Book 3: 3rd World Products, Inc

by Ed Howdershelt

  "How do you know my name?” she asked.

  "It was on the team roster. There were two women other than Linda, and I've seen Margot before. My name's Ed, in case you don't already know that."

  I guided the chips back to the table and picked out some carrot sticks to nibble on. Angela didn't speak right away, and when she did, it was with a tone of unconcealed suspicion.

  "Yeah, I knew your name. How did you have access to the team list? You weren't assigned to a team and you weren't on our command rosters."

  "Ask your CO,” I said. “Sorry to have bothered you, lady. Goodnight."

  As I turned to walk away, she said, “Wait."

  When I turned back to face her, she said, “I didn't mean to sound like a bitch. It just bugs me when someone I don't know knows me."

  I nodded. “Yeah. I know that feeling. Sorry if I put you off just now. Do you want to start over or just go straight to bed?"

  Oops. Yeah, I heard it as soon I said it, and so did she.

  Angela's eyes widened slightly and she grinned as she asked, “It's a little soon to be asking me to go to bed, isn't it?"

  Would both feet fit at once? What the hell, let's find out...

  "Well, if you're not willing, of course it's too soon,” I said. “Or, you could acknowledge that I didn't mean that the way it sounded. I'd settle for that."

  She laughed softly and nodded. “Okay. Not to going to bed. The other part."

  "Just pretend you don't notice my disappointment. It's real, by the way. Take it as a clumsy compliment."

  Angela's expression seemed to snap shut even as her smile remained and I wondered if I'd met another lesbian. If so, too bad. I hoped that I hadn't offended her, but she looked damned good and I don't believe that it's harmful to compliment women, especially when they've made themselves considerably more than just pretty faces.

  I gestured at the buffet tables and asked, “Hungry? There's lots of this rabbit food."

  She put together a salad plate and slathered it with vinegar and oil dressing, then found a fork. I assembled a similar plate and we found a couple of cans of lemon tea in the nearby cooler, then we headed to my flitter to avoid waking anyone.

  When we arrived at the flitter, I held out a hand to assist her in stepping up to the deck. Angela looked questioningly at the apparently solid hull and then at me.

  I put my hand into the canopy field to show her that it wasn't solid, after all. She handed me her can of tea, then put her own hand through the field. Without a word, she then took her tea back and stepped up and through the canopy field.

  I watched her uniform pants tighten around her legs and butt as she stepped up and belatedly realized that she could be watching me watch her. Again; oh, well. If I was caught, I was caught. I followed her into the field and onto Steph's deck.

  "...Stephanie,” I heard Steph saying as I entered the field. “It's nice to meet you, Angela. Ed, you didn't tell her that she'd meet someone aboard the flitter."

  Angela looked at me as I finished stepping aboard.

  "Apologies,” I said. “Angela, this is Stephanie. Steph, Angela."

  "Nice to meet you,” said Angela. “Since Ed didn't bring you a plate, would you like my salad? I can get another one."

  Steph smiled and said, “No, thank you, Angela. Please have a seat and enjoy your meal."

  Angela seemed somewhat discomfited to meet Stephanie.

  "Maybe I should just go,” she said. “I..."

  Steph raised a hand in gentle protest as she shook her head and said, “No, Angela. Ed and I are just friends. Really."

  With an air of caution nonetheless, Angela seated herself near the console and gave me a ‘you should have told me’ look. I waited until we'd both put some salad away before speaking.

  "What do you know about me, Angela?"

  She shrugged and said, “Not much. Your name, and that you're Linda's point man."

  I hadn't heard it said like that before. I grinned and asked, “Point man?"

  "Yeah. You're the troubleshooter she calls when she doesn't want to use us. You're a field specialist of some kind."

  "Uh, huh. Well, that's one way of looking at it, I guess. What do you think I do?"

  Her expression was one of skepticism. “Why are you asking me these questions?"

  "To see what the answers will be. Why else?” I shrugged and said, “I'm just curious about how everybody else sees me."

  "Why?"

  "Because it suddenly occurred to me that the only person on tonight's mission who knew why I was there was Linda, Angela. She was the only one, wasn't she?"

  Angela stopped eating and looked at me for a moment, then said, “Maybe you should be talking to her about this, sir."

  I nodded. “Plan to,” I said. “Don't get nervous. I'm just looking for ways to make things run smoother, and you can't do that if you don't know the people you work with, can you? I knew the names of only five of the people on the flitters tonight, Angela. How many of them knew my name, or knew anything at all about me?"

  "We all knew your name,” she said. “Captain Wallace told us at our briefing that a wild card might be working with us. That was confirmed when you showed up. Just before the op started at the building, he told us that you were going into the building without us. We thought that was kind of strange."

  "Did he say why I'd be working alone?"

  Angela shook her head. “No, but after you made yourself disappear, it seemed kind of obvious that you were some kind of spook.” She chuckled and repeated, “A disappearing spook. That's pretty appropriate, isn't it? How'd you do that?"

  "Classified magic. Sorry. They think anything that might be fun should be classified, you know."

  We shared a laugh and ate some more salad. It became apparent that Steph made Angela nervous. I rather bluntly asked her about it.

  "You keep glancing at my friend,” I said. “Does she make you nervous?"

  Angela stifled a choke and avoided Steph's eyes as she said, “Uh, well ... Yeah, a little. She hasn't moved since we came aboard and she looks at us all the time."

  Steph said, “I didn't realize that I was upsetting you, Angela. Would you rather that I look elsewhere periodically?"

  Angela looked at me, then at Steph, and asked, “Are you making fun of me?"

  I shook my head and said, “Nope. She's serious."

  Steph raised a placating hand toward Angela and said, “I'm still learning how to interact with humans, Angela. I'm..."

  "You're what?"

  "I'm still learning..."

  "I heard you. I'm trying to figure out what you're talking about."

  "I'm not human,” said Steph.

  Angela took a hard look at Steph, still uncertain whether she was being teased. Steph appeared to realize that Angela needed further explanation.

  "Ed,” she asked, “Should I disappear and reappear for her?"

  Angela asked, “Do what?"

  I said, “Sure, ma'am. That might help."

  Chapter Forty-Five

  Steph disappeared. Angela just about fell off her seat and over another one as she quickly stood and retreated a couple of paces. Steph reappeared where she'd been.

  "You okay, Angela?” I asked. “Want me to hold that plate for you?"

  "No,” she said sharply. “Just stay right where you are for a minute. You too, lady. Somebody tell me what's going on. Now. Why'd you bring me here?"

  "Nothing's going on,” I said. “We were just talking. This woman is my flitter's computer and she's pretty good company, so take it easy. Sit and finish your salad."

  "Why'd you bring me here? What do you want from me?"

  Steph said, “We don't want anything from you, Angela. Ed invited you aboard as company. Ed, if you'd like, I could leave for a while."

  I shook my head. “Nope. You're my friend. She's a guest; someone I barely know. If she can't handle having you here or if she's afraid of you, she can leave."

  Angela lost her spooky look a
nd seemed to puff up a bit even as she stiffened. Nobody likes being called a chicken; not even almost being called a chicken.

  "I'm not afraid,” she said, “Just cautious. Most people I know can't disappear."

  "I can,” I said. “You saw me do it. Now you know someone else who can, too. You can sit down and eat your salad or you can run for your life, whichever seems more appropriate, but if you decide to run, leave me your plate, okay?"

  I forked up my last carrot stick and munched on it as I looked up at her. Angela just stared at me for a moment, then sat down and stabbed a piece of celery. As she crunched it between her teeth, she gazed directly at me.

  I asked, “You're gonna make me make another trip to the salad bar, right?"

  She ignored my question and asked one of her own.

  "Are you human, or are you like her?"

  "I'm human."

  Steph said, “Ed, I can bring some or all of the food over here."

  "We could even go over there,” I said. “Nobody told us we had to park here."

  "Indeed so,” said Steph. “Shall I move us?"

  "Sure. Is there room behind the tables?"

  "There will be."

  Angela snickered at Steph's matter-of-fact tone, then stiffened again as we began moving past the rows of sleeping people. Steph lifted the tables and moved them forward a few feet, then set down behind them.

  I used my implant to field some salad items onto another plate, then brought the plate and the dressing bottle aboard the flitter.

  Presenting the plate to Angela, I said, “Untouched by human hands, ma'am. Grab what you like."

  At that moment, the CQ came running out of the office, heading straight for the area where we'd been parked. I stood up, leaned through the side of the canopy, and whistled softly to get his attention. He stopped, then approached us. Angela remained seated, waiting to see what would happen.

  The guy looked puzzled. He could only see my head and shoulders poking through the apparent ‘hull’ of the flitter.

  After a moment, he asked, “Why is this flitter over here?"

  I gestured at the tables and said, “This is where the food is."

  "Well, move it back with the others."

  "Nobody told us where to park when we came in. Or where not to park."

  "Well, I'm telling you,” he said. “Move it."

  I looked at him for a moment, then asked, “You got a good reason for us to move?"

  He ignored my question and said, “I said, move it."

  I let him see my stunner and said, “You keep messing with us or wake anyone up and I'll zap you,” I said. “Go away."

  "You keep saying 'us'. Who is 'us'?"

  Angela stood up and leaned out beside me. “We are us, so leave us alone, Ted. We aren't hurting anything over here."

  "I'll have to report this,” said Ted.

  I grinned and Angela giggled as she asked, “Why bother? I think people will notice a flitter behind the tables in the morning, Ted. It's kind of big."

  "Damned good point,” I said with a firm nod. “You're probably right about that, ma'am."

  Ted abruptly turned and steamed back to the office. Angela watched him go for a moment, then turned to me.

  "Would you really have stunned him?"

  "Hell, yes. Sleep is too hard to come by when you're in the service. Doesn't matter what service it is. Besides, we're up and the night will be over in a little while."

  She looked at her watch and said, “Oh, damn. It's already almost four. Look, I can still get a couple of hours. Can we talk later?"

  "Sure you want to? Your boyfriend might not like it."

  "You mean Ted? He's not..."

  "No, I don't mean Ted, I mean your boyfriend."

  "You just want to know if I have one, don't you? I don't. I'm kind of between boyfriends right now."

  I grinned as I said, “Oh, that's downright tragic, ma'am. You have my sympathies."

  She grinned back and said, “Save them for somebody else. The last guy was a power-tripping creep."

  "Oh. Well, then ... Hey, do you like poetry?"

  "Poetry? Uh, well ... Not much, I guess, or I'd know some."

  "I write poetry now and then. Want to hear a short one?"

  She pointed at her watch and asked, “How short?"

  "Real short. It's called 'Smart Women'."

  I cleared my throat and recited:

  Young men tend to rush headlong

  Through every given task;

  They often rabbit to an end

  When they should stop and ask ...

  They hasten in some sort of race,

  Unknown to slow or linger,

  When she'd prefer her curves be traced

  By gentle, loving fingers ...

  Smart women look for older men,

  Who know, yet will learn new,

  Those things each time,

  As if the first,

  To please her

  They should do ...

  My motto is a question

  That's oft survived strong tests;

  "My Lady, what would please you most?

  Do tell; I'll do the rest!"

  Angela gazed intently at me for a moment, then asked, “You wrote that?"

  Deliberately smugly, I said, “Yes, I did."

  "Really?"

  "Really. It's been on my website for years. Got some artwork up there, too."

  With renewed surprise, she asked, “You have a website?” Shaking her head, she amended herself with, “What I mean is, how many spooks have websites?"

  Yeah, right. She was looking at the gray in my eyebrows when she asked that.

  "At least one,” I said, “Want to see it sometime?"

  She eyed me for a moment, then said, “Yeah. I want to see it."

  I wrote my URL on a napkin, then she handed me her plate and said, “When I get back to my room, I'll check it out."

  I nodded. “Good enough. Sleep tight, and all that."

  As Angela hopped off the flitter and headed for her bunk, Steph used my implant to say, “Ed, you're involved with Selena and Toni. Doesn't protocol require that you at least consult with them before involving yourself with Angela?"

  Her tone held no disapproval; only curiosity.

  "Angela isn't likely to grace my bunk anytime soon, Steph. She was quick to trip over our age difference and surprised as hell that someone my age had a website, even though she tried to cover it with that spook comment. She's also very conscious of how her boss, Wallace, would view matters."

  "Then you're cultivating her interest only for reasons of friendship?"

  "Friendship would be fine. Her interest would be fine, too, if it was in me and not in who I know within the company. Beyond my companionship, what would she get out of a relationship with me, Steph? A possible link to Linda's offices?"

  "I see. Is that what you think, Ed? That she has an ulterior motive in making a connection with you?"

  "Could be. She's the assertive, ambitious type or she wouldn't be on a mission team. It could be that she's really interested in a 52-year-old guy she just met. It might even be true that she didn't just make the most of an opportunity to catch me alone for a chat at three in the morning after a nasty mission. If so, fine. I can always use another friend. If not so, also fine. I can use an info link into Wallace's group, too."

  I put the paper plates and plastic utensils in the trash and noticed that the bags inside the plastic cans were the red ones with the biohazard symbol on them.

  When I reboarded the flitter, I asked Steph to move us back by the other flitters so that poor old Ted would have to rewrite his flitter report, then I stretched out on a field and slept until Steph woke me.

  "Ed, Linda said to wake you and ask if you plan to sleep all day."

  My watch read eight-fifteen. I poked the call button on my watch and said, “Well, Linda, I might have been able to sleep in if you hadn't wakened me to ask me that. What's up?"

  Linda said, �
��Two guys in biosuits brought us some breakfast in sealed containers. Actually, they just opened a door long enough to shove the containers inside. I guess they didn't get the memo."

  I combed my hair and said, “Guess they didn't.” Grabbing my mug and thermos, I asked, “Steph, are you coming with us?"

  "No, Ed. I have something to do."

  Huh? Something to do that she couldn't do with ten percent of her capacities or less? Or just an excuse to let everybody eat breakfast without the computer-lady present?

  "Okay, then,” I said. “Pop in anytime, if you want."

  "Thank you, Ed."

  On the way to the food line, I told Linda about my encounter with Angela, then said, “If you want, Steph can play it back for you and you can draw your own conclusions."

  Linda glanced at me while loading her tray.

  "And if I think she's playing you, Ed? What then?"

  As I filled my mug and thermos with coffee, I said, “Then we play her back and see what she's trying to accomplish. I don't think Wallace had anything to do with her contact with me, but it could be that she's looking for ways to curry some extra favor with her boss. Or you."

  Linda gave me a somewhat longer glance and asked, “And what if she's just fond of older men, Ed? Some women are, you know."

  "Then I'll count my blessings and never tell her that I had any suspicions about her motives, of course."

  Linda grinningly asked, “Did anyone ever tell you that you think like a spy, Ed?"

  "Yeah, once. Some ol’ girl I knew back in Germany, I think. She looked a lot like you, as I remember. Tall, brunette, beautiful in an officious sort of way..."

  As we sat down at one of the tables, she said, “Hey, watch it. No qualifiers. I'm either beautiful or I'm not."

  I nodded. “Oops. Right. Sorry. Done forgot my place again, ma'am."

  "You do that a lot. Stop talking about me and dig in."

  "Yas'm. Want to talk about Wallace, instead?"

  "Not particularly, unless it's business."

  "Might be. I think he's going to be a problem for you if you don't let him know up front and between the eyes that you keep your office and personal lives separate."

  Linda stopped eating and looked at me.

  "Ed, Wallace is my problem, not yours."