Victim of Circumstance (The Time Stone Trilogy Book 3)

by Robert F Hays

  “And a lot of explanation,” Ken chuckled.

  Chapter 24

  “Yack you,” Doherty said. “I don’t give a shit about the war. If people want to go kill each other that’s their concern.”

  “I’m not going to argue with you,” Michael said. “Your stupidity got you into this, deal with it.” The crackling sound of a navigator pulling up outside caught his attention and he turned and walked toward the door. “Just kick back and relax. You might even like it here.”

  “The only problem is, you’re here,” Doherty said to Michael’s back as he exited the door.

  Outside, Michael stood and waited for the navigator’s door to open. He broke into a broad grin as Tara and Kevin got out.

  “Hey Mike,” Kevin said. “My mother almost did back flips when we got the invitation.”

  “Same with my parents,” Tara said. “Invited to spend a couple of weeks with the famous Young family. They said I could go as long as I kept up with 3V school classes.”

  “It may not be that exciting,” Michael sighed. “The invitation was under orders from the Secret Service.”

  “What?” Kevin exclaimed. “They don’t trust us? I haven’t said a word about what went on aboard the space liner.”

  “Neither have I,” Tara said.

  “Remember, there was more than just the two of you who knew about my unwarranted obsession over a cheap souvenir.”

  “Doherty?” Kevin said. “Is he here too?”

  “He got here yesterday.”

  “What the hell did that dumb ass do?” Kevin said.

  “He called a 3V news department, told them of his encounter with me and said there was something suspicious going on about something I had in my possession. He said he’d tell all in an interview if they paid him money.”

  “So now the 3V news knows,” Kevin said. “What a mess.”

  “The news doesn’t know,” Michael said. “The call was intercepted by the Secret Service. He was talking to an agent.”

  “Then they picked him up?” Kevin said.

  “Not at home. They told him to go to the 3V station for the interview and grabbed him just after he got off the bus.”

  “He’s disappeared,” Tara said. “Won’t his parents get worried and call the police?”

  “The Secret Service said no. He’s run off a couple of times before. The last time it was a week before his parents notified the police. They don’t care.”

  “Now you make me feel sorry for him,” Tara said.

  “You’ll get over that,” Michael laughed. “He’s still his old asshole self. Since yesterday I’ve been insulted at least thirty times.”

  “Don’t know what he’s mad at,” Tara said. “This place is beautiful.”

  “Sorry we couldn’t have you at our main house. The Secret Service was worried you might overhear dad talking state secrets with someone.”

  “I love the view of the valley with the river and that huge waterfall in the distance,” Tara said.

  “We named it Alan Falls after my dad’s brother.”

  “And the house looks new,” Tara said.

  “It is new,” Michael chuckled. “They only built it four days ago when we knew you were coming.”

  “I’m honored,” Kevin said. “They built a house just for us?”

  “Feel the walls. They’re still warm from melting the rock to form them. You both said you liked tennis so they put in a tennis court out the back.”

  “Can I move in permanently?” Kevin said.

  Michael smiled and turned toward the house. “Computer, send an autoserve to collect the luggage from the navigator. Bags with a chip for Lundgren to bedroom two, Nash to bedroom three.”

  “Autoserve dispatched,” the house computer replied.

  “Come on,” Michael said and walked to the door. “Come in and say hi to your roomy.”

  “What’s a roomy?” Tara said.

  “Doherty,” Kevin said. “And do we have to?”

  Michael opened the door and entered the spacious, elegantly furnished living room followed by his friends.

  “Oh hell,” Doherty said as he looked up from his position seated on a couch. “If it isn’t dumb and dumber.”

  Kevin laughed. “If we’re dumb and dumber, then you must be dumbest.”

  “Quit the insults,” Michael said. “You all have to get along together, for at least a while.”

  All took seats around the room.

  “A while?” Tara said. “How long is a while?”

  “Somewhere between two weeks and six months. We have to wait until secrets are no longer secret.”

  “So, what’s the big deal about that stupid pyramid thing anyway, is it some sort of weapon?” Doherty said.

  “I can’t say.”

  “So it is a weapon,” Doherty said with a sneer. “I’ve heard the primitive Casian army needs more modern stuff. All they have now is those long tube things you pour explosive chemicals down and a metal ball then push them down with a long stick.”

  “Muzzle loading rifles,” Michael said. “We have a few of them but just for sport.”

  “So, how will they use those pyramid things? Throw them at the enemy and yell bang?”

  “They’re a lot more sophisticated than that,” Michael said. “They have a silencer.”

  “A silencer?” Kevin said. “I saw one of those on an Old Earth movie. The gangster stuck it on the end of a chemical propellant gun so the gun wouldn’t make a sound.”

  “What’re you raving about?” Doherty said.

  “The pyramid has a silencer,” Michael said with a straight face. “You throw it at the enemy and don’t yell bang.”

  Doherty sat staring at Michael while the others started to laugh. “Yack you!” he said after a long pause.

  “I knew he’d have an intellectual comeback,” Kevin laughed.

  “There’ll be one main rule here,” Michael said. “With regards to those pyramids, don’t ask questions.”

  * * *

  “There’s the caves,” Michael said as the navigator slowed to a stop. “Doors open.”

  “Big deal,” Doherty said.

  “If you’re so bored then why did you come along?” Tara said.

  “Anything’s better than sitting around that house and listen to you two play tennis.”

  “We’re not there right now,” Kevin said. “You could’ve had the entire house to yourself.”

  “What, and sit all day watching 3V?”

  “What do you want to do?” Michael said.

  “Go home to Novosibirsk. Play basketball with my friends at the Tesla club.”

  “You should’ve said something,” Michael said. “I’ll ask if we can have a basketball court put in at the house.”

  “Damn rich kid. Whatever you want, you get.”

  “I don’t like basketball,” Michael chuckled. “They’d be building it for you.”

  “You’re a member of the Tesla club?” Kevin said.

  “Yes!” Doherty snapped. “Every year I ask to go to one of their camps, but my parents don’t have the money. I’m stuck with a government sponsored adventure camp.”

  “What’s the Tesla club?” Michael said.

  “An organization for junior physicists,” Kevin said. “You have to have an IQ in the top two percent and straight As in physics subjects at school.”

  Michael started to laugh. “So, how did you get past the electronic locks and break into our room on the space liner?”

  “That’s for me to know.”

  “And where did you get that land navigation device you used to cheat during the camp?” Kevin said.

  “Parts from an old 3V and the unit from a sonic oven they had in a storeroom.”

  “If you’re that smart, how come you got caught?” Tara said.

  “To be in the Tesla club you have to be intelligent, not smart,” Kevin laughed.

  “Yack you,” Doherty said.

  “Come on,” Michael said. “The wind�
�s in the right direction now. If we wait any longer it may change and the moaning caves won’t moan.”

  “I just came for the ride,” Doherty said. “I’ll stay here. I really have no interests in caves that suffer from manic depression.”

  The threesome jumped out of the navigator and headed for the largest of the three caves in front of them.

  “They’re lava caves,” Michael said. “There’re tubes and openings on top of the mountain. The wind down the tubes makes them sound like a weird musical instrument.”

  Just inside the entrance, all heard a two tone groaning sound from deep in the cave.

  “Wow,” Tara said. “You were right. It sure sounds spooky.”

  “Imagine a primitive people hearing that,” Kevin said. “If they didn’t know about the physics of wind and sound they’d think it was spirits or something supernatural.”

  The groaning sound increased in volume then decreased.

  “Yep,” Michael said. “They’d probably turn this place into some sort of temple to communicate with the spirit world.”

  “Oh spirits of the cave!” Kevin called into the dark. “Tell us the future! Will Tara’s tits actually grow bigger?”

  “Would you shut up,” Tara said.

  The groaning sound increased and continued.

  “Was that a yes or no?” Michael laughed.

  “Enough, enough,” Tara said. “What’s next on the tour?”

  “Twin Hills,” Michael said. “There’s a great view of the coast from the top of one.”

  “Twin Hills?” Kevin said. “Do they look like Tara’s tits?”

  “Yep, sort of flat and uninteresting.”

  “One more word on that subject and I’m walking back to the house,” Tara said.

  They turned and walked out of the cave.

  “Hell,” Michael said. “Where’s the navigator?”

  “There’s only one thing that could’ve happened to it,” Kevin said.

  Michael grabbed for his pen phone. “Halbert,” he called into it. “Doherty just took off with the navigator.”

  “I’ll send another to pick you up,” said Halbert’s voice from the phone. “I’ve got a lock on your location.”

  * * *

  “What a dumb ass,” Kevin said. “He goes straight to the most obvious place we’d think he’d go.”

  Michael turned to look at the passing scenery. “He’s just so preoccupied with his own field of interest he doesn’t think things out. A friend of my father is the same way.”

  “That could be why he’s so antagonistic,” Tara said. “He has his own talents but keeps getting shoved into situations where he can’t use them.”

  “I’ve got an idea,” Michael said and raised his pen phone. “Message to Levin Simmons. Levin, please meet us at the house parking lot as soon as possible. End message.”

  “Who’s Levin Simmons?” Kevin said.

  “He’s a technician that works for Dr. Redmond. He has an IQ so high only dogs can hear, but no sense of humor what so ever.”

  “Something to do with those pyramids?” Kevin said. “What’s he doing here?”

  “They have a lab up north.”

  “They’re working on that weapon?” Kevin said.

  “Look, I told you when you first got here, don’t ask questions,” Michael said. “You’re already up to your ears.”

  “How much further can we get?” Kevin said.

  “The parking lot’s coming up,” Michael said.

  The household parking lot was a broad expanse of vehicles. One section devoted to off grid navigators similar to the one they were in. In a second section were stratos and a third had three space shuttles.

  “He was trying to get into my brother’s space shuttle,” Michael said.

  Four figures were next to a shuttle, three standing and one sitting on the ground.

  “One of them’s that Halbert guy that met us at the space port,” Tara said. “Who’re those other two? They look tough like 3V gangsters.”

  “They’re Frank and Hershel, dad’s Secret Service bodyguards.”

  “You were right about us being up to our ears,” Kevin said.

  “What the hell is this?” Frank yelled as their navigator door opened. “First we chase you and your father all over the city! Now we’re chasing your friends all over the island!”

  “I told you where we thought he’d go,” Michael said. “It’s obvious he was trying to get off this planet.”

  “How?” Frank said. “There’s no other inhabited planet in this system. On a shuttle it’d take him a hundred years to get to the nearest inhabited planet.”

  Michael looked down at Doherty. “How were you going to do it?”

  “That’s for me to know.”

  “That won’t happen,” Halbert said.

  “Is this him?” Chris said as he walked up. In his hands he carried a rectangular block shaped object with visible attachments and a pistol grip underneath. On the front of it was mounted a miniature Time Stone.

  “Is that the weapon?” Tara cried in a panicky voice. “Are you going to vaporize him?”

  “No,” Michael said. “If he doesn’t cooperate, we’ll imprison him in a jail he can’t use his knowledge to escape from.”

  “I’ll get out,” Doherty said.

  “You won’t have the time,” Michael said. “We can’t have you running around telling the media about anything.”

  “I wasn’t going to tell them about that damn rock. I was going to tell the news about that 3V unit you had that can play without a room. There’s been nothing mentioned about it on the news. I need the money. I’m saving up for university courses I want to take.”

  “How can we believe you?” Michael said. “You said you didn’t care who won the war.”

  “I just said that to piss you off.”

  “So what can we do to convince you to cooperate and stay here?”

  “Kiss my ass!”

  “I will if you cooperate,” Michael said. “It’s that important.”

  Frank pulled a device from his pocket and glanced at it. “He’s been telling the truth,” he said.

  “Are you using a voice stress analyzer?” Doherty said. “That’s illegal. You have to have the person’s permission.”

  “War powers act, sonny,” Frank said. “And we’re Secret Service.”

  A navigator pulled up, the door opened and Levin stepped out. “Michael, you said you needed me… Uh…. It sounded important.”

  “Levin Simmons, meet David Doherty,” Michael said.

  “Uh…” Doherty said. “Levin Simmons, the author of the paper ‘the affects of a radian field on polished metal surfaces’?”

  “Yes, uh… That’s the one I did for my second doctorate.”

  “Wow!” Doherty said.

  “Uh… I didn’t actually write the paper, I dictated it to an assistant and he wrote it.”

  “You’ve written books but I can’t afford to download them.”

  “Uh… I’ll give them to you if you like. I also have quite a library I could upload to you.”

  “David here is bored,” Michael said. “Do you have some work he could do? He’s a member of the Tesla club.”

  “Well… uh… he can not be in the top secret section of the lab without a clearance, but I do have a couple of other projects and I am authorized another assistant.”

  “Paid?” Michael said.

  “Of course. I’ve taken on a number of paid apprentices before. All were members of the Tesla club.”

  “I… uh… well… uh…” Doherty stuttered.

  Michael turned to his two companions. “I think we just kissed his ass.”

  Chapter 25

  “Got it,” Yuri said as he approached Colin and Edward. “That last video player was set to run the Italian language sound tracks. They couldn’t switch them to English because the remote control was dead and it had touch controls so they couldn’t feel the buttons.”

  “How did they run al
l the technical and educational videos,” Colin said.

  “Those, and Bugs Bunny, only have one sound track, English.”

  “That’s why we all learn English,” Edward said. “We have very little in Tagalog or Cebuano.”

  “You have more than exists in the rest of the galaxy,” Colin said. “To us, they’re lost languages.”

  “We have more video players now?” Edward said.

  “Just more to sell to museums and collectors,” Colin chuckled. “The Commonwealth Department of Education’ll ship you modern ones when it’s safe to do so.”

  “Did you find out what that one computer system is for?” Edward said. “It was passed down to us that it was essential that we keep it running but we weren’t told what it did.”

  “Ken’s still working on it,” Yuri said. “He’s very excited about whatever it is. When I asked him what he found he told me to yack off, he was busy.”

  “Are you sure?” Hansel said as he approached with a shorter man dressed in a robe. “The verse ‘thou shalt not make an instrument that moves without the power of man, an animal or the wind’ is not in the Bible?”

  “No,” the robed man said. “It’s not in the works of St. Paul. I have them in English, Latin and the original Greek.”

  “Latin? Greek?” Hansel said. “Are they languages?”

  The man laughed. “Yes. I can see we have much to discuss.”

  “Bishop Carlos,” Colin said. “How’s the re-education going?”

  Carlos shook his head. “So much to correct.”

  “Big news!” Ken said as he ran up. “Four more colony ships in space just like the one orbiting Casia.”

  “Our instruments didn’t detect any when we landed.”

  “They’re orbiting another planet in the system. Terraforming that planet failed. The automated system here ordered them to hold in orbit until this planet was more advanced.”

  “Was anyone on those ships awake?”

  “Nope. The communications were all done by the automated computers.”

  “Ah ha,” Edward said. “So that’s where the old legends of people still asleep come from. We thought they were here on this planet and have been looking for them for many years.”