by B K Nault
“It’s perfect. She’s got connections with the neighborhood movers and shakers, and you’re excellent at making things happen. You two have a lot in common. For people who are completely opposite in so many ways.”
He mixed together the noodles and marinara sauce he’d spent the afternoon making from scratch. It would be a nice touch. Or their final meal if things didn’t go well.
“Get that technique from your management book? Throw two people together on a common cause and see who kills the other first?” she teased. “Poor choice of words. But you have a point.” She opened the door for him, his hands full of casserole. “Something needs to be done to save St. Mark’s.”
They arrived at the apartment complex’s party room where several guests already mingled around a sheet cake and a couple of trays of deli meats. They’d decided alcohol wouldn’t be appropriate for the day, but liters of soft drinks, plastic cups, and ice from the machine lined up along a table.
Keith and Frank arrived and set down a tossed Greek salad with the other potluck dishes.
“Everyone ready?” Stan came in after them, carrying a bag of ice.
Harold smoothed sweaty palms down his slacks, and Pepper grabbed his hand. “It’s going to be all right. Do you have your speech ready?”
Keith’s mom, Sybil, also arrived and while they were listening to her describe her mom’s recovery from knee surgery, Morrie came in. At the sight of him. Harold’s core temp skyrocketed, his hand began to shake.
“It’s time, Harry.” Pepper nudged him toward a small podium.
Harold guzzled a long draught of his lemonade and cleared his throat. “Excuse me, everyone. Thank you for joining us here. We’re celebrating a couple of things.” Though he was behind another podium, this time more than his job was on the line. “My friend, Rhashan, is celebrating his birthday.” He’d been out of work for several days with a bout of food poisoning, but now Rhashan appeared fully recovered.
Red plastic cup lifted and shaking so much he was glad it was almost empty, Harold watched Morrie from the corner of his eye. “And as many of you already know, my dad and I were recently reunited after being separated by unfortunate circumstances for a number of years.”
Clean-shaven, Walter looked ten years younger in new crisp shorts and a Hawaiian shirt. His hair had grown out, the dyed ends trimmed, and his natural color had turned out to be mostly the same deep red as Harold’s, except for the gray patches over his temples. He acknowledged the polite applause with a quick wave.
“Please enjoy yourselves to cake while Rhashan opens his gifts.” Harold stepped stiffly away from the podium.
Pepper giggled, “ ‘Enjoy yourselves to cake.’ We didn’t sing ‘Happy Birthday.’ ”
“I’m off my game.” Harold scrubbed his palms together. Speaking in front of groups was never one of his favorite things, but he couldn’t even walk straight considering what was about to happen, and what he wanted was an empty chair, preferably miles away.
Leesa began handing gifts to her husband, and they bantered and teased with the gift givers while he unwrapped as if it was a normal party. Some of the gifts were silly, others were thoughtful. Finally, Harold handed over the long slender box, wrapped and ribboned. He didn’t dare look around.
“This one began you on your new journey, and I want you to have it.” Harold forced himself to remain calm. “Rhashan saw himself completing his degree, and he’s on track now. I want him to have the object that directed him back to his dream.”
Rhashan beamed, and tore the paper off the box, then lifted the lid. “No kidding, mon, you want me to have the magic Kaleidoscope?” he asked rather loudly, and held it up for everyone to see. “This means the world to me, I will treasure it.” He brought it to his lips and kissed it reverently. “Such an unexpected surprise, thank you.”
“All right, everyone, we have another treat, if you’ll step outside.” Pepper gestured toward a bank of French doors that opened onto the patio. Beyond the swimming pool covered with floating candles, a small stage had been set up, and a Caribbean band, complete with steel drums, were poised to play. Chlorine mixed with the waxy smell of the burning candles, and Harold sneezed.
“Please enjoy an evening of dancing to the beat of Rhashan’s favorite band!” he said after everyone blessed him.
Harold’s hand in Pepper’s had gone clammy, but she didn’t seem to mind. “Dance with me, Harry!”
Over her gyrating shoulder on the small dance floor, Harold spied Stan, silently gesturing to a couple of men dressed in gaudy Hawaiian shirts who had hung back, and now gathered near the opposite end of the pool. All of a sudden, the three of them sprinted back into the party room, and Harold couldn’t stand it any longer. “I’ll be right back.”
Before he made it to the French doors, he heard, “Freeze!”
Harold stopped, heart pounding, then realized the command was coming from inside the building, so he crept up to the open door. Just inside, Stan aimed his piece directly at Morrie.
Morrie was dangling the Kaleidoscope out an open window. “Shoot and I’ll drop it,” he warned. In his other hand, he held up a remote device, waving it around. “I’ve placed a little present of my own somewhere in this building, and if I don’t get out of here safely—”
“He means it,” Stan ordered. “Hold your fire.”
Hawaiian-shirt guys lowered the pistols they were aiming at Morrie.
Before anyone could move, Morrie dropped the Kaleidoscope out the window, there was a commotion outside, tires screeched, then it was quiet again. “Oops. Sorry. Now back off, or I blow us all up!” Morrie gestured wildly with the remote control device and the officers had no choice but to let him pass.
“Everyone, back up!” Stan shouted at several of the partygoers who had crowded into the doorway, curious about the shouting. “Let him through!”
Someone screamed, and the seas parted while Morrie, arm raised, backed out, then was gone.
The officers bolted after him and Pepper ran in.
Stan shouted, “Harold, get everyone out of the building!” He stepped over to a fire alarm, shattered the glass with the butt of his pistol and pulled to activate the sirens.
“Glenda! I have to get Glenda!” Pepper pointed in the direction of her apartment.
Harold turned her toward the exit. “You get outside, and make sure everyone gets out of harm’s way!”
The alarm’s persistent, loud and annoying wail soon had doors opening and people watching, confused as Harold ran past them. “Get out! Everyone get out, there’s a bomb!”
A few people stopped in the hall, skeptical. But he shouted, “Remember Boston!” and they began running toward the exit. In a moment, Harold was fighting the exodus as word spread up and down the units. At Pepper’s door, he dug for his keys, but her key was still in his apartment.
He burst open the door, his good ear pounding from the screeching alarm that pierced inside his head the longer it went on. The room was dark, the power had mysteriously gone off and Harold had to feel his way to the kitchen and grope in the cabinet where he kept her key hanging inside the door.
Headed out, Harold froze when he detected movement out of the corner of his eye.
“So, Harold. I assumed you would be outside, cowering with all your friends, waiting for the big explosion.” Morrie stood in front of the window, his silhouette visible only when flashes from emergency lights strobed through the glass. The alarm wailed, punctuating his whiny voice.
“What are you doing in here?” Harold demanded, covering his good ear against the wail. “You got what you wanted. Leave us alone.”
“You think I care what happens to me now?” Morrie raised his pitch to be heard. “All my life it’s been my mission to complete what my father started. As soon as I get the word that the chip is in the Kaleidoscope”—he lifted his hand—“ka-blooey!”
“Why here, why my apartment?” Harold’s eyes adjusted to the darkness and Morrie’s features became more visi
ble.
“It’s a perfect irony, don’t you think? I’ve been hoping to find the key to unlocking the inner workings of the US military system, and you, Harold, a nobody bean counter, were holding it.” His coffee-stained teeth appeared behind his smirk. “You should be honored.” The alarm began a different sequence of sounds, now emitting short bursts, further apart, but still loud.
His pocket burred, and Harold automatically checked the I.D. It was Pepper.
“Do not answer that,” Morrie ordered, his grin fading.
“Try and stop me.” Harold switched it on, shouting over the alarm, struggling to hear what she was telling him.
“The bomb unit is here, and they’re making us stay across the street!” Pepper sounded frantic. “Please, get out of there, Harry! Forget about Glenda, I just want you out, they’re going to shut off all the cell…”
It went dead, and Harold closed his phone and eyed Morrie. “How did you get in here anyway?”
“I have friends in many places.”
Harold kicked himself for calling a locksmith Morrie suggested after his place was broken into. “That Joseph guy isn’t really your cousin, is he?”
“I thought you were smarter than that.” Morrie snickered. “Poor Harold. You bought my story hook, line, and sinker.”
“Everyone except you and I are out of the building. Why don’t you just go ahead and get it over with? End this right now.” No sirens sounded outside yet, but Harold hoped emergency vehicles would soon arrive and block traffic from getting too close in case Morrie was stupid enough to blow them up. “I don’t believe that’s real anyway. You’re my friend, you don’t want to hurt me.” He’d try one more technique from his management book. Appeal to a personal connection when a coworker seems threatened by you. He started toward Morrie, but stopped when he opened his palm to reveal what appeared to be a hacked garage door opener.
“Believe me now?”
“Come on. Remember that time we watched all the Dr. Who episodes from season—”
A siren blared past, and Morrie jumped. Harold started over. “We sure had a nice time in Yosemite, and then in Fresno. Didn’t you enjoy those underground gardens?”
“If you like hiding from bears and sleeping on the ground. Oh, and getting shot at.”
“We were trying to help you find…” Harold stopped. That appeal was dead in the water. Buying time—he didn’t know for what—he began listing everything they’d ever done, from a few chess games, to the time they’d waited at a new Apple store for freebies together. Finally, he gave up. “You’re going to kill me anyway, so you might as well tell me what got you involved in all this. Just to satisfy a dying man’s curiosity.”
Morrie, or whatever his name was, studied Harold up and down. “My people have been following you for years. We knew eventually you’d lead us to your dad, and you finally did.”
“Why? What did he have that you wanted?”
“Don’t play the fool, Harold, it doesn’t become you.”
“So say he’s this genius who can revolutionize the world with his technology. But surely there are other people easier to find…” Harold suddenly knew. “You’re working for the people who killed my mother, and as long as he’s alive, and we can prove his innocence, then…” The irony, the implications made Harold’s head swim.”You’ve known the truth all these years. What’s in it for you? Is it money? You’re a terrible friend, as it turns out.”
“Yes, but soon I’ll be rich, and you’ll be dead.”
“It’s too late for you. You can hear the police surrounding the building just as well as I can.” Harold held out his trembling hand, but changed to the other one. It wasn’t much better. “Give me that and I’ll tell the DA you gave up willingly. What do you say?”
“Not so fast.” Something flashed behind Morrie’s expression, his complexion lighting and dimming as the beacons from emergency vehicles outside swept past. “As long as I hold this, I hold the marbles. Not until I get word that the chip has what we need.” He pulled out his own cell, and checked the face. Frowning, he lifted it in the air, the universal sign for “I’ve got no bars.”
“Who are you working for? What do they want with the AI technology?” Harold knew he wasn’t going to receive any call, and he might as well find out what he could while he had the chance. “It’s the Russians, right? You got tangled up with them and they offered you a pretty mail order bride—”
“Not the Russians. It’s bigger than that.” Morrie’s upper lip trembled as he punched buttons on his phone. “Don’t you know the porn industry has been aching for this technology for years?”
Porn? “What are they going to do with it?” He kept an eye on the remote. Morrie had almost dropped it twice.
“You’re an idiot, Harold. Don’t you know that pornography runs the world? It’s the very reason why we have the Internet!”
Harold searched his brain for arguments against that claim, but recalled a brief paragraph in a college intro class about how the web was intended for distribution of military information, but when the porn industry got involved, it really took off. Which explained at least part of Morrie’s fascination with it. “What does the porn industry want with it, to make robot girlfriends? Even you can do better than that, Morrie.”
“The porn industry economy will triple when we have the ability to make, not just preprogrammed robots, but thinking, sentient beings who will do our every wish, follow our every command.” Morrie’s quiet cackle churned Harold’s stomach. “It’s better than investing in the stock market, Harold.”
“And my dad’s the only one who can make all your sick dreams come true.”
“Eh. There’s others, but they’re behind layers of security. Ever since the accident, he’s been a lone ranger. Unprotected.”
Harold wondered something Morrie had never told him. “Did you really see something in the Kaleidoscope? Or was that an act as well?”
Morrie jerked his chin sideways, eyelids at half-mast. “It can’t know everything.”
“You saw this going down all wrong for you, didn’t you?” Everyone else had seen images that turned out as positive omens.
“None of your business what I saw.”
That confirmed Harold’s suspicions, but he needed to know more. “So your bosses had my mother killed, framed my father for the crash, and you’ve been following him, and me, ever since?” The truth of who he was up against, and what his dad’s life had been like, began a slow boil in Harold’s gut. Morrie paced, trying to find a spot where he could get service.
Harold formed an idea. Morrie wouldn’t be hard to take down; that nervous trigger finger would be the only concern. Who knew where the bomb was placed and how much of the building it would destroy when it exploded.
“You and I both know they’ve turned off cell phone service.” Harold pointed at the phone. “They can’t reach you. You’re an island now, Morrie, and I’m your only life raft.”
Morrie ran a thumb through his chops, and then perched on the edge of the sofa.
“What’s Plan B?”
“Plan B?” A pawn in a much bigger game, Morrie was probably dispensable. And when they realized they’d been given a decoy, someone could remotely detonate the bomb anyway.
“Are you wearing the bomb?”
Morrie patted his stomach. “No, it’s…nice try.”
“So what were you supposed to do if something went wrong?” Harold pulled out a chair from his kitchen table and sat down. “What if they didn’t get what they wanted?”
Morrie wagged a finger at him. “Don’t try to confuse me. I know you replaced the diamond and computer chip into the Kaleidoscope. I even heard you speaking—”
“You had my phone bugged? Did you also have my mail…” That explained the undelivered letter. “That’s why you needed Joseph working in the building. So he could intercept my mail? Did you infect Rhashan so he’d miss work?”
Morrie shrugged. “You tried to get him fired. We’re all ju
st out for our own best interest, are we not?”
That struck too close to home. “And I played right into your scheme. Who else is on your payroll?” Then it dawned on him. “Gordon?”
Morrie’s smirk confirmed his suspicion.
“He’s got a lot of power inside that building.”
Harold considered the implications of Gordon’s involvement. Did he have no scruples?
“We knew your dad hid the chip in the Kaleidoscope.”
“And so that’s why you turned over my apartment. You knew I usually carried the ’scope with me, why didn’t you just take it from me before, why all this? Gordon was going to help you take the crime to the next level of embezzlement.”
“Like you, I only thought it was a toy until I realized who Walter was. The letter confirmed where he put the chip. I was instructed to relieve you of it.”
“While we were in Yosemite. You never had any cousin. You were just following me to see—”
“Careful, Harold. I have a lot of power now that I have delivered this very valuable software to—” He stopped himself. “Let’s just say, the coffee cart was a temporary diversion. If you would like to join me, my associates are always looking for people such as yourself who are good with computer technology. As you yourself know, Gordon’s skills are nowhere near as advanced as yours.”
“Nice try.”
Morrie wasn’t giving up. He swung his arm wide, gesturing with the remote around the room. “You could exchange this boring place for a better lifestyle, all the women you want, a private jet—”
“Stop right there, skippy.” Harold willed his heart to slow its rapid beats. “If you think all this flattery, all the money in the world—”
“You said yourself the job you’re in is going nowhere, that’s why your wife left you, and let’s face it, your dad knew where you were all these years and never revealed himself to you.” Morrie affected a grin that came off as more of a sneer. “I can promise you Georgia will beg you to take her back, you can drip her lovely neck with diamonds, and you will live in the finest penthouse.”
