Second Horseman Out of Eden

losing our licenses because we've offended a piece of shit like Patton. Do you really care so much about protecting all of this?'

In reply, I mumbled something under my breath that I did not intend for him to hear.

'What?' Garth said irritably, taking a step back in my direction.

I motioned for him to come even closer and bend down toward me, which he did. 'I said, you sure are getting to be a self-righteous, insensitive, narrow-minded pain in my ass,' I whispered in his ear, and then brought my right fist up into his nose. I thought I felt and heard the cartilage snap; blood spurted over the front of my slacks and shoes and over the carpet.

Garth, his nose streaming blood, straightened up and stepped back. His brown eyes were wide with shock, pain, and bewilderment; then, finally, came understanding. He took a handkerchief out of his pocket and pressed it to his nose.

'I think you broke it,' he said evenly. He seemed to be merely stating a fact, not registering a complaint.

'Yeah,' I said, still seething with anger. 'But you bled all over my pants and shoes, so I figure that makes us even.'

'I'm sorry, Mongo.'

I sucked in a deep breath, waved at my brother in disgust, slowly exhaled. 'It's all right.'

'I have been acting a bit self-righteous, insensitive, and narrow-minded lately, haven't I?'

'Yeah.'

'And overly zealous?'

'Yeah. That too.'

Garth grinned at me. 'What about stupid?'

Despite my best intentions, I couldn't keep from laughing. 'Okay, okay, enough; stop. You've engaged in sufficient self-recrimination to enable me to forget the outrageous things you said to me. Just watch yourself in the future, brother.'

Garth's smile vanished, and the laughter winked out of his eyes. 'You're also absolutely right about our not having to lose our licenses in order to find the girl; but I looked at that twitching son-of-a-bitch behind that desk, thought about the fact that he could probably tell us where to find the girl, but wouldn't, and I. . just lost it. These days. . ever since getting drugged with the nitrophenylpentadienal, I just go a little crazy where hurting kids are involved.'

'I know, Garth,' I said quietly. 'But you've always felt deeply for anyone who was hurting; it's one of the reasons why I've always loved you so much. I think what the poison did-and what you have so much trouble explaining-is to take away some of your controls while giving you other, different ones. I think you've become as close a thing to a true empath as anyone alive on the planet today. You don't just feel sympathy for people; you virtually experience their mental and physical pain. I love you for that, too-but I also pity you. I guess, in a way, you really can 'smell evil,' as you put it.'

Garth grunted, shrugged his broad shoulders, then walked out of the living room to the bathroom. He was gone for about fifteen minutes. When he returned, he had three strips of adhesive tape over the bridge of his nose, and he had stuffed cotton into his nostrils to stanch the bleeding. The nose looked straight enough, but the flesh under both eyes was already beginning to swell and darken; he was going to wake up in the morning with two significant shiners, and I hoped he owned a good pair of dark glasses. I almost felt bad-until I remembered the words that had triggered my little outburst of violence. Also, I observed that my punch in his nose seemed to have had a positively therapeutic effect on the empath who was my brother.

'I'll call Patton tomorrow and apologize, Mongo,' he said quietly as he sat down on the sofa in the living room and put his feet up on his coffee table. 'You're right; it was stupid for me to grab and threaten him like that, and I've put us in a vulnerable position.'

'Let's not go overboard with the sackcloth and ashes, brother. What's done is done, and we should forget about it until and unless he tries to throw some grief our way. Besides, he told me the office was being closed down and he was flying off to Europe. If he's hiding things, and I do agree with you that he is, I doubt he'll want to make waves and call more attention to himself and Nuvironment.'

'The son-of-a-bitch knows,' Garth said softly, the muscles in his throat and jaw beginning to twitch. 'He knows where the girl is.'

'Okay, he knows. But we don't have any room left to move in that direction. And I agree that any record they may have had of the shipment is gone by now.'

'Which means that we're going to have to start looking elsewhere.'

I nodded. 'For openers, we'll check out all the maritime shipping companies-especially any that we find out are owned by Blaisdel Industries. Also, we can try to find out what other companies do business with Nuvironment-plastics, steel, glass, whatever. If they've reached the stage where they're actually trying to build a biosphere, they need a lot more than just dirt. If we can identify some of their suppliers and talk to them, we may be able to pick up a clue.'

'Right,' Garth said, getting to his feet. 'That means a lot of browsing through the business journals. Let's go; the library's open until nine.'

'Tomorrow, Garth,' I replied. 'It's beginning to look like we're going to have to pace ourselves. It'll only take one of us to do the shipping companies. I'll do that, since we don't want your black eyes to scare anybody away. You'll work the library.'

Garth shoved his hands into his pockets, frowned. 'I hate to lose any time, Mongo.'

'I know, Garth. So do I. But we're not going to find the girl tonight. And no matter what information there is to be found in the library, the fact remains that we won't be able to talk to anybody until tomorrow; offices are closed now.'

'Okay, you're probably right,' Garth said quietly. He pulled the cotton from his nostrils, wriggled his nose, then looked at me inquiringly.

'It's not bleeding anymore.'

'I don't think you broke it after all, Mongo.'

'I didn't? Shit. I hit you as hard as I could.'

'Well, you had a bad angle. Don't feel bad about not breaking it.'

'I must be getting old.'

Garth smiled, came over to me, and gently laid an arm over my shoulders. 'We're both getting old, brother.'

'You want to go out and get something to eat?'

Garth shook his head. 'I'm just going to have a sandwich and a beer while I look through the Manhattan yellow pages for companies selling things that might be useful in building a biosphere. It's probably a waste of time, but I need to feel like I'm doing something.'

I nodded, walked across the living room, stopped and turned back at the entrance to the vestibule. I decided that I wanted to share something else that was bothering me. 'How high would you rate my paranoia index?' I asked.

'Extremely high-which is perfectly normal for a New Yorker. Why?'

'All right, let's look at what we've got. First, a nutty plant man who killed himself rather than risk telling us something he didn't want us to know. Then we have Patton playing games-but he offers to give us the run of his offices and labs after the first of the year, which is a little less than a week and a half away. Why?'

'He told you Nuvironment was closing down until then.'

'Yeah, but why make the offer at all? He's got more than enough time to destroy files, sure. But what about his people? Valley knew something, and he killed himself rather than reveal it. Why should Patton be so willing to give us access to his people-after the first of the year? I'm thinking-''

'You're thinking that it may not matter what we discover after the first of the year because by then it won't matter to them? That whatever it is they're so anxious to cover up won't make any difference then? That by then it will be too late for us, or anybody else, to stop them?'

'Yeah,' I said, blinking in surprise. 'Something like that.'

'The thought occurred to me too, Mongo. You're not the only one with a high paranoia index.'

I smiled thinly. 'But then, you've got a nose for evil, don't you? I must have some of the same genes in my nose.'