“Why not? They just shut down their whole country.”
“Ex-KGB are still running the place. Not five years ago, we had intelligence that the Ministry of Agriculture was ahead of us on developing a micro-lepton gun.”
“Jesus, are you still trying to build one of those? How much government dough have you spent on that?”
“That’s classified.”
“But somebody in Congress knows, don’t they? No wonder they’re shutting you down. Nobody but you believes in remote viewers and psychokinetics.”
“Speaking of which, is Frankie staying out of casinos?”
“Leave Frankie out of it.”
Smalls raised a hand in surrender. “How is he, then? And Buddy and Irene?”
“They’re fine,” Teddy lied. Frankie kept borrowing his money, Irene was depressed, and Buddy—Jesus, Buddy got worse every year. A mute and a recluse. Then a few months ago he started taking apart the house like a man who knew only half a magic trick. Observe, ladies and gentlemen, while I smash this watch! Okay, now I’ll, damn it…what was it? “Buddy’s turned into quite the handyman,” Teddy said.
“You don’t say. And the grandchildren? You have how many now?”
“Three and a half,” Teddy said.
“Half?” Smalls looked surprised. “Is Irene pregnant again?”
“God I hope not. No. I mean Loretta’s girl, Mary Alice.”
“You shouldn’t do that. Categorize like that. There’s no such thing as a step-grandchild.”
“You didn’t come all the way to Chicago to ask me about my grandkids,” Teddy said. “Strike that. That’s exactly why you came out here, isn’t it?”
Smalls shrugged. “Are any of them…showing signs?”
“I thought they were shutting down your program, Agent Smalls.”
“It’s not dead yet.”
“Well, until it’s dead or alive, keep the kids out of it. That was the deal you made with Maureen and me. That goes double for our grandchildren.”
“There are two ends to that deal,” Smalls said. “You’re supposed to keep them out of trouble.”
“You mean, keep them from using their great and terrible powers for evil.”
“Or at all.”
“Jesus, Smalls. Those grandkids, none of them can do so much as read a menu unless it’s in front of them. Besides, the Cold War’s over.”
“Yet the world’s more dangerous than ever. I need—we need—Star Gate and people like Maureen.”
Teddy wasn’t used to Smalls sounding desperate. But a desperate government agent, even one barely in the game, was a useful thing. “Fine,” Teddy said. “Give me your number.”
The abrupt capitulation surprised Smalls. He took a moment to pull a business card from his wallet. The face of it was blank except for Smalls’s name, and a number. D.C. area code.
“They paid for you to fly all the way out here just to talk to me for ten minutes? I thought they cut your funding.”
“Maybe I thought it was worth doing.”
“Like you could convince them to—” Teddy stopped. The frown on Smalls’s face told him he’d hit the mark. Teddy laughed. “You’re robbing your own piggy bank for this? Jesus, you need to save for retirement. What’s Brenda have to say about that?”
Smalls rubbed a thumb across his water glass.
“Oh Christ,” Teddy said. “I’m sorry. She was a good woman.”
“Yes. Well.” He stood up, and pocketed the slip of paper. “You and I both married better than we deserved.”
If nothing had happened after the day he first saw Maureen McKinnon—if Dr. Eldon hadn’t seen his cartoon and flagged his application for inclusion in the study; if he hadn’t also chosen Maureen; if he hadn’t found himself side by side with her a few weeks later—well, her spell might have worn off.
First, though, had been his solo audition for Dr. Eldon. Two weeks after the initial survey, Teddy had been invited back on campus to discuss “his gift” and found himself in the doctor’s weirdly shaped office, a bent L intruded upon by support beams, ductwork, and plumbing.
“I just see things,” Teddy said. Not making too big a deal of it. “Especially on paper—there’s something about the way people concentrate when they’re writing or drawing that lets me see it more clearly.”
Dr. Eldon nodded and scribbled in his notepad. Eldon was at least ten years older and fifty pounds heavier than his already unflattering picture in the faculty directory. “Do you think you could, ah, demonstrate something for me?” the doctor asked. His voice was soft and earnest, almost wheedling.
“Okay, sure,” Teddy said. “I think I’m feeling strong enough to try. Do you have a piece of paper?” Of course he did. “Just make three drawings that are simple to visualize. Something famous, or a simple cartoon figure, or geometric shapes, whatever you like.”
Teddy got up from his chair, walked a few feet away, and turned his back to him. “I’ll cover my eyes,” he said. “Just tell me when you’re finished.”
Dr. Eldon frowned in concentration, then drew his first figure. Teddy couldn’t believe how well this was going. He’d been sure Eldon would insist on doing his tests, under all kinds of laboratory controls, but instead he was letting Teddy run the show. This was easier than bar work, where the marks were always looking up his sleeves—or into his cupped palm, where he currently held a tiny mirror that allowed him to watch the academic. It never crossed Eldon’s mind to wonder why a guy with his back to him also needed to cover his eyes.
When the professor was done, Teddy slipped the mirror back into his pocket and told him to fold the papers into squares.
“I’m not going to do these in order,” Teddy said. “I’m just going to sort through the images as I get them, and you’ll tell me if I’m in the ballpark.”
Teddy pressed the first square to the front of his hat. Pretended to concentrate. Then he put that square down and picked up the next one, then the next, squinting and wincing his way through each one.
“I’m receiving images,” Teddy said. The first thing Dr. Eldon had drawn was a Mickey Mouse face. Typical. Tell somebody to draw “a simple cartoon figure” and that was the first thing that came to mind. The other drawings were straightforward enough. The second one was a pyramid. And the third was an airplane.
“So many things,” he said. “I’m getting a bird flying over a mountain. No, it’s a triangle. A triangle mountain? And a big circle, maybe the moon? No, there’s more than one circle. They’re kind of stacked up around each other, and the bird…” He shook his head as if confused. “The bird is…metal? Oh!” He all but snapped his fingers. “It’s a plane. A triangle and a plane. But what’s with the circles?” He tapped his forehead. “There are two of them behind one middle circle. Like the Olympic rings, but not as many, you know? It seems so familiar, so…”
Teddy slumped in his chair, looking defeated. Dr. Eldon stared at him, his face stiff with the effort of hiding his delight.
“I’m sorry, Doc,” Teddy said. “That’s all I got.”
“It’s quite all right,” the professor said softly. Then: “You did very well.”
“Did I?”
Dr. Eldon passed him the pages, and Teddy pretended to be as amazed as the academic felt. “Mickey Mouse! Of course!”
Dr. Eldon grinned in satisfaction. “So would you be willing to participate further?”
Teddy could almost hear the sha-ring of a cash register. He didn’t respond right away. “I have to work most days,” he said apologetically. “I can’t afford to skip too often.”
Eldon said, “There will be a stipend for all research participants.”