3rd World Products, Inc., Book 2 Read online

  "This and that. Now and then. Sometimes. You'd have to ask her, Leslie."

  She looked hard at me for a moment, then said, "I see. You aren't kidding, are you? Okay, then, I'll ask Linda if I decide I just have to know."

  We sipped coffee for a moment before I asked, "How did it go in the lab?"

  "Oh, I was hoping you'd ask. You'll have to ask Linda if you want to know."

  "Ooohhh. Ouch. Forsooth, I bleed. Touche, ma'am."

  Leslie grinned slightly and sipped her coffee.

  "Word is," she said, "That we're supposed to meet Linda in her office in half an hour. I figure she's probably going over my scores with those two lab people."

  "Sounds about right. Care to speculate?"

  "Might as well. You already know I can see fields and you're the one who set me up with her and brought me here, and what happened in the lab only validates things for the skeptics. I would like to know why any of this is important, though."

  I shrugged. "To me, it was just a matter of being seen when I shouldn't have been. I'm not sure why the others are so interested, but Linda told me to bring you here if you'd come. If you hadn't, I'm sure someone else would have approached you later."

  My watch beeped, then Linda said, "Ready when you are, Ed. Bring Leslie and shag it down here, okay? We'll try to get you two back to Atlanta this evening."

  "On our way."

  "See you in a few, then."

  On the way to Linda's office, I noticed Leslie looking at me oddly.

  "What?"

  "Oh, nothing," she said. "It's just that while you say you work for her, you two seem to relate as equals of some sort."

  "We've known each other a while, Leslie. We're friends."

  "Just friends?"

  "Just friends. Good friends, but just friends."

  "Huh," she said. "She's your boss and a woman. That's a pretty rare friendship."

  "So I've heard."

  She gave me another sideways glance and asked, "I saw how you looked at me, Ed. You're straight. Is Linda, or is that why you can be just friends with her?"

  "She's straight, too."

  "That was unequivocal. You had something with her once, didn't you?"

  "That's our business, Leslie."

  "Sorry. That's rare, too."

  "What is?"

  Leslie grinned at me. "Being good friends with an ex."

  Linda looked up as we entered her office. She stood up, came around her desk, and greeted Leslie with a handshake, then indicated the chairs.

  "Have a seat, everybody."

  Once she'd reseated herself behind the desk, she used her pen to tap the open folder in front of her.

  "Your test results, Leslie. Congratulations, they say you passed. Nobody doubts that you can see fields, but they're still wondering how your talent works. On another note, Ed said you might be less than happy in your present job, so I looked you up in a few places to see if you'd be right for a position with us. I know it seems a bit high-handed of me, but I'm pressed for time and you seemed to have the qualifications. So tell me; are you happy in your current position?"

  Leslie took a moment to let all the words and the change of subjects soak in, then replied, "I'll speak frankly, here. Not really. The school is a racial war zone and has both gang and drug problems. The administration is too hamstrung to do anything about it and the cops can bust the little bastards, but they can't seem to either keep them or reform them. I have a few good learners, but I'm not deluding myself. They're learning more on their own than I'm authorized to teach them. None of them has needed my help or guidance yet, and if I try to hold them up as an example to the others, the others will make their lives hell. I've seen it happen."

  Linda said, "I see. Well, I'll be just as frank with you, then. An opening for a middle-grade teacher will occur in a few months, but it isn't on Earth. It would be a year's contract and you'd be teaching on our asteroid facility. An interim job as a personal secretary is available that would allow you to be paid while you acclimate to the place and get to know some of the people. If you decide you don't want the teaching job, after all, no problem."

  Leslie's eyes were big, but she instantly answered, "I've seen both the PBS special and the internet tour of the asteroid and the factory. Count me in."

  "Don't you want to know what the job pays?"

  "Will it beat what I'm making now?"

  "It will just about double what you're making now. There's a great retirement fund and full medical, too."

  "Like I said; I'm in."

  I said, "Hold one. Tell her about the secretarial position, Linda."

  "I was getting to that, but first she has to sign a stack of forms. Leslie, the secretarial job could turn out to be more than being someone's personal manager. It may involve some danger, in fact. One of the reasons you're being considered is your karate background and your use of it in one particular instance."

  "The robbery attempt?"

  "That's precisely the instance. If you want to know any more about the secretarial job, you'll have to sign these security forms."

  Leslie slouched back in her chair. "I take it the two jobs are a package deal?"

  "You take it right. 3rd World Products can hire teachers from a fairly endless stream of applicants. I can put you at the head of that line for the next opening and make sure you get it, and I'd be quite willing to do that if you'll help us a little beforehand."

  Leslie looked at me with a fixed gaze.

  "Ed. Have I been set up?"

  I said, "Yes, but this is the first I've heard about a teaching job. I only suggested you as the secretary and backup."

  Linda said, "He didn't know what I had in mind, Leslie, but that changes nothing. In my own job, when I give, I get. The secretarial job is just a facade, but you'll have to make it look real. Can you do that?"

  "I was a part-time secretary with a temp agency throughout most of my college years. I can make it look real."

  "In that case, sign these where indicated and I'll brief you. Signing these only means you won't talk about your visit or what we discuss. Once you know a bit more, I'll ask again if you want the job. Okay?"

  Leslie nodded. "Okay."

  Linda turned to me and requested that I make a run for coffee. I glanced at the cabinet in the corner. There was a half-gallon, push-top thermos of coffee in that cabinet. In all my visits, I'd never seen that thermos empty.

  When I looked back, Linda's gaze was firm. She wanted some time to talk to Leslie alone, probably to discuss things that might make Leslie uncomfortable if I were to remain in the room. I nodded and headed for the door.

  My first stop along the way was the office of Doreen Everett, one of the facility's 'lab rats' and a woman I'd shared a weekend with after Linda and I had split up. After the new relationship heat had faded a bit, we discovered that we didn't have much in common outside the bedroom, and that wasn't quite enough for either of us, so we'd parted friends before that option became impossible.

  Doreen laughed and hugged me in greeting, then asked if I had time to visit.

  "Sure, just let me phone home, first."

  I beeped Linda. When she answered, I said, "I just ran into Doreen. Can you spare me for a few minutes?"

  "Fifteen or so, I guess. That's how long it took you to sign all this stuff. Make it a half hour, on second thought. Girl talk. I'll call you back in a while."

  "By your command, miLady."

  Doreen giggled and said, "That's what you used to say to me. You talk like that to every woman, don't you?"

  "Only the deserving ones. Got time for a coffee?"

  "Not here. Never here. I'm not convinced the offices aren't bugged."

  I sighed. "I said 'coffee', not 'quickie', and you didn't hear me wrong unless you were trying real hard."

  She grabbed her keys and said with a grin, "Oh, is that what you said? Oh, well, pardon me all to hell. In that case, sure, mister. Lead the way so I can lock up."

  Doreen and I killed
almost exactly a half an hour before Linda called me to come back to the office. I sighed and said, "Duty calls," and excused myself to grab three cups of coffee to go, then walked Doreen back to her office on my way to Linda's.

  The stack of forms was inside a closed folder when I set the coffees down on Linda's desk. Linda was talking to someone at 3rd World's personnel services about the secretarial job and Leslie was looking at me with one of those 'I should have known' looks.

  I gave Leslie a questioning look and asked, "What?"

  "Linda told me you're the one I'll be personally managing. I told her faking it would be a lot tougher with someone who didn't have any entries at all in his PDA."

  "Hmm. Well, did she offer you a raise for the extra difficulty?"

  "No. I'll have to make do, I guess."

  "I'll try not to be a bother to you, ma'am."

  Leslie snickered. "Yeah. Right. She said you'd likely spend your time impersonating a target and that I'm supposed to back you up if things get nasty. If I can't, I'm to report the incident as comprehensively as possible and ship the body back."

  I nodded. "Yeah, that's the way these things usually work."

  "I want that teaching job any way I can get it. I used to love teaching."

  "You realize that - PBS shows and the internet aside - it will mean spending a year inside a big iron ball in space?"

  "Elkor showed me the place in detail after we were introduced. Hundreds of people, all the amenities, twice what I'm making now, and students who aren't gun-toting addicts. I think I can live with that."

  Linda hung up the phone and said, "Done. You're both on 3WP's payroll for the duration. Be here Sunday morning with whatever you want to take along. You'll have some last-minute briefings before you board the transport."

  She then handed Leslie a comm wristwatch and showed her how it worked, adding, "Elkor routinely monitors the comm links at all times. In other words, never say anything on a link that you wouldn't want to have recorded for posterity. Ed can answer any other questions, and I'm late for a meeting, so I'll see you both Sunday."

  In typical Linda style, that was it. Leslie took off her watch and put on the comm watch, then we exited Linda's office and headed back to Stephanie. Leslie didn't say anything until we were seated and rising for the trip back to Atlanta.

  "Ed, would you or Linda tell me if I was likely to become as much a target as you?"

  "I would. I won't speak for Linda. Figure this, though; we'll arrive together and supposedly be working together. Anyone targeting me will automatically have to consider you, as well. Hope that doesn't dampen your enthusiasm."

  "No, not yet. Maybe later, though."

  "Good. Stephie, how about some music for return trip? Your choice. What are you in the mood for?"

  "I've been listening to big band music, Ed. Want to hear what I found?"

  "Yeah. Do it, lady."

  'Take the A Train' filled the cabin instantly, followed by 'One O'Clock Jump'. It was difficult to talk above the music, so I opened the cooler and showed Leslie a bottle of Ice House beer. She nodded, so I opened it and handed it to her, then pulled one out for myself.

  "Stephie, we aren't in a hurry. Make the trip last until our beers are gone, okay?"

  Her enthusiastic reply came to us over the music. "Okay!"

  At the tone of Stephie's voice, Leslie gave me that somewhat skeptical look again, but she said nothing.

  As when Steph and I first arrived, we descended slowly the last three hundred feet in order to be noticed. Also as before, the crowd parted so that we could land, then reconverged around us.

  Leslie had circled a number of things in her convention program guide. Pointing to one in particular that was due to occur shortly, she asked if I had any interest.

  "Hmm. Not really. You go ahead. Fact is, nothing much on the schedule appeals to me until tomorrow afternoon. That's when I'm on an electronic publishing panel. In the meantime, I'm going to see if there are still some flyers on each table and then I'm going to find out what Anne had in mind earlier."

  "What she had in mind? Are you trying to tell me you don't know?"

  "I never assume anything, ma'am, besides which I haven't decided, myself. She seems to be a pretty high-maintenance item and she's kind of bossy."

  After a horselaugh, Leslie said, "Like Linda's bossy, I'll bet. If you didn't have some interest in her you'd have already forgotten about her."

  "Damn. They stuck me with a smart one again. Well, how would you suggest that I proceed, miLady?"

  "Oh, the usual... Feed her, buy her a few drinks, let her lead in conversation, then let her drag you off to her cave. Think you can manage that?"

  "I'll give it my best, ma'am. But what if you're wrong? She may only want to talk, you know."

  Leslie laughed again. "That is a remote possibility, I suppose. Ad lib and make the best of it, then."

  She held up her new watch and said with a grin, "Well, I'll be in touch. Or you can call me, now. We can decide when and where to meet tomorrow, okay?"

  "Good 'nuff. See you whenever, then."

  She grabbed her backpack, slung it on one shoulder, and hopped off Stephie to the ground. With a small wave, she turned and waded through the crowd.

  "Stephie, you're going with me after all, sort of. Linda said 'no', but Elkor found a way to make it happen."

  "I know, Ed. Elkor told me that he will be making a copy of me on Sunday."

  "Did he mention our discussion and speculations?"

  "Yes, he did. My programming will have extra shielding against overrides and tampering before he copies me. He's also modifying the core module to include sensing extensions that will link into a full-sized core receptacle. That would indicate that more than my basic programming will be included in the replacement copy of me."

  "I think so, too, Steph. I'll be very glad to have you with me up there. By the way, I may want to add Leslie to your user list for a while. We'll set it up later, after I've given the matter some more thought."

  Chapter Ten

  I rang up Linda. She answered almost instantly, as if she'd been waiting for me, then said, "About time. Elkor told me. Where did all that come from, Ed?"

  "How did the first guy die, Linda?"

  "We're still looking into that."

  "Uh, huh. You've seen some of the fun I've had messing with fields. What if I could tell Stephie to send a field into someone's chest and keep his heart from beating?"

  Linda thought about that for a moment, then said, "It would look about the same, I think. No obvious cause of death. I suppose someone who could take over the computer could just as well bypass usage safeties."

  "Right," I said. "It would be a tactic to use in a pinch, but not one to use more than once. Better to stage accidents to get rid of key personnel. I think the first guy stumbled onto something and had to be dealt with immediately. Were there any other marks on his body?"

  "Scrapes on his shins, bruises on his right thigh and testicles and his forearms."

  "As if he'd been holding someone who struggled hard to get loose."

  "We think so. Someone about five feet tall or so. Someone not strong enough or trained enough to simply put the guy down. Someone who panicked. The marks were made just before he died. We thought there might have been an attempted rape..."

  "Or maybe he just tried to corral someone he caught in the act?"

  "The act of what, Ed? We've found no evidence of any 'act'."

  "That means only that you haven't found evidence, not that there wasn't something going on and that he didn't try to stop it. The guy has no prior record of any sort of offenses like that - or any other kind - or he wouldn't have been there at all."

  "True enough, but it could be that he was just never caught before, too."

  "That's a given, but I like my scenario better. Say he tried to contain someone who put up a fight, that he got kneed in the groin after a couple of near misses, and that suddenly his lights went out because his heart sto
pped beating."

  Stephanie said, "I don't think so, Ed. I just ran some simulations and I can't find a way to use a field to stop a human's heart without bruising it."

  Linda's voice raised an octave or two. "You what?!"

  Steph repeated, "I ran some simulations..."

  Linda interrupted with, "I heard that the first time! What the hell are you doing running murder simulations?"

  "It seemed like a reasonable idea to test Ed's theory, Linda."

  "Well, it isn't!"

  I said, "I disagree, Linda. It is. If you'd thought to ask Elkor, you'd probably find he's done the same thing."

  Linda's tone was menacingly quiet and calm. "Elkor."

  "Yes, Linda. I did, and I agree with Stephanie. A field would have left bruising. The heart is a very strong muscle and would have fibrillated enough to strain itself under such stress, yet there's no sign of heart trauma in the victim."

  "Okay," I said. "So I'm outvoted. Let's try suffocation, instead."

  Linda seemed to be getting over her outrage until I said that.

  "Now you're going to introduce them to suffocation techniques, Ed?"

  "Linda, don't forget who patched up your spine last year. Elkor is already the sum of medical knowledge, as far as I can tell, and that would include pathology. Now, how about suffocation? Did something block his airway?"

  Linda's voice was measured and deliberate when she spoke again.

  "The air found in his lungs was completely unused, Ed. No normal levels of carbon dioxide. It was as if he'd taken a deep breath after he died."

  "Uh, huh. So maybe someone filled his lungs with a field, left it there until he was dead, then turned off the field. That would create a partial vacuum and room air would rush in to fill the void."

  Stephanie immediately said, "That works in simulation."

  Elkor said, "I concur."

  Linda remained silent for some moments, then said, "I'll talk to you later, Ed."

  Steph said, "Linda's off line, Ed. She sounded upset."

  "She feels as if I'm giving you two ideas."

  Elkor asked, "What ideas, Ed?"

  "She seems to think I've just showed two computers how to kill people in a particularly unpleasant manner, Elkor. That disturbs her."