Chapter 21: The Beginning

"Here with a Load of Bread beneath the Bough
A Flask of Wine, a Book of Verse - and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness -
And Wilderness is Paradise enow."
THE RUBAIYAT OF OMAR KHAYYAM

"Mr, (JP) Morgan buys his partners; I grow my own."
ANDREW CARNEGIE

The limousine pulled into the long, looping driveway and stopped in front of the house. The driver stepped out and opened the rear passenger door. A man in a tuxedo got out and offered his hand to a younger woman wearing a wedding gown. The man tipped the driver, who returned to the car and drove off.

The couple went to the front door and the man opened it, then picked up his wife and carried her through the threshold. Still holding her in his arms, they kissed and nuzzled a moment, before setting her down. They walked up the stairs and into the bedroom. The man stepped back a bit and took her hands. They lovingly gazed into each other's eyes.

"Love you, Mrs. Warren."

"Mmmm, the feeling is most mutual." They hugged and kissed some more. Then the woman broke the kiss. "I'll be back in a second." She went into the bathroom, shutting the door behind her.

The man called, "I've got some champagne downstairs." He left the room and went down the stairs.

Gina slowly removed the wedding gown, stripping naked while thinking of her new husband. After nursing him back to health, he was a changed man. He told her how sorry he was to have manipulated her like he did.

"Coming back here like you did was the next to the last test. You have only one more duty to perform," he told her.

"What's that?" she asked.

"Write a tape to remove my ability to command other people. This in effect makes you sole ruler of the world." After Gina did this he showed her how to send it off to Community Centers around the Earth. "Within a week or so, that should take effect. Now I'm free. Now I can be myself again."

"What does that mean?" Gina asked.

"You'll see." The next day, he presented Gina with an envelope. "Hello, darling," he said kissing her on the cheek.

Gina was shocked at the kiss. Up until now, he had never done more than shake her hand. She opened the letter. It was an IQ test result, with Ben's name printed on the top. The score was a mere 140. Gina looked up at him. "I don't understand."

"I lowered my IQ back down to what it used to be."

"Why? Didn't you like being super-smart?"

"Oh, no, I liked it a lot. But it was no longer needed. The truth is, I did it for you."

"For me?"

"Mmm Hmm. You were right, I was too smart to be with other human beings. But consider it from my viewpoint. It would as if you were the only person in the world, surrounded by talking monkeys. Oh, they're lovable enough, but you can't really treat them like equals. Perhaps if I'd been born with a hyper-IQ, the socializing process might've integrated better, but that's neither here nor there. Now I'm just me again. No longer a child psychologist, no longer a sinister world dictator with superhuman intelligence, but just me, Ben Warren, average guy."

He courted her and she soon fell back in love with him. Or perhaps, she'd never completely fallen out of love with him. In any event, he bought her presents, took her dining and dancing, wrote terrible poetry to her. Now they were married and ready to consummate the ceremony. She was amazed when he told her he wanted to hold off till after the wedding to go all the way. "I was raised pretty strict and was taught that sex was for procreation only. I guess some of that's still with me. Kind of ironic, don't you think?"

Gina hung the wedding gown on the door, pulled a transparent, silk nightie out of her bag and wriggled into it. She touched up her lipstick and applied some perfume onto her body.

When Ben went downstairs he didn't go straight to the kitchen. Instead his eyes glazed over and he entered the laboratory, unknowingly responding to programming he had inserted into his own mind before lowering his IQ. Turning on the computer, he took a floppy disk out of his pocket and inserted it into the disk drive. He pressed some keys, then placed the headset onto his own head. When the tape finished, he took a small hypodermic from his coat pocket and injected something in his arm. Then he destroyed both the floppy disk and the needle, grabbed an ice bucket with chilled champagne from the refrigerator and hurried upstairs.

When Gina came out of the bathroom. Ben was standing by the bed, removing his shirt. "You're still dressed?" she asked. Ben looked at her, eyes wide as saucers, and stared, open jawed. She moved to him and finished unbuttoning his shirt.

"God, you're beautiful." He said as she pulled his shirt off. They kissed for a long, long time. He poured the champagne and they drank silently, gazing at each other.