Love Story: In The Cloud

by Ken Renshaw

  After about five minutes in my office, Zaza buzzed me.

  "Carolyn says your cutie is back in the lobby and wants to talk to you."

  I hurried to the lobby and saw Candice with her eyes opened even wider than before.

  "Someone was hanging around my car when I got to the garage. Could you check it out for me? I think he was up to something, because he quickly walked away when he saw me. He went down the parking ramp instead of back into the lobby."

  I gestured to Carolyn, "Please call Mr. Steel in building security. Tell him to meet us in the visitors parking area."

  "Did you get a good look at him?"

  Candice replied, "Not very good-he was too far away. I recall a white, male Caucasian, about five-five, stocky build, grey crew cut, round gold rimmed glasses, wearing khaki pants, and a white business shirt, no tie."

  "Sounds like a very good description," I observed. "Dore said to report anything suspicious to her, so I have been kind of paranoid.”

  "I'll get security to make a report, and I will forward it to Dore if there is anything serious."

  We took the elevator to the lobby and started to the door to the garage. Then, I heard, "Mr. Willard, is there a problem?"

  I introduced Steel to Candice and she related her encounter.

  "Let's check it out," said Steel. As we entered the garage, Steel asked, "where did you see him?"

  "I was right here and he was by the driver's side of the car."

  Steel asked, "Which car is yours?"

  "That blue Volvo over there."

  I thought to myself that it was not the most likely model for a car thief to choose in this building full of lawyers.

  We stood back as Steel checked under the hood, examined the interior, and shined a flashlight underneath the body. In a few minutes he came over and said, "Two things unusual: There is some kind of symbol drawn in the dust on the windshield, and somebody wiped the dirt from the door, as though they were eliminating fingerprints. Otherwise, it looks as if everything is normal."

  Steel pulled out his security radio and called someone. Then, he wrote down everything Candice had said. Soon, a guard appeared with a camera that Steel used to take several shots of the symbol on the windshield. I carefully examined the symbol. It looked almost like a Mayan hieroglyph, a square with a stocky stick figure, possibly a man, with its arms hanging down.

  "Do you have any idea what this symbol is or pertains to?" asked Steel.

  We both shook our heads to say no.

  "Where is that Symbolist from the Da Vinci Code when you need him?" I quipped.

  Steel offered to test-drive the car, and Candice agreed. Steel drove the car down to the next lower garage level. We could hear the tires squeaking and his gunning the engine and stopping.

  After he returned he said, "It seems OK to me. Just to be safe, have someone check it over at a garage with a hoist. I could not see much with the car on the floor."

  Candice replied, "It is due for a lube service. I'll have it done tomorrow."

  Candice vigorously shook both our hands and thanked us, took the keys and left.

  "I think I need a full written report. We are working on an unusual court case, and it might have something to do with it."

  Steel nodded yes, and said, "Give me your keys and I'll check your car out."

  I went back to my office. Carolyn gave me her 'later?' smile as I went in.

  In a few minutes, Steel appeared in my office. He was carrying a little black box in a plastic sack. "I found this on your car. It is a GPS tracking device. Is it yours, or part of an anti theft system?"

  "Neither," I said.

  "It is a model that is used by law enforcement, not the cheap private detective quality. Do you want me to scan your car every day for a while?"

  "Seems like a good idea."

  I returned to my office and checked my email. I sent a brief email to Dore about what had happened. In thirty-seconds, I had a reply instructing me to send the report to a firm she identified as their security consultants, EB Services.

  4

  The Wave

  I spent the rest of the week preparing my case, reading about remote sensing, and delving into the mathematics of The Cloud

  Friday, just before noon, I got an email from my friend at the Aviation Weather Station at LAX, also a soaring pilot. She said that a late-season cold–front was approaching. Tomorrow, about noon, there would be a good chance for a mountain wave at CrystalSky.

  I got excited. As the cold front approaches, the wind over the mountains forms a wave that can be tens of thousands of feet high. In the ocean, surfers on boards ride along waves that might be twenty-five feet high on a very good day. Sailplanes can "surf" along a mountain wave to great heights. I have soared to thirty–thousand feet on a wave. They are really fun.

  I thought for a minute. Tina might be on lunch break now. I called Tina on her cell.

  "Hi stranger," she answered. "What's up?"

  "How is school going?" I asked.

  "Great! I just finished a final exam in my night school class. This was the tough one, statistics, and a subject that I was really worried about, required for my Masters, one of my big hurdles in the program. Math is not my thing. How is your new court case?"

  "It is getting very interesting and puzzling. Something strange seems to be going on. Several simultaneous related things are happening. i, there was Mason telling me to learn about space-time. Then, I get a new civil case involving psychics. I have had to read up on ESP and something called remote sensing. Then, you take me to hear Herondus who talks about the same things. Then, your friend Elise tells me that Mason may be related to me somehow in future space-time. Then, a consultant shows me mathematical theories that suggests there are shortcuts in space-time that we can use to perceive distant, future or, past things!"

  "Watch out for them shortcuts. Duck when you see the next one coming," Tina giggled. "Really, I don't understand much about space-time and all that stuff. You know how I am on math. But, I do have an appreciation for psychic stuff. I thought you didn't like to talk about it."

  "A couple of weeks ago, yes. Now, I have no choice. I am very interested."

  "I guess it is too late to warn you about them shortcuts," she giggled again.

  "I am going to the desert tomorrow, just for the day. Be back in late afternoon or evening. Would you come along and we could talk some more about all this? I'll even take you for what might be a spectacular glider ride."

  "You have fallen out of your shortcut at a good time. I need a day off from grading papers and cramming for exams. You know how I love the desert. I do have to get back tomorrow night. About the glider ride: we have been intimate before, but won't both of us in that little cockpit on your sailplane be a little too friendly? You barely fit in alone."

  "I will use one of the gliders from the flying school there. They have two big seats, one behind the other for instructors and students.

  "Don't you have to prepare for your court case?"

  "My time is really my own when I prepare for a case. I think I need some time for my mind to assimilate all the new ideas. Tomorrow is an unusual weather day, one that might happen only every year or two, producing a wave at CrystalSky. Flying on wave days is really fun."

  "I'm in, if you can assure me there are really two seats. Can I bring a picnic lunch?"

  "Wonderful!" I replied. "It might be kind of cold so bring a jacket or sweater."

  After we made meeting arrangements, I hung up the phone and thought, I really like this lady, I wonder where she buys her perky pills. I noticed I felt a nice warm feeling in my heart region. That's a new phenomenon. Some kind of shortcut between us?