Twenty-Nine Cozy Bears

32

Tehran, Iran

Activity, peopling though the area, paced and bumped and sifted and queried the library space. Voices barked orders or discussed evidence in hushed tones — what was discovered, and what was suspected. Around him, outside of the office he commandeered, people of all types moved around the common area. The double doors separating this area from the rest of the library were objects of interest with the scars and bullet holes. Emergency responders: medics, police and fire fighters filed through, most of them having no other purpose but to bear witness.

The man had leaned back in his chair, and closed his eyes. His ears still rang with a steady tone, but he could string thoughts together to form subjects and ideas now. The sound of a large horse snorting — or rather something made a sound that reminded him of a large horse snorting. He let the oddity roll across his mind, and dissipate. Five minutes later something sounded like a horse stomping in the sleet and mud.

The man opened his eyes, recognized the Cleric Reza entering his room through the main door and he stood from his desk chair to honor and greet the elder man.

"Please, Major, sit down. I have brought something to eat and coffee. How are you feeling?"

"Tired, mainly, sir," he said, as he sat back down into the leather office chair.

"You should be, it is almost one in the morning. No bumps or bruises?"

"Well, there is the ringing in my ears. But that means I didn't burst a drum," the man noted.

"Yes, I heard descriptions of the show, enough complaints about the disruption that I'm surprised I didn't hear it myself across town."

"It is our pleasure to entertain," the man said, as he leaned back in the chair, his voice wry and dry. It was a comfortable chair he admitted. Nothing like the bare wood chairs at his desk in Moscow.

"Do you mind debriefing me now or would you rather go through it in the morning?" the cleric asked.

"Best to do it tonight while it is fresh. I might sleep late," he said.

"Where is Captain Jamshidi?"

He looked around for Sara, out through the glass partitions and sifted the personnel and investigators, but did not locate her. "I'm not sure. She called your people in, and then went out the back emergency exit to meet up with them. She may have gone home."

"Home? Oh, her room. I'll call her later." the elder said as he set two shawarma wraps on a paper plate and a cup of coffee in front of him. Then he set to preparing himself a snack as well.

The man began his report from the time after the last prayer. Isha, he believed it was called, which happened near eight-thirty pm. He took a short break then, and did a couple of push-up reps, and drank two glasses of water. Then he sat back down and began working on his project again.

"Sara left, to get some sleep. Then she called about eleven o'clock and said that she got hungry and asked if I was hungry as well. So I ordered some food. "

He then described the air-pressure changes inside the building when the front door was opened, and the described how that effect had given him warning that someone came in behind Sara,

"Did you know they were armed?" Cleric Reza asked him.

The man nodded, "Saw them near the front door through the security cameras."

"Oh, good. I'll need to remember to fetch that vid out," he said. "And so you put together this ad-hoc defense and alarm program?"

"No, that's actually what I was working on. It is part of a larger experiment and what happened was not really planned. I just noticed that all of the components I needed were in place. It is a personal project, and not ready to show anyone. But for this purpose, your phrasing is just as accurate."

The elder cleric listened and nodded his understanding, though the motion was lackluster, as if there wasn't quite enough energy for belief or trust. Once the explanation was complete the elder pursed his lips and lowered his eyes to the desktop as if choosing to meditate or use this moment to fall into deep thought.

After a long pause that the man didn't feel the need to interrupt, Cleric Reza said, "There were five men who came in to the library, and we assume for brevity's sake that they came for you, or your team. Only four left the building under their own strength and power. At least two of the others were significantly wounded." He looked up to the man and raised his left eyebrow, "Why don't you tell me a little more about what you had the components for, and what plan you had for them?"