“For what?” asked Mike. “I don’t have anything left.”
“You’ve got knowledge,” said Bill. “Irreplaceable knowledge. Can we meet somewhere? I want to talk to you in person.”
Mike didn’t blame Bill for all his problems, but he associated Bill with his own failures. His instinct told him to hang up on the man, but he was intrigued and flattered by the concept of his knowledge being irreplaceable.
“Okay,” said Mike. “You can buy me breakfast.”
MIKE NURSED HIS DECAF and chased it with plenty of water. The overdose of coffee from the night before left him feeling dehydrated and achy. He wanted to order breakfast, but didn’t want to commit to spending the money in case Bill decided not to show. When the thin engineer walked through the door, Mike called the waiter over so he could order immediately.
“Can you give us a minute?” Bill asked the waiter as he sat down.
“I’m ready,” Mike said, and ordered his breakfast.
“Sorry,” said Bill. “I didn’t know you were that hungry.”
“No problem,” said Mike. He took another sip of water and looked at his watch. “So what do you want?”
“Well,” Bill held up his hands over the table and then laced his fingers together. He tilted his head slightly before continuing. “I’m interested in your machine.”
“Which?” asked Mike, pursing his lips against a fresh sip of decaf.
“Not the amplifier, but the detector. The thing that detects paranormal?” he asked.
Mike sat his cup down on the table and looked down at his own hands.
“The one that burned up in your yard?” Mike asked. “That one?”
“Yeah, kinda,” said Bill. “Really interesting design. Took me a while to figure out exactly what it was doing with that phase-locked loop, but it’s really quite an interesting combination of ideas.”
“I don’t know the specifics,” said Mike. “I only worked on the theory. That information all died with Gary.”
“Yeah,” said Bill, lowering his head for a second. “I pretty much figured that. I got most of my information from the notes he gave me before…” he trailed off. “You know.”
“Funny time to bring it up,” said Mike. “I didn’t know you had notes about our invention. That would have been an interesting thing to let everyone know about during your deposition. You know, when you were under oath?”
“I know, I know,” said Bill. “You’ve got to understand, I had just lost my house and my insurance company was investigating everything, so I didn’t have a house and I didn’t have any money from the settlement either. Hell, I still don’t have a dime from that place.”
“So what changed?” asked Mike. “Why are you coming to me now?”
“Oh,” said Bill. He took a deep breath. “I built one. I built one of your detector things, and I need some help figuring some stuff out.”
Mike’s mouth hung open for several seconds before he thought to shut it.
“It’s your invention, so I wanted to come and talk to you about what we could do together,” said Bill.
Mike cut him off—“Why don’t you just take it? That seems to be your standard procedure.”
“I’m trying to do the right thing here,” said Bill.
“Wait,” started Mike. “I’m not sure what you’re trying to do, but I’ll bet it’s the right thing for you.”
Bill studied Mike’s eyes and then looked away. He made eye contact again and capitulated. “Fair enough.”
“Good,” said Mike. “So what’s the problem?”
“I don’t know,” Bill shrugged. “The thing looks like it should work, and I get a tiny reading where my house used to be, but mostly I just get interference.”
The waiter returned with Mike’s food and took Bill’s order, but Mike’s hunger had taken a backseat to the conversation—“What kind of interference?”
“It’s weird,” said Bill. “The signal is about the same as the one from that night at my place. It’s about that strong, I mean, but it has this low-frequency element to it, and it seems to wax and wane with the night and day.”
Mike thought this over and then raised his eyebrows—“So what kind of deal are you offering.”
“Wait a sec,” said Bill. “You already think you know what’s going on with my device, don’t you?”
“I do,” said Mike, through a mouthful of breakfast. Between the food and the meeting, he was beginning to feel much better than he had a right to. “Let me ask you—is this interference moving very slowly clockwise on a compass reading?" He studied Bill’s eyes and read an affirmative answer. “So what’s it worth to you?”
“I’ll drop my claim and get the insurance company and collectors off your back,” said Bill.
“Keep going,” said Mike.
“What do you mean?”
“What do you get, and what do I get? From the device.”
“We haven’t proved it’s worth anything,” said Bill. “I can’t even make it work.”
“It is and it does,” Mike stated. “You wouldn’t be here if you didn’t believe that.”
“Okay,” said Bill. “We’ll split everything.”
“That’s a good start, but I’m going to need more,” said Mike. “I’ve got some immediate financial issues from legal fees and being out of work. I need cash. And we have to cut in Katie and Gary’s family.”
Bill pushed back from the table, leaning back in his booth, taking it all in. “Anything else?”
“Those are the basics,” said Mike. “I’m willing to leave the details until later if you agree on principal.”
“I do,” said Bill. “So what’s your theory on the device?”
“You’re tracking my rogue,” Mike said as he bit down on a piece of toast.
“Pardon?”
Mike spent the next ten minutes casually explaining his theory and eating breakfast. He had told the story so many times that the details flowed sensibly. For Bill, who had tangible evidence to integrate with the suppositions laid in front of him, the explanation sounded viable enough to pursue.
“If you’re right we can actually prove this thing works, and we’ll be able to help this kid, too,” said Bill.
“Yeah,” said Mike, “and the police aren’t going to be any help. They’re already convinced that I’m a charlatan.”
“They’re generally a little too pragmatic to accept that kind of information,” said Bill.
“Like engineers aren’t pragmatic?” asked Mike.
“True,” said Bill, “but I’ve seen a lot of crazy shit first-hand.”
“So to speak,” said Mike.
Bill smiled.
They ate and talked, taking their time once they compared notes and understood that Mike’s rogue only moved at night.
After paying the check, Bill brought up the question of their next steps—“We’re going to need some high-quality maps.”
“No problem,” said Mike. “I’ve got every map published in my back seat. Let’s go use the device and see where this thing is holed up.”
“I’ve got it wired up in the car,” Bill said, smiling.
The two men adjourned to the parking lot. They spread the maps out on Bill’s hood and powered the detector from Bill’s car. Mike made a dot representing the diner and drew a line from their position in the direction of the strongest signal.
“What do we do if we find this thing?” asked Bill. “If you’re right, it kills at will. It must be incredibly strong.”
“I don’t think it moves at all during the day,” said Mike. “If we find it, we might be able to immobilize it completely as long as we get to it while the sun’s up.”
“I still think we should be able to weaken its energy. If we can detect it, we certainly should be able to counteract it,” said Bill.