Accelerated (13 page)

“Yes, you have the advantages of the jungle beast,” Harris said. “It gives you strengths. My strength lies elsewhere, and in the end, proves boundlessly superior to yours.”

“Are you drunk?”

He laughed harder, and it made the nearest bikers uncomfortable. I found that interesting. I didn’t think Harris mentally dominated them in some science fiction, ESP manner. I studied the bikers and found that more than a few had black eyes, swollen lips and bandages. I suspected now they were afraid of Harris. He was the moray eel in its hole, and they had evidently learned the hard way not to stick their hands in the hole.

“I’m not insulting you,” Harris said.

I tasted my Scotch.

Harris poured me more. “I’m merely pointing out the advantage of the scientific method when practiced by a trained observer such as myself. I am the professional in the truest sense of the word.”

“And that’s why you’re wearing an old-fashioned suit and tie?”

“My dear fellow, it is affectation, a lark, in ancient British slang.”

“You sure it isn’t Freudian?”

“Ah, touché, touché,” he said.

“So, how did you call me?”

He waved his long-fingered hand as if that was of little importance. “I’ve studied us more thoroughly than the Shop or Cheng at Polarity Magnetics have done.”

“How do you know I went there?”

“My dear fellow—”

I picked up the shot glass, ready to toss the Scotch in his face. I was tired of his smugness. Instead, controlling my temper, I set the glass onto the table so the fiery brown liquid sloshed over the rim and splashed onto my fingers. I ran my wet fingers across my lips as I watched him.

Harris had stiffened, and a hint of worry had entered his eyes. I think he realized he’d come that close to having a fight he wouldn’t win, and in front of the bikers. They would turn on him like hyenas, and he must have known that. Sure, he knew about being the wounded wildebeest and he knew how that attracted the hyenas of the world.

Anger smoldered in his eyes, but he hooded it. At least his smile was gone.

“I am here for the mutual benefit of each of us,” he said.

“Sure.”

“I would like to barter information. I’ve thought about this carefully. You are a—I beg your pardon. You’re what they call a ‘show me’ fellow. I have discovered nuances of our acceleration. Not all the changes were physical. Our minds are different now, too.”

I thought about Doctor Cheng, and knew Harris was right. I was also certain he had sent the needle man after me and the thugs onto my boat.

“It was such a strange phenomenon that at first I couldn’t conceive of it,” Harris was telling me. “I would have dismissed it out of hand. The change—it helped clarify many things for me. I have come to see that many of my former ideas were quite wrong. I realize now, for instance, that the ancient Egyptians built the pyramids through mental levitation. Given the evidence of their feat, and the weight of the stones, it is the only reasonable explanation. I realize also that a great cataclysm destroyed a mid-Atlantic Atlantis. The survivors started the Egyptian and Sumerian civilizations, the reason each society began at such a high level of technology.

“My point is there is more to this world than the accepted explanations,” Harris said. “Before the accident, I wore the accepted blinders given to me in the schools. Even after the first year of the change, I thought along my old lines. As various oddities kept occurring to me, however, I finally decided to
truly
experiment and observe. I refused to hold to any preconceived notions of what I would find. Despite what I’m sure is your high regard for the scientific community—”

I grunted.

“Most scientists are hidebound by what they think should exist and what cannot. Because of their bigotry, science only crawls ahead. Freed from the old restraint and with an entirely new field of study, I’ve advanced an eon in understanding us accelerated. We are a superior life-form, my friend.”

“Because we can punch out a roomful of bikers?” I asked.

“That is part of it, yes. But there are mental faculties you or I might call upon during an emergency or perhaps we will unwittingly use once or twice by happenstance. I, however, have learned to tap into those faculties at will. I’ve trained myself in their use and therefore have become doubly dangerous.”

Something had disturbed my sleep this evening. In some arcane fashion, Harris had drawn me to this bar. I assumed it was this new mental faculty he spoke about.

“You believe me,” he said, showing a trace of surprise.

“I’m here. That proves you did something.”

“Excellent,” he said. “I knew I could reason with you. Now I wish to barter information for information.”

I picked up the Scotch bottle, swirling the liquid inside. “What sort of information?”

“Ah, that is the question, isn’t it?”

“You’re fishing,” I said.

“Rather say: I am careful not to reveal bartering points.”

“Who killed Kay?” I asked, as I set down the bottle.

“I wish I knew.”

“You’ve spoke to her then?”

“What do you mean?” he asked guardedly.

“Have you spoken to her this past year?”

“I have,” he admitted.

“She said you found out where I was living.”

“Did she now?”

“How did you find out?” I asked.

“It was elementary, really. I used my mind.”

“Meaning you located me through observation and logic or through your new mental powers?”

“Ah,” he said, grinning. “That is the question, isn’t it?”

“It doesn’t matter,” I said. “That you found me is the point.”

He frowned, realizing perhaps that he’d given away information, or confirmed something for me, at least.

“I want to know what’s going on at Polarity Magnetics,” I said. “What were they doing to Kay?”

“They are very busy, to be sure. Someone in authority understands that accelerated people are superior and it frightens them. They wish to develop counters to us.”

“Are they trying to duplicate the accident?” I asked.

Harris laughed. It was the loudest laugh of all. Several bikers got up from the nearest table and hurried outside. The bartender scowled at Harris, but quickly looked away when he caught me studying him.

“You’re making people nervous,” I said.

Harris snapped his fingers. “They are obsolete,
Homo moronus
.”

“So what are they doing at Polarity Magnetics?”

Harris leaned toward me and spoke in a conspiratorial whisper. “Do you have any idea of the energy expended during the accident?”

“A lot,” I said.

“An imprecise term, but apt nonetheless. To duplicate the accident is far beyond the powers of Polarity Magnetics or even the Shop. No. Cheng’s approach is different: biomechanical instead of with nonbaryonic matter.”

“Biomechanical,” I said, “as in cyborgs?”

“Not in the way you think, but that strikes the dartboard near its bull’s-eye. I could tell you more. Before I do, however, I would like a dollop of information for my efforts. I’m here to barter, not to give away for free.”

“Go on.”

His grin tightened. “What did Kay bring you on June 12?”

He knew what, I was certain of that. Seeing the bikers here, and their tattoos, I was certain it had been Harris’s men on my boat and his man with the needle. Maybe the junkie who had tried to grab Kay’s purse had also been his man. If that were true, did he ask me about the box to try to throw me off? I decided to play along and find out what he really wanted to know.

“She brought a box,” I said. “Now what’s this about biomechanical?”

Harris studied me and nodded slowly. “Information for information. How big was the box?”

I held my hands so and so, showing him.

“The biomechanical process is through microprocessors,” he said. “They are microscopic silicon chips, infinitesimal nanoparticles. Particle accelerators ‘beam’ the data fixture onto the chips. The chips are smaller than a pinhead by a factor of ten thousand.”

“Accelerators like in Switzerland?”

“Heavens no,” he said, “nothing so grand. What was in the box?”

“Insurance,” I said. “You’re telling me they surgically insert the nanoparticles into people?”

Harris shook his head. “Injections put millions of them into the bloodstream. Many of the chips are tropic-related: heart, lung and liver, all over the body. It increases health, strength, bone density and possibly speed, too.”

“Are there any negative side effects?”

“If so they are unknown to me.” Harris cleared his throat. “What exactly was in the box?”

I eyed him. “A large metallic cube.”

“Ah, indeed, indeed,” he said, his grin twitching. “And this cube is where?”

I smiled. “Nice try. How did you call me here?”

He sat back, eyeing me more closely. “It is at this juncture we reach the delicate point of our bargain. I can impart fantastic knowledge to you that none of the others possess.”

“Likewise,” I said.

“Oh, but truth serum could unlock your secrets, my dear fellow.”

“Truth serum still works on the accelerated?” I asked.

His fox’s grin slipped a bit. “You surprise one, Gavin. Is it intelligence you exhibit or animal cunning?”

“Did you ever watch Star Trek?”

“Eh?” he asked.

“The original series, with Kirk, Spock and Bones.”

“I’ve seen the newer flicks.”

“In the original series, Kirk beat Spock at chess, even though Spock had superior logic.”

“Pap for the masses, I’m afraid,” Harris said. “Spock would win every time.”

“Think of me as James T. Kirk. It will help prevent your asking asinine questions.”

Harris’s bushy eyebrows lifted. “I’ve upset you.”

“You’re boring me with wordiness. Either get to the point or I’m leaving.”

“Once I tell you about the call, you shall tell me the whereabouts of the cube?” he asked.

“How did you happen to be in San Francisco when Kay showed up at my boat?”

“I’m afraid you don’t own enough information for me to tell you that, unless you wish to know this instead of the calling.”

“I see these bikers,” I said. “They’re just like the man who tried to stab me with a needle. They’re like the other two who invaded my boat.”

“Hmm, yes, that was unfortunate. I had not realized that you’d grown in ability. I thought the others… Well, I made a mistake that day. I should have come to you immediately. You are here, however, so there was no permanent harm committed.”

“You forced me to kill two people,” I said.

He waved his hand in dismissal. “You are far above their petty laws, believe me. Their deaths, I absolve you.”

I studied him a moment, and saw that he was serious. “Okay, thanks,” I said.

“It is a small matter.”

His arrogance had grown exponentially since Geneva. “How were you able to call me with your mind?” I asked.

His grin intensified. “Self-interest always wins out, eh? I have your word then? If I tell you, you will tell me where the cube is?”

“If I think you’re telling me the truth, yes.”

Harris slapped his right palm onto the table. “I’ve stumbled onto an amazing discovery. It explains so much. Do you know that in the past people thought of themselves as werewolves or vampires? There have been sightings of abominable snowmen, while others swore to the truth about elves.”

Was he serious? Had the change turned Doctor Harris insane?

“The exposure altered our DNA,” Harris said. “It shifted us into creatures of the night. I’m certain that in the past, explosive solar flares poured massive radiation and perhaps even nonbaryonic matter onto people. That outpouring changed them as we’ve been changed. Oh, not in the same way,” he said with a wave of his hand. “Yet think about vampires. They reputedly possessed great strength, night vision and an ability to fly. It likely meant they could leap like human grasshoppers, and the primitives supposed it must have been flight.”

“You’re saying we’re vampires?”

“No, no, you’re missing my point. I’m saying these ‘vampires’ were like us. What I’m saying is that alterations have occurred in the past. The sun must have been the source, the solar flares in particular.”

“What does that have to do with your calling me here?” I asked.

Harris sighed. “I’d hoped you’d possessed a modicum of scientific curiosity.”

I wanted to tell him that massive doses of radiation killed people. It didn’t turn them into vampires. Or maybe everyone had missed seeing all those vampires in Hiroshima in 1945. Harris struck me as a strange mixture of brilliance and nuttiness all swirled into one.

“I suppose it is interesting,” I said. “Kay’s death and what they’re doing at Polarity Magnetics… I’ve become so preoccupied with it that I missed seeing what you’re saying.”