Habitats

by Laurence Dahners

  Roger said, “We’ll need to provide proprioceptors too.”

  Ell frowned, “Proprioceptors?”

  “Yeah, propriocept C, pem">

  “Oh, yeah. Joint position sensors?”

  “I’ll bet the body uses tendon position and tension sensors too.”

  “OK,” Ell said, “Hire people and companies to do this stuff for us wherever you can so you guys can continue thinking creatively. I’ve got authorization from the board to spend as much as we need on this.” She stood and looked around. To her dismay John’s eyes were shiny with tears. Her eyebrows drew together, “John?”

  He waved dismissively, “Tears of joy my friends, tears of joy.” He croaked and then wiped ineffectually at the tears, “Thanks for what you’re doing, not just for me but for everyone else out there who’s missing a limb.”

  Chapter Five

  Having put their name on the list with the hostess, Vivian and Chardet picked their way into the bar and took two adjoining seats. Vivian wondered for a second whether she’d ever feel comfortable using her newfound wealth to pay off a hostess so that they could be seated immediately. Mentally she shrugged. It certainly would be pointless tonight, she and Char were having a night out to enjoy themselves. Rushing to get a table would be counterproductive to the whole “evening out” endeavor. Besides the Wolfpack were playing tonight and she might be able to keep up with the score if Char didn’t catch her eyes on the screen behind the bar too often. After a glance at the score Vivian said, “So which denizens of this bar should we discuss?”

  Char got a wicked grin on her face, “Let’s talk about the lesbian couple down at the end.”

  “Oh, come on! Those two are absolutely straight, hoping to meet some handsome young men in here tonight.”

  Char extravagantly rolled her eyes, “Not a chance, look at…” she trailed off looking at the people on the other side of Vivian.

  Vivian glanced into the mirror to see what was happening at the barstool on her left. A man handed the young lady next to Vivian something and she and her young man got up. Vivian wondered if the woman was a prostitute. She frowned, but why the guy? Her pimp? The guy who’d given the young lady something didn’t go with her however. Instead, he sat down in the seat next to Vivian! Vivian had felt like she’d been surreptitious, watching the events in the mirror, but the man caught her eye in the mirror and gave her a little wave.

  Vivian’s eyes narrowed. This guy obviously had paid the couple off so he could have the seat. She glanced around, wondering what could be so desirable about the seat. It didn’t seem particularly special other than being next to her. Men just didn’t usually… pursue Vivian. Besides, the fact that she and Chardet were a couple was obvious to most people. That couldn’t be it.

  Quietly the man said, “Hello, Ms. Varka.”

  Vivian felt astonishment wash over her. Was this someone she knew? She looked at him a little more closely. He seemed Middle Eastern. She would swear she’d never seen him before. “Uh, Hello. Do I know you?”

  “No, I’m afraid not. However, I know you very well.”

  Vivian frowned and glanced at Char. Char was watching the conversation suspiciously. Vivian shrugged at her and turned back to the man. “So how do you come to know me?”

  “It’s my business to know you. Your expertise is extremely precious and my employer would desperately like to hire you.”

  Vivian snorted, “You people are getting to have more and more gall all the time. The answer is ‘No,’ just like it would have been if you’d contacted me through email, or calling me at work, or through a head hunter. Nope. I’m happy where I am. I make enough money.”

  The man smiled and held his hands out palms up, “You haven’t heard my offer yet.”

  “Not interested.”

  “Five million dollars a year.”

  “Not interested,” Vivian said, turning back to Char.

  “Ten million.”

  “Go away.”

  The man had ruined the bar for Vivian. He got up and left after a few more minutes. Vivian tried to get back to her snarky discussion of the various denizens of the bar with Char, but her heart wasn’t in it. Fortunately, a few minutes later their AI’s told them the hostess had a table for them.

  After a nice dinner and a few too many glasses of wine, Vivian and Chardet made their unsteady way out to the curb to wait for their car. A large limo pulled up to the curb just as Vivian’s AI said, “Your car’s AI is not responding.”

  A couple of large men crowded the walk behind her, making Vivian and Char step closer to the street. The door of the limo opened and hands reached out for her as something struck her buttock. She felt her muscles all give way and someone behind her lifted her into the outstretched hands of the men inside the limo. Bonelessly Vivian was dragged inside. Dropped into a seat like a sack of potatoes, she saw them dragging Char inside too. The limo door closed. The man from the bar sat across from Vivian. He shrugged apologetically, said, “Sorry,” then reached forward and pulled off the headset of Vivian’s AI. He turned it over and popped the PGR chip out. Another man dropped into the seat next to Vivian and applied cable ties to her wrists and ankles. Her head lolled to the side as the limo pulled away from the curb. It all had taken less than a minute.

  A few minutes passed before Vivian felt her muscle control returning. She worked her mouth and tried a groan. To make sure she could speak she glanced at the man from the bar and said, “Asshole.”

  He shrugge K0"> curb justd unrepentantly, “I tried to negotiate.”

  Vivian spoke her emergency activation signal, “Hamlet.” She hated Shakespeare so the chance of her accidentally setting off her emergency alert by saying “Hamlet” had seemed miniscule.

  The man tilted his head quizzically, “What?”

  Vivian worked her mouth and said, “I mean dammit!” To her relief she heard her AI speak in her ear. “Message received. Have contacted the police, D5R security, and Ell Donsaii.”

  Vivian felt surprised. She hadn’t thought Donsaii was on the list of contacts… But, on reflection… she was very glad. “Who are you?”

  “Call me Abe.”

  ***

  Lying in bed, Ell had been scanning through audio-video snippets from Tau Ceti Three that had been marked “interesting” by whoever had viewed them originally. Her AI Allan spoke in her ear. “Vivian Varka has been abducted. She has activated our emergency procedure via her implanted port. Per her request when the implant was placed, its activation has released the AV archive from her AI to us. Your security team and the police have also been notified.”

  Ell had her jeans on and was pulling on a shirt, “Do we know her location?”

  “Yes, at present she is proceeding east on I-40 at typical highway speeds.”

  Ell snatched her “emergency” backpack and flew down the stairs, “We’ll follow her. Power up the car and connect me to Steve.”

  As Ell dropped into the driver’s seat of her car, Steve’s voice came through her earpiece, “Let me get back to you. I have the police on the line.”

  “OK Steve. Allan, have this car follow Vivian. Let me see the last 10 minutes of her audio video record prior to her call.” Ell leaned back in the seat to look up at her HUD. Vivian and her friend Char appeared to be leaving Maggiano’s restaurant. “Speed up to 4X.” The viewpoint of Vivian’s camera wiggled rapidly through the restaurant and out to the sidewalk. There was a squeak of high speed sound and Ell got Allan to play that segment back at normal speed.

  “Your car’s AI is not responding,” it said in what Ell assumed to be the voice of Vivian’s AI.

  Ell said, “Are we able to contact Vivian’s car?”

  Allan responded, “No, it’s off line.”

  Ell went back to watching the audio-video record. Vivian’s sudden collapse into the limo gave Ell a flashback to her own kidnapping several years ago. Once Vivian had been stabilized in a seat Ell tried to see if she could recognize the people in the car with her
. None of them looked familiar however. “Allan, are any of these people in the D5R database?”

  “No, however, I must point out that all of them are wearing some form of facial disguise to change Kse >

  “Oh.” Ell narrowed her eyes as she tried to pick out the various silicone prosthetics they must be wearing. She wondered if she could help the AI in determining what they might look like without the devices but concluded that they were made up well enough that she wouldn’t be much help. “Search Vivian’s record for any earlier encounters with any of those men.”

  A moment later Ell watched Vivian’s encounter with “Abe” in the bar at Maggiano’s. Someone wanted Vivian badly enough to offer her large sums of money and then abduct her when she didn’t agree. Someone with numerous accomplices and with the capabilities to carry out an abduction in a very polished fashion. Professionals.

  Ell worried about what it meant. Allan said, “Mr. Jacobs is ready to talk to you now.”

  “Put him on. Hi Steve, what have you found out?” Ell took the wheel and ordered her car’s AI to disconnect itself from control of her car. She accelerated far above the speed limit.

  “Hi, you probably already know that Vivian is in a vehicle heading east on I-40 at highway speed. Presumably, said vehicle is the limousine that she was initially abducted in. The police are aware and have dispatched unmarked vehicles to approach the limo but not to try to stop it as yet. The three members of your security team that were there at your house are following you. I and the three members of the ‘ready team’ are also on our way.” He sighed, “I don’t suppose there’s any chance I can talk you into slowing down, dropping back and waiting for the team you hired for this kind of stuff to help the police take care of this?”

  “Yeah,” she sighed, “no doubt that would be the smart thing to do. But if there’s any chance that some of my, uh, special abilities might make a difference for Vivian… I… couldn’t live with myself if I wasn’t there. I already feel bad enough about John.”

  Steve sighed again, “OK, I see you’re exceeding the speed limit. I must point out that if you’re stopped by the police rather than just being sent a speeding autosummons, they will delay you enough that you will have no chance of catching Vivian.”

  “Yeah, but if I don’t speed there’s no chance that I’ll catch up to her either, I’ve got to take the chance.”

  “OK, I’m sending Randy ahead of you to spring any speed traps. I assume you’ll support his legal defense if they arrest him?”

  “Oh. Of course. Tell him to be careful.”

  “He will. He’s had extensive training in high speed driving.”

  “Now, let’s talk about what’s going to go down. The police are planning to put up a road block out in the country beyond Raleigh, at the end of a long stretch between off ramps so there won’t be any egress from I-40. They’ll appear to be checking all cars but will really only be interested in the limo. They plan to have enough men at that site to control the situation.”n>

  Ell frowned in concentration. “That sounds pretty foolproof, but looking at the A-V from Vivian’s abduction, the team that took her looked pretty professional to me. What did you think?”

  Steve sighed again, “I agree, but there’s a limit to what professionalism can buy you when the other guy has all the cards. We know exactly where Vivian is, they don’t know that we’re aware she’s been abducted. We have the police on our side whereas they are outlaws. The police can choose the location of the encounter so that it’s at a site where the limo won’t have any egress.”

  “I hope this works.”

  “Me too.”

  ***

  “Sir,” one of the men in the front said, “the lead car reports a police road block up ahead. They appear to be doing a “look-see” check of vehicles.”

  Abe said, “Shit,” glancing at Vivian, then back toward the front. “Take the next exit.”

  “There isn’t an exit between here and there.”

  “Goddammit!” He leaned back and rubbed his eyes a moment. Then he sat back up and looked around at the men with him. “Slow the limo down to just under the speed limit. Tell the truck to catch up to us. Have the lead car leave a weapon in plain sight to get the roadblock cops excited and distracted.” He narrowed his eyes at Vivian then turned to the burly guy next to her, “Cut her loose.” To Vivian he said, “Strip.”

  “Strip?” she asked indignantly.

  The burly guy leaned over and snipped the plasticuffs with a wire cutter.

  “Yeah.” Abe said, “This roadblock is probably just a coincidence, but I’m not taking any chances. We’re going to make sure you don’t have any GPS tracking devices on you.”

  “No! I refuse.”

  He sighed, “Either take ‘em off yourself or Joe’ll Tase you. Then we’ll cut them off. Your choice?”

  Vivian hesitated a moment, then, mortified, she reached for her top button.

  ***

  Ell called Amy, “Hey, sorry to wake you up but Vivian’s been kidnapped.”

  Amy, whose initial reply had sounded sleepy, suddenly sounded completely awake. “Oh, no! Do you need me to man the ‘emergency station’?”

  “Yeah, I’m hoping you can get over there. Hopefully we can handle this without needing any of that stuff, but I’d like for it to be ready.”

  “I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

  Steve spoke in Ell’s ear, “The roadblock has been set up and it shouldn’t be long before traffic starts to jam up there. On GPS, Vivian’s location is approaching the block and the speed of her vehicle is starting to drop. According to our mapping you’re only a mile or so behind them now. Randy is a little way ahead of you at the back of the pack of vehicles that are slowing for the roadblock. Barrett, Mary and Jason aren’t far behind you… What are your plans when the traffic gets jammed up between you and them?”

  “I’ll pull over onto the shoulder and drive the rest of the way up to Vivian.”

  “Come on, Ell! That’s just crazy! First of all, approaching that car all by yourself will give away all we’ve worked for with the roadblock. They’ll see you coming and use Vivian as a hostage instead of a kidnapping victim. There’ll be no chance that the police will be able to just open the door of the limo as if they’re doing a simple inspection, then draw weapons before the kidnappers are able to.”

  Ell didn’t say anything for a moment. Just before Steve was about to check the connection she said. “Okaaay. You’re right. But how are we going to deal with it if the kidnappers have a gun in her side when the cops open the doors for their ‘look.’”

  “I don’t know, but there’s at least a moderate chance they’ll just think it’s a contraband search and won’t be prepared when the cops open the door. If you show up, they’re going to know the jig’s up.”

  “OK, I’ll drive up closer but stop before I look like a threat. I’ll let the cops do their thing.”

  After a couple of minutes traffic had slowed to a crawl so Ell pulled out onto the shoulder. She had Allan plot her position versus Vivian’s on a map on her HUD.

  Ell had just seen the limo in the distance near the roadblock when a large “four wheeler” crew cab type pickup truck with enormous tires pulled out onto the shoulder ahead of her. At first she was surprised and a little miffed that someone else was also illegally using the shoulder she thought of as “hers.”

  But then she watched in horror as the truck stopped beside the limo. Several people leapt out and dragged Vivian, wearing a man’s clothing, across and into the truck. Ell accelerated hard to catch the truck, but she arrived just as it turned, drove down the embankment and right over a fence that it crushed beneath those huge wheels. As she watched it bumped its way out across a field.

  To Ell’s horror a couple of the police officers ran a short distance from the roadblock and began shooting at the truck!

  Ell tried to follow the truck but her Focus “high centered” on the downed fence, leaving her stuck watching the tr
uck disappear into the darkness away from the headlights on the freeway. “Allan are you still tracking Vivian’s position on GPS? Does it say she’s in that truck crossing the field?rossing ˀield?r

  Allan said, “Yes. GPS lock is good. That is her in the truck.”

  “Dammit.” Ell breathed. She got out of the car, telling her AI to connect her to Randy. “Randy put your hand up out the window of the car and wave so I can see you.” A moment later she saw a hand waving over the driver’s window of one of the cars up by the road block. Ell ran that way.

  As Ell dropped, breathing hard, into the seat next to Randy she said, “Steve, make sure the cops know that the kidnappers took Vivian off across the fields in that big four-wheeler type SUV. Ask them to open up the road block except for arresting whoever is still in the limo. We need them to let us through so we can track those guys down.”

  “Yeah,’ Steve said, “I can’t tell the police we want to pursue. We aren’t supposed to be doing their jobs. I can tell them the quarry escaped and they’ll start after them, dropping the road block in the process.”

  “OK but Steve? They fired their weapons after the truck! Is that normal police procedure? Firing at a vehicle that has a hostage?”

  “Really? Shit! I suppose some of the officers got a little too enthusiastic. I’m pretty sure they aren’t supposed to be firing their weapons unless they think there’s a threat to life. They’ll probably have hell to pay at an ‘after action review’ later.”