Binyameen Read online

  Said Binyameen as he exhaled in a way that revealed his worry, Eyad’s worry multiplied as he went through the messages and missed call to find several calls from Sawsan and from Dr. EZ.

  *****

  In the hospital cafeteria around a table with four seats sat the billionaire businessman Mansour Al-Zaydi and his daughter in law Sawsan and a middle eastern man with his gorgeous wife who Hawjan and Jumara designed their bodies as the materialized; the terror of meeting a jinni for the first time melted away the moment they materialized, everything about them seemed human to the point that everyone almost forgot that they were not from our world; Jumana was playing with Elyaseen on the table next to them, while Sawsan and Jumara forget the jealousy war between them as they started chatting about women stuff shocking them of how similar their worlds were, and Mr. Mansour eyebrows remained tens for a while, trying to force his brain to comprehend, until Hawjan started:

  “Eyad is a real hero…”

  “Eyad lied to me for seven years!”

  “We promised each other to keep it a secret between me, Eyad and Husam… this is more dangerous than you can imagen”

  “Regardless, he should not have lied to his father and mother for all this time”

  “Please understand Mr. Mansour…”

  “Just Mansour please, I do not like titles… even if I was older than you my son, age deference does not mean much to me”

  Sawsan and Jumara exchanged a smile as they listened to the discussion between Mr. Mansour and Hawjan who said:

  “Even if that age difference was almost double?”

  “How old are you Hawjan? Twenty-five? Thirty?”

  “in a few months I will be ninety-eight”

  Awe knotted Mr. Mansour’s tongue, he shook his head as he laughed in disbelief as he shifted his eyes between Hawjan and Jumara who told him:

  “Don’t look at me! I am still at my prime age, Hawjan is twenty-three years older than me!”

  “In that case Elyaseen is as old as I am?!”

  “Elyaseen was born on the same day I performed my operation”

  Said Sawsan as she struggled to hold in her tears while Jumara squeezed her hand, Hawjan noticed that so he changed the subject back to its beginning:

  “Eyad and I agreed to keep this subject a secret for our safety and yours, if news of a materializing jinni spread, delusionests would use that to trade in people’s ignorance”

  “Nocebo and placebo dealers”

  Hawjan crossed his eyebrows enquiringly, Mr. Mansour continued:

  “Nocebo is to get people ill through delusion, while placebo is to cure people through delusion, in societies where myth and ignorance spread; the delusionests who deal in in people’s ignorance promote the obsessions of phantom symptoms and illnesses, after that they would step up to cure those delusions taking advantage of peoples ignorance and cultural or religious beliefs, naturally such thugs who would use religion to scam people for money would use your story to spread their poison and delusions even further”

  “Human and jinn thugs are alike, Sawsan’s father my God have mercy over his soul, was entrapped by such delusionests, imagine a man of his stature would slaughter a black goat in hopes of curing his daughter!”

  “Humans lose their mind between hope and despair! I know heads of state and CEOs who would slaughter a black goat and bathe in its blood and organs at their Masonic gatherings to please Lucifer! The same rituals for the same devil! But what do you have to with all of this?!”

  “Me, Jumara and Elyaseen are the last of those who carry the Fayhee abilities, we inherited it from our great grandfather Hanaeel, who served King Solomon and his son King Menelik. Because of our ability to materialize, we represent a fortune to those who serve witchcraft and delusions, Elyaseen’s blood was the payment demanded to let Sawsan and her family go, we almost died in our attempt to flee me, Jumara and Elyaseen!”

  The discussion between Hawjan and Mr. Mansour was getting more exciting, Sawsan and Jumara joined in sometimes; as for Elyaseen and Jumana, they had slept like little angels each on a chair… until they got to the details about what happened at the Marriot lobby:

  “Impossible! Such a criminal act with such an organized gang just to kidnap Sawsan, Jumana and Maram!”

  Said Mr. Mansour who could not comprehend that the suicide bombing was actually targeting his daughter in law and his granddaughter, Hawjan hesitantly added:

  “And abducting Eyad and Husam…”

  Sawsan gasped, as Hawjan continued:

  “They are supposed to go to America, but Eyad’s mobile was heading east, and then suddenly vanished, I tried calling him several times to no avail”

  Hawjan’s worry resonated with Mr. Mansour:

  “I too have tried calling him since yesterday, I hope they are ok! I am afraid that they would attempt to kidnap them again, we must get out of here as soon as Maram is stable”

  Mr. Mansour did not know that the second attempt to kidnap them was already in progress… Jumara’s intuition was lit and she jumped to here feet as she looked to the ceiling and focused her hearing then said extremely worried:

  “We must get Maram out of here at once!”

  *****

  On another table, almost two thousand miles away, sat Binyameen with Husam and Eyad in a McDonalds near the coast line of Haifa, they were surrounded by a bunch of boxes that contain, actually that did contain the double quarter pounder cheese burgers that Husam liked, Binyameen could not hide his amusement:

  “Would you like me to order your fifth meal?”

  Eyad who only had one meal replied:

  “Husam needs to constantly charge his cells”

  “I hope that those four thousand calories are enough for the next experiment”

  Husam said as he chewed on his last fries:

  “Do you still insist on hiding the details of the next experiment?”

  “You will live experience it your self in less than an hour”

  Said Binyameen as he moved his fingers on the table, a normal person could have never noticed it, but Husam understood, (we are being watched) that was what Binyameen wrote on the empty table, Husam changed the subject:

  “ok the, could you at least tell us more about yourself?”

  “For one full year you have been telling us that you are an investor and film maker, who are you exactly? What plot requires you to engage with us for such a long period of time and involved Christopher Nolan…”

  Binyameen cut him off with a wicked smile:

  “You mean the 3D interactive copy of Christopher Nolan”

  “Impossible! With all the advancement in graphics technology, there is no way a 3D image could fool me!”

  “There is no comparison between the technologies that exists, and those that we allow to the general public to see”

  “Who do you work for Binyameen? Mosad? Shin Bet?”

  Said Eyad furiously, but Husam who realized the discussing such topic was not suitable while being watched, so he cut off Eyad:

  “Your bionic eye is also from those technologies not allowed to the public?”

  “This is the project I had dedicated my life to: The Neuro-Digital Transceiver”

  Binyameen noticed curiosity creeping on their faces, so he went on:

  “I lived twenty-nine years blind”

  That was a totally surprise to them, he removed his dark glasses, he looked upwards then pressed his fingers on its sides, his pointer finger slipped in between his eye ball and socket, then he pulled it out easily as if it was just a simple contact, in its place there was a dark void that only shoed the reflections of some delicate metal streaks, Binyameen pointed to his eye socket as he said:

  “I translated the Electrophysiological signals, the mediator that converts any neural signal accurately to digital and vice versa”

  A smile started to form on Binyameen’s face is response to Husam’s awe, he threw his bionic eye to Husam who instinctively caught it and asked as he st
ared at it:

  “What resolution have you achieved in deciphering the signals?”

  “Such high resolution that allows me to know that my eye has traveled ninety eight centimeters and four millimeters and turned one full turn and twelve degrees before you caught it… so accurate that I can take an image that is more than one hundred and twenty mega pixels of your staring eye now and save it directly on its memory of several terabytes, or send it directly to my computer or cloud”

  Husam almost threw Binyameen’s eye, the thought of holding someone’s eye while he could still see him was enough to send shivers down his spine, while making Eyad yell in astonishment and curiosity while picking up that complicated marble from Husam’s hand to inspect its lens that was constantly moving:

  “Your eye communicates wireless with your brain too?”

  The lady setting next to them gathered her stuff and pulled her tow son away from this strange sight, Binyameen picked up his bionic eye from Eyad’s hand and pulled a small bottle from his pocket, then sprayed it on the eye and again in the eye socket before her returned it and turned it in its place:

  “My eye has technologies that far surpass what you could imagen in any portable device”

  “Your eye only?”

  Binyameen understood what Husam was implying, such accurate conversion between neural and digital signals means a revolution in cyborg development, it means that the brain can receive signals directly without senses or organs and allows one to control machines that he could connect to though wires or wirelessly…

  “Your consciousness Husam, your life, all of your feelings reach your soul through your brain, and your brain is connected to the world through the spinal cord that carries the neural signals and though the arteries that carry oxygen and glucose… in short a wire and two tubes!”

  “Are you saying that a human can live with just a brain? Without the need of a body or his organs… impossible! That is a silly hypothesis!”

  Binyameen answered Eyad as he put on his dark glasses:

  “Just a moment a go you held in your hand the proof of it being a tangible reality, not just a hypothesis! At this moment, we have a chimp that lives at one of our labs for years now without a body, just a brain connected with tubes for blood and a wireless Electrophysiological decryptor controlling a second unit implanted on the spinal cord of a second monkey, the result is that the monkey without a body for years is convinced that he is living a normal life and is in full control of the body of the other monkey who’s brain went into a coma after we severed its connection to its spinal cord”

  An uneasy silence shadowed them for a moment before Husam said:

  “So that is your project!”

  “That is one of my projects, I am now working on a much more daring project, and hope to complete it with your help… that is why we need to hurry!”

  He head towards one of the workers to pickup a bunch of bags, Husam commented:

  “I appreciate your interest in my appetite, but I am really full!”

  “Those are not for you, there is someone whom I have to see before we start our mission”

  He stuffed the bags of burgers with hem in his sports car and headed towards Lev LaLev orphanage house in Haifa. Binyameen refused Husam and Eyad’s help to carry the bags, Elyana greeted them in her military uniform and her serious stance with her hands behind her back, Binyameen entered the place and every one greeted and smiled at him as if he was one of the homes staff, when he opened the door to the play room the children shouted in joy: Binyameen Binyameen… and they surrounded him snatching their happy meals… save for one girl who ran to the corner of the room, she wrapped her arms around her legs and tried to hide her self between the corner and the swing pole. Binyameen move close to her bringing her a happy meal box, she turned her face away when she felt him approaching, she could not see him, he sat next to her and placed the box between them, Amal, the blind nine year old child, felt his movement; she reached out towards the box and pushed it away, then wrapped her arms around her legs again and pushed her self harder into the corner…

  “I need someone to challenge me in chess e4”

  Said Binyameen to start the virtual chess game that is set completely in Binyameen and Amal’s memory only, a method developed by Binyameen’s mother that relies on imagination and memory where movements are done by mentioning the coordinates of each move… Amal responded with anger that did not relax yet:

  “Go and challenge those of sight such as yourself!”

  “You want to maintain your previous defeat then… in any case, my eye is turned off”

  He succeeded in provoking her, so she moved her pawn:

  “e5”

  “qf3”

  “Naplion, send your queen back! You know this strategy does not work on me; you are letting me win to get on my good side! Where have you been for the past twenty-three days?!”

  Binyameen opened the happy meal and pulled out a chicken nugget, Amal did not mind him feeding her…

  “I came back from a trip yesterday”

  “I will not allow you to travel again!”

  Eyad and Husam could not believe that the man sitting next to the blind girl was Binyameen, he had nothing in common with the freak that nearly killed them in cold blood yesterday; Elyana stood next to them, she said to quench some of their curiosity:

  “That is Amal, an orphan from Gaza, one of the children that Binyameen’s mother had saved after operation pillar of cloud seven years ago”

  “Couldn’t he have visited her later to save what little time we have?!”

  Eyad asked, Elyana answered him:

  “Amal is the last member of Binyameen’s family”

  “What about his mother you just mentioned? Did she pass away?”

  She replied sadly and abruptly:

  “Killed”

  Amal’s anger vanished as she felt her new toy with her nails and finger tips to reconstruct its details in her mind, she grabbed Binyameen’s hand and tapped it with her finger in a code that Binyameen created so that they can speak without anyone listening or understanding them, she tapped with excitement mixed with sorrow on Binyameen’s shoulder:

  “If Binyameen stayed away too long again Amal will be very angry”

  Binyameen held her palm and tapped it in reply:

  “Binyameen will not be too long again, I promise”

  Binyameen kissed her between her happy eyes.

  “We tried calling Maram and Sawsan, but there are closed!”

  Said Husam in a worried tone as they left the orphanage… Eyad added:

  “I have no choice; I have to call my father to check on them!”

  “Your father is already with them… don’t worry”

  Said Binyameen as he increased their speed on their way to the next challenge… that might be the last…

  *****

  Jumara’s intuition allows her to sense negative and hostile energy from a distance, she did not need to give details, fore anxiety is now the default fallback, Hawjan explained his plan to everyone and they all started executing immediately, it was not a plan per se, it was more like a last hope!

  An ambulance followed by two dark armored vehicles stormed the hospital’s entrance, an officer jumped out of the car followed by several solders who terrified the hospital workers:

  “We have orders to transfer victims of the Marriot bombing: Sawsan Said, Maram Al-Shareef, Jumana Al-Zaydi”

  The perfectly duplicated police badge, the transfer papers, the ambulance, all of those things left no room for doubt that this was most probably an elaborate scam. Within minutes the convoy was moving at top speeds, utilizing the ambulance sirens to rip through Paris’s traffic carrying Sawsan, Jumara and Maram, the traffic vanished, only the three cars remained on this obscure bridge leading to the private airport, the doubled their speed to catch the plane that was going to take them to Eyad and Husam… to Israel.

  If you were ever surprised while driving a car by
the hand of an invisible person on your neck you would not doubt be hysterically terrified, but the ambulance driver’s reaction was different, his instinct as a professional criminal made him pullout his gun that was on a holster under his ram and without thinking fire two bullets towards the invisible person that had locked his grip on his neck and the driving wheel, Hawjan got a hold of the gun’s barrel forcing the bullet to miss and shift to the ceiling, that was enough warning to other guard sitting at the back of the ambulance where Maram was laying and next to her sat Sawsan who was holding Jumana. The second guard pulled out his gun that he had hidden under his paramedic uniform, he looked through the window between him and the front of the car, he was about to fire a shot, but Jumana attacked and screamed so loudly that numbed everyone for less than a second, then it continued without a audible sound as she pushed the guard’s gun with her hands, the gun vanished along with the guards arm.

  Yes, his arm vanished for a fraction of a second, then returned severed to our world as a result of Jumana’s scream, or to be precise Elyaseen who had shapeshifted to look like Jumana; the guard shouted hysterically out of fear and pain, he stormed towards the ambulance backdoor and opened it with his remaining hand, then threw himself to save his skin.

  His misfortune that day threw him under the armored vehicle that was tailing them. At the same time Hawjan managed to pickup the gun that fell from the ambulance’s driver and pointed it to his neck, the professional thug’s training never addressed invisible people that ended with flying guns, he contemplated all his options… and took the decision that had the highest chances of survival… and he jumped out of the ambulance, Hawjan slammed the brakes to force it to stop while Jumara who was in the shape of Sawsan held onto Maram’s bed so that it does not fall out of the ambulance.

  The remaining thugs disembarked their armored vehicles, and cautiously moved towards the ambulance, preceded by their guns and their pounding hearts that had never been this tense before. They had no idea that they were facing an invisible assailant from another universe, and that was only one of his advantages, but his most important advantage was his ability to move between his universe and theirs at will. Despite all that had happened there was no sign of any driver at the ambulance’s driving wheel, that was half the shock; the other half was when they heard the wheels of one of their armored vehicles as it slammed violently into the other and pushed it until both vehicles fell off of the bridge.