Chapter 396: Dicing With Death

Monday, October 22 to Saturday, November 3, 2007

With the pressure to make a decision removed and knowing that I could leave solving the Surveillance Problem to other Marks, I would be happier over the next few days, and especially over the next few minutes while I was celebrating in the shower. It should be easy for me to stall the baddies for several days because our knowing their plans in advance gives us a huge advantage. If we repeated avoidance maneuvers like we had in New York too many times they'd get suspicious, but avoiding anything unpleasant for a few more days should be easy. If I really need to, I could go away on a trip with no pre-announced itinerary, which would stop them doing anything until I returned.

Julia quickly noticed, asking, "You seem happier all of a sudden, and I doubt it's just because of what Ava's sucking?"

I agreed, "Yes. I've found a way to get some useful information about our problem and I just have to wait for it now. Prof has told me not to worry about things if you've got more information coming in, so I'm taking his advice."

"What information?"

"There's a time and a place for serious discussions, and when your Lord is happy for once and his cock is hard and ... That's better, good girl.

^-- "Oh! VERY good girl!"

The other Marks I déjà vu'd with over the next few days were pretty happy too. I didn't encounter any of the unlucky Risk Takers, but I didn't expect to with the odds being 1-in-7,776. I met one Mark who'd rolled a "1" for his first roll, and he'd confessed that it'd given him a fright. Doing one of the risky things didn't scare us as most of the ideas we'd had were quite easy to do, it was how the baddies would react next that was scary. One risky option was to go public with all the information we had, another was to interrogate the baddies in a bloody effective way and leave the mess for the police to clean up, and neither of those, nor most of our other ideas, were the slightest bit difficult or risky in themselves. But those sorts of actions would result in the baddies' boss reacting in some way, and we suspected it wouldn't be to apologize. Those Marks, and their families, could be in for a tough time if the boss decided to wield the power he clearly had.

[Regarding my "bloody effective way" comment just above: We were in a life-or-death struggle with the surveillers because they only had to stumble on one piece of the wrong type of evidence for all of my families' lives to be destroyed. My first instinct was to write, "It was a pity for the surveillers that they didn't know they were in a life-or-death struggle," but when you think about it from the surveillers' point of view, they did know that. The DHS and CIA had kidnapped me and effectively killed me, the FBI had tried to assassinate members of my family twice, the Guardian Angel would kill people to protect me, and the eventual purpose of the current surveillance was clearly not just to write an article for a science journal. The surveillers knew they were part of a very serious, illegal operation. In addition, the surveillers were the sort of people you'd expect to be involved in a very nasty, illegal operation. I haven't mentioned it yet, but from listening to the tapes we'd learned that they were VERY unpleasant people; their discussing their fantasies about what they'd like to do with Donna and Carol (especially but not exclusively) made that sickeningly clear. The girls heard many of those comments as they had to pull baby-sitting duty on the tape machines. The parents weren't happy about that, but we didn't have enough "man"-power and there were some educational benefits in it for the girls. If I did end up killing them, no one in my families was going to be very sorry about it.]

Being a "Waiting Mark" I wasn't off the hook yet as I still had to do something once I got enough information, but that should be sufficiently detailed to allow me to destroy the Surveillance Problem in a way that causes as little subsequent trouble as possible for us, and the maximum amount of subsequent trouble for the baddies.

A few days later we déjà vu'd with a Mark that reported: One Of Them: <Two of my déjà vu's ago was with a Mark who'd taken four fingerprint sources from the baddies' main house, plus one from each of the camera weenies' houses. He'd flown to LA, processed them through an FBI crime lab and recovered usable prints off all seven. One was ex-CIA {mental image of the guy's entry in the FBI database}, one had been kicked out of the Florida police force for excessive violence {his database entry}, one was ex-KGB and identified as a mercenary {his entry}, and the others got "No match". He checked on the baddies when he returned to Corvallis and the four houses were empty. Since then nothing had happened.>

We discussed it a bit, but all it meant was that the baddies had access to the FBI's computer system, which didn't surprise us. We'd have to wait for further information.

A couple of uneventful days later, we got another noteworthy déjà vu:

One Of Them: <We're spreading the word for another die-rolling decision just for the Marks who have done five merges, regardless of whether they have the Surveillance Problem or not.>

One Of Us: <What for?>

One Of Them: <We've decided that we haven't been proactive enough. We - speaking collectively as all the Marks - need to find out more about our abilities. At the moment we're all settling down and trying to live the good life. If a problem comes along, we try to defend ourselves and our families, but we're being purely reactive. What we want is for one of us to do some more merges - although saying "one" is somewhat wrong as he'll have to drag his merge partners along with him. He will try out his abilities to see if he can learn anything useful, and report back. When he's ready, he stops his heart during his next déjà vu, and keeps on merging during subsequent déjà vu's for as long as he thinks it's a good idea. He could find out some incredibly useful stuff - such as how to have multiple sight blobs or any sound blobs at all - which we could all benefit from.>

One Of Us: <Agreed. It's an excellent idea. There's no knowing how far he'll get though, because his minds might get too far out of sync with everybody else's.>

One Of Them: <Yes, but some of us occasionally déjà vu with Marks who've only done two merges, so three doublings apart seems possible. He should be able to report back a lot of useful stuff by the time he's got 256 minds, and he might be able to keep going and reporting beyond 256.>

One Of Us: <How are you suggesting guaranteeing only one goes ahead?>

One Of Them: <We can't guarantee it, but what we're going to do is roll twelve dice on November 1. Anyone who rolls twelve 6s is it.>

One Of Us: <6s? What happened to 1s?>

One Of Them: <We're trying to be positive about this. Obviously none of us would volunteer to leave his families behind, but we're trying to put a good spin on it because it will be exciting in some ways.>

One Of Us: <'Winning' would be a VERY much mixed blessing, that's for sure, but I understood what you mean.>

One Of Them: <There are two problems: there might be no one that qualifies or there might be an unnecessarily large number of qualifiers. We're not too worried about too many because they'll be a vanishingly small proportion of us, and they might be able to support each other as they advance so they could get further than they could as a solo act.>

One Of Us: <That makes sense.>

One Of Them: <6 to the power of 12 equals nearly 2.2 billion, so if there are multiple winners that'll be amazing, but it's not worth spending weeks longer to prevent a few billionths of unnecessary merges. We might need the winner's knowledge earlier if some baddies - the current lot or a new bunch - are giving us grief.>

One Of Us: <Agreed.>

One Of Them: <It's the chance of not getting a winner that's the only real problem. If there are less than a billion of us, there's a good chance there'll be no winner. What we'll do is wait a month. If there's a winner, he'll spread the word that he's won. After three weeks a billion of us would've heard, after four weeks a trillion of us. If there are that many of us, hundreds of them should've rolled twelve 6s. The way the math works out, regardless of how many of us there are, it's a virtual certainty that if there'd been a winner we would all have heard about it after a month. If we get to December 1st without hearing of a winner, we'll roll again with one less die. Ditto on the 1st of each successive month until we hear about a winner. I don't think it's possible, but the worst that could happen is on the next month a few of us might do another test unnecessarily. It'll be a tiny number if that's the case, and it's not worth worrying about because they'll hear about the earlier winner while they're still spreading the news about their later win.>

One Of Us: <I agree with the math. A month is excessive, but only by a few days so it's not worth worrying about. I like the idea very much. Where do I sign up?>

One Of Them: <Yeah, all of us like it. We're doing it a bit faster than we should, as November 1 isn't allowing much time to spread the word. We'll keep spreading the word after then of course, and if you find someone who didn't know, ask them to roll the dice as soon as they can. They can do their subsequent rolls on either the 1st or their monthly anniversary if they want, as that doesn't really affect the math.>

One Of Us: <Will do.>

One Of Them: <We should've done it before, but I guess it takes a crisis-in-the-making. Whoever's the Big Boss Baddie isn't going to give up this time. He's heard all our threats and he's still going ahead anyway.>

One Of Us: <I bet he believes the Government has the necessity and automatic right to know all about us, and he's refusing to think that he's risking more than the knowledge is worth. It's probably more than a single 'He' too, because there seems to be a lot of power behind their operation.>

One Of Them: <Unfortunately we can't find their asses to blow them to smithereens, and nuking DC would make us the most hated person on the planet even if we blame it on the angel, not that we'd ever nuke anybody.>

One Of Us: <The Twelve-6s plan is going ahead even if we learn how to beat the Surveillance Problem in the next few days?>

One Of Them: <Definitely going ahead. It's to help all of us for the rest of our lives. Even if our current strategy kills the current set of baddies and their backers, there could be more trouble in the future. We need to learn more about our powers and abilities. It's too potentially useful not to send one or two of us ahead because they might discover something that the rest of us could use to penetrate all future baddie operations. It was VERY frustrating spending weeks not being able to penetrate the current mob.>

One Of Us: <I agreed with everything you're saying. It's not a plan I want to say "May the best man win" to, though.>

Whoever had thought of this idea originally - while doubtless a highly intelligent, all-around good guy - had definitely cut it fine, as most of the Marks I déjà vu'd with over the next few days hadn't heard about the idea before. They all agreed with it though. By the end of October the proportion was improving rapidly, but I guessed it was probably only about 75% by then. That didn't really matter as the proportion of unaware Marks drops EXTREMELY quickly once about a third of us are spreading something. In three or four more déjà vu's, which will only take about three days, there'll effectively be no one that doesn't know.

^

On November 1, I got up, had a pee, cleaned my teeth and performed the other mundane morning activities. I had to wait for the girls to finish with their makeup before I could escort them to breakfast, so I left them to it while I wandered to my study where I'd already left a die. I opened my drawer and took it out, ready to roll it a time or perhaps two.

I gave it a shake and dropped it on my desk, getting a "6".

#3: <Oops, that's not supposed to happen. I liked the out-first-time we had last time.>

#6: <Maybe I was holding our tongue differently. I'll change sides and try again.>

Getting another "6".

#22: <We can't get a good roll on this desk. Shake it up hard and toss it on the coffee table.>

I wandered over to that table, shook my cupped hands well and let the die fall out to roll along the table, getting a "6".

#1: <Do you suppose God's getting revenge on us for all the crap we've pulled in His name? I'm willing to apologize and never do it again if that's the case.>

We picked up the die, shook it particularly vigorously and dropped it onto the center of the table, getting a "6".

#2: <Four of them. Christ! We're a third of the way there already.>

#31: <We need a new die. This one is very bad.>

#22: <Good idea.>

I went downstairs to where we had some games in a cupboard. I got a die out of the Monopoly set, gave it a good shake and dropped it onto the top of the box, getting a "6".

#15: <Fuck. This is starting to get scary. Take it into the kitchen and hurl it at the floor so it bounces all over the goddamn place. If nothing else, it'll relieve some of the tension.>

We did that, and thoroughly enjoyed throwing the die violently at the floor. It did indeed "bounce all over the goddamn place", eventually coming to rest to show us a "6".

#32: <Six of them now. Halfway there. What was 1-in-2 billion, is now 1-in-47,000.>

#29: <Seeing we're in the kitchen, put it in a mug and shake it before tipping it out.>

We did that, getting a "6".

#3: <Roll it along the floor so we can see the sides rotate.>

That got a "6" too.

#3: <Christ, eight down, four to go. We know the mug shaking has to be random, so let's get it over with.>

We shook it in the mug again, very vigorously for several seconds, then upended it on the counter. Removing the mug revealed a "6".

#14: <Is there any possibility these dice have been screwed with? Nine 6s in a row is INCREDIBLY unlucky!>

#5: <We could go off the clock and do twenty or thirty quick test rolls and see what they produce. What do you think?>

#1: <I agree. Does everyone agree we're off the clock until we decide we want to start rolling for real again?>

#All: <Agreed.>

#14: <We're going feel fucking bad if the next number isn't a 6.>

#17: <At least we'll know that it's possible. That'll make me feel a HUGE amount better.>

We shook the die in the mug and upended it, getting a "4".

#All: <FUCK!>

#6: <Do a bunch of them quickly, before the girls finish.>

We used the mug method repeatedly, getting an obviously random selection of numbers.

#15: <Twenty trials is enough. It's random. Back on the clock now?>

#17: <Yep. The next three rolls are real.>

#All: <Agreed.>

Being experts at rolling random numbers now, we rolled the die with the same technique as the last twenty times, getting a "6".

#8: <This CAN'T be happening to us! It's going to be an absolute SHIT if we have to leave.>

#19: <Roll again?>

#4: <We have to. Cross fingers. There's a 97% chance we'll survive this.>

We got a "6".

#19: <Fuck a duck! We're one roll away from one chance in two billion.>

#18: <The fate of our families rest on this roll. How do we want to do it?>

#8: <About a hundred years from now.>

#3: <We know the mug is random. There's nothing we can do to improve on that.>

#12: <If we roll a non-6, I want to stay home and drink alcohol till we fall over. This is a horrendous experience.>

#1: <Roll it in the mug?>

#All: <Agreed.>

#6: <I can't look. Someone tell me when it's over.>

We shook the mug, upended it on the kitchen counter, took a DEEP breath, and with a shaking hand lifted it off to reveal ... our death.

"FUCK!"

[[Now you know why this Mark, out of all of us - and there were about a billion five-merged Marks at this time - was chosen as the focus of this autobiography. As a result of his randomly rolling twelve 6s he went on to pioneer our development, as you'll read. The only choice required for this autobiography was which of his thirty two minds to start with, and I chose one who'd had a fairly average time getting to this point.]]

We stood there, hanging on to the bench. Unable to move; unable to function at all...

We couldn't think for several seconds...

Finally, #1: <This is REALLY going to hurt!>

#9: <We can't risk every civilization by telling them why, so they're NEVER going to understand. SHIT! It's going to be a fucking disaster.>

We had no trouble imagining the magnitude of the disaster; tears started rolling down our face.

#19: <We can't let the girls catch us with a die. They're going to spend the rest of their lives wondering why we died and I don't want them to think it was something insane. We need to put the Monopoly set away.>

#3: <Yeah. This is all about our families from now on.>

We hurriedly dried our eyes and put away the game.

#15: <What are we going to do now?>

#11: <Here's a thought: what if EVERY Mark rolled twelve 6s?>

#10: <CHRIST! I hope so. That's a GREAT thought.>

#22: <We know very little about how the cross-dimension stuff works, so maybe there are times when shit like that happen. So we don't tell the girls anything until we've had some more déjà vu's?>

#All: <Agreed.>

#6: <I feel a lot better now. At least there's hope. Surely a lot of hope because getting twelve 6s is fucking ridiculous.>

I checked myself with a sight blob, wiped away a couple of wet spots on my cheek, looked closely to make sure I looked normal, straightened up my posture, then walked back upstairs. A sight blob check showed me that the girls were nearly ready so I headed to the bedroom to collect them.

Carol asked, "Have you been crying, Mark?"

"Ahh, yeah."

The girls immediately started coming toward me to do what girls do at a time like this. Sharing in the misery is their first step in recovering from it. That opening up the wound to share it is the last thing a guy wants to do is something girls don't understand. I held them off with, "I leaked prematurely. As soon as I started I thought of something else that might invalidate my first reaction, so don't worry about it. I need to do some research first."

"What about?" asked Julia.

"It may come to nothing at all so I'm not going to hold up our breakfast for that. Let's go."

I went, and they hurried to catch up. For the rest of the walk they hung onto my arm and checked if I was truly okay. It's not like me to cry so they were worried. I was feeling better - because there OBVIOUSLY had to be something screwy with my rolling twelve 6s - so I was able to deflect their concerns.

I got through the breakfast and had a busy day at OSU until I had another déjà vu in the early afternoon.

All Of Us: <What did you roll on the twelve 6s? You know about that, right?>

One Of Them: <Sure. A "2". What about you?>

One Of Us: <Twelve 6s.>

One Of Them: <You rolled TWELVE 6s! For real?>

One Of Us: <Yeah, unfortunately. We were hoping all the Marks did as well, so it'd be invalidated.>

One Of Them: <You poor bastard! Twelve 6s! One chance in two billion.>

One Of Us: <Yeah, tell us about it. Nearly 2.2 billion, in fact.>

One Of Them: <What are you going to do?>

One Of Us: <A lot of crying, I suspect. We'd like to have a few more déjà vu's before we do anything. We should have had three more by the end of Saturday. If none of their results were twelve 6s, then we're looking down the barrel. I think we need to tell our families on Sunday morning so they've got some time to recover before work. It's going to be very rough.>

One Of Them: <You've got a good life going for you? Hilltop house, hundreds of millions... >