“H2S. Hydrogen sulphide.”
“What? Rotten eggs?”
“Uh-huh.”
“That, sir, is cruel and unusual punishment, expressly forbidden by the Constitution of the United States.”
“She was programmed to expect the worst.”
“So now what fiendery?” Leuz chuckled.
“Now the poor kid gets bombed with a dirty, rotten universal hang-up.”
“Money?”
Shima laughed. “You know, Lucy, you Forschungsreisendes can be real profound at times. No, not money, acarophobia.”
“What?”
“Formication.”
“What?”
“The Cocaine Bug.” Shima looked at Leuz’ blank face. “You still don’t understand?”
“No, and I don’t think I want to.”
“Maybe it’s just as well. You’d shoot me, and no jury would convict. Here we go, Gretch. Sorry, but I’ve got to test your sense of touch.”
“Look at her bod shrieking! I’m sorry, love. I’m sorry. It’s all over now. At least I know you can really feel.” Shima turned a pale face to Leuz. “And I’m feeling it too, by empathy.”
“What was she feeling? What’s this Cocaine Bug bit?”
“Insects crawling all over the skin. Psychiatric cant for C and skag symptoms.”
“Ugh! Likewise eeyuch! You were right. No jury would convict.”
“I told you it was universal, Lucy. Look at your arms; you’re all gooseflesh.”
Leuz rubbed his arms vigorously. “Sometimes I have my doubts about entomologists… Or do I mean etymologists?”
“Try it auf Deutsch.”
“Wortableitung? No. I must mean Insektenkundefachmanns.”
“Try entomologie professeur.”
“Thanks a huge bunch. So now what?”
“Now sight.”
“But you already know it’s secondhand.”
“Sure, but only for the normal visual spectrum. Quaery: can she see beyond? In the ultraviolet or infrared? Here we go.”
Shima let out a low whistle, then muttered, “Closer and closer to your primal pinnacle, doctor. This girl is a giant quantum jump ahead.”
“What? How?” Leuz was confused.
“Gretchen’s blind, isn’t she?”
“You said in the visual spectrum.”
“Well she’s halfway between seeing and sensing in the ultraviolet.”
“Seeing? In the UV? Impossible!”
“Lucy, she’s reacting, she’s sensing UV radiation. There’s no single word for her response. Gretchen probably thinks she’s just got flashes and lights in her eyes… phosphenes… but she’s actually—Oh, hell! Let’s invent a word. She’s… She’s… She’s seesensing high-energy particles that—”
“No. Reverse it, Shim. Senseeing works better.”
“R. She’s senseeing the particle barrage shooting up from the earth’s radioactive mantle below her… Through a sort of somatic cloud chamber.”
“My God! Fantastic! A seventh sense?”
“Exactly.”
“But how can you be sure it’s cloud-chamber sensight?”
“We had a piece of freak luck.”
“Such as?”
“She peaked off the scale like an eruption at one point. Just once, and it was one in a million.”
“Consisting of?”
“She was senseeing a neutrino encounter.”
“No!”
“Yes.”
“But the neutrino’s a neutral particle with zero rest mass. It reacts with hardly anything,” Leuz objected.
“Gretchen ‘saw’ it and it had to be a neutrino. Nothing else from space could penetrate twelve hundred feet of water. It streaked down, through the Van Allen belts, through the atmosphere, through two hundred fathoms of water, through her, and her somatic cloud chamber ‘saw’ it. By now it’s through the earth to the other side and on its way to wherever.”
“I’ll be damned.”
“And you’re absolutely right, Lucy. Gretchen’s a fantastic mutation, a quantum jump toward the primal pinnacle. And if I believed in God, I’d pray that this genetic change is favorable and inheritable.”
“Amen.”
“And so say we all. Now let’s bring the New Primal Man up.”
* * *
Seated gracefully cross-legged in the padded cell, Subadar Ind’dni switched off Shima’s taped recording of the Drogh III tests and regarded Gretchen Nunn with an expression that was close to worship.
“You are truly remarkable phenomenon, madame. Even inspirational. Lusus naturae does not do you justice. Dr. Leuz was quite correct. You are a fantastic quantum jump beyond us.”
“The quote New Primal Man unquote?” Gretchen actually blushed.
The corners of Ind’dni’s mouth quirked under his jet beard; a blushing Negro is an adorable sight. “Even that is inadequate descriptive. Legend alleges that the gods, in human guise, sometimes visit their poor relations down here on earth. Which are you? Sarasvati, divine protectress of poetry? Uma, goddess of light? I prefer to believe you are most probably Gauri, the brilliant.”
Gretchen, even more embarrassed, laughed and waved a hand. “Thank you, Subadar. If I’m to be a god in human disguise, it would most probably be the Mundingoe bugbear, Mumbo Jumbo, who terrified the African women.”
“I hate to throw a cold douche on the holy sacrament,” Shima said sourly, “but I had an unholy experience with the Golem100 last night. Remember? I’d like to get on with our business.”
“I have not forgotten, doctor,” Ind’dni answered. “Perhaps, even, I remember more poignantly than yourself. Do you not recall that after you departed from Precinct Complex, I was left with the pathetic victim? That was no Ops party.”
“The party!” Gretchen exclaimed. “Regina’s Ops party for the men. The whole bee colony was there. That’s what brought the Golem back again.”
Ind’dni nodded. “Cause and effect. It has been demonstrated. But now I am concerned about the effect on yourself of a second venture into the Phasmaworld… this time alone, without comfort of Dr. Shima as fellow traveler.”
“Why the heavy concern?” Shima demanded. “She came through the first unscathed, at least in her head. So far as the physical pranks of her bod go… Well, here we are, locked in a padded cell.”
“Agreed, doctor. Bedlam-Rx was most cooperative, and this cell is reasonably safe. At worst, Miz Nunn can only attack quilted walls. At best, she will accost you, as she did that ‘before and after’ poster.” Ind’dni smiled. “I promise to close my eyes.”
This time Gretchen actually giggled. “We’re all in this together, Subadar. We should have no secrets.”
“Many thanks for confidence in my discretion, madame, but is it not possible that I may have secrets of my own wishful to conceal? However. Here is point of my concern; prime thrusts of the Id are pleasure and survival. What if your visit prompts this savage Subworld to use you for its brute satisfaction?”
“But of course I expect that, Subadar,” Gretchen said, “and I’m prepared to protect myself.”
“Prepared to protect yourself against the unknown? How, madame?”
“My lord! Haven’t I lived and worked in the real world of the Guff for close to thirty years? And what d’you think the Guff has done except try to use me for its pleasure and survival? The only difference is that I make the Guff pay. I’m armored by experience to withstand any and all psychic pressures.”
Ind’dni looked from Gretchen to Shima. “And you, doctor? Are you, too, armored, no matter what Miz Nunn experiences in the infernal Subworld and no matter how her somatic self behaves in this cell?”
Gretchen answered before Shima could open his mouth. “No he’s not. So if le pauvre petit withdraws into sulks, you’ll have to understand. I’ll soothe the baby when I come out.”