Play it Again Sam Pt. 05

We went back and forth about the chances for our marriage for a bit. Remember, this was always fresh pain for her.

"Listen Julie. We're not going to sit here and hash this shit out today. I'm sorry you don't remember it, but we've gone over this plenty of times. Full disclosure, I've read your diary." She gasped. "Wait, wait, don't freak out. Yes, it was bad. But you may be the luckiest bitch in the history of cheating wives. I've had over four years to come to terms with it. You're going to miss all the pain and anguish I went through. You're not even going to remember all the petty revenge I got."

"What if I also missed my chance to win you back?" she sniffed. "What if I never had the opportunity to try to save my marriage?"

"Well, all I'll say to that is you should go back and read your old diaries. Whatever relationship we have come Saturday, you can thank your lucky stars that fate kept me close to you. Because if I hadn't been stuck in a time loop, I might have never come near you again after reading what you did."

I left her with a little hope. At least hope that I wouldn't cut her completely out of my life.

"There's a reason I'm bringing you up to speed today. I still don't know much about the time loop, but I think I may have figured out how to stop it."

Julie gathered herself. I think she saw that the best thing she could do was stay close to me and try to work her way back into my good graces. If I was talking to her and planning something with her... those were good signs. So she made an effort not to dwell on her fears for our marriage.

"How can you stop it?" she asked, wiping the tears from her eyes.

"Tonight, or more accurately, early tomorrow morning, a nuclear bomb is going to go off in Manhattan."

"Oh my god!" Our marriage troubles were momentarily forgotten. "Are you sure?! Of course you're sure. How? Why?"

"I'll give you all the details throughout the day. It took me a long time to realize what was happening. My day resets when the bomb goes off. It happens so fast, I never realized what it was. Anyway, I've found the location and laid out a plan of attack. We've already made several attempts to stop it."

"We have? Oh, right. That's crazy. So that's what we're doing tonight? Stopping a nuclear explosion?"

Julie gave a little nervous titter. This was a lot of drama to wake up to. I don't think I would have handled it as well.

We had a schedule to keep so I chivvied her along.

We both had to call off work. Julie agonized over what to tell her boss.

"She already knows about your affairs. Just tell her you got caught and have to spend the day with your husband."

Julie's eyes misted up at that, but it fit with her policy of honesty, so that's what she did.

I told my boss Ben the same thing, but that I would be in for about an hour to tie some things up.

Julie and I both rode the train into New York. We went to Broadwell and Marx, where she waited in the lobby while I went up to book my trades before the market opened. Now that I had a real prospect of escaping the loop, I wanted to be sure to get that money ball rolling. Plus, I would have some uses for it today.

After that, we went to Sung's dojo, where I performed a similar feat to what I had done for Julie. In Sung's case it wasn't the television, but the radio. Sung had music playing in the dojo at all hours. I told him to pick a channel, and I would talk along with it.

Sung thought he had an ace up his sleeve, because he used an internet service to stream a Korean talk radio station. When he put that station on the gym speakers, he was first shocked that I spoke Korean, then that I was speaking in perfect unison with the radio hosts.

I had made sure his sister Mi-Sook was there for the demonstration, which she consented to with ill grace. She was still her usual sour-self afterwards, but I had her attention.

"You guys don't know me, but I know you. I've been coming to this dojo for years. I'd like to think under different circumstances, we could be friends. Maybe we'll get that chance. But today, I need you two for something specific."

Sung was intrigued. Mi-Sook annoyed.

"How can I help?" Sung asked, just as Mi-Sook said, "I'm not getting involved in this American's craziness."

"I'm going to need both your skills. Sung, I know you were a soldier and an interpreter. I'll need your language skills. Mi-Sook, I know you were part of the 9^th Special Forces Brigade of the Republic of Korea."

Her eyes went wide. She looked like she wanted to attack me, which I was anxious to avoid, because she would kick my ass, regardless of my training.

"We've talked a lot (a lie). I know you don't remember, but if we had all day to talk, you'd would eventually confide in me (big lie)."

I don't think Mi-Sook was buying my bullshit, but it deflated her anger somewhat as she at least entertained the possibility. Actually, almost everything I knew about her came second hand from her brother. She never spoke more than ten sentences in a day to me before we starting assaulting the terrorists together. I knew I had to get to the point before she ran out of patience.

"North Korean terrorists are planning to detonate a bomb in New York tonight."

That got their attention. The only thing Mi-Sook hated more than polite conversation was North Korea. Sung held surprisingly little animosity for someone who grew up in a divided country, but Mi-Sook loathed the North. She wanted to know more, and looked ready to beat it out of me if I wasn't forthcoming.

I had to be very careful with how much information I gave to Sung and his sister (especially his sister). They may have believed me about the time loop, but they wouldn't trust me to lead the charge if they knew the whole story.

The first time I tried to bring them in, I made the mistake of saying the bomb was nuclear. It was only the fact that Mi-Sook had no idea I could fight that let me get out of that dojo. I surprised her with a hip toss when she tried to grab me, and made it out the door onto the street. I suspect I would have spent the rest of that day in great pain, if I didn't tell her exactly what she wanted to know.

I had warned Julie on the way over not to make any mention that this blast was nuclear. I had to downplay the severity of this terrorist attack significantly, or else Sung and Mi-Sook would demand we hand the information to the proper authorities. They still tried, but I was able to convince them to just help me instead.

Once she warmed to the idea, Mi-Sook was quite eager to foil a North Korean terrorist plot, even if I did let her believe it was small in scope. As zero hour approached and I doled out more info, they would realize this was a bigger deal than I was letting on, but by then it would be too late to bring in anyone else.

I left them with instructions to clear their evening and be ready to go at 7pm. We would pick them up after dinner.

We went and got something to eat. I had to kill some time while my bank account grew. I started to give Julie her instructions for tonight, along with a lot of reminders about what not to say in front of Sung and his sister.

After lunch, we went to a boutique car rental service, the kind of place where you can rent a car you could never afford to own. I let the salesman show me the Ferraris and Lamborghinis for a few minutes.

"What I'd really like is something comfortable that just screams luxury. Do you have any full size sedans, not a limo, but maybe just short of it."

As I knew he would, he led me to another garage, where there were three Maybachs in a row. They were maroon, silver, and black.

The salesman started leading me over to the silver one, but I interrupted him.

"I'll take the black one. It's perfect."

"Sir, that one has some special features. It's not really-"

"Then that's the one I want. Top of the line. Besides, I love a black car."

His facial expression was somewhere between pained and annoyed.

"Sir... that vehicle rents for $18,000 a day... perhaps you'd be more comfortable in the-"

"This is the one," I said, and pulled out my credit card.

The salesman didn't start to warm up until the bank cleared the transaction. What he had been trying to tell me, was that this Maybach was an armored car. I knew that, but I wanted him to honestly be able to say that he hadn't told me. Just in case someone later wanted to know why I just happened to be driving a small tank tonight.

The car also had high tech radio system in front, because most of the people that rented it had a team of security people that needed to stay in contact.

My story was going to be that my wife and I were going through a hard time in our marriage and wanted a night on the town, no expense spared. We would then spend the day being seen in different places, before picking up our "friends" Sung and Mi-Sook.

We would then stumble onto the terrorists serendipitously, by overhearing a radio transmission in our rented car.

Very, very flimsy. And it would take some evidence tampering to make even remotely believable. Unfortunately, I couldn't come up with anything better. We needed an excuse why we went charging in ourselves instead of waiting for the police.

We would say that we had heard what sounded like criminal activity, and we were in the area, cruising in our rented luxury car. As we listened, we realized the urgency of the situation, and took on eleven armed terrorists, like any good citizen would.

Yeah...right.

I was counting on a lot of gratitude over what we did, and not a lot of questions about why or how we did it.

The only justification I could point to was that Mi-Sook was a special forces commando, Sung was an ex-soldier, and I would claim to be their star pupil. I would just need them to back me up on that. Julie was there because she was my wife, and because we weren't planning on getting into a firefight.

Julie and I cruised around New York in the Maybach, hitting all the usual suspects: Broadway, Times Square, Central Park. We ate at an upscale Italian restaurant, then swung by to pick up Sung and Mi-Sook.

We made one detour to intercept a delivery man and give him a hefty bribe to let me tamper with the food he was carrying. I made sure to wear an oversized hoodie and not let him see my face. I had to show him what I was putting in the food so he didn't think I was trying to poison someone. For two grand, he stopped asking questions.

We continued cruising aimlessly through Manhattan. The purpose was two-fold- to put a bunch of miles on the Maybach so I just justify renting it, and to go over my assault plans with the whole group.

Sung understood his part in the scheme, and its necessity.

Mi-Sook was a little bit harder to sell.

"I should lead the main assault. You don't have the training for something like this. In fact, none of us should be doing this. We should call the authorities."

"We've been over that Mi-Sook. I can't explain how I know what I know. Not to the government. And they don't have my inside info. I don't want to be arrested on suspicion of being a terrorist myself, which they would do on principle if I had this much knowledge of the inner workings of the real terrorists."

"And your part is crucial," I added. "I can't do it. You're the only one with the skills."

"I still don't like it." She grumbled.

She would like it a lot less when she realized all the things I wasn't telling her.

We went over the plan over and over, with me telling them all the possible pitfalls I had learned from previous attempts.

...

At 11 o'clock we put phase one into action.

Julie had a simple job, but it was crucial, and somewhat demanding.

We had brought a baggy hoodie and sweatpants from home that morning. Julie slipped them on over her clothes. She also took the tire iron from the Maybach, carried in her largest purse.

"Remember, walk in the door at exactly 11:17. You have seven minutes to get in place."

"Got it. I'll be ready," she paused. "Thank you for letting me be here for this, it means a lot to me."

She jumped out of the car quickly and walked away wiping her eyes.

We were a block away from the embassy, an easy stroll for Julie. She hung out on the sidewalk until 11:17, then walked swiftly through the doors and into the lobby. The night attendant and the overnight security guard were both in the restroom.

The security guard went to the bathroom at this time every night, but I had to get creative with the lobby attendant. I had spiked his Chinese delivery with a laxative. It had taken several days to get the dosage right. He was making repeated trips to the restroom, but I needed him gone at the same time as the security guard.

With the lobby unattended, Julie walked straight across and down a hallway to the security offices. I'd bribed one of the daytime crew a month ago to give me the code to the door. She punched the code into the keypad and the door opened with a click.

The first room was the duty station, with all the camera feeds from the lobby, elevators, and public areas of the building. I had coached Julie on where the cameras were, and to keep her hoodie pulled up.

The security offices were actually a suite of rooms. There was the duty station, a bathroom where the guard currently was, a break room, and a bunk room for when they needed extra staff on hand. With only one guard on night duty, the bunk room wouldn't be used. Julie could hang out there until the assault, as long as she kept quiet.

...

With Julie in place, we continued our night cruise until 2am.

2:00 am- I drove the Maybach into the parking structure under the high rise, using an entrance on E. 56^th Street. The parking garage used an automated ticket and payment system. At this time of night there were only a few cars in the garage, so I pulled into a quiet corner and idled.

...

3:15 am- The terrorists showed up and set up their roadblocks. They killed the lobby attendant and security guard, as well as six other unlucky people who were working late at night in the various offices of the embassy building.

Julie had to hide under the bunk bed in the security suite's bunk room. The terrorists did a quick walk through, but they were only expecting one night guard, so they didn't do a thorough search.

Sung, Mi-Sook, and I were listening to the play by play on the radio of the Maybach. It was an advanced model that could be tuned into the frequency the terrorists were using, so long as I knew their encryption code. We could even talk to them if we were feeling suicidal.

Sung was getting increasingly anxious, and Mi-Sook increasingly angry.

"Why the fuck are we letting them kill those people?" Mi-Sook yelled. "You knew this would happen, why are we sitting here with our thumbs up our asses?"

"I'm sorry," I said with regret. "I tried to come up with a way to hit them while they were still in transit, but there was no way. Any attack at all before they set up, and they would set off the bomb. It's a big one. It would kill a lot more than 8 people if it goes off. The only way to beat these guys is after they're spread out and feeling comfortable."

Sung look worried. "Just how big is this bomb?"

"Big. Bigger than the Oklahoma City bombing."

"...shit."

"Yeah. I wish I could save everyone, but that bomb cannot go off. So get ready, it's almost game time."

We gave the terrorists until 4am to settle in and get comfortable.

...

4:03 am- I turned to Mi-Sook.

"You're up. The sniper team checks in at 4:11. You need to make your move no later than 4:13."

"I know my part. I just hope you are up to yours."

Mi-Sook's job was to take out the sniper and his spotter.

She didn't have the option of lying in wait like I had. I don't know how she got to them without being seen or raising a ruckus, but Mi-Sook was by far the best of us in this arena. Right from the first assault attempt, she had never failed to get her job done, unlike the rest of us, who had all screwed the pooch repeatedly.

She had grilled me thoroughly about every aspect of the sniper team's position, including things that seemed pointless to me.

She walked off through the parking garage, towards the stairwell up to the sniper team.

I pulled the Maybach to the garage's 57^th St. exit, across the street from the embassy. I made sure the lights were off, so the two lookouts didn't see them coming from under the high rise. There was one of the terrorists' barricades crossing the entrance and exit of the parking structure, but I wasn't worried about that.

...

4:08 am- I placed a call to the police. This was part of covering my ass.

"911, what's your emergency?"

"There are terrorists in the building at 57^th and Park Avenue. They say they have a bomb."

"Sir, could I get your name and location please? Officers are being dispatched-"

"There's no time, I have to try to stop them."

"Sir! Do not-"

I hung up on the dispatcher. With terrorists and a bomb threat, the police wouldn't just come charging in. They would have to call in a special response team, and the bomb squad. By the time they got here it would all be over, one way or another.

4:09 am- I pulled up to within ten feet of the barricade, just out of sight of the terrorist lookouts.

...

4:11 am- All the various terrorists checked in with the North Korean in the security room. He was the one directing the mercs, from the duty station with all the camera feeds.

It would be twelve minutes until he checked on the various teams again.

I sent a text to Julie, who had her phone on vibrate, giving her the all clear.

This was our window.

...

4:12 am- Mi-Sook killed the spotter on the 9^th floor of the high rise, snapping his neck. She took his silenced pistol, walked down the hall, and used it to shoot the sniper in the back. He never knew she was there.

...

4:13 am- Julie emerged from the bunk room, snuck up on the North Korean at the duty station, and bashed him over the head with the tire iron from the Maybach.

...

4:15 am- Mi-Sook was ready with the sniper's rifle.

...

4:17 am- Mi-Sook opened fire. Two shots, split be less than a second. THUMP-THUMP. One lookout, pan over thirty feet to the other. Both headshots.

Simultaneously, I hit the gas on the Maybach. The Maybach 62 weighs six thousand pounds before the armor plating and bulletproof glass are added. I was essentially driving an almost six hundred horsepower tank.

I drove through the heavy wooden barrier like it wasn't even there, and accelerated across the street. Mi-Sook was a machine. She mastered her role the first night, so I could time her almost to the second. The second lookout was still falling as the Maybach emerged from the parking garage.

Speed here was crucial. The mercenary in the lobby could see one of the lookouts outside through a window. He wasn't looking that way when the lookout's head exploded, but we didn't have long.

I got the car up to twenty mph and crashed through the double doors into the lobby, quickly making a sharp left towards the information kiosk.

The merc there was caught flatfooted. Rather than man his giant machine gun, he grabbed his pistol off the counter. He managed three shots before the Maybach obliterated the kiosk and him with it. Give him credit, he was a good shot. All three of his shots were dead center to the windshield in front of me. Fortunately, that windshield was bulletproof.

We still had to move fast. We weren't out of the woods yet.

I left the car running, with Sung staying behind to man the radio. I ran out and grabbed the corpse of the mercenary I had squished. I took his radio, and held it at the ready.