3rd World Products, Book 16 (32 page)

“Well, among other things, I keep thinking I’ve overlooked something.” Sipping my drink, I said, “And I can’t figure out why your mom hates me so much. I never did a damned thing to deserve it that I know of.”
 

Tanya canted her head and said, “I know I haven’t been around as long as you and Linda, but listen to me, okay? After Martin died, I learned to avoid couples. Well meaning friends from before took me to dinner and I’d watch them talk and laugh and… and I’d get jealous. I’d think, ‘yours is still alive’ and sometimes I actually seemed to hate her for a little while. It would pass. It always did, but it always seemed to come back, too. It was ‘
Go ahead and laugh. Yours is still alive
‘.”
 

She paused and sipped tea, then said, “Maybe some version of that is what’s bugging her. You’re alive. Someone else isn’t. It wouldn’t matter whether it was your fault. It
could
be that simple, couldn’t it?”
 

I shrugged. “Damned if I know. People come up with all kinds of… stuff. One woman hated me for years because she thought I was mooching off her sister, based on one incident when I had to get to work and couldn’t find my wallet. Found out later my wife had washed it with some clothes while she was drunk. I tapped her for twenty and ran out the door ‘cuz I was already late. It was ten years before we straightened things out.”
 

Looking enlightened, Tanya asked, “Is your wife the reason you’re so down on drunks and drug users?”
 

“She was just the first and the one I remember best ‘cuz I married her. Since then, several of my friends have been killed or severely damaged by drunks and druggies. Some others had their lives trashed by them. One almost lost his home because his son was selling drugs there.”
 

With a gesture of dismissal, I said, “History. On to happier topics. Can you get tomorrow off, too?”
 

Shaking her head, Tanya said, “Probably not without an emergency, and I’d really prefer not to have one of those. Can I ask you something?”
 

“Okay.”
 

“Why did you use a credit card here? We both have cash left over from Aspen.”
 

“Yup. Who’d want to know where we are, ma’am?”
 

“Oh. And watching your credit cards would be… So why didn’t you use it at the bar in Aspen? Oh, wait. You got money on it at the ATM.”
 

“Yup. And a cop checked us out in Aspen and more cops checked us out at the accident on the Interstate. Remember when you asked if Elgin and the others could see us and I said, ‘not yet’?”
 

“Uh… Yes. That took me a minute, but yes.”
 

“Well, this is that ‘yet’ and there’s a neat little trail of bread crumbs. The only questionable part of the day is a two-hour window when we went to Guyana, and they’ll probably fill in that blank with their own ideas.”
 

“Their own ideas?”
 

“They saw you leave Jessica’s hospital. They saw us go back to flying above Lake George, then they saw us land in the woods. A while later they saw us fly up from the woods and head for your place. A while after that they saw us leave on the flitter.”
 

Tanya sipped her drink and said, “And not long after that, your credit card was used in Aspen. Then the cops. Then your credit card was used here.”
 

“Yup. Do you see any unexplainable gaps?”
 

“Just the time at the lake. What were we doing for two hours in the woods…?” But even as she asked, realization struck her and she said, “Oh. They’ll think… Oh, God…”
 

She shook her head disbelievingly and lightly smacked a palm on her forehead, then said, “And you made that crack about Elgin’s legs, then about not being able to look at other women… Oh, damn! I feel so damned
dense
right now! You’ve been stacking things up like alphabet blocks all day!”
 

I chuckled, “Don’t feel dense. I was trying not to be noticed. Besides, if you didn’t notice, maybe they didn’t either. Today was supposed to look like us honeymooning like a couple of kids. Which we were.”
 

Tanya said nothing for a time. She sipped again, then picked up her fork and picked at her food for a while.
 

When she pensively set her fork down and sipped again, I asked, “Are you okay, Tanya?”
 

Looking at me, she stated, “I’m not sure.”
 

I waited for more. After a moment, she asked, “Is this the kind of… stuff… you and my mom used to do?”
 

With a shrug, I said, “Minus the sex, yes. We’d engineer escapes. That meant providing distractions for watchers and misleading them while things got done.”
 

She regarded me thoughtfully for a time, then said, “Boy, I’ll bet this little adventure was like returning to the thrilling days of yesteryear for you. Was any of it real?”
 

“Of course it was real. We got the job done and had a good time while we did it. What part of that didn’t seem real?”
 

“A good time, huh? Was that all it was for you?”
 

Maybe I blinked. I certainly stared at her. I really couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
 

“What the hell are you talking about? Do you think I was faking anything when we made love?”
 

She coolly replied, “I’m not sure what to think now.”
 

Forking up some green beans, I said, “Then don’t think at all. Just let things happen until you have more to go on.”
 

Putting her hands together in her lap, Tanya said, “I… I’m not sure I can do that, Ed. Not now.”
 

With a mental sigh, I thought, ‘
Yeah, right. Of course. No good deed goes unpunished. Or maybe she never intended to go any farther once her mom was fixed and this is how she’s going to bail out.
’
 

Whatever. I wasn’t going to air things out in a restaurant. We had half an hour or so of flight to Florida for hashing. I finished my meal in silence while Tanya picked at hers. Wadding up my napkin, I tossed it by my plate and sipped my tea, then stood up to visit the restroom.
 

I said, “I’m gonna take a leak, then I’m out of here. Finish up if you’re coming with me.”
 

Tanya looked up as if she had something to say, then didn’t say it and poked at her food. I went to the restroom and returned to find her getting to her feet. There were a few bucks on the table. Nice of her to get the tip.
 

Outside to the flitter, up and southeastward into the night sky. Settling back in my seat, I thought about the day. Had I at any time
not
seemed sincere, damn it? Yeah, I was pissed. Real pissed. I couldn’t believe she’d somehow come to the conclusion it was all a con. It was easier to believe I was the one who’d been conned. Maybe she’d pretended the whole thing; from tailing and meeting me to going all glassy-eyed on the end of my dick. Job done and she got a few good lays in the process. Great actress. Oscar grade.
 

With a glance at Tanya in her seat, I had Tea morph into standard configuration. Ignoring Tanya’s startled reaction to being hoisted upward as the flitter changed around her, I got up and went to stand at the end of the rear deck.
 

I don’t like being pissed off. Aggravated or irritated can be caused by outside influences, like a flat tire or a tree limb falling on the house. They’re unintentional happenings, so they aren’t worth much emotion. But being truly pissed off usually means something I really care about is fucked up, and such things are almost always my own damned fault in some manner.
 

This felt like one of those things, either in that I’d somehow screwed things up or I was thinking in a manner guaranteed to make them worse. Or both, I suppose. I reached for my coffee mug and it wasn’t on my pocket. Damn. Turning around, I started back to my seat and saw Tanya standing by hers. I stopped and eyed her.
 

She looked upset. Extremely upset. Wringing her hands and on the verge of tears. More exemplary acting? Scratch that, it’s assuming something. Never assume. Only idiots assume. Gawd, she looked delicious and I could smell her from here. I felt like slapping myself to clear my head. Damn it, I couldn’t even
think
while I was looking at her. Was I that far gone? Had I followed my
stupid damned dick and tongue right up to a goddamned chopping block?
 

Chapter Twenty-one
 

I needed to hear something that would decide the matter right then and there. Something that would… that would… do the same for her. Tanya looked as if she’d burst into tears if I said ‘boo’. Real? If so, why? If not, why? I’d told myself not to assume, then I’d done it anyway. Duh. Turn off the heart, turn on the head, don’t continue being stupid.
 

With that thought, my pulse began to slow. I hadn’t even realized how fast it had been, nor how strong. Looking at anything but Tanya to keep from spiking again, I located my mug and sipped some coffee. Better. Familiar motions. Tastes. Something else to think about for a second.
 

I cleared my throat, tried to speak, and failed the first attempt. A sip of coffee helped and I said, “If this was all just a fancy con to get me to help you with Marie, you
fucking
well accomplished
that
mission, ma’am. Just send me a grand when you have it and keep the goddamned board. You won’t have to see me again. Tea, slow down and let me know when I can get off, then take her home, please.”
 

With that, I called up my board, but as I stepped onto it, Tanya lunged forward, grabbed my arm, and almost yelled, “
No! Wait!
”
 

I said, “You can’t un-think the thoughts that made you ask if it was real. Same here. Did you use me? Was it all just an act? How the
hell
would I know? Don’t forget, I knew your mom at her best. Maybe you just came by it naturally, same as she did.”
 

The shock and outrage in her eyes looked real. So did the blindingly fast slap that Tea stopped an inch from my face. Tanya seemed to realize another dose of shock as she stared at her hand, then she galvanized.
 

She grabbed my arm in both hands and pulled hard as she yelled, “
No! Goddammit, I almost
hit
you! Get off that board! You can’t leave like this!
”
 

And by that time, Tea was cushioning our fall. I landed gently on my back with Tanya suspended in stasis above me.
 

Scooting out from under her, I said, “Tea, thank you, but let her go, please. I think we have to have this out.”
 

Tea said, “Yes, Ed,” then said, “Miss Connor, violence is not allowed aboard flitters.”
 

She turned Tanya in the air to stand her on her feet before releasing her. Tanya tottered briefly, then yelped, “What the
hell
just happened to me?!”
 

“Galatea used a stasis field to immobilize you. Amaran protocols don’t permit violence in the presence of an AI.”
 

Tanya looked at the console and took a moment to process that, then asked me, “
You
thought
I
used
you?!
”
 

I gave her an arms-wide ‘
have yourself a fucking epiphany’
look and said, “Hey, check it out, ma’am! Marie’s as fixed as anyone can make her and all of a sudden you tell me over dinner that our honeymoon’s
over?!
What the hell
else
was I supposed to think? If I was into cliches, I’d have used the one that says there’s no fool like an old fool. I was tempted to let you
walk
home from Denver!”
 

Tea said, “Ed, it is now safe for you to disembark,” and Tanya snapped, “We aren’t through yet!” Closing her eyes and seemingly counting to ten, she said to the console, “Sorry. I didn’t mean to yell at you.”
 

With a sigh, she added, “And
now
I’m apologizing to a damned
machine!
And
you
think
you’re
the fool? The way you slapped one layer on top of another like you were laying bricks in a wall or something… What was
I
supposed to think?!
What?!
”
 

As sardonically as possible, I replied, “Oh, gee, I dunno! Maybe that you’d been part of something
important?!
You weren’t just a coincidental fuck, you know. I was thinking about how good you’d look standing on a castle wall. How you’d smile and go apeshit shopping and make happy noises at the antique scenery. You know all those little picture postcard villages you see in… well, in picture postcards? And in magazines? On travel shows? Well, guess what? They’re real! All we had to do was
go
, y’know? Just pack a damned bag and go! Who gives a rat’s ass what else I might have to do?”
 

“What do you mean, ‘what else you might have to do’?”
 

“If I’d run off with you, I’d still have been on tap for Angie. And Linda. And
me
. Sometimes the past comes back, like Mike’s crash and this Brian White guy. We have to know.”
 

“We meaning ‘you and Linda’, right?”
 

“And Marie. And even Will and Connie. If it wasn’t an accident, it was murder, and Mike was one of us back when we
were
an ‘us’.”