larger ship. He lowered himself to the deck to talk to Assan again. He caught the man’s imploring black eyes.