Another gunshot sounded. I turned to see the deputy aiming at the whitish dog as she moved around it toward the black and brown dog. Apparently satisfied that the whitish dog was no longer a danger, she switched her aim to the brown and black dog and moved closer to nudge it with her foot.
When it didn't wake up, the animal control guy quickly put the noose on it while the deputy looked around for the last dog.
While she was staring toward the pond, I called up my three suit and said, “Elkor, please make Donna and Tiger disappear."
He answered, “Of course, Ed,” and cast a light-bending field around them. Donna had seemed confused as she disappeared, so I quietly told her to take it easy and start walking toward the pond.
She whispered, “But..?” and there was a moment of hesitation before she softly shrieked, “I can't see myself?!"
"Don't sweat it, ma'am, you're still there. Just keep walking or we'll be talking to cops all afternoon."
"But ... But we're witnesses, Ed!"
"So's the animal control guy and everyone who rushed to a window after the first shot. So's the guy at the end of the street who's standing in his garage doorway. Unless you want to stand around here yakking with the cops, let's get moving."
Because I couldn't see Donna, I walked right into her—thankfully at low speed—colliding with her front-to-front and grabbing her arms to keep her upright.
I chuckled and said, “Sorry ‘bout that, ma'am. Guess I didn't see you standing there."
"Ed, it isn't right to just walk away. I'm going to go talk to that deputy."
"Uh, huh. Well, have fun, then. Elkor, uncover Donna, please. Tiger, head for the pond with Elkor. We don't want the animal control guy to try to grab you."
He yelled, “Okay!” from somewhere just ahead of me.
Donna reappeared and the deputy who'd been jogging toward us completed another couple of steps before she stopped and stared rather starkly.
Moving well away from Donna and the dog, I waited to see how the ladies would handle matters. The deputy recovered in a manner that made me think she'd talked herself out of believing she'd seen someone appear out of thin air, then approached Donna at a march step.
"Are you all right, ma'am?"
"Yes,” replied Donna, “I'm fine. I think you should probably do something about this dog soon, though."
Hm. Already trying to redirect the deputy's attention?
Covering the dog with her Glock, the deputy asked, “What happened to it?"
Eyeing the gory remains in the street, Donna faltered in her reply, “Um ... I'm ... I'm not sure. It ... uhm ... it fell down."
Oh, brilliant, ma'am. ‘It fell down.’ Heh.
The animal control guy had loaded the other dog. He came running with his noose pole and secured the loop around the dog's neck, then looked somewhat confused.
"The other one didn't wake up,” he said, “Not even when I dragged it to the truck and put it in, but I don't want to try to pick this one up and carry it, in case it does wake up."
Donna looked as if she might say something, then she clamped her mouth shut and looked at the deputy.
"I'll help you carry it,” said the deputy, grabbing one of the dog's hind feet. When the guy began to lift the dog by the noose pole, she snapped, “You're gonna strangle it, dammit! Grab a front leg!"
I stunned the dog again on general principles as they hauled it to the truck. Donna stayed where she was, watching them.
"Oh, shit,” she muttered, “I don't want to deal with this."
She looked toward the pond and bit her lip with what I took to be uncertainty, then started walking. Quickening her steps, she crossed the street bordering the empty lots by the pond, heading for the water along a path through the undergrowth.
Walking behind her, I asked, “I wonder why nobody thought to move the truck to where the dog was?"
Donna startled hard and put a hand to her chest as she hissed, “Damn it! Don't sneak up on me like that!"
The path wound around a large clump of vegetation and she hurried to get around and behind it, where she knelt and watched the deputy through parted leaves.
Laughing softly, I said, “I thought you wanted to talk to that deputy, ma'am."
"I changed my mind! Where the hell are you?"
Turning off my three suit, I said, “This oversized cabbage patch isn't really all that effective as cover and the deputy can call up the info from when she stopped us."
She snapped, “Then why the hell did you bother to leave?"
"Because they may not bother to contact us if things are cut and dried enough at the scene. Besides, the deputy would have to explain how we managed to leave the scene. She'd probably rather not have to do that, so unless someone mentions we were there, we may not show up on the report."
Peering around us, Donna asked, “Where are Tiger and Elkor?"
"Dunno. Probably exploring, as usual. What do you want to do about lunch?"
"What?” she glanced at her watch. “Oh. It's eleven-forty. I don't know, what do you want to do?"
Shrugging, I said, “Go find food, I guess."
With a weary sigh and a wry expression at my answer, Donna asked, “What about Tiger and Elkor?"
"No sweat. They visit the pond all the time.” Holding out my hand to her, I said, “On your feet, Cap'n. We'll go find a restaurant."
Chapter Forty-five
"Tiger,” I said to our general surroundings, “Donna's ready to go to lunch, so I'll bring you something good. Elkor, it might be best if you two remain invisible until you get home."
From somewhere near the water Tiger replied, “Okay!” and Elkor echoed his answer. Donna and I used our boards to boost ourselves up to a thousand feet and head toward an area known as ‘restaurant row’ on SR-50.
Donna studied the long line of offerings below and chose an Italian themed restaurant. We landed quickly while the parking lot was clear of people and went inside, where a woman led us to a table and presented us with menus.
I studied the menu briefly, saw nothing that particularly interested me, and went to plunder the salad bar as Donna ordered some kind of pasta-based dish.
When she saw my small side dish of ham and turkey bits, Donna's left eyebrow went up. I flattened a couple of paper napkins and dumped the dish in the middle of them.
She stopped chewing and stared, then stated, “I guess that's for Tiger."
Nodding, I replied, “You got it."
A few moments passed before she said, “Tell me something, Ed. Why didn't you just stun all those dogs the minute they showed up?"
Blopping some rather thick Thousand Island dressing on my salad, I asked, “If I had, what would we be doing right now?” Looking up, I added, “And don't you think I get a little tired of explaining field gadgets every damned time I do something?"
Shuffling stuff around in the big bowl, I said, “This way the deputy and the animal control guy had a hand in things. She'll have a tough rep around the station and they'll get to do all the paperwork. Besides that, they learned for certain today that pepper spray won't stop a pit bull, but a .40 caliber slug definitely will. That info could save her ass next time."
Donna watched me fork up some salad and asked, “Is that all you're going to have? A salad?"
"Yup. Note the size of the bowl, ma'am."
"But don't you think you need a little more for lunch?"
"If I did, I'd be eating something else. Next topic."
Her gaze narrowed as she asked, “What do you mean, ‘next topic'? What's wrong with this topic?"
"Talking about food is boring."
"Then what do you want to talk about?"
"At this very moment? Why talk? Why not just eat?"
Digging into her food, Donna snapped, “Dammit, I just wanted to get to know you a little better."
I pretended thoughtfulness, then said, “Then we're getting somewhere, after all. You just learned that I prefer salads to pasta, that I'd rather not both
er talking about food, and that I'd rather eat than talk right now."
As she glared and gathered a response, I said, “However..."
She growled, “However, what?!"
"I would like to know why you came back to the house."
"Why the hell do you think? I wanted to talk to you."
"Uh-huh. About what, ma'am? You got your inheritance back, the baddies are busted and Jenny's safe, you have a flying board, and my boss may call you about a job. Since I can't say what Linda may want you for, that seems to leave our ... ‘truncated’ ... sexual encounter."
A few long, silent moments passed as she glared at me and I had a few bites of my salad.
In a tense tone, she said, “I wanted to talk about the way you tend to ... hit and run. Like in the alley behind the bar. And stunning the guy on the motorcycle."
Shaking my head, I replied, “No."
"So you're saying you don't want to talk with me at all?"
"No, we've just eliminated some of the most obvious topics. Are you saying you can't think of anything else to talk about?"
"Doesn't it matter what I want to talk about?"
Forking up more salad, I asked, “Should either of us have to talk about things we don't want to talk about?” Sipping my tea, I said, “By the way, ma'am, if you want a bedroom rematch, just say so. We'll go home after lunch and give it a go."
It was an offer designed to cut through the chaff. She'd accept a rematch, deny any interest, change the subject, or say nothing at all. My money was on a change of subject.
Donna froze in the midst of lifting her fork, let it return to her plate, and sat absolutely still, eyeing me sharply as if trying to think of a witty comeback, then she spoke softly.
"You'd freak if I said yes, wouldn't you?"
Spearing some salad, I answered, “Say it and see."
Another moment of silence passed, then she said, “I'm curious about something, Ed. Aside from the fact that you seem to have an aversion to explaining your actions, why aren't you doing more with your ... uhm ... gifts?"
Uh, huh. She went for the subject change.
Around a bite of salad, I replied, “Define ‘more'. You mean paint the flitter like the batmobile and patrol the city?"
With a wry smirk, she said, “Very funny,” then she drew a breath and added, “But, yes. Something along those lines. I've seen what you can do with your resources. You could work with a number of different agencies, Ed. You..."
"Agencies?” I interrupted, “Bureaucracies, you mean. And don't forget that my ‘resources’ tapped their files in order to swap stuff back to your name—something none of the agencies could or would have done without lengthy investigations and court proceedings. No thanks, ma'am. No agencies for me."
"Well, what about working with the cops?"
"I do that already. My flitter has been used to find or rescue people a number of times."
Sighing with exasperation, Donna leaned slightly across the table and said, “Well, that's just fine, of course, but don't you think you could be making other contributions, as well?"
"What if I add a few things to your board control disk and let you play Batman? Or rather, Batwoman. No, wait, she was a redhead. Are you willing to dye your hair for the job, lady?"
Sitting straight, Donna snapped, “No, but I'm willing to slap the hell out of you if you keep clowning around like that. I'm trying to be serious, here."
"Well, so am I. Sort of. Why can't you be the one to work with the cops? You're between jobs, right? And it isn't as if you really need a job now, is it?” I coughed gently and added, “And that's thanks to me, of course; the guy you've been ragging on all morning for obscure, unstated reasons."
Sipping my tea again as Donna's eyes grew wide and she sucked in a breath to retort, I said, “Flitter, please add stun capability to Donna's control disk and allow her to call up her protective field whenever she's wearing it, on the board or not. Let her say ‘p-field on’ to activate it."
The flitter responded, “Yes, Ed."
Donna peered at me and asked, “What did you just do?"
"You weren't listening? Eat up. We have things to do."
"What things?"
"Things we can't do here. Show ‘n tell, Cap'n Donna. Stop talking and eat."
She tried to nudge an explanation out of me during the rest of the meal, but I wouldn't tell her anything. When we finished eating, I dropped a couple of bucks on the table for the drinks waitress, paid the check at the register, and led the way out.
One wall of the restaurant had no windows and there was nobody in the parking lot. That's where I called up my board and lifted to a thousand feet on an easterly course. Donna soon caught up and—of course—asked where we were going.
"To a spot in the woods south of town. We won't want an audience for what I'm about to show you."
The partially cleared grove came into view and I led her down to the center of it, then hopped off my board and looked around as I told Donna to put her board away, but not to take off her control disk.
She put her board matrix in her backpack, set it on the ground by her feet, and asked, “Now what?"
"You've seen me stun people. Now you can do it, too."
Her left eyebrow went up. “Me? How?"
I had the flitter provide us a man-shaped target that would chime when hit, then spent a few minutes in explanations to get the idea across to her.
She finally nodded, although somewhat skeptically. It took her several tries, but she stuck with it until a low, soft tone emanated from the target. Donna's eyes got huge as she rounded on me with grinning excitement.
"I did it! I actually did it!"
"Yes'm. Now do it again before you forget how."
She gave me a narrow look and swatted my arm, turned to face the target and made it chime again, and asked, “Did that sound as if I forgot how?"
I sent a burst at the target to make it chime as loudly as it could and said, “That's what you need to hear, ma'am. You can't just tickle the bad guys; you gotta knock ‘em down."
Half an hour later it sounded as if she was up to about half power with her stuns; not bad at all, and actually something of a surprise, but I didn't let her see that.
When she snagged my coffee mug off my pants pocket and took a sip, I said, “That last one might have stunned a hamster. You wanna see if you can maybe jack up the power a bit?"
Thrusting my coffee mug at me with a sour glance, she turned back to the target and rang it again. Better. Irritation seemed to help Donna just as it had helped Robyn Reede.
Again zapping the target, I said, “Like that, dammit! C'mon, lady, let's hear some noise outta that thing!"
Wheeling on me, she snapped, “Look, goddammit, I'm doing my best, so just ... ” Eyeing me angrily, Donna took a breath and stood straight as she said, “I'm not a person you have to ride to get results."
"A little emotion helps newbies get the feel. Zap it again."
By the end of an hour, she was up to what seemed about fifty percent of a wand's full power stun. Half that would knock most people over and practice would develop the difference.
I called the flitter down and said, “Half power's good enough for now. Let's take a break."
Chapter Forty-six
Although she looked a little bushed and frustrated from her efforts to ring the target, Donna yelped, “Good enough?!"
My implant tingled as the flitter settled beside me. I stepped aboard and sat down by the console, then pulled a dr pepper out of the cooler and put my feet up.
Donna felt her way past the flitter's light-bending field until she saw the deck, then she charged aboard and came to stand by my seat with a somewhat angry expression.
"Want a drink?” I asked.
In a more or less conversational tone, she snapped, “No, I don't want a drink. I want to know why you think half-power is good enough."
"It'll put someone down for a little while and you'll get better with experience. Wh
y are you so fuzzed up?"
"I'm what?"
"Fuzzed up. Like your fur's been rubbed the wrong way. You always seem tense about everydamnedthing. Relax."
She regarded me for a long moment, eyeing my feet on the console and the dr pepper in my hand, then met my gaze for another moment.
Without a word, Donna shook her head tersely and turned to step off the deck. As soon as she was beyond the flitter's field, she sent a stun blast at the target.
"Flitter, what percentage of full power did Donna just use?"
"Sixty-three point seven, Ed."
"Thanks. Now move us to the other side of her, please."
I called up a screen and checked email as Donna put a few more blasts on the target. Between her last two shots, she glanced back toward where the flitter had been.
After her last shot, she turned to face that direction and yelled, “Hey! How about letting me know how I'm doing?"
Hm. Seemed to me that the chimes getting louder should have been a hint.
Poking up another message on my screen, I said, “Flitter, when she shoots the target, display her percentage, please. If it's above ninety percent, let the target fall down."
When Donna received no answer, she strode forward a few paces and stopped where her previous footprints began, obviously thinking she was at the edge of the flitter's field.
Reaching forward, she seemed puzzled when her hand and arm didn't disappear. Donna straightened, her hands falling to her sides as she looked at the footprints again, then she took another step forward and groped ahead again.
Half a dozen less cautious steps later, she stopped and bellowed at the sky, “Goddammit! This isn't funny, Ed! I know you're watching! Get your ass back down here!"
Birds flutteringly panicked in a nearby tree and something about the size of a rabbit scurried away through the underbrush beyond the clearing.
I tagged and deleted a few messages as Donna stood panting with apoplectic anger thirty paces away. After a few moments more of looking around, she spotted the target—the only thing in the area to indicate that I'd ever been there—and blasted it with scream of rage.
3rd World Products, Inc. Book 7 Page 26
