Chapter 44

 

The Marvel was pissed! The smart-assed lieutenant was getting much, much too close. Of course, The Marvel appreciated the fact that Harris was still light years away from discovering what the real secret was. The Marvel had released a significant amount of chaff intended to confuse and complicate the investigation but Fred was somehow “starting to fly around and above it.” It was no longer the playful game that it started out to be.

Long ago The Marvel realized that most major scientific breakthroughs came from outside of the operating field of expertise. Einstein was not a physicist, he was a mathematician; the Wright brothers made bicycles and were not aeronautical engineers; the list went on continuously. Experts were mentally bounded by conventional logic and knowledge. The truth is that expertise sets boundaries, and that acts as a self limiting constriction. It reinforces existing knowledge; it does not facilitate the expanding of scientific horizons. To the same extent The Marvel understood and relied on the fact that the systems of society function in much the same way, as to their firm, fixed boundaries. Their major contribution to society is that they provide reliability, clarity, consistency and reinforcement. They are, however, self contained; that is both their strength and weakness. They are a necessary ingredient in society; they cannot be ignored, the orderly maintenance of society demands it. 

The system used by law enforcement is one that seeks, using evidence, to identify the guilty and prosecute. It’s as simple as that. Given overwhelming evidence, the system must move inexorably forward, the forces of society require it and hold its implementers accountable. It does not look back; mistakes of the system are fundamentally ignored in order to continuously advance to focus on the next incident, the next case. 

That was the reality that The Marvel depended on in order to execute the plan. By all logic, the evidence was structured to point to a killer and there should be no question in the eyes of the authorities of his guilt. By this time the killer should be perceived guilty and going through the motion of a trial. But this damn lieutenant is delaying the natural judicial process with his endless probing. He is attempting to move outside the system’s parameters and ignore its dictates. In the meantime, he has so far escaped death, diversion and embarrassment in his pursuit. His psyche is fragile; he is fraught with lingering doubts, unsure of his next move, ostracized by his peers—but, somehow the bastard tenaciously hangs on. 

As much respect as The Marvel was gaining for Lieutenant Harris, he was becoming a potential danger and would have to be eliminated. The sooner the better, and at all costs.