Beyond This Horizon

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

The Quick and the Dead

MADAME ESPARTERO CARVALA called again, unexpectedly and with no ceremony. She simply called by telephone and announced that she was coming to see them. She had informed Phyllis on the previous occasion that she expected to come back and see the baby. But more than four years had passed with no word from her; Phyllis had given up expecting her. After all, one does not thrust oneself on a member of the cosmically remote Board of Policy!

They had seen references to her in the news: Madame Espartero re-confirmed without opposition. Madame Espartero offers her resignation. The Grand Old Lady of the Board in failing health. Madame Espartero's alternate selected by special election. Carvala rallies in her fight for life. Planners honor sixtieth year of service of the Oldest Member. Stereo stories and news bits-she had become an institution.

Felix had thought when he saw her last that she looked older than any human being could. He realized when he saw her this time that he had been mistaken. She was still more incredibly frail and shrunken and she seemed to move with great effort. She compressed her lips tightly with each movement.

But her eye was still bright, her voice was still firm. She dominated her surroundings.

Phyllis came forward. "We are delighted. I never expected to see you again."

"I told you I was coming back to see the boy."

"Yes, I remember, but it has been a long time and you did not come."

"No sense in looking a child over until he has shaped up and can speak for himself! Where is he? Fetch him in."

"Felix, will you find him?"

"Certainly, my dear." Felix departed, wondering how it was that he, a grown man and in full possession of his powers, could permit a little old woman, ripe for cremation, to get him so on edge. It was childish of him!

Theobald did not want to leave his rabbits. "I'm busy."

Felix considered the plan of returning to the lounge and announcing that Theobald would receive Madame Espartero, if at all, at the rabbit run. But he decided that he could not do such a thing to Phyllis. "Look, son, there is a lady in there who wants to see you."

No answer.

"Make up your mind," Felix announced cheerfully. "Will you walk or do you prefer to be dragged? It makes no difference to me."

Theobald looked slowly up his father's sheer two meters and, without further comment, started for the house.

"Madame Espartero, this is Theobald."

"So I see. Come to me, Theobald." Theobald stood fast.

"Go to her, Theobald." Phyllis spoke briskly; the boy complied at once. Felix wondered why it was that the child obeyed his mother so much more readily than his father. Damn it, he was good to the child and just with him. There must have been a thousand times when he had refrained from losing his temper with him.

Madame Carvala spoke to him in a low voice, too low for either Felix or Phyllis to catch. He glowered and tried to look away, but she insisted, caught his eye, and held it. She spoke again, and he answered, in the same low tones. They talked together for some minutes, quite earnestly. Finally she straightened up in her chair and said in a louder tone, "Thank you, Theobald. You may go now."

He fled out of the house. Felix looked longingly after him, but decided he had to stay. He selected a chair as far across the room as manners permitted, and waited.

Carvala selected another cigar, puffed until she was the center of a cloud of blue smoke, and turned her attention exclusively to Phyllis. "He's a sound child," she announced. "Sound. He'll do well."

"I'm happy that you think so."

"I don't think so, I know so." They talked for a while longer about the boy, small talk. Felix had a feeling that the old woman was improvising until she was ready with whatever was on her mind.

"When do you expect to have his sister?"

"I am ready any time," replied Phyllis. "I have been for months. They are selecting for her now."

"What are they selecting for? Anything different from the boy?"

"Not in any major respect-except one. Of course there will be plenty of variation from what Theobald is, because in so many, many of the alternatives no attempt will be made to make a choice."

"What is the one major respect you spoke of?"

Phyllis told her of it. Since the coming child was to be a girl, its chromosome pattern would contain two X-chromosomes, one from each of its parents. Now philoprogenitiveness is, of course, a sex-linked characteristic. Hamilton, be it remembered, lacked it to a moderate degree. Theobald derived his one X-chromosome from his mother; Mordan confidently expected that he would be normal in his desire to have children of his own when he became old enough for such things to matter to him.

But his projected little sister would inherit from both her parents in this respect. She might be rather cool to the matter of having children. However, if she did have, then her offspring need not be handicapped by any lack in this highly desirable survival trait; since she would pass on to her heirs but one of her two X-chromosomes, by selection, she could transmit only that of her mother. Hamilton's undesirable trait would be eliminated forever.

Carvala listened carefully to this explanation-or rather to that small portion of it Phyllis had found it necessary to relate-and nodded cheerfully. "Put your mind at rest, child. It won't matter a bit." She offered no elaboration of her words.

She talked of other matters for a while, then said suddenly, "Any time now, I take it?"

"Yes," Phyllis agreed.

Carvala stood up and took her departure as suddenly as she came. "I hope we will have the honor of your presence again, Madame," Felix said carefully.

She stopped, turned, and looked at him. She took her cigar from her mouth and grinned. "Oh, I'll be back! You can count on that."

Felix stood scowling at the door through which she had left. Phyllis sighed happily. "She makes me feel good, Felix."

"She doesn't me. She looks like a corpse."

"Now, Filthy!"

Felix went outside and looked up his son. "Hi, sport."

"H'lo."

"What did she have to say to you?"

Theobald muttered something in which Felix caught only the term "cuss boss!"

"Take it easy, son. What did she want?"

"She wanted me to promise her something."

"And did you?"

"No."

"What was it?"

But Theobald wasn't listening again.

After a late and pleasant supper in the cool of the garden Felix turned on the news, rather idly. He listened lackadaisically for a while, then suddenly called out, "Phyllis!"

"What is it?"

"Come here! Right away!"

She ran in; he indicated the spieling, flickering box:

"-dame Espartero Carvala. She appears to have died instantly. It is assumed that she stumbled near the top of the escalator, for she seemed to have fallen, or rolled, the entire flight. She will long be remembered, not only for her lengthy tenure on the Board, but for her pioneer work in-" Phyllis had switched it off. Felix saw that she had tears in her eyes, and refrained from the remark he had intended to make about her cockiness in saying that she would be sure to be back.

Hamilton did not think it advisable to take Theobald back to Jacobstein Ray again; he felt that an antipathy had already grown up. But there were others engaged in telepathy research; he selected a crew and introduced Theobald to them. But he had formed a theory about the former failure; the methods used then had been the simple methods considered appropriate for young children. This time they told Theobald what they were attempting to do and started him out with tests intended for adults.

He could do it. It was as simple as that. There had been other cases equally clear cut, and the research leader cautioned Felix not to expect too much, as telepathically sensitive children tended to fade out in the talent-which Felix knew. But he could do it. Theobald, at least within the limits of the conditions, could read minds.

So Felix called Mordan again, told him again of what was on his mind. Did Mordan think that Theobald was a mutation?

"Mutation? No, I have no data to go on."

"Why not?"

"'Mutation' is a technical term. It refers only to a new characteristic which can be inherited by Mendelian rules. I don't know what this is. Suppose you find out for me first what telepathy is-then I'll tell you whether or not Theobald can pass it on-say, about thirty years from now!"

Well, that could wait. It sufficed that Theobald was telepathic-at least for the present. The projected telepath gadget, which had derived from the Plutonian "Life Detector," was beginning to show promise. It had been duplicated in the auxiliary cold laboratory beneath the outskirts of Buenos Aires and had performed in the same fashion as on Pluto. It had been greatly refined, once the researchers knew the direction in which they were driving, but it had presented grave difficulties.

One of the difficulties had been straightened out in a somewhat odd fashion. The machine, while responsive to sentient beings (it would not respond to plants, nor to animal life of low form), did little else-it was not a true telepath. There was a cat, of doubtful origin, which had made itself the lab mascot-moved in and taken possession. While the gadget was sensitized the operator had stepped back without looking and stepped on pussy's tail. Pussy did not like it and said so.

But the technician acting as receiver had liked it even less; he had snatched off the headset, yelping. It had screamed at him, he alleged.

Further experimentation made it evident that the machine was especially sensitive to the thalamic storm aroused by any sudden violent emotion. Mere cool cerebration had much less effect on it. However, banging a man on the thumb did not count. The man expected it, and delayed his reaction, routing it through the "cooler" of the forebrain. The emotion had to be strong and authentic.

Many tails were stepped on thereafter; many cats sacrificed their temporary peace of mind to the cause of science.

Theobald developed a strange antipathy for his mother's company during the period when she was expecting the arrival of his sister. It upset Phyllis; Felix tried to reason him out of it. "See here, sport," he said, "hasn't mama been good to you?"

"Yeah. Sure."

"Then what's the trouble? Why don't you like her?"

"I like her all right... but I don't like her." He pointed and his meaning was unmistakable. Felix held a hurried whispered consultation with his wife. "How about it, Phil? I thought we hadn't let him in on the news yet?"

"I haven't"

"I didn't-that's sure. Do you suppose Claude-no, Claude wouldn't spill it. Hmmm ... well, there's only one other way he could have found out... he found out for himself." He looked at his son with a deeply wrinkled brow; it might not be too convenient, he was thinking, to have a telepathic member of the household. Well, it might wear off-it frequently did.

"We'll have to play it as it lies. Theobald."

"Wha'cha want?"

"Is it your little sister whom you don't like?"

The boy scowled and indicated assent.

("It's probably nothing but natural jealousy. After all, he's been the big show around here all his life.") He turned again to his son. "Look here, sport-you don't think that little sister will make any difference in how mama and daddy feel about you, do you?"

"No. I guess not."

"A little sister will be a lot of fun for you. You'll be bigger than she will be, and you'll know a lot more, and you'll be able to show her things. You'll be the important one."

No answer.

"Don't you want a baby sister?"

"Not that one."

"Why not?"

He turned completely away. They heard him mutter, "Old cuss boss!" Then he added distinctly, "and her cigars stink."

The threesome was adjourned. Phyllis and Felix waited until the boy was asleep, and, presumably, with his telepathic ability out of gear. "It seems pretty evident," he told her, "that he has identified Carvala in his mind with Justina."

She agreed. "At least I'm relieved to know that it isn't me he has a down on. Just the same, it's serious. I think we had better call in a psychiatrist."

Felix agreed. "But I'm going to talk to Claude about it, too."

Claude refused to be upset by it. "After all," he said, "it's perfectly natural that blood relatives should dislike each other. That's a prime datum of psychology. If you can't condition him to put up with her, then you'll have to rear them apart. A nuisance, but that's all."

"But how about this fixation of his?"

"I'm not a psychiatrist. I wouldn't worry too much about it. Children frequently get some funny notions. If you ignore them, they generally get over them."

So the psychiatrist thought, too. But he was totally unable to shake Theobald's conviction in the matter. He had made his point, he stuck to it, and he refused to argue.

It was a matter of prime significance, aside from Theobald's fantastic delusion, that a telepathic person had been able to locate a person whom he had never seen and whose existence he had no reason to suspect. It was a fair-sized brick in the Great Research. Dutifully, Hamilton reported the affair to Carruthers.

Carruthers was intensely interested. He asked questions about it, took the matter home with him, and nursed it. The next day he called Felix to explain a plan he had conceived. "Mind you," he said, "I'm not urging you to do this. I'm not even asking you. It's your wife, and your baby, and your boy. But I think it's a unique opportunity to advance the Research."

Felix thought about it. "I'll let you know tomorrow."

"How would you like," he said to Phyllis, when they were alone that night, "to go to Buenos Aires to have Justina?"

"Buenos Aires? Why there?"

"Because there is the only telepath machine on Earth. And it can't be moved out of the cold laboratory."