Delphi City

by Bob Blanton

  “No, they’re your special …”

  Catie ignored her and ran upstairs to grab the pearls from her jewelry box. “Here put them on,” she said. “They’re going to look great with that black dress.”

  “But …”

  “They’re made to be worn,” Catie said. “Wait, put this flower in your hair. It’s a camera; that way, ADI can keep an eye on things for you. You won’t be able to wear your specs dressed up like that.”

  “Where did you get this?”

  “ADI made it for me,” Catie said. “I mentioned that I felt exposed when I couldn’t wear my specs. She said she could put a camera in anything, so we came up with this.”

  “Is he picking you up?” Kal asked.

  “No, we’re meeting at the restaurant,” Liz said. “I thought it would be easier that way.”

  “You mean easier to get out of here and back without getting noticed,” Blake said.

  “I was hoping for a little less attention,” Liz said.

  “Don’t worry, I’ve got a date tonight,” Blake said. “I don’t expect to be back until morning.”

  “I’m stuck guarding Catie,” Kal said. “You’re welcome for the night off.”

  “Why thank you,” Liz said. “Now, I have to get going.”

  “Don’t hurry home on my account,” Kal said as he gave Liz a wave.

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  “Hello, Liz, you’re looking lovely,” the British spy said.

  “Hello, Logan, you’re looking lovely too,” Liz said. Logan was dressed in a black tuxedo, very James Bondish.

  “Well a man has to compete,” Logan said. “Shall we?” he offered his arm to Liz. She took it and let him escort her into the restaurant. “Reservations for Logan Marlowe.”

  “Right this way,” the maître d' said. He led them to a lovely table in the corner of the restaurant, overlooking the beach. The moon was just above the water …

  “How was your day?” Logan asked.

  “Oh, nothing special,” Liz said. “Just managing orders and production schedules.” Liz listed off work that ADI took care of, avoiding the work she actually did, like babysitting a couple of nuclear physicists.

  “Sounds dreadful.”

  “It’s hard to have a dreadful day down here,” Liz said. “What did you do today?”

  “Looked around at real estate,” Logan said. “The boys in Auckland think we should open a local stock brokerage here, make it more convenient for the locals to invest.”

  “I thought you were from Britain.”

  “That’s home, but I’ve been working out of Auckland for a few years now. We’re an international concern. One has to do a foreign tour to make the big boys happy.”

  “Well, you have to keep the big boys happy, don’t you?”

  “Needs must,” Logan said. “Say, you guys sure have a lot of activity going over there for just producing batteries.”

  “Oh, I think Marc plans on doing more than batteries,” Liz said. “He’s putting lots of infrastructure in ahead of some other plans.”

  “Anything interesting, these other plans?”

  “I wouldn’t know,” Liz said. “Right now, my life is just batteries. He plays his cards pretty close to the vest. Wouldn’t want to pre-announce anything now, would he?”

  “Oh, I’m sure he wouldn’t,” Logan said. “You really need to be quick to get a jump on the big corporations. He really has them scrambling with those batteries.”

  “Did you find anything?”

  “Find what?”

  “Real estate?”

  “Oh, a couple of offices we could lease. I’d like to get something close to the beach in case I get tasked with starting it up.”

  “I hope you do,” Liz said, “get tasked with starting it up. Then I would get a chance to see more of you.”

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  “You’re home early,” Catie said as Liz was carefully trying to get into bed without waking her.

  “Were you waiting up for me?”

  “Moi?”

  “It’s one o’clock,” Liz said. “Were you going to stay up all night?”

  “No, I told ADI to wake me when you got in. So how was he, and why are you home so early?”

  “This is not early,” Liz said. “And he was very nice and inquisitive.”

  “Curious about what?” Catie asked with a snicker.

  “Just go to sleep, I’m not talking about my date with a thirteen-year-old.”

  “How am I going to learn?” Catie giggled.

  “When you’re older,” Liz said. “Goodnight!”

  Chapter 31

  Board Meeting – March 4th

  “Come on, settle down,” Marc shouted. “Let’s get going. First order of business, how is progress going with Herr Johansson?”

  “We’ve reached a preliminary agreement,” Samantha said. “He’s interested in the partnership, but he’d like to see a bit more of what we’re bringing to the game. Catie and I are going to meet him in Auckland this week. They’ll do a design review of her scooters, and if that goes well, we will sign a contract.”

  “Catie, are you going to be ready?” Marc asked.

  “No pressure,” Catie laughed. “I’m ready. ADI and I are just doing some revisions to take advantage of the tooling he already has. It will make it faster to get the scooters into production. We’ll be finished before we leave for Auckland.”

  “Good, are you flying?”

  “Of course,” Catie said. “That is, if Fred lets me.”

  “I’ll even let you land there,” Fred said.

  “Wait a minute, I’m on that flight,” Samantha teased.

  “Don’t worry, you know I won’t crash,” Catie said. “At least not before the design review.”

  “I’ll check with Sam about how it went before I let you fly home,” Fred said, continuing with the joke.

  “Okay,” Marc said. “How’s the search for a cruise ship going?”

  “I bought one,” Samantha said.

  “Already?” Marc squeaked.

  “Blake is in a hurry,” Samantha explained. “It’s the Sky Princess. It can handle five hundred passengers, and it is in transit right now. I’ve arranged for them to do as many of the repairs and refit as they can during the trip here. Once it’s here, Blake will have to figure out how to finish them. But the ship should be able to handle his construction crew right away.”

  “How about managing it?” Marc asked.

  “One of the hotels on Rarotonga wants that contract. They seem pretty excited about it. They’ve even mentioned that they might like to buy it when we’re finished with it. They think that with the money flowing into Rarotonga and the eventual population increases around the islands, there might be a niche market for short cruises.”

  “How is your old roommate doing?” Marc asked.

  “Marcie has locked Apple into a short-term exclusive on batteries for laptops and phones. Another exclusive with Milwaukie Tools for their batteries. That charter company is loving her.”

  “That’s excellent,” Marc said. “She has really been doing a bang-up job. We need to come up with more things for her to sell.”

  “I’ll pass that along to her,” Samantha said.

  “Kal, security?” Mar prompted.

  “We’re up to ten on active status,” Kal said. “We have six more who are going through medical. Some of them need a little time to clean up, but Dr. Metra says she feels good about them all.”

  “Labor situation okay?”

  “We’re doing great,” Kal said. “We’ll need to start talking about importing labor soon, but we need to see how many Cook Islanders decide to come back from New Zealand before we go there.”

  “Okay. Liz, how are our scientists doing?”

  “Those physicists are finally talking to Dr. Scheele about making a plasma field generator. They’re also talking to Dr. Zelbar about making a containment vessel. I’m arranging for extra lab space for them,” Liz said. “I assume
you want their labs to be on Manuae.”

  “Definitely,” Marc said. “Are they going to be okay living there?”

  “I’m not sure they know where they’re living now. So, a different island won’t be too serious a change. As long as somebody feeds them.”

  “Okay,” Marc said. “Dr. Metra has some surgeries scheduled, so she bowed out of today’s meeting. She’s happy with the progress, would love more nurses.”

  “We have some coming next month,” Samantha said. “You do realize that they have to move.”

  “I’m just the messenger,” Marc said.

  “You know these meetings are getting boring,” Catie said.

  “I agree,” Blake seconded.

  “You guys remember what happened the last time you were complaining about meetings being boring?” Marc said. “I’m happy with boring. Hopefully, we continue to keep a relatively low profile.”

  “Yes, you should remember the old Chinese curse, ‘May you live in interesting times’,” Liz said.

  “Oh, now you’ve jinxed us,” Samantha scolded.

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  “Sorry kids, practice is canceled,” the coach said. “The field is too soft after the rain last night. I’ll see you back here tomorrow.”

  “Oh pooh,” the twins said.

  “Hey, do you want to play paintball?” Catie asked. The twins had been asking about it since they’d seen Catie’s gear a few weeks ago.

  “Yes!”

  “Shouldn’t you have asked their mother first?” Liz said.

  “I did,” Catie laughed. “A couple of weeks ago. I’ve just been waiting for the opportunity.”

  “Okay, do you want to go get our gear, or should we just rent some like the twins?”

  “Let’s just rent stuff.”

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  After getting everybody geared up and showing the twins how to use the paintball rifles, they paired off. Catie and Aalia against Liz and Prisha.

  “Let’s just use the obstacle course,” Liz suggested.

  “You’re on,” Catie agreed. “Two minutes to go over strategy and get in place. We’ll take the north side.” Catie grabbed Aalia’s hand and led her around the outside of the obstacle course.

  “Are you ready?” Catie asked.

  Aalia nodded her head.

  “Now they’re going to try and sneak up on us, so we have to do a better job of sneaking up on them,” Catie explained. She paused and looked around the course. The walls were only six feet tall, “Hmm, what do you think about riding on my shoulders so you can see above the wall?”

  “I like that,” Aalia said.

  “Okay, but you need to duck down below the top of the wall until I tell you to peek, okay. Then you look up and tell me if you see them. But be really quiet.”

  Aalia nodded her head.

  Catie bent down and let Aalia sit on her shoulders. “Okay, I’m going to stand up, but you need to bend down so they can’t see you. Tap my head once for yes and twice for no.”

  Aalia tapped Catie’s head. Catie worked her way around the first two walls until she was by the left side of the room. “Okay, peek for just a second… Did you see anyone?”

  Aalia tapped Catie’s head twice.

  “Okay, now we’ll try to sneak around this wall.” Catie dodged around the wall and stopped against the next wall. “Okay, peak again.”

  Aalia tapped Catie’s head once.

  “You saw them.”

  One tap.

  “Do you think you can shoot one of them?”

  One tap.

  “Okay, get them.”

  “Out,” Liz called out.

  “I said, I’m out!” Liz yelled as she came around the corner with Prisha on her shoulders. Prisha immediately shot Catie.

  “Hey, why didn’t you shoot her?” Catie complained to Aalia, right as Prisha shot her again.

  “Out! What’s up with this?” Catie complained. “You guys are supposed to shoot each other too.” Catie knelt down to allow Aalia off of her shoulders. Aalia immediately went after Liz again. Liz had dropped Prisha who was now taking aim at Catie.

  “Oh, that’s how it is, is it!” Catie squawked as she started unloading on Aalia.

  Liz immediately started shooting Prisha, “You traitor!”

  After thirty seconds of continuous fire, they were all out of ammo. They collapsed on the floor giggling.

  “You should have known better than to pair them off against each other,” Liz said. “You’ll never get one to go against the other.”

  “You’re right, I should have known better,” Catie said. “Wow, we didn’t do anything except get paint all over each other.”

  “It’s hard to train when you have a couple of traitors in your midst.”

  “We’re not traitors, we’re twins,” the twins echoed together.

  “Yeah, we finally get that,” Catie said.

  Chapter 32

  Parts for All

  Miki Sunamoto knocked on the doorjamb of Takurō’s hospital room, “You awake?”

  “Miki!” Takurō cried out. “Why didn’t you tell me you were coming?”

  “I wanted to surprise you. Kal said you’d be able to receive visitors today.”

  “Well, you’re my first since they lifted the isolation. Come in.”

  Miki walked in and sat next to Takurō’s bed, grasping his right hand and holding it to her cheek. “You look good.”

  “When have I not looked good?”

  “I mean, you’re alert. Every time we talked on video, you looked pale and spaced out like you were on dope or something.”

  “I was on something. Good stuff, too,” Takurō said.

  “Knock! Knock!” Dr. Sharmila said as she entered the room. “How is my patient doing?”

  “Great!”

  “How’s the hand?”

  Miki looked shocked, “What happened to your hand?” she said as she looked at the hand that she was clasping.

  “She meant this hand,” Takurō said as he lifted his left hand out from under the covers.

  “Oh my god!” Miki cried. “It looks real.” She reached across and gently clasped the other hand. “It feels so real too… But this is your hand!”

  “Of course, it’s mine. No repos, right, Doc?”

  “No, even if you don’t pay, we’ll let you keep it. May I?” Dr. Sharmila asked as she held her hand out, asking Miki to relinquish Takurō’s left hand.

  “Any feeling? Could you feel your sister's hand?”

  “I kind of think so, but it might be wishful thinking.”

  Dr. Sharmila surreptitiously poked his finger with a pushpin.

  “Ouch!”

  “Not wishful thinking,” Dr. Sharmila said.

  “Explain this!” Miki demanded.

  “Kal told you it was a new experimental process,” Takurō said.

  “But that is your real hand. Not some replacement. I’d recognize it anywhere.”

  “I know, cool, isn’t it?”

  “But how?”

  “They printed it on a three-D printer then attached it,” Takurō said. “Then they pumped me full of stem cells, and those little buggers replaced everything with new cells, just like they’re supposed to do.”

  Tears started streaming down Miki’s cheeks. “They regrew your hand! What about your leg?”

  “It’s coming along just fine,” Dr. Sharmila said as she lifted the sheet off of Takurō’s legs. “How’s this knee feeling?” she asked as she probed his right knee.

  “That’s his good knee!” Miki said.

  “Well that’s debatable,” Dr. Sharmila said. “We had to do extensive repair on it after all the wear and tear from compensating for the prosthetic.”

  “It feels good, Doc,” Takurō said. “I’ve been doing the exercise whenever I’ve been awake.”

  “Okay, I’ll have them do a full panel on you tonight. If it comes back all clear, we’ll unhook you from everything, and you can use a wheelchair to get around and
visit your friends.”

  “When can he come home?”

  “Next week, if things go well. We need to keep him here, so we’re able to pump him full of stem cells while the regeneration finishes up. After that, he just has to come in every day for another week to do PT.”

  “Then, you’ll be able to walk and everything?” Miki asked.

  “Unfortunately, not everything,” Takurō said with a frown.

  “What won’t you be able to do?” Miki gasped.

  “Won’t be able to dance for shit.”

  “We can’t fix two left feet,” Dr. Sharmila said.

  “Oh, you nut!” Miki said as she slugged her brother on the shoulder. “You never could dance.”

  ◆ ◆ ◆

  Miki walked behind Takurō’s wheelchair as they made their way to the recreation room in the hospital. As she entered the room for the first time, she noticed just how many amputees were milling about. She knew Kal was collecting as many veterans as he could convince to join up with New Delphi, but seeing so many in one room, still hampered by the injuries, tore at her heart.

  “Come on Sis,” Takurō said. “There’s cake over on the left. Let’s get some, and I’ll introduce you to some of the guys.”

  Takurō placed a drink in the cup-holder on his wheelchair then grabbed a big piece of chocolate cake. “Miki, grab one and follow me.”

  “Takurō! You old dog, where did you find that fine lady?”

  Miki spun around and saw a large black man in a wheelchair pulling up to her brother. He was a double amputee. The mine he’d hit had torn up the muscles in his hip so he couldn’t manage a prosthetic leg; he’d been stuck in a wheelchair ever since.

  “Barry, this fine lady is my sister, Miki. Miki, this is Barry, we served together.”

  “Barry, nice to meet you.” Miki shook hands with him.

  “Nice to meet you too, Miki. Tell me how an ugly mutt like your brother could have such a fine-looking sister?”

  “Well, he used to be good looking, but then he started drinking and hanging out with guys like you,” Miki retorted.

  “Good one! Well Takurō, that leg looks mighty good. When will you be walking on it?”

  “I’ve got PT every day. I just took my first steps today. Feels weird since I don’t have complete feeling in my foot yet, but the doc says not to worry.”