Chapter 11

Xavier Fisher looked at his reflection in the bathroom mirror. He smiled at how tired he looked. For the last two and a half weeks, all he had done was work with Radford on his secret project, eat, sleep, and flirt with Michelle on the only three occasions he’d gotten to see her. He liked her. And he could tell she liked him back.

At first he was a little worried she was only being friendly because her tips depended partially on her charm. But lately, he thought she was giving him some extra smiles and, on two occasions, a free beer.

Fish told himself as soon as he was done with the project that was robbing him of any semblance of a private life, he would ask her out.

And besides, what he was feeling wasn’t the bad kind of tired, it was the other kind. He’d felt it before when taking pride at what a good job he’d done mowing the lawn. Or the time he’d helped his neighbors build a ramp for the veteran who’d come back from the war in a wheelchair. This was that kind of tired: The good kind, the exhaustion of accomplishment, the kind you took pride in.

The doorbell rang.

Fish was confused. Who on earth could be coming to see him at this time of night.

He came out of the bathroom and went down the hallway past his bedroom, into his living room, and looked at the digital clock on the stand next to the TV. It was eleven forty-one.

He went to the front door and looked out through the peephole.

Abdul Jasser was out in the hallway. He was pacing back and forth. He ran his hand through his hair. He turned and scowled at Fish’s door.

Fish stepped back from the door without a sound and tried to think. Did he really want to have to deal with an upset Abdul in the hallway of his apartment building at almost midnight? How about in his own apartment?

No on both counts.

So, Fish came up with a plan: pretend he wasn’t home; Abdul would leave; Fish would get a good night’s sleep; and they would talk about whatever the problem was in the morning. It was the perfect plan.

Fish tiptoed to the door and looked back through the peephole.

Abdul had his head bent down, pushing buttons on his cell phone. Who could he be calling this late?

Fish’s cell phone rang on the coffee table behind him and made him jump. There was no doubt in his mind Abdul had also heard it through the door from the hallway. So much for waiting until morning.

Fish let out a breath, took the chain off the latch, and turned the doorknob. He pulled the door open and saw Abdul staring at him with his cell phone still in his hand.

“Abdul, what’s wrong?”

“Did you know?”

“Know what?”

Abdul stared at Fish’s face and read his expression. He seemed genuinely confused. Abdul kept reading. Still confused. Abdul kept reading. Now, Fish was getting annoyed but he was still confused.

Abdul put his phone in his windbreaker’s front pocket and kept his hand in there. “Do you know what Radford is doing?”

“Are you kidding me?” Fish said. “Abdul, it’s almost midnight. I’ve got to be back at the lab by eight o’clock and I have to eat breakfast or my blood sugar screws with me and--”

“Fish, we need to speak.”

“Abdul, I told you when I started, I had to sign a nondisclosure agreement. Listen, the research I’m doing is going to be my thesis. I’ll make sure you’re the first one who reads it, I promise.”

Abdul laughed. Fish had heard him laugh before but it had never sounded like this. This wasn’t a laughter from fun, it was… almost hysterical.

Abdul stopped laughing. Whatever micro-fraction of a smile he’d had was also gone. “Let’s try this. I’ll do all the talking and you’ll do all the listening and when I’m finished, we can decide what to do next.”

Fish didn’t like any of it: that Abdul was here unannounced; that he was upset; and that he still had his hand in the front pocket of his windbreaker. But despite all those things, Fish stepped back and let Abdul into his apartment.

“Can I offer you a glass of water or something?” Fish said as Abdul went past him.

Abdul stared at him. He couldn’t believe Fish was pretending to be polite under the extreme circumstances. Even if he didn’t know what was going on, which Abdul couldn’t be sure, this was still no time for false etiquette. “I’m fine, thank you.”

Fish closed the door. “So, why don’t you tell me what’s going on?”

“Funny, I was about to ask you the same thing.”

“Abdul, you said you wanted to do all the talking. All I had to do was listen. Remember?”

“Of course,” Abdul said looking him over. “You look tired.”

“I feel tired. And I want to go to sleep as soon as I can so…”

“I understand. All right, to begin with, I know what you’re doing.”

“Really? Dr. Radford told you? I’m not surprised, the more people who help the sooner we’ll be done.”

“Oh, in a hurry, are you?”

Fish realized Abdul hadn’t actually said what Fish and Radford were doing; he only said he knew. It occurred to Fish that Abdul might be trying to trick him into violating his nondisclosure agreement. And that would wreck his future. “Abdul, I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

Abdul thought it over and slowly started nodding his head. “Yes. You’re right, I should leave. But I think you should come with me.”

“I just got home! I’m tired! And I have to get up early tomorrow and get back to work!”

“No, my friend,” Abdul said shaking his head. “You’re not going back to work.”

“Really? You’re going to get me fired and replace me? Is that the plan?”

With one hand still in his windbreaker’s front pocket Abdul said, “I’ve already gone to the FBI.”

Fish was shocked. Then confused. “So?”

Abdul was apoplectic. “So? So? That’s all you have to say?”

“Why would the FBI care?”

“Why?” Abdul stopped himself. He looked Fish over. He considered everything he knew about his coworker and came to a conclusion. “You’ve no idea.”

“No idea about what?”

“What you’re doing!”

“Of course I know what I’m doing! I’ve been doing it for three weeks!”

“Fish, you’re making a hybrid super-virus that will lead to a worldwide pandemic!”

Fish was shocked. At first, he could think of anything to say. After a few more seconds of stunned silence he finally said, “Please tell me that isn’t what you told the FBI.”

“Of course it is,” Abdul lied. The truth was he wanted someone to go with him to the FBI. Someone who wasn’t a Muslim male in his late twenties and originally from Saudi Arabia.

Fish slapped his own forehead. He took a couple of deep breaths and said, “Can you call them back and tell them you made a horrible mistake?”

“Fish, come clean. What the hell do you think you’re doing over there?”

“I know I’ve mentioned this a few times but I’ll repeat myself. I signed a nondisclosure agreement about what I’m doing. But I think I can say I’m doing pretty much the complete and total opposite of what you’re accusing me of.”

“Really? And Radford?”

“Yes, and Radford.”

“You two are working on the project together?”

“Yes.”

“And he’s with you all the time?”

“Y--” Fish stopped himself. His NDA said he wasn’t allowed to say what he was working on; it didn’t say he couldn’t say how he was working on it. “He’s there when I start, tells me what he wants, then he leaves. He comes back just before lunch to look over what I’ve done. I go eat. I come back, he’s there. We go over what he wants and he leaves while I do it. He comes back to check. Sometimes, he’s satisfied with what I’ve done. Sometimes, I have to change a few things before I move on to the next assignment.”

“What does he do when he’s not with you?”

“How the hell am I supposed to know? He’s not with me!”

Abdul nodded. “All right, all right, fair enough. Would you like me to tell you what he does when you’re not around?”

“How would you even know?”

“Because I hacked into his computer.”

Fish slapped his forehead again. “Oh, my God. You didn’t say that. You didn’t say that. I didn’t hear that. That never happened.”

“I hacked into his computer.”

“Abdul, please, you have to stop saying that.”

“He’s making a hybrid virus. If I had to guess I would say last year’s flu and something that’s so awful, I’ve never seen anything like it before.”

Fish sat down on his couch and covered his face with both of his hands.

Abdul looked at him from a few feet away with one of his hands still in the front pocket of his windbreaker. “Well?”

Fish put his hands down and looked up at him. “Well, what?”

“What are you going to do about this?”

“What would you like me to do?”

“I want you to come with me to the FBI and tell them what is happening.”

“You already did that.” Fish looked at Abdul looking back at him. “Didn’t you?”

Abdul tried to keep his expression neutral but the truth was, he wasn’t much of a liar and it showed on his face.

Fish noticed the change. It seemed to go from anger combined with righteous indignation to a combination of fear mixed with shame. “So what did the FBI say when you admitted to breaking the law and hacking into Radford’s computer? Is that a federal crime or a local one?”

Abdul was caught in a lie. He decided not to get caught in another one and wanted to come clean. “Fish, you have to understand--”

“You son of a bitch!”

“What?”

“You want me to go to the FBI! You want me to break my nondisclosure agreement! You want me to get fired and not get my PHD and destroy my future! And then you take my place on the project!”

“You’re bloody mad!”

“And you’re a backstabbing sack of shit!”

Abdul pulled his empty hand out of his windbreaker and held both of them up defensively. “Xavier, please, upon my word of honor--”

“Your word of what?”

“Honor! I’ve never been dishonorable with you, nor anyone else!”

“Oh, okay. So it was honorable of you to lie to me and say you went to the feds.”

“Xavier, I’m a Saudi-Brit Muslim. If I go to the FBI with something like this they’ll lock me up and take their bloody time sorting it out.”

“Wow. That was great. You come to America and talk shit about the people whose job it is to keep us safe. That was super honorable. And by the way, I’ll put the human rights record of the FBI up against the human rights record of the religious enforcement police in Saudi Arabia any day of the week.”

Abdul took a deep breath. “There is no comparison between the two agencies which is why I, and as many Saudis as can, come to this country instead of staying back home. This conversation had taken an offensive turn and for that I am truly sorry.”

The truth was Fish didn’t want to argue with him either. “Fine, you’re forgiven. But I’m not going to the FBI.”

“Fish--”

“Abdul, it’s not even on the table.”

Abdul stood there and thought for a few seconds. “What if I could prove to you that I’m right?”

“Good God, if you can prove to me I’m creating a pandemic, I’ll do whatever I have to do to stop it. Including going to the FBI with you.”

Finally, Abdul smiled. “Excellent, let’s go!”

“Go where?”

“I know where you’ve been working. And I also know about the second, secret location.”