Book 3: 3rd World Products, Inc (43 page)

"We all knew your name,” she said. “Captain Wallace told us at our briefing that a wild card might be working with us. That was confirmed when you showed up. Just before the op started at the building, he told us that you were going into the building without us. We thought that was kind of strange."

"Did he say why I'd be working alone?"

Angela shook her head. “No, but after you made yourself disappear, it seemed kind of obvious that you were some kind of spook.” She chuckled and repeated, “A disappearing spook. That's pretty appropriate, isn't it? How'd you do that?"

"Classified magic. Sorry. They think anything that might be fun should be classified, you know."

We shared a laugh and ate some more salad. It became apparent that Steph made Angela nervous. I rather bluntly asked her about it.

"You keep glancing at my friend,” I said. “Does she make you nervous?"

Angela stifled a choke and avoided Steph's eyes as she said, “Uh, well ... Yeah, a little. She hasn't moved since we came aboard and she looks at us all the time."

Steph said, “I didn't realize that I was upsetting you, Angela. Would you rather that I look elsewhere periodically?"

Angela looked at me, then at Steph, and asked, “Are you making fun of me?"

I shook my head and said, “Nope. She's serious."

Steph raised a placating hand toward Angela and said, “I'm still learning how to interact with humans, Angela. I'm..."

"You're
what?
"

"I'm still learning..."

"I heard you. I'm trying to figure out what you're talking about."

"I'm not human,” said Steph.

Angela took a hard look at Steph, still uncertain whether she was being teased. Steph appeared to realize that Angela needed further explanation.

"Ed,” she asked, “Should I disappear and reappear for her?"

Angela asked, “Do what?"

I said, “Sure, ma'am. That might help."

Steph disappeared. Angela just about fell off her seat and over another one as she quickly stood and retreated a couple of paces. Steph reappeared where she'd been.

"You okay, Angela?” I asked. “Want me to hold that plate for you?"

"
No,
” she said sharply. “Just stay right where you are for a minute. You too, lady. Somebody tell me what's going on.
Now.
Why'd you bring me here?"

"Nothing's going on,” I said. “We were just talking. This woman is my flitter's computer and she's pretty good company, so take it easy. Sit and finish your salad."

"Why'd you bring me here? What do you want from me?"

Steph said, “We don't want anything from you, Angela. Ed invited you aboard as company. Ed, if you'd like, I could leave for a while."

I shook my head. “Nope. You're my friend. She's a guest; someone I barely know. If she can't handle having you here or if she's afraid of you,
she
can leave."

Angela lost her spooky look and seemed to puff up a bit even as she stiffened. Nobody likes being called a chicken; not even
almost
being called a chicken.

"I'm not afraid,” she said, “Just cautious.
Most
people I know can't disappear."

"I can,” I said. “You saw me do it. Now you know someone else who can, too. You can sit down and eat your salad or you can run for your life, whichever seems more appropriate, but if you decide to run, leave me your plate, okay?"

I forked up my last carrot stick and munched on it as I looked up at her. Angela just stared at me for a moment, then sat down and stabbed a piece of celery. As she crunched it between her teeth, she gazed directly at me.

I asked, “You're gonna make me make another trip to the salad bar, right?"

She ignored my question and asked one of her own.

"Are you human, or are you like her?"

"I'm human."

Steph said, “Ed, I can bring some or all of the food over here."

"We could even go over there,” I said. “Nobody
told
us we had to park here."

"Indeed so,” said Steph. “Shall I move us?"

"Sure. Is there room behind the tables?"

"There will be."

Angela snickered at Steph's matter-of-fact tone, then stiffened again as we began moving past the rows of sleeping people. Steph lifted the tables and moved them forward a few feet, then set down behind them.

I used my implant to field some salad items onto another plate, then brought the plate and the dressing bottle aboard the flitter.

Presenting the plate to Angela, I said, “Untouched by human hands, ma'am. Grab what you like."

At that moment, the CQ came running out of the office, heading straight for the area where we'd been parked. I stood up, leaned through the side of the canopy, and whistled softly to get his attention. He stopped, then approached us. Angela remained seated, waiting to see what would happen.

The guy looked puzzled. He could only see my head and shoulders poking through the apparent ‘hull’ of the flitter.

After a moment, he asked, “Why is this flitter over here?"

I gestured at the tables and said, “This is where the food is."

"Well, move it back with the others."

"Nobody told us where to park when we came in. Or where not to park."

"Well, I'm telling you,” he said. “Move it."

I looked at him for a moment, then asked, “You got a good reason for us to move?"

He ignored my question and said, “I said,
move
it."

I let him see my stunner and said, “You keep messing with us or wake anyone up and I'll zap you,” I said. “Go away."

"You keep saying
'us'
. Who is
'us'
?"

Angela stood up and leaned out beside me. “
We
are us, so leave
us
alone, Ted. We aren't hurting anything over here."

"I'll have to report this,” said Ted.

I grinned and Angela giggled as she asked, “Why bother? I think people will notice a flitter behind the tables in the morning, Ted. It's kind of big."

"Damned good point,” I said with a firm nod. “You're probably right about that, ma'am."

Ted abruptly turned and steamed back to the office. Angela watched him go for a moment, then turned to me.

"Would you really have stunned him?"

"Hell, yes. Sleep is too hard to come by when you're in the service. Doesn't matter what service it is. Besides, we're up and the night will be over in a little while."

She looked at her watch and said, “Oh, damn. It's already almost four. Look, I can still get a couple of hours. Can we talk later?"

"Sure you want to? Your boyfriend might not like it."

"You mean Ted? He's not..."

"No, I don't mean Ted, I mean your boyfriend."

"You just want to know if I have one, don't you? I don't. I'm kind of between boyfriends right now."

I grinned as I said, “Oh, that's downright tragic, ma'am. You have my sympathies."

She grinned back and said, “Save them for somebody else. The last guy was a power-tripping creep."

"Oh. Well, then ... Hey, do you like poetry?"

"Poetry? Uh, well ... Not much, I guess, or I'd know some."

"I write poetry now and then. Want to hear a short one?"

She pointed at her watch and asked, “How short?"

"Real short. It's called
'Smart Women'
."

I cleared my throat and recited:

Angela gazed intently at me for a moment, then asked, “
You
wrote that?"

Deliberately smugly, I said, “Yes, I did."

"Really?"

"Really. It's been on my website for years. Got some artwork up there, too."

With renewed surprise, she asked, “
You
have a website?” Shaking her head, she amended herself with, “What I mean is, how many spooks have websites?"

Yeah, right. She was looking at the gray in my eyebrows when she asked that.

"At least one,” I said, “Want to see it sometime?"

She eyed me for a moment, then said, “Yeah. I want to see it."

I wrote my URL on a napkin, then she handed me her plate and said, “When I get back to my room, I'll check it out."

I nodded. “Good enough. Sleep tight, and all that."

As Angela hopped off the flitter and headed for her bunk, Steph used my implant to say, “Ed, you're involved with Selena and Toni. Doesn't protocol require that you at least consult with them before involving yourself with Angela?"

Her tone held no disapproval; only curiosity.

"Angela isn't likely to grace my bunk anytime soon, Steph. She was quick to trip over our age difference and surprised as hell that someone my age had a website, even though she tried to cover it with that spook comment. She's also very conscious of how her boss, Wallace, would view matters."

"Then you're cultivating her interest only for reasons of friendship?"

"Friendship would be fine. Her interest would be fine, too, if it was in me and not in who I know within the company. Beyond my companionship, what would she get out of a relationship with me, Steph? A possible link to Linda's offices?"

"I see. Is that what you think, Ed? That she has an ulterior motive in making a connection with you?"

"Could be. She's the assertive, ambitious type or she wouldn't be on a mission team. It could be that she's really interested in a 52-year-old guy she just met. It might even be true that she didn't just make the most of an opportunity to catch me alone for a chat at three in the morning after a nasty mission. If so, fine. I can always use another friend. If not so, also fine. I can use an info link into Wallace's group, too."

I put the paper plates and plastic utensils in the trash and noticed that the bags inside the plastic cans were the red ones with the biohazard symbol on them.

When I reboarded the flitter, I asked Steph to move us back by the other flitters so that poor old Ted would have to rewrite his flitter report, then I stretched out on a field and slept until Steph woke me.

"Ed, Linda said to wake you and ask if you plan to sleep all day."

My watch read eight-fifteen. I poked the call button on my watch and said, “Well, Linda, I might have been able to sleep in if you hadn't wakened me to ask me that. What's up?"

Linda said, “Two guys in biosuits brought us some breakfast in sealed containers. Actually, they just opened a door long enough to shove the containers inside. I guess they didn't get the memo."

I combed my hair and said, “Guess they didn't.” Grabbing my mug and thermos, I asked, “Steph, are you coming with us?"

"No, Ed. I have something to do."

Huh? Something to do that she couldn't do with ten percent of her capacities or less? Or just an excuse to let everybody eat breakfast without the computer-lady present?

"Okay, then,” I said. “Pop in anytime, if you want."

"Thank you, Ed."

On the way to the food line, I told Linda about my encounter with Angela, then said, “If you want, Steph can play it back for you and you can draw your own conclusions."

Linda glanced at me while loading her tray.

"And if I think she's playing you, Ed? What then?"

As I filled my mug and thermos with coffee, I said, “Then we play her back and see what she's trying to accomplish. I don't think Wallace had anything to do with her contact with me, but it could be that she's looking for ways to curry some extra favor with her boss. Or you."

Linda gave me a somewhat longer glance and asked, “And what if she's just fond of older men, Ed? Some women are, you know."

"Then I'll count my blessings and never tell her that I had any suspicions about her motives, of course."

Linda grinningly asked, “Did anyone ever tell you that you think like a spy, Ed?"

"Yeah, once. Some ol’ girl I knew back in Germany, I think. She looked a lot like you, as I remember. Tall, brunette, beautiful in an officious sort of way..."

As we sat down at one of the tables, she said, “Hey, watch it. No qualifiers. I'm either beautiful or I'm not."

I nodded. “Oops. Right. Sorry. Done forgot my place again, ma'am."

"You do that a lot. Stop talking about me and dig in."

"Yas'm. Want to talk about Wallace, instead?"

"Not particularly, unless it's business."

"Might be. I think he's going to be a problem for you if you don't let him know up front and between the eyes that you keep your office and personal lives separate."

Linda stopped eating and looked at me.

"Ed, Wallace is my problem, not yours."

"Nope. Mine, too. He let me know last night that he plans on seeing me gone, Linda. The only way he can do that is through you or by going over your head. Since he knows that going over your head would piss you off, I'm thinking that he'll set it up so that someone else gets the credit."

Without batting an eye, she said, “So make sure he doesn't get what he needs to make a case for firing you."

"You've been here before, Linda. You know that
'find a way or make one'
people usually wind up
making
the way just to save a little time. If you get in his way, he'll resent you. If you
don't
get in his way, he'll think you're a dummy or a doormat."

Linda sighed and let her fork rest on her plate for a moment, then said, “Ed, you and Emory dislike each other intensely. How can I simply take your word for what he supposedly said to you after I left last night?"