3rd World Products, Inc., Book 4

by Ed Howdershelt

  Wallace came into the dining hall, spotted me and headed right for me, but he didn't seem upset. He grabbed a tray and looked over the choices as he spoke.

  "I'd like a word before the meeting, if you don't mind."

  "Sure, Cap," I said, "If you don't mind that Steph will record us."

  He chuckled. "No problem. Angela will be here in a moment. We'll include her."

  "Good enough." Keying my implant, I said, "Steph, please join me for a pre-meeting-meeting with Wallace and Horn."

  Steph popped into existence beside me. Wallace almost dropped his tray.

  "Sorry," said Steph.

  Looking at Myra, Wallace said, "I hope you don't mind too much, Myra, but we'll need some time to ourselves."

  She shrugged and said, "I'll survive." Sighing as if deeply wounded, she added, "I've had to eat alone before, you know. One gets used to such hardships."

  We finished with the serving line and headed for a table as Myra headed for a table a few rows away. Angela came in, stopped to get a coffee, and then came to sit down next to Wallace.

  "Okay, we're all here," I said. "Why are we all here?"

  Wallace asked, "Do you have one of those PFM's ready to show?"

  "No. It probably wouldn't take long to make one, though."

  "How long is not long?"

  When I looked at Steph, she said, "Ten minutes."

  Once Wallace recovered from her answer, he nodded.

  "Then please go ahead and make one for Lieutenant Horn. After the meeting she can demonstrate it for us while you train Dr. Mills."

  I looked at Steph, who said, "No problem." Switching her gaze to Wallace, she said, "All of you will have one. Each unit will key itself to the user upon first application. I'll also provide instructions for their use in your datapads."

  Wallace simply looked at her in surprise for a moment, then said, "That would be excellent, Stephanie. Thank you very much."

  "Wallace," I said, "There's something I'd like to mention up front in all this."

  He looked at me as he said, "What would that be, Ed?"

  "Steph gets the credit for this idea. She should also get a royalty for every sale of a personal PFM unit when they go commercial."

  "I thought it was your idea."

  I shook my head and thumbed at Steph.

  "She gets the credit. And the money."

  Wallace looked at Steph, then back at me, and said, "Linda and I anticipated the commercial aspects last night. We also anticipated paying a royalty, but at the time we thought that you had originated this idea, Ed."

  "Is there a rule somewhere that says an AI can't have a good idea, Emory?"

  He shrugged and grinned as he said, "Well, not that I know of, and it certainly doesn't matter to me which of you thought of it."

  "That would also mean that it doesn't matter which of us you pay, right?"

  Wallace chuckled and said, "Not to me it doesn't, but Linda told me about your, um... delays... with the INS and NSA. We think you're up to something, Ed. We'll all talk to Linda before we decide who gets paid for this."

  He sipped his coffee before adding, "Someone will get paid, whether it's Stephanie or you. Rest assured of that."

  As he dug into his donut, I said, "Steph could use the assistance and support of 3rd World in making her citizenship happen. It wouldn't be a particularly difficult social or political matter for 3rd World, and everydamnbody is going to want one of those personal PFM's, so there's going to be a lot of money involved."

  He nodded. "You don't have to sell me, Ed. Stephanie has proven herself too often. It's up to the brass above me to decide to back her."

  "You'll recommend in her favor?"

  Nodding again, he said, "Hell, yes," around a mouthful of donut, then swallowed and said, "Stephanie is a person. I didn't think so at first, but after a while it kind of dawned on me that she often acted independently, even when the two of you were working together. She may not be human, but she's definitely her own person."

  "The fact that she's with me doesn't flavor your opinion of her, Emory?"

  He sipped coffee to wash down the donut and continued, "Ed, our... rivalry, for want of a better word... concerning Linda got us off on the wrong foot. Feet. Whatever; you know what I mean. Anyway, I've taken the time to study up on you over the last few months. You've sometimes been unorthodox in your methods, but you've always seemed able to find a way to get the job done. That's something they sometimes don't put in records well, but Linda has fleshed out some of the events on file."

  Chuckling, Wallace lifted an index finger and said, "One in particular comes to mind; you impersonated an East German soldier well enough to join one of their motor pool units for four days, then used one of their trucks to take five people across the border in broad daylight. How the hell did you manage that?"

  "Only three days," I corrected him. "The East Germans rotate troops just as we do. Karl Mueller -- my Eastside contact on that particular run -- had been watching the three local guard units for a couple of months, logging their routines. He and I waited around the bahnhof -- that's a train station -- for two days until a kid with brand new gear got off the train. Mueller bought the kid a coffee and offered him a ride to his new unit. While Mueller stalled the kid, I took a bus a couple of miles down the road and waited there. They picked me up like a hitchhiker, and as soon as I was in the back seat I put a chokehold on the kid. He woke up tied up in a hillside shack and I took his place as the unit's new guy around seven Wednesday evening."

  Sipping my coffee, I said, "He was supposed to have reported during duty hours. As expected, they put me on shit details and weekend duty. When another unit requisitioned a trash truck and a driver on Saturday -- as we knew they would -- the run fell to me by default. I detoured to pick up our clients and Karl and we bulled our way through the border fence between Eisfeld and Sonneberg just before dark."

  "What if they'd just tossed you in the brig?" asked Wallace.

  "Unlikely. They were pretty shorthanded at the time."

  Angela asked, "What happened to the kid? Do you know?"

  Wallace gave her one of those 'who cares?' looks as I said, "I left a note in his locker telling where he was. A truck he'd supposedly signed out crashed the border with seven people in it that Saturday afternoon. I figured they'd go through his stuff, find the note, and pick him up pretty quickly."

  "Seven people?" asked Wallace. "Was it a family?"

  "Yup. Five of them, two of us.They were an East German bureaucrat, his wife, and their three kids. Karl herded them aboard, then we crashed the fence and followed farm roads about five klicks into West Germany, where we turned the truck over to the 'crat. I changed clothes and buried the guard uniform in a grove of trees by the road, then we just waited. The outfit sent a car for us just after dark. The family probably wound up in deep cover somewhere."

  After a moment, Wallace muttered, "Well, damn."

  "I've found them," said Steph. "Ulrich and Wilma Busser. The family was relocated to Chain Bridge, Virginia."

  "Figures," I said. "That's almost within spitting distance of the CIA's home office."

  After breakfast I told Mills and Myra to stand by until Linda turned us loose, then Angela, Wallace, Steph, and I trooped down the hall to Linda's office. Linda asked her secretary to take a break until she was called to return, then she told us all to find someplace to sit and returned to her desk.

  She sat down, then said, "Good morning, all, and thanks for coming. Especially you, Angela. I know you haven't been to bed yet."

  Angela smiled and said, "I'm okay, ma'am."

  Linda turned to me. "Ed, how about telling us what you have in mind?"

  With a nodding shrug, I said, "Stick-on PFM's programmed for specific functions and wearer-only voice commands. Royalty payments to Steph and 3rd World's help in getting her citizenship squared away. That's about it."

  With a roll of her eyes, Linda said, "Ordinarily I appreciate brevity, but could you be more spec
ific? About the functions, for instance?"

  I turned to Steph. She stood up to speak.

  "The PFM's could provide personal protective fields, light-bending fields, stun fields, and, of course, such devices as parasails and hang gliders. A diver could use a protective field instead of a wet suit. Individuals could use their personal fields instead of raincoats and other inclement-weather clothing. Chemical, biological, and radiological laboratory personnel would find them particularly useful. Other uses would appear, as well, I'm sure."

  There was silence in the room for a moment, then Wallace asked, "To do all that... Are we talking about something the size of a backpack, here?"

  "No," said Steph. "The PFM's are only a few inches long and wide. I speculate that they will become almost as commonly worn as wristwatches, so other styling parameters may be required, but three units of my initial design will arrive in moments."

  Linda asked, "You've already developed them?"

  "Yes," said Steph. "I've prepared a few for demonstration."

  Linda's office doors opened seemingly by themselves and three small objects flashed into the room in tight formation, then the doors closed as Steph plucked one of the objects from the air and held it out to Linda.

  It was an ovoid shape, flat on one side and rounded on the other and slightly wider at one end, as if someone had sliced an elongated egg down the middle. Its surface gleamed like stainless steel.

  Wonderingly taking the device from Steph, Linda asked, "Uh, what do I do with it, Stephanie?"

  "Place it against your body where you wish to wear it and say 'PFM attach'. To remove it, you would say 'PFM detach'. You are the first person to hold the device, so it will hereafter respond only to your voice unless reprogrammed."

  She then handed one of the devices to Angela and to Wallace. Everyone spent some moments examining the gadgets, but they seemed in no hurry to take the final step of sticking their PFM's on themselves.

  I said, "Consider that I've had my implant for over two years with no ill effects."

  Angela looked up and laughed nervously as she said, "I'm the low-ranker here; I guess I'll go first." She pressed the PFM to her forearm and said, "PFM attach."

  The PFM had been stiffly straight. At her command it adapted its flat side to her arm as if it had been made of shiny heated wax.

  Angela stared at it for a moment as she twisted her arm to and fro, then she sat down and said, "PFM detach."

  The PFM regained its former shape and stiffness and Angela had to reach quickly to keep it from falling off her arm.

  "Well," she said, "It certainly is responsive, isn't it? PFM attach." The device again bonded to her arm. She stroked it with her fingers and softly said, "Wow... I can barely feel it on my arm."

  Looking up at Steph, Angela grinned beamingly and asked, "What now?"

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Before Steph could speak, Linda said, "PFM attach."

  As I watched the gadget bond to her arm, Wallace also muttered, "PFM attach."

  I saw that he'd rolled up his left sleeve and stuck the thing on his inner forearm. He worked the muscles of his arm and held the arm at different angles for a few moments, then he grinningly looked first at me, then at Steph.

  "Now that we all seem ready," said Steph with a return grin, "I'll explain the basic commands. 'Field one on' calls up the protective field. 'Field two on' calls up light-bending qualities that will render you effectively invisible, although if you move against a static background someone may notice a slight warping effect and infrared devices will detect your body heat."

  Wallace said, "Field one on," then said, "I don't see or feel anything. How can I tell if it's working?"

  "Try poking yourself with something," I said. "A pencil or a pen."

  He pulled a pen from his shirt pocket, then pushed the tip against his left arm. It stopped a quarter-inch from his skin and he seemed unable to push it any farther.

  "I'll be damned," he said wonderingly.

  Angela said, "Field two on," and vanished completely within a split-second. "Oh, wow..." she breathed. "I'm looking at the desk through my hand!"

  "Not so much through it as around it," said Steph.

  Linda also said, "Field two on," and seemingly disappeared. Her cell phone lifted from the desk, hung suspended for a moment, and then returned to the desktop.

  "I'm having a little difficulty knowing exactly where my hands are," she said. "When I reached for the phone my aim was off."

  "You'll get used to that," I said. "Just be careful in china shops."

  Wallace chuckled and tried his invisibility mode as Linda said, "Field two off. We have some things to consider, people. I don't think invisibility should be available to the general public. A few people out there aren't completely honest, you know."

  "Field two off," said Wallace. He examined his hands and muttered, "Damn! That's fantastic!"

  "Agreed, Linda," said Steph. "I'd planned offering only the protective mode to the public, with optional additionals such as parasails or other sporting functions."

  Nodding, Linda said, "That should be all right."

  I felt someone behind me and said, "Three suit on," then vanished as I stood up.

  Quietly circling widely around and behind Angela, I reached about where I thought her waist would be and made contact.

  She screeched and laughed, then moved away from my hands as she almost yelled, "How did you know I was behind you?!"

  Rather than -- for the umpteenth time -- try unsuccessfully to explain to someone, I said, "See if you can feel it when our fields come close to each other."

  Steph, of course, had no trouble seeing us. She looked right at me with a raised, questioning eyebrow when I told Angela to try to feel our fields.

  "Angela," said Steph, "You're groping in slightly the wrong direction. Ed is to your left somewhat."

  "Groping? I'm not groping!"

  "By all dictionary definitions, you're groping."

  Angela's hand bumped my left arm and she grabbed it. "Found you."

  "Yeah, but did you feel the fields touch?"

  Her hand released my arm and slowly returned to it.

  "No. I don't think so."

  I sighed loudly. "And I thought women were supposed to be sensitive creatures."

  She slapped my arm as she said, "We are, dammit."

  "Ow. Assault. Battery. I'm gonna sue. She hit me."

  Linda shook her head as she rose to go to the coffee pot and rather conversationally said, "Oh, you poor thing. Won't you need a witness?"

  Laughing, Wallace rose to join her and grabbed a cup.

  "I didn't see anything, Ed," he said as he operated the push-top thermos to fill Linda's cup, then his own.

  I sent a field tendril to search for Angela's leg. She screeched again when it touched her thigh and nearly knocked over a chair getting away from it.

  "Whatthehellwasthat?!" she yelled.

  "What was what?" I asked, "I didn't see anything, ma'am."

  "Don't wreck my office, you two," said Linda as she sat down at her desk. "Make yourselves reappear and let's get on with the program."

  "Oh, yes, milady," I said, "By your command, milady. Three suit off, milady."

  Casting a tendril in a waist-high, four-foot circle around me, I waited. Sure enough, Angela blundered into it as she approached me, still invisible. Again she screeched, but this time more softly. I canceled the tendril as Wallace laughed again.

  "Damn it," said Angela, "Field two off," reappearing with her hands trying to find the thing that had touched her. "What the hell was that, Ed?"

  "It was something I can do with my implant that you can't do with your stick-on, ma'am."

  She gave me a mock-glower, then moved past me to get a cup of coffee. I followed and got one of my own, then we returned to our chairs.

  Steph was standing where she'd been, surveying Angela and me with a rather schoolteacher-ish air about her.

  Linda looked around the room o
nce, then archly said, "Stephanie, I believe you had the floor. Please continue."

  Wallace glanced at me and rolled his eyes at Linda's starchy pose. Angela stifled a snicker as he clowned.

  "At present," said Steph, "These units are limited because I don't know what other features you'd want. If you say 'field three on', both your protective and invisibility modes will function at the same time."

  Looking at Angela, she said, "Because you showed such interest in Ed's glider, your PFM will also generate a hang glider and a parasail. How would you like to summon them?"

  "Uh, well, 'Glider on' or 'parasail on', I guess. Like Ed does."

  Steph nodded and said, "Done. You may also color them green, red, blue, black, or grey in the same manner."

  Wallace said, "Jesus H! Just like that you're done?"

  "Yup," I said. "Just like that she's done. Steph's pretty good with computer stuff, Wallace."

  That got me a narrow look from Wallace and a giggle from Angela.

  Steph said, "Captain Wallace, you've had airborne training, so I'm adding a parasail to your functions. As with Angela's, simply say 'parasail on'."

  Staring at his PFM in wonderment, Wallace said, "Thank you, Stephanie. By God, it's hard to believe there's something like that inside something so small. It's about the same thing as magic, isn't it?"

  With a small smile, Steph said, "Yes, I believe it is."

  Linda sat back and sipped her coffee in silence for some moments, then said, "I think we'd better run this whole idea past some lawyers before we sell or issue PFM's to anyone else. I can almost see the liability suits stacking up from people killing themselves with parasails and gliders."

  "It won't be because they were defective," I said. "Besides, we can make them available only to trained jumpers and flyers and require a waiver."

  "That might not be enough, Ed."

  "It's all any regular manufacturer seems to need, but what the hell. Let the legal department put together a zero-risk sale and use agreement. How soon do you think we can get this project underway?"

  She looked at Steph, then back at me, and pursed her lips before speaking.

  "Regarding the protective modes, pretty quickly. Regarding the gliders and parasails; a month or two. Maybe three. Those will need a track record of some sort before we try to introduce them as a piece of issue-gear or a marketable product. In the meantime anyone who asks about your PFM's are to be told they're test units."