Doctor Who_ Psi-Ence Fiction - Chris Boucher [11]
If there was an element of overreaction in Barry's response it was understandable because up until then his benefactor had remained uncommunicative. Whoever provided all the funding had played no part in his recruitment and had offered no comment on his appointment. When Barry thought about it, which wasn't often, he assumed there were legitimate reasons for such reticence. He had no real idea what they might be, and the truth was he didn't much care, but he didn't see it as sinister.
Since the competition for academic funding of any kind was so cut-throat, the university for its part had been willing to accept a general definition of the field of study and complete donor confidentiality as conditions of the endowment. The feeling was that money encouraged money and, providing the Kellerfield Research Fellow conducted himself in a scientifically respectable way, the appearance of being well-funded would attract funding and this could only help in the development of the academic standing of the University of East Wessex.
But joke or genuine threat, whatever the source and seriousness of the warning, the note had a profound effect on Barry Hitchins' approach to his research. He now shunned publicity and turned down all the media opportunities that presented themselves. He refined his test equipment and he worked to devise objective, repeatable experiments. He resigned himself to the hard grind of serious research, satisfied in his own mind that the most he could hope to achieve was a reliable body of negative results.
Then abruptly everything changed again when one of his routine test surveys of the student body produced several volunteers who appeared to show signs of paranormal gifts.
'What a star I am, 'Josh said. 'I can see you're impressed.' He waved at the camera. 'Come on wave. Gottle 'o geer, gottle o geer! A definite star!'
Barry ignored him and flicked a switch on the control panel. In the number one capsule the signal bulb flashed and Tommy reached for the first card in a dealing shoe on the clear Perspex table in front of him. The deck of cards was made up of an equal number of five different simple geometric shapes on plain backgrounds: a circle, a square, a pair of wavy lines, a five-pointed star and a triangle. The cards had been machine shuffled, placed in the shoe and put on the table before Tommy entered the capsule. He was strictly forbidden to touch the cards, shoe or table until he was given the cue.
He drew the card and lifted the star to show it to the camera, then he put it down on the table and stared at the image. In the number four capsule Josh yawned and said nothing.
Barry waited until he was sure Josh had no idea the card had been turned and cued a second draw. This time Tommy held up a card showing two wavy lines. Josh was leaning back in the chair now and his eyes were closed. Barry sighed to himself. Josh was obviously in another of his uncooperative moods. He switched on his own mic and said, 'Subject Josh Randall appears to be hostile to the experiment. Perhaps he's been thrown by the additional discipline though I'm not sure at the moment why this should be. Examine the sequence up to this point for clues to his behaviour.' He made a note of the time code.
In the capsule Josh said, 'Have we started yet?'
'You obviously haven't,' Barry muttered and cued another card. Again it was a star. Again Josh did not respond, then he said, ‘Bored with this game. Let's play something else. Snap? How about snap?' He nodded as if making up his mind.
'Snap!'
Barry flicked the switch and Tommy drew another card showing a star. Not even the random shuffle seemed to have worked properly for this sequence. It was clearly pointless to go on. He decided to abort the experiment.
'Is there no end to their talent?' Josh chortled. 'Well yes, there is actually.'
Barry switched on the speaker circuits to both the capsules.
'And we're approaching it,' Josh continued, 'about now.'
'All right,' Barry said into his desk mic. 'Thank you both. Call that a day I think.'
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