A Date to Remember (standard:mystery, 2967 words)
Author: pjlawton	Added: Jun 14 2004	Views/Reads: 3186/2207	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
A chance encounter in Istanabul puts a tourist in grave danger, and a date to remember.

A Date to Remember 

By P.J.LAWTON 

Istanbul was a wonderful exotic vacation spot. That's what he had always
heard. Exotic maybe. Wonderful? Well, maybe not so wonderful. Why? 
Because right now he was in some very serious trouble. How had he 
gotten into this predicament anyway? He had recently retired from the 
US Army and figured he needed a little break, that's all. What he 
didn't know was that part of his little break was about to become a 
date to remember. 

Here it was the middle of the night and he was sitting in a smelly old
rundown building hiding from some really bad men. He reached into his 
pocket to make sure the disc was still there then shifted position 
slightly on the cold floor. As jet leg caught up to him, Jason nodded 
sleepily and his thoughts began to wander. 

*** 

All the sights and sounds that made up the city of Istanbul had assailed
his senses as he casually strolled along. Lost in the moment he didn't 
notice the little man in the dirty baggy brown suit. As he moved to 
enter the arched doorway of the Bazaar the man darted across the street 
and grabbed his arm. 

“You are American, yes?” croaked the little man. 

Startled, Jason just stared at the dirty rumpled suited man. 

“You are American, yes?” the man asked again. “Please, I must find an
American.” 

He finally found his voice.  “Yes, I am American.”  “Wha, What do you
want?' he stammered. 

“Here,” the man cried reaching forward a dirty hand. “You must take this
to American Consulate. Very important.  All the information is there. 
You must take now.” With that the figure turned to hurry away. 

“Wait,” Jason said as he looked at what had been pressed into his hand. 
“What is this? 

With a panicked glance back over his shoulder, the little man shouted,
“Go, quickly. The evil must be stopped. Remember, 11-9”. Jason's 
puzzled look followed the retreating figure. The little man suddenly 
stopped in mid-step did a slow pirouette the silently toppled to the 
street. In seconds a pool of red slowly spread around his inert form. 
Jason hadn't heard a thing. 

Pandemonium broke out. Screams and cries echoed as people ran in all
directions. The street was clear within seconds except for the two men, 
one standing and one dead in the street. 

He had been intently staring at the small man but something else caught
his attention.  Two men in an alley entrance across the street were 
watching closely.  One of them pointed toward him. Although he did not 
fully understand what was happening, Jason instinctively knew that he 
had just gotten into trouble. Without a second thought he ran into the 
open bazaar doorway, slid to a halt, then moved deeper into the shadows 
and waited. A few seconds later, the men came running through the door 
and stopped to look around. There was something ominous about the pair 
and inherently dangerous.  The one with the dark mustache and fierce 
eyes was doing the talking. From his vantage point he could hear what 
the man was saying but it was a language that he didn't understand. 

A chirping sound halted their conversation. The talker pulled out a
mobile phone. 

“Hello. Yes, yes this is Ahmed.” 

Good, English, he thought. 

“Yes,” the man continued in almost perfect English. “Yes, he gave it to
someone we believe to be an American tourist. No, we will not let the 


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