by John M Grier
~***~
The next morning brought them no closer to an answer. However, Suzie had been busy all night researching the law regarding where you could and could not go as well as the rules about government officials following you and forcibly returning you to your home.
What she discovered was that the freedom to move about the countryside unmolested by the government still remained a ‘right’, but you needed to have a form filled out and stamped, much like a passport in Jack’s day. She obtained the forms, downloaded them and waited for Jack to awaken. As usual, Jack was grumpy until he had his coffee. However, once properly caffeinated, he was ready to face the day.
Suzie knew him well enough to remain ‘gone’ until he was ready. But once he was midway through his third cup of his morning elixir, she presented him with the research she had performed. Pointing to an old fashioned monitor which had the forms displayed, she said “Jack, I think all we need to do is have these forms filled out and signed by a government official and we will be free to undertake our journey.”
Jack reviewed the forms and eventually said “It doesn’t look like a particular destination is needed, just a specific time frame. That is good news, indeed. Fill them out, if you will, and I’ll talk to Paul.”
“No problem, Jack! I live to serve and obey” she said with a sly grin. She and Jack played these mind games all the time and she thoroughly enjoyed them. As they waited for Paul to answer, the printer began spitting out pages of official looking documents.
“Paul, good morning!” said Jack.
“I don’t know what’s so good about it” replied Paul.
“Suzie may have found an answer to our little dilemma. Apparently, there are a bunch of forms that you can get signed that will allow us to roam freely with no questions. Now, if we encounter someone while on our mission, we will have everything in place.”
“That is great news, Jack” said Paul. “Our next official expedition isn’t scheduled for a while and I have a bunch of personal hours built up, so we can slip away for a few weeks, if we have to.”
“I’ll come by with the forms in a bit and we’ll see what happens.”
“Okay, see you then” Paul said with a feeling of adventure. He hadn’t felt this good about a pending mission in some time. Still, they would have to be careful, especially if they encountered Janet again.
Paul made his way to the gate and by the time he meandered through the day’s foot traffic, Jack was just arriving. Jack parked his hovercraft in his usual hiding place about a half kilometer from the gate, well hidden from casual view and entered the gate on foot. He showed the forms to Paul and asked “Do you have any idea which particular government representative we need to sign these forms for us?
“Not really, but I’m sure it won’t be the first one we encounter. Probably not the second one either. It could very well be a long day.” However, for a nice change, Paul was wrong about the difficulties they would have. They arrived at the nearest government facility and found a low level flunky that seemed very full of himself indeed, to the point that he could not bear the thought of passing them to someone else. He merely signed each document where indicated, stamped them all, signed, then initialed each stamp, before finally issuing each man a card that they were to keep with them at all times when outside the gate.
Jack noted when inspecting his that it actually said nothing, but took many words to achieve that feat. Smiling as he looked around, he said “I suggest we return to my place and get ourselves ready. The sooner we go, the better, if you ask me.”
“For once I agree completely.”
