Mutant Star (31 page)

“As long as I want it to,” Rick said. “Besides, I thought I told you to leave. What are you doing here?”

“Working for Hawkins on the fourth level.”

“No wonder I haven’t seen you before this. But it’s still no good. You’re too much of a threat. Maybe I should t-jump you, too. Down to Berkeley, say. Or up to Venus. I just might do it, too, if you don’t stay away from Alanna.”

“From our
sister
?” Julian emphasized the word. “Sure, Rick. How long do you intend to keep threatening me?”

“As long as I have to.”

Rick glared at him with such anger that Julian began to feel afraid.

“Julian, who’s your friend?” Eva Seguy set her tray down on the table next to them. Both men ignored her. “I said, who is your friend?”

Julian wrenched around to face her. “Meet my brother, Rick.”

“The other twin? I didn’t know he was here, too.”

Rick looked Eva Seguy over slowly. He smiled, suddenly all charm. “Julian’s the younger, by eight and a half minutes,” he said. “I’m working for Hawkins. House telepath at your service.”

“Telepath? But I thought you were a null—”

“No longer.”

“You’re joking.”

“Not even close.”

“How marvelous! I had no idea this could happen.” Eva turned to Julian. “You must be so happy for him.”

“Overwhelmed,” Julian said.

“Rick, how would you like to work with us in the lab?”

“Taking flare rides into the future?” Rick laughed. “I don’t need a flare to see the future, Doctor.”

Eva’s chin came up defensively. “I wasn’t offering you a joyride. I’m serious. We could use another talented telepath in the program. Speed up results.”

Julian expected Rick to sneer and withdraw. Instead, he sat down, a smile of amusement on his face.

“Okay,” he said after a moment. “Yeah, sure. Anything to help my brother.” His tone was light but his gaze as he regarded Julian was cool.

“Eva, we should talk about this,” Julian said.

“Later, Julian,” Eva said. “Rick, when do you want to start?”

“After lunch.” Rick leaned over and helped himself to a choba roll from her plate. “I hate to visit the future on an empty stomach.”

***

Alanna awoke on the bed, stretched, and yawned. What time was it? She’d be late for her shift in the hydroponics lab. Then she remembered and sat bolt upright.

I was in the mechteria, she thought. Talking to Julian. Then Rick came in. And … how did I get here?

A confused jumble of images made her head ache. Somehow, Rick had brought her back to their room. Had she collapsed? Or had he knocked her out?

What’s happening to him? I don’t understand.

For a brief moment she longed to talk to her father or mother. To somebody who might be able to explain Rick’s strangeness.

She stood up. The only person who could give her any answers was Rick. She would go find him and demand to know what he’d done. What was happening to him. He had no right to keep secrets from her.

The door to the room was locked. She pressed the doorpad. There was a faint buzz but otherwise no response. How odd, Alanna thought. She sent a slender telekinetic pulse into the lock and probed. It was unresponsive. She boosted the probe. Still no response. With an irritated nod she unleashed a t-bolt, shattered the lock into a dozen pieces, and pushed the door open.

Rick’s responsible for that, she thought. He tried to lock me in. Well, he’s got some explaining to do. And he had better do a good job of it or he might find himself sleeping alone. With a toss of her head she set off down the hall in search of answers.

***

Rick gazed uneasily around the half-built laboratory. All these wires and exotic headsets. Eva Seguy was cute, but she got a funny look in her eye when it came to science. Still, this was diverting. And the expression on Julian’s face when he had agreed to Eva’s proposal was worth the indignity of being strapped in like a lab animal.

“Ready, Rick?” Eva’s voice was tinny over the crude headset.

Beside him, the sleeper, Marcus Schueller, lay snoring on a cot. “Uh, yeah,” Rick said. “I think so. You sure he’ll stay asleep? I won’t feel the flares?”

“He’ll be fine. And you won’t feel a thing.”

“Okay, then. Let her rip.”

Rick could see his brother standing behind Eva near the door. I’ll settle with you later, he thought. Got to get you off the Pavilion. Soon.

Rick forged the telepathic link with Schueller and descended into a hail of colored light, the pathway into the flare. Rick wanted to swat at the bursts of color. Annoying. The fireworks faded to white and an image emerged slowly as though it was moving toward him through a blinding snowstorm.

A young woman with dark hair and golden eyes was dancing onstage in some smoke-filled club. Strange. She looked like a younger version of his mother. Yes. She had to be. Rick started to sweat. This was embarrassing. His mother was doing a strip tease. She was practically naked. He felt a strange sensation, halfway between arousal and revulsion. Young Melanie finished her dance, left the stage, put on a wrapper. Rick relaxed. But wait. That crazy guy was sneaking up behind her. Turn around, Mom. The crazy grabbed her and started to strangle her. Helplessly, Rick watched the struggle. Fight, Mom, he thought. Isn’t anybody going to help her? Someone he didn’t recognize, a man with dark hair and an olive complexion, pulled the lunatic away. Good. Melanie went home with her savior. Stayed there. But then she was running, desperate to get away from her deliverer. What had happened? Look at her kick him! Rick knew his mother had always been reticent about her past. Now he could see why. Run, he thought. Get away from that creep. Rick wished he could make a t-jump through time. He would take care of that bastard for her. Maybe he could find him now and …

“Rick, are you all right?” Eva Seguy’s voice jarred him back to the present. The vision faded. “Your autonomic readings were getting pretty wild.”

“Yeah, fine. Just saw a pretty girl in a G-string,” he said. “Does it to me every time.”

“Is that all you saw?”

“Yeah, and wait, here comes another vision.”

Now he was watching his brother, Julian, presiding over some kind of meeting in a huge hall. Had Julian become a Book Keeper? Wouldn’t that be just like him. But the scene was shifting to show someone very familiar. He looked a bit like Skerry. Rick almost sat bolt upright. It wasn’t Skerry. It was him. Rick. Older, broader. He looked robust, successful. He was wearing a black silk stretch suit and sitting at a desk just like the one Ethan Hawkins had in his private office. Through the window, Rick could see the blue and white face of the Earth. Rick, sitting at the helm of Aria Corp. So it would happen just as he planned.

“All right!” Rick sat up and tore the headset off.

“What did you see?” Eva Seguy said.

“The key to my future,” Rick said. “Thanks, Eva.”

“Wait. Where are you going?”

He grinned. “Got to get started. The future won’t wait.” He t-jumped from the lab to Hawkins’s office. Nobody was there and the holoscreens were dark. He used a telekinetic bolt to seal the door and a probe field to warn him of Hawkins’s approach.

Rick shielded himself so he could not be seen. “Leporello,” he said in Hawkins’s bass rumble.

“Yes, Colonel?”

“Show me the ownership documentation on Aria Corp.”

“The entire file?”

“Yes.”

A green, glowing page emerged above the holoscreen. Rick scanned it and turned to the next. It took him fifteen pages before he found the transfer of trusteeship.

He froze the page onscreen and read it with interest. In case of Hawkins’s death, the colonel had split trusteeship of Aria Corp. between his mother and Jasper Saladin. There was even a chunk of the corporation set aside for the benefit of the space program. Well, not much longer.

“Leporello, I’d like to change this page. In case of my death, the head trustee shall be Rick Akimura.”

“Very good, Colonel. Shall I alter the copies in the vaults as well?”

“Please.”

“Will there be anything else?”

“Yes. I’d like you to transfer some funds.”

***

“I told you he was unreliable,” Julian said. Inwardly, he shuddered. Rick really could t-jump. T-jump! No other mutant could do that. The possibility had been debated for years that one day a powerful telekinetic would be able to teleport himself. What else was Rick capable of?

Eva nodded. “I should have listened to you. Your brother is a will-o’-the-wisp, isn’t he? I’ve never seen a mutant do that before.”

“That’s putting it nicely.” Julian gripped the wall railing. He was shaking with exhaustion. As a precaution, he had tapped in telepathically to monitor his brother’s ride. He still couldn’t believe what he’d seen. His mother in that strange episode at the bar. And later, himself as a Book Keeper while Rick presided over Aria Corp.

What did it mean?

How would Rick take over Hawkins’s holdings?

Julian sat down on the edge of the observation platform. Although he doubted the likelihood of much that he had seen in those visions, Julian was convinced that Rick intended to steal everything Hawkins owned. And if the colonel objected, Rick would probably kill him. Cover it up, make it look like an accident. Julian shuddered. Abominable. It was unthinkable. Rick had to be stopped. But how?

Eva touched his arm. “What’s wrong?”

Julian hesitated. If he told Eva and she believed him, she would be in considerable danger. No. Better to protect her. “I feel dizzy. Weird. Maybe I’m getting a touch of flu. That last flare ride must have taken more out of me than I thought.”

“Do you want me to call the infirmary?”

“No. I’ll go lie down for a while.” He forced a smile and hurried out of the room. The trip up to his quarters took fifteen minutes and felt like half a lifetime. The middle of Julian’s back tingled as though a target had been drawn between his shoulder blades.

He locked the door behind him, turned on the screen, rang Hawkins’s private line. No answer.

Damn!

A small voice in his head piped up: Why are you in such a rush to save Hawkins? Isn’t he your rival? Didn’t he win Eva from you? If you just let Rick have his way, Eva will come back to you.

Julian’s hand wavered over the keypad. But if he did nothing, Hawkins would lose his company. His life. No, Julian thought. Not that way. I don’t want to win because Hawkins dies.

How noble
.

Rick!

You guessed right, Julian. I can see you’ve figured me out. That old twinsense never fails. So why not relax? Once I own Aria, you can have your own lab, and that lady scientist, to play with.

Get out of my head.

Don’t be rude, little brother.

You’re planning murder, Rick. Doesn’t that trouble you?

Who said anything about murder? Hawkins won’t get hurt unless he makes trouble.

Do you think he’s just going to roll over and say, sure, Rick, here’s the keys to the space station and bank accounts?

Maybe. If it’s presented to him properly. But I guess you have a point there.

Julian’s wallscreen chittered and beeped. Rick’s image emerged onscreen through a hail of green and violet light. He was sitting in Hawkins’s office, in Hawkins’s desk chair.

“What have you done to Hawkins?” Julian said. “To Leporello?”

“Nothing,” Rick said.

“What are you doing in Hawkins’s office? Where is he?”

“I was in the neighborhood, and how should I know? Stop asking so many questions, Julian. You’ll live longer.”

Julian’s pulse jumped. “Are you threatening me?”

Rick laughed once, sharply. “Don’t be so melodramatic, Julian. I don’t want to hurt you, or anybody. “ Even Hawkins. So I’ll give you a choice: either play along with me or leave the Pavilion. That way you’ll stay healthy.”

“I can’t leave,” Julian said. “You know I’ve got to finish my dissertation. And I can’t let you commit a crime like this.”

“What crime?” Rick’s eyes were guileless.

“Stealing Hawkins’s holdings, for one.”

Rick shook his head. “I’m not really stealing. The good colonel would exploit every hair on my head if he could. I’m just making sure I get ample compensation.”

“Call it what you want. I can’t let you do it,” Julian said.

“
Let
me?” Rick’s smile was condescending. “How are you going to stop me?”

Julian took a deep breath. “I’m going to warn—”

“You’re not going to warn anybody about anything. As of now, you’re quarantined. Eva will hear that you’re down with a bug and unavailable for the time being. And I wouldn’t try using the screen to call out, Julian. It’s temporarily out of order.” The image dissolved into a blinding pattern of gray and red particles. “But don’t worry. Your food mechs have a two-week supply. After that, you might try eating the bedsheet. Or I might decide to let you out. If you’re nice.”