Hi-Tech Hijack

by Dov Nardimon

  When the water grew colder, Eddie got up, rinsed himself off, and dried himself with the thick, soft turquoise towel. He wrapped it around his waist and looked at himself in the mirror. There were day-old stubbles on his face that served as affirmation to his hypothesis that it was late at night. His last shave had been the night before his early departure to the airport in Israel. He opened the wardrobe and found two sweat suits to his surprise. He tried one on, and it fit him perfectly. A sense of freshness and comfort fell over him. He began scanning the walls, knocking or tapping here and there, trying to identify any differences in the thickness of the walls and hoping to get some response from Reuben. Because their rooms were on opposite sides of the corridor there was no way Reuben could hear the knocks.

  At the very same time, Reuben was in the midst of terrible turmoil. After lying on the bed motionless for a few minutes, he too began inspecting his room. When he realized he was closed in and there were no real windows behind the drapes, he was consumed with panic. He started knocking the door and kicking it and screaming, “Open this goddamn door! I can’t breathe!” Even with the air-conditioning on, he started sweating. His heart was racing, and his temples were pounding. He climbed up on the bed and tried to check the ceiling. That too was made of solid concrete. He ran to the bathroom and tried to remove the mirror above the sink; when that didn’t work, he punched and smashed it hoping to find some sort of opening behind it. Then with a bloody hand, he ran back to the door trembling all over and started shouting for help in Hebrew and English.

  At that point the door opened, and two guards took hold of Reuben. A woman who looked over forty and was wearing a white lab coat followed. She took out a syringe from a first aid kit she was carrying and injected Reuben with a sedative in his arm. Then she bandaged his wounded hand.

  Reuben was still shaking uncontrollably. The guards put him down in the bed, handcuffed his bandaged hand to the frame of the bed, and left the room. Ten more minutes passed before the shaking stopped. Exhausted and still in his sweat-drenched clothes, Reuben fell into a terror-filled sleep.

  The woman in the white coat returned to her bedroom and said to her husband, “It’s very clear who we need to start with. Reuben will be like putty in our hands.”

  “Unless he collapses before that.”

  “I don’t think he will. He’s had a panic attack due to claustrophobia. It’ll blow off by morning.”

  “Isabella! We have six months to achieve operational status. All we need from them is the method to keeping the Ebola alive and airborne. The rest of their study is of no interest to us, and there’s no point wasting any time on it.”

  “I know that, Alfonso,” she replied irritably. “There’s no need for you to keep reminding me every day. Let me do it gradually as if the whole study interests me. That way I’ll get what we want. I’m sure within a month I’ll have the information we need, and we’ll still have five months for experiments.”

  Utterly oblivious to the drama that was taking place beyond the walls of his room, Eddie was lying in bed trying to figure out which switch controlled which light. He assumed at least some of the lighting would stay on, but to his surprise, all the switches worked and all the lights in the room went out. The room was completely dark except for the repeated twinkle of the fire alarm. Eddie figured there was probably a camera hidden in there—or at least a microphone—but wasn’t really bothered by the thought at that point.

  He closed his eyes and tried to think of something positive that would take him away from where he was and into a better night. Slumber started to take hold of him, and he saw a woman’s long braid of hair reaching all the way to her lower back, exposed in a crop top that buttoned in the back. His gaze went down her back to her slim waist and followed the curves of her hips and firm buttocks. Without seeing her face, he knew it was Ronit. Her long legs were in short, frayed jeans, and she was walking barefoot on a golden beach leaving an imprint in the sand with every step. Her left arm was wrapped around the waist of a man who had his arm around her shoulder, and they were walking away from him as the last rays of the sun painted the sky red and orange. The monotonous noise of the ventilation system in the room was transformed into the relaxing sound of the lapping waves trying to reach out to touch and kiss her feet if only for the slightest of moments.

  He tried to catch up with the beautiful woman and see who her partner was, but the webs of sleep held him back. Then the woman turned and faced him. Yes, it was Ronit, and her smiling green eyes looked at him with love. Her lips parted and she was telling him something. Her perfectly white teeth glowed in the dark, and he answered her, blowing a kiss. With the remains of the anesthesia still in his system and drained by the exhausting day, Eddie fell into his dream of a perfect world until light would shine on the menacing reality he was about to face.

  Day Two

  Chapter 28

  Eddie and Reuben’s first, short night in Science City ended when the doors to their rooms opened, and a waiter, greeting them good morning in English, entered carrying trays of full, hearty breakfasts. Armed with a gun, another person stood at some distance behind the waiter and ordered them to stay in bed and make no move until the waiter set down the tray and left.

  “Wait a minute, what is all this? What do you want from us?” Reuben bombarded the guard and waiter, trying to ask as many questions in the short time they were in the room. None of them answered. The waiter smiled politely and released Reuben, and the apathetic guard slammed the door shut and locked it from the outside. The process repeated itself a few hours later when lunch was brought in. While Reuben was eating under the watchful gaze of the guard, another person was installing a new mirror in the bathroom. When Reuben examined it later, he found that it was made of a durable, plastic matter that was unbreakable. Several hours later the guard and waiter were back once again to deliver his dinner without saying a word.

  Knowing they were constantly being watched and kept in total, yet quite comfortable isolation led Eddie and Reuben to highs and lows they had never known their minds permitted. Eddie accepted the loneliness in a more level-headed manner than Reuben. He never allowed the fear to strip him of his self-control. Reuben, on the other hand having lost his cool on the very first day, sunk into a kind of apathy and indifference that began to cause concern to those monitoring him via surveillance cameras installed in the room. On the second day, the TV with its one and only channel started playing old American films one after the other. Eddie forced himself to watch. They served as an escape route from the stressful reality, and he tried to be as absorbed in them as possible.

  As time passed, Eddie too began to lose his stability and coolness. Having no one to talk to, with the guards and servers being always silent, made him feel like he was losing his mind. He kept on watching the TV, and from time to time went back to examining the room in the faint hope of finding some sort of weak spot. The obsessive searching became almost therapeutic, but the faint hope or promise it offered was never fulfilled. Eddie tried to recreate what he and Reuben had been through since being abducted on the train—the car, then the plane, then another car. If only he could have some estimate of how long the flight had been, then he might be able to guess what part of the world they were in. He thought of an imaginary circle with Zurich in its middle: an hour flight about three hundred miles long could bring them to Italy, Germany, or France—all friendly countries. A three- or four-hour flight would expand the radius to hostile countries in North Africa—Libya, Algeria, eastern Turkey, perhaps Syria, or any country in the Balkan or eastern Europe. Five hours would suffice to go as far as Iraq or Iran. He soon realized the mental exercise was futile. Having been sedated during the flight, he had no way of knowing if it took three hours, five hours, or more, and that could make all the difference between being in a friendly country and being in enemy territory.

  Eddie tried to retrace the events of the previous months to figure out who kidnaped them and why. Did anyone outside the company le
arn of the amazing discovery they had stumbled upon? The very same discovery that made the rumors of the Ebola-based doomsday weapon a very threatening reality at the lab in Be’er Ya’acov? Did Sasha, whom they allowed to join the company as a gesture of kindness, betray them and sell his soul to the devil?

  That’s so unlike him, and he doesn’t even have the right connections, Eddie thought, answering his own questions and hoping he was right. But when it comes down to it, what do I really know about Sasha or even Leonid? New immigrants struggling to survive in a new country at their age. . . perhaps they couldn’t resist the temptation and sold our secrets? Granted, Eddie had placed all the information related to the discovery in a safe only he had access to, but a safe can be broken into. In any case, Sasha knew exactly how to use an electromagnet if he wanted to.

  He thought back to the first time he met Sasha. One day, Leonid and Luda showed up early to work and came to Eddie’s office with a third person.

  “Eddie, this is Sasha.”

  “Nice to meet you,” said Eddie, surprised by the presence of the unexpected visitor.

  “Sasha has PhD in physics. In Russia he worked for years researching electromagnetic radiation and developing applications that are derived from it,” explained Leonid. “Here in Israel he is now involved with a start-up that works on expediting the growth of plants by subjecting them to electromagnetic radiation for a few seconds at a time.”

  “That sounds interesting,” responded Eddie with his natural curiosity. He then addressed Sasha directly, “And have you been able to prove it can be done?”

  “We have succeeded in expediting plant shoots, and even affected the growth rate of a whole vineyard. We have data from hundreds of plants this has worked on,” answered Sasha in a reserved-but-enthusiastic manner.

  “The thing is,” said Leonid, “that Sasha thinks animal cells can also be made to develop faster with radiation.”

  “I have a proven scientific thesis and ready trial plans,” said Sasha, providing the answer to what Eddie was about to ask.

  “It could help us speed things up.” Leonid followed the line of thought.

  “It sounds very interesting,” Eddie said. “How can we collaborate, Sasha?”

  Sasha hesitated and Leonid answered in his stead, “We thought if Sasha joined our company, he would be able to help our progression and advance his thesis at the same time, and everyone would benefit.”

  “But surely Sasha is busy with his own company,” said Eddie.

  “I’m afraid I have run out of money,” answered Sasha lowly. “The technological business incubator where I work still lets me keep my lab, but I’ve been working for free for a few months and have come to the point where I have no more funds for materials. In all actuality the company has been frozen for two weeks now.”

  “Unfortunately we are nearing the end of our funds as well. I won’t bring you into the company’s financial troubles, Leonid, but we cannot afford to employ anyone else at this point.”

  “What a shame,” said Leonid, and the light in Sasha’s eyes that shone with enthusiasm while he was explaining the principles of his method died at once.

  An awkward silence fell across the room, and Eddie looked to the floor uncomfortably. Finally he made a suggestion:

  “I’ll tell you what we can do. I’m willing to give Sasha some space here at our lab and cover the cost of materials at a reasonable amount. I can’t offer you a salary for the upcoming year, Sasha. If you want we can draw up a contract that will protect your rights to any developments you make here, and if we find use for your technology for our developments, we will of course pay you for it. We’re planning to raise some funds in a few months, and then we’ll be able to hire you.”

  The two Russian engineers looked at each other for a minute. “It’s better than sitting at home doing nothing and watching years of my research go to waste,” said Sasha. “I accept.” And he reached out for a handshake.

  Eddie reached out his hand. “I’ll have to get my partner’s consent, but I don’t think that’ll be a problem. Congratulations.”

  “Thank you very much,” said Sasha, shaking Eddie’s hand with both palms for a long while.

  The company’s finances were getting worse and worse. The money reserves decreased every month and fundraising attempts with several venture capital funds were unsuccessful. Like lava flowing slowly down a moderate volcano slope, slowly enough that you can outrun it, but unstoppable. Nonetheless—the financial pressures threatened to bring down Ebocell-Tech and no solution was seen.

  Eddie’s decision to add Sasha to the company was met with resistance on Reuben’s part, and there was no rational argument Eddie could provide to contradict Reuben’s claims. Gracious-but-persistent calls from the bank reminding Eddie of Ebocell-Tech’s problematic financial situation which reinforced Reuben’s stance that hiring Sasha was a mistake.

  Eddie kept insisting it wasn’t. Though he wouldn’t admit it, he knew Reuben was right; but the ideals and principles he had been brought up with were too strong. He couldn’t refuse the request for help from a new immigrant and allow a man with his skills and education to roll around in the streets.

  “This wasn’t why your grandfather walked all the way from Russia to Israel,” his father Arye would have said if faced with the same dilemma. Reuben knew Eddie well enough by now to know that there was no point arguing with him over some matters, and at the end of an hour-long, exhausting conversation he silently agreed to take Sasha in.

  The Horowitz seed money was running out. At the rate they were using up the cash, the company only had three more months to exist. The lease on the house had to be renewed shortly. Having Sasha on board also caused an increase in expenses. They had to invest a few thousand shekels in electrical equipment to conduct the electromagnetic radiation experiments in a controlled environment. Only a few weeks in, the first results produced very positive indications. Reuben, who in hindsight enjoyed having a physicist on staff—especially at such low cost—collaborated with Sasha on developing mathematical models to predict the results of radiation on different DNA chains.

  Their creativity and ingenuity knew no bounds, but the alarming bank statements forced the two partners to invest most of their precious time and energy into fundraising. With no other choice they started an accelerated campaign, contacting venture funds with a constant sense of revulsion. Eddie and Reuben found themselves facing young guys, business-school graduates fresh from famous universities in the States who looked down with a considerable sense of superiority on the hi-tech directors and entrepreneurs who came begging for cash. They were young guys who had never developed or managed anything in their lives, but thought their impressive MBA degrees gave them superpowers in areas they had no experience in. They could spit out all the professional key words—from ‘full dilution’ to ‘full ratchet’ and ‘equity yield’, checking over and over the ‘upside’ that would come from the investment; yet they never dared to take the risk unless they already heard some other well-known player had decided to invest in the same company so as not to risk their reputation with an unwise move. Herd behavior was the name of the game. And yet it was abundantly clear that should the investment be successful their PR people would make sure their names would be all over the economy newspapers.

  “We need twelve more months of research, six on our lab rats and six on pigs, to prove feasibility,” Reuben explained to the potential investors, who merely shrugged their shoulders and said they would return once feasibility had been proven on pigs—or better yet, monkeys.

  “The best thing would be if you had FDA approval,” the venture capital investor said, dismissing them. Reuben and Eddie returned to their lab frustrated.

  “What kind of a venture are these funds taking if they’re only willing to invest once success is one hundred percent certain?” asked Eddie.

  “I know,” agreed Reuben. “Once we have the approval of the FDA and the Helsinki committee, they’ll all come runni
ng to us like a pack of dogs in heat to lure us with their generous investments.”

  “If we get to that point, we won’t need their favors,” said Eddie, stating the obvious.

  “We have to find a way to expedite the mice and pig trials. The investors aren’t willing to hear from us before that. At this point in the company’s life, the most sensible thing would be to ask for another owner loan from the current investors or to find an angle that’ll be convinced of our abilities,” said Reuben, repeating the mantra they both knew so well.

  “We’ve been over this, Reuben. I’m not going to go to Rose for another loan. You know having her as the sole funder is hard enough for me as it is.”

  “With all due respect to Rose, the funder was her father, may he rest in peace. Rose never intervened in the management of the company.”

  “Which is a good enough reason not to get her interested all of a sudden. I have a huge moral debt to Aubrey, we both do, and I don’t want to put Rose on the spot.”

  “Even if I were the one to approach her?”

  “Do me a favor, Reuben. We’ve talked about this so many times; don’t bring it up any more.”

  They drove on in silence for a few minutes and then Eddie said, “There’s only one way to do this.” He gripped the steering wheel so hard his knuckles became white.

  “Something we haven’t thought of?”

  “Something I’ve been thinking about for a few days now.”

  “Then I think it’s about time you shared your thoughts with me,” said Reuben, his spirits lifting.

  “To cut the whole process short and go straight to human trials.”

  “How exactly are you planning to do that? And on who?”

  “On myself,” answered Eddie curtly, without taking his eyes off the road.