"What's this?"
"Her address, of course."
"Hey wait just a frigging minute here."
"Please, Mr. Hogan, there is no need for such profanity. It is a simple thing: I desire this woman, and you will, shall we say, acquire her for me. Surely with your police training you could manage a thing like this." He looked Jack directly in the eye.
Jack was incredulous. This creep was serious. Jesus Christ! Copping a little dope now and then was one thing, but this was something altogether different. "You're talking about kidnapping. I don't want nothing to do with it." He tried to give the slip of paper back.
"Really, Mr. Hogan, I think you should think about it-your options are few."
"Let me get this straight: I have a week to either come up with twenty grand, or this girl, and we are in the clear, right?"
"That is correct."
"You gotta be crazy!"
"Those are your options."
"And what happens if I don't come up with either."
Abdulah shifted his gaze to Ahmed. "In that case, Mr. Hogan, you would make Ahmed very happy?"
Ahmed's expression changed from one of stony silence to gleeful anticipation. His lips curled back in what Jack assumed was an attempt at a smile, but looked like a snarl, made even more sinister by that gold tooth.
"You see Ahmed feels I am being much too generous, he would like nothing better than to slit your throat right now. But, I ask you, where is the profit in that?"
"Look, Abdulah, I'm no kidnapper, I can't make this snatch, ..." His eyes pleaded with the fat man, but finding no mercy there, he looked down at the address on the slip of paper in his hand. "Saxon Mills, Vermont. Where the hell is that anyway?"
"I trust you are resourceful enough to find it."
"Yeah, I guess." Jack's voice sounded defeated. "I don't have a car, how am I supposed to get there?"
Abdulah smiled, "I am sure Ahmed can provide you with suitable transportation, and whatever else you may require."
Jack folded the paper and shoved it in his pocket. He felt as if he were selling his soul to the devil, and perhaps he was.
"Once Ahmed is satisfied you have fulfilled the agreement, he will give you your markers."
"What happens to the girl?"
"That is none of your concern ... but it just so happens that I must return to my country one week from now and will have room for an extra passenger. You need not worry about ever seeing her again, and you can forget you ever did."