The Basketball
Constantinople - August 2
“Yet another bad day for the stock market as the Industrial Average plunges nine hundred points in just two hours,” the reporter said, “As the downward trend observed over the last two fiscal quarters seems to have continued with no indication of changing, most economists have acknowledged the Reich has entered an economic recession.”
Anders sat at the dinner table, wringing his hands and looking at the letter in front of him.
“Goddamnit,” he muttered, “How could it have come to this?”
Diana, sitting next to him, was also as concerned.
“How long do you think the furlough will last?” she said.
“I don’t know,” Anders said, “They didn’t give a date.”
He slammed his fist on the table. “It’s those Schmitz executives. They bought us out and want to silence us now. Silence me. I’m not about to let them. I need to call Theresa to write an exposé on them.”
“Anders, calm down,” Diana said, “We’ve been through much worse before. We can get through this as well.”
“We can’t live on your salary and the money from the al-Dud case forever,” Anders said, “You know full well how long that will last us.”
Diana thought for a moment. “...three months.”
“Frak,” Anders said, “We may have been able to handle this if it was twenty years ago and just the two of us, but we have Alex now, and we’re getting old. This isn’t going to work.”
“Anders, please just calm down,” Diana said, “If we just plan things out I’m sure we can last until Alex gets a job or your furloughing ends.”
“And what if Alex doesn’t get a job?” Anders said, his voice rising. “What if the furloughing lasts longer than we expect? What if they fire me? What then? Come on, you have the answer! Tell me!”
“It...it doesn’t work like that,” Diana said.
“To hell with that!” Anders said. “You’re just afraid to share what you’ve learned of the future! Of our future! Of Alex’s future!”
“I didn’t want to create a self fulfilling prophecy!” Diana said.
“But you could do so much with that!” Anders said. “We could save lives, uncover more conspiracies like Sentinel, arrest the perpetrators before they hurt people!”
“And what kind of ethical can of worms would that open up?” Diana said. “I thought you were concerned about that when Cigarette Guy and Pavel were doing it.”
“I...what...uh...no, you misunderstand...” Anders said. “We could...at least use it to protect ourselves and Alex.”
“And what about Annie, Anna, Walter, Angie, Alexandra, and Olga?” Diana said. “And their own friends and family? And anybody they are connected to? What of them? I don’t want to go down that slippery slope. Especially after what I saw.”
Anders looked at Diana. “What...did you see?”
“How we die,” Diana said, “And I know there’s no way I can change that. No matter what I do, that’s how we’re going to end up. And whatever happens to Alex afterward...I can’t protect him from that. And what he does as a result of that...he’s already on track towards it. And I hate that I know that. You don’t want to know.”
Anders looked back at the letter.
“How did we even get here?” he asked.
“Beats me, I can't look back,” Diana said, “Forty years ago, we were just struggling field agents straight out of the Athanatoi academy. And here we are, a Director and her reporter husband, because of a damned basketball.”
“How about a reporter and his Director wife?” Anders said.
“Same thing,” Diana said.
“Isn’t that a conflict of interest?” Anders said.
“Not if I don’t share classified information,” Diana said, snickering.
“I guess so...” Anders said. “So anyways, how do we move forward from here?”
Diana took a piece of scrap paper and began scribbling a list. “Alright, we have this much money right now. Over here are our expenses. Now with a very carefully tuned budget, if we eliminate these expenses and reduce those, we may be able to last a year.”
“My streaming subscription!” Anders said. “Not my Star Trek!”
“I thought you weren’t watching,” Diana said, “Your exact words were 'not my Star Trek'."
“Alex watches,” Anders said.
“Well, he’s going to have to do without streaming for some time,” Diana said, “We have no other choice but to eliminate unnecessary expenses.”
Constantinople - August 4, 5:04 PM
Alex reached a crosswalk. Across the street, he saw a bus approaching, the one he needed to take home. He jabbed the crosswalk button, hoping the signal would turn green to let him cross. But as the bus drew closer, he realized he wouldn’t reach it in time. First checking to see if the other cars were far away enough, he threw caution to the wind and decided to cross. Of course, just as he began running across the street, an electric moped rounded the corner.
“Scheiße,” he said.
He tried jumping out the way, but the rider had the same idea and swerved, hitting him anyways. The moped slammed into Alex, knocking the wind out of him. He fell back onto the sidewalk and could only watch as the bus reached his stop and then drove away. The moped rider got off and ran over to him.
“Oh no!” she said. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t see you there!”
“Owwwww,” Alex said, rubbing his head, “It’s my fault really, I was jaywalking and should’ve seen it…”
The rider took off her helmet and goggles and flung her long black hair to the side, and Alex was immediately lovestruck by her beautiful face. He was captivated by the young woman standing before him, although she looked absolutely terrified.
“…seen it coming,” Alex stammered, “I was…I…yeah…uh…”
The rider helped him to his feet. “You okay? Did I hurt you? Frak, I’m an idiot.”
Alex brushed himself off and regained his composure, trying his best not to blush.
“No, I’m fine,” he said, “Might have a slight headache, but nothing’s broken. Been through much worse before.”
“Wait a minute…” the rider said. “I think recognize you. Alex Humboldt-Frank? Son of Director Diana Frank?”
“Yeah, that’s me,” Alex said, “I don’t particularly revel in it though. But thanks for using my full last name. Not many people remember that these days. Surprised you recognized me.”
“I totally understand,” the rider said, covering her face and blushing, “I’m pretty embarrassed right now.”
They shook hands.
“And you are?” Alex said.
“Uh, my name’s Dorothea, but everyone calls me Thea,” Thea said, “Let me make it up to you.”
“Oh, no, it’s fine,” Alex said, “I won’t press charges, okay?”
“I insist on it,” Thea said, “How about I treat you to dinner? Tomorrow night at 7, uh…how about Les Halles?”
“Les Halles?” Alex said. “That fancy French place on Johan and Park? I honestly don’t have any clothes nice enough for it.”
Thea smiled and put her helmet and goggles back on.
“Don’t worry, Alex, I’ll take care of it,” she said, “Just show up. So it’s a date?”
“Uh, um, yeah, sure,” Alex stammered, “I mean great! Yeah! I’ll see you then.”
Les Halles - August 5, 6:50 PM
The sun disappeared behind the skyscrapers of downtown Constantinople, covering the Park and Johan streets in shade. Alex got off his bus and stood in front of the Les Halles restaurant, marveling at the Strauss playing from the loudspeakers, the candles and multiple utensils placed at every table, and the fancy clothes of everyone eating inside. He looked down at his own casual clothes. He was no stranger to luxury, having been at the Kaiser’s funeral as well as a bunch of his parents’ awards ceremonies, but that was before the recession, and he had never been to a restaurant this fancy. The Arcadia suited him when he wanted to eat a good steak. He sighed to himself. Thea was too insistent yesterday. There was no turning her down now. He went inside, and a butler greeted him.
“Welcome to Les Halles,” he said, “Master Humboldt-Frank.”
“Uh, master?” Alex said.
“That is your name, right?” the butler said.
“Yeah, let’s just stick with Alex,” Alex said.
“As you wish, Master Alex,” the butler said.
Alex wanted to scream.
The butler led him to a fitting room and took Alex’s light jacket. He pulled out a set of formal clothes from a box on the table and helped Alex change into them. After changing, Alex took a moment to look at himself in the mirror.
“Looking cool, Alex,” he said to himself.
If only Chris and Rahul were here. Although Chris didn’t particularly like bragging or fancy clothes. Now that he thought about it, Rahul didn’t either. He followed the butler to a table where he saw Thea wearing an elegant purple dress and blushed. Alex sat next to her, and a waiter set down cups of sparkling water.
“You made it,” Thea said.
“Uh, yeah,” Alex said, “Thought I was going to be late because the traffic jam, butI’mherenowandthat’swhatmattersokayalsoyoulookgreat—”
“Uh, thanks,” Thea said, “And don’t worry, I’m a little nervous too. I’m actually a big fan of your mother. Followed a lot of her recent cases. Like the Frankfurt terrorist attacks you were a hostage in.”
“Really?” Alex said. “Huh. Well, honestly, I wish you probably didn’t see that. It’s not my proudest moment.”
“It’s okay, you had no say in it,” Thea said, “If I may ask, what do you plan on doing now?”
“Well…uh…” Alex said. “I just graduated but with the recession and all…”
“What do you mean?” Thea said.
“Let’s say things aren’t going well for my family,” Alex said.
Thea placed her hand on Alex’s. “Tell me. What’s the problem?”
“We got hit hard by the recession,” Alex said, “I’ve had to put my dreams on hold to support my parents through it.”
“That's not fair,” Thea said.
The waiter returned with two silver platters.
“Pardon me, Frau Tesla,” he said, “Your main course.”
He took the covers off and left.
“Wait, Tesla?” Alex said. “As in Theodor Tesla?”
“Yeah, that’s my big brother,” Thea said
“No way!” Alex said.
“I’m serious!” Thea said. “You want to meet him?”
“Wait, really?” Alex said.
“Yep,” Thea said, “I can fly you out tomorrow.”
Tesla Dynamic, Frankfurt - August 6, 10:00 AM
As expected, his parents were frustrated by Alex’s sudden change in plans, but thanks to the very detailed schedule Thea generously provided, he made up an excuse of getting an interview on site at Tesla Dynamic and not getting notified until the day before. Diana was suspicious of how organized and detailed the schedule was, but by then Alex was on a private flight westward. And now here he was, sweating profusely in the presence of Theodor Tesla while they and Thea entered a target range. But there was nobody firing at the targets. Instead, a large armed drone had been set up.
“Observe,” Theodor said.
He pushed a button, and the targets began moving around the room and hiding behind obstacles. The drone snapped to attention, its lights flashing red. It opened fire, not with a steady stream of bullets like from a machine gun but slow and methodical bursts. Each burst of bullets hit and destroyed a target until most of them were on the ground. The drone switched off.
“So, what do you think of this demonstration?” Theodor said. “I have to tell you this is only a grounded prototype and we’re still ironing out some bugs. Especially in the part of the code where we’re integrating Panopticon connectivity.”
When Thea asked him to meet her brother, Alex did not expect an overwhelming show of force with state of the art military technology. All he wanted was a nice light lunch with some coffee and a friendly discussion about life and current events. Not Theodor Tesla implicitly threatening to have him riddled full of bullets from an AI-controlled drone for laying eyes on his sister.
“It’s, uh, very…impressive, Herr Tesla, even for a prototype,” Alex stammered.
“Please, call me Theodor,” Theodor said, “So I understand you’re dirt poor.”
What did he just call him? Alex instinctively wanted to punch him in the face. He wasn’t really poor by any means, just in a bad financial situation. But he really didn’t want to jeopardize his job or dating prospects, so he kept quiet.
“Eh, well…yeah,” Alex said.
“Don’t worry, Thea told me about it,” Theodor said, “To be honest, I never would’ve expected the Director of the Athanatoi and the reporter who leaked the Sentinel files to have money issues, but then again this is a recession. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. I remember when I had my fair share of financial hardship. It was when Thea and I were little kids. The Red Army Faction, in one of its last attacks before it disbanded, murdered our parents. Thea was maybe one or two at the time. Now, as much as I like to call myself the nephew of Wilhelm Tesla, I’m really a very distant relative, far from inheriting the family fortune. We could barely pay for school. But I was fortunate enough that Wilhelm Tesla found me. After a particularly intense science fair, he showed up at our place and said I showed potential. On the spot he practically adopted me and Thea as his own children. And here I am, many years later, rebuilding Tesla Dynamic after old Willy went mad.”
“Theo, please stop bragging!” Thea said. “Just get to the good news!”
So the richest man in the nation was called Theo by his little sister. Alex made a note to remember that so he could use it later.
“Ha ha, very funny, sis,” Theodor said.
“Uh, what good news?” Alex said.
“So Thea emailed me your resume, and I was looking over it yesterday,” Theodor said.
Alex looked at Thea. “That’s why you asked me to email you my resume?”
Thea shrugged. “I mean, wasn’t it obvious?”
“Now that you bring that up, yeah, it kind of was,” Alex.
Thea laughed. Theodor placed a hand on Alex’s shoulder.
“Well, my little sister here passionately told me all about your dream to be a physicist and your family’s current financial stumbling block,” Theodor said, “I like what I saw in your resume too. That schematic you drew is possibly game changing. I see a lot of potential in a young man like you and I would hate to see you stuck in dead end jobs for the rest of your formative years, so I’m going to hire you right now!”
“ARE YOU SERIOUS?!” Alex said, completely shocked.
“He’s serious!” Thea beamed. “My brother’s writing up the paperwork as we speak.”
“That—that’s good news!” Alex said. “I can’t believe it!”
“Now it may not be a truly physics-related job, I have to make clear, but it will be a fulfilling one and a…stimulating experience that only Tesla Dynamic can provide,” Theodor said, “There’s just one catch.”
“What is it?” Alex said.
“Treat my sister right,” Theodor said, his tone suddenly growing threatening, “Or else your finances will be the least of your worries.”
He gestured to the turret, which coincidentally annihilated yet another line of targets. Alex gulped nervously. He looked at Thea and then back at Theodor.
“Uh, yes, definitely!” Alex enthusiastically said, shaking Theodor’s hand. “I’ll swear it on my blood if I have to!”
Thea and Theodor both laughed.
“Thank you both so much!” Alex said. “I promise to make the most of this opportunity! I won’t let you down!”
“That’s the spirit!” Theodor said.
Constantinople - August 7, 6:00 PM
Yesterday was certainly a...weird day. But no amount of Theodor saber rattling with an automated machine gun turret could prepare Alex for today, because Theodor had suggested Alex return the favor and invite Thea over to his own house for dinner. Alex wasn’t about to defy the richest man in the world over something so trivial, so here he was, scared out of his wits at the dinner table. Anders was still reading more of his letters about the furlough, while Diana scanned Thea like a hawk sizing up prey. Alex tried his best to eat normally.
“So...” Anders finally said. “You guys met literally three days ago?”
“Yeah,” Thea said.
“How?” Anders said.
“She ran me over on her moped,” Alex said.
Diana couldn’t help but snicker.
“Reminds me of how I met Anders,” she said.
“Oh no, not this story again,” Anders said.
“What story?” Thea said. “I’m interested.”
“So there I was in the academy, studying for class like any good student would,” she said, stealing a glance at Anders as she said the last few words, “I was in the courtyard, when suddenly this basketball just slams into my back. I looked at the basketball court, and there was Anders, trying to pin the blame on his friends. But it was quite obvious to me Anders did it. He was red as a beet.”
“It was a lucky guess,” Anders said.
“You ran over and begged my forgiveness!” Diana said.
“Because I was scared of your mom!” Anders said. “We all were!”
“One thing led to another and he insisted on treating me to dinner,” Diana said, “We broke up a few years later but that’s irrelevant.”
“Please stop sharing that story,” Anders said, "And adding that at the end."
“No,” Diana said, “Oh, and speaking of moms...you know Anders’ mom is Elisabeth Tesla?”
“Uncle Wilhelm’s sister?” Thea said.
“So apparently Wilhelm Tesla is my dad’s uncle more than Theodor’s,” Alex joked.
Thea snickered. “What does that make us then?”
“You’re a distant relative,” Alex said.
“So how was the interview?” Diana asked.
“It went great,” Alex said, still picking at his food.
“Come on, you’re not going to tell them the news?” Thea said.
“Alright, alright,” Alex said, “Theo hired me.”
“Hired you?!” Anders said.
“Theo?!” Diana said.
“Yeah, terrific isn’t it?” Alex said.
“Three days ago, if you told me you had a rich girlfriend and a job at Tesla Dynamic I’d have called you crazy,” Anders said, “And you know me, I don’t usually use that word. Looks like you had your own basketball incident.”
“Wait, hold on,” Diana said, “There’s something missing here. Something important. Something very suspicious about all this...”
She looked straight at Thea.
“Uh, what do you mean?” Thea said.
“You call your brother Theo?” Diana finally said.
Everyone burst into laughter.
