Encounter in Atlanta

by Ed Howdershelt

failure, Mandi concealed her irritation as she flitted upward enough to clear the handrail, then settled to the steps just below the landing so they'd be more or less eye-to-eye. Glancing around, she asked, "Is there some reason you're sitting in the stairwell?" He pointed to the crumbs on the napkin and said, "I've just been having a private snack before I head down to breakfast. Care to join me?" "I've already eaten, but I guess I could stand another coffee." Grinning, she asked, "What was that 'slow and easy unless she's on top' all about, Ed?" Stuffing the napkin into the paper cup, Cade stood up and walked downstairs past her as he said, "Just a kind of safety lecture about dealing with unconverted women." Turning to follow him, she asked, "'Dealing' with them, huh? Sounds to me as if you plan to be doing more than 'dealing' with them. Anyone in particular?" "Could be. I know some unconverted women. Wouldn't know them very long if I let myself get clumsy with them." Chuckling, Mandi said, "Likely so, but in a few days it will be better if you don't play with them at all." Glancing back at her, Cade asked, "Why's that?" Raising an eyebrow at him, Mandi grinningly said, "Think about it. A normal man can squirt about how far? Three feet? Once you're fully converted, you'd kill your unconverted lady." Cade stopped on the stairs and looked at her. Mandi's face was -- 'dead' serious, you could say -- and she made sense. To confirm, Cade asked, "You're saying that a week from now, you'll be my only sexual option?" Mandi's face turned glowering. "Should I slap the hell out of you now, or let you explain what you really meant?" Shaking his head, Cade said, "Sorry. Poor choice of words. But you know what I mean. No unconverted women, right?" Not terribly mollified, Mandi answered, "Right." After a moment, Cade asked, "How many converted women are there at present?" "Two." "And where are they?" "Las Vegas. One's a cop. The other runs her own business." "And there's another woman like you on Earth?" "Yes. In California." Some moments passed before Cade said, "Nope. I don't buy it," and continued down the stairs to the lobby. In a sharp tone, Mandi called after him, "Just what exactly don't you buy, Cade?" Stopping again, Cade said, "In all this time on Earth, you've only converted two women? She's converted no women? That's what I don't buy, Mandi. It may be true, but I don't believe it at this very moment. Later." With that, he opened the lobby door and left the stairwell. Cade wanted to eat and haul his ass back up to Beth's room for what might be his last sexual romp for a long time, the way things seemed to be going. In fact, he did believe what she'd said about soon being too dangerous for unconverted women. But he didn't for a moment believe that a woman who admitted converting two other women would have any hesitations about converting more if they qualified and were needed. Mandi had tapped the President for money and a place to train people and she'd felt it necessary and justified to convert him without asking how he felt about it, so there was a definite need for convertees. It was as simple as that. She'd need them in both genders, too, if she were training enough of them to justify requesting a place to train them. The sense of total alienation would be too much for many of the convertees, otherwise. Nope. Either there already were more or there would be more convertees reasonably soon, and about half of them would be female unless Mandi planned to spend a great deal of her time servicing all her male convertees herself. Choosing a booth, Cade told the waiter to bring him one of the lunch specials. As the waiter left, Mandi came to stand by the booth. "Mind if I join you?" "Have a seat. Want me to call the waiter back?" Shaking her head as she sat down, Mandi said, "No. I'll order a coffee or something when he comes back." For long moments, the two of them simply matched gazes across the table, then Mandi said, "There are only two in Vegas. There are a few others elsewhere around the country." When Cade said nothing, Mandi asked, "Since you didn't ask about male convertees, I'll..." "I don't give a rat's ass about the men," he interrupted, "I want to know about the women. Got any in Florida?" "No. Georgia. They work with the Center for Disease Control and other agencies. In fact, they've been working with another NIA branch this weekend. As backups, you could say, in case more happened than I could handle at once. One of them was even in the look-alike contest." Sipping his water, Cade said, "Fascinating. Did you convert any of them without asking first?" With a sigh, Mandi said, "NO, and you said 'done is done', as I recall. I'm sorry and that's all I can say. I thought someone your age would be..." That rankled Cade a bit. "'Someone my age?' Would be what? That someone any other age wouldn't be, that is." Gazing hard at him across the table, Mandi said, "I'd very much appreciate it if you wouldn't interrupt me when I'm speaking, Ed. I thought you'd be considerably happier about being chosen for conversion." "That's your word for it. 'Near-total alienation' is what I'm calling it for the moment." The waiter buzzed up to the table and asked Mandi what she'd like. She ordered a coffee and the waiter told Cade that his lunch would arrive shortly, then he buzzed away again. Mandi sat back and said, "You crushed that steel rail in the stairwell. If that's an indication of your progress, you'll be able to stop a tank round with your bare hands in a week. You'll be bulletproof and no Earthly disease will be able to touch you. You'll be stronger and faster than you can possibly imagine and you may develop some of my other powers to a degree." Pausing, Mandi sipped the water the waiter had brought her and added, "And there's one more little thing. Our cells replicate, but they don't degenerate with every copy. Do you understand what that means?" "Sure. It means I may have time enough to write another few thousand books." "You don't seem very impressed with virtual immortality." "Of course I am. I'm just not letting it overshadow the fact that you're forming teams, which means that something more than you can handle alone is headed this way, and if it's bigger than you, it'll be able to squash a convertee in a heartbeat."

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Tossing her hands up, Mandi softly exclaimed, "Okay. I give up. What the hell can I possibly do to make this terrible thing I've done up to you, Ed?" "Nothing, really," said Cade. "If something that big is coming, being as much like you as possible will probably increase my chances of survival. I just wanted you to know how I felt before you pulled the same 'oh, he won't mind' trick on someone else." The waiter arrived with food as Mandi sat staring at Cade. When the waiter finished placing food on the table, Cade told him to bring another lunch special. The waiter thought he meant for Mandi and smilingly nodded at her. Cade then told him to also pack one to go. "To go, sir?" "Yup. It's going upstairs with me." "Yes, sir. One more to the table and one to go." "You got it. Thanks." When the waiter had left, Mandi smilingly asked, "Why didn't Beth come down to lunch with you?" Digging into his food, Cade said, "She needed a nap. Why were you watching us last night?" Startling imperceptibly, Mandi thought, 'He DID know!' then she said, "When you didn't come back to the room, I thought maybe you'd gotten into more trouble." Around some steak, Cade said, "Uh, huh. Glad I'm wearing boots, ma'am." He cut another piece and said, "Got a question. Am I just processing mass into energy?" "Partly. You're being restructured, which requires quite a bit of both mass and energy." "So I could probably just drink a lot of water or eat a phone book and it wouldn't matter a damn to the process?" Mandi snickered and asked, "A phone book?" "Bulk. Mass. Something to convert. It doesn't necessarily have to be food, right? Just a steady supply of mass." "I suppose so. Will you want gravy on your phone book?" "Probably wouldn't be a bad idea. You seemed surprised that I squashed that rail in the stairwell. Why? Am I ahead of schedule or something?" Nodding, she said, "It would seem so. A little, anyway." "Why would that be?" Mandi shrugged. "Your system is accepting conversion easily and you're having sex with Beth." "What does sex have to do with it?" Filching his tomato slice, she said, "All human bodily functions are closely tied to the reproductive system. Stir things up and the process can speed up considerably." "Speed up only, or also enhance the process? Could I wind up being a bit more...