3rd World Products, Book 16 (23 page)

I sent her a ping. She answered with a tense, high-pitched, “
Yes?! Why the hell are we down here?!
”
 

“You were having too much fun upstairs, ma’am. Remember talking about developing confidence?”
 

“Yes.”
 

“Well, now you can have some more. The boards work underwater. Just watch out for the gators.”
 

Glancing around, she yelped, “Gators?!”
 

“I didn’t say there was one. I just said to watch for them. Had enough of being underwater yet?”
 

“Yes!”
 

Without further comment, I shot my board up and out of the water to cruise around the lake. Tanya launched out of the water and made it to a thousand feet before stopping.
 

I sent, “Look south. Fifty feet above the water.”
 

She descended and caught up with me in silence. I headed us east at two hundred miles per hour, hopping over and around obstacles to make her familiar with what might appear in her path at low altitudes.
 

About five minutes later we rocketed through the town of Ormond Beach, flashed over the Halifax River, and headed out over the Atlantic Ocean. I kicked my speed up to three hundred, then four hundred. Tanya caught up after each increase and took a position beside me rather than behind.
 

After taking some time to marvel and acclimate to our speed, she sent a ping. I answered, “Yewww got me!”
 

“Where are we going?”
 

“Well, Morocco is due east a ways. Any interest?”
 

“No, not really. Why are we out here?”
 

“Nothing to hit. We can go as fast as we want.”
 

“You said we couldn’t hit anything back on land. That the boards wouldn’t let us.”
 

“Yes’m, that’s absolutely true.”
 

There was a moment of silence, then she asked, “So, again, why are we out here?”
 

Slowing my board to a stop as she shot past me, I turned the board northward, sat down cross-legged on it, and waited for Tanya to swing around and return. She drew alongside on my right and aligned her board with mine.
 

Gesturing around, I asked, “What do you see, ma’am?”
 

She glanced around and replied, “The ocean.”
 

“Yup. Lots of it. Anything else?”
 

“You. What are you getting at?”
 

“Which direction am I facing?”
 

“We were heading east.”
 

“Yup. But which way do we go to get back to shore?”
 

Pointing behind us, she replied, “Back the way we came, of course.”
 

“A right answer that’s wrong. I’m not facing east now.”
 

Looking around more carefully, she saw nothing but apparently endless ocean. I saw her face change with the realization she had no idea which way to go. When her gaze returned to me, it was very stark, indeed, possibly worse than when she’d been underwater.
 

I said, “I don’t know why you’d ever find yourself in this situation, but people do manage to get themselves lost sometimes. If you know which direction to go, tell the board. If you know a city or country in the right direction, tell the board. For now, just tell it to face west.”
 

She did so and her board swiveled to point at me. With visible relief, she asked, “Now what?”
 

Unhooking my coffee from my pocket, I offered the mug to her. She took it and drank some, then I drank some and put it back on my pocket.
 

I said, “Unless you’d like to do some tanning or underwater touring, we’ll head back to shore.”
 

She looked down at the water and shuddered. “We’ll head back to shore.”
 

Chapter Fifteen
 

Judging by the sun, we reached shore at about eleven. I could have shown her more, but it was time for a decent break. We landed between a couple of SUVs in a nearly-empty restaurant parking lot and entered the bar facing the beach. The bartender raised an eyebrow when we only ordered a couple of iced teas, but she nodded and brought them.
 

On the wooden deck above the sand we found chairs at a table and sat for a time in silence before Tanya said, “This place is almost dead.”
 

“Yup. The hotel next door is due for demolition.”
 

Tanya used her cell phone to call the hospital about Jessica. Flicking the phone off when her conversation ended, she said, “They think she’ll be available around noon.”
 

“That’s hospital-speak for ‘
let’s screw up lunch for the patients
‘. Half the staff will be off having their own lunch, so an influx of visitors will slow things down twice as much. Jessica’s lunch will show up half an hour late. She’ll have to try to eat her first post-accident meal left-handed with a broken nose in front of other people. Or let the food sit on the bed under her nose until they’re gone.”
 

Giving me a fisheye over a sip of her tea, Tanya said, “That sounds like experience speaking.”
 

“Yup. Sure is. Several times. Just glad I wasn’t the one in for repairs. I suggest we don’t show up until one or so and go see Marie first. She can manage lunch better.”
 

Tanya froze, then finished setting her glass down and used her board commo to send, “
Another
change of plans?”
 

“Adaptation is the key to survival, ma’am.”
 

She gave me a droll look and sent, “And how does this help us survive, exactly?”
 

“We can add an element of confusion. Call Jessica and tell her we’ll drop by after we see Marie. Seems likely they’re monitoring her.”
 

“Why would they monitor Jessica?”
 

“They were probably just loosely watching her before they lost us when we flew away. They’d have had a hissy fit and put tags on any possible source of info. A friend in trouble would fit that bill nicely. Figure there’s a bug on her bed and a camera in her room by now. If she has a phone, it’s tapped.”
 

Linking to my core, I checked Tanya’s home and cell phones. They were now being monitored as well. As Tanya took out her phone, I sent, “Seems likely your phone’s tapped, ma’am. Be careful what you say.”
 

Tanya eyed her phone and set it on the table, then sent, “Suddenly I feel like washing my hand.”
 

“Just consider it a resource, ma’am. People are quicker to believe what they think they’ve overheard.” With a shrug, I appended, “Well, most of them, anyway. There are always a few who won’t believe anything until they’ve seen it happen.”
 

“Ed, has it occurred to you we might be moving too fast?”
 

Shrugging, I replied, “Nah. We’re just having some private fun. Neither of us is ready to call it ‘love’ yet.”
 

Tanya snorted a chuckle and gave me another of her ‘very droll’ expressions.
 

Pretending realization, I sent, “Oh. You mean about sampling Marie and all.”
 

She mocked, “Yes. Sampling my mom and all.”
 

“No. Speed of action has nothing to do with it. That’ll happen when we make it happen. All we’re doing by visiting Marie first is adding a layer of obfuscation.”
 

“Do we really
need
another layer of obfuscation?”
 

“Can’t hurt. You can be in such a state after seeing both Marie and Jessica that you’ll throw a hissy fit of your own. Very understandable. I’ll try to take your mind off things with some really hot flying. We’ll be out of sight again and we can haul ass for Guyana.”
 

“Didn’t you say Guyana was over two thousand miles away? Wouldn’t going there and back take ten hours?”
 

“Not by flitter. We’ll rendezvous with Galatea and…”
 

Holding up a hand, Tanya asked, “
Galatea?
Who’s that? Another AI?”
 

“Yup. The one in my flitter.”
 

Tanya started to say something more, then her gaze switched to something beyond my left shoulder.
 

She said, “The waitress is watching us.”
 

“Probably because we seem to be having a conversation, but she can’t hear anything. Want to order lunch?”
 

Looking at her watch, Tanya seemed surprised. “It’s almost noon. Are you hungry?”
 

“Not really, but we have an hour to kill and if we eat now, we won’t be hungry at two or three.”
 

She nodded. I turned and waved the waitress over to ask for menus. She gave us an odd sort of encompassing glance as she stepped away.
 

“Oh, yeah,” Tanya said aloud, “She thinks we’re weird.”
 

I shrugged and answered in kind. “She sees a lot of ‘weird’ in this job. File it.”
 

Tanya echoed, “File it?”
 

“That’s what you can say when ‘fuck it’ seems too harsh. Means essentially the same thing. Toss it in the round can.”
 

Somewhat archly, she asked, “Because she’s
just
a waitress, you mean?”
 

“Nope. A waitress can call a cop as easily as anyone else. But waitresses see it all, ma’am; the good, the bad, and the bizarre. Because she could lose hours and tips to lengthy police procedures, she likely wouldn’t call the cops unless we made a big ruckus or tried to leave without paying.”
 

“You said it wasn’t, then you explained why it was.”
 

“Guess so. But it isn’t a matter of status or station, which is what you were really asking. I’m going with a burger basket.”
 

She studied the menu briefly, then nodded. “Me, too.”
 

We ordered, then I asked, “Why would you want to see Marie twice in one day?”
 

“Excuse me?”
 

“We’ll need a second visit to deliver treatment.”
 

“Oh. Yeah, okay. I don’t know. What would work?”
 

“What kind of soft candy does she like?”
 

Tanya canted her head and asked, “Now you want to give her candy?”
 

Enough automatic questioning responses.
 

I asked, “Do you really have to be told why I’d want to give her candy, ma’am?”
 

Her gaze dimmed and narrowed. “You’ll use delivering it to get back in and put the treatment in it. Why the attitude?”
 

“A half-second of thought gave you the answer. Automatic needless questions are unnecessary.”
 

Her left eyebrow arched. She asked, “You really mean they’re ‘annoying’, right?”
 

“And there was another one. You already knew the answer, but I deliberately avoided that word because I’m trying to avoid annoying you.”
 

“Too late.”
 

“Oh, I dunno. You look more irritated than annoyed.”
 

“There’s a difference?”
 

“Why have two different words if there isn’t?”
 

Glowering at me, she asked, “Why are you pushing me?”
 

“I just want to see something.”
 

“You want to see how I’ll react.”
 

“See? You did it again. You already knew why. Partly.”
 

“Partly? What the
hell
does that mean?”
 

Sipping my tea, I said, “Is the waitress still giving us little ‘what the hell’ glances, or has she written us off as two people having a very private squabble?”
 

Still glowering, Tanya looked and said, “She’s doing something behind the counter. She just
erased and changed something with a pencil. Now she’s counting money.”
 

“Gotta make the numbers match. If she’s doing things like that, she’s no longer paying any attention to us.”
 

Tanya’s gaze switched back to me. “You want me to believe you were just bugging me to make her think we were having a fight?”
 

I chuckled, “You have a tendency to ask questions that contain your answers, ma’am. What’s she doing now?”
 

Looking again, Tanya said, “She’s looking at tickets on a rotating rack and talking to someone in the kitchen.”
 

“She probably has to change another ticket to reflect her new count. Is she paying any attention to us at all?”
 

Tanya’s eyes found mine. “No. Okay, you made that point, but what about the rest of it?”
 

“If you want something to be convincing, use a grain or two of truth in it.”
 

“So you really were annoyed?”
 

I chuckled, “See? You did it again. If time and circumstances permit, never ask questions about things you can figure out on your own. You’ll seem like a quiet genius to most people.”
 

“Uh, huh. What if I figure wrong?”
 

“So far you haven’t. If time is short or circumstances are dire, go ahead and ask. Better safe than sorry.”
 

Tires screamed outside. I glanced out the big window just as a silver pickup truck T-boned an SUV in the middle of the intersection. The SUV had been making a left turn.
 

Linking to my core as I stood up, I sent probes to both vehicles. The pickup driver was shaken badly, but had no serious injuries. The only injury in the SUV was a young boy who’d been sitting in the passenger seat. He wasn’t breathing, his pulse was fading, and he had obvious head injuries.