Authors: Doug J. Cooper
Sid sat for a moment. “The scout’s ready for this kind of
trip?”
“The scout’s fully refurbished and sitting right there.” Crispin
pointed to the far side of the lodge property.
Sid saw lawn, gardens, and trees and understood the ship’s
cloaking system was hiding it from view. “Oh yeah, there it is.” He pointed to
the same place Crispin had. “It looks like you’ve had the outside coated with
something new?”
Sid hid his smile as he stood up. He couldn’t see anything,
but he enjoyed watching Crispin lean forward and squint, trying to see whatever
Sid claimed he could.
“Let’s go rescue Lenny,” Sid said as he started down the
trail.
“Oh,” yelped Lenny, startled awake
by a man tapping on the car window. Lights came on in the garage, and he could see
a guy talking, but he couldn’t make out the words. The car’s sound-proofing muffled
his voice.
“Open the door,” Lenny mouthed as he pointed to his ears,
shrugged his shoulders, and shook his head. The guy continued talking.
C’mon, buddy,
he thought.
You can’t be that stupid
.
He started the mime act a second time, so focused on his silent communication
he was unaware the door behind him had opened. He realized he’d been tricked when
someone grabbed his shirt from behind and started pulling.
The shirt constricted around his neck as he slid backward
across the seat of the utility vehicle. His choking intensified when he was
lifted out of the vehicle and held suspended off the floor. It stopped when his
assailant let go of his shirt.
Lenny dropped to his feet, and his legs buckled as blood
rushed into his long-cramped limbs. Holding on to the car, he couldn’t help but
feel like a pup that’d been lifted by the scruff of his neck. He was both
chastened and angered by his treatment, but overriding those emotions were his hunger
and desperate need of a bathroom.
Lenny turned, leaned back against the car for support, and looked
up at the guy who’d manhandled him. He saw a tall, broad-shouldered tough with
an extremely intimidating vibe. The guy had two-day stubble that camouflaged a
faint scar at his jawline. From what he’d just experienced, Lenny judged this
mark as a badge earned during an act of violence and aggression rather than from
the accidental misfortunes of life.
The other, the one who’d been tapping at the window, came
around and stood next to the first. They both had similar frames and physiques,
but this second one had a face with flawless symmetry and smooth, unblemished
skin. Lenny studied him for a moment, fascinated by the perfection.
Knowing he was the one who’d initiated the mischief, Lenny
chose outrage as his defense. The scruffy one projected an unflinching scowl
while the perfect one’s face remained impassive. Lenny chose to address the unemotional
visage and looked at Crispin when he spoke.
“You kidnapped me. You guys are in a lot of trouble.”
The scowling one grabbed Lenny by the shoulders, forcibly moved
him away from the car door, and set him back against the side fender. The guy leaned
inside the utility vehicle, and Lenny watched through a window as the man
tossed Lenny’s com into the carryall and stood up with his pack in one hand and
the carryall in the other.
He placed both items on the ground, rose, and reached a hand
for Lenny’s throat. Lenny panicked and instinctively lifted his skinny arms in
self-defense. The man’s hand swerved at the last instant and plunged into
Lenny’s pocket.
“Hey, creep. What’re you doing!” Overwhelmed and starting to
panic, Lenny tasted bile in his throat. The man pulled his hand out of Lenny’s
pocket, looked at the pouch of nibs, and tossed them into the carryall. They
bounced off Lenny’s com and disappeared into the jumble of stuff he’d collected
in the bag.
* * *
Sid heard Criss inside his ear: “The
camball’s hanging at his collar.”
Sid reached out and yanked at the ornament, and Lenny let
out a frightened squeak when the chain snapped off his neck. Sid tossed the small
orb and broken chain into the carryall with everything else.
He took one of Lenny’s arms in a tight grip and led him into
the lodge. Crispin followed, carrying the pack in one hand and the carryall in
the other. They escorted Lenny up a flight of stairs and down a short hall. A
door hissed open, and Sid ushered Lenny into the room. Crispin remained standing
in the doorway, blocking the only exit.
Sid stood next to Lenny, ignoring his protestations as he took
a brief moment to admire the classic furniture, wood trim finishes, and antique
carpets in the small apartment. The building had a dozen suites of varying size,
but Sid hadn’t been in this one for more than a year.
Sid, Cheryl, and Juice all viewed the lodge as their shared
refuge—a place to commune and to escape the pressures of their daily lives. Each
had their own large suite that they’d remodeled and personalized into a second
home. They all agreed they didn’t want a lot of people around, so the lodge was
now used just by them and their occasional guests.
Sid confirmed that the windows in Lenny’s room were locked
and secure and moved his arm quickly as he pointed out the amenities. “Food service
there. Bathroom. Bed. We’ll hold on to your com, but you can get entertainment
from the panel.” He pointed to the projected image fireplace with its cheery fire.
He looked over at Crispin, who held up the backpack. “This
is just clothes,” Criss said in his ear.
Sid pointed with his eyes, and Crispin tossed the pack on
the bed.
“You can have these,” said Sid.
“Hey, I need my carryall too.”
Sid walked toward the door, and the synbod stepped back into
the hall. Sid turned in the doorway and looked Lenny in the eyes. He held his
gaze for a long moment. “Lenny, do you have any doubt I’m in control right now?”
Lenny glowered and remained mute.
“If you try to escape, not only will you fail, but you’ll
damage this beautiful room. That will make me seriously angry. You don’t want
me pissed off at you, do you?”
Lenny shuffled his feet, pointed to his left, and said,
“This way to the bathroom?”
Sid stared at him silently for a few moments more and stepped
into the hallway. The door hissed shut behind him.
Crispin set the carryall on the floor near the wall. “Why am
I not surprised this keeps evolving along a pathway different from what my
prediction analysis had forecast?” said Criss.
“Are you having doubts about Lenny and his capabilities?”
“More that I’m having doubts that Lenny will cooperate with
Juice in the foreseeable future. I now believe he’s transitioned from the
mindset of being on a treasure hunt for a mysterious artificial intelligence to
one of anger, lashing out, revenge, and all the other things that repressed
testosterone can foster when a young male is frustrated in his desires.”
“Should we take him to that ravine you picked out?”
“That’s something you’d have to do on your own at this point.
He may calm down over time. I haven’t given up hope. But I don’t see him as a
constructive partner working with Juice in his current state of mind.”
Crispin tilted his head ever so slightly.
“Juice has arrived,” Sid heard in his ear.
* * *
Juice looked up from her com as her
car emerged from the wooded drive and into the expansive clearing. Just a
twenty-minute ride north of Crystal Research, she came to the lodge far more
often than Sid or Cheryl.
In fact, she came up three or four times a week because it
was her favorite place to exercise. When on a run, she stuck to the predictable
smoothness of finished streets. With little traffic and a choice of routes that
either climbed up into the mountains or followed along the rolling foothills,
she viewed the lodge locale as a runner’s paradise.
Sid and Cheryl visited less frequently and tended to stay
longer, often hanging around for several days at a time to relax and recharge
their emotional stores before heading off on their next adventure.
“Good afternoon, young lady,” she heard in her ear as the
car drove past the pond in front of the lodge. “And how are you today?”
Her heart quickened at the sound of his voice. She scanned her
surroundings and spied Sid and Crispin standing in front of the lodge’s left
wing. “I’m doing fine,” she said out loud. “And how are you, young man?”
Her car stopped in front of them, and she hopped out and
gave Crispin a hug.
“I’ll be damned,” said Sid. “Do you and droid-boy got a
thing going on?”
Juice reddened ever so slightly. “No.” She tried not to
sound defensive. “But he’s carrying my crystal inside him.” She let go of
Crispin and looked at Sid. Tapping Crispin’s chest, she continued. “There’s two
years of my life right here. Haven’t you ever heard of a labor of love?” She twirled
so her back was to Sid and gave Criss a wink.
Juice had been honest with herself from the start about her
attraction to Criss in his new physical form.
People love their pets,
she
told herself.
And they often show more affection to them than they do their
own family.
As long as she thought of it in that context, she didn’t see
anything wrong with her growing fondness for him.
“So,” she said, anxious to change the subject. “I’m excited
to see it. Thanks for waiting for me.”
“Off we go,” said Criss as Crispin started walking across
the lawn and toward the forest.
Sid and Juice followed close behind. They’d progressed halfway
to the tree line when Sid stopped and turned back to study the lodge. “Are you
sure Lenny can’t see?”
“His windows look out on the other side,” said Criss. “And
he’s busy tampering with the image projection system to see if there’s some way
he can gain an advantage.”
“If he breaks it, I swear I’ll bop that kid on the head.”
They finished their trek across the landscaped grounds, and
Crispin led them up a trailhead straight into the woods. After a few dozen paces,
he took a sharp left and led them along a lightly traveled path that shadowed
the edge of the lodge grounds while remaining under the shelter of the lush
forest canopy.
Juice brought up the rear, enjoying this intimate experience
with nature.
I need to get off the road more
, she thought as she admired
the different colors and textures of moss gracing a rock face jutting up from
the ground. Thinking aloud, she said, “You can’t have landed in the woods.”
“No,” said Criss to both of them. “I don’t like coincidences,
and Lenny showing up out of the blue definitely qualifies. I’m taking extra
precautions for a few days while I search for other threats.” He didn’t mention
the probe-sighting anomalies, and Sid remained silent on the subject as well.
They walked for a bit, and Juice pointed back toward the
lodge grounds just visible from the path. “I love that weeping willow. The
drooping branches remind me of an old-timey lace dress.”
Crispin turned as she spoke and began picking his way off path
and toward the huge tree with its graceful, leaf-covered branches draped to the
ground. Set out on the lawn, the majestic growth stood as a feature specimen of
the lodge landscaping.
Two huge pine trees at the edge of the forest had branches
that hung out and touched those of the willow. Criss led them out of the woods,
under the pine branches, and into the shelter of the willow, ensuring they were
never visible to the open sky.
“This is quite the adventure,” said Juice, now attentive to
the intrigue.
“No worries,” said Criss. They stepped out from under the willow,
moving in the direction that returned them to the lodge. “We’re here.”
Juice looked up at the open sky. “Somehow it’s different
from what I remember.”
Crispin reached up, stood on his toes, and rapped his
knuckles into the sky. They all heard a dull clang with each swing of his
wrist. Sid, seeing this, stretched up and felt with his fingertips. Juice saw
his fingers flex, and he too banged on the bottom of the scout ship.
She raised her arm up and, when she felt nothing, jumped
while stretching as far up as she could reach. In spite of her efforts, her
hand moved through empty air. Crispin, standing behind her, grasped her around
the waist and lifted her as if she were a dancer in a ballet.
She whooped with glee as she rose from the ground and probed
tentatively for the outer hull of the scout. When she located a solid surface,
she also pounded her hand on the bottom, happy to be part of the ritual.
Crispin set her down and Sid said, “If the scout’s cloak lets
us see up through it into the sky, can’t stuff look down and see us standing
here?”
Juice walked back to the willow tree as Criss answered, “The
new cloak is calibrated to shield us as well. We’re invisible to observation
from above.” He pointed at the lodge. “And from the side, as long as we stay within
the cloak’s perimeter.”
While the two talked, Juice studied the droopy branches of
the willow and saw several bent from their natural pattern. She assumed this
marked the outer edge of the scout ship. Though it had been two years since
she’d ridden in it on her one extraterrestrial adventure, she had a good mental
picture of its size. She turned on her heels and started walking toward the
lodge, taking measured strides and counting in her head.
She stopped and pointed straight up. “Hatch,” she said.
“Not bad at all, young lady,” Criss said in her ear.
Crispin walked four steps away from her and pointed. “Here.”
He looked up, appearing to study something Juice couldn’t see. “Ready for a tour?”
With a soft mechanical sigh, the hatch slid inside the scout and a stepladder
extended down.
“Me first,” she said, scurrying up the ladder.
When they were all on board, Juice again took up the rear as
they toured the ship. The basic layout was as she remembered—a command bridge,
crew cabins, a combination exercise and community room, a food service nook,
and a tech shop. Criss talked as they walked, telling them about upgrades and improvements
he’d made from stem to stern.
“Most of the improvements are to subsystems, and we can’t see
them on a walking tour.” Crispin led them from the tech shop over to the
community room. “The cloak is an example of a subsystem upgrade. I put
significant resources into designing and testing a cloak that, when engaged, makes
this ship undetectable to all current and emerging technologies.”
They left the community room and started forward. Juice
glanced at Crispin’s backside and a thought flashed.
When you put your mind
to it, you can indeed design perfection.