Lifter: Proton Field #2

by Laurence Dahners

Connor turned to Myr and gave her a little grin, “Box of barbed wire, huh?”

  She grinned back, “Yeah, but you’re my box of barbed wire.”

  Carol looked back and forth from her son to her daughter, “Barbed wire?”

  “You had to be there,” Myr said.

  Connor looked at his mother, “Myr might say a lot of terrible things about me, but I’m still glad she’s my sister.” He lowered his voice as if only speaking to Carol, though it was obvious he intended Myr to hear as well, “Even if she is intending to torment me with this whirling red ball. I’m pretty sure that it only says ‘Caution’ when I’m looking at it. Can you glance up there and tell me if it says ‘Idiot below’ or something like that when I’m not looking at it?”

  Carol looked up at the ball for a moment. She turned to Myr. Sotto voce, she asked, “How’d he figure it out so fast?”

  ******

  When their captors returned to the camp with Mark, he was astonished to find that Wendy hadn’t been recaptured and that Nina had apparently made it out of the camp despite the fact that the search had begun before she was even supposed to have left. For several hours Mark was the only captive that Abu Sayyaf still had. He felt both ecstatic for the others and depressed for himself.

  They’d taken his shoes and put him back in flip-flops. Once again they’d tied his wrists to a rope around his waist. At one point, as Massoud had passed through camp during the search, he’d angrily shouted that Mark would be in for a beating as soon as they’d captured the others.

  As the hours passed, Mark became more and more hopeful that the others had made good their escape. He fantasized about how they’d bring the Philippines’ anti-kidnapping team back out to rescue Mark as well.

  But then, just before dark, a little cheer went up amongst the Abus. Shortly after that, Greg, Penny, and Linda were led back into the camp looking terribly depressed.

  Massoud still appeared angry. It quickly became evident that he was furious his team hadn’t found Nina or Wendy. Mark feared Massoud would direct all his fulminating fury into the beating he’d promised Mark. However, a few minutes later, Carlo came to put Mark’s shoes back on him. Greg, Penny, and Linda had their wrists tied to ropes around their waists like Mark’s, then they were all hauled back to their feet.

  Mark realized that the camp was packing up to move again. Initially, Mark was surprised they weren’t staying to keep searching for Nina and Wendy, but then realized that Massoud feared one of the women might contact the authorities soon, leading them back to this campsite. The Abus had to move out to avoid being caught flat-footed by the anti-kidnapping teams.

  Mark leaned closer to the other three, “It looks like Nina and Wendy might’ve gotten away!” They all shared spontaneous grins and shoulder bumps for their two friends since they couldn’t hug with their hands tied. Mark said, “Maybe they’ll be able to tell the police where we are.”

  Penny said, “But we’re moving again!”

  “I know. But they’ll still have a fresher trail than what they’ve been working with so far. At least, they will if they get here soon, say with dogs.”

  “Do you know how Nina and Wendy got away?” Greg asked.

  Mark shook his head. “The last I saw, Wendy had crawled under some bushes to hide and, since Nina had chosen to go last, she was still in camp. It seems to me that they should have been caught a long time before you guys. Where did they find you?”

  “We made it all the way to the road,” Greg said. “We joined up a mile or so west of where we made the road, then hid about hundred yards north of it. I don’t know how they found us, we just woke up with several of them standing around and pointing those damned AK-47s at us.”

  Penny grimaced, “I think they heard Greg snoring.”

  Greg looked horrified, “I was snoring?!”

  Penny and Linda both nodded. Linda said, “We woke you up and turned you over a bunch of times, but after a while I think we fell asleep too.”

  “Dammit!” Greg said disgustedly. “I don’t even remember you waking me up. I could have tried to stay awake or something.”

  Mark shrugged and said, “Or the girls could have slept somewhere else so you didn’t take them down with you.”

  Greg nodded morosely, “First time I’ve ever admitted that someone should’ve dumped me.”

  Carlo came over, “Let’s go.”

  They’d only gone a few paces when Mark realized that they no longer had Nina to mark their trail with her stick. Thinking that the Abus probably would be suspicious if he suddenly claimed something had happened that required him to have a walking stick, Mark started limping in a fashion that dragged his left foot on each stride. A quick glance back over his shoulder showed that he was leaving a visible scuff each time.

  One of the Abus confronted him. The man didn’t speak very good English, but he shouted, “No drag foot!”

  Mark had considered this possibility. He grasped his pant leg and began using his left hand to lift the leg so the foot didn’t drag, grimacing with each step. He markedly slowed his pace as he did it.

  A few minutes later, Massoud came back to see what was causing the holdup. He shouted for Mark to speed up. When Mark said he couldn’t go faster, Massoud used a machete to cut a half inch bamboo stick and used it to whip Mark.

  The pain of the beating was excruciating, and Mark wanted nothing more than to start walking normally to get Massoud to stop. Instead, he fell to the ground and curled himself into a ball, screeching as piteously as he could.

  Massoud whipped him a few more times, then stopped to demand, “What’s your problem?”

  Mark didn’t have to put on a show of sobbing. Between sobs, he said, “My hip hurts so I can’t lift my foot. I can move faster if I drag my foot, but your man said I shouldn’t drag it. If I can’t drag it, I have to help lift it with my hand. That makes me walk slower.”

  Massoud ripped off several curses in another language, but then said, “I don’t care if your foot drags! Move faster!”

  Mark made a show of struggling back to his feet, then set off, dragging his foot again. I hope this damned shoe doesn’t wear out too quickly, he thought.

  ******

  Myr stepped out the door of her apartment and bent over to stretch. She caught a movement out of the corner of her eye and tried to look that way without turning her head. Somebody was bending over and stretching the same way she was. Thinking it just an odd coincidence, she kept her eyes to herself and continued stretching.

  A minute later she stood back up and started a soft jog across the parking lot toward the park which had been a significant factor in her choice of this apartment complex. Trotting across the street, she entered the park on one of its jogging paths.

  Because she was always careful to maintain situational awareness, she heard footsteps behind her. A few seconds of careful listening let her decide that someone—probably the person who’d been stretching in the parking lot—was running behind her. Likely some guy.

  Like she usually did when some guy decided he wanted to run with her, Myr gradually picked up the pace.

  The guy did too, but Myr just kept gradually pushing harder. The men who tried to pick her up this way almost always fell by the wayside after a little bit.

  This guy pulled up beside her. Damn, I should have pushed it harder, faster! Myr thought, then glanced over to see what kind of cocky asshole had forced himself into her space this time. Vinn! “What the hell are you doing here?!” she asked.

  Vinn gave her a cocky grin, “Going out for a run with my buddy.”

  Myr barked a little laugh and slacked her pace a little bit—down to the speed she usually ran. A pace she could run at for an hour or so but that few other people could keep up with for more than a few minutes. “So, just how did you know your ‘buddy’ was going out for a run?”

  “Well, she left her calendar screen open when I was in her lab this morning. It said she was going for a run after work.”

  “You
followed me home?!”

  He briefly lifted a hand, “Guilty as charged, ma’am.”

  A little wistfully, Myr thought back to the time he’d run shirtless with her on the beach in Hawaii and how good he’d looked. Today he had on an old T-shirt which did a great job of hiding any six-pack abs. “So, you’re admitting to being some kind of stalker, huh?”

  “No, no, just a lonely guy whose best friend, now that basketball season’s over, never plays with him anymore.”

  “Are you thinking that running with me’s going to be as much fun as playing basketball?”

  “Yep.”

  “You know that you’re not on the same team as me when we’re running? You understand you’re actually on the opposing team, right?”

  “Wait… I thought we were out here for a fun run,” Vinn said giving her a wide-eyed look. “I didn’t know there had to be a winner and a loser.”

  Myr thought to herself that she had to stop being so hard on Vinn. Though she’d despised him initially, she found herself admiring him more and more as time passed. Not just the lean physique she knew was hidden under his clothing, but the way he made math sit up and do his bidding when they needed analyses of the effects of her fields. His biting comments had gone away, but she just couldn’t seem to stop her own digging jibes. She thought—or at least hoped—that he enjoyed her giving him some grief, but if she ever hoped he was going to get past the fact that she was older than he was, she probably needed to tone it down. She said, “Okay, sounds like it’d be fun… to run… Let me know if you think you’re going to puke?” There I go—can’t just shut it down without one more little dig, Myr thought exasperatedly.

  “Okay, but if you’re going to try to kill me, I have to warn you that I have some news about our field projector mods that you’re going to want to hear about. Can’t tell you that kind of stuff if I’m dead.”

  “What?!” Myr exclaimed, slowing to a stop over a few coasting steps. “Tell me!”

  Vinn just kept going, but called back over his shoulder, “I’m not telling you until we’re done…” he waved an admonishing finger, “and done without you pushing me ‘til I puke.”

  Exasperated, Myr plunged ahead into her run, pushing her pace to catch up to him. “I’ll go easy on you, but this had better be worth it.”

  Vinn gave her a wink, “Oh, it is Milady, it is…”

  They made a couple of circuits of the park, then Myr thought she could tell that Vinn was starting to have trouble keeping up. It looked like he was doing his best to keep the pace and look upbeat, but was going to have some serious trouble shortly. It’d been quite a while since anyone had been able to keep up with her this long, so she was pretty impressed. She slowed gradually, then as they approached the entrance, she said—though it wasn’t true—“I usually stop after this circuit, you up for taking a break?”

  He gave her a nod that she thought looked a little desperate, so she slowed to an easy jog, “We’ll cool down over this last little bit.”

  When they reached the entrance, Vinn bent over and put his hands on his knees as he panted. “Damn, I’ve been trying… to get myself into shape… for this. I really thought… I’d be able to keep up!”

  “You did! You did great.”

  “Hah! I could see you… checking on me… and then I felt you slow down… when you saw… I was about to die… on you.”

  She shrugged, “I was afraid you were too macho to beg for mercy. Come on, stand up and let’s walk it out.”

  Vinn snorted, “Yeah, let’s do.”

  Myr walked him around for a bit even after he tried to sit down a couple of times, feeling bad about how hard she’d pushed him. She wondered whether she should apologize, but thought that might make it even worse for his self-esteem.

  Vinn bent over once more to put his hands on his knees, but this time when Myr tugged on his arm to get him standing again, he said, “I think I’m fine now. But what the hell are you made out of anyway, spring steel?”

  It was Myr’s turn to shrug, “I don’t know. I’ve always been good at distance running but about a year into college I could suddenly run way farther.” She shrugged, “Maturity, I guess. It sure would’ve been helpful if I’d matured in time to get a college scholarship out of it.”

  “I thought Dr. Miller gave you a scholarship? Full ride?”

  “Yeah, he did. But when he did it, I really had a lot of angst about how I was going to be beholden to him.” She shrugged, “I guess it worked out okay in the end, but when I first graduated I really didn’t want to work for him.”

  Vinn snorted, “Yeah, I think a Google search would list your outcome as the very definition of ‘working out okay in the end.’ They probably have your picture on the webpage defining it.”

  “Yeah, yeah. Now, what were you going to tell me about the field projector modifications?”

  “Huh,” Vinn looked off into the distance, “I seem to have forgotten what it was. I may be suffering from an acute beer deficiency.”

  Myr barked a laugh, “You’re a lousy beggar. Lousy! Come on,” she said, starting across the street, “I’ll get you a beer but only after you tell me what’s going on with the projectors.”

  Vinn trailed along just behind her, “Shouldn’t we take showers and then meet somewhere?”

  “Oh no you don’t! I’ve got beer in my fridge,” she said heading across the parking lot to her apartment.

  As they entered her place, Vinn looked around, “I see you decorate your home in the same ‘dead plant style’ you’ve perfected for your lab.”

  Myr stopped in her tracks, about to turn and say something devastating in reply. She restrained herself and faked a sob instead, “I… I can’t believe you’d make fun of me for… just because I can’t…”

  Sounding horrified, Vinn touched her shoulder, “Oh, I’m so sorry. I… I really didn’t think you’d be sensitive about it.” He stepped around in front of her and bent down so he could look up into her downcast eyes.

  She grinned up at him, “I’m not sensitive about it, but it was a mean thing to say. I’m not sure I want to get a beer for you after all.”

  He rolled his eyes, “Okay, I’ll just head for home then.” He turned for the door.

  “Oho! And mean enough to call my bluff!” Myr said heading across the room to the kitchen.

  “Calling a bluff’s mean?”

  “When you’re calling my bluff, yeah, it’s mean.” She pulled out a couple of bottles of beer and handed one to him. “Now, give, what’s the deal with the projectors?”

  Vinn twisted the cap off his beer and sprawled into one of the chairs at the breakfast table in her kitchen. He took a sip and said, “You remember how dish-shaped plates improved the efficiency of the projectors?”

  Myr nodded impatiently, “Sure.”

  “Well we’ve been trying more shapes, including some that are shaped like cones or trumpets, but none of the extremely shaped ones seem to work even as well as the plain flat discs.”

  Myr shrugged, “Okay, so?”

  “My, my, you’re so impatient,” Vinn said, then, at her glare, he hurried on. “Yesterday, one of the new techs assembled a coil plate stack for testing and misunderstood where the cone-shaped disc belonged. Instead of inserting it between the last two sets of coils, he left a dish-shaped one at that location and put the cone at the end of the stack.”

  Myr narrowed her eyes, “Back when I was trying everything I could think of I put a disc at the end of the stack. It didn’t change anything.”

  “Ah, yes, but a cone at the end of the stack changes the shape of the field that’s generated.” He tipped his head back to look up at the ceiling, “I guess it’s not really a big deal, but I thought you’d find it interesting.”

  “Changes the shape?! Changes it how?!”

  Vinn shrugged, “Not spherical anymore. Makes it kind of cone-shaped, actually.” He turned his eyes down to study his beer bottle, “If only I could think of a use for a non-spherical field.�
�

  Myr sat, staring at Vinn. He was obviously pulling her leg. But was he just jerking her around about not being able to think of a use for a cone-shaped field? Or was this entire thing about non-spherical fields some kind of fantasy? “Vinn?” She said softly. When he looked up at her, she said quietly and beseechingly, “Before my head explodes… can you stop feeding me your usual line of crap for just a second…? Do they really form non-spherical fields?”

  Vinn only nodded, but then a grin crept to the surface. “It’s freaking awesome! Kind of like the ‘tractor beams’ in the old sci-fi stories, just not very long ranged. Well, actually, longer ranged than the spherical fields. It’s like the field tapers off less slowly.”

  “Wait! Which way does the cone point? Toward or away from the coil-plate stack?”

  “Depends on which direction the cone that’s modifying the field’s facing. If it’s facing away from the coil-plate stack, the cone of the field faces away too. If it’s facing toward the stack, so does the field. You can even point it off to the side, but the bigger the angle is, the lower the efficiency gets.”

  “Oh my God!” Myr breathed thinking about Connor going out to a restaurant and not having to worry about a waiter getting too close to him. When she spoke though, she referenced a problem for all flyers, “We’ll be able to make flyers that don’t pull over the people standing beside you!”

  Vinn nodded, a big smile on his face. “And, because the field tapers off less rapidly, high accelerations in our spaceship won’t try to pull your head off because the traction will pull pretty hard on the lower of your body too.”

  Myr slid down in her chair, tilting her head so it rested on the chair-back, then lifted her bottle for a long pull of beer. “Wow,” she said, her head spinning.

  Vinn said entreatingly, “Now can I take you out to dinner?”

  Myr lifted her head to stare at him, “What?”

  His eyes dropped to the floor. “I want to take you out to dinner,” he said shyly.

  Myr’s heart skipped a beat, but, nonetheless, she narrowed her eyes, “What kind of ‘take you out to dinner’ is this?”