Mack Reynolds - Earth Unaware

“Juke box curse!” somebody blurted.

Hopkins said evenly, “We’ve begun to receive reports of it. Go on, Mr. Wonder.”

“However, it won’t cover physical things Tubber’s done, like sealing up the slots in parking meters, and setting a nightclub on fire with lightning because the proprietor was throwing shows involving teen-age kids stripping. It wouldn’t even cover breaking a set of guitar strings at a distance.”

Jim Westbrook, seated off to one side, and noticed now by Ed Wonder for the first time, said, “Perhaps the fellow owning the guitar only thought the strings were broken, under Tubber’s hypnosis.” But the big consulting engineer didn’t sound as though he believed it himself.

Ed said, “We simply don’t know. Perhaps there’s something in nature that when there’s a need for a certain type of person the race produces him. Possibly nature figures there’s a need for a man with Tubber’s powers right now. There was a need for a Newton when he came along. Can we explain him? There was a rash of super-geniuses in such cities as Florence at the time of the Renaissance. Can anybody explain the fantastic abilities of Leonardo and Michelangelo? Devil knows, the times called for them. The race had to be pulled out of the Dark Ages.”

Dwight Hopkins sighed and ran a gaunt hand over his mouth and chin. “Very well,” he said. “However, Mr. Yardborough, see that Doctor Jeffers’ line of investigation is continued. Crash priority. We leave no possibilities unexplored. The national emergency is growing geometrically.

“And now,” Hopkins continued, “we come to another, very uncomfortable aspect. General Crew, please.”

The general lumbered to his feet, and even before opening his mouth his face dyed mahogany. He took up a newspaper from Hopkins’ desk and shook it.

“Who is the traitor who leaked this whole story to AP-Reuters!”

Ed Wonder snatched his own paper from his jacket pocket, ripped it open to the front page. It glared 72 point type:

TV-MOVIE-RADIO COLLAPSE LAID TO RELIGIOUS LEADER

He didn’t have to read it. He knew it would all be there.

“I thought nobody’d believe you,” he snapped at the reporter.

Buzz grinned at him, took his stogie from his mouth and pointed at Ed’s chest with it. “That’s where my stroke of genius came in. This was my story, from the beginning, and I just had to see it in print. You left me in charge, yesterday. So I sent a couple of the boys up to Kingsburg and had them haul Old Ulcers right out of the city room and down here. I showed him around. Showed him all the staff we’ve got working on Project Tubber. Finally it got through to him. Whether or not he believes it himself, the biggest story of the century cracked right in his own town. I had the piece already written up. He just took it with him.”

“And AP-Reuters picked it up from the Times-Tribune , you kook!” Ed snarled at him. “You know what you’ve done?”

“I know what he’s done,” Hopkins said, the evenness of his voice for once tried. “He’s made a laughing stock of the administration. I thought it was made clear that this phase of our investigation was to be kept under wraps until more definite data was available.”

Ed Wonder was on his feet, his face working. “He’s done more than that! He’s signed the death warrant of Tubber and his daughter!”

Buzz scowled at him, defensively. “Don’t be silly, chum. I didn’t mention where they were. They’re safely tucked away in the little Elysium hamlet of theirs. Sure, a lot of people might be sore at them. A good chance of teaching old Zeke a lesson. He’ll find out what a heel practically everybody in the world figures he is.”

Ed snarled, “He isn’t in Elysium. He’s in Oneonta, with that pint-sized revival tent of his, spreading the message. Come on, Buzz! You started this. Let’s go. They’ll lynch him.”

Buzz threw his stogie on the floor. “Good grief,” he muttered, heading for the door.

The general was standing too. “Wait a minute! Perhaps this is for the best.”

Ed Wonder flung a contemptuous glare at him. “Like that other brainstorm of yours. Getting a sniper to shoot him from a distance. Just consider two of the ramifications, soldier. One, suppose Tubber starts flinging hexes at a mob out to lynch him. Do you have any idea what they might consist of? Or, number two, suppose the crowd does get to him and finishes him off. Do you think his hexes end with his death? How do we know?”

Buzz was through the door and on his way to the outer offices. Ed started after him.

“One moment,” Dwight Hopkins called, his famed poise shot to hell. “I can phone the local police in Oneonta.”

“No good,” Ed called back over his shoulder. “Tubber and Nefertiti know me, but some heavy-handed cops might just intensify the fireworks.”

In the anteroom, Johnson and Stevens hustled to their feet.

Ed ripped out at them, “Phone down to the garage. Have the fastest police car available ready for us, by the time we get there. Hurry, you flatfooted clowns!”

He charged down the corridor in the direction of the elevators.

Buzz had summoned one by the time he arrived. They hurried into it, banged the descent button, and their legs all but folded under them at the plunge.

The car was waiting. Ed flashed his identity and they bustled into the front seat. “How do you work this thing?” Buzz demanded. “I’ve never had an automatic.”

Ed Wonder had used Helen’s General Ford Cyclones from time to time. He rapped, “Here,” and dialed the number to take them across the George Washington Bridge. Meanwhile he snatched up the road map and located the coordinates for Oneonta. The upstate New York town wasn’t a much greater distance than Kingsburg, but situated further west. They’d have to go to Binghamton, as the closest route.

They agonized along the way. It would be nearly noon before they arrived. They had no way of knowing where Tubber had set up his tent. They had no way of knowing how soon he would begin his lecture. If it were anything like Saugerties, it wouldn’t be just one meeting scheduled, but several throughout the day. He’d possibly start quite early.

Ed Wonder didn’t expect him to get through the first talk. Once the audience found out who he was, that would be it. He cursed silently, inwardly. Perhaps they had already found out. Possibly the Oneonta Star had already run a notice. The Star was undoubtedly a subscriber to AP-Reuters; if some bright reporter connected the two stories and revealed that the controversial prophet was in town, it would mean the end already.

They could have saved themselves the anxiety over the time that would be taken locating Tubber’s tent. From afar, the roar of the mob could be heard. Throwing on the manual operation, Ed Wonder hit the lower part of town without diminution of speed.

“Hey, take it easy, chum,” Buzz De Kemp blurted.

“A siren,” Ed spit out at him. “There must be some button or something. Find it! This car should have a siren.”

Buzz fumbled. The siren’s whine ululated, wave over wave. They shrilled through the small Catskill city, traffic pulling away, right and left, such traffic as there was. Ed Wonder suspected that the greater part of the town was in on the show.

They could spot the action now. There was fire. As they pulled closer, they could see that it was obviously the tent.

All over again, it was the lynch scene of the movie projectionist in Kingsburg. It was basically the same, though ten times over in size. Far beyond the point where it could have been controlled by the police.

The mob numbered thousands, roaring, shouting, shrilling, screaming. But here on the outskirts they were principally milling around, the crowd hampered by its very size, unable to see what was going on in the center. Ineffective in the developments.