by Bob Blanton
“There was this guy protesting outside MacKenzie yesterday,” Catie said.
“Is he still there?” Sophia asked.
“No, apparently he couldn’t get any attention, so after a few hours he left, or maybe he had to go to work,” Catie said.
“Did you see him?”
“Yes,” Catie said.
“Then tell us,” Sophia said. “What was he protesting?”
“Apparently he was protesting the despots that have taken over Delphi City,” Catie said with a laugh. Then she described the whole scene she and Natalia had seen. She even told them the joke she and Natalia had made about the McCormacks not being very good despots.
“Can I quote you?” Sophia asked.
“You don’t want it to be an anonymous source?” Catie asked.
“Sure, but then I couldn’t use the despot joke,” Sophia said.
“Just use that as a quote from Catie when you asked her about the protest,” Annie said.
“That’s perfect,” Sophia said. “Thanks, Annie. Why didn’t ADI tell me about that, do you think she missed it?”
“You’ll have to train her about what kinds of things you’re interested in,” Catie said. “It probably sounded boring to her.”
“Cer Catie, I only assigned a fifty percent probability that Cer Sophia would be interested in the protester,” ADI said to Catie.
“Okay, I’ll send her a note,” Sophia said. “Anything else new that you know about?”
“Someone is going to open an exercise studio,” Catie said.
“Oh, I definitely am interested in that,” Sophia said. “Why wouldn’t ADI have told me that?”
“It was just approved today, probably will be in your daily update from her,” Catie said.
“I sent a message about it to her yesterday, and an update today when it was approved,” ADI said. “She is not very good about checking her mail.”
“I’ll have to check,” Sophia said.
“Maybe you should have ADI text you the updates and stuff,” Catie said.
“Excellent idea, Cer Catie,” ADI said. “She is always wearing her specs and checks her texts incessantly.”
“I’ll tell her,” Sophia said.
“What else is going on, guys?” Sophia said, turning the conversation back to the rest of the table.
“Vancouver Integrated Technologies moved into their offices yesterday,” Chris said.
“Oh, that’s good,” Sophia said as she made a note. “Did you meet your new boss?”
“Yes, I did, a Rebecca Hamilton,” Chris said. “She’s actually the lead on the UI for their new phone.”
“Another phone,” Artie said. “Does the world really need another phone?”
“Yes, it does,” Catie said. “Especially since Chris and I are working on it. It’s going to be the same OS as our comms but with a different UI since we can’t copy Apple.”
“But do we need a new UI?” Artie asked.
“Not really, I think it’s going to be mostly the Android UI, which is easy to license,” Catie said. “The Android apps will play, but with the specs, there are just so many UI enhancements that are needed and a lot of different apps.”
“I should look into writing some apps,” Artie said.
“I thought you were going to be an aerospace engineer,” Jason said.
“I am, but that doesn’t mean I can’t write a few apps too,” Artie defended himself.
“So, Catie, what kind of programming are you going to do?” Frankie asked.
“I’m doing the same stuff as Chris. We’ll be testing code to start with until we learn the OS,” Catie said as Sophia nudged her under the table. “Here comes our food.”
Everybody ate, and the conversation moved around the table, touching on all the subjects that affected their lives. Catie noticed that Frankie took every opportunity to talk to her or ask her questions. She liked the attention, but the fact that Frankie took every opportunity to pick on Artie made her wonder why she liked it.
After everyone had finished eating and had used up all the possible topics of conversation, they started to leave. Frankie took a position next to Catie as they exited the diner. He used his position to separate her slightly from the others.
“Catie, Sophia tells me that you’re the one who designed all the parks,” Frankie said as he continued to create distance between them and the rest of the teens.
“Yes, I did,” Catie said excitedly. She loved to talk about the parks.
“How did you decide on the pattern?” Frankie asked. “I can see small parks then bigger parks, why aren’t they all the same size?”
“I wanted variety,” Catie said. “The bigger parks will attract different types of people than the smaller ones. The smaller ones are just for walking around or having a picnic.”
“That was pretty smart of you,” Frankie said. “Can you show me this one?” he asked as he nodded to the park across the street.
“Sure,” Catie said. They crossed the street and entered the park. It was one of the smaller parks with several trees and pathways between flower gardens.
“Did you design the gardens?” Frankie asked.
“No, I found different garden enthusiasts and gave each of them a garden to design,” Catie said. “Then, of course, the actual gardeners that take care of them slowly adapt them as they prune the plants and replace the ones that don’t like our climate.”
They continued to walk around the garden and talk about the various ones throughout the city. They approached the central part where Catie had planted a huge milo tree. It was one of the biggest trees she had planted.
“Wow this is a big tree, how did it grow so fast?” Frankie asked.
“It didn’t,” Catie said. “It was twenty-five feet tall when we planted it.”
“That must have been expensive,” Frankie said. “Why spend that kind of money?”
“I thought each park needed at least one big tree,” Catie said. “We picked as many different trees as we could so each park would be a little unique.”
“You are amazing,” Frankie said. He gave Catie a hug that sent tingles up her spine. She liked the way he was holding her.
“How did you get to be so smart and so beautiful?” he asked.
“I’m not beautiful,” Catie whispered.
“Yes, you are,” Frankie said as he bent down and kissed her.
It was a nice, warm, deep kiss, and Catie was really enjoying it until she felt his hand under her shirt. It was slowly working its way up. She used her elbow to knock it away from her body.
“What are you doing!” Catie hissed.
“I’m sorry,” Frankie said.
“Sorry, who do you think you are?” Catie screamed.
“Is everything all right over there?” Natalia called out. She had been shadowing the couple trying to give them privacy without losing eye contact with Catie.
“Mind your own business,” Frankie shouted at Natalia.
“I’m okay,” Catie called out.
ADI was furiously researching Frankie’s history. It wasn’t too long before she found that Frankie Phillips had died of a drug overdose on September first. The death had been covered up; she was only able to find it from an announcement in the local paper. Then using Frankie’s fingerprint, she eventually found a driver’s license in Cheyenne, Wyoming, for a Frank Whitaker, age twenty. A few milliseconds later, she discovered that he had enlisted in the Marines at age seventeen. She texted all this information to Catie, Liz, Natalia, and Kal.
“Are you okay, Catie?” Kal called over the comm.
Catie used her eyes to reply, blinking on the ‘yes’ button.
“I knew there was something wrong with that guy,” Liz said.
“I’m sorry, Catie,” Frankie said again.
“It looks like he’s a spy, sent here by the US to get close to you, Catie,” Kal said.
“Too close,” Natalia said. “What do you want to do?”
“We should k
ick him off the city,” Kal said.
“It’s Catie’s call,” Liz said.
“What do you want to do, Catie?” Natalia texted. “Please let me kick him off the city.”
Frankie grabbed Catie by the arm, “Look at me. I said I was sorry, why won’t you talk to me?”
His grip was rough; Catie used a sweeping arm motion to break it and stepped away from him. “You’re a creep!”
“Who do you think you are?” Frankie yelled at her. “I could have ten girls prettier than you, and you get all upset over a kiss and a little grope. Other girls your age would be standing in line.”
“Nattie, he’s all yours,” Catie hissed.
Frankie started to reach out to grab Catie by the arm again when Natalia stepped in between them.
“Get out of here,” Frankie spat at her.
“You’ve got that wrong, it’s you that’s getting out of here,” Natalia said in a calm, low voice. “You have exactly two hours to get your stuff and get on the next ferry to Rarotonga.”
“I’m not going to Rarotonga!”
“I’m pretty sure you are. I don’t think you can swim all the way back to Wyoming,” Natalia said, “could you, Frank Whitaker?”
Frankie was taken aback when Natalia used his real name. “Wha.. You can’t make me go. I haven’t broken any law!”
“Just keep up that attitude, and I’ll be happy to spend a few days in jail. Because, Little Boy, if I see you still in this city in two hours, I’m going to roll you up into a ball and dropkick your ass off of the edge of the city,” Natalia growled. “Now, Pendejo, make up your mind!”
Frankie looked at Natalia, he was as tall as she was, but she probably outweighed him by twenty pounds of muscle. He was thinking that he could take her when she suddenly slapped him. He didn’t see it coming, nor did he see the second slap coming.
“I told you to make up your mind, Marine,” Natalia shouted. “Now, do you want a piece of me, or are you ready to leave!”
“I’ll leave,” Frankie said.
“I can’t hear you!” Natalia shouted.
“I’ll leave!” Frankie shouted back.
“One hour and fifty-five minutes!” Natalia shouted. “Move!”
Natalia signaled Morgan to follow Frankie and make sure he got on the ferry.
“You okay, Catie?” Natalia asked.
“I’m fine,” Catie said.
“No, you’re not,” Natalia said.
Liz ran up and hugged Catie, “I came as fast as I could. I’m so sorry.”
“Why did he have to ruin it?” Catie cried.
“He’s a jerk!” Liz said.
“Why couldn’t he wait another week?!”
“What would that have done?” Liz asked.
“It wouldn’t have ruined my first kiss!”
“Oh, I might have to dropkick him anyway,” Natalia said.
“Was it a good kiss?” Liz asked.
“Yes!”
“Then he didn’t ruin the kiss, he just ruined the after kiss,” Liz said. “Do you want to go watch Nattie dropkick him?”
“Yes, . . . No! I don’t want to ever see him again!”
“I have some friends in the Marines,” Natalia said. “Do you want me to arrange an accident for him?”
“Yes, . . . No!”
“I could arrange for some hot girl to lead him on, then drop him like a stone,” Natalia said.
“I’d like that, can you get a video of it?” Catie asked.
“I’m sure we can,” Natalia said. “Then we’ll post it all over the internet. I’ll ruin him. His buddies in the Marines will ride him forever about it.”
“Good, he deserves it!” Catie said.
“Okay,” Liz said. “Let’s go get some ice-cream. I hear the new parlor has a great mango flavor.”
◆ ◆ ◆
“Hi, Sophia,” Catie said, answering the call.
“Did you see it?” Sophia asked.
“See what?”
“The Delphi Gazette! What else!”
“Oh, that, I read it over breakfast,” Catie said, continuing to tease Sophia.
“Well, what did you think?”
“I was thinking about how good my coffee was.”
“About the Gazette, you meanie!”
“Oh, well I thought it was well written,” Catie said in a deadpan voice.
“Do I have to come over there and beat you?” Sophia yelled.
“It was great,” Catie said. “I think you did a great job on the protest; you expertly weaved my comment in about needing practice. The restaurant reviews were good; did you really eat at all those places?”
“Yes,” Sophia said. “I’m going to have to go on a diet. I’m looking for an unknown eater to do that column from now on. What about the rest?”
“I like the way you wrote the what’s happening column, it made everything sound interesting. But we definitely need to have more stuff going on.”
“And?”
“Are you just looking for praise?” Catie said with a laugh. “I like it. It was great for just your second issue. Now you have to see if you can make all the rest live up to the first two.”
“Don’t worry, I will,” Sophia said. “And I’m not going to forget how mean you were.”
“Oh, I’m scared,” Catie said. “Now, you should probably go find something to report on.”
“Bye.”
Chapter 21
Fusion
Marc waited for the reporters to settle in before starting the press conference.
“With me, I have four eminent scientists: Dr. Tanaka, Dr. Nakahara, Dr. Scheele, and Dr. McDowell. They have agreed to answer any questions you may ask that I cannot handle. These men will be publishing their findings shortly, but I’m here to announce that MacKenzie Discoveries has achieved a self-sustaining fusion reaction.”
The room broke into a buzz as the reporters started texting and talking to their colleagues while others were making calls.
“Settle down, please. Settle down, and I will continue,” Marc said.
It took several minutes for the room to quiet down.
“Again, I’ll take questions after I finish the announcement. The reaction lasted for eight hours until they shut it down. They have achieved the same results eight other times. We are now working on perfecting a fusion reactor that can be used to generate power. We believe this to be a safe method of producing power that can be used to replace any of the current fossil fuel power plants in the world.”
Marc sighed and pointed at a reporter. He had hoped to get a little further before he had to take questions, but again, the main details were out.
The reporter he pointed to stepped forward, “How long do you think it will take before you have a design for a fusion power plant?”
“We believe we have a design now,” Marc said. “They will begin testing it next month.”
“How can you do it so fast?”
“We have been working on this for almost one year,” Marc said. “Many of the basics have already been done. One thing to keep in mind, we are only designing the fusion reactor, essentially the boiler for the power plant; the rest of the power plant is based on existing designs.”
“Next question.”
“How safe will it be?”
“The beauty of nuclear fusion is that when the fusion is done, it’s done, it doesn’t continue unless you make it. So, if the reactor shuts down for any reason, the reaction stops. This is unlike the fission reactors of today. There you have to control the reaction so that it doesn’t go critical. When something goes wrong, you have to do everything you can to stop the reaction. Fusion stops on its own, except when you’re in the center of the sun, then the environment continues the reaction. Here we have to create the heat and pressure to force the reaction; when one of those variables goes off, the reaction stops.”
“How can you be sure that it will stop? What if the containment vessel ruptures?”
“If the containment
vessel ruptures, then the pressure is released, and the reaction stops. The temperatures required for the reaction are not sustainable outside of the containment vessel, so again the reaction will stop if it ruptures. The reactor is coated with gadolinium and lead. Although the reaction is designed so it doesn’t release neutrons, if the reactions don’t complete, the gadolinium will absorb any neutrons released by the reactor. The lead will absorb the small amount of radiation so no dangerous byproducts should be released into the environment.”
Marc pointed at another reporter, “Next question.”
“How are you going to introduce these reactors?”
“We haven’t decided that yet,” Marc said. “There are some aspects of the reactor that are proprietary, and only we are capable of producing those components. Much of the rest is already in the public domain. Until we finish the design, we won’t know whether we have a licensing issue with other companies. But we are confident that we will be able to work those out.” Marc pointed to another reporter.
“Why announce this now before the reactor design is proven? Are you looking for investors?”
“We are not looking for investors,” Marc said. “Certain events have led us to believe that the state of our research was going to leak out. We decided to get ahead of the leaks.”
“Would this have anything to do with your declaration of independence last week?”
“It is one of the reasons we declared independence,” Marc said. “We want to make sure that this technology is introduced to all countries. Next question.”
“Can you explain why you were able to create a sustained reaction when nobody else has?”
“Other than the fact that we brought some of the finest minds together to work on the problem, no,” Marc said. “But possibly these gentlemen can. And of course, they are publishing their work soon. I believe they are submitting their papers for review now.”
◆ ◆ ◆
“How can they have nuclear fusion?” the president yelled. “And how come we didn’t know about it?”
“We have been unable to get an asset inside of MacKenzie Discoveries,” Director Lassiter said. He carefully avoided saying Delphi government.
“What happened to that asset you were so proud of?” the president demanded.
