“I flew. Didn’t you see my wings? You might want to turn that thing off and save the batteries.”
Glancing at the camera, she opened the case and took out the batteries. Popping the case back together, she dropped it and the batteries into her purse. Her stare returned to me.
“What?” I asked, “I said I’d be here, didn’t I? Let’s park this car at your place…”
She interrupted, “How did you find me?”
As if she hadn’t interrupted, I continued, “…and we can talk about the best way to proceed.”
“What? Proceed with what?”
“The matter of getting around certain laws, remember? Do you have a backpack or a small case?”
“Uh, I have a backpack, yes.”
“Put enough stuff for a couple of days in it on general principles. We might have to do some traveling.”
“Traveling? Where?”
“Nowhere until you get this car moving.”
“I want to know where you’re talking about going.”
“We can ride and talk at the same time, so let’s go.”
Her gaze narrowed, but she set her coffee in the cup holder and turned off her laptop. Without shutting the lid, she started the car and backed us out of the space, then headed for the highway. I closed the laptop and put it in its case.
Tanya glanced at me and asked, “How did you get here so fast? And how did you know where to find me? And how did you know about the camera?”
“I got here by flitter. The rest is my business. Do you know about Robodoc clinics?”
She glanced at me again and nodded. “Yes. They’re illegal or we’d have them here.”
“Yup. It’s also illegal for a US citizen to use one overseas except in an emergency where there’s no other medical facility within reach.”
Taking us north on I-75, she asked, “Why?”
With a dismissive gesture, I said, “Later for all that. Our immediate mission is to get Marie fixed here or to get her to a Robodoc clinic. If you show up with me, someone’ll probably catch on. I’m deciding whether that matters.”
“Will you get in trouble?”
“Oh, without a doubt, ma’am, but that’s not the problem. Certain people know I helped arrange to get three lawyers fixed so they’d join a law firm that exists specifically to fight the anti-med-field laws. They also know I took an astronomer named Joyce out of the country to get her legs fixed.”
In a flat tone, Tanya stated, “You think they’d try to stop us, then.”
“They’d have to if they knew. Any docs or nurses who helped us or didn’t report us could lose their licenses. So could a nursing home.”
Glaring at the world beyond her front bumper, Tanya hissed, “That’s absolutely rancid, Ed!”
“Lots of people agree with that, but rancidity is irrelevant at the moment. We need a way to get Marie out of there or to make treating her here unavoidable and legal. There are a few tiny loopholes in the laws. I figure the ‘crats left them in so they could use them.”
“Crats?”
“Bureaucrats. Politicians in particular.”
“Loopholes? They can use Robodocs?”
“Under the right circumstances, which could be arranged. But although there’s a Robodoc in the Capitol Building clinic, it hasn’t been turned on and they can’t turn it on. It won’t become active until everyone can use it. Same with the other Robodocs in the US.”
Glancing at me, Tanya asked, “Then why have them at all? Couldn’t they use them in another country?”
“I’d call them ‘bait’. Someday one of those high-rank scammers will have a medical emergency within spitting distance of a Robodoc. Without it, he or she will have to hope plain ol’ Earth medicine can save the day. Maybe fear of dying will outweigh lobby pressures. All it takes is a precedent.”
With a shrug, I added, “But all that’s irrelevant, too, right now. Let’s concentrate on how to get Marie treatment. Does she ever go anywhere?”
Shaking her head, Tanya said, “No. Never.”
“Well, then, can that place handle a coronary or would they have to ship her to a hospital?”
Tanya yelped, “A coronary?!”
“Just an example. Anything really serious would do. Could they handle it, or would she have to go to a hospital?”
Taking an exit for County 326, Tanya said, “A woman was sent to an emergency room a couple of months ago.” She turned east on 326 and added, “But I don’t know why they sent her.”
A couple of quiet miles later, Tanya turned north for a few blocks, then pointed ahead at what looked like a mid-range apartment complex and said, “That’s where we’re going.”
Across the street and slightly north from the entrance was a gas station and convenience store. I pointed across her pointing arm and said, “Let’s go there first. Park away from the front doors.”
Tanya gave me an odd look, but steered into the station lot and followed my pointing finger to park us in front of the building in the last slot on the left.
Turning off the engine, she looked at me and asked, “Any more instructions?”
I watched the road behind us and said, “Yeah. Sit there and continue to look gorgeous for a minute. I want to check something before we go any farther.”
“Check what?”
“If they’d send the FBI when you asked a few questions about ancient history, they might also have thought you’d be worth watching. If they’re watching you, they’d want to know every move you make. That would include your visit to Spring Hill and meeting me in Inverness.”
Turning around with a sigh, I said, “All of which means it was too late to be careful before we met. Just a minute.”
I had probes check her car and found a tracker tucked inside her front bumper.
“Come on,” I said, and got out of the car. I waited until she was also out before walking to the front of the car and pointing. “It’s right there, inside the bumper.”
Tanya gave me one of those ‘you must be crazy‘ looks and asked, “What’s right there?”
“A tracker. Hang on a minute.”
Grinning, I showed her my hands as if in a magic act and said, “See? Nothing up my sleeves.”
Keeping my hands on the car as I let myself down and turned to take a peek under the bumper, I saw Tanya hunker beside me, obviously taking pains to avoid having me look up her skirt as she braced herself on the car.
Leaning to look under the bumper, she asked, “What the hell are you doing?”
Feeling around until I found the tracker, I flicked open my belt knife and pried until the little black gadget fell past my face. Handing it to Tanya, I said, “A souvenir, ma’am.”
As I sat up, she asked, “What the hell is it?”
“A tracker. We can smash it, trash it, or have some fun with it.”
Looking up at me, she asked, “Fun?”
Grinning and getting to my feet, I said, “Good choice, ma’am,” and offered her a hand.
She took it and stood up. “I was asking what you meant.”
Noddingly indicating an electrical contractor truck near the front doors, I said, “Then I’ll tell you, milady. See that truck from Gainesville? Let’s go shopping and see if there’s anything we need today.”
The pickup truck had big metal cabinet sides and racks with spools of cable in the back. I flipped the tracker into the back of the truck as we passed it.
Tanya asked, “Won’t that piss someone off?”
Getting the door for her, I replied, “Yeah, but it’ll be somebody who doesn’t care that tracking you might piss you off, so fuck ‘em.”
I bought a Dr. Pepper and Tanya bought a pack of gum, then we went back to her car. The truck had departed while we were in line. As I gallantly opened her driver’s door and she sat down, Tanya seemed rather disturbed. She sat with both hands on the lowest part of the steering wheel and just stared at the center of the wheel.
Going around the car and getting in, I fas
tened my seat belt and asked, “Something on your mind, ma’am?”
After a moment, she looked up and asked, “Why track me? All I did was ask about something that happened before I was born. What the hell have I gotten into?”
I shrugged. “You could have asked about any number of things from way back then that would have rated a visit from the FBI. Since Connie and Will showed up so quickly, they’re probably in some reserve program. Maybe on retainer as instructors, just to keep contacts active and extra money coming in. But I doubt they’d have done any more than file a report to justify time and expenses.”
Sipping my drink, I said, “Somebody read their report, though. Somebody who thoroughly examined every name mentioned for links to any current political footballs. They’d have turned up Linda and me. Linda’s retired. Completely retired, I think. I’m also officially retired, but I’m unofficially on tap for a couple of people at 3rd World. If they tried to sniff that trail, they got a noseful of pepper.”
Tanya gave me a little grin. “Pepper?”
“Yup. Misdirection, fluff, bother, and generous dollops of tail-chasing bullshit. But there’s too much on record outside 3rd World’s control about certain events, and one of them would be Joyce’s new legs.” Leaning slightly toward her, I added in a confidential tone, “They’re very noticeable, you know. Certain people in the government were annoyed with me, ma’am. They prob’ly still don’t like me much.”
Tanya ventured, “So you think your name in a report is what made them put a tracker on my car?”
“Well, I hate to make this all about me, but can you think of any other reason? A better one?”
“No, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t one.”
I chuckled, “Of course, milady. As you say, milady. Now I’m wondering what else you’ve been up to.”
Rolling her eyes, Tanya replied, “Yeah, right. How long are we going to stay here?”
Grinning, I said, “We can leave any time you want, ma’am. They already knew I’m involved. Now they know I know they’re involved.”
With noticeable irritation, she snapped, “Exactly how is that a good thing?”
“Stage magic needs an audience’s rapt attention to achieve the desired effect.”
Chapter Six
Tanya just looked at me for a moment, then shook her head, sighed, and started the car. A few minutes later she parked it again, this time near a block of apartments. She reached for the ignition key, but didn’t turn off the engine as she turned to me and asked, “Why did we come here?”
“As opposed to going where else?”
“The nursing home. Don’t you need to see the place? Don’t you want to see my Mom?”
Trying to look moderately enlightened, I replied, “Ah. No, not yet. First we need to set the stage.”
“Do what?”
“You’ll see.” I opened my door and said, “Come on.”
We got out and she led the way to her apartment. I used a field to sweep the area ahead and found two sound-activated bugs within a yard of the door. Pausing her key-holding hand, I put a finger to my lips, then reached for the nearest bug and dropped it on the concrete.
As I stepped on it and ground it to bits, Tanya’s big-eyed expression followed my motions, then followed my hand as I reached to the eave and pulled down another bug. I put it near the remains of the first one and silently gestured the honor of crushing it to her. She shook her head.
“The soles in these shoes are paper-thin.”
I squashed the bug. Taking the key from her, I opened the door and let my field sweep the place. It found two more bugs; one in the living room and one in the bedroom.
Again placing a finger to my lips, I led Tanya to the one behind one of her bookends. Plucking it free, I carried it by its tiny antenna as I led her to the bedroom and plucked another one from behind her night stand.
I then went to the kitchen, where I half-filled a glass with water and dropped the bugs into the glass. Tanya looked as if she might burst into tears.
She whispered, “Is it safe to talk now?”
“Yeah, prob’ly so. See those little bubbles? If they were waterproof they wouldn’t be leaking air.”
Taking the glass, she turned toward the sink.
I said, “Better to flush them,” and she turned again without comment, walking quickly to the bathroom.
Her hands were shaking as she dumped the glass into the toilet and pushed the handle down at almost the same time. That’s probably why one of the bugs wasn’t swept away.
She swore and almost frantically tried to make the toilet flush again and I stepped close to put a hand on her shoulder.
“Relax. It can’t hear us. Let the toilet refill and we’ll use some paper to help it along.”
With tears brimming in her eyes, Tanya shakily, quickly asked, “Is that all of them? Are you absolutely sure? How did you know about the others?”
Judging it time to put her mind at ease, I materialized a four-foot gray field screen. It followed the walls around the room, sweeping through cabinets and fixtures, and ended its journey at the toilet. The screen’s edges pulsed bright red when it encountered the bug in the bowl.
I said, “Sometimes I have them report what they find. No flashing. That’s for your benefit, to show what they do. I swept the apartment while I was in the doorway.”
The toilet stopped filling. I pulled some paper off the roll and dropped it in the bowl. Once it sank, I said, “Now try it.”
Tanya quickly reached for the handle and practically slammed it down. Everything swirled away.
Still trembling, she took my arm to turn me around and said, “I need the bathroom, please.” As I pulled the door shut behind me, she said, “I might be a few minutes, okay?”
I said, “Take your time,” then shut the door and went to the living room.
Sipping some of my Dr. Pepper, I called up a two-foot screen and sent a probe to have a look at the nursing home. Marie was on the second floor. The windows didn’t open, of course. That would have been too easy. I pulled up her med records and tried to make sense of them briefly, then fed them through my core for translations.
Simplified: Bone fragments driven through brain tissue. Small bits of brain tissue lost at the scene and more removed later when surgery removed fragments of bone. Months of antibiotics and drugs. Toxins from physical inactivity and a persistent low grade infection. That was the top third of one page. There were eight more pages in that particular folder.
I sighed and had a look at Marie’s progress photos. Deep dents around her head. Scar tissue across her forehead and temples. Places with no hair. Damn. How much more did I need to know? Or see? Just the basics. General health good. A minor but persistent sinus infection due to crushing of the maxillary sinus. Reconstructive surgery ‘recommended’.
Looking at the sinus X-rays, I thought, ‘No shit.’
Three pages further I found notes on her abilities to walk and talk. She was almost unintelligible, but alert and apparently able to recognize family and friends. She frustrated easily due to communication problems. Although she still had a tendency to drag her left leg, she could walk. A video showed her almost lurching instead of walking on a slow treadmill. She had almost no use of her left arm.
The toilet flushed and some moments later I heard the sink water run, then the bathroom door opened soon after that and Tanya came to stand a few feet behind me.
I said, “It’s a field screen and it’s showing me some info about your mom and the nursing home.”
“I can see that. What’s a field screen?”
“Please don’t ask questions like that. You can see it’s a field used as a display screen.”
She moved to stand by my right shoulder and reached to try to touch the screen. Her fingertips passed through it and she snatched her hand back.
“You know what I mean. How do they work?”
“Unless you have a degree in Amaran physics, they might as well be smoke and magic.”
“Do you have a degree in Amaran physics?”
“No, and I can’t explain fields. I just use them.”
Giving me a flat, direct gaze, she asked, “If you don’t know how they work, how can you use them?”
Looking up at her, I drawled, “Well, ma’am, I just try to avoid people who ask how they work. That way I never have to realize I shouldn’t be able to use fields while I use them. Look, I have some studying to do here, so how much longer do you think you’ll continue in this vein?”
With a narrow glower and a bit of a pout, Tanya pulled a chair around the table and sat down beside me as she said, “I was just curious. What are you studying? Or is that something else you wouldn’t care to explain?”
“Not at all, milady. I was reading your mom’s med records and checking out the building. Can you explain to me how a TV turns radio waves into pictures?”
With narrow wariness, Tanya replied, “No.”
“But you can use a TV or a radio. That’s about the same way I use fields.”
“You could have just said so.”
“No, apparently I couldn’t right then. I’d just seen pictures of Marie. They probably flavored my mood a bit.”
Searching up a passport picture of Marie from 1972, I said, “That’s the Marie I remember. A younger version of you.”
Tanya startled hard, then goggled at the picture. She leaned to grab my forearm and asked in a tone of amazement, “Is there any way I can get that picture?! Are there any more pictures like that?! From back then?”
“I’ll see what I can find. Fire up your laptop.”
She hurried around the table and began unpacking the computer and its power cord. I located some routine verification, surveillance, and training pictures and stumbled onto a small group of pictures from what looked like a vacation in the Black Forest. In picture eight a wooden arch over a gate confirmed my guess. Marie stood grinning under it in hiking shorts and brown suede boots with a backpack. She had a hiking staff and wore one of those little forester’s hats with a small feather on the side.
In another picture, she and Brian Baker were laughing about something. When nobody else appeared in the other photos, I wondered who took the pictures.
3rd World Products, Book 16 Page 6