Near Sighted (A Jake Townsend Science Fiction, Action and Adventure, Thriller Series Book 2)

by Richard C Hale

  She was doing a pretty good job of inflating his ego and he didn’t mind, that’s for sure. He was seeing a whole other side to Martha Jennifer Sanderson. Maybe it was because he let her cry on his uniform. “You are right about that, but kickers are hard to come by. Even the mediocre ones, which is what I was. I missed half my P.A.T.’s.”

  “P.A.T.?”

  “Point After Touchdown. The extra point. Do I need to explain the whole game?”

  She smiled at him and he assumed he didn’t.

  “The game winning kick was a fluke. The wind blew it into the left upright and it bounced in. I would have missed if that gust of wind hadn’t come along.”

  “Maybe it was divine intervention.”

  He shrugged. “That was a long time ago. Anyway, Lucky stuck, probably because I made it stick, and I’ve been Lucky ever since.”

  “Are you lucky at everything? How about lucky at love?”

  He sipped his water. He wasn’t sure how to take this. Was she flirting with him or making fun? “I have my moments,” he finally said and grinned at her.

  “I bet,” was all she said and an awkward silence filled the room.

  He cleared his throat after a minute and said, “How did Pam find out?”

  She looked down at the floor, her mood turning sour again, and he regretted asking the question.

  “Never mind,” he said. “It’s none of my business.”

  “No. I brought you into this. You deserve an answer. I’m just not the bad person you think I am.”

  “I never said I thought you were a bad person.”

  “You didn’t say it…”

  “I never even thought it. Come on Gin. Give me the benefit of the doubt. I let you slobber all over my uniform.”

  She smiled and threw a wad of paper at him.

  “What happened?”

  “Pam smelled cologne on me.”

  “I thought girls wear perfume.”

  “They do. This was cologne.”

  “Oh…”

  “What? Now I’m a freak because I was with a guy?”

  “No—it’s just you took me by surprise. I thought…”

  “I was gay.”

  “Well, yeah. I mean Pam and everything, and your nasty divorce. I thought you swore off dudes a year ago.”

  “Dudes?” She smiled at that and he grinned.

  “All right—men. I thought you were done with men.”

  “So did I.” She was quiet for a second and then said, “He was just so nice and I was kind of drunk.”

  “Where was Pam?”

  “At our place—her place. I was depressed about the kids and wanted to be alone, only, I guess, I just wanted to be away from her for a while.”

  She had lost the kids in the custody battle. Her ex-husband’s lawyer had made her look very bad in the judge’s eyes, what with the extra-marital affair and the ongoing homosexual relationship. Apparently, folks were still a little old fashioned in Colorado. At least this part of Colorado. He knew it had torn her apart. She had called in sick for a whole week.

  “How drunk were you?”

  “Tequila drunk.”

  “Uh oh…”

  “Yeah—uh oh is right. I have a hard time keeping my clothes on with tequila.”

  “Don’t we all,” he mumbled, but she heard him.

  “I can’t see you drunk, Lucky. You just don’t seem the type.”

  “What type do I seem?”

  “The ‘I work out and don’t get drunk’ type.”

  “I drink.”

  “I’ve never seen you.”

  “I’ll prove it. We’ll get drunk tonight.”

  “I already did that and now I’m where I’m at,” but she smiled at him and her eyes twinkled a bit.

  He felt himself blush a little. “Just drinks. Nothing else.”

  “All right,” she said softly. “I’ve got nowhere else to go anyway.” She stood and put her hand on his shoulder. It felt warm through his shirt and he liked how it felt. “Thanks, Lucky. For listening.”

  “Oh I plan on hearing more of this tonight. We are not done.” But he smiled at her and held her gaze for a minute. She didn’t look away. Finally, he turned and drew another circle on his paper.

  She turned and started back toward her console and then stopped. “You know. If I didn’t know better…”

  An alarm went off on his console and his eyes shifted automatically to the screens. She came back and leaned over him to look.

  “E.M.P.,” he said. “A big one.” An electromagnetic pulse was one of the characteristics of nuclear fusion and something they monitored for with the sophisticated equipment arrayed in the bunker.

  “It’s close,” she said and reached over to flip a toggle.

  “Wyoming.” He adjusted the attenuation on the satellite that had detected the anomaly and tried to isolate the pulse, but it was fading.

  “Don’t lose it!” she said.

  “GPS 12 is moving into its blind spot. Dammit! GPS 13 doesn’t come into view for 32 seconds. Of all the luck…”

  “Yeah—and I thought you were lucky.” She made a few adjustments but the signal had been lost and they both held their breath as they waited for the new satellite to come into view. They needed to pinpoint that signal.

  The alarm sounded for the magnetized door to the room and it swung open on silent hinges. General Smith strode over purposefully.

  Lucky started to speak, but the general cut him off. “I heard the alarm. Where is it?”

  “Wyoming, sir. Near Jackson Hole, but we’re in the dark at the moment. Satellites are blind.”

  He nodded and knew about the loss of coverage in the area where the E.M.P. had been detected. Lucky knew the General had been fighting for another satellite launch to clean up some of these holes.

  “Coming on line in 8 seconds,” Ginny said, and they waited.

  Smith had come to them just over two years ago from some organization that was rumored to not even exist on paper. He was a tough boss, but fair, and they liked working with him.

  The second satellite came up and they stared intently at the screens. Nothing was displayed.

  “Dammit! It’s gone, sir. Not even a trace,” Lucky said.

  “It must not have been nuclear. We’ve got nothing else on the monitors,” Ginny said and turned another dial.

  “It’s in the same general area as the one six months ago,” Lucky said.

  “We need to track this down,” Smith said and stood up straight. “Call the local authorities in Jackson Hole and see if they are getting reports of unusual electronic outages. Cars shutting down, cell phones not working, things like that. Maybe we can pinpoint the activity.”

  “On it,” Ginny said and went to her console.

  “Watch this sector closely for the next couple of days. I want to know if anybody farts in that hick town.”

  “Yes sir,” Lucky said.

  Smith turned and walked toward the door. “Call immediately if anything comes up.” He exited the chamber and the door swung closed.

  “Now, I really need that drink,” Ginny said.

  Chapter 14

  Jake replayed the recordings of Elise Boudreau and was having a hard time with what he was seeing. He now knew who the liar had been the other day in the lab as his ear tingled while he played the sessions back. He just couldn’t figure out why an amnesiac patient needed to lie.

  Winslow stepped up next to him and touched his shoulder. He jumped.

  “Sorry Doc. Didn’t mean to scare you. You had a funny look on your face.”

  He stopped the playback and rested his head in his palm. “What did you think of Elise Boudreau?”

  “She was a whack job.”

  “Besides that. Seriously.”

  “I think she’s hiding something.”

  He turned away and stared at the paused screen. Elise was captured in all her beauty, eyes closed, lying peacefully in the reclined chair as viewed from the overhead camera in the cha
mber. “I do too,” he said. “But what?”

  “Maybe she’s an ex-porn star and just doesn’t want to confront her past.”

  “Somehow I doubt that,” and he chuckled.

  “She was fixated on sex.”

  “True…”

  “And she liked large walrus penises.”

  “Winslow, you’re a woman…”

  “I hope so.”

  “…do women really think like that?”

  “Like what?”

  “Pornographic images and huge anatomically incorrect phalluses on large mammals.”

  “That was a lot of big words, Doc, but no. At least I don’t.”

  “Thank God.”

  “Some people do have a skewed perspective on things though, depending on their environment and possible upbringing. I had a roommate in college who had a thing for jelly donuts. She would always have a box when her boyfriend was over and even though I left them alone at times, that jelly donut box was always empty when I came back.”

  “So—maybe they were hungry.”

  “A whole dozen donuts? She weighed all of a hundred pounds, soaking wet, and he was a scrawny redneck. Together they could eat five, maybe six, but not the whole dozen. They did stuff with them. I don’t eat jelly donuts anymore.”

  The phone rang and Winslow answered it. “Encephalographic Systems. Yes…hold one moment please. It’s a Bodey Jenson.”

  Jake smiled and took the phone. “Hey man. Don’t tell me you’re coming to visit?”

  “Actually, I am,” Bodey said and sounded serious. Jake knew the systems’ engineer like his brother and Bodey was rarely serious.

  “Everything all right?”

  “I think we have a problem, Jake. I need to come down there and inspect the system.”

  Bodey was a computer expert working for CRAY, the company responsible for all the computing power behind ANDEE. Not only did he know the system backwards and forwards, he had been extremely helpful when major breakthroughs with ANDEE had taken place six years ago. He had also been shot, twice, the night everything went wrong as the terrorist Qayum Omar made all their lives a living hell. Bodey had been in town then helping Jake with ANDEE.

  “What’s going on?”

  “Are you working with ANDEE today?”

  “She’s up and running now, playing back some recordings of a patient from the other day.”

  “Shut her down.”

  “Bodey, what’s going on?”

  “I’m pretty sure we’ve been hacked.”

  “We?”

  “CRAY Systems and ANDEE. I just found it today.”

  “When?”

  “Over a year ago.”

  Jake stood. “What? And you’re just telling me.”

  “I just found it,” Bodey repeated. “Whoever this is, they’re very good.”

  “If it’s been that long, do we really need to panic?”

  “I’m not panicking, but the system is still being monitored by whoever hacked it.”

  “Is the government spying on us again?”

  “I think this is worse. I’ve traced it to somewhere in Wyoming, but they must have detected my snooping because it clamped shut like a clam and I haven’t been able to pick it up again.”

  “All right, I’m shutting down. How long do I keep her off line?”

  “’Till I get there tomorrow.”

  “You’re coming tomorrow? Sweet! Maddy and the kids will be excited.”

  Bodey chuckled. “I am awesome. Tell them I can’t wait to see them too.”

  “This isn’t like you.”

  “I know. Whoever this is, they’re very good and it gets my panties in a wad. I don’t like it when hackers are better than me.”

  “Nobody’s better than you.”

  “Yeah—that’s what I thought too. By the way, who is the voice that answered the phone?”

  “That’s my new assistant. Her name is Winslow.”

  “She sounds sweet. Do I need to dress up?”

  Jake laughed. “Wear your best t-shirt my friend. I don’t think it will matter. You guys will get along great. She’s a lot like you.”

  “Cool. I’ll be there tomorrow. Don’t forget to pick me up.”

  “Wait! I don’t even know what time or flight.”

  Bodey told him and they hung up.

  “Who’s Bodey Jenson?” Winslow asked and Jake told her. “Is this the guy who was shot, too, when you were injured?”

  “Yes. Bodey and I go way back. He’s one of my closest friends. You’ll like him. He’s kind of right up your alley.”

  “He likes unicorns?”

  “You like unicorns?”

  “Only little ones. The full grown ones are hard to take care of.”

  “I learn something new about you every day,” Jake said.

  “I’m entertaining.”

  He nodded and then set about the process of shutting ANDEE down.

  Chapter 15

  Colorado Springs, Colorado

  Lucky handed Ginny her two shots, then he slid in across from her, squeezing into the small booth. He was tall and the space left little room for his legs so he squirmed sideways and let them stick out from under the table. The Blue Boot was humming tonight and the jukebox was cranking out the music.

  “Comfortable?” she asked.

  “No. You?”

  She shook her head.

  “Then let’s drink. I’m sure things will improve.” He slammed his first tequila down and watched her do the same. She grinned at him.

  “Is this where you always come for drinks?” she asked.

  “Nope. Never been. I thought you would feel more comfortable here. It’s a gay bar.”

  She opened her mouth, shocked, and then smiled as she looked around. “Bullshit! Too many rednecks in here.”

  “Rednecks can be gay. Don’t be so prejudiced.”

  “In my experience, if you’re a redneck and you’re gay, you don’t hang out in a gay bar. This is not a gay bar.”

  He smiled and saluted her with his second tequila shot. “All right, you found me out. My old roommate owns this place and I get drinks for free.”

  “Now, that I would believe.” She picked up her second shot and saluted him with it, then drank it in one smooth swallow. He did the same.

  “Are you sure you want to get tequila drunk?” she asked. “You may not like it when I get naked in front of all these people.”

  “That’s what I’m hoping for,” he said.

  She made an exaggerated shocked face and said, “I was kidding.”

  “We’ll see.”

  “If you think I’m going to get naked in front of these cowboys, you’re crazy.”

  “What if I do?”

  “I’d run for the door.”

  “You’d leave me hanging and exposed?”

  She nodded. “I prefer my naked men in a little more intimate setting.”

  “Or women?”

  “Or women,” she said and smiled. “You seem a little uncomfortable with that. You keep bringing it up.”

  He looked into his empty shot glass and then looked up. “Another round?”

  “Lucky. Do I make you uncomfortable?”

  “I wouldn’t be here if you made me uncomfortable.”

  “I thought you were here to prove me wrong. You don’t have to be comfortable for that.”

  “I am.” He paused. “And to get to know you better. I told you I wanted to hear more about Pam.”

  She looked at him for a minute and neither looked away. She had a small smile on her lips and he was having a hard time reading her. “Go get us another round and I’ll tell you more.”

  He nodded and got up. At the bar, Tim, his old roommate saw him and hurried over, grinning.

  “Lucky. You son of a bitch. How are you?”

  “Good, Tim. Great. Business seems to be booming for you.”

  “I can’t complain.” He leaned in close. “These cowboys sure can drink and as long as there are pretty la
dies to entertain them, they keep coming in. That’s why every night is ladies’ night here.” He winked.

  “Tracy already set me up with a round.” Lucky pointed to the girl behind the bar. She was Tim’s fiancée.

  “Anything you need. Anything. It’s on the house as always.”

  “I can pay. I do have a job.”

  “Not for the man who saved my life and introduced me to my future wife. As long as I own this bar, you’ll never have to pay, my friend.”

  Lucky turned away embarrassed and looked at the crowd.

  “Here by yourself?” Tim asked.

  He shook his head. “I’m here with a lesbian named Ginny.”

  Tim shook his head and laughed. “Do I even want to know?”

  “She’s hot. And I like her.”

  “Whatever you need, my brother. She’ll be a heartbreaker.”

  “Probably, but you haven’t seen her.”

  Tim craned his neck around, trying to pick her out.

  Lucky nodded to the booth and Tim whistled. “Damn! Why are the hot ones always rooting for the other team?”

  “Probably because most of the home team can be a bunch of assholes. She went through a nasty divorce.”

  “You seem to know a lot about her.”

  “We work together.”

  Tim nodded. “So what will it be? Don’t leave her alone too long. One of these rednecks will end up in your seat.”

  “Four shots of tequila.”

  “Coming up.”

  Lucky carried the four shots back to the booth and found a cowboy staggering over to Ginny, maneuvering to the empty side of the booth.

  “Mine,” Lucky said, and slid into the booth where the man almost sat in Lucky’s lap.

  “Damn, boy. Where’d you come from?”

  “Thanks for looking out for her,” Lucky said and smiled. “Get you a beer?”

  The man didn’t know how to take this and he stood there swaying for a minute in his boots. “Sure.”

  “Go to the bar and ask for Tim. He’s the owner. Tell him Lucky said to give you a beer on me.”

  “Right,” the cowboy said, eyeing Ginny and looking as if he thought he was being conned. “Sure thing.” He turned and walked away in the direction of the bathroom.

  “Bar’s that way,” Lucky yelled after him, but the man just waved him off and didn’t even turn around.