Part 23 (2/2)

'You got to remember,' said Luis, raking at a bit of hair over his ear. 'You got to remember what Swan has is a reputation reputation. She's supposed to be able to do anything. If word gets out that some other guy can beat her, that she can't even do her thing without you peeking over her shoulder, then she's got nothing.'

'Good,' said the Doctor. 'Then she must realise that the only way to get rid of me is to hand over the Savant.'

'She can't do that, man.' Luis's fingers tightened around that lock of hair. 'She can never let anybody beat her. If it happens once, it could happen again. If anybody even gets close to winning a bout with her, she crushes them down so hard they can't get up again.' He looked up at the Doctor.

'That's what she's gonna do to you.'

The Doctor said dryly,'She is welcome to try.'

'If she can't hit you, she'll hit the people around you. I've watched it happen. I've seen the lights go out.'

'That's not the only reason Swan can't hand over the Savant,' said the Doctor. 'Is it?'

Luis shook his head. He went back to spooning his chocolate pudding around and around in its gla.s.s. I opened my mouth to ask a question, but the Doctor held up a hand to silence me. Luis muttered, ' What hatched out of that egg?

What did it do to me?' He traced a circle in the air with his spoon, in front of his breastbone. 'Is this feeling going to stop?'

'Mr Perez,' said the Doctor, 'I promise you I'll do everything I can to help you '

'That's not enough, man!' Luis slapped the spoon down on the table, knocking over the pudding. 'I have to get that thing back from her.'

'But that's exactly what we want you to do,' said the Doctor.

Luis stared at him. We both did.

'Mr Perez, your contact with the Savant puts you in a unique position. You have already established a rapport with the creature. You should be able to approach and handle it safely. None of us could do that without risking a devastating psychological attack.'

'You mean it can't do anything worse to me,' said Luis dryly.

'That's one way of looking at it.'

'What if I can't let it go?' mumbled Luis. 'I feel like... if you tried to take it away from me again, I would kill you. I'd use it to kill you.'

'I think he could do that,' I muttered.

'We'll deal with that if and when the problem arises,' said the Doctor.

'You got to understand,' said Luis. 'I don't want that thing. I mean, I want it more than anything else in the world. I am not eating and I'm not sleeping because I can't think about anything except getting it back. I'm like a mother whose baby was kidnapped' A few people were looking at us now. 'Except sometimes it's like I'm its baby. Like I'm a kitten mewing and mewing for its mama. This is worse than being in love.'

The Doctor brought Luis back to my flat. He made the man take a nap on the sofa while he explained the plan to us in the kitchen.

'In Luis's hands, the creature will be harmless.'

'Harmless to everyone except him,' said Peri. 'Won't it go on changing the structure of his brain?'

'I'm afraid he's already badly affected,' said the Doctor quietly. 'He can barely function as it is. If the Savant can reestablish contact with his central nervous system, there is a chance we can use it to return his brain patterns to their original state. We'll need the Eridani's help, of course, but I think I can convince them to do their bit.'

Peri said, 'Are you sure we can fix him?'

'No. I'm not,' said the Doctor flatly 'I'm gambling what's left of Mr Perez's sanity that he can help us retrieve the Savant before anyone else can be harmed by it. If he can be cured, so can Swan and the people of Ritchie.'

'He's like a guinea pig,' said Peri, but she didn't protest further.

The Doctor made my bed. This was a strange thing to behold, especially when he plucked a sock from the sheets and flung it over his shoulder without a backward glance.

'Couldn't we just use the kitchen table?' I said.

'I want something with a little give,' said the Doctor, making a perfect hospital corner.

I sat down on the laundry hamper and watched as he smoothed out the covers. We had already lugged my TV into the bedroom an ancient set donated to me by a fellow journalist who said it had been used to watch the Watergate scandal. My joke is that I prefer my television in black and white, like my newspapers. It was set up on the dresser, an inch or two sticking out perilously over the edge of the wood.

The Doctor placed the device in the exact centre of the bed, patting down the covers around the plastic ball. Then he fished in his jacket pocket and drew out an old-fas.h.i.+oned watch on a chain. He snapped it open. 'Just a moment now,'

he said.

He switched the TV on and started twiddling the tuning dial up and down the channels. We stood, watching the dance of the static, the rise and fall of the ocean hiss. He flicked past the local TV channels without stopping, brief squirts of people and speech; then up and up into the higher frequencies.

'Ah,' he said at last. 'There we are.'

The roar and flicker resolved itself, and Mr Ghislain appeared on the screen. For someone supposedly transmitting from outer s.p.a.ce, he looked remarkably crisp. He was still wearing his black suit and his hat no sign of a s.p.a.cesuit.

' transmit to you,' he said. 'The Interrupt will neutralise the Savant's mental process. This will allow you to detach all undesirable connections. We are pursuing a reversal method for affected neurologies.'

'Hang on,' I said. 'Isn't everyone in the District also watching this show?'

'Not at all,' murmured the Doctor. 'The Eridani's'

transmission is targeted to our co-ordinates.'

I wondered why they didn't just use the speakerphone again. Fear of phreaks eavesdropping on the conversation? Or did it just depend on which satellites they could hijack at any given time? I shook my head. I was starting to buy into the Doctor's cover story, imagining Ghislain and his exotic parrot lurking about somewhere between the moon and the sun. They were probably in a TV studio in downtown DC, and this transmission was being 'leaked' to eager Russian eyes.

' affected neurologies,' said Ghislain, repeating his message. 'We will do all possible things to comply with your request to ”leave the planet as we found it”.' The message must have been recorded; the screen went blank for a few seconds, and then it started over. 'Within the prearranged time parameters we will transmit to you. The Interrupt will neutralise the Savant's mental process.'

'I don't think Peri will approve of that,' murmured the Doctor. 'A little adjustment may be in order.'

'What's the Interrupt he's ranking about? A program?

Something that will kill the Savant?'

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