Ledman Pickup (All Geeked Up)

by Lichtenberg, Tom

  "That old blue pickup, Colorado 464-CCM" and already she knew. The old man emerging from the driver's side was Patrick Veers, age 74, from Tinsley. He'd stopped at a gas station seventy miles back and used an ATM to withdraw one hundred and twenty dollars, paying a two dollar seventy five cent service fee for the privilege. He was two hundred and fifteen miles from home, returning from a visit to his daughter's house in Santa Fe. He had recently purchased a toy gun, probably intended for his six year old grandson, Stephen. The woman remaining in the passenger seat was his wife of forty-six years, Lily. Lily did not know that Patrick had been married once before, in secret, or so he believed, and had another daughter from that marriage who was living only a few miles from here. Patrick would be surprised to hear of this. He had forgotten about the girl, now woman, long ago. Leonora could easily intervene, and even provide detailed directions to the long-lost daughter's house. Maybe she should tell Lily? It was tempting.

  "The green jeep. Tennessee plates 339-AJX.” The man was Harbin Ellston, 29. The boy was Jasper, 7. The dog was Willie. They'd come a long way. Last scanned in Oklahoma. Arkansas before that. Been on the road for a while. Willie was a shaggy mutt of the large and friendly variety. He trotted past Leonora and gave her a glance before disappearing behind some trees to quietly do his business. On returning he stopped to nuzzle her palm. Instantly she liked him and his big brown eyes. He was wearing a collar from which a sort of pouch was hanging. She wanted to know what was in it, but the boy was already approaching so she didn't have the chance.

  "His name's Willie,” the boy said. "I'm Jasper."

  "My name's Leonora,” she smiled at him. "I like Willie very much. He seems like a very special dog."

  "He's been with me all my life,” Jasper said, now standing beside the dog. She noted the father checking on his location before going into the cement block structure that housed the vending machines. 'If I was a man', Leonora thought, 'he wouldn't leave his child alone with me', and then she knew that the man was feeling guilty. The boy didn't have a mother. They were always on the lookout for one. The mom might be alive, although she must have changed her name. Records about her had discontinued a few years earlier, when she'd moved to Houston. Vanished after that. Nothing scanned. Leonora couldn't pick up a trace. 'Even if I could', she realized, 'it wouldn't do any good. That woman's gone for a reason. She doesn't want to get found. She'd know where they are, for sure. Boy and the father hadn't moved, been in the same house all along back home in Maryville. Father worked at the local high school. Teacher. Must be on leave or something. Maybe had a clue about the mom. Leonora wanted to know and almost started to ask, but the father came back to the car with a couple of cans of soda, gave a whistle, and the boy and the dog ran off to join him. Just as they got settled and he pulled out, the old man and his wife left also.

  'Guess it'll be somebody else', she thought with a shrug. 'No worries', and got up to stretch her legs.

  Eighteen

  As they were walking back to Zoey's car, Kandhi suddenly announced,

  "She's going to Nebraska."

  "Why?" Zoey asked.

  "She thinks she's going to find some Argentine soccer players there, at its 'next drop-off point',” Kandhi shrugged. "Seriously."

  Kandhi pulled out the keys and was about to get into the driver's side when she changed her mind. She opened the door, put the keys down on the seat and said,

  "I changed my mind. You go on home now. Before we get too far. It's for the best,” and started to walk way.

  "Wait!" Zoey called out after her. "I don't understand. I thought you needed my help."

  "I changed my mind,” Kandhi shouted back without turning around. "Just don't mess with your socialnet page, okay? And we'll pay you for an extra week. I'll be in touch,” and with that she was gone back into the restaurant. Zoey stood by the passenger door for several moments without moving. She was still dazed from the lack of sleep, confused from the turn of events, and now even more stunned by Kandhi's sudden departure.

  "Breathe,” she told herself. "Just breathe,” and as she breathed, she began to feel a little more in control once again. She was more than six hundred miles from home. "I'll never make it tonight,” she thought, and then it occurred to her that she didn't have to. She could find a place to spend the night and hit the road again in the morning. Walking around to the other side of the car, she looked up and noticed there was a motel right across the other side of the parking lot.

  "I don't care,” she said to herself, "I don't care if it's the crappiest place in the world. I've had it.” She went straight over to the motel, checked herself in, went right to her room, took a long hot shower and fell asleep the moment she hit the bed.

  Kandhi, in the meantime, was on the sidewalk on the phone with Chris.

  "This is totally fucked up,” she was saying a bit too loudly, but looking around she saw that no one was anywhere nearby. She started walking up the street toward a Soft-E-Freeze.

  "There's something you're not telling me,” she accused him before he had a chance to answer.

  "You'd better fill me in,” he gently prodded. Back in the San Francisco office, Chris was relaxing with his feet on his desk and a Thai iced tea that one of the Ops people brought him. Being point-man for one of the most secretive companies in the universe was a relatively easy job. Chris spent most of his time on the phone, denying speculations. The social-rags were always trying to guess at W.W.A.'s latest gizmos. He had nothing to tell them. He could only deny, deny and deny.

  "I"m guessing it went into playback mode while in transit,” she informed him. "Your stupid geniuses programmed it to bond with its container. It took the fucking idea literally. Why shouldn't it? It's a machine. What does it know about ambivalent English terminology? You meant 'person' but wrote 'container'. Now it's captured that as well. It's not thinking outside the box! It's thinking it IS a box!"

  "I have no idea what you're talking about,” Chris calmly replied. "Where is the device now? Do you have it?"

  "No I don't fucking have it,” she shouted. "Some idiot OPENED the stupid box. Now she's the container! It's using her to get around. Probably capturing her too, AND playing back Zoey Bridges, and being the stupid package as well. This young woman has no idea what has hit her. But there's something else. I know it. It's not just playing back. It's doing stuff. It's posting on Zoey's socialnet and if it can do ‘PUT’ then it can do ‘GET’. What the fuck did your people put in it?"

  "I'll have to check on that,” Chris told her. "Tom was working on it but I know he passed some on to Mike as well."

  "Mike Griggs?" Zoey gasped. "He brought Griggsy in on it?"

  "Yep,” said Chris, "something about 'bonus features' if I remember rightly."

  "BONUS FEATURES?" Kandhi was incensed. "You're not allowed to do that! Not until Testing says OK! Nothing that's not in the spec! This is fucking experimental shit. You know that! Oh for fuck's sake."

  "Take it easy, K,” Chris advised, "It's not really your headache you know."

  "It's my case,” she replied.

  "You want off? You got off,” he told her. "I can bring Ginger in if we need to."

  "Oh no, you don't,” she shouted, "You keep her out of my way."

  "Breathe,” Chris recommended. "Come on, Kandhi, let's work it out. What's our goal here?"

  "Get the fucking thing back,” she snapped. "Now I wish that warehouse geek HAD really gone and smashed it like he wanted."

  "Once again, you're not making sense,” said Chris after another sip. It was rather amazing how good the stuff tasted, like a dessert.

  "It's on the road,” Kandhi explained. "Don't know exactly where of course. Directional fuzzing and no GPS, right? Like our little motto? 'We do tracking. We don't do tracked'. All I know is that it thinks it needs to go to Green Bay, Wisconsin. Don't ask me why but I'm thinking it must have got some kind of overdose of sports talk somewhere along the line."

  "Sports talk,” Chris repeated. "Are you all
right? You don't sound well."

  "I haven't slept,” she admitted, "but I'm okay. I know what I'm doing. I'm on the trail and I'm going to get it back. Just find out what Griggsy stuck in there. I really need to know,” and with that she hung up.

  "I'm going to need another rental,” she realized, and while she had a chocolate raspberry softee swirl she made some calls and got a hold of the sedan she wanted in the first place. The car company even came and picked her up right there on the side of the road. Getting behind the wheel she calculated she could make it to Colorado Springs by nightfall, then dinner and a place to sleep a few hours. She was fired up now. Just the idea of them calling in Ginger! No way!

  Nineteen

  Kandhi was headed north, but didn't get too far before she had an idea.

  "Hey You,” she said aloud, although it wasn't necessary, "try a scan in this corridor for all photo and video streams, looking for a facial recognition match on our little miss Leonora Wells."

  It took just a minute or so, and then the You came up with a green check mark.

  "Leonora sighting, eh?" Kandhi said. "Very nice. Getting off the bus. And not getting back on, eh? So, where is it? Rest stop. Trinidad, Colorado. Checking the map ... very good, right on the route. We'll check it out in person."

  "Next drop-off point,” she added, mimicking the last post on Zoey's socialnet. It was about a four hour drive that took her only three. By the time she pulled into the rest area, she was in need of a rest herself, but after a thorough search of the place she realized she had arrived too late.

  "Five o'clock or so now,” she muttered, "and the capture occurred around one fifteen. Closing in, though. We're closing in.”

  She said this last bit to encourage herself, but she wasn't fooling anyone. There had been no further post so she had no idea where Leonora actually was. If she was still on track towards Grand Island, Nebraska, she might be only a hundred or two miles or so up ahead. 'If she rides all night, we could lose a lot of ground', Kandhi thought with a shrug. She knew that she couldn't do that. 'If only that Zoey hadn't been such a loser', she complained. 'I sure know how to pick 'em I guess'.

  She checked with her You and found a Mega Giant Super Store not far away. There she picked up a new carry-on that fit the latest airline dimensions, a few days’ worth of clothes, a toothbrush and some other sundries she was missing from the old carry-on. Next she headed up the road a few miles and found a dive astoundingly named the Nitey Nite Moo-tel, which had a logo of a pajama-wearing cow. 'Any port in a storm', she thought. She literally could not drive another inch.

  'I need to eat', she reminded herself, but she needed a bath more, and after that, another phone call.

  "Hello Kandhi,” Chris replied when she reached him. "I hope you're taking a break. You know it's nothing that can't wait."

  "Well, I don't know that for sure,” Kandhi retorted, "but I can only do so much. I've got to sleep, so, yes, I'm going to do that and hope she doesn't get too far ahead."

  "You're tracking her, right?" Chris asked, "and if she gets too far, you can always fly."

  "I guess you're right,” she agreed, "but I think I came close today. I found her scanned and got there just a couple of hours too late."

  "Good, good,” said Chris. "I have to ask, though, about your theory."

  "My theory?"

  "Your ‘conscious package’ notion,” he reminded her. "How are you so sure about that?"

  "It fits,” she said. "Look, I found it had hacked the computer at the first drop off, changing itself from Air to Ground. Then it took itself offline down there in Arizona, and every post it makes to Zoey's socialnet is exactly like a shipment tracking log entry. Source, Destination, Start time, Estimated Arrival time, even its same unique bar code id is entered every time. It's been consistent since day one, so there's no way that Leonora is doing it. The thing is reaching out, it's self-scanning. I don't know how else to put it. It seems intent on transit. I think it's using this young woman as a sort of personal delivery system, but I'm not sure that it's happy about it."

  "Happy? An odd way to put it,” Chris interjected.

  "Before, it was always arriving on time. Now, it's not meeting its goal. If it's as serious as I think it is, well, I don't know what it will do."

  "You're losing me again,” Chris said.

  "What I need to know,” Kandhi replied, "Is what you put in that thing? Is it a UPD? Is it all of it? The specs only had it for the new capture/replay but it's obviously got more than that - so what did Griggsy put in there?"

  "Well,” Chris began reluctantly, "I found out a couple of things. First, well, you know, it's got some Partial Binding. That's how it reaches out. It can inject the host with thoughts."

  "I figured that much,” Kandhi sighed. "What else?"

  "Something he calls The Curiosity Factor,” Chris continued, "a new bonus feature."

  "Untested of course,” Kandhi said.

  "Unit tested,” Chris countered, causing Kandhi to snort.

  "As if that means anything,” she nearly shouted. "Developers tooting their own horn, that's all that is."

  "Well, never mind about that,” Chris replied. "This Factor is supposed to make it interested in new things, but there's no telling how interested or in what things. Mike says he only allowed for two entries in its curiosity map."

  “Sports and boxes,” Kandhi instantly thought, but didn't say aloud. "The first two things it became aware of."

  "And that's it?" she asked. "There's nothing else? Are you sure?"

  "Pretty sure,” Chris hedged.

  "It's something at least,” she replied. "Well, I've had it. I can't stay awake another minute. Leave me a note if you find out anything else, okay?"

  "Okay,” Chris promised, "We'll keep in touch. Now get some rest. You've been pushing yourself too hard."

  "Bye,” she replied, and hung up the phone. On the other end, Ginger had been standing next to Chris the entire time. She nodded and said,

  "So you didn't tell her about the Mind Control Plugin?"

  "It seemed enough info for now,” Chris replied.

  Twenty

  Leonora knew she would know when she knew, and she did, the minute that old gray beater pulled into the lot. From the license plate she knew that the driver lived in Grand Island, Nebraska, her next stop, but that wasn't all. The driver, a woman named Sarah Watson, had been driving a long way, all day long. She had stopped for gas twice, the first time around five in the morning, and the second time also for lunch. Leonora was already walking towards her when she wearily climbed out of the car, followed by her livelier nine year old daughter.

  "Excuse me,” Leonora said upon approaching, "I don't mean to bother you, but I'm looking for a ride, and I don't mind driving either."

  "Oh?" Sarah asked, looking suspiciously up at her. She was maybe a foot shorter than Leonora, only inches taller than her daughter, and was always cautious around strangers in general.

  "Where are you headed?" she asked.

  "Grand Island, Nebraska,” Leonora announced with confidence. She knew this was going to resonate with the lady.

  "Really?" Sarah was surprised. "You live there?"

  "It's my next stop,” Leonora answered definitively.

  "We're just stopping to use the rest rooms,” Sarah told her, "and I need some more coffee. We've been on the road all day."

  "Where are you going?” Leonora questioned her, although she already knew the answer.

  "Grand Island, just so happens,” Sarah answered after a pause. Her daughter stood beside her protectively, just in case she was needed. Both were in a hurry to use the potty.

  "Don't let me hold you up,” Leonora said gently. "I can see your daughter needs to go."

  "Okay,” Sarah replied, and they started to move away, when Leonora added,

  "But you might not want to get that coffee. I don't mind driving like I said, and you sure look like you could use some sleep."

  Sarah nodded and the
two went off to the cement block building. Leonora waited by the car, feeling certain she would get the 'ride'. When the two returned, Sarah agreed. She was exhausted.

  "We've been driving from Tucson,” she told Leonora as she got into the passenger seat, and her daughter got in back. "Five hundred miles so far today, and another four hundred to go. I was hoping to be home by midnight."

  "We might just make it,” Leonora said, taking the keys and adjusting her seat. "Or within an hour or so I would guess."

  She pulled the car out of the lot and drove it back onto the highway. Sarah relaxed and even lowered her seat.

  "I haven't slept much lately,” she said as she nodded off.

  "I know what that's like,” Leonora said with a smile, not giving away that she herself hadn't slept in more than forty hours. She didn't feel tired at all. Everything seemed so vivid to her and she had so much to think about it was hard to remember a time when she didn't like to think at all, like the day before yesterday, and every day before that for years and years and years.

  "What's your name?” said a voice from the back seat. Leonora hadn't realized they had all failed to introduce themselves!

  "Leonora,” she said, glancing in the rear view mirror at the girl in the back seat. The girl had very short, very dark hair cut in bangs, wore pink-framed glasses, pink lipstick, and wore a pink sweater.

  "What's yours?" Leonora asked.