Chapter 6

Ana's husband was so shocked by me coming out of her apartment after dark that my arms were in the car before he could react. I pulled him through the window until I could put the back of his neck on the doorframe. I had one hand on his chest and the other on his chin. In the position, my body weight would break his neck on the door. I kneed him in the back of the head to let him know he should pay attention.

"Plan A was for you and Ana to work out the details of a divorce," I said to him. "I don't know what kids need, how much time a dad should have with his children, etc. Obviously, it isn't going to work since you're stupid!"

He cried out when I kneed him again.

"Plan C works for me! Ana is Ana so she won't like Plan C, but I can make it look like an accident. You are not going to be a fan of Plan C and I want to be fair. Everyone should get something so how about we go for a compromise."

Leaning down, I put more weight on him. He screamed! I gave him time to recover when I pulled up on the pressure.

"Plan B," I said. "You get the kids every Wednesday afternoon until nine pm. You get them every other weekend. You don't contest the terms of the divorce or we move on to Plan C and you become a statistic!"

Elizabeth pulled up as Ana's husband squealed away in his car.

"Trouble?" she asked when I got inside.

"Do you know a supportive divorce lawyer?" I closed the door. "Someone who will gently lead Ana to the right place."

"You can 'gently lead' Ana anywhere you want," she replied. "You explained the new structure of your relationship when you gave her a raise. I'm sure you got into more detail in her bed, so tell her to drop the loser!"

Elizabeth's view of Positives seemed to be black and white. I shrugged, deciding there was no point in arguing with a zealot. "Ana's not like the rest of you. It would be better if I arranged for time without her children around."

"Oh!" She nodded. "Good thinking."

Very black and white!

"How much do you know about Positives?" I asked Elizabeth. "I've only read the public Institute documents."

"They offer seminars for contractors," Elizabeth replied. "Senior management arranged for a one week workshop after it became clear we were the front-runners. I took it as a refresher."

"Does the Institute think whatever made me a Positive also entailed mental changes?"

"I don't understand," she said.

"I changed physically." I stared at the passing lights. "Were biologically based mental changes a part of the package?"

"You changed so why wouldn't your psychology change?"

"I mean direct mental changes," I clarified for her.

"I don't..." She turned to look at me before stopping the car on the side of the highway. She pressed a button on her dash. "Dial Eleanor."

On the second ring, Elizabeth's posture changed. She sat straighter and drummed her fingers on the steering wheel as if testing her control of them.

"It's an interesting question," she said to me.

"Uhmmm!" I knew because Elizabeth's diction and tone of voice changed, but I had to be sure. "Eleanor?"

She nodded.

"That's really..."

"Freaky," Eleanor/Elizabeth said with a raised eyebrow. It was better if I let the body-snatching thing go.

Eleanor/Elizabeth smiled.

"It has been proposed by a few scientists," she said. "We haven't had time to pursue the research. To be honest, this project is our first attempt to work within the possibility that everything won't return to normal tomorrow."

"What the fuck were the Orphan Teams then?"

"A couple of people willing to pay any price in case God didn't answer our prayers," she replied in a tone of voice which left no doubt that I should not go down this path.

I shrugged. "Look, I want to know if the change to being Positive could have biologically altered my thinking process. You implied I've always been intuitive, but it goes much farther than that now."

She sighed, "We'll have to put it on the list. Some of the changes clearly AFFECT thought process. A guy with a suddenly bigger dick is prone to thinking with it! There's nothing about the thought process itself being changed though. The Director might have considered it, since it makes sense."

"It does?"

"At least with Pheromonics," she said. "Or at least, if there was a change, we're more likely to identify it with Pheromonics."

I stared at her.

"Because your delivery system requires more obvious physical changes than the rest of us," she said. "We got fitter, more sexually ... prominent, but even with the few autopsies we've done, a Pheromonic could be classified as a different species while the rest of us still get by as Homo Sapiens."

"Prominent?" I said. "That's what they call being horny all the time."

"Oh, no!" she said with a smile. "Don't get me wrong, any Positive is hornier than fourteen-year-old male triplets. It's the secondary effect of our power use that screws you."

"I didn't get to that part of the reading."

"Using your power makes you horny," she said. "And Pheromonics are pretty much always using their power."

"Subconsciously?"

She nodded.

The posture changes came over Elizabeth again. She stared at me for a second, "That's really freaky!"

I nodded.

The punching stand took a beating.

I pushed the living room furniture to the walls when I arrived in my apartment and set the dummy up in the middle of the room. It always helped before--kicking the crap out of the dummy. My mind could shutdown during the physical activity; afterwards, my body could relax and let me think.

It had changed though; my mind didn't shutdown. Instead like a heartbeat, my active thinking beat slower and slower until my subconscious and conscious mind could almost have a conversation. They agreed--something was still wrong! Punching myself out on the dummy would be counterproductive. I'd built up a good sweat; there were better ways to expend energy.

I ran the six blocks at a pace meant to increase the sweat layering my body. The girl who answered the door took a step back and fell to her knees. I walked into the house. Sorority sisters stumbled out of rooms and down the stairs. I raised my arms as I studied them.