Authors: Replay
"Are you going to make any more predictions today?" asked the next reporter.
"Yes," Jeff said, and the uproar threatened to begin anew. "But only after we've answered all your other questions and feel that we've told everything we need to tell."
It took them almost an hour to give the essential, sketchy outline of their lives: who they'd been originally, what they'd done of note in each of their replays, how they came to know each other, the troubling fact of the accelerating skew. As previously agreed, they left out a great deal about their personal lives, as well as anything they felt might be dangerous or unwise to reveal. But then came the question they'd known would be raised and still hadn't decided how to handle: "Do you know of anyone else who's … replaying, as you call it?" asked a cynical voice in the third row.
Pamela glanced at Jeff, then spoke up emphatically before he had a chance to answer. "Yes," she said. "A man named Stuart McCowan, in Seattle, Washington."
There was a momentary pause as a hundred pens scratched the name on a hundred note pads. Jeff gave Pamela a warning frown, which she ignored.
"As far as we know, he's the only other one," she went on. "We spent most of one replay searching for others, but McCowan is the only one we ever verified. Let me tell you, though, that he has some ideas about all this with which we strongly disagree; that's why he's not here with us today. But I think you might find it very interesting to interview him, even keep close track of everything he does, to see how he deals with this situation that the three of us find ourselves in. He's an unusual man, to say the least."
She looked back at Jeff, and he complimented her with a pleased smile. She'd said nothing libelous or incriminating about McCowan but had made sure his background would be thoroughly investigated and his every public move watched from now on. He'd kill no more, not this time.
"What do you expect to get out of all this?" asked another reporter. "Is this some kind of moneymaking scheme you're launching, some sort of cult?"
"Absolutely not," Jeff said firmly. "We can make all the money we need or want through ordinary investment channels, and I would like each of your stories to include our specific request that
no one
send us money, not in any amount, not for any purpose. We will return all such gifts. The only thing we're seeking is information, a possible explanation of what we're going through and how it will all end. We would like the scientific establishment—particularly physicists and cosmologists—to be aware of the reality of what's happening to us and to contact us directly with any opinions they might have. That's our sole purpose in making this phenomenal situation a matter of public record. We've never revealed ourselves before and wouldn't have now, but for the very real concerns we've outlined."
The room buzzed with skepticism. Everybody was selling something, as Pamela had once pointed out; it was difficult for this collection of hardened journalists to accept the fact that Jeff and Pamela weren't pulling a scam of one sort or another, despite the couple's apparent sincerity and the irrefutable evidence of their inconceivably accurate foreknowledge.
"Then what do you intend to do, if you're not trying to capitalize on these claims?" someone else asked.
"It depends on what we find out as a result of having announced ourselves this way," Jeff replied. "For the time being, we're just going to wait and see what happens when you make our story known. Now, are there any further questions? If not, I have here a number of copies of our newest set of … predictions, as you think of them."
There was a scramble for the front of the room, a multitude of hands grabbing for the Xeroxed sheets of paper, a new outburst of more pointed questions.
"Is there going to be a nuclear war?"
"Will we beat the Russians to the moon?"
"Do we find a cure for cancer?"
"Sorry," Jeff shouted. "No questions about the future. Everything we have to say is in this document."
"One last question," called a bespectacled man in a fedora that looked as if it had been sat on. "Who's going to win the Kentucky Derby this Saturday?"
Jeff grinned, relaxed for the first time since the tension-filled news conference had begun. "I'll make a single exception for this gentleman," he said. "Majestic Prince will win the Derby and the Preakness, but Arts and Letters will beat him out of the Triple Crown. And I think I just made my own bet worthless by telling you that."
Majestic Prince left the gate at 1-10 odds and paid $2.10 to win, the lowest return permissible under the laws governing pari-mutuel gambling. After the story on Jeff and Pamela had hit the networks and the wire services, almost no one had bet on any of the other horses in the Derby. The Kentucky State Racing Commission ordered a full investigation, and there was talk in Maryland and New York of canceling the upcoming Preakness and Belmont.
The phones in their new office in the Pan Am Building began ringing at 6:00 A.M. on the Monday after the race; by noon, they had hired two more temps from Kelly Girls to handle the calls and telegrams and the curiosity seekers who walked through the door without an appointment.
"I have the list from the past hour, sir," said the awestruck young woman in the pleated midi-dress, nervously fingering her long strands of beads.
"Can you summarize it for me?" Jeff asked wearily, setting aside the editorial in that day's
New York
Times,
the one calling for "rational skepticism in the face of would-be modern Nostradamuses and their manipulation of coincidence."
"Yes, sir. There were forty-two requests for private consultations—people who are seriously ill, parents of missing children, and so on—nine stock-brokerage firms called, offering to take you on as clients at reduced commission; we've had twelve calls and eight telegrams from people willing to put up money for various gambling schemes; eleven messages from other psychics wanting to share—"
"We aren't psychics, Miss … Kendall, is it?"
"Yes, sir. Elaine, if you like."
"Fine. I want that clearly understood, Elaine; Pamela and I don't claim to have/any psychic powers, and anyone who makes that assumption should be informed otherwise. This is something very different, and if you're going to work here you have to know how we choose to be represented."
"I understand, sir. It's just that—"
"It's a little hard for you to accept, of course. I didn't say you had to believe us yourself; just make sure the basic elements of what we've had to say don't get twisted around when you talk to the public, that's all. Now, go on with the list."
The girl smoothed her blouse, referred to her steno pad. "There were eleven … I suppose you'd call them hate calls, some of them obscene."
"You don't have to put up with that. Tell the other girls they can feel free to hang up on anyone who becomes abusive. Contact the police if any one caller persists."
"Thank you, sir. We've also had several calls from some futurist group in California. They want you to go out there for a conference with them." Jeff raised an interested eyebrow. "The Rand Corporation?"
She glanced back down at her notes. "No, sir; something called the 'Outlook Group.' "
"Pass it on to my attorney. Ask him to have them checked out, see if they're legitimate."
Elaine jotted his instructions on her pad, went back to the list. "As long as I'm talking to Mr. Wade, I need to tell him about all these airlines that are threatening to sue: Aeronaves de Mexico, Allegheny Airlines, Philippine Airlines, Air France, Olympic Airways … also both the Mississippi and Ohio State Tourist Boards, their lawyers called. They're all very angry, sir. I just thought I should warn you."
Jeff nodded distractedly. "That's it?" he asked.
"Yes, sir, except for a few more magazines, all trying to arrange an exclusive interview with you or Miss Phillips, or both."
"Any scholarly journals among them?"
She shook her head. "The
National Enquirer, Fate …
I guess you could say the most serious of them was
Esquire
."
"Still no word from any of the universities? No research foundations other than this outfit in California, whatever it may be?"
"No, sir. That's the whole list."
"All right." He sighed. "Thank you, Elaine; keep me posted."
"I will, sir." She folded her pad, started to go, then paused. "Mr. Winston … I was just wondering … "
"Yes?"
"Do you think I ought to get married? I mean, I've been thinking about it, and my boyfriend's asked me twice, but I'd like to know … well, I'd like to know whether it would work out or not."
Jeff smiled tolerantly, saw the desperate desire for foresight in the young woman's eyes. "I wish I knew," he told her. "But that's something you're going to have to discover for yourself."
Aeronaves de Mexico dropped its lawsuit on June fifth, the day after one of its jet liners crashed into a mountainside near Monterrey, as Jeff and Pamela had predicted. Mexican political leader Carlos Madrazo and tennis star Rafael Osuna were not on board the plane in which they had died five times before; only eleven people had seen fit to take the doomed flight this time, not seventy-nine.
After that, of the remaining airlines for whom disaster had been foretold, only Air Algérie and Royal Nepal Airlines chose to ignore the warning and not cancel the flights in question. Those two companies suffered the only fatal accidents in all of the world's commercial aviation for the rest of 1969.
The U.S. Navy refused to bow to what Defense Secretary Laird called "superstition," and the destroyer
Evans
proceeded on course in the South China Sea; but the Australian government quietly ordered its aircraft carrier
Melbourne
to cut engines and drop anchor for the first week of June, and the collision that had always sliced the
Evans
in half never happened.
The death toll in the Fourth of July Lake Erie floods in northern Ohio was down from forty-one to five, as residents heeded the highly publicized alerts and sought higher ground before the storms hit. A similar situation prevailed in Mississippi; tourist bookings at the Gulf Coast resorts of Gulfport and Biloxi were down to almost nothing for mid-August, and the local populace fled inland at a rate never before achieved by mere civil-defense warnings. Hurricane Camille struck a nearly deserted coastline, and 138
of her previous 149 victims survived.
Lives changed. Lives went on, where they had never continued before. And the world took note.
"I want an injunction filed now, Mitchell! This week, if we can; the middle of next, at the latest."
The lawyer concentrated on his glasses, polishing the thick lenses with a precision befitting the care that might be taken with an expensive telescope. "I don't know, Jeff," he said. "I'm not sure that'll be possible."
"How soon can we get it, then?" asked Pamela.
"We may not be able to," Wade admitted.
"You mean not at all? These people are free to go on spewing their ridiculous fantasies about us, and there's nothing we can do about it?"
The attorney found another invisible spot on one of his lenses, wiped it away delicately with a little square of chamois. "They may well be acting within their First Amendment rights."
"They're leeching off us!" Jeff exploded, waving the pamphlet that had prompted this meeting. His photograph was prominent on the cover of the booklet, along with a slightly smaller picture of Pamela.
"They're profiting from our names and our statements, with no authorization from us, and in the process they're making a mockery of everything we've tried to do."
"They are a nonprofit organization," Wade reminded him. "And they've filed for tax-exempt status as a religious institution. That kind of thing is hard to fight; it takes years, and the chances for beating them are slim."
"What about the libel laws?" Pamela insisted.
"You've made yourselves public figures; that doesn't leave you with much protection. And I'm not sure their comments about you could be construed as libelous, anyway. A jury might even see it as the opposite extreme. These people worship you. They believe you're the incarnation of God on earth. I think you're better off just ignoring them; legal action would only give them more publicity."
Jeff made a wordless exclamation of disgust, crumpled the pamphlet in one hand, and threw it toward the far corner of his office. "This is just the kind of thing we wanted to avoid," he said, fuming. "Even if we ignore it or deny it, it taints us by association. No reputable scientific organization is going to want to have anything to do with us after this."
The lawyer slipped his glasses back on, adjusted them on the bridge of his nose with one thick forefinger. "I understand your dilemma," he told them. "But I don't—"
The intercom on Jeff's desk buzzed in two short bursts followed by a single long one, the signal he had established for notification of an urgent message.
"Yes, Elaine?"
"There's a gentleman here to see you, sir. He says he's with the federal government."
"What branch? Civil defense, the National Science Foundation?"
"The State Department, sir. He insists on speaking with you personally. You and Miss Phillips both."
"Jeff?" Wade frowned. "Want me to sit in on this?"
"Maybe," Jeff told him. "Let's see what he wants." Jeff keyed the intercom again. "Show him in, Elaine."
The man she brought into the office was in his mid-forties, balding, with alert blue eyes and nicotine-stained fingers. He sized up Jeff with a quick, penetrating glance, did the same to Pamela, then looked at Mitchell Wade.
"I'd prefer we had this talk in private," the man said.
Wade stood, introduced himself. "I'm Mr. Winston's attorney," he said. "I also represent Miss Phillips."
The man pulled a thin billfold from his jacket pocket, handed Wade and Jeff his card. "Russell Hedges, U.S. Department of State. I'm afraid the nature of what I have to discuss here is confidential.
Would you mind, Mr. Wade?"
"Yes, I would mind. My clients have a right to—"