Steve Martini - The Rule of Nine

J immie Snyder was twenty-three, tall and lanky. He had been in his current job less than two months and he was scared. He knew he had screwed up. He lay awake at nights worrying about it, as if under Chinese water torture, waiting for the next drip to hit him on the forehead. It was all about expectations, mostly his fathers.

Snyders dad was the managing partner in a large law firm in Chicago. Jimmie had graduated pre-law from Stanford a year earlier and his father wanted him to go to law school. But Jimmie wanted to go into film production. His father would have none of it. As far as the old man was concerned, Jimmie needed credentials to round out his law school application and beef up his less-than-stellar undergraduate grades and middling LSAT score.

Toward that end, his father pulled every string within reach to land the boy a job in Washington. The best he could do on short notice was a temporary position as a part-time guide. The job was a holding pattern until his dad could yank more levers and land something better.

It took him three months and a hefty contribution to a senator in Alabama but he found a spot for Jimmie as a staff gofer with one of the many Senate subcommittees. This particular panel was charged with overseeing sensitive matters of intelligence. As it turned out, the nature of the assignment now made the situation even worse for his son.

It might take a while for the details to trickle back, to filter from one branch to the other, but Jimmie knew he would be called on the carpet sooner or later and asked to explain how he could have done something so stupid. How could he have allowed some middle-aged lawyer from California, wearing a polo shirt and shorts, to talk his way backstage, past all the locked doors and the phalanx of security into the private sanctum off-limits to all but the gods of government? What in an earlier decade might have been a minor transgression, in the age of terror had become grounds for job termination and possible criminal prosecution.

Jimmie had spent a week of sleepless nights trying to conjure up some plausible explanation for why he had done it. Call it bad judgment. Maybe it was because he was angry and bored. He hated the job and the fact that his father had manipulated him into taking it. It was that, but also the fact that the man he met that day was so easy to talk to. Unlike Snyders father, the guy was affable, approachable, and interested. He listened to everything Jimmie had to say. When Jimmie told him he really didnt want to pursue a career in law, the lawyer, a perfect stranger, gave him absolution. He told Jimmie that the first rule of success in life was to follow your dreams. And then to find out that the guy was a Stanford law alum on vacation, how could Jimmie say no? All the man wanted was to see a few of the rooms off-limits to the public. Jimmie had already finished his tour of duty for the day. What was the harm? It wasnt as if they had done anything wrong. Other than take a few pictures, chat, and look around, you would never have known the man was there. Jimmie still had the guys business card in his wallet WARREN HUMPHREYS , ATTORNEY-AT-LAW with an address in Santa Rosa, California.

Now one of the other Senate staffers told Jimmie that inquiries were being made. Nothing formal as yet, but it was likely to cause waves because the incident could not be contained on the legislative side. Sooner or later Jimmie was likely to be visited by investigators.

Like a bad dream, all the little details tripped through his brain as he walked out the doors of the Hart Senate Office Building. Even now, a few minutes after six, with the sun sailing toward the horizon, the heat of midsummer was oppressive. Most of the members of Congress were gone, back to their districts for the recess, leaving staff to wither in the sultry heat of the national swamp. Beads of sweat ran down the back of his shirt collar as he thought about what could happen. He didnt dare tell his father.

Every little aspect of what had seemed an innocent adventure, a courtesy to a friendly tourist, now appeared much more ominous.

The mans camera was something that hadnt even occurred to Jimmie until later, when he realized he was in trouble. Cameras were prohibited except in the public areas. He wondered how the little point-and-shoot job had gotten through the metal detector without setting off the alarm.

Maybe the man had posted some of his pictures on the Internet. That would explain how theyd found out. He scoured his brain trying to remember whether he might have absently slipped into one or more of the shots. There was no way to be sure, but he didnt think so. All the man wanted was a few snapshots of some of the interiors. He seemed most interested in the walnut-paneled library, which was elegant, and the gymnasium upstairs. The gym was nothing special, just one of those conversational curiosities inside the Beltway.

Jimmie strode onto the sidewalk and headed for the Metro rail and home. It was a short ride. He lived alone in a small sublet apartment in Alexandria. Rent was high in the area but he was lucky. He had gotten a deal on the place for the summer. When the members of Congress returned, so would the tenant, a lobbyist for the drug industry, and, Jimmie would have to find another place to live. If there was a silver lining to any of this, it was the fact that if they fired him, he would not have to find new digs come fall. He would be gone.

A few blocks on, Jimmie ventured onto the long, steep escalator and down into the immense cavern of the Metro rail. He slipped his card into the slot at the turnstile, slid through, and ran for the train. He caught it just before the doors closed.

The thought of escaping Washington, even at the cost of failure, left Jimmie to wonder if it would be enough for his father to finally give up on him. This and the deep sense of disappointment he would have to endure occupied Jimmie as he sat listening to the wheels skim over the steel rails.

Twelve minutes later he emerged from the King Street station in Alexandria. The setting sun had finally dipped behind the buildings by the time he reached the entrance to the three-story brick apartment house. There were only fourteen units. They ranged from studios to three-bedrooms, all of them equipped with updated fixtures and hardwood floors. There was no elevator or front desk, and no twenty-four-hour security. The lobbyist who held the lease to Jimmies unit was looking for a summer tenant to watch the place. As long as Jimmie didnt throw parties and didnt smoke, the single-bedroom apartment was his for two hundred dollars a month until fall. It was a steal.

He climbed the five steps fishing in his pocket for his key to the front entrance. By the time he got there, he realized that the heavy oak door wasnt locked. Something was wrong with the doors overhead closing arm that caused it to stay open just a crack. He had noticed it a couple of days earlier.

He pushed the door and it opened. Once inside he waited for the door to close, then gave it a shove until he heard the lock snap into place. He made a mental note to tell the building manager.

He used his apartment key to check his mail in the locked boxes in the lobby. There was nothing but a few pieces of junk mail and one business envelope from his fathers law firm. Probably more suggestions for his law school rsum. He headed for the stairs.

Using his apartment key as a letter opener, he tore a jagged opening in the envelope. He was looking down at the single folded page inside when his peripheral vision caught some dark image in front of him on the stairs. Jimmie glanced up.

There, sprawled across the steps from the banister to the wall, was the hunched-up body of an indigent. Some beggar had wandered into the building. Unshaven, he was wearing a soiled dark trench coat and scuffed-up black shoes with no socks. The guy looked like a dropped sack of potatoes. For a moment Jimmie wondered if he was dead. But as he studied the motionless figure in front of him, he detected the subtle rise of respiration under the wrinkled, dirty coat.