She stopped talking and sat scuffing a fingernail on the table for several moments. Just as I was about to prompt her to continue, she said in a flat tone, “Connie told me what happened in Leipzig. I couldn’t believe it.”
“Go ahead and believe it. Your Mom and Will saved everybody’s asses that night, Tanya. And the two families they were extracting. Nine civilians. Four adults and five kids.”
Looking up, Tanya snapped, “But she killed a truck load of guards to do it.”
I shrugged. “Maybe not. Nobody stuck around to count bodies. More Stasi in another truck were shooting at them. The car Will tied to their back bumper was shredded.”
“Wait. He did what with the car?”
“They ran ropes through a stack of old tires. Six, as I recall. Tied them together like a tube. They tied the tube to the middle of their back bumper, then they stacked tires on the front seats of another car and tied it to the other end of the bumper tire stack. Two cars with the families went ahead with Connie and Mike. Will and Marie brought up the rear, dragging the other car behind them. The Stasi saw two cars running real close together without lights and chased them. Shot at them, too, of course, but the tires and metal acted like armor. Will figured the ropes would only hold for a few miles in those tight little streets, so they decided to block the street with one of the Stasi trucks. Marie bailed out in a slow turn. She tossed grenades into the lead truck as it passed her and hopped over a low stone wall. When the grenades blew, she cut through an empty building, then ran like hell to get back to Will. They said the rear car looked pretty bad by then. It was full of holes and the trunk lid and back tires were gone. They cut it loose in the middle of a bridge and flattened its front tires, then took off again. Everybody got away clean.”
Tanya just sat there staring for a moment, then she muttered, “Jesus!”
“Yup. Takes a helluva lot of bullets to tear a trunk lid off.”
“That’s not what I meant! I mean… well…”
I sighed, “Never mind. You can’t really wrap your mind around it, ma’am. Not the number of bullets it takes to rip off a trunk lid or the truck grenades or… well, any of it, really. That’s why whatever opinions you may have had or thought you had really don’t mean shit. And those Stasi would have gotten bonuses and weekend passes for killing escapees, so fuck them, too.”
Her gaze narrowed, possibly at my rough language as well as my attitude. I said, “But none of that covers why you’d want to contact me. Still waiting to hear that.”
After a moment, Tanya tapped a fingernail on the table and sighed, “Ed, I didn’t have any intention of contacting you, at first, but I have a friend who collects meteorites. My friend has a friend who’s an astronomer in Arizona and now that astronomer friend has new legs.”
She looked up to me as if expecting a response. I just looked back at her and waited for more.
After a moment, Tanya said, “She went to the Arctic on a flitter to collect meteorites and now she has new legs. I called her, Ed. She said she couldn’t talk about any of it and hung up. She wouldn’t answer the phone again, so I guess she knew who was calling. I looked everywhere I could think of to find out all I could, but all I found were blank walls.”
She paused and allowed me a small grin as she said, “Then I noticed something. Your name, the name of the guy Linda had pulled out of retirement for 3rd World Products. It came up three times about Arctic meteorites. The ones you gave schools had to be certified for display.”
“The donations weren’t done in my name.”
She grinned. “No, but two of the deliveries were recorded, and one even included a note that you refused to remove your cowboy hat while indoors and told her to shut up.”
“That was probably Mrs. Wester, an annoying little woman who should really take a damned good look in the mirror before critting anyone else. She yapped about my hat the whole time I was there.”
Tanya chuckled, then said, “I searched your name and found newspaper articles about your flitter and some of the things you’ve been doing with it. Last week I decided to check you out in person.” With a wry little grin, she added, “Carefully, that is. But apparently not carefully enough.”
I held out a hand to her and said, “On your feet, ma’am. We’ll finish our beers, then you’ll head home.”
Dismayed, she blurted, “But… there’s still…”
“Yeah, yeah. Lots more to talk about. Tell me later. Take your car home while I take my bike home. I’ll come up to Ocala this afternoon and maybe we can figure out how to get around certain laws by dinner time.”
With a sudden huge grin, Tanya asked, “Laws about medical field devices?”
“Yeah, those. I don’t know if we can actually fix Marie, but we can at least try to give it a good shot.”
Tanya almost leapt to her feet, stood trembling and staring at me for a long moment, and then groaned or grunted as she lunged to embrace and kiss me. I held her tight and kissed her back and didn’t bother in the slightest to try to conceal the chubby spike that rose instantly between us.
Something in the nature of her kiss changed. She stepped back a pace, glanced down, and blushed fully as she groaningly muttered, “Oh, my God… I was just… I didn’t…”
I held up a hand and said, “Uh-uh. Don’t say you didn’t mean to do it. First, I’d much rather you did mean it. Second, what the hell else do you think is gonna happen when a woman like you kisses a man like that?” Gesturing to her chair, I added, “And you might as well sit back down, ‘cuz I’m not going back into that clubhouse with a big ol’ hard on.”
She blushed again and tried to look anywhere but at the result of her kiss, but her eyes found it a few times anyway. I turned away and hoped the cool breeze and watching fish would help it go down fairly soon.
Tanya said, “I… I could just start back to Ocala now.”
“Nah. You’ve been here before and you like the place. Leaving alone would invite as much unwelcome curiosity as me walking in with a stiffy. Let’s just give things a few minutes to settle, then finish our beers like normal people.”
She snickered, “Like normal people. Yeah. Good idea.”
After several moments of silently watching fish, I asked, “Can your Mom recognize people? Walk and talk? Can she get around at all?”
When I looked at her, Tanya said, “She seems to know people well enough, but we — the nurses and I — we can’t always tell what she’s trying to say. And we don’t dare let her try to walk without someone ready to catch her.”
“But she tries? On her own, I mean?”
“Yes.”
“Can she write?”
“Sort of. Some letters are readable. Most aren’t. And they change in her mind or something. Like they shift around, I think. It’s hard to explain.”
Discussion like that will dampen horniness fast. Walking around the table, I said, “Ready. Let’s go.”
Tanya’s eyes flicked to my pants, but she got up and we walked back to the porch to find our beers covered with new-looking round coasters. I nodded a ‘thanks’ to the nearby waitress and we sat down.
A few sips later, Tanya quietly asked, “Do you think you’ll be able to help her? I mean, get the Amarans to help? That’s what happened with that woman’s legs, isn’t it?”
“Brains aren’t like legs. Could be all anyone could do is fix the physical damage and hope the rest of the healing follows along somehow.”
“But they’ll try?”
“They won’t break the law, but like I said, maybe there’s some way around the law.”
The waitress dropped by to ask if everything was all right and set about restocking the porch tables.
I took a long sip of my beer and set it down. “That’s it for me. I guess I just don’t feel like drinking right now.”
The waitress looked at us. I said, “It isn’t the beer.”
Playing along, Tanya asked, “You want to go?”
Nodding, I said, “Suits me.”<
br />
Near her car, Tanya said, “I’ll write down my address. Just a minute.”
She took one of her real estate cards out of a jacket pocket and wrote on the back of it. I took it and stuck it in my shirt pocket. Tanya eyed me briefly, then asked, “You’re really coming to Ocala later?”
Grinning, I replied, “Yes, but I can’t prove it right now.”
With apparent reluctance as well as an urge to get herself underway, Tanya stood awkwardly for a moment, then stuck out her hand. As we shook, she said, “Thanks. That’s all. Just thanks. I know there may not be anything anyone can do, but…” She let her sentence end unfinished.
Giving her hand a squeeze, I said, “Whatever anyone might be able to do won’t get done in this parking lot, ma’am.”
She nodded tightly and took her hand back. I headed for my bike as she got into her car. From the driveway entrance Tanya headed north on forty-one and I headed south. There seemed to be an unusual amount of southbound traffic.
Chapter Five
Call me an untrusting soul. I won’t mind too much. As Tanya’s car grew smaller in my rearview mirror, I sent a probe and positioned it a foot behind and above her right shoulder, then locked it there. She was silent for the next couple of miles and drove a few miles over the speed limit, but that’s all. Just north of the route 200 intersection I saw the UH-1 helicopter on permanent display at a VFW hall. The poor old thing still needed repainted.
In the wooded stretch north of Lake Park Drive, Tanya slowed and pulled over until she was well off the road, then just sat there with her hands on the steering wheel for some moments. I heard her draw a deep, shuddering sigh, then she reached into her purse and produced some tissues.
She dabbed at her eyes and nose a few times, then took a deep breath and sighed again. The sigh became sobs and she had a full-blown crying jag for the next two minutes. A car slowed as it passed her and stopped ahead of her. As a guy got out of the car, Tanya noticed him and quickly groped for her cell phone, then held it up and pointed at it. The guy nodded and waved, then got back in his car.
That event seemed to help her settle; she grabbed some fresh tissues and blotted and blew, then put the phone to her right ear and tilted her head back. After some moments of just sitting there, Tanya took another deep breath and dropped her phone into her purse, wiped her eyes and nose again, and got herself back on the road.
After another few miles of silence, I let the probe vanish and gave matters some thought. Did I care why she’d been crying? No, not really. Could have been simple relief or a sense that something — anything — was finally being done.
I could have loaded the bike on the flitter and saved some time, but I didn’t. Can’t say why, other than I didn’t feel there was a good reason to hurry and I enjoy riding the bike. My mind ranged back to Connie and Will. They’d told Tanya about Leipzig. Why? It was a good story that featured Marie, but it wasn’t exactly a story for the public.
Did I want to contact Connie and Will? Maybe later. Way back when I’d depended on them and trusted them, but I’d never really liked them much. Obviously not enough to keep in contact over the years, and apparently they’d felt the same. Same for Marie. I hadn’t particularly enjoyed her company; she’d been too gung-ho and stiff-necked.
Everything had to be a certain way with her. A few times she’d almost gotten us caught with her insistence on sticking to plans that no longer seemed valid. She’d also had highly selective perception. If Mike or I suggested something, it was set on a shelf for vaguely possible future consideration. If we let Connie or Will suggest the idea, it was brilliant and required immediate attention.
In fact, Marie’s unwillingness to listen had been the reason Markham had transferred to Belgium and I’d made runs into Erfurt and Suhl alone. I’d had enough of her intractable attitude. I’d told her to have an old truck we’d been given ready to roll that evening and caught a Stadt bus into town.
When I showed up with our clients, she’d said nothing. During our crossing she said nothing. But once we’d made the drop, she’d raged at me, and then again in Linda’s office. When Linda calmly asked for my version of things, I simply told her we’d aced the run and to never team us up again for any reason. I didn’t ask; I told. Linda knew how I felt about her, so my actually refusing her reorganization of teams was startling enough to get her attention and inspire caution.
But that was then and this was now, and while Marie and I had clashed hard personally back then, she’d been first-class in the field and covered our asses more than once. For that alone she deserved my best effort.
Otherwise, I decided my only interest in the matter was Tanya. Although I lived just down the street, Will and Connie hadn’t notified me when they looked into Marie’s accident. They hadn’t even called me about it, which meant I simply wasn’t in their loop.
Then it occurred to me to wonder if Linda knew. Or was she also no longer in their loop? I sent a ping to her pad and powered past some slower traffic as I waited for a reply.
Nearly a minute later, Linda cheerily answered, “Hi, Ed! Long time! Are you calling to bitch about retirement again?”
“No, milady, not at all. I’ve found bitching never actually accomplishes anything. I’m on the bike in traffic or I’d put up a screen. Have you heard anything about Marie Conner?”
After a brief pause, Linda replied tersely, “She’s in a nursing home due to an accident. Why do you ask?”
“I happened to fix her daughter’s laptop today. She told me what happened to her mom. That was the first I’d heard about it, even though Connie and Will looked into things right after it happened. I was wondering why nobody told me.”
“I can only speak for myself, Ed. I haven’t forgotten the day you refused to ever work with her again. I also know Connie and Will haven’t heard from you since the day they switched to the DEA.”
Uh, huh. That would mean she’d been in contact with them since then.
When I said nothing for a moment, she added, “Ed, if I’d had any reason at all to think you’d care, I’d have told you about Marie.”
I stopped for the first red light into Brooksville as I asked, “How’d you find out about her?”
“Once in, never out. Clark called me the day after it happened. The FBI called him for an update about her activities. On general principles, no other reason.”
“Okay. Just wondered.”
“Crap,” she laughed, “You were feeling left out.”
“That, too, but in conjunction with meeting her daughter… well, you know how I feel about coincidences, ma’am.”
She barked a sharper laugh at that. “Yes, indeed I do. Maybe you’ve finally met a real coincidence nose-to-nose. What are you going to do with it?”
“Mount it on my wall and hope they aren’t going extinct. Ah, hell. Traffic is heavy today. I’ll ring you later, okay?”
“Okay. Oh, wait. We’ll be out this evening.”
“A little later than later, then. Bye, Fearless Leader.”
“Bye, bye, Dragonfly.”
Linda dropped the link and I pulled in at a gas station to tank up, take a leak, and refill my coffee mug. A solid string of cars went through on the green light, then began backing up into a long line when the light turned red. Where the hell were they all coming from and why?
Rather than join that herd, I headed north to Fort Dade Avenue and followed it west while I used my core to check for accidents in the area. Nope. None, but the nose-to-tail traffic continued all the way through town. Maybe the place was just getting too damned crowded. And snowbirds added twenty percent or so to the population in winter.
At the intersection of US-98 I saw that others had the same idea about circumventing the main flow. That was it for me; I had better things to do than waste time and risk my ass in heavy traffic. Pulling off the road, I summoned Galatea, loaded the bike, and headed home.
It occurred to me that Tanya would know my approximate travel time to get home. She’d
still had a smidgen of doubt when she’d headed for Ocala. What would I do in her place? I’d use the laptop and check my camera.
My probe found her in a restaurant parking lot near I-75 and County 200. Her open laptop showed a fuzzy view of the front of my house. I had Tea let me off at the corner of Deltona and rode the bike the long block home. After I put the bike in the garage, I had another look at the probe view of her screen. Yup. The camera had to be at the neighbor’s mailbox and the neighbors weren’t home. Good ‘nuff.
Shouldering my backpack, I bee-lined for the mailbox until the camera could only see me from the waist up. Through the probe, I heard Tanya mutter, “Oh, my God, he has to know it’s there! Oh, hell!” Bending and giving the camera a little wave, I reached under the mailbox and wrenched the camera away from the double-sided tape that held it.
The tiny white camera was slimmer than an inch in thickness, about three inches wide, and about four inches long. It had no apparent audio capability. My probe said the camera was using the neighbor’s WiFi to send its signal. No problem; my laptop detected his system inside my house.
I didn’t hold it in front of me and grin, though that occurred to me. Instead, I let it dangle from my fingers and swing back and forth as I walked back to my driveway, then I put it in a shirt pocket and called Galatea.
Her two-seat emerald version appeared. I stepped aboard and headed for Ocala. A few minutes later I stepped off the flitter a few paces behind Tanya’s car. The probe showed her sipping from a name-brand foam coffee cup. I canceled the probe and walked toward her car.
Tanya’s eyes suddenly locked on her rearview mirror, then her head snapped around. I waved and smiled as I walked to the passenger side door.
Tanya sat staring at me. I fished the camera out of my pocket and said, “Trade you for a ride, lady.”
Her eyes locked on the camera for a moment, then she fumbled at the armrest controls on her door and all the door locks popped. I tried the door handle and it worked, so I got in and handed her the camera.
She blurted, “How the hell did you get here so fast?”
3rd World Products, Book 16 Page 5