The Monolith Murders (30 page)

Chapter 46

Early Monday morning Fred was escorted to what in all ways appeared to be a classroom for spooks. It contained a series of large blackboards all around the room. A speaker’s podium was situated at the front. There were about twenty desks in the room, all facing the front of the classroom. Only two people were in the massive room—Fred and an elderly man with bifocals and thinning white hair, who was standing at a podium carefully arranging his papers.

“Lieutenant, my name is Dr. Cunningham; I’m going to give you a series of psychological tests. You have exactly two hours to compete each of them. When you’re done with the first test, you will have a fifteen minute break. When you have completed all of the first series, there will be a one- hour lunch break; and then this afternoon you will take two additional series of tests. There are no rights or wrong on the tests; I want you to put down the first response that comes to mind. We will give you a total of three series of tests today and an equal amount Tuesday and Wednesday. When you are finished with the battery of tests, I will evaluate them and you will be given feedback on the results Thursday afternoon by Mr. Shade. Do you have any questions?”

“No.”

“Then let’s begin.” Cunningham pushed a button on the bottom of a clock that was residing on his podium. Seems almost like a timed chess match, Fred thought.

Fred had some experience in taking psychological tests; he had taken them at the police academy. There they tested him in areas of self control, how he would react to a stress situation, and whether his response would vary if a minority member was involved in the confrontation. He also recognized several traps which were cleverly buried into the tests. Each question had a series of four possible answers. Fred was asked to check the appropriate answer which first came to mind. Fred often saw the same type of question reappear with a different combination of potential answers. Consistency was the keyword for this test; if he tried to distort his true feelings, the scorer would recognize uneven patterns in his responses. Although he had seen this type of test previously, he had never seen it given with so many questions and so many gradations. He completed the first test with about five minutes to spare.

The second test had a different set of questions, but he recognized even more traps. If he had been intentionally distorting his responses on the first test, the second test was cleverly constructed to pick it up.
 

He noted that he was given just enough time to complete each test. If he tried to analyze his responses, he would soon run out of time. That in itself would be the metaphorical kiss of death for Fred.

When he completed the morning’s tests the instructor said, “You will now have off for one hour. Come back at 2 p.m. and you will then take two more series of tests. By the way, don’t even think about talking to your wife about this; we know she has a doctorate in psychology. We don’t want her helping you.”
 

And our unit is most likely bugged as well, Fred thought.

When he returned to the unit, Maureen said, “I’ve been bored all morning watching civil TV cases. I think I could switch my profession to law after my heavy dose of Judge Judy and People’s Court. I just wouldn’t yell at the defendants as much nor as loud.

And by the way,” Maureen added, “I was thinking about what you were saying about the missing fingerprints at the AU murder scene.”

“Yes?”

“You told me that you thought Donna had her powers back. Then why couldn’t she have programmed someone else to commit the murders?”
 

“I thought about that. She seems to be traveling with the boy friend of Jane Doe. He doesn’t have a murder rap on the books, so he would most likely not intentionally kill anybody even if Donna wanted him to.”

“That makes sense unless she programmed him to do it; and we know she can and did do it in the past.”

“Okay, for the moment, let’s embrace that premise.”

“Fred, right now I’d rather that you embrace me; but go ahead with your hypothesis.”

Fred ignored her sexual overtone. “How would the murderer get into the AU building? The offices were all closed for the night, so there was no coming and going to distract Don. He was always told to be especially vigilant about anyone trying to get in at night. The entrance has bullet-proof glass doors. Schultz, who is a security fanatic, made sure they were bullet-proof, and that there was no other possible entry into the building. For a short time span, no patrolman was on duty at AU, so Don would have been doubly sure to be careful of visitors—especially those he didn’t know. He was the most professional security guard I ever met, so he would never have let a stranger in; and he would have carried a weapon with him when he went to the door. Sergeant Stewart said the door was open when he got there. So it had to be big Don who opened the door, unless Doctor Anderson did, and that would make even less sense.”
 

“So what are you saying, Fred?”

“I’m saying I don’t have the answer yet, but rest assured, soon I will.”

Chapter 47

It was early Wednesday evening. Fred had finished the last of his psychological profile tests. He was told that Black would call him that evening and advise him what time Shade would see him on Thursday.

Fred returned to his unit totally mentally exhausted.
 

Maureen said, “You look like you spent the day lifting 300 pound weights.”
 

“I think that would have been easier,” Fred groaned. “I really think I have a mental hernia.”
 

“I know I can’t ask you any details about the tests, but how do you think you did?”
 

“Who knows? With these damn tests they may categorize me as an ax murder and throw me in a CIA prison for the rest of my life.”
 

“What’s the story for tomorrow?”

“I’ll meet with Shade, and I guess he will give me the results of the test. After that, who knows?”

“How long do you think we’ll be able to stay here?”

Fred knew Maureen had found a comfort zone in the unit. She was well protected in the compound; it was as close to a fortress on American soil as she had ever seen. She had almost forgotten about Donna over the last two days; and even her deep fear of the night had abated somewhat.
 

“I’m not sure, maybe we’ll find out tomorrow.”

* * *

Shade met with Fred and Black the next afternoon.

“Well, Fred, everything looks good on your profile; so now I’m free to tell you what I want to do for America.”

Fred enjoyed the way Shade expanded on the meaning of his assignment to somehow relate it to abstract patriotic objectives.

“What I’m going to tell you is top secret. Much of it, however, I’m sure you already know. AU produces products for the entire black world; we’re simply one of its customers. The development of the psychic device was paid for by our agency. But other government agencies, including the Department of Defense, were interested in its development as well. Our initial intent was to use Donna as an agent assigned to various hot spots of the world. But then we were hopeful that she could use her remote viewing capability so she could do much of her spying out of danger on American soil.

“We had unsuccessfully tried remote viewing years ago; we tested it again in the last few years to evaluate its value to our community. Marv Atwell was the AU employee with the greatest ability in that field; but even he could only penetrate minds within a fairly short distance from his location. Our broader problem was that we could never use Atwell as an agent; he was too unpredictable. Hell, according to our research, he might even have murdered someone during his adolescence period. We decided to use his skills in a limited role as a type of conduit to place them in another subject - one that was more predicable, more malleable if you will.”

“When you say conduit, I assume you mean he was responsible for the software ingrained in the ESP unit. I also presume that the other subject was Donna Lang.”

“You presume correctly, Lieutenant.”

Shade gazed into the distance, his face revealing deep regret, failure in fact. His voice almost broke as he spoke. “She seemed to be the perfect subject. She was given a shortened version of the test that we administered to you. We conducted the same background investigation that we did for you. Damn it, everything seemed to be all right—everything. After her operation, we wanted to analyze Donna for an extended period to make sure our efforts were successful and to fine tune the device. Well, you know what happened.”
 

“Wait a minute! Are you suggesting that you want to put the device in me? That makes no sense, I don’t have it; it was stolen from me.”
 

“Oh, we know that too well and we also know that it’s in the hands of someone who could do us all great harm. We know she murdered Atwell and we learned recently that she murdered Doctor Anderson as well. Fred, we’re talking about another device.”

“But how would you duplicate the original?”
 

“The truth of the matter is we still have the specifications as well as all the program data that we used in our prior experiment. Duplication doesn’t take that long; but actually, it won’t even be duplication. Due to technical advancements, we now have much smaller chips and are able to incorporate more sophisticated programs into a smaller version of the original. Because of the smaller size, it will be a safer operation.”

“How do you know that I wouldn’t turn out the same way as Donna did?”
 

“To be completely honest, we don’t. Actually, Donna’s psychological tests revealed a latent ego issue, but we didn’t think it was material at the time. We were wrong. That’s one reason that we changed the battery of psychological tests. You were given the more comprehensive version. The good news is that you, Lieutenant, show no psychological problems except that your profile indicates you’re quite risk adverse, you tend to analyze thoroughly before you respond to a situation. But, actually, that’s a trait that we prefer in the Company. We don’t want our agents acting like Rambo and destroying our cover.”
 

Fred was caught off guard, so he asked the obvious question again.
 

“So you want to install the device in me?”

“Yes, because much earlier we had learned through Mr. Atwell that in the past you had already showed indications of some well developed psychic abilities. And, Fred, once you have such ability, you’ll never lose it. Oh, you might have to mentally exercise to return it to full function, but it will always be with you. Donna had none before we implanted the device in her. We believe you will be much more powerful than Donna, and with that super-charged power you should be able to capture her without incident.
 

“But there is something you have to know before we proceed. We will be introducing a foreign object in your brain, an object intended to amplify the abilities you already have and to create new capabilities in you. Your neurons and synaptic connections will be impacted. They have to adapt somewhat to permit the integration of a piece of marvelous electronic equipment with your organic brain. I must tell you that you will never again be the same person; your skills will be beyond any that you ever had in the past. We worry slightly, very slightly, that this could affect parts of your brain which control your adherence to conventional social norms. We don’t have much empirical data, so we don’t fully appreciate what it might do to your emotional character but we do have safeguards—many safeguards.”
 

“Like you had with Donna?” Fred’s response was rhetorical. He didn’t wait for a response, but moved on to that which he needed to know.
 

“What’s the worst case scenario?”
 

“You could, in fact, degrade into a type of psychopath where you start to set your own social standards and become indifferent to those of others.” Shade laughed, “But of course that won’t happen to you, and that’s the worst case in the extreme. You know the game—you can take a simple aspirin and it might have a book of possible side effects listed, none of which would ever actually happen. All that will ever happen is that your headache will go away.”

Fred didn’t understand Shade’s strange sense of humor. “Wait a minute; I didn’t think you guys were all priests. I’m sure that the company has had to disobey the law at times in order to reach its objectives, and that you sometimes violate an individual’s social mandates in the process. No, you’ll have to give me time to think this over.”
 

“That’s perfectly acceptable. In fact, you can and should talk it over with Maureen. We are now starting to take the specifications, and are at this moment translating them into a finished product. We estimate that development will take about a week. And, Fred, that is all the time we will give you to make your decision.”

Chapter 48

Donna was getting restless. Too much time had passed, with no action. It was about 6 p.m. when Polish returned to the condo unit that they had rented in Punta Gorda. Donna liked the city with the old tropical houses that reminded her of Key West. She also enjoyed the water ways found in so much of the town. What she definitely did not enjoy was being cooped up in this small apartment, unable to move about freely for fear of being recognized.