Nodding, I said, "Good. So you should."
I started to stand up, then realized that the swelling below my belt buckle would become instantly noticeable if I did. Elbows on knees, I rubbed my face and stayed in my seat.
Sue giggled softly and asked, "Who was she?"
Caught. Oh, well.
I sighed, "You noticed, did you?"
With another giggle, she said, "It was rather obvious, Ed."
"Yeah, guess so. You were one of the women in my dream."
Her eyes fell to my jeans, then met my eyes again.
"Well, then, I'm flattered. If you were really dreaming about me, that is, and not some other woman from your past."
"Now you're just fishing, lady. I freely admitted you were in my dream."
There was still some hours-old coffee in my mug. I warmed it, then guzzled it as we dropped through the clouds above Hernando County at what would have been an alarming rate of descent in any other vehicle.
When the flitter stopped, I grabbed my travel kit and hopped to the driveway, then turned to extend a hand to Sue. She looked at my hand, then at me for a moment, then stepped forward.
Taking my hand and stepping down, she said, "I can understand why you might feel a need to steady a human woman, but why do this with me?"
"Would you rather I didn't? If you'd prefer to just pop from place to place..."
"I merely asked why you do it."
I shrugged. "It's what I do, that's all. Do I need a more meaningful reason?"
Sue grinned slightly, then leaned to give me a quick kiss.
"No, you don't need a more meaningful reason."
Across the street a shadow moved in my neighbor's kitchen window. I put my arm around Sue and aimed us at the front door.
"That's not Steve or Lynn," I said quietly. "Too tall."
"I concur. The house is registered to a man who does not match that description, according to records."
"Steve never mentioned having a son. Let's go into the house, then I'll call the cops to check him out. Send a probe over there to keep an eye on him."
"Done. He's in the kitchen, watching us from the corner of the window."
After dropping my travel kit by the door and picking up the kitchen phone without turning on the lights, I had to think about what to tell the sheriff's department.
I settled for, "I saw someone who is neither Steve nor his wife at a window. I'd like you guys to drop by and check him out."
Tiger hopped onto the kitchen counter to see what was going on. I petted him and thumbed at Sue and he walked around the counter toward her.
The deputy asked, "Sir, do you have any reason to believe there's a problem at the Meyer residence? Could they have a houseguest?"
Sue answered Tiger's "Yaaooww?" with one of her own and pointed out the window at the Meyer house.
I said, "I've known Steve since '89 and I've never seen anyone visit overnight except his daughter. Are you sending someone or not?"
Tiger hopped to the windowsill and looked out.
"Sir," said the deputy, "One of our units is on the way and going over there might not be a good idea. Let us handle it."
"Okay, then. Thanks." I hung up before the dispatcher could say anything else and went to join Sue by the kitchen window. "Anything new?" I asked.
"No," said Sue. "He's still watching by the window."
The cops made good time; they probably had someone in the area. A squad car pulled up in front of Steve's house and another one parked on Northcliffe, then a deputy got out of the first car and walked up to the front door.
Sue and I walked outside to stand in plain sight in the driveway as the man we'd seen in the window answered the door. Steve and his wife, Lynn, joined him a moment later. Sue and I ambled across the street as the deputy headed back to his car.
"Thanks," I said to the deputy. "Sorry to drag you out here for nothing."
The deputy gave me an odd, narrow look, then said loudly enough for all to hear, "Oh, no problem, sir. Nothing is often better than something in this line of work. You did the right thing by calling us."
He got in his car as Steve, Lynn, and whosis approached.
Before they could speak, I said, "Sorry about waking everybody. I saw someone in your house and I thought it better to be safe than sorry."
It's hard not to be disgruntled when wakened by a cop at your door, but Steve and Lynn managed civility fairly well, even though they seemed unable to take their eyes off Susanne.
"This is my nephew Kent," said Steve, indicating the tall, fortyish guy, who also seemed to have trouble looking away from Sue, "He's on leave from the Army and he'll be with us for the weekend. Kent, this is my neighbor Ed."
"He's being polite," I said. "I'm sure he meant to say 'my weird neighbor Ed'."
Kent's startled expression told me that was exactly what Steve had told him.
As Kent and I shook hands, Steve asked, "Who's your lovely friend, Ed?"
"This is Susanne, Steve. She's Stephanie's replacement."
Steve extended a hand to Sue, who took it briefly, then shook hands with Lynn and Kent as she said, "Pleased to meet you all."
The greeting was echoed by Lynn and Kent, then Steve asked, "Replacement? Why? Where's Stephanie?"
"She's busy starting her own company."
Lynn shook her head slightly and asked, "Her own company? But Stephanie was a computer, wasn't she?"
Grinning, I said, "She still is, as far as I know."
Kent's gaze narrowed as he peered at Sue, looking her up and down once.
"You expect me to believe that she's a computer?"
Sue smiled and disappeared, then reappeared a few yards to my left. She repeated the process to return to my side.
"Yes, Kent," she said. "We do expect you to believe that."
Lynn and Steve stared briefly at Sue, but then Lynn caught sight of her nephew's stunned expression and couldn't contain a giggle.
Chapter Fifty-Six
We chatted for a bit in Steve's driveway, then adjourned. Kent asked if he could get together with me about a few things in the morning. I agreed, but advised him that my morning wasn't likely to begin before nine or ten.
I was wrong. For some reason, I snapped awake at eight-ten, wondering what had jarred me out of sleep. From somewhere down the block came a thundering that I'd heard far too often lately and I looked out the bedroom window to see a red convertible parked in a driveway three houses behind mine.
Half a dozen teenagers were clustered around the car and it was putting out enough bass to make loose coins rattle on my dresser. A guy I knew only by his last name - Elliston - came out of the house and walked down to the car. The noise never diminished a whit as Elliston said something to the kid in the front seat of the red convertible.
The kid gave him the finger, then pulled out of the driveway and moved the car to the swale one house closer to mine. The herd of teenagers followed the car.
I sent a field tendril at the middle of the car's windshield, then alternated heat and cold on a spot a few inches wide. The windshield shattered. I focused the same treatment on the headlight lenses and they, too, cracked and shattered.
A commotion ensued around the car that included some of the kids getting flat on the ground or ducking behind the car. After some moments the driver decided to take a chance.
He got up from behind the car and vaulted over the driver's door, started the car and slammed it into gear, then left two long streaks of burnt rubber as he hauled ass down the street.
A sudden, familiar presence behind me made me say, "Hi, Steph," as I watched the show.
Steph chidingly said, "That really wasn't very nice, Ed."
"It damned sure worked, though, didn't it?"
Sue said, "I still want to know how you knew Steph was there."
In mild surprise I turned to face her and found both Steph and Sue standing in the bedroom doorway. Steph wore one of her usual biz-suit outfits. Sue wore white shorts and a
white blouse over a tee-shirt and deck shoes. Trim and tight and everything right. And gorgeous. A portion of me suddenly pointed at her.
"I just did," I said. "Thank you, by the way."
She gave me a quizzical look and asked, "For what?"
I nodded at her legs and said with a grin, "For wearing those shorts. You've greatly improved my mood this morning, ma'am."
Sue giggled and said, "I can see that."
"Interesting that Steph didn't mention that I sleep naked."
Steph smiled and vanished. After another glance at me, so did Sue.
After spiffing up a bit and dressing I headed for the kitchen and found coffee made. Although I don't have a taste for brewed coffee anymore, I poured a cup and took it to the kitchen table. Steph was nowhere in sight. Sue sat down across from me.
No surprise with the brewed coffee; I was used to quick-fix instant and brewed stuff just didn't taste right to me anymore.
I took Sue's hand in mine, raised it to my lips, and said, "Thank you for trying, milady, but please don't make my coffee. I've acquired a taste for the way I make it."
Sue simply shrugged and said, "I made coffee because we're expecting company this morning."
"Good thinking. Kent's in the Army. He'll probably soak up the pot."
Sure enough, when I went out for the paper Kent chose that particular moment to take out the garbage. He "spotted" me and walked across the street for a handshake.
I invited him in and pointed him at the coffee pot and cups as I made my own coffee from instant in my Aladdin travel mug. Sue was nowhere in sight.
He watched me assemble my coffee in silence, but when I finished and moved to the table, his questioning expression made it clear that he was curious.
Sue popped into being in the chair opposite mine and startled the hell out of Kent, who had thankfully put his cup down before she appeared.
"He doesn't like my coffee," said Sue. "He prefers that mud he makes."
Kent simply gaped at her as I said, "Oh, not fair, Sue. I apologized, didn't I?"
She sighed and said, "Yes, I suppose you did. Sort of. Kind of. After a fashion."
"Kent, don't let her hustle you for sympathy. Sue made that pot because she knew you were coming over."
"Huh?" his eyes met mine, then he looked at Sue and managed, "Oh. Uh, thank you, Sue."
Some moments of sipping later, I asked, "How much do you figure the Army's changed since 1970, Kent?"
"Oh, damn. In some ways a lot, I'd think."
Shrugging, I said, "I dunno. They still have officers, enlisteds, helicopters, and guns, right? Can't have changed that much. Some of the hardware and the uniforms, yeah, but I'll bet the Army is still basically the same."
He sipped his coffee with a sidewise glance at Sue, then peered at me for a moment as he said, "Yeah, probably so. 1970, huh? Damn. You've been out for some time, haven't you? You don't look that old."
"Oh, I'm pretty much ancient, Kent. We had horse-drawn helicopters in my outfit."
He chuckled and said, "That's the way I feel sometimes. The only flight time I get these days is what little it takes to keep my wings current. They wouldn't give me that much air time if it wasn't in the regs that they have to. I've been mostly flying a desk for the last five years."
We discussed some of the Army's changes; for example, while the M-60 machine gun was still an issue weapon, it had largely been replaced by the Squad Automatic Weapon - SAW - that was generally issued to three-man teams within units. I didn't tell him that I'd qualified with a SAW in 2001 as part of a personnel update.
Kent begged off talking about some of the infantry's changes because such things weren't within his scope. He also said he was a brigade executive officer enroute from a Pentagon duty station to a new assignment at Ft. Bragg, NC, and something in his voice made me ask if being stationed there was somehow a problem for him.
"Maybe," he said. "My ex married an Air Force captain a few years back and he's at Pope AFB. Chances are I'll be running into them, sooner or later. I've considered calling her to let her know I'll be in the neighborhood."
"Hm. I'd make it sooner and get it out of the way. Did you have any kids with her?"
With a shake of his head he said, "No."
"That makes it a lot easier. Maybe she'll fix you up with one of her friends."
"My current girlfriend might not take that very well. She's coming down after I get set up."
"Ah. Well, then, I'd just give the ex a heads-up call and be done with it."
"That's kind of what I figured to do."
After sipping my coffee, I said, "Check it out. I'm handing out advice to a brigade XO, and it's not even advice he hasn't already given himself. You're in your mid-forties, Kent. I figure that makes you at least a light colonel, maybe a bird colonel."
"Bird," said Kent. "And that's about as high as I'll be going, I think. I'm close to having twenty-five years in and I'm in a subcritical MOS, so I doubt they'll waste a star on me."
Sue asked, "Are you thinking of retiring?"
"Yes," said Kent, "I could go for thirty, but my heart just isn't in it anymore. I'd just be going through the motions, I think, and I'm still young enough to pick up something out here. Or start something of my own; something that would get me back in the air."
Looking at Susanne, I keyed my implant and said, "Steph."
"Huh?" asked Kent.
"Yes, Ed," said Steph.
"Got a minute, milady?"
Kent gave me an odd look, then his eyes got real big real fast. The fourth chair at the table, directly across from Kent, abruptly filled with Stephanie.
She wore a skirt-jacket outfit of a subdued shade of emerald green. Kent froze in mid-sip of his coffee, staring hard at her. She smiled at him, then us.
"Steph," I said, "This is bird-Colonel Kent Meyer, nephew of Steve-across-the-street. Kent, this is Stephanie, the lady Susanne replaced."
"Uh..," said Kent, then, "Yes, I... Hello. Ma'am. My uncle has mentioned you."
"Favorably, I hope," said Steph.
"Oh, God, yes, ma'am. Very favorably. And now I see why. You do look like her. Uh, Ingrid Bergman, I mean." He glanced at me and softly said, "Wow."
I nodded. "Wow, indeed, and you don't know the half of it, Kent." Turning to Steph, I asked, "Were you looking for someone about his height and rank to help out in your new company, Steph?"
She chuckled. "Height and rank? I had other criteria in mind, Ed, but since I'm here, I'll listen."
"A military liaison," I said. "Maybe with the police and such, too. He's got enough time and grade to get their attention and he isn't afraid of heights."
Kent asked, "Ed, what are you doing?"
"Thinking out loud," I said. "Gimme a minute."
"She doesn't know anything about me. For that matter, I don't know anything about her company."
"No biggie. It isn't up and running yet, so there's nothing to know. And don't worry that she doesn't know anything about you, because she does."
"Only that I'm an Army colonel and the nephew of one of your neighbors."
I shook my head. "Nope. By now she probably knows whatever's on record anywhere. Steph, do you want to check with Linda about this?"
Steph tapped a fingernail on the table a few times, then asked, "You must have had a reason for asking that. What do you think?"
"I think it'll be your company, Steph. You'll command it, and this is an opportunity to demonstrate that fact to all involved. If you want him, hire him, then run him past Linda for a second opinion."
Glancing at Kent with a grin, I said, "You can always fire him later if he doesn't work out."
We sat talking for a few minutes before the front door opened and a PFM flashed to a landing on the table.
Steph picked it up and handed it to Kent as she said, "You'd be marketing these. I make them."
After a moment's hesitation, Kent took it and asked, "What is it?"
Steph let him take it and study it. "It's
called a Personal Portable Field Manipulator, Kent. We've been calling them PFM's."
"That one is a demonstration unit," I said, "If you sign on, you'll keep it and use it to show and tell. If you don't sign on, she'll put it back on the shelf." Turning to Steph, I said, "Anytime you're ready, ma'am."
"Ready? For what?" asked Kent.
"A flitter ride, Kent," I said, "Some of the things that gadget can do shouldn't be done indoors." Waving a hand at the kitchen in general, I added, "Hell, some of 'em can't be done in a room this size."
"Such as..?" he prompted.
"Well, let's see... Are you airborne, Colonel Meyer? It's kind of a big thing at Ft. Bragg, y'know."
He grinned at that and shook his head.
"No. I've had emergency training, but I've never sought out opportunities to jump out of planes unnecessarily."
"Ever do any gliding?"
He chuckled. "I've made a few dead-stick landings in fixed wings and helicopters. Does that qualify?"
"You're still here, so that's probably close enough," I said as I got up to refill my cup, then excused myself for a trip to the bathroom.
Keying my implant on the way, I asked, "Steph, what do you think of all this? He's a short-timer who knows people at the Pentagon."
"I've reviewed his records, Ed. He'll do as a liaison."
"Great. Milady Sue?"
"Present and accounted for. Sir."
"Where did you pick that up?"
"From you, of course. According to the info Steph gave me, you've said it to Linda many times."
"Uh, huh. Okay, just curious. Let's let Kent see the flitter land. Impress him, please. Then we'll take him for a hard, short flitter ride. Try to tear the wings off."
There was a chuckle in her voice as she said, "Okay."
I grabbed my coffee mug in the kitchen and led the way to the front yard. When I looked up, so did Kent. The flitter went from being a shiny speck in the sky to a van-sized object descending rapidly enough to make Kent gulp and take a step back from the driveway.
A huge rush of air rattled branches in the oak tree behind us as the flitter came to a dead stop a foot or so from the concrete.
Handing Steph and Sue aboard in a gentlemanly style, I turned to Kent to ask, "You don't get airsick, do you?"
3rd World Products, Inc., Book 4 Page 46