The Infinite when it was Two Digits Old

by Allen Fleishman

  ***

  David sat there at the cafeteria. Something was bothering him about Phyllis. Due to a promise to his dad, he never did background checks on his friends, or even his non-friends. He decided that there were times when a person needs to break a promise. Maybe Charlie was right and her parents were divorced. He pulled up Phyllis’ records. The first thing he noticed was that there were too few. Phyllis Marks did not exist prior to four years ago. She entered college as a sophomore, seven weeks into the term, and took a split major in medical technology and teaching. She was in her fifth year, a super senior. She had been taking an extremely heavy load and would be getting two degrees in June. She got great grades. It looked like she had taken some engineering credits from a nearby tech school as well. However, before her sophomore year she did not exist. She obviously changed her name. David initiated a full search of her, including use of pictures. He directed the search to two of his CompuHead slave computers he kept for in-depth questions. He included all college students with their IDs, ATM photographs, traffic scans, and other photographs taken by surveillance cameras. He would initially focus on New England and then broaden his search to include areas east of Chicago and North of Washington. She definitely didn’t have a southern or western accent. It would be slow.

  Well, it was time to think about a problem in nano-technology. David thought, ‘How could I miniaturize a camera, without sacrificing image quality. Reproduce the eye of a gnat, using the miniaturization techniques that Maurice and I worked on? Hmm, perhaps not a gnat but a bee.’

  ***

  Three hours later, the slave computer notified him that the initial search on Phyllis had some positive results. The search picked up some additional pictures of her at a Philadelphia bank and on the New Jersey turnpike. David resumed the search after loosening the exactness of the visual hit criteria and focused on the Philadelphia, Southern New Jersey area. Forty-five minutes later, he had a stong hit. It was a picture of a seventeen-year-old girl, whose mother had been killed by a car bomb. The face was different, but she was still recognizable as Phyllis. The name was Debra Martini. After a brief search of the mother, David found little. The mother was separated, a clerk at an insurance company, paying for her home and car. Wait a second! Murray Martini was the joint owner of the home. Murray had been paying five thousand dollars a month to his separated wife. There was no family court case linking the two. It may have been an amicable, or even a trial separation. David searched further into Murray Martini. Immediately, he hit pay dirt. His old income tax form listed his profession as Foreman at the Giovetti Waste Disposal Company in Trenton and Philadelphia. Newspaper articles identified him as a lieutenant of a crime family. David was able to piece together that there was a dispute between two rival ‘families’. Although Murray was separated from his wife, she suffered the ultimate penalty of the mob war. After the murder of his wife, Murray turned against his own mob ‘family’ and turned state’s witness. He was responsible for the criminal conviction of four mob lieutenants. There was no record of him after the last trial.

  Both Murray Martini and his daughter Debra Martini, aka Phyllis Marks, were on the run from the mob. They must be in a witness protection program.

  One good thing about being who he is, is that the most secure computer disk in the world is the CompuHead disk, and ComHead had the passwords to every one of his disks. David then proceeded to search through the encrypted files of all the Philadelphia/New Jersey/New York mafia capos. David quickly found payment for the Martini hit being paid to two Newark men by a Matt ‘the Hammer’ Tortelli. Their status reports indicated little progress in finding Murray or his daughter. There was a notation that they found an Ellen Neuman, who had a close resemblance to Debra at Carnegie Mellon. But when they got close, she disappeared.

  A quick run on the Carnegie Mellon college records indicated a girl twenty pounds heavier with short red hair, but it was Phyllis. Ellen (or Debra or Phyllis) had been an electrical engineering student. The progress notes by the hit men indicated that they had looked at many colleges, but had no leads on her or her father. The last entry was 3 months ago – no progress in four years.

  David thought, ‘Should I threaten ‘the Hammer’, would that just antagonize the mobster? Should I bribe ‘the Hammer’, would that also activate him into more decisive action? Should I do both? I could get someone to do the ‘wet work’ and have this multiple time murderer killed? The Israelis owed me big, many times over. Should I divulge this information to the Feds or local police and have them take care of it? And then there is the big one – should I tell Phyllis I know?’

  ***

  David met Phyllis for dinner. He was very quiet. Finally, he said he needed to talk to her in a private place. They went back to her apartment.

  “Phyllis, I have something I need to tell you?” David’s voice had dropped. Phyllis nodded for him to continue. “I know all about Debra.”

  Phyllis turned white and with an icy cold voice, “Debra who?”

  “And Ellen and Carnegie Mellon and your dad.”

  Her hands were trembling, “I swear I won’t tell you about my father. You can kill me or …”

  “No, of course not. I’m no hit man. How could you think that? I wouldn’t, I couldn’t …”

  “How did you find out?”

  “I’m, I’m David. I just found out. Don’t worry, I would never tell your secret. Never.”

  “David YOU KEEP MY SECRET,” Phyllis was starting to get angry. She got quiet and said in a whisper, full of ice and rage. “DAVID YOU? You keep my secret? Like you keep your secret? Mister cyborg. Do you think that the hit men are bumbling fools like on TV? When they find you, I mean, when they find me, I’m dead and my father will be dead. One minute I’m laughing at the pizza parlor, the next I’m smoke and ashes. Dead. Like my mother. Dead. … Permanent. … Irrevocable. Those snakes will find me. How could you?”

  Phyllis started to cry.

  “You know, about the cyborg thing.”

  Phyllis looked at him; her red eyes stared. She started to shout. “PUL-EASE, OF COURSE I KNOW.” She lowered her voice again, after looking at the walls and windows. She continued with a voice barely above a whisper, “You’re so obvious. How could I not. I mean, the day you drank so much, you could barely stand and stay conscious, you pranced and pirouetted to pick up the flower. Anyone else as drunk as you would have a hard time walking three steps. You did gymnastics. Then you mimicked the dispatcher’s voice, I mean, any another drunk would have an impossible time saying the word ‘incident’ even with their own voice. And the Gibson incident. And the Schwartzman AutoCAD. And ‘53’ dates with Andrea. Thank god I never asked you what number pi was. You would have told me every one of its fucking infinite digits. You, David ‘Look at me, I’m a fucking cyborg trying to pretend I’m a real human,’ Smith. I mean Smith, what a give-away stupid name.”

  Phyllis’ face was glowing red. She continued in a whisper, “and you want to keep my secret? David Smith, or what ever your real name is, if this gets out, I’m dead. Murdered. This is no game. Or do you think that you are SO smart you can protect yourself from a bomb or a bullet with your computer or your dog. PUL-EASE.

  “David Smith, I’m sorry I ever met you. I wish you never heard my name. If you were my friend, you would forget everything. That I ever existed.”

  David started to cry, “I swear they couldn’t track me down. I copied their hard drive. They couldn’t find out. You can’t mean that.”

  “Oh yes I do, little boy. If you were my friend, you never would have opened up this can of worms. I kept your secret. If you were my friend you would have totally, unconditionally, never snooped on me. If you are my friend you’d leave and never come back. Never.”

  David was trembling, “Are you going to tell?”

  “Tell? Tell?” in a lower voice she said, “about my father?”


  “About me. Do I have to run?”

  Phyllis momentarily wavered, felt her rage resurface, stood and walked to the door. She opened it and waited for him to leave.

  Phyllis coldly said, “No, you can stay at school, but leave here NOW – FOREVER and forget all about all of this, me.” David had tears streaming down his face. He saw a message pad, and wrote something on it. “If you ever change your mind, give me this.” He handed Phyllis a note and left crying.

  ***

  Half an hour later, David sat in the woods, behind the library, crying. He stayed there for another hour, then stood, wiped the tears from his face, made a grimace and walked away thinking about solutions to the miniaturization problem with the camera. He was deep in concentration about today’s problem. ‘Perhaps the gnat was not the best solution. Perhaps a distributed visual field. Bees! They use multiple loci. Simple vision made extraordinary by multiplicity. I could use an array, like the Allen Telescope Array. Of course, gnats, but a swarm. I could generate a weak electrical current by a spinning magnet. I could reduce the size too. Smaller than a gnat?’ He was humming, but didn’t notice that his eyes were stinging and raw. He had programmed himself to misread his many of his senses for the next three hours.

  ***

  Phyllis stood there with her hands shaking, then she started pacing. After ten minutes she looked at the note hand-written in a computer font, it only said “ComHead convert X11Sept1999.AVI to .BATCH. Execute”. She crumpled it, threw it into the garbage, and slammed the lid of the can down.

  ***

  That evening Phyllis called up her dad at his home. They had a long talk. She didn’t mention David. She let her father talk. “Baby, I’m so glad you called. … I’m enjoying the job. … It pays shit, but there was no one to whack or get whacked from. … I enjoy the quiet of small town life. It’s a nice change from Phi… south of here. … I’ve also been flirting with a woman that often comes in, but haven’t even asked her out. How can I, after your mother? … You know I really did love her. I was going to ask your mom if she’d have me back that next week, I swear. … How are you doing in school? … You’re a senior; do you have any plans after graduation? A job? … Been seeing anyone? … No one serious? You’re the brightest one in the entire family. It’s a wonder you’re a Mart - I mean it’s a wonder you’re mine. … We better not be on the phone too long, who knows what records are kept somewhere. … I love you.”

  Her father hung up, she put the dead phone next to her chest and rocked back and forth for fifteen minutes in the pitch dark. She was crying dry tears.

  ***

  Two days later Phyllis got her lunch at the cafeteria. She thought of saying something to David, who sat in his usual place. He was looking off in space, although she crossed his path he didn’t acknowledge her presence. She kept on walking.

  ***

  Although Phyllis was usually was a neat person, she did not take out the garbage that week. She told herself she didn’t need to. She kept on looking at the garbage that held that cryptic note that David had written.

  ***

  On Friday at eleven PM, was the usual Rocky Horror Picture Show. David went and noticed a newcomer. A woman was wearing one of the Rocky Horry Picture Show costumes. ‘She looked older, like a senior. No, she hadn’t been at any of the previous shows. Hmm, she’s glancing at me out of the corner of her eyes.’

  After the show, David, Charlie and that woman remained to clean up. After a few minutes, David came closer and said, “Hi, I’m David.” He put out his hand in greeting. She looked confused. Finally, she sputtered, “Sorry from now on you’re the Kid, Got it?”

  ‘Wow, what did I say? All I did was introduce myself.’ David reviewed his father’s notes. ‘No, I did it correctly. Should I ask Martin for help? Nah.’

  David noticed that Charlie went up to the strange woman. ‘Funny, she isn’t in my data base, nor the college database. Strange. I’m going to have to update my records. Well it’s not the first time that my records needed to be updated.’ Charlie and the woman went outside the lounge for a few minutes and returned.

  Charlie had a small smile when he returned and the woman looked like she was frowning. ‘Maybe she has a headache. Women have a 17.6% likelihood to have a migraine per year.’

  They finished cleaning. Charlie and David drove to town. The woman drove her own car. David thought, ‘She’s cute, in a melancholy way, but far too much black. She reminds me of Morticia Adams.’

  At the pizza parlor, David sat down, in his usual place. The mystery woman sat in the corner away from him. They all started to sing Time Warp. During the singing, David noticed that Kenny looked at David and that woman and mouthed something to Charlie. David turned his face away, but kept his other visual pick-ups focused on the group.

  David saw Charlie look at David and made a motion to stifle it. The entire group noticed this. After a half-hour, the strange, angry woman left early, saying something about a headache. ‘Ha, I was right – a headache,’ David thought. The group seemed very subdued and left a half hour later. This was all very unusual. Charlie and David drove back. David only had one beer.

  During the car ride home, David asked, “Charlie, anything wrong? You hardly spoke all evening?”

  “It’s nothing, just a bad day. How’s your headache?”

  David was confused, “I don’t have a headache.”

  The remainder of the ride back to campus was silent except for the radio. David debated on whether to ask again but decided not to say anything. ‘Did I do anything wrong? Are they pissed at me or something?’ David couldn’t think of anything he had done that was wrong. ‘Charlie is definitely holding something back. I’ll ask again when we get home.’

  In the campus parking lot, David saw that the mystery woman was sitting on her car hood. She stood and walked up to Charlie’s car. “Charlie, do you mind if I speak to David a bit?” Charlie looked at both, and then gave a sly wink to David. David returned the smile. ‘Perhaps this means I’ll get some action? Finally break my cherry. Could she be a hooker? She looks sexy enough, except for her frown.’

  David walked besides the woman, who was quiet. “Like I said before, my name’s David. Is this the first time you’ve seen the Rocky Horror Picture Show?”

  She paused and studied his face carefully, then continued walking. “No, I was a regular. I used to enjoy it a lot.” She had a weak smile, as if reminiscing about the past.

  David thought that she was looking strangely at him. “What’s your name? Or do you want to tell me that?”

  “Phyllis, Phyllis Marks. I’m a student here.”

  ‘She’s a student. Why did I forget to update my college ID file? I was going to do that an hour ago. Why wasn’t it updated? What the hell is going on?’ They arrived at her dormitory and she asked, “I was wondering if you’d come upstairs with me for a few minutes? I need help with something.”

  David had a huge predatory grin, “Sure.” Phyllis didn’t say anything more. David was trying to figure out if that wink by Charlie, meant what he thought it meant. They quietly walked into the dormitory and up the back steps. David started to talk, but Phyllis put a finger over his lips and shook her head ‘no’. She gave him a piercing look straight into his eyes. He realized that the water content in her eyes was up 300% and her eyes had 32% more red in them than typical eyes. The infra-red indicated a 10% increase in temperature compared to other women. Her lips had a downward 21% angle at the ends. He was surprized to conclude that she was almost crying. ‘No, I didn’t step on her feet.’ He reviewed all his statements to her, but could not think of any way he embarrassed himself again. ‘It must be her!’ He had no idea what this crazy woman wanted. He once heard Charlie say that ‘All boys are silly and all girls are crazy.’ He never appreciated the magnitude of that statement until today. They arrived at her room, enter
ed, and she went to the kitchen garbage can. She empted the garbage bag into another bag, glancing at each piece of garbage. She stopped when she found a crumpled piece of paper. David looked at this strange woman confirming that she was crazy. ‘Should I bolt out of the door? Was this like those horror flicks? If I need to, I can overpower her, I think.’ He strategically placed himself near the door, he braced himself for an aikido move, she hadn’t bolted the door from this side. ‘Damn, I should have brought Hilda.’

  “I was wondering if you could look at this.”

  David looked at her face, which was now wooden. He was very confused. It wasn’t like on the x-rated moves at all. She didn’t have a weapon. It wasn’t like a horror flick either. He straightened the paper and looked at it. “What? I wrote this, but I never wrote it. I never wrote it, I’d know. I’d know. But I wrote it.”

  “You did write it.” Phyllis pointed to the words. David looked at the instruction and executed the program. In a matter of seconds, the puzzlement became an expression of horror to change to heartbreak. David resumed his crying of the previous week. He crumpled, whimpering, onto a chair.

  In between sobs he said, “I’m sorry. So sorry. I, I wish I were dead.”

  After a long pause, Phyllis put her hand on his shoulder, and began, “There was a part of me that never believed you’d do it. Erase us. Another part of me thought you couldn’t do it. It was an act. But I was sorry that you did it. You have to know that. I’m sorry.”

  David was still crying. He blurted out, “You were my best friend. You asked me to, I had to. If you asked me to leave Birkhead and forget about it entirely, I would have too.” David was bawling loudly. He was shaking.

  Phyllis moved David aside a bit and sat next to him in the tight chair. She hugged him. They sat like that for a while, both lost in thought. Phyllis then wiped a tear from his cheek, “Done crying? Let me make some tea and get out of this outfit.”