Author Part 10
(Chapter 63 of "Senses")
SAN FRANCISCO
"Do you know where Larry's gone to?" Morgana asked.
"Not a clue," Constance replied. "Somewhere in Napa was all he would say. He should be back any time now."
"Great. We could use his help here."
Morgana, Constance and Rand were in Larry's apartment above the bookstore in San Francisco, going through his files on personality traits. Larry had given them some rough guidelines to go by, but all they really knew was that they were looking for a madman. A determined madman, but a madman just the same. The idea was to put a psychological profile together, and maybe even find the person they were after (if by some miracle that person was in Larry's records) although the odds were slim.
They had been at it for six hours and had still only gone through one fifth of the files.
"Do you even understand these things?" Constance asked Morgana, shaking a folder in her left hand.
"Not by a long shot," Morgana admitted. "Larry first showed me these files not long after he had me figured out. Problem is that he has all these codes and number systems that he keeps in his head."
"The man needs a codex," Rand threw in from the drawer he had his head buried in.
Morgana stared at Rand with his head stuck in the file drawer. "Can you even see anything like that? Don't you get ink on your face?" she asked.
"I'm a bit nearsighted. I always read with the page only a couple of inches from my face."
"Sounds like you need better glasses."
"Probably."
"Anyway you're right, he does need a codex."
Constance chuckled. "That would take at least another file cabinet," she said, waving at the twelve other file cabinets in the room. "I wish some of this was at least alphabetized. Larry should now better."
"Even now he's not fond of sharing this stuff," Rand said. "Come on, we're in here too you know. It could force an embarrassing situation with one of us. Especially since Larry is always right."
Morgana laughed and shook her head. "I wish we had Jace," she said. "I'd like for him to be able to reach into a random file cabinet and get the exact file we need."
Rand lifted his head from the cabinet. "That would be helpful," he added. "Let's get him up here."
"Last time I checked in he was going to the Atlantic with Mats and Scott."
"Besides," Constance added, "Larry will be back in about three hours and I know he'll be wanting to get back to Los Angeles. This was a long shot anyway."
"Knowing Larry this was all a cover so that he could go do whatever he's doing in Napa," Rand said. "Hello? What's this?"
Rand was back in the file cabinet and he had spotted a file folder labeled "M & L Christopher". "I think I've found the file on Larry's parents," he said.
"Really?" Constance asked.
"You make it sound like it's a big event," Morgana noted.
"It is," Rand replied, opening the folder. Rand frowned. "It's empty."
"Damn!" Constance said.
"What's going on? Don't you two know his parents?" Morgana asked.
"We don't."
"Excuse me? You've known him since you were kids!"
"True, although Rand didn't meet Larry until his folks moved here when he was seven. Thing is, Larry never invited anyone home because of Jim, and then A.J. once Jim was in public. Jim was something of a secret, so neither of us ever met Mac or Lee Christopher."
"They're real people," Rand said. "I've spoken with Mac on the phone once, many years ago. A.J. gets his deep voice from him."
"Oh lord," Morgana sighed, shaking her head. "Will there always be more mysteries that pop up about these guys?"
"Probably." Rand added another sigh to the room. "I can see it now. The writing the kid is doing for us..."
"His name is Jace."
"...that Jace is doing for us, as I have been so justly corrected, is probably going to end in cliffhangers all over the place. If we're still discovering some of this crap now, can you imagine what it must be like for him?"
"I don't even want to think about it," Constance said.
"Let's get back to it, all right?" Morgana said. "Rand, put the file on Larry's parents back."
"He'll know we looked at it," Rand noted.
"True, but let's at least be polite, okay?"
They finished the cabinet they were sifting through and moved on to the next one. A tedious process at best, they all agreed. Finally Morgana's patience wore out. About something other than the files.
"Constance," she said, "how the hell could you not know his parents?"
"Excuse me?" Constance replied.
"I mean, you dated him for almost a year when you were in high school, correct? How could you not know?"
"He never took me to his home. I never thought it unusual at the time. How can I put this... you spent your teen years in England, right?"
"Right."
"So you have no idea what it's like to be a teen in this country."
"I guess not."
"Well over here we seem to have an unnatural and mostly unhealthy fixation on sex, especially with the aftermath of the 60's. Add to that a distrust of authority, with just a dash of American surrealism. No American high school student can think straight about their social lives. The result is that if a couple wanted time together, they didn't spend it at their homes. I didn't go to his place, and he didn't come to mine. Parental alienation was also a good part of the equation, so I really didn't give it much thought. I didn't even really find out about Jim and A.J. until the time slip. They were just Larry's famous brothers in L.A."
Morgana sighed. "We are far too complex for our own good," she said.
Constance regarded Morgana for a long moment. "You're really curious about him, aren't you," she observed.
"Yes. I've been working for Larry for years now and even after everything we've all been through and are still going through I don't know a damned thing about the man. I know more about his younger brothers than I do about him!"
Constance smiled. "That's not all there is to it..."
"No, it's not," Morgana interjected with a burst of anger. "But I'm not going to discuss it."
"You should."
"Back down honey," Rand said to his wife, looking up briefly. "We know how it is, and so does she," he nodded at Morgana, "but it's not our concern."
Morgana raised an eyebrow at Rand. "Does Larry know how it is?" she asked. "About what I feel?"
"Of course he does. He feels the same way about you. But it's not his way to bring it into the open."
Morgana shook her head. "Nor is it mine."
"Then an undercurrent to your friendship is all that feeling will ever be. My only comment is to be careful. It's a sticky road you two walk on." Rand went back to the file he was checking.
"What file are you on?" Constance asked Rand after a long silence, looking for a chance to change the subject.
Rand's head remained buried in the file. "A biographical file of scientists that Larry was compiling," he said. "Fascinating stuff. For example," his head came up, "there's a file on this scientist in England working on unification theory and artificial intelligence that's got a big file. There's also a file about an Arizona scientist working on applied particle physics. There's even a file on Don Francis."
Constance thought for a moment. "The AIDS researcher?"
"The same. Seems that Larry believes that he's the scientist with the most likely chance to break open AIDS in the United States. Larry looks for items of relevance to our own research, no matter how small that relevance is, so there must be something we can eventually use here."
"I believe in being thorough," Larry said, coming up the stairs from his store.
"You're early," Constance noted.
"My errands took less time than I thought they would."
"Welcome back," Morgana said. "Get things done?"
"That I did. Have you found anything?"
"Not really," Rand said. "You've got some fascinating stuff in here, when we can find it."
Larry chuckled. "I do need to create a codex." Morgana and Constance both rolled their eyes.
"I think the search is fairly fruitless at this point," Rand added.
Larry sighed. "All right," he said. "Let's pack up and get on the road. I'll call in to the warehouse and let them know we'll be there late tonight."
Morgana had a vision. "Larry, it's for you. It's Jim."
As if on cue, the phone rang. The four of them looked at each other for a moment, then Larry picked up the phone. "Jim?" he asked.
"The same," Jim answered, unfazed. "Are the others with you?"
"They are."
"Good. Put me on the vox box and I'll fill you in on the latest development."
Larry hit a switch on the side of the phone that activated the speaker in the wall above it. "Hello all," came Jim's voice.
"Hello back," Rand said. "We were just getting ready to call you. We're on our way back."
"Find anything?"
"Struck out."
"A baseball term. Ick."
"What do you have for us?" Larry asked.
"Scott, Mats and Jace are at the quakemaker. The computer is still active. We know who the programmer is."
"Who?" Constance asked.
"A Dr. Douglas Hopkins, whomever he may fucking well be. The machine thinks Mats is the doctor in question."
"What kind of shape is the computer in?" Larry asked.
"Bad. According to Scott it will fail within the next few weeks, so we need to pump it for everything we can. Maybe the machine can tell us where the fuck we can find Dr. Hopkins."
"Try at Arizona State University," Rand said in a shaky voice.
Silence. "Excuse me?" Jim finally said.
Larry looked at his long time friend. "It seems we may have found something after all," he observed.
Rand nodded, then chided himself on how silly that was, considering he was talking to a speaker. "One of Larry's sets of files is about various scientists," he said.
"I know," came Jim's voice. "I've glanced through them."
"Your Dr. Hopkins is in the file."
"Great! Bring the file with you. Better yet, fax it to me so I can get Scott started on a search for the son of a bitch."
Rand nodded again. "Will do."
"All right, that's all the news I had. We'll see you in a few hours."
"Deal," Larry said. Jim had already hung up the phone.
"His telephone manners are atrocious," Morgana noted.
"You're only noticing that now?" Larry asked. "His manners in general are atrocious." Morgana smiled but said nothing.
"Well my friends," Larry said, "let's send out what we have and then let's take a closer look at Dr. Hopkins' file before we go. Every time I keep a file on a scientist it's because I have found something unusual about their approach that could possibly be used by our own research. What's so special about Dr. Douglas Hopkins?"