First and Only (12 page)

Finally he turned to the JREF
lawyer.

‘Lionel, if you please… I believe
we have some formalities to attend to. I trust you brought the necessary
papers.’

‘Yes… yes,’ said Lionel reaching
for his briefcase. He opened the case and withdrew several official looking
documents.

‘Psimon, if you please,’ said
Randi inviting Psimon to join them.

Steve stepped back as Psimon went
to join the two men at the far end of the table.

‘Basically…’ said Lionel laying
the documents out on the desk, ‘we just need your signature and the details of
the bank account into which you would like the money to be paid.’

Steve could not suppress a smile
as he watched Psimon bend forward to sign the ‘claimant’s’ document. He felt
strangely proud of Psimon; pleased for him but at the same time he felt
unbelievably foolish. Something he had said just two days ago kept repeating
itself in his mind…

‘
And I’ve already told you… I
don’t believe in psychics!
’

He laughed softly and looked down
at the empty glass tube that still lay on the table. And beside it a metal rod;
a metal rod that was not only bent but had been formed into a perfect circle.
Steve reached down and picked up the circle of steel. He weighed it in the palm
of his hand and as he did so the smile faded from his face. He turned to look
once more at Psimon. If this one unbelievable thing were true… then how much
more of what Psimon had told him was also true?

At some point in the next few
days a serial murderer was going to kill Psimon…

…unless Steve killed him first.

*

Tony sat at the computer in his
office, the video camera cradled in his lap, a mobile phone pressed to his ear.
‘No, I’m not joking…’ he hissed into the phone. ‘I just saw it with my own
fucking eyes!’

Tony cast a nervous glance at the
door, clearly anxious that no one should hear him making this call.

‘So the prize has been claimed?’
said a man’s voice on the other end of the line. ‘The foundation is actually
paying up?’

‘They’re signing the paperwork as
we speak,’ said Tony quietly. ‘I’m telling you… this is for real.’

‘And you’ve got it all on film?’

‘On disk, yes,’ said Tony. ‘I’m
making a copy right now.’

Tony’s computer was all set to
copy the disk from the camera but, despite Tony repeatedly pressing the eject
button, the camera wouldn’t give up the disk.

‘Okay…’ said the man on the other
end of the phone. ‘Do you know where they’re staying?’

‘No,’ said Tony in growing
frustration at the uncooperative camera. ‘They said something about heading up
to the Cape.’

‘All right… try and keep them
there as long as possible.’

‘There’s nothing I can do to stop
them… just send a car as soon as possible.’

‘There’s one on its way but it’s
not that simple. We can’t detain them without authorisation.’

‘Authorisation from who?’ asked
Tony.

‘Our client,’ came the evasive
reply.

‘Whatever,’ said Tony. ‘They’re
driving a blue Chevy Cobalt. It’s parked right outside the JREF but I don’t know
how long they’ll be here.’

Tony struck the camera with the
heel of his hand. The damn thing just wouldn’t open.

*

‘What is it?’ asked Steve when
Psimon hesitated in the foundation’s foyer.

For the last few minutes Psimon
had seemed distracted and distant.

‘It’s Tony,’ said Psimon quietly.
‘He’s trying to make a copy of the disk.’

‘What!’ exclaimed Steve. ‘We
should stop him… tell Randi.’

‘It’s okay,’ said Psimon with a
smile. ‘He’s having a little trouble with the camera.’

For a moment Steve just looked at
him. Then… ‘No…’ he said incredulously.

‘It’s just a simple electrical
switch,’ said Psimon as if this explained everything.

‘But you’re not even in the same
room,’ protested Steve.

‘Same room… same city. Distance
doesn’t really matter.’

‘What…’ said Steve. ‘You can see
through his eyes?’

‘Not exactly,’ replied Psimon.
‘But having met him… having made that connection… it almost allows me to be
present in the room.’

The intensity of Steve’s frown
adequately portrayed the difficulty he was having with these new revelations.
He just kept thinking…

‘
This is not possible… none of
this is possible
.’

*

Tony’s head snapped up as Jeff
entered the room.

‘Is there a problem?’ asked Jeff
suspiciously when he saw the guilt written on Tony’s face.

‘No,’ said Tony, his face
flushing. ‘Just can’t seem to get the disk out.’

Jeff stepped forward and held out
his hand. With visible reluctance Tony surrendered the camcorder to Jeff who
turned it over and pressed the eject button. There was a small click and the
caddy popped smoothly open.

‘A case,’ said Jeff nodding to
the stack of DVD cases on Tony’s desk.

Tony opened a case and held it
out to Jeff who slipped the disk inside and folded it shut. Then he handed the
camera back to Tony and left the room.

*

Back in the foyer Steve watched
as Psimon’s face relaxed into a smile.

‘Can we go now?’ he asked.

‘Yes,’ said Psimon. ‘We can go.’

Steve shook his head muttering
under his breath but Psimon caught the words.

‘Bloody psychics…’ Steve cursed
as they made their way out to the blue Chevy Cobalt in the car park.

Chapter 15

The silver Volvo pulled up a hundred metres from the
entrance to the James Randi Foundation. The windows were darkly tinted but
apart from that there was nothing to mark this vehicle out from several others
parked in driveways along the road. The two men inside sat back in their seats.
They had made good time getting there and they were relieved to see that the
blue Chevy was still in the car park. It was an Avis rental, standard low-end
model. Following it should be a piece of cake. They made a note of the licence
plate, called it in to control, and settled down to wait.

‘I don’t get it,’ said the
younger of the two men.

‘We don’t have to get it,’ said
the older man. ‘We just have to follow them.’ He had the hard, serious face of
an ex-cop.

‘But really,’ persisted the
younger man. ‘Even if this guy can bend spoons without touching them. I mean…
so what? We can tail him all the way to the Cape if need be. I don’t see why we
need the chopper.’

The ex-cop seemed irritated by
the simple act of having to make conversation.

‘You wear a Ruger SR9 on your
hip,’ he stated without looking at his colleague.

‘Yeah,’ said the younger man. ‘So
what?’

‘So you’d be happy sitting next
to a man who could discharge that firearm just by looking at it.’

The younger man looked up
sharply, his hand resting suddenly on the pistol at his waist.

‘The contact said he could bend
metal with his mind,’ he objected. ‘He said nothing about firing guns.’

‘If he can bend a steel rod into
a perfect circle,’ snapped the ex-cop. ‘He can, sure as shit, slip a safety
catch and apply the half ounce of pressure required to shoot you in your ass.’

‘Shit! I never thought of that.’

‘And who’s to say he couldn’t
fuck with a car’s engine… or an airliner’s?’

‘Jesus!’ swore the younger man
looking at the blue Chevy with considerably more intensity than before.

‘There’s no telling what this guy
is capable of,’ said the ex-cop. The conversation seemed to have annoyed him
and the look his colleague gave him did nothing to improve his temper. ‘You
think I’m paranoid,’ he said, taking in the younger man’s sideways glance. ‘I’m
nothing compared to our client. They’ll be none too pleased if we let this guy
get away. That’s why we need the chopper. To make sure there are no fuck-ups.’’

‘So you really think they’ll
authorise us to detain him? I mean… they’re not even American citizens.’

The ex-cop just stared out of the
Volvo’s windscreen.

‘Once they’re convinced he’s for
real? Yes, they’ll give us authorisation. After all,’ he continued. ‘It never
stopped them with Wernher Von Braun. And just think where we’d be without him.’

‘Who?’ asked the younger man but
the ex-cop was no longer listening.

He fired up the engine.

‘Here they come,’ he said.

*

‘I see it,’ said Steve as he
pulled out of the James Randi car park.

He did not need to be psychic to
pick out the silver Volvo down the street. Intuition was enough. He pulled onto
Davie Boulevard, heading west.

Psimon felt a strong urge to turn
round to see if the car was following them but he contented himself with
watching Steve’s face as he kept a sharp eye on the rear view mirror.

‘Here they come,’ said Steve when
he saw the Volvo falling in behind them. He pursed his lips and gave a small
nod of approval.

‘What is it?’ asked Psimon.

‘They’re really keeping their
distance,’ said Steve. ‘Whoever’s driving the car has done this before.’

‘Can you lose them?’

Steve looked across at him.
Psimon almost seemed to be enjoying this.

‘This isn’t going to be some high
octane car chase,’ he said. ‘Besides…’ he added. ‘I don’t want to lose them
just yet.’

Still driving calmly Steve turned
north onto South Andrews Avenue, heading away from the airport where, in just
over two hours, they were due to catch a flight back to the UK. He continued north
for about a mile, crossed over the river, then stopped at the traffic lights
signalling right.

‘I take it you do know where
you’re going?’ asked Psimon.

‘Just chill out,’ said Steve
bending forward at an awkward angle to look in his wing mirror. ‘We need to see
if your information is accurate.’

‘Information about what?’

‘About that,’ said Steve
ominously. He reached out, adjusting the angle of the mirror to give him a
better chance of keeping the approaching helicopter in sight.

The lights changed to green and
Steve went with the flow of traffic, palm trees and tall, pristine buildings
lining the road.

‘I take it there’s some point to
this magical mystery tour,’ said Psimon.

Steve shot Psimon a sour look.

‘First off,’ he said, as if he
were lecturing some rookie on their first patrol. ‘I need to make sure we’re
dealing with just the one tail. Plus,’ he added. ‘I need to confirm that this
chopper really is here for our benefit; that it’s not just some network bird
covering downtown Fort Lauderdale…’

Psimon smiled. He was not
worried… not about this at least.

*

‘Chopper’s on the scene,’ came
the female voice over the Volvo’s radio.

‘Thanks, control,’ said the
ex-cop. ‘We still have a visual on the target. Any word on authorisation from
the client.’

‘That’s a negative, car 1,’
stated the female voice firmly. ‘Brief remains, shadow and observe only.’

‘Roger that, control. Car 1 out.’

The younger of the two men gave
an unimpressed grunt.

‘Would have been better if the
contact had got a copy of that disk.’

‘Well he didn’t,’ said the
ex-cop. ‘Just keep your mind on the job in hand. This guy seems like he’s on
some kind of sightseeing tour.’

They followed the Blue Chevy as
it meandered leisurely through Fort Lauderdale’s more affluent districts. Then…

‘Heads up!’ said the ex-cop
suddenly. ‘I think he’s made us.’

*

‘Okay,’ said Steve. ‘That should
do it.’

Psimon felt himself pressed
gently back in his seat as Steve suddenly accelerated away from the junction,
not breaking the speed limit, just driving with more purpose than he had been
for the last ten minutes. They turned south and headed back over the river. The
Volvo had now closed the distance in response to their increased speed and
still the chopper circled overhead. But Steve did not seem concerned. He knew what
he needed to know.

Psimon became aware that they
were heading back to where they had started from. Up ahead was South Andrews
Avenue, and there, coming up on the right was the multi-storey parking lot that
Steve had disappeared into before they went to the James Randi Foundation. With
a quick glance in his mirror Steve indicated right and turned into the lot. As
they turned in Psimon took a quick glance behind them. The Volvo had come up
fast and was now right behind them.

*

‘Quick,’ said the younger man.
‘We don’t want to lose them in there.’

The ex-cop said nothing. He had
already gunned the accelerator. As he watched the Chevy enter the lot ahead of
them he wondered if the subjects were going to make a run for it on foot.
Through the tight turns and gloomy interior of the lot he kept the Chevy in
view at all times but instead of taking one of the numerous available spaces
the Chevy just headed straight for the exit. The Volvo followed.

*

Psimon did not like the
claustrophobic feel of the parking lot and was relieved when Steve headed for
the exit. The Volvo was right on their tail. Any pretence about whether or not
they were being followed had been abandoned.

The chase was on…

Or not… as it turned out.

Steve braked suddenly as they
reached the security barrier at the exit. He reached forward to the dashboard,
opened the small compartment, and took out the printed card that he had placed
in there earlier. Then, with a wink at Psimon, he lowered his window and
inserted the card into the column beside the car. The security barrier lifted
before them and Steve drove slowly through, only speeding up when the barrier
dropped down behind them.

*

‘Shit!’ cursed the ex-cop when he
saw the security barrier rise up for the Chevy.

‘Where did he get that ticket,’
protested the younger man. ‘We didn’t see him stop.’