Barrington Bayley - The Seed of Evil

Quavering, I held the microphone in my right hand. “Jack?”

A second or two later, I heard a familiar voice. “Is that you, Bob?” it said uncertainly.

Juker and I looked at one another, shocked beyond expectation. I had no need to ask further questions.

The modulations of the million-volt pulse had been quite complete. Jack’s entire pattern of personality, memory and thought had been transferred to it, and was now humming unimpeded in a continuous circuit of the planet. There was no fragment of Celenthenis that you might break off that was not Jack.

So that was how I continued to be my brother’s keeper. After all, we had planned to take material back to Earth. What else could we do, but take him home with us?

Faintly, I heard the front door open and close as one of the guests left downstairs. I gazed at the chunk of green rock, visible more to the imagination than the eye, amidst Juker’s hydrogen-ice apparatus, and thought of how helpless and quiescent Jack was now.

In all the years we had been together, it was not until those few remaining days on Celenthenis and the journey back to Earth, that I gave consideration to my relationship with Jack.

Did I ever love my brother?

A hard question. I don’t think there is love between brothers. We took each other for granted. There were things I didn’t like about him, but all the hard feelings tended to be of short duration.

On the other hand, whenever I hated my brother I had the sinking feeling that I was exactly like him.

The difference being, that when I cheat I cover my tracks.

As it was, I had come out of it all right. I had Janet, hadn’t I? She wouldn’t even speak to this lump of rock, not once. She married me.

A bitch? You might say so. It might appear odd that I’d still take up with her. But isn’t human nature frail in any case? Take the best and leave the worst.

It’s no use to fret.

We lived fairly comfortably on the proceeds from Celenthenis. As I said, I’ve settled down. It suits me.

Moving closer, I said: “Are you sure everything’s all right, Jack?”

“Well,” he answered. “My mind’s been getting a bit fuzzy lately. I think a trace of heat must be getting through.”

I nodded. That was inevitable. If the temperature rose even a fraction of an appreciable amount, though, the rock would cease to become conductive and that would be the end of Jack.

“For another thing,” he said, “you know the main version of me is still on Celenthenis. I’m a sort of detached fragment.”

“You’re still a complete replica, Jack.”

“I know. But, well—frankly, I sometimes feel an urge to be reunited with myself. Merge with the main current.”

“You want to go back?”

“I wouldn’t mind.”

“Well, Jack,” I said after a moment. “I don’t know. Janet might not think we can afford the cartridges for another trip to Montgomery Cloudbank.”

“You mean you won’t take me?” he said in a piteous voice.

“You know I would, whatever it cost. But there’s still Janet.”

“Bring her up here,” he said eagerly. “I’ll persuade her, Bob, I know I can. We were close once, remember?”

I didn’t need the reminder.

“You know what she’s like. Wild horses wouldn’t drag her up here. She never comes.”

Silence, but I could feel the hurt in it. Eventually Jack spoke again in a strained voice.

“Look, Bob, I… well, I do want to go back to Celenthenis and I’m sure once she speaks with me she’ll agree. But it isn’t just that. I really want to speak to her, you know. It isn’t pleasant the way she ignores me. I know she’s married to you now, but—I just want to say goodbye, that’s all. You can’t begrudge me that.”

I was genuinely touched.

“Please, Bob, please bring her up here. Just once.”

“I’ll try,” I promised.

A faint sigh of relief came from the speaker. “Bring her up here, and that’s the last thing I’ll ever ask of you.”

Turning, I went through the unpainted door, down the rickety stairs, within range of the sounds, light and perfumes of the living-rooms and what remained of our smart society guests. Idly, I calculated the cost of another trip to Celenthenis.

I waited for all the guests to leave before I put the idea to Janet. She twisted her handkerchief in a distraught manner.

“It’s too much,” she said shortly. “We can’t spare the money.”

“But he’s my brother.”

Crossly she patted her hair back into place. “That lump of rock—can’t you find some other way of getting rid of it? Throw it in the sea or something? As a matter of fact I’ve been meaning to get the thing out of the house.”

She stood up, smoothed her skirt and bent to study her make-up in the mirror. I stared at her aghast.

“Janet,” I began as she touched her eyebrow with a wetted finger, “he wants to talk to you.”

“You won’t catch me going up there!”

“It isn’t much to ask,” I pleaded. “He’s a person, Janet, someone you once… had relations with. Doesn’t that mean anything to you? He only wants to say good-bye, so there’s no bitterness.”

She turned on her stiletto heel and stalked from the room. Before I knew it I was on my feet too, following after her and arguing.

Don’t ask me to explain the state I was in. Nothing seemed more important to me than that I carried out what I was convinced was my brother Jack’s last request. For an hour I talked earnestly in our bedroom. Janet seemed to grow more weary by the minute.

At last I said: “He’s still alive. Don’t you understand?”

And that, of course, was exactly what she never had understood. Perhaps, I thought, people never are alive to her.

“What is it to do with me?” she complained, ready to burst into tears.

Then, resigned and tired, Janet dragged herself to her feet and came with me to the back part of the house.

I sensed how scared she was as we ascended the stairs, and kept my hand touching her arm. Poor kid, I thought. Then I opened the door and led her into the musty, humming attic.

She gazed around her, frightened by the alienness of everything she saw. She was completely out of her depth.

“Jack,” I said, “here’s Janet.”

There was a barely perceptible pause.

Then a voice came hoarsely through the speaker which shook even me by the intensity of its hatred and bitterness. “You finally arrived, you filthy slut, did you?” it said. “How bloody nice!”

It seemed to gather its breath, then vomited a paralysing stream of obscenity and execration. Through it all I seemed to hear the resentment, the disappointment, which Jack had harboured all this time. I realised that everything Janet meant to me, she must have meant to him. She had filled the void of his life, just as she had filled mine. And that was why Jack wanted to speak to Janet.

He never gives up. If he can’t have it one way, he’ll have it the other.

Janet let out a small, terrified cry, turned and fled. I heard her sharp heels clattering, on the stairs.

“Why did you do that?” I exploded.

“Just to give her a few nightmares,” he answered sardonically. “By the way, I’ve a confession to make. You know everything I said about taking Janet away from you? It wasn’t even true!”

That was all I got out of him. I stood there, absolutely stunned. I had never taxed Janet about her defection; I was afraid of appearing jealous.

Now that Jack had made his confession, I suddenly realised how utterly ridiculous was the notion that Janet would ever have had an affair with him, or even, at that stage, been unfaithful to me at all. She just wasn’t that sort.