Psychlone

  I suppose it takes a knack, Archie said. I'm still learning. I want to work in a garage when I grow up, for a little while anyway." Jim Townsend swam briefly before Tim's eyes. The voices came up again.

  Don't let him talk to you that way What way? I've been thinking a lot about what I'll do when I grow up, Tim said. My Dad worked in a garage." Where did you live before you came here?"

  Tim didn't answer for a moment. A town in New Mexico, he said finally. But I don't really want to talk about it." Where will you work when you grow up?"

  I might be a policeman. They help people. They get things done." Naw, policemen have all sorts of trouble. My uncle is a policeman. He says they can't arrest anybody because they might get in trouble if they look at the crooks cross-eyed."

  He was probably exaggerating." Maybe, but I went with him once in a patrol car. He had to pick up a drunk. Geez, the guy was all scuzzy, with stuff leaking out his mouth ... yechh."

  Carrying the fire Tim remembered Kevin Land and frowned. I knew a drunk once, he said, trying to appease the voices. He was just sick, that's all. He was in bad shape. My Dad rented some land to him cheap so he could live away from the streets." Yeah, but I wouldn't want to go around handling them all the time, anyway. So cops have to do lots of dirty things, arrest pushers and whores" Whores?" Sure. My uncle used to work on vice." What was that?" Boy, Archie said, sighing, you did live in a small town, didn't you?"

  Pretty small, Tim said softly, looking down at the ground. Vice is where they arrest whores and pimps and raid porno joints. They used to be able to bust porno joints all the time, but now they have their hands tied. Both Mom and Dad say it's because Satan has control of the government."

  You ever seen a whore? Tim asked curiously. Naw. My uncle still gets to bust them pretty often, though."

  What do whores do?"

  Geez, you don't know? Ever watch Police Woman on TV? She gets to play whoreshookersall the time. My Dad watches that show. Mom likes Kojak better." Yeah, but what do they do?" They let you stick it in them for money." Stick what?" Archie blushed and muttered something about not asking too many questions. Ain't you been through sex ed yet?" Oh, Tim said. That." Yeah, that." I might have known a hooker once. At least, there was talk she went out with guys for money." I guess every town has them. Archie adjusted his fake foot and swung down lightly from the tree limb, dropping to the ground. Tim noticed he let his good foot take the shock. You're pretty handy with that thing, Tim said, landing beside him. Yeah. Lots of practice. I don't want to be gimpy. Archie walked away. Tim bent down to tie the laces on his tennis shoe.

  Put him out of his misery Then he stood up and ran after the boy. Anybody ever razz you about being ... you know?" Sometimes. I just punch their lights out. You know, I can kick pretty hard with this thing, like a horse hoof. Doesn't hurt me, unless I twist the leg wrong, but it sure kicks the hell out of anyone who bugs me. Like the Bionic Man, you know?" Yeah. Tim laughed. You like comic books?" Some."

  Which ones?" Oh, I like Superman and Batman." Geez, those are old! Archie said, snickering. You should look at the Marvel stuff." They're dumb, Tim said. Everybody talking all the time, and that idiot Spiderman." Some of them are pretty good, though. I read a lot of DC stuff. Ever look at Howard the Duck?" What?" It's about a talking duck, wisecracks and all sorts of stuff. Pretty good. But if my Mom knew what the duck talked about, she wouldn't let me read them. He has this girlfriend, a woman, not a duck, and he sleeps with her and everything." A duck, with a woman?" Sure." That's really dumb."

  Yeah, but it's funny, too." They came to the bushy edge of the park and simultaneously ran for the playground equipment. On the swings, they tried to outdo each other. They came out even. Ever go around all the way? Archie asked, yelling from the peak of his swing.

  No!" I did, once. Swing. Boy, was it great! Swing. I almost wet my pants." Hey, Archie. Swing. Yeah?" I got to swing"tell you something." Your secret? Swing.

  Psychlone Yeah." When? Swing. Now. They skidded to a stop. Okay. What is it?" I'm going to run away." Archie looked at him as if he was crazy. Why would you want to do that?" I have to. I've got some money and I'm going to the bus station. I have the schedules and everything. I can pick up a bus near the park and it'll take me to the Trailways terminal. I'm going to buy a ticket and go back to my home town." Geez. Archie looked abashed. You don't like it around here?" No, that isn't it. I have to." Why?"

  I can't tell you that." You know what my uncle told me about runaways? He said that they get picked up by weird guys who take them out and bugger them. Or they get hopped up on dope by some pusher and he makes them go out and steal TV sets, or do the murders for gangs because they won't get the firing squad if they're caught." I have to do it. It's very important. I have to talk to people." You going to leave today?" Tim nodded. Where'd you get the money?" I ... you won't tell anybody?" Archie shook his head slowly. Psychlone I stole it. Borrowed it, really, because I'll pay it back. But I have to find out something, tell people about things. People who'll believe me." I don't know, Archie said. Maybe you shouldn't have told me."

  Why?" I don't want anything to happen to you. Couldn't you just stay around here and play with me? I don't have all that many friends. I can't afford for them to run away."

  I don't have any choice." Tim, if I let you run away, I might have to be all kinds of guilty if you get caught, or ... you know ... if somebody buggers you and strangles you. You don't know what kind of monsters are out there. My uncle warned me about some of them, but sometimes my Mom makes him shut up." Nothing will happen to me." You don't know that! Tim, I'd be awful scared for you." You wouldn't tell, would you?"

  Awful slimy crippled bastard coward Geez, I don't know. I don't think it would be right to let you do something stupid like that." You mean you'd tell?" You stole the money and everything." Tim got off the swing, fists clenched. You'd tell?"

  The eyes Archie climbed out of the swing backward. Tim" "Goddamn you to hell, you fucking little snot!" Hey, enough of that! Nobody talks to me that way." "I should kick your balls in, you wretch!" You try and I'll put you down for the count. Archie looked at him levelly, arms raised in defense. What's the matter with you?" I have to go, Tim said calmly. Okay, but you touch me with one little finger and I'll He hefted his fake foot and made a jabbing motion with it. Right in the crotch. I've had to fight before."

  Tim laughed. Part of it sounded like a boy, but another part was cold and distant and full of hate. You won't tell anybody. You know where I come from?" I don't know, I don't care." Lorobu, you fucker. I survived Lorobu." Archie's eyes widened. I don't believe you." I'm the little kid left alive. I'm the one left to carry the fire for the town."

  What are you talking about?" I can call things down on your head you wouldn't believe. Is that true? he asked the voices, very frightened by the words coming out of his mouth. They didn't answer.

  Yeah? Try it. I dare you. Archie backed away. You're crazy. Go head and run away, get buggered. See if I care." On your head! Tim said coldly.

  Up yours!" Faster than Tim could believe, he ran forward, reached out and grabbed Archie's shoulder. The blood was on his hands clear as could be. Archie's fake foot lashed out automatically and caught him in the shin. His leg exploded in pain. He raised his fist, fingernails extended.

  The eyes You squealing asshole." A large, gnarled hand grabbed his arm, nearly lifting him off his feet. It was a tall, stocky old man in gray

  Psychlone overalls. What's the matter with you, kid?"

  Let me go, Tim said slowly, looking directly into the man's tired green eyes. He tried to kick him but the old man hefted him away just in time to leave his foot flailing. He's crazy! Archie said. He just went nuts!" Where do you live?" I know where he lives, Archie said. I'm going to call the cops and have them take you home right now." I'll kill you, Tim said. I'll make your skin fall off and your guts hang out. They'll get even for what you did. What all of you did." Who's that, kid? The old man's nostrils were flaring. You, he said
to Archie, go over to the superintendent's booththe equipment placeand have him call the cops. Tell him where this boy lives, too." Sure. Archie ran off. If you were a grownup, I'd beat the shit out of you for what you just said to me, the old man told Tim.

  If I were your dad, I'd take a cane to you and raise welts all over." Tim, deep inside, thought, This man is as nuts as the rest of them. Make them angry and they turn into animals.

  The old man shook him by the arm until his joints popped. Tim screamed and the man let him down. Then his foot had opportunity to connect. The old man clutched his knee and groaned, going over backward. Tim picked himself off the ground, where he had fallen from the force of his kick, and ran. He would find the bus, he would go to the bus station. He had to get to Lorobu. He was sick. He'd hurt somebody if he didn't.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  Prohaska and Fowler toasted each other with cups of coffee in the restaurant booth. Fowler took a napkin from the dispenser and a felt pen from his pocket and began a list of priorities. Psychlone One, he wrote. Dorothy's bugged. Mollify her. We survived, at least, Prohaska said. I'm not so sure I did, Fowler said. I left quite a few shattered personas in that cabin. How can I go back to designing and marketing computers after that? It would be anticlimactic." There's a story in it somewhere, but I'm damned if I can find the angle." You mean, who's going to believe us." Exactly. My station doesn't go for this sort of thing at all. I could sell a half dozen stories to the grocery store tabloids, but what good would it do? That kind of exposure only makes acceptance more difficult." So?" Prohaska shrugged. I still can't back away from it. There's something here that cries out to be investigated. You have a scientific bentdoesn't it interest you?" Yes, but I've fulfilled my obligation. I've shown that Jordan didn't kill Henrythat he was forced." And who will believe that? Just you? Were you out to vindicate their memory just to yourself?" Fowler looked down at the table. I don't know." Seems to me your job won't be complete until you convince the public at large there's something in the valley." How do I do that?" Not alone, that's for sure. Together, we might be able to make a dent." And what's your stake?" Prohaska pointed to his bruised face. Two stakes. One, welllet me ask you a question first. What's the prime requirement in a scientific experiment?" How do you mean?" Repeatability. Someone else has to be able to replicate the lab results, or witness the phenomenon. I'm almost certain the thing in the valley is willing to repeat its act over and over again. Like clockwork. Just add people. So I'm sitting on the biggest story of our time. First affirmed, studied demon. My second stake is revenge." Very well, then, how do we go about it?" First, we stay here in Bishop." Forfeit our jobs?"

  It comes down to that, doesn't it?" To follow up some.... Fowler stopped, disgusted, and x'd out the list he had made on the napkin. He turned the paper over to start again. Dorothy'll hate me. If we can bring the scientists and our beasts together on common ground, then we have something."

  Then we can sacrifice our private lives for a good cause. Prohaska rubbed his eyes gingerly. How much are you willing to sacrifice?" Willing isn't the word. You've brought up that old devil Duty again."

  So to speak. The reporter grinned. Dorothy was pretty shook by what happened. I'm not sure she'll take to the idea of stayingespecially if I forfeit my job."

  Where is she now?" Napping in the room. She doesn't talk about it." I don't blame her. How is Howard going to explain a beat-up car to his superiors? He's probably already making up a story." Demons don't pass in this society, Fowler said. So we should abandon it, let that thing run amok after the creek freezes over, maybe kill more people?

  That's another reason we can't let it lie. We can call up Duke University." The hell with that. They're interested in ESP, not demons. And they don't know much more about it than anybody else. But... He tapped his fingers on the formica. I have a friend at UCLA, a physicist. Maybe we could show it to him, and he could bring another friend and show it to him, and we'd be on our way."

  Psychlone What about the military?" What about them? Fowler asked, frowning. They might be interested." How?" When I called my station, I talked to a friend, a broadcaster, and he said the nix is out on stories about

  Lorobu. The government has wrapped tape around anything having to do with the town. No one can get near it. We can report all we want, but we don't write stories unless we have information." So how does this connect with Lorobu?"

  Maybe your monster moonlights." Hell, Fowler said, it's purely a local phenomenon. It's trapped now, and besides, it never left the valley."

  Positive?" Fowler held up his hands. No, but I'd stake a few bucks that this thing and Lorobu have no connection." Maybe not directly. But you know the story about Lorobu, don't you? Everybody went berserk, started killing each other. Three people survived. In a hospital several days later, one of the survivors killed another and committed suicide by jumping out a third-floor window. Now doesn't that sound similar to what happened with the Taggarts?" Yes, but Sam, eight hundred people died in Lorobu." All the more frightening, isn't it? If there's no direct connection, maybe there's a generic relationship. Maybe they come from the same family. Big brother, little brother." That's crazy." Prohaska laughed. Then it has a ring of familiarity, doesn't it?" I think the thing in the valley is a natural phenomenon. What happened in Lorobu He stopped, frowning. You know, Jordan Taggart said something to me ... about ants and sticks and things. He said something was going on, that he could almost feel it, and that we were ants being stirred up. And that this thing in the valley was another kind of bug, also being stirred up. Like a common stimulusa giant, Psychlone invisible stick. He shook his head slowly. I'm not sure that makes any sense, though." But shouldn't we tell the authorities anyway, have them check it out?" If we do that, we lose all claim to it, Fowler said. They'll slap a security rating on it just for the sake of practice. We'll lose everything."

  Even movie rights? Larry, we're not talking about a story property, we're talking about news and how to spread it around. That's a duty, not a privilege." Fowler finished his cup and let the waitress pour him another. I've got six thousand dollars in savings, enough to keep my life-style going for about three months, five if I let my beach apartment in Malibu go, and sell my Z for payments. Sell, hell, what Z? Well, if I turn in the insurance claim and get it passed, I can keep the moneyif anyleft over after completing payments. So five months tops. Then I'm broke, out of a job." So go back to LA and keep your job. Come up here on weekends and help me." And what about you?" I've got a novel payment coming in by the middle of February. I can muddle through until then. Larry, I think we're both honorable men. We can't let this pass." This is a theoretical question, butwhy not?" Because it could blow the lid off our entire century. Considera living thing without a material form.

  This could provide a basis for ghosts, demons, even UFOs ... maybe even life after death."

  Fowler looked out the window, squinting in the bright late-morning sunlight. I have never thought of myself as a noble, sacrificing man. You know what this world of ours does to crackpots?" I have a fair idea." Fowler nodded. Okay, then, who do we show it to first? My friend at UCLA, or some military type?" Let's go the civilian route first."

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  Jacobs said his farewells to Trumbauer and Miss Unamuno, then followed Silvera across Main Street to Psychlone an olive-green trailer parked on a dirt lot. A woman in a laboratory smock was standing near metal steps under a closed steel door, smoking a cigarette. Good morning, Colonel, she said. Mrs. Beckett. This is Franklin Jacobs, a writer"

  Yes, I've read one or two of your books, Mr. Jacobs. Pleased to meet you." She was about thirty-five, with close-cropped red hair and a utilitarian appearance which almost belied a striking facial structure. Jacobs smiled his most charming smile and bowed slightly. I enjoy meeting my readers."

  Until a few weeks ago, I thought you were full of the most intriguing garbage, Beckett said, dropping her cigarette into the dirt. Now I'm keeping an open mind. What does the Col
onel have planned for you?" Mr. Jacobs is going to be an advisor, Silvera said. I'd like to show him the trailer." Certainly. Have you brought a specimen of ectoplasm with you? Her smile reduced the sarcasm somewhat. Jacobs took a liking to her instantly. She had energy and convictionif she were to oppose him, the fight would be an entertaining one. You'd be disappointed by genuine ectoplasm, Jacobs said as she reached up to open the door. A red light came on above the entrance. It's mostly water and dead skin." She cocked her eyebrows. This way, Franklin. My first name, by the way, is Judith. Not Judy." Of course. The trailer was filled with electronic equipment, all of it used-looking, all carrying that overpainted, spotlessly clean stamp of military hardware. At the rear, through a door just light enough to escape armored status, were banks of quiet computers and memory consoles. These were less identifiably Army and looked like fresh installations. Mr. Jacobs has a B clearance for this project, Mrs. Beckett." That means I can tell you most of what I know, the woman said, pulling a computer terminal out of concealment. Do you know anything about computers, Franklin?" Next to nothing." This trailer is the coordinator and memory for all the research teams around Lorobu. We have microprocessors and small computers elsewhere, but by the end of the day everything has to be put

  Psychlone through the unit in the back. On this side of the door is communications equipment, auxiliary terminals, and a hotplate for coffee. None brewing at the moment." Has any of it helped you discover what happened in Lorobu? Jacobs asked. No. But we have all kinds of information. Would you like to see some of it?" Yes." What in particular?"

  What do you have on bacterial growth rates?" She led him to a CRT and typed instructions into the keyboard. As he watched, growth curves and comparable norms of several major bacteria were quickly sketched. She punched a continuation button and three more appeared, and then again.