3rd World Products, Book 17 (36 page)

“You won’t believe that until you’re on the flitter. Now stop asking questions and get moving. If you aren’t out there when I get there, you’ll stay here.”

Pulling the door open, I headed for Lane’s room and stopped about halfway to see what Morely would do. After a few moments he stepped out of his office with a briefcase and a travel mug and got some coffee at the nurse’s station. He told the other doc he was going to his car for something, then he headed for the elevator.

Good ‘nuff. He’d either be there or not. I went to Lane’s room and looked at his visitation chart. Less than fifteen minutes before someone checked him. Forming a sim of him, I set it in place over his body and had the sim take over feeding the gadgets.

None of them complained about the change. I disconnected them from Lane, then fielded Lane out of the bed and onto my board. A short upright field held his IV bags above him.

Athena appeared and made two quick adjustments to things, then her form vanished, but her essence remained. I sent probes to check the hall, then got the board underway in stealth mode and used a tendril to pull the ward door open.

Someone in scrubs came out of the stairwell and I took that opportunity to put a field on the door to hold it open. The woman returned to the door and tried to close it, and when she didn’t give up as we approached, I sent a slight charge to the handle. The static zap made her yelp and she backed away from the door in confusion, checking her hand.

Once through the doors, I removed the door field. The stairs were empty. At the lower door I again sent probes to check the other side of the door. Nobody there. Too bad.

I considered blocking the ER cameras, but that became unnecessary. A car pulled up under the canopy and let out a woman in scrubs. She waved to the driver, then headed for the ER’s glass doors. They opened for her and I sent a field to block the one on the left. They bucked a bit when they tried to close.

She showed ID to a guard, glanced at the glass doors, and headed for the stairwell door. When she came through the door I held it open and guided the board through and headed for the ER doors.

The guard was examining them. He gave one a whack that did nothing to free it and used his shoulder mic to radio someone. We passed him and I removed the blocking field. The doors closed behind us and I called Galatea down in stealth mode.

There were two more cameras watching the ER entrance and the area just beyond it. Did that matter? Not really. Doc Morely was by the mailbox as instructed, leaning on it as he rather self-consciously sipped coffee and tried to pretend he wasn’t freaking out.

Stopping in front of the mailbox, I had Galatea take Lane aboard as I set the envelope on top of the mailbox with a soft slap and let go of it. Morely startled and looked around, and as soon as he saw the envelope and his eyes got big, I grabbed the envelope.

Stuffing the envelope in my back pocket, I whispered, “You ready to go, Doc?”

He hissed, “Yes!”

“Then walk straight in front of the mailbox and take it slow, ‘cuz that’s where the flitter’s parked.”

Hopping aboard Tea, I watched him amble until he moved inside Tea’s hull field and discovered the flitter. He stopped and stared.

“Marvel on the way, doc. We gotta go.”

He stepped aboard and hurried to a seat as he looked around and asked, “But… Where’s Mr. Lane?”

I thumbed over my shoulder as I had Tea lift toward Guyana and turned off my board’s stealth mode.

“Back there.”

He started to get up, then stopped and asked, “Is it safe to…”

“Yup. Go have a look, but don’t touch.” Turning my seat, I asked, “Athena, how’s Lane doing?”

She appeared by the board and said, “Well enough.”

Morely froze a pace from his seat and stared at her.

I laughed, “I think he’s in love with you, ma’am. Same thing happened to me when I first saw you.”

Athena gave me a quick, flat glance, then said, “Hello, Dr. Morely.”

He managed, “Ah… uhm… Hello, ah… Athena, is it?”

She nodded. “That’s right.”

Morely got himself moving and went to shake her hand. I left them to discuss whatever and checked email and messages. After filling a couple of ebook orders and answering a brief message from an archaeologist friend in Iowa, I checked the time.

Almost exactly fifteen minutes since I’d installed the sim. A probe showed the sim alone in the room. I let it vanish and two machines began complaining loudly as I also let the probe vanish.

Glancing back, I saw Athena and Morely chatting and said, “Hey, Doc. How’s your back? Still hurt?”

He turned slightly to look at me and winced hard, then hissed, “Thanks a lot for reminding me. Now it hurts like hell.”

“Well, we’re out over the Atlantic now, so Athena might be able to help you with that.”

Moving carefully, he turned back around and looked at her as if to ask if it were true. Athena nodded and smiled. I left him to her attentions and turned back to my screen.

About halfway to Guyana, Linda pinged me. I sent back our ‘
not alone
‘ pings before I put up a blank screen to answer.

“Hi, there! I’ve been kind of hoping you’d call, ma’am.”

“So I’ve been given to understand. How’s your evening going?”

“Okay, I guess. My date wasn’t feeling well, so I found something else to do. Ended up taking a ride.”

Linda took a breath and said, “I actually called to tell you there’s been a family emergency, so I have to cancel our visit. We need to keep ourselves available for travel.”

With a sigh, I replied, “Well, damn. Women are turning me down left and right tonight.”

I heard a muffled chuckle, then Linda said, “Then speaking for all womankind, our apologies, of course.”

“You know what apologies are worth, ma’am. I guess I’ll find some other way to fill the time.”

Linda chuckled, “I’m sure you will. I have faith in you. Well, that’s it. Sorry again about the cancellation. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight. Thanks for calling.”

She dropped her link and I sipped coffee as I sat back. She’d never mentioned my name during the call. ‘
Cancel our visit
‘ meant ‘
don’t come here
‘. She knew about Lane’s condition and very likely what had happened in Dallas, as well. I linked to my core and deleted the pad-call record at both ends on general principles.

Taking the envelope from my back pocket, I put it in my backpack. The AIs had only needed its technical and temporary physical existence to legitimize their efforts on and above US soil, and their concerns had been met.

Had they given any consideration to the likely aftermath? To the strong possibility that the folder copy might simply disappear if some politician decided to start another round of shit?

Probably not. However many examples of duplicity and other venalities might exist, the AIs had a tendency to expect a higher level of honesty and honor than most people could or would meet.

And I had the very doctor who’d signed it, though without that folder copy he could only testify that he had, indeed, released Lane for transport. They’d likely suggest the backup had been made after the fact. Shrug. Any bases uncovered? Probably, but if they hadn’t been enough to stop Athena, they’d probably be surmountable.

That just left me. The form didn’t cover my actions. Or did it? One could say I simply provided the transport the doc had authorized. They’d buy that if they wanted to soft-pedal the whole mess and maybe see it all go away before the media got hold of it. Whatever. Screw it for now. I brought up my latest book-in-progress, took a sip of coffee, and started editing the last two chapters.

Chapter Twenty-five

Morely came up front and took a seat, watched me work for a time, and then said, “Thanks.”

Glancing at him, I asked, “For..?”

He snorted a chuckle and, “What do you mean, ‘for’? You got me on at the Guyana clinic.”

“The hell I did. You could have sent your CV and a job query. They’re always looking for doctors.”

He sat eyeing me for a moment, then snarked, “Well, that isn’t exactly common knowledge, now, is it?”

Grinning, I replied, “Probably not where you used to work.”

“Then I have every reason to thank you, don’t I?”

“Yeah, okay. Sure. But I just needed a signature and you looked like the best candidate at the time. When you talked about a new life, I just happened to know where you could find one.”

Turning to face forward and sipping from his mug, he said, “Well, thanks anyway. I’m finally out of there, on my way to a new job and a new life, and I might even be able to write a book about it.”

Reaching the end of chapter twenty-four, I chuckled, “Sounds like a plan, doc.”

After a pause, he said, “You never told me your name.”

“Sure didn’t. Don’t plan to, either.”

“Why not?”

“What you don’t know, you can’t tell.”

He paused again, then asked, “What are you doing there?”

Tapping the screen off, I answered, “Reading over some stuff, but I finished it. Got a change of clothes with you?”

Glancing at his briefcase, he nodded. “Yes.”

“Good. There are shops on the lower level at the clinic for anything you don’t have. If your credit cards don’t work…”

He yelped, “What?!”

Holding up a hand, I said, “Don’t panic. When you come up missing, someone might think to freeze them. If they don’t work, you can get a draw against salary. In fact, the first thing you’ll want to do is open an account with the clinic credit union and transfer your Stateside funds. Tonight. Tomorrow you can talk to their legal department about your house and car and…”

He shook his head. “I’m renting the house and leasing the car. I have a few stocks, but I can handle those from anywhere.”

“What about the alimony?”

“She’s always been reasonable so far.”

“A little government pressure could change that. Cover your financial ass on general principles.”

He shrugged. “Not much to cover.”

“Easy job, then.”

Visibly stopping to think, Morely said, “Wait. How’d you know about my alimony?”

Putting up another screen, I showed him a credit agency info page and tapped the screen as I said, “With this.”

As expected, he thought I meant the page and snorted, “Don’t put too much faith in credit agencies. It took me almost three years to correct them about a stolen credit card.”

Distant lights appeared to change position and I said, “We’re descending. That big light among all the little ones is the clinic.”

Milla pinged me and I used the screen to answer, “Yes, ma’am. You got me.”

“Sir, you won’t be landing on the roof, so please allow us to control your flitter.”

“Sure, Milla. Take over.”

“Thank you.”

She dropped the link. Nothing about our course seemed to change until we were within a mile or so of the building. That’s when it became evident we were heading for the side of the building, not the roof. Coming in kinda fast, too. Hm. Better warn the doc.

“Hey, Morely, it’s going to look as if we’re going to hit the building, but that’s
not
going to happen, okay?”

He glanced at me with, “Huh?” then turned back and saw the side of the building looming ahead. His face filled with terror and he sucked in a deep breath. I quickly fed him a fat dose of theta waves and he sighed out that deep breath as we passed through the building’s ‘hull’ field.

The flitter stopped in a bay about twice its size and Lane was immediately moved toward the wall on our left. He and the AI ladies passed through the wall, revealing it to be another field. Kewl.

Even the heavy theta waves hadn’t completely dealt with Morely’s terror of crashing. He sat staring around and breathing hard, obviously coming down from a massive adrenalin rush.

I asked, “Coulda used a little more warning, huh?”

He fixed his stark, staring gaze on me for a moment, then closed his eyes and rubbed his face.

“I’ll… I’ll be all right in a minute. All this on top of too little sleep and too much coffee… I just need some time to get it together.”

When I asked Tea for a bathroom field, Morely looked at me and asked, “A what?”

Pointing beyond him, I said, “That. Go check it out.”

After a long look at it, he turned back around, then pointed beyond me and said, “I’d rather check her out.”

A tall, lightly tanned young blonde woman wearing unusually sharp-looking hospital scrubs had come through a door field ahead of the flitter. Stepping forward with what looked like a small pizza box, she stopped a foot or so from the flitter’s deck. There seemed to be something odd or unique about her, but it wasn’t readily obvious.

“Hello,” she said with a British accent, “My name is Disa. I’ve been assigned to help Dr. Morely acclimate to our facility.”

I quickly said, “We aren’t using my name tonight, ma’am.”

She blinked. “Excuse me?”

“We aren’t using my name tonight. The doc doesn’t know it and he doesn’t need to. If you need to, step away and take a minute to
quietly
verify the matter with Milla.”

After a moment of studying me, Disa did just that.

Faking a slight cough, Morely covered his grin and whispered, “Did she just say her name was ‘Diesel’?”

I growled softly, “No, she said ‘Disa’. Behave, doc.”

His grin vanished as he realized I wasn’t kidding.

She smiled and said, “Thank you, but I heard his question. Dr. Morely, he’s correct. My name is Disa. That’s ‘D-i-s-a’. If you would both come with me, I’ll show you to your rooms.”

I said, “Ma’am, he needs to do some banking first. Certain people might pretend he’s been kidnapped and freeze his assets.”

She nodded. “Of course. I can perform an account transfer immediately as a way to demonstrate his datapad.”

Morely seemed startled. “
You
can do it?”

Smiling, she replied, “I do many things here, Dr. Morely.”

Her name rang a small, vague bell somewhere in my mind. The only immediate definition that popped up was for an acronym — Defense Information Systems Agency — but that didn’t seem the likeliest answer.