When they first arrived, it had been hard to convince the police that Vaz was a victim rather than a perpetrator.
After all, when the police had arrived at the house they found Vaz with the Glock 9mm. Stivitz, Jason, Mike and Chuck were all bound hand and foot with cable ties. Jerrod and Davis lay unconscious. All but Mike had had to be taken to the hospital for evaluation.
They’d cuffed Vaz and held him until the family had been allowed to turn on their AI’s and upload the AV records of their capture back at their own house. The house AI at Jerrod’s safe house gave up records of the Gettnors being bundled into the basement. The record continued on up to the point where Tiona put her gum on the lenses. Not surprisingly, none of the men, nor the house AI, were making AV records of the rest of the goings on. In fact the house AI had instructions to delete all but the last thirty minutes of the video from the basement. Though it had been marked for deletion by the computer, it hadn’t actually been recorded over so the police were able to retrieve it.
The whole family had spent time down at the police station giving statements separately, as the police still did when there wasn’t a good AV record. Then this morning the police had been out to ask more questions.
A young policeman asked Lisanne, “Has your husband always been a fighter? We only find the record of his one fight with the guy who intruded into your house.”
Lisanne shook her head wonderingly, “No. He’s always been a geek. I would never have dreamed he would win a fight with anyone.”
“Come on, he’s incredibly muscular, surely you must have suspected.”
Embarrassed to admit he’d gotten into the physical condition he was in without her really noticing she said, “Uh, that’s a fairly new development.”
“But he must spend hours at the gym!”
“I think he exercises in the basement.”
“You think?!”
“Yeah, he’s never exercised in front of me.”
“And when he’s been in fights before, he’s won?”
“I don’t think he’s been in any fights before.” She narrowed her eyes remembering Dante saying something about an MMA fight but didn’t say anything to the policeman.
“Lady,” the man said exasperatedly, “Your husband, by all accounts, last night knocked out three large men with single punches, two of whom have been admitted to the hospital. Two of the other men he fought with are spending time in the hospital getting surgical treatment for their injuries. And you expect us to believe that you didn’t have any idea he was a fighter?”
She shrugged, “I had no idea,” she whispered, stunned by this recitation of the facts.
“So they were after your husband’s fusion technology?” another cop asked. He sounded a little excited.
“Well, yes, that’s what they said, but…”
“But what Ma’am?” he asked frowning slightly.
“Well, I don’t think it actually works,” she almost whispered, even though Vaz wasn’t there to hear her doubting him.
He tilted his head, “Why do you say that?”
Lisanne shrugged helplessly, “Well, everything I’ve read says that low temperature fusion is impossible,” she said quietly.
His eyes narrowed, “We’ve called around… Dr. Smint, his old boss at Querx says it works.”
Lisanne sat back a little, “Really?”
“And so does John Vernor, from General Electric. He says GE will desperately want to license the technology.” He looked at her strangely, “You really should talk to your husband about this stuff.”
Goose bumps skittered over Lisanne.
At lunchtime Lisanne had found Vaz in the kitchen making a pastrami sandwich. “Vaz…” She noticed his right hand was bruised and had a cut on the knuckle. “What happened to your hand?”
“I hit that Jerrod guy without any protection on my hand.”
“Oh,” she’d said, remembering the way Jerrod’s cheekbone had been collapsed inward and that his lip had been split. Lisanne looked Vaz in the eye, “Where did you learn to fight like that?”
Vaz hung his head, “I’m sorry. I took some lessons at a mixed martial arts school. I uh… when I’m uh, angry… or frustrated or whatever… I like to hit things. It makes me less tense. And,” he whispered, “it works even better if I’m in a real fight. I feel great today.” He looked down and saw that he’d started twisting some hairs out of his arm. Dropping his arms exasperatedly to his side, he said, “I’m sorry. I’m kind of a monster.”
Lisanne put her arms around him, snuggling in and pressing herself to his hard physique, thinking how safe he made her feel now that she had seen what he could do. “You are no monster Vaz Gettnor. You protected your family like… like a man should. I’m amazed, and gratified and happy.”
“Oh,” he said musingly, “That’s good.” He took his sandwich and went to sit at the table. Without looking up at her he said, “Querx deposited the first 10% of the back royalties into my account. I transferred nine million into your account.” Keeping his eyes on his plate he said quietly, “I don’t want to go to the Caribbean.”
Lisanne blinked. “Caribbean?”
Vaz hunched down, “Yeah, you know…”
“I… don’t know. What about the Caribbean?”
“You wanted to go, but we didn’t have the money.”
“Oh.”
“So you can go now… but I don’t want to.”
Lisanne sat down across from him thinking hard. He picked up and methodically began consuming his sandwich. Her eyes widened. Then narrowed, “Wait a minute. Where did the money for all that expensive lab equipment in the basement come from?”
Vaz paused in mid chew, looking like a boy caught with a hand in the cookie jar, but said nothing. His eyes flicked to her, back to his plate, back up to her, then down to stay on his plate.
“If Querx owes you for underpayment of royalties, they must have been paying you some royalties all along… and I’ve never seen that money, have I? Where’s it been?”
Mouth full Vaz mumbled, “In a separate account.”
“And that’s why you kept saying we had the money to send the kids to school?”
Vaz nodded.
“And that’s the money you spent on the basement?”
He nodded again.
Lisanne frowned at him, thinking back over her months of anxiety about Vaz and money. As neutrally as possible she asked, “And… have you been hiding that money for fear I’d want us to go to the Caribbean?”
Vaz dropped his eyes to the table. He’d learned to look Lisanne in the eyes but it was really hard when she was mad. He nodded minutely, waiting for an explosion.
Suddenly Lisanne saw the funny side of the situation. He heard a snicker that grew slowly into a full blown explosion of laughter. Looking up Vaz saw his beautiful wife, tears streaming out of her eyes, joyful laughter coming from her throat. “Oh Vaz!” she gasped, standing and stepping around the table to sit in his lap. She nuzzled her face into his neck. When she pulled her head back she saw Tiona and Dante uncertainly coming down the stairs.
Tiona hesitantly said, “What’s so funny?”
Lisanne lifted an arm, reaching out to her children, still giggling. As they came into her embrace she hugged them to herself and Vaz. She pulled harder, “Turns out we’re rich! We’ve actually been wealthy for a long time. And your dad has probably just solved the energy crisis, which will bring in a lot more money. You guys don’t have to worry about money for college after all.”
Lisanne shook her head and laughed again, “Just don’t…” she giggled again, “try to get your dad to go to the Caribbean.”
The End
Hope you liked the book!
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Author’s Afterword
This is a comment on the “science” in this science fiction novel. I have always been partial to science fiction that posed a “what if” question. Not everything in the story has to be sci
entifically possible, but you suspend your disbelief regarding one or two things that aren’t thought to be possible. Then you ask, what if something (such as faster than light travel) were possible, how might that change our world?
This story poses several what ifs? First what if someone who is incredibly socially inept is also scientifically brilliant? This actually isn’t all that implausible, the smart but geeky individual is a stereotype after all, but in this story it is at an extreme for both characteristics. Would such a person find love and have a family? Would the children be embarrassed by such a parent, yet perhaps still proud of his/her brilliant accomplishments (if they know about them)?
The second “what if” is of a more scientific nature. What if someone actually did achieve tabletop fusion, something almost every reputable expert believes is impossible? This truly would change our world. Fusion can produce about seven million times as much power per kilogram of fuel as the burning of gasoline. If you could do it you would want to use hydrogen-boron fusion because it would create much less radioactivity than deuterium fusion. What if some combination of previously falsely reported methods of achieving cold fusion (hydrogen in a palladium type matrix and ultrasonically induced cavitation, perhaps?) actually worked? Like the little boy who cried wolf, it would be hard to convince anyone of the validity of your experiment.
The third question is “what if” you needed to defend yourself from bad people with nothing but the dangerous materials that are commonly available in the average home?
As a final note, I’m a sucker for a story where no one really knows, or understands, or can even believe just how accomplished or dangerous a character actually is. I loved the movies Target, True Lies and The Long Kiss Goodnight all of which feature characters like that.
Acknowledgements
I would like to acknowledge the editing and advice of Gail Gilman, Elene Trull, Kerry McIntyre, Kat Lind and Nora Dahners, each of whom significantly improved this story.
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