The 13th Enumeration (17 page)

Chapter 36

After leaving the bottom of the toilet, each rough steel wool ball made its way through a lateral three-inch sewer pipe to the apartment building’s common drain stack. There, each ball turned straight down into the vertical drain piping which fell thirty feet into the basement of the apartment. Turning toward the street, the little balls of wool made their way out into one of Tel Aviv’s main sewer lines.

Since it was six in the evening, the sewer lines were being used all over this section of town. The
sewage
level in the pipe was at its normal full flow. As the balls picked up speed in the city’s main sewer line, they began to roll and turn like little snowballs accumulating debris as they made the half-mile journey under the busy streets of Tel Aviv. When each little metallic sewer snowball reached the Baker’s magnetic snare, it was grabbed by an unseen force and held to the inside of the sewer pipe.

By the time the final steel wool ball had reached the magnetic net, the city sewer main for that section of Tel Aviv was already ninety-nine-percent blocked. With that final little ball, the sewer main stopped flowing completely.

Within five minutes, every basement upstream of the bakery which did not have a backwater valve began to fill with raw sewage. When the
sewage
levels in the basements reached ground level, the manholes in the street began to pour forth their filth. Fifteen minutes later, the city’s public works department was being inundated with its own flood of phone calls.

On call that night were Michael Goldburg and Levi Wollenberg. Michael had been with the city’s public works department for five years after retiring from the Israeli Army, where he flew unmanned aerial vehicles. Jokingly, Michael told people he no longer flew UAVs, but now he drove USVs for a living. USVs, Michael explained to whoever asked, were unmanned sewer vehicles.

Levi was the son of a successful plumbing contractor in Tel Aviv. He and his father did not get along, so Levi worked as a sanitation engineer for the city. While the title sounded important, when people asked what he did, Levi just said somewhat crudely that he was a “turd wrestler.” Levi drove and operated one of the city’s massive ten-wheeled hydro-jet rooter trucks. Basically, he operated one of the largest roto-rooters known to man.

After receiving the emergency calls that night, Michael climbed into the city’s newest sewer-inspection truck. In his Camel hydro-jet rooter truck, Levi followed. A couple of blocks away they knew they were getting close because they could see the sewage running down the street. There hadn’t been a total main line stoppage in several months, and none during the sewer “rush hour,” as they called it.

The first manhole they found overflowing with sewage was just upstream of the Markouk Bakery. Pulling their trucks downstream to the next manhole, they set out their traffic-control cones and popped the manhole to take a look.

“Not much water running through this one, Levi,” Michael said matter-of-factly. He pointed to the manhole up the street five hundred feet and said, “Looks like the stoppage is somewhere between here and there.”

“You want to jet it first or take a look?”

“Let’s take a look,” Michael said. “The damage is already done up there, and another half-hour won’t make much difference. Besides, we haven’t had a full-blown stoppage like this in a long time, and I’d like to see what’s causing it before you blow it all to kingdom come with that truck of yours.”

“You’re the boss,” Levi replied. Walking over to his
jetter
truck, he turned it off. Michael backed his vehicle right up to the edge of the sewer manhole. Opening the back doors, he removed Rover the Sewer Dog, as he jokingly called him, from his compartment. Rover was the latest technology in commercial robotic sewer-inspection cameras. Rover had a state-of-the-art color camera which could be turned three-hundred-and-sixty degrees. Rover also had a robotic arm which could be fitted with several different tools.

Fitting Rover with the retrieval arm, Michael gently lowered him by his Kevlar fiber-optic cable twenty feet down into the dark, damp, and stinky sewer system of Tel Aviv. Michael climbed back into his truck and sat down in his command chair. Levi stood at the edge of the manhole with elbow-length rubber gloves, guiding Rover’s cable down into the hole.

Michael flipped several switches on the console above the small desk in the back of the truck. As Rover powered up, a clear picture of the sewer main emerged. Grabbing the joystick on the desk, Michael pushed it forward, and Rover’s six specially designed wheels began to turn, dragging the Kevlar fiber-optic cable up the sewer main toward the stoppage. Slowly, Levi fed the cable into the manhole as Michael drove the USV up the pipe. This section of the city’s sewer line was relatively new, so Michael’s monitor showed plastic piping. They had gone over three hundred feet up the pipe, and so far everything looked great. Levi, standing outside, heard Michael whistle as he said, “Man would you look at that! Never seen a cockroach that big before.”

Levi laughed under his breath and then said out loud, “Has the cockroach cowboy found himself another monster?”

Michael’s voice responded from the truck, “Levi, you’ve got to see this thing. It must be four inches long. I think even Rover is scared of him.”

They continued on for another fifty feet before Levi heard Michael say, “It’s coming into view now. Wow, that is blocked solid.” As Rover approached to within one foot of the obstruction, Michael noticed that Rover was sliding up the pipe—moving up toward the obstruction on his own. For a moment, interference made the camera picture fuzz.

“Hold that cable, Levi!” Michael shouted from the truck. “Something weird is going on here.” Michael pulled back on the joystick and turned the camera slightly for a better angle, backing Rover up a foot or so. Then he zoomed in on the obstruction. It appeared slightly reddish and gray. Zooming in still more, he saw that it was steel wool covered in sewer debris.

“We’ve got a bunch of steel wool down here. It seems to be sticking directly to the bare walls of the pipe. I don’t see anything for it to hang up on, though.” Michael thought for a moment. “Levi, I am going to drive it in close again—keep some tension on the cable, will you?”

“Will do, Michael.”

Michael drove forward again slowly. As he approached the obstruction, he noticed the interference again on the monitor. When he got within one foot, Rover began to slide forward. “Levi, only let it go six more inches.” Rover started to shake as if some invisible hand was pulling on him in different directions. Michael called out, “Okay, Levi, let’s back him up.”

As Michael backed Rover up several feet, he noticed several small, dull gray, metallic-looking objects lying on the bottom of the pipe. Turning the camera down for a closer look, he spotted the folded edges on one of the gray objects. Michael switched on Rover’s robotic arm and positioned it over the object. Reaching down, Rover retrieved the object and placed it in a small retrieval basket. Michael repeated this for the other three objects.

“Let’s pull it out, Levi.”

Levi guided the cable as Michael drove Rover back down the sewer line. When Rover had reached the bottom of the manhole, Levi gently lifted him out and onto the pavement beside the manhole. Levi sprayed Rover down with the truck’s water, and Michael collected the small gray objects from Rover’s basket.

“What did you find?” Levi asked, peering curiously over Michael’s shoulder.

“Not sure what it is. Never seen anything like it before,” Michael said. With his rubber-gloved hands, Michael examined the objects. Looking closer, he noted that one of them had what appeared to be the number thirteen scratched into its lead casing.

After placing them in a container in the back of the truck, Michael picked up Rover and put him away, then pulled the truck out of the way so Levi could do his job. As Levi pulled into position, Michael took out one of the mysterious objects again. With a small screwdriver, he unfolded the lead casing and found a broken computer flash drive.

Wow,
he thought to himself.
This flash drive didn’t cover itself in lead, but why would someone want to do that anyway? And how did it get down there?

Carefully placing the flash drive and lead casing back into a dry container, Michael rejoined Levi, who was lowering the hydro-jet into the manhole. A hydro-jet truck was basically a high-pressure spray hose connected to a metal jet head. Water from the truck’s holding tank was pressurized up to four thousand psi and could be pumped at up to eight gallons a minute. Under full pressure, it could easily cut off a man’s hand.

Levi ran the jet hose up the pipe to the obstruction. Cranking up the pressure, he attacked the stoppage. After several minutes with no results, an obviously frustrated Levi said, “Don’t know what’s blocking the pipe, Michael, but I can’t break it free.”

“Magnets,” Michael said.

“What?” Levi asked, looking at him like he’d gone crazy.

Michael shook his head. “Humor me,” he said. He had been thinking about it for the past several minutes, and although it didn’t make much sense, the only explanation he could come up with was that there seemed to be a strong magnetic field surrounding the sewer pipe. To his knowledge, the only way to make a magnet that strong was by using electricity. If it was an electromagnet, they could turn off the electricity and release the debris. It was a long shot, but worth a try.

Michael walked back to his truck and replayed the recording from Rover. Pulling out the “as built” sewer drawings for this section of town, he found the exact location of the obstruction based on Rover’s measurements. It was just
one foot
up from the bakery’s connection to the city’s main. This likely meant that if there was some sort of electromagnet down there, it would be connected to the bakery’s power supply.

Walking over to the storefront, he saw the sign in the window.
Great
, he thought. The baker would not be back for several days. The electric meter box was on the side of the building. It was unlocked, so Michael opened it, looking for the main disconnect. Finding the main breakers, he pulled down on them.

“There she blows, Michael!” Levi shouted from the manhole. “I hear it coming down the line!”

Michael waited a few more minutes and then turned the bakery’s power back on. Who knew how much food might spoil if he left the power off indefinitely? Well, they had fixed the problem for now, but he would talk to his supervisor and see what they should do about a permanent solution. Closing up the manhole and packing up their things, they headed back to the shop for the evening.

Michael was tired and dirty but also curious. He had a feeling the computer capsules he’d found in the sewer might be important, so he decided to drive to the house of an old friend. Marcus Nayat lived in north Tel Aviv, so his place was out of the way—but if anyone could figure out what these gray capsules were for, Marcus could. Marcus Nayat had been in the army with Michael, but as an intel officer. Marcus was still in the army, but he would not say exactly what he did anymore.

After a few moments, Marcus opened the door and with a warm smile and a hearty hello asked Michael in. “What brings you by tonight, my friend?”

“Sorry to show up so late unannounced, Marcus, but I found something today I thought I would run by you.” Michael explained his discovery and then pulled the computer flash drives and lead casings out of his pocket.

Marcus took one of the drives in his hand and examined it with a look of serious curiosity. “You found these down in the sewer, you said?”

“Yes,
lying
on the bottom of the pipe in this lead casing.” Michael indicated the lead sheeting he still held in his hand.

Marcus looked up. “Do you mind if I hang on to these for a day or so? I will get back to you when I know more. Oh, and hold off on notifying anyone of what you found tonight. Especially do not let the baker know you turned off his power. This could be important. Thank you for coming to me with this.”

They chatted for a few more minutes, then Michael said good night and left. If anyone could get to the bottom of this, he knew Marcus could. He would be interested to find out what Marcus learned, but right now all he wanted was a cold beer, a hot shower, and bed.

* * *

After Michael left, Marcus Nayat carefully inspected the leaden capsules. In all his years as a Mossad intelligence officer, he’d never seen anything quite like them. What was their purpose? On one of them was a small number thirteen scratched into the casing. The hair on his head began to prickle. This would have to be reported outside the normal channels—the Guardian would want to know. Marcus picked up his secure private phone and dialed a number that had been committed to his memory for over a decade.

Two thousand, two hundred and eleven miles away, a phone rang on an ancient walnut desk in the heart of London. The desk sat on a jet black polished granite floor in one end of a massive two-story private library. The room was filled floor to ceiling with ancient books of all sorts. Two rolling ladders on brass casters stood at either end of the poorly lit room. A massive crystal chandelier hung from its brass trimmings in the center of the room directly over a circle with a diameter of exactly six feet. This circle was in the form of a six-inch-wide band of white granite cunningly inlaid into the polished black floor. At the very center lay a single piece of round white granite six inches in diameter.