Frank Balenger 02 Scavenger by David Morrell

Author:David Morrell [Morrell, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Vanguard Press
Published: 2011-01-08T08:51:24.355000+00:00

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2

"Hidden cameras?" Professor Graham couldn't get over her shock. "Jonathan spied on me?"

"On us." Balenger sat across from her in a coffee shop on lower Broadway, a few blocks from the university. "The son of a bitch wanted to monitor my progress in the game."

"Game?"

"If he had cameras in your office, it's logical to assume he put cameras other places as well. The theater. Outside the library. Outside your faculty building. In the building that was being renovated."

"But someone would have noticed."

"Not after 9/11. Anybody wearing a uniform marked SECURITY doesn't get questioned. We take video cameras for granted. They're next to traffic lights, above building entrances, inside stores and hotel lobbies—just about everywhere. That doesn't include cell phones with cameras, many of which have video streaming. It's almost impossible to walk down any city block and not get photographed. With careful planning, he could have followed my progress."

A waitress brought tea, coffee, and a ham sandwich for Balenger. Professor Graham didn't have an appetite. Desperation had destroyed Balenger's, but he warned himself that he was useless to Amanda if he didn't maintain his strength. "Tell me how you met Jonathan Creed."

"He showed up one afternoon, standing in the hallway outside the open door to one of my classes. He looked so pitiful, all I wanted to do was help him."

"Pitiful?" Balenger knew the one thing Jonathan Creed wouldn't get from him was pity.

"Short, thin, geeky. Frail voice. Wispy blond hair. He reminded me of pictures of Truman Capote when he was young. He was thirty-five, I found out, and yet he looked like a boy. 'Would you care to join us?' I asked. He nodded, entered, and took a seat at the back. What attracted him to my class was its subject: the Sepulcher of Worldly Desires."

Hearing the name again, Balenger shivered.

"I eventually learned that he'd suffered a nervous breakdown because of a new game he had in mind. Apparently he'd been catatonic for six months, with his mind trapped in what he called the Bad Place. He never described what it was, except that it was unspeakable. He said that, as he recovered, he decided to find Truth in anything except games."

"He spoke like that?"

"It seemed natural coming from someone with an I.Q. of one hundred and ninety. He told me he wanted to acquire the education he never had the patience or time to pursue." She stopped, waiting for another spasm of pain to go away.

Balenger glanced down, trying to give her privacy.

She breathed and continued. "Jonathan went to the philosophy department first, on the assumption, he told me, that Truth was most likely to be found there. He studied Heraclitus, Parmenides, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Do you know much about philosophy?"

"A little from history books I read."

"Some philosophers maintain that the buildings, trees, and sky around us are as insubstantial as shadows in a cave. Others believe that reality is as solid as the rock a person kicks in bright sunlight. Jonathan thought it was a pointless debate.

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