Variations on Humanity

by Paul Eslinger

  “Yes, but I have the time.” Laura smiled, “You would too if you took me up on my previous offer.”

  Although she played a supporting role, Rhona felt entirely comfortable helping Laura make this pitch. She said, “I took her up on the same offer.”

  Brian turned to look at Rhona and she knew a formidable intellect lived behind his black eyes. “Why?”

  “It was easy to decide. Actually, my fiancé decided for me. Someone flying an armed quadcopter shot me. I might have died and I probably wouldn’t have walked without their medical help.”

  “You look younger than in your earlier pictures.”

  Rhona patted her face with her fingertips. “One of the side benefits is renewed collagen balance.”

  “Hmm. I’ll think about it.”

  “That’s what I said, too. Then I woke up in a hospital bed. That was a few weeks ago. Keene and I ran six miles together before breakfast.”

  Brian turned and looked at Laura. “You didn’t tell me this.”

  “Patient privacy,” Laura said.

  “Really?” A hint of a smile in the corners of Brian’s mouth indicated he didn’t totally buy her argument.

  “We have a suggestion for an assistant to help you,” Rhona added. “Helen Pratt. Laura intervened in her treatment when she was in a coma from a car wreck that killed her husband.”

  Brian swung around to look at Rhona. “I heard about the wreck and you told me about the fake nurse. Are you trying to scare me?”

  “It’s the bony finger of reality in human society,” Rhona replied smoothly. “After she regained consciousness, Helen said someone ran them off the road. Laura is providing more protection to people who work for her than in the past, but violence and wrecks are still too common.”

  Laura nodded, and then changed the subject. “Do you think we can make a law office work on this block? We can raze everything here and start over.”

  “Sure. It’s your money–and you have a lot of it.”

  “Checking on my investments?”

  “Not really. But I did figure out the names of a couple of your stewards.”

  “Come on over to the house. You can meet Helen and I’ll show you my tentative plans. We also want to ask your advice on several things.”

  Rhona looked over at Laura after they got back in the pilentum. “I didn’t sense a hard-held resistance to your medical offer.”

  “Our conversations on the subject always start easy. He gets more resistant if I push harder.”

  “Has he ever visited underground?”

  “No.”

  They parked in front of the house and Brian parked his car behind the pilentum. As they moved up the walk, Rhona saw the nose of one of the chariots through the open garage door. Three cargo shuttles sat in the field just behind the barn. She glanced at Laura. “Are we leaving a chariot in the garage these days?”

  “Yes. Keene talked me into it. It reduces our response time by nearly ten minutes.”

  Brian raised one eyebrow. “Do you need a short response time?”

  “Yes,” Rhona blurted. “Someone tried to run me off the road the last time I visited in Rapid City. Diana Tate and her family are driving down here tomorrow.”

  “Should I know Diana?” Brian asked.

  “No, not yet,” Rhona responded. “She worked in my dental office. She’s coming here to work for me.”

  Brian looked at Laura. “You’re hiring a lot of people.”

  “It’s an investment for setting up expanded manufacturing.” Laura smiled. “One of the things we need to talk about today is activating a couple of idled steel mills here in North America.”

  “Most manufacturing has moved overseas,” Brian said blandly.

  “I know, but we will be making new materials. I’m more interested in stability than quarterly profits, and it won’t be a publicly owned company. Besides, I purchased the mills for a pittance when the owners closed them.”

  Brian raised his eyebrows slightly. “Long-term plans?”

  “Of course,” Laura responded with a chuckle as she opened the outside door on the house. “Let’s meet in my private office today.”

  Rhona suppressed her start of surprise. She knew Laura spent a lot of time in the Intelligence Center, but she had never asked Laura about another office.

  “Sure,” said Brian with a little hand wave. “But, I forgot to pick up my folder from my coffee table on the approach for registering the pilentum as street legal vehicles. I think we’ve found a way, with presidential help, to register them without a whole host of tests.”

  “I was hoping to wrap that up today,” Laura responded.

  Just then, Sam trotted up the steps from the basement. He nodded. “Good morning, everyone.”

  “Wait.” Laura held up her hand.

  Sam stopped. “Yes?”

  “Can you run Brian back to his house to pick up some files? You can use the chariot.”

  A smile of pleasure moved over Sam’s face. “Of course. It will only take a few minutes.”

  Rhona stood on the porch watching the two men walk towards the barn. She was fully qualified on the pilentum systems and she had never considered qualifying as a pilot. A new idea took root instantly. She didn’t usually mind letting the others ferry her around, but she liked being in charge of her own destiny. She would learn to fly the chariot and the cargo shuttles. She pursed her lips and thought more deeply. She might not always be limited to one planet. She added a space freighter to the list of conveyances in her mind.

  “What are you thinking?”

  Laura’s question broke Rhona’s concentration. There wasn’t any reason to hide her thoughts. Laura would know anyway when she started accessing the training materials. “I’m going to learn to fly.”

  “Of course,” Laura responded with a hint of a smile.

  “Am I that predictable?” Rhona demanded.

  “In some ways.”

  Moments later, the chariot rolled out of the barn into an open area. It shifted into a flying configuration and then disappeared. Rhona saw the limbs of a nearby tree wave briefly in the blast of air as the chariot leaped into the sky.

  “Let’s wait in the house,” Laura said.

  Rhona moved towards the door. “They should reach Garden City in ten minutes. It’s only fifty-five miles from here.”

  “There’s no reason to hurry.”

  Laura headed into the immaculate kitchen. “Do you want some hot coffee?”

  “Of course.” Rhona followed Laura and watched her open a cabinet door. “I didn’t know you ever ate up here.”

  “We installed new appliances and bought shelf-stable food when we remodeled after the raid last fall.” Laura turned and gestured in the direction of the bedrooms. “We may put in a couple of offices to meet with people…”

  “People not invited underground,” Rhona added when Laura stopped. “No one with a Karthi index less than about 9.3 ever gets invited underground.”

  “Actually, about 9.43.”

  “Ah. I wondered whether Ralph was an outlier. Beverly is above that level.”

  “They are a compatible couple.”

  “Indeed.” Rhona sniffed the air as the smell of coffee grew stronger. “So, you aren’t completely tied to logical rules.”

  “It’s illogical to separate husband and wife.”

  The statement sounded perfectly plausible on the surface, but there was a possible incongruity on a deeper level. Laura had agreed to the medical treatment for both, which was logical. How would there be a separation? It would only occur in the future if there were major differences in the results of the medical treatment. Were there three levels of treatment and Ralph ordinarily would have only qualified for the middle level? Rhona closed her eyes and thought.

  “Is something wrong?”


  Laura’s words brought Rhona’s attention back to exterior activities. She shook her head, “No, but–”

  Sam’s voice came through the miniature headset Rhona wore in one ear. “The long-range sensors indicate Brian’s front door is open.”

  Laura had recently distributed the headsets to the humans living in the underground facility. They provided instant communications and access to the AI from anywhere on the planet. Keene had just learned that part of the payload in the GPS satellites serviced the worldwide Abantu communications network.

  “Do you need backup?” Rhona asked.

  “I don’t know yet,” Sam responded. “I pinged Trixie and Keene first. They’ll bring another chariot up to the barn.”

  “When will you be close enough to scan the house?” Laura asked.

  “About thirty seconds.”

  Rhona looked at Laura and raised one eyebrow while she spoke. “Have you offered Brian a protective suit?”

  “No.”

  “It’s about time,” Rhona suggested. “Olga Booker really likes hers.”

  “Yeah. Elaine has a good head for organizational activities. I’ve decided to task her with dismantling the county government, starting in January, and organizing the embassy staff. Olga will be a good addition to the staff–she will eventually replace Elaine as chief of staff. Elaine can then organize our approach to long-distance transportation.”

  “We’re scanning,” Sam said in the earpiece. “I don’t see anyone in the house.”

  “Anyone close by?”

  “No. There are a few fresh drops of oil on the driveway.”

  Rhona pulled her finger out of her hair. “Do you want to send in a canis?”

  “I’m setting down in the driveway. I’ll do a quick visual recon before Brian gets out. He doesn’t have a suit.”

  “Brian, are you there?” Laura asked.

  “Yes,” he responded.

  “Be careful. I’ll give you a protective suit when you get back here.”

  “Will it fit?” The lawyer chuckled. “I’m shorter than all of you.”

  “I have a suit ready.”

  “Did you expect this?” he demanded.

  “Yes, and no,” Laura replied. “You have already represented me several times in court. Our opponents don’t limit their information gathering activities to legal means.”

  “Do you know who did this?”

  “Not yet, but we’ll work on it.”

  The conversation languished as Sam clambered from the chariot and entered the house. He took Rhona’s suggestion and a canis scampered through the empty house ahead of him, collecting visual and olfactory evidence. He checked in again. “All clear, but someone ransacked the place.”

  Brian soon joined Sam in the house. “It’s a mess,” he said over the communicator.

  “Any ideas about what they were looking for?” Rhona asked.

  “I don’t keep any valuables in the house.”

  “They wore gloves.” Sam offered the comment while the canis continued to sniff around the house. “We’ve already identified the manufacturer. We’ve also picked up DNA samples from two people.”

  “I thought you said they wore gloves,” Rhona countered.

  “They did, but they only left a few minutes ago and some of the moisture they exhaled was still airborne.”

  Trixie entered the multi-threaded conversation. “We have a match with one of the DNA samples.”

  “That was quick,” Brian commented.

  “He is a free-lance investigator who usually works with a partner.”

  Keene chuckled. “He should have chosen a cloudy day to visit. We’ve already picked up their vehicle. It just left town and is heading east on US 400. We should be able to track it from here.”

  In Jetmore, Laura looked at Rhona and raised one eyebrow. Laura focused her attention back on the communicator when Rhona didn’t say anything. “Brian, I think you should move here and accept my offer.”

  “Which one?” The lawyer asked and then let out a long sigh. “I occasionally like being obstinate but it’s illogical in this case. I’ll move there and accept all of the offers.”

  “Thank you,” Laura replied calmly.

  Rhona looked at Laura when the conversation ended. The rims of Laura’s eyes glowed azure so brightly they almost blinded Rhona. Rhona wisely refrained from commenting.

  Chapter 23 – Fetching Diana

  “That worked out better than I expected,” Rhona commented. “But I still have a concern.”

  “About what?” Laura asked.

  “It’s not about Brian,” Rhona said with a shake of her head. “It’s about Diana and her family. She may not be safe driving down here.”

  “We talked that through before.”

  Rhona shrugged. “I know we did, but I’m having second thoughts. I know we’re watching over her, but we were watching over Brian and we missed this intrusion. As Keene would say, I have this itch running up and down my back that won’t go away.”

  Laura took a deep breath and let out a long sigh. “What do you suggest?”

  “Let’s send a cargo shuttle to bring them here. Today.”

  There was silence for long moments and then Laura began nodding in agreement. “Okay. Work out the details with Keene. Adara should be able to pilot for you.”

  “Thank you.” Rhona patted Laura on the arm. “Can I go along?”

  Laura hesitated and rotated her shoulders. “Sure,” she said.

  The small glimmer of azure in Laura’s eyes told Rhona that Laura wouldn’t mind being alone with Brian when he returned from Garden City. Rhona gestured towards the underground facility. “I’ll go line things up with Keene.”

  Twenty minutes later, Rhona, Keene, and Adara gathered at one of the cargo shuttles. It was roughly the same length and height as an 18-wheeler, but it was half again as wide. There was enough room in the pilot compartment for the two humans to join Adara.

  Adara quickly ran through the preflight protocol and then looked at Rhona. “You said we weren’t in a big hurry. We’ll do a subsonic low-level flight.”

  The display screens were so realistic they seemed to be looking out large windows when the cargo shuttle lifted from the ground. They soon were traveling north at 32,000 feet just under the speed of sound.

  Keene peered down at the sun-drenched Earth flashing along beneath them. “We really should start checking in with FAA flight control when we go up.”

  “That’s one of the things Elaine is going to tackle,” Rhona replied.

  “Did you call Diana?”

  Rhona shook her head. “Not yet.

  “We’ll be there in fifty-six minutes,” Adara advised.

  “I should call before long,” Rhona responded. “They should have everything packed. They’ll probably go out to eat tonight.”

  Keene smiled. “They already have reservations for seven tonight at the Colonial House.”

  “Nothing’s secret today, is it?” Rhona asked.

  “Not if you do it electronically.” Keene tapped his ear with his fingertip and suddenly sounded like he was going to choke. “We just located Rucker.”

  “Really? Where?”

  “We matched his face, and those of two of his men, using a traffic camera. They’re walking in Georgetown in the DC area.”

  “He’s meeting with someone he doesn’t totally trust,” Rhona said.

  “You can use the side screen,” Adara said with a gesture of her hand. A picture of people striding along a street appeared on it. The picture shrank and a map joined the picture on the screen.

  Keene tapped his chin with his fingertips while he studied the image. Finally, he nodded. “Rhona, I think you’re right about the trust issue. I also think he’s going to Pinstripes.”

  “What’s that?” Rhon
a asked.

  “Sam and I once met him over dinner at a restaurant named Pinstripes. It’s on Wisconsin Avenue, NW, just north of the old Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. He’s nearly outside the restaurant.”

  “Who’s he meeting with today?”

  “We don’t know.” Keene issued a few commands to the remote AI. The screen now showed images from the restaurant security cameras, shifting from camera to camera. Finally, the image stabilized on one camera.

  Keene stiffened and pointed to a grey-haired man facing the camera. “Do you recognize him?”

  Recognition came instantly to Rhona. “General Jack Breneman.”

  “Yeah.” Keene sounded thoughtful. “There is a federal warrant out for Rucker’s arrest and he is officially listed as AWOL with the Air Force. Why would he meet with Breneman?”

  “If he is meeting with Breneman,” Rhona cautioned.

  Keene grunted. “True, but I think he is. We’ll soon know for certain.”

  “Can you get audio with the video?”

  “We’re trying, but not yet.”

  Keene’s prediction was correct. Rucker and his two sidekicks soon joined Breneman and his two companions. They all ordered appetizers and dinners and settled down to talk.

  “Too bad you’re not getting audio,” Rhona said at one point.

  “Ah.” Adara issued a command. Words started scrolling on the screen with the pictures. “Trixie married a linguistics program with the video feed. The program is reading their lips.”

  “It’s all small talk,” Keene said disgustedly. “The camera has a terrible angle. We can only see the faces of Breneman and his two people.”

  “They’ll get around to discussing something interesting,” Rhona said. She fingered her phone. “I need to call Diana.”

  The distant dinner meeting broke up just before the cargo shuttle reached Rapid City. All they learned for sure was that Breneman agreed to reverse Rucker’s AWOL standing and use his influence to try to kill the warrant. By this time, Sam was back in Jetmore and he took over setting up active electronic tails on everyone involved in the meeting.

  Adara brought the cargo shuttle in low while still cloaked. She circled the house and then looked at Rhona. “Where should I land?”