Repairman Jack [03]-Conspiracies Read Free Page B

to come up with what she called her Grand Unification Theory."
    "And?"
    "And a couple of months ago she told me she believed she'd found it."
    "And you're going to share it, right?"
    "I wish I could. All she told me was that she'd identified a single heretofore unsuspected power behind all the world's mysteries and unexplained phenomena, something totally unrelated to current theories. She refused to say any more until she had absolute proof. That was the 'research' I mentioned before. She thought she'd found a way to prove her Grand Unification Theory."
    "Let me guess: You think that she maybe did find this proof, and whoever's behind it all has abducted her."
    More like a job for Mulder and Scully, Jack thought.
    "That's a possibility, of course," Lew said, "but I'm afraid it might be something more mundane. And part of it might be Mel's fault. You see, she's been so excited about finally pulling her Grand Unification Theory together, that she's been sort of bragging."
    "To whom?"
    "To anyone who'll listen."
    "But didn't you tell me you two have very few friends?"
    "She's been bragging in the Usenet groups she participates in."
    "Isn't that part of the Internet?"
    Lew looked at him strangely. "You have a Web site and you don't know about Usenet groups?"
    Jack shrugged. "I had a guy at my ISP throw it together. You didn't see many bells and whistles, right?" Christ, the designer had wanted to festoon the site with animated tools—bouncing screwdrivers, pirouetting pliers, slithering tool belts. Remembering the demo still made Jack shudder. "It's not there to impress anyone. It's just another way for customers to get in touch with me. And as for the rest of the Internet, I don't do much surfing. It's a black hole for time, and I've got other things to do. So ... what's a Usenet group?"
    "It's a kind of bulletin board divided into interest topics where people post messages, news, facts, theories, opinions. The Internet is loaded with conspiracy topics, and Mel visited them all regularly, mostly lurking. But recently she began posting and, uncharacteristically, bragging, saying how her Grand Unification Theory was going to 'blow all other theories out of the water.' She said she was going to reveal her findings at the first annual SESOUP conference."
    "And that's bad?"
    "Well, yes. I think someone in one of those Usenet groups is trying to silence her."
    "That doesn't make sense. I thought these conspiracy nuts—sorry, no offense—were supposed to be looking for the truth that's presumably been hidden from them."
    "That's what you'd think, of course. But once you've gotten to know these folks ... well, you can see how some of them would feel threatened by a theory that proved theirs wrong, or worse yet, made theirs look foolish. You've got many people out there who've blamed all the problems in their lives on a certain conspiracy; some of them have built reputations in the conspiracy community by becoming experts on their section of the conspiracy landscape. Jack, these people live in that landscape, and the conspiracy community is all the social contact they've got. Someone like that wouldn't want to be proved wrong."
    "Badly enough to move against your wife?"
    "Loss of face, belief, support structure, status—think about it. That could be utterly devastating."
    Jack nodded. Damn right. Take a guy who's not too tightly wrapped to start with, and a threat like that could completely unravel him.
    Now we're getting somewhere, he thought.
    If Lew had started insisting that his wife had been abducted by aliens, or fallen victim to a faceless bogeyman or agents of some all-powerful shadow government, Jack would be waving bye-bye now. He wasn't into chasing phantoms. But a bad guy who was a fellow conspiracy nut, maybe working alone or with one or two of his brother kooks—that sounded real. Jack could handle real.
    "This Roma you mentioned—could he be a player in this?"
    Lew shook his head. "I can't see how. He's been very