The Morgenstern Project

by David Khara

  “Gentlemen, a man in the crowd is claiming that there’s another fire in a nearby building. I need you to check on that.”

  “I’m sorry, ma’am,” one of the men said, removing his helmet. “We can’t leave our post without our captain’s orders.”

  “And where is your captain?” Jackie asked. “This is an emergency.”

  “I don’t see him out here. He must be inside, directing the men.”

  “There’s no time to wait for him to come back!” she fumed. “We have to step up.”

  They looked at each other inquisitively. The firefighter who had taken off his helmet finally gave in. “I guess we can take a look,” he said. “But we’re not stepping in unless we’re given orders.”

  “Great. Come on, I’ll take full responsibility. Let’s go!”

  The men pulled on their oxygen tanks and went to tell a colleague that they were checking out a report of another fire. They ran off to catch up with an already sprinting Jackie.

  She led the men to an adjacent street and then swerved toward a dark and narrow alley. Jeremy met them there. He was rocking nervously, and his hands were shaking.

  “That’s him, the guy who spotted the blaze,” Jackie shouted, nodding toward Jeremy.

  As soon as the first firefighter got up close, Jeremy began pouring out a stream of nonsensical information about an explosion and a shower of flames. After calming the agitated witness, the firefighter told Jackie and him to stay back as a precautionary measure. They bolted down a small street in the direction of the building Jeremy had pointed out.

  “Those guys definitely live up to their courageous reputation. I can’t believe the way they run headlong into danger,” Jeremy said.

  “I get why we had to set them up, but I still feel pretty bad,” Jackie confessed.

  “Yeah, that makes two of us.”

  Thirty seconds and a series of muffled cries later, Eytan emerged from the small street and walked up to the couple.

  “We’ve got our gear,” he said.

  “I hope you went easy on them,” Jeremy said, still showing his guilty feelings.

  “I did. Okay, you’ll have all the time in the world to feel guilty once this is done, and I’ll be doing the same. But for now, go get changed.”

  Five minutes later, three firefighters plunged into the crowd, oxygen masks over their faces and visors covering their eyes. The police let them through. Eytan, Jackie, and Jeremy entered the building.

  Chapter 33

  Converted into a command post, the building’s main lobby was the scene of a highly unusual confrontation between the firefighters and police officers. The firefighters wanted to start evacuating the building’s occupants immediately, although there weren’t many at this hour, and start putting out the blaze. The police officers, fearful that this might be a terrorist attack, wanted to contact the mayor, the bomb squad, and Homeland Security before giving the go-ahead. Meanwhile, the public relations manager for the owners of the building was trying to keep everything and everyone quiet. Several minutes and profanities later, the firefighters won out. They started up the stairs to evacuate the occupants of the building and put out the blaze.

  The team quickly shut off the fire alarms, as everyone knew there was a blaze, and the blare was distracting. But the truce and the relative silence were short-lived. The arguing picked up again when the city officials showed up and started throwing their weight around.

  “Proud of yourself?” Jackie asked Eytan as they walked past the command post. He couldn’t miss the disapproval in her voice.

  “Not my finest moment, but I’ll get over it,” he replied distractedly, taking note of four men talking with higher-ups.

  The small Uzi that peeped out from under the navy blue jacket on one of the men was hardly a police officer’s typical weapon.

  Pensive yet determined, the giant moved toward the closest stairwell and turned on his flashlight.

  “Do you know what floor their offices are on?” Jeremy asked. Eytan could tell he wasn’t looking forward to climbing several floors with thirty pounds of equipment on his back. Jackie, however, didn’t seem too bothered by the prospect.

  “No clue, kids,” Eytan said. “We’ll have to check each floor.”

  “How do you know you didn’t set fire to H-Plus Dynamics?”

  “I don’t know, but considering the number of companies in this building, that would be real crappy luck.”

  “Great plan you have there.”

  “Who do you think I am, Jeremy?” the agent said, annoyed with his teammate’s naivety. “I was just pulling your leg. While you were getting dinner, I slipped into the lobby and looked at the directory. A company called HPD is on the twelfth floor.”

  “The twelfth floor?” Jeremy moaned. “Can we at least toss these tanks? They weigh a ton!”

  “Definitely not. We don’t want to attract any unwanted attention. Now stop complaining, and save your breath. As a bonus, that’ll give us all a nice break from your blabbering.”

  ~ ~ ~

  The trio walked up the stairs, the glow of Eytan’s flashlight showing the way. Thus began a grueling trek for the bookseller. By the fourth floor, his calf muscles were throbbing. By the sixth, they were cramping. By the eighth, he was feeling a sharp stitch in his side. Panting like a dog, he stopped in his tracks while his companions kept up their steady climb.

  “Can you guys... just slow down?”

  The Kidon agent said nothing and continued his ascent. Jackie, however, stopped and turned back to her husband. He smiled at her, relieved to know that he could count on her loving support.

  “How long have I been telling you to quit smoking?” she yelled before catching up with Eytan.

  “Fucking wedding vows,” he muttered as he resumed his climb.

  When he reached the final level, his lungs on fire and his entire body in pain, Eytan and Jackie dashed all his hopes of getting a few seconds of rest. They waved at him to join them in the main hallway. They were standing next to two elevators, which faced gray doors that the agent hurried to examine. He surveyed their surface and frame and gently rapped the surrounding wall.

  “Typical,” he sighed.

  “Is it reinforced?” Jackie asked.

  “Yes, but it’s stupid, because the perimeter isn’t... He gave the adjacent wall a powerful kick. It caved with the blow.

  “And is that typical?” she asked.

  “For some American construction, yes. Take off your tanks.”

  “With pleasure!” Jeremy said, removing his harness. His teammates did the same.

  Eytan grabbed one of the heavy oxygen canisters and used it to batter the drywall. It soon gave way. Eytan shoved aside the debris to get into the offices and handed an earpiece to each teammate.

  “Now it’s your turn to play. Look for files, briefcases, a safe, anything. I’ll stay here and watch your backs in case anyone decides to pay us a visit. If there’s an emergency, call me.”

  “One second,” Jeremy said. “How do we know the offices are empty?”

  “I don’t see any security guards waiting around to get their mustaches barbequed by the fire. But if someone spots you, find somewhere to hide, and Jackie will take care of it.”

  “Are you messing with me again?”

  “I wouldn’t dream of it.”

  “So what is it that we hope to find in the files, briefcases, or safe?” Jackie asked.

  “We’re interested in legal documents, administrative papers, protocols, bank records, balance sheets, anything that seems relevant. Jeremy, this is why I brought you along. I’m not familiar with this kind of data, but considering your old job on Wall Street, I figured it would be right up your alley. From this point forward, you’re the head of operations, and Jackie is your second-in-command. We need proof of any H-Plus Dynamics collaboration with the US military or some kind of connection with the Consortium.”

  “Well, let’s hope they still have some information on paper, because wi
th the power outage, we can kiss the computers good-bye,” Jeremy said as Jackie stepped over the rubble.

  “Plus we don’t have any passwords or the time and the skills to crack the system, even if we did have power,” Eytan replied.

  “That’s true,” Jeremy said. “Talk about pressure.”

  “Just do your best, and everything will be fine. Whatever you come up with will be a huge help.”

  With a nod, Jeremy turned on his flashlight and entered the offices behind his wife, determined not to let down those counting on him.

  ~ ~ ~

  Meanwhile, Eytan attached the three oxygen tanks to each other, using the harnesses, and kept an eye on the stairwell. The firefighters were creating quite a commotion as they battled the blaze on the second floor and inspected the floors above it. Eytan suspected the building was also crawling with federal agents looking for signs of terrorist involvement.

  “There’s a good chance our search will be cut short,” Eytan informed his teammates.

  “I need a couple more minutes,” Jeremy replied via his communication device. “I have some accounting records, and I think I’m holding something that will make you very happy. Jackie’s in the CEO’s office, a Mr. Jonathan Cavendish. Honey, have you found anything?”

  “Nothing special, but I... Oh, shit!” the young woman shouted a second before Eytan heard something banging. “There, I busted the lock on a cabinet. I’ll grab what I can and get out of here.”

  “Negative. Stay inside and keep looking. We have guests,” Eytan said, spotting the beams of four flashlights dancing on the walls. “Some people are coming up the stairwell. I’ll stop them. Wait for my signal before taking off. Keep your radios on silent for now.”

  He placed the oxygen tanks against the elevator doors, stuck an explosive puck on one of them, and tried a few arm stretches to see how much movement his injured side could take. The pain was tolerable and would give him enough range for what he thought he might have to do. If his assumptions were correct, he wouldn’t be confronting firefighters. He guessed that the men were members of the H-Plus Dynamics security team. Eytan took out his serrated blade and planted himself against the wall adjacent to the stairwell.

  The first man entered the hallway, a small Uzi in his right hand and a flashlight in his left. He walked right by without noticing the still-as-a-statue giant. A colleague armed with the same equipment followed. They quickly discovered the crude opening in the wall.

  At that moment, Eytan grabbed the second guy by the hair, pulled him backward, and deftly slipped the knife across his throat. The maneuver released a stream of blood. Making gurgling sounds, the man slid to the floor. Before the first man realized what was happening, the knife had pierced his back with diabolical precision. It struck him right through the heart, between the sixth and seventh ribs. Eytan withdrew his weapon from the lifeless body, turned toward the stairwell, where the back-ups were waiting, and threw his knife. It whipped through the air and landed in the newcomer’s chest. Standing in firing position, the guy was deprived of the pleasure of pulling his trigger. His shirt turned red in an instant. A swift kick sent him soaring backward, knocking down the fourth stooge behind him. This one crashed into the wall and lost hold of his pistol. Without giving him the chance to pull himself together, Eytan closed the gap that separated him from his third victim, retrieving his knife from the corpse on the way, and planted it firmly in the heart of his final opponent.

  “Threat neutralized. You can come back now,” the agent announced as he wiped the bloody blade on the navy blue jacket of one of the dead men.

  “Already?” Jackie said. She sounded shocked. “There must not have been...”

  Accompanied by Jeremy, whose arms were weighed down with files and briefcases, she came rushing out of the offices. The blood drained from her face when she saw Eytan stockpiling the corpses in the hallway next to the oxygen tanks. Jackie finished her sentence before going silent. “...a lot of them.”

  “Eytan...” Jeremy said softly, putting his hand on his terrified wife’s shoulder. The giant couldn’t miss the despair in his tone.

  “I spotted them when we walked into the lobby. It was them or us,” Eytan said, finishing his task. “Hide as much as you can under your bunker gear. We’re leaving. I’ll go first in case we have any more unwelcome visitors.”

  Jackie followed his lead, as did Jeremy, who took one last look at the corpses.

  Eytan was well aware that his friends were shocked by what he had just done, but he didn’t have time to dwell on it. More pressing things—like getting out of the building with all of their papers—were on his mind.

  The descent proved to be much easier than the climb. Eytan, Jackie, and Jeremy didn’t cross paths with a single soul until the fifth floor, when they encountered firefighters coming up the stairwell. The firefighters had just asked the three for a report when Eytan slipped a hand into his pants pocket and pressed the button on his detonator. An explosion shook the building.

  “Bomb!” Jackie cried out.

  “We need to get out of here. Now!” Jeremy yelled. “Go, go, go!”

  The firefighters, along with Eytan, Jeremy, and Jackie, barreled down the stairs. Arriving in the deserted lobby, they ran out of the building under a hailstorm of glass and paper. Outside, the crowd was dashing for cover, and the police officers were straining to maintain order.

  The trio ducked around the building and into a dead-end street. They changed out of their uniforms and threw them into a trash collector before heading back to the main street, where their vehicle was parked.

  “We did it,” Jackie exclaimed as a fresh line of police cars flew by. Her cheeks had regained some of their color.

  “It won’t be long before the directors of the Consortium figure out what happened,” Eytan said, sliding behind the wheel of their car.

  He turned on his cell phone, which he had shut off before going into the building. “All right,” he said as he read his newest text message.

  “Attali’s finally located Bennington,” he said. “We need to get a move on, because we’re going to Fort Wayne. We have a long drive ahead of us.”

  The couple complied without saying a word and hopped in the car. Eytan pulled out and headed toward the highway.

  As the cityscape receded behind them, Jeremy dozed off with his head against the window.

  When he woke up, the sun was rising in the spot where he had seen the Baltimore skyline before falling asleep.

  “What time is it? Where are we?” he asked between yawns.

  “We’ve been on the road for four hours,” Eytan replied without taking his eyes off the road. “Five more to go.”

  The bookstore owner turned around to find Jackie sprawled in the backseat.

  “Everything all right, honey?”

  “My whole body hurts,” she complained, trying to stretch. “And you have no idea how excited I am to see Fort Wayne.”

  “Don’t be so negative,” Jeremy said. “I hear they have their own Coney Island. And a rock band called Grand Duchy even did a song about Fort Wayne: ‘Once I was playing down in Fort Wayne/Lost in the grain, you know what I’m saying?’”

  As his voice grew louder, the agent interrupted him with a forced smile. “Jeremy, come on, I need some peace and quiet.”

  “‘Once we were kissing in the crowd/They cheered so loud, they’d come to listen...’”

  Eytan began tapping his fingers on the steering wheel. “Cut it out. I’m serious.”

  “Hold on, there’s a silly part in French,” Jeremy continued, oblivious to Eytan’s irritation. “Can you tell me what it means? ‘Vous vous rappelez/Dans la ville de Narbonne/Que nous avons embrassé toute la nuit.’”

  “That’s enough, Jeremy!” Eytan raged.

  Jeremy stopped singing, and no one said anything. Some time later, he stole a glance at his friend’s stern profile.

  “I’m sorry. I was just trying to lighten the mood.”

  He slapped his
thighs and turned back to his wife. “Well, honey, at least we’ve learned one thing about our Jolly Green Giant. He’s not a Grand Duchy fan.”

  Jackie bit her lip.

  “What did you call me?” Eytan asked, hunching his large shoulders over the steering wheel.

  “Jolly Green Giant,” Jeremy replied. He was tensing up and beginning to feel very embarrassed. He tried smiling. “It’s a term of endearment. Uh, I mean... It’s way more endearing than Mr. Clean, right?”

  Jeremy braced himself against the dashboard as the car came to a screeching stop on the side of the road.

  “Okay, that’s it,” Eytan growled. “I tried real hard to warn you and Avi. Get out!”

  Eytan stepped out of the car and stomped around to the other side. He grabbed Jeremy by the collar and dragged him to the back of the car. He opened the trunk with his free hand.

  “You’re blowing this way out of proportion!” Jeremy protested.

  “Get in!”

  “You’re kidding, right? I get it. You don’t have to...”

  “Get in!”

  Jeremy looked at his wife, silently pleading with her to intervene. She just shrugged. Okay, he was shit out of luck. If he didn’t climb in now, he’d get punched and thrown in. So he got in and ducked as Eytan slammed the trunk shut.

  Expressionless, Eytan slid behind the wheel again as Jackie took over shotgun. He handed her his cell phone and pulled back onto the highway.

  “Call Eli.”

  Eytan listened to Jackie’s short conversation with Eli, which confirmed that both he and Avi were fine. Jackie briefly mentioned that Jeremy was in the trunk. Eytan suspected that it wasn’t so much to inform Eli but to shorten her husband’s confinement in the trunk. She had to be feeling sorry for him, stuck in the back like some goon. Eytan was already feeling bad. He pulled to the side of the road again.

  Ending the call, Jackie turned to Eytan. “He didn’t do it on purpose, you know. He’s intimidated by you. He only blurts out silly things because he’s nervous. When you’re not around, he doesn’t act like a child.”

  “I feel something similar. Whenever your husband’s not around, I’m not so angry and impatient.”