Wired (part four)

Beat powered up the monocular and panned his view around the room, testing it. He could see everything as clear as day in the dimly lit room, and the fireplace practically washed out the image before the circuits could compensate by dimming it. Another press of a button on the device and it switched to heat vision, with Jakob appearing in shades of yellow, red, and purple, indicating hotter parts of his face and body. Even the clear glass on the table was glowing a warm orange, with a purple, round ice cube melting in the whiskey.

The odd fabric appeared almost black, reflecting little, if any, heat. “I see you’ve found the thermal setting. I can see the colors reflecting in your glasses. Good. Leave that set, and watch the fabric.” Jakob attached two whisker-thin wires to the fabric, side by side, and placed his left hand under the fabric. He pressed a switch on the control blob and this time, not only did the surface shimmer and vanish, instantly this time, but so did his hand. “Is your left hand still under that?”, Beat asked. “Why of course. This is no common magic show.”, replied Jakob. Beat really couldn’t get his head around this one. He changed modes on the monocular, yet the fabric and Jakob’s hand were not visible, but they weren’t black either. They were the same color temperature as the table top. This was one step beyond optical camouflage. It was thermoptic camouflage. Optically invisible, and invisible on any light spectrum, including infrared. Beat was considering the nature of what he was witnessing. “Jakob, can you walk over and stand in front of the fireplace, and take the fabric with you?”, Beat asked. Jakob grinned, knowing that Beat was trying to test his invention. “Of course,” Jakob said, after getting up with a grunt and standing before the fireplace, as Beat moved to the couch, “how shall I hold it?”. “Place it over your face.”, replied Beat.

Jakob did as Beat asked, draping the fabric over his head, covering his face in the process. Again, he hit the button on the controller, and Jakob’s head disappeared, with flames from the fireplace where his head should be. Beat was only picking up bright yellows and whites from the flames, while looking right at Jakob’s head. It was amazing. He slowly sat the monocular on the table, never breaking eye contact with Jakob, in case the illusion would suddenly fall apart if he looked away. “Truly incredible,” Beat said, “but what do things look like from your side of the veil?”. Jakob replied, “what veil? I can see you clearly, well, as clearly as I can usually. “ “How many fingers am I holding up,” Beat asked. Jakob replied immediately, “four”.

Beat was well and truly awestruck. This seemed like alien technology, only the kind that humanity doesn’t ever need to know about. The odds of it being abused are guaranteed. This should not exist. “What was that, Beat?”, Jakob asked, powering off the device and removing the fabric from his head. “Did you say this shouldn’t exist?”

“Was I thinking out loud? Forgive me. I just don’t know what to think of this. The implications. My mind can’t manage all the possibilities. First, the optical camouflage, and now this seems light years beyond even that. It really is unbelievable; I have no other way to describe it.” Beat said, awestruck. “I don’t even know if I want to start asking how it works. I feel like I have seen a devil’s plaything.”
 
Jakob came back to the couch and sat next to Beat, as he rolled up the fabric and placed it back in his bag, along with the controller. “Indeed,” Jakob said, “it is a double-edged sword. To me, it was curiosity at the highest imaginable level. I never asked if I should have created this. I asked how I could. The pursuit of that answer absolutely consumed me. During early development, nothing worked more than once. This would die, or that would burn up, or the fabric had imperfections. One night, I had a dream, and the answer came to me in that dream, although… the dream was more of a nightmare. I was being chased, by something, and it got close enough that I could feel the hot breath on my neck before I woke up, drenched in sweat. Seconds before waking up, in my dream, I stopped and turned, and the thing chasing me passed through me, like a spirit. The whole ordeal made me rethink the solution.” Jakob gently coughed, and took the last big sip of his whiskey. He then continued.

“Spirit. The idea stuck like glue. What do we know of spirits? They were once in this world, exited, and returned in some form. The problem was dimensional. If they presumably exist in a parallel dimension, crossing over into ours, can we also cross into theirs, however briefly? Ultimately, the answer became yes, and how the tech really works. My head didn’t vanish beneath the fabric. My head…was shifting rapidly between dimensions. That’s why there was no heat signature.”

Again, Beat was having a hard time taking it all in. Now Jakob was telling him about nightmares, spirits, and other dimensions? The proof was all there. Even if Jakob was making up stories about how the tech worked, there was no denying that it absolutely did work, even when faced with mild scrutiny. No smoke and mirrors. The real deal. Even if Jakob had gamed the test by handing Beat a customized monocular, Beat’s own eyes didn’t lie, and he didn’t think such a demonstration, just for him, would have been a prank. It was, for all intents and purposes, black magic, and it gave him the creeps even knowing it existed.

“Jakob, do you believe in possession,” Beat asked, “because this all sounds like madness, but the proof is indisputable. You did this all, alone?”. Jakob’s tone darkened somewhat. “What are you implying, Beat, that a demon flew into my ear one day and told me the answers? That I made a devil’s bargain to realize my dreams? Ridiculous.”, he replied.

Beat said, slowly, “but is it so ridiculous? We have all heard about divine intervention, but what about demonic intervention? You were at a turning point during development, then after this nightmare of yours, it all seemed to work out. You suddenly had inspiration, a new approach, and like magic, you did it.”. “I’m not sure I like your tone, Beat. Is it really so ominous, to create something like this?”, Jakob asked. “In the hands of the right people, it could save countless lives. It could bring joy and magic back to this world. I had the best intentions…yet…I was not blind to what the world would do with this. Why do you think I kept it a secret for so long?”

Beat lit another match for his cigar, and puffed it back to life, as Jakob sat quietly and stared into the fireplace. He was deep in thought. Yes, it was dangerous, but it could be incredibly useful, like any other tool. It was also magnitudes more dangerous if misused. It must remain secret, if it must exist. Not even Splicer could know. Beat looked up from his cigar, directly at Jakob and said, “I want in.” Jakob raised his eyebrows, lowered them, grinned, and nodded his head yes.