Dareen, nearly spread-eagled with her hands and feet working the levers, looked up at the ceiling. She didn't want to think of these men looking while she was so much on display up here in the big glass case. She was beginning to wonder about them. There was not the friendliness of Colonel Mike and his team. The atmosphere was different.
Finally she looked down. Mr. Nedrow had approached closer and was right down under her, looking up past her spread crotch, right in between her widely-spread legs. With disgust Dareen considered that he looked almost like she was spreading her legs so that he could jump up and lick her vagina. And if he was any closer her breasts would have obstructed her view of his face. It was very unpleasant. His glasses glinted in the strong light. She decided she didn't like this man.
"You may rest now, Ms. Alkaras." His voice was mellow smooth.
Dareen stopped pushing and pulling. The big room again went to half dark. She started to hop off the bars but Mr. Nedrow motioned for her to stay on.
"We would like to ask you some further questions, Ms. Alkaras." He motioned to an assistant. A large flat screen next to him, which Dareen had not particularly noticed, came on. There was static and then a grainy picture of her leaning against a concrete wall on a sunny day.
Dareen's puzzlement turned into longing as she saw the bulky T-shirt, unbuttoned sweater and jeans and sneakers she was wearing. Her toes, curled around the lower bars, squirmed. She looked down and considered Mr. Nedrow and his assistants. Feeling their gaze on her breasts and crotch, she had the urge to cover those parts of her with her hands but suppressed it.
"This, Ms. Alkaras, is you, only moments before the pulse bomb went off over Atlanta this past summer." The film played on, of Dareen looking up at the sky with concern. "Did you know that it was coming? You certainly look like you did."
Dareen's mind was disoriented by her nudity, by her total exposure, by a feeling of dread and unreality that was coming over her. "Where did you get that picture?"
"The police precinct surveillance camera, of course. I see you are suspicious. Well, Ms. Alkaras, to be frank, so are we. You did not do anything to prevent the bomb from exploding, did you? You did not inform the authorities, did you?"
Dareen tried to remember that day. She had indeed run to the police station. But why? It was because she wanted to warn them. But of what? She didn't know at the time that the tingling in her breasts foretold a bomb of some kind. Would the police think she was crazy? It was so sudden to try to remember all that now. A draft of air flew up into her vaginal cavity, making her aware that her widely spread position had caused her lower lips to open, and she couldn't concentrate. What was going on here? "I didn't know about the bomb."
The film stopped. More static on the big screen. And now another grainy film, taken from a great height, of a busy traffic circle on a sunny morning. A policeman stops traffic and starts lumbering toward the shrubbed area in the middle of the circle. Suddenly a brown figure darts out of the shrubs and up and out of sight. Dareen suddenly recognized it: that time when she had put on a ring during her night time flight and had fallen to the ground and gotten knocked out.
"What were you doing that morning, Ms. Alkaras? Why were you in the Perimeter Center circle?"
"I -- I -- " Dareen tried to remember. "I had been flying around and I didn't know about the laja rays field."
"And where were you flying?"
"Just... around."
"Indeed. A very curious place to take a rest, I would say. So close to what is so worth observing."
"What? What do you mean?"
"I think you know very well what we mean, Ms. Alkaras."
Dareen's brow furrowed in puzzlement. She started to get off the bars.
"I STRONGLY urge you not to do that, Ms. Alkaras!"
Without thinking she immediately reversed her lurching movements and got back onto the bars. She tried to close her legs a bit but it was impossible, her feet were too widely stationed. "What do you think I..."
She was about to say, "Do you think I'm a spy?" but before she could utter anything more coherent the screen went blank and then came on again. Now there was an overhead shot of her and Billy Gibbs in the library building elevator. She recognized the old wooden panelling. The camera looked right down onto her hair kerchief, and Billy's blond hair and slight bald spot.
Now Billy turned and spoke. "Think about what I said. Your super powers are needed."
Dareen remembered. It was the day he confronted her about seeing her rescue of that drive-by shooting, that turned out to be just under Sherry's apartment.
"Why did you not come to us with your powers?" Mr. Nedrow said, his smooth voice rising only a little. "And why did you not say anything about it to Detective Samuelson?"
Dareen tried hard to remember. She remembered an agent coming to her office and asking questions about her mosque and then asking if she knew how to fly airplanes. And of her being upset that it seemed like they automatically suspected Muslims of being involved in terrorism. But the more she tried to focus her mind the more she thought about her shaming exposure. "I -- I wasn't asked." Which was true, but she was feeling guilty about having been so resistant. A guilt which showed on her face, unfortunately.
"We have not yet identified the other person on this tape, but perhaps you can save us the trouble. Who is that?"
Dareen said nothing.
"Well, we can search for him," Mr. Nedrow said offhandedly.
""C - can I go now?" she said.
"No, you may not go, Ms. Alkaras."
Dareen's breasts heaved as she started to get angry. This was an outrage. Warning or no, she hopped off the bars and stood in front of them, looking down through the glass at Mr. Nedrow. She defiantly covered her nipples, holding her left breast in her left hand and her right breast in her right. Or trying to, having rather small hands. "You have no right to accuse me. I am a loyal American."
"Let me ask you straightaway. Did you ever meet with Novotny before June 26, 2003?" The night of that ion storm.
Noticing his eyes going to her crotch, Dareen dropped her hand to cover as much of her pubic hair as she could with one hand, the other arm drawing across both breasts so as to keep covering her nipples. "I demand to have a lawyer present. You cannot detain me without probable cause."
"Actually, under the Patriot Act, we can. This is not a criminal investigation. This is an intelligence investigation. Further, you are a suspected enemy combatant."
"What!!?"
"Ms. Alkaras, if you really are a loyal American you would see how we cannot afford to give you the benefit of the doubt. You have unrivalled super powers which cannot be overcome except by extreme cold. Your body is undetectable by any known radar. You are an invaluable asset for any nation, but for a terrorist group, your powers and your abilities are, shall we say, exactly made to order?"
This was like a bad dream. She decided she hated this leering, suspicous man. The only thing to do was leave. "I am getting out of here, right now." Her bare feet slapped on the cold metal floor as she stomped toward the sealed door. It was locked from the outside. She flexed her arm muscles, about to rip the door off its hinges.
"I WOULD NOT DO THAT!!" It was such a high-pitched, threatening bellow that she had to look to make sure it was him. In doing so her eyes widened as she saw her brother Sanny's face on the big flat screen. It was his official U.S. Army picture, smiling in his camouflage shirt.
"If you make any attempt to leave, Ms. Alkaras, we will take all necessary steps. This is your brother, on duty in Iraq presently, I believe. I assure you he is in no danger. At present. But if you leave, we cannot ensure his security."
"What the hell are you talking about?" Such language was unusual for Dareen, but they were talking about her brother. She walked toward the side of the cage where the screen was, her hands covering her breasts and her crotch again, this time almost as if she was facing her brother while in her naked state. She thought quickly. They were trying to scare her but it was already scary in Iraq. "He knows it's dangerous there."
"Yes," Mr. Nedrow said, having resumed his mellow, smooth voice, "but he may be picked off by snipers." His voice had returned to its mellow smoothness.
"What -- we all hope not. Everyone there is a possible target." According to what she'd been reading.
"Let's say, our friends have certain influence there."
Was Mr. Nedrow really saying he could have someone shoot at Sanny? Dareen was forced to consider this -- what else could he mean? She fixed as hateful a glare as she could manage. "You are a bad man. Whose side are you on!"
"I will not have you question my patriotism, Ms. Alkaras. I stand here to say that any attempt to harm me or my assistants will have even more severe consequences." It took quite a bit of courage for Mr. Nedrow to say this. As a young man he had gotten out of the draft through family connections, though of course while working for a politican who supported that particular war.
Now, the screen showed Al Hijia Mosque. "Let me add that we may also classify some acquaintances of yours so that they can be detained for questioning. In the hands of the immigration authorities, of course."
Dareen had heard of Muslims "disappearing"; being suspected of links to terrorists and detained in secret. They already had criminal records, most of them... or at least that's what the official story always was. But Mr. Nedrow surely couldn't mean... She remembered the moving sermon Imam Tahir had given about 9/11 and the memorial service in France. "Some of those people have relatives who died on 9/11."
Mr. Nedrow said nothing.
"I don't know anything!" Dareen protested. "You can't harm these people! Leave them alone!"
"We haven't done anything yet, Ms. Alkaras. We do not want any harm to come to your brother or to anyone else. We just want you to tell us what you know. We are patient and will wait until you decide to tell us."
"I don't know anything!" she repeated. She stamped her foot and pleaded. "You have to believe me! You saw me in that cold room with those weights stretching my..." Her arm pressed against her breasts more firmly as she remembered. She could feel the chill of that room right up her bare backside.
In fact it was not just a feeling. The air in the glass cage was a lot colder now. There was really cold air coming up from somewhere behind her.
"You were not harmed by it, Ms. Alkaras," Mr. Nedrow said with gentle mocking. "Novotny knew that of course. A very convincing show, if you ask me."
"It was not a show!"
"Consider our position, Ms. Alkaras. An ion storm comes by, a quite rare event, and you are right near Novotny and his laboratory. What are the odds of that being a coincidence? With your body a perfect conduit for laja rays."
"But I've saved people..."
"Another convincing show. A fine way to garner positive publicity. Fortunately we have been successful in maintaining skepticism in the media."
Dareen's bare shoulders slumped. She had to admit the whole thing seemed very unlikely. Getting zapped by lightning and getting super powers. The stuff of comic books, not real life, unless it was carefully researched and planned out.
She had an idea. "I don't care about laja rays. I want to put on clothes. Give me clothes, please." Which of course was her most intense desire. "I want to lose these powers."
"And lose the ability to avert a pulse bomb if another goes off? I would say that would NOT be in the interest of national security, wouldn't you? Not exactly evidence that you are a loyal American." He took off his glasses and wiped them, having regained his calm composure, and continued. "Further, you saw the language of that directive. Your 'nude', quote unquote, body is a National Security Concern. If you put clothes on, you would not be a National Security Concern any longer.
"You would still possess the knowledge we are trying to get from you, but with you not having super powers, the manner in which we would handle you would be, shall we say, less restricted."
Dareen could figure out what that meant, at least. She looked down in dejection and anguish, and squatted down on her heels. Her breath came out in little clouds. She reached down to rub the tips of her toes. "Why is it so cold in here?"
"Don't worry, your powers will be preserved. We are aware of how temperature affects laja rays. We want to be sure that if you get 'the call', for a pulse bomb, you will be able to respond to protect our nation."
"I... I don't know anything," she said yet again. She was on the verge of tears.
"We are not finished, Ms. Alkaras. I strongly advise you to get back on the machine."
Dareen felt she had no choice. Who knows what this creep might do to her loved ones if she refused? In desolation she stood up and grabbed the upper bars with her hands, planted her bare feet on the lower ones. The bars were starting to get cold now too. She looked down at Mr. Nedrow dully.