The Game-Players of Titan (15 page)

The man said, “If you make trouble we’ll kill her.” The heat-needle, now, was aimed at Carol. “Do you understand?”

The clock on the bedside table read nine-thirty; bright, pale, morning sunlight spilled into the bedroom from the windows.

“Okay,” Pete said. “I understand.”

Patricia McClain said, “Get up and get dressed.”

“Where?” Pete said, sliding from the bed. “Here in front of the two of you?”

Glancing at the man, Patricia said, “In the kitchen.” The two of them followed after him, from the bedroom to the kitchen; Patricia shut the door. “You stay with him while he dresses,” she said to the man. “I’ll watch his wife.” Bringing out a second heat-needle, she returned stealthily to the bedroom. “He won’t make any trouble if Carol’s in danger; I
can pick that up from his mind. It’s acutely pronounced.”

As the unfamiliar man held the heat-needle on him, Pete dressed.

“So your wife’s had
luck,”
the man said, “Congratulations.”

Glancing at him, Pete said, “Are you Pat’s husband?”

“That’s right,” the man said. “Allen McClain. I’m glad to meet you at last, Mr. Garden.” He smiled a thin, brief smile. “Pat’s told me so much about you.”

Presently the three of them were walking down the corridor of the apartment building, toward the elevator.

“Did your daughter get home all right last night?” Pete said.

“Yes,” Patricia said. “Very late, however. What I scanned in her mind was interesting, to say the least. Fortunately she didn’t go to sleep right away; she lay thinking. And so I got it all.”

Allen McClain said, “Carol won’t wake up for another hour. So there’s no immediate problem of her reporting him missing. Not until almost eleven.”

“How do you know she won’t wake up?” Pete said.

Allen said nothing.

“You’re a pre-cog?” Pete asked.

There was no answer. But it was obviously so.

“And,” Allen McClain said to his wife, “he”—he jerked his head at Pete—“Mr. Garden, here, won’t try to escape. At least, most of the parallel possibilities indicate that. Five out of six futures. A good statistic, I think.” At the elevator he pressed the button.

Pete said to Patricia, “Yesterday you were concerned about my safety. Now this.” He gestured at the two heat-needles. “Why the change?”

“Because in the meantime you were out with my daughter,” Patricia said. “I wish you hadn’t been. I told you that she was too young for you; I warned you away from her.”

“However,” Pete pointed out, “as you read in my mind at the time, I found Mary Anne to be stunningly attractive.”

The elevator came; the doors slid open.

In the elevator stood the detective Wade Hawthorne. He gaped at them, then fumbled inside his coat.

Allen McClain said, “Being a pre-cog helps. You can never be surprised.” With his heat-needle he shot Hawthorne in the head. Hawthorne crashed back against the far wall of the elevator, then fell sloppily and lay sprawled face-first on the floor of the elevator.

“Get in,” Patricia McClain said to Pete. He got in and so did the McClains; with the body of Wade Hawthorne they descended to the ground floor.

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 damn 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 certitude. 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?”

“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 mass 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 passed 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.”

“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!”

Splashing, the girl approached the rim of the pool. “Go to hell.”

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 shiny 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. “Hello, 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, brushing 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.