![Repairman Jack [10]-Harbingers](https://fs.collectorofbookboyfriends.com/466539/thumbs/152x264/repairman-jack-10-harbingers.jpg)
know their game?"
"Bull's-eye. Being bugged like that creeped me out. Got a way I can keep it from happening again?"
"Just the thing."
He slipped off his stool and stepped into the storage closet behind the counter. Jack heard rummaging noises and a few words he assumed to be Yiddish curses. Then, red-faced and puffing, Abe returned to his stool. He placed something that looked like an undersized radio/cassette player on the counter.
"Here. A TD-seventeen. Not a state-of-the-art sweeper, but just what you need. Detects any RF signal between one and a thousand megahertz."
Jack picked up the little black box, fiddled with the aerial and the sensitivity dial. Looked simple enough.
"Great. Put it on my tab. How come you stock this up here instead of downstairs?"
"Downstairs is crowded enough already. I should stock something legal downstairs?"
Jack thought of something as he stuck the sweeper in his pocket.
"Last night… the little guy called himself a yennasari or something like that. Any idea what he was talking about?"
Abe frowned. "Doesn't ring a bell."
That increased Jack's frustration. He needed some sort of handle on these guys. Abe had a degree in anthropology and a minor in languages. If he didn't know…
"Unless he was using a form of janissary."
"Who can say? What's a janissary?"
"The janissaries were bodyguards of the Turkish sultan, his household troops back in the day of the Ottoman Empire. If I remember correctly, they were started in the fourteenth century. The Turks began conscripting Christian boys from the Balkans, converting them to Islam, and training them as soldiers. These became janissaries."
Jack shook his head. "These guys weren't Turkish. Not even close."
Abe rolled his eyes. "The janissaries were disbanded already. Back in the eighteen hundreds. But it's become a generic term for any sort of elite military force. How come you don't know this?"
"Hey, I'm a dropout, remember? But now it starts to make sense. These guys behaved like a team, were well armed, and the little guy, Zeklos, was devastated that he was being kicked out. Said he had nothing to live for. If you were raised since childhood to be part of a team, and then got kicked out… yeah, you might want to put a bullet through your brain."
"Speak for yourself."
"He also talked about something called emvee being his world. That ring any sort of bell?"
"Emvee?" Abe shook his head. "Could be initials. But M-V initials could stand for anything from motor vehicles to music video to the Maldives to whatever. Oy. Such possibilities. It gives me an ache in the head."
The phone rang. Abe bent to check the caller ID.
"This I have to take."
Jack waved and headed for the door. Things to do.
2
He'd gone maybe half a block when he heard someone calling his name. He turned and saw Abe waving from the store's front door.
"Jack! Come back! Such news I've got!"
So Jack went back.
"What's up?" he said as he followed Abe's bustling form back to the rear of the store.
"That call was from a contact overseas—the one who's been working on your resurrection."
"Why didn't you say so? I would have waited."
"I didn't know if it would be good news. I didn't want to get your hopes up."
Hopes up? They'd just shot into orbit.
Impending fatherhood called for changes—momentous changes—in his legal status. Right now that status was zilch. The various and sundry governments—federal, state, and local—wheeling around him had no clue that he existed. Since his birth he'd stayed under their radar—by happenstance as a teenager, by design since he'd slipped into the city fifteen years ago.
But to be a real and true father to the baby, he had to be a citizen. Sure, he could love it and nurture it just as much in his present nonexistent state, but Gia had brought up a wrenching scenario: What if something happened to her?
The possibility had never occurred to Jack, mainly because the idea of anything bad happening to Gia was inconceivable.
"Bull's-eye. Being bugged like that creeped me out. Got a way I can keep it from happening again?"
"Just the thing."
He slipped off his stool and stepped into the storage closet behind the counter. Jack heard rummaging noises and a few words he assumed to be Yiddish curses. Then, red-faced and puffing, Abe returned to his stool. He placed something that looked like an undersized radio/cassette player on the counter.
"Here. A TD-seventeen. Not a state-of-the-art sweeper, but just what you need. Detects any RF signal between one and a thousand megahertz."
Jack picked up the little black box, fiddled with the aerial and the sensitivity dial. Looked simple enough.
"Great. Put it on my tab. How come you stock this up here instead of downstairs?"
"Downstairs is crowded enough already. I should stock something legal downstairs?"
Jack thought of something as he stuck the sweeper in his pocket.
"Last night… the little guy called himself a yennasari or something like that. Any idea what he was talking about?"
Abe frowned. "Doesn't ring a bell."
That increased Jack's frustration. He needed some sort of handle on these guys. Abe had a degree in anthropology and a minor in languages. If he didn't know…
"Unless he was using a form of janissary."
"Who can say? What's a janissary?"
"The janissaries were bodyguards of the Turkish sultan, his household troops back in the day of the Ottoman Empire. If I remember correctly, they were started in the fourteenth century. The Turks began conscripting Christian boys from the Balkans, converting them to Islam, and training them as soldiers. These became janissaries."
Jack shook his head. "These guys weren't Turkish. Not even close."
Abe rolled his eyes. "The janissaries were disbanded already. Back in the eighteen hundreds. But it's become a generic term for any sort of elite military force. How come you don't know this?"
"Hey, I'm a dropout, remember? But now it starts to make sense. These guys behaved like a team, were well armed, and the little guy, Zeklos, was devastated that he was being kicked out. Said he had nothing to live for. If you were raised since childhood to be part of a team, and then got kicked out… yeah, you might want to put a bullet through your brain."
"Speak for yourself."
"He also talked about something called emvee being his world. That ring any sort of bell?"
"Emvee?" Abe shook his head. "Could be initials. But M-V initials could stand for anything from motor vehicles to music video to the Maldives to whatever. Oy. Such possibilities. It gives me an ache in the head."
The phone rang. Abe bent to check the caller ID.
"This I have to take."
Jack waved and headed for the door. Things to do.
2
He'd gone maybe half a block when he heard someone calling his name. He turned and saw Abe waving from the store's front door.
"Jack! Come back! Such news I've got!"
So Jack went back.
"What's up?" he said as he followed Abe's bustling form back to the rear of the store.
"That call was from a contact overseas—the one who's been working on your resurrection."
"Why didn't you say so? I would have waited."
"I didn't know if it would be good news. I didn't want to get your hopes up."
Hopes up? They'd just shot into orbit.
Impending fatherhood called for changes—momentous changes—in his legal status. Right now that status was zilch. The various and sundry governments—federal, state, and local—wheeling around him had no clue that he existed. Since his birth he'd stayed under their radar—by happenstance as a teenager, by design since he'd slipped into the city fifteen years ago.
But to be a real and true father to the baby, he had to be a citizen. Sure, he could love it and nurture it just as much in his present nonexistent state, but Gia had brought up a wrenching scenario: What if something happened to her?
The possibility had never occurred to Jack, mainly because the idea of anything bad happening to Gia was inconceivable.
Similar Books
