The Kid from Silicon Gulch - the play and its plot - part 4 - an electronic musical by Robert Calvert

little diabolical device attached to his car's engine.

Next we find SPARK back at the COUNTESS's mansion. He still finds this dame kinda dubious - especially since he's sure he smelled her perfume at Leroy Henry's apt - in those knickers that Leroy used to wear to "relax" in. SPARK tells the COUNTESS about the assault and confronts her with the garments that are definitely soaked with her perfume.
The COUNTESS bursts into tears, appearing to be very very frightened. She clings to SPARK, asking him to hold her tight... - but SPARK is not that easy to distract:
SPARK: I held her for a while. But I had to get on to the next part of the link-up. It took some willpower I can tell you. But I managed to break away and I left. But don't worry, I'm not easily fooled. The dame was still under suspicion. I left some devices of my own dotted around the place. Just to keep an electronic eye on her.
Music fade up. Change of Lighting. The Countess goes through mime of nervous behaviour. Makes telephone calls. Pours drinks. Smokes....
SPARK sings the next song:

BACK IT UP
With the end of the song SPARK appears on the next part of the (computer)-link-up-chain... to find, inevitably, the next victim - and to bump - even more inevitably- once again into Sgt. KARELLI... who gets more than tired seeing SPARKS face yet again. Still, he passes on the facts:
KARELLI: Thermostat control went crazy. We found the lady of the house had fried and then frozen. Those bubble head machines of yours oughtta be rounded up and melted down.

Inevitably... another interrogation sets in - the name of this evidently feminist computer is GIN. Naturally GIN is not quite enthusiastic when SPARK introduces himself as a private DICK.
GIN: That's a good one. I never saw a dick that was private yet.
SPARK: Look sister. I said just give me the facts. I don't want no sexist politico crap, got it?
GIN: If your dick's as small as your brain, no wonder it's private.
Well, what can poor Brad do - once again he has to produce his screwdriver to set things in motion here...
It turns out that GIN's owner SILENA GRAFTON was a journalist who wrote about Health, Astrology and... PARAPSYCHOLOGY.
SPARK: Parrot psychology?? What do parrots need psychology for?
GIN: Not parrot. PARA. Parapsychology. You know. Telekinesis. Telepathy. That kind of thing. (...)
Silena was interested in the controlled experiments they're doing now. You know the kind of thing. You concentrate on a symbol and try and send it to someone else just by concentrating.
SPARK: What kind of symbol?
GIN: Usually a basic geometrical symbol. There's a set of cards printed with them on.
---- GEOMETRICAL SYMBOL.... like one of those that SPARK found in that mysterious garbage can of the even more mysteriously vanished company named BIOTRON...
SPARK: I suddenly felt like I was getting somewhere. A company making direct thought interface units disappears without a trace. There's a telepathy card in their garbage can. A Hood steals it back from me. Leroy Henry walks out of his 35th storey window in a trance. There's a telepathy card in his apt. (...) I started getting a hunch...
GIN: You stick with telepathy Mr. Private Dick. That's the right track to be on. It's going to liberate us all one day. Women. Machines. And Men.
With this computer-prophecy SPARK goes into the next song:

A DAY CALLED X
After the song SPARK's back in his office with ZYTE who tells him that in his absence a guy burst into the office and tried to strip him from his memory unit. To fend off the invader ZYTE 'yelled' - i.e. increased his speech synthesis output by 85 decibels. ZYTE is not sure though if something's missing in his memory - he's currently checking. Apart from that he received a lot of phone calls in the meantime - all cases of missing persons. SPARK being absorbed by his current one doesn't want to hear about this routine-stuff right now until... ZYTE reveals that all those missing persons are members of THE INTERNATIONAL TELEPAHTIC SENDERS AND RECEIVERS LEAGUE.
And another thing that ZYTE found out:
ZYTE: While I was digging through some records of recent high finance transactions I found something that someone had tried to erase (...) It was a purchse offer made by DATA INTERNATIONAL for a company called /
A SHOT RINGS OUT. ZYTE HAS BEEN HIT
...and ZYTE -seemingly- begins to cry out in, well, what? Pain? BRAD tries to calm him down, telling him that every piece of precious hardware can be replaced and that he's still under guarantee....
With his last bits of speech-synthesis power, ZYTE's breathing out the name of that company that DATA INTERNATIONAL (Hymy Spencer's company) wanted to buy out: it was - of course - BIOTRON.
SPARK: What is all this? I know it all adds up to something. But what? And how was I going to find out out when somebody just shot my adding machine? There was only on name left on the link-up list. Something told me I had to get there fast. Before someone. Or some thing. Beat me to it.
SPARK checks his gun, goes into the next song:

THE KID FROM SILICON GULCH

Click on to part V of The Play + The Plot
Click back to part I / part II / part III of The Play + The Plot

Back to the main-page on THE KID