by V R Tapscott
If anything, Cai looked even more confused. I decided I’d give it a try. “What she means, Cai, is that the former AI that ran the ship had some conflicts with being human, and he wound up losing track of some important things. He was taken offline for assessment and training. Olive has taken over his position.”
Olive muttered, “S’wat I said.” She got up and placed the picture carefully on the table, then sat again. Though subtle, I could see that she de-materialized her hands after sitting.
“I suppose it doesn’t really matter for the purpose at hand. We need to discuss what we’ll do and how. Cai, did you bring me this with the idea I’d be able to do something with it, or was it just a curiosity thing?”
Cai seemed to be recovering from the hits he’d taken over the last few minutes. He said, “I’m not completely sure, Jane. But I know if you don’t find a way to acquire it, if the Chinese government gets it, it will simply vanish and never be seen again. We know from our tests that it can’t be tested in any way - at least not that we were able to find.”
“That was my thought, Cai. I don’t see any reason for us to not make an attempt to retrieve it from the moon. Olive?”
“I’m rarin’ to go, Jane. Only reason I got for not going already is that I can’t pick it up once I get there. I can only have hands right here inside th’ workroom.”
“All right, then I guess we’re of one accord. We’ll start making plans to get there as quickly as we can. For one thing, we want to make sure it’s not gone when we step out to grab it!”
Chapter Fourteen
Vegas Calling
Bailey was sitting in her office. She wasn’t quite sure what was going on, but apparently Cai had brought something of much interest to Jane and Olive, and they were making plans.
Bailey was feeling just a little left out and useless, since it didn’t seem that she was part of that at all. It was just a few days before Laney would be leaving for Las Vegas, probably never to return, and Bailey was casting about, looking for something interesting to pursue. She’d grown to appreciate Laney’s intelligence, and after getting the stick out of her butt, she was interesting to be around. Laney would never be a warm, comfy person to spend time with, but she’d lost much of her ice-queen feel.
Bailey’d gone in the server room for awhile, but after getting a glare when she was standing in front of a rack that Laney wanted access to, she’d decided to go back in her office.
Bailey’s phone rang, and while she figured it was yet another spam caller from an unfamiliar number, she still had to answer it since it was nominally the company’s phone now, or at least it was the number she’d been giving out for Bailey and Bond’s business line. Which made little sense, but she’d thought it was logical at the time.
“Bailey and Bond Investigations, Bailey speaking.”
“Good morning, Ms. Bailey, please hold for Mister Carstead.”
Bailey was tempted to hang up, but she’d played the hold game as an executive, it was probably poetic justice that she was on the other end of it now. It was only a few seconds though, so it wasn’t a power ploy.
“Ms. Bailey, Howard Carstead here. How are you this morning?”
“I’m well, Mister Carstead - what can I do for you?”
“I understand you have some firsthand knowledge of winning at Roulette in Vegas. We’d like to hire you to look at some video and let us know what you think.”
Bailey chuckled, “Well, Mister Carstead, simply winning at Roulette doesn’t make me an expert in anything except luck, now does it?”
Carstead chuckled right back. “Of course not, Ms. Bailey. We just thought you might be interested. We’d be happy to pay you double your quoted rates, and it’s just for watching some videos.”
“You drive a hard bargain, Howard. Send them over - I’ll turn you over to our IT person to handle the technical aspects.”
“Perfect, thank you, Ms. Bailey.”
Bailey transferred him to Laney’s phone, giving her a heads-up as to what he wanted. About 30 minutes later, Laney came into her office and said, “Boss, I think you should look at this.”
Bailey got up and headed into the conference room, where there was a video paused. Laney started it up and Bailey could see herself sitting at the slot machines. She was playing and Bailey remembered she’d lost a bunch, but gained it back - at least mostly. Suddenly she saw the camera zoom in and her head twitched, and she said something. A bit later, she got up and moved to a different machine. She moved several times, and the camera picked her up at different locations across the casino until she stopped at the Roulette wheel. She started playing. After losing a particularly large bet, she stopped and seemed to be standing still. She gave a slight nod. And then she started winning. She won the next 17 bets, letting it ride each time. After the 17th win, she held up her hands and smiled. She left a very generous tip with the croupier, and then security came over and helped her carry her winnings. There was a label that appeared at the bottom of the screen - “cashed out 1.4 million”. The video ended.
Laney looked at her with her mouth open. “You won 1.4 million in Vegas at the Roulette wheel?”
Bailey shrugged. “It was only about $700,000 after taxes.”
“You won at Roulette seventeen times in a row!”
“I’m lucky sometimes.”
Laney looked at her with her hands on her hips. “How did you do it?”
Bailey glared at her. “I just got lucky.”
“I live in Vegas. No one gets that lucky.”
Bailey simply walked away from her, back to her office. She mulled over the situation. It was untenable, but she couldn’t see any option. She called Carstead. After running the gamut of secretaries, he came on the line.
“Ah, Ms. Bailey. It’s good to hear from you again, and so soon.”
“Thank you, Mister Carstead.”
“So, what did you think of our bit of entertaining video?”
“I thought it was amazing that luck just came out of the air and that woman won all that money. Truly amazing. What did you think, Mister Carstead?”
“Oddly enough, I was of the same viewpoint, Ms. Bailey. Still, it would be well if we could find a way to ensure against that sort of luck happening again, don’t you think? A completely foolproof way for anyone to simply walk into one of our establishments and take us to the cleaners. That’s patently bad luck, no matter how you look at it. Well, at least from our standpoint. No equipment, no signs, no telltales. I wonder what it would take to nip this luck in the bud? Is that possible, Ms. Bailey?”
Bailey looked almost startled. “I rather thought you’d just show up and make sure the luck ... went away.”
Carstead sounded amused. “No, we don’t do that sort of thing anymore, Ms. Bailey. It’s a business like any other. Of course, we’d object strenuously if someone was to show up at one of our establishments and have that much luck again. And we’d have to register our objections with you, Ms. Bailey. Through the courts, of course.”
“Of course.”
“Your associate, Ms. McDaniels?”
“Yes? She’s only been working with us for a short time, Mister Carstead. She really knows nothing of our company.”
“I’m aware of that, Ms. Bailey. I’m also aware that Jane Bond, the other half of Bailey and Bond, is likely on the verge of being related to her. And that Ms. McDaniels is graduating as a security consultant next year.”
Hesitantly, “Yes, that’s true.”
“We’d like to hire her, Ms. Bailey. Offer a full ride scholarship to UNLV or another college of her choice and then, when she graduates, she goes to work for us. At a VERY good salary. Company car. Travel. Housing. All paid for by the company, of course.”
Faintly, “Of course.”
“Does that sound like a possibility, Ms. Bailey?”
“It sounds like a hostage situation to me.”
Carstead laughed, and it sounded like he actually meant it. “Oh, Ms. Bailey, you’ve watched
far too many late-night movies. We simply want an employee with connections. We feel that we’ve found that in your associate. And don’t worry, she will work at her job. She will be exactly what she’s trained and spent so much time in school for. And we’ll cut years off her career path. How is this a ‘hostage situation’?”
Bailey ground her teeth together. “I’ll speak to her about it.”
“Oh, I’d have expected nothing less.”
“Good bye, Mister Carstead.”
“Good bye, Ms. Bailey”
The connection went. Bailey sat at her desk and seethed. After a few minutes of seething, Laney nervously stepped into her office.
“How bad is it?”
“It’s bad. They want to offer you a job. Full scholarship. College of your choice. Company car, vacations, hookers at your beck and call. “
“Hookers?”
Bailey ground out, “You know what I mean.”
“I accept.”
“You accept what?”
“Whatever he’s offering. I’ll take it. It’s what I wanted, and it’s being offered on a silver platter.”
“With knives sticking out all over.”
“Bailey. I live in Las Vegas and have all my life. I know how it works. And it usually works with people like me getting a job cleaning game machines out for the first ten years of our careers.”
“You were eavesdropping.”
“Of course I was eavesdropping! I’m the security consultant, do you not think I have access to every camera and listening device in this entire building?”
“Good point.”
“Call him back!”
“I can’t call him back, we’d sound desperate.”
“I AM desperate. This is exactly what I dreamed of, but it was impossible. Now, thanks to whatever you did to screw with the Las Vegas establishment, it’s coming true. Call him back!”
Bailey muttered as she dialed the phone, “I was just lucky ... “
Laney snorted and rolled her eyes.
This time, the time between her call and his answer was almost instantaneous.
“Good day, Ms. Bailey.”
“Good day, Mister Carstead.”
“I take it you’ve thought over my offer?”
Through her teeth, Bailey ground out, “Yes, we’re interested.”
“I thought you might be. You never took advantage of many of your high-roller comps or privileges, Ms. Bailey. Why don’t you and Ms. McDaniels fly down at our expense, stay at the Aria, have a good time on the town, and look over our operation. I believe Ms. McDaniels will have no qualms about accepting our offer.”
“Send me the information, Mister Carstead. We’ll discuss it and get back to you.”
Carstead laughed once again, “As you wish. Ms. Bailey. Er ... Ms. Bailey ... “
“Yes?”
“May the Odds be ever in your Favor.”
Bailey hung up the phone, barely cracking the cradle at all.
“Did he actually quote a movie to you?”
Bailey growled, “Yes. Yes, he did.”
Laney grinned. “Makes me like him more. I wonder if he’s single.”
Bailey made a moue. “He quoted it wrong.”
Chapter Fifteen
Time away
Igot the feeling that something was up with Laney and Bailey, but I had no idea what it was. Sadly, I was so busy trying to keep my other two associates reined in that I could barely keep track of my own life, let alone theirs.
Olive and Cai grew thick as thieves over the next few days. I listened to some of their plotting and planning, but they were in their own world. Still, someone had to keep them from enacting too many of their hare-brained schemes. And then they drew me back into it again. Olive wouldn’t let Cai go to the moon with her - she was too worried about his heart. Evidently, he had a weakness. It seems to me the time to be concerned about his heart was when she was ramrodding him around the sky, but apparently she didn’t know about it, then. It almost caused a rift between them, but she pointed out that he’d had to come home from their excursion and take heavy medication just to keep from dying - something I’d had no idea of when he stumbled past us that evening. I kicked myself for that, but of course, hindsight is always - well, you know.
At any rate, the upshot of it all was that I was going to the moon along with Bailey. And Bailey was gone to Vegas with Laney. Bailey didn’t give me the details, but it seemed that her winning at the Roulette wheel had not gone unnoticed (which didn’t surprise me, I was still watching for tommy guns) and they’d offered Laney a job. While Bailey seemed to be pretty steamed about it, Laney was over the moon (so to speak) about it. And so, they were going to Las Vegas for the week and would leave Laney off there to start school. Which meant we couldn’t go to the moon until after Bailey got back, and of course that made both Cai and Olive pretty antsy. I swear, sometimes they’re both the same age, I have to keep reminding them to use their words.
I thought it was funny - that Bailey’s windfall turned into such a windfall for Laney, too. Dale was pretty over the moon as well, at the risk of using that metaphor too much. Evidently working for MGM was a big deal. I had no idea it was the biggest casino operation in the world. Or at least I didn’t before. I got the negative aspects of it from Bailey, followed by the rainbow unicorn aspects of it from Laney fifteen minutes later. It made me crazy.
So. I decided I’d take a vacation. Just me and Dale. He got time off work, I got time away from the family, and we both got to spend time together. Talk about win-win. Olive dropped me at a car dealership in Missoula - I was going to buy that Jeep and drive it home after my vacation with Dale.
I found a nice used five-year-old Wrangler in yellow. Low mileage and nice looking. I know, my budget is essentially unlimited, but it’s never encouraged me to waste money. I just hope Threepio doesn’t wind up too jealous! I’m withholding a name until I find out more about him (or her) but I’m leaning toward Jerry. Don’t ask me why, it just popped in. I hope I don’t wind up changing that to Lemon before the trip is over, but so far, so good.
Dale was happy to see me, and we spent a glorious week scouting around the area. A giant 4-door pickup isn’t particularly conducive to “hiking” into the back country, so while Dale knows every little byway in the area, it’s not something he does in his off time. I suppose I was probably tormenting him by forcing him into basically spending time in his work mode - on vacation. But that’s the breaks. And he gets kisses, so it can’t be all bad.
We dropped in at the Wagon Wheel a few times. Laura is just as she always is. She berated us for missing the July 4th Choteau celebration, but gave us free fries anyhow, so she wasn’t too mad.
Relaxed and refreshed after the week away, we decided to drive back to Washington together. Olive could always bring Dale back after the trip. Jerry is relatively comfortable, and the trip was relatively uneventful. We arrived back about the same time as Bailey. We’d decided in the necessity of having her return home on an airplane since having her simply vanish out of Vegas might be signaling the wrong things to either my mother or Laney’s Vegas sugar daddy.
Speaking of my mother, I haven’t heard anything from her. While that’s not unusual, she’s not one to give up without a fight. I’d better have Olive extend some long-range scanners to make sure mother isn’t watching. I considered calling her Big Mother, but decided that might have too many connotations and turn it into an insult. And it would also be way too accurate.
For some reason I’m worried about this trip to the moon. Since we’ll be basically yanking something out from under the Chinese government’s nose, it feels like a dangerous event. But we’ll be quickly in, quickly out - what could go wrong. Right?
Chapter Sixteen
Oh, the humanity
It had not entirely escaped my attention that the idea of leaving Cai and Olive together alone might not be the best course. However, they were both adults (although that’s debatable) and I figured the house
was pretty much indestructible and Olive could rebuild anything that came to harm. At least that was my rationale.
The error in my thinking came to my attention shortly after I returned from vacation. Olive offered me a ride down to town to pick up supplies. I thought she might be feeling a little bummed over a new vehicle in the barn, but it turned out that wasn’t so much the case. As I found out when she took my hand in hers and kissed it. I looked at her, startled. She smiled and continued driving.
“My goodness! Well, congratulations! You’ve really been working hard ... but if this is what you want, I guess I can’t say anything about it.”
“Well, actually, you can say quite a lot about it, Jane. I’ve taken your permission to expand my capabilities and run with it. Quite a ways. So far, I’m still just a shell, but it’s enough to make things far more possible. I cooked pancakes! For real, I mean. I can’t eat them, but I cooked them, and Cai ate them without complaining. Of course, he doesn’t complain much about much.
I said quietly, “How far do you intend to take this project, Olive?”
She whispered, “I don’t know.” She turned and looked at me, almost defiantly, and much louder. “What do you think, Jane? You’ve always told me an Kit both that we’s people, just in a dif’rnt body. Do you believe that?”
“I do, Olive.”
“But ...?”
“No buts. Beyond the but that says being human isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. That there is misery and heartache attached.”
“So, that really means that you don’t and never did think of me as human.”
I had to sigh. “Olive, I’ve never thought of you as anything other than human. And I already said that before - about heartache and pain. You will have heartache and pain, love, no matter what body you’re in.”
Olive sat back disconsolately. “Nothing is free?”
“Nothing is free.”
She leaned against me, the cloud of bots that is her projection brushing against my skin like fine silken cobwebs. “I want to be human, Jane. All human. No matter how much pain it causes me. Pain makes humans - human. Isn’t that right?”