by Clyde Key
* * *
It was around 7:30 a.m. when Marilee Sharp came to Ed’s quarters for a visit before reporting to work at Headquarters. When she came to the door, Ed let her inside and quickly locked the door before the blue alien could come to investigate. She gave him a warm hug. “Want to talk for a few minutes?” she asked.
“Sure. I’d like to but this place has to be wired,” he whispered. “You can’t say anything you don’t want Eldredge to hear.”
She grinned. “That’s not quite true. They have pickups everywhere but I found out they don’t work. Eldredge’s thugs are still trying to figure it out.”
Ed laughed. “It’s the shielding, just like at the magport. They’ll figure it out pretty soon but they’ll have to tear the house down to get it out. I sure hope they don’t. They’d find my guns!”
“You’ve got guns in here?”
“You better know it. I’ve got them hidden in the kitchen. Come on. I’ll show you where they are, in case you ever need one of them.”
“Let’s go sit in the kitchen anyway. I smell some fresh coffee in there.” She followed Ed into the kitchen and poured two cups of coffee and set them on the table while Ed pulled a drawer from the cabinet and showed her where the two weapons were attached to the back. “There’re bullets behind the next drawer down for the old revolver—which you probably should leave alone anyway—and the ion laser still has a couple of hundred charges in it.”
They sat down at the table and started to sip the hot drinks. Then Ed asked, “What’s going on outside in the world?”
“Oh, you know. You watch the vidscreen.”
“That’s not what I mean. What’s happening with the resistance? Have you heard from Taylor?”
“Not lately. But I think a lot of what’s going on is his doing. We got most of the lasers off base before Eldredge got here and he doesn’t know anything about them. I managed to check a couple of times and the weapons are slowly disappearing. I think Richie is taking them to the resistance.”
“So it’s Richie now? I thought you two were enemies.”
She grinned. “He’s a pain in the pony, but I miss him. I wish I could get in touch.”
“Yeah. Me, too.” Ed stopped talking to daydream about what he could be doing with the ankle bracelet off. He could picture himself getting into the floater (without a blue alien following) and scooting off to New Mexico or Texas or some other place where people fight for freedom so he could find a resistance group to join, like Richie Taylor. Or maybe he could just float into Flagstaff to talk to that Herman fellow. That would be profitable because Herman could be encouraged to invent some really wild gadgets to antagonize aliens.
How about laser weapons mounted on some of those floating cameras like the video news networks use? Ed thought maybe Herman would know how to make them work. And he probably could even figure out a way to make the magtrain people pay for them. All of it would be possible if Ed could just get away from his confinement.
“You’re not listening to me! I thought you might need some company, but you haven’t heard a word I’ve been saying!”
“Huh? Oh, no! I listen! Well, okay. Maybe I do drift off, but I don’t mean anything by it. Now, what was that again?”
“They’ve got some kind of trouble with your bracelet. I wasn’t supposed to hear it, but Eldredge has somebody assigned to monitor the screen that shows where you are all the time, but the ID disappears whenever you go into your quarters.”
“What? Hmm... The shielding in the house must be doing that too! I wonder... I wonder if I could get it off without triggering the alarm?”
“You wouldn’t... “ Marilee began. “Yes. I do believe you would.”
“You better believe I would! I’d rather be dead than tied up like an animal!”
“But how would you get it off? Don’t you have to have some kind of special key?”
“Yeah. Usually. But I bet Victor Herman could figure out how to get me out of this. You can contact him and get him over here to see me.”
“Maybe I can but it’ll take a while. Eldredge keeps tabs on everybody—me included. I’ll have to wait until I’m sent off base for some other reason. But I promise, I will see him for you.”