3rd World Products, Book 17

by Ed Howdershelt

  “Dress for the desert.”

  That stopped her in the midst of opening the closet. “I don’t have anything for that.”

  Shrugging, I said, “So take a change of clothes and we’ll get anything else when we need it.”

  She yelped, “Get it where?!”

  “Don’t sweat the details. What about food?”

  “What?”

  “We don’t know how long we’ll be there. I’m going to stop on the way and stock the flitter for a week on site. If there’s anything in particular you want, get it.”

  Calling up a screen, I pinged Jessie. When she answered, I said, “Hi, Jess. Lunch is off. Angie’s orders and we gotta fly.”

  Jessie’s gaze quickly took in the room and her eyebrows went up as she grinningly replied, “Orders? Uh… okay. Should I take it you two are getting along fairly well?”

  “Yeah, could be worse, I guess.”

  “You can’t tell me what’s up?”

  “Maybe later, depending on how things go. Ask Angie.”

  “Oh. Uh… okay. Well, good luck, then. Anything else?”

  “Nope. Just didn’t want you to feel stood up, milady.” I glanced at Marie and said, “Well, she’s finally ready, so we need to get going.”

  Marie gave me a fisheye that made Jessie snicker, “Okay, later.”

  “Later, Wonder Woman.” I canceled the screen.

  As I left the bedroom, Marie asked, “How can Col. Horn and Jessie both be Wonder Woman?”

  Setting my pack on the table, I turned off the coffee pot and refilled my mug as I replied, “Until one of them is willing to wear the uniform, it’s a shared title.”

  She came out of the bedroom with her pack and a small suitcase. Setting them by the table, she opened a cabinet. Rinsing a travel mug she found, she turned to me for coffee as she asked, “Do I have time to call Tanya?”

  Filling her mug, I replied, “If you make it quick. I don’t know how long we’ll be in range.”

  Marie made a last check of the doors as I carried our bags out. Galatea met us and we headed for a nearby grocery store.

  Marie asked, “Ed, do we really have time for this?”

  “It won’t take long. We’ll be on our own, ma’am. If we pack stuff in, we’ll have it. I’d rather not try to forage in Iran.”

  At the store, we bought canned goods, apples, tangerines, potato chips, two-liter bottles of tea and Dr. Pepper, a big jar of coffee, and enough stainless silverware for two. Marie bought some bread, lunch meat, and condiments. At the checkout line, she trotted away and returned shortly with some vegetables.

  I said, “My cooler isn’t as big as you seem to think, ma’am.”

  “So take the beer out for a while.”

  The checkout woman said, “We sell coolers,” and pointed at stacked white foam coolers atop the cheese display refrigerators.

  Marie said, “Be right back,” and called up her board to fly up and get a cooler. The woman’s eyes got huge, her mouth fell open, and she backed away from us as Marie flew back to the register.

  I fed her theta waves as I held up money and said, “Time to ring us out, ma’am.”

  Her glazed eyes turned to me and she responded with a rather subdued, “Uh… yes, sir.”

  Back aboard the flitter a few minutes later, I got Galatea moving and Marie put food in the new cooler as she asked, “Ed, what did you do to her?”

  Transferring a few cans, some tangerines, and two bottles of tea to my pack, I said, “Theta waves. They have a calming effect.”

  “There were times that trick would have been pretty useful.”

  Taking a seat by the console, I said, “Yup. Pick out some food and ring up Tanya. We won’t be in range much longer.”

  Marie gave me an odd glance, then called Tanya as she chose some canned goods, fruit, and a few bottles of tea and added them to her pack.

  I heard her say, “Hi, Tanya. Ed and I are going to run off and do something and we might be gone a while. Well, that’s kind of a secret.” She laughed, “No, not that. Yes, I guess we are. Okay. Don’t worry and I’ll call you later. Yeah, me, too. Okay, bye for now.”

  Putting her phone away, Marie came forward to sit next to me and said, “She thought we might be eloping.”

  “For a minute there, so did I.”

  Sipping her coffee, she said, “Ha, ha. Now tell me why we put food in our packs. Won’t it take a few hours to get to Iran?”

  “Nope. About half an hour, I figure.”

  Marie’s head snapped around. “What?”

  “We’ll take the packs and leave the rest aboard the flitter to catch up with us.”

  “How the hell are we going to get there in half an hour?”

  I took a sip of coffee and stood up, then said, “You’ll see. We’re about to hit the road, ma’am.”

  “I thought we were already on the road.”

  Manifesting a translucent bullet-flitter like a wing tank on each side of Galatea’s deck, I said, “Nope. On your feet, Batgirl.”

  She stared at the additions and asked, “Ah… Are those some kind of… wing tanks?”

  “No, they’re very fast flitters. Pick one.”

  Eyeing me, she said, “Just wait one. How ‘fast‘ are we talking?”

  Having the bullet flitters open for us, I replied, “They’re half-an-hour-to-Iran-fast. Do the math on the way, ma’am. Hop in.”

  I put my pack in the lower section of the bullet on our right. After another moment of staring, Marie put her pack in the left one and stood by it watching me take a last long sip of coffee.

  She sipped her own, then rather tightly asked, “What now?”

  “Now we haul ass. When you get in, set your coffee on the floor between your feet.” Leaning down, I showed her what I meant.

  “What? But I’ll be lying down. The floor will be sideways.”

  “It won’t spill. Just do it so we can get underway, please.”

  When she hesitated too long to suit me, I got into my bullet flitter, put my coffee down as I’d instructed her, and said, “See you later.”

  Raising her hands protestingly, Marie stared at my coffee that didn’t spill as she yelped, “Wait! Wait! Okay! I’m getting in!” She did so and I closed both bullet flitters before she could think of anything else to say.

  Linking to her flitter, I said, “Stasis will protect you during acceleration and deceleration. You’ll feel weightless at the top of the arc. Relax and take a nap or something.”

  Heh. She yelled, “Wait! How can I talk to you?!”

  “Just talk. I’ll leave the link open. Ready?”

  Marie yelled, “Hell, no, I’m not ready! How the hell do you get ready for something like this?!”

  I muted the link’s volume and launched us. My probe showed her staring in shock, then her gaze narrowed and she tried to fight the stasis. Good.

  At the height of our arc the stasis fields released us and I asked, “How you doin’ over there, lady? Having fun yet?”

  Marie yelled, “We’re going to talk about this later, damn you!”

  “Uh, huh. Tell your flitter to rotate for a view you like. You only get about a minute of this before the stasis kicks in again.”

  She stated, “Flitter, rotate,” and then “Stop,” and said, “You could have warned me about these things.”

  “Would it have helped? Really? If so, you’d be the very first.”

  After a moment, she replied grudgingly, “No, probably not. Hey! If the flitter’s way behind us… will we be camping or something?”

  “We’ll be working on another flitter. And Galatea’s only a couple of hours behind us.”

  “Working how?”

  “Looking for problems at a reactor, of course. Don’t sweat the details right now. How’s the view?”

  “Uh… Well, it’s phenomenal, actually. How high are we?”

  After consulting my core, I rounded the answer and said, “About a hundred miles. Your flitter will reshape itself shortl
y, so don’t panic.”

  “What?! It’ll do what?!”

  “That’s so we don’t descend head first.”

  “What?! Gawd-damn it, Ed, what the hell are you talking…!”

  And that’s when our flitters chose to reshape themselves. Stasis enveloped me again and I heard a short screech from Marie as we plummeted toward the Earth. Heh.

  Several minutes later the stasis ended and our bullet flitters hovered a few yards apart about ten miles above Fordow. Calling up a standard flitter, I had the bullet flitters park next to it so we could step out to a deck. When my flit opened, I saw Marie staring rather starkly at me from hers. I waved, then picked up my pack and coffee and stepped over to the big flitter.

  Setting my stuff by a console seat, I sent probes down to the reactor, turned on the console monitor, and went to hand Marie out of her flit. She angrily ignored my hand and stepped out. Her forward knee failed instantly and I reached to steady her. That seemed to piss her off even more, so I let her go as soon as possible. She stood glaring at me for a time, then retrieved her own bag and mug and stalked rather shakily to a seat.

  Letting the bullet flitters vanish, I ambled over to take a seat and studied the screen as I said, “Helluva ride, huh?”

  In a surly tone, she replied, “That’s one way to describe it. What are we watching?”

  “My probes are looking for unusual amounts of radiation. Fordow is an underground uranium enrichment complex.”

  “Col. Horn said the AIs couldn’t work here without permission. Wouldn’t that mean probes can’t, either?”

  When I looked at her, she said, “Tanya told me about Amaran protocols and field devices.”

  Nodding, I said, “They aren’t doing anything. Just looking.”

  That answer seemed to confuse her. She asked, “Then their probes could have done the same. And probably are. Why’d she send us?”

  “Us? She only sent me, ma’am. You sort of invited yourself.”

  Fixing me with a glare, Marie snapped, “Why send anybody?”

  “So someone’ll be on site if things go to hell?”

  “Not good enough. If things go to hell, the AIs can step in.”

  I sipped coffee and asked, “Got a better explanation?”

  Marie stated, “She sent you to try to fix things quietly.”

  Trying to look dubious as hell, I replied, “Ahhh… Well… I think she’d be less than truly happy if all I did was ‘try’, ma’am. I’m pretty sure I mentioned she’s a lot like Linda. She expects results.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Studying the screen, Marie asked, “Do you really know what you’re looking at? Other than a line drawing of a building, I mean?”

  “All I have to know is whether there’s excessive radiation.”

  “And if there is?”

  Glancing at her, I said, “Did you ask this many questions the last time I worked with you?”

  She insistently repeated, “And-if-there-is?”

  Shrugging, I replied, “Then I’ll try to patch the leak or seal this place, which would be my preference.”

  Ambient readings rose higher as the probes cruised the building’s third level. Too high? I checked with my orbital core. Yup. High enough that people in third level corridors were already walking dead. I asked my core how soon to expect a meltdown. It said about four hours. I sent a copy of my data to Angie.

  Her reply was a conference call; she answered with a split screen that had Stan Maxwell linked in through Myra’s datapad. After introducing Marie and Stan, Angie asked, “Sitrep?”

  I said, “Looks like about four hours to full meltdown.”

  Maxwell asked, “That’s it? No chance of repairs?”

  “The Iranians can’t fix it. What did the Russians say?”

  “The Russians?”

  “Hell, yeah, the Russians. It’s Russian equipment. There’s no damned doubt someone’s contacted them.”

  He glanced at Angie, then admitted, “They said they’d help direct efforts, but that there was no time to send techs and equipment. Can it be stopped?”

  “Maybe, if the Iranians let the AIs get in there. Soon.”

  Angie said, “So far, they’ve refused to even acknowledge a problem.”

  “No surprise there.” I sipped and said, “Well, here’s how I see it; if we fix this thing, they’ll get back to developing a nuclear weapon tomorrow. Let’s just let this place cook off and end this much of that problem.”

  Maxwell asked, “You mean let it melt down?”

  “Yup. It’s become a danger to people outside Iran. The AIs can act to contain the radiation.”

  He looked at Angie, who met his gaze as he asked, “Can they really do that? Contain the radiation? All of it?”

  She cautiously replied, “I believe so, yes.”

  I said, “A field dome would do it.”

  “Can you offer any other options?”

  “None that don’t involve AIs or fields. Let the Iranians ride this crapfest into the ground, then we’ll put a dome over it.”

  “They’ll blame the west and every Muslim out there will either believe it or pretend to believe it.”

  Shrugging, I said, “Not an issue. They’ll do that anyway.”

  Maxwell sat back with, “Well, nobody’s come up with a better idea and it negates the time factor. If nobody here has anything to add, I’ll get this information to those who need it and get back to you as soon as possible.”

  After a round of goodbyes, he tapped off.

  I said, “They’ll just stall and let this mess percolate.”

  Angie looked at Marie, then at me, and asked, “Anything to add? Maybe something Stan didn’t need to know right away?”

  Shaking my head, I replied, “Nope. Like it is, ma’am; if the Iranians don’t let the AIs in, the place will pop like a boil. If that happens, Iran’s permission will no longer matter. Who’s the tipster? If he’s above level three, maybe we can still get him out.”

  She consulted some data, gave me a name, and I sent probes into the facility to check IDs. Two minutes later, one pinged and I put up a screen. The poor guy was sitting on the floor in a crowded clinic on level two. He’d already received a fatal dose. I passed my findings to Angie’s pad without comment.

  Angie muttered, “Damn,” and sent a copy of the info to someone else. “I guess that’s it, then.”

  Nodding, I replied, “Holler back if the Iranians get smart.”

  After Angie signed off, I sat sipping coffee and studying the world below the flitter for a time. The AIs couldn’t simply waltz in and transmute the hot stuff to something else. As far as I knew, Linda and I were the only two people on Earth who knew they could do that, and nobody else needed to know.

  The phrase ‘from the Earth, to the Earth‘ darted through my head. I couldn’t remember when or where I’d first heard it, but it seemed relevant. An idea formed from that thought and I sent probes into the Earth below Fordow. The place was well above the local water table, which meant a field dome wouldn’t be enough; it would have to be a globe. I doubted the AIs would find that to be a problem, but I had what I thought might be a better idea.

  Why not send a flitter down through the Earth’s mantle smack under Fordow? Just let all the radioactive stuff follow it down and seal the hole? I put the question to my core and it agreed.

  I suddenly realized Marie was staring at me.

  “Yes’m? You have a question?”

  Her left eyebrow arched. “Yeah, one. Do you realize how long you’ve been sitting there like that?”

  Hm. Not long. A few seconds, at most.

  Sipping coffee, I asked, “Like what?”

  “Never mind. What were you thinking about?”

  “What to do with the radioactive stuff.”

  Looking moderately confused, Marie said, “I thought that had already been settled.”

  “Yup. Let it melt. But a dome wouldn’t protect the water table, so I plan to sink that nasty crap abo
ut six miles.”

  Maybe she thought I was kidding? Her expression flattened and she started to say something, then apparently realized I was serious.

  I called Athena and she manifested by the console with, “Hello, Marie. Yes, Ed?”

  Looking up at her from my seat, I let silence fill a second or so, then sighed, “You’re so gorgeous I forgot why I called.”

  Athena smiled and replied, “Perhaps you merely forgot I monitor your bios. That wasn’t quite an Oscar-caliber performance, but it was flattering, nonetheless. Thank you.”

  Pretending disgruntlement, I asked, “Have you been taking lessons from Serena?”

  “I haven’t found them necessary. Yet. Perhaps you should consider some acting lessons?”

  Our repartee amused Marie enough to make her grin and comment, “She’s definitely got your number.”

  I shrugged. “No surprise. Numbers are her specialty.”

  Athena took the seat on my left as I asked, “Do you have any reservations about my idea? Safety concerns? Comments?”

  She replied, “Only that you avoid contaminating the water table.”

  “Noted. Can you think of any reason not to proceed, ma’am?”

  Shaking her head slightly, she said, “No. The reactor hasn’t imploded, but without intervention, it will.”

  Nodding, I said, “Then I guess I’ll get to work.”

  I called up a field-generated flitter and had it manifest itself at a depth of six miles directly below the facility, then had it begin expanding its hull field. Then it occurred to me… why stop there? Let the hot stuff drop all the way through the crust.

  Stopping the flitter’s expansion, I checked with my core, which told me the Earth’s crust was nearly twenty-six miles thick under this part of the Eurasian plate. How long would it take to drill the hole?

  Longer than we had; almost seven hours. So I’d use more flitters. I had a flitter form below the water table, then formed six more in a direct line beneath the first, each flitter separated by four miles. That would cut drilling time to seventy-two minutes.

  Wait a minute… Yes, they could drill the hole, but twenty-six miles of drilling rubble would have to go somewhere. Transmute all but a little of it? To what? Something that would try to find its own way out, of course. Air. Add to the atmosphere. Maybe all I needed was a way to vent the project.