Chapter 5

Day 0

The man slowly woke from a peaceful rest, and reached up with his hand to scratch his nose. "What a weird dream," he thought. "What a bizarre, stupid dream." He suddenly realized he had no idea where he was. He became fully awake in an instant, looked around the room, and felt fear gripping at his heart. He had never been in a room anything like this, and had no idea how he got here. He was in a large, cubical room, with a ceiling of 23 feet. There was the bed that he now sitting on, a table, a desk, a few chairs, and a corner of the room that seemed to contain a sink, toilet, and shower. Turning his head, he gazed at the last corner of the room. It held a comfortable reading chair, a prayer mat, and a several large shelves of books. On the wall above the books was a 24-hour clock showing 00:43:28 and ticking. Above that was a counter that was currently registering zero.

Over the next hour, the man explored his room. He thought he had the disposal chute figured out, and the other chute was full of puzzles. It had provided him with a lunch after he started to test the controls. He was very surprised the food was of such high quality, very tasty, though he didn't recognize the various fruits at all. The most amazing thing about the room was that there were no doors or windows. The walls and floor felt like highly polished stone. How did he get in here? He assumed there was a secret entrance. Perhaps in the roof...

Turning, he gasped in surprise. In the center of the room stood a young, beautiful woman, wearing a white robe tied with a golden rope. Her feet were bare, the robe not reaching her ankles, and she wore no veil. Recognition set in. "You!" he shouted.

"Yes, it's me. Hello, Mr. Ata."

A brief look of shock appeared on the man's face. "You know my name?"

"Yes. I'll get right to the point. I want to offer you the possibility for a trip back to where we met. If you cooperate, you can be there within an hour."

"And in exchange?"

"I want all the bank accounts, transfer routing codes, and fiscal node locations of Eternal Jihad. I want the names and locations of all your funding control agents. I want the decryption codes to your organization's complete sub-ledger. And I mean complete. I'll know if anything is withheld."

"HA! Never!"

"Never is a long time, Mr. Ata, perhaps a lifetime. You will find that I am very patient. Do you see that clock there? I will return in 100 days to offer you this same choice. If you still refuse, I will return again in an additional 200 days, then 400 days, and then 800 days, and so on, until either you agree or die. I respect your right to choose death. The choice is yours."

"Don't make me laugh! No interrogation is like that. No one could be that patient."

"Please look in my eyes and hear the ring of truth in my voice, as I speak the following words. I am that patient."

Mr. Ata's face broke into a nervous grin. He stepped closer to Kathy. "I demand a lawyer! This is against the Geneva convention!"

"I've never signed it. There will be no lawyers. Your demand is rather amusing. I don't think the interrogation you had intended for me would have met Geneva's humanity standards... Another major point, you cannot count on any further medical care while you're here. Your pain and death will be considered your choice. Weigh your choices carefully... I don't do this from cruelty. If you want new clothes or towels or bed linens, just throw the old ones in the disposal chute. As often as you like. You are free to keep this place as clean or as messy as you like..."

"Did you also capture any of my followers?"

"At the house? No, they're all dead."

"What! All?"

"Yes, everyone, including the 14 sentries outside."

Mr. Ata looked furious. "And did you give them a filthy Christian burial?"

"No, actually. They were given a rather singular burial... I did weep for them though. All deaths of Allah's children deserve to be wept." Kathy turned to face away from his hateful gaze.

"Wait! Don't go. Perhaps I'll tell you what you want to know." The man moved closer to Kathy. "Tell me, where is this place?"

"I call it P2."

"Peetu? Where is that?" The man was almost within striking distance of Kathy.

"Just P2."

"No, I mean what country!"

"I won't answer that. Think about your choice, Mr. Ata. I will return in 100 days."

"Wait! Which way should I face when I pray? Which direction is Mecca?"

"Oh!" said Kathy, "The qibla, a valid request. Let me think." With the moon locked into maintaining its same face to the Earth, the question actually did have a constant answer. In her thoughts, Kathy aligned the pocket with the lunar geometry. The direction could have been anywhere, but by chance was quite horizontal. The man kept inching towards Kathy. Kathy pointed and said, "Face the bookshelves from my current position."

The man twisted his body into a spin kick, aiming for Kathy's abdomen. Kathy teleported as his head was turned away from her. The man lost his balance when his foot failed to connect, and he fell on the floor hard. He sprang up, and then howled in dismay and confusion into the empty room.

Kathy sat down by Matt by the temporal control console in M0. "Well," said Kathy, "that went pretty much as I expected."

"Do you want to go to Day 100 now?" asked Matt. "If I go all the way to interface mode, we can be there in less than a second."

"I just might, soon. But not right now. I'm getting an idea, something monumental. Ha, literally. It's an idea about monuments, and how so such of this hatred seems to be tied to them... Matt, our home tesseract is running in interface mode right now, right?"

"Yep."

"I want to create a mission for our home operations sequencer. It'll take me an hour to write it. Then let's have a late snack in P6 and sack out for the night. It's been a big day, hard to believe I was buying groceries 12 hours ago. Tomorrow morning, return to interface mode for a few milliseconds, and I'll burst-mode transmit the program before I speak to Mr. Ata again. It'll only save us a minute or two of Earth time, but I don't want to waste a second..."

Day 100

Kathy teleported into the room just as the counter clicked 100. Mr. Ata had been standing in an extreme corner of the room, trying to see where Kathy would enter, so Kathy jumped in ten feet above his head and just stayed there.

"Hello, Mr. Ata. I've returned to offer you the choice again."

The man jumped and ran to the center of the floor, looking back up at Kathy. "Why don't you fall?"

"I won't answer that. Do you choose to go home?"

"You stupid, unclean female dog! A hundred days have gone by! Allah be praised! You have missed your chance! All the codes will have changed by now. As soon as my disappearance was noticed, within a day, all the codes would have changed! I've won! The codes are useless to you!"

"Then tell me all the useless codes and you can go within the hour. I promise. You have my word."

"No!" The man turned and grabbed a chair to throw at Kathy, but she had already jumped by the time he turned back.

Day 300

The man was in the center of room, staring at the spot Kathy had appeared previously. Kathy jumped in about 10 feet behind his back.

"Hello, Mr. Ata. I've returned to offer you the choice again."

Mr. Ata turned and glued his eyes on Kathy. "How did you get in here?"

"I won't tell you that. What is your choice, Mr. Ata?"

Mr. Ata sneered at Kathy. "I think you're unclean, and you think I'm evil, don't you?"

Kathy paused. "I won't stay for conversation, but I will answer that question." Kathy looked downward in thought for a moment, and then looked up into the intense hatred in Mr. Ata's eyes. "A great poet once said, all spirits are enslaved who serve things evil."

"So you do think I'm evil!"

"I think the cause you serve is evil. Look at you, a slave to your hatred, chained to believing your own lies, trapped by your own pain... I offer you the opportunity to renounce your hatred, Mr. Ata. Let go of your pain! You can renounce your caliph and your caliph's lies and let truth set you free. That is your choice, Mr. Ata."

With his eyes remaining glued on Kathy, Mr. Ata raised a chair over his head, and began walking toward her. Kathy sighed and jumped before his eyes.

Day 700

"Hello, Mr. Ata. I've returned to offer you the choice again."

"Stay a while," said Mr. Ata with a smile. "I won't attack."

"I don't trust your word, Mr. Ata. I won't stay for conversation. What is your choice?"

"I think I'll tell you. I've been here almost two years. The codes will be worthless to you. Tell me first, though, the one picture in this room. I can't smash it. How is that possible?"

"I won't tell you. What is your choice?"

"At least tell me who they are!"

"... All right. Their names are Carly and Emily. This picture was taken three days after your attack in Porto. I thought you should see the beauty that survived. Consider their innocent faces, and how they are too young to hate you for killing both their mothers."

The man shrieked, and lunged for Kathy. Kathy jumped.

Day 1500

"Hello, Mr. Ata. I've returned to offer you the choice again."

"I hollered for you for the last two years. I would have told you everything. You never came!"

"The choice will only be offered during my visits. Decide yes now, or wait for the next 1600 days for the next opportunity."

"Go to Hell!" he shrieked. The man was then astonished by the look of sorrow and compassion in Kathy's eyes.

"That path, Mr. Ata, must surely be yours." A tear rolled down her cheek, and she jumped to Matt's side by temporal controls.

"Ready for Day 3100?" asked Matt.

"Not quite. Give me a few moments to collect myself." Kathy sat down in a chair next to Matt. After a few minutes, Matt reached over and held her hand. Kathy smiled at Matt in gratitude.

"He made an interesting comment," said Matt. "Do you think he would have told us before? We talked before we set this up, of putting a panic button in the cell. Letting him be able to call us as soon as he wants to tell us the codes..."

"No, Matt. Giving him the power to have me at his beckon call would be a mistake. It would hand him a huge victory in our contest of wills. Our current setup is the correct one."