Strangers

Page 76

“Got it,” Ginger said. She grinned and shook her head.
“Someday, I hope you'll get a chance to meet Rita Hannaby.”
“Your friend in Boston.”
“Yes. You and Rita are a lot alike, I think.”
“Me and a highsociety lady?” Faye said doubtfully. "Can't imagine what we'd have in common."
"Well, for one thing, you both have such equanimity, such serenity, regardless of what's happening."
Putting the knife back on the seat, Faye said, "When you're a service wife, you either learn to go with the flow, or you go crazy."
"And both you and Rita look so feminine, soft and dependent on the outsidebut inside, each of you is, in your own way, tough as nails."
Faye smiled. “Honey, you got a bit of that yourself.”
They drove the last quartermile of the pinionshaded driveway, out of the shadows and into the midday gloom of the pending storm.
The browngreen, strippeddown government car was still parked along the county road. Two men were in it. They looked impassively at Ginger. Impulsively, she waved at them. They did not wave back.
Faye drove down toward the floor of the Lemoille Valley. The car followed.
Miles Bennell slumped in the big chair behind his gray metal desk and looked bored, and Miles Bennell ambled around his office while answering questions in a tone of voice that was sometimes indifferent and sometimes amusedly ironic, but Miles Bennell never fidgeted, groveled, looked frightened, or became angry, as almost any other man would have done in the same situation.
Colonel Leland Falkirk hated him.
Sitting at a scarred table in one corner of the room, Leland worked slowly through a stack of personnel files, one for each of the civilian scientists who were conducting studies and experiments in the cavern with the immense wooden doors, where the secret of July 6 was contained. He was hoping to narrow the field of possible traitors by determining which men and women could have been in New York City during the time the two notes and Polaroid snapshots had been mailed to Dominick Corvaisis in Laguna Beach. He had told Thunder Hill's military security staff to do this work on Sunday, and they professed to have completed the inquiries and to have found nothing to pinpoint the leak. But in light of the screwups in their investigation thus farincluding two sabotaged lie detectorshe no longer trusted them any more than he trusted Bennell or the other scientists, He had to do it himself.
But right away Leland ran into problems. For one thing, during the past eighteen months, two damn many civilians had been brought into the conspiracy. Thirtyseven men and women, representing a broad spectrum of scientific disciplines, had possessed both highsecurity clearances and specialized knowledge essential to the research program Bennell had devised. Thirtyeight civilians, counting Bennell. It was a miracle that thirtyeight eggheads, utterly lacking in military discipline, could have kept any secret so long, let alone this one.
Worse, only Bennell and seven others were engaged in the research fulltime, to the exclusion of all other professional pursuits and to the extent that they actually lived in Thunder Hill. The other thirty had families and university positions they could not leave for long periods of time, so they came and went as their schedules permitted, sometimes staying a few days, maybe a few weeks, rarely as long as a few months. Therefore, it would be a long and arduous job to investigate each and determine if and when heor shehad been in New York.
Worse still, of the eight members of the fulltime investigatory team, three had been in New York in December, including Dr. Miles Bennell himself. In short, the list of suspects currently numbered at least thirtythree among the scientific research staff alone.
Leland was also suspicious of the entire Depository security staff, though Major Fugata and Lieutenant Helms, the head of security and his righthand man, were supposedly the only security personnel who knew what was happening in the forbidden cavern. On Sunday, soon after Fugata began questioning the fulltime research staff and those parttime researchers currently in residence, he discovered that the polygraph was damaged and could not produce reliable results. Yesterday, when a new machine was sent up from Shenkfield, it also proved defective. Fugata said that the second machine was already damaged when it arrived from Shenkfield, but that was bullshit.
Someone involved in the project had seen reports that the witnesses' memory blocks were breaking down. Deciding to exploit that opportunity, he egged some of them along with cryptic notes and Polaroids stolen from the files. The bastard had nearly gotten away with it, and now that the heat was coming down on him, he had sabotaged the lie detectors.
Pausing in his perusal of the personnel files, Leland looked at Miles Bennell, who was standing in the small window. "Doctor, give me the benefit of your insight into the scientific mind."
Turning away from the window, Bennell said, “Certainly, Colonel.”
"Everyone working with you knows about the classified CISG report that was done seven years ago. They know the terrible consequences that might result if we went public with our discoveries. So why would any of them be so irresponsible as to undermine project security?"
Dr. Bennell assumed a tone of earnest helpfulness, but Leland heard the acidsharp disdain beneath the surface: "Some disagree with CISG's conclusions. Some think going public with these discoveries wouldn't result in a catastrophe, that the CISG was fundamentally'wrong, too elitist in its viewpoint."
“Well, I believe the CISG was correct. And you, Lieutenant Horner?”
Horner was sitting near the door. "I agree with you, Colonel. If the news is broken to the public, they'll have to be prepared slowly, over maybe ten years. And even then . . ."
Leland nodded. To Bennell, he said, "I have a low but realistic opinion of my fellow men, Doctor, and I know how poorly most would cope with the new world that would follow the release of these discoveries. Chaos. Political and social upheaval. Just like the CISG report said."
Bennell shrugged. “You're entitled to your view.” But his tone said: Even if your view is ignorant and arrogant and narrowminded.
Leaning forward in his chair, Leland said, "How about you, Doctor? Do you believe the CISG was right?"
Evasively, Bennell said, "I'm not your man, Colonel. I didn't send those notes and Polaroids to Corvaisis and the Blocks."
"Okay, Doctor, then will you support my effort to have everyone in the project interrogated with the assistance of drugs? Even if we get the polygraph fixed, the answers we obtain will be less reliable than those we'd get with sodium pentothal and certain other substances."
Bennell frowned. "Well, there are some who'd object strenuously. These are people of superior intellect, Colonel. Intellectual life is their primary life, and they won't risk subjecting themselves to drugs that might, as a sideeffect, have even the slightest permanent detrimental effect on their mental function."
“These drugs don't have that effect. They're safe.”
"They're safe most of the time, maybe. But some of my people will have moral objections to using drugs for any reasoneven safe drugs, even for a worthwhile purpose."
"Doctor, I'm going to push for drugassisted interrogation of everyone in Thunder Hill, those who know the secret and those who don't. I'm going to demand General Alvarado approve." Alvarado was commanding officer of the Thunder Hill Depository, a pencilpushing deskjockey who had spent his career on his backside. Leland liked Alvarado no more than he liked Bennell. "If the general approves drugassisted interrogation, and if any of your people then refuse, I'll come down hard on them, hard enough to break them. That includes you, if you refuse. You understand me?"
“Oh, perfectly,” Bennell said, still unruffled.
Disgusted, the colonel pushed the remaining personnel files aside. "This is too damn slow. I need the traitor quickly, not a month from now. We'd better repair the polygraph." He started to get up, then sat down as if he'd just thought of what he was about to ask, though it had been on his mind since he entered the Depository. "Doctor, what do you think of this development with Cronin and Corvaisis? These miraculous cures, the other bizarre phenomena. What do you make of it?"
Finally Bennell showed strong, genuine emotion. He unfolded his hands from behind his head and leaned forward in his chair. "I'm sure it scares the hell out of you, Colonel. But there could be another, less cataclysmic explanation than the one on which you've fixated. Fear is your only reaction, while I think it might be the greatest moment in the history of the human race. But whatever the casewe've absolutely got to talk with Cronin and Corvaisis. Tell them everything and seek their cooperation to discover exactly how they obtained these wonderful powers. We can't simply eliminate them or put them through another memorywipe without knowing all the answers."
"If we bring everyone at the Tranquility into this, tell them the secret, and then don't wipe their memories again, the coverup can't be maintained."
“Possibly not,” Bennell said. "And if that's the case ... then the public will just have to be told. Damn it, Colonel, because of these recent developments, studying Cronin and Corvaisis takes precedence over everything else, including the coverup. Not only studying them ... but letting them have a chance to develop whatever strange talents they may have. In fact, when will you take them into custody?"
“This afternoon, at the latest.”
“Then we can expect you to bring them to us sometime tonight?”
“Yes.” Leland rose from his chair again. He picked up his coat and walked to the office door, where Lieutenant Horner was waiting. He paused. "Doctor, how will you know if Cronin and Corvaisis are changed or not? You think there's no real chance of . . . possession. But if you're wrong, if they're not entirely human any more, and if they don't want you to know the truth, how would you possibly discover it? Obviously, they could defeat a lie detector or any truth serums we have."
“That's a puzzler, all right.” Miles Bennell stood up, jammed his hands into the pockets of his lab coat, and began to pace energetically. "My God, it's a real challenge, isn't it? We've been working on the problem ever since we learned about their new powers from you on Sunday. We've been through ups and downs, despair, but now we think we can deal with it. We've devised medical tests, psychological tests, some tricky damn stuff, and we think that all of it taken together will accurately determine whether or not they're infected, whether or not they're . . . human any more. I think your fears are utterly unfounded. We thought infection . . . possession was a danger at first, but it's been more than a year since we learned we were wrong. I think they can be entirely human and still have these powers. Are entirely human."
"I don't agree. My fears are well founded. And if Corvaisis and Cronin and the others have changed, and if you believe you can get the truth out of them, you're kidding yourself. If they've changed, they're so superior to you that deceiving you would be child's play."
“You haven't even heard what we've-”
"And something else, Doctor. Something you haven't thought of but which I must consider. Maybe this will help you appreciate my position, with which you've thus far had little sympathy. Don't you realize I have to be suspicious and scared of more than just the people at the Tranquility? Ever since we've learned of these recent developments, these paranormal powers, I've been scared of you, as well."
Bennell was thunderstruck. “Me?”
"You've been working here with it, Doctor. You're in that cavern nearly every day, doing lab work every day, probing, testing every damn day for eighteen months, with only three brief vacations. If Corvaisis and Cronin were changed in a few hours of contact, why shouldn't I suspect you've been changed after eighteen months?"
For a moment Bennell was too shocked to speak. Then he said, "But this isn't the same at all. My studies here were after the fact. I'm essentially a . . . well, a fire marshal, a guy who came in after the blaze to sift through the ashes and figure out what happened. The potential for possession or infectionif it ever existedwas at the beginning, in the first hours, not later."
“How can I be sure of that?” Leland asked, staring at him coldly.
“But under these lab conditions, with safety precautions-”
"We're dealing with the unknown, Doctor. We can't foresee every problem that might arise. That's the very nature of the unknown. And you can't take precautions against something you can't foresee."
Bennell shook his head violently in denial of the very possibility. "No, no, no. Oh, no."
“If you think I'm exaggerating my concern just to irritate you,” Leland said, "then you might ask yourself why Lieutenant Horner sat in that chair so alertly during our long conversation. After all, as you know, he's an expert in polygraphs, and he could have gone and repaired yours while you and I talked. But I didn't want to be in a room with you alone, Doctor Bennell. Not alone. No way."
Blinking, Bennell said, “You mean, because I might've somehow . . .”
Leland nodded. "Because if you have been changed, then you might have been able to change me, too, by some process I can't even begin to imagine. Alone, you might have used the opportunity to attack me, infect me, arrange for me to be possessed, pour the human spirit out of me and pour something else in.“ Leland shuddered. ”Hell, I don't know how to put it best, but we both know what I mean."
“We even wondered if two of us were enough to insure our safety,” Lieutenant Horner said, his voice rumbling through the lowceilinged room and vibrating vaguely in the metal walls. "I kept a close eye on you, Doctor. You didn't notice my hand was always near my revolver."
Bennell was too astonished to speak.
Leland said, "Doctor, you may think I'm a suspicious bastard who's too quick on the trigger, an unregenerate xenophobic fascist. But I've been put in charge of this not merely to keep the truth from the public but also to protect them, and it's part of my job to think of the worst and then to act as if it will inevitably happen."
“Jesus H. Christ!” Bennell said. "You're total, offthewall paranoids, both of you!"
“I'd expect you to react that way,” Leland told him, "whether or not you're still a fullfledged member of the human race."
To Horner he said, “Let's go. You have a polygraph to repair.”
Horner went out into The Hub, and Leland started after him.