The Mutant Mindbender

[Note: This is not a sexy story. It is more like a 1950's pulp science fiction novel]

[Note: This is not a sexy story. It is more like a 1950's pulp science fiction novel]

Chapter 13: Steps

Chapter 13: Steps

Steps.

In a galaxy full of odd and unusual places, Steps had to rank as one of the most unusual. It was a fractured planet--not politically, or geographically, or even chemically, but fractured in time.

The planet itself had hundreds of such fractures. On a daily basis one could walk down the street and see a future version of oneself, thirty seconds into the future, walking ahead. Or a past version, walking thirty seconds behind. People jumped forward and backwards in time on a regular basis.

That made for a very confusing life for the inhabitants, who needed a firm grip on reality just to get along. Fortunately there were some limits to the craziness of time travel.

For one thing, people never jumped more than a few minutes forwards or backwards in time. And when it happened, people never jumped to a different location, so the disruption was relatively minimal,

Steps was an independent planet, not aligned with the League, or the Directorate, or the Slurians, or any other major power. Other planets coveted the power of Steps, and the Steppian government cleverly played one power off against another to retain their neutrality.

There was one place on Steps that was special, even by local standards. It was referred to as the High Point. Although it was twenty stories up, that wasn't how it got its name. After all, a twenty story building on August, or even a lesser planet, would not be considered very high. The High Point got its name from the particular properties of the place. People standing in that particular spot could see hours ahead into the future, or sometimes even days. A building was built directly under the High Point so people could get to that point, twenty stories up, and experience the greatest visions that time travel had to offer.

Well, at least sosomepeople could experience it. The High Point was jealously guarded by Steppian security forces, and access was handed out only to those with influence, or, baring that, to the highest bidders.

It was there that Mongo was being taken to. Mongo could see futures on his own, but his ability was limited to seeing a short time into the future. It was felt that if Mongo could get into the High Point, the combination of his abilities and the unique nature of the place might allow him to see months or years into the future on other planets.

That's why a four man Column team had taken Mongo to Steps. Unfortunately, the Column had lost contact with the team guarding Mongo shortly after the Mind Bender and the Twister had left August.

*********

The ship carrying the Mind Bender and the Twister entered orbit around Steps. The disrupting time fragmenting effects only came into play inside the planet's atmosphere, so they didn't have to worry about being affected by it, yet.

A hologram of those silvery eyes appeared on their holoreceiver.

"We're here," the Mind Bender told him. "Where is our target?" He was referring, of course, to Mongo.

"I believe he's currently being held in a safehouse of the Claritan corporation," said the Terrible Thinker.

"Why would he be there?" the Mind Bender asked.

"We did not immediately have the resources to apprehend the precognitor on Steps, so I had to contract out the job," said the Terrible Thinker.

"To the Claritan corporation?"

The Claritan corporation was the largest multiplanetary corporation in the galaxy. In addition to producing a wide range of products and services, it was adept at using, changing, or bending the law to suit its bottom line: profit. It had a full range of espionage specialists on many planets capable of doing its dirty work.

"Actually, I contracted the job out to the Union," said the Terrible Thinker.

"Then why would the Union keep him in a safehouse of the Claritan corporation?" said the Mind Bender. "The Union and the Claritan corporation hate each other."

"The Union isn't keeping him there," said the Terrible Thinker. "The Claritan corporation is."

"You're confusing me," said the Mind Bender.

Those silvery eyes stared out at him from the darkness. "I originally contracted out the job to the Union. The Union took the precognitor, but betrayed me, intending to keep the precognitor for themselves. I anticipated this betrayal, and alerted the Claritan corporation to the presence of the precognitor. The Claritan corporation stole him from the Union."

"So the Claritan corporation has proven more reliable than the Union?"

"No," said the Terrible Thinker. "They intended to betray me too. I knew that from the beginning. So I informed the Slurians where to find the precognitor, and they currently have the Claritan safehouse surrounded."

"You sure involved a lot of unreliable parties," said the Mind Bender. "Why didn't you have your own operatives apprehend the precognitor?"

"I didn't have any operatives on Steps that could do so," said the Terrible Thinker.

"If you knew the precognitor was going to be somewhere on Steps, why didn't you have agents ready?" said the Mind Bender.

"I did not know he would be on Steps," the Terrible Thinker sighed. "One of my informants saw the precognitor leaving the military section of Sarney Sarittenden Spaceport in the company of several Column agents. He did not, however, manage to find out where they were going."

"If you have no agents on Steps, how do you know what's been happening?" the Mind Bender asked.

"I do have agents on Steps," said the Terrible Thinker. "But they are agents, not operatives."

"What does that mean?" said the Mind Bender.

The Terrible thinker sighed. He hated having to explain himself like this. "It means they, the two agents, are skilled at surveillance, but not operations, like kidnap and retrieval. I had no idea where the precognitor would be sent when my agents saw him leave August. He could have been sent on a mission. I had no idea he would be sent to do precognition research on Steps. If I had known, I would have sent a capture team."

"So that's why you had to use all these different groups," said the Mind Bender.

"Precisely," said the Terrible Thinker. "Now, we are wasting precious time. Go and retrieve the precognitor."

"And what of the mind reader, Dalbo Alto?" said the Mind Bender. "When do I get him?"

"He's only a few hours behind you, along with Clifford Croft" said the Terrible Thinker. "If you stand still long enough, he'll find you."

"Good," said the Mind Bender, smiling.

"Not good," said the Terrible Thinker. "Don't underestimate Clifford Croft. He's immune to your powers, you know."

"Not to mine," said the Twister, with a gleam in his eye.

"I'm not worried about Croft," said the Mind Bender. "I can handle him."

"There's also the distorting effect of Steps-"

The Mind Bender gave the Terrible Thinker a dismissive wave. "We'll handle it."

The Terrible Thinker stared out at them, as if evaluating their potential for success, and then his image slowly faded.

Croft's ship landed at one of spaceports near the capital of Steps, also called Steps. There were three medium sized spaceports in the area around Steps. He landed at the one closest to the city center.

Croft took a step to exit the spaceship, and-

suddenly he was outside of the spaceship, in the spaceport terminal. Everything was tinged a light blue.

Croft, to his surprise, saw himself, Preston, and Dalbo meeting the Silencer.

"Croft," said the Silencer, by way of greeting.

"Hello, John," said Croft, the other Croft.

"Is this the one I'm supposed to be guarding?" said the Silencer, indicating Dalbo.

"Yes," said Croft.

"Your jacket is blue," said Dalbo, staring at the Silencer.

"That's right."

Dalbo leaned forward. The Silencer reflexively drew his blaster, drawing so fast his hand moved in a blur,

"Easy, John," said Croft.

"Blue," said Dalbo.

"Yes, it's blue," said the Silencer, lowering his weapon.

"Not light blue, not dark blue, but not medium blue either," said Dalbo. "Certainly not medium blue. What kind of blue is it?"

"Graftonite blue," said the Silencer.

"A little lighter than medium blue, but darker than light blue," said Dalbo, totally ignoring the response. "May I have a sample?"

"What?" said the Silencer, looking around.

"A sample, a piece of cloth, a color sample, to add to my spectrum collection," said Dalbo.

The Silencer wheeled around and raised his blaster, just as a blaster bolt whizzed by them. The Silencer started to fire, and-

"Croft?" said Preston.

"What?" said Croft.

"You're blocking the exit. Are we going to enter the spaceport or just stay here in the ship?" said Preston.

Croft looked around. They were still in the ship.

Nodding, he stepped out.

The Silencer greeted them in the terminal.

"Croft," he said neutrally. He wore his typical blue denim and had blasters holstered on both legs. He also had a laser rifle strapped over his shoulder. He was obviously ready to generate a lot of revenue shooting his weapons.

"Hello, John," said Croft

"Is this the one I'm supposed to be guarding?" said the Silencer, indicating Dalbo.

"Yes," said Croft, frowning oddly.

Dalbo peered at the Silencer.

"Don't lean forward, Dalbo, the Silencer might hurt you," Croft advised.

Dalbo didn't lean forward. But he did say, "His jacket-"

"Is blue, not medium, dark, or light blue, I know," said Croft.

"You do?" said Preston.

"Silencer, turn around," said Croft. "What do you see?"

The Silencer turned around, and stared for a moment.

"Passengers...," said the Silencer. "And armed men, trying to blend in with the passengers."

"They're about to shoot us," said Croft. "Would you mind shooting them first?"

The Silencer whipped out his blasters and open fire. There were screams in the spaceport, and people ducked for cover.

But in a moment, it was over.

"Four shots," said the Silencer, as Croft went over to examine the bodies. Of course, there were only four bodies. The Silencer wouldn't have needed more than one shot for each. But the Silencer had just earned $80,000 credits in the space of a few seconds.

"Who were they?" said Preston.

Croft looked at one of them. "They look like Slurians."

"How did they know we were here?" Preston asked.

"They could have gotten a vision, like I did," said Croft. "But more likely than not the Terrible Thinker tipped them off. It sounds like something he would do, probably to slow us down."

He heard the whir of a siren.

"We'd better get out of here before we get caught," said Croft. "Steps is a neutral planet. They might not like us shooting people, even if they are Slurian spies."

********

They left the spaceport in a hurry, and obtained a groundcar. Right before they had landed Croft had received an update from the Chief. A disturbance had been reported in a certain neighborhood on Steps.

Disturbance was one word for it.

When they got there, they found themselves in a residential area. Bodies littered the ground. Several of the houses had been shot up by blaster fire.

"What happened here?" said Croft.

Suddenly, everything turned blue. The bodies were gone, but there were people running around him, firing at one of the houses. Blaster fire from inside the house cut down some of the attackers, but others made it to the house. There was more blaster fire inside. He saw Mongo, being dragged away by two of the attackers.

Mongo looked directly at him, which was odd, as people in the other time frame shouldn't have noticed him. And then Mongo spoke to him! "Yes, late you are, always late!" he hissed, staring Croft in the eye. And then he was dragged away.

Croft shifted back into the present. "I think I just saw what happened."

"I did too," said Preston. "I shifted into the past. And Mongo was there. He even insulted me. I thought the time shifting made one invisible in whatever time frame they were sent to."

"I guess that Mongo, with his innate ability, has more perception during the time shifts," said Croft. He looked at the bodies. "It looks like two different groups were fighting over him."

"The Terrible Thinker's people... and who else?" Preston asked.

"I don't know," said Croft. He checked over the other bodies. They were indeed dead. "We need more information."

"Any ideas how to get it?" Preston asked.

Croft looked at Dalbo. Dalbo was great at reading minds, but only those of the living. "Let's go to the High Point," he said.

********

The Mind Bender looked at Croft, Dalbo, Preston, and the Silencer through electrobinoculars, several blocks away. "The mind reader is right there," said the Mind Bender. "Let's go get him now."

"The Thinker said we were supposed to retrieve the precognitor first," said the Twister.

"Who cares what he said? Dalbo is right here," said the Mind Bender.

"No," said the Twister. "We do it as the Thinker said."

"And what if I choose not to?" said the Mind Bender.

"Then you can face Croft alone," said the Twister. "That didn't work out so well the last time around, did it?"

The Mind Bender's face darkened. "What if I persuade you to assist me?"

"If you do that, you had better be ready to take control of my mind every minute of every day," said the Twister. "Because if I get free for even one second, I'll snap your body in half." He was saying, almost word for word, what the Terrible Thinker had instructed him to say in case of such an eventuality.

The Mind Bender paused, considering his options. "All right," he said finally. "We'll go after the other one first. But then we're coming back for this one, agreed?"

"That was the plan all along," said the Twister. At least, it was until the Terrible Thinker activated Contingency Four.

********

The High Point. That was the name given for the location on Steps with the largest and most far reaching time fractures. It was said that one could see for hours, or even days or weeks into the future from this location, and the futures that one saw could take place anywhere, even on other planets.

Naturally, the government of Steps jealously guarded this location quite securely. The League had arranged, for a very generous fee, to have Mongo go to the High Point to see how his natural powers would react to the unique properties of the place. If a regular individual could see days or weeks into the future, perhaps Mongo could see months or even years into the future.

Unfortunately Mongo had never reached the High Point. Even more unfortunate was that Croft didn't have clearance to go there himself. Appointments were made weeks or even months in advance, after intense negotiations and even more intense payments. Croft didn't have that kind of time.

The High Point itself was a building with a large tower. The location of the High Point was on the top of the tower, a mere twenty stories up. There were anti-aircraft emplacements on the roof to prevent unauthorized access by parties who hadn't paid to be there.

"I expect you'll want me to shoot our way in," said the Silencer, trying not to look pleased. He would set his blasters for stun, of course, as he would in any situation involving innocent third parties. But he expected good payment for each person he shot.

"Not necessarily," said Croft. He took out his datapad and started pressing buttons.

When he was done, he turned to Preston. "You and the Silencer stay here." He turned to Preston. "Make sure John doesn't try to shoot anyone unnecessarily as a revenue enhancement measure."

Croft turned to Dalbo. "You come with me."

They went to the entrance. Four stern looking guards stared out at them. "Halt!" said one of them.

Croft showed his datapad. "My name is Lifford Loft, I'm deputy minister of security."

The guard took the datapad. He checked the ID electronically, and then the picture on it, to see that it matched Croft's face. It did.

"Unauthorized visits are not allowed," said the guard. He checked. "You are not on the schedule."

"Who is in charge of authorizing visits?" Croft inquired.

"The Ministry of Security," said the guard.

"Where am I from?" Croft asked.

"The Ministry of Security," said the guard.

"Then I hereby authorize myself to enter," said Croft.

The guard looked uncertain. "I'm not sure you can do that."

"But I am," said Croft. He brushed past the guard, with Dalbo in tow.

"Wait!" said the guard. "Who is accompanying you?"

Croft turned back briefly. "I'm afraid you don't have the security clearance to know."

And he walked inside, Dalbo in tow. "Why did you not simply make up another lie?" Dalbo asked.

"Bureaucratic guards like that kind of answer," said Croft.

They passed through two more security checkpoints before getting to an elevator. When they got inside, Dalbo asked, "Why did you bring me here?"

"You can read my mind, can't you tell?"

Dalbo made a face. "Your mind is filled with all sorts of unaesthetic thoughts, making it very unpleasant to wade through."

"My condolences," said Croft. "It's occurred to me that if any random person goes to the High Point, he may see a number of futures, but perhaps none relevant to what he is looking for." He looked at Dalbo. "However, perhaps one who has a specific mental ability might be able to train his thoughts, and find more specifically what we are looking for."

"It seems to me that Mongo would be better at this than I would," said Dalbo.

"Yes, but Mongo is not here. In fact, if you have been following along, we are here looking for Mongo," said Croft.

"It is not necessary to always speak to me with such contempt," said Dalbo.

"Are you reading my mind again?" Croft asked.

When they got to the roof they were stopped by another security checkpoint. These guards insisted they had to have an appointment.

"Everyone on the roof must have an appointment," said one of the guards.

"Where is your appointment?" said Croft.

"What?" said the guard.

"Your appointment," said Croft. "You are on the roof; where is your appointment?"

"We're guarding this place, we have no appointments."

"No appointments? I will make a note of it," said Croft.

Suddenly, the guard's eyes grew wide. "He's going to draw a blaster on us!" He must have seen into the future.

He reached for his own gun, but Croft was faster, drawing his and stunning the guard. Croft turned and shot the second as he was drawing his.

Two other guards on the far side of the roof started running towards them. They had their blasters out and were firing.

Croft got on his knees and carefully aimed. Blaster bolts whizzed by him.

Croft carefully squeezed off one shot. One guard fell.

A blaster bolt flew over Croft's shoulder.

Croft carefully fired a second shot. The last guard fell.

Croft stood up. "As you can see, it is quality, and not quantity, which is most important."

Suddenly, everything turned blue. Croft was at the base of the tower, seeing himself arguing with the Silencer.

"What do you mean, you shot four guards?" said the Silencer. "Are you trying to cut me out of some of my fee?"

Suddenly the perspective shifted and Croft was back on the roof.

"He's not going to be happy about that," Croft muttered. He turned to Dalbo. "All right, get to it. Think of Mongo."

Dalbo made a face. "Do I have to?"

"Yes, you have to," said Croft.

"But he's so uncouth," said Dalbo.

"Come on," said Croft.

Dalbo sighed, and concentrated.

Chapter 14: Mongo's Wild Ride

Chapter 14: Mongo's Wild Ride

The time: three days earlier

"Where is the ice cream?" Mongo asked.

"We don't have any ice cream," said Agent Blanner. He looked around the safehouse, where two fellow operatives stood. One of them had thought he had spotted someone watching them as they had come into the safe house. They were on the lookout for their watcher now.