Sanity

  We turn a sharp corner on the narrow road and the town is spread out below us, the big cruise ships docked in the distance, and a sliver of sun shines down on the water through a break in the clouds.

  “And now the waiting and watching is over, Dale?”

  Kevin eases the SUV carefully down the steepest part of the road. The streets are wet but it’s stopped raining and the sunshine is spreading over the harbor and the office buildings near the water, an eye opening after a long sleep.

  “Well, we can’t wait forever, and neither can the world, Cal. Lisa told me you have a very clear appreciation of the situation. We’re coming up on an inflection point, in 10 years or less. Perhaps much less. Duke was a genius in more ways than one; he saw the future amazingly accurately, not in every detail and development, but his outline 40 years ago was basically correct. And he devised a system to change that future. ReHumanism.

  “We’re asking you to join us. No one can stop the world, but a few, a very few, can impact it, mold it, change it. You’re one of them. Join us.”

  We’ve reached the bottom of the steep hill now and I can see the best hotel in town a few blocks away, shining in the sun, a tree covered mountain jutting up behind it. I look into the rearview mirror. Kevin is an excellent driver and checks it every few seconds. I catch his eye and give him a little smile. He smiles back.

  “Would you pull over for a minute, Kevin?”

  In a few more seconds he eases into a yellow-painted piece of curb.

  For the first time in a long time I turn and look at Lisa, though I know she’s been looking at me all along.

  “You’re forgiven, fully, for slipping me the mickey. No blame. I am, however, going to extract some payment for it. Open the door and step out on the sidewalk, Lisa.”

  She does it without hesitation, Eve starts to say something but I turn and give her a look and she stops, mouth still open.

  Kevin turns his head and smiles, a look of genuine amusement.

  I slide out, get my feet on the ground, tuck the holster and mag pouch temporarily inside my belt so that no one sees them until I can get them on properly.

  I lean back inside the car, my left hand resting on the seat. It’s still warm from Lisa’s bottom.

  “Eve, there’s something you started to say back in the woods that I finished for you, but you had it completely backwards.”

  She swivels to look directly at me, intent. Anders is blocked by the headrest but I see his head tilt around it. Kevin is looking over his shoulder, straight at me. He’s already laughing, but only to himself, yet.

  “You think The Outfit is the ‘Special Branch’ of ReHume, like an elite unit inside Scotland Yard. An elite unit that somehow doesn’t know it’s just an arm. No.

  “Phil Duke joined The Outfit in 1949, in part to push the space travel project forward, in part because he had become worthy. ReHumanism was his brilliant idea, to accelerate what he called Big Picture, as carried out by The Outfit. Big Picture is the breaking of the cycle. The Manhood of Humanity. The first adult human civilization, as Heinlein put it. Not perfection, there is no perfection, but sanity.

  “ReHume is in service to Big Picture. ReHume is the Outer Church. Duke told me so himself.”

  I hear Lisa gasp behind me.

  But Kevin laughs, with great amusement, though it sounds like a box of rocks being shaken hard. He turns to look at Eve.

  “You’ve got a ways to go yet, hon, and I’m going to teach you the lessons. A good bit of what you’ve believed since you were in ‘initiated’ back in college was just a false front. You’ve gotten a little too self-important for someone who only has a piece of the thing, Eve. I’m going to correct that.”

  He looks back at me, still smiling.

  “I didn’t think the Rite of the Stone would do you any harm, maybe even do you some good, so I approved,” he says. “I see it did. But now I reckon you’ve got bigger fish to fry.”

  I chuckle at him, turn back to Eve. “Yeah, I don’t hold it against you, like I said back at the mine. It opened up my mind that little bit more. Yours, too.”

  I stand up, turn around and look at Lisa.

  She licks her lips once, nods. She’s ready to be taken. Somewhere new.

  I turn back and squat down, look into the car again, look them in the eyes.

  “Here’s what’s going to happen next. Dale, I won’t be working in ReHume, but I’ll be working with it, when needed. I think that part of the op has turned out even more effective than Duke planned.

  “I’m getting back to Big Picture, and the core of that is space travel. That hasn’t been as fast or effective as Duke and Heinlein and the others planned. And now we’ve got to get it done, while we can. We’ve got to get significant colonies and resources off Earth as soon as possible, and that’s sooner than most anyone thinks. Summa is going to start directing a lot of capital to working with the private space launch industry. I’m going to be driving that. Lisa is going to divert from missile guidance and use her talents there.”

  “Wait a sec…” Eve says with a touch of anger, but Kevin gives her a look that freezes her. He doesn’t need to say a word.

  I guess Eve really did find out how to get people to perform to their potential.

  “By the way, exactly what drug is it that you use for the Rite? Works fast, unconsciousness for a number of hours, quick recovery, no hangover. I’ve never heard of anything like it.”

  “It’s something ReHume developed and has never released to anyone else. For obvious reasons,” Kevin says. “We all take it for the Rite, at least for the last 15 years—and by the way, none of us knew exactly when it was coming.”

  “Well it’s left me feeling fine,” I say. “That’s good, because Lisa and I have some things we’ve been putting off, that we’re going to take care of. We’ll find our way back to the Summa offices in a few days. I’ll talk to you then, Kevin, about the details.”

  I fix Eve Hart with a stare like the basilisk. “Don’t bother calling, and especially, don’t try to track us, Eve. I don’t know where we’re going yet. Maybe a cabin on one of those islands out there. Maybe somewhere else.

  “We’ll walk from here, Kevin.”

  I turn my back on them, slam the door shut with my elbow, fold Lisa’s arm in mine. I arch my eyebrows a little and she laughs. Behind us, Kevin pulls away from the curb.

  I put my hand in the small of her back, turn her and she relaxes into me, our faces a few inches apart.

  “Were you serious about going to a cabin on one of these islands or was that just to throw them off?” she says.

  “I’d love to spend a few days in a cabin with you. A cabin way, way back in the woods. Maybe we’ll do that, someday. But right now, you’ve got a lot of explaining to do, Lisa. I’m not waiting much longer to hear it.”

  “There’s a little hotel right around the corner,” she says.

  Acknowledgements

  Neovictorian

  To Hans, Ellie, Nick and Mr. Swift for their reading of earlier drafts and most useful critiques. Thank you!

  The great writers whose work I eagerly absorbed over a lifetime naturally had a tremendous influence on this book. I’m grateful to them all, that they mustered the Will to produce their works. In some rough chronological order they include Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Robert Heinlein, Ayn Rand, Mickey Spillane, Ian Fleming, Thomas Pynchon, Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson.

  The ending of L. Ron Hubbard’s Final Blackout always makes me cry.

  The late William Patterson Jr.’s fine biography of Heinlein, In Dialogue With His Century, recounts several “mystical” experiences Heinlein had as a boy. I had a few, as well.

  Neal Van Wahr

  My main role in Sanity was as technical adviser and making sure that Neovic didn’t stray into fantasy territory. I won some of those arguments.

  I read G. Gordon Liddy’s memorable biography Will as a young man and was fortunate enough to meet him personally a few years late
r. I advocated for him to appear here somewhere, which in a sense, he does.

  About the Authors

  Neovictorian lives in Alaska. His hobbies include firearms, edged weapons and making The World’s Best Martini.

  Neal Van Wahr was raised in Northern California and served in law enforcement for over thirty years. He currently lives in Texas, and shoots his pistols a lot.