3rd World Products, Book 16 (9 page)

As I stepped on it and ground it to bits, Tanya’s big-eyed expression followed my motions, then followed my hand as I reached to the eave and pulled down another bug. I put it near the remains of the first one and silently gestured the honor of crushing it to her. She shook her head.
 

“The soles in these shoes are paper-thin.”
 

I squashed the bug. Taking the key from her, I opened the door and let my field sweep the place. It found two more bugs; one in the living room and one in the bedroom.
 

Again placing a finger to my lips, I led Tanya to the one behind one of her bookends. Plucking it free, I carried it by its tiny antenna as I led her to the bedroom and plucked another one from behind her night stand.
 

I then went to the kitchen, where I half-filled a glass with water and dropped the bugs into the glass. Tanya looked as if she might burst into tears.
 

She whispered, “Is it safe to talk now?”
 

“Yeah, prob’ly so. See those little bubbles? If they were waterproof they wouldn’t be leaking air.”
 

Taking the glass, she turned toward the sink.
 

I said, “Better to flush them,” and she turned again without comment, walking quickly to the bathroom.
 

Her hands were shaking as she dumped the glass into the toilet and pushed the handle down at almost the same time. That’s probably why one of the bugs wasn’t swept away.
 

She swore and almost frantically tried to make the toilet flush again and I stepped close to put a hand on her shoulder.
 

“Relax. It can’t hear us. Let the toilet refill and we’ll use some paper to help it along.”
 

With tears brimming in her eyes, Tanya shakily, quickly asked, “Is that
all
of them? Are you
absolutely sure?
How did you know about the others?”
 

Judging it time to put her mind at ease, I materialized a four-foot gray field screen. It followed the walls around the room, sweeping through cabinets and fixtures, and ended its journey at the toilet. The screen’s edges pulsed bright red when it encountered the bug in the bowl.
 

I said, “Sometimes I have them report what they find. No flashing. That’s for your benefit, to show what they do. I swept the apartment while I was in the doorway.”
 

The toilet stopped filling. I pulled some paper off the roll and dropped it in the bowl. Once it sank, I said, “Now try it.”
 

Tanya quickly reached for the handle and practically slammed it down. Everything swirled away.
 

Still trembling, she took my arm to turn me around and said, “I need the bathroom, please.” As I pulled the door shut behind me, she said, “I might be a few minutes, okay?”
 

I said, “Take your time,” then shut the door and went to the living room.
 

Sipping some of my Dr. Pepper, I called up a two-foot screen and sent a probe to have a look at the nursing home. Marie was on the second floor. The windows didn’t open, of course. That would have been too easy. I pulled up her med records and tried to make sense of them briefly, then
fed them through my core for translations.
 

Simplified: Bone fragments driven through brain tissue. Small bits of brain tissue lost at the scene and more removed later when surgery removed fragments of bone. Months of antibiotics and drugs. Toxins from physical inactivity and a persistent low grade infection. That was the top third of one page. There were eight more pages in that particular folder.
 

I sighed and had a look at Marie’s progress photos. Deep dents around her head. Scar tissue across her forehead and temples. Places with no hair. Damn. How much more did I need to know? Or see? Just the basics. General health good. A minor but persistent sinus infection due to crushing of the maxillary sinus. Reconstructive surgery ‘recommended’.
 

Looking at the sinus X-rays, I thought, ‘
No shit.
’
 

Three pages further I found notes on her abilities to walk and talk. She was almost unintelligible, but alert and apparently able to recognize family and friends. She frustrated easily due to communication problems. Although she still had a tendency to drag her left leg, she could walk. A video showed her almost lurching instead of walking on a slow treadmill. She had almost no use of her left arm.
 

The toilet flushed and some moments later I heard the sink water run, then the bathroom door opened soon after that and Tanya came to stand a few feet behind me.
 

I said, “It’s a field screen and it’s showing me some info about your mom and the nursing home.”
 

“I can see that. What’s a field screen?”
 

“Please don’t ask questions like that. You can see it’s a field used as a display screen.”
 

She moved to stand by my right shoulder and reached to try to touch the screen. Her fingertips passed through it and she snatched her hand back.
 

“You know what I mean. How do they work?”
 

“Unless you have a degree in Amaran physics, they might as well be smoke and magic.”
 

“Do
you
have a degree in Amaran physics?”
 

“No, and I can’t explain fields. I just use them.”
 

Giving me a flat, direct gaze, she asked, “If you don’t know how they work, how can you use them?”
 

Looking up at her, I drawled, “Well, ma’am, I just try to avoid people who ask how they work. That way I never have to realize I shouldn’t be able to use fields while I use them. Look, I have some studying to do here, so how much longer do you think you’ll continue in this vein?”
 

With a narrow glower and a bit of a pout, Tanya pulled a chair around the table and sat down beside me as she said, “I was just curious. What are you studying? Or is that something
else
you wouldn’t care to explain?”
 

“Not at all, milady. I was reading your mom’s med records and checking out the building. Can you explain to me how a TV turns radio waves into pictures?”
 

With narrow wariness, Tanya replied, “No.”
 

“But you can use a TV or a radio. That’s about the same way I use fields.”
 

“You could have just said so.”
 

“No, apparently I couldn’t right then. I’d just seen pictures of Marie. They probably flavored my mood a bit.”
 

Searching up a passport picture of Marie from 1972, I said, “That’s the Marie I remember. A younger version of you.”
 

Tanya startled hard, then goggled at the picture. She leaned to grab my forearm and asked in a tone of amazement, “Is there any way I can get that picture?! Are there any more pictures like that?! From back then?”
 

“I’ll see what I can find. Fire up your laptop.”
 

She hurried around the table and began unpacking the computer and its power cord. I located some routine verification, surveillance, and training pictures and stumbled onto a small group of pictures from what looked like a vacation in the Black Forest. In picture eight a wooden arch over a gate confirmed my guess. Marie stood grinning under it in hiking shorts and brown suede boots
with a backpack. She had a hiking staff and wore one of those little forester’s hats with a small feather on the side.
 

In another picture, she and Brian Baker were laughing about something. When nobody else appeared in the other photos, I wondered who took the pictures.
 

Tanya excitedly yelped, “Ready!” and then saw the backside of a picture of Marie and Brian standing by one of the trail exhibit signs.
 

Tanya’s face fell open and her eyes went wide as she said in a wondering, almost little-girl voice, “That’s Daddy!”
 

Using my core, I sent the pix I’d found to her laptop and said, “I’ll look for his pictures, too,” as she got up to come back around the table.
 

Without taking her eyes off the screen, Tanya nodded slightly and softly said, “Yes. Please. Anything you can find.”
 

Taking her hand for a moment, I said, “I know that feeling very well, ma’am. I’ll make a special effort for you. Your mom’s pix are already in your laptop.”
 

Her head turned to face me. “What? How?”
 

“Oh, come on, lady, let’s not do that again. They just are. Look for a folder called ‘
Stuff
‘. You make sure they all work and I’ll send any others as I find them.”
 

Tanya’s expression asked, ‘
what the hell are you?!
‘, but after another long look at the screen, she went to her laptop. I found about sixty pictures altogether. I sent them to Tanya’s laptop and linked the big screen to them so she could view them in a two-foot format as they arrived.
 

She asked, “But won’t you need this screen thing?”
 

“I can make another one. I need to let some things rattle around and settle for a while. If you want to change the display size, move the lower right corner of the screen.”
 

My Dr. Pepper was gone. I fished my travel mug and coffee out of my backpack and headed for the sink, aware of Tanya’s eyes following me. In the reflection from the window, I saw her eyeing me, not the pictures on the screen.
 

She continued to study me as I assembled a coffee using tap water and a tendril to heat it. Keeping myself between my activities and Tanya, I tapped a bit of instant coffee into the jar’s lid and dumped it into the water, then stirred it with the same tendril.
 

When I capped my mug and turned around, Tanya asked, “Did you really just make that using cold tap water?”
 

“Nope. Well, actually, yes, but it wasn’t cold when I put the coffee in.”
 

“What do you mean, ‘
it wasn’t cold
‘? It takes almost a minute to get hot water from the faucet. It had to be cold.”
 

“And I didn’t deny that. I said it wasn’t cold when I put the coffee in. Want to taste it before I do? See for yourself?”
 

Scooting her chair back, she stood up and walked over to me. I handed her my mug. Her eyes got a little bigger when she touched it. Turning the lid, she looked inside, then rather gingerly raised it for a sip.
 

With a ‘
what the hell?!
‘ expression, Tanya handed the mug back to me. Her gaze narrowed and nearly became a glare, then she growled, “I want to know how the hell you did that.”
 

Heading for the sink, I said, “No problem.” There was another stoneware mug in the sink, likely her usual mug. I filled it with water and sent a gray tendril to heat it. The water was soon boiling merrily. I made the tendril cold and the water calmed. Chilling the entire mug made frost form on it.
 

As she reached for the mug in amazement, I said, “It’s just another way to use fields. I could make a field mug, too, but this one doesn’t invite questions.” With a grin, I added, “Except when someone sees me make coffee in it, that is.”
 

I noticed motion outside and pointed to a dog cutting across the parking lot. When it trotted onto the grassy median strip, I said, “Zap,” and sent a stun that laid it out cold.
 

Tanya’s eyes bugged and she blurted, “
You killed it?!
”
 

“Hell, no, I didn’t kill it. Watch.” I sent another tendril to wake the dog. It sat up with a bit of
a wobble, then took a long look around. After a moment it stood up and continued across the lot.
 

I said, “I may have to use that trick later, so don’t freak out if I put somebody down.”
 

As I headed back to my chair, Tanya asked in a wary tone, “Ed,
why
would you have to do that to someone?”
 

“Think about it, ma’am. Amarans and AIs won’t break the law. The law says Marie can’t legally be treated by a Robodoc on US soil. The docs say home care wouldn’t be adequate and they appear to be right. Trying to get her released would likely end up in court. All of that means we’ll most likely have to spring her from that nursing home and sneak her out of the country. It also seems likely someone might try to stop us.”
 

Sending a ping to Stephanie, I asked, “Steph, could you spare a minute or two?”
 

Tanya asked, “Steph? Who..?”
 

Stephanie popped into being between us and I felt some of the theta waves she used to keep Tanya from shrieking.
 

Steph smilingly said, “I can always spare you a few minutes, Ed.”
 

“Thank you, ma’am. This is Tanya Connor. Her mum’s an old associate of mine and I’m about to get into some trouble on her behalf that might benefit your law firm. How much more do you want to know about the situation?”
 

“Nothing at this time. Instead we’ll assume you invited me here so your new girlfriend could meet an actual AI and perhaps be greatly impressed with you.”
 

I chuckled, “Oh,
yes
, milady. Understood. We’ll go ahead and use that premise.” Looking past her at Tanya, I asked, “Hey, lady, are you sufficiently impressed yet?”
 

Still receiving mild theta sedation, Tanya took a breath and managed, “Uh… I think I may be getting there.”
 

Pretending disappointment with her reply, I said, “She doesn’t seem all that thrilled to me, Steph. Maybe she’d be more impressed if you told her about your law firm.”