Devlin's Defiance: Book Two of the Devlin Quatrology (43 page)

“
Nice
landing, Norm. You've got it now.”

“
Cool
toy, Gordy. Thanks.”

“
Boys and
their toys,” Janet said, giggling.

“
I know,
I know,” Gordy said, smiling. “Your turn.”

“
Okay;
ready. What do I do?”

Gordy explained
the joystick, thumbwheel and dial on the control box and turned it
over to her.

A few moments
later, he ducked out of the way as Janet sent the drone flying just
over his head, then had it do a loop-the-loop, a barrel roll, brought
it back to hover right in front of Gordy's face, and finally set it
down in a perfect landing on the sand at his feet.

“
My god,
Janet! You're either a natural or you've had some pretty
solid
training somewhere.”

“
Oh,
just, ah, grandkids and video games,” she said, shrugging and
giggling, giving the control box back to Gordy.

“
Ah, I
guess that would do it. Okay, time for a break. I can see Rosemary's
getting antsy.”

“
Little
wonder,” Janet said. “You boys have been playing with it
for over an hour.”

“
That
long, really?”

“
Really.”

“
Oh,
geez. Time does fly when you're having fun.” He picked up
the
drone, turned off the power and headed back to Rosemary and his
lounge.

“
Sorry,
Ro; we got lost on the time.”

“
No big
deal; you looked like you were having fun.”

“
A lot
more than when I crashed my first one.”

“
Yeah,
you were a little out of your depth there.”

“
Uh-oh.”

“
What?
Oh.”

“
Just
like that goddamned, shit-eating, cock-sucking fuckin' nigger
President.”

“
Sonya!
Watch your language! You're in public.”

“
Well, he
is, Gordo, way out of his depth; he's a fuckin' amateur. Gonna run
this country right into bankruptcy, giving all those fuckin' freebies
to all his fuckin' nigger buddies. Shit!”

“
Sonya,
can it!”

“
And it's
all the fuckin' Jews' fault. Goddamn Israel is running this whole
cock-sucking country! And that nigger is just lyin' down in front of
'em and can't do nothing about it. Fuck!”

“
Sonya, I
said can it! Shut up!”

“
Oh,
Gordo, you're just one big blind wuss, can't see the forest for the
trees and what's really going on, who's really in charge.”

“
Sonya!
Shut. The. Fuck. Up. Do you understand that?”

“
Okay,
okay. But you just watch. You just watch. You'll see.” With
that, she walked on by, put her foot in the water for an instant,
then turned on her heel and stalked back up to her towel and her
husband, glaring at Gordy as she passed.

“
Wow!
She's on a roll today.”

“
Got that
right, Ro. Not sure what got that started. Heard it all before from
her, but not with that, ah, intensity. Jesus.”

“
She is
pretty outspoken.”

“
Not by
anybody I know.”

“
Very
funny. Someday she's gonna use that kind of language with the wrong
people and get herself seriously hurt.”

“
Probably.
But that would just give her more ammunition.”

“
Yeah,
I'm sure.”

“
Maybe
someday I'll put some superglue in her lipstick.”

Rosemary
laughed. “Oh, if you do, let me watch.”

“
Too bad
she and Ron don't talk to each other at all.”

“
Why?”

“
'Cause
he's a total Obamabot, absolutely worships the guy, and
to
watch them go at each other? I'd love to be a fly on the wall for
that.”

“
Hey,
maybe you could use your drone.”

“
Hmm.
Interesting. May be.” Gordy looked up at the clear blue
sky.
“Just kidding, NSA. Just kidding.

“
But if
you think about it, Ro, she and he are typical of one reason this
country is going down the tubes. Polarization, demonizing and
shouting, almost zero rational discussion of serious issues.”

“
Lot of
anger in her.”

“
Anger
and aggression, makes it easy to manipulate people. And it's built
in, instinctive.”

“
That's a
shame.”

“
Oh, I'm
not saying it's good or bad; it's just there, and it can be exploited
so easily. Even back to high school sports teams; the old
us-versus-them brainwashing.”

“
It goes
back even further. Sibling rivalry.”

“
Yup.
And you know what actually bothers me about the current President?”

“
His
policies?”

“
In part.
But it's his training as a lawyer, the adversarial mindset that
makes him always have to find or create an enemy to do battle
against, and not work toward consensus. That 'My way or the
highway'
thing. And his anti-business prejudice, another example of that
mindset. All to get him and his party re-elected. Geez – oh,
sorry
'bout that; soapboxing again.”

“
Getting
your blood pressure up to normal?”

“
Yup –
nope, not quite there. Close.” He leaned back on his lounge
and closed his eyes. But only for a moment.

“
Jesus,
Gordy, what was that all about?”

“
Just
another Sonya rant, Sharon.”

“
She's
really wound up today. Did you hear her earlier ranting
about
the Pope resigning?”

“
About
what?”

“
Oh,
didn't you hear? The Pope resigned yesterday.”

“
Really?
No, I hadn't heard. Wow. Why?”

“
No
reason given, far as I know. But Sonya was saying it's 'cause he's
part of the gang that's protected all those pedophile priests.”

“
Hmm.
I'll have to check that out when I get home. Thanks for letting me
know.”

“
Sure.
See ya later.”

“
Take
care, Sharon.”

“
Wow.
The Pope resigned?”

“
That's
what she said, Ro.”

“
So now
we're gonna have a whole month of that black smoke,
white
smoke media blitz.”

“
Yeah, I
– uh-oh.”

“
What?”

“
Hope the
new one isn't named Benedetto.”

“
Why do
you say – oh, right.”

“
Right.”

- 114 -

March
30, 2013
10:24
a.m. local time

Aboard
Defiance

In the Gulf of Oman

“
Yeah, Wes, we'll
be docking in Muscat in the next week or so, and have it all cleaned
up by the first for the charter. Yup, no problem. We can fly out of
there back to Tropez or Nice, and see where we go from there, if
anywhere. I know Pam likes the villas.

“
And, thanks for
getting the mockup of her FDR car done so fast; it looks great. But
I think if we add something to the back that slides out when it's
going fast, that'll help with the aerodynamics. Right. Yeah, but no
rush on that.

“
And how's the
bird deflector design process coming along? Ah, that's good. When
are you gonna test those? Okay, fine. Just keep me posted.

“
And you should
know that the effective range on the DK-587 is about 95 meters.
Sorry; again, I can't tell you how I know that. I know, I know. I'd
like to see if we can get it up to a couple hundred, with no
additional spread, but still fit in the current carrying case. Maybe
doubling the wattage and designing some longer lenses? Oh, I'm
sorry; longer waveguides. Oh, okay. More focused waveguides. Just
see what the R&D guys can do, okay? And keep me posted on that,
too.

“
And how are
things going with Doctor – oh, what's his name?
Frenchensteiner, right. Our guys getting any more out of him
beyond what Greg and Julie did? Yeah, they tell me it works, but I
can't believe that. It just doesn't make sense to me. Right, the
paradox. But my main question is this. Do you and your guys think
he poses any danger of sabotage or anything like that if we give him
back to
the client? No, I don't. All I know is
that Becky thought there was something hinky about him and how he got
the gun away from that big guy who was guarding him; his story
doesn't add up, she said. I think we just need to keep on him, maybe
bring in the interrogators and see what they come up with. Yeah,
those two'll do fine.

“
Oops;
gotta run. Amber's calling. Okay. You, too. And hi to Amy, okay?

“
Hey,
Amber, what's up? Anything new on the florist? Aw, shit; too bad.
How many? Only fifteen? Hmm. Any pattern? Okay. I'll let Pam
know. How are we doing on getting bugs in his house or
office?
Yeah, I know. Do we have anything that can't be found by the
sweeps? Well, maybe we oughta do some R&D on
that. Okay; see what they can up with, okay? And send me any new
files you've got.

“
Also,
we'll need to keep an eye on that doctor Wes has. Yeah, him. He's
bringing in Rona and Joel, so let them know we'll leave it up to them
as to how much danger he might pose, and whether to turn him back
over or terminate him. Right. Okay. What else?

“
Geez,
they just can't restrain themselves, can they? Ah, well; it's good
for that side of the biz. So what are the two? Okay; I think Cindy
can handle that on her own, and she'll enjoy the home visit. Is she
open? Good. Let her know. And the other?

“
Whoah,
really? They've been after him for years, and no sign of him, and we
find him in two weeks? Good for us. Guess we'll need to activate
our girl over there. Right. And I'll talk to him; he might want to
do this one himself, even if he's a little rusty.

“
Anything
else? Okay, good. Say hi to Gisele and the girls for me, okay?
Yeah, I will. Bye.”