Rapture in Death (In Death #4)(79)

“You can’t!” It was sincere pain and distress now. His eyes swam with it. “I’ve put everything I’ve got into that. Not just money, but time and thought and energy. Three years of my life, almost straight through without a break. I stepped back from my career to design it. Do you have any idea what I can accomplish with it?”

Eve picked up the ball. “Why don’t you tell us, Jess? In your own words. We’d love to hear it.”

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Jess Barrow started slowly, in fits and starts, speaking of his experiments and research, his fascination with the influence of outside stimuli on the human brain; the senses, and the enhancement of the senses through technology.

“What we can do for pleasure, for punishment — we haven’t even tapped the surface. That’s what I wanted to do,” he explained. “Tap the surface and go under it. Dreams, Dallas. Needs, fears, fantasies. All my life, music’s been what’s moved me to… everything: hunger, passion, misery, joy. How much more intense would all that be if you could just get inside, really use the mind to exploit and explore?”

“So you worked on it,” she prompted. “Devoted yourself to it.”

“Three years. More really, but three solid on the design, experimentation, perfecting. Every penny I had went into it. I’ve got next to nothing left now. That’s why I needed backing. Why I needed you.”

“And Mavis was your link to me, and from me to Roarke.”

“Look.” He lifted his hands, rubbed them over his face, dropped them onto the table. “I like Mavis, and she’s got a real spark. Yeah, I’d have used her if she was bland as a droid, but she’s not. I didn’t do her any harm. If anything, I gave her a boost up. Her ego level was ditch low when we hooked up. Oh, she was masking it pretty good, but she’d lost confidence in herself from what happened before. I gave her confidence a jolt.”

“How?”

He hesitated, decided he’d take a bigger fall by evading. “Okay, I gave her some subliminal nudges in the right direction. She should be grateful,” he insisted. “And I worked with her, straight stuff, getting her shined up without taking away her natural edge. You heard her yourself. She’s better than she ever was.”

“You experimented on her,” Eve said, and wanted to hang him for that alone, “without her knowledge or consent.”

“It wasn’t like she was some droid rat. Christ, I’d perfected the system.” He jabbed a finger at Feeney. “You know it’s prime.”

“It’s beautiful,” Feeney agreed. “Doesn’t make it legal.”

“Shit, genetic engineering was illegal, in vitro work, prostitution. What did that get us? We’ve come a long way, but we’re still in the dark ages, man. This is a benefit, this is a way to push the mind forward into dreams and make what we dream real.”

“Not all of us want our dreams to be reality. What gives you the right to make that choice for someone else?”

“Okay.” He held up a hand. “Maybe I got over-enthusiastic a few times. You get caught up. But all I did with you was expand on what was there. So I enhanced the lust bars that night in the studio. What did it hurt? Another time I gave your memory a little push, jiggled a few locks. I wanted to be able to prove what could be done, so when the time was right, I could approach you and Roarke with a business proposition. And last night…”

He trailed off, knowing he’d miscalculated badly there. “Okay, last night I went too far, the tone was too dark. I got carried away with it. Performing before a real audience again, it’s like a drug. It hypes you. Maybe I punched the power a little hard on him. An honest mistake.” He tried that smile again. “Look, I’ve used it on myself, dozens of times. There’s no harm, nothing permanent. Just temporary mood enhancement.”

“And you pick the mood?”

“That’s part of it. With standard equipment, you don’t have as much control, not nearly the depth of field. With what I’ve developed, you can turn it on and off like a light. Sexual need or satisfaction, euphoria, melancholy, energy, relaxation. Name it, you got it.”

“A death wish?”

“No.” He shook his head quickly. “I don’t play those games.”

“But it’s all a game to you, isn’t it? You push the buttons, and the people dance. You’re the electronic god.”

“You’re missing the big picture,” he insisted. “Do you know what people would pay for this kind of capability? You can feel anything you want.”

Eve opened the file Feeney had brought in. She tossed photos out, faceup. “What did they feel, Jess?” She pushed the morgue shots of four deaths at him. “What was the last thing you made them feel so that they killed themselves with smiles on their faces?”

He went white as death itself, eyes glazing before he managed to shut them. “No. No way. No.” Doubling over, he retched out his health center breakfast.

“Let the record show the suspect is momentarily indisposed,” Peabody said dryly. “Should I call for maintenance and a health aide, Lieutenant?”

“Christ, yes,” Eve muttered as Jess continued to heave. “We’ll break this interview at oh ten fifteen. Dallas, Lieutenant Eve, record off.”