The Game-Players Of Titan Part 14

Pete said to the Rushmore unit of the elevator, "They're kidnapping me and they've killed a detective. Get help."

"Cancel that last request," Patricia McClain said to the elevator. "We don't need any help, thank you."

"All right, miss," the Rushmore Effect said, obediently.

The elevator doors opened; the McClains followed behind Pete, through the lobby and out onto the sidewalk.

To Pete, Patricia McClain said, "Do you know why Hawthorne was in that elevator, riding up to your floor? I'll tell you. To arrest you."

"No," Pete said. "He told me on the vidphone last night that they'd gotten Luckman's murderer, a man back East."

The McClains glanced at each other but said nothing.

"You killed an innocent man," Pete said.

"Not Hawthorne," Patricia said. "Hardly innocent. I wish we could have gotten that E.B. Black at the same time but it wasn't along. Well, maybe later on."

"That d.a.m.n Mary Anne," Allen McClain said as they got into the car parked at the curb; it was not Pete's car. Evidently the McClains had come in it. "Somebody ought to wring her neck." He started the car and it spun upward into the morning haze. "That age is amazing. When you're eighteen you believe you know everything, you possess absolute cert.i.tude. And then when you're one hundred and fifty you know you don't."

"You don't even know you don't," Patricia said. "You just have a queasy intimation that you don't." She sat in the back seat, behind Pete, still holding the heat-needle pointed at him.

"I'll make a deal with you," Pete said. "I want to be sure Carol and the baby are all right. Whatever you want me to do-"

Patricia interrupted, "You've already made that deal; Carol and the baby are all right. So don't worry about them. Anyhow, the last thing we would want to do is hurt them."

"That's right," Allen said, nodding. "It would defeat everything we stand for, so to speak." He smiled at Pete. "How does it feel to have luck?" luck?"

"You ought to know," Pete said. "You've got more children than any other man in California."

"Yes," Allen McClain agreed, "but it's been over eighteen years since that first time, many years indeed. You really went out and tied one on last night, didn't you? Mary Anne said you were in a trance. Absolutely blind."

Pete said nothing. Gazing down at the ground below, he tried to make out the direction of the car's motion. It seemed to be heading inland, toward the hot central valley-region of California and the Sierras beyond. The utterly desolated Sierras, where no one lived.

"Tell us a little more about Doctor Philipson," Patricia said to him. "I catch some ill-formed thoughts. You called him last night after you got home?"

"Yes."

To her husband, Patricia said, "Pete called him up and asked him if he-Doctor Philipson-was a vug."

Grinning, Allen McClain said, "What did he say?"

"He said that he is not a vug," Patricia said. "And then Pete called Joe Schilling and told him the news; you know, that we're entirely surrounded by them, and Joe Schilling suggested he call Hawthorne. Which he did. And that's why Hawthorne came over this morning."

"I'll tell you who you should have called, instead of Wade Hawthorne," McClain said to Pete. "Your attorney, Laird Sharp."

"Too late now," Patricia said. "But we'll probably run into Sharp somewhere along the line anyhow. You can talk to him then, Pete. Tell him the whole story, how we're an island of humans swamped in a sea of nonterrestrials." She laughed, and so did her husband.

"I think we're scaring him," McClain said.

"No," Patricia said. "I'm scanning him and he's not scared, at least not like he was last night." To Pete she said, "That was an ordeal for you, wasn't it, that trip home with Mary Anne? I'll bet you never get over it as long as you live." To her husband she said, "His two frames of reference kept switching back and forth; first he'd see Mary Anne as a girl, as an attractive eighteen-year-old Terran, and then he'd peek over, out of the corner of his eye-"

"Shut up!" Pete said savagely.

Patricia continued, "And there it would be. The amorphous ma.s.s of cytoplasm, spinning its web of illusion, to mix a metaphor. Poor Pete Garden. It sort of takes the romance out of life, doesn't it, Pete? First you couldn't find a bar that would serve Mary Anne and then-"

"Stop it," her husband said. "That's really enough; he's gone through enough already. This rivalry of yours with Mary Anne, it's bad for both of you. You shouldn't be competing with your own daughter."

"Okay," Pat said, and was silent as she lit a cigarette.

Below them, the Sierras pa.s.sed slowly. Pete watched them drop behind.

"Better call him," Patricia said to Allen.

"Right." Her husband clicked on the radio transmitter. "This is Dark Horse Ferry," he said into the microphone. "Calling Sea Green Lamb. Come in, Sea Green Lamb. Come in, Dave."

A voice from the radio said, "This is Dave Mutreaux. I'm at the Dig Inn Motel in Sparks, waiting for you."

"Okay, Dave; we'll be right there. Another five minutes." Allen McClain switched his transmitter off. "All set," he said to Patricia. "I can preview it; there won't be any gaffes."

"Splendid," Patricia said.

"By the way," Allen McClain said to Pete, "Mary Anne will be there; she came direct, in her own car. And several other people, one of whom you know. It'll be interesting for you, I think. They're all Psis. Mary Anne, by the way, is not a telepath, as her mother is. Despite what she told you. That was irresponsible of her. A good deal of what she told you was hogwash. For instance, when she said-"

"Enough," Patricia said, firmly.

McClain shrugged. "He'll know in another half hour; I can preview that."

"It just makes me nervous, that's all. I'd rather wait until we're at the Dig Inn." To Pete, she said, "By the way, you would have been better off if you had listened to her and kissed her goodnight, as she asked you to."

"Why?" Pete said.

"Then you would have known what she was." She added, "Anyhow, how many opportunities do you get in your lifetime to kiss stunningly-beautiful girls?" Her voice, as before, was bitter.

"You're eating your heart out for nothing," Allen McClain told her. "Christ, I'm sorry to see you do it, Pat."

Pat said, "And I'm going to do it again later on with Jessica, when she's older."

"I know," McClain said, nodding. "I can preview that even without my talent." He looked morose.

On the flat sand outside the Dig Inn Motel the car landed. With the heat-needle the McClains ushered Pete Garden out and toward the single-story Spanish-style adobe building.

A long-limbed man, well-dressed, middle-aged, strode toward them from the motel, his hand extended. "Hi, McClain. Hi, Pat." He glanced at Pete. "Mr. Garden, the one-time owner of Berkeley, California. You know, Garden, I darn near came to Carmel to play in your group, but, sorry to say, you scared me off with your EEG machine." He chuckled. "I'm David Mutreaux, formerly on Jerome Luckman's staff." He held out his hand to Pete, but Pete did not accept it. "That's right," Mutreaux drawled, "you don't understand the situation. Yet I'm a little muddled about what's happened and what's shortly to come. Old age, I suppose." He led the way up the flagstone path, to the open doorway of the motel office. "Mary Anne got in a few minutes ago. She's taking a swim in the pool."

Hands in her pockets, Pat walked over to the swimming pool and stood watching her daughter. "If you could read my mind," she said, to no one in particular, "you'd see envy." She turned away from the pool. "You know, Pete, when I first met you I lost some of that. You're one of the most innocent people I've ever known. You helped me purge myself of my shadow-side, as Jung-and Joe Schilling-call it. How is Joe, by the way? I enjoyed seeing him again last night. How'd he feel being awakened at five-thirty in the morning?"

"He congratulated me," Pete said shortly, "on my luck." luck."

"Oh yes," Mutreaux said in a jolly tone of voice; he slapped Pete good-naturedly on the back. "Lots of best wishes on the pregnancy."

Pat said, "That was an awful remark your ex-wife made, that to Carol about 'hoping it was a baby.' And that daughter of mine she relished it; I suppose she derives that cruel streak from me. But don't blame Mary Anne too much for what she said last night, Pete, because most of what you experienced was not Mary's fault; it was in your mind. Hallucinated. Joe Schilling was right in what he told you; the amphetamines were responsible. You had an authentic psychotic occlusion."

"Did I?" Pete said.

She met his gaze. "Yes, you did."

"I doubt it," Pete said.

"Let's go inside," Allen McClain said. He cupped his hands and shouted, "Mary Anne, get out of the pool!"

Splas.h.i.+ng, the girl approached the rim of the pool. "Go to h.e.l.l."

McClain knelt down. "We have business; get inside! You're still my child."

In the air above the surface of the pool a ball of s.h.i.+ny water formed, whipped toward him, broke over his head, splattering him; he jumped back, cursing.

"I thought you were such a great pre-cog," Mary Anne called, laughing. "I thought you couldn't be taken by surprise." She caught hold of the ladder, hoisted herself lithely from the pool.

The mid-morning Nevada sun sparkled from her moist, smooth body as she ran and picked up a white terry cloth bath towel. "h.e.l.lo, Pete Garden," she said, as she ran by him. "Nice to see you again when you're not sick to your stomach; you were actually a dark green color, like old moldy moss." Her white teeth glinted as again she laughed.

Allen McClain, brus.h.i.+ng drops of water from his face and hair, walked over to Pete. "It's now eleven o'clock," he said. "I'd like you to call Carol and say you're all right. However, I can look ahead and see you won't, or at least probably won't."

"That's right," Pete said. "I won't."

McClain shrugged. "Well, I can't see what she'll do; possibly she'll call the police, possibly not. Time will tell." They walked toward the motel building, McClain still shaking himself dry. "An interesting element about Psionic abilities is that some tend to invalidate others. For instance, my daughter's psycho-kinesis; as she aptly demonstrated, I can't predict it. Pauli's synchronicity comes in, an acausal connective event that throws someone like me entirely off."

To Dave Mutreaux, Patricia said, "Did Sid Mosk actually confess to having killed Luckman?"

"Yes," Mutreaux answered. "Rothman put pressure on him, to take pressure off Pretty Blue Fox; the police out in California were probing a little too deeply, we felt."

"But they'll know after a while that it's spurious," Patricia said. "That vug E.B. Black will get into his mind telepathically."

"It won't matter then," Mutreaux said, "I hope."

Inside the motel office an air-conditioner roared; the room was dark and cool and seated here and there Pete saw a number of individuals talking together in muted tones. It looked, for an instant, as if he had stumbled into a Game-playing group here in the middle of the morning, but of course it was not. He had no illusions about that. These were not Bindmen.

He seated himself, warily, wondering what they were saying. Some of them sat utterly silent, staring straight ahead as if preoccupied. Telepaths, perhaps, communicating with one another. They seemed to be in the majority. The others-he could only guess. Pre-cogs, like McClain, psycho-kinesists, like the girl Mary Anne. And Rothman, whoever he was. Was Rothman here? He had a feeling, deep and intuitive, that Rothman was very much here, and in control.

From a-side room, Mary Anne appeared, now wearing a T-s.h.i.+rt and blue cotton shorts and sandals and no bra; her b.r.e.a.s.t.s were high-pointed, small. She seated herself beside Pete vigorously rubbing her hair with a towel to dry it. "What a bunch of jerks," she said quietly to Pete. "I mean, don't you agree? They-my mother and dad-made me come here." She frowned. "Who's that?" Another man had entered the room and was looking around him. "I don't know him. Probably from the East Coast, like that Mutreaux."

"You're not a vug," Pete said to her. "After all."

"No, I'm not. I never said I was; you asked me what I was and I told you, 'you can see,' and you could. It was true. See, Peter Garden, you were an involuntary telepath; you were psychotic, because of those pills and the drinking, and you picked up my marginal thoughts, all my anxieties. What they used to call the subconscious. Didn't my mother ever warn you about that? She ought to know."

"I see," Pete said. Yes, she had.

"And before me you picked up that psychiatrist's subconscious fears, too. We're all afraid of the vugs. It's natural. They're our enemies; we fought a war with them and didn't win and now they're here. See?" She dug him in the ribs with her sharp elbow. "Don't look so stupid; are you listening or not?"

Pete said, "I am."

"Well, you gape like a guppy. I knew last night you were hallucinating like mad along a paranoid line, having to do with hostile, menacing conspiracies of alien creatures. It interfered with your perceptions, but fundamentally you were right. you were right. I actually was feeling those fears, thinking those thoughts. Psychotics live in a world like that all the time. Anyhow, your interval of being a telepath was unfortunate because it happened around me and I know about this." She gestured at the group of people in the motel room. "See? So from then on you were dangerous. And you had to go right away and call the police; we got you just in time." I actually was feeling those fears, thinking those thoughts. Psychotics live in a world like that all the time. Anyhow, your interval of being a telepath was unfortunate because it happened around me and I know about this." She gestured at the group of people in the motel room. "See? So from then on you were dangerous. And you had to go right away and call the police; we got you just in time."

Did he believe her? He studied her thin, heart-shaped face; he could not tell. If telepathic talent it had been, it certainly had deserted him now.

"See," Mary Anne said quietly, swiftly, "everyone has the potentiality for Psionic talent. In severe illness and in deep psychic regression-" She broke off. "Anyhow, Peter Garden, you were psychotic and drunk and on amphetamines and hallucinating, but basically you perceived the reality that confronts us, the situation this group knows about and is trying to deal with. You see?" She smiled at him, her eyes bright. "Now you know."

He did not see; he did not want want to see. to see.

Petrified, he drew away from her.

"You don't want to know," Mary Anne said thoughtfully.

"That's right," he said.

"But you do know," she said. "Already. It's too late not to." She added, in her pitiless tone, "And this time you're not sick and drunk and hallucinating; your perceptions are not distorted. So you have to face it head-on. Poor Peter Garden. Were you happier last night?"

"No," he said.

"You're not going to kill yourself about this, are you? Because that wouldn't help. You see, we're an organization, Pete. And you have to join, even though you're non-P, not a Psi; we'll have to take you in anyway or kill you. Naturally, no one wants to kill you. What would happen to Carol? Would you leave her for Freya to torment?"

"No," he said, "not if I could help it."

"You know, the Rushmore Effect of your car told you I wasn't a vug; I don't understand why you didn't listen to it; they're never wrong." She sighed. "Not if they're working properly, anyhow. Haven't been tampered with. That's how you can always sort out the vugs; ask a Rushmore. See?" Again she smiled at him, cheerfully. "So things aren't really so bad. It's not the end of the world or anything like that; we just have a little problem of knowing who our friends are. They have the same problem, too; they get a little mixed up at times."

"Who killed Luckman?" Pete asked. "Did you?"

"No," Mary Anne said. "The last thing we'd do is kill a man who's had so much luck luck, so many offspring; that's the whole point." She frowned at him.

"But last night," he said slowly, "I asked you if your people had done it. And you said-" He paused, trying to think clearly, trying to sort out the confusion of those events. "I know what you said. 'I forget,' you said. And-you said our baby is next; you called it a thing, you said it was not not a baby." a baby."

For a long time Mary Anne stared at him. "No," she whispered, stricken and pale. "I didn't say that; I know I didn't."

"I heard you," he insisted. "I remember that; it's a mess, but honest to G.o.d, I have that part clear." Mary Anne said, "Then they've gotten to me." Her words were scarcely audible; he had to bend toward her to hear. She continued to stare at him.

Opening the door of the sun-drenched kitchen, Carol Holt Garden said, "Pete-are you in there?" She peered in.

He was not in the kitchen. Bright, yellow and warm, it was empty.

Going to the window she looked out at the street below. Pete's car and hers, at the curb; he had not gone in his car then.

Tying the cord of her robe she hurried out of the apartment and down the hall to the elevator. I'll ask it, she decided. The elevator will know whether he went out, whether anyone was with him and if so who. She pressed the b.u.t.ton, and waited.

The elevator arrived; the doors slid back. On the floor of the elevator lay a man, dead. It was Hawthorne. She screamed.

"The lady said no help was necessary," the Rushmore circuit of the elevator said, apologetically.

With difficulty Carol said, "What lady?"

"The dark-haired lady." It did not elaborate.