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Stories from the Verse
Con Version
Chapter 155: Cooper 50
Table of Contents
Previous chapter: Brown 337
Mister Justice arrived at the prison with William Tell Junior. He had two appointments, but Tell was going with him to the first. The warden had been informed that they were coming, so they left their weapons with him and headed for their first interview.
The gorilla was rather securely chained. Still, looking at his strength, and remembering facing him in the street, Cooper was just a bit nervous. He also expected the villain to be nasty–after all, he had taken him down with a tranquilizer dart, and that had to be embarrassing. However, the beast surprised him.
“How can I help you gentlemen?” Gorillaxe asked in his erudite tones.
“We’ve come to pick your superior brain,” Cooper said. He was surprised to see the animal raise an eyebrow.
“So you admit that I am your intellectual superior?”
“It was Truth’s idea,” Tell said. “She said if we’re trying to figure out the plans of one criminal genius we should enlist the aid of another, and recommended you.”
“Well, I don’t know how glowing an endorsement that is, but I’ll take it. Just whose undoubtedly shallow and limited plans are you attempting to fathom?”
“Mordenslice,” they said together, and it seemed that Gorillaxe took a sharp deep breath. However, he recovered quickly.
“And exactly what has this villain, who is perhaps closest to my own intellect as any, done to put him on your radar?”
Justice looked at Tell, but decided this was his part. “He arranged the theft of some superconductive crystals. We know he was serious about wanting them, because when the first attempt was thwarted there was an immediate and successful second attempt, and because we have information from an informant that he was looking to hire someone to steal them for him. The only use we can see for them is that he’s trying to build a supercomputer before anyone else. What we can’t figure is what he would want to do with such a device.”
The gorilla nodded. “That is clearly an interesting question. I’ll have to think about it.”
“What,” Tell said, “you don’t know? Is Mordenslice that much smarter than you?”
The villain’s response was surprisingly patient. “Mister Tell, were I to obtain one of these at this point mythical computers, I would use it to help me correlate the data I’ve collected on human abilities and outliers. To determine what Mordenslice wants to do with it I will have to consider what his objectives might be, and how such a device might enable him to achieve them. Give me a few days to think about it, and come back.”
“Thank you for your time,” Justice said. Gorillaxe shrugged.
“What else am I going to do with it? You have given me an interesting problem to solve. That will entertain me some for a few days.”
Justice rose, gave Tell’s sleeve a tug, and headed for the exit. Tell caught up, and when they were in the hall he said, “I think he knows something he’s not saying.”
Justice shrugged. “I’m not persuaded he does. Anyway, if he does we’re not going to get it from him by anything other than patience. We’ll come back, he’ll want to tell us something then if only to maintain his reputation for brilliance. If you’re right, he’ll probably tell us then. If I’m right, he might figure out something by then. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a swordsmanship training session with Red Swashbuckler.”
“Oh! Can I watch?”
“Fine with me, but you’ll have to ask the warden.”
There is a behind-the-writings look at the thoughts, influences, and ideas of this chapter, along with eleven other sequential chapters of this novel, in mark Joseph "young" web log entry #517: Versers Moving. Given a moment, this link should take you directly to the section relevant to this chapter. It may contain spoilers of upcoming chapters.
As to the old stories that have long been here:
