Hidden Variables (21 page)

He looked gloomy. The investigation had just grown two orders of magnitude. There was no way to go further without involving U.S.F representatives. Already they were on the verge of an interplanetary incident.

The communicator continued to pump out information, in display and hard copy. Wolf noticed that it was giving the correlation he had asked for between form-change centers and Mattin Link entry points. It was going to be a long and confusing day.

Not surprisingly, BEC was getting into the act too. An incoming news release set out their official position on the Mariana Monsters.

'Biological Equipment Corporation (BEC) today released a formal statement denying all knowledge of the human bodies discovered recently off the coast of Guam. A BEC representative said that the bodies had clearly been subject to form-change, but no BEC program developments, past or present, could lead to forms anything like those found. In an unusual procedure, BEC released records showing forms now under development in the Company and invited Government inspection of their facilities. BEC is the pioneer in and world's largest manufacturer of purposive form-change equipment utilizing biological feedback control methods.'

Bey read the release through and passed it to Larsen.

"It looks as though BEC is in the clear but running scared. I've been waiting for them to plead innocent or guilty. That's another prospect off the list of possibles."

* * *

Larsen trailed out with yards of listings. Bey Wolf sat back again to wait for a pattern to emerge. The facts were suggestive. One name kept coming into his head, haunting him out of the past. Robert Capman, inventor of the C-forms, recognized without dispute as the greatest-ever expert on form-change methods. Robert Capman, ex-Director of Central Hospital and advisor to the Planetary Coordinators. But also Robert Cap-man, branded as a mass murderer and officially dead for six years.

* * *

Top U. S. F. men, like top kanu players, are usually on the small skinny side. It was a surprise to greet a wrestler, two meters tall, and find he was the U. S. F. man assigned to work with Form Control on the Guam case. Bey Wolf glanced up at him and bit back the question on the tip of his tongue.

Park Green was regarding him closely, a smile on his big, baby face.

"Go on, Mr. Wolf, ask me," he said. "Most people do eventually. In fact, let me answer you in advance. No, I don't use the bio-feedback equipment and form-change myself this way. It's completely natural. But it makes life hard when you're trying to act as representative to the U. S. F., and form-change is illegal off-Earth."

Bey Wolf nodded appreciatively. "On the mark. I didn't think I was so easy to read."

"I've had lots of practice on that question. Let me ask you some. What's new on the Guam case? I've got to give a report back to Tycho City tonight. Do you know the time and cause of death yet?"

"Three days ago. They all died within about twelve hours of each other, of asphyxiation—and here's the strange part. Their lungs were full of normal air. No gaseous poisons, no contaminants. They shouldn't have choked. They were dropped off Guam about twenty-four hours after they died, almost certainly at night. My guess is that they died somewhere a long way from there."

"Excuse my ignorance of the case, but I don't follow your logic."

"Well, it is conjectural. But I think they were intended for the bottom of the Mariana Trench. Five miles down, they'd never have been found. I think they were accidentally dropped a few miles too.far west—by somebody who didn't know the local geography too well. I'd say they died by accident, and somebody was keen to hide the evidence as far away as they could. You don't look very surprised," Wolf added, seeing that Green was slowly nodding agreement.

The big man squeezed himself into a chair and rubbed his chin with an eleven-inch hand.

"It fits with some of the things I know myself," he replied. "What else did you find out about the three dead men?"

"Not much," replied Wolf. "They were Belters, all off the same ship, the 'Jason.' They arrived here on Earth three weeks ago with plenty of money. Nobody heard of them again until they were found off Guam. We don't trail U. S. F. citizens unless we get a request from you for it."

"That's all correct as far as it goes," agreed Green. "You are missing a few things that make a big difference. First, you say they were Belters, and technically you are right. But in U. S. F. wording, they were really Grabbers. They had been out in space on the 'Jason' for over two years. . . ."

Caperta Laferte, spotter for the U. S. F. Class B cargo ship 'Jason,' was watching the scope of the deep radar with mounting excitement. By his left hand, the computer print-out was chattering with increasing speed as it performed the final orbit match and confirmed the tracking of the find.

Laferte wiped the perspiration from his face with a dirty cloth.

"It matches exactly," he told the other two. "And it looks like a big one. I'll be able to get us a radioactivity reading from it in a couple of minutes. But it's a piece of old Loge, no doubt about it."

The others hovered about in impotent excitement. Until they had matched and docked it was one man's work and they could do nothing more useful than speculate on their trophy. Grimy and worn, all three looked like men who had endured more than two years of solar flares and radiation storms, celibacy and grinding boredom. It would all be worth it. If this were the big one, it would pay for all of it. Wine, women and song were on the way.

"Radioactivity count coming in now," announced Laferte. "I've tuned it for the 15 MeV dipole transition from Asfanium. Keep your eye on the counter. If it hits forty or better, it's the jackpot."

The digital read-out was climbing steadily. At twenty they lost it for a second. Laferte swore, bent back over the control panel, and recalibrated. It climbed again, past twenty, to thirty, to forty, and was still moving steadily upwards. They all shouted and James Manaur and Lao Sarna Prek joined hands and began a curious Walrus-and-Carpenter dance. It was the best that could be managed in the combination of free-fall and confined space. The future was a rosy glow, full of wealth, high living and excitement. Old Loge had been gone a long time, but enough of him had come back to gladden a few hearts.

* * *

"—looking for transuranics," said Green. "Maybe you know, the only natural source in the Solar System is still the fragments of Loge that come back into the System as long-period comets. The Grabbers just sit out there for years and monitor using deep radar. One decent find and they are made for life. The 'Jason' caught a good one about three months ago, packed with 112 and 114, Asfanium and Polkium. They extracted the transuranic elements from the fragment and rolled into Tycho City a month ago, rich as Karkov. They started to celebrate and three weeks ago they came to Earth to continue the spree. After that we lost touch with them and don't know what they did. We expected them back when the fleshpots palled. Want me to make a guess on what they did?"

Wolf nodded. "I think I see where you are leading, but go on."

"They came to Earth," continued Park Green. "Now, I saw them just before they left Tycho. They looked terrible. A couple of years of hardship in space, then a celebration that you wouldn't believe when they reached the Moon. If you came to Earth in that condition, wouldn't there be a big temptation to do something a bit illegal—and hookup for an intensive session with a bio-feedback machine, set to get you back to tip-top physical shape as fast as legally possible—or faster?"

"There certainly would," Wolf agreed. "I know a thousand places where it could be done. What you say makes perfect sense. Now let me pick up on my side of it."

He pressed the inter-office communicator and asked John Larsen to join them. When Larsen entered the room, Bey Wolf turned again to Park Green.

"Before I get John's opinions, tell me what you know about Robert Capman. I assure you it's relevant," he added, seeing Green's puzzled look.

The big U. S. F. man thought for a moment before he replied.

"All I can really tell you is what I've heard in Tycho City," he said finally. "Capman was a great man here on Earth, a genius who invented the series of form-changes that we now call C-forms, adapted for life in space. He did it using human children as the subjects for form-change experiments. Some of them died. He was found out a few years ago and died himself trying to escape. Is there more to know?"

"I think there is, but I may be biased," replied Wolf. "For one thing, it was John and I who handled the case and blew the whistle on Capman. Now let me ask you, do you have strong feelings about Capman, personally?"

Green hesitated again. "That's really a tough one. I know his reputation for great genius. And honestly, I don't know enough to say if he was fairly treated when he was accused of using human children in his work. But I will tell you, as a representative of the U. S. F. I have to be against Capman. After all, he was the man who invented the forms that are supposed to make me and my fellows as obsolete for life in space as the dinosaurs—the forms he came up with don't need much air, they're radiation tolerant, and they can adapt to run at high or low metabolic rates. I've no reason to like the man, for those reasons alone. Why do you ask?"

"I have a reason," said Wolf. He turned to Larsen. "John, you were there when Capman died. Did he die?"

"I thought so at the time. "John Larsen sighed and shrugged his shoulders. "Now, I'm not so sure." He turned to the U. S. F. man. "Bey is convinced it was a set-up, and I must admit it had the makings of one. He hasn't been heard of for the six years since then, but I'll tell you, in the last day I've been thinking about him. These Guam form-changes have just the marks of Capman."

Wolf looked at Larsen with relief and increased respect. "I'd been thinking that, John, myself, but it seemed too unlikely to come right out and say it." He turned again to Park Green. "Now, you see how our thoughts have been running. Earth's greatest expert ever on form-change, Robert Capman. Maybe still alive, in hiding, somewhere on Earth. And along comes a set of form-changes that defy all logic, that conform to no known models. It could be Capman, up to his old tricks again. Either way, if Capman
is
alive, he'd be just the man to talk to about this. John or I could have added one other thing—neither of us ever met a man, before or since, who impressed us as much with his sheer intellectual power."

Green moved about uneasily in his seat. "It's clear you're selling me something, but I still don't know what it is. What are you leading up to?"

Bey Wolf nodded vigorously. "Only this, I want to find Robert Capman. And I have a very strong suspicion of my own. I think he's
not
on Earth—hasn't been for the past six years. Will you help me reach him, if he's somewhere in the U. S. F. territories? I don't know if it's the Moon, the Belt, the Libration Colonies, or where—but I do know I can't get messages out there without U. S. F. help!"

Green looked speculative. "I can't give you an instant answer," he said. "I'll have to discuss it in person with Ambassador Brodin, and he's in Argentina." He stood up. "What's the best way to get me there?"

"Through the Martin Link system. There's an entry point in central Argentina. We are only ten minutes away from the Madrid link—two jumps and you'll be there. Come on, I'll show you how to use it."

They hurried out, as Green explained that he was having trouble getting used to the complexity of the Earth system. The Moon had only four link entry points. The Earth had twenty and he had heard there would be more added. Was that true?

It was not, and it would never be. The Mattin Link system offers direct and instantaneous transmission between any adjacent pair of entry points. But the number of entry points, and their placing, is very rigid. Since it requires perfect symmetry of any entry point with respect to all others, the configuration must fit one of the five regular solids. Plato would have loved it.

The dodecahedral system, with twenty vertices on the surface of the Earth, is the biggest single system that can ever be made. The Lunar system, with its four entry points at the vertices of a regular tetrahedron, is the simplest. And Mattin Links away from planetary surfaces are impractical because of changing distances.

Gerald Mattin, who had dreamed of a system for instantaneous energy-free transfer between any two points anywhere, died a disappointed man. The present system is far from energy-free—because the Earth is not a homogenous perfect sphere, and space-time is slightly curved near it. Mattin had an energy-free solution defined for an exact geometry in a flat space-time. He died twenty years before the decision to build the first Mattin Link system, twenty-five years before the first university was named after him, thirty years before the first statue.

* * *

"We have a go-ahead, but I had to bargain my soul away to get an agreement from the Ambassador. Now, where do we go from here?"

Park Green was back in Bey Wolf's office, shoes off, long legs stretched out and adding to the general appearance of confusion. Wolf and Larsen were again over by the wall display, plotting the Mattin Link paths from the Mariana Trench entry point and the Australia entry point near the spaceport where the crew of the 'Jason' had arrived on Earth. Wolf read off the results before he replied to Park Green.

"The North Australian entry point connects directly to the Marianas, Southern New Zealand and an Indian Ocean transfer point. The Mariana entry point connects directly to North China, Hawaii and back of course to North Australia. None of those connections looks promising, there's no big form-change lab near any of them. So either my guess about the use of the Link system is wrong, or the people who moved the Monsters did more than one jump in the system. Two jumps takes us a lot further afield—to almost anywhere. Up to the North Pole, to Cap City at the South Pole, or into India, or up to western North America."

He looked over at Park Green. "It's a mess. I'm more convinced than ever that we need to find Robert Capman and develop some idea what was happening when the three men died. They obviously started on some form-change program and somewhere along the line it got fouled up. How? I wish I could ask Capman that question."