3rd World Products, Book 16 (48 page)

She obviously wanted more of an answer, but decided she had enough for the moment. Nodding, she sipped and said, “Okay.”
 

So I started the show again, briefly detailing or otherwise explaining various bits. Elgin stopped things a few times to read screens or get clarification of something, but then we got to Marjory and her collar. Elgin flatly couldn’t believe what she was seeing as the probe view showed the bolts and det cord.
 

She blurted, “
My God! That’s Primacord, isn’t it?!
”
 

“Yup. Over a foot of it, embedded in the plastic and under the bolt mounts.”
 

“
My God!
” she said again, “That’s enough to vaporize that poor kid’s head!”
 

I didn’t bother agreeing. I kept quiet and continued the show. Elgin recognized the detonation devices, too, even though fiber optic lasers aren’t all that common yet. I showed her how to use the screen and she took some time to run the show back and forth in places to reexamine what she’d seen.
 

Stopping the show where Tanya had stepped off the flitter, I sat back and sipped.
 

Elgin sat very still for a time, eyeing the screen pensively as she sipped. Taking a deep breath, she asked, “Why did you show me that?”
 

“Because they’ll slap a lid on it and try to hide it under bullshit. I’m not looking for credit; I want witnesses like you to know what really happened and I want you to have a copy of this tonight if you have anything big enough to hold it.”
 

“And if I don’t?”
 

“Then we’ll stop at one of those all-night-everything stores and I’ll buy you something to hold it.”
 

She tried to sip and seemed surprised to find her glass empty. I took it to make a couple of new drinks as she eyed the screen. While I poured, I heard parts of the show replay at double speed. I didn’t bother watching.
 

When I handed her a fresh drink and sent cooling tendrils, she reached up, then stopped to ask, “Is it safe to touch?”
 

“Yup.”
 

She ran her fingers over the tendril, then wrapped her hand around it and peered closely at it.
 

“So that’s the same kind of field energy the girl used?”
 

“Yup.”
 

“Why didn’t your fields work against hers?”
 

“They worked fine. She was just too damned strong. I’d have stunned her cold if I could have. But I couldn’t. Neither could Stephanie, and she’s an Amaran supercomputer AI. How much of Ocala would have looked like Cosgrove if she’d gotten out?”
 

In the middle of sipping her new drink, Elgin swallowed quickly, held up a hand, and shook her head tersely.
 

“No! No, Ed, I completely understand why you did it. I really do. She was punching out walls and killing people. There was just no other way.”
 

I chuckled drily, “Even
I
can
punch
out walls, ma’am. She was making the damned things
vanish
. Poof. Gone. They just fucking disappeared without even a puff of smoke.”
 

That brought Elgin’s eyes into a lock with mine. “What do you mean, you can punch out walls? You can do what she did? I thought you were using the flitter’s probes in that fight.”
 

Pulling up another screen, I showed Elgin a view of my skull. Just behind each ear were small silver ovoids. I pointed them out and said, “Mostly, I was using the flitter’s probes through the screen. I can control them with these PFM implants. Nobody really knows why they’ve worked so well for me, but not for anybody else who’s had them. I can make tendrils, domes, and other stuff with them, but nothing as powerful as she did. My stuns were like throwing pebbles at a damned bear. Totally useless.”
 

She eyed the silver eggs and said, “I thought PFMs were flat.”
 

“Most are, but they can be shaped.”
 

“But why’d you have them… installed… like that?”
 

“Seemed convenient at the time. No regrets so far.”
 

“But… that means you can’t take them off.”
 

I shrugged. “Yeah, and…? Why would I want to?”
 

Elgin seemed to be looking for a way to say something. I sat back, sipped, and let her grope for a way that suited her. She crossed her legs again in what seemed to be an unconscious fashion and I studied her thighs briefly, then looked up to see her watching me.
 

“Sorry,” I said, “But they’re gorgeous. I just can’t help it.”
 

She snickered, “I’ll bet you forget your own name at a beach.”
 

“Yeah, that’s my burden in life, I guess.”
 

Snorting a soft laugh, Elgin asked, “Before… what I was getting at was… well, are your PFMs like everyone else’s?”
 

Hm. I hadn’t thought about that. “Good question. Tea, are mine like everyone else’s?”
 

“Yes, Ed. They were merely shaped as required.”
 

“Thank you, ma’am.”
 

I said to Elgin, “There you have it. Why’d you ask?”
 

Elgin fussed with her glass, then sipped, then took a breath and asked, “Well, what if… what if, sometime before you die, you decide you want to have kids? I could see that happening, I think, even if you just used a sperm bank.”
 

Hm, again. I opened my mouth as if to speak, then closed it and sipped. Would she take the bait?
 

After a sip of her own, Elgin asked, “What? You were going to say something. What was it?”
 

“Something funny. Or maybe not so funny, I guess, depending on whether you think I’m at all attractive.”
 

That made her blink. She looked me up and down and canted her head as she studied me, then said, “For your age, you’re attractive enough. You’d find someone who’d want your children, I’m sure of that.”
 

I chuckled, “That’s not saying all that much, ma’am. Some of the matchups I’ve seen make me wonder if people shouldn’t have to get breeding licenses before they get marriage licenses.”
 

Elgin chuckled with me for a moment, then said, “Again, you were going to say something. What was it?”
 

Sighing, I admitted, “Like I said, something intended to be witty that might have been more like half-witty. I got by fifty years without ‘em and I have a flitter who can do field stuff for me. I was gonna say that for a chance with a golden goddess like you, I’d have these things yanked outta my head like a pair of bad teeth.”
 

A pink flush overcame Elgin’s light tan across her neck and shoulders. Excellent. A blush most often also meant a thrill.
 

Chapter Thirty
 

Elgin sat very straight. Her legs uncrossed and her knees drew together snugly for a moment, then relaxed. She took another sip and it seemed a fairly long one, then she took a deep breath and spoke rather carefully.
 

“No,” she said, “Not half-witty at all. In one sense, it’s exactly the kind of thing I’ve been led to believe you’d say to a woman. To me, in particular, because I’m fairly attractive and in a position of authority. In another sense, I’ve met you and talked with you and I saw what you did to spare the world another encounter with that kid. I think you just meant it as a humorous way to compliment me.”
 

“You’re right, but…” I gave her a fisheye and asked, “Who fed you that ‘fairly attractive’ crap? Marilyn Monroe was only ‘fairly attractive’ without all her makeup. From what I can see, you don’t need any. You’re as hot as she ever was when she was all dolled up. It’s different with you, but it’s there.”
 

She returned my fisheye and rather skeptically asked, “Different? Different how?”
 

“Different like… well, Marilyn waggled her ass and posed to get attention. She had to, because she was surrounded by herds of younger, do-anything starlets who’d have knocked her off her throne in a heartbeat. But you remind me of a woman I used to know in the Army. She was salutable in or out of uniform. It was the way she presented and carried herself, as if she knew deep in her heart something that others have yet to discover. Something that put her head and shoulders above the herd, you know? It said, ‘By God, I’m special’, and it wasn’t just self-inflation. She was special and she knew it. Confidence. Poise.
Real
dignity, not the imitation kind people wear to get respect and take off like a suit when they’re home alone. She had a sense of proven personal worth that most people never find.”
 

Sipping, I said, “And I’m not talking about my first wife, in case you actually read that far back. I’m talking about a lady I used to work for who’d stand up to the President if she thought he was wrong about something.”
 

Eyeing me for a moment, Elgin said, “Well, it can’t have been Linda Baines. She was Navy, not Army.”
 

“Nope. Not her. A lot like her, though. She was a JAG lawyer. It wasn’t that she was a hardhead, either. Show her a good reason to back off and she would, but never, ever threaten her or anyone around her. I like women like her. That’s probably why I like you so much, stupid as it may be.”
 

She had an ‘oh, really?’ expression as she echoed, “Stupid?”
 

“Yes’m. You’re NIA. By now you know what’s said about the NIA in comparison to the other agencies and you know why. You also know that won’t change because the people appointed to lead the NIA are deeply indebted politically. And Larcon used to say something I’ll bet you’ve heard at least once.”
 

As I sipped, Elgin asked, “What’s that?”
 

“He’d say, ‘
Until it’s proven he didn’t break the law, he broke the damned law, and it isn’t up to us to prove a damned thing
‘. He was talking about a guy in Mississippi. There were a lot of questions about whether a certain Senator was just using the NIA to persecute the guy.”
 

With a small smile, Elgin asked, “Were you the guy?”
 

“Nope. I was asked to help run him down, and that’s exactly how they wanted to do it. Run him down like they used to, with a pack of dogs and a good ol’ boy sheriff. I pretended to look for him and instead reexamined all the evidence. Some of it was missing. I found it in the Senator’s wall safe, so I sort of put it where it could be accidentally found by some journalists.”
 

Apparently greatly amused, Elgin asked, “You ‘sort of’ put it there? How does that work?”
 

“Ah. Well, my flitter opened the safe with a probe and I took the documents and the check to the sheriff’s office and stuck it all behind a file cabinet so it would show a bit. Then I used the probe to annoy a journalist until he looked in just the right direction and saw it. He pulled it out, realized he’d just found gold, and wet his pants.” With a shrug, I added, “Literally. He’d been waiting by a phone quite a while and all that coffee needed out.”
 

Elgin laughed briefly, then asked, “What happened then?”
 

“The hunt was called off, charges were dropped. The Senator and his land grabbing cronies had to back off and the Senator caught some heavy but very quiet flak. He was strongly advised not to run for reelection in 2007 and he didn’t.”
 

“2007? Elections happen in even years.”
 

“Not in Mississippi.” I used a screen to show her the stats and said, “Things happened too fast and too close to the elections for them to barf up another viable candidate who’d stand a chance. No Democrat ran in his district in 2007.”
 

She read some of the display and shook her head slightly, then faced me again. Sipping her drink in silence, she regarded me thoughtfully for a time, then said, “I’ll call your friend Myra before the week is out. That’s something I should take care of back home in Alexandria, I think. Tonight, I need to make a call right now, and I just touch-checked my phone. It isn’t working.”
 

“Tea, let Agent Vicky make her call, please.”
 

Elgin said, “You’re so polite to your flitter. I like that.”
 

Taking out her phone, she checked it, then dialed and waited. When someone answered, she said, “Harris, I’m following a lead and I may not get in any time soon tonight. That’s right, I’m still with him. He has some things he wants to copy and give me and we have to find a store that sells blank DVDs.”
 

There was a pause, then she said, “No. It has to do with what happened at the nursing home. It’s a full recording of events.”
 

That must have gotten Harris excited. Grinning, Elgin said, “Harris! Harris! Listen to me. That’s why I need the time. There’s a lot of material here. I know it isn’t exactly what we had in mind, but she’s already in custody and… Yes. She turned herself in. Fine. Call him. I’ll wait.”
 

Sipping her drink, Elgin grinned at me as if she had feathers between her teeth and crossed her legs again, then grinned even harder when I watched them move and pretended be stricken with silent ‘she got me again’ remorse for my weakness. She snickered softly and sipped again as we waited.
 

Suddenly returning her attention to her phone, she said, “Yes, that’s exactly what it’s about. So will you cover for me? Good. Thanks, Harris. No, that’s it for now. I’ll let you know. Bye.”
 

Putting her phone back in her jacket pocket, Elgin said, “Let’s get those copies out of the way. I can’t go in without them tomorrow. After that, we’ll see how things go.” She looked over the side and asked, “How high are we?”