David Dun - The Black Silent

"Nelson is the president of our little club at the moment," Ben said. "He speaks for the group. We had a very big misunderstanding, which we've mostly straightened out."

"I see," Sam said. "And I gather you're not part of the group."

"He is one of us," Nelson said. "We're just cautious about Ben."

"Why is that?" Sam asked quickly before Haley could protest.

"Because he is an idealist and we are dealing with hard, practical realities." Nelson said it without derision and Ben seemed to accept it that way.

"It's also because they are slightly paranoid from the Arc regimen and don't really know it," Ben said in a stage whisper.

"That's your view," said Nelson good-naturedly.

From above came the sound of an electrical motor and two large metal plates moved to cover the entry hole, one immediately under the trunk, the other just above the spiral wooden staircase. It would take hours or days to break through the metal plates. Going around them would entail burrowing through solid granite.

As the plates settled into place, one of the beefy security men unlocked Sam's handcuffs. Before Sam could comment, the guard refastened them behind Sam's back.

"I'm Sam and I'm pleased to meet you," he said to the beefcake.

The man nodded, but his face didn't change expressions. "I've heard from Ben that you're a guy who knows his way around."

The other guard never moved his Uzi from Sam's midriff.

"Let's go to the conference room," Ben said, seeming to pay no attention to the Uzis or the handcuffs.

Inside, the house-cum-laboratory was crammed with equipment; in the middle stood a large workbench with a vent over its top. To the right, before entering the lab, was a conference room as spartan and functional as the lab itself.

"The amenities stay topside," Ben said, as if to explain as the group squeezed into the room.

No one responded.

"This thing with the guns and cuffs is silly," Ben said.

"When the whole world will soon be plotting against you," said Nelson, "it is normal to be paranoid." He smiled slightly.

"All right," Ben said. "Everyone here but me, Len, and Stu is on what we call the Arc regimen. Nelson is on a modified lesser form. Hence, he's a little less paranoid."

Nelson didn't smile this time.

"We've read about it," Haley said.

"What have you read?"

Haley explained quickly and very succinctly.

"You got into Sarah's computer," Ben said. "Good for you."

"How were we supposed to know to look there?" Haley asked.

"You got your birthday pearls?"

"Yes," Haley said.

"There was a line drawing in there. It was of a watercolor at Sarah's place. Back of the watercolor."

"Oh," Haley said.

"You must have had your hands full," Sam said, looking at Nelson Gempshorn when he said it.

"I have, for some time," Ben said. "And given the situation above us, it's time the counsel voted."

Sam and Haley shared another glance, wondering what this could mean.

Nelson looked uncertain; the rest of the group appeared to be concerned, but no one spoke.

Ben turned to Sam. "I believe I have persuaded them that we need to completely cloak the secrets of longevity. Destroying files and notes is one thing. You and Frick probably have all that's left, in the way of documentation. To finish the job we need to release Glaueus into the sea. He has genetic markers that could be reverse-engineered to reveal part of the regimen."

"But he could reproduce," Haley said.

"No. He can't," Ben said. "I'll explain, but first we need the vote." He addressed his next comment to the group of scientists: "I have to be freed along with Sam and Haley to go release Glaueus."

As Nelson rose and left to discuss the matter with an apparent American Bayou fellow executive, Ben told the other men, "I would like to talk in private." argument the others left and closed the conference room door.

Haley started to speak, but Ben interrupted her, a grave look on his face.

"Let me explain, sweetie. I kept you out of this because we were breaking the law. If you have an unapproved pharmaceutical and you give it to someone in order to stop them from dying, you are breaking the law. Maybe not a moral law but some regulation or other of the federal government. I knew eventually I'd need someone completely clean and un-involved to be a leader and an intermediary with the government. I hoped you would be one of those people. I was going to bring you in, once we made a deal in principle with the government."

"It makes sense to me," Sam said, but he could tell that Haley didn't completely buy it.

In time she would.

"What was the big misunderstanding you had with Nelson?" Sam asked.

Ben lowered his voice. "For a long time I've been sure that Sanker would do anything to get sole ownership of the regimen. So I created an imaginary persona-I called him Judas-to contact Sanker. Judas was a turncoat, someone close to me, who told them a lot and offered to sell me out."

Sam couldn't help but smile at the crafty counterintelli-gence plan that Ben had concocted.

"When Judas contacted them," Ben said, "instead of calling me, Sanker worked with Judas against me, including hiring Frick."

Sam had a guess. "Did Lattimer Gibbons play 'Judas' for you?"

Ben nodded. "When I knew Sanker was bad, I did some things. I was also worried about my colleagues." He nodded in the direction of Nelson and the group. "The regimen affected their mental condition."

"We read about that," Haley said.

"So are you and the Arc regimen scientists on the same side, seeing eye to eye? With handcuffs?" Sam said wryly.

"You have to understand that they are slightly paranoid, anyway, and a couple days ago they discovered that all the Arcs in that vat had been deliberately exposed to oxygen by yours truly and the Arc DNA destroyed. The Arcs in the vat died in the microbial sense.

Although I saved some Arcs in a special container, the other scientists did not know that, and this misunderstanding was critical in their thinking. I destroyed all the documentation in the vault beneath this building. That's a pretty outrageous thing to do.

Nelson and the others didn't know I'd saved a batch of Arcs in a special portable container. To reassure them, I had left a note saying that I kept some of the Arc regimen in Seattle and I saved some Arcs as well. They didn't find the note, though, and… Well, they went nuts. As a result they did things they shouldn't have done. Like they kidnapped me and brutalized me terribly in a mental sense, although they never intended to hurt me physically.

"Once I explained that I hadn't destroyed all the Arcs- that I had written some things down in Sarah's computer- they became somewhat mollified."

"But not completely," Sam said.

In response Ben held up the cuffs.

"But could they create the Arc regimen without you?"

"Between you and me, probably not. Don't forget, various of them know most of the parts. I think maybe all the parts, generally, if you put all of their knowledge together.

But I actually created it and there are many details. And there is another problem that we can discuss, and that is whether we should keep this technology. But as far as it goes, we are mostly on the same side, they and I. Maybe completely. If they can't stay on Arc, though, we may not be on the same side."

"We hope they are with us," Sam said. "Clearly Frick is against us."

"No doubt about that."

"And Sanker."

"No doubt about that, although Frick and Sanker may not be together."

Sam and Haley nodded their understanding.

"There clearly was more to Lattimer than met the eye," Sam said.

Ben laughed at that. "He sent you to my study in the workshop at Sanker because, until recently, I kept plans for this place there. If you found the plans, you could find this place. He figured your leaving would free him up, and it would also lead you here, eventually. He wanted you to find me, but he didn't want to betray his brethren or lie to them. It's a little odd, but that was Lattimer's way of having it both ways."