The Secret of Excalibur (18 page)

He stares at the Doctor, then at me, then gives another brief nod. “Yes I can have that done, Merlin.”

“No, Commander, don't 'have it 'done.' You, the Doctor, and your team need to do this. And don't tell anyone else about it.” I kneel back down looking at Dobie.

“Okay, I can have the data flown here to us, then we'll go over the maps. What are we looking for?”

I was ready to mentally push him, but I'm relieved when he relented on his own. “Check the magnetic influx. Look for any increase, or decrease, no matter how small. Look for magnetic influxes not caused by natural manifestations. I think you'll find some, Commander.”

“Okay, Merlin. Is that all?”

I was hoping he'd ask.
Hold on, Dobie, fun and games time.

“As a matter of fact, no, it's not, so listen carefully. I know you have more than twenty men stationed with you at the Lodge. I want two teams sent out here tonight, each team with two men and each man in a wetsuit. Give each team a high-speed camera, using infrared film, and also star scopes and still cameras. Tell the men not to make any sounds, no vibrations at all, not even a cough, and especially no scraping on the rocks. Deploy one team down the beach about a half mile, and the second team up there in those rocks. Each team has to watch the beach here, from dark till dawn. Now, this is important, Dobie. Bring the two teams out by boat, and come in trolling slowly, like you're fishing, then drop them off in the bay. They'll row to shore in rubber rafts. No sound, no noise, and above all else, no vibrations. Got that?”

If you've ever watched water boil, then you'll have noticed right before it starts boiling, the water in the pot seems to swell, then a bubble breaks loose. Dobie is ready for a bubble now.

“What the hell are you up to, Merlin, er, Mr. Merlin?” he demands. Yep, there's the bubble.

“Commander, just deploy the men here. After you look over the photos and maps, if you don't find something that can't be explained from natural causes, then you can call me a fool, recall your team, and I'll work for you, no questions asked.”

He wants to control me so bad; he grabs my offer like Ruth's Northern took the Walleye. “Okay, Merlin, er, Arthur, we'll go over the photos and maps again and let you know our results. But you're playing a damn funny game.”

I didn't want to tell him, but why not? His neck will be on the block too. I scoot closer, saying quietly, “Gentlemen, I understand how crazy this sounds, because I've been trying to explain what's happening here to myself. I think there's something here, down deep under us, and it's listening to us, right now. Maybe sonar, I'm not sure, but it can feel our vibrations. I don't know whether it can hear us, but I know it's trying.”

Dobie never moves his head, but his eyes rove across the tree line. Tober's eyes just get bigger. I didn't think that was possible. I light another cigarette, and wait, evaluating them. I don't have long to wait.

Tober stammers, looking concerned, “Uh, Merlin, I mean, Arthur, uh, are you feeling all right?”

Dobie says gruffly, “Listen, Arthur, if there's something wrong, you can return with us for a private checkup. No one would need to know.”

Very good
, I think, nodding my head,
much calmer than expected
. “Okay, now listen. What I tell you goes no further than us. Got that?” They glance at each other, then reluctantly nod. “Last night, Ruth and I made love on the beach by the boat.”

Dobie blurts, red-faced, “Oh God, man, all this has thrown you over.”

“Dobie, shut up and listen,” I roar, feeling the psychic energy crackling through my hair, as I try to maintain control.

Dobie's trying to scramble away from me, but sitting in sand makes that difficult.

I hastily look around. Everyone's staring in our direction, but no one, not even Ruth, is coming close. “Well,” I snap, “now everyone here, both above, and below ground heard me, so let's try to keep our voices down from now on, gentlemen. Agreed?” Dobie frantically shakes yes, Tober is frozen again, staring wide-eyed. “Doctor, are you okay?”

“Uh, yes, Arthur, I, um, I'm fine,” he stammers. “Go on, please.”

I cross my legs, looking down, picking up sand and letting it trickle through my fingers. “You already think I'm crazy, but what I'm going to tell you will either convince you, or make you very nervous.” After wiping the sand from my hands, I light another cigarette. “This morning, before Ruth woke up, I went down to the boat. In the sand, in a completed form, were impressions from our bodies, packed down firmly in the wet sand. On top of the impressions from Ruth's lower back and where the sand was packed down the hardest, I found a footprint. A boot to be exact. The footprint could only have been made after we went into the tent last night.” I glance at Dobie then Tober, assessing.

“Do you understand what I'm saying here? Two people came out of those trees last night, walked down to the boat, looked around, then headed back into the trees. And they tried to cover their footprints. I never would've noticed the footprints at all except for the one I found in our impressions. Nothing taken, nothing disturbed, and no one around that I could find. I mean, the whole area back there is a big bog, and no one should be able to walk from there to here. Now, what do you have to say?”

Dobie's face shows intense concentration, studying every pore of my facial skin, then the blood vessels in my eyeballs. Tober's reading the map.

Dr. Tober still looking down, asks, “Uh, whether we assume two men were indeed here last night, uh, wherever from, then why should we assume they shall return here tonight? Curiosity?” Now, he does glance at me.

“No, Doctor, for security reasons. They'll have to come back to see what this commotion up here is all about. See what we're up to, and they won't come until all vibrations have stopped, when they know we're asleep.”

“Do you have a theory?” Tober asks with interest.

“Doctor, I'm afraid to tell you right now. But after the maps and photos have been studied, and I know the results, I'll be more inclined to talk, or to apologize to you both. And if I'm wrong, Dobie, as I said, I'll work for you. I'll even get the four men who stay out here tonight so drunk they'll have to be carried to work for three days.”

“Well, then, I guess we'd best get busy on the satellite data, Arthur. I'll call you with the results,” Dobie says dismissively.

“Commander, here is the phone number to our satellite phone. I have a feeling our radio messages are being monitored, but they shouldn't be able to monitor my phone. It's new, and hasn't been used yet, should be safe for at least one call.”

“Uh, yes, quite. Good thinking, Arthur. Come, Doctor, we have much to do.” He climbs to his feet, without my assistance, then brushes himself off. Bending, he helps Tober, then off they go, with Dobie clutching his precious maps. I stop by Ruth as they climb aboard Colly's boat. Dobie gives a small wave, Tober and Relman already below deck.

Colly waves and yells, “Be seein' ye at the Club, sir. If'n the film proves out, I'll be both a payin' ye and gettin' ye drunk.” He waves again, then gets busy with his boat.

As they steer off, Ruth asks, “What the hell is going on, Arthur?” She pats my arm.

Striding to the fire-pit, I sit in my chair, then pour half a cup of hot water, more instant coffee, then fill the rest with Amaretto. Looking sideways at Ruth, I ask, “Have you ever wanted to go on an adventure?” I slowly sip my coffee, enjoying the flavor.

In deep thought, she sits, staring at me. “Of course, everyone does. Then we grow up.”

“Well, we're about to go on an adventure, but this one will be an adult adventure. And if I'm right, one you'll never forget. You might even be made whatever's the female equivalent of a Knight.”

“She's called a Dame, and you aren't making any sense.”

Of course, Dame Doctor Ruth Judith Burns, she'll have to have the monogram on her checks changed.

“C'mon, kid, I'll explain everything to you.”

I saunter towards the boat then climb in, Ruth right behind me. Turning the key, I start the engine and let it idle. She stares at me, but doesn't ask why. I concentrate on two cans of cold Pabst Blue Ribbon, and two cans of beer show up. Coors. I shake my head in annoyance. I'm really having problems when I can't zap the beer I want.

Handing her a can, I lean forward and tell her the whole story. More than what I'd told Dobie, my impressions about the sword, and what had focused on me. Alive. Metal. Not moving. I leave nothing out, but don't include my theory.

Ruth's silent, fingering her necklace, biting her lower lip. Finally, she says, “You're frightening the hell out of me. Maybe we should leave, let Dobie and his people discover what it is.”

“No way, Ruth, it focused on me, not Dobie. And I sure as hell want to know what it is.”

She sure doesn't look happy, with creased brows and the beer can clenched in her hand.

“Okay, kid, there's something I want to do, it won't hurt, just close your eyes and relax.” Her eyes get bigger. “C'mon, close your eyes and relax.”

I gently lay my hands on her shoulders, and she doesn't even flinch. Taking several deep breaths, I clear my mind, focusing all my concentration into the task I'm trying to perform. This is more difficult than I remembered, but I've never done this to anyone else. By the time I'm finished, sweats beading on my forehead and upper lip.

Leaning back, I ask, “How do you feel, kid?”

“Uh, funny,” she replies with a puzzled frown. “Sort of like I'm wearing a fur coat, warm, but not really warm. Almost like a hug from your mother when you're little.”

I'll have to take your word on that, kid
, I think bitterly, not being able to remember anything but foster homes, and that damn orphanage. I pick up a fishing lure and hand it to her. “Here, push one of these hooks in to your finger, just enough for a drop of blood.”

Now that's a queer look if I ever saw one, and I've seen a few. But she delicately pushes the hook into her finger. “Arthur, the hook won't go in.” She looks as if she saw her fairy godmother.

“Try it again, harder,” I encourage.

Thank goodness I was successful with my first attempt; otherwise the amount of pressure she's applying, the hook would've been shoved clear through her finger and into her knee.

She looks at me with wonder. “Your force-field, right?”

“You got it, kid. Now, whatever can't hurt me, won't hurt you. Pretty neat, huh?”

Ruth starts to sob quietly. Women are weird.

“Hey, Ruth, don't cry,” I say, rubbing her back, feeling helpless.
Really slick, Arthur,
I tell myself. But I don't know what else to say.

Wiping her eyes, taking a breath, Ruth says tearfully, “I'm sorry for crying. But, you just gave me a force-field like yours. It's quite remarkable and overwhelming.”

“You can't even catch a cold now. Nothing, including germs, can penetrate over one-thirty-second inch of your skin.”

She looks at me with tears in her eyes, then her eyes become wider. “Uh, Arthur, uh, what about, oh you know?” She moves her hand down by her crotch, face red with embarrassment.

“Heh, heh, no, kid, that's normal. You can make love all you want and you very soon shall, I imagine. You can even get pregnant. Everything that's natural. But nothing unnatural can hurt you, not even a bolt of lightning.”

“But lightning is natural,” she informs me with a straight face, blinking her green eyes at me.

“Not when it comes down on your head it's not. Over in the distance, lightning is natural.” She laughs at me, then hugs me. “Okay, let's get the scuba tanks out and go diving. I want to see the cave up close.”

Ruth starts to climb out of the boat.

“Hey, where you going? The tanks are right here.”

“To get my suit, silly,” she says over her shoulder.

“Oh no, we're diving naked. I want to see you forty-feet down, bare-ass naked as the day you were born.”

Ruth is straddling the side of the boat, biting her lip, nervously glancing around, then asks, “No one's around now?”

“Nope, not 'till later, c'mon.”

By the time I pull the scuba tanks out, she's naked. I begin to have second thoughts about the dive.
Maybe we'll put the dive off 'till later.

Hands on hips, she glares at me. “Arthur, either we go now, or I'm getting dressed again.”

Damn, she can read my mind, I'm sure of it.

I quickly undress, then we strap on the tanks. They aren't heavy, and the leg straps hang slack as we flipper-walk towards the edge of the water. But once we're in the deeper water, we receive an unpleasant surprise. The tanks become buoyant and those damn groin straps snap up fast, tight and hard. We have pubic areas being assaulted by nylon straps; mine a bit worse than hers.

Telepathically I say, *Bad idea, huh?*

She violently nods, YESYESYES. But we proceed downwards. That isn't bad, so long as we stay facing down, the tanks pull on the shoulder straps and nowhere else.

All the way to the bottom, forty-seven feet, no cave. Ruth looks over at me, hair floating out from around her head, spreads her arms and shrugs.

In her mind, I say, *The cave is here, keep searching.*

I hear the boat motor kachugging away on the surface. We left the motor on in case we became lost in the cave and needed a reference to find our way back out. I slowly swim along the bank, losing sight of Ruth, finding nothing but weeds, just as I saw the other night. Weeds, weeds and more weeds, but wait, different looking weeds.

Well, well, look at this, smaller than the rest of them, and as I pull one out, plastic. A whole bank of plastic weeds, roots, and a type of cloth, no, not cloth. It's nylon. And behind the cloth is a grate of some metal. No, not metal, plastic. A plastic grate, about two inches thick covered with plastic plants and nylon. The square holes in the grate aren't large enough for me to swim through, but big enough for the fish to swim in and out.

I point out the grate to Ruth, she freaks. She's frantically pointing up, up, up. I firmly shake no.

I check the grate more carefully, thick plastic, and there, at the top, a cable, one cable on each upper side. The grate can be opened, or closed quickly from within. I grab the plastic mount the cable is attached to, and mentally focus, heat, bubbles, but not enough to do any damage to the plastic. It's either made of super plastic, or whatever is bothering my powers around here isn't letting me get the full effect.