“A death wish?” asked Alex in disbelief, his anxiety again reaching the point of boiling over. “Is there that big a danger of something happening to me?”

“No,” said Edmund, “but someone with an intent of dying will naturally put themself at risk – and on a mission like this, doing so could put others at risk as well.”

“Well,” explained Alex, “I know I could die – but that is not what I’m trying to do.”

“So you have a healthy will to live?” verified Edmund.

“Okay,” admitted Alex. “life can be difficult at times. But I am not trying to die. I just need it to all be for something.”

“Be for something?” asked Edmund.

“Yes,” said Alex. “To justify living, breathing, the space I take up.”

“You do not need to put yourself at risk to justify your existence,” said Edmund.

“It’s not about the risk,” explained Alex. “It’s about helping other people – helping society – helping make the world a better place. It’s just depressing going through all the effort to get out of bed every morning if it’s just for me.”

“The fact that you can’t enjoy life for its own sake is a problem,” insisted Edmund.

“Okay,” said Alex. “Maybe this isn’t what you call a ‘healthy will to live’ – but if you are afraid that dying is actually going to be a goal for me, you don’t need to worry.”

“I am satisfied that you are telling the truth,” admitted Edmund. “There is no cause to bar you from this mission – but this lack of zest for life that you have is a serious long-term health issue, and may have other health problems tied to it as well.”

“Like the energy fields I told you about?” asked Alex.

“No, not those,” explained Edmund. “Those, as I expected, are caused by receptivity on your part to the paraphysical field. The Earth is entering an age in which its presence will be ubiquitous – and the gifted few who are receptive to it will have the experience of discovering the abilities it bestows on them.”

“So more people will have these energy fields?” asked Alex.

“Some may,” explained Edmund, “but truth be told, the gifts this field bestows are very diverse – very prone to vary from one receptive individual to another.”

“I see,” said Alex.

“Very well,” concluded Edmund. “Unless you have more questions, please go and inform Cliff that it is now his turn.”

As Alex headed for the door, Edmund took one more look at the results of the scan before closing the file for now. He believed Alex’s explanation of how death was not an actual goal of his. Partly this was because when sitting on an examination bed of the kind that Alex had been sitting on at the time, it is difficult to lie convincingly to a trained operator who is monitoring it. However, even with this factor in mind, Edmund would not have believed Alex had he claimed that he was not at all lacking in zest for life. The anomaly that had been detected earlier that evening by the first scan was not the receptivity to the paraphysical field. It was something else that, on one hand, Alex had the right to know – but which, on the other hand, Alex might not be prepared to know. Letting an Earth person know of something of this nature would at any time be a delicate task.

Alex had a condition that was bound to be discomforting in any society that was not ready and equipped to treat it – but which a society like the one that dominated Earth would make down-right unbearable. Alex clearly had external anatomical structures that were male. Yet at the same time, Alex’s central nervous system was most definitively female.

Did he even know? Was “he” the appropriate word for one such as Alex? After thinking for a moment, Edmund concluded that even if “he” wasn’t really the correct way to refer to Alex, any alternative would risk revealing a secret – a secret which Alex either wasn’t aware of or went to great length to keep concealed. It was not Edmund’s role to undermine this decision.

After Alex’s examination, Cliff was examined. This second examination was very uneventful. Cliff was just fine, Edmund told him so, and that was all there was to it.

The next step now would be to conduct the missing person query – to find out what was known about the mysterious disappearance of Richard Muller.

* * *

“One more test,” said Raphael. “Are you ready?”

He and Dabiktria were standing in the woods, just outside one of the entrances to the bunker deep in Cannonville’s forest. He was wearing the same business suit he had worn all day – and she wore the same green athletic suit she had worn since she was awoken from the cryogenic chamber. She had actually been wearing it since five years prior – half an hour before she had last entered cryogenic freeze.

“I am ready,” she answered.

“Very well,” he said. “When I say ‘go’, you are to go all the way to Darenton’s downtown area and back – as fast as you safely can. I will be timing it. This will not give us exact information on how quickly you move – but it will give us some idea. Do you understand?”

“I do,” she replied.

“Very well,” he answered, holding up a stopwatch. “Ready? Seat? Go!”

He pressed the button on the stopwatch to start the timing.