Mind's Eye (25 page)

Now that I’ve told you all of this, I’m aware you could go to the authorities with it. I’m asking you not to. Why? First, because I can’t be sure who you can trust. If John Delamater was able to pull off one of the most impressive kidnapping operations in history, I wouldn’t put it past him to penetrate law enforcement agencies. Second, we’re trying to keep this quiet for a little longer in the hope of nailing Delamater before it’s too late. We plan to reveal everything to the world very soon, and we ask that you not jeopardize our plans to get Delamater by revealing what I’ve told you prematurely. I hope you can appreciate the level of trust I’m showing by telling you all that I have.

So let me go on and tell you our plans going forward. First, we want you to come in so we can protect you, using people we know we can trust. We want to restore your memory—more on that later. And while I know nothing we can do can make up for the atrocities committed by the head of our company—for twenty-six innocent people dead, sacrificed in Gray’s attempt to perfect the implants—we will not stop trying. We will tell the world what happened and try to make amends as best we can to the families of the victims, and to you.

We will let the world decide our fate, but obviously, the results Gray achieved are astonishing—you know this better than we do. Despite the atrocities committed to get to this point, we believe society will eventually see beyond this and let us test this technology, first for use by the blind and deaf, and then as a commercial Internet product.

Hall shook his head. He agreed with this man with respect to a cure for blindness and deafness, but he was convinced the regulatory authorities would never let the internal Internet see the light of day.

Needless to say,
the message continued
, in addition to millions in cash, we will grant you and the victims’ families shares of Theia Labs as part of our efforts to make amends: shares that should soon be worth tens of millions of dollars. This is not a bribe for silence or forgiveness, just a sincere attempt to compensate in some minor way for what was done to those on board the Explorer.

Regarding your memory, Gray used a street drug called Erase 190 on you and your colleagues to create amnesia. Repeatedly. He did this for a number of reasons, including keeping you off-balance and keeping you from remembering each other and trying to work as a team. I wasn’t even aware this drug existed until last night, but apparently it is a very potent, very scary cousin of the date rape drug, and if overused, can cause memory loss at the slightest physical trauma. Even after it has been discontinued.

The good news is that an antidote is possible, although it does require some of the initial brew. I don’t know why this is true, but I’ve been assured that it is. If you whip up the antidote using a different batch, even of the same drug, it won’t work.

Fortunately, Gray had some of the batch he used on all of you stored in his house, as well as a few vials of antidote. When you come in we can give this to you immediately. This should work to restore your memory very quickly. But I won’t lie to you. At this point there are no guarantees. At the risk of being indelicate and crass, your brain has been fucked with pretty good.

I know this is a lot to take in, and I know you’ve had a rough few days. I blame myself for not catching on earlier. But I didn’t. And I can’t go back in time and change what happened. All I can do is try to make it as right as possible from here. I’ve now laid all of my cards on the table. Please respond.

Hall felt totally numb. He had no doubt there were deep truths in Altschuler’s message. But was it
all
true, or just enough of it to get him to walk blindly into a trap?

Then it occurred to him. Altschuler hadn’t mentioned his psi abilities. So maybe no one but he and Megan knew of them, just as she had conjectured. If Altschuler was lying to him, trying to set a trap, he would never be able to keep this from Hall.

How can I be sure this isn’t a trap, Alex?
he thought into the text box, and then mentally hit
send
.

Thank you so much for responding!
Altschuler texted, and Hall could almost feel the man’s excitement
. You won’t regret this. As to your question, I’m not sure what I can do to convince you I’m sincere. Especially after what you must have been through. But I’m willing to try my hardest. If there is anything you can think of that will allow you to trust me, just tell me what it is.

Do you have the antidote to the Erase 190 with you?

Yes.

The web says Theia is in Fresno. Are you there now?

I’m in Madera, but it’s basically the same location. You spent seven months in a warehouse fairly near here. Do you remember this at all?

Hall searched his memory but drew a blank. He responded that he didn’t.

He queried a maps program using his internal system and learned Altschuler was one hundred and twenty miles from his current location. He then called up the address of the grocery store nearest the Glandons’ house.

Okay
, he texted.
You have ninety minutes to get to the Vons Grocery on the corner of Roosevelt and Pike in Bakersfield.

Hall didn’t have to wait long for Altschuler’s response.
Ninety minutes! Impossible. I’d have to leave this second and drive ninety the entire way.

Then you’d better get started, hadn’t you?
You want me to trust you, you’ll have to earn it. You get no time to plan. And you’ll be going on a wild goose chase, starting in Bakersfield. How wild this goose chase gets is all about how much I grow to trust you. And this depends partly on how well you follow instructions.

Hall thought for a few seconds and then continued.
Bring the antidote, no weapons, and come alone. Wear a baseball cap and don’t take it off. When you arrive, I want you to hang out next to the eggs.

Hall knew this would be a well-defined location at the back of the store, since groceries always put staples like milk and eggs at the back, forcing customers who needed these things to traverse the entire store so they would be tempted by impulse purchases as they went. Hall thought about ordering Altschuler to balance several eggs on his head and spin like a top, but he resisted. He wasn’t sure how this silly thought had popped into his head, but it brought a much-needed grin to his face.

Send me your cell number,
continued Hall
. I’ll call you with more instructions once you’ve had a few minutes to appreciate Vons’ fine selection of eggs. The more comfortable I am that I can trust you, the more likely I’ll come to you. Or have you fly to where I am.

Altschuler’s reply arrived in very short order.
Are you sure there is nothing I can do to prove myself to you short of recklessly breaking every traffic law?

I’m sure,
texted Hall
. And one other thing.

What?

You’d better have started five minutes ago. Because you’re already running late.

27

Hall rushed back to the bedroom. Megan was lying on her back, just as he had left her.

Upon seeing him enter, an amused smile came over her face, and she rolled her eyes. “Let me get this right, Nick. You take almost fifteen minutes to make a few sandwiches. And then, when you return . . . you don’t even have the sandwiches?”

Hall couldn’t help but laugh. “Something came up,” he said. He lifted the sheets and gazed appreciatively at her naked form. “I can’t believe I’m saying this,” he muttered, shaking his head. “But I need you to put your clothes back on.”

Hall told her the reason for his delay—and lack of sandwiches. As they both dressed, he read the text of his IM exchange with Alex Altschuler.

Megan was stunned.

Hall had been on the Scripps
Explorer
? The most famous ill-fated voyage since the
Flying Dutchman
or the space shuttle
Challenger
. He had been experimented on for seven months? Incredible!

And she was fascinated that he was a marine biologist from Woods Hole. Judging from his brains and geekiness, she would have guessed if he were a scientist, he’d be a mathematician or physicist, not a scientist so far on the cool and romantic side of the ledger.

“And none of these revelations brought back your memory?” she asked him.

Hall shook his head no. He told her that now that he had more to go on than just a name he shared with hundreds of others, he had spent a few minutes Googling himself, and had learned some additional information. He had obtained his undergraduate degree in biology from Indiana University in Bloomington, and his PhD in Oceanography from the Florida Institute of Technology. He had been an only child and his parents were deceased as of two years earlier. And he was unmarried.

He had decided to wait to dig further. There was always the chance he would have his full memory restored, and he’d prefer to wait for this to happen rather than rely on a cyber footprint of limited depth and questionable reliability.

“If this guy,” began Megan, and then, drawing a blank, said, “what was his name again?”

“Alex Altschuler.”

She repeated his name a few times, since she didn’t have an Internet boosted memory to draw from. “If this Altschuler does turn out to be on the level, do you plan to tell him about your psi ability?”

“I don’t think I should. They still haven’t found the people trying to kill us. And this could be the ace in the hole we need to save our lives. I think we need all the advantages we can get.” He frowned. “What do you think? Am I using faulty logic here, just so I can delay my pariah-hood?”

Megan shook her head. “No. I agree entirely. When you have your memory back and they catch the guys hunting for you—us—then you can consider it. But it’s our best weapon right now.”

“Yeah. But breaching people’s privacy without their knowledge couldn’t be more unethical. I just don’t want to get used to doing this. I’m counting on you to keep me honest. And to make sure I don’t turn into a monster.”

She nodded with a grim expression, acknowledging the seriousness of the request. “Why do I suddenly feel like the bride of Frankenstein?” she said, attempting to lighten the mood.

“I don’t know,” replied Hall with just the hint of a smile. “Did Frankenstein marry a Neanderthal?”

28

Seventy minutes later, Megan pulled into a spot in the Vons parking lot and killed the engine of Carl Glandon’s Mercedes. She wore oversized sunglasses, baggy clothing, and her hair was tucked neatly inside a Stanford baseball cap, all of which the Glandons had generously provided.

Hall had driven by a police station on their way home from lunch the day before and had scanned the minds inside. To his surprise, none of them were looking for Megan Emerson in connection with the dead men in her office. He’d have thought a double murder in Bakersfield would have been at the top of the cops’ radar. But maybe whoever was behind this had retrieved the bodies before the authorities had found them, to stifle an investigation.

Still, as relieved as they were by this development, it would be careless not to at least make some effort at disguise.

“
Okay
,” she broadcast to Hall, who had remained in their borrowed home. “
I’m in the lot
.
”

“Great. Hold on a second. I’ll find out how our boy is doing.”

Hall called up the IM screen he had used before.
You have ten minutes, Alex
, he sent.

I’ll be there in five
, came the reply inside Hall’s internal text box, no doubt sent by Altschuler’s PDA while he raced to his destination like a caffeine-addled maniac. To make time this good, he must have been going nearly a hundred on the highway the entire way.

What kind of hat are you wearing?

The only one I could find on short notice. It’s a pink women’s tennis visor. It’s as close to a baseball hat as I could get.

Hall laughed out loud. Altschuler had certainly been willing to go the extra mile to obey his instructions.

Hall transmitted this information to Megan. Five minutes later, right on schedule, she reported seeing a scrawny man in a ridiculous pink visor enter the store. She waited another five minutes, scouring the lot, but Altschuler appeared to have come alone. Hall was counting on the cocktail party effect to alert him if there were already other men in the grocery store waiting.

Megan entered the store and walked to the egg area.

“I see him now,”
she broadcast to Hall.
“I’m pretending to be choosing some cheese slices. He’s about twenty feet to my left.”