The Kafir Project

by Lee Burvine

  Amsel glanced at something on the floor near his chair. "I don't try to steer the evidence. I go where the find leads me. But on a practical note, I can promise you the excavation will be focused and run on a tight schedule. We're talking weeks here, not months or years."

  Zaken took another sip of his espresso. He'd made up his mind, but he didn't want to appear perfunctory about it. "First, I don't see how you could possibly promise such a thing. I don't care what new methods you're using, you don't know what you may or may not find. You can't say how long it would take to safely remove it. And second, this is the Muslim Quarter you're talking about digging up. You're asking me to displace families, possibly tear down homes and businesses. Have you any idea what the potential repercussions would be?"

  Amsel sat back. "Let's not waste time. Is that a firm no then?"

  Perhaps this would be easier than Zaken had feared. "I'm sorry, Josh. This is just practically and politically not possible. Not now. In the future perhaps."

  Amsel lifted a briefcase that sat beside his chair, opened it, and removed a laptop computer. "Let me show you something."

  As Amsel booted up the computer, Zaken felt his headache surge and his patience wane. He could see the screen from an angle and it appeared to be running a video now. "Unless that's a recorded message from the Prime Minister, I'm afraid you're just wasting your time."

  Amsel turned the screen so Zaken could view it fully.

  A handheld camera shot moved down a hallway in what looked like a private residence. The camera held for a moment on a landscape painting of the Jezreel Valley.

  Zaken felt as if he'd just woken up naked in public. "That's, that's my home. What the hell is this? You broke into my home?"

  Amsel looked pained. "It's very important, Ben, that you watch this and understand. For the sake of your career and your very freedom."

  The camera had moved into the master bedroom, and then on into the master bath. Gloved hands grasped the medicine cabinet, and pulled it out from the wall.

  Behind the cabinet-a hidden, recessed space. And in the space, inside a ziplocked bag, it looked like ... some kind of scroll.

  "What did you do? What is that? I've never seen that."

  Amsel reached over and paused the video. "It's the Book of Isaiah, or most of it anyway." He tapped the image on the screen. "That's the oldest biblical manuscript ever discovered, right there. Older even then the fragments from Qumran. Its existence is not documented in any museum or scientific collection. And so it will naturally be assumed that you acquired it illicitly on the black market."

  Zaken's whole world reeled. He gripped the edge of the table. "But it's just a forgery. A forensic examination will-"

  "Demonstrate its authenticity, I'm afraid. No, that's no forgery. I know, because I recovered it myself. It's genuine. As are a number of other equally rare artifacts, which have been cached in a half-dozen storage places both here and abroad. And this next part is critical. All of these caches can-with some effort, and perhaps a little help-be traced directly back to you, Ben."

  Zaken's vision blurred for a second. The headache was a wild animal now, clawing its way out of his skull through his eye sockets. "If this is some kind of sick joke..."

  Amsel continued, "Again, all these pieces are unique and undocumented. They could only have come to you via the black market. Highly illegal, of course. Not to mention an unforgivable breach of the responsibilities for the Director of the Israeli Antiquities Authority."

  "How could you even have all these undocumented pieces?"

  "Not relevant to your problem. You'll learn in time. If all goes well."

  Zaken took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. "No one will believe this. No one."

  Amsel pursed his lips and shrugged. "What other choice will they have, Ben? All these stashes can be traced by a discreet money trail back to you and to no one else. What are you going to say? That Joshua Amsel personally gave up historical artifacts worth, oh, let's say conservatively tens of millions of dollars? Any single one of which would represent the shining capstone of a man's whole career? No, no, it's ridiculous. You bought them illegally over the years. Or acquired them in trade, in return for overlooking antique smuggling probably. Yes, that seems more likely."

  Zaken could hardly breathe. It felt like the air had been sucked out of the room, and replaced with toxic slush. "Why? Why are you doing this?"

  "Just approve the dig, Ben. Sign the permits. Deal with the backlash however you must. The Isaiah scroll, by the way, that's yours to keep. You can never show it to anyone, but you will know what it is. That's something anyway. Yes?"

  Amsel actually extended his hand.

  For a moment Zaken thought of grabbing a piece of cutlery and stabbing it. And what would be the use of that?

  After a time, he reached out and bitterly shook the hand of his blackmailer.

  Zaken had wondered once why anyone would actually make a deal with the Devil, as in so many old folk stories. Now he thought he knew.

  Perhaps they simply had no other choice.

  CHAPTER 24

  DANNI KEPT GLANCING over her shoulder at the terminal bay's security door, imagining she heard the lock mechanism activating.

  She'd penetrated deep into the offline computer's central directory, but had found nothing on the Kafir Project or Edward Fischer yet. She located some partitions that she couldn't access even with her relatively high security clearance. Those looked promising.

  Time to use the backdoor.

  Danni didn't know how long Morgan and Rees could keep Louis occupied with their little tour, so she tried to work quickly. She wouldn't be really vulnerable until she was downloading data onto her personal drive. That procedure ran so far out of bounds, she couldn't easily explain it away.

  What, this? Oh, just a little classified data theft from the US Defense Department. Keep it on the down low, okay? Wink, wink.

  With a few keystrokes she launched the hidden subprogram that had helped put one of her own co-workers behind bars. Now, ironically, it threatened to do the exact same thing to her.

  Within moments she had access to the forbidden partitions. She executed a search for the Kafir Project. "C'mon, baby. Be there. Be there."

  Nothing.

  She tried again with Fischer's name.

  Zip. Zilch.

  "Gotta be something here. Even if they scrubbed it. Some little crumb they left behind."

  She kept at it, typing in any technical terms that seemed like they could be relevant.

  Tachyons.

  No.

  Closed time-like loops.

  Nope.

  Grandfather paradox.

  Nada.

  Feeling pretty foolish, Danni typed in H.G. Wells.

  She got a hit.

  * * *

  Morgan watched Rees explaining to Louis how they really were here to research fusion energy for a magazine article. Nothing nefarious going on at all. Hey, I'm just the science man from TV. You know me. I'm harmless.

  She thought he might almost have pulled it off, if it weren't for the obvious sweat beading on his upper lip and forehead. In a freezing cold room.

  When Rees finally wound down, Louis said, "Yeah, I'm not buying that." He turned to Morgan. "Are you gonna give it a try too?"

  "No, I'm not." She gave him her best hardass cop look. "Why do you think we're here, Louis?" It was just a stall, but that was all they needed for now.

  Louis shrunk back. "Uh, honestly, I don't know. I thought first it was some kind of test. To see if we'd follow proper security procedures or whatever. But Danni, Dr. Harris, wouldn't set me up like that. That's a weasel thing to do and she's never been a company man. So to speak."

  "But now?" Morgan asked.

  "Well, I heard you guys talking about Edward Fischer when you came in. Is this about the explosion at Fermilab?"

  Silence.

  Then Rees said, "Yes. That's right.
"

  "Okay. So it is about Fermilab." Louis looked visibly relieved to have an answer to the mystery.

  Morgan waited for Rees to spin out whatever fiction he'd just come up with to explain how it all connected.

  Rees turned to her. "Special Agent Morgan, do you want to fill Louis in on the details?"

  Oh, so I'm supposed to make that story work. Well, thank you so much, Dr. Rees. "Defective parts manufacturing at Fermilab," Morgan said. "And we think here too. Contractor fraud."

  Part of Morgan's job at DCIS involved investigating malfeasance in defense contracts. That included machinery and parts that didn't meet the agreed upon specs. Usually because it saved the manufacturer money, which might then be siphoned away into a private account.

  "So, what's with the charade?" Louis asked. "You think someone here is letting substandard parts slip by? Getting a kickback or something?"

  Good. Keep answering your own questions, Morgan thought.

  "Exactly." Rees pressed his lips thin and nodded. "And I'm writing an article, because we want to shame the people who did this. Stop this sort of thing from happening every day."

  Louis made a wide-eyed blink. "Wow. Every day? How are they getting away with it?"

  Rees turned back to Morgan. "Agent Morgan? You want to take that question?"

  "No."

  Louis continued looking at Rees. Waiting.

  Rees cleared his throat. "That's actually-the exact rate of fraud is not public knowledge. Not yet. And ... I'm going to write about that too. I don't want to throw out too many spoilers right now."

  Morgan suppressed a smile. Rees was a terrible liar. Most of the time that wasn't a bad thing in a person. Out of the corner of her eye, through one of the thick, Plexiglas walls, she saw Danni approaching.

  Danni opened the door and stepped in wearing an apologetic smile. "Hey guys, we have to cut the tour short. I'm so sorry."

  She was playing it cool, but Morgan could see the distress there just beneath the surface.

  "I know what's going on," Louis announced.

  Danni looked from Morgan to Rees, shocked. "He knows? Okay, then. So here's the deal-"

  "He knows about the defective parts," Rees said. "The contractor, who caused the accident at Fermilab."

  "What?" Danni was staring at Rees like he had two heads and one of them was eating the other.

  Morgan jumped in. "Louis knows we're looking for that same contractor's substandard parts here at Livermore. The fraud case you're helping us with."

  Morgan could see Danni flip gears. Always fast, that girl.

  Danni nodded. "Yeah. That's what I wanted to tell you. The guy just called and he wants to meet tonight. So if you want me to record him for you, we have to get going. Right now."

  "Okay," Morgan said. "Let's get you fixed up with a wire."

  They removed the heavy jackets and gloves and Rees grabbed Fischer's pouch. Morgan instructed Louis not to repeat what he heard tonight to any coworkers, and thanked him for his cooperation.

  Louis then escorted them all to the building's lobby. On the way he casually asked Morgan if she lived in the Bay Area, and then looked crestfallen when she said she didn't.

  Outside the night air felt like a heat wave compared to the frigid quantum computing building.

  As soon as the door to the lobby closed, Danni looked around them quickly then said, "They know we're here."

  Rees looked like someone just punched him in the gut.

  "How do you know?" Morgan asked.

  "On the way to meet you guys, I ran into a researcher coming back in. He couldn't go home. The whole campus is on lockdown."

  "Does that happen often?" Rees asked.

  Danni shook her head. "Never. Not while I've worked here."

  Morgan instantly ruled out coincidence. "Someone tipped off security. Someone outside the campus. Because they had no reason to be suspicious of us here."

  She began working on the options. Security here at Livermore Labs didn't represent anything like an unstoppable force. But the guards were armed, and she wasn't prepared to sacrifice innocent lives just to avoid being taken into custody.

  Running the gate in the car would get them out. But it would probably turn into a chase that had a low chance of success and a high risk of people getting hurt again. Including them.

  "Is there some way maybe we could hide the car and lay low?" Rees suggested. "Let them think we already got off the campus. They can't keep the place locked down forever."

  Danni shook her head. Then suddenly she grabbed Morgan's arm. "The new particle accelerator. It's not functional yet, but the facility connects to the quantum computing building. The accelerator's huge. It extends way beyond the campus. We could get out underground, through the tunnels."

  It sounded worth a try to Morgan and certainly preferable to any other option they'd considered. "All right, let's do it."

  They waked back over to the door they'd just come out of. Danni pulled out her pass key again.

  "Wait a minute." Rees vibrated with some new excitement. "Danni, you said you were coming to get us before you heard about the lockdown. So why did you leave the terminal bay? Did you find something?"

  In the rush to get the hell out of there Morgan had nearly forgotten the whole reason they came out to Livermore in the first place.

  "Yeah, I did. Hang on." Danni went to swipe her pass key, fumbled and dropped it. "Damnit." She bent down to retrieve the pass key. Then dropped it again as she stood up. "Shit."

  Rees looked about to explode. "So what did you find?"

  Morgan could see Danni's hands shaking. "Stay calm, Danni. We need to keep our heads."

  Danni nodded, swiped the key properly and opened the door.

  She led them quickly back through the outer lobby. "Okay, so they scrubbed all the data. But I found the original proposal. From before they even named the project. Probably why they missed it." Danni rushed over to the biometric lock.

  Rees followed so close behind he bumped into Danni when she stopped. "Is it really time travel? Did they do it?"

  Danni positioned her eye in front of the sensor. "It's funny, there was actually an H.G. Wells reference. The Time Machine. But it's not time travel. It's time viewing." The lock made its little whirring sound and Danni opened the door. "And I know why it was a DARPA project now. Kafir, unbeliever. It was right there the whole time."

  Danni held the door open, but Rees didn't move. He just stood there blocking the way, lost in thought.

  "Rees, we gotta go," Morgan said.

  He snapped out of it and stepped through. "Unbeliever. I get it. It's crazy, but I get it."

  Morgan felt like she'd walked in on the middle of someone else's conversation. "So are either of you going to tell me what the deal is here, or would that spoil the ending?"

  Danni strode off down the long, white hallway. She spoke without looking back. "Islamic radicals. DARPA was going after them."

  Morgan hustled after her. "How?"

  Rees answered from behind. "By undermining their entire religion."

  CHAPTER 25

  DCIS SPECIAL AGENT Shawn Gibson took the exit off Interstate 580 to Livermore faster than prudence would have suggested. He couldn't help it. The excitement pulsed through his whole body and right out his foot to the gas pedal.

  Gibson would make his bones tonight. His first big arrest and an espionage-related case to boot. Not bad for the youngest guy on the squad.

  An anonymous tip had come in. A computer scientist, Dr. Danielle Harris, was selling state secrets. Based on that, some NSA guys identified a couple of chat room posters as Harris and a known Russian intelligence agent.

  They forwarded the correspondence to DCIS.

  ROZY: have copy HellCat trade for 16gigs RAM.

  bBoy: Fair trade. Can do!

  It looked like they were just discussing video game swapping. But HellCat was really Predator drone technology that Harri
s had illegally downloaded. 16gigs was sixteen million euros. Payment for the stolen specs.

  As the car flew around the curling off-ramp, Gibson's partner, Charlie Swain, tensed himself against the extra g's. "Take it easy, Gibson. You don't get there in one piece, you don't get your guy. Or gal in this case."

  Swain had been acting all blasé about it. Gibson thought he looked pretty jazzed, though. They were going after as many as three people, at least one of them armed. And one of 'em was a TV celebrity too. High profile collar here for sure.

  Swain could play it cool all he wanted. He was kind of a jock, and that Clint Eastwood act was just his style. But this was a big ass deal.

  When they pulled up, the guard at Lawrence Livermore waved them through. Another guy in uniform waited for them just on the other side of the gate. Probably the head of security, Neery. They spoke with him on the way over.

  Gibson parked and jumped out. Swain followed.

  The other DCIS car with agents Phelps and Merriweather in it pulled up, and they got out too.

  The uniformed guy walked over to the four of them. "Matt Neery. I run security here at LLNL."

  Neery looked unsure whether he wanted to offer a handshake. Security guards usually went one of two directions. Either they acted like you were invading their turf, or they were just glad to let you handle everything and stay the hell out of harm's way.

  Swain got right down to business. "You have eyes on Harris?"

  "No," Neery said. "But we checked the security video on the building where she works. She's in there now with one man and another woman. We didn't go in. We were told to wait for you guys."

  Phelps reassured Neery that was the right move, and they all took a short walk together over to the building.

  Swain, who had been assigned lead on this thing, decided that Phelps and Merriweather would watch the two fire exits. He and Gibson were going in the front door together, weapons ready. No warning. No chance for hostage taking or some kind of standoff situation.