Limitless

I wasn’t going to answer it, but when I noticed that they hadn’t yanked the phone cable out of the wall, as they had with the computer and the TV, I went over to it. I bent down and picked it up. I said hello, but it went dead immediately.

I stood up again. I went over and edged the two bags inside the door with my foot. Then I shut the door and leant back against it. I took a few deep breaths, swallowed, closed my eyes.

The phone rang again.

I went over and answered it as before, but – as before – it went dead. Then almost immediately it rang again.

I picked it up but didn’t say anything.

Whoever it was didn’t hang up this time.

Eventually, a voice said, ‘So, Eddie, this is it.’

‘Who is this?’

‘You went too far talking to Dave Morgenthaler. Not a good idea—’

‘Who the fuck is this?’

‘—so we’ve decided to pull the plug. But … just thought we’d let you know. Seeing as how you’ve been such a sport and all.’

The voice was very quiet, almost a whisper. There was no emotion in it, no hint of an accent.

‘I shouldn’t be doing this, of course – but at this stage, I almost feel that I know you.’

‘What do you mean pull the plug?’

‘Well, I’m sure you’ve noticed already that we’ve taken the stuff back. So, as of now, you can consider the experiment terminated.’

‘Experiment?’

There was silence for a moment.

‘We’ve been monitoring you ever since you showed up that day at Vernon’s, Eddie.’

My heart sank.

‘Why do you think you never heard back from the police? We weren’t sure at first, but when it became obvious to us that you had Vernon’s supply, we decided to see what would happen next, to conduct a little clinical trial, as it were. We haven’t had that many human subjects, you know …’

I stared out across the room, trying to cast my mind back, trying to identify signs, tells …

‘ … and boy, what a subject you turned out to be! If it’s any consolation to you, Eddie, no one has ever done as much MDT as you have, no one’s ever taken it as far as you have.’

‘Who are you?’

‘I mean, we knew you really must’ve been hitting it hard when you cleaned up at Lafayette, but then when you moved in on Van Loon … that was amazing.’

‘Who are you?’

‘Of course, there was that little incident at the Clifden—’

‘Who are you?’ I repeated, dully now, almost mechanically.

‘—but tell me, what exactly did happen there?’

I put the phone down, and kept my hand on it, hard, as though by pressing it like that, he – whoever he was – would go away.

When the phone rang again, I picked it up at once.

‘Look, Eddie, no hard feelings, but we can’t risk having you talking to private detectives – not to mention Russian loansharks. Just know that you’ve been … a very useful subject.’

‘Come on,’ I said, a sense of desperation welling up in me all of a sudden, ‘is there no way … I mean, I don’t have to …’

‘Listen, Eddie—’

‘I didn’t give Morgenthaler anything, I didn’t tell him anything …’ — there was a crack in my voice now – ‘ … couldn’t I just get … some kind of supply, some …’

‘Eddie—’

‘I’ve got money,’ I said, clutching the receiver tightly to stop my hand from trembling. ‘I’ve got a lot of money in the bank. I could—’

The line went dead.

I kept my hand on the receiver, just like I had the last time. This time, however, I waited a full ten minutes. But nothing happened.

I finally lifted my hand away and stood up. My legs were stiff. I shifted my weight from one foot to the other, back and forth for a while. It felt like I was doing something.

Why had he hung up?

Was it because I had mentioned money? Would he be calling back in a while with a figure? Should I be ready?

How much did I have in the bank?

I waited another twenty minutes or so, but nothing happened.

Over the next twenty minutes again, I convinced myself that his hanging up on me had been some kind of a coded message. I’d offered him money, and now I was going to have to sweat it out until he called me back with a figure – which I’d better have ready.

I stared down at the phone.

I didn’t want to use it, so I took out my cellphone and rang Howard Lewis, my bank manager. He was on another call. I left a message for him to call me back on this number. I said it was urgent. Five minutes later, he returned the call. Between what I’d made trading recently and money I’d borrowed from Van Loon for the decorating and furnishing of the apartment, there was just over $400,000 in the account. Since Van Loon had gotten involved in my financial affairs on a personal level, Lewis had reverted to his earlier obsequious mode, so when I told him that I needed half a million dollars in cash – and as quickly as possible – he was flustered but at the same time so eager to please that he promised to have the money ready for me first thing in the morning.

I said OK, I’d be there. Then I closed up the phone, switched it off and put it back in my pocket.

Half a million dollars. Who could turn that down?