Chapter 28

Eitan’s phone was ringing, startling him out of a deep sleep. Leslie was stirring next to him, but she was still blissfully hugging her pillow. Eitan blindly flailed for his phone, finally slapping it with his hand, causing it to fall on the floor.

“This had better be good,” he mumbled as he willed himself to fall out of bed onto his knees. Scooping up his phone, he left the bedroom. “M’ello?”

“What’s it like to bed two sisters?” Bea asked with a dash of mirth.

“Ask me after I wake up,” Eitan said, plopping down on the couch. He stretched, trying to work out the kink in his shoulder.

“That good, huh?” Bea said. “Business hours started fifteen minutes ago; you are late to work.”

“Let’s agree I had to work hard until the wee hours of the morning,” Eitan said, scraping his tongue with his teeth.

“Yeah, yeah. You had a phone call with a message late yesterday. Special Agent Killinger wants you to call her this morning. Do you still have her card?”

Eitan reached over and picked up his pants from where he dropped them last night. Digging into his pockets, he found his clip and pulled it out. The card was bent at three of the corners and had a suspect food smudge on the right side. “Did the agent give an indication of what she wanted?”

“Nope.”

As Bea said her goodbyes, Eitan walked over to the kitchen area. Spotting the charging cord, he plugged in his phone and set about making a pot of coffee. The counter was so small that the coffeemaker took up a chunk of the real estate. The smell of pumpkin spice began to fill the small space, leaving Eitan to wonder who were these people who lived here.

After closing the bedroom door, he plopped down on a bar stool with his cell phone in hand as it charged. He dialed. “Ms. Killinger, it’s Eitan. I received your message to call. Before you ask, I have not heard from Dr. Hobart.”

“New York City,” Eitan said, answering her question. “I can meet at 2pm in Manhattan ... I will text the address to this phone number ... Yes, I understand. Goodbye.” He ended the call and listened to the coffeemaker gurgle as he contemplated what to do. He was drawing a blank.

“Who was that?” A sleepy Leslie asked. Her hair was mess, and she was naked. Eitan laughed because he noticed her hair first.

“Just a run-of-the-mill call from your friendly FBI special agent,” Eitan said. “Everyone wants to talk to me. I made you coffee.”

“Smells like Tinkerbell pissed in the carafe,” Leslie said. “Akemi and I drink tea mostly. I think that stuff was a gift from some deluded acquaintance, who was never invited back.”

She went into the bathroom. Eitan dumped the coffee down the sink and washed out the pot with soap and a scrubby, hoping that the smell would dissipate. By the time he was done, Leslie was dressed and ready to head out. As they waited in line, Akemi texted Eitan with the name of her New York attorney, who acted on her behalf when Bea was not available. By the time Eitan retrieved his large Americano with extra sugar from the androgynous barista with the blue hair on half of a shaved skull, he had arranged legal representation and an office address. Relatively speaking, the attorney was a better price than the coffee, which tasted like sweetened burnt toast.

Cincinnati, OH was coming to grips with a mass shooting overnight. The authorities were not sure if it was an anti-nano attack, but they were treating it as such until they knew more. A police captain with a big belly was speaking into a microphone on the screen overhead. Twenty-one people were shot and twelve were confirmed dead on the campus of Xavier University. “They’re shooting Jesuits now,” Leslie said with disgust. “The Church is anti-nano. What were they thinking?”

“They were thinking that if you are in college, you must have nano,” Eitan said. “They’re thinking that the Jesuits are a secret sacrilegious faction bent on world domination that would destroy real Christianity. Add your own conspiracy theory to the mix; it’s fun and a game the whole family can play.”

“You’re worse than Akemi,” Leslie said, shaking her head. “Why the hate?”

“I do not hate,” Eitan said, grimacing as he sipped his coffee. “It’s the helplessness when innocents die. It’s the futility in the face of unending stupidity and willful ignorance. I’ve seen what we can be, and I fear that we are going to fall far down into an abyss.”

“After a night of some of the most spectacular sex you will ever experience in your life, your response the next morning is gloom and misery?”

“We can always go back upstairs and try to recreate the fireworks,” Eitan said with a grin.

“You’re an asshole, just like your brother,” Leslie said. “I told you your family was close.”

Leslie left soon after to go to her classes and study. Eitan returned to her apartment, dug out his laptop and brought up the work Akemi sent him. He only had to stop once to review a YouTube video on how to run a N-series statistical analysis. Only afterwards, did he realize what a leap he had performed. He had never taken a stats course in his life.

Looking at the clock, he calculated he only had time to grab a cheese sandwich from the bodega across the street and catch a subway to midtown. The building looked like a dozen other massive buildings on the surrounding blocks. The security guard made him produce I.D. and sign the book while calling upstairs to confirm Eitan had an appointment.

The sixteenth floor was carpeted. The firm was small with three partners and a bunch of senior and junior associates. They specialized in government compliance and corporate/government litigation. Eitan was greeted by one the partners, who looked like he chewed barbed wire for breakfast and only afterwards, put on a monkey suit with a purple tie. A couple of associates walked by and they were wearing purple ties too. After tasting him with his dark sense, Eitan relaxed his fighting stance.

“Why is everyone wearing a purple tie?” he asked. The attorney explained that Democratic officials wore blue ties and Republican officials wore red ties. Whenever the FBI director or assistant directors had to testify on Capitol Hill, they always wore a purple tie to confirm for the camera that the FBI is always non-partisan.

“Why not yellow then?”

“Gauche,” the attorney said, leading Eitan to a small meeting room. “We will hold the meeting in here. Bring me up to speed.”

Eitan did his best to explain the whole kit and caboodle. His first goal was to avoid arrest and his second goal was to get as much information on the search for Dr. Whitcomb, who had not been snagged in the FBI sweep. The attorney made a few notes on his pad and made a few obvious suggestions about presentation. When the receptionist brought in Agent Killinger, they both rose to greet her and her companion, who Eitan did not recognize.

“Where is Agent Corban?” Eitan asked as they all took seats.

“You ask as if you are posing such an innocent question, Eitan,” Ms. Killinger said. “I will not make that mistake again. Let me introduce Special Agent Letica Waltham from our national task force on nanotechnology.”

“Excuse me, but this conversation has already veered off into inuendo and veiled accusation,” the attorney said. “Perhaps you could clarify your statement, Ms. Killinger.”

“Your client, shall we say, baited Agent Corban to investigate Eitan more aggressively,” Ms. Killinger said. “The raid on the hotel property where Eitan was staying found nothing and was a public relations disaster for the Boston office. Agent Corban is on administrative duty for the time being.”

The attorney gave Eitan a long-appraised look. “Are you suggesting that my client gave misleading information or somehow provoked this failed action?”

“Not today,” Ms. Killinger said. “The dossier is growing ever thicker though.”

“We have questions that we hope Eitan can shed some light upon, since he was somewhat helpful to Ms. Killinger during their last, informal interview,” Ms. Waltham said.

“How was I helpful last time?” Eitan asked, a tad surprised.

“Your statement that unidentified people who wished you harm were seeking you at your university was the final key to our subsequent raids. We found two suspects in New Haven, and they provided the threads that connected the dots.”