I put on my gear (I couldn’t bring myself to think of it as a “costume”) including my face mask and hoodie, brought up a video of Lund’s interview, and sent myself to his office. I was curious what I would find – would Lund still be there? Was there a camera crew breaking equipment down? Or did that already happen in the thirty minutes or so between the end of his interview and now?
But the office was largely empty, save for the professor himself, sitting at a keyboard, working on physics, I guessed. I took a breath – or the astral equivalent – and stepped into my body.
Lund heard something behind fairly quickly, and swung around to see, an expression of curiosity, not fear, on his face. “And who might you be?” he unflappably said.
“First I want you to know I am not here to harm you.” I replied.
“Ah, the Arbiter of Life and Death!” intuited Professor Lund, seemingly not at all disturbed by his insight, rather almost cheerful.
“That’s what they’re calling me.” I couldn’t keep a little grin out of my voice.
“What can I do for you, Arbiter?”
“You seem pretty nonchalant compared to other interchanges I have had.” I noted.
“I’m sure.”
“Why, if you don’t mind me asking?”
Lund paused, looking for the right words. “I guess when I agreed to do the interview I figured there was a fifty-fifty chance that I was signing my eventual death warrant, and I accepted that. I did what I had to do. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I’m not ready to shuffle off this mortal coil if I can avoid it, there’s still more I could do, but no matter what, what I have now done can’t be undone.”
“And what have you done? The interview??”
“It’s either obvious or not yet relevant, and I am fine with that.” Lund said somewhat enigmatically. A small silence grew between us.
After a minute, I spoke first, “Do you know more about these Quantum abilities that you didn’t reveal? I’d like to learn more about my powers.”
“Apart from the specific expression of my theory in symbolic math, which if you haven’t got the education would be meaningless to you, I do not know anything more about these abilities than I said. And I lot of what I said could be more accurately identified as conjecture, not knowledge. After all, I have no powers myself. Of course…”
I waited briefly for the professor to continue, but he didn’t immediately, so I spoke, “Of course, what?”
“Of course, if I had more data to process, I could learn more about powers, especially yours. If you chose to share with me what you know of your own abilities, then perhaps, together, we could develop some hypotheses about them, and test them.”
I was able to answer that one pretty quickly, “I’ll keep that offer in mind, but I am not yet ready to share with someone I do not know that well – or really, at all – that kind of privileged information. Maybe later, if we get to know each other.”
“And if I am still alive.” Lund added.
I nodded, and a new quiet space came between us. I had the distinct feeling that although he had played the card of his own mortality, somehow I didn’t come out on top with that exchange. For a moment I wasn’t even sure why I was there, but there I was, so I felt I should try to accomplish something.
I changed the subject, “So I’ve been on a diet for the past several months, losing about a pound or two a week on average. I’ve been weighing my self once a week, every Saturday morning. When I weighed myself this morning I found I had lost 27 pounds exactly over the past seven days. That seems a little extraordinary.”
Lund looked interested. “Yes, that’s interesting. May I see your face?”
I looked back at him, uncertain. “Let me verify two things with you first.” I eventually said. “First, I want your word that anything you learn because of me, you have to share with me. Second, if I show you my face, you are then fully responsible for never identifying who I am to anyone under any circumstances, period.” I didn’t mention the consequences; I didn’t think I had to.
Lund smiled, not discomfited. “Your first condition is intelligent, and I accept. Your second condition I also accept on the further condition that you do not reveal to any others any information you have reason to think I would want private, such as our conversation right now.”
I knew I could probably push Lund to accept my conditions without agreeing to his, but I honestly didn’t want to. His request was reasonable, and if I wasn’t open to reasonable requests, then I would be several giant steps down a path I wanted to avoid ever traveling.
“I agree to your condition, with the caveat that I won’t keep any promises made to you or anyone else that would somehow have the effect of causing pain or suffering to those who do not deserve it. Results are more important than principles.” I offered.
“A fine bargain.” beamed the professor, who then waited for the ‘big’ reveal.
“Are there any cameras in this room?” I asked cautiously.
“Just my webcam – quite a good one, I gave the interview this morning on it. Here, let me throw a handkerchief over it.” He did.
Just to be on the safe side, I took astral form and took a minute to look through not only this room, but the rooms next door, as well as the floor below and above, but all were empty of anything or anyone interesting.
When I came back to Lund, I found him kneeling beside my dead body, shaking my shoulder, asking if I was alright. I took form again, making the corpse on the floor disappear. For the first time I saw the professor look uncertain – and quite curious.
“What just happened?” he asked, as he re-seated himself.
I thought about lying, or simply not answering, but my go-to action was usually honesty, and my instinct told me that would be the right move here, for now. “Alright, well I wanted to check the surrounding rooms and floors for anything suspicious so I left my body and went astral, because in my astral form I can pass through solid matter and fly.”
“You didn’t seem to be breathing, though.” Lund noted.
“I wasn’t – the only way for me to go astral is to die. You know I can kill with a thought; I can also do that to myself.”
“Does it hurt?”
“When I off myself?” I replied. “No.”
“Fascinating.”
After a moment I realized that he was still waiting for me, so I lowered my hood and removed my mask.
He studied my face. “How old are you?”
“I turned fifty in February.”
“Do you have any grey hairs?” he asked.
“A few, why?” I took the ends of my long hair and searched through it for one of my greys to show him. I didn’t have many but I had a few, although right in that moment I couldn’t locate one. “I have a lot more grey in my beard.” I said, putting my chin forward to show him.
“Do you?” he asked. He stood up and opened a door at the back of the office that led into a small bathroom. He motioned me to come stand before the sink, then he gestured at the mirror.
There was no longer any grey in my beard to be found.