by Pam Richter
"Burgess was here an hour ago and said I would have to press charges against the woman."
"The dog."
"Ivar, you are a fellow Russian with the proud knowledge that you are the elite. The KGB. Why are you doing this?"
"I am no longer Russian," Ivar said, feeling suddenly very sad. "So I feel nothing when I turn you over to the Americans."
"You are now American?" Sergi asked contemptuously.
"What I am is not American, no," Ivar said, taking his hand off of Sergi's shoulder and reaching in his pocket for his knife. "I don't enjoy hurting you, but I will blow your cover if you don't obey me. I will also use this." Ivar put the knife to Sergi's neck. It was a switchblade Ivar had bought when he first came to the United States, believing everyone in America was a gangster and used knives or guns.
Ivar began poking under the dressing on Sergi's neck very delicately.
"Oh, all right. I was bit by a dog."
Ivar put a little pressure on the blade so that it just pierced the skin. "You will remember?"
"Yes. Yes!" He whined. "A boxer. I was bit by a dog."
"Fine. One other thing. If you do not obey me, I will make sure that you will be branded a traitor and end up in the KGB's private prison."
Ivar watched Sergi's face and struck home with the name that produced instant fear in anyone from the Soviet Union. "Lubyanka. Do you understand?"
"Modert said you knew nothing about the plan to abduct the women."
"I knew all about it. Modert had to go. He was a triple agent, leaking information back to the Americans." Ivar really didn't know anything of the sort, but he thought Modert must have sold information to the Japanese. Those Japanese were very wealthy and Modert was very clever.
Sergi sighed and nodded.
"Burgess told you to rewrite your reports?"
Sergi nodded
"We will write them together. We don't want the Americans to know anything about the two women."
* * * * *
Sabrina watched with alarm as Eve bit into her eighteenth piece of sushi. She had been trying to keep up with her, so none of the men at the luncheon table would notice how much Eve was consuming, but felt she would burst with another bite.
Sabrina had agreed to come to the luncheon mostly because she and Eve had been hemmed in on all sides by Hashimoto's bodyguards. Better to agree to go and try to convince Hashimoto that Eve didn't have a computer than to be forced. Then, every time she tried to bring up the subject she had been met with astonished stares.
Hashimoto was eating from an immense bowl of noodles and Sabrina watched transfixed, with a mixture of fascination and revulsion, as he speared a glob of noodles onto his chopsticks and stuffed as much as he could into his month. With the noodles dripping from his mouth, he ate down, a bite at a time, until he sucked up the last of the noodles with a wet slimy slurp.
He smiled greasily at the women and said that they would eat this well every day when they came to Japan. Sabrina knew she would starve to death if she had to watch him eat every day.
The men seemed to have the facility to ingest food and talk at the same time. Sabrina felt she should be a little more lenient about the mannerisms of another culture, but they were speaking Japanese while they chewed. And it was obvious the men were talking about them. They all knew how to speak English. It was a kind of offhanded chauvinist behavior. They probably thought they could buy women with an expensive dining experience.
Sabrina moaned inwardly when Eve took another tuna roll from the large platter. She took one too and tried to pick up the slippery, seaweed covered roll, but was embarrassed at her lack of expertise and finally put her chopsticks down.
Hashimoto looked up, noticed she was not eating, and placed some more sushi on her plate with his own chopsticks, urging her to eat more. That did it for Sabrina. She would not touch anything that had touched his chopsticks. The only good thing about the long uncomfortable luncheon was that Sabrina could tell that Eve had been following the conversation carefully.
Sabrina was stuffed from Natto-Tofu, fermented soybeans and soybean curd, Uni, fresh sea urchin, Sashimi, and Yakikamaguri, Cherrystone clams boiled and presented on sea salt. There were also bowls of rice, which the men held close to their mouth. They consumed tiny glasses of Sake and Ashahi, a Japanese beer.
Hashimoto made a barked order, chopping his hands for emphasis at his small corporate controller who got up, the food on his plate unfinished, and quickly left the restaurant. By the way Eve's eyes widened, Sabrina could see she was alarmed by whatever Hashimoto ordered his controller to do.
Sabrina said that she needed to go to the Ladies Room and asked Eve to accompany her. She could tell Hashimoto was insulted by the necessity to relieve their bladders in the middle of lunch, but Sabrina didn't give a damn.
As they walked across the largely empty dining room Eve whispered, "We have to find another way out of here."
"You want to leave?"
"We may be able to get the jump on them, if they think we're taking a long time to powder our respective noses."
Sabrina smiled at one of the diminutive waiters who had been serving their table. He was a cute little Japanese man. He bowed when she asked if there was an exit to the restaurant, other than the front door. He motioned for them to follow him and led them toward the back of the restaurant and through swinging doors into the kitchen.
It sounded as though the many cooks were all shouting sing-song at each other in high but guttural voices. The heat was stunning and Sabrina felt staggered by the fragrant vaporous air. The man leading them saw her look and said, "Banrit. Rater."
He opened the door to the kitchen exit and Sabrina felt the relief of cool air wafting in.
"I glad you leave," the small man said. "Those men...how you say?....bad karma? You not need," he ended contemptuously.
"We certainly don't," Eve answered with force.
"Thank you," Sabrina said to the young man.
"Very welcome," he said, bowing again. It sounded like 'rary rercome.'
Eve took hold of Sabrina's arm and pulled her around the building. She seemed to be in an urgent hurry.
When they were in the car, Eve unceremoniously took Sabrina's purse off of her shoulder and pulled out the banking documents. "We have to go to the bank's main branch."
"Why? Do you think Stephan will try to close out the account?"
"Maybe. I'm going to withdraw a lot of cash. I'll put the rest into a cashiers check and deposit it in another bank, so Stephan won't be able to touch it."
Eve was studying the papers. "The bank is on the corner of Wilshire and San Vicente. We should hurry."
Sabrina drove as quickly as the traffic would allow.
"Hashimoto's going to put you out of business. He has the bodyguards over there now, buying up the inventory. You'll have to call Bea and tell her not to sell everything."
Sabrina sat in stunned surprise. She had wondered why Hashimoto had left three of the bodyguards on the street in Century City. It was hard to believe those enormous men were now buying women's clothing and lingerie.
"I don't think Bea would sell everything."
"That's not the important part. Hashimoto sent his controller to buy the building. You're on a month to month lease, so he could buy it right out from under you."
"Oh, no."
"I'm going to withdraw enough funds so I can pay a year's lease. Then they won't be able to buy the building."
"That's too much money, Eve," Sabrina protested.
"Don't worry about it. I had planned to pay you back for everything. The apartment, and all the food. And the clothes. I could never repay you for the legacy of this body that you've kept in such good shape. And the brain that is very intelligent. And for being so kind to me. If I were selfless, I would kill myself and get you out of this mess. But I thoroughly enjoy the living, and want to go on doing so, for a while longer."
"Don't you ever think of suicide," Sabrina said with alarm. "You k
now I'd give you anything I have."
"Same goes for me."
Sabrina couldn't say anything she felt such a rush of affection for the woman sitting beside her.
They entered the bank's underground garage and took an elevator into the bank. Eve quickly walked over to a desk that said, New Accounts, and Sabrina took out her cell phone.
The phone rang ten times before Bea picked it up.
"I'm so busy, I can't talk."
"I know. There's a run on the store. But don't sell the whole inventory. Sell about half. And none of the one-of-a-kind designer items. Then close the store and go home."
"You wouldn't believe what I'm seeing, Sabrina," Bea whispered. "There are these three Japanese wrestlers or something. They pick up dresses and hold them up very seriously, like they're examining them, and then they giggle and put them in a Buy pile. I can't believe it."
"I do believe you, Bea."
"I can't just close the door in their faces."
"Tell them the owner OD'd on Japanese food and you have to go and make sure she isn't dying."
"I don't understand."
"I'll explain later."
"Shoot. Here they come again." Bea was giggling as she hung up.
Sabrina called her leasing agent and left a message that she would be coming over to pay a few months advance for the commercial space she was leasing. Then she stood in the doorway of the bank and saw that a man had taken the place of the woman who had been at the New Accounts desk. It was probably a manager trying to persuade Eve to keep her account at his bank. Even from this distance she could see that Eve was trying to be polite and hurry him up and he was pleasantly arguing with her.
Sabrina hurried over and, looking pointedly at her watch, said, "We really have to hurry."
The man languidly looked up at Sabrina and said, "Why, you two must be twins."
Great deduction, Geek, Sabrina thought, but she smiled and nodded politely.
"Could you expedite this, please?" Eve said.
"Now you are sure absolutely certain about your decision?" the man asked Eve, as though he was not at all sure that she knew her own intentions.
"Very sure."
He sauntered over to the long counter where the tellers were busily working and went into a side gate. He interrupted one of the tellers with a long line of impatient people in front of her. They went into the back, probably into the vault, for the cash Eve had requested. They were gone such a long time that aeons passed and time seemed to cease. He shuffled back and handed Eve the cashier's check and counted the cash out very officiously, twice.
Eve stuffed the money into her purse with what looked like extreme disregard. Then they rushed to get the car. As they drove to the leasing office, Sabrina thought about all she had gone through to make her clothing line a financial success.
"You know, the store used to be two stories. I took out the ceiling so it would have a high, elegant, airy feeling. And I painted it and put in the shelves myself. I remember when I bought the cash register. I was so excited."
Sabrina knew she was rambling as she spoke of the early desperate days, and knew Eve had her memories.
"I don't want you to lose the store either."
"Sometimes Bea and I would stay up all night sewing clothes."
"I know."
"During the first year, I was so broke I ate only noodles or potatoes at every meal. And I kept the store open every single night, seven days a week, until ten at least, in case someone would come in and buy something. I don't want to lose it."
"You don't have to. Even if Hashimoto buys the building, he will use the space as a negotiating chip. If I go to Japan with him, he'll let you keep your store. If I don't go to Japan he plans to buy the merchandise and set up one of his mistresses."
For a moment Sabrina was furiously angry and then she burst into laughter. "I don't believe it."
"He's not stupid. He figures your store is the most important thing you have."
Hashimoto was right, Sabrina thought, it really was all she had. She had the tenuous feeling that the store might be all she would ever have. She didn't have Mark. She didn' have the babies she wanted so desperately.
Eve was looking at her and said, very seriously, "I will go to Japan for a while."
All Sabrina wanted to do when they left the real estate office was to go somewhere where she could be alone and cry. Hashimoto had put her out of business.
She and Eve had waited an hour in the office of her leasing agent, but when he came into the office he had been jubilant, practically jumping up and down and clicking his heels, and Sabrina knew right away that Hashimoto had beat her. The real estate agent's demeanor changed abruptly, and was all solicitous smiles and Very Sorry's, when he saw Sabrina sitting in front of his desk. He had just sold the building. She would have to move out in two weeks, at the end of the month.
When Sabrina pointed out that she had paid a first and last month's rent in advance, and therefore should be able to keep the store for at least two more months, the agent told her that he had done her the favor of letting her have a month to month lease in return for improving the property. She would be reimbursed for the rent she had paid in advance.
Sabrina felt numb as they walked out into the parking area and got into the car. Her mind kept telling her that she had lost her store, but her heart was not ready to accept it. She had worked so hard there, for so long, it was almost too much to bear. She really wanted to cry but tears were not coming. The shock had settled into her body and frozen it to ice. It was like being in a surreal dream or a terrible nightmare as she got into the passenger's side of the car. She didn't feel like driving. She felt diminished and shocked, like a small hurt animal who wants to hide in a cave to heal all alone. She felt like her brain was going through a violent emotional disturbance, just below her level of consciousness, and it had caused the cessation of vital bodily processes so that she was immobilized, emotionally and physically. It was as if she had been stricken abruptly and unexpectedly with catatonia. Like the living dead; a walking zombie. She wanted to cry.
Eve was driving back to the store. "You can stay there. I will go to Japan."
"No. I don't want you to have anything to do with Hashimoto. I'll find another place. Eventually." Even her voice sounded dead.
Eve looked at Sabrina with concern and noted she was in a state of shock. Like Sabrina had been when she had bitten the Russian agent. Eve knew the signs. Sabrina was shaking almost invisibly and her face looked stricken and very pale. Sabrina's heart rate was up way over one hundred beats a minute and sounded uneven; there would be a normal beat and then a big thump before her heart resumed its normal rhythm. Eve was greatly disturbed by the physical changes in Sabrina.
Eve decided to shock Sabrina still further. There were stages of grief. First the numbness that protects one from the full realization of what has happened. Then great anger that everything was so unfair. Finally there is depression. Eve decided to shock Sabrina from numbness into anger.
"I'm glad you don't want me to go with Hashimoto. He was not going to wait for me to die to get the computer."
Sabrina looked at Eve.
"Hashimoto would first make sure I had the computer by using the CAT scan, or computerized axial tomography, which takes pictures of slices of the brain. Then he would do blood tests and take tissue samples. And when that was done he would probably want to make incisions and collect body parts to find out why I am stronger and heavier than the normal person, through chemical analysis."
Eve glanced at Sabrina, who was looking at her with horror.
"Then he would dissect the brain to get the computer. The CAT scan would help to see where the computer is located and how to surgically remove it. Maybe he would leave the body alive, like a vegetable, but I would be gone. I don't shiver, because I don't get cold, but that thought causes internal shakes."
"And you were going to go with that monster?" Sabrina said, horrified at Hashimoto's cold calculations
.
"Don't worry. I can act stupid enough so that I will be able to escape when it gets really dangerous. They don't know I understand their language. Hashimoto wanted to put you out of business so that you would be forced to go to Japan and open a shop there. He expected you to be grateful to him. Very grateful. He planned to have you as his mistress."
Sabrina looked at Eve in utter disbelief, as Eve went on, "I imagine you find him as physically repulsive as I do. But he does not even conceive that you would resist him. He does not understand about American women at all."
"Evidently not," Sabrina snapped angrily.
Eve looked at her approvingly. She was in the anger stage. To help the shock-healing Eve went on talking.
"And if I went to Japan and you stayed here, he was planning to do simultaneous testing to see the inherent differences caused by the computer. He would pay you lots of money to take these relatively easy tests. That's what he and his doctor were discussing at lunch. He would give us the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Test, the Wechsler Memory Scale tests, the Bender Motor Gestalt Test, Progressive Matrices Test, and the MMPI, or the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. Also the Wide Range Achievement Test. All testing, of course, to find out the differences caused by Ferd's computer.
"But his reasoning is very simplistic. I'm simply smarter than the test makers. They have checks and balances to make sure that the test-taker is consistent and honest. I can correlate that for every question because of my memory and deductive reasoning. And I almost wish I could do it."
"Why."
Eve smiled mischievously. "I would test out as a moron on the Wechsler Intelligence Test. And I would prove to be a psychotic on the MMPI personality inventory. It would have been fun."
Eve took her attention off her driving to smile at Sabrina. "All those Neuropsychological Tests would have proven was that I'm a Psychotic Moron."
Sabrina was smiling.
"So if you want to keep the store for a while, I will go to Japan and make an ass of myself."
