Loneliest Man Who Ever Lived

[Note: This is a romance story with some erotic scenes. It is

not

a story with erotic scenes in every chapter. Some chapters have incredible sex scenes, but many others have none.]

Chapter 13: The New Geniuses

Nanqu.

They parted ways with Emilio and Annie when they returned to Grand Bahama Island. But before they did, Emilio told them about Nanqu.

It was supposed to be a sanctuary for Fourthers. A place where Fourthers could live without being molested.

"And they're not forced to mate? They don't have to fuck each other?" Harry asked.

"Not unless they want to," said Emilio.

"Where is this Nanqu?" Harry asked.

"I don't know," said Emilio. He turned to Goldie. "But when you find your sister, maybe that will be a place to go, if you can find it. It's what Annie and I are going to look for."

"I hope you find it," said Goldie, and she gave them both a hug.

After they left, Harry said, "I hope this experience doesn't make you hate all Fourthers."

"Noooo," said Goldie. "Not all of them. I might make an exception for a certain tall, dark, and handsome one."

Harry moved to kiss her. She blocked him. "I said, 'might'."

He looked her, and she smiled, and then grabbed him and gave him a proper kiss.

********

Harry got a mysterious text message through his comm.

"Are u vs. The Foundation?"

The source was from a numerical comm address.

"I hate people who don't spell things out," said Goldie, resting her warm hands on his shoulder as she peered over it. "Would it have killed them to spell the word 'you'?"

Harry gave a small smile and typed back. "Yes."

The response was almost immediate.

An intersection in Philadelphia. At a certain time, two days from now.

"Harry, you're not seriously thinking of meeting an anonymous source on a street corner in Philly, are you?" Goldie asked.

"Why not?"

"Well, for one thing, it could be a Foundation trap," said Goldie.

Harry thought a long moment. Then he said, "No, it's not their style."

"No?"

"For one thing, they would spell out the word 'you'," said Harry.

********

Two days later, Harry and Goldie stood on a busy street corner in Philadelphia.

"Are you sure this is a good idea, Harry?" said Goldie, shivering in her winter coat.

"No," said Harry.

"That's what I thought," said Goldie, as a dark air car pulled up.

There was a man and a woman in the front seat. "Harry Crater?" said the man.

Harry nodded.

The man produced blindfolds.

"I'm loving this already," said Goldie, sighing as she bent her head forward.

They drove for more than an hour. When the blindfolds were taken off, they found themselves on an estate.

The driver, a redheaded woman named Agnes, said to the man, "Did you search them, Apoc?"

"No," said Apoc.

"Then you have to search them, Apoc. You have to search them because they may have weapons. If you bring them in with weapons Mr. Kinball won't like it. Weapons won't add to the equation it will unbalance the equation. You don't want to unbalance the equation do you Apoc?"

"No I certainly don't," said Apoc. He turned to Harry and Goldie. "Please open your jackets we have to search you because if we don't all kinds of things could happen so we have to search you if you would only-"

"I got it," said Harry. He opened his coat. Apoc frisked him, and Goldie, and came away with two compression pistols.

"Pistols?" said Agnes. "The lady too?"

"You can never be sure what will happen on the streets of Philly," said Goldie, giving a small smile. "We're not safe, like we are here."

Agnes blinked, and then nodded. She led them inside.

Michael Kinball was a middle aged man in his 50's. He welcomed them into his study. "Mr. Crater, so good to meet you. Any trouble, Agnes?"

"No trouble Mr. Kinball, they had weapons, but we disarmed them, and now they are disarmed."

"Good, good," said Kinball. "That is all. You may leave us."

Agnes left, but two armed men stood at the entrance to the study.

"So you are Harry Crater," said Kinball. "And you must be Goldie MacPherson. The Foundation is looking for you two."

"You seem to know a lot about us. And The Foundation," said Goldie.

"I try to know as much as I can about my opponents."

"Your opponents?"

"The original Fourthers?"

"The original Fourthers?" Harry said.

"Is there an echo in the room?" Kinball smiled. "The original Fourthers, Harry. People... like you. People born who we refer to as geniuses, because their IQ is measurably more than three standard deviations above the mean."

"We are not your enemy."

"No, of course not, Harry. I know something of your struggles with The Foundation," said Kinball.

"They have my sister," said Goldie. "Do you know where I might find them?"

"I might," said Kinball.

"You might?"

"But first I wish to understand your roll in all this. You, Mr. Crater, recently joined The Foundation, and left rather quickly. You, Miss MacPherson, worked at The Foundation as a recruiter, for nearly a year. And then you too, left. Why?"

"We discovered something of their real purpose."

"Which is?"

"Don't you know?" Harry asked.

"I'd prefer to hear it from you."

Harry's eyes narrowed. It was obvious, now that Kinball was lying, that he knew very little about The Foundation. What, if anything, was he telling the truth about?

"They're doing experiments in brainwashing," said Harry, studying Kinball's face for a reaction.

"To what end?"

"We don't know," said Harry.

Harry paused for a long moment. He waited for Kinball to say something. Then he got up. "We're wasting our time, here."

"Sit down, Mr. Crater," said Kinball. "Sit."

Harry reluctantly sat.

"Just because we don't have the most current intelligence on The Foundation doesn't mean we can't be allies. We are raising forces to fight them."

"What kind of forces?"

"New Fourthers."

"New Fourthers?"

"Follow me," said Kinball. He led them through the mansion, accompanied by his two guards. He led them into a section of the mansion which was a dedicated laboratory.

He led them into a room with a chair which had a giant helmet with many wires connected to it.

"What do you think?" Kinball asked.

Harry and Goldie exchanged glances. "Of what?" Harry asked.

"The chair," said Kinball.

"You haven't told us what it does," said Harry.

"Didn't I?" He turned to one of the scientists. "Didn't I explain what the chair does?"

"No," said the scientist. "If you explained, I would have heard it, and I didn't hear it, therefore you didn't explain it."

"That makes sense, that makes sense that makes sense," said Kinball. He turned to Harry. "The chair, Mr. Crater, turns ordinary people into geniuses."

"How?" Harry asked.

"It increases the interconnection between the brain cells," said Kinball. "We have analyzed the brainscans of brilliant people, and they all have much more interconnectivity among brain cells."

"Much greater, much much greater," said the first scientist.

"20 times, 30 times, 40 times greater," said another scientist.

"Which is much much greater, greater greater greater," said the first scientist.

"Genius, Mr. Crater, involves greater interconnectivity within the brain, as I'm sure you'll agree," said Kinball.

"But... just randomly increasing the interconnections... doesn't that have unintended side effects?" Harry asked.

"Side effects?" said Kinball.

"Side effects side effects side effects," said the first scientist. "There are, there are, no significant side effects."

"Who have you done this procedure to?" Harry asked.

"Well... to everyone here," said Kinball. "You see my point, Mr. Crater?"

"What point?" Harry asked.

"Your point, your point your point your point," said the first scientist.

"My point," said Kinball. He tried to concentrate. "My point is that in order to combat the Fourthers, we must become Fourthers ourselves. Do you not see?"

"I see," said Harry slowly.

"Are you ready to join us, Miss MacPherson?" Kinball asked.

"Join you?" Goldie asked.

"That's why you brought her here, isn't it?" Kinball said to Harry. "You want us to accelerate her, to make her into a Fourther. We can do it right here and now."

"It will not take long. Not long at all," said the first scientist. "It will be quick, it will be painful, but not very painful, and then she will be brilliant. She will be brilliant. She is not brilliant now, but when we are done with her, she will be brilliant."

"No," said Goldie, recoiling in horror.

"Sorry, I like her just the way she is," said Harry.

"But why?" Kinball said. "She is a Normal. She cannot keep up with you. She is not your intellectual equal. From your perspective, from our perspective, she has a disability. If she were blind, wouldn't you want her to get her eyesight back? Eyesight back?"

Harry put an arm around Goldie and looked into her eyes. "Goldie is not blind. Nor is she disabled. In my mind, she's absolutely perfect exactly as she is."

Goldie's heart leapt for joy. She never loved Harry more than she did at that moment.

"Surely you can't mean, can't mean that," said Kinball. "Just try it, you will see. Men." He waved a hand.

A guard came up and grabbed Goldie.

"No!" said Harry, but another guard grabbed him and held him by the arms.

Goldie screamed as she wrestled with the guard, who pushed her down in the chair, and slapped restraints on her arms. A scientist lowered the helmet over her head.

"Harry, help!" she cried.

"You will be so glad when this is done, you will thank us so much," said Kinball.

"Thank us so much," said the first scientist.

Harry tried to free his arms, but they were held fast. He watched helplessly as the first scientist flipped a big switch. The helmet started to glow with power and Goldie screamed, as her eyes started to roll up into her head.

Aft torpedoes, fire!

Harry, his arms pinned behind him, stepped down as hard as he could on the guard's left foot. The guard screamed and released him. Harry, realizing how proud his karate instructor would have been if he had seen this move, followed up with the classic elbow to the stomach. The guard went down. Harry bent down and lifted the bottom of his pants cuff, and smoothly withdrew a compression pistol from his ankle holster.

"Another pistol?" Kinball cried.

Harry smiled, set the power to maximum, and fired at the control console. It blew up in a shower of sparks. The helmet went dark. He quickly went over and undid Goldie's cuffs. Goldie seemed dazed. He pulled her out of the chair.

"Goldie! Goldie!"

"Uh... uh huh?" she said.

The other guard started to move, but suddenly screamed as his foot was a mess of steaming flesh. Harry hadn't had time to adjust the weapon setting downward.

"This is still set to kill!" Harry announced, in a loud voice. "If anyone gets in the way of me and my woman, I'll shoot!" Harry slowly dragged Goldie by the waist. She walked, kind of, supported by him.

When they got outside, Harry piled her into the car they had arrived in, and then settled into the driver's seat.

It was only when they had driven some miles away that Harry stopped the car and looked at Goldie. She was still groggy.

"Goldie, Goldie, are you all right?"

"Huh... yeah, I think so," she said, blinking rapidly. "It was just kind of a shock."

Harry licked his lips. Had she already been changed? "Goldie, can you tell me the first prime number after 1000?"

Goldie blinked, and thought about it. "I... I..."

"Yes?"

"I don't know," said Goldie. Then she blinked again and said, "I don't know, I don't know, don't know don't know."

Harry's mouth dropped in shock. And then Goldie reached over, and gave him a passionate kiss.

"Thank you for saving me, my love," she said, looking adoringly into his eyes.

"Don't ever play that kind of joke on me again!" said Harry.

She smiled, and combed down his unruly hair with her hand.