Pandora's Ark

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

The ceiling.

The walls.

The lights.

The glass partition.

When Sakharov came to he saw that he was inside a vacuum chamber. Immediately, he conceded to his fate.

“Good morning, Doctor,” said Al-Sherrod, his voice coming through the mike system. His face appeared humorless with no lines of his ugly Cheshire teeth showing. Beside him stood al-Ghazi, who shared the same flat appearance, the same emotionless expression. “You’ve been out for most of the day. Welcome back.”

Sakharov measured his surroundings. Did he expect anything less?

“I hardly thought that you’d make such an attempt, Doctor. My mistake for letting my guard down. I didn’t believe you had it in you.”

Sakharov looked at the diminutive man and at al-Ghazi, who stood much taller. “So now you’re going to kill me the same way you killed Umar?”

“Umar was not his real name. He was a Zionist.”

“Does it matter?

Al-Sherrod deflected him with another direction of answering. “I had plans for you, Doctor Sakharov. Huge plans.”

“Not interested.”

“I gathered that since your little escapade early this morning. But there’s good news, I suppose. The only damage you inflicted was a broken monitor, nothing more. So you failed in your attempt to annihilate your findings, which I assume was the purpose of your action?”

When Sakharov didn’t answer, al-Sherrod paced back and forth in front the glass like a caged feline, to and fro, looking and studying Sakharov who watched his every move.

“Big plans,” he finally commented. “President Ahmadinejad presumed to move you and your findings to a different locale, so that you could further your studies.”

Studies? Is that what you call it?

“I have resigned to my fate,” he answered. “I will not lift another finger to help you or your regime. I was foolish to do so in the first place.”

“So you said, Doctor. I believe the term you used was ‘In the pursuit of my own progress, I have abandoned my humanity.’”

“And should there be a Devil,” he added, “then I have surely nailed my soul to the Devil’s Altar.”

“Foolishly poetic,” said al-Sherrod, “but your so-called lack of humanity is actually a state in which ‘true’ evil will be eradicated, and the infidels laden impotent once and for all.” Then, as if imploring his line of thought: “Don’t you see, Doctor, your technology will evolve the world into a much better place.”

“My technology will destroy this planet because of people like you who do not bear the insight or foresight of its true capacity. You only see what you want to see without realizing the destructive potential of what I created. You are misled to believe that a simple program can put you in a position of control when, in fact, you fail to see your own short fallings in the same way I was unable to foresee my own… And in the end, I lost. The same will happen to you.”

“Hardly,” was his response. “You are a foolish old man who could not control his passions. But your ideas will live on, Doctor. And they will do so under the Iranian banner.”

Sakharov’s jaw clenched.

“Unfortunately for you, Doctor, I presume that your action early this morning means that you refuse to further the program with extensive studies to add, or perhaps modify, your findings?”

“Piss off,” he said.

Al-Sherrod turned to al-Ghazi for clarification. “Piss off?”

“It’s a derogatory remark telling you to back off. It’s a crude expression.”

“I see.” He turned back to Sakharov. “Is that your final answer, Doctor? To tell me to ‘piss off’?”

Sakharov did not respond, the man obviously resigning himself.

“Then you leave me no choice,” said al-Sherrod. With a motion of his hand al-Sherrod proffered an order to the tech manning the console.

The tech that Sakharov had beaten with the clipboard tapped a command into the keyboard, then waited for further instructions from al-Sherrod, who stretched the moment out as long as he could as the gazes between he and Sakharov remained steady.

And then: “Do it.”

The tech pressed the ENTER button, initiating the sound waves.

Sakharov then closed his eyes and braced himself, his hands clutching at the armrests of his chair as the waspy hum began to advance on him.

Within less than two minutes it was over.

And Leonid Sakharov, a man with a brilliant mind, had succumbed to the creations of his own ambitions.

As al-Ghazi and al-Sherrod watched the Quds soldiers remove the remains of Sakharov from the chamber, al-Ghazi turned to the diminutive man with pressing questions.

“It won’t be long until the Zionists retaliate,” he said simply.

“The Americans will stall them,” he returned. “So we have time.”

“We don’t know this for sure.”

“The Americans are intent to keep their economy in check. Such a violation against Iranian sovereignty only provokes to cripple an already hurting economy by escalating gas prices, which is a major concern for the Americans. He who holds the oil, my friend, also holds the scepter of rule. And the Americans know this. They will talk the Zionists to stave off their attack and let the sanctions work.”

“But Israel will not hold off forever.”

“Of course not,” he said. “Past history has shown that. But past history has also shown that they will wait long enough to placate the United States, as well.” Then: “We still have time. We simply need to be careful with our applications and not rush into this with any chance of failure.”

“How long?”

Al-Sherrod mused over this for a long moment before answering. “A week,” he finally answered. “Perhaps two.”

“Two weeks may be too long,” he replied.

“Your impatience is showing, Adham. I thought it was a conviction of your people to exhibit the virtue of patience.”

“We are not without reality, either,” he told him. “The gamble is too great should the Israeli’s decide to strike. The optimum thing to do is to act accordingly to the situation. And the situation dictates that the location of the facility has been compromised and the nature of our findings made clear to the enemy.”

Al-Sherrod considered this.

“We have the technology,” said al-Ghazi. “We have the capability to manufacture enough nanobots to achieve the means of an initial strike against the Vatican. We cannot wait on the assumptions of what the United States and Israel might do.”

Al-Sherrod looked at al-Ghazi squarely in the eyes and noted his fiery determination. “One week,” he finally said. “I believe we can produce enough of the quantity necessary to achieve the means. But will that give you enough time to set everything in motion?”

“I have replaced Umar with others,” he told him. “They have decided to martyr themselves.”

“Are they capable?”

“They are skilled to initiate the program,” he said. “It’s just a matter of introducing the Ark in a timely fashion.”

“And how will you do this?”

“I will contact a leading religious principle with the condition that the true Ark will be an offering to be shared by all religions, with its opening to be commenced at the Vatican with all leading principles and political states of head present. When the lid is opened to reveal the tablets, then the canisters inside will be activated. Everything made of organic matter within Vatican City will be destroyed within minutes.”

Al-Sherrod suppressed his smile. The leading political principals, as well as leading religious leaders and other spiritual dignitaries who pray to false gods, will be neutralized. But his goal was not borne of religious extremism, but out of political radicalism.

“Should this succeed,” he told al-Ghazi, “then we will plant such canisters in New York, Washington D.C., Tel Aviv, London, to whatever locations that will propel Iran as an international power.”

“You do whatever your agenda requires,” said al-Ghazi. “If yours is strictly political, so be it. Ours is for religious purposes only. We do this for the sake of Allah.”

“I see.”

“We need to commence this while we have the advantage.”

Al-Sherrod nodded. “Then the Ark is yours,” he said. “Do with it what you will and set forth the precedence of changing the balance.”

Al-Ghazi, at least for the moment, shared his enthusiasm. “Then with the will of Allah,” he said, “let us set forth Pandora’s Ark.”