Reality Matrix Effect (9781310151330) (24 page)

“Of course.”

“Talk to you then,” Keith said,
breaking the connection.

He swiveled his desk chair around to
face Rayna and grasped her about the waist.

“Well, at least we’re making some
headway.”  He looked closely at her. “This whole thing’s
pretty hard on you, I know, but—”

“I don’t mind being adopted, Keith.
Really, I don’t. Mother and Dad—the people I’ve always known as
Mother and Dad—couldn’t have been better to me. But I feel
incomplete. Unreal. Sort of insubstantial. Like a holographic image
of a tree rather than the tree itself.  Does that make sense
to you?”

Keith nodded slowly. “I think so….
 Look,” he said, rising from the chair, “Arthur’s doing all he
can with the adoption search. Why don’t we forget it for a
while.”

Rayna thought for a moment, then
agreed. She took a deep breath and walked to a pale green easy
chair in Keith’s living room, about 10 feet away from the computer
console.

“Did you ever listen to those tapes I
gave you?” she asked as she dropped into the chair, kicking off her
shoes and resting her feet on the matching ottoman.

Keith gave Essie a few simple
instructions to keep the computer working on other business
matters, then joined Rayna.

“As a matter of fact, I did,” he told
her. Rayna moved her legs so that he could sit down, allowing his
lap to act as her footrest. “I haven’t heard all the tapes, but I
did listen to quite a few.”  He shook his head and whistled
softly. “It sure fits in with what you showed me on that trend
analysis of yours.”

“If Al was sane.”

Keith’s frank blue eyes met Rayna’s
inquiring look. “Well,” he began, gently massaging one of her feet,
“I can’t say for certain whether old Al was crazy, but after
looking over some of the other material in that permastore box—like
that guy Zorne’s book, and Al’s written journal, and his log of
experimental results—after looking at all that, I’m inclined to say
something was actually going on.”

Rayna jerked forward. “You really
think so, Keith?  You mean he wasn’t crazy after
all?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know anything
about that…. I’m not a psychiatrist, and according to those tapes,
Al wasn’t too sure about his sanity himself. All I can tell you is
that Zorne’s ideas make sense to me, and they seem to account
pretty well for the more way-out things described on the tapes and
in Al’s journal. I think if Zorne had lived and finished his work,
he might have made quite a name for himself—maybe even created a
whole new field for serious scientific investigation.”

“What do you mean?” Rayna asked,
leaning back once more.

“Well, take Zorne’s book, for example.
I just skimmed it, but I read enough to get the overall idea. The
book talks about certain kinds of oscillations that Zorne figured
were responsible for paranormal events and perception. The
equations he used may have seemed ridiculous back in the 1970s, but
they’re consistent with current ideas on super symmetry and unified
field theory.” 

Keith started to explain in greater
detail. Then, to Rayna’s great relief, he stopped and shrugged.
“The point is, some of the latest theories also show the importance
of different kinds of oscillations. Of course, those ideas haven’t
generally been considered with respect to extrasensory
perception.”

“Why not?”

“Well, for one thing, the whole area
of perception brings in a subjective element that’s tough to
measure precisely and evaluate accurately. Most scientists are
uncomfortable with that. As for the paranormal, it’s just not
considered scientifically credible in most circles.”

“But you say Zorne took it seriously.
And you think Al was really doing what he claimed to be doing all
those years?”

“Your trend analysis sure makes it
look that way.”

Rayna hesitated before speaking.
“There’s something very unsettling about the idea that somebody
might be able to change reality right out from under you,” she
whispered.

Keith raised his eyebrows and
nodded.

“Poor Al,” she said. “He must have
been in a state of shock when Aunt Vickie told him about the
baby.”

“Must have been a big jolt for you to
hear about it that way, too.”

Rayna half-smiled. “Not at first. I
was surprised, of course, and a little bothered by it, especially
since I first heard that particular tape not very long after I
found out I was adopted. I have to admit, though, that part of me
got a kick out of it. I don’t know. Gossip has a powerful appeal, I
guess. It was kind of exciting to picture Al and Aunt Vickie as
young and foolish. I think it really made me love them all the
more. Still, the way Aunt Vickie just gave away that
baby....”  Rayna shook her head. “It was when I found out what
happened to their little girl that I got really upset.”

Keith’s brow wrinkled in
concentration. “Guess I haven’t heard that tape yet, Ray. What
happened to the baby?”

Rayna felt the corners of her mouth
droop, and a sad weight seemed to tug at her chest.

“The baby was adopted by a very nice
couple in New York. Financially comfortable. Solid marriage. And
they wanted a child very badly. They seemed ideal. Unfortunately,
they were killed in a car accident when the little girl was only 7.
After that, the girl lived in a series of foster homes. She started
getting into trouble. Ran away several times.”

“So what finally happened?  Did
Frederick ever tell her who he was?”

Rayna shook her head. “By the time he
found her, she was dead. She was pregnant and living on the streets
in New York, and she started to hemorrhage. Somebody finally got
her to a hospital, but by then it was too late. She was 15 years
old.”

“Poor kid,” Keith said, taking Rayna’s
hands in his. “And poor Frederick. He never even had a chance to
know her. What about your aunt?  How did it affect
her?”

“I don’t think Al ever told her what
happened.”

In the silence that followed, Rayna
could almost see herself as the ill-fated child.

“You hear the latest about that
Nitinol thing?” Keith asked abruptly. “Now the colonists are saying
that if they don’t get an agreement for triple payment for the wire
by November 1, the price will go up even more.”

“Incredible,” Rayna said, pushing
thoughts of Al Frederick and the tragic end of a 15-year-old life
into a remote corner of her mind. “I could hardly believe it when I
heard. How can they possibly expect to get away with it?  If
they felt they deserved a price increase, they could have
negotiated it through the normal off-world trade channels. But this
way....   All they’ve accomplished is to turn a lot of
normally decent people into anti-colony fanatics. My own parents
are starting to say that Earth should declare war on the colonies
if the Nitinol shipment isn’t returned within a month.”

Keith grunted. “I’ve seen it, too. By
November 1, this country is liable to be choosing up sides. And
Lord help any peacemakers who try to stand in the
middle!”

“I’m afraid you’re right. That
Pittsburgh incident—”

Rayna broke off, shaking her
head.

“How can people behave like that,
Keith?  Those two miners were just looking for a nice evening
out on the town. According to what all the reports say, they were
here on Earth when the robots diverted the Nitinol. But that didn’t
seem to matter to the toughs in that bar.”

“I know. It’s sad. At least, one of
them pulled through. As far as the other one’s concerned—well,
maybe it’s just as well he died. They say the beating was so bad
there wasn’t enough viable brain tissue left to hook up to a
nanochip.”   

“And how do you suppose the colonists
are going to react to that sort of thing?” Rayna responded. “It’s
certainly not going to put them in a very good frame of mind for
negotiating a settlement on the Nitinol crisis. And let’s face it,
Keith:  We need those miners and the wire workers up
there.”

Keith ran his fingers through his
hair. “You’re right about that,” he said simply. “I did a study on
the impact  of Nitinol power on the national and world
economies about 10 years ago when I was going for my degree in
economics.”

“Was that before or after the physics
degree,” Rayna asked playfully, her mood suddenly more
relaxed.

“After the physics degree,” he
grinned, tickling the bottom of her foot so that she squealed and
pulled away. Rayna had often teased Keith about his frequent
changes in profession, claiming that he had so many degrees he
didn’t have the wall space to display all the diplomas.

“I didn’t spend much time studying the
physics of Nitinol power,” he said, growing serious. “All I really
had was a general overview of the field. I could see Nitinol’s
commercial importance, though. In fact, that’s one of the things
that got me interested in economics.

“Anyway, when I did that study, our
Nitinol replacement program wasn’t as far along as it is now, but
even so, Nitinol power already was giving new life to lots of areas
that had been in big trouble. The nickel and titanium deposits in
the Asteroid Belt made Nitinol affordable, and new Nitinol-powered
processes made rocket fuel for merchant runs affordable, which made
Nitinol power even more affordable.” 

Keith’s hands painted pictures in the
air as he spoke.

“The thing you have to remember, Ray,
is that some of these places—like Pittsburgh—have been waiting a
long time to get their Nitinol generating stations on line. That
town’s been hanging on for dear life, waiting to get a clean,
reliable power source that’ll allow it to keep its manufacturing
base going. It’s been tough. For the last 40 or 50 years, they’ve
been making do with old nuclear and fossil-fuel power sources that
were just marginally safe—and not too efficient. They went through
periodic brownouts and blackouts that didn’t do their industrial
base any good at all. But the people there—the ones who didn’t move
out and take job retraining—those people have been patient.
Finally, with this shipment, it was supposed to be their turn. So
when the news came out about the diversion....”

Keith shrugged. “I guess seeing those
miners, dressed in off-world clothes and talking about how hard
their life was in the colonies—I guess that must have set off some
of the patrons at the local watering hole.”

Rayna looked at him through narrowed
eyes. “You don’t seem to be taking the incident very
seriously.”

“Now, look, Ray, don’t get me wrong.
I’m just as upset about this as you are, but I don’t see what I can
do about it. Any more than I can do anything about what’s happening
in Zimbabwe.”

“You mean the rioting and the
revolutionary talk?”

“Yeah,” Keith nodded. “Looks like the
good people of Zimbabwe figured their government should have been
more aggressive in getting their Nitinol generating systems going
before this.”

Rayna closed her eyes and shook her
head sadly. “And we’ve only had one Nitinol shipment diverted. God
only knows what’ll happen if there are more diversions, or if the
colonists push the price up even more.  Could we switch over
to something else if Nitinol gets too expensive, Keith? 
Solar, or wind power or geothermal, maybe?”

Keith scratched his chin and
considered.

“Maybe in some places. The problem,
though, is that most of the areas that can use solar or wind or
geothermal power on a large scale are already using it. Nitinol
power makes cheap energy available in the places that would have
the toughest time finding clean, safe substitutes.”

“Not a very pleasant picture,” Rayna
commented.

“No, I’m afraid not.”

Keith stood and stretched. Rayna
prepared to stand but stopped suddenly, a chill spreading slowly
through her.

“Keith,” she began cautiously, “do you
remember what you said about Vince Barnard?  About how he
seemed to know about the Nitinol diversion when we saw him at
Eduardo’s—before the first reports supposedly reached Fleet
headquarters?”

“Yeah, sure. What about
it?”

“Well, do you think?  Could he
possibly be...?  Oh, never mind!  That’s ridiculous. I’m
letting my imagination carry me away.”

But despite her words, Rayna didn’t
think she was being ridiculous, and something in her manner must
have made that clear to Keith.

“Come on, Ray.” he urged. “Give. What
are you thinking?”

She moistened her lips, suddenly
wishing she had a glass of water. “Do you suppose Vince Barnard was
involved  in this diversion thing somehow?  I mean, that
he had something to do with it?”

“Barnard?” Keith laughed confidently.
“He’s a merchanter. He’s on our side. Besides, whoever’s behind
this thing is pretty sharp. Barnard just doesn’t seem to fit
the—”

“What is it, Keith?” Rayna asked. He
no longer seemed so sure of himself.

“Barnard may not be too bright, but
what about that other guy, the Merchant Fleet lieutenant who came
to get him at Eduardo’s?  The one with the wrong patch on his
uniform. He seemed to know exactly what he was doing.”