Chapter 60

 

Many of the coalesced images that Fred had initially experienced shortly after his operation had disappeared. He now could selectively focus whenever he chose to engage his powers. He could, by simply observing someone, retrieve their mental signatures and affix it to his memory. After that, as long as he wasn’t too far from the subject, he could enter a person’s mind at will. He quickly created an effective mental filing system that facilitated instant retrieval. He didn’t understand how his powers operated; but like Donna, he was satisfied that they just did. 

He collected the mental signatures of almost a quarter of his subordinates, and he randomly violated their privacy by determining what they were doing, what their hobbies were, how they voted and how and when they made love to their wives and partners. No segments of their lives were held sacred to him any longer. He could ease into their minds gently without their knowledge, or he could gain entry forcefully, causing pain and distress to his subjects. Normally, he would be disturbed with the way he was violating what was previously his strict value system, but that no longer caused him concern. His old value system was progressively being displaced as his powers grew. 

He found that he no longer held Donna in disdain; in fact he thought, I tend to respect her, she is far more like me than Maureen is. He even played with the idea of using Donna as his partner, sharing their unique superior experiences together. But he reasoned that wouldn’t work. At her first opportunity, he thought, she would attempt to kill me for the sole purpose of revenge. And, in fact, he knew that they were not equal. He was sure that Donna did not have the refined ESP powers that he now possessed, powers that had been developing rapidly. He realized that he would have to kill her in order to protect himself. That was too bad, he felt, because she was likely the only other person on earth who even began to have the same breadth of ESP powers as his, and the only person he could fully share that understanding with. 

He also knew that if Donna lived, Maureen’s life would be in danger; but that, for some reason, no longer concerned him. Many of the stronger emotions and values that he had held dear prior to his operation were fading and being replaced with rawer, baser emotions. 

Love, loyalty, honesty, and higher qualities were becoming virtually nonexistent to him. Yesterday he had realized that he no longer loved Maureen; in fact he wondered if he ever had. He suspected he had never loved anyone in his life, including his parents. Yesterday, the emergence of this realization had troubled him; today, it didn’t bother him in the least. 

* * * 

Back at the CIA unit, Maureen was missing Fred deeply. She wanted his caring arms around her, his passion, even the emotional storm she encountered when he was near her. She missed his tenderness, his empathetic concern for her well being. God, I need him, she thought, I really need him near me. I would give anything if he were here, if he were holding me and making love to me at this very moment. 

But a thousand miles away, Fred was now positive that his past love for Maureen was nothing deeper than the release of nature’s cocktail of chemicals. His “love” had been initialized by testosterone; it was kept vibrant by the neurotransmitters of adrenalin, dopamine and serotonin. 

He remembered once when Maureen, referencing what she had learned during her psychology classes, had explained to him that his rapid pulse, which he believed was a function of his love for her, was simply a function of the copious amount of adrenaline his body was releasing. She had added that his constant thoughts of her were caused by the chemical serotonin, and dopamine was the fuel for his passion and desire. At the time, he had rejected all of this as scientific garbage. Now he was sure she had been correct.

He recalled a conversation he once had with Dodd, the Science Director at AU. Dodd believed that the evolutionary emergence of ESP capabilities was going to be a positive step forward for man. Fred knew that wasn’t true; because once one possessed this amazing ability, they needed to eliminate any other person that might also possess it. Fred recognized that this was no more than an extension of Darwin’s theory of survival of the superior species. 

The raw emotions that now guided his life were incompatible with social group functions of negotiation, compromise, and sharing. For now, he would continue to work with Jim and his subordinates to attempt to find and ultimately kill Donna. But after that he would no longer need them for anything. As inferiors, Fred knew that they would be of no value to him any longer, neither professionally nor socially. He needed no one.

When he returned home, Molly and Who Knows enthusiastically greeted him at the front door with tails wagging. He harshly pushed them aside with his leg. 

Before he retired for the night, he responded to their irritating whining by scattering their entire month’s supply of dog food on the floor. After today, he decided, I may not even feed the little bastards. Bewildered, both Molly and Who Knows retreated into a corner of the living room, no longer able to recognize their master, wondering who this impostor was who possessed his same unique chemical smell.