Interdiction

by Michael A. Clark

About the Author: Michael A. Clark’s short stories have been published in Liquid Imagination, Gypsum Sound Tales: Colp and his short story “Thin Skinned” was recently accepted for publication in Galaxy’s Edge. He lives in Charlotte, NC, works in industrial automation and hazardous materials storage, and spends as much time as he can outdoors.

Excerpt

All airports are the same. Hong Kong, Newark, Tel Aviv. The sterile smell of disinfectant quashes the myriad germs of impatient travelers. Gate change announcements smother conversations. I glance at my copy of Car & Driver.

The teenager wearing a Ramones T-shirt slumped in the hard-plastic seat across from me sips a fruit smoothie, nodding his head inside his earplugs. He’s already spilled half his drink on the worn carpet below him. I smell strawberry and watermelon, and a riot of other sticky tastes. I glance at my watch.

There she is, striding down the concourse. A trophy wife at 24, Justine was divorced with two kids and a very generous settlement nine years later. She married right back into the Master Class within a year. Justine buys a latte at the Starbucks kiosk and remains aloof from the crowd as she casually leans against the wall reading the latest Vogue. She won’t know I‘m here. But she probably suspects that someone is watching. I could list the designer clothes she wears from this distance, down to the Jimmy Choo shoes. Justine rolls her magazine and saunters down the concourse, with a toss of her amber hair.

My job is to follow her, and report. This won’t be a snatch-n-grab takedown. Justine is carefully leaving a trail so that no one will pursue her husband. A Potemkin target, befuddling detectives so that the big money can escape its obligations.

I am not fooled.

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