“I don’t even have a mistress,” Michael said.
“Get one,” Kevin said
“Who? Tara?”
“I’m not the mistress type,” Tara said indignantly.
“I was just being sarcastic,” Michael said. “You’re the sister I never had type.”
“Just so you know that… Brother!”
“How about that Marie from first class?” Kevin said. “She is good looking.”
“You’re joking,” Michael said. “She’s a snobby stuck up bitch, so’s her mother.”
The door buzzer sounded.
“Two thousand years,” Michael said, “and they still have door buzzers.”
“This is tourist class,” Kevin said. “In first they have a computer system like a house computer.”
Tara opened the door. An autoserve stood with a shelf full of packages. “Delivery for Michael Young,” It said.
Kevin and Tara grabbed the packages and pulled them inside.
“Thank you,” Michael called as the door shut.
Kevin burst out laughing. “I heard it was a Casian habit to say ‘thank you’ to machines, but this’s the first time I’ve actually witnessed it.”
“Well they’re so helpful and nice I can’t help it.”
Tara shoved one of the packages into Michael’s arms. “Here, open this one first,” she said.
“You do know the 3V comedians make jokes about Casians talking to autoserves,” Kevin said. “The last one I heard was…. Whoa!” Kevin exclaimed as Michael pulled an elegant light brown leisure suit from the package. “Is that top class or what?”
“Wow,” Tara said. “That looks like it walked straight out of Miguel’s of Gato. Put it on, now.”
“I’ll go into the bathroom,” Michael said.
“No,” Tara said. “Put it on here. I’ve seen you in a bathing suit. What’s the difference between that and underwear?”
Michael started to undress.
“Will you wear that to dinner?” Tara said.
“I’ll have to see the other two first.”
“The boy from tourist going to dine with the upper class on a luxury space liner,” Kevin said.
“And dining with a good looking girl from first class,” Tara said. “How romantic. That’s like that movie from your father’s collection where the ship sinks. What was it called?”
“Titanic,” Michael said. “And there’s two big differences in the plot. Correction, three differences. First, I’m not poor, my family is richer than most of the people in first class. Second, she’s a snobby stuck up bitch I really don’t want to be with. Third, there’s no icebergs in space.”
“Comets are mostly ice,” Tara said.
“The ship hits a comet-berg,” Kevin laughed.
“And you save her life by giving her the only spacesuit left,” Tara said. “That leaves you to die gallantly in the cold of space. How romantic.”
“Very funny,” Michael said.
“Well the least you could do is lure her down to the cargo hold and take her cloths off like in the movie,” Kevin said.
“I don’t undress snobby stuck up bitches,” Michael said.
“Then let me do it,” Kevin said. “Take her to a really dark cargo hold. I’ll be waiting there. You slip out and I’ll pretend I’m you. She won’t notice in the dark.”
“So,” Tara said. “When the space ship hits the comet-berg you can be the one who saves her life by sacrificing yourself and dying in the cold of space.”
“I wouldn’t go that far,” Kevin said.
“Hey,” Tara said. “That outfit looks even better with you in it.”
Michael turned and reached for his duffle bag. “It needs a belt.” He opened the bag and reached in. “Just a second. Something’s missing.”
Tara waved one of the packages at him. “This feels like it has belts in it.”
“No, no,” Michael said in a near panic as he dumped the content of the duffle on the floor. “That Time Stone souvenir, it’s gone.”
“What about the 3V viewer?” Kevin said.
“It’s gone too.”
Tara fell to her knees and started to search Michael’s stuff. “It has to be here somewhere,” she said.
“What’s this?” Kevin said as he grabbed a piece of paper from the pile. “It has writing on it.”
“What does it say?” Tara said.
“It says ‘Gotcha Rich Kid!’”
“Damn,” Michael said. “Doherty’s been in here.”
“How could he?” Kevin said. “These cabins have voice print locking doors.”
“Did someone leave the door open?” Michael said.
“Impossible,” Tara said. “When no one’s in the cabin they close and lock automatically.”
“He got in here somehow,” Michael said frantically. “Now we’ve got to find that Time Stone.”
“The 3V viewer is the thing to find,” Kevin said.
“No, no, no. The Time Stone thing.”
“Come on,” Kevin said. “You’ve been fussing over that cheap piece of junk since you got it. Come clean. If you want us to help you get it back, tell us what it really is.”
Michael paused for a moment, his face taught with anguish. “I’m carrying it for the Secret Service. It’s a powerful new weapon or something. I don’t know exactly what it is, they wouldn’t tell me.”
“Is that the truth?” Tara said.
* * *
Michael and Tara walked briskly down corridor C of deck 2 and stopped short of the lift tubes.
“It just stopped at deck four,” Kevin said from Michael’s pen phone. “I’ll catch the next lift tube down.”
“Are you sure he got on?” Michael replied.
“Yes, I saw him but could not get there in time. Deck two is where his cabin is. He has no friends so why would he stop at another deck?”
Michael looked at the display above the door; it had stopped again at deck three.
“I still say you should tell security about it,” Tara said.
“I told you, I can’t. If I tell the truth they won’t believe me. If I say it’s just a cheap souvenir they’ll wonder why I’m getting so uptight about it.”
“So what’ll you do, beat him up?”
Michael folded his arms as the lift tube door opened. Doherty stepped out then stopped in surprise when he saw who was there waiting.
“My property, if you don’t mind,” Michael said.
Doherty’s face brightened. “Rich kid, I’m honored. Have you been waiting for me long?”
“Give me the pyramid!” Michael demanded.
“Whatcha gonna do if I don’t?” Doherty said. “Beat me up or something? You rich kids are all alike, all talk. What’re you going to do now, call your family security company and have a private detective chase me?”
“No, I always take care of things myself.”
“Hand it over!” Tara yelled.
“Out of my way,” Doherty said and shoved Michael hard against a wall.
Michael sprang at the taller, more muscular boy with fists flying, hitting him in the face several times before he had time to react. Blood flowed from his nose as he staggered back against a wall.
“The pyramid, give it back!” Michael yelled.
“Yack you!” Doherty yelled as he finally punched back knocking Michael against the opposite wall.
Michael launched himself at the boy again with another devastating barrage of punches.
Doherty fell to his knees and Michael stepped back in surprise, he didn’t think it would be so easy. He looked down and saw the boy clutching his groin.
“Give the pyramid back,” Tara yelled. “If you don’t, I’ll kick you in the balls again.”
“Yack you,” the boy said as he spat blood on the deck that was now coming from his mouth as well as his nose. “It’s gone; I shoved it in a garbage chute!”
“A garbage chute?” Michael yelled. “Which one?”
Doherty hesitated un
til Tara pulled her leg back preparing for another kick. “Corridor B, just around the corner, so jump in after it asshole.”
Michael jumped for one of the red emergency buttons on a wall and pressed it. “State the nature of the emergency,” It said.
“A valuable thing just went into a garbage chute. Please don’t flush any garbage into space.” Michael said.
* * *
Michael, Kevin and Tara sat around a table in the office of the ship’s director of security. The shiny black pyramid shaped object sat in the middle of the table.
“I’m afraid to even look at it,” Tara said. “I’m scared that weird rays will jump out and burn my face off.”
“Did they tell you anything at all about what it does?” Kevin said.
“Not a thing,” Michael said. “They just told me it wasn’t dangerous for me to carry. It could be part of something. It’s only a weapon when whatever it is, is assembled.”
“I couldn’t sleep if I knew it was in our cabin,” Tara said.
“I have trouble sleeping,” Michael said.
“Thanks,” Kevin said. “Now you’re going to turn me into an insomniac.”
Michael looked up. “As I told you, not a word about it. Don’t even mention that I have a harmless souvenir in my bag.”
“It’s a military secret,” Kevin said. “My brother’s a crewman on a Commonwealth destroyer. If this thing’ll help win the war and have him come home safe, I’m not saying a word.”
“Who’d believe us,” Tara said. “I can just hear myself saying to my mother: mom, one of my friends at camp was carrying some terrifying new secret military weapon around in his duffle bag. It’s going to stop the war by killing millions of the enemy. Oh yes, he showed it to me and we did play with it a few times.”
Kevin laughed. “Yes, it’d be like sticking a label on yourself that read ‘I’m stark raving nuts’”
The door opened and Mr. Bates, head of security walked into the room. He stopped at the table and placed the portable 3V unit in front of Michael. “We found it in the young man’s cabin,” he said. “He had only stuck that Time Stone souvenir into the garbage chute.”
Michael looked it over. “It seems to be undamaged.”
“I called the Montoya Company and asked for a valuation. We need to know its value in order to figure out the degree of charges to be laid. They said it was a prototype worth over a hundred thousand G, would that be correct?”
Michael nodded.
“Why would you carry such a valuable object?”
“They wanted me to test it, see how rugged it was.”
“Hmm,” Bates said. “One thing that puzzles me is that you seemed more concerned about finding that Time Stone souvenir than you were over a hundred thousand G unit.”
“I thought that he shoved both in the garbage chute together. If we found this, the 3V unit would be close by.”
Bates nodded. “Next thing we have to figure out is what to charge him with. He claims it was a prank, not theft for personal gain.”
“It was a prank,” Michael said. “Now I have it back I just want to forget about it.”
“I advise you to do just that because he could press charges of assault. You two did rough him up pretty bad.”
Michael nodded. “That’s what we’ll do, but there’s still the matter of security. How did he get into our room?”
“He’s not saying, and we can’t legally force him to. He was definitely in there. His trace DNA was all over the place.”
“So, what do I do for security now?” Michael said.
“I’ll put it to you again. The company offered you a complementary upgrade to a state room, please take it.”
Michael gave a cheeky smile. “I understand there’s a four bedroom suite available. How about three upgrades?”
“I don’t know if the company would go for that.”
“Too bad,” Michael said. “I just hope it doesn’t get out to the media that a kid broke into a secure cabin on this ship and stole a hundred thousand Gs worth of stuff. It wouldn’t be good for the company image.”
“Someone got into our cabin?” Tara said, obviously over acting. “We were assured we were secure. I feel so violated.”
“Uh…” Baits said. “I’ll see what I can do.”
“And complementary outfits,” Michael said. “They can’t wander around first class dressed like that.”
Chapter 16
“Ho Colin, Deckett,” came the voice from outside.
“Ho Deckett, Colin,” Colin said as he approached the door.
“Hold on Col,” Yuri said, “Deckett doesn’t usually come to call on us. It’s always Farren.
“Be there in a minute,” Colin said. “Ida, did you catch his voice on the recorder?”
“In a what?” Deckett said.
Ida jumped to the consol. “Faint, but I got it. Analyzing now.” Ida scanned the data. “Stress, fear, anger.”
“Oh hell,” Colin said. “What’s wrong?”
“Play it cool, Col,” Ken said.
Colin opened the door. His smile was meant to ease whatever tension it was, but it was useless so he decided to put all effort into his voice. “Good to see you Deckett. It’s an honor to be called on by the town director.”
“Come with me,” Deckett said. “There are matters to deal with.”
“A couple of us are not dressed, will you wait?”
“Yes.”
Colin shut the door.
Ida looked up from the consol. “Extreme hostility.”
“Damn,” Colin said. “Carry laser pistols and stunners, use stunners first and only on my command.”
“The ranger suits are no use,” Yuri said, “may as well be comfortable.”
“It may be something trivial we can talk our way out of,” Colin said, “but, just in case, remember that the liners of our uniforms are meant to dissipate the energy of a laser blast, not stop a spear.”
“Yeah,” Ken said, “and our caps can’t stop a club either.”
Colin opened the door. “We’re ready.”
Deckett turned and walked off snapping his fingers. The Rangers followed.
The street was completely deserted. Deckett walked ahead of them at a fast pace. The Rangers glanced at each other nervously and scanned the houses and alleys for any sign of people.”
“Nice day isn’t it Elder Deckett.” Colin said with no reply. “Not too warm, not too cool.” Still no reply.
They approached the common field. Rounding a house, a mass of people came into view. At one end were three chairs, two were occupied by Bye and Hansel, the third was vacant. Deckett walked to the vacant chair and sat.
“Shit!” Ida exclaimed. “It’s that kid I gave the antivirals to, Jael.”
“The kid with warts?” Colin said.
“Yes.”
Colin looked up to see Jael standing next to his mother Miri. Jael was blindfolded and obviously crying. Farren stood nearby.
The Rangers walked to the front of the chairs and stood. “Be prepared,” Colin whispered.
Bye stood. “We welcomed you in our midst,” he said. “We believed you to be brave and God fearing people. It’s evident that we may have been wrong. We’re of a mind that you have brought evil amongst us.”
“They said it was medicine for warts,” Miri said angrily. “It wasn’t. It gave my son the unholy visions. It was a sorcerer’s potion.”
“How do you know it was their medicine that did it?” Farren said. “It could’ve been something else.”
“There was nothing else!” Miri yelled. “My son’s a good boy. He doesn’t do or say anything that would offend God. Why would Satan punish him with such an affliction?”
“How are his warts?” Colin asked casually.
“That’s not what we’re here to uncover!” Bye said. “We’re here to expose evil!”
“It isn’t evil to cure a boy of warts,” Colin said, “so I’ll ask again, how are his warts?”
&nbs
p; “They’re of no concern,” Miri said. “It’s the evil sorcery that you have brought on him that I’m accusing you of.”
Farren stepped forward. “In that case we have to discover if the medicine they gave Jael was in fact for evil and not for good. On that, I for one, would like to know about the boy’s warts.”
The crowd went silent waiting for a reply.
“Miri,” Bye sighed, “answer the question. I guess we should have everything out in the open.”
“They have… uh… grown smaller in size.”
“How much smaller?” Farren demanded.
“A lot,” Miri replied hesitantly.
Farren became angry. “In that case, why have you brought such accusations against innocent people? Maybe it’s you yourself that has offended God by…”
“Hold on Farren,” Colin interrupted. “A mother’s concern for her child is normal.”
“It’s still not their fault,” Tanni called from the crowd.
Bye turned to the Rangers. “In that case I’ll ask you directly, is it you that has brought about this evil.”
“It’s not evil,” Colin said.
“That’s for us to decide. I’ll ask you again; did you curse this child with the unholy visions? The answer to that is either a yes or a no.”
Colin bowed his head and thought. Should he bluff and lie or tell the truth. He raised his head again and spoke in a loud, clear voice. “Yes.”
Stunned silence fell on the crowd. After a few long seconds Bye spoke. “So, you admit it. You are in league with Satan.”
“No, I’m not in league with Satan or any other diabolical entity for that matter. To us the visions are normal.”
“You call the visions normal?” Bye yelled. “You call evil a normal thing to have? You’re not unwillingly controlled by Satan, you are his willing disciples.”
“Do you have Sangustins who are deaf and unable to hear?” Colin asked.
“Yes, it’s known. What has that got to do with the visions?”
“You have an ability that they don’t, which is hearing. Does the difference make hearing evil? Does it make you evil for having something they don’t?”
“The people without hearing don’t live long. They don’t have the ability to keep themselves from harm. Look around you. How could we be living if we were missing a natural ability?”
Victim of Circumstance (The Time Stone Trilogy Book 3) Page 20