IMMOLATION: Chapter 3

The door shut and the muted rush of fire sounded behind them.

“Thank you all for coming,” Judge Dervin announced, “I'm sorry for the briefness of the meeting but that's how things go sometimes with Ms Darcy.”

Judge Dervin turned to leave but one of the journalists stopped him.

“Excuse me,” he said, “But may we ask her some questions when...when the fire's out?”

The young man, by Judge Dervin's estimation, was a little too eager. He looked the part of a journalist with his short blond hair carefully groomed and pressed, collared shirt. Even the young man's pants looked like they'd been ironed. But his eyes, slightly magnified behind his round rimmed glasses, looked familiar, and not in a good way.

“What's your name?” Judge Dervin asked.

“Matt Wellis, sir...er, your Honor,” Matt replied, stumbling a bit on his words.

“Who do you write for?” Judge Dervin asked as he tried to remember if he'd ever met Mr Wellis before.

“The Bleeding Edge,” Matt said, “It's a web based tech and science reporter.”

“How long have you been with them?”

“Two years,” Matt answered.

“And before that?” Judge Dervin was certain he'd seen Matt before he just couldn't remember where or when.

“I'm sorry, Your Honor, but I don't really see what this has to do with anything,” Matt said.

Judge Dervin nodded. “Well, Mr Wellis,” he said, “If you want to interview Ms Darcy you'll have to contact her yourself—

“That's just it, the court hasn't made public where Joan will be living—

There it was. In that moment when Matt interrupted Judge Dervin, a memory from three years back popped into his mind.

“I'm not one to be interrupted, Mr Wellis,” Judge Dervin warned.

Matt shrank slightly from the reprimand but still held his ground.

“You were at school, before, weren't you?” Judge Dervin asked.

Matt nodded.

“Ivy League if I remember correctly,” Judge Dervin continued.

Matt nodded again but said nothing, his brow furrowed.

“You were pretty young when you defended your dissertation.”

“Yes, your Honor, I was seventeen when I had my defense,” Matt replied with a glimmer of pride.

“I heard you attacked one of the professors during the defense and that they had to call the police,” This was the point Judge Dervin had been wanting to get to.

In unison, the other reporters slid their note pads back out. The glimmer of pride faded from Matt's face and for the first time that day he looked truly concerned.

“The professor attacked me, not the other way around,” Matt said. “The university lied to save face.”

“Why would a professor attack you?” Judge Dervin didn't know if he believed Matt or not. He seemed honest, but a lot of people were good liars.

Matt eyed the other reporters as they busily scribbled down notes.

“Do we have to have this conversation?” Matt asked.

Judge Dervin thought for a moment.

“Step inside my chambers,” he said at last and led Matt away from the rest of the reporters.

Matt followed against his better judgment. Judge Dervin held the door open for Matt and they sat down opposite one another. Judge Dervin rested his forearms on his desk and he leaned forward in his chair as Matt leaned back in his.

“Matt,” Judge Dervin said, “I'm going to be straight forward about this; you make me nervous and I don't know why. I don't want to treat you unfairly but before I let you pursue an interview with Ms Darcy I need to make sure that my trepidation is unfounded.”

“Okay,” Matt said with a hint of uncertainty.

“So, again, I want to know why a professor of an Ivy League school would attack a seventeen year old child prodigy during his defense?”

Matt heaved a sigh and stared up at the ceiling.

“The professor in question,” Matt began, “was my mentor during my undergrad. When I began work on my doctorate, he disagreed with my thesis since it went counter to his own research and we had a falling out. At my defense, when I proved my thesis to be correct, and by extension proved the professor wrong, he attacked me.”

“And if I call your old school up, what will they tell me?” Judge Dervin asked.

“They'll repeat the exact same story they've been giving. It's their word against mine so there wasn't really anything I could do when they expelled me.”

“So no PhD?” Judge Dervin asked.

Matt laughed out loud.

“Are you kidding me?” he asked, “The moment I was expelled the professor that attacked me accused me of stealing his research. He probably would have sued me for it if he thought he could win. Fortunately it was well enough known that it was the young kid on campus who was working on the crazy idea, not him. Either way his accusation put me on the scientific communities blacklist. I only write for The Bleeding Edge so I can pay the bills.”

“And you didn't pursue any legal action of your own?” Judge Dervin asked. “If you really did prove your thesis then you should have the advantage in court.”

“No offense, You Honor,” Matt said with a hint of sarcasm, “Justice may be blind, but she's not cheap and I don't have the kind of cash necessary to pay for her.”

Judge Dervin frowned. He didn't like the way Matt spoke about the legal system he worked so hard to uphold. Still, he couldn't ignore the many times he'd heard of cases being won not by the merits of the facts, but by the value of the lawyers.

“Tell me about your brilliant idea that got you into so much trouble,” Judge Dervin said suddenly.

Matt sat for a moment and then shrugged.

“How many ways can you generate electricity?” Matt asked.

Judge Dervin thought, going over the different ways he could think of.

“Let's see, there's wind, hydro, nuclear, solar, coal...

“Wrong,” Matt said, “There's three ways. Wind, hydro, coal and nuclear all boil down to the same thing; turbines that spin magnets around. The second method is with solar cells.”

Judge Dervin waited.

“What's the third way?” he asked at last.

Matt smiled.

“Heat.”

“What do you mean? I thought they used heat already to make the steam in our power plants?” Judge Dervin said.

“I don't mean using heat to turn turbines, I mean turning heat directly into electricity.”

“And how does that work?”

“Do you know much about quantum mechanics or thermal physics?” Matt asked.

“No,” Judge Dervin said plainly.

“Then don't worry about it. Just accept the fact that it can be done. Easy, renewable, energy.”

“If it's that easy, why hasn't anyone done it yet?”

“Easy once the generator is built,” Matt clarified. “And being blacklisted makes it difficult to raise the two billion dollars necessary to build one.”

Judge Dervin let out a high whistle.

“I don't think it's your bad reputation that's preventing you from finding backers.”

“Two billion is par for a power plant,” Matt said.

“And what do you plan to use to generate the heat needed to run your heat plant?” Judge Dervin asked.

Matt shifted in his chair and Judge Dervin knew he'd hit a chord. Matt had been one of the first reporters to submit a request to sit in on one of Ms Darcy's hearings. Now that he knew Matt's idea for a generator using heat, he couldn't help but wonder how he planned to use Ms Darcy.

“There are a number of geothermal sites around the globe that would be suitable for my design,” Matt said.

“And the fact that Ms Darcy has the ability to spontaneously produce fire has nothing to do with your heat machine?” Judge Dervin asked.

“No, well yes, but not like that,” Matt said as he searched for a safe way of defending himself. “I mean, she's a heliopath! And the human body is just a complex, gooey machine. If I can find out how she makes her fire and replicate it, then my generator could be used anywhere. Think of it, clean energy the world over. No more worries about climate change, pollution, the whole energy crisis would be gone.”

“You sound like an idealist, Mr Wellis,” Judge Dervin said.

“Thank you sir...er, Your Honor.”

“That wasn't necessarily a compliment,” Judge Dervin said immediately. “Idealists come in two forms, so far as I'm concerned. The first is made up of people who dream of a better way, a better life, for all and are willing to die for it. The second is made up of people who dream of a better way, a better life, for all and are willing to watch other people die for it.”

“I'm not talking about war,” Matt stated, “My generator is not a life or death kind of thing.”

“I beg to differ,” Judge Dervin said. “What you're talking about could easily destroy entire countries. Our world is addicted to fossil fuels and if you suddenly dump a cheaper, easier source of energy into the markets it's going to send the world into withdrawals.”

Matt shook his head and stood up from his seat.

“You sound like that old professor of mine,” he said and walked to the door.

“Maybe your professor knew what he was talking about.”

Matt paused at the door, gave Judge Dervin one last nod and left. Judge Dervin rolled his shoulders back and stretched. He still didn't know what to make of Matt Wellis. Today had not been an easy one and he looked forward to a hot bath when he got home. His next case would be starting soon and he stood to make his way to the courtroom. As he did, he realized one of the many folders that littered his desk was open. He was usually good about not doing that since they contained so much personal information. As he moved to close it he read the name on the file. Judge Dervin frowned and looked up at the door Matt Wellis had just left through as he closed Joan Darcy's file.