Disc

by Laurence E. Dahners

  Nolan said, “Well, I think your dad owns the next turn, doesn’t he?” As he said it, he glanced at Dr. Gettnor, surprised to see the man turning pale. Gettnor gave a minute shake of his head which nonetheless managed to appear quite emphatic. “Well,” Nolan said, “if you don’t want to take your turn right now, I’ll be happy to go up.” He turned back to Tiona who’d unbuckled her harness and was shrugging out of it, “How are you controlling it?”

  Tiona said, “Let’s get it on you first.” They spent the next few minutes letting out straps until Nolan could get into it, then a few more minutes cinching them back up so that it was snug. By the time Nolan had the harness on, he’d recognized that the joystick sitting at his right hip must be the controller. Tiona gave him a few instructions, “Its AI should kick in to slow you down if you start approaching the ground too quickly. Same thing for any other object the radar thinks you’re going to hit. Your AI can interface with it so you can tell it to hover. On that command it’ll hold its position and altitude using GPS and its radar system. You can also have your AI adjust the sensitivity of the controller from 1X to 100X. At 1X, moving the joystick its full throw will barely move you. At 100X, a tiny adjustment of the joystick will give it full juice, unfortunately this thruster-fusor combo only provides about 208 pounds of lift and I suspect you’re pretty close to that, right?”

  “Um, yeah, 190.”

  “We’ll have to get you your own harness with a bigger disc and fusor before you can really fly, but you can at least float around a little with this one.”

  Nolan pulled up on the joystick and floated slowly into the air. He certainly couldn’t perform the kind of maneuvers that Tiona’d been making. He moved around more like a balloon while she’d zoomed around like some kind of aircraft. Nonetheless, he had a lot of fun! He came in and landed next to Tiona saying, “Oh yeah! I’ve got to have one of these that’s sized for me!” He turned to Tiona’s dad, “Are you ready to try it, Dr. Gettnor?”

  The man shook his head. As Nolan started unbuckling the harness, he turned and started toward the road.

  Tiona said, “Hey, where you goin’ with my harness?!”

  Nolan turned, a puzzled look on his face, “Back to the car? I’ll have it off by the time I get there.”

  Tiona arched an eyebrow, “I’m not done flying around out here boyo!”

  Nolan tried to act long-suffering as he took the harness off and helped Tiona adjust it down to fit her again. A couple of minutes later she was back up in the air, flying it even harder than she had before. She swooped down toward the ground a couple of times, pulling up at the last moment. Nolan thought she might be testing its impact avoidance system.

  Tiona’s dad turned to Nolan and said, “I’m going to go back home, can you give Tiona a ride?”

  Suspecting that he’d only waited until Tiona got back in the air so that she couldn’t object, Nolan shrugged and said, “Sure.”

  As Dr. Gettnor stumped toward the trees Tiona shouted, “Party pooper,” after him. Nolan turned his eyes back to Tiona. She’d pulled up and hung there staring after her dad. After a moment she apparently decided not to further protest his leaving.

  She shot up into the air, then zoomed over toward the trees, hauling up and halting just short of them.

  Nolan heard some tires squeal and turned to look back toward the road. At least, it was a noise like tires made in the old movies. AIs never made tires squeal so Nolan hadn’t heard the sound in real life before. When he looked, he saw a car which had driven past theirs, but apparently had braked to a sudden stop. Now it was reversing along the side of the road toward their cars. Nolan decided that the passengers must be curious after glimpsing Tiona flying around. He glanced up to see if Tiona was still swooping around. She’d stopped and was hovering next to the trees. It looked like she was peering toward the road. He thought she was trying to see through the foliage, but having a hard time. Nolan called up to her, “Maybe you should try to come back down to the ground, staying behind one of the tree trunks from them. You can slip out of the harness and we can try to convince them they didn’t actually see anybody flying around.”

  Tiona said quietly, “I think I’ll just stay up here. I don’t like the looks of this.”

  Nolan stared at her, wondering what she could be worried about. Surely the people in the car were just curious.

  ***

  Wang called in to Jong, “We just pass a BMW on side of road! Black like Gettnor’s. I think it 700 series.” Wang knew that in his excitement he wasn’t speaking very good English. He supposed that Jong would admonish him for it later. “We… We’re backing up to get… a better look.”

  To Wang’s surprise, Jong didn’t try to micromanage the situation. Tahm had been driving and he swung across the road to park them right behind the BMW. The two cars looked empty. He and Tahm got out of the vehicle and looked around. Tahm said, “There!”

  Wang followed Tahm’s finger and saw Gettnor senior crouching to come through the barbed wire fence just on the near side of the trees. Wang called Jong to tell him to send the rest of the team to their location. Beyond Gettnor, Wang saw a man standing in the field. Gettnor started up the rise toward them. “Let him come up near cars,” Wang said quietly to Tahm, “he look heavy.” At least Tahm wouldn’t complain about Wang’s English. They stood and waited as Gettnor approached.

  Suddenly Gettnor stopped and stared suspiciously at them for a moment. Then to Wang’s astonishment, he reached under his baggy shirt. For a second, Wang feared he was going to pull out a gun. Instead he pulled out his belt. Holding the buckle in his right hand he began wrapping the belt around the base of his fingers as he resumed walking towards the BMW. Wang frowned, wondering what the man thought he was doing.

  When Gettnor was about twenty feet away, Wang leaned up off the car and stepped toward the man. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Tahm coming with him. He reached his hand inside his sports coat and grabbed the handle of his Taser. “Dr. Gettnor, where’s your daughter?”

  Gettnor merely stared at Wang, continuing to plod toward the passenger door of the BMW. Tahm was a little bit ahead of Wang and he stepped between Gettnor and the door of the car. Wang looked toward Gettnor, expecting to see apprehension. Instead, he would have sworn the man had a look of intense anticipation. Gettnor stepped right up to Tahm and said, “Move.”

  Tahm said, “No! You must answer Wang’s question!” He began to pull out his Taser.

  Gettnor’s hand lashed out like a snake striking! Wang heard a crunching sound as it struck.

  Tahm’s head flew back to bounce off the roof of the car. As Wang pulled out his own Taser and stepped back, he realized Gettnor had been wrapping his fist with the belt to protect his hand! Until now, Wang had found it impossible to believe Stillman Davis’ stories about how dangerous Gettnor could be. Now, as Gettnor stepped toward him, Wang felt like a man confronting a tank.

  Backing up, Wang’s heel caught on something. As he started to fall, he fired the Taser. Gettnor spasmed and fell forward, landing on Wang’s lower legs. The impact astonished him. Gettnor was hard—not at all doughy like Wang had expected the scientist to be.

  Wang looked toward the field as he holstered the Taser. The man who’d been standing in the pasture was running toward them. Wang scrabbled in his pocket for the tranquilizer injector they all carried—he suddenly very much did not want to deal with a Gettnor who’d recovered from being Tasered.

  Wang pulled out the injector, popped off its sheath and stabbed Gettnor in the buttock right through his pants. He punched the button on the back and saw the syringe’s plunger depress. Scrambling to his feet, he grabbed Gettnor’s hands and started to drag him towards the team’s Hyundai. The man was surprisingly heavy! He glanced towards Tahm. Tahm sprawled bonelessly beside Gettnor’s car. There would be no help from that quarter. Wang wondered if Tahm was even alive after a vicious punch like that one.

  He looked toward the field. The man that’d been down there was
vaulting over the fence.

  Wang dropped Gettnor’s hands and opened the back door of the car. As heavy as Gettnor was, it was going to be hard to drag the man into the vehicle. Wang didn’t want to confront the man from the field while he was trying to heave Gettnor into the back seat. He stepped in front of the back door, bent over and grabbed one of Gettnor’s hands then looked up at the man who was now running up the rise toward the car. Maybe I can make this guy load Gettnor into the car? He pulled out the Taser and pointed it at the guy.

  The man put his hands up in the air and stopped just short of Gettnor’s feet. “What the hell are you doing?!”

  “Taking Mr. Gettnor in for questioning. I have a warrant for his arrest. Where’s his daughter?”

  The man’s eyes narrowed, “Let me see this warrant…”

  ***

  The next thing Wang knew, his head was killing him. It felt like a horse had kicked the back of his skull. He cracked open his eyes. With dismay, he recognized that he was in a hospital room. A policeman sat beside the bed looking at him suspiciously.

  ***

  Nolan had been watching curiously as Tiona’s dad climbed the little rise toward the road. The two Asian appearing men from the new car stepped toward Dr. Gettnor, one of them appearing to move between Dr. Gettnor and his BMW. Gettnor stopped for a moment, then appeared to throw a punch!

  Nolan’s sheer disbelief kept him from actually believing that Gettnor had thrown a punch until the man bounced off of the car and collapsed in a puddle at Gettnor’s feet.

  Nolan started running toward the road while he wondered what could possibly be going on. Gettnor turned toward the second man while Nolan wondered what Gettnor could have against them. Then he saw the second man pull out a gun and shoot Tiona’s dad! Nolan had reached the fence and for a second considered trying to climb between the wires. Instead, adrenaline pumping, he leapt up, pushed off the top of a fence post and sailed over.

  Nolan glanced back toward the field, wondering what Tiona was doing. He couldn’t see her and wondered if she’d been able to tell what was happening through the foliage of the trees. He told his AI to call 911 and report a shooting. He saw the Asian guy was dragging Tiona’s dad toward his car. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Tiona swinging through the air over the road, looking like she was moving to get behind the guy with the gun.

  The man in question stopped and opened the door of the car, then looked up at Nolan and pulled out his gun again.

  Nolan put his hands up in the air and stopped just short of Dr. Gettnor’s feet. “What the hell are you doing?!”

  “Taking Mr. Gettnor in for questioning. I have a warrant for his arrest. Where’s his daughter?”

  In Nolan’s peripheral vision, he saw something swinging down from above and behind the Asian man. Against great temptation Nolan managed not to glance upward. Instead he narrowed his eyes, “Let me see this warrant…”

  The Asian man fell forward over Dr. Gettnor. Nolan danced back or the man would have hit him in the knees. Now Nolan looked up. Tiona was bringing her leg back down from the vicious kick she’d delivered to the back of the man’s head. Wincing, she pulled her foot up to rub at it with one hand. “Are you okay?” Nolan asked.

  She nodded, “Yeah. Check that guy to make sure he’s out.”

  Kneeling, Nolan said, “Let me check your dad first.”

  “I’ll check my dad!” she said harshly. “You make sure those other two guys aren’t going to bite us in the ass!” She dropped down to land with one foot on either side of her father and picked up his wrist, to take his pulse.

  Nolan rolled the Asian guy to one side. As he’d expected, the man was unconscious. He glanced at Tiona, “I called 911. This guy’s out like a light.” He stood, “I’ll go check the other one.”

  “Take their Tasers away from them! Check them for other weapons and see if they have any handcuffs we can use to be sure they don’t wake up and cause us trouble.”

  Looking down, Nolan saw that indeed the gun which had been pointed at him was a Taser. It wasn’t far from the man’s hand, so he kicked it away into the grass before going to check the guy lying by the BMW.

  When he got there, Nolan stared at the man. The left side of the guy’s face had been crushed inward. Blood was streaming out of the man’s nose and mouth. His eyes looked like they were at slightly different levels. Kinda like his left eye had sunk down and in… or something… awful. What the hell happened to this guy? He remembered thinking that it looked like Dr. Gettnor had punched the man, but surely a punch couldn’t do this to someone’s face, could it?

  Nolan kicked another Taser away into the grass while he wondered whether he should move the man. He thought perhaps the guy might choke on the blood and that Nolan should turn his head, but what if his neck was broken? He didn’t think the guy was going to wake up, but he squatted beside him and went through his pockets. He found two autoinjectors and wondered if the guy had an allergy that he carried EpiPens for. Like Tiona suggested, the guy did have some handcuffs. Thinking it was overkill, Nolan cuffed him. Then as bloody bubbles started coming out of his right nostril and it started looking like the guy was having trouble breathing, Nolan turned his head to the side.

  The guy started breathing better, so Nolan went back and went through the other man’s pockets. “Is your dad okay?”

  In a shaky voice Tiona said, “I hope so. I think the guy drugged him.”

  In a slurred voice, Dr. Gettnor said, “Yesh, he injec’ me.”

  Nolan found a single autoinjector in this guy’s pocket. Glancing toward the other car, he saw an autoinjector lying in the dirt. “Oh, I’ll bet this is the drug.” He held up the syringe looking for a label that might tell him what it was, but there didn’t seem to be one. “Doesn’t say what it is.” He handed the autoinjector to Tiona and put the man’s cuffs on his wrists.

  A siren signaled the approach of emergency vehicles. Tiona stood and shed her flying harness. She trotted to the BMW, its trunk popping open at a command she gave her AI. She tossed the harness into the trunk, then trotted back toward Nolan, raising her hand to flag down the first responders.

  ***

  Nolan knocked on the door of room 5324, “Tiona?”

  Moments later a red-eyed Tiona pulled open the hospital door. As he stepped inside, she threw her arms around him. “Oh, Nolan!” she said, squeezing him hard.

  Having gotten used to the take charge version of Tiona, Nolan found himself a little surprised to be hugging and comforting her while she seemed out of her depth. “Is your dad going to be okay?” he asked, looking over at the hospital bed. His eyes arrested on Dr. Gettnor’s arm as it lay there on top of the covers. The hospital gown had a short sleeve and Nolan realized he’d never seen Gettnor’s bare arm before. The man’s arm was big. Not massive like some bodybuilders, but large and absolutely covered with ridged, hard-looking muscle. Nolan realized that now he knew what had happened to the Asian man’s face. “Holy shit!” he breathed.

  Tiona loosened her grip on Nolan, sniffed and looked back over her shoulder at her dad. “I know. That’s some kinda arm, isn’t it?” She sniffed again, “The doctors think he’s going to be fine. They haven’t positively identified the drug yet, but they’re pretty sure it’s just some kind of tranquilizer.”

  Still staring at the sleeping man in the hospital bed, Nolan whispered, “Does he work out all the time?”

  Tiona’s back shuddered. Nolan thought she might be crying and it took a moment for Nolan to realize she was actually laughing. She said, “Apparently, exercising to exhaustion and getting his second wind helps him think better. We think he does it several times a day, but he hardly ever exercises when anyone can see him doing it, so we’re not really sure.”

  Nolan looked at Mrs. Gettnor where she sat beside the bed, “How are you holding up?”

  “Okay, I guess. You didn’t get hurt, did you?”

  “No, I’m fine.” Saying that, Nolan remembered Tiona rubbing he
r foot and limping a little while they waited for the ambulance. He looked at her with concern, “How’s your foot?”

  “I think it’s a damned good thing I had on boots!” She shrugged, “I don’t think it’s broken, but maybe I should go get it x-rayed.”

  A knock came at the door. When Tiona answered it, a policeman stepped inside. He told Mrs. Gettnor that the police had been over all the AI recordings of what happened and had determined that the two Asian men were the aggressors. He looked at Nolan and Tiona, “So, you guys aren’t under any suspicion, but we’re hoping you can give us some idea what those guys wanted?”

  Tiona frowned, “What do they say?”

  “We have no idea, one’s still unconscious. The other one’s at least pretending to have had a serious head injury and acting like he can’t talk.” The policeman cleared his throat uncomfortably, “Um, the docs aren’t sure the first guy’ll ever wake up.”

  With a tight expression, Tiona said, “Well, I can’t really say I’m sorry about their condition. We don’t know what they were after either. We invented something pretty significant recently. Maybe they’re after that?”

  It looked like a light went on in the policeman’s brain, “Oh… you’re the girl with the flying saucer, aren’t you?

  ***

  Jong cursed. Wang had never said anything else on the comm after he’d told Jong that they’d found Gettnor. By the time the other members of the team reached the spot it was crawling with police and ambulances. Yun had driven slowly past and thought he’d seen Wang and Tahm being loaded into ambulances. Gettnor senior hadn’t been visible, but an ambulance had been pulling away when Yun went by, so Yun thought Gettnor may have been in that vehicle. Gettnor’s daughter had been standing beside the BMW talking to the police.

  What am I going to do? Jong wondered. I’ve lost two members of my small team and I have nothing to show for it. The Gettnors will be on guard now! It was coming up on evening in North Carolina and morning in Korea so they would be expecting his call soon. Is there any way I can make this sound like less of a disaster?