2006 Strange That I Should Meet You Here4
2006
"This entire conversation must be considered sub rosa, Dr Varady."
Laura Varady quickly, thoroughly, studied the face of Mason Eckhart, from habit more than the expectation of reading much there. The simple fact of his coming to her office, and sitting down once there, could possibly the most telling clue offered.
The Genomex psychologist smiled at Eckhart. She was one of the few people at the complex who could do that without annoying him, because she was being neither patronizing nor false. " Laura. Please, call me Laura."
" Laura."
"I am bound by a strict code of ethics. If anyone is eavesdropping on us, it's your own security people."
"I assure you, I have never violated your privacies. I've trusted you to tell me anything dire or dangerous to the GSA or Genomex."
"Thank you."
"Laura, first thing tomorrow, I am resigning from the GSA and Genomex. No one else knows. Not even my superiors."
"Mason, you could have told me any number of things, but this is stunning. People expect you to die here."
" I very nearly did."
"And, are you going to tell me why you are doing this?"
"What I was working towards--the containment of the new mutants to prevent the long-term contamination of the human gene pool--is clearly beyond the capabilities of the GSA. I cannot fight this battle alone, and win. I have informed my superiors that a much tougher, broader effort is required, managed as a public health concern. I developed a plan for a larger organization with broader enforcement powers. No sane general wastes his troops in futile battle, which is what they ask of me."
"You've been discouraged before. We've talked about it. You're very good at what you do, Mason. Are you certain your judgment won't change?"
"I am certain. The seriousness of the spreading of new mutant DNA is not well understood by many people. The same individuals who refuse to eat a tomato engineered to manufacture its own pesticide fail to acknowledge the dangers of introducing the new mutant tendencies towards illness, early death, and random bizarre abilities into our own species."
"People are inherently myopic."
"I know. And they hear the sound of distant jackboots, and imagine that the policy of mutant containment is equivalent to the racial and ethnic genocides of Hitler, Stalin, and Pol Pot. It is not ."
"No."
"Are you familiar with the 1960s 'Outer Limits'?" Eckhart asked.
"Why, yes. I remember when it was new. And I was newer."
"I saw it somewhat later. Do you recall the episode with Martin Landau?"
"'The Bellero Shield'?"
"No, the other one, 'The Man Who Was Never Born'."
"Time-travel paradox. Yes. Landau played Andro, a deformed mutant from the distant future who returns to the past to destroy the man responsible for inducing mutations in humanity, and leading ultimately to its near-extinction due to deformities and low fertility by Andro's time."
"Adam is our Bertram Cabot, Jr, and no less irresponsible and criminal. The story has haunted me. I was never able to get a definitive background report on Adam. Sometimes I imagine that his mother's name was Noel as well, fated to be cursed at thousands of future Christmasses."
Dr Varady nodded her greying head. "Adam has a good deal to answer for. We've both been here long enough to know that. But, Mason, what will you do ?"
"Leave the nightmare of the last decade and a half behind me. That is easy enough."
"But your physical problems?"
Eckhart smiled. "I'm taking my doctor with me."
"Dr Nguyen?"
"Samantha."
" Samantha. One of my granddaughters is named Samantha. Mason, I don't recall seeing you smile that way since 1991."
"Yes. We're getting married in five days."
"I'm stunned. But congratulations."
"Samantha has tweaked my cell regeneration to nearly that of a normal man my age. She doesn't believe I will recover everything I lost, but if you look closely, I'm not wearing bio-polymer any longer, and have not for two months. I retain the gloves just for appearances."
"So, you have no need of heroic medical treatment?"
"No. Or be limited to the immediate neighborhood of Genomex.
"I'm very happy for you. You've been through hell, Mason. I hoped that somehow I would see you have a day like this one. How you survived so much I do not know, but I've always admired your toughness. I am so happy for you. And Samantha. I don't know her very well, but she seems to be an extraordinary woman. Her family is Vietnamese?"
"Her father. Her mother comes from an Italian background. Interesting family. I don't know exactly where we'll be living, but we've decided it is going to be southern and warm. I want to spend the balance of my life feeling the sun and wind on my face. I want to get to know my children, and in a few years, I hope, my grandchildren as well."
Varady smiled. "How are you going to maintain your persona for the rest of the day?"
"The same way I've maintained it all these years. By will ."
"I won't tell anyone your plans. I want to watch their faces as the word spreads. What about your successor?"
"That's a problem for my superiors. I will not recommend anyone here. Well, I have a few matters needing attention in the office."
"Thanks for stopping by."
"I'll send you an address and a phone number when I have them."
"Thanks."
Mason Eckhart removed his right glove, and shook Dr Varady's hand, still smiling.
By the time he turned around and left her office, he assumed his Genomex, GSA persona, but walking a little faster than usual. He briskly moved through his tasks, and then retreated to his personal quarters. There he did something he never did before in the afternoon: yielded to the need for sleep, taking a nap. At the last, he remembered Samantha's promise to call from San Diego at 7 PM local time.
Mason Eckhart awoke with a start to complete wakefulness. His quarters were fully dark, save for a handful of tiny green LEDs indicating the status of security and dirt containment systems. The sun had set long ago, and he knew it was well past 7 PM, without checking the time.
The only sound was that of multiply filtered air gently rushing into the darkness, nearly sterile and very low in humidity.
Samantha?
He did not require light to maneuver about his rooms. Each square foot of it was memorized. He made his way to his only window, and gazed out at the evening lights and allowed the truth to seep back into his mind.
There is no Samantha. My mind made her up, and generated a dream. Perhaps I should call it a nightmare. Samantha does not exist, and never will.
The nerve endings inside the bio-polymer indicated a sensation of itchiness, mandating the outer layer be changed within three hours or real discomfort would result.
The phone in his pocket rang in the darkness, startling him.
"Eckhart."
He hoped he sounded fully himself. To show...weakness could prove disastrous.
"No need to apologize about the hour. Bring what remains of your team to my office immediately, and I will decide what needs to be done."
He closed the connection before the agent could object. He had time to change his wrinkled suit and comb the white hair into place. His agents must never see him looking less than perfectly controlled.