Window, Part 1
Frankfurt General Hospital - June 27, 2009, 12:05 AM
A paramedic rushed Mina into the hospital on a stretcher and to the emergency room, where a doctor and his team waited.
“Gunshot wound, left-upper quadrant, possible hemothorax,” she said, “BP is dropping, 80 over 50. Pulse 120.”
“Breath sounds?” the doctor asked.
“Decreased on the left side, labored but stable,” the paramedic said.
“Get me a chest scan,” the doctor said.
“Doctor, there’s something else,” the paramedic said, pointing to Mina’s damaged robot arm.
Strasburg field office - 6:00 AM
Diana ran into the situation room as quickly as she could and found Erich and Kurtz by a desk.
“I just heard about Mina,” she said, “Do we know who shot her?”
“We’re trying to figure that out,” Erich said, “The security guard and doorman are dead. No ID on the gunman.”
“Will she be…” Diana said.
“…too early to say,” Kurtz said.
Angela and Anders walked into the room.
“No official statement from Tesla Dynamic or Wilhelm Tesla,” Angela said.
“That's no surprise,” Anders said, “If they say the COO was shot, their stock will take a hit.”
Louise pointed to a monitor. “Hey, we just got the security footage.”
They crowded around the monitor. In the footage, masked men shot everybody in the lobby with silenced weapons. Two of them remained behind to take the place of the guard and doorman, while the rest went upstairs.
“We had video tech assemble the three video cameras,” Louise said, “They shoot the night guy, they replace him… then this guy comes in and they all head upstairs.”
Mina walked into view and greeted the “doorman.”
“Mina Schaefer comes in six minutes later,” Louise said.
Another monitor showed Mina being shot in the elevator.
“Then it goes black for four minutes,” Louise said.
“What did they do to her?” Diana said.
“Take out…do it here,” a garbled voice said, “Take out the…we can do it here.”
“Whatever it was, it only took them four minutes,” Kurtz said.
“Who is he?” Anders said.
“Can we enhance what he said?” Louise said.
“Sure,” a technician said.
“Take out the camera,” a weak voice said, “We can do it here. Take out the camera. We can do it here. Take out the camera. We can do it here.”
“Run it through voice recognition,” Angela said.
“Take out the camera,” David Jansen said, “We can do it here.”
“It’s him,” Anders said, pointing at his image on the screen, “David Jansen.”
“Why is he wearing bandages and the others are wearing masks?” Angela said.
“Not easy to walk around when you're on half the world's watchlist,” Erich said, “Maybe he's recently tried to change his appearance.”
“But our information suggests he’s working for Tesla,” Diana said, “So why shoot Mina? It doesn't make any sense.”
“Maybe our information is wrong,” Kurtz said.
“Why don't we go straight to the source and bring Wilhelm Tesla in for questioning now?” Anders said.
“At this point, I don't think…” Kurtz said.
“We have solid intelligence Wilhelm Tesla is funding these horrific events that we've seen, most of which have been carried out by Jansen,” Anders said.
“I'm not…” Kurtz said.
“...at this point, I don't care how powerful Wilhelm Tesla or his family is or how deep his political connections go, he is not above the law,” Angela said.
“Agents,” Kurtz said.
“Sir, with all due respect, we have too much in this, professionally and personally, that if you stand in the way now…” Anders said.
“Agents!” Kurtz snapped. “I came in here to make the calls I need in order to get the interview we all agree is necessary. And I would also request both of you stop cutting me off every time I'm about to tell you to stop drilling, you've struck oil, as I was going to do when we first came through that door.”
He answered his phone and listened. He nodded and put it down.
“Mina Schaefer is out of surgery,” he said.
Walter’s lab - 7:00 AM
Anna entered the lab and found Olga waiting on the couch, very hungover.
“Heeeey,” she said.
“Hey, where’s Walter?” Anna asked.
“With you?” Olga said. “I meaan, he’s aaalways there…”
“I went to check on him this morning, his bed wasn't even slept in,” Anna said, “I thought he'd worked here all night.”
“Thought heeee went hoooome with you laaaast night,” Olga said.
Anders entered the lab.
“Hey, Angie needs to talk to Walter,” he said, “She and Di are flying up to Frankfurt and needs to talk to you about David Jansen’s next move.”
“Yeah, take a number,” Anna said.
“Anna, this is not the time for your shenanigans!” Anders said.
“I don’t know where he is!” Anna said.
“I’ll…chhhhhhheck cafeteeeeeeria, seeeeee if heeee slllllept therrrrre agaaaaain,” Olga said, teetering off.
Anna turned to Anders. “Why’s Angie going up to Frankfurt?”
“David Jansen shot Mina,” Anders said, “I wanted to see if…”
Anna took out her phone and dialed a number.
“Hi, it's Anna Humboldt,” she said, “I was wondering if you maybe have an eye on my father? He wondered off again. … Yeah. Look, can you do me a favor? Could you go check down in the marine biology lab? He sometimes spends the night down there, cleaning out the tanks with Frau Erlinger. No, I'll wait, I’ll wait. Thank you.”
She hung up.
“Angie tells me she might have pressed Walter too hard last night,” Anders said, “Do you think he left because of what she said?”
“You mean because of what he is referring to as 'the assault in the pastry shop’?” Anna said. “I don't know, it's hard to say.”
“It was about Cortexiphan, Tesla’s trials,” Anders said, “Angie wanted to see if Walter knew what Tesla did to her.”
“I know, he told me,” Anna said, “Angie caught him off guard. And I understand Angie had her reasons for saying what she said. And I know he understands that too.”
Olga returned to the lab. “Heeee's noooooot theeeeeere. Noooo onnnnne's seeeeeeeen hiiiiiim.”
Anna’s phone rang. “Hello? No luck, huh? Okay, well thanks for your help.”
She hung up.
“Look, sis, Angie’s sorry,” Anders said, “She’s sorry she was so hard on him.”
“Don't worry about it,” Anna said, “He's probably back at the hotel right now, working his way to the bottom of a pint of rocky road.”
Gravesite, just outside Mainz
Wilhelm waited near the road while Walter walked into the abandoned cemetery.
Frankfurt General Hospital - 9:00 AM
Mina woke up in a hospital bed. She immediately checked her cybernetic arm, which was still severely damaged. It had been turned off.
“I think to repair that, one requires a special skill set,” Erich said, walking into the room.
“Director,” Mina said.
“You've been shot,” Erich said, “We discovered it was Jansen. You're lucky. Not too many gunshot victims have come through this way have Kevlar parts in their rib cage. You'll be up and about in no time. What did he want, Mina? What did he do to your arm?”
“Get me my cousin and Agent Hansen,” Mina said, “I need to speak with them right away.”
“They’re on their way from the airport now,” Erich said.
Intersection of Schloßstrasse, Adalbertstrasse, and Nauheimerstrasse, downtown Frankfurt - 9:15 AM
David and his team, wearing construction outfits, stopped a truck in the middle of the intersection and began setting up equipment.
Frankfurt General Hospital - 9:30 AM
Angela and Diana walked into Mina’s room, where Erich sat in a chair while Tesla Dynamic specialists repaired Mina’s arm.
“I'll be right with you, Di,” Mina said, “And Angela.”
“Let's just say this treatment doesn't fall under the standard Imperial Health Service coverage,” Erich said.
Mina smiled. The specialists finished their work, and Mina exercised the arm. Then she got up and walked over to Angela and Diana.
“Wilhelm Tesla is not the problem, and he's certainly not the head of a terrorist organization,” Mina said, “If he was, I would’ve known about it.”
“Well, we’ll make that judgment,” Diana said.
“It’s true Jansen used to work for Wilhelm Tesla 15 years ago,” Mina said, “In fact, he was brought over from one of the small biotech firms we bought after the Eurisko acquisition. But he was let go.”
“Why?” Angela said.
“The details are not important,” Mina said, “Suffice to say Jansen felt spurned by the rejection. Wilhelm was a father figure to him, a respected mentor. I would go as far as to say that all the death and destruction that Jansen has caused up until this point has been a way of proving something to Wilhelm.”
“To prove what?” Angela said.
“Jansen always felt he was special and no one recognized it, certainly not Wilhelm,” Mina said, “Only Glocke acknowledged him for what he was, gave him the tools to prove it.”
“So before the shooting, when was the last time you saw David Jansen?” Diana said.
“Oh, I haven't seen him for years,” Mina said, “But after he broke out of prison, he was contacting our offices, requesting meetings with Tesla. Over the past few weeks, his calls became rather extreme.”
“You've been in contact with a known terrorist?” Angela said.
“It was an internal matter,” Mina said, “Clearly we thought we could manage this better than we actually did. He wants to find Tesla and presumably kill him.”
“Then Tesla needs to come in,” Diana said, “We need to put him into protective custody.”
“Not possible, Di,” Mina said.
“Why not?” Angela said. “Where is he?”
“I can't say,” Mina said.
“Frak you, Mina, this is getting ridiculous!” Diana said.
“Listen to me,” Mina said, “I can't say because I don't know. I haven't seen Wilhelm Tesla in several months. He's been communicating with me strictly electronically. But what I do know, though... is speaking with Wilhelm Tesla has become more than a professional matter for you. In fact, I'm counting on that. Stop Jansen, and I will personally arrange a meeting with him. But if Jansen gets to him first, I'm afraid all the answers you're searching for will die with him.”
“What did Jansen want from you?” Angela said. “What did he do to you in the elevator?”
Mina looked at her arm. “He stole a very powerful... energy cell Tesla used to power my arm.”
“What can he do with it?” Angela said.
“Like most questions we at Tesla Dynamic ask ourselves, unfortunately, I think the question is, what can’t he do?” Mina said.
Frankfurt intersection
David’s team activated the equipment, generating a loud sonic pitch which forced nearby pedestrians to cover their ears.
“Coordinate tracking is complete, sir,” one of his aides said, “You can increase sonic frequency. It's locked in.”
David hit the device. “Stabilize, damn it.”
A large shimmering window appeared in the middle of the intersection. Looking through, David could see the street, but there were several slight differences. It was like looking at the same street at a different time. He also saw a big rig truck driving straight for the window.
“The coordinates are separating, sir,” the aide said, “It's not working, they're still separating. We're losing it. We can't hold it open.”
The truck drove through the rift, and the window closed when it was halfway through, shearing off the back of the trailer. The cab and the trailer front careened into traffic, striking a car and skidding to a halt just feet from David.
“It's too thick here,” he said, removing his glasses and exposing his scarred face, “These are the wrong coordinates. Let’s try again.”
