The Way Things Seem

by Mackey Chandler

  There was a brief silence and Joan said, “OK.”

  David handed the phone back to Jack.

  “Satisfied?” he asked her.

  “Yes, but don’t come to the office here. Go to the cafeteria and I will have somebody inform me when you arrive and I’ll bring it down to you. Cooperate with him.”

  “Sure whatever you say. I’ll be driving my own car, not David’s so you’ll have to tell the gate too.”

  “Not a problem. See you soon,” Joan said and hung up.

  Jack turned back to David and he was asleep face on the table half way through the sandwich. It was tough getting him vertical semi-conscious and stumble-walk him to the bedroom.

  * * *

  Vince went into the meeting room and locked the door behind him. There was a single square black pedestal of stone that stood in the middle of the empty room. There were no visible lights yet everything was illuminated softly. There was a square that looked like a ceramic tile on the pedestal and Vince turned it over. The other side was a swirl of false colors. Sometimes he got an instant response, sometimes it took awhile. He waited, because the previous fellow in his position got impatient after a couple hours and left. He wouldn’t make that mistake, ever.

  The hole with the golden halo formed in the air. The cockroach stared out at him. Being a New York City boy he was much more familiar with them to draw a comparison than a shrimp. He’d never seen a shrimp with its head on. He not only couldn’t tell if it was looking at him, he never was sure if it was the same one or if they took turns. A single thin tendril snaked out and lay across his ear. He forced himself not to recoil. It never got any easier.

  “You have created a great disturbance in our domain,” the creature informed him. “One of our best speakers was slain while networked with a large class of students. They were all mind damaged beyond any chance of salvaging and had to be put down.”

  “How did I have anything to do with this?” Vince asked, terrified.

  “This one. Close your eyes,” his speaker ordered.

  The image took a bit to form. It must be difficult for the creature to create it. As far as he knew they didn’t use names. The idea seemed to be alien to them. It was David Carpenter in a single still image including other worldly colors. If the cockroach didn’t recognize it Vince plainly saw the promise of death and destruction painted on the man’s face in glaring colors. What was absent was any fear.

  “You will stop provoking this one to attack us. You have foolishly decided to contend with what you can’t understand,” the roach ordered.

  “I was using the mundanes to bring him back within my jurisdiction,” Vince admitted. “He killed my deputy and damaged my liaison with the mundane power structure.”

  The roach didn’t say anything for awhile. Vince suspected communication was so difficult it took that long for it to process Vince’s meaning.

  “And yet you did not look first to your survival when he killed your deputy,” the roach said. “Your instincts are clouded by great emotions. This is a defect in your kind. You are a dull tool. You will do as I said, disengage from this one. After you have done so you will cease to breath,” it ordered.

  “Yeah sure, I’ll have the extradition order withdrawn,” Vince agreed. As to the other, the roach was nuts if he thought he could or would agree to the other order. But he’d send his new deputy in next time and the filthy thing could draw its own conclusions about why he wasn’t there. He could deal with it second-hand. He didn’t exactly look forward to these sessions anyway.

  The opening vanished without any effects, it just wasn’t there suddenly. The creatures didn’t seem to have any use for formal endings and good-byes.

  Vince went to his desk and ordered Carpenter’s extradition be repudiated. If New Jersey wouldn’t pay to bring him back Georgia had no interest in making a gift of his travel expense to them. He didn’t cancel the actual charges which would be more difficult. Maybe that would keep the man out of New Jersey. At the moment that seemed a good idea. Arson would have been impossible to prove anyhow. It was really just intended to get him where he could be terminated.

  Vince put the handset back in the cradle and let out a sigh, then he couldn’t suck another breath in. He struggled and even reached with his hands and pressed on his sides as things went to tunnel vision and gray, but the cockroach’s order had power he hadn’t understood.

  * * *

  Jack was shaking David, worried sick. It had been sixteen hours since he left him on the bed and went to retrieve his envelope from Joan. When he arrived at the gate to Aerosense Corp she had a pass and window card waiting for him. But at the entry she also had a security officer waiting to wand him down in addition to whatever sensors they had installed at the reception desk. The fellow walked him to the cafeteria although he knew the way. Joan pushed the envelope across the table to him, keeping a physical distance. She suggested strongly he not break the seal on the outer envelope and bid him goodbye. She was of an age like him, older than David, and hard as nails. God, he just loved it when she acted like that. It was a shame she was already married.

  David got his eyes open but had that stupid look that said he wasn’t tracking a hundred percent just yet. He looked irritated when he started remembering where he was and what was going on. He let his brain boot up and didn’t ask Jack stupid questions.

  “How long have I been out?” was sensible when he finally did speak.

  “Sixteen hours. I could have let you keep sleeping, but I was getting concerned.”

  “I can understand that,” David acknowledged. “Excuse me a second.” He headed for the bathroom to ease nature. Jack went to start coffee. He figured David would want that and probably a big breakfast since he’d fallen asleep before he ate much.

  “I imagine all the drama at the courthouse has played out in the news?” David asked, when he finally followed his nose to the kitchen.

  “Plenty of drama yes, but very little information. The police aren’t saying anything and the TV stations rushed down to the courthouse and stood outside for the evening news yesterday, with endless speculation about what the police aren’t saying. The courthouse is closed today and it lacks even a piece of crime scene tape across the door, so the camera trucks all went home.”

  “Didn’t any of them play video I had Joan send them?” David asked.

  “Not a blessed one,” Jack said, poking holes in the bread with a fork so it absorbed more batter for French toast. The skillet had sausage started, the hot kind Jack knew David liked.

  “I saw the video,” Jack said. “Joan supplied the PD, three TV stations and the police officer who arrested you with copies, per your instructions. She decided I needed to see it too, since I seem to have physical custody of you. She informs me she has her own copy too, buried in her garden.”

  “She thinks they’re going to go around and confiscate all the copies?” David asked.

  “Yes, very sensibly,” Jack said. “Did you really think a TV station was going to play a video of something impossible? They know studio work, so they immediately assumed it was computer generated video. With digital you can’t really tell fake from real any more. If it’s a fraud presented as real then that’s a crime in itself, so yeah, they may try to round up all the known copies. It’s not exactly complimentary to the PD and the stations all kiss their butt. If they don’t it gets very hard to cover the news in Atlanta, they get run off blocks away from any crime scene. Shaky telephoto images of a blue flashing light a kilometer away doesn’t do much to excite their viewers.

  “Oh,” David said and nothing more. Jack put coffee and real cream in front of him.

  “Did you know your nose is peeling?” Jack asked. “Your cheeks have a flush too, but not as badly. You’re dark enough it should be really tough to get that sunburned. When did that happen?”

  David felt, it was warm and tender.

  “It’s a flash burn. It would take way too long to explain,” he assured Jack.
/>   When Jack came back to refill David’s mug he asked, “Do you believe the video?”

  “Informally between friends I believe it. Officially if asked as part of a legal deposition I’d rather they didn’t lock me in the booby-hatch for being delusional. Which is pretty much what the Sergeant of police who arrested you told Joan, when she hand delivered a copy to him. He’d been around the barn a time or two and is no fool.”

  “Yes, I got that strong impression about him,” David agreed.

  “He’s the only source of any really useful information we’ve had,” Jack revealed. “He informs us the PD has no explanation of either event, your office or the courthouse. One detective with a small crew showed up this morning to tear your office apart. He had some wild idea you had an active defense system that attacked the detectives with laser beams, because you are a defense contractor and have access to all those secret government systems.”

  “The fellow has no idea what a world of hurt he’d unleash if I did have secret government systems and he proceeded to rip them out of my walls without the appropriate clearances for him to possess them,” David said. “Besides, if I had a laser system to deny intruders access it would cut them into bloody chunks, not set their hair on fire.”

  “I didn’t say he was a deep thinker. He just had this theory and saw he could apply the state’s law against man traps to it. He thought it was going to make his career. His warrant was very specific about what sort of systems he was looking for. After he poked a few holes in your walls and ripped the carpet up without finding anything he tried to get Joan to open your safe.”

  “Oh joy, I’m sure she is just terrified of the police after being shoved to the floor and rushed to accommodate him before she was assaulted again.”

  “You know Joan. Fortunately for him, she only pointed out the limits of his warrant, that no man trap could operate from within a sealed safe, that it was stretching things far beyond the judge’s license to assume even the plans for such a non-existent system might be in there, and that if he really thought such a system was in place to defend your office, what did he imagine would be activated by breaking into your safe? It appears he does indeed have an extravagant imagination, because he stared at the safe a moment contemplating the possibilities, then they cleared out pretty fast.”

  “Patching the holes in the walls and tacking the carpet back down of course… ”

  “Oh yeah, sure.” Jack slid a plate of French toast in front of David with a separate plate of sausage, a big block of butter and warm syrup.

  “The old police Sergeant was livid when Joan talked to him and said after all this trouble New Jersey has informed them they no longer wish to take custody of you, that their arrangements to transport you are rescinded, that the charges have not been withdrawn, but their DA never does so because he has never made a mistake in his life. They told the Atlanta PD that the standard way to handle that is to assign the case to the newest lowest ranking Lawyer in the DA’s office and assign him a single day to prepare the case without any other budget allowances. The new kids are expected to lose a few when the team needs it and it doesn’t really hurt their record later.”

  “But I can still expect an arrest and a big hassle if I darken their door again,” David said. “Did he ever say with what I was charged?”

  “Arson,” Jack replied, starting a new batch of toast and some eggs in the sausage skillet.

  “Doesn’t make any sense,” David said around sausage. “There was no profit motive possible.”

  “It was a set-up obviously,” Jack said. “Were you a naughty boy in New Jersey too?”

  “New York,” Davis corrected. “I think the folks I offended don’t have neat borders like states. So New Jersey must be within their influence too. I think they just use the courts and cops. The one lady DA I spoke to described her real employers as being familial rather than political.”

  “Oh*Dear*God… ” Jack intoned and rolled his eyes.

  “No, nothing divine and I don’t think the Mafia exactly either. It will take a lot of explaining to tell you exactly what I seem to be dealing with. Be right back,” David said and went to the bedroom and got the yellow envelope.

  Jack looked concerned when David ripped it all open, got the little bag out and swallowed a pinch of the dried plant.

  “Don’t get your panties in a twist,” David told him. “This doesn’t get you high or make you hallucinate or anything like that. In fact it apparently doesn’t do much of anything for a lot of people. The fellow who my father sent me to in Djibouti has sensitivity to it and my father did to a lesser degree, but I met the man’s nephew and he had almost no reaction to it despite prolonged exposure and instruction.

  “What sort of drug requires instruction?” Jack asked reasonably.

  David continued eating and thought on the question. It wasn’t an easy thing to explain.

  “If I gave you a drug that suddenly gave you super hearing and vastly improved you musical ability, you wouldn’t suddenly be the world’s greatest composer or performer. You’d still have to learn and practice and apply the improved talent to get the benefit.

  “Or if a drug made you much smarter than you were previously and I gave it to you when you were still in elementary school, you wouldn’t suddenly have all knowledge and wisdom in your head. You’d still have to finish school and maybe go on to college. You’d just do better at it and probably much faster, but it wouldn’t be a miraculous transformation.”

  “The second example is more or less what I thought this thing did,” Jack told him. “If it isn’t that then what does it do?”

  “I see different colors around people’s faces. It’s like a baby learning what smiles and frowns mean. I’m still working at learning it. It has the advantage that people can’t consciously control it like they can learn to present a false face or at least a poker face. There’s no muscle to control to keep this from showing your true emotions.”

  “Sounds like New Age crap,” Jack said, “crystals and pyramid power. But if you really could get any good at doing that you could judge people better than an expert polygraph operator.”

  “Indeed, I can recognize fear, anger, and genuine attraction somewhat already.” David said.

  “I could have used that,” Jack said. “It took me three years to figure out my first wife was attracted to my trust fund, not me.”

  “Indeed, I couldn’t be fooled in that regard now,” David realized. “That’s one small benefit. I also see different physical processes that my instructor saw but didn’t understand. I sense electric devices, magnetic lines and heat. He had no formal education. He had no knowledge of optics, electricity, or thermodynamics. He saw thinks happening in these false colors, but had no knowledge base to interpret them. He used these visions and limited control of what he saw from rote instruction, but within limits. He is a kind and thoughtful soul, but knew of others who misused these techniques. I believe that’s the sort of people I’m finding here, now that I’m back home.

  “A catfish senses electric fields, an eel creates them, and a pigeon has a magnetic compass in its head.” Jack pointed out. “I can believe this a lot easier than crystal power or astrology.”

  “I don’t think everyone will be as easy to persuade,” David predicted. “It will sound too much like mumbo-jumbo and hoo-doo to a lot of people. There are all kinds of crazy belief systems out there and it just confuses the issue that some of them may have had a point here or there based on some reality. You know how people are, they take one valid factoid and then run with it beyond all reasonable application.”

  “Yep, iridology, phrenology, those sort of things, all arise from the human mind grasping at an isolated datum and trying to see broader patterns and assign causes even if no valid pattern exists. If you sit somebody staring at a blank white wall long enough he’ll eventually hallucinate some patterns,” Jack predicted.

  “Of course, we see that with satellite images all the time,” David agreed. />
  Jack gave David a plate of French toast with an egg over easy on each slice and took a plate for himself. “Don’t worry, I can make more, but I need to be fueled myself.”

  “Maybe one more round,” David said. “It takes a lot out of me to use this still, but my belly will only hold so much.”

  “So, if you’ve recovered sufficiently, entertain me with a demonstration,” Jack requested.

  “You mean show you it wasn’t a trick video,” David said.

  “You don’t own a Hollywood level studio and even they couldn’t assemble that video in the space of a few minutes from when the cops arrived. With the programs you can buy for a couple hundred bucks now, I have no doubt my nephew could do it on his home computer, but he’d still need full 3D source files for all the characters and days of processing time and manual composition.”

  “Here’s an example, >CATCH<,” David said sharply. As soon as Jack looked up he tossed the salt shaker at him with a high lobbed trajectory without touching it. Jack snatched it out of the air.

  “OK, you are booked in Vegas,” Jack said, and then Brandon when the act gets old.”

  “Oh, I can milk it for years,” David assured him. He did the trick with the coffee mug freezing a little in the bottom and rapping it on the table to yield a little brown crescent of ice.

  Jack looked thoughtful while seeing to his own food. “Can you cool an area around you?” he asked after a bit. “Could you take a walk in the desert and keep things at a comfortable level around you?”

  “I could, but I’m not sure for how long. I’ve never tried to do anything like that for hours. I’d have to think about it and visualize it. I would probably cycle back and forth, cooling it again when it started to feel hot and stopping when it felt cool enough.”

  “That’s what my air conditioner does too. I didn’t think you’d have a mental thermostat,” Jack said, “but you could watch a thermometer instead of waiting to feel hot.”

  “That’s exactly the sort of research I need to do,” David agreed. “I have to assemble every sensor I know how to use and see what they show when I do these things. But I could not go to sleep and keep myself warm or cool. As soon as I stopped thinking about it, then it would stop.”