Reality Matrix Effect (9781310151330) (41 page)

One evening a few weeks ago, after a
particularly upsetting meeting with Keith, she’d even resolved to
try her grandfather’s psychic techniques, as described in his
papers and Alec Zorne’s laboratory notes. But all she’d gotten for
her trouble was a severe headache and the sense that she was
behaving like a jackass.

“Why don’t you just have another cup
of coffee and try to relax,” Milgrom suggested. “We have another
hour and a half before we have to face the lions out
there.”

The corners of Rayna’s mouth curved
upward slightly. “If I have much more coffee, I think I’ll explode.
Mind if I take a little walk around the park?”

“Actually, that sounds like a
wonderful idea!” Milgrom said. “You stayed up half the night with
me working on this. Didn’t even get home to sleep in your own bed.
You’re certainly entitled to a break.”  She chuckled warmly.
“If I could wander around here without being recognized, I think
I’d join you. But then, I still have some finishing touches to put
on this speech. Maybe you should join Rayna, Derek.”

Marsden shook his head. “No way,
Althea. I’m not leaving you alone after what happened here last
time.”

Milgrom reached for Marsden’s hand and
patted it tenderly. “Don’t be silly,” she insisted. “There are
security guards at the doors and around the open-speech area. I’ll
be just fine.”

Marsden looked hard at Milgrom. “Are
you sure, Althea?”

“Go!” she commanded with a warm
laugh.

Marsden brushed back an errant
forelock of straight, blond hair but made no move toward the door.
Milgrom smiled  at him and nodded. “All right,” he said
finally. “Let’s go, Rayna.”

Rayna glanced from Marsden to Milgrom
and back again. Then she followed Marsden out into the
park.

“You care a great deal about her,
don’t you?” Rayna said after awhile as they walked up the path
toward the open-speech area.

Marsden took out an Astobac cigarette
and lit up. “She saved my life. Oh, not physically. The medics out
in Beta Colony did that. But I was a mess emotionally when I got
back Earthside.”

Rayna watched him with interest and
waited for him to continue.

“I went through the retraining
programs and wound up with all the technical qualifications I
needed to make it in a civilian job. But every time I went out on a
job interview, I’d look at my face in the mirror, and I’d see this
doughy pseudoskin they gave me and the scars on my neck,
and....”

He shook his head and took another
drag on his cigarette. “Anyway, the day Althea interviewed me, she
seemed to recognize what I was going through. She helped me relax,
and then she gave me a job. She’s been more than my boss. She’s
been my friend.”

Rayna nodded, and they walked on in
silence. She led them along a flower-bordered trail toward a small
botanical garden at the east end of the park.

 “
She’ll make a great senator,”
Rayna said, more to break the silence than for any other
reason.

“Yes,” Marsden agreed, “but she’s not
really a politician. She only ran because somebody had to speak up
against Rensselaer. He’s so damned smooth. He can make the most
outrageous actions sound reasonable and justified. Noble, even. He
appeals to the worst instincts in people and gives them the
justification they need for acting on those instincts.”

He dropped his cigarette butt and
crushed it with his heel. The action released molecular bonds in
the Astobac and freed the elements to recycle, clean and refresh
the soil and air.

“You figure Rensselaer’s working with
Tauber?” Rayna asked him as he lit another cigarette.

Marsden nodded. “I’m sure of it. He’s
just Hank’s type—ambitious, amoral and slick.”

Rayna stopped and looked into
Marsden’s haunted blue-gray eyes. “There’s something I don’t
understand, Derek. You seem like a decent sort of guy. How could
you and Tauber have been friends?”

Marsden looked at his shoes. “Hank
wasn’t always like this. Oh, he always had this passion for proving
his manhood. Back at the Academy, the big game was to beat the
system. That seemed fair enough. Everybody likes to beat the
system—especially when the system is a relic of the old military
academies, where discipline’s the name of the game.”

“But there was more to it, I
gather.”

Marsden nodded somberly. “About a year
ago, I heard that Hank’s little tricks started turning mean. He
especially had it in for any of the rock farmers—the colonists, I
mean—he had it in for the colonists who were what he called
‘soft.’”

Rayna nodded. That was consistent with
what Keith had told her about the whole thrust of Operation Strong
Man.

“Hank used to say they were all just a
bunch of fags, so why not have some fun with them. I even went
along with him for awhile, I’m ashamed to say. But one of those
‘fags’ was the chief medic who saved my life.”

He paused to puff on his cigarette for
a few moments. “There’s nothing like hearing Death knock at your
door to make you take another look at your values. I did. And Hank
never forgave me for it.”

They continued to walk and talk for
the next half hour, occasionally pausing to appreciate the flora in
the botanical garden. The setting reminded her of another walk, a
walk she’d taken with Keith. She hadn’t heard from him in days,
despite her invitation to join her this afternoon, and she was
concerned. Still, there was nothing she could do about it now. She
decided to visit him this evening and talk things out.

She and Marsden headed back toward the
recreation building. As they passed a group of trees along the way,
Rayna thought she heard someone calling her name in an urgent
whisper, but she couldn’t be certain. Marsden had heard nothing,
and when she looked around for a familiar face, the only person she
saw nearby was an exceptionally large man with a thick, black
beard. The man disturbed her for some reason. He seemed to watch
her every move. She shifted positions so that Marsden was between
her and the stranger.

Althea Milgrom met her two friends at
the door of the recreation building.

“You can watch me from here for a
minute,” she said to the guard as she wheeled out of the building
to greet Rayna and Marsden. “Whether I’m recognized or not, I need
a breath of fresh air!”

***

From his hotel room across the street,
Tauber was keeping close tabs on the activity at the park. He was
glad he’d thought to pack his telescope. Through it, he could see
exactly when Milgrom and her party were in the ideal position for
the attack.

He had punched the appropriate codes
into the communicator’s keyboard and stored them for remote
activation. A mere press of the button in his hand would direct the
communicator to send the codes to their destination, zap miner
NG-6/3CDA.

People were beginning to take seats in
the open speech area now, although the speech wasn’t scheduled to
begin for some time yet.
No question about it,
Tauber
admitted grudgingly,
Milgrom’s gaining a following.
Most of
the park-goers, though, were simply enjoying the day. Well, it
would be a day none of them would ever forget. None of those who
survived, that is.

He took another look through the
telescope and frowned as he spotted Kronis, who was obviously
searching for someone.

Stupid bastard!
thought Tauber.
Do I have to do everything myself?
  The fact that
Daniels had escaped from his make-shift prison would not, at this
point, have much practical effect, Tauber realized. Still, he was
disappointed. Not only in Kronis, but, more importantly, in
Daniels.
That’s what you get for thinking you can trust
anyone,
he chastised himself.
Didn’t you learn anything when
Derek Marsden turned out to be just another faggot?

As the name formed in his thoughts,
Tauber caught a glimpse of Marsden and Rayna Kingman as they
emerged from behind a group of trees and headed for the recreation
building. Tauber’s jaws clamped shut. He hated Derek Marsden, he
realized. At this moment, he hated Marsden more than he’d ever
hated anyone or anything. Once, years ago, Marsden had forced
Tauber to face a part of himself he’d spent a lifetime denying.
Now, the same Marsden was weakening the hand of Operation Strong
Man. It was because of Marsden that Milgrom had been able to
decipher his code-switching. It was all Marsden’s fault. Tauber’s
left hand drew itself into a fist, and the right tightened around
the remote call button.

Suddenly aware of the object in his
hand, he opened his fist and stared for a moment, then looked
through his telescope at the area in front of the recreation
building, where Marsden, Milgrom and Rayna were chatting
comfortably with the guard.

“Damn him!” he said aloud. “Damn them
all!”  He ground his teeth together and jabbed the call button
forcefully with his thumb.

Almost immediately, a beeper summoned
Tauber to the room’s CDN terminal. He stared at the screen in
disbelief, an empty feeling in the pit of his stomach:

FROM: THE LATE CHARLES J.
WRAGGON

IF YOU
’
RE
READING THIS MESSAGE, THEN I MUST BE DEAD. BUT SO ARE YOU AND MAYBE
MOST OF THE WORLD. REMEMBER, I WARNED YOU NOT TO MESS WITH ME. I
TOLD YOU I KNEW THINGS ABOUT THE R-4 ROBOTS THAT I DIDN
’
T TELL YOU.

WHEN MY ROBOTS REPROGRAMMED THE
ZAPPERS, THEY INCLUDED A DEAD-MAN
’
S
ROUTINE. WHEN YOU KILLED ME, YOU PREVENTED ME FROM SENDING THE
WEEKLY SIGNAL THAT SHIFTS COMPLETE CONTROL OF THE ZAPPERS TO EARTH.
WITHOUT THAT SIGNAL, TRIGGERING ANY ZAPPER FOR ANY EARTH-DESIGNATED
TARGET WILL AUTOMATICALLY ACTIVATE ALL THE ZAPPERS TO HIT ALL THE
PREPROGRAMMED TARGETS. KIND OF MESSES UP YOUR PLANS,
DOESN
’
T IT?

ONE MORE THING, TAUBER. SINCE I
KNEW YOU
’
D BE THE GUY TRIGGERING THE
ZAPPERS, I HAD THE ROBOTS PUT IN ANOTHER SPECIAL FEATURE—A FEEDBACK
TARGETING MECHANISM. WHEN YOU TRIGGERED THE ZAPPER, YOU SIGNED YOUR
OWN DEATH WARRANT. THE ZAPPER WILL HOME IN ON THE SOURCE OF THE
SIGNAL AND.... 

Tauber never finished reading the
message. A narrow beam of coherent light angled its way from the
sky through the hotel window and neatly severed the hand that still
held the remote call button. The next beam narrowly missed Tauber’s
head and sent him scurrying for cover as more beams shot through
the windows to fill the room with destruction.

***

“What was that?” Marsden said
suddenly, gazing upward. “I thought I saw a flash of light
that—look out!”  The last comment was muffled as Marsden
arched his body over Milgrom’s seated form and reached for Rayna’s
hand in an effort to pull her to the ground. A ruby beam of light
struck a corner of the recreation building above them, loosening
pieces of brick and mortar.

“It’s a zapper attack!” he shouted as
more beams struck the building. One beam sliced through the center
of the structure. Others melted their way through the windows.
Several beams also ignited combustible material inside, and smoke
began to seep from under the door. Minutes later, flames were
clearly visible through the windows.

“Let’s get away from here,” Marsden
said, pushing Milgrom’s wheelchair ahead of him.

Rayna followed numbly, looking around
her in horrified fascination. The sky twinkled with light as the
ZAP miner strafed the park like a Japanese Zero in some old World
War II movie. One beam cut through the base of the woodstone
lectern on the open-speech stage and sent it toppling over atop a
worker who had been setting up the sound system. In blind panic,
people ran mindlessly about the park trying to avoid the deadly
rays from the sky. As Rayna watched, a terrified child ran directly
into the path of a beam. It cut him in two.

“There must be something we can do,”
Milgrom said, activating her mini-terminal. “If the zapper shots
don’t interfere with the radio signals that tie me to CDN
headquarters, then maybe I can—”  But Marsden just shook his
head. “All we can do is try to keep out of the line of
fire.”

As if to reinforce Marsden’s comment,
a beam hit the grass next to his foot and etched a deep line across
the lawn and into a nearby group of trees.

“Oh my God!” Milgrom said, intent on
the terminal screen despite the chaos around her. “It’s not just
here!  We’re getting reports from London, Paris, Caracas,
Jerusalem, Cairo, Nairobi, Beirut—it’s all over the
world!”

Rayna’s stomach heaved. How could this
be? 

“Rayna!” a distant voice called
out.

She barely heard her name above the
screams around her, but she thought she recognized the disheveled
man emerging from the trees just as a severed branch crashed down
upon him. Keith? she wondered, heart pounding. Could it be
Keith? 

The trees were ablaze now, and people
who had been walking peacefully along the shaded paths only minutes
before were rolling on the ground trying desperately to smother the
flames of their own clothing.

Rayna headed for the man on the
ground, bumping into men and women who were rushing in the other
direction.