by Yossi Porat
“So what exactly do you want from me?” Rob wondered. “She sounds like she needs a psychiatrist, not a computer expert!”
“But that’s just it,” Morris hurried on. “The strangest part is that she feels like she’s been manipulated by something outside herself to do these things. Somebody is making her behave this way!”
“What?! This sounds like some lame excuse from some bored woman who wants to make up for her cheating around.”
“Listen to me,” Morris put a hand on Rob’s arm. “When I asked her to remember what she felt when she was doing all this, she remembered that she had this warm feeling in her head and neck. And here’s the strangest part – that’s exactly what’s been happening to me!”
Rob stared at him. “What do you mean?”
“I’ve also done things lately that were completely out of character for me. I was supposed to bring a package of heroin to the police incinerator a few days ago, and instead I took it and sold it to a drug dealer. I put most of the money in a safe deposit box in a bank – and now I can’t remember where the bank is! The thing is, I also had the feeling of heat in my head and neck while I was doing this. That’s what I want from you – I think it might have something to do with our cell-phones.”
“But how do you know about this other woman, the cheating wife?”
“She’s not a cheater!” Morris protested. “Can’t you see? Someone is working on our brains! Anyway, we met by accident at Fenwick’s department store, and the next day, I almost ran her over in the street! Don’t you think that’s strange?”
“Give me your phone,” Rob answered. He opened it up, took out the SIM card, and there he saw a tiny yellow sticker. “Hmmm, what could this be?” He muttered to himself. “Never saw this before.”
“What is it?” Morris asked anxiously.
Rob opened his own cell-phone and took it apart. No yellow sticker in sight. “Cell-phone companies definitely do not put these in their phones,” he explained to Morris. “This looks like some kind of electronic component designed to enhance the signal. Tell me, who is your cell-phone provider?”
“Sprint Contech,” Morris answered. “The London police all work with them.”
“Call your woman friend and find out what her service is.”
Morris dialed Deborah’s number. “Hi, Deborah. One quick question – who is your cell-phone provider?”
“Sprint Nextel. Why?” she answered.
“Ask her if she can get here right away,” Rob urged Morris.
“I’ll be there in twenty minutes,” she hung up.
“What are you thinking, Rob?” Morris wondered.
“I’ve got a theory, but let’s wait until the lady brings her cell-phone for me to check.”
Deborah entered the lobby and found them right away. “I’m in kind of in a hurry,” she began. “Couldn’t you have asked me over the phone?”
“Please sit,” Rob requested. “Could I see your cell-phone?”
Rob took it apart as he had the others, and here again was the yellow sticker. “Well, it looks like someone has been fooling around with your phones,” he announced to the two. “What we don’t know yet is why. This has to have something to do with your strange behavior lately...”
Deborah grabbed her cell-phone from Rob and tried in vain to remove the sticker. “I just want to be finished with this. Enough!”
“Wait,” Rob cried. “Don’t you want to find out who’s doing this, and why? If we keep the sticker on, maybe it will lead us to them!”
Deborah looked at him and realized that he was right. “So what should we do?” she asked quietly.
“I’m going to ask another guy at work who’s an expert on GSM technology. Maybe we can use your phones to pick up where these people are transmitting from. We’ll catch these bastards!” Rob raised a fist and grinned.
After Rob left them, Morris and Deborah sat staring at each other. “Do you think he can really help us?” Deborah asked Morris.
“I hope so. Imagine what’s happening to us! Someone might be trying to control our thoughts and actions, making us do things that we don’t want to do, that go against our very natures. Can you imagine the implications? Someone with this power could take over the world! We’ve got to find them and stop them. I just hope Rob is really good enough.”
“Do you think I should let Lance in on this?” she wondered out loud. “I’m frightened and I don’t know if I can do this without him.”
“Are you crazy? Do you want to break up your family? Wait until we see some progress and then you’ll be able to explain it all to him.”
“I’m just thinking,” Deborah began. “We had a break-in two nights ago in our house. They didn’t take anything, which we thought was strange at the time. Do you think this might have something to do with it?
“Funny you should say that,” Morris answered. “Now that I think of it, Anne
and I had a strange experience that very night. We slept very soundly, much more than usual – we even had trouble waking up in the morning, which never happens. And – I noticed that my cell-phone wasn’t in its usual place!”
They looked at each other, the same thought passing through their minds. “I think we both had visits from the same people,” Morris said.
“It looks that way,” Deborah answered in agreement, standing up. “Well, I’d better get going. We’ll wait for some news from Rob, right?”
Morris took her hand and squeezed lightly. “Don’t worry,” he said. “We’ll get to the bottom of this.”
Anne was waiting for him at home. “Hello darling. Shall we go out to the Indian restaurant we like so much?” They had an intimate dinner, and on the way home Anne whispered to him, “You know, I’m wearing that fancy lingerie you bought me the other day.”
Morris felt his excitement rise. “Let’s get home!” he breathed. And there in the sitting room, Anne performed a striptease for him, slowly removing her outer garments until she was left standing with only the sexy lingerie on her perfect body. She came closer, pushed him back into the couch and pulled down his zipper. She fell to her knees and removed his trousers and underwear. Morris moaned with pleasure.
“Come in me, darling,” she whispered in his ear. They held on to each other tightly and climbed together to heights of pleasure. Lying together on the couch, they were one.
“My darling,” Morris began, “I must tell you something.”
“What is it? Are you all right?” Anne sat up, frightened by his serious tone.
“Lately I’ve been doing very strange things, Anne. I stole heroin from the police, sold it to a drug dealer, put the money in a safe deposit box in some bank I can’t even remember. I took some of the money first, though, and that’s why we’ve been able to splurge.”
“What are you telling me?” Anne was astonished. “This isn’t like you at all. You’re the most honest person I know. Why are you telling me this just now? I thought we told each other everything.”
“Please trust me, darling. I met a woman the other day, quite by accident. It seems the same things have been happening to her!”
“Did you sleep with her?” a note of hysteria creeping into Anne’s voice.
“Of course not! Please, you must trust me or I won’t be able to continue telling you my story. I almost ran her over in the street, and then I drove her to her office. A while later she called and asked if she could speak to me. When we met, she told me that she also has been acting completely out of character, sleeping with her boss, taking money from him, and lying to her husband. We both discovered that we get these strange feelings of heat in our head and neck when we’re acting weird. I got the idea that it might have something to do with our cell-phones, so I met with an expert. He checked out both our phones and discovered a yellow sticker under our SIM cards. We think there’s someone who’s transmitting signals to us, making us do whatever he wants us to do.”
“This sounds like science fiction to me,” Anne replied with derisi
on. “I’m completely confused. But go on.”
“Listen,” he continued. “Two nights ago, this woman had a break-in in her house, but nothing was taken. That was the same night that we slept so soundly and didn’t wake up in the morning. I didn’t tell you at the time, but I noticed that my cell-phone wasn’t in its usual place that morning. Do you see? Something is really going on! You’ve got to believe me!”
He hugged Anne tightly. “Please help me. I need you to believe in me. We’ll get to the answer, I promise you.”
Anne felt that she must show him how much she loved and supported him. She leaned into him and kissed him all over his face and neck. She felt him move with pleasure and together they reached a new plateau of love, holding each other and moving rhythmically together. This was her promise to him, she thought. “I will always love and trust him, no matter what.”
They lay together in peace, and Morris stroked her face tenderly. After a while, they walked up the stairs to their bedroom and lay together as one, all through the night.
Chapter Sixteen
Laurie picked up the phone. “You have reached Control - Experimental Communications. How may I help you?”
“Laurie, darling,” came Abu-Razik’s sensual tones. “Will I see you this evening at eight? I’ve missed you so much. Shall I pick you up at your home?”
“No, no, darling. You know I live with my mother, and I don’t want to disturb her. I’ll meet you at the club.”
Leora entered “Club 100” in Oxford Street at exactly eight o’clock. The curved bar was full of fashionably-dressed young people enjoying colorful cocktails and joking loudly with each other. A piano was playing softly in the background, accompanied by a bass.
Abu-Razik raised his hand in greeting from a corner table. He gave her a warm hug.
“Will you have the usual, darling?” he asked tenderly. She smiled, and the waiter brought her champagne.
“So,” she began, “why are you in London this time?”
“Oh, you know – oil, the usual.” Leora noticed one of the Mossad surveillance team at the bar, watching them. She looked Abu-Razik over. In his elegant three-piece suit, he looked like any wealthy businessman; he could have been Greek, Turkish or even Albanian. Abu-Razik returned her look and smiled at her appreciatively.
“I want you,” he whispered in her ear. “Tonight.” Reaching in his pocket, he removed a red velvet jewelry box. “Look what I’ve brought you,” holding it out to her.
It was a diamond and gold bracelet. She put it on her wrist and gave Abu-Razik a light kiss on the lips. “Thank you, darling,” she murmured in his ear.
Abu-Razik was trying to find a way to get her to tell him more about the company. He began, “Maybe you can wear it to the office tomorrow. Oh, by the way, have I told you about my cousin in Riyadh? He’s planning to open an office in London and I thought maybe you’d like to leave your present job and come to work for him. He’s looking for a personal assistant who has experience in your field.”
“Hmm,” Leora replied. “Sounds interesting. Will he be in London soon? Maybe we could get together.”
“Sure,” Abu-Razik said. “He was asking me about the company you work for now. It’s called Control - Experimental Communications, isn’t it?”
“That’s right,” Leora confirmed. “It’s a start-up that was incorporated about a year ago. The partners are childhood friends. They’re developing something to do with cellular communications.”
“Where did they get their money?” Abu-Razik asked.
“One of the partners, Adam, is the heir to a family fortune, and he’s sunk most of his money into the company. I think it’s something like a hundred million pounds, in fact.”
“Amazing!” Abu-Razik breathed. “This must be something big they’re developing with that kind of money.”
“It’s got something to do with sending transmissions through cell-phones. But that’s enough about business. Let’s dance!”
They went out onto the dance floor, Leora holding Abu-Razik tightly, turning
him away from their table so that the Mossad man could pick up the Arab’s cell-phone. Laurie held Abu-Razik in an embrace until the Israeli left their table, signaling to her that he had finished his job.
“What about if you called your cousin now? Laurie asked. “Let’s see if his offer is really serious.”
Abu-Razik felt trapped. He did not want to talk to his cousin in front of Laurie, since most of what he had told her was a fabrication, designed to get her talking about her own work. Instead, he excused himself and entered the men’s room.
Sitting in the farthest stall, he dialed his cousin’s number in Riyadh. “Listen,” he began, “I’ve got the woman from Control here and I told her a story about you opening an office here, and that you’re thinking of hiring her. She wants to meet you. When will you be in London?”
“Tomorrow afternoon. How does that suit you?”
“That’s fine,” answered Abu-Razik. “Just let me make a show of calling you in front of her, OK? Wait for my call in a few minutes.”
When Abu-Razik returned to the table, he smiled at Leora and made a show of dialing his cousin’s number in Riyadh and arranging the meeting for the next evening at nine, again at the 100 Club.
When he hung up, Laurie asked him, “What’s your cousin’s name? I forgot to ask you.”
“Omar Bin-Hamdan,” Abu-Razik answered. “He’s a third cousin on my mother’s side. He has a master’s degree in electrical engineering, but of course he’s primarily a very successful businessman.”
As they left the club, Leora saw with satisfaction that the surveillance man was following them discreetly. They hailed a cab, and seated inside, Abu-Razik invited her to spend the night with him at his hotel.
“Oh, no, darling,” she begged off. “It will have to be some other time. This is not a good time of the month for me,” she said modestly. She hugged him, “I’ll come to the club early tomorrow, so we can spend some time by ourselves, OK?”
Abu-Razik left the cab first, shoving a handful of bills at the driver. “See you tomorrow, darling.”
The driver turned to Leora. “I’m glad that’s over with,” he said. “Shall we go straight home? I was worried about you all night. My head is splitting!”
“Shlomo, don’t worry,” Leora replied. “You see – I can handle myself. Did you get anything from his cell-phone?”
“Well, he called Omar Bin-Laden in Riyadh. We’re in the middle of something very big. You know, he also called the Syrian ambassador here in London.”
“Did you report to Menahem?” Leora asked anxiously. “We should call him right now and tell him the latest.”
After they reported all that had happened that evening, Menahem warned Leora to pay special attention the next evening. “We want to know how they’re planning to link up to Control Communications, what their plans are. But most important – be careful!”
Shlomo and Leora went upstairs to their apartment hand in hand, ready for the next day’s work.
Chapter Seventeen
Rob was talking to his friend, Brian Stanley, a blazing star in the field of cellular communications. He had even won a prestigious award presented by the European Union for his service to the industry.
“Brian,” Rob began, “I have to ask you something. It’s going to seem strange, but you have to keep it strictly confidential.”
“OK – what could it possibly be?” Brian asked impatiently.
“Is it at all possible, in your opinion, for someone to transmit messages to the brain of a specific cell-phone user from a remote station, and if so, is it possible to locate the transmitting station?”
“Well, it is possible to do the transmitting, I should say, but as to locating the station, it is almost not feasible. But, and I say but, there is one possibility. If the transmitter is broadcasting to two cell-phones simultaneously you could use a specialized spotter to hone in on the intersection of the two signals and from t
here locate the transmitting station. Of course, you’d have to use communication satellites to do it, and only the Americans have equipment sophisticated enough for the job. What exactly are we talking about here?”
“I’d rather not tell you on the phone,” Rob answered. “Let’s meet today.”
