April (19 page)

"Thank you, but why the extra precautions?" Jeff asked. "Is there some particular danger, worth compromising your privacy?"

"You just alarm me, with talk of a few hundred billion dollars. Money has a funny effect on people. There are plenty who would do anything for that sort of money."

"Mr. Harris is the only person outside security who knows about this. Do you have any reservations about him we should know?" Jeff asked.

"The kind of money you're talking about, I wouldn't trust anybody. For a couple hundred billion I don't know if I can trust myself." Neil quipped. Look, I'll be next door. Tap on my door when you are ready and I'll escort you home," he ducked out.

"Back in a minute Jeff," she immediately said, ducking in the bathroom.

"I have a little bit of a thing about bathrooms," she told him when she came out. "My Mom used to carry a can of disinfectant spray in her purse and clean up like it was a biohazard dump before she would let any of us use a public restroom. When they had the mouse virus in Africa, she wouldn't even visit my Grandparents in Australia, until they had it controlled and I don't know if they ever got a case in Australia. Even when we visit a self-cleaning restroom Earthside, I feel like it is dirty because of how my mom acts. I hated to ask Mr. Harris to use his bathroom. It's probably his private bathroom and it feels so intrusive," she sat on one of two chairs at a little table and scooted it around to face him. He was laying on one of the beds stretched out on his back with his hands behind his neck.

"I understand. I get a lot of attitudes about things from my dad. I wish I remembered more about my mom, but I was too young when she died, so I can picture her face and smell and I remember her voice, but I wasn't old enough to have really serious conversations to remember."

"I'm sorry, Jeff. I didn't know you lost your mom. I noticed nobody mentioned her, but I didn't know why and it was hard to ask."

"She went to visit her family in India and flew back to Hawaii to take the shuttle up home from there. This was back in 2072 and the Governor of Hawaii was trying to annex Niihau, The Forbidden Island, away from the Robinsons. It was too tempting a hunk of underdeveloped real estate for his buddies to snatch and the other islands were bursting at the seams."

"They got the courts to say the original purchase in 1863 was illegal. But public opinion was not with the Governor and he decided to have a bomb set off in the airport and blame it on the 'Niihaun terrorists'.  Then there would be no more talk of sympathy for them. He got some Hawaiian State Police to do the deed for him, but the idiot's messed up and set it off prematurely. It still killed eight people, but one of them was the State Policeman in uniform carrying it and his partner lost a leg and spilled the beans to the EMS people trying to save him. He was angry and sure he was going to die with his leg blown off, so he told the story to take the Governor down with him."

"Unfortunately for him, against all odds he survived and was later executed by the Feds for terrorist murder, as was his supervisor. But the damn Governor was never convicted of anything. My mom was one of the eight 'unimportant' people killed. So you maybe understand a little better, why I don't care for politicians of any flavor very much."

"What an awful story. I'm so sorry for you Jeff. I don't know how you and your dad can deal with it."

"Well, one way is my dad went to work with a vengeance - literally - suing the governor for my mom's wrongful death. What they could not prove as a criminal matter, was much easier to pursue as a civil matter. He stripped the man of a big hunk of everything he accumulated all those years as a corrupt politician. He took the civil suit money and the settlement from the airline and the life insurance she had and with all of it we were able to buy a share of the Rock."

"Otherwise he could never have saved enough money to buy in and now here we are again, with some other politicians who will try to steal everything he gained. If we can't keep the Rock maybe we should do what all the nut cases were screaming about a couple years ago and drop the whole thing right on Washington. Just wipe the lot of them out before they hurt anyone else."

"Jeff, you know there would be a lot more innocent people like your mom hurt than politicians. The Rock would probably wipe out the whole eastern part of Virginia and Maryland, not just some politicians."

"I know. Sorry April, I don't seriously mean it." He had closed his eyes and looked tired. "But I don't want us to just curl up and give them what is ours either. If the people down there allow these crooked people to stay in power and they come up here and bother us, then they will have to bear some responsibility for their actions. They can't just elect them and then say, 'We can't help it if they send soldiers and hurt you.' Know what I mean? It's the man, they picked, doing it."

"Yes, I do and if it comes to a choice between them and my people here, I will take my own people just like you would. We can hope they don't force the choice on us. I have to go home Jeff. Are you OK now?"

"Yeah, I have everything I need, thanks April. House, lights down half," he said.

April knelt by the bed, elbows on the edge of the mattress. Jeff opened his eyes again at the motion and rolled his head over to look at her.

"Why did you name me a co-owner?" she wanted to know. "It wasn't anything I expected. We pledged our fortunes to our cause, not each other."

"Right now, I think we three
are
the cause as near as matters. There's potentially more money there than anyone needs, but you or Heather might need it to keep us free if I'm dead and I think we're all in danger now. My dad taught me your belly only holds so much and to accumulate more than you need is too often just greed. I can never use so much money personally, but I can hope to direct it to worthy things. Anyway, I trust you," he said simply.

"Doesn't your dad have an interest in your company?"

"No, I offered to write it that way and he refused. He laughed and told me he wanted a dollar a quarter to be on my board. So he and our lawyer have been the only other members of our board, with just nominal shares to keep it legal - just a legal formality. We'll expand the board to include Heather and you now too."

April thought about it and felt a depth of gratitude. She gripped his elbow in her right hand leaning forward and started to give him a kiss, but at his look of surprise turned her head and just laid her cheek against his briefly like an awkward embrace instead. He brought his hand down on her shoulders and gave a squeeze and a pat that was somehow dismissive.

"Heather told me how smart you are," he said with an amused smile, when she drew back. "We don't need a more complicated personal life right now. But thank you, I value your affection. Whatever happens, we three are mates in conspiracy and fellows at arms. But if the Earthies ever thought we were a ménage á trois, they'd croak wouldn't they?" he laughed out loud at the idea of shocking the Earthies, since they had gotten so straight laced down below. "Goodnight April."

"Goodnight Jeff," and she levered herself up and slipped out the door.

Chapter 11

The next morning April was quite happy to do normal things. It gave her new insight on how her dad treasured a day off, without the constant intrusion of one crisis after another from his job. She listened to the news again, walking to the gym where she had a private running room reserved. It was Wednesday, October 6, 2083 and she listened to a non-government channel again, although they were still heavily regulated.

The commercial channel had some news about media stars, which was meaningless to her. Someone had leaked a story the outlawed Libertarian Party leader James Tate, native born, but stripped of his citizenship under the Terror and Sedition laws, had been  kidnapped by Federal agents in Argentina last summer and smuggled back into the country where he was being held incommunicado.

A couple in California had an electrical break down in their car, near the Nevada state line losing their sat com link. Despite having water they died of the fifty-seven degree heat in the six hours before rescuers were aware they were overdue and reached them. It was the third such tragedy this year so the state was now considering a ban on single vehicle crossings. There were a number of areas now where climate swings made a simple mechanical failure unsurvivable, by extremes of high or low temperature.

A prosecutor in Salt Lake City, announced she intended to pursue a weapons charge against a resident in possession of a pocket knife. It was under the legal blade length by city law, but she said it demonstrated criminal intent, because it was sharp.

A boat load of English drowned, trying to escape to Ireland. Too many, jammed on a boat that wouldn't be safe on a pond. It wasn't the Royal Navy that got them, but bad weather. Even if they made it, Ireland would only send them on to Australia. Ireland had absorbed as many refugees as they were willing.

Business people in Ontario were complaining they were being refused travel permits, more than residents of the original fifty-one states and they could not compete with companies located there under such a handicap. They blamed the problem on the perception all Canadians were Quebec terrorists and security risks. Nothing very exciting unless you lived down there.

The only story which really bothered her was a new pet mod, being offered in Italy. They would alter a single pup, or a litter in vitro, so they never matured. Some people thought puppies were fun, but they had to grow up and be dogs. This pup would grow a few months and stay immature until it died.  She didn't even like dogs and still thought it was perverted. No wonder some people opposed to all genetic engineering. How long would it be before some sicko tried the same with people?

It was stuff like this which made people prejudiced to people like her, lumping the responsible and reckless use of the technology all together. She swallowed a couple gel caps at home, which amplified the training effect of the exercise, since she didn't get to run as often as she would have liked. She put her things in a locker. Palming the lock to confirm her reservation to the station computer, she entered a round room, the blank walls not showing a setting yet and picked a desert course to run, setting the terrain on medium difficulty. The walls changed to a barren scene with sunlight so bright the distant hills looked almost white, with tiny dark dots of scrub vegetation among huge rocks. There were Joshua trees so it had to be the Mohave Desert.

She looked to her right and there was a thin, hard looking youth, squatted down on his heels. He had reddish deep bronzed skin and a abbreviated buckskin vest, a breech cloth of a coarse looking wool fabric and moccasins. He had his black hair in neat simple braids and a complex breastplate of bead work hanging from his neck. There was a drawstring bag hanging from his waist band and a delicate sheath with a flint knife. Laid across his knees, under his wrists, was a lance with a flaked stone head firmly bound with translucent sinew to the wooden shaft. Back from the spear head a decorative device of some sort, with a couple long feathers was shaking in the wind.

The illusion broke down a little there because there was a steady breeze from the ventilator and she could hear it, but it was not gusting the way the feathers were moving. She wondered if it was authentic because to her eye the lance looked like it would be more at home on a horse, than for someone on foot. There were no contrails in the sky either, but it was probably supposed to be a historical composition. He looked up at her, made a gesture pointing into the distance and looked a question with his eyes.

"Go." she said and he sprinted away like a startled rabbit. He never looked back and the terrain was hard and flat with little to break it as she got into a rhythm and kept pace with her virtual guide. His footfalls were a soft drumbeat and when they changed timing it warned her quicker than her vision, when he was changing pace or direction. After they had ran the equivalent of a kilo and a half or so, to warm up, the track under her started getting some rocks and ridges to deal with.

She had to watch the obstacles as they approached and dealt with them, but if she looked down where to place her feet, the illusion was broken and the rock she would leap over was just a gray mound sticking up under the rubberized fabric of the belt. For awhile he took a route uphill at a punishing pace and the floor under her tilted and offered the appropriate resistance.

After a short downhill they were on the level again and slowed the pace until the guide came to a halt beside a huge spire of rock sticking out of the Earth. He turned to look back and set the butt of his lance on the ground, then gave a small wave of farewell and dismissal and stepped behind the rock out of sight. It was neater than just having him disappear when the desert ended and the compartment walls came back up. It was a very professional exercise composition.

She had the slightly shaky feeling of having pushed the envelope of her capacity and the walk back home was an extension of her cool down walk at the end. After a shower and fresh clothing, she was ready for a lighter than usual breakfast at the cafeteria.

Back at home, refreshed by her run and the late breakfast, she jumped right in, determined to focus for a few hours and started catching up on three different classes. The lessons ate up a big chunk of morning, until FedEx arrived at her door with the capes she ordered. It seemed like a nice break to stop and look through them. She picked a couple for herself and started a list of suitable people to whom she could make gifts of them.

"She still found her mind going back over the events of the last two days and rethinking things, wondering what else she could do and kind of obsessing about what she might have done. There was one idea she had for the hand laser, but when she got a second one she couldn't resist and text messaged Jeff, using the secure system they gave her. He answered so fast he must be sitting at the com working.

"Jeff, I have a couple ideas I want to run past you on the hand laser," she typed.  "Got a minute?"