"Wouldn't their arrest be a matter for local authorities?"
"Don't bug me with trivia, Sue. I don't give a rat's ass whose jurisdiction they're in. Let Linda deal with it and put the flitter about a yard above the truck, please."
"You're going to board the truck?"
"Probably. Is there only one camera in the cab, or were they smart enough to hang some around the outside?"
"There's only one camera, Ed. It's magnetically mounted on the cab roof."
"Great. They're going to hit stop signs and lights along SR-36, Sue. I'll board the truck at one of them. What can we do to the transmission to slow it down? Any way to screw up the high gear? Blow some of the internal seals?"
"Not without taking the chance of stopping the engine."
"Well, give it some thought. Hey, what about blocking the throttle linkage? Keep it from moving far enough to engage higher speeds?"
"The engine RPM's govern all gear shiftings, Ed. If we did that, the truck would be unable to shift above first gear."
"Hm. Not good. They might decide to blow it."
Punching up the specs for the truck on my datapad, I looked for tamperable spots. There weren't many readily obvious to me and I couldn't think of any that wouldn't risk stopping the truck. While I could drive a big rig, I didn't know very much about their guts and gears.
After a moment, Sue said, "I've located the source of the signals, Ed."
"Like I said, give the info to Linda. How big would the blast be?"
"Two hundred kilotons. I've examined the bomb's firing mechanism, Ed. It won't fizzle."
"What about disarming the firing mechanism?"
"Can't do it without interrupting the control signal."
"You can't mimic the control signal?"
She said somewhat testily, "If I could, I'd have said so. It's a randomized signal. But maybe you can do better with it, Ed. Want the details?"
There was that snotty tone again.
"Send 'em to Linda's people and can the attitude."
The eastbound blue truck came into view. We flew over it, then the flitter settled to within a yard of the roof of the trailer. I could see the camera on the cab; it was mounted on three shock-absorbing pads and a fat cable ran into the cab through the doorframe, just like a CB antenna wire.
Oh, well. The truck was coming to a four-way stop. Time to get down to it.
"Sue, patch Linda into my implant, please, and send her a visual of what's going on."
"Done."
"Thanks. Linda, any ideas?"
"We're working on it. What's your next move?"
"Well, I thought I might slice the trailer open and let us all have a look at the bomb."
Linda replied, "Sue, is there any reason he shouldn't? Wires or cameras or sensors in the trailer?"
"No, Linda. The only sensors are on the device."
"What about radiation?"
"No danger with limited exposure and none if he's wearing his five suit. I'm sending you diagrams from my scans. The device is well-constructed."
"Apparently so," said Linda. "According to the these pics. I'm told there's no way to disarm it. Everything is looped into everything else, even the timer. Did we miss anything? Anything at all? Is that how you see it, too, Sue?"
"Yes," said Sue. "Any attempt to disarm it by conventional means would fail."
"Well, hell," I said, "Let's see if we can steal their quality control people. Linda, are you alone or can you be for a minute? I mean, really alone? Just you and me and Sue on the line?"
Almost instantly, she responded, "No. At the moment, that's impossible, Ed, and this is too big a crisis to..."
"Linda," I interrupted, "I have something to say to you. Just you. It's important enough to warrant privacy."
"I'm sorry, Ed. I'm in the level six command center. It just can't be done at the moment."
Nodding, I said, "Okay. Sue, cut them out of the link."
Sue's eyes got big and she said, "But..."
Linda almost screamed, "What..?! No!"
I ignored Linda's subsequent rantings as I said, "Do it, Sue. I have to talk to you privately."
"But Linda's your superior, Ed. She's ordering you to maintain the link."
"Dammit, that's it," I said, "Steph, can you spare me a minute or two?"
Steph appeared to my right and I turned to face her.
"Steph, would you please turn Sue off, cut the comm link to base, and help me with something?"
Nodding, she said, "Of course. I noticed your difficulties with Sue and I was about to visit you, anyway."
A shocked Sue disappeared in mid-protest. Linda's voice in my head fell silent.
"We're alone," said Steph.
"Thank you, milady. You once said you could make gold from other stuff and reconstitute diamonds, and I don't want that info to become public knowledge. Can you turn the core of that bomb into lead before this truck can reach the base?"
"It would be simpler to transmute the detonating explosives, Ed."
"Yeah, but there's already too much weapons-grade nuclear crap in the world. This is a chance to remove some of it without being given a hard time. Does the idea sound workable?"
Nodding again, she said, "Yes, it's workable, but working through the bomb casing will slow the process drastically. Sue and flitter two will be necessary."
"Do we have time to bring Elkor's flitter out here?"
"No, but three of us will be sufficient."
Clapping my hands together, I said, "All right! Cool! Put Linda on for me and I'll tell her to send flit two."
Sue reappeared and stood glaring at me for half a second as Steph filled her in without speaking aloud. Sue's expression softened and she nodded, then stood by.
When I opened a datapad link, Linda came back on the line like a banshee.
I took a few seconds of her first volley, then said, "Linda, there's no time for this. I need flitter two out here."
"What?! What the hell did you say? You hang up on me in the middle of a goddamned mission and then you tell me you want me to send my only other flitter..."
"Yes!" I barked back at her, "That's what I said, and if you don't listen to me, my flitter and I will be getting the hell out of here real damned quick. Just stand by a sec."
Glaring hotly, Linda said ominously, "Stand by? Oh, this better be good, Ed. Real damned good. Better than good."
Turning to Sue, I asked, "Steph told you the plan?"
"Yes, Ed."
"Okay. Zap yourself to Linda and make absolutely sure that nobody else hears you tell her what we're up to, but let them see you tell her about it. That's it. Go now, please."
Sue vanished.
Returning my gaze to Linda's, I said, "You're about to hear something that nobody else needs to hear, Linda."
She snapped back, "I'll be the judge of that."
"Yeah, but I think you'll agree when you hear it."
Sue appeared next to Linda on my pad and whispered to her for a moment. Linda's eyes widened and her mouth fell open slightly, then she tapped a comm button and told Angela Horn to send flitter two to meet us.
"On my way, ma'am," said Angela.
"No. Just the flitter. In stealth mode and subsonic."
"Ma'am?"
Intensifying her voice slightly, Linda said, "No pilot, Lieutenant. Just send it out there. Now."
"Yes, ma'am."
Again facing me, Linda calmly said, "Two's on the way, Dragonfly. Swear everyone involved to total secrecy. Flitter two, as well. Record of use will be edited appropriately."
I said, "Will do, Fearless Leader," as Sue reappeared on the flitter.
Flitter two arrived within seconds and Steph took command of the transmutation operation. Both ladies disappeared, then Steph informed me that they were inside the trailer and beginning the process by transmuting the detonating explosives first to preclude an accidental -- or an intentional -- nuclear blast.
As we rolled through the flat North Dakota countrysi
de and a town that was little more than some buildings clustered around three stoplights, I opened a Dr Pepper and summoned up a separate datapad window to call Bost Automotive about a new engine for my car.
When Chuck Bond answered, I told him I had an 84 Olds Eighty-eight and asked if he knew where he could find me a new engine.
"We got two of 'em in the back lot right now," he said. "One's a 307 from an '85 and the other's a 350 from a '94. We had to scrap the rest of that car. Bad accident. Either one is gonna be $900.00 installed."
Linda's standby icon began to flash.
"Hold on one," I told the guy at Bost. "My boss is calling on the other line."
"I thought you were retired."
"It's a part time thing. Gotta make ends meet, y'know. Hang on a sec, okay? I'm probably gonna go with the 350."
"Yeah, okay."
I poked Linda's icon to switch screens and she appeared wearing her 'what the hell are you doing?' face.
"What the hell are you doing, Ed, calling a garage in the middle of a mission?"
"What else should I be doing, Linda?"
"This is a real bad time to smart off to me!"
"I'm not. There's nothing I can do to help the ladies, so what else should I be doing right now?"
She fumed for a moment, then viciously punched the standby icon on her pad.
I brought the Bost connection back up and asked, "You still there?"
"Yeah. You gonna take the 350?"
"You're the mechanic. Would you take it?"
"Yeah. Less miles and you need some muscle in a big car. Might even get better mileage, believe it or not."
"Good enough, then. When can you pick up my car?"
"This evening good? Around six?"
"Yeah, I think so. It kind of depends on how things go here later. I'd better call you back this afternoon."
"Okay. Later, then."
"You got it. Thanks."
Forty-one minutes and thirty-two miles of farm traffic and stops after starting the procedure, Steph announced that there was no longer any plutonium in the bomb.
"Excellent, Steph. I've always said you were some kind of a goddess. Now you have to believe me."
Steph mock-sighed and said, "Yeah, yeah. You always say that when I do something nice for you."
"Yeah, well, name anyone else who could have handled it, milady. Now let's see about Peterson. Five suit on."
I hopped to the roof of the trailer. A few moments of climbing behind the cab later, I was able to look through the driver's door window and eyeball the harness that held poor ol' drugged-up George.
Quad-overlay straps like those of a parachute harness had been intricately wrapped around Peterson's arms, legs, and chest, then pop-riveted to the seat, the floor, and the side of the cab. There were no buckles, of course, and some of the straps had been riveted to the driver's door.
"Steph," I called, "Are there any explosives in the cab?"
"No," she said. "May I ask why you didn't simply have one of us lift you to your present perch, Ed?"
"I wanted a look at a few things on the way. Thought you might be a little tired, too, after all that transmuting stuff."
"Oh, my, you're being facetious. How cute."
"Yes'm. That's me; cute to the core. I'll slice Peterson loose and hand him out to you."
"Just cut the straps and open the door. We'll lift him out of the cab and onto flitter two."
"You got it, ma'am. Keep this thing on the road, okay? They'll probably hit the kill switch when I cut the wires."
Snapping open my belt knife, I sawed through the door straps, then four of the other straps. Sure enough, the engine died and the truck came to a gradual stop.
After opening the door, I pushed the straps off Peterson and held the door open as Steph fielded Peterson out of the truck and aboard flitter two, which streaked away toward the base.
Before I slid into the driver's seat, I stood on the driver's step to reach for the camera, yanked it down, and tossed it on the floor on the passenger side. No need to let them see the base. Once inside, I turned off my five suit.
When I turned the key, the truck wouldn't start. I traced the wires from the harness to a point under the dash and simply yanked them all out, then turned the key again. This time the truck started and I let it run as pneumatic pressure that had bled off built back up. It didn't take long.
Once I had the truck moving again, I yelled, "Hey, Steph! Swing the flitter around front and open a visual link to Linda, then hop in! Sue! You, too! Get in here for the group shot!"
I couldn't see the flitter, of course, but when Steph and Sue appeared on the seat next to me, I grinned at Steph and said, "Well, hi, there, Sweetie! Don't you worry about that 'no hitchhikers' sticker on the window; it's just one of those dumb ol' insurance things. How do you like my big ol' truck?"
She laughed and I reached up to give the air horn a couple of blasts, then keyed my implant and said in my best Texas accent, "Breaker, breaker, howboutcha, there, Fearless Leader lady! This here's the one ol' Dragonfly, eastbound and hammer down on thirty-six and a-watchin' real hard for them local yokels and county mounties. Come on back to me one time, won'tcha pleeeeze?"
Linda drily replied, "Someone -- possibly you, in fact -- once told me that even a Rhodes scholar will sound like a practicing hillbilly on a CB radio. May I presume that you have good news, Dragonfly?"
"Well, yes'm, actually, I do. We do, that is. Steph, Sue, and flitter two neutered the nuke, Peterson's probably tucked away in the infirmary by now, and I'm gonna drive this here great big-assed blue truck whereverthehell you want it to go, Fearless Leader lady, ma'am."
Someone in the background barked laughter and Linda smiled as she said, "Just drop it off with the people in the radiation suits outside the front gate. I'll have someone save you the trouble of trying to park it on base."
Feigning shock, I asked, "Is that a lack of faith I hear?"
"You bet it is, Dragonfly. You haven't driven a big truck in twenty years and you aren't going to drive one on my base."
Letting her see my agony at her words, I said, "I'm hurt, ma'am. I'm truly hurt."
Laughing, Linda said, "Too bad, so sad. By the way, everybody; many, many thanks to all of you. Great work. What's your ETA?"
"Again with that ETA stuff. Hell, I don't know. Steph?"
Steph said, "Approximately four minutes, Linda."
Linda said, "Thank you, Steph. You always were the brains of that outfit."
"Oh, yeah? Hey, Linda!" I said, reaching for the air horn again. I got a blast in before her finger hit the 'off' icon.
Sure enough, just outside the gate there were a couple of trucks, some cars, and a bunch of people in radiation suits. I stopped the truck where one of the rad suit guys indicated, told Steph and Sue I'd see them aboard the flitter, and said, "Three suit on," before getting out of the truck.
Standing a bit away from the truck and people, I keyed my implant and told Sue to haul me aboard the flitter, then we headed toward the main complex.
Just inside the main doors I saw Emory Wallace talking with a senior guard and detoured to tap the back of his hat.
"Hi, Cap. Where's Linda?"
Looking around, he said, "No idea. Where the hell are you?"
"Three suit off. Is that better?"
The desk guard startled hard as I appeared and Wallace grinned and said, "No, you're still you. Hi, Stephanie. Hi, Susanne. I hear you all did a great job with that... situation."
The ladies thanked him and I asked, "How come you weren't in the ell-six command room? You're security, right?"
Emory eyed me and said, "I was moving everybody underground, just in case your solution didn't work. In case you weren't aware, base evacs are part of my job."
Shrugging, I said, "Nope. Didn't know that. Nice to know somebody's on top of it, though. Had lunch yet?"
"Didn't you have a lunch date with Linda and Chang?"
"Yeah, but I'm changing plans. I'm too h
ungry to wait an hour or more for food. They can meet me in the mess hall."
Calling up a field datapad, I tapped Linda's icon.
She answered with, "Where the hell have you been? People are looking all over for you."
"Well, now they can stop looking," I said with a shrug. "You know where I am, and that's good enough. How about you and Vickie meeting me in the mess hall? I'm kind of starving."
Linda looked at her watch and said, "Yeah. Okay. We'll be there in about ten," then disconnected.
When I let the datapad dematerialize, Wallace stared at me.
"What?" I asked.
Shaking his head, he said, "Never mind. Yeah. Lunch."
"Ed," said Steph, "Sue and I have something to discuss. May we join you later?"
"Sure, Steph. Chang can meet Sue later."
Steph and Sue disappeared, further startling the guard.
As we headed for the mess hall, I said, "If people start dropping by the table, it's up to the authoritative type in the uniform to head them off. That would be you, sailor."
He gave me an odd, glancing look and continued walking without comment. A few minutes into lunch, Linda and Vickie arrived. They waved on their way to the serving line, then joined us with their trays.
Chapter Sixty-Six
Linda sat down beside Wallace and Chang sat next to me as Linda announced, "We've decided to call the incident a vicious hoax. A terror tactic."
Wallace nearly choked as he quietly exclaimed, "What?!"
Linda smiled and nodded.
"The bomb was full of lead. It was just a nasty way to show us that they have the technology."
"We had aerial readings," said Wallace, "Hot readings."
Shaking her head, Linda said, "A small decoy device. It's in the lab."
After a moment of peering at her, Wallace asked, "How's the driver?"
"They think he'll be fine in a few days."
Wallace gazed at Linda and Linda met his gaze serenely for a few moments, then she returned her attention to her plate.
We ate in silence for a short time, then Vickie Chang asked, "Wasn't Sue supposed to join us?"
"She'll be along if she can," I said. "Something came up."
Vickie nodded, then said, "Well, hoax or not, it was a good thing that you and Sue happened to be in the area today."
3rd World Products, Inc., Book 4 Page 57