Book 3: 3rd World Products, Inc (16 page)

"Yeah, well, you did catch me off-guard with that. I guess it was true enough, though. Elkor could have grabbed one of the other cores for my flitter. Question, Steph ... Could any of the other modular cores have turned out the same way?"

"Possibly. Probably, given the same circumstances."

One of the guys from the group behind us came running up to us and asked Stephanie, “Excuse me, but are you somebody famous?"

Steph glanced at me, then said to him, “No, I don't think so."

The guy seemed puzzled, then asked, “Uh, are you sure? I mean, if you're trying to avoid publicity or something ... Look, I'm not trying to bug you, but I
know
I've seen you before."

"Maybe on TV,” I said. “People tell us that she looks a lot like Ingrid Bergman."

"That's
it!
” the guy almost yelled. “I mean, that's
who!
Yeah! Wow! You do look like her! I just saw one of her old movies the other night and you really
do
look like her!"

"Bergman has staying power, doesn't she?” I asked. “None of the new crop of actresses seems to have the same ... Well,
presence
is the word, I guess. I haven't seen a new Grace Kelly among them, either.” I thought a moment and added, “Except maybe for Katharine Zeta-Jones. She seems to have that presence about her."

The guy nodded absently at my words, but he was looking at Steph as if trying to memorize her face. She started to say something, which seemed to break the spell.

"Oh. Uh, sorry,” he said. “I, uh ... I'll leave you two alone, now. Sorry."

He backed a pace away from us and turned to leave. As he walked toward his group, he glanced back at us—at Steph—a couple of times. She smiled at him and gave him a little wave, and he walked backward for a moment to return it with a smile of his own, then turned around just in time to barely avoid tripping at the edge of the sidewalk.

The parking lot was nearly empty by that time. Steph brought the flitter down and the guys by the arena entrance seemed frozen in gaping wonder as it settled near us. Steph caused the apparently-solid canopy to disappear, then caused herself to disappear from my side and reappear near the flitter's console, which caused some astonished comments from those watching.

I stepped up on the deck and grinningly asked, “Showing off, ma'am? A little magic for your adoring fans?"

She smiled and said, “Perhaps."

Reaching into Steph's invisible cooler, I produced an Ice House beer and twisted the cap off with a flourish, then drank some.

"They're college kids,” I said. “Making just about any kind of booze appear will impress them, too. May I suggest that we elevate ourselves a hundred feet or so before we draw a crowd?"

There was a beeping from above my head, so I pulled down my briefcase, opened it, and tapped on my datapad. Linda's face peered at me from the pad's screen.

"Hi, Ed. Your name came up in conversation a little while ago. How was the game?"

"Things went pretty well. Our team won and nobody fell out of her uniform."

"What? Oh. Yes. Well, that's good. My offices received a call from the Tallahassee PD today. A copy of the police report was faxed to my office and refaxed to me at home. You had quite an afternoon. Want to add anything?"

"Nope. The cops were pretty thorough, and I'd hate to make you do any work on a weekend."

"Thanks for your concern. How are you and your Inverness lady getting along?"

"Oh, fine. How are you and whosis these days?"

I heard her teeth click together and grind.

"We're ...
fine,
” she said, enunciating both words very separately. “Why do you persist in pretending not to be able to remember David's name, Ed?"

"Probably for the same reason that you seem to be unable to mention Selena's name, I guess. If you weren't my boss, you know I'd..."

She cut in with, “Yeah, yeah. All that. I know. We've been there, Ed. Twice, and it didn't work either time. Can't we move on?"

"Linda, the thought of your long, lovely legs in someone else's hands just warps my little heart so..."

She interrupted again. “
Enough.
You're just baiting me, now."

"I just wanted you to know how I feel about you, miLady."

"Uh, huh. What about your volleyball playing, college-girl redhead? Do you tell
her
how you feel about me? Later, Ed. I have to clean my boots now. Bye."

I couldn't help smiling as I said, “Bye, Linda,” just before the link went dead.

As I put away my datapad, Stephie said, “Ed, I'd like to ask you something."

"Fire away, ma'am."

"Why
do
you bait Linda?"

"Why does she call me when she's feeling a little down, Steph?"

"To use one of your own phrases, it beats the hell out of me, Ed. She always seems to be angry when she disconnects after these conversations."

"Dissect the conversation from where she asks about Selena, but calls her
'my Inverness lady'
. Compare the structure of the conversations to others containing the same people and subjects. Can you really envision Linda not remembering Selena's name? She probably ran Selena's security check from her own computer."

"Do you call David
'whosis'
to get even with her?"

"Nope. It isn't about David or Selena, Steph. Not really. What came after that?"

"As usual, one of you reminded the other that she's your boss and that your other attempts at relationships haven't succeeded."

"You got it. What usually comes next in these conversations?"

"Linda would express some variation of
'can't we move on?'
—as she did in this one—and you'd admit to being unable to do so. Is that true, Ed?"

"What would being unable to move on mean in this context, Steph? Emotional immobilization? An inability to function with other women?"

"Possibly both."

"Some women find that concept flattering, Steph, but if I were truly immobilized, how could I function with and appreciate Selena? What comes after that part?"

"You normally find a way to compliment her with a thinly veiled—if at all veiled—expression of desire for her, and you usually make some reference to her legs."

"And then..?"

"She most often accuses you of baiting or otherwise teasing her and you deny it, yet that's exactly what you
both
appear to be doing to each other."

"Only because we are, Steph. What next?"

"In this instance, she made reference to
'your volleyball, college-girl redhead'
and accused you of trying to mislead her. Then she broke the connection."

"Steph, in order for a woman to be on a college team, she'd have to be
what,
more than anything else?"

"Able to play that team's sport?"

"Well, that, too, I guess, but narrow it some more. In order to be in college, she'd be
what
, normally?"

Elkor put in his dime's worth, speaking through my implant. “The average college student is well under thirty years of age. Is Linda's age bothering her?"

"It's a common enough malady among over-fifties. What can she do about it that she isn't doing? She eats right, exercises, and generally takes good care of herself, but the woman in Linda's mirror still keeps getting older. To me, Linda looks great, and not just for being her age. She really looks great. But she needs to hear that now and then, and Linda won't simper and fish for compliments like some other women. She can't bring herself to do the wiggle, giggle thing, so she has to use other methods, and they can't appear to her to be too contrived. No
obvious
fishing allowed. So she calls a guy she trusts to speak his mind, knowing full well what he'll say. Then she tries makes him—me, that is—and herself believe that he was just being difficult, as usual."

Elkor asked, “Do you have any idea how convoluted that sounds?"

"Yup, but that's the way things have developed between us. Why not drop in on her right now, say you overheard our conversation, and ask if there's anything you can do for her? Let us know what mood she was in when you arrived and what you find out."

Elkor said, “It had occurred to me to ask how she felt, but for a different reason. I thought she might truly be upset."

"Uh, huh. Go. See if she's smiling and sneaking prideful, admiring glances at her legs while she works. Come back and tell us. I can't have my Stephie thinking that I'm a difficult person."

Steph had been closely watching a bird that appeared to be circling the flitter. She glanced at me and said, “Oh,
no
, heaven forbid that, of course. What if you're wrong, Ed? What if she's truly less than happy because of your conversation?"

"Elkor will tell me if he thinks so, and I'll avoid that line of banter in the future."

Typically for Elkor, he seemed to be present one moment and gone the next. He returned some five minutes later.

"I watched her for four point eight minutes before speaking,” he said. “Things were essentially as you predicted, Ed. She examined her legs with a slight smile for one point four minutes after my arrival and seemed to gather herself emotionally before going back to work. When I requested an audience and asked how she felt, she smiled and said that she felt fine. When I told her that I was disturbed by your comments to her, she rolled her eyes and said that you were her magic mirror. She also said that she could depend on you to say just the right thing to lighten her mood."

"Did she happen to say why she'd needed her mood lightened?"

"No, she didn't."

Stephanie said, “I still don't fully understand what happened between you and Linda, but if having a female persona means that I'll have to perform in such a manner, I think I'd prefer to be genderless."

"It doesn't mean that at all, Stephanie. You're perfect as you are and you'll never age or change unless you want to, so the problem shouldn't ever come up for you. The worst gender problem you're likely to face will be passes by men who won't realize that you aren't a flesh-and-blood woman. I can guarantee their abject disappointment, by the way."

The arena entrance doors opened and out stepped Toni and Selena. The guys by the door gave them a measure of admiration as they passed and the ladies did as ladies often do at such times; they pretended to ignore the guys. I noticed that both women seemed to walk a little straighter and step with a slightly longer stride for several paces, though, before they stopped and looked around the parking lot.

Steph maneuvered us above them, and as we descended, I heard Toni ask, “So where are they?"

"Up here, waiting for you,” said Steph as we descended beside them.

Toni backed up a pace, but Sel simply tossed her bags aboard and stepped up on Stephie's deck. Toni did likewise a moment later. The guys by the doors were speechless, except for the one who'd approached us.

"Hey, can we get a ride, too?” he asked.

"Not this trip,” I said. “We have to be someplace soon."

Steph lifted and we were on our way back to the motel and Toni's Mustang. Through my implant, Steph told me that we were traveling at one hundred feet and two hundred miles per hour. I thanked her, then tapped my beer bottle and said, “The choices are beer or Dr Pepper."

Both ladies opted for beer, so I fished one for each of them out of the cooler. Sel twisted the cap off hers and took several long pulls before she settled back in her seat and put her feet up on her gear bag.

Toni opened her beer while looking first at me, then at Steph. After drinking some of it, she adopted a two-handed grip on the bottle and tense demeanor as she glanced around the flitter.

"Since there's no hurry now,” said Steph, “I thought we'd remain at a low altitude and a low speed to accommodate Toni. Is that satisfactory for everyone?"

I nodded and Selena shrugged and said, “Sure."

To our surprise, Toni said, “No. I don't want to be a drag and I'm tired of being afraid. If I get crazy you can zap me with those ... theta wave things again."

"Flying is flying,” I said. “If you can get used to being a hundred feet off the ground, we can try you with higher altitudes some other time. This isn't an endurance test, Toni. It's just a way to get from place to place, and like Steph said, we aren't in any kind of a hurry. How are you doing?"

She glanced around the flitter before answering, “I ... Not bad, I guess. Not like before, anyway. Are you using the theta waves?"

"You'd have to ask Steph about that."

Toni seemed surprised that I didn't know, then she looked at Steph questioningly.

"No,” said Stephie. “I hadn't planned to, unless they become necessary."

Selena seemed to have something on her mind. She looked at me for some moments, then looked at Steph the same way for a few more before sipping her beer again and adjusting her position. Some fidgeting moments later, she kicked her bag away and leaned her seat back, then sipped her beer again.

When she lowered the bottle, she stared at it as she said, “Ed, one of the security guards told us what happened. Why weren't you the one to tell us?"

"You were in a hurry to get to the showers. What did the guard tell you?"

She glanced up at me with considerable irritation. “Only that the guy from the flitter just stood there and let some asshole unload a gun at him."

"You make it sound so dangerous when you say it that way. Stephie had me covered and I had my five suit on."

"Your five suit won't stop bullets, Ed. That was a helluva stupid thing to do."

"Didn't I just say
'Steph had me covered'
? What's stupid about that?"

Pulling her gaze back aboard the flitter, Toni tensely asked, “Your
what?
"

"I call it my five suit. Also
'option five'
. It's a personal protective field."

With a skeptical glance, she said, “Show me."

I said, “Five suit on. How does it look, Toni? Good enough for an evening out?"

She peered at me. “I don't see a damned thing. Are you sure it's working?"

"Yup. Five suit off."

Toni stared hard, then said, “I didn't see anything."