Chapter 2

Everybody knew Chief Ironside, retired or not. He was allowed to talk to imam Numan al Huq.
Numan was a soft-spoken, college-educated man in his late thirties, wearing a suit and tie – which didn't mean anything, but at least it didn't exactly let Ironside think of a terrorist.

"Thank you for seeing me, Chief Ironside."

"Will you tell me your version of this bombing story?"

"I don't really have a personal version to tell, I'm afraid. I didn't place the bomb. I'm sorry to contradict my father, but his information on this is not correct."

He could hardly call his father a liar or a senile man. This was about as far as he would go.

"You know about the traces of dirt in the design of your tires which seem to come from the area of the Transamerica Pyramid. How do you explain them?"

"I got a phone call. Someone said that my father wanted me to come to the Transamerica Pyramid, 13th floor, and meet him there. My father can't hear very well anymore, therefore he often doesn't make phone calls on his own. I believed the caller. So I drove there..."

"When was that?"

"The day of the bombing. I was supposed to be there at 10 am. But I got held up by a car accident on my way, therefore I was late. It must have been around 10.20 when I arrived at the Pyramid. There was a lot of police around and the entire traffic was jammed. Over car radio I learned of the bombing. I was worried about my father who was in the building, but then I heard that there weren't any victims. I wanted to let the police do their work. Therefore I turned around, thinking that I would apologize to my father for not showing up later."

"Where was that accident which delayed you?"

"At the corner Green Street – Leavenworth."

"It should be possible for the police to verify that. This is not quite an alibi, but a strong point for your innocence."

Numan let out a sigh of relief. "Sir, nobody went as far as to ask me this particular question before. You have given me some hope back. You are an impressive man. See – we will never have the same faith, but I think that's not necessary. You may be a Christian and I may be a Muslim, but we can live together in peace. Violence is against our beliefs both as Christians and Muslims."

"I can understand that some radical Muslims want to fight against what they think is Western moral: The way a word like 'love' is used today, or the exploitation of Southern countries by Western banks and companies. It's got nothing to do with Christianity though. It's wrong by every moral or religious standard."

"Thank you, Chief Ironside. You don't just give me my personal hope back. You should go into politics or write books to explain our people the difference."

"Maybe I should. But not only yours. Some of ours as well."

Since Mark was in court Ironside went to the airport in his custom-built van to get the Brown family. He filled Ed in on the case. Then he drove directly to the disposal site, where the blue Chrysler wagon had been headed.

Ironside was living in the beautiful nature of Sonoma now. At the sight of the huge mountains of debris he became very thoughtful. It was incredible what people threw away. They hadn't learned much since the sixties, when even the scientists had believed that the universe was infinite and that therefore the resources were infinite as well. How could people in 1993 still trust economists who kept postulating an 'ideal' growth of the economy of 2%, totally ignoring the fact that the resources were limited? What shortsightedness! Actually Jeremy Wood was doing a trendsetting job by repairing some of these items and thus reducing the amount of rubbish.

Would Jeremy be working here today?

While the adults were busy looking for Jeremy, Danny wandered off. In his opinion one had to be a neuro-typical individual to be interested in a man when there were so many fascinating things around!
He found a heap of particularly interesting items: electrical waste. There were radios, TV sets, telephones, even a computer screen! It was a real treasure for a technically interested boy. That they were banked up very close to the refuse bunker didn't bother him at all. He didn't even notice it. Thrilled he started to examine this treasure.

Now Jeremy, who had been working higher up at the site, saw him. "Mine!" he yelled.

At that he started to run towards the child, screaming on top of his lungs all the way down.

Danny became aware of the yelling stranger who seemed to be attacking him. Scared he took a step back. The portable radio which he had picked up dropped from his hand and rolled towards the bunker... and into it.

Jeremy reached the child but didn't pay any attention to him. He only had eyes for his radio. Without further consideration he jumped down into the refuse bunker to retrieve it. He landed clumsily on the conveyor belt and fell towards the wall, hitting his head. Motionless he remained lying.

A small truck was parked beside the bunker. It had delivered some waste material, and the conveyer belt was still moving, although it was now empty. The waste had been transported into a big shredder at its end.

Ironside noticed that the belt was carrying the Afro-American's body relentlessly towards the shredder.
"Ed!" he shouted.

But Ed, who after spotting Jeremy had started to climb onto the waste disposal site, had already taken off towards the bunker.

Where was the operator of the plant, or the truck driver?! There had to be an emergency switch somewhere! Probably it was behind the truck. No way could Ed reach it in time before Jeremy would fall into the shredding machine. There was only one thing he could do to – maybe – save Jeremy. He jumped down onto the conveyor belt. Just in time he managed to pick Jeremy up and pull him away from the abyss.

Eve had to take care of Danny. He was crying at the top of his voice, scared about what his dad was doing. He didn't understand that he had caused the entire situation. Gently Eve tried to calm him down, but he wasn't ready to listen to her. Uncontrollably he flapped with his arms and even hit Eve until she took a step back.

Jeremy was conscious, but he seemed unable to move. Ed could not pull him over the belt, for there were sprockets on it to transport the waste. Therefore he shouldered him the way he had shouldered many a man since his Marine days. Yet Jeremy wasn't the slight 15-year-old from 1969 anymore, but a tall, well-built adult, while on the other hand Ed wasn't a young man anymore himself. He managed to run against the moving belt for a bit, but then he staggered with his burden. He picked himself up again, ran on. He could not get out of the pit: the walls were too high. His hope was that the employee in charge of the conveyor belt would finally stop the flaming thing. But then he collapsed under the dead weight - on the belt, where neither he nor Jeremy moved anymore.

Ironside saw it. The tragedy seemed to be inevitable. Where in blazes was the operator? Wasn't he supposed to survey the belt?!

Frantically he tried to find a way to stop the plant. He had approached the plant in his wheelchair. Now he saw the emergency switch behind the truck, but he was too far away to use it.

Slowly, relentlessly, the belt transported the two bodies towards the shredder. It wouldn't make a difference between rubbish and human life.

Ironside gritted his teeth and pulled his gun. One chance in a hundred...