Angela looked up and asked the question first.
"Uh ... How long do we have to keep doing this?"
I shrugged. “Everybody pick up the disk on your board and stick it on yourself somewhere. Then envision the board rising to three feet or so. If it works, you're ready to ride."
Donna gave me a raised eyebrow and a very questioning look as she asked, “It's telepathic?"
"Something like that. You'll move the board by thinking hard about which direction it should go. Give it a try."
Apparently she did, because her board rose a yard and stopped. She still had her hand on it, so she gave it a tug. The board held rock-steady in the air. Donna used it to pull herself onto her feet and thumped the board with her fist. It didn't move in the least.
"Damn!” she muttered, getting a grip on it with both hands and trying to pull it. The board still didn't move.
Angela had also lifted her board. She caused it to drop back down and placed her right foot on it, then her left. The board didn't flinch at her weight.
As Donna also mounted her board, I told them how much weight the boards could carry and how the boards would protect them from slamming into things, then told them about their running lights and taillights and such.
The ladies listened and asked questions, but eventually we'd covered pretty much everything and it was time to run them around the range a few times.
Wallace stepped forward and put a hand on my arm.
"Is it too late to buy one today?"
I shook my head. “Oh, hell, no, Cap! Since you're a friend of Linda's, I might even take one of your checks."
He gave me one of those ‘how very funny’ looks and asked, “How about I owe it to you until we get back? I didn't bring my checkbook with me."
Pretending to give the matter some thought, I tried to make it look as if the decision was a big one, then said, “Yeah, okay. Stand by one."
Leaning into the flitter's field, I said, “Flitter, I need another board for Wallace, please. Have it leave your deck eastward and loop around to arrive from the west. If he doesn't already know you make them, he doesn't need to find out."
I thought it likely he did know, but couldn't be sure. Linda didn't tell him every little thing. Straightening back up, I turned westward and shaded my eyes. Everybody looked that direction and Angela suddenly said, “There it is! I think..?"
The board zipped in and came to a stop a foot from Wallace. He stared at it for a moment, then leaned to put his left hand on its nose for another few moments.
Standing up, he stepped onto his board as the ladies had, then made it lift a few feet and settle back down.
"My God,” he whispered, “Even after everything else I've seen and done since I've been here, I'd never have believed I'd be standing on something like this."
I asked, “Is it too late to jack the price up?"
He looked up sharply at me and snapped, “Yes."
The ladies sniggered as I shrugged and sighed, “It was just a thought. Come on, people. The bunny slope awaits."
Chapter Twenty
Put people on horses or motorcycles for the first time and you'll hear all the same new-rider exclamations that came from the trio of newbies behind me as we entered the range.
None of the tactical obstacles were active; that is, no holographic terrorists shot at us, fired rockets, or threw grenades. We slid forward at about a foot of altitude and what looked like maybe twenty miles per hour as we negotiated the winding road that led to the mock city portion of the range.
After half an hour or so of buzzing at various low altitudes and speeds through the dozen or so short streets of the fake town, I called a halt and asked if anyone wanted to visit a restroom or take a break.
It was no coincidence that I made that stop on the far side of the town from the range's break area. When Wallace said he wouldn't mind a cold drink, Donna nodded and agreed.
"Good ‘nuff,” I said, and sent my board up to a hundred feet, where I waited to see who'd join me first.
Probably because she'd been a flitter pilot for a few years, Angela popped up beside me first. Donna and Wallace arrived a few seconds later, and neither of them looked particularly comfortable with our altitude.
To avoid giving them time to chat about things, I fed some power to my board and sent it toward the break building at about sixty miles per hour.
When I looked back, all of them had lost a little altitude and were moving at different speeds, but they were following along at better than forty.
Stopping my board three feet off the ground by the drink machine, I sat down and straddled it like a real surfboard as I studied the machine's offerings. No dr pepper. Rats. At least it had lemon tea; that would do.
I was fishing in my pocket for change when Wallace pulled in beside me, hopped off his board, and said, “I'm buying.” He opened his wallet and fed the nearby change machine a five-dollar bill, then fed the drink machine and gestured as he said, “Go for it."
"Thanks,” I said, and poked the canned tea button as the ladies arrived and straddled their boards as I had.
Once everybody had a drink, Angela asked, “What next?"
Pointing upward, I sipped my drink and said, “Now that you know you'll really stick to your boards, we'll go higher and faster. Like that."
Grinning, Angela asked, “Are we going to race?"
Chuckling as he remounted his board, Wallace asked, “Yeah, when do we race?"
"No point. She's smaller and lighter than you and me. That's going to help her maneuver a little quicker and go a little faster at max."
Wallace stopped in mid-sip and somewhat incredulously asked, “They'll be able to go faster than four-forty?"
"Oh, yeah. Maybe a full five hundred."
"Jeee-zus!” He looked at Angela's fat, happy grin, then at Donna's rather amazed expression and shook his head. “Are you two really up to going that fast on one of these things?"
Donna shruggingly replied, “Not yet, obviously, but if he can do it, so can I."
Angela grinned at Donna and sipped her tea. I pulled my feet up, crossed my ankles, and levered myself upright to stand on my board, then guided it down to a foot or so off the ground.
"Showoff,” said Wallace.
"Nah,” I replied, “Donna can do it, too. Right, ma'am?"
Without a word and with what looked like much less effort, she lifted her legs onto the board, crossed her ankles, and powered upward, then her board lowered and she stepped off.
Now there was a challenge of sorts on the table. Angela also pulled her feet up and gave it a go, making a false start and settling back on her butt once before she, too, stood up on her board and lowered it.
That left Wallace. He gave me a truly dark expression, then he pulled his feet up and gave it a try. Like Angela's, his first effort was unsuccessful. His shiny black low-quarter shoes slid out from under him, but he pulled them back, rocked back and forward a bit, and gave it another shot.
This time he succeeded in the unfamiliar movement, balancing on the sides of his feet as he pushed himself upward with considerably more wobbly caution and effort than the ladies. Once his board had lowered, he stepped off it.
"It's like trying to stand on a balance beam,” he muttered.
"Hardly,” I said, “A balance beam is only a few inches wide. The board's well over a foot wide."
"You know what I mean,” he snapped, “It's up off the ground and it's not what we're used to standing on."
"Yeah, I know. My first few minutes on my board weren't all that graceful, either."
As if amazed, Angela sweetly asked, “They weren't?"
Grinning, I replied, “Oh, definitely not, ma'am. I know that shocks and disillusions you to your very core, but it's true."
She snorted a laugh and said, “Yeah, right. To my very core. It's just nice to know you're still more or less human, Ed."
Donna grinned along with her, but gave Angela a somewhat studious glance. Good
. She'd be wondering what sparked that remark. Maybe she'd get curious enough to...
"Hey, Ed,” Wallace interrupted my train of thought, “How long are we going to sit here?"
He put his empty can in the receptacle by the machine and returned to his board. I swilled the last of my tea and waited as the ladies finished their drinks, then gathered all the cans and put them in the receptacle.
"I want to show you something first,” I said, “Board off."
My board seemed to disappear. Reaching above my head, I felt around until I found the board's core and brought it down to show it to the others. It looked like a featureless slice of metal about four inches wide, a foot long, and half an inch thick.
"This is what your boards will look like when they're off,” I said, “Your boards won't disappear, but they'll go inert like this one until you tell them to come back on. Your control disks go in the recessed center area on the slab."
"Why does your ... slab ... disappear?” asked Donna.
"Can't say, milady. You aren't cleared for that info."
Donna gave me a raised-eyebrow look of extreme skepticism and even Angela looked rather dubious about my answer.
"Angela,” I said, “These boards are a private matter, not subject to 3rd World's security protocols. You only know about certain other things I can do because you work for 3rd World and we've worked together a few times in the field. Unless you see me demo some field trick in front of someone, please don't say a word about anything else I may be able to do."
She bridled slightly, then said, “Huh. That's funny. I kind of expected you to be one of those guys who didn't mind showing off a little now and then. Especially around attractive women."
Chuckling, I replied, “Hey, I showed her my flitter and my board. And my talking cat. Isn't that enough for now?"
Turning to Donna, I asked, “How about it, Miz Attractive Woman? Were you suitably impressed?"
With a grinning shrug, she brightly replied, “Oh, sure! Startled and shocked a few times, too, but definitely very impressed."
"Well, there you go,” I told Angela, “Mission accomplished."
Wallace rapped a knuckle on his board to get our attention and turned the gesture into a thumb pointing skyward.
"Can we get to it? I have a few other things to do today."
Sighing as if beleaguered, I answered, “Yeah, sure, Cap. Up, up, and away, people,” and called up my board.
Feeding it power, I sent my board straight up until the range below looked like a tabletop model of itself. There I waited and watched as the others made their way upward.
Angela was first to join me, as I'd expected. Wallace arrived in second place, which surprised me a bit. Donna arrived a few seconds later, making sounds of awe and wonder as she stared at the ground below.
All three were standing on their boards, but Wallace and Donna looked a little shaky.
"Take a minute and get used to things,” I said, “There's no hurry unless your name is Wallace."
Slowly, carefully turning his head to look at me, Wallace hissed through clenched teeth, “Just shut the fuck up, okay?"
"Sure, Cap. Just take it easy and remember you can't fall off.” Flipping my board upside down to demonstrate that feature, I added, “Okay, everybody, we're way the hell up. Fly your boards any way you want."
My implant chimed Linda's notes. I called up a field screen and answered, “Hi, there, O Fearless Leader."
"Hi, yourself,” she said, “We have you on-screen down here. How are the others doing?"
Elevating my board so it was level with Wallace's head, I grinned, then I tilted the screen so she could see the others behind me and nothing else but blue sky.
"What the hell?!” she muttered, “Ed, what the hell have you done? Why are they upside down?"
"They aren't, ma'am. I'm the only one upside down at the moment. I'm busy making a point."
"A point? What point?"
Sighing as if she just didn't get it, I said, “The point that they can't fall off their boards, of course. We're a couple of miles up and not everybody is comfortable with that, so it seemed like a good time to mention that again."
Flipping my board rightside-up, I let it settle to align with the others. “There. See? All better now."
Linda eyed the group behind me and said, “Just for the record, you're two point six miles up. I called because I was hoping your lessons would be over or nearly so. We'll need Emory down here in an hour or so."
"Okay, I'll wrap things up, milady."
"Thanks. Bye."
"Bye.” She thumbed her ‘off’ icon.
I let the screen disappear and asked Wallace, “You heard that, Cap? You have an hour to play outdoors."
He nodded and answered, “Yeah, I heard."
If he could nod, his paralysis wasn't total. Good enough. I said, “Okay, then, let's do it,” and powered forward.
They trailed along as I bored holes in the sky with high-speed runs, loops, spirals, and some other maneuvers that just sort of occurred to me at the time, like when I saw some kind of a big bird—it wasn't a vulture, but it might have been some kind of hawk or eagle—and tapped its tail as I buzzed past it.
The poor bird arced away and flapped like hell for a few moments, then arced again to keep us in sight. When the others zipped through essentially the same space at more or less the same speed, I decided that they'd learned enough to practice on their own and made a sharp turn to aim us at the main base complex, barely visible four miles away.
We arrived more or less together and dismounted our boards to go inside the Admin building. When I said, “board off,” mine disappeared as usual, but the other boards simply retracted themselves into foot-long slabs and remained where they were, hovering next to their owners.
Donna hefted her slab and said, “I'm going to need a bigger backpack,” and the others chuckled as we entered the building.
Chapter Twenty-one
Angela excused herself to return to duty and made her goodbyes with Donna and me, then set off down a side corridor.
Looking at his slab, Wallace said, “I think it'll fit in my laptop case,” then he said to me, “Let's visit the bank."
I said, “Let's make it one thousand, too."
"What?"
Shrugging, I said, “I'll save the high prices for strangers. You've been able to hold things together with Linda for over two years, Cap. You're practically family now. Just think of how mean she'd be without you and call it an anniversary present."
He gave me an odd look, but he nodded. “Okay. Thanks."
A few minutes later, he received ten hundreds from a bank teller and slid them along the counter to me. I gave him a small, sloppy salute and a “Thanks, Cap,” and he excused himself as Angela had and headed for the door.
"Hey, Wallace,” I said. He stopped at the door and faced me and I said, “I wasn't kidding. She's my best friend. You've been good to her and good for her. I appreciate that."
Canting his head slightly as he studied me, he nodded and left the bank.
Donna asked, “So he goes with Linda?"
Putting my money away, I answered, “Yup. I wasn't real thrilled about that at first ‘cuz he's a classic hidebound brass hat. We didn't get along at all until Linda drew some lines in the dirt between us."
"She's really only your best friend? I mean ... that's all?"
Nodding, I said, “Oh, yeah. Long time. Best friend and boss in one way or other for over thirty years."
As we left the bank, she said, “That's kind of unusual."
With a quick smile, I said, “You aren't the first to say that, but it doesn't seem all that unusual to me. I guess you could ask her about it; we're going to her office now."
"We are? Why?"
"To visit a bit before we hit the road. I only see her about once or twice a month these days."
A few more strides along, Donna asked, “Who are Steph and Sue?"
"They're friends, too. You'll pro
bably meet them sometime."
"Only probably? Is there a reason I might not meet them?"
"Yup. Two reasons. Steph's pretty busy lately and Sue's out of town until Thursday."
We walked another thirty feet or so before she asked, “Those communication screens you've been using ... What are they and how do they work?"
"They're just field devices, like the boards. Fields can be used for all kinds of stuff."
Donna stopped walking, so I did, too. She eyed me for a moment before she spoke.
"That may be the least informative ‘explanation’ I've ever heard, Ed."
Shrugging, I said, “Well, sorry ‘bout that, milady. I just use ‘em. I know they're made of fields and I know how to call one up, but I don't know how to build one from scratch, okay?"
"Then how did you manage to design that surfboard?"
"Now you've run into that ‘classified info’ wall again."
"Uh, huh. What if I don't believe you designed it?"
"That's your privilege, ma'am."
When I started walking again, she followed and caught up. She didn't ask any more questions or say anything more the rest of the way to Linda's office.
Linda met us at her door and escorted us toward her inner office past her secretary's empty desk. The secretary's phone buzzed and Linda answered it, then told someone, “For the next hour or so, yes, I am. What's up, Harve?"
She listened for a few moments, then said, “Okay. Send her at four and I'll give her fifteen before closing time. If we can't work something out, I'll split the lab unit. Yeah. Okay, bye."
Without offering any explanations, Linda continued into her office and seated us by her desk. I smelled coffee and pointed at her cup. She nodded, so I got up to get the pot and a couple of extra cups.
As I poured coffee, Linda said, “I may want one of those boards later, too, Ed."
"I was wondering why you didn't go for one today."
"While you people were out playing, I was working. Maybe next time."
"Anytime, milady. I'd make a special trip."
3rd World Products, Inc. Book 7 Page 12