Accelerated

by Heppner, Vaughn

  The Chief never came by to thank me for letting him live. The Shop seldom paid with hard currency like that. Like the I.R.S., their payment was in leaving you alone for another year.

  “I have a new idea for an article,” Blake told me a week later. We sat in deck chairs on a beach in Santa Cruz, sipping Coronas, and watching bikini-clad tourists of exquisite shape oil their skin. He’d talked me into coming out here, despite my having to wear an absurd sunhat and my heavily polarized sunglasses.

  The bruises were still healing on Blake’s face. He didn’t talk about Harris’s method of questioning. I’d told him enough about the battle on the ocean that a cold smile had twitched across Blake’s face.

  I sipped beer and wiped my lips, listening to Blake’s idea.

  “The germ of it came from Polarity Magnetics,” he said.

  “Are you sure you want to make yourself a target talking about them?” I asked. “I know you know there are people who desperately want such things kept very quiet.”

  A brief scowl flickered across his face. “I’m not going to mention Polarity Magnetics or the Shop.”

  “Good,” I said.

  “Give me a little credit. Besides, I said the germ of the idea came from them—the idea of modifying the human body. I’m not talking about cyborgs or military supermen, but a way to alleviate overpopulation.”

  I sipped my beer, hardly listening. A coed wearing two pieces of bright orange string cast her beach towel on the sand nearby. Then she lay down. There was a purple butterfly tattoo on her right hip. Like the rest of her, it was exquisite, in no need of modification.

  “Are you listening?” Blake asked.

  “Sure.”

  “You seem distracted.”

  “You’re not?” I asked.

  “This beach is a good example about what I’m talking about,” he said. “It’s teeming with people. Now just think what it’s like on a beach in China or in India. There’s massive overcrowding over there.”

  “Sure,” I said.

  “We need more room,” Blake said. “But who wants to live in Antarctica or in Greenland?”

  I took another sip of beer.

  “The oceans cover seventy percent of the Earth’s surface,” Blake said, gesturing with his hands. It was a sure sign he was excited. “Here’s my idea, my modification. Actually, it’s not really my idea. I read it once in a science fiction novel.”

  “Would that make it plagiarism then?”

  “No!” he said.

  “Are you sure?”

  “I’ve read several sci-fi novels with the particular idea,” Blake said. “That doesn’t mean they plagiarized each other. Each used the premise in a different way and their themes were each quite different.”

  I don’t know how, but the coed with the butterfly tattoo reached back and untied her top string, tugging it away. What a lovely back, and now it would build an even tan. I silently applauded her decision.

  “Polarity Magnetics wanted super-soldiers,” Blake said. “I’m taking about making aqua-people. Think about it. What if we could modify humans to live underwater?”

  “Give them gills?” I asked.

  “It doesn’t necessarily have to be gills,” Blake said. “The point is they could live underwater, and that would open up fantastically large areas of more livable space for us.”

  “What about their babies?” I asked.

  “Genetic manipulation would be the best,” Blake said thoughtfully. “If we changed their basic DNA it would allow their children to live underwater, too.”

  I would have liked to pull my sunglasses down and stare at him. The idea of such genetic manipulation was horrifying. Instead, I took another sip of my beer and went back to studying the beauty laid before me.

  I was still sad about Kay. She had tried so hard to find a way to bring Dave back. She had freed me years ago, and she had tried to free Dave. She had been a good person.

  As I stared at the tattoo and the tanned skin, I decided that I didn’t want to reenter high-level intrigue, and I wanted to stay far away from the Shop. For that matter, I didn’t care to meet any more accelerated individuals. I wanted to live my quiet life here in the Bay Area.

  Maybe a part of me knew I would eventually have to go back and find out about Dave. But for now, I was going to chill until they found me again, which I expected they probably would. Who exactly “they” were I wasn’t sure that moment.

  Until that time, however, I was home. I was as content as I could be these days, and I was going to enjoy the peace while I could.

  The End