The Intervention Part 36

STURGIS: Aye-aye, Commander... Helps a little. No problem climbing down [garble] G.o.ddam crunchy sand. And some of the outcroppings have sharp edges. But outside of that [garble].

KLUCHNIKOV: Wayne, do not descend so quickly. I cannot see you.

STURGIS: Sorry, Volodya, I wanted to... the d.a.m.nedest thing. You got me in sight now?

KLUCHNIKOV: Yes. This fog, ulcers to its soul, is getting thicker than clotted cream and - STURGIS: Hey. Hey. I don't believe this. Put your headlamp to a rock. Look. Just look.

KLUCHNIKOV: The rocks look wet.

GAVRILOV: Say again, Exploration Team? You found wet rocks?

STURGIS: It looks like a thin coating of ice on the rocky outcropping, with liquid water in a film on the surface. I'm taking a sample.

KLUCHNIKOV: Fog... it is the fog. Look - the porous rocks are all getting this - this icy rind. And if we go lower...

STURGIS: Now you wait for me.

KLUCHNIKOV: Usrat'sa mozhno.... This is incredible.

STURGIS: Sheesh. Oh, wow.

GAVRILOV: What is it? What have you found? What do you see?

KLUCHNIKOV: Down here there is plenty of light, you understand, but the fog turns everything to an orange haze... and the rocks have a glistening coating. It is much darker than the ice. In my helmet lamp it is sometimes dark blue-green, sometimes brown. Yey bogu. It changes before my eyes.

STURGIS: It's alive.

GAVRILOV: You think you have found Martian life?

STURGIS: Well, it's not like any chemical reaction I ever saw... but then I'm only a geologist. What this stuff is starting to look like is a gelatinous marine growth. It's swelling very slowly. It must be frozen - what's the ambient, Volodya? - but there's this glistening film of what sure as h.e.l.l looks like liquid at the surface.

KLUCHNIKOV: The ambient temperature is minus seventeen Celsius.

STURGIS: Jeez - that's warm. There must be a thermal vent at the bottom of the fissure. That was one of the hypotheses about this d.a.m.n Labyrinth, with the craters all connected by wormholes...

GAVRILOV: Life. Life on Mars. What a magnificent achievement for the Diamond Anniversary of the Revolution.

STURGIS: And Columbus sailed the ocean blue... 500 years ago, comrades. One for America, too.

GAVRILOV: Of course. Of course. This is wonderful.

STURGIS: Right where we half expected to find it: down in the cracks. ... We're taking samples. d.a.m.n. That's tough. The pick ain't gonna do her, Volodya.

KLUCKNIKOV: Let us see what [garble] diamond-bit drill?

STURGIS: Yeah, that might work. Stuff's like some incredibly tough plastic. Resilient. But it'd have to be, right? To live in this G.o.dforsaken place... Ah. You got that micro-sabresaw handy?

KLUCHNIKOV: Here. Yes... That looks like it will do it. I think I'll [garble] you get that specimen packed. Here, connect the life line [garble] another ten meters or so further down. I want to check out the temperature and take an atmospheric [garble] stay here much longer.

GAVRILOV: Are you descending further, Volodya? You are garbled.

KLUCHNIKOV: The outcroppings inter[garble]... reconnoitre a bit farther... [garble] on the rocks. Not amorphous, like the other, but with a kind of jellyfish radial symmetry. Like a thick pancake perhaps fifteen [garble] and two, three centimeters thick.

STURGIS: Jee-zuss. It's - it's corroding the stainless steel baseplate.

KLUCHNIKOV: Fantastic.. [garbled]... that stupid specimen, Wayne. Get your a.r.s.e down here and look.

STURGIS: Oxidizing the thing like a house afire.... What the h.e.l.l is it? G.o.d - I think the blade's going. And the drill bit - KLUCHNIKOV:... are quite beautiful, with flowing structures of ultramarine blue that engulf and seem to eat the green-brown [garble] ... with a light of their own. Like lucite lanterns.

GAVRILOV: Volodya. Commander Kluchnikov, come in. Your transmission is breaking up and fading badly.

KLUCHNIKOV: It is a fairyland. The beauty. Wayne, come down.

STURGIS: G.o.ddammit, Volodya, will you quit [garble] so sure this stuff can't get at us. It could be dangerous. The acids or whatever that I released when I [garble] a f.u.c.kin' vanadium-steel blade to a rusty nubbin. Do you hear me? Commander?

KLUCHNIKOV: I am coming. You will not believe [garble] right off the rock.

GAVRILOV: Exploration Team, this is...o...b..ter. Come in, please. Come in Exploration Team.

KLUCHNIKOV: Zakroy ebalo, Andryusha. We are too busy to [garble] life-forms of exquisite beauty. They are hard, but resilient, and some of them are biolu[garble] of them right off its rock and into my collection bag.

STURGIS: Listen... listen, Volodya. Get up here fast, hear me? Don't touch those things. Anything that can live in this awful place - KLUCHNIKOV: Now, then. What ails you, little [garble] so active. How did you [garble? scream?]...

STURGIS: Volodya.

GAVRILOV: Vova. Commander. Vladimir Maksimovich.

STURGIS: I'm coming. I'm coming...

GAVRILOV: The thing, Wayne. The thing he picked up. The Martian.

STURGIS: Hey. You okay, Commander?... oh... oh, no. No.

GAVRILOV: Wayne, what's happened?

STURGIS:... [garble]... not a user-friendly world. No. Tell 'em that, Andrei. Anyplace but Mars! Oh, Jesus. I can still [garble] fly in blue amber dissolving [garble? scream?]... on my suit like little drops of blue soup. Growing. Primordial soup is blue-green, Andrei [garble].. love you dear Ruth... [garble]...

TRANSMISSION ENDS.

3.

DU PAGE COUNTY, ILLINOIS, EARTH.

20 JANUARY 1993.

As THE CHAIRMAN of the Republican National Committee came slowly to the point, Kieran O'Connor's attention wandered - and thus it was that he heard the unaccountable mental voice.

Desiccated embryos returned to water... floating in aloof sadness...

"Even though some people may think it premature to consider such a matter at this early date, let me a.s.sure you that the Nominating Committee of the Republican Party does not, " Jason Ca.s.sidy said. "We suffered a devastating defeat in November. The inc.u.mbent beat our a.s.s into the dust. He's riding high on the platform of economic prosperity that the Democrats stole from us, and he's managed to convince the voters that the metapsychic peace initiative and the disarmament program are both personal triumphs. "

Floating in the l.u.s.trous sea... letting their dry blood reconst.i.tute ... plumping out, regaining form...

Do any of the rest of you hear that voice? Kieran demanded.

Four of the five men sitting around the fireplace with him on that bitterly cold night strained their fa.r.s.ense, listening. The other man, Brigadier General Lloyd A. Baumgartner, USAF (Ret. ), only sipped his Drambuie and stared at the Aubusson carpet in front of Kieran O'Connor's hearth. He wondered, in a subvocalization that was clearly perceptible to the telepaths, just when the National Committee Chairman would get to the point and offer him the 1996 Republican presidential nomination.

Jason Ca.s.sidy said, "There was a time when candidates were picked in smoke-filled rooms at the nominating convention itself. Later, primaries influenced the nomination and presidential aspirants began their campaign a year in advance. " I hear absolutely zilch Kier.

Len Windham said: I don't get anything but the subvocals of our male Cinderella impatient for his gla.s.s-slipper fitting. Would you look at that n.o.ble profile? Holy Gary Cooper! And the silver cowlick will be a political cartoonist's delight.

Neville Garrett said: I don't detect anybody.

Arnold Pakkala said: Nor do I... The domestic staff was given the night free as you ordered. There is no one in the house except the six of us.

"Today, " Ca.s.sidy droned on, "the presidential nominating process is infinitely more complex and requires long-range strategic thinking. The National Committee has been working on that strategy ever since our November defeat, in consultation with Mr. Windham and Mr. Garrett, our Party poll and media specialists, and certain senior advisers. "

Like Mr. Moneybags Kieran O'Connor! General Baumgartner said to himself. And now it's all perfectly clear. Why he acquired McGuigan-Duncan Aeros.p.a.ce and kept me on as CEO in spite of the losses I'd incurred in the Zap-Star debacle. Why his media flunky Garrett was so interested in my glory days as a Moonwalker - And now the embryonic music starts... peeps and squeaks and fidgets and flowing bloodhum... a song of rebirth from death...

Kieran said: Scan the entire house and grounds Arnold. I can still hear the voice and now there's some d.a.m.n music carrying over.

Yes sir.

Ca.s.sidy said, "The '96 presidential race is going to be even tougher for us than the '92 campaign. A two-term inc.u.mbent, one of the most popular presidents in history, will be able to pick his own nominee - and we know that nominee will be Senator Piccolomini. "

Another self-righteous Guinea p.r.i.c.k, thought the General.

"We could, of course, stick with our Republican candidate of last fall. "

If you want to lose again, the General thought. The G.o.ddam quarterback really knows how to lose with style!

"However, " the Chairman went on, "Piccolomini will be a hard nut to crack because of the success of his antinarcotics program, because of his close ties with the inc.u.mbent, and because of his undeniable personal magnetism. "

So, thought the General, you can't run your bought-and-paid-for Minority Leader, Senator Scrope. He's smart but he's a nerd, and putting him up against Piccolomini would be peeing into the wind.

"We've studied a number of prospects, only to conclude that most of them do not project a suitable image. The Party will be developing a new platform for '96 in response to what we see as gathering threats to our national economy and security. The candidate we seek must exemplify that platform. He must be a man of authority, of proven courage, in tune with conservative patriotic values. A man who will confront the disasters that our experts foresee with a forthrightness unclouded by pseudoliberal globalism. "

General Baumgartner straightened and frowned at the Republican Chairman. "Disasters? What kind of disasters, Jase?"

He was answered by Kieran O'Connor. "By the end of this year our Middle Eastern oil supplies will be entirely cut off by escalating Islamic wars in the Persian Gulf and Arabia. Our re-elected Democratic President and the Democrat-controlled Congress will not dare send in American military forces. They have boasted that theirs is the Party of Peace. An American military action in support of the oil industry would be unthinkable. " Arnold. Listen!

Sea creatures... holothurian and crustaceans sad and glad... singing and dancing in b.l.o.o.d.y water... a funeral dance and a birth dance...

Pakkala said: I detect no intruder anywhere within the perimeter of the estate. There is an aurora borealis tonight and you have been hypersensitive lately. Perhaps there is some metapsychic phenomenon operating a.n.a.logous to the skip of AM radio waves - Kieran said: No. Never mind Arnold.

"Our a.n.a.lysts, " Ca.s.sidy said, "believe that the world is on the brink of another serious energy shortage. Thermonuclear power is still two decades away. Without that Persian Gulf oil, a major depression will affect all industrialized nations. The Third World will be pushed to the brink of anarchy. Africa is certain to blow up and Pakistan is on the verge of an armed confrontation with India. "

Are they right? Baumgartner asked himself. If they are, America is heading for the biggest mess since World War II - and whoever the president is, he'll find himself in the same shoes Harry Truman wore when he had to decide whether to invade j.a.pan or drop the bomb... Christ! No magical mystery metawhoozis finagling can keep America safe from this crock of s.h.i.t! Only strong leadership by a real man - somebody people could be sure wasn't trading the country off for some pie-in-the-sky Utopia scheme hatched by Commies and loopy Scotch professors and fortunetelling freaks.

A dance... a water dance with embryos... I've been gestating it for more than six weeks now ever since we knew Nonno was dying...

Kieran said: Oh Christ!

The ballet is a tribute to his memory... so much more tasteful than the usual gangland obsequies... I want you to share it... If you like it I may finish my performance alive Daddy...

"The turn of the century, " Ca.s.sidy said solemnly, "may turn out to be the most dangerous period in American history. "

And one, thought the General, in which certain industries stand to make an unconscionable amount of money - especially if they own the White House. As if they could control me the way they do that sleazy little douche bag Scrope! O'Connor and Ca.s.sidy and the rest of their cabal think I'd play along... be manipulated like poor old Ike. Just let me get into that Oval Office!

"Events may accelerate, " Ca.s.sidy went on, "so as to give us a good shot at winning even in 1996 if we present a candidate with a powerful, take-charge image. A man who knows his own mind. "

General Baumgartner said, "You know those mentalist freaks -those metapsychics in the Psi-Eye program - could be real trouble if they got into the political arena. "

"We do know that, " Kieran O'Connor said. "Party strategists have been examining the metapsychic movement very carefully. Those people represent a menace to American liberty, General. We'd expect our presidential candidate to come down hard on any suggestion that metapsychics partic.i.p.ate directly in government. "

"f.u.c.kin' A!" the General affirmed. The others chuckled.

Daddy it's for you... it's for Nonno... I won't go to his funeral tomorrow but I will mourn him in the dance... and you... and me...

Kieran said: Shannon!

Arnold Pakkala said: Sir-your daughter?

Kieran said: The G.o.ddam voice. It's her she's here screening herself threatening I think she may know - Pakkala said: Where is she? I'll take care of it.

Kieran said: NO. I must. We'll have to finish this - Jase! Wind up the pitch and then get him out of here! Neville you and Len take him to your place. Jase and Arnie will help you wrap him up...

"Our pollsters and a.n.a.lysts are eighty-six percent certain that there will be a Republican president in the White House by the year 2000, " Ca.s.sidy said. "The odds are longer for '96, but worth the push. The National Committee has designated a unanimous choice for the perfect candidate. That man is you, General Baumgartner. "

"Gentlemen, " said the General, "I'm - I'm really overwhelmed. "

Escaping from his guests in the library, Kieran hurried to the nearby butler's pantry, where there was a master monitor-intercom unit. He tapped 16 and the screen lit, giving a long overhead view of the indoor swimming pool located on the mansion's lower level. The chamber was dark except for what appeared to be underwater illumination of a concentrated cobalt blue. A shape suspended within the light gyrated rhythmically. From the small loudspeaker of the intercom came the nervous, deformed sound of Erik Satie's Embryons Desseches being played on a synthesizer. Kieran tapped the code that would turn on the main room lights and the underwater lamps of the natatorium. Nothing happened.

"Shannon?"

Kieran spoke calmly into the mike. At the same time he manipulated the zoom control of the monitoring camera to magnify the image of the swimmer. She was eighteen but looked more like a twelve-year-old. Her legs were long and beautifully shaped but the rest of the body was angular, the b.r.e.a.s.t.s small and flat, the hips boyishly narrow. She was wearing a chaste white maillot. Her long hair swirled in an inky cloud, its normal bright t.i.tian red masked by the Cerenkov blue of her visible psychic aura. From her extended wrists curled other diaphanous filaments that her hands seemed to caress and weave as she undulated in the submarine ballet she had dedicated to her dead grandfather.