Cold Snap (14 page)

"I must confess, these devices are a great
mystery to me," Ari said truthfully. "I used to work with a great
many computers, but I was only responsible for passwords. You
understand passwords?"

"Duh," said Diane.

"Okay, Your Highness," said Rebecca. "Mr.
Ciminon is a guest. And how to we treat guests?"

Judging from Diane's expression, guests were
to be treated like complete dolts. But she said,
"Respecterfully."

Ari gauged the mispronunciation to be
intentional. So did Diane's mother.

"Right," Rebecca sighed. "Now, you know and I
know you spent a lot of time with Daddy on the computer. Way too
much time, actually. I think what Mr. Ciminon wants to find out is
if there is anything you saw that might help us find him."

"What would that have to do with him running
away?" asked Diane, giving Sphinx a hug. Ari tried to hide his
scowl when the cat absorbed the affection with all the alacrity of
a sponge.

"Well, as you know, Daddy hasn't been all
that...communicative since he—"

"You mean he hasn't called," said Diane
flatly.

"And we both know how much he doted on you,
right? Now, that doesn't sound normal, does it? Him not calling to
see how you are doing?"

There was a trace of desperation in Rebecca's
voice that he wished she would eliminate. An act of will would
suffice. There was no need to bully Diane. But one should not be
fearful of a child. Perhaps she thought her husband would swoop
down one day and make off with her, the child fully participating
in her own kidnapping. Ari had learned from milk cartons and signs
posted in malls that most kidnappings were committed by one of the
parents. He found this a very odd notion, almost inconceivable. How
could a mother or father kidnap their own child? And why would
anyone care?

Mulling over her mother's words, Diane agreed
that her father had missed the bus big time by not checking in with
his family.

"Just like Marmaduke, going off without
telling anyone and not coming back for weeks!" She gave the cat a
soft rap on the head.

Rebecca did not think much of the analogy,
but she stuck with it.

"Remember when you stopped thinking Marmaduke
was being bad, but might be hurt somewhere?"

Diane froze. "You think Dad's hurt?" Ari
could almost see an image of Ethan Wareness stretched out in the
dark woods cross Diane's mind.

"We don't know, Honey."

"And Mr. Ciminon wants to find out if Dad is
being bad...or something else?"

"Well...yes."

"I hope he's just being bad," Diane
asserted.

Foreseeing no good outcome, Rebecca was not
so sure of this. Deciding the stage was now properly set, she
turned the show over to Ari.

"You want to know if Diane might have seen
something while her father was on the computer. Something that
might help us find him."

"Yes," said Ari. He turned back to Diane and
waited politely, wondering if he would have to become a bully,
after all. Would giving a girl a good smack be going too far? It
would be suicidal in Iraq...if the father was around. It was the
father's duty to do the bruising. Otherwise, hands off.

Diane was frowning. "I don't know...I would
have to be at the computer..."

Ari gave Rebecca an inquiring glance.

"All right," the mother sighed. "Run on into
his office and boot it up."

Diane brightened. Pushing the bemused Sphinx
off her lap, she hopped up and ran out of the room.

"She seems to like computers more than filthy
animals," Ari noted, giving Sphinx a consoling sweep of his
hand.

"'Filthy animals'?" Rebecca inquired. "Are
you sure you want Marmaduke back in your house?"

Ari followed her into the study and found
Diane already flying her small fingers over the computer keyboard.
He caught a brief glimpse of the login screen. There were two
options: 'Guest' and 'Dad'. Diane clicked on 'Guest' and a dozen or
so lozenge-shaped icons popped up.

"Mrs. Wareness, I noticed different—"

"Please, have a seat." Rebecca pulled up a
chair on rolling casters. "We call this our kibitzer chair. No, you
take it. You need to be able to see the screen."

"Thank you."

The instant he lowered himself into the chair
Sphinx leapt onto his knees. Smiling, Ari pulled the cat against
his stomach. Diane offered a sharp scowl, but was immediately
diverted by a voice from the computer speaker.

"Let's play 'Where in the World is Carmen
Sandiego'!"

Ari twisted around in his seat and asked
Rebecca, "Who in the world is Carmen Sandiego?"

"You haven't been here long, have you?" She
tapped Diane on the shoulder. "Honey, I don't think Mr. Ciminon is
interested in this game."

Diane emitted a bubbly laugh as she worked
the cursor over multiple icons. Ari was startled. This was the
first truly childish sound he had heard her utter.

"Honey..."

With a squeak of frustration, Diane stopped
the game and logged out. Once again, they were looking at Guest and
Dad.

"Diane and I are the 'guests'," said Rebecca,
a little embarrassed. "Diane has her games and some of her school
work. And I only use it to find recipes or look up something in
Wikipedia. We don't have to enter passwords."

"Ah," said Ari. "But if you click on
'Dad'...?"

"I'm afraid I don't know the password. And
Diane shouldn't know it..."

Diane looked innocently at a Pokémon picture
above the monitor. Reading her daughter's expression, Rebecca
exclaimed, "How do you know it?"

"But..." Diane stuttered, aghast that her
sweetness and light had been so quickly seen through.

"How is it you didn't tell me, before...?"
Rebecca began.

Before we allowed a tall, dark stranger into
our house to view our secrets? Ari mentally finished for her.

"But..."

"No more 'buts', Your Highness."

Ari refrained from comment. He was reflecting
on the fact that Rebecca did not know her husband's password. It
might mean nothing, but it was obvious Rebecca felt the lapse
keenly.

"It was an accident," Diane said soulfully.
"I was playing my piano one day and Dad came in and said he had to
look at something real quick. When he logged in, he forgot to turn
the piano off and I heard his password."

"Piano?" Ari asked.

"A virtual piano," Diane explained. She ran
her fingers over the keyboard and an image of piano keys popped up
on the screen. Using the keyboard, she performed a quick version of
'Mary had a Little Lamb'.

"Ah," said Ari. "Very clever."

"Ain't it?" Diane said delightedly.

"Isn't it?" Rebecca corrected.

"So when Dad logged on, he played music. It
wasn't real music, but I heard the notes."

"And you remembered them?"

"I couldn't help it!" Diane alt-tabbed back
to her father's login screen and played a ten-digit atonal melody.
A new screen appeared. "He opened his browser, but that's all I
know, because he asked me if I wanted to play in the yard like he
really knew I wanted to play in the yard, only I didn't want
to..."

"He was asking you to leave the room," Ari
observed.

"Yeah..." Diane pouted. "I don't know what he
looked at after that."

Ari leaned forward and pointed at the small
images on the screen. "And these?"

"Those are desktop icons."

Ari read the small captions under the
icons.

"I don't know these," he admitted.

"It's just programs. If I open his Explorer,
we can see his Favorites..." She twisted in her chair and gave her
mother a silent call for permission. Rebecca's response was equally
silent: a pensive nod. Diane moved the cursor to the upper right
hand corner and a list of Ethan's favorite websites appeared in a
drop-down menu.

Rebecca watched nervously, tapping her finger
against a tooth. She started suddenly. "What's—no!"

But Diane had already clicked on the link. A
gorgeous blonde in the buff filled the screen.

Come join our gentlemen's club, where only
the finest entertainment is offered....

"Oooh," said Diane.

"Get out of that site, now!" Rebecca
shouted.

Diane quickly backed out.

"What the hell was he doing...?" hissed
Rebecca, her face a coarse red.

Ari gave a small cough. "I believe it is
commonplace for American men to view such things."

Rebecca glared at him.

"I have been told that women dance naked at
football games."

"What?"

"So I've been told."

"You mean the cheerleaders? They're not
naked." Rebecca pressed a palm against her forehead. "Not
entirely..."

Ari did not know Ethan, and for all he knew
he would dislike the man if he met him. No sense wasting breath
defending an unknown. He sat back, giving Sphinx a little more
breathing room. "I can't say I am seeing very much that is
useful."

"Well, there's one more thing..." Diane
pursed her wicked little lips, dying to show off her expertise.

"And what would be that, Diane?" asked Ari as
he stroked the cat. Diane's lips pursed out even further.

"Dad says it's important to clean out the
cache. It helps speed up the computer's performance."

"Of course," Ari nodded sagely, wondering if
there was another meaning of 'cash' that he was not aware of.

Smelling the alien wood burning, Diane said,
"That includes the history. You know, all the sites he visited. But
if he's cleaned out the cache, there won't be anything there."

"Why don't we see?" He turned. "With your
mother's permission."

She was curious, but fearful. She did not
respond.

"She agrees," said Ari.

"How can you tell?" Diane asked
doubtfully.

"Adults have secret methods of communication.
You'll learn them as you get older."

"Really? Like tele-mind-reading?"

"Something like that. Continue."

Diane moved the cursor to a tab next to the
Favorites and clicked. Ari sighed in disappointment when a list of
current dates dropped down, all of them empty.

"Hold on," she said. "Dad hasn't been here
for forever. We have to go back to when he was home."

She began scrolling down, then stopped. "This
is funny."

Both Ari and Rebecca leaned closer. Ari's
sudden twitch disturbed Sphinx, who leapt off and disappeared from
the study.

"That has to be wrong," Rebecca whispered.
"That says Last Visited January 15."

"I know," was Diane's puzzled response. "He
ran away before then. That means he came home to use the computer.
And he only looked up this one thing."

His heart thumping painfully, Ari turned to
Rebecca and encouraged her to comment.

"Diane," she said, "can you tell what time he
viewed the site?"

Diane right-clicked. "Around noon."

"I was at work and you were at school,"
Rebecca said to her daughter.

"That's sneaky," Diane said.

"It most certainly is."

"And it looks like the last site he visited
belonged to something called ISAF," said the girl. "What's
that?"

ISAF is the reason I'm about to have a
seizure, Ari thought.

"Madame," Ari said slowly, confusing his form
of address in the tension of the moment. "Did your husband ever
belong in the military?"

"No," said Rebecca, perplexity doing a
time-lapse race across her face.

"Was he ever contracted out to the military?
By Blackwater or someone like them?"

"He's never had anything to do with the
military, in any way." Rebecca paused. "So far as I know."

"Perhaps Sayed Technical Solutions has some
military contracts?"

"I don't know. Why are you asking these
questions?"

"Because...Diane, can you open that last
link?"

She did.

"Mr. Ciminon," Rebecca cautioned, perhaps
thinking ISAF was another porn site. But Diane's quick little
fingers had already done their work. "It says NATO," Rebecca said
pensively when the page opened.

"It is an international effort," Ari said.
"Hence the name: International Security Assistance Force."

"Wow," said Diane. "Look at all these
countries. Bulgaria…Albania… Slovenia…and look, Croatia! Our
teacher talked about them the other day. She said it was a new
country."

There was nothing out of the ordinary on the
website: ISAF News, Commander's Corner, ISAF Social Media….

"The history says Dad looked at the Contacts
page." She hovered the cursor over the bottom of the screen. Ari
nodded and she clicked. All of the contacts were in Afghanistan,
excepting the NATO Media Operations Center in Brussels.

"This is utterly perturbing," Ari said. "Why
would Ethan be visiting this site? It's for public consumption. If
he had a secret contact, he would have bypassed this
altogether."

"Do you think…" Rebecca leaned forward, eyes
bright with interest. "If someone wanted to make us think there was
a connection between Sayed Technical Solutions and ISAF…they would
think we would do what we're doing…"

"Trying to make us think there was a
connection where none existed," Ari finished. "That is a
possibility. What other sites did he visit?"

Diane went back to browser history. "It's all
empty. Dad cleaned out the cache, like he said you're supposed to.
I guess he was in a big hurry when he sneaked in here. That's why
he didn't erase the last entry."

In a hurry? Or he was interrupted before he
could finish what he was doing? Ari leaned back in his chair and
looked at Rebecca. Her worried expression told him she was thinking
the same thing:

Interrupted by whom?

CHAPTER SEVEN

Fallujah, Iraq

March 31, 2004

Ghaith was lounging against the counter of a
sandwich stand in the Jolan District, Fallujah's disreputable souk,
when he heard the explosion pulse true from the direction of Route
10.