The Traveler's Companion (23 page)

Iverson suspected he had reached the threshold of what he could handle mentally. As he came to a jetty, he climbed up the rocks and found partial shelter in between them. The sounds of the waves crashing and washing over the rocks gave him the feeling of being insulated, of privacy. He made sure no one was around, and, for the first time since his wife had died, he wept.

CHAPTER 17

When Iverson got back to the house on Lombard Street, Angela was waiting for him, but Beth was gone.

“Where is she?” Iverson asked.

“She and Mister Go went somewhere together.”

“Where?”

“I don’t know, Doctor Iverson. They said something about coffee. His brain was flooded with dopamine.”

“What about hers?”

“Homeostatic,” Angela said.

“What does he want from her?”

“He seemed preoccupied with a conversation they had earlier. He asked if she could remember the details of a story he had told her about his trip to Papua New Guinea and the cannibals he met there.”

“He’s a fucking cannibal. He wanted to see if she remembered his story to prove she was the same person he had talked to earlier,” Iverson said.

Angela appeared to be considering the idea.

“What does that bastard want with her?” Iverson asked.

“I was under the impression they wanted to speak privately. About what, I don’t know.”

“I guess I’ll have to just go see,” Iverson said. He imagined Beth in his mind and found himself materializing on the sidewalk outside a coffee shop in the Haight-Ashbury district.

He peered through the window and searched for them among the other patrons. He finally saw them up the stairs in a loft space.

He made his reflection in the glass change, from a fifty-five year old scientist to a young black hipster looking for his daily caffeine fix. He wore an army green jacket with a Rastafarian patch on the shoulder and brown corduroy pants.

He went to the counter and ordered coffee. He added some cream, grabbed a local paper from the stand, and went up the stairs.

Iverson walked past Beth and Mr. Go sitting at a table, and went to sit on a couch against the wall. He put his feet up on the coffee table and opened up the newspaper.

“What can I do?” Beth asked.

“Be patient,” Go said. “He’ll come around.”

“He doesn’t want anything to do with me.”

“Yes, for now. But you’re the key, Beth. The only thing that will get him to stay is you. For some reason, he can make you last. We have to understand how he does that. Has he said anything to you?”

“He said that the Zone is converting energy into matter. That’s all I know.”

“We know that. But how has he made you last so long?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “But I’m afraid. What if I dissolve and he won’t re-manifest me? I feel like he’s angry at me . . . that I disrespect his wife’s memory or something.”

“In time, he’ll come around,” Go said.

“I hope you’re right. I can’t stand the way he treats me. It’s torturing me.”

“Unfortunately, Beth, what you need is time, time for you to convince him that you two belong together. But I’m not sure you’ll get that time unless you let us help you.”

“How can you help me?”

“You’d have to undergo a few tests,” Go said.

“More tests? What kind of tests?”

“Doctor Riley has discovered some interesting things from your blood sample, but with more tests we may be able to find out more. An MRI, a spinal tap, and a bone marrow biopsy could give us the information we need to find out why you have lasted longer than other ephemera.”

“Bone marrow biopsy? Isn’t that painful?”

“We can give you something for the pain.”

Iverson resisted the desire to cough out “Bullshit.” There was no anesthetic for a bone marrow biopsy and it was incredibly painful. At least in reality. Maybe Go was making promises he could keep in the Zone.

“A lot of information can be found in the blood, but bone marrow is the source of the cells in our bodies. There are self-renewing stem cells in the marrow that might hold the key to making ephemera last in the Zone.”

She sipped at her coffee. Iverson knew her well enough to know that she was looking for a way to turn him down lightly. She was too nice to tell him no to his face.

“Do you think I’m a real person, Mister Go?” Beth asked.

“I’m sorry? What do you mean?”

“I mean, you said earlier that I wasn’t real. How do you know that?”

“The only way I know how to create life is through making love. I could be wrong.”

“Before you came here, you thought you had to use bricks and mortar to build a building, but now all it takes is a thought.”

“My scientists made a convincing argument about man’s ability to comprehend life in all its complexity. If he cannot comprehend it, he cannot mentally duplicate it.”

“You don’t think that knowledge could be contained in the subconscious?”

“Actually,
I
do. But my scientists don’t. I was hopeful that you were going to prove me right, but Doctor Riley said. . . .”

“Doctor Riley said I wasn’t going to last more than a week. That’s what his test concluded. I don’t think I want to undergo any more tests, if you don’t mind.”

“I don’t mind. I hope I didn’t offend you. Our race is on the verge of extinction, as well. If we don’t find a way to exist here, we’re not going to survive.”

“We better get back. I don’t want to be gone when he gets home,” Beth said.

“Of course,” Go said. “I’ll take you home.”

Go reached over and lightly touched her hand and then they were gone.

* * * * *

Iverson waited a few minutes and then teleported back home. When he got there Beth and Angela were waiting for him in the living room. He sat down in the club chair and made sure he had their attention.

“Where’s Go?” he asked Angela.

“I don’t know,” she said.

“Any idea when you’re going to see him again?” he asked.

“We didn’t make plans,” Angela said.

Iverson sighed. “That’s not good. We have about forty-eight hours left to complete our objectives. We don’t have much time.”

“I’m sorry, Doctor Iverson, but I don’t think it’s working. He’s resistant to Level Five,” Angela said.

“Don’t tell me that!” he yelled. “We can’t give up. We have to keep trying. We cannot give up, no matter how bleak it looks. I don’t plan on spending the rest of my life watching reality fall apart. We have to stop him. We have to find the location of that lab.”

“I might be able to help,” Beth said.

“How?” Iverson said.

“He wants to conduct some more tests on me.”

“He’ll have to conduct them in the Zone. You can’t exist in our reality.”

“I understand that, but maybe I can get some information while they’re conducting the tests,” Beth said.

“Doubtful. There’s a better chance you would give up information that could help them. I’d prefer you stay out of contact with Go and his scientists.”

“He asked me how you did it, how you made me last so long, but I told him I didn’t know,” Beth said.

“Good,” Iverson said. He suspected Beth believed she deserved more gratitude for her loyalty, but he was not prepared to give it to her.

“How can we achieve our objectives?” Angela asked.

“I know how,” a voice said.

Iverson recognized the voice, but couldn’t find its source in the room.

“Mark, is that you?” Iverson asked.

“Yes, it’s me, Ryan.”

“Where are you?” Iverson asked into the room.

“I’m everywhere. A little here, a little there. Who needs physical form in the Zone?”

Gibbons then materialized on Iverson’s lap. Feeling his weight, Iverson struggled to push him off, but Gibbons had hooked his arms around his neck.

“Mark, please,” Iverson said.

“Come on, Ryan. I want to tell you what I want for Christmas.”

“Santa doesn’t have thermonuclear weapons.”

“That’s not what our intelligence says,” Gibbons said, laughing. “Let’s attack the North fucking Pole!”

Gibbons got off his lap and went over to sit next to Angela on the couch. He put his arm around her.

Because Gibbons was still wearing the youthful appearance, Iverson had to resist speaking to him as if he were the age he looked. “You’ve been monitoring us?”

“I’ve been keeping my eye on you and Mister Go,” Gibbons said.

Iverson was angry and humiliated that Gibbons had infringed on his privacy. With his jaw clinched, he said, “What have you found out? Do you know where Go exits the Zone?”

“No. I haven’t been able to catch him leaving,” Gibbons said.

“Where has he been spending his time?” Angela asked.

“Right now he’s here in San Francisco. He’s staying at the Four Seasons,” Gibbons said.

“What’s he doing here?” Beth asked.

“No idea. But he’s got the entire top floor of the hotel. I can’t seem to get up there. He’s blocked me out somehow.”

“Blocked you? It’s possible to create a barrier?” Iverson asked.

“Anything’s possible here, for fuck’s sake,” Gibbons said. “I’ve been watching who’s been going in and out of the hotel and I believe Go has brought his scientists here to study your city. They’ve been going on field trips. Some go to colleges and museums; others go to churches, temples, and synagogues. I followed a group earlier that went to Golden Gate Park. While non-corporeal, I was able to monitor their conversation. They were discussing theories on how you’re able to get things to last so long. They think it’s something in the molecular structure of the objects. Because you’re a scientist, they think you have special knowledge concerning the nature of reality that allows you to create things that last longer here,” Gibbons said.

“They must be going in and out from somewhere inside the hotel,” Iverson said.

“Is it true?” Gibbons asked.

“Is what true?” Iverson asked.

“Do you have special scientific knowledge that allows you to create longer lasting manifestations?” Gibbons asked.

“Not that I’m aware of,” Iverson lied. He was glad he and Beth hadn’t discussed it earlier, at least not in detail. From now on, he would have to censor their conversations. Who knew when Gibbons was watching them? It dawned on him that he was now treating his boss as an adversary. What other option was there? Gibbons couldn’t be trusted with this power, no one could be. Abuses were already taking place. Go was right, it would corrupt anyone who got a hold of it. But while Go hoped to disperse the power evenly, Iverson knew keeping it from everyone was the only way to protect reality. If Gibbons found out he was concealing information, he would be returned to reality and tried for treason.

“DIS needs any and all information about longer lasting manifestations,” Gibbons said.

“I’d be happy to manifest whatever you like, but it won’t be any better than anyone else’s manifestations. I spent yesterday cleaning up my city because a lot of it had dissolved.”

Gibbons chuckled. “What happened to your people?”

“Many of them perished.”

Gibbons laughed.

Iverson wanted to kill him.

“That’s a shame,” Gibbons said.

“So, as you can see, I’m no better than anyone else here,” Iverson said.

“What about Beth? She’s lasted for several days now,” Gibbons said.

“A fluke,” Iverson said.

“We should run a few tests on her to find out,” Gibbons said. “Get a team in here.”

“Later,” Iverson said. “Time is running out. We need to find out where that lab is.”

“Sounds good, but how are we going to get past that barrier?” Gibbons asked.

“We need GPS trackers from reality,” Iverson said.

* * * * *

In this case, a GPS tracker only needed to be a cell phone, which Iverson managed to get from the DS&T laboratories without much hassle. Cell phones were everywhere and no one would think twice about finding one on him. It would also be easy to plant one in a room. Once the rift was located, the phone could be tossed into reality and the signal would be picked up in seconds by the CIA satellites. They would know exactly where the lab was, and could send a team there in a matter of hours. Time was of the essence.

Iverson then had to make a moral decision. He had to decide whether or not he should ask Beth to submit to Go’s medical tests. It was the only way into the hotel. Beth was now the key to C.C. Go’s world.

There were many potential holes in this plan that he was perfectly aware of. For starters, what if Go decided to close the rift while she was there? Or what if his laboratory was underground? GPS would be useless if the lab was in a missile silo in the former Soviet Union. Even with all the technology available to the CIA, the old-fashioned way of following someone was still the best way to know where they were.

“Will it be painful?” Beth asked.

“In reality it would be, but I think Go can do something for you in the Zone.”

“If you want me to, I’ll do it,” Beth said. She put her arms around him, stealing affection from him.