“All right, I can see that. But I can’t see why you make it sound like the company that brings it out will have some kind of ultimate power. It’s still just a phone system.”
Her face was so pallid, so ashen that he thought she might faint.
“I don’t think you see the whole picture, John. I think this will obsolete every phone on the planet almost overnight.”
“Come on, aren’t you being melodramatic?”
“No. Scott’s letter mentioned one other item about this thing.”
“And that was?”
“Because of where it interacts with the brain, it bypasses the language center. When you talk with someone else, it doesn’t matter whether they’re speaking English or Russian or Swahili. That’s where the ultra part comes in. It stands for universal language translator.”
Shit, when she was right, she was right. It was more than just a telephone. What would something like that be worth to the company or government that had initial control of it? Billions certainly, trillions? Whatever the final value, there was no doubt that people would kill to acquire it. No doubt whatsoever.
John felt a sudden wave of apprehension. He’d been underestimating the value of what Scott had acquired. He hadn’t taken all possible precautions. They’d already reached Louie, were Squeeze and Felipe in danger too? He had to warn them, and then they’d better get on the move. If the device could actually do what Caitlin said, no place would be safe for them until they disposed of it. No, not disposed of, they had to get it to someone with enough power to defend themselves against the others who wanted it. Who? The Japanese gentlemen from JETRO, the NCIX, somehow, he didn’t think the group Holdren represented would allow either of them to keep it.
Without warning, Caitlin popped the egg she held into the helmet’s slot and set the helmet over her head.
“Hey!” He said, too late to stop her. “My God, Caitlin, what do you think you’re doing?”
She fastened the thin chinstrap and met his gaze. “I’m going to try it out. They killed Scott for this; I’m going to see if it really works.”
“How do you know it’s ready to use? It may have to be prepped or something? What if it’s dangerous?”
“More dangerous than not knowing? They’ve killed for this. I have to know if it’s real.”
“Did Scott say anything about how to set it up? Where’s the on button?”
“The rest of it was personal, something about our honeymoon. He just said that you put the egg in the helmet and put it on. That’s all there is to it.”
“Then how will you know when it’s finished?”
Her face showed her uncertainty, and she shrugged. “Christ, Caitlin. Wait, you said he talked about your honeymoon. Was there something in particular about it?”
“That’s personal.”
“I don’t mean that. I mean did he mention any places, things you saw, you know something that could be used as the password for the file.”
“Yes, the town we went to in Mexico. That could be the password.”
“Where’s your computer?”
“In my case, upstairs in my room.”
She started to get up, but John put a hand on her arm. “No, let me get it. You shouldn’t be walking around with that thing on your head. We don’t know what it’s doing. It might suddenly make you fall asleep or make you dizzy. Christ, they’re screwing around with your thoughts. Who knows what this thing could do to you?”
“I don’t think it’s dangerous. Scott would have warned me if it were.”
“Yeah? Well, maybe the warning is in the computer file.”
“You really are the most paranoid person in the world.”
He shrugged. “Just because you’re paranoid–”
“Yeah, I know, it doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you. Really John, don’t you think that sounds contrived?”
Again, he shrugged. “I’ll be right back.”
Her purse was on top of the dresser in her room. He took it and hurried back to her. She watched him walk down the stairs without comment. Stopping in front of her, he held out the case.
“I’m not dead yet. I....”
She convulsed and flopped limply back on the sofa.
“Ah, shit!” He said and sat down beside her. He checked her throat for a pulse then pried back one eyelid.
Her eye stared back at him.
“Jesus H. Christ. What the hell’s wrong with you?” He snapped and jerked his hand back from her face.
She sat upright, the grin on her face irritatingly coy. “Lighten up John. It was just a joke.”
“How can you joke about it? A minute ago you were ... never mind.”
“What? I was upset about Scott? Damned right and I still am, but you can’t run on just remorse. You have to have humor, or you might as well be dead too.”
He wanted to argue, but what was the use? He passed the computer case to her and waited for her to boot up the system.
She loaded in the DVD and called up the protected program. When it asked for the password, Caitlin typed in something too quick for him to follow.
The screen went from black to blue, and then text appeared.
“All right, we’re in.” She paged down to the contents. There was an executive summary, a list of construction drawings, and chapters broken into different aspects of the techniques of design and theoretical operation of the device.
“Well, that’s about everything you’d need to build it.”
“See who the author is.”
Caitlin paged back to the cover sheet, but instead of the usual document page that detailed the writer, inventor, and document reviewers, there was a single line of text that said: R.E. Curtis.
“I suppose that could be the inventor,” she said.
“Then why doesn’t it say so, besides anything with this level of sophistication will normally have
