Unpopular Science

Chapter 44

The phone bleated eight times, stopped, then started up again. Finally the sleeping man groped for it and pulled off the receiver. He sat up, manipulated his face vigorously and looked around. The hotel room didn’t help him out. Every hotel room in the Middle East looked alike. He glanced at his wrist, found it empty and finally located his watch on the bedside table. The tiny window told him it was Thursday.

“If it’s Thursday, this must be Cairo.”

Oh, yes, now he remembered arriving in Cairo from Qatar and getting drunk, alone, in his room at the Hilton.

So who would be calling him in his room in the Cairo Hilton?

“Hello?” he said finally into the phone.

“It is Fastbinder.”

“Mr. Fastbinder, have you heard from your son?”

“I have.”

“Oh, thank God,” breathed Senator Herbert Whiteslaw of California.

“You are so fond of Jack?” Fastbinder asked.

“I was worried something horrible had happened to the boy.”

“Something horrible did happen. He was two days hiking across the floor of the ocean to get back to zee dry land. He is exhausted. He will fly back home day after tomorrow.”

“I can imagine.”

“What is it that you have set us up against precisely, Mr. Whiteslaw?”

“If I knew that, I wouldn’t have come to you for help, Fastbinder.”

There was a pregnant pause. “If zees men ever learn the identification of you or me, then we are as good as dead. They seem to be gifted with some outstanding abilities.”

“You’re telling me. I’ve seen them in action, remember?” Whiteslaw flipped on the light and began hunting for his bottle. He almost groaned in disappointment when he found it on the counter, empty. There were disgusting tongue smears inside the neck of the bottle.

“Jack thinks he has a way to neutralize zees two,” Fastbinder said.

“What? Really? How?”

“This he could not explain to me clearly, so I am certain, the explanation would be entirely lost upon you. Sufficient to say these two have a Achilles’ heel, unique to them, and Jack believes he knows how to use it.”

“Well, that’s great! We still have a green light on the plan then, do we?”

“It will be delayed,” Fastbinder reported.

“No, no, no. Fastbinder, there’s no time for delay. My strategy is based on a timeline that I can’t control.”

“Senator Whiteslaw, we must be empowered to defend ourselves against these men in case they come for us. We will delay. Until Jack can build this defensive system. Until such time, we cannot risk further exposure.”

Senator Whiteslaw groaned. “So I’m sitting here pretending to be an undercover agent in the Middle East while your goofy high-school kid finds time to invent new weapons technology? I’m not encouraged. Fastbinder.”

“It will take little time. A few weeks, perhaps.”

“Weeks, huh? He doesn’t need to go to college first?”

Fastbinder’s accent thickened. It always did when he was agitated. “Herr Whitezlaw, you underestimate Jack. He is the greatest mind in four generations of Fastbinders. He is an engineering genius. The world has never seen the like of him.”

“Yeah, but he’s got a girlfriend, so it balances out.”

“You need not depend on Jack. Go elsewhere for assistance.”

“You need me, Fastbinder,” Whiteslaw barked. “As much as I need you.”

Fastbinder chuckled.

“What’s so funny?” the senator asked.

“You, and your confusion, I find humorous. The truth is I do not need you, Senator.”

“Only I know where the military research is.”

“But I do not need that! For me, stealing these secrets and selling them is more or less a hobby. I am semiretired, you know? You, on the other hand, are a driven man, and there is only me and Jack who are capable of helping you to meet your objective. Or maybe not. Maybe you have other irons in the fire, ja? Allow them to assist you—it is of little consequence to me.”

“You know that’s not how it is. You’re the only chance I have.”

“That is as I thought. Don’t worry, Senator, I think Jack will rise to the occasion and we’ll have plenty of time before the elections.”

“Until then I’m just supposed to keep playing double agent for the President?”

“And keep praying that these assassins do not locate either of us while we remain helpless.”

Senator Herbert Whiteslaw hung up the phone and sat on the edge of the mattress. That Fastbinder was a morbid turd. Was there any real reason to think they could be tracked down?

Who knew with these wacky assassins, the old Asian and the smart-mouthed skinny guy? Who knew what sort of resources were behind them? Maybe they were eavesdropping on him at this very minute.

He peeked out the window shades nervously. Fourteenth floor and no sign of assassins.

Still, if they did show up, Whiteslaw wanted to be ready for them. And that meant liquor. Lots of it.