The Monolith Murders

by Lorne L. Bentley

  “Maureen, your description of her sounds more like it was coming from a Dean Koontz novel than from a competent practicing clinical psychologist.”

  “I know, it’s just that I’ve never seen someone as pure—as pure . . . .” Maureen couldn’t get the word out.

  Fred said, “Pure evil?”

  Maureen didn’t respond.

  Fred hadn’t put together all the clues as to Donna’s changed behavior, but he knew Maureen was correct. And he knew that Donna was going to release all of her fury in a way this town had never experienced once she gets the device implanted.

  The phone rang. Fred hurriedly picked it up. On the other end was Jim. “Fred, I’ve got some news for you.”

  “Donna’s been caught!” Fred uttered optimistically.

  “No, unfortunately nothing like that, but I just talked to the warden in the prison where she was held for the past four years. I thought you might want to get in touch with her to obtain more information for your investigation. I’ll give you her number. I suggest you arrange to see her.”

  “Sounds good, I’ll go there as soon as I can, but first I want to talk to Mr. Dodd at AU to obtain a greater insight into Donna’s capabilities. Maybe with an expanded understanding of her and how she functions, the better I’ll be able to defeat her.”

  “Okay, Fred. By the way, I never told you about this but that night at your house when Donna escaped I almost caught her but she disappeared when I was less than fifteen feet from her. I couldn’t figure it out. I checked everywhere in that yard where she had escaped to, but she was simply not there. That still troubles the hell out of me, but I know we’ll catch her somehow, Fred.”

  * * *

  Fred wanted to see Dodd because he felt that, with Dodd’s scientific background and his past dealings with Donna, he might offer an objective viewpoint of what made her function. When Fred called, Dodd agreed to meet with him immediately.

  They met in Dodd’s office seated across from each other at a small conference table. On the cream colored wall above the table was a framed quote, “Quantum mechanics— the dream stuff is made from.” In the middle of the table was an ashtray with the company’s logo on it. But there were no dark nicotine residue nor hints of past ashes in the tray.

  Then Fred noticed that Dodd was “smoking” an electronic cigarette. “Does that really work?” Fred asked.

  “I don’t really know yet, it’s only been three days. I was smoking three packs a day; and as a scientific type of person I knew my odds of getting some major disease as the end result of my foolishness was only a matter of time. I can even quote you the odds on what type of malady I would likely incur.”

  “But there’s no nicotine in that thing, is there?” Fred asked.

  “None at all. But we smokers become conditioned to having something in our mouths, and this false cigarette is a tactile substitute for that. It also provides the illusion of smoke being exited from the end –a visual substitute. As you can see the end actually lights up—another visual aid. All of these substitutes for the real thing help reinforce in my mind that what I have in my mouth is a legitimate cigarette—in form, and to a degree in function. Of course what’s missing is the almost narcotic hold that cigarettes have on me. But I had to try something, and right now this is it.”

  Fred didn’t want to belabor Dodd’s need for a substitute for smoking any longer. “Ok, let’s get to the ESP device. How does it work, and what additional power will Donna have if it’s implanted?”

  As Dodd slowly glazed at the ceiling to help organize his thoughts, artificial smoke in the form of water vapor rose from his cigarette and followed the same gradual upward path as his eyes. It bumped softly against the ceiling tiles and dissipated leaving droplets of moisture in its wake.

  Finally, Dodd spoke. To Fred, his speech was almost as emotional and eloquent as a young enthusiastic Baptist preacher’s first sermon. “Fred, I see ESP as a natural type of evolution of the brain. When I look at the human brain I perceive much more than four pounds of gray, gelatin matter, water, electrical impulses and chemicals. What I see is the amazing progression of millions of years of development. If you look at the brain stem, at one time in the evolution of vertebrates, it comprised the total brain.”

  Fred asked, “That would have had to be very basic, very primitive?”

  “Sure, it was and still is. Most of our instinctive and automatic processes continue to originate from there. We scientists fondly refer to it as the reptile brain. It first developed in fish around 500 million years ago; and, Fred, it still exists in our body today. Directly on top of the reptile brain is the cerebral cortex. That represents a major step in the progression of mammals.”

  “What does that do?”

  “It’s the seat of all of our emotional responses and our value judgments. It originated around 150 million years ago in small mammals.

  Dodd continued, “Finally we have the neo cortex. That development is relatively recent; it goes back only about 2 to 3 million years ago. That component provides us with our vivid imagination as well as our learning ability. It’s what makes us human and superior to all the other mammals on this planet.”

  Fred asked the logical extension to Dodd’s premise. “So when a new component of our brain develops, do the older elements normally become useless, sort of like tonsils or the appendix—phased out of functional existence?”

  “Not at all, they remain both functional and interconnected with other parts of the brain as well. They provide constant feedback to each other. However, the more recent additions to the brain tend to become the controllers of the earlier brain functions.”

  “Look,” said Fred. “I’m a religious man; I have a hard time believing in this evolution stuff. I hold to the intelligent design theory.”

  “That’s your choice, Fred. However one can be religious and still embrace evolution. Remember, God may be static but world religions are not.”

  ”I don’t get you. Religion has been around for thousands of years.”

  “Yes, that’s true, but not in the same form. Remember at one time we believed that the sun revolved around the earth and we thought that the earth was the center of the universe. Our firm religious beliefs drove our misguided scientific beliefs. Copernicus, a scientist, changed that false precept when he dared to suggest that we were not the center of the universe. At one time, anyone possessing any ESP capability would have been regarded as a witch and burned at the stake. Religion is in constant motion; it’s a paradigm. It changes slowly as science proves, even to the most inflexible zealots, that some beliefs are unfounded. Of course, we will always have the ignorant in our society; those that believe we never traveled to the moon or that a Christian president is a Muslim. In my mind, God gave us the ability to continue to develop in order for our species to survive. Many organisms devolved out of existence because they didn’t have the ability to adjust to a changing environment. Wouldn’t a loving God want us to continue to flourish as our environment is disrupted by global warming, bombarded by massive pollution, or assaulted in some other ways in which nature takes its revenge on man’s excesses?”

  Fred was feeling increasingly uncomfortable with the way the conversation was going, but he needed to know more so that he could counter Donna in some more balanced way.

  “Okay, now tell me about what made Donna so special.”

  Dodd wouldn’t give up on his hypothesis. “Fred, have you ever had the feeling that someone was looking at you and you turned around and sure enough they were?”

  Fred had to admit that it happened to him often.

  “Fred, that’s a form of ESP and it clearly provides a type of early defense for us. When someone is looking at us without our apparent knowledge, the brain sniffs it out as a mild defensive alert. It doesn’t mobilize us to take action to fight or flee, but it does let us know that something is happening that in fact could be a potential problem for us. Fred, I checked into all the scientific reports from a century ag
o; that unique ability didn’t exist back then. It’s a relatively recent phenomena and it has been developed as an additional evolutionary defensive mechanism for our species. Other ESP capabilities are continuously being developed, but at this stage the number of people that possess them are relatively few. But as Darwin in effect stated, the few people that hold extraordinary capabilities will become the earth’s survivors and their genetic predisposition will eventually promulgate to new generations. I believe eventually these exceptional people will no longer be rare. Future generations will all share these magnificent traits and they will become as common as is your current ability to discern that someone is looking at you from behind.”

  “Interesting,” said Fred. “How long do you believe that will take?”

  ‘Unfortunately, ESP abilities will not promulgate with the speed of the major technical breakthroughs of the last century which have allowed us to live longer, have more spare time on our hands and communicate with the speed of light across the planet. Technical advancements ricochet around the world very quickly. When Edison invented the light bulb he provided the information for others to replicate his breakthrough via the written word. That data was received and processed by the entire world in less then a decade. The brain doesn’t function that way. In order to pass ESP capacity along to those that don’t possess it, we either have to wait a million years or so, or—”

  “—Or what?” said Fred.

  “Or to propagate that ability immediately we have to decode the process, program it and introduce it as an artificial component of the brain. At AU we have personnel with tremendous ESP skills and we have, through neuroimaging, found the exact areas of the brain where those skills develop.”

  “Where is that?” Fred asked.

  “Every known ESP ability is located in the neocortex.”

  “So when Donna had the ESP devise inserted, what special talents did she gain?”

  “She had the talent, though somewhat diluted, of a confluence of all of our ESP analysts’ abilities.”

  “Which are?”

  “Mind reading; the ability to take over another person’s brain for a limited period and see what they see by entering their primary visual cortex; control their thoughts; effect both remote viewing and mind over matter capabilities.”

  “My God, that’s scary!” Fred interjected. “I knew she was powerful, but I never realized how much.”

  “In a God fearing person, Fred, it wouldn’t be scary, but in Donna’s case, yes. I agree it was as scary as it could possibly be.”

  “Were all of those ESP abilities in Donna equally strong; or were some more advanced in their development?”

  “I can give you a couple of answers relative to that. The capabilities she held were a somewhat watered down version of that which our better analysts possess. Whenever we attempt to construct a model, it’s never quite as advanced or comprehensive as the original. Most of her new-found abilities came from a synthesis of the special capabilities that Marv Atwell had. Of course, we focused on him because he was more ESP developed than any of our other analysts.”

  “Well, that’s good news that she only had a partial ability.”

  “Yes. But now the bad news. We know that the module that was formerly in Donna’s brain is subject to an ESP learning process. We know because we built it that way. It interacted with other parts of her brain, it was nourished and advanced by constant feedback; it continued to develop even during her sleep periods. We created it almost as a living entity, one that’s far from static but capable of continuous development and evolvement.”

  “And just how long does that process take to fully mature?”

  “Well, unfortunately, right after we implanted the thing in Donna, we lost her cooperation and our ability to monitor her progress; so we really don’t know. We just know that if the device hadn’t been removed she would still be evolving.”

  “But I thought you said these ESP advancements would take a long time.”

  “My statement was associated with the relative slow process of nature; but this is an artificially engendered process which unfolds rapidly in a real time environment.”

  “I have a final question; you said that the cerebral cortex now controls the older, original brain.”

  “That’s correct.”

  “Suppose in someone like Donna, that process was reversed? What would happen?”

  “You mean if the reptile brain became the controller? That’s a highly academic question, but if it could happen, Donna would respond to perceived threats in an aggressive reflexive manner. She would unleash her powers without constraint because there would no longer be a mental restriction.”

  “Almost like pure evil?” Fred asked, recalling Maureen’s uncompleted description of Donna.

  “Fred, I’m a scientist and I don’t usually employ that word, but I guess—yes, evil or baseness would be the appropriate word. Fred, we must thank God she no longer has that device.”

  Fred thought, If only he knew—Oh, my God, if he only knew!

  Chapter 13

  Fred’s next mission was to pick up his new adopted dog. When he arrived at the kennel, the vet said, “We saved Who Cares’ leg but we had to put a cast on it to hold it in place until it fully heals. She’s such a small dog that we had to use a human aluminum finger cast to accomplish it.”

  Fred couldn’t believe the size of the vet bill. Maybe we need a Medicaid program for stray dogs, he thought. But knowing Maureen, when I tell her about it I’m sure she will champion the cause, regardless of the expense.

  Fred spent a few minutes in his yard playing with Molly and Who Cares and then took them inside. After a lot of sniffing and exploring on both their parts, they reached an armed truce, each settling peacefully down on the living room floor and falling asleep. Who Cares’ aluminum cast made a noisy tapping sound on the bare wood floor whenever he got up to walk around. Maureen will not be happy with that constant noise, he thought. I just hope Who Cares is housebroken, or I’ll be the one who cares.

  * * *

  Fred touched base on the phone with the warden of the Woman’s Corrective Institution. The institution was located in the outskirts of Tallahassee, a four to five hour drive from Sarasota. It was now eight a.m. Fred set the meeting time for 1 p.m., giving him fortunately no time to finish his coffee, but unfortunately also no time to think about having breakfast before he left.

  As he started to leave his house, Sue Granton knocked on the front door. Fred had not made up his mind relative to Sue, but Maureen had kindled a rapid and strong friendship with her. As long as Maureen liked her, that was good enough for Fred; and Maureen did have an ability to quickly evaluate people, recognizing their faults as well as their strengths.

  Fred asked, “How’s your tooth?”

  “What tooth?”

  “The tooth that’s causing you pain.”

  “Oh, yeah. Oh, I took some pain medication and for the moment it’s all right.”

  At that moment Maureen walked into the living room. It was obvious to Fred, based on the glow on her face that an enduring friendship had already developed between the two.

  * * *

  Fred hopped in his car and within an hour he was zipping on his way up I-75 north, passing the Tampa I-4 exit which would have taken him in the direction of Disney World and the metropolis of Orlando. In a couple more hours he was approaching Lake City near the southern Georgia border. His stomach was pleading for nourishment and his bladder was about to detonate—he pulled off at a McDonald’s just off the interstate. He ordered a couple of their dollar specials with the addition of a large orange juice. He ate and drank his meal in the car while he drove, something that Maureen continuously cautioned him about. “One of these days you’ll wreck that car trying to eat and drive,” she had told him many times. As was usually the case, he ignored her warning. He had turned west merging into the I-10 west interstate which would shortly take him into the heart of the panhandle.

  Less
than an hour later he pulled up at the guard’s station at the prison. He showed his police ID, and the guard directed him to a large parking area next to the prison. After parking his car, he proceeded to a second guard location in front of a large thick steel door. Displaying his ID again, the guard waved him in. Another guard was seated on the other side of the door. When Fred again showed his identification, the guard directed him to a battleship gray door with a stainless steel plaque positioned at eye level. It was embossed with the word “Warden.”

  As Fred entered, the receptionist looked up from her half completed crossword puzzle. “You must be Lieutenant Harris?”

  Fred nodded yes; the receptionist said, “Warden Corn is expecting you, go right in.”

  A slim, petite woman with pale pink fingernail polish, who in Fred’s mind was much too attractive to be a warden, issued a welcoming smile as he entered. Fred noticed that her eyes were bloodshot red, and noticeable dark circles had formed under them. He also noticed that one of her fingernails looked as if it had been bitten off. He suspected she had been unsuccessfully trying to deal with the ramifications of Donna’s prison escape.

  Fred introduced himself, and shook her hand lightly. Fred said, “Warden, as I mentioned on the phone I’m interested in background information on Donna Lang. I’m curious as to what she was like during her imprisonment and what ingenious method she used to escape.”

  “Donna was an interesting prisoner; she didn’t cause any trouble; but it was obvious that her attitude had deteriorated over the time that she had been in.”

  ”In what respect, Warden?”

  “Well she didn’t cause our officers any problems, she was much too smart for that. However, our informants told us she had a deep hatred toward men; actually men in general, but recently she had developed equally bad vibes towards authority in any form.”