SOUND
(Seducer Part 9- Chapter 40 of Senses)
"The last time I said this you got engaged for all intents and purposes, but, I hear you've got a new weekend lover."
Blue Shift had met five days later to begin practicing for the upcoming tour. As they got set up and tuned their various instruments, Lee Emanuel had brought up the topic of the Inquirer story that had appeared that morning, prompting Jason Edward's comment to Jim.
"According to the article," Jason continued, tuning his bass, "you're sleeping with 'Raven Rameriz' from Pennsylvania. Even for you that's extreme."
Jim laughed. "It's also not true," he responded.
"What, that she's The Raven or that you're sleeping with her?"
"That I'm sleeping with her. She is The Raven, although that's just coincidental. The reason you can find photographs of the two of us together is that she's the day bartender at Mike's."
Lee shook his head. "Only you could come up with a coincidence like that," he said. He played a dramatic chord on his keyboard setup. "The reason we bring it up though, is that you haven't gone and denied it. That's not like you."
"Usually," Rex Yamaha added from behind his drum kit, "you love to fight with the press. We've been waiting for a counterpunch and we haven't seen it yet. Are you ill?"
Jim laughed again. "I'm not ill, my friends," he said. "The problem is that I wanted to talk to her about it first because she's a press darling just like I am. I personally don't give a fuck, but her privacy is also at issue."
Rex nodded and looked at the others. "He's ill," he commented.
Jason laughed. "I agree," he said. "You also don't usually give a fuck about anyone else except Karen, your brothers, Paul, and us."
"Put us first," Lee added.
"So noted. Jim, you know as well as I do that the press isn't going to let this one go."
"So you think I should fight back," Jim said.
"Damn straight I do."
"You all think so?"
All three of Jim's band mates shouted a resounding "yes!"
Jim held up his hands. "All right, all right," he said. "I'll fight back. I'll get Paul to issue a statement and then I'll attack it full force at the press conference. Fair enough?"
"Karen coming to the conference?" Rex asked.
"She's got a patient at that time of day," Jim replied. "Why?"
"It would be a lot easier to refute the breakup rumors if she were to be on hand."
"Ah, hell. I don't give a shit about those rumors, and neither does Karen. Look guys, this is the first time that something has been printed about me that wasn't even close to true that involves someone other than a close associate. After all, a lot of the shit they've printed over the years has been true. Oh, don't worry, I'll respond, and when I do the press will have egg all over it's collective face, but I want to protect someone else's privacy."
Jason shook his head and clucked softly. "Who'd have thought we'd see the day when the notorious Jim Christopher would get preachy on us," he intoned. "If I had a hat I'd take it off."
Jim laughed and threw his guitar pick at Jason. "Fuck off," he said.
Lee smiled and said, "That's better. Now then, shall we get on with it?"
"Absofuckinglutely. Lee, how are we going to do 'Secrets' without a horn section? It's your song, so what's your thought?"
"I say we use real horns," Rex said.
"I agree," Jason added in, "but we're talking about an 80 city world tour. I wouldn't want to carry around a horn section for that length for only one song."
"I agree with both sentiments," Jim responded. "However, I asked Lee."
Lee nodded in acknowledgement. "Without further interruption," he said, "I think we can use real horns without bringing them on tour."
"How so?" Jason asked.
"Simple. Every town we're hitting has either a college or a high school, and each of them will have players good enough for a horn section. I say that we have Paul's staff go out and find them, and take copies of the charts with advance copies of the cassette singles of the song. When we arrive in each town, we do a rehearsal with the horns, and we go forward. I also figure that when we do the Moscow show, we'll get some guys from the military band as a glasnost gesture. Sound solid?"
Everyone nodded. "Paul's handling logistics for Moscow himself," Jim said. "Problem is, he'll be flying in later than the rest of us, so we don't have an advance man for that one show."
"So one of us will be the advance instead," Lee replied. "Actually, I'll do it. This trip is going to be a fascinating one for me, and I'd like to sightsee."
"Fair enough. I have plans for the day after A.J.'s show, so would you guys mind if I stayed behind one day and flew in after the rest of you?"
"No problem," Jason said. "I'd like to sightsee too, so I'll go along with Lee."
"Same here," Rex said.
"Fine," Jim answered. "I'll join you the next day and we'll sightsee together."
"Done," Lee replied.
Jim nodded and smiled. "All right then," he said. "Let's get to work." Jim pulled out a fresh guitar pick and roared into the guitar riff that started out 'Secrets' and the rest of the band joined in at the appropriate cues. In a short time they sounded like the tight unit they had the reputation as being, although Jim had trouble concentrating on the songs at first. He made a mental note for himself to talk to Paul about dealing with the Inquirer article as soon as possible.
After the rehearsal Jim drove to A.J.'s home to join his brother and Karen and Angie working on determining the strengths and weaknesses of Angie's abilities. During the previous days they had been experimenting at least three hours a day, and spending another hour or two working on the new lab setup. Paul had found a warehouse on Olympic Boulevard in west Los Angeles that could be converted to their uses, and Angie had been busy consulting her books and with the rest of the team to make final determinations as to the equipment needed. While they would stock up on the needed gear in the next few weeks, they had begun experimenting immediately.
Jim walked into A.J.'s gym to see Karen and Angie sitting cross-legged on the floor while A.J. was floating from one side of the room to the other. A.J. waved in greeting but said nothing, as the concentration was evident on his face that something was being tried at that moment.
A.J. floated to the far side of the gym, and then held up his hand in the sign that the group had agreed would mean "stop". He then allowed himself to drop to the floor and bounced away, so that he was floating three feet from the floor. He then guided himself to the center of the room and set himself down on the floor.
"Well that didn't work," A.J. said. "Hello, Jim."
"Hello yourself," Jim returned. "What didn't work?"
"We were trying to see if I can push your flight controls like Karen can," Angie said. "So far, I can't."
"And now that you're here we can find out why," A.J. added. "I still can't see equations well enough when I'm the subject of the experiment."
"So I'll have to do," Jim said with a smile.
"And I'll have to watch."
"Pervert," Karen threw in.
"True, but that has nothing to do with it," A.J. shot back. "Anyway Jim, here's what we want to do. Angie will try to take over your emotive center to supply the formulae you'd need to fly in an arc from one wall to the next, just like we did when we first got Karen involved in all of this. Simple?"
"We've never been able to verify that Angie hits our emotive centers when she does her trick," Jim pointed.
"Trick?" Angie said. "I'm almost insulted." Angie had grown used to the way Jim and A.J. bantered with each other and had fit in naturally.
"Well big brother," A.J. replied, "we're about to find out, all right? Get up there against the back wall!"
Jim mock-saluted and strode over to the wall in question. He then changed gravity so that he floated four feet from the floor.
"Higher!" A.J. called out.
"I don't fall as gracefully as you do!" Jim countered. "This is high enough!"
A.J. laughed, then motioned to Angie. "Anytime you're both ready."
"Ready here," Jim called.
Angie nodded, and then pushed with her skills.
After careful experimentation and trial and error, they had discovered that all Angie could push onto other people was lust and fear. As of yet they had not determined why this was the case, but it did pose a problem when trying an experiment in which Angie was an active participant. The entire group agreed that lust was the better way to go, but they all agreed that due to Jim's experience with Angie's ability that it would only be used for short periods of time, or until another emotive control could be used. As a result, Jim was turned on when Angie pushed, and had to take a moment to bring himself into control.
"I'm ready for that formula," Jim called out.
Angie concentrated and pushed again, this time thinking about the formula Jim would need to help change his flight pattern. Jim flinched slightly when he felt the formula register in his brain (a full day's experimentation had shown that if he concentrated, Jim could tell when he was being controlled as opposed to being fed, as he was being fed a formula here - even so, he still unconsciously fought Angie's ability when she used it on him) and then he pushed off from the wall. He flew in a straight line across the room, hitting the far wall softly before Angie let go of his brain. For dramatic effect, Jim allowed himself to fall to the floor and bounce twice before getting up.
"That didn't work," Jim said.
"Any theories as to why?" Karen asked.
A.J. nodded and frowned. "I'm not really sure," he said. "Angie, you didn't really seem to be in contact with Jim's emotive centers. But we know that the things you do hit at an emotive level. It's like you were only hitting part of the area we need you to hit."
"Perhaps that's not so far from the truth," Angie replied. Can you see exactly where in the brain the equations occur?"
"Yes. That's what I mean. They're the same equations that I would normally expect, but there in a slightly different place."
"That fits. Suppose that what I do hits at the more primitive level. Lust and fear are common to most organisms. Only things like love and anger and depression are seen in human beings, at least as far as we know. Maybe I just hit the primitive brain."
"Would that be towards the brain stem?" A.J. asked.
"That is the brain stem," Angie replied.
"Then your theory fits the facts as I saw them. Let's make that assumption for now and move on."
"A question first," Angie said. "Have any of you ever noticed emotions or the equations for them in porpoises or whales?"
"To be honest with you," A.J. replied, "I haven't thought to look. I'll have to remember that the next time I go scuba diving."
"You can scuba dive?"
"Not alone, certainly, but no one should. Fact is, I've learned to filter out such things as surrounding water, or air for that matter. Think about it for a moment. If I couldn't filter out the surrounding noise I would be helpless during a windy day."
"Interesting," Karen said. "I hadn't thought about that. How do you filter it out?"
"I just do," A.J. replied. "Hmm. It's like the graph I've got in my eyesight, I suppose. I just take it for granted."
"Well stop taking anything for granted," Angie said. "Who knows how many assumptions you make that might be wrong because of that?"
Jim laughed. "We had to let a real scientist join our little group," he observed.
"You already had one," Angie shot back, pointing to Karen.
"Touché."
"I have another thought," Karen said. "Angie, you could affect Jim from fairly great distances. Far further than I could, because I need line of sight. Why is that the case? I have trouble buying that it's because you hit the primitive brain as opposed to the higher function areas."
Angie considered for a moment. "Well," she started, "we know that I hit with more intensity than you do, even if you're stronger overall. Perhaps it's concentrated."
"I don't think so," Jim said. "I think it's different. We've been working with it for a few days now, and I can't help but notice that your ability is not emotive. I think that you're simply hitting switches, and then a steady state is achieved that only you can change."
"How do we prove that?" A.J. asked.
"I think we already have. Remember when we first suspected that Angie was in my head? You said that my equations looked wrong. But you've never seen a connection between the two of us when she hit me. Correct?"
"Correct," A.J. said.
"And you," Jim continued, pointing to Karen, "can not only read my emotional state when Angie hits me but you can also control me. Perhaps it's like we are with physics; you can't use two formulae on the same type of reaction. I think that my own steady state has been changed when Angie hits me with her ability."
"Interesting theory," A.J. said. "Angie, how do you do that, assuming he's right?"
Angie shook her head. "I haven't the slightest clue," she replied. "Jim, I'm going to hit you with lust again. A.J., I want you to take a close look at the area of Jim's brain that changes when I hit him. See if you can verify Jim's theory."
A.J. stared at his brother, then said, "Go."
Angie hit Jim the way she normally did, and Jim didn't try to fight it at all this time. After about thirty seconds, A.J. called out, "Stop." Jim let out a breath as Angie let go.
"Jim," A.J. said, "you changed all right. This has interesting implications."
Karen agreed. "One that I have to wonder about," she added, "is that when Angie hits Jim he gets lusty for her. Are we trying to say that this kind of thing is that specific chemically?"
A.J. shook his head. "I don't know the answer to that," he replied.
"It does mean," Jim said, "that steady states can be changed. It may mean that we can try to figure out how to change our steady states so that we can do things we haven't been able to do in the past. Like fly solo. Isn't that the point of this round of experimentation?"
A.J. smiled. "That's what I was thinking," he replied.
"We need to get this concept into the lab," Angie said, "once it's built at any rate. If you're right, then we can get one hell of a lot done quickly. We can approach this in about three weeks. I figure we'll have the basic setup taken care of by then."
Jim let out a breath. "That will give me time to work on the albums I'm supposed to be releasing in eight weeks," he said. "Listen people, I've still got a few pressures to deal with. How about we slow down for a bit until I can some of my work done? That way you can get the lab built and we can devote some serious time to this."
"I second the motion," Karen said. "It will also allow Angie and I to do some work together that I promised her we'd do."
Jim raised an eyebrow. "Really?" he said. "I didn't know about this. What do you two have in mind?"
"Privileged information, lover. Don't worry, we won't talk about you."
"Much," Angie added. Karen and Angie shared a secret smile, which caused A.J. to raise an eyebrow as well.
"I don't want to know," A.J. said. "All right, people, it's a valid point. We've been working like mad dogs for the last few days and we all have other things to do, so let's get to those for a few days. At least we have a theory that we have to work with. I say that let's all think about this a few days during our off time and meet again when we have the lab finished, all right?"
Jim nodded. "We've all got better things to do," he said. "Let's go do them."