Chapter One
Being semi-retired with an extremely flexible personal schedule has some advantages. When Selena called early Friday afternoon to tell me that -- for the first time in months -- she had a whole weekend off, all I had to do was say "I'll pick up Toni and be right there," grab my backpack and coffee, and ask Tiger if he wanted to come along.
He and Elkor -- in his usual field-generated cat persona -- were examining something on the back porch.
"No," said Tiger, his cat sound mingling with the translation from his PFM collar.
Elkor said, "Tiger and I will be visiting the nearby wooded area and pond, Ed."
Nodding, I said, "Okay, guys. Have a good time," and called my flitter down from its far-overhead parking zone.
The flitter dropped like a stone to within a hundred feet of the ground, then descended sedately enough to avoid alarming my neighbors, but not my nearest neighbor's beagle. The dog went completely apeshit, dashing in small circles and howling non-stop at the flitter.
Martina Sanchez, my next door neighbor, came out of her front door, shushed her beagle without any effect whatsoever, and came toward the flitter as she yelled, "BooBoo has finally stopped cringing in corners every time that thing comes down."
"Gee, that's just fucking wonderful," I muttered, setting my backpack aboard the flit.
Halfway across the yard and cupping a hand to her ear to try to hear me over the beagle's din, Martina asked, "Hah? What?"
Her other dog -- a big black semi-labrador retriever named 'Ortiz' -- sat watching me, occasionally glancing at BooBoo as if wondering why the beagle was going crazy. He seemed generally unconcerned about the flitter.
In a conversational tone, I said, "Shut up, BooBoo," as I sent an invisible field tendril to lightly stun the beagle. Its hind legs folded and it sat down in a rather disjointed, disoriented manner, trying to remain upright as another of those goddamned howls came out of it.
I didn't bother saying 'shut up' again, I just slapped ol' BooBoo's skull with another stun -- full force, this time -- and the stupid damned dog collapsed unconscious by the fence.
Blessed silence replaced BooBoo's howlings. Ortiz sat a little straighter, pricked up his ears, and stared hard at me as Martina glanced back to see why the noise had stopped. I grinned and gave Ortiz a little two-fingered salute.
His head cocked slightly, then he looked at the beagle again and sniffed it before moving a few feet away from it, where he sat down and continued watching me. Martina saw the beagle lying sprawled by the fence and freaked out.
"Well, damn," I said, "He did it again."
Wheeling to face me, she asked, "What?!"
Shrugging, I said, "He's done it before. Sometimes he passes out. He just falls over and doesn't wake up for about half an hour."
She screeched, "You've seen him do that before?! And you didn't say anything?!"
Giving her a very direct look, I laughingly replied, "Oh, sure. You betcha. I'm gonna come tell you that dog's out cold in the yard after all the times I've bitched about his noise. You'd probably think I hit him or something. I'm just glad it finally happened when you were out here to see it."
Martina gave me a nasty glare and stomped over to the fence gate. Once she was inside the yard, she knelt by the dog and tried unsuccessfully to wake it up.
After some moments of this, she yelled, "Are you just going to stand there?"
Shaking my head, I said, "No, I'm going up to Inverness," and stepped onto the flitter's deck. "He'll wake up in a while. Don't sweat it."
I watched Martina gently, tenderly gather BooBoo into her arms and carry him into the house. Ortiz watched them go until the door closed, then continued to stare at me.
As I opened the console and took out some snacks I kept aboard for Tiger, Susanne appeared by the flitter's console in her little black dress. She smiled at me as she sat down and crossed her gorgeous legs.
"Ed, I'm almost surprised that someone like you hasn't killed that dog."
Fielding a small handful of kitty treats from the box, I extended the field toward Ortiz. The big black dog eyed the food as it approached, but he didn't stand up or seem very disturbed by floating food.
"'Someone like me,' huh? You saw how she picked up that brainless hairbag and carried it inside?"
The food stopped in midair just in front of Ortiz as Sue chucklingly said, "Yes, I did."
Ortiz stood up, moved forward a pace, and wrapped his huge, toothy face around the kitty treats, then sat down. His tail wagged slightly as he chewed.
"Well, that's why I haven't made that stupid waste of fur disappear, Sue. Maybe if I keep zapping it, it'll finally realize what 'shut up' means."
Waving goodbye to Ortiz, I told the flitter to head for Toni's and put Tiger's food box back in the console as I added, "I doubt it, though. Ol' BooBoo's retarded, even for a damned beagle. Prob'ly have better luck trying to train a rock."
With a snicker, Sue said, "I see. You seem to get along well enough with Ortiz, though."
"Yeah, well, he's reasonable and quiet as dogs go."
"Will you want aircraft flight controls, Ed?"
"Thanks, but the autopilot can handle it. I just need to swing by Inverness to pick up Toni, then head for Tallahassee. How are things going at Carrington?"
"Fine. Vickie and I are taking the kids to a movie later."
"Kewl. Have you had any further problems with acceptance among the younguns, Miz Field Manifestation?"
"Not so far. None that couldn't be fixed by wearing long pants and a jacket, anyway. Some of the boys seem rather precocious. Will you need me this weekend?"
"Need you? How can you even ask that, ma'am? You know you're indispensable to me."
With a very obviously manufactured sigh, Sue asked, "Will I be indispensable this weekend in particular?"
Matching her sigh, I answered, "Oh. Well, I guess not. Not unless something official comes up, anyway."
"In that case," she said, "I'll see you again Monday," then she disappeared.
Running my hands examiningly over my shoulders and chest, I said, "Oh, lordy, I think I'm feeling deprived! Yes! That's the feeling exactly. Agh! You won't even visit a bit?"
Through my implant came, "Only by invitation or necessity, smartass. You three haven't had much time together since Selena graduated."
"Well, that's true enough. Thanks, Sue, but expect an invitation. You're one of their favorite people, too."
We chatted a bit more until the flitter stopped a foot or so above the tiny yard of Toni's Inverness condo. Toni had been waiting for us; she dashed across the yard and tossed her bag to me as she hopped aboard.
"Can you believe it?" she asked, "It took a damned office fire to get Sel a weekend off."
Checking out her long, lovely legs as she stepped onto the deck, I said, "That's how it is when you're the new guy on the boat. If she'd screw up once in a while, they might remember she's only human. That's a nice dress, ma'am."
She adjusted her mid-thigh blue sundress as she sat down and grinningly said, "Thanks, but I saw where you were looking. You and Sel make a great team, Ed. She likes breasts and you like legs, so you never get in each others' way."
In deference to Toni's discomfort about flying -- no, 'relatively contained terror' would be a better description -- I set course for Tallahassee with the flitter's fields opaqued.
"Thank you," said Toni, pushing her finger into the silvery field. "I know it's stupid, but..."
"No sweat," I interrupted her. "With me, it's sharks. Steph says my readings spiked just about every time a big one swam by us at a salvage site."
"Then why did you keep going along?"
"I knew they cou
ldn't get me, for one thing. For another, I enjoyed rooting through the wrecks."
Rolling her eyes, Toni asked, "Why not tell it like it is, Ed? You enjoyed being with Stephanie."
Grinning at her, I nodded. "Yeah, well, that, too."
"So how's her business coming along?"
Shaking my head, I said, "No idea." At Toni's disbelieving gaze, I shrugged and said, "Really. I'm not part of it, so I'm not in the loop."
After a moment, she asked, "Why aren't you part of it?"
Laughing, I asked, "Part of it how, Toni? She does her own books. I doubt there's a place on her assembly line for a slow-moving human, and I don't like that kind of work, anyway. Selling them? No need. She's backordered for the next year or so with Amaran orders alone."
In a somewhat tense tone, Toni said, "But you thought up the PFM's, Ed. You practically invented them. You ought to be getting something for that."
"I just stuck some ideas together. Steph invented them. If I tell you I've been taken care of in that regard, will you change the subject?"
Peering at me rather examiningly, she asked, "Taken care of how?"
"That's my business, ma'am. Plus that, I have a flitter, a bloodstream full of microbots to keep me healthy, my comm and PFM implants, and..."
The flitter's console beeped. I keyed my implant to answer the call and said, "Hi, Linda," when her face appeared on the console screen.
"Hi, Ed. Sue said you were in the air, and that's perfect. A small jet is in trouble. We want you to evacuate the passengers to Pensacola. Sue has the details and our other two flitters will join you shortly."
Nodding, I said, "Okay. Sue, you have the helm."
The flitter instantly veered west as it nosed almost straight up and Toni sucked in a deep breath for a scream.
Sue appeared in the seat next to Toni's and Toni calmed down almost immediately as Sue's theta waves reached her.
I asked, "How many passengers and what kind of trouble?"
Linda glanced at something below our view and said, "Only forty-one people. We don't know what kind of trouble yet. Communications and controls are unresponsive; even the hijack-alert panic button. The pilot used his own cell phone and he either passed out or died while he was talking."
"But the plane's still flying? Not falling?"
"It's straight and level at 38,000."
"So someone or something is controlling it. You think it's another suicide attack?"
"We don't know, Ed. It left Orlando, turned just before it reached the Georgia line, and now it's heading for the Gulf of Mexico. We've given Sue the data."
Turning to Sue, I asked, "Any thoughts on the matter?"
"Sure," she said. "Lots of them, but first we need to determine what's happening aboard the jet."
"Think you can override whatever's controlling it?"
"Probably."
"Only 'probably'?" asked Toni. "You aren't sure?"
I said, "That's why we're evacuating the jet."
Toni looked questioningly at Sue.
With a small smile, Sue said, "If I were sure, I'd have said 'of course', Toni."
"Sue," I said, "When you go aboard, don't let anyone see you until we know what's going on and don't immediately take control. Just ascertain that you can, please."
The jet appeared ahead as a tiny silver speck that grew quickly as we approached. I recognized it as a sixty-seat commercial model, but as we maneuvered beneath it, the damned thing looked so big that it seemed as if it shouldn't be able to fly at all.
Toni stared up at it in openmouthed awe as Sue gave me a little 'bye-bye' wave and disappeared from her seat.
Through my implant and the flitter console, Sue said, "I'm in the cockpit, Ed. The flight crew is unconscious and the controls are slaved to a satellite receiver in the copilot's seat."
"It didn't get there by itself. Have you accounted for all members of the flight crew?"
A couple of moments passed before Sue said, "Yes, and all three of the people in the cockpit appear to belong here. Fingerprints match records."
"The cabin door is locked?"
"Yes."
"From the inside or the outside?"
"No way to determine that."
"What knocked out the flight crew?"
"I'm detecting traces of an anaesthetic gas."
"Last question for now, milady; can you verify that all three were knocked out at the same time, the same way?"
Sue said, "Stand by," and a couple of moments passed before Toni asked, "How can she find out how they were..?"
"Samples," Linda interrupted. "Blood, hair, saliva, breath. Other samples, too, if necessary, but since we aren't asking anyone's permission for them, this isn't really happening."
Toni's left eyebrow went up, then she snickered.
"Bingo," said Sue. "The copilot inhaled much less than any of the others; barely enough to knock him out, in fact. What now?"
"Let him sleep. We only know that he got gassed, too, if only to make it look as if he isn't involved. He could have realized there was a problem and held his breath while the pilot called in the sitrep. Someone else could have installed the receiver. Any idea how the stuff came aboard?"
"Not yet."
Twin double sonic booms from high above us announced the unseen arrival of the other two flitters from Carrington Base. They fell in behind us under the jet and I saw that they were unmanned.
"The Carrington flits are here," I said, more for Linda and Toni than Sue, since she was likely already in command of them.
Briefly glancing away from the screen, Linda said, "Okay."
"Sue, have you had any luck with the flight controls?"
"Yes. I can take control of the jet at any time. Linda?"
Linda said, "We need to know where the plane's going, so don't take control of it yet. Ed, I have another call to deal with. We just want the people off for now, please."
Glancing at Toni, I shrugged and said, "Roger that. Sue, if you'll bring us alongside a hatch and open it, we can step across and say hi to everybody."
The flitter moved to comply and our field extended to surround a hatch.
"Wait one," I said, "Is anyone on board in contact with the ground?"
"Four passengers are using cell phones," said Sue.
"Monitor what they're saying for a minute or two and prevent anyone from initiating or receiving any new calls. One or more of the talkers could be giving progress reports."
Toni asked, "And if they are, what then?"
"Then we look for reasons why we shouldn't proceed."
"You mean, like a bomb?"
Grinning slightly, I said, "Yeah, that might be a reason, but only if Sue couldn't disarm it, and I doubt that's even possible. Sue's pretty good with gadgets, y'know."
"Gee, thanks, mister," said Sue. "I've checked the plane. No bombs and no ancillary communications signals."
Looking puzzled, Toni asked, "What would be a reason not to proceed, then? A hostage?"
"Nope. Sue could handle that, too. Fact is, I can't think of a good reason at the moment, but sometimes I get kind of cautious. Always assume there must be at least one good reason for not doing something, then do it very carefully."
A few minutes went by before Sue said, "All the phone conversations appear routine, Ed."
"Great. Give each of them a little commo-clarity difficulty and see how they take it."
Moments later, Sue said, "Two complained a bit and ended their calls. One is practically shouting into his phone about... He just snapped his phone shut."
"What's the last guy talking about?"
"Nothing. He just put his phone in a jacket pocket. It's still on and he's looking around the cabin."
"Could mean something or might mean nothing. Zap him on general principles and kill the connection with a touch of the usual bad reception crap, please."
"Done. I'm opening the hatch now. The flight attendant in the jump seat by the door looked ready to panic when the handles moved, so I'
m feeding her theta waves."
"Give everybody a big dose for now. We'd rather haul them out than try to reason with them."
"Okay."
The flitter's deck was perhaps an inch from the jet's fuselage. Looking at the opaque field tunnel between the flitter and the plane, I asked Toni if she wanted to come with me.
She stared at the gap between vehicles for a moment, then stood up with a resolute look on her face. I took that as a 'yes' and got up to wait by the plane's hatch.
As soon as the hatch opened, I stepped across the gap into the luxuriously appointed cabin of the jet and greeted a rather cute brunette stewardess, who smiled totally complacently at me from her jump seat. Toni stepped across behind me and stared at her.
"Oh, hell," she muttered. "Is that how I look when you guys have to calm me down?"
"Sort of, but she's getting a really big dose right now. Sue, would you let her have some of her brain back?"
"Okay, Ed. Be prepared."
"Hi," I said, extending my hand to the stewardess with a smile, "We're here to evacuate the plane."
With only the slightest glance at my hand, she stared beyond me in shock for all of a split-second, then rushed to try to close the hatch. I stunned her legs and fed her theta waves as Toni and I grabbed her and lowered her to her seat.
Holding her face so her eyes met mine, I said, "Relax, lady. The plane's in trouble and we don't have time for long explanations. We're going to put everybody on those flitters and take them to Pensacola. You can help us move people or we'll knock you cold and work around you. Which is it?"
"I... ah..." her head whipped around as she realized that all the nearby passengers were either asleep or very nearly so.
"Come on, lady," I said, "We just want to grab them and their carry-on stuff and get moving 'cause we don't know how much longer this plane's gonna be in the air."
"What?! But... But who...?"
I snapped, "No questions. Help us or be cargo. Sue, it's time to make an appearance."
Sue materialized beyond the stewardess and said, "Ed, we don't really need her assistance," as she moved toward me.
"I want at least one wide-eyed witness, Sue; someone who can say in a courtroom what was -- or wasn't -- done up here."
"A courtroom?" asked Toni.
3rd World Products, Inc., Book 5 Page 1
