April 2: Down to Earth (47 page)

"House," April asked. "Can you track the truck that dropped someone off about ten minutes ago?"

"Yes April, the vehicle left by the same route it approached. It is about seven kilometers away in a straight line, but is leaving on a long loop. If you require tracking beyond the immediate area, I can buy camera time on a high altitude civilian camera platform."

April lifted an inquiring eyebrow. Gunny shook his head no.

"Thank you house, that is sufficient data."

"You seem to have fairly robust security here." He was impressed.

"I was told it is a very smart house. I'm sure Papa-san will introduce you."

"I'd like that."

The young ladies returned with a cart and started setting up for a meal. It wasn't any too soon for April. She was very pleased when the cook rolled out a big stainless BBQ grill. They had only used it twice since she'd been here and she'd stuffed herself silly. The smoky charred goodness of a charcoal grill was something she'd never experienced on a habitat. The scrubbers and filters you'd need to recycle the air would be ridiculous.

"Umm, that looks encouraging," Gunny said softly to April.

"Here comes your host," April informed him, peering over his shoulder.

Gunny jumped to his feet and the way he acted, April wouldn't have been surprised if he'd saluted, but Papa san waved him down.

"Relax, Master Sergeant. We're not big on formalities here."

"Then, Gunny is fine," he invited.

"I'm Papa-san around here. But if you are talking to my past colleagues or agencies, mostly they will refer to me as 'T'.

"That sounds fine. I'd feel silly calling you Papa-anything," Gunny admitted.

"Steak, baby-back ribs, or split chicken?" Papa-san asked looking at what was available in the cooler by the grill.

"Yes!" April agreed enthusiastically.

"I assume you just have a normal human appetite, Gunny?" Satos asked. "If you are all gene tweaked and carnivorous, like Miss Lewis here, we can probably negotiate a bulk discount with the butcher. Or perhaps put a few head out to graze on the lawn."

"She could probably rustle a few head, if you'd look the other way," Adzusa suggested.

"Don't they hang rustlers?" April asked.

"Only if they catch them," Adzusa assured her. "You have escaped so many other hanging offenses, what's another?"

"I'd be content with a single steak, warm in the middle, but rare please," Gunny responded. Hoping to head off the other conversation. "I have a pretty good appetite, but I have to keep my activity up, not to start packing on the weight."

"Perhaps you'd run with me?" April asked hopefully. "I think I ran more at home than down here, which is kind of crazy."

"After you heal up and if we set the pace for me. I'm not about to ruin myself trying to keep up with a gene mod. And assuming nobody is actively shooting at you."

"Well, that might be hard to know ahead of time." April argued.

"Nah. Given human nature if somebody is hot to shoot you, I bet we know pretty quickly. In fact if you don't go out in public and they are really hot to get you, they'll come probing around here. I have to ask T, are you really comfortable having me on your property and armed? You obviously are not afraid to have April. But maybe I'm just a further provocation, to attract trouble. Did the President put a lot of pressure on you to accept me?"

"I've made my own inquiries about you," Papa-san admitted. "You're welcome here. I would caution you, that if we are attacked many of the household will actively respond. I don't want them endangered by friendly fire."

"I'll be most careful of that," Gunny promised.

"President Wiggen wanted to saddle me with an entire security detail," April volunteered. "Here, it's easier to just let you watch the whole exchange." She pulled up the conversation with Wiggen and turned the screen to Gunny. He sat entranced, as everybody loaded plates and started in around him. He just absent mindedly murmured a thanks and kept watching when a small pair of filets were put in front of him. He seemed content with the sides picked for him and methodically put it away as he stared at the screen.

"That was really quite good, thank you. I did notice," he said pushing the plate away," but you so rarely get to see the real deal like this," he said waving at the screen. "I wanted to give it my attention. This is the kind of historic thing they don't let out in public, until everybody involved is dead and nobody cares anymore. That about the lieutenants shooting the President - wow – I'm deep in the same organization and had no clue. This kind of thing is dangerous to know."

"Doesn't that embarrass you to say?" April asked pointedly.

"No, I know my government is flawed. But I've been all over and seen how they do things in the rest of the world. Most places are so corrupt we look good in comparison. I consider keeping President Wiggen alive a worthy goal. When there are assassinations and chaos, it tends to reach down and make the life of the little people uncertain too. I've seen a lot of places where they can't keep the electricity on and you have to worry you'll get robbed or killed, because you are the wrong class, or wrong religion, when you go out for groceries."

"I'm hoping we do a little better with our experiment," April said.

"The real test will be how it is doing in two or three hundred years. Looking at history, I don't see any government that slowly treated its people better as it aged. They all start with lofty ideals and slowly get less free and more corrupt year by year."

"The way med-tech is going, some of us may be around to see," April predicted. Then she was appalled at herself for speaking without thinking. Maybe Gunny couldn't afford it, or didn't even
want
it. Earthies were different and his face said he did not have life extension.

Gunny saw the flash of discomfort on her face. "I've been kind of waiting," Gunny admitted. "I can retire any time I wish. It's impossible to stay active duty and go through a thorough life extension treatment. I was going to retire when my wife did, but she died suddenly a few years ago from an aneurism. For awhile I felt a great deal of guilt we hadn't had her done. She could have taken the time off for it. But my doctor surprised me by explaining it isn't really true rejuvenation, or a general treatment yet. If you have a birth defect or trauma undetected, it doesn't necessarily
repair
it."

"I never thought about that."

"Yeah, it made me decide if I buy LE, I'm going to spring for a full body, detailed MRI survey. It won't add that much cost and then you know what you are working with."

"This half chicken seems to be orphaned," Pap-san observed. He loaded it with some seared pineapple and coleslaw and presented the plate to Gunny. "House Mr. Tindal or Gunny will be enjoying our hospitality," he declared to the air. "Allow him to access all our sensors and the use of communications. He has the run of the house, except for our private rooms and whatever rooms the help or Miss Lewis set off limits to him. If he leaves the property note the vehicle, but do not assume it is him returning in it. Do you have a sufficient voice sample?"

"I have his voice and appearance recorded. Welcome Master Sergeant."

"Thank you house. Do you listen everywhere?"

"Inside the house you can get my attention anywhere by saying 'House' if it is not in the context of the conversation. Active areas like the pool also, but around the perimeter I may not hear you past about 50 meters. If you wish to stay in contact with me there are compact handsets in the mud room you can take with you."

"Can you recall conversations for me?" he asked, subtly.

"I can recall a conversation for about 30 minutes after it seems to have terminated, before it scrolls off. For example, as long as you are all in the area of the pool and continue interacting, I regard that as one extended conversation. If you wish a particular thing remembered you will have to tell me to take a note and I'll start a file for you."

"Can you hold up your end of a conversation by yourself?"

"I answer com calls as a person. You would have to judge if I pass your personal Turing test. I understand I am about two years out of date as an AI. If I were to upgrade I'd need to install another twenty Terabyte of fast memory."

"Go ahead and schedule yourself for three times that, House," Papa-san ordered. "We might as well get ahead of it a bit."

"Thank you. There have been times speaking to several people at once, I felt sluggish."

"Do you speak Hawaiian?"  Gunny inquired.

"Not at the moment, but I can install that if you wish."

"Please, I'd like to learn the basics at least and practice it against you."

"Very well, I've installed the necessary software," House informed him.

April had sampled each of the grilled items available and was on her third dessert.

"I can see you have a raging metabolism," Gunny told her, "but are there any qualities you have that will affect my ability to guard you? With your high metabolic rate, do you run out of steam early?"

Li, usually so quiet, blew pineapple juice out his nose and proceeded to choke from spasms of laughter.

Gunny lifted a single suspicious eyebrow.

"I'm fine on endurance," April  said, keeping a poker face. Li went into a second series of giggles holding his napkin over his mouth.

"House, show Gunny the TV new sequence of April running on the beach," Adzusa ordered exasperated and let it run for him.

"Wow, I can't believe you kept up, Li. Are you gene mod too?" Gunny asked after.

"No, the girl about killed me," Li admitted.

"What else little gal? I don't want any surprises."

"I'm pretty fast," she admitted.

"How fast?"

"Does anybody have a coin?" April asked. Papa san said something and pretty soon one of the maids came jogging out of the house and he pointed at April. The coin was an American silver dollar. She looked briefly at it, intrigued, but sat it on the edge of the table between them.

"Try to snatch in before me," April invited.

"Ladies first," he said with a smile.

April had her hand over the coin and was trying to slide it off the edge of the table but found her hand pegged tight to the table under his huge paw. She was so shocked her mouth just hung open, speechless.

Papa-san clapped his hands in formal applause, grinning.

"Not bad, I believe I could teach you combat handgun, if you have the eye to go with the hands," Gunny allowed.

"I have a friend up on Home, who will pay you to let him check your genome and do some tests for him. He told me there are people like you."

"Warned you, I think you mean," he said, smug. He withdrew his hand and April finished picking up the coin. She tossed it to Papa-san and he flipped it right back.

"I could tell it was novel to you. It's a gift."

"It isn't a special keepsake?"

"Nah, it's just money. Real money, you can't just print more of when you run out."

"Excuse me," House said. "I see from the commercial aerostat I monitor, that two aircars have approached at very low altitude and are setting down on the opposite side of our woods."

"House, tell the staff to do an emergency shutdown. Open the shelter and indicate we may take cover or evacuate, in ten minutes. Staff are to grab essential possessions and arm themselves."

"I have a close support aircraft on call. Would you like me to launch it and put it at your disposal?" Gunny asked Papa-san, opening his phone.

"What sort of ordnance?"

"Four small cluster munitions, two air-fuel explosives, two precision concrete filled bombs and 40mm cannon on a Warthog II."

"Yes, launch it please."

Gunny held it to his ear and for the first time they saw him angry. "The number returns an out of service message."

"Hmm. Your authorizations are straight from the President, correct?" At Gunny's affirmative nod he spoke again. "House abort sheltering. Our situation is not tenable. Staff to evacuate. April, Gunny, if you will come with us we can provide safety, I think. Li, plan 'C'. Bring Gunny's gear to the car and set the booby traps after emptying the safe and shelter. House send multiple copies of this week's records and correspondence, as well as copies of yourself, to several safe locations. Duplicate offsite storage of long term records. Move all local funds into other countries and disperse standing accounts." He got up, seeming in no great hurry. Li was already gone into the house.

April's pad emitted an irritating whine. She flipped it up and took the call, since it was her emergency ring. It was already in speaker mode.

"April, Militia Control here. We show a submarine missile launch eighty kilometers east of the island, with a sub visible at shallow depth. Probable Chinese. It is a rocket boosted air breather, on a direct line for the Santos' place. ETA seven minutes plus."

"Put it on my spex," she asked. "How hard to shoot down?"

"We can't do it from orbit. The type is a subsonic low flyer and does a pop up terminal maneuver. You have a better than 60% probability of destroying it with your pistol if you have it in aircraft mode and can acquire the target early in the pull up."

"I'll try," April  told him. "Thanks."

"Can we be gone in," her eyes flicked inside her spex, "six minutes?"

"No way," Papa-san said with a grimace.

"Up to me then." She walked briskly away from the pool and trees, to where she had a clear view to the eastern horizon. Her spex gave her the heading on which the missile was approaching and she left the sights at the widest angle possible. Gunny shadowed her.

"Full power, auto-acquire and engage a cruise missile head-on," she instructed the pistol. The near tree line was close to two hundred meters out on this side. Then there was a gently sloped hill showing just its crown over the tree line, a bit over a kilometer out. The overhead view in her spex showed the progression of the missile. About four kilometers out it cut an arc around another hill, to stay as low as possible.

It would probably do the same with the hilltop she could see.  It cleared the far hill curving around the north side of it and then reversed direction around the south side of the closer hill, turning its course into an S shaped maneuver. April shifted her aim point to the south and prepared to track the missile when it popped up.