“Yeah,” Munch said. “That’s great, except she’s got all her clothes on.”
The uniform opened a couple kitchen drawers, found a pair of scissors, and handed them to Munch.
“Have fun,” the uniform said.
The four henchmen left, locking the front door on their way out. There was the sound of two vehicles moving on the gravel surface, and then it was quiet. Just Munch and me left in the cement-?block house.
“So,” I said to Munch, “see any good Star Trek reruns lately?”
“Yeah. All the time. I have the whole collection. All the seasons. And all the movies.”
“Wow, that’s amazing. Do you want to watch some?”
“Maybe later. I only have an hour to have fun with you.”
“What does fun involve?”
“You know . . . fun.”
“It looks like you work here. That’s a serious-?looking computer.”
“It’s okay. Mostly, I work at the main facility.”
“Where is that located? Is it far away?”
“It’s through the woods. Everything is through the woods here.”
“Wulf said you were sending a rocket up to night. That’s pretty exciting. I wish I could see it.”
“It’s not that exciting. It’s just a small X-12 King. When we get the barium, we’ll fly the big bird, the BlueBec. It holds twenty-?three hundred pounds of propellant, and it’s got a full payload. It’ll be the first real test. If it works, we’ll go global.”
“Global? What does that mean?”
“It means we’ll be able to control weather. Well, not entirely. I can’t do everything with the waves. At least, not yet.”
“What can you do?”
“I can make lightning. Not just a single strike, either. I can create the most terrifying storm you’ve ever imagined. And I can make it rain. Not a sustained rain, but a deluge. I can make the kind of rain that can do damage. Rain the earth can’t absorb fast enough.”
“Why would you want to do that?”
“I don’t know. Why do people want to paint pictures? Why do people want to design skyscrapers? It’s just what you do. It’s what’s in your head. I tried to get Brytlin to fund my research, but they thought I was a nut. All they wanted was a better magnetometer.”
“What about Eugene Scanlon?”
“Eugene was okay. He saw what I was doing with the new antennae grid design and the miniaturization. He’s the one who started all this in the Barrens. He had some land here, and since the Barrens are filled with nutcases, he figured we wouldn’t be bothered by anyone. The problem was, we didn’t have any money. All I could do was computer-?generated stuff. We did a couple tests with the little rockets, but then we were broke.”
“That’s where Wulf comes in, right?”
“Yeah. He’s got money coming out of his ears. I don’t know where he gets it. It’s like he makes it in the basement or something.”
“Why did he kill Eugene Scanlon?”
“Eugene wanted Wulf’s money, but he didn’t want Wulf involved. Eugene wanted to be the boss. And then Eugene got all in a snit and said he wanted Wulf to buy him out. Eugene wanted fifty million dollars or he was going public with my research. So Wulf killed him. Wulf doesn’t mess around. He’s got four BlueBecs on pads for me. You know what they cost? About two million apiece. Not that it’s a big loss. He’ll get all that money back and more. Once I’m up to speed, I’ll be able to destroy every power grid in the country. They’ll pay us what ever we want.”
“You’d blackmail cities?”
“Yeah. How awesome is that?”