Leapholes

Chapter 12

The library was a mess, and Ryan offered to help the old man reshelve his fallen books before they went anywhere. It was a polite gesture that would have made Ryan's mother proud. Hezekiah seemed to realize that Ryan was really just buying a little extra time to quiz him. He wanted to know more about these "research trips" before he agreed to go on one.

Ryan picked up one book at a time and handed them to Hezekiah. The lawyer knew exactly where each book belonged. He was standing atop a stepladder, filling the top shelf.

"So tell me one thing," said Ryan as he passed up another book.

"Certainly. Anything you want to know."

"Exactly what kind of a lawyer are you?"

Hezekiah gave a little wink. "I'm the kind of lawyer you want on your side if you ever get into trouble."

"You're that good, huh?"

"Let's just say I have a lot of experience."

"Have you ever lost a case?"

"A few. The law is like anything else in life, Ryan. The right side doesn't always win."

Ryan thought of all the times he'd visited his father in jail, all the times his father had told him that he was innocent. "I suppose that's true."

"It's absolutely true," said Hezekiah. "Judges and jurors are human beings. Sometimes they make good decisions. Sometimes they make bad decisions." He paused, and his gaze slowly swept across his vast library. "And all those decisions- good or bad, right or wrong-are right here."

"Have you read all of them?"

"No. But I've visited many of them."

"Visited?"

"Yes. Like I just told you. As part of my research."

Ryan chuckled. Hezekiah restocked another book and asked, "What's so funny?"

"I just had this crazy image pop into my head. You, with a long flapping cape around your neck standing on top of a spinning globe. Then a deep voice in the background says, 'Look, up in the library! It's Super-Lawyer! Able to soar through time. Able to journey through the dusty old pages of law books and make the cases come to life. Yes, it's Super-Lawyer!"

Hezekiah laughed with him. Then his smile faded, and his expression turned stone-cold serious. "That's exactly what I do, Ryan."

Ryan laughed again, but this time Hezekiah didn't join him. The old man climbed down the ladder and went to work on the lower shelves. Ryan handed him a few more books from the pile on the floor. Hezekiah placed them carefully back on the shelf. They worked in silence for a minute or two. Ryan wondered if he had hurt the old man's feelings.

Finally, Hezekiah looked at him and said, "I was serious when I invited you. Come with me, Ryan. Come on a research trip."

Ryan was skeptical, but he played along, just out of curiosity. "Okay, let's say I agree to go with you. How do we travel?"

"There are two possible answers to that. First, let me give you the one you're not going to believe."

"Okay. This should be fun."

"I travel through legal leapholes."

Ryan started to laugh, then stopped himself, careful not to insult his lawyer all over again. "Through what?

"Leapholes."

"Leapholes? How do you find these leapholes?"

"You earn them. By closing loopholes."

"What's a loophole?"

Hezekiah considered the question, as if trying to think of a way to make the concept understandable to Ryan. His eyes seemed to brighten, then he said, "A loophole is when you find a clever but sneaky way to get around a rule."

"I don't think I follow you," said Ryan.

Hezekiah began to pace as he spoke, like a professor lecturing to his class. "Okay. Let's say you live in Florida. Your mom tells you to be home by five o'clock. You show up at eight o'clock. What do you say?"

"Uh… Sorry, Mom?"

"Maybe. Or you might say, 'But Mom, you said be home by five o'clock, and it is five o'clock-in Los Angeles."

Ryan thought for a moment. "Oh, right. They're three hours behind us on the west coast. So when it's eight o'clock in Florida, it's only five o'clock in L. A."

"That's right."

"That's a loophole?" asked Ryan.

"Right. Because next time your mother would have to say, 'Ryan be home by five o'clock Florida time."

"Or, she could say, 'We don't live in Los Angeles, bucko, you're grounded.'"

"She could. But stay with me on this, I'm trying to make a point here. There are all kinds of loopholes. And there are plenty of lawyers willing to argue about things a lot sillier than whether your mother meant five o'clock Eastern Time or five o'clock Pacific Time when she said be home by five o'clock."

"There are?"

"Yup. And it's all just a waste of everybody's time and money. That's why I close loopholes. And every time I close a loophole, the Society gives me another leaphole."

"What Society?"

"You'll learn more about that later," said Hezekiah. "First, let's just stick with leapholes."

"Okay. So exactly what is a leaphole?"

He smiled and said, "You're not going to believe it. So let me give you the other answer-the one you will believe."

"Okay, shoot."

Hezekiah took a seat on the stepladder. Ryan seated himself on a stack of books, facing Hezekiah. The old man leaned closer and said, "When I was a boy your age, I went into the library and I saw one thing. Books. Nothing but books. But if you go into the library these days, you also see… what?"

"Computers?" said Ryan.

"Exactly. All libraries are computerized nowadays, including law libraries. So I took it to the next level. I call them Virtual Legal Environments."

"Which means what?"

"I can bring the cases to life. Virtually speaking."

"How does it work?"

"It's a step beyond virtual reality. More like the legal extension of what NASA calls virtual environments. V-Es for short."

"How do you get into these V-Es?"

"They're presented through head-mounted computer-driven displays. Which is nothing more than a medium for man-machine interaction. This one is a bit more advanced, because it operates on a multi-modal interactive level."

"Multi-what?"

"Multi-modal. I know, it sounds like technical mumbo jumbo, but conceptually it's quite simple. The key is a computer that is powerful enough to capture the largest possible part of the human motor outflow. By 'motor outflow' I mean not just your arms and legs moving, but your eyesight, hearing, smell, taste, touch-all sensory perception. Then we need a staging area where human movements are constrained as little as possible. Here, the human receives from the computer a perceptual inflow, which will work only if the different available channels are firing to the max. Finally, the inflow and outflow are optimally tuned in relation to a specific task."

"You're right. It does sound like mumbo jumbo."

"But it works."

Ryan glanced at the water dripping from Hezekiah's clothing. "Obviously. But one thing has me really confused."

"What?"

"If it's a virtual environment, that means it's not real, right?"

"That's right. Feels real, but it's not."

"Then why are you all wet?"

He smiled and said, "That's the part that very few people understand. It's the part you're not ready to hear. Maybe one day you will be ready. But not now."

"What are you saying? It's magic?"

"Do you believe in magic?" asked Hezekiah.

"Oh, yeah, sure. As a matter of fact, I just sawed some guy in half yesterday. Waved my magic wand and put him right back together. Didn't even need crazy glue. Good as new. Magic."

"I see you're a skeptic."

"Let's just say I'm skeptical. There's a difference, you know. Skeptics are skeptical about everything. I'm just skeptical about things that don't exist. Like magic."

"It's all right. I was once skeptical myself. Then I learned."

"What do you know about magic? You're a lawyer."

"No better person to know about magic than a lawyer. Magic is rooted in laws."

"Yeah, right."

"It's true," said Hezekiah. "Magic is nothing more than the knowledge of some very special laws of nature. I'm talking about laws that scientists could never understand."

"Why couldn't they?"

"Because scientists are trained to think too rigidly. They want to be able to test the laws of magic the way they test the law of gravity. Well, I'm sorry, folks: If you want to understand magic, you can't just sit under a tree waiting for an apple to fall on your head. You have to think like a lawyer. We understand better than anyone that laws are fluid."

"Laws of magic, huh? That must be the most popular course in college. Right up there with Fairy Godmothers 101."

Again, Hezekiah smiled. "You're definitely not ready for the whole leaphole enchilada."

"You're definitely right."

"But you're in luck, my boy. Leapholes work whether you believe in magic or not."

"Thanks to the computer," said Ryan, still skeptical.

"If that makes you feel more comfortable, then sure. It's the computer. Or is it magic? Only the members of the Society know for sure. The good news for you is that it doesn't matter.

You get to go along for the ride and decide for yourself. Ready?"

"Sure," said Ryan.

"Good. Let's give it a go."

"You mean we do it right here?"

"Yes, of course."

"But you said we need a staging area where human movements are constrained as little as possible."

"You're thinking too narrowly when I speak of human movements. Human movement includes the imagination. That makes the library a perfect staging area. Nowhere is the imagination less constrained than in a library."

Ryan studied the man's expression. Hezekiah was genuinely excited. On one level, Ryan thought this had to be a joke. But if it was a joke, Hezekiah was one heck of a good actor.

"All right," said Ryan. I'll play along. I'll go on your little computer trip."

"That's my boy," said Hezekiah. He hopped to his feet and took Ryan by the hand. "Come now. Quickly. Get ready for the journey of a lifetime!"