Death Wave (12 page)

The inner door opened, and a short, slim, sandy-haired man smiled shyly at them.

“Hello. I am Dr. Oswald Frankenheimer.”

Aditi accepted his extended hand. Frankenheimer seemed young, almost fuzzy-cheeked.

“My friends call me Ozzie,” said Frankenheimer, “although I'm afraid a good number of them also call me Dr. Frankenstein—behind my back.”

Puzzled, Aditi asked, “Dr. Frankenstein?”

Castiglione explained, “A famous old novel about a scientist who created a living man out of parts from dead cadavers.”

“A monster,” Frankenheimer added.

“Oh.”

His smile dimming noticeably, Frankenheimer said, “I'm not involved in anything like that, Mrs. Kell, please believe me.”

“Then what are you involved in?” she asked.

“Brain physiology,” he said. “Please, come into my office and I'll try to explain it all to you.”

With Castiglione trailing behind them, Aditi followed the scientist along a short corridor and, at its end, a large windowless office with a desk, several comfortable chairs, and blank walls that glowed a pearly gray. Frankenheimer gestured to one of the chairs. As Aditi sat on it, he pulled up another chair next to hers. Castiglione remained standing by the door, his arms crossed over his chest.

Leaning slightly toward Aditi, Frankenheimer began earnestly, “You have extraordinary capabilities, and we would like to understand them.”

“We?” asked Aditi.

Frankenheimer glanced at Castiglione before answering, “My staff here at the laboratory, Mrs. Kell … and myself, of course.”

Aditi said, “I see.”

“Me too,” Castiglione added. “Faster-than-light communications!”

“And I presume,” Frankenheimer continued, “that it was you who enabled your husband to effectively take over all the communications channels on Earth this morning.”

“And off-Earth, as well,” said Castiglione.

Aditi looked from Frankenheimer to Castiglione and back again. “You want to learn how this is done.”

“Yes!” In unison.

Touching her left temple, Aditi said, “I have a communications device implanted in my brain. It's been there since … since I was born.”

Eagerly, Frankenheimer said, “We'd like to examine it.” Before Aditi could reply, he clarified, “It would be a completely noninvasive examination, I assure you. Neutrino tomography, just to map your brain and the device.”

Feeling a bit uncertain, Aditi asked, “Completely noninvasive?”

“Yes. Certainly.”

She drew in a little breath, then said, “I'd like to have my husband present when you do this.”

“That won't be possible,” Castiglione said.

“Not possible? Why not?”

Looking slightly uncomfortable, Castiglione said, “Mr. Kell does not have a security clearance. Without a clearance he cannot enter this complex.”

“But I don't have a security clearance,” Aditi said.

“Ah, but you are a special case,” said Castiglione.

Frankenheimer interjected, “You are the subject of our investigation.”

Suppressing a frown, Aditi said, “Suppose I refuse to allow you to probe my brain.”

“I'm afraid we would have to insist, dear lady,” Castiglione said.

Frankenheimer was starting to look truly distressed. “It's very important,” he said. “Ms. Halleck has insisted that we learn how your FTL communications work.”

Forcing a smile, Aditi said, “But I don't know how it works.”

“You don't?”

“No, I don't. Do you know how your computer works? Or an airplane? You use such devices, but you can't explain how they work, can you?”

“I can explain the general principles,” Frankenheimer said.

Aditi said, “I can put you in contact with our technical people. I'm sure they could explain how the communicators work.”

Before Frankenheimer could reply, Castiglione said, “You mean you could set up a two-way communications link between here and New Earth?”

“There would be a time lag,” said Aditi. “About an hour.”

“That would be acceptable,” Frankenheimer said, looking eager.

 

WORLD COUNCIL HEADQUARTERS

Anita Halleck, meanwhile, was smiling across her desk at Carlos Otero. The network owner sat glowering at her like a dark thundercloud.

Otero was in his office in Boston, but the holographic phone link made it appear as if he were sitting in the same room with Halleck.

“You can't keep him under wraps like this,” he said, nearly growling. “He's news, for god's sake! The star traveler!”

“Do you want him disrupting your network again?” Halleck challenged. “Do you want him shooting off like a loose cannon again?”

“I want him on Otero Network.”

Halleck bit back the refusal that immediately sprang to her mind. Instead, she drew in a calming breath and realized that it would be better to have Otero as an ally than an enemy. Far better.

Slowly, carefully, she replied, “I think that might be arranged, Carlos.”

Otero's mustachioed face broke into a happily surprised grin. “It could?”

“Under the proper circumstances.”

“What do you mean?”

“You can have Kell appearing on your network exclusively. But not live. Let him say anything he wants to, but our security people will edit his speech. We will allow only the edited version to go out on the air.”

Otero's expression darkened. “Only the sanitized version.”

“Yes. He can talk about this death wave all he wants to. And about the other worlds that he wants to save from it. But nothing about the new technologies that the aliens have developed. Nothing about his wife or her people.”

“Why not? That's news! People would be extremely interested—”

“Too interested,” said Halleck. “I don't want the general public expecting miracles from New Earth. We've got to be very careful about how we allow alien technology to be introduced here.”

“Like the ban on nanotechnology.”

Halleck nodded. “Very much like the ban on nanotech. New technology can be dangerous.”

Rubbing his swarthy chin, Otero muttered, “You want to control how much new technology is introduced to Earth.”

“Control it very carefully,” Halleck said. “Control it so that it helps us to regulate the situation instead of letting everything run wild.”

“Protect the people from themselves.”

“Exactly.”

Otero leaned back in his chair and smiled at the head of the World Council. Remembering that Anita Halleck's body teemed with nanomachines that were forbidden to everyone else on Earth, he said, “But Kell can appear on Otero Network.”

“Should be quite a feather in your cap, Carlos.”

“Yes. It will be.”

Her expression hardening, Halleck said, “But Kell and that alien wife of his are to be kept separated. We can't have him taking over your network—and all the others. That must not happen again.”

“Of course not,” Otero agreed.

 

GRAND HOTEL

Jordan paced the spacious sitting room of his hotel suite. Aditi was not there, and four phone calls to Halleck's office had gotten him nothing more than polite requests to be patient.

“I'm sure Mrs. Kell will be with you by the dinner hour,” said Halleck's dark-eyed assistant.

Jordan frowned at her image in the phone screen. Dinner hour in Barcelona was around ten
P.M
., he recalled.

“Where is she?” he demanded.

“With Signore Castiglione” was the only answer he got.

They've separated us, Jordan realized. Halleck is smart enough to realize that without Aditi I'm impotent. I can't reach Adri on New Earth without her. I can't even reach Mitch Thornberry, wherever he is.

Feeling more desperate with each pace across the luxuriously furnished room, Jordan finally decided, Maybe I can reach Professor Rudaki. Perhaps he could be of some help.

Somewhat to his surprise, his phone call to Rudaki was allowed to go through. The professor's dour expression brightened when he saw Kell's image.

“Mr. Kell. I am honored.”

Jordan unconsciously reverted to his old diplomatic demeanor. “Thank you, sir. I am flattered.”

Rudaki was seated in what appeared to be a smallish office, crammed with tiny plastic boxes that Jordan assumed held information chips. Books, he imagined; reports, images from telescopes and spaceborn sensors. His desk was heaped high with them.

Looking curious, the professor asked, “To what do I owe this pleasant surprise?”

Jordan realized that he was still standing. Heading for one of the brightly covered couches, he said, “I'm feeling a little desperate, sir.”

“Desperate?”

As he sank into the couch's yielding cushions, Jordan explained, “Apparently Anita Halleck has decided to keep my wife and me apart.”

Rudaki's rumpled face pulled into a frown. “What did you expect? You frightened her out of her wits when you usurped all the communications channels.”

“She's not out of her wits,” Jordan said. “She's very much in command of her wits, I'm afraid.”

Nodding gruffly, Rudaki agreed, “She's no fool. She guessed that your remarkable performance was as much your wife's doing as yours. So she has decided to keep the two of you separated.”

“I don't like that,” said Jordan.

“But what can you do about it?”

“I was hoping that you, as a Council member, might help us.”

Rudaki broke into a rueful grin. “Halleck runs the Council with an iron hand. If we were to vote twenty to zero against her, she would declare that she won the vote.”

“You mean that she's become a dictator?”

“Not quite. But you know the old adage, Power corrupts…”

“… and absolute power corrupts absolutely,” Jordan finished.

“I'm afraid she is heading in that direction.”

“And this man Castiglione? Where does he fit in?”

“He's her lackey. A charming rogue. He does her dirty work.”

A pang of alarm hit Jordan. “He's with my wife.”

Rudaki hesitated before replying, “I didn't mean that he would harm her. But if Halleck wants to keep you separated from your wife, Castiglione is perfectly capable of seeing to it.”

“What can I do about it?”

“Nothing, I'm afraid.”

“Can you help us?”

Again the professor hesitated. After several heartbeats he said, “I can speak to her about it. But I doubt that it would do much good. As I said, that performance of yours really frightened her.”

Jordan nodded. But he thought, Did I frighten Halleck, or did I make the mistake of showing her what Aditi's people can do? Would she allow us to be together if I promise to show her how to use Aditi's communications technology?

*   *   *

Dr. Frankenheimer stared in awe at Adri's image on his wall viewer. He was still seated beside Aditi, in front of the desk in his office. Castiglione had quietly taken the chair on Aditi's other side. All three of them had turned their chairs to face the three-dimensional viewer built into the wall.

It was like looking into another room. Adri sat smiling and apparently relaxed in a comfortably padded chair in what Aditi recognized as his office, on the top floor of the civic center in New Earth's only city. It was a spacious room, devoid of the trappings of power: simply an airy room with wide windows that looked out on the city's quiet streets and stately buildings. No desk, no hierarchical arrangement of furniture, only comfortable chairs and small couches scattered across the tiled floor.

The expression on Frankenheimer's youthful face was a mixture of wonderment and curiosity: his mouth hung slightly open; his light brown eyes were wide and totally focused on the alien.

Instead of his usual robe Adri wore a loose-fitting shirt of pale blue that hung over darker slacks. He held a small, furry, round-eyed pet in his lap, stroking it absently. Aditi recognized that as a sign that Adri was far from relaxed: he was actually nervous, concerned.

Half apologetically, Adri was saying in his soft voice, “I'm sorry that the time lag between our world and yours makes a true conversation so difficult. But as I understand it, you would like to learn how our communications technology works.”

“Yes!” Frankenheimer cried. Then he looked embarrassed when he realized that his word could not reach New Earth for an hour.

Adri went on, unperturbed, “I will gladly put you in touch with our communications technicians, of course. But you should also contact Mitchell Thornberry, who is on your own planet. Professor Thornberry received a full education in physics while he was here on New Earth, and I'm sure he can teach your people the basics of our communications technology.”

Frankenheimer turned to Aditi, who nodded her agreement.

“If there is anything else I can help you with, please do not hesitate to ask me. We intend to be as helpful as we can.”

Aditi said, “Thank you, Adri. You've been helpful already.”

Adri's image dissolved. The wall went back to a blank glowing gray.

Castiglione smiled grandly at Frankenheimer. “Are you satisfied?”

Looking almost like a man waking from a dream, Frankenheimer said faintly, “It seems like a good beginning.”

Aditi confirmed, “As Adri said, we intend to be as helpful as we can.” She got to her feet and said to Castiglione, “Look at the time! Can you take me back to my husband, please? He'll be worried about me.”

“I'm afraid that will be impossible, dear one.”

“Impossible? Why? I want—”

“Lovely one,” Castiglione said, “you are our only link with New Earth. We can't risk allowing you to leave this complex. It can be dangerous out there.”

“Dangerous?”

“You are an object of curiosity—and fear. There are too many excitable people out there, too many fanatics.”