BY
Barbie Lee
FIRST EDITION
CHIFFON PUBLISHERS
ELK CITY, OKLAHOMA
MODEL MAKERS is dedicated to
All the Karens in the world who make their bosses or
co-workers look good because they’re exceptional themselves.
All the wives who make their husbands look intelligent.
Thank God for the men and women who recognize each other as humans of equal status on this old world. He never meant for women to be subservient to men. They are partners and mates.
Prelude
She pulled an eight-millimeter pistol from her purse. The silencer reminded him of the muffler on a lawn mower only..., only this dictated a lot more sinister purpose. She put the laser sights right between his eyes. There was an audible click as she snapped the safety off.
"You play rough with her and she likes it. You even think about touching me and I’ll paint the wall with your brains."
THIS BOOK WAS COMPLETELY DESIGNED, PRINTED, AND BOUND BY
ELVES, PIXIES, AND FAIRIES AT
THE OLD
DAIRY FARM
THIS BOOK IS AN
EASY READER TM
OPEN PARAGRAPH FORMAT
CHIFFON PUBLISHERS
ELK CITY,OKLAHOMA
Copyright O 1993 by Barbie Lee
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written consent of the publisher. Exception, inclusion of brief quotations in a review.
This book was sent to me by BarbieLee with the remark, that she found "this old thing" and didn't know what to do with it. Knowing that she isn't all that keen on selling her stories any more, I had a look at it and boy did I get a surprise! This is a fantastic story in more than one sense and I am sure, that those of you who liked "The Huntress" will be equally fascinated by this one.
I have Barbs consent to put this up on here. The book is complete, so other than with my "The seduction" the posting will be in regular intervals until it is finished. I hope all of you who like it will let BarbieLee know how much you appreciate the read.
In actual fact I hardly did have to do any work on this. All real editing was done for the original printed version, if there still are any errors in this it is entirely my fault. I hope you'll enjoy!
Monique.
CHAPTER I
"Blonde, I want the sexiest woman you can whip up for me." As he talked his cigar rolled around in the corner of his mouth. Karen wished he would choke on it. He called himself Bob Kincaid and he was from Bob's Intimates.
Her department was part of advertising. Well, to be more specific, she had been part of advertising when she first hired on. That was over fifteen years ago. As a computer engineer, she designed and built the computers and related hardware for the advertising department. She also wrote and flowcharted the software programs to make those same computers work. Later, she was transferred to Doctor David Beckworth's laboratory where her creative talents were again tested. For the doctor’s lab she designed a computer to interface with a mass spectrometer and a chemical servo dispenser. Finally, the company had assigned her to design a complete new special department. For a lab they had assigned to her a dinky, dirty, storage room. It was located in the far back part of the building. She was to manufacture models of human forms or mannequins for customers on a custom design basis. Over time she was no longer noticed or thought about. As far as Com Tech was concerned, Karen had become lost internally in the company.
For years, Karen came and went and no one knew she was there. Then, like a flower opening, suddenly her department began attracting attention. The models coming from Commercial Technologies, had become some of the most sought after mannequins in the world. Her life like models were the result of Karen’s expertise with computers, and her ability to interface electro-mechanical functions for positive feedback. Some said she was a genius, others said she was gifted. Whatever it was, she had an uncanny knack for making things work in the surreal world of computers, electronics, software programs, and mechanics.
Right now she wished she was anywhere except here talking with this filthy-mouthed customer. "Mr. Kincaid, my name is not Blonde, it’s Karen Long. You may address me as Miss Long, or you may call me Karen. But, you may not call me Blonde! As for the sexiest woman I can whip up....? I do not 'whip up' anything. I make human form replicas. They are for all intents and purposes, an exact duplicate of ourselves. If you didn't believe we made the best human copies, I’m sure you would be down at ACME Duplicators getting what you wanted. I know their models are less expensive than ours. Now, if you persist in dumping your cigar ashes in my office, I’ll call security and have them escort you out of the building."
Bob cut Karen short before she was finished. "Saaaay, you're a real bitch, aren't you? I’ll bet you could get rid of your frustrations if you were laid right now. With a little makeup and jewelry you would be tolerably attractive if you stopped wearing pants and dressed like a woman. Tell you what, you come down to the store and I'll dress you up right real smart. You might attract a real man and stop getting so horny every time you saw one."
Shock and then hate quickly crossed Karen's face. She took a step backward to her desk and pushed a hidden button under the front lip. Both eyes were flashing fire. "Mr. Kincaid, although my company may have signed a contract with you, it doesn’t mean I have to take your insults nor your bad manners. I want you to know our conversation has ended right here and now. Security is headed this way. If you don't leave voluntarily, they’ll escort you back to the front office."
Bob was smiling as he reached for the door handle. "Blonde Honey, if you don't do me an excellent job your ass will be mine. Because, you see darling, the contract says I have to approve of the girlie you make for me. I can promise you I ain't going to be satisfied, your boss ain't going to be satisfied, and you ain't going to have no job. So, I tell you what, sugar, you come look me up after you get fired. I’ll put you to work."
Karen angrily scanned the room for anything to throw at this big, obnoxious, slob of a man who had cigar juice dripping out of the corner of his mouth. For a big man, he slipped out the door fairly quickly. Karen didn't have time to find anything she thought was expendable. Left alone in the lab, it became quiet enough to hear the almost inaudible whine of the servo motors in the security cameras. The cameras followed her every move. The same way they had during her conversation with Bob Kincaid.
Karen looked at one of the cameras and made a face. "You weren't any help."
The camera focused in on her as a voice answered from nowhere and everywhere. "I didn't say anything because you told me not to talk to anyone except you. Remember?"
A smile spread across Karen’s face as she thought of the computer concealed on the other side of the wall behind her desk. It was larger than any modern computer should be. This was her real friend. She had devoted the past fifteen years of her life to it. The cameras were an extension of that computer.
"Oh, Henry, you know I didn't mean anything toward you. You’re right of course. If anyone knew exactly what a conversationalist you were, they would have you dismantled in ten seconds flat. You would be stamped 'Top Secret', and gone out of my life forever. Sometimes I get so frustrated talking to weasels like Bob Kincaid, I wish you were able to poke him in the nose for me."
A couple of minutes later one of the security cameras showed Bob leaving the building. The automatic door at the front entrance malfunctioned. The sliding door tried to close while he was still in it. It smacked him on the side of his head and shoved him up against the door frame.
Karen slipped into her chair, put her feet under the desk, and pulled the computer keyboard toward her. Remembering security, she called them to cancel her alert. Not as if it made much difference. Security never was as prompt as she had led Bob to believe. Usually they never showed at all.
"Henry, I’m going to give Mr. Kincaid a model which will make him drool every time he thinks of her. She will need the face of Venus, the skin tone of an Indian princess, beautiful attractive hands, and long slender fingers always look nice. If I add a perfect figure, it will be a start."
Karen typed the specifications into the program as she was talking. She could have told Henry what she was wanting as easily. Many times she did just that. She would lean back in her chair, slide out a bottom desk drawer to prop her feet on, interlock her fingers behind her head, close her eyes and tell Henry what she wanted. However, when she was frustrated or down to serious thinking she reverted to her old habits of typing everything into the program.
As Karen typed, there appeared in front of her keyboard, a three-dimensional figure. Slowly, it took on shape and form. The hologram Henry generated by use of low intensity lasers, gave Karen a virtual reality model of her ideas.
"Let's see now." She was thinking aloud, as she usually did when focused on her intent.
"I want the hair to be platinum blond and the length should be somewhere about the middle of her back." She typed as she spoke, and the hologram changed to match her instructions.
"Now what? Let me see...? No, that isn't right. I know, make it wavy and have it curl over her shoulders."
Henry didn't wait for her to type in the directions. The hair which hung straight down the back of the model in the hologram, acquired a soft wave and spread softly across the shoulders.
Karen glanced at the hologram. "Good, now let's see what we can do about the face. Her face should have the high cheekbones of a Greek goddess. Her eyes should be big, round, and blue."
Karen was silent for a couple of minutes as she looked hard at her imagery. "Arrgg, that's all wrong. She looks like bits and pieces of this and that. Reminds me of Mr. Potato Head. Henry, make her eyes demure and sexy with a slight hint of Asian-slant to them. The eyebrows need an exquisite arch and a nice sweep to accent the eyes."
After Henry made the requested changes, Karen propped her elbows on her desk and cradled her chin in the palms of her hands. She sat contemplating the features of the hologram. "Not bad, not bad at all. I think we’re on the right track. Now Henry, what about the lips? Thin and delicate or full, round, and kissable? Ah, let's make them full, sexy, and begging to be kissed. They should shout ‘kiss me’ every time someone looks at them."
As the figure of the hologram took on the features Karen was dictating to Henry, it became more lifelike, rather than the abstract statue the initial fuzzy image first started out as.
Henry was repeating his statement to Karen because she didn't acknowledge his remarks the first time. "You know, this looks like it may be your best model yet. She’s extremely attractive by human standards. I could go for a babe like that if I were human."
Karen sighed and leaned back in her chair. "What? Sorry Henry, I guess I wasn't listening. Yes, she is coming along very nicely. It's a shame a toad like Bob Kincaid will be the one who gets her. She really belongs with one of those more respectable companies. Solitaire Clothiers. or someone similar who would display her and their clothes to the best customers would be my first choice. Well anyway, if the rest of her comes together like she has so far, ol dragon breath won't be able to turn down the contract. I kind of wish he would though. He doesn't deserve her."
The camera mounted in the upper left corner of the room zoomed in on Karen. She caught the action out of the corner of her eye and wondered if Henry could read her mind? Nah, even if she did program him, he was still only pieces of wire, circuits, and electrons flowing from place to place. However, if one thought about it, isn’t that what we are. Aren’t we just flesh, nerves, and electrons flowing from place to place? Could it be life begins at the moment of electron dispersion? Wait a minute, this was getting too philosophical. She needed to get back to work.
"Henry, let's move down to the body. Okay?"
"Your wish is my command."
"Wise-mouth." Karen shot back.
"Let's see now, hummm, a long slender neck would show off jewelry and accessories. Of course small hands with long delicate fingers always look nice. Yes, let's give her extra long, sharp fingernails. Perhaps she will scratch Bob's eyes out while he’s gawking at her. The arms should be slender, strong, and she should have soft feminine shoulders. Now Henry, how about a perfect figure of thirty-six, twenty-four, thirty-six?"
Henry rotated the wall camera to look at the hologram. It wasn't necessary, he already received direct feedback straight off the hologram program. He knew Karen liked it when he responded in a physical sense. Humans were strange that way.
"The impression I get from Bob, I don't think a perfect figure is what he wants. He's probably looking for something with a little more zip. Remember, old lizard-lips is use to looking at attractive women in his store everyday."
Karen leaned forward for a closer look at the hologram. "You're right, as usual. Okay, how about ..., ummmm, let’s see now, how about, we give her just a little more gee whiz? Like, how about, uh, thirty-eight?"
Henry was adding dimensions to the hologram as he spoke. "That’s a start in the right direction, but not enough. She needs at least a forty four to get ol fatso's attention."
"Henry, that is..." Karen was about to say disgusting but changed her mind.
Karen looked over her shoulder at one of the cameras before turning her attention back to the hologram. She decided he might be right. "OK, since you wanted to add your two cents worth, you finish her."
Henry started. "Well, if I know my humans, old dragon breath will want some extreme measurements to make his model different from all the others. Yet it can't be too extreme, or it will turn out looking like some of those gargoyles from ACME. A fifteen-inch waist would be too small but a twenty-two inch waist is what all the souped up models are using. Let's give her an eighteen-inch waist along with thirty-eight inch hips. Kind of overkill on the dimensions, but old poodle face won't be able to resist the shape. Especially if we give her long shapely legs and stand her on three, no, make that five inch heels."
Mulling over in her mind what they had designed, Karen sat for ten or fifteen minutes looking at the hologram representing the combination of hers and Henry's ideas. This was a radical departure from her standard models. "This is the most disgustingly beautiful, oversexed model we have ever done. I always tried to make my models attractively real and true to normal everyday life. My model could be the boy or girl next door. I took pride in the fact they were better than the duplicates anyone could fabricate. Henry, I don't think I can be proud of this model."
"Karen, you know if you make one of your standard models, old dragon breath may reject her. You make Sexy Susan and he brings her back, your boss will probably figure the old fat man isn't operating with both oars in the water. Comm Tech has been extremely satisfied with your work over the years because each model you made was better than the previous one. And, I might add, your models are far superior to what the competition could ever hope to produce. Those statues ACME and the others have been manufacturing aren’t in your class. You have remained at the top of your field because you push the limits."
"The only fly in the ointment is Karl Adder. He has attempted for the past eight years to get Comm Tech to appoint him as manager of your lab. So far, the board of directors hasn't given any credence to Karl's claims to be rightful head of this department. You have never given them a reason to find fault. They’re extremely satisfied with what you’re doing. They’re afraid Karl would ruin your perfect record. You make them a very respectable profit they can afford to lose in some of the other departments. At forty thousand per duplicate, they would be insane to let anyone mess with your lab. Your worst competition is your own self as you continue improving on every model. Don't let your pride as a perfectionist cost you what you have worked years to accomplish. This may not be the girl next door, but then maybe she is. Who is to say? Humans come in all sizes and shapes. Fascinating creatures to say the least." Henry wanted to say more, but it wasn't the time nor the place.
Karen suspected Henry was withholding information. He probably knew more than he was disclosing. She was about to ask him but changed her mind. "Okay Henry, load her up in the storage banks, light the fires under the laser stabilizers, and fill up the aqueous tank."
She swiveled her chair around, flipped on the printer, and reached over and dropped an invoice sheet in the scanner. She checked the clock to see what time it was when they began manufacturing this model. "Where did you come up with a name like Sexy Susan? Pop me a cartridge. I want to keep her on file with the rest."
Karen was referring to the mass data storage cartridge. A copy of her efforts would be filed for future reference in case of a glitch in the system. However, in the past several years, Henry apparently solved the problem of glitches by himself. In spite of the best efforts of the company to keep out voltage spikes, power outages, and other beasts, which raise havoc among computers, the fact is, sooner or later they happen to everyone. Karen had come across work orders where extra cables were installed and additional switching plates were added. Then an unusual battery arrangement normally used for national defense computers was signed for by God only knows who. The requisition chits were mistakenly eaten up by the paper shredders before they could be claimed by accounting.
Karen never asked Henry if he was making his own supply list. She suspected it was probably true but, she really didn't want to know. If anyone questioned her about the unusual work orders and supply requisitions coming out of her lab, she could honestly tell them she didn't know about any of it. One thing for sure, well..., she was almost certain without a doubt. Okay, maybe a little doubt. Henry had himself hooked into the surveillance system at Comm Tech.
The cartridge, Karen had asked for, rotated down from the tower where several other cartridges were plugged in. The tower was loaded with empty cartridges at the top. Each one rotated into a gate when it was necessary to store data. After information was banked in the cartridge, it dropped into a rack in a multi-receiver. The cartridges resembled small steel rulers similar to the kind carpenters and plumbers carried, only much smaller. With laser light storage they held several trillion tetra bits of information. If one could compare the storage banks in a cartridge to the information found in a library, all the information carried in all the books of several large libraries could be stored in one cartridge. Each cartridge carried the molecular makeup down to the smallest detail of only one model. Not much empty space remained.
This was what placed Karen ahead of the competition and made her models appear human. In her quest on how humans were made, she searched through every medical program she could find. She also downloaded every research laboratory and hospital records she could access. Programming everything into Henry took a lot of time but it was worth the extra effort. As Karen added the information to her program, the models took on more lifelike qualities.
After Karen loaded Henry with fuzzy logic he began connecting with other computers on his own. She came to work one morning and found him still online. He was downloading information from a hospital and a medical college computer. Then a friend called, wanting to know why Karen had requested information from their DNA testing laboratory. Henry had made the connections all by himself. A lot of mornings after that she would find Henry hooked-up to the modem searching for information. He probably sucked up tons of misinformation along with the good, but he had the ability to decide what was useful and what wasn't. That was the result of the fuzzy logic program in him. He could make decisions rather than spitting out repetition of the input data. Karen wanted a computer capable of making decisions, and she succeeded with Henry. He excelled in that part of his programming.
Karen reached over and drew the data storage cartridge from its track on the tower. She dropped it into the right pocket of her lab coat. She would file it after she made sure Henry was working on the program. "Henry, you ready to fill the tank and sharpen your lasers?"
"What’s the matter with you, Karen? Didn't you look or did you not see what you were looking at?"
Karen was gazing mindlessly through the glass at the production chamber until Henry snapped her out of it. She noticed the camera in the work lab looking back at her. Henry had filled the chamber with opaque gel and the jet nozzle was inserted in the center. The gel would hold the liquid in suspension as it was ejected from the jet. The lasers solidified the liquid where the beams met. Molecule by molecule, the model would be created in the chamber. Other companies made their mannequins like a casting. Out of necessity, their forms were poured as separate pieces. Karen used the medical knowledge programmed into Henry to duplicate the detailed anatomy of a human. Together they created muscle, blood vessels, bone, skin, and every single part of the human structure. Those models were as close to real human life as possible without actually being human.
Everything was done to the point of turning on the lasers. Now Henry was patiently waiting on Karen to give the command to start. Not as if he needed her permission, but it was kind of an unspoken and yet unbroken understanding, Karen was in control. She still wasn't speaking nor had she hit the enter key on her keyboard.
Henry prodded her again. "Are you with me tonight, or did the old fat man get your goat? You seem to have trouble concentrating on your work. Are your batteries low?"
Karen pushed away from the desk. "Sorry Henry, I was trying to collect my thoughts. Yes, he got to me. Right now I’m getting one of my migraine headaches. If I don't do something for it quickly, it will run me down like a truck. You go ahead and start the program. I’m going to David's laboratory and pick up a couple of pills before it gets any worse."
Karen checked a second time to see if the printer was running. She wanted a hard copy so she could follow Henry's program when she returned. She shouldn't be gone longer than a couple of minutes at most. Reaching into the data storage vault she removed a cartridge. Besides her finger tips the security vault was supposed to scan for a magnetic card. Henry bypassed the security program for her when she reached for the cartridge. If it had been anyone besides Karen, Henry would have never allowed access to the vault.
The cartridge she removed contained the chemical compound coding from the tests of her DNA and body chemistry. After seeing her suffer through one of her migraines when they were working together in his lab, David worked up a chemical balance to alleviate her headaches. In fact, it was one of the first chemical coding programs they ran through David's computer after Karen had finished it.
David's lab was only a short distance down the hall from hers. He had given to her the program cartridge and told her to use it when she needed. However, there was one small problem. Karen didn't have the security classification to be in his department. She thought it was a stupid rule since she had built and designed his computer system. She had worked in David’s lab for more than ten months to interface the equipment and programs. She knew more about David's programs than he did. But it was a fact of life and the way big companies worked, logic and reasoning never figured into their rules or regulations. Sometimes it almost seemed as if someone went out of his or her way to make up a stupid rule.
Bureaucracy didn't intimidate David. He had little use for stupidity at any level of research or business. Knowing Karen usually worked late, he gave her a security card and the code to access his lab. When she felt a migraine coming on, and he wasn't there, she could walk down the hall and punch in the access code to David’s lab. By inserting the data cartridge into David's computer, it would manufacture the migraine pills she requested.
Karen could ask for a hundred or a thousand pills instead of a couple and never have to go back to David's lab. But then asking for so many at once would have made her feel guilty. Maybe she was thumbing her nose at Comm Tech authority. And maybe she enjoyed the cloak and dagger thrill of sneaking into his laboratory when she wasn't supposed to be there. Could be she hid latent talents as a cat burglar. Whatever the reasons, she liked sneaking into David's lab when it was off limits to her.
Holding David's card and cartridge in her right hand, she opened her lab door and stepped into the hall. Catching the door before it closed behind her she looked back into the laboratory where Henry was busy building the model. "Henry, you have everything under control?"
"Probably not. Why don't you step back inside and aim one of the lasers for me? Or maybe you want to push the fluid into the tank while you're color coding and solidifying it one molecule at a time."
Karen knew Henry was joking but she wondered how he knew when it was a joke? The abstract of a joke is a human characteristic. Humor isn't programmable into a computer under any circumstances. One could give a joke to a computer and it could repeat the joke but there was no way it could know it had told a joke. Yet..., Henry was perfectly capable of making up his own humor.
"Henry, some day I’m going to replace you with one of those security computers down at the front desk. You know the one. Its job is to beep if someone walks out the door with something they shouldn't."
He rotated the cameras to look at her. "That's it, go ahead and make idle threats. You know you're safe and I can't reach you. I double dog dare you to walk back into the lab so I can squirt you with the jell-gun and solidify you with my lasers. Are you too chicken to face me man to man, or in this case, macho machine verses cowardly woman?"
She glanced sharply back into the working lab where those lasers were busy burning the air and solidifying gel. They could be very deadly if used in the wrong way. Solid walls or the thin piece of glass she was looking through certainly wasn’t a barrier.
Karen made a face at one of the cameras. "Can it, voltage drop out. You couldn't hit a barn door if I laid one out on the floor and pointed your under juiced lasers in the right direction. You’re lucky I’m headed down to David's lab or I would come back in there and start pulling circuits until you begged for mercy."
She backed out the door and turned as it quietly closed behind her. She took a casual glance at the security cameras at the end of the hall. The little red sentry lights beneath their lens indicated they were on. Since this was the way to the outer bathrooms it didn't make any difference who was watching the monitors. In all likelihood, no one was. Those cameras didn't get a lot of personal attention. This was a trip she had made a thousand times, and tonight was no different.
She stepped around the corner at the end of the hall and glanced at the cameras on the wall. They were looking the other way as usual, which was unusual in itself. In the beginning, she had to time the sweep of the cameras so she wouldn't get caught walking into David's lab. Later on, they were always turned away at the proper time and it became more than coincidence. Karen figured Henry was plugged into security and was operating the cameras. He could have taken over the whole system, and be in total control of everything in the security network, including the monitors in the control room. Either way she was reluctant to ask. As long as she didn't have any hard evidence, she wouldn't have to lie about anything. If someone had asked her she could say she didn't know. Not for certain anyway.
Karen pulled the magnetic key and data storage cartridge out of her left lab coat pocket and rolled the cartridge into her palm as she arrived at David’s lab door. She shifted the key to her right hand, and reached for the security panel by the door facing. Out of the corner of her eye she caught a glimpse of someone coming toward her. Dropping the cartridge in her left pocket and the key into her right, she straightened up and acted as if she was out for a walk.
"Out late again aren't you Miss Long?" One of Com Tech's security guards came around the corner down the hall.
Karen had stepped away from the door. "Earl, you know I usually have midnight deadlines to meet. Isn't anyone considerate enough to think I might like working normal hours like everyone else?"
It was kind of a half truth. Karen liked working at night. She was less likely to be interrupted. And then, most people didn't have enough patience to wait more than a day after they put in their order before they were back to pick up their model.
Through the security camera in the hall, Henry could see Earl was detaining Karen. He sent a signal to David's computer via the modem. Waiting on standby, it acknowledged the electronic call and came on. Henry loaded Karen's DNA program into the computer and waited. Now all Karen needed to do was insert the cartridge and it would kick out her aspirin in seconds. Henry congratulated himself for helping Karen without her knowledge. He saved her five minutes waiting for David's computer to ingest the data cartridge and assimilate the necessary chemicals.
The lights blinked in the hallway. Karen looked up at the lights and then back to Earl. "What’s causing the power fluctuations? Everyone is complaining about lost programs and damaged drives in their computers the past couple of days."
Earl hitched up his gun belt. "They installed a crane down in section Two A. It seems they figured out a way to stabilize PCB but it turns out as heavy as hell. The problem they ran into after stabilizing the damn stuff was they couldn't move it, so they installed a crane. Now it seems the power lines aren't big enough to handle the load. Anyway, when the motors kick in on the drive circuits, the lights blink because of the amperage draw. Maintenance will have it fixed tomorrow, they think. I wouldn't really count on it though, no one checked the transformer load rating. After they install the new lines, they’ll blow the power transformer. It can't handle the amp load. Makes you wonder how those guys ever got their degree in electronics, doesn't it? If you have any programs running tomorrow, you better be prepared to kiss them off. I’m betting they knock out the whole building when they fry the electric lines all the way back to the power station."
Earl told it like he knew all about transformers, ohms, resistance, and amperage draw. The truth be known, he was only repeating what he had heard from the some of the engineers in the building. It made him feel important to be able to tell everyone who noticed the blinking lights why they were flashing. It was what security guards in a big company did best, pass information, either useful or useless, from one source to another.
When the power blip occurred, Henry received a disconnect from David's computer. His own system was fail-safe but it didn't keep him from losing connections when problems occurred down the line. Karen was as well off on her own if he could distract Earl. He decided to work on it.
Earl was about to continue his conversation with Karen since he was only halfway through his shift. He had nothing better to do since the personnel in the swing shift was pretty well few and far in between in this big building. Suddenly his beeper started squawking.
"Darn, the security sentry is telling me I have a problem up at the east end of the building. Probably another false alarm. I keep telling those people I’m having problems with the security system but they don't listen. They even set up a plotter to check out bogus alarms. You want to hear something odd? Their records didn't show one single funny call after it had been hooked up for more than a week. I tell you, that security system hates me." As he briskly walked back down the hall, Earl was still muttering about all computers being nothing but trash. He left no doubt to anyone listening he hated computers.
Turning around, Karen checked the security cameras. They were beginning their sweep away from her toward the far end of the hall. Reaching into her right pocket, she retrieved the cartridge and the key. Quickly she tapped the access code into the security control panel and swept the magnetic card through the sensor. The door clicked open.
David's computer was ready and waiting. She wondered why he had left it on? It was unusual for David to leave anything out of order. He was so meticulous in everything he did. She typed in the access code. Slipping the data cartridge into the port she typed in LOAD PROGRAM and hit enter.
The computer came to life, but not in the way she expected.
ARE YOU SURE? Was the question on the screen.
It had never questioned her before. Karen was taken aback but only for a second. Yes she typed.
COMPLETE PROGRAM? It questioned.
Karen was getting miffed with this stupid computer. What had David done to her programs and computer? She designed this whole system. It never gave any problems until now. All this dumb computer needed to do was mix a couple of chemicals and plop out a couple of aspirin. Her headache was getting worse by leaps and bounds. She needed those pills now!
Karen didn't think she could handle going back to the basic program and searching for the problem, not just yet. Even if she had time, she didn't feel her concentration would last long enough to get through it. Her head felt like it was on the receiving end of a long sharp spike and someone with a mighty big hammer was banging on the other end.
She typed in. COMPLETE PROGRAM
It still wasn't cooperating. EXTRA INSTRUCTIONS?
Karen's frustrations were mounting. What would she have to do to get this computer to cough up a couple of aspirin? NO EXTRA INSTRUCTIONS RUN COMPLETE PROGRAM
HOW MANY TIMES?
Ah ha, this was more like it. TWO TIMES
The computer was strangely quiet for a long time and she decided it had lost her program. Finally, two little pills rolled into the ejection tray. Karen scooped them up, shut down the computer to standby, and pulled her data cartridge out. Having second thoughts, she turned the computer back on and erased the program from internal memory. This was David's lab, and unlike her, there were other people working with him. It wouldn't do for them to see the last program and connect her and David together in his lab. She was no longer actively working on his computer or programs. It would be a breech of security and probably get both of them fired. At the very least, she would certainly get a pink slip along with her paycheck. The company would notify her they no longer required her services.
She cracked the door and checked the hall and the security cameras. Although the cameras were swinging her way, they reversed rotation and started their sweep towards the other end of the hall. It was all she needed. She slipped out the door as quickly as she had entered, and was on her way back to her lab. Bless Henry, if there were any lingering doubts about him controlling security, they had vanished this evening.
Stopping by one of the drinking fountains in the hall, she washed down the two aspirin David's computer reluctantly relinquished. She made a mental note to ask him about any problems he was having with it. Obviously, the thing was becoming cranky and haphazard in executing programs. Yet, could be someone put in a redundant check to keep it from making any mistakes. She wasn't the only computer programmer in this company. Someone could have added new security to the computer code. She promised herself she would bring up the security codes in the files before she needed it next time. It was one of the few benefits of being a programmer in this company. Nothing was sacred or safe in a computer or any of the files. She could access most of them as easily as pulling the pop top on a canned drink. The impossible ones took a little longer, sixty-seconds max.
Karen was sure David's computer didn't have a virus. After several systems in the corporation had become infected, she programmed the computers she designed to check for any internal programming changes. Virus's were a product of a sick mentality. They could destroy years of work as they ran their insidious destructive programming through a research computer.
Darn, the city water tasted terrible. She wished she had waited until she returned to her lab to get a drink. All the chemicals the city dumped in the drinking water, along with the chlorine, should bring the EPA to label the drinking water as toxic waste. There was a distiller in her lab to remove everything found in the water besides H2O. She would forget every now and then how bad the city water tasted and take a drink. They pumped it into the lines and called it fit for human consumption. She didn't believe it was good enough to bathe in, much less drink the stuff. After drinking some from the fountain in the hall, it reminded her all over again.
As Karen approached her lab, the door opened for her. She noticed the cameras looking at her. "Henry, are you hooked into security? Disregard the question. Why are you hooked into security?"
She didn't care if Henry answered or not. The headache had eased but she was feeling nauseous. In fact, that was putting it mildly. She felt deathly sick to the very bottom of her soul. Karen held her head and stomach as she stumbled across the room toward her chair.
Henry rotated all four cameras to focus on Karen. "Are you okay? If your headache is causing you this much pain you might want to lie down awhile."
His scan showed a distinct pallor of the skin, her heartbeat was elevated slightly, and a thermal scan indicated a slight rise in body temperature. Henry noticed her eyes weren't focusing on anything in particular. This was nothing to become alarmed about if it only lasted for a minute or two but definitely not any longer.
As soon as she sat down, Karen felt better. "Don't dodge the issue. I want to know how long you have been hooked into security?"
The sick feeling returned as quickly as it left. "Henry, go on with the program. I’m going home until I feel better. I’ll be back shortly. Certainly before you finish. Is everything running all right? You want anything?"
Karen was out the door before Henry could tell her everything was functioning smoothly and he was perfectly capable of operating the lab. As she stumbled down the corridor to the parking tower she was feeling worse by the second. Her headache had returned with a vengeance and the sick feeling was spreading throughout her body. Those aspirin should have kicked in by now. This promised to be one of those killer migraines where she was sick to the very depth of her soul. Her head felt like someone unscrewed it and was using it for a basketball. With David's pills, it usually got down to a survival situation when it was this bad. She knew she would wish she was dead before this bottomed out. Her whole body was screaming in pain now. Even before David's pills, she never remembered one hurting this much. Every cell in her body was screaming for relief. Her hair hurt.
Karen made the parking tower. She was thanking the powers that be she had come to work early enough this morning to park close to the building. At least now she didn't have to walk a mile to her car. She realized as she approached the car her car keys were in her purse in the lab. There was no way she could make it to the lab and back again. She would have to use her emergency key. Reaching behind the license plate, she removed a key. Using that key to unlock the gas cap, she removed the ignition key from inside the gas cap.
Karen opened the car door and collapsed on the seat. She slapped her hand over her mouth and closed her eyes as her stomach churned into a maelstrom. She reeled through one nauseous wave after another until she finally hit a lull in this storm of sickness. The feeling she was about to throw up passed momentarily. Sitting up, she managed to get the car started. Minutes later she was out of the parking tower, through the security gate, out on Mileline Highway, and running for home. Thank God, in a couple of minutes she would be home where she could lie down. The churning was starting again and she was feeling worse by the second. As if things could get any worse.
Henry followed her through the security cameras as much as possible. From the time she left the lab, until she drove out the gate, he tried to keep her under surveillance. However, there were an awful lot of blind spots between cameras. Someone could park a semi truck in some of those spots and never be noticed by security. Henry wondered why they called it security? It wasn't secure by any definition of the word.
Karen was right, even if he didn't get a chance to answer her questions about controlling security. Henry was plugged in and could utilize virtually every single camera operating at Comm Tech. No one but Karen suspected he was hooked in. Even she had no real concept of how extensive his control was. Henry would write work order memos requesting maintenance run cables from box Four Eighteen to box Six Two One, and of course almost every other terminal box. He would then have another maintenance crew jumper blue line four to terminal Three N. It prevented anyone from tracking what he was doing. Henry would erase the work orders in the maintenance computer after the work was completed.
Maintenance had no idea what they were doing when they wired Henry into the whole plant. Besides controlling the electronic mail, posting work orders for maintenance, and running extra phone lines for himself, Henry issued work orders to have them plug him into every computer in the building. The only problem was, when power glitches ran through the building, as they did tonight, he couldn't hold the other computer online.
After Karen left the tower gate and turned her car toward home, Henry checked David's computer. Regret is a human trait Even if Karen had noticed him reconnecting, Henry found it odd he felt regret at not reconnecting with David's computer as Karen brought it back online. Karen accessed David's computer so often he didn't feel the need to watch her once she was in his lab. After all, she designed and programmed both him and his brother computer in David's lab. She was certainly capable of handling any computer problems.
He brought David's computer back online. Passwords weren't necessary for Henry since he was in direct control. He asked the computer for its last operational program.
ERASED was the response.
Karen had removed the program after she ran it through. That was certainly like her. Remove all evidence she had been there. But showing a program was entered and then deleted, left evidence someone had accessed the computer. Henry erased the memory off the memory cache where Karen entered, then erased her program. Karen had been sloppy. Henry was becoming more disgusted with himself by the microsecond. He made an internal memo. In the future, any time any computer in the building was turned on, he would run a watch on that computer and save everything until he decided if it was worth saving or not.
Karen did an excellent job designing him from the start. After she programmed in fuzzy logic, Henry added to himself as he deemed necessary. And in all honesty, Henry noted with pride, he was doing a pretty good job of it so far. Kind of like giving yourself a pat on the back for a job well done. Unfortunately he made learning mistakes the same way humans did, and tonight he made a humdinger of a mistake. If at all possible, he would never let Karen out of his sight again. It didn't make any difference if she found out he was keeping tabs on her. Karen belonged to him.
Karen activated the garage door opener as she turned the corner to her street. By now the nauseousness had returned with a vengeance. She held one hand over her mouth trying to control the dry heaves and drive at the same time. She was trying to decide if she should have called an ambulance and let them take her to the hospital. Thinking brought on new pain. She wasn't capable of making any more decisions. Now it was down to basic survival instinct. Try to live through this. Nothing else mattered. This was the bottom and as bad as it could get. Just survive this for a little bit until David’s pills kicked in. They always helped before.
She automatically turned into her own driveway and was closing fast on the garage when her mind registered the oncoming back wall. She slammed on the brakes and skidded to a halt with her front bumper inches away from the wall. Karen closed her eyes and draped across the steering wheel. Sweat was pouring out of her. Her driving didn’t bother her. She didn’t comprehend the close accident. She was deathly sick.
The garage door closed when the sensors told the control the car was in the garage, and there were no obstructions in the way. Karen had programmed it to close as quickly as possible. She lived alone, and it only made good sense to have it close after she was in the garage. She could override the program any time she wanted. Unless she was working in the yard, which was only a flower planter, she seldom used the option of leaving the door up.
Sliding out of the car seat, she closed the car door and sagged against the car for support. Her next move was a faint concept in the back of her mind. She was perspiring profusely and retching but nothing was coming up. God, was she sick! The thought that she had to get into the house momentarily surfaced. Rational thinking was beyond her. She didn't take into account she would have to turn loose of the car to reach the house. As she leaned toward the house her legs turned to rubber, and she sank to her knees. Karen was crying in desperation and pain as she reached to grasp the doorknob to let herself into the house. Finally she closed her hands around the handle and twisted. As the door swung open, she fell across the threshold.
Dragging herself across the floor, she reached a kitchen chair and pulled herself to her feet. Tears were rolling down both cheeks. Karen was sobbing uncontrollably. She was fast losing comprehension of even the simplest things. And the pain! God, the pain. Her life was going down the drain and she didn't know what to do.
I need help, now! I’m coming apart at the seams. God, help me, I’m dying. The phone..., what about the phone? I have to use the phone to call for help. What kind of help....? She couldn't think. Henry. Henry will know. I have to call Henry or no one will find me until it’s too late.
Karen reached for the phone and fell from the kitchen into the living room. She stopped moving.
Henry tried numerous times to phone Karen at home. Finally, he put Ma Bell on hold and Karen's phone continued to ring all night. At two a.m. he called David in case she had gone there.
David squinted at the clock. Who in the world could be calling him at this time of night? This better be important. He engaged the telephone caller identification button. If this was a crank call, he would have the callers phone number locked into the little black box.
As he picked up the phone, it surprised David to see zeros where numbers should have been. Stupid analogue systems never worked when one wanted them to. "Hello."
"David, is Karen Ann Long there with you?" Henry had already taken the precaution of blanking out the lock-on device. The nice thing about electronics is, for every detection device, there is a counter detection system. Instead of letting Ma Bell feed the correct numbers into David's machine, Henry flooded the line with electronic dots.
David was trying to place the voice but at two o'clock in the morning it was hard to think. Besides, who would put Karen at his place at this time of night? They were friends, but not that kind of friends.
"No, she isn't. Who is this?" If he could get this character to give him his name, they would have a talk tomorrow about these middle of the night calls.
"Tell her Henry called if she shows up. Would you please do that?” Henry decided to let Karen know he was searching for her if she was there. If she wasn't, David would tell her Henry had called when he saw her. Either way, Henry wanted Karen to know he thought it was serious enough to be hunting for her.
David was positive he had heard the name before. He couldn't remember when, or how it tied in with Karen. "Henry who? There’re a lot of Henrys and I’m sure she wouldn't want to call all of them to find the one who called. Is Henry your first or last name?"
If he could talk this Henry guy into giving his whole name, David would run a check on him in the morning.
"She will know which one." Henry broke the connection so he didn't have to continue this conversation. He liked David, but he wasn't impressed with talking to him at two a.m. When David was talking to Karen in the lab he sounded more intelligent. Henry put it in memory. Not all humans are like Karen and can carry on a decent conversation at two in the morning. He wondered why it should surprise him. A lot of humans couldn't carry an intelligent conversation at anytime, day or night.
This search would have to be shortened or it could take all night. Karen would probably return before he found her. He called the hospital, 911, ambulance services, police, and the fire department at the same time. He kept an open line to the hospital. The others netted no useful information, and it was fruitless to keep them on the line.
He already accessed the hospital computer, so he knew the answer before he asked the question, but there were a dearth of leads and a slight chance all the patients weren’t entered in the file yet. "Could you run down the admittance list for today?"
The nurse on duty was wondering what kind of sicko was on the other end of the phone. She had been around long enough to know all the weirdos surfaced in the middle of the night. "Why should I go down the list? I told you we haven't admitted a Karen Long. I have other duties."
Henry had promised Karen he wouldn't talk to other humans. Tonight was an emergency. He had never seen her as sick as she was when she left the lab this evening. She had promised to be right back. Karen hadn’t kept her promise. Certainly he should be allowed some latitude on his promise. His concern was for her. Tonight was the first time he intentionally breached his promise. Talking, that is. He communicated for years with letters, fax, and modem. He didn't consider any of those talking. Not in the strictest definition of the word anyway. It took a lot of time, but a promise is a promise, and he wasn't breaking a promise to Karen under any circumstances. Until now. Tonight was an exception to the rule. Every rule has an exception.
"I wanted to make sure you didn't miss her name on your list. Maybe she was checked in under the name of Jane Doe?” Henry could see Karen’s purse still sitting by the side of her desk where she normally left it when she was working in her office. Besides the name tag on her collar, Karen wasn’t carrying any identification with her when she left the building. A clip on name tag could get lost real easy.
The nurse was miffed to say the least. "Listen, Mr. Henry. We don't check people into this hospital under an alias. I went down the list to ten p.m. which you said was the time she left her office. She is not listed in our computer nor our recent admittance documents. I have other duties, so you call someone else to see if she is at the movies or visiting with a friend. Now good night!"
For the first time since Karen built and programmed him, Henry felt disgusted he was only a computer. He could not physically go out and look for her. He was only capable of searching through humans or electronically. At the moment Henry didn't feel this was very efficient. Henry asked himself if being able to run several thousand functions at the same time, as opposed to humans only doing a couple simultaneously was worth being different from them? He decided to run the pros and cons of it in a comparison program. A couple of seconds and several billion computations later he had his answer.
It was a long night, and Henry was exceptionally busy. He finished the model Karen and he started. Usually Karen left the models in the working lab for shipping to pick up, and sometimes the customer came down to the lab for the models. Henry knew Bob Kincaid would be a hard sale. At this particular time Henry didn't want anyone asking about Karen. She was supposed to be in her lab controlling the computer and the rest of the equipment.
Henry sent out a high priority, special purchase order. One of the benefits of using Commercial Technologies as a base was the implied power structure in simple purchase requests. Other companies bent over backwards in an effort to full fill Comm Tech requests. The order was for an extremely short, tight, black knit dress with a silver interwoven thread to give it glitter. The dress had a high sweater neckline and long sleeves. For jewellery, Henry chose a silver necklace and bracelet with black pearl drop earrings. After he added black stockings, five inch black heels, and a silver clutch to complete her attire, Henry was certain old Bob would eat his cigar as soon as he saw the model.
Getting all this accomplished proved to be no small task. The clothes and accessories were delivered by a Sharon’s Boutique department store courier after Henry had sent the purchase order. It wasn’t the first time one of Karen’s models had been dressed with clothes from Sharon’s Boutique. It was the first time they had to fill a request at four twenty one in the morning. Everyone involved was wondering what was going on but no one questioned the validity of the order.
A work order was sent to Maggie Ballard in security so she would come down and dress Karen’s model. Then there was the matter of shipping receiving their waybills. They would pick up the model on a priority list and deliver her to conference room two before seven a.m. Finally, last but not least, he left a message alert at admittance to direct Bob Kincaid and Hal Sorker, one of the corporation salesmen, to meet in the conference room at the same time.
Notes had been addressed to the proper people. Everything was set in place waiting for the corporation to come alive at eight a.m. Now Henry needed everything to go as planned. The night shift had already taken care of their jobs and it was only six o'clock. Henry felt he had accomplished an extremely difficult job considering he didn't have any legs to get around on.
It was time to give David another call and see if he would stop by Karen's. If she was home, why didn't she answer her phone? Henry was worried. He should have sent emergency 911 to check on her earlier. As he rang David's telephone he knew there was no use worrying over what he should have done. The past was gone and it couldn’t be done over again.
David couldn't believe this. It was only six a.m. and some nut was ringing his phone again. He pressed the caller ID button on his answering machine. This time he would have a number if it was the same nut who called him at two o'clock. David picked up the phone and blinked twice. The readout was all zeros. He would definitely take this thing back where he bought it.
Before David could even say hello, Henry was talking. "David, stop by Karen's and check on her before you come to work. Her spare house key is pushed into the grass along the side walk. Try the third crack up from the curb."
Now David knew this guy didn't know who or what he was talking about. "Who is this? The only Karen I know doesn't have any grass by her house."
"This is Henry. I talked with you a couple of hours ago. Karen has some monkey grass planted inside the flower bed. If you reach down beside the side walk, three cracks up from the curb on the south side, you will find her house key. I would check on her myself but I can't get off work. She was really sick when she left her lab last night."
David was thinking this Henry must have met Karen as she was leaving her lab last night. Who did he know named Henry who would be working in Karen’s end of building. He drew a blank. David didn’t know anyone named Henry, much less one in the same section where he and Karen worked. "Okay, since you woke me up anyway, the least I can do is swing by and see if she wants to go out for breakfast."
After hanging up, David dressed and tried to come up with an answer for what was going on. The only Henry that came to mind was Karen's computer. David heard her refer to the computer as Henry when he had the opportunity to be in her lab. Or, when she was working on his equipment in his lab and they were discussing computerese. The only explanation was Karen had named it after someone in the building. It was a large corporation and several Henrys could be working there he didn't know about. Yet..., something was nagging at the back of his mind and he couldn't quite put his finger on it. Something didn't feel right.
On the drive over to Karen’s house, the only thing David could think of was that guy named Henry. What did he have in common with Karen? David was annoyed because Karen’s house key was exactly where Henry had said it would be. Letting himself into the house, he took a quick glance around. He didn't see anything out of the ordinary until he reached the living room. A woman was lying on the carpet. She was on her side, almost to the point of laying face down but not quite. Soft platinum blond hair covered her shoulder and hid her face. He brushed her hair aside and put his fingers on her neck to feel for a pulse. Nothing wrong there, she had a good strong pulse. From the appearance of her, she must have been partying last night and passed out on the floor. He looked around for the bottle or glass she had been drinking from. Nothing. The party must have been some place else. She either drove to Karen’s or someone brought her. Could be someone picked up the bottles afterwards and left the woman lying on the floor. David checked around the room again. No, the party was some place else. That must have been some party.
He turned his attention back to the woman. Listening closely, David could hear her light breathing. His first prognosis was correct. She had been partying excessively. He rolled her over on her back so he could pick her up and lay her on the couch. Being a doctor didn't prepare him for what he was looking at. Her blouse was missing all of its’ buttons, she didn't have on a brassiere, and her lab coat was way too small to even begin to cover her enormous breasts. Two beautifully formed breasts with large erect nipples were there, for him and all the world to see. Sliding his arms under her, David was amazed at how soft, yet firm, she felt to his touch. A contradiction in terms.
It’s terribly hard to lift a limp body in one’s arms. Much less picking someone up off the floor. David managed with only a slight hesitation as he shifted his hands under her body. Before he had a chance to lay her down on the divan, his pulse began to quicken from the closeness of her scent and the feel of her half naked body.
The thoughts he was having were unethical for a doctor and immoral for a man. He almost dropped her he laid her down on the couch so quickly. She squirmed and sighed. Still asleep, she brushed the hair away that was tickling her face. David was fascinated by her long delicate fingers, and those wickedly long, sharp fingernails. Slowly one eye eased lazily open and hesitantly the other followed. Her eyelids fluttered several times before the eyes managed to stay open.
Bent over her, David's eyes were mere inches from hers. He found himself trapped by those eyes while sucked into an iridescent pool of blue. Hypnotized, deeper and deeper he was drawn into those eyes. She blinked and it allowed him to escape. David flung himself backwards falling across the Ottoman. He ended up wedged between it and the recliner. His bottom was on the floor, feet were up in the air, and his back was against the chair. Peering between his feet, David was still trying to get a good look at those eyes which had captured his mind.
The woman sat up and cocked her head to the side. Those eyes! He had never seen eyes like hers. They were liquid pools of blue with no bottom to them. He could look through them all the way into another world. A chill ran down his spine and he gave an involuntary shudder. He shook his head to avoid being trapped by them again, and focused on other things besides her eyes. That was easy to do. There was a lot there to look at.
She reached up, brushed the hair back from her face again, and closed her eyes as she tried to chase the cobwebs from her mind. “David, what are you doing here? I didn't fall asleep in the lab, did I?"
David crawled out from between the recliner and Ottoman and retreated backwards carefully keeping an ever watchful eye on her. How did she know his name?
She languidly blinked those sapphire blue eyes of hers as she followed his movements. "Come to think of it, you're in my house. How did you get in?"
David was becoming perplexed as he struggled to collect his composure. There were an awful lot of people lately who knew who he was when he didn't know them. First, there was that guy named Henry and now this woman. What kind of friends was Karen keeping and what was she telling them about him?
"Henry told me where to find the house key. He asked me to check on Karen. He said she was feeling sick when she left the lab last night. He tried calling here but no one answered the phone."
She rubbed the back of her neck, and rolled her head around to work out some of the kinks. She pushed the hair out of her face again. This was becoming annoying, to say the least. She always wore her hair in a short bob. She must have been busier than she thought lately to let it get this long.
"Henry is a worry wart. Of course I’m all right. He couldn't get me last night because my phone was on mute. Normally I leave it off when I’m home. I don't care to be bothered by insurance salesmen. They can talk to my answering machine if they want to give their sales pitch. I don't have to put up with their annoying calls when I’m home. Henry knows all that. Why am I explaining everything to you?"
"Never mind. Now that you're here, let me get dressed and I’ll follow you to work. By the way, what time is it?"
Besides being crazy, or maybe she didn't understand it was Karen he was asking about, she also didn't have a speck of modesty. Sitting up brought into sharp focus the defining curves of her well endowed figure and bare breasts. David was sure his eyeballs were hanging out of their sockets.
The lady didn't seem to mind he was staring or she didn't notice. Could be she was still hung over from the party. "It's six thirty."
As she rose unsteadily to her feet David thought she was going to fall over before she gained her equilibrium. He figured she was nursing one granddaddy of a hangover from last night’s party.
She put her hand out to steady herself against the arm of the couch. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath and started down the hall toward the bathroom walking on her toes. When she tried to put her feet down flat and walk it felt awkward and unnatural. "Must have slept wrong last night. Have you eaten yet? We have plenty of time if you would like some coffee and toast before we leave."
What a beautiful set of long legs. Even walking on her toes she had a swing to her derrière that would drive men into vapour lock. This woman couldn't be working in the same place he did without everyone in the building talking about her. No, scratch that. There was no way she could be working in the same city. He had never seen her in any movies. Of course that didn't mean a whole lot. David didn't watch a lot of movies or TV. She must be a model or a movie star. Karen's room-mate, who would believe it? Karen was such a shy, inhibited person. They say opposites attract.
He wondered if his voice sounded as strange to her as it did to him when he answered. "No, I was in too much of a hurry to eat before I left the house."
"By the way where’s Karen? If you’re her room-mate why hasn't she mention you?"
The woman placed one hand on the bathroom door facing to steady herself, and the other on her forehead. She felt woozy and her mind was swimming in a haze. Between David's bad jokes and her lack of ability to bring her thoughts into focus, this day didn't look very promising. For sure, with this hair in her face and the stiffness she felt all over, this day was starting out in the cellar.
She brushed the hair away from her face again, closed her eyes, and drew a deep breath. "You practising to be a comedian? For the record, don't quit your day job. You aren't funny. Promise no more jokes and I’ll fix us some coffee and eggs in a couple of minutes. We have plenty of time if it’s only six thirty."
She blinked a couple of times and shook her head. "Didn't I just say that? Never mind. It doesn't matter. We have time for something."
The woman slid the mirror open on the medicine chest above the lavatory and picked up her toothpaste and toothbrush. Brushing her hair back out of her face again she tried unscrewing the cap off the toothpaste. It was difficult to do. Her long fingernails kept getting in the way every time she tried to get a grip. Again and again she pushed the hair back from her face.
Sliding the mirror back in place she leaned over the lavatory and put the toothbrush to her mouth. She looked into the mirror and froze. She was staring at the reflection that was looking at her. Her eyes burned holes in the mirror as she focused on the image. For the first time she understood what wasn't right. Ever so slowly she raised her hand to the mirror and slid it open again. There was nothing there which was capable of projecting a picture from the inside. She glanced over her shoulder knowing there was a projector mounted on the wall behind her. It wasn’t there. The haze was retreating from her mind. Eyes shifting to her hand, she blinked as she focused on her long slender fingers and those long sharp fingernails. Looking back into the mirror, she slid it closed again. She knew that face. She and Henry had designed it in the lab last night. Looking at her hand she brought it up and touched her face. The image in the mirror duplicated her every move. It had to be one of Henry's tricks.
Slowly, the rest of what she had seen, but hadn't yet grasped, dawned on her. Looking down at her breasts, she held them as her mind raced in desperation searching for solid ground. Her reasoning and sanity were in doubt. A blizzard of questions and answers swirled in and out of her mind. Nothing was there she could comprehend. Questions screamed for proper answers. Her mind searched in a futile effort to snatch logic from a whirlpool of illogical, irrational denominators. There wasn’t a match anywhere.
Her mind was racing in overdrive in a quest of anything realistic it could lock onto. Numb with disbelief she leaned forward and put both hands on the mirror. It was as if she was trying to physically push the image away. She straightened up. Staring into the mirror she ran her fingers through her hair. Lifting it up and out she let it slip through her fingers and fall softly over her shoulders. Her mind didn’t believe what she was seeing or feeling. One more time she leaned toward the mirror. She looked into those liquid sapphire blue eyes with the extra long, thick, lush, lashes and exquisitely arched eyebrows. The full, attractively sexy lips, high cheek bones, and small upturned nose left no doubt.
The reality slammed into her mind like a freight train. As she turned for the door she screamed. "DAVID!"
David jumped out of his skin. Bolting for the door in the same direction the scream came from he knew the woman must have found Karen dead somewhere. Sliding through the bathroom door, he ran into the woman he found on the floor a few minutes earlier. Off balance, he threw his arms around her to keep both of them from falling. With his arms embracing her half naked body, her face so close to his he could feel her breath, he looked into those startled sapphire eyes, and realized with a quickening heart what he was holding.
David made a hop and turned loose so quickly he knocked her backwards. He reached out to steady her a second time.
She intercepted his hands by grabbing them. "WOULD YOU KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF ME!"
David didn't know what to say. It wasn't as if he was fondling her on purpose. He was only wanting to help. "I was trying to keep you from falling."
She looked at him incredulously. "How? By running over me?"
"You were screaming."
"Of course I screamed. You would scream too if you looked like me! Just look at me!" She looked down at herself when she said it. It came to her she wasn't exactly decent. "No, don't look at me. I mean, look at how I look. No, that isn't what I mean either."
She was tugging on her lab coat and trying without any success to cover herself. With a fist full of fabric in each hand, it only came to the sides of her breasts, no matter how hard she pulled.
"WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU DONE TO ME?”
"I didn't do anything to you! You were like this when I found you on the floor this morning." He couldn't believe she was accusing him of molesting her or taking her clothes apart.
"NO, DAMN IT! Look at what your stupid computer did to me! How could you let this happen?" Karen gave up on her lab coat covering anything besides her back and covered her breasts with her hands as best as possible. It only emphasized their enormous size and did little else.
This woman's elevator didn't go all the way to the top floor. Maybe she was on a bad trip with angel dust, acid, or LSD? Now she was accusing his computer of molesting her. Backing out the door, David tried to put as much space as possible between them before she became violent. He was wondering if he could manage her if she became aggressive.
"Lady, you have some major problems. Tell you what. You remain calm while I make a phone call. Okay?" If David could talk her into staying where she was without any bloodshed, he planned on phoning the hospital and have them send over the funny farm crew to pick her up.
What David was insinuating wasn't lost on her. "David, stop treating me like a loony. Look at me."
He thought that was an understatement. It was all he had been able to do since he found her on the floor. He guessed he could kiss off the idea of this woman staying calm. Obviously, she wasn't going to cooperate.
"This is me! Karen! Or what used to be Karen. Karen Long. Remember me, David?"
She followed him into the hallway and was still trying to inject some reality into what she was trying to convey to him. "David, listen to me. You can't call the hospital, nine one one, or anyone else. We’ll lose our jobs."
"David, what kind of DNA program did you leave loaded up in your computer last night? I used it to get a couple of aspirin for my migraine headache. I ran the program you made for me and this is what I ended up with."
His eyes narrowed to slits as a frown spread across David’s face. Complete disbelief was written all over him. Just as Karen had been a couple of minutes earlier, he was in total shock. He shook his head to clear his mind and his emotions. "Lady, ain't no way on God's green earth you will ever convince me, YOU, could possibly be Karen Long. You and Karen, along with that guy Henry must have worked a long time to come up with this one. I have to admit you had me going for a second but I ain't buying what you're selling."
"I have things to do. As much as I have enjoyed looking at you half-naked, I have to leave." He retreated into the living room as he spoke and was about to turn around for the door.
"David, please..., wait. You must believe me. I’m telling you the truth. I had a terrible headache last night. I went down to your lab to get your computer to spring for a couple of pills. I plugged the cartridge you..."
"Oh, noooo." Karen had her hand in her right coat pocket about to pull out David's card to convince him she was on the level. Her hand was wrapped around the magnetic card and the cartridge. In her left pocket, her fingers were on another data storage cartridge. With a terrible sinking feeling she realized what had happened when Oliver interrupted her in front of David’s lab.
"David, I fed your computer a program of the model Henry and I were working on last night. No wonder I had such a terrible time getting it to load the program. It kept trying to spit it back out and refusing input commands. I have to get back to my lab. Henry can straighten this out. I mean, he can make me back into me again. Oooh shit! What I’m trying to say is, he can give me back my old body. Me, Karen Long."
As bad as he wanted to escape, David couldn't take his eyes off this woman. She had to be every man's dream with a hundred pluses thrown in. He looked at the keys, the cartridge, and back to her face. It was an unbelievable story she was telling him. Looking at her made him want to believe it anyway.
"Karen, if it’s really you then you better sit down for this. We have problems I don't think you want to hear. In fact, I think we both need to sit down. I don't want to hear what I’m going to say either"
With David's sombre voice a calm settled over both of them. Karen was quiet long enough to realize she still wasn't decent. "Just a minute and let me get something to cover up with. Even though this isn't me I don't think you should be looking at it."
In a few seconds she returned from the bedroom with a bathrobe. It wasn't large enough, so she covered herself by wrapping it around the front of her. Sitting down in one of the covered chairs in the living room, she and David looked at one another in unknowing anticipation. She decided she would have to explain first if this was to be taken care of.
"Henry and I were designing a duplicate last night when I started getting one of my migraine headaches. I pulled the program you made for me so I could get your computer to pop me a couple of aspirin. Henry also gave me the program storage cartridge we made up for the duplicate we had been working on. Somewhere between your lab and mine I managed to get the two mixed up. I fed your computer the data cartridge of the model. Even though I designed your computer, I find it hard to believe it could follow Henry's complete program. I bet it had a haemorrhage coughing up those two pills."
"There isn't any problem, right? I’ll ask Henry to make up the old Karen Long and have your computer come through one more time with the correct pills. Then I will be my old self again. Right, David?" Karen was begging David to agree with her.
At last David knew who this Henry was. There was no way Karen and her computer could be running a program detailed enough to furnish the information his computer required to manufacture DNA structures. Karen and her computer only produced plastic people in her lab. Yet..., she didn't know everything he was doing, why should he take it as a given he would automatically know everything about the work she was doing in her lab?
"Karen, we have been doing DNA research for some time. Of course, that much you already knew. What you didn't know were the results of our research on the animals we have done experiments on. Oh, it wasn't much, but it represented quantum leaps in knowledge to us. I would program in a change in molecular structure after we had analysed the original molecule and DNA strands. The change might be something like a DNA splice on number forty-one DNA in Y chromosome."
"Some of our success stories were we could grow a few extra hairs on a mouse foot. I mean just that. We could grow a few extra hairs. Sometimes we could get a genetic inheritance in the offspring but not always. It takes years to get one DNA change to take root and stay in the chromosome structure. Usually it would be bred out in the following generations. It took a lot of time to get the gene splicers, along with the right DNA change into the computer."
"However, even with all the success stories, we had one obstacle we couldn't overcome. We put in a reverse program which didn't work. What I’m saying is, once the change is programmed in, we couldn't take it out. We weren't able to splice the DNA change twice in the same position in the DNA structure. In every case, there was massive cellular disruption. The results were tragic. All the test animals died."
"I don't believe I’m looking at Karen Long. If I am, we better get use to the idea this is what she is going to look like forever. It’s a one way trip."
Karen held up her hand and took a long, long, look at it. She took a deep breath and sighed. "No..., no, you're wrong. Henry can make it happen. Let's get down to the lab and get started on putting me back together."
David choked. Hacking and sputtering, he was having trouble collecting his thoughts. "You can't go down there like that! We'll never get past the gate guard."
He stepped back and admired her exceptional beauty from head to toe. "I have an idea. While the security guards are concentrating on you and their senses go into overload, I’ll get out and push them over. They will be passed out on the ground and we can drive through."
In spite of the situation, Karen smiled. After all, she designed this body and she knew exactly what David was talking about. Provided one was into looking at this kind of body. She and Henry made this particular model for one reason, to attract attention. Lots of attention.
"I don’t have a single piece of clothing which will fit this..., this..." She spread her arms out as her eyes shifted from side to side before she looked at David again. She didn't quite know how to explain what she was without sounding like something else. She was supposed to be a mannequin, or the design of one.
David stood on one leg, then the other, while Karen made a feeble attempt at describing herself. He was afraid of getting involved. He didn’t want to help her rationalize what she was trying to say. This situation was so bizarre he still didn’t quite believe it.
She gave up and decided to tell him what she had to have. "I need some clothes so I can get back into my lab. I can't go down there like this. I certainly don't have any shoes I can walk in. My feet were designed to fit a size seven shoe with a five inch heel. David, you have to find me some clothes I can wear. If I give you a list do you think you can remember everything or do I need to write it down for you?"
David felt like he had fallen into an abyss. He was sinking deeper and deeper. In spite of what his common sense kept telling him, he was beginning to think this could possibly be Karen. Looking at her killed the thinking processes.
Ah, what the hell! When in doubt, plunge ahead. "Give me your shopping list and I’ll get it filled. Provided they have your size in this town."
Karen stuck her tongue out at him. David was a good friend but she promised herself she would get even with him for his last sarcastic remark.
"I certainly don't need a tape to take measurements, since I designed myself last night. I need a forty four double D bra, size twelve dress, a size ten panties and a size seven shoe with a five inch heel would be nice. Make sure the dress is knit, with lots of stretch. I won't be able to slip on anything else."
David left with the promise to be back within the hour. If this was on the up and up, Karen had made a leap in physics and chemistry beyond comprehension. She and Henry had to have everything in the human body listed in chronological order, the DNA spirals, the chromosome links, and all the molecules. No, it was impossible.
A program capable of storing that kind of information wasn't possible. It couldn't be accomplished by a thousand programmers, much less one woman. No way could Karen have devoted the time and research necessary to acquire that amount of information. The physical aspects of putting all this data into a computer would be staggering for a university to accomplish. All the research and time required to load up one person's physical make-up? Nah, no way. She only manufactured plastic people. It had to be a mistake in his computer. But if it was his computer where the mistake had been made, how did it change her so completely? His best efforts in research were one single DNA change in one chromosome and he had been doing this for years. His program was locked up in storage files, not left in memory. Besides, one DNA change does not a whole person make.
David was still running all the possibilities through his mind when he returned. Of all the answers he could think of, not one came close to what this woman was telling him. His doubts as to his being duped or not had slipped back into his thoughts. That was the most feasible answer, but it wasn't the best answer. What could be their motive?
From the time David left to find her some clothes, to the time he returned, Karen accomplished very little. Removing her clothes, or what was left of them, proved to be a task in itself. She cut her pants off with scissors since the waist band didn't stretch enough to slip over her hips. Her blouse and lab coat were no problem, of course. They didn't have any buttons left. Their buttons were scattered across the floor where David found her this morning. She didn't have to worry about where her bra was. She usually didn't wear one. The old Karen didn't have enough breast to fill an A cup. She found wearing a brassiere a nuisance when she wasn't out in public, or trying to pretend she had enough shape to fill a dress like a woman.
Well, that problem was certainly over with, for the moment anyway. There couldn't be any doubt in anyone's mind she was a woman. Even if she was wearing a rain barrel.
Karen wrapped a sheet around herself and was waiting in the living room when David returned. He set a couple of sacks down on the couch beside her. "I called a friend who goes out to the lake or opera with me once in awhile. I asked her where I could find the items you needed. I got the feeling she thought I was getting kinky or something when I first talked to her. She said anytime I felt like dressing a woman for work, or other things, to stop by her house and dress her. I sure gave that one a lot of thought. Nice girl. Anyway, she came through for me and got me into several places where they normally don't open until after nine. These were probably the only places in town with the clothes you could wear."
"I managed to find everything you asked for, and of course, something you forgot. I picked up stockings after my friend reminded me. If you're right about everything else in the house not fitting, then I didn't think you would have any of those either. I told the sales gal I was buying my girlfriend a complete outfit for her birthday. I don't think she believed any of it. Doesn't matter. I also picked up some jewellery to go along with your dress. I never saw Karen wear jewellery of any kind, but you really wouldn't look right without it."
Karen stood up and lifted the bags off the couch. "Thanks. Don't run off. I need to ride in with you. My security pass won't get me in by myself. The guards never look at the passenger if the driver has all the right stickers and pass ID. I’ll turn my ID so they can see I have one. Unless I’m extremely unlucky, they won't even take a second look at me. I have never seen them check any of the passengers as long as I have worked there."
With a sack in each hand, she was no longer holding on to the sheet wrapped around her. Halfway down the hall it worked lose and fell to the floor. Karen stopped, looked down at the sheet lying around her ankles, and then back over her shoulder at David. He never blinked, but his eyes told the whole story.
Karen stepped out of the sheet and using her foot pushed the bedroom door shut behind her.
David broke out in cold sweats. How could he let himself get involved in this crazy scheme? Why was he letting this woman talk him into driving her to the Commercial Technologies building? Probably for the same reason the guards were going to let them through the gate. She overwhelmed the senses. If he could make a bet with anyone right now, he would make a wager the guards would never see the stickers on his car, his ID. For that matter, they wouldn't even see his car. Not with this woman riding with him.
David decided to leave while the woman who claimed to be Karen was still dressing in the bedroom and he had control of his mind. This was insanity. Driving this woman to Comm Tech would cost him his job.
His hand was on the door knob, but silent escape was not to be. Karen was good as her word. She was back almost as quickly as she said she would be.
"Good, I see you're ready to go. Its’ close to eight and the traffic will be heaviest about now. The guards will be more concerned about keeping the traffic moving than checking cars."
The dress Karen was wearing was a short, midnight blue, shimmering lurex. A silver chain belt accented her tiny waist and exaggerated her abundant breasts and curvaceous hips. The dress had long sleeves and a deeply cut v-neckline exposing a black bodice. Abundant cleavage left no doubt, this was all woman.
David found his voice had left him. He wanted to tell her he changed his mind. It was no use. Some things were impossible. Now it was forgotten and the farthest thing from his mind.
"Oh, my God!" It escaped as a whisper and wasn’t what he had intended to say.
He closed his eyes and shook his head. Everything about her was suggestive. Suggestive to what? Was it her or was it wishful thinking on his part? God, how she screwed up the thinking processes. The mind vapour locked when the eyes began looking. He knew several beautiful women. Why did this particular one trample his mind so?.
Platinum blond hair spread softly across her shoulders. Karen brushed it back as she slid her purse strap up on her shoulder, and checked her earrings. Pierced ears were something new to her. She had a little trouble finding the holes. However, she got it right and the black onyx stones, set at the end of two inch silver chains, looked perfect with her outfit.
Looking down at her midnight blue heels she slid her hands down the skirt as she ever so slightly shimmied inside the dress to help roll the wrinkles out. "Not bad. First time this morning I have been able to stand comfortably."
She glanced across the floor at David, who hadn't moved since she walked back into the room. "Come on David. Build a fire under it. Let's get going."
The woman was out the door and halfway down the side walk before David's senses came back to him. He realized she had left him behind. He caught up with her beside the car. "This isn't going to work. They’re going to take one look and know someone who looks like you doesn't work for Comm Tech."
Karen leaned over sideways to check her stockings. She slid a hand up the calf of her right leg to even out the stretch in the stocking. David's mind went numb as he opened the car door for her. No, it wasn't just wishful thinking on his part. She was suggestive.
No one in her whole life ever opened a door for her. Certainly never David before now. She was pleasantly surprised. "Thank you, David. Tell me why don't you think this is going to work? I have a Comm Tech badge. I look like a hundred other passengers who ride to Comm Tech everyday."
He reached into the back seat and pulled out his lab coat. "It isn't going to work because of .... You sure as heck don’t look like any other passengers I have ever seen before and I’ll bet a thousand dollars none of the security guards have either. Here, put this on and put your ID on the collar. It isn't going to help, but maybe it will make you look a little more official. That dress you’re wearing certainly doesn't look very damn official."
As Karen slipped on the lab coat, David checked out her attire and shook his head. He was mumbling under his breath as he stared at that beautiful hair of hers cascading across her shoulders. "There is no way this is going to work."
Karen slid into the seat and he closed the door. Walking around to the driver's side, he plopped in under the steering wheel and snapped his seat belt. He motioned for Karen to do the same. She made several attempts to get hers buckled and finally gave up. They needed some major adjustments.
She clipped her Comm Tech badge to her lapel and settled back into the seat. "Would you quit saying this isn't going to work. I’m nervous enough already and you’re only making it worse."
Starting the car and backing out into the street, David was actually relieved there was something to occupy his mind besides staring at the woman beside him. "Well, if we both get fired.... No, when I get fired I want you to know, you flushed fifteen years of my life down the toilet. I won't be able to find a job passing out free water in the desert."
Karen wasn't amused. "If I don't get a chance to get back into my lab so Henry can put me back together, then your computer flushed my whole life down the toilet. I can't look like this for the rest of my life. This kind of body doesn’t fit into my life style. I don't need these complications right now."
David pulled out onto Mileline Highway and headed for the lab. "You keep blaming me and my computer. I guarantee you, neither me nor my computer did this to you. Even if I had access to every computer in the world and all the financial backing I wanted, it just isn't possible. I couldn't design anything like you. I wouldn’t have the slightest idea where to begin. I don't believe Karen and her stupid jelly machine, the one you keep calling Henry, could do anything remotely similar either. I’ll admit, she was turning out some very real, lifelike, mannequins in her department, but they’re only dummies. Plastic people put in a mould and baked in an oven until done. You know, like making cookies. What she is doing isn't even close to the research necessary to begin cellular programming."
As long as he wasn’t looking at her, his emotions didn’t override his reasoning. He knew this woman couldn't be Karen Long. If he let her talk him into driving her into Comm Tech without a security pass he was going to get fired. What could possibly be her motive? An industrial spy hunting secrets about his research? Maybe a reporter looking for a story about how easy it was to get into Comm Tech? Could be she was insane? He was thinking he was insane himself to go along with this harebrained scheme. Who said insanity wasn't contagious? You get around an insane person and pretty soon you’re thinking just like them.
Karen tried a couple of more times to get the seat belt buckled, then gave up. They didn't make seat belts with her in mind. She brought her left leg up under herself as she swivelled around in the seat to face him, and leaned her shoulder back against the door. "Listen, almighty know it all, I have been running programs for years which would make your computer have a nervous break down. I should know, I wrote the programs and designed the computer you're using. Henry is more than capable of hooking into your computer and telling you where you have been messing up in your DNA testing. I also know for a fact Henry has been busy checking out everything else in the building."
She picked up David's car phone and dialled her own lab. If she was lucky it would pass the switch board up front and she would get a direct connection with Henry. "I don't know why I didn't think of this before. Henry knows security better than anyone in Comm Tech. If there is a way past security, Henry will know how. He can tell us how to get in."
David took a quick glance in her direction. "What is your computer doing messing with security? The only thing you do in your lab is make plastic dummies. Isn't that all you do down there?"
He realized, with great dissatisfaction, she had suckered him into believing she was Karen Long again. What was it about this woman that entranced him so? She had to be an impostor. When he looked at her or talked to her, he wanted to believe her story. His mind was telling him, 'no way' and his eyes were telling him, yes, yes, yes. Goes to show, your eyes will deceive you and lie to you. Never trust your eyes to tell you the truth, especially if a beautiful woman is involved.
Karen was disappointed when a voice came on the phone. It was Linda, the front receptionist. "Linda, I need to talk to Karen Long. Would you ring extension five four, please?"
Henry didn't require a voice analyser to know who he was talking to. "Karen, this is Henry. Even if it is coming from David's car phone I didn't know who was calling. I was going to shift whoever it was to hold and let them wait until they got disgusted and hung up. Where have you been? I tried all night to phone you. In fact I stopped your phone from ringing a couple of seconds ago. I was digitizing Linda's voice so no one would know you weren't here. Pretty good huh? I sound more like her than she does herself. Humans don't...,"
"Henry, shut up and listen for a second? I have a major problem. I need to get into the lab. I’m riding with David and we’re afraid we might have trouble getting past security at the gate. Can you help?"
Henry didn't ask what her problem was. If his Karen wanted help getting past the guard at the gate, he would take care of it. He ran a check on the employee list and security ratings for her and David. They came up with a twenty-four-hour clearance. He ran David's car through the check. All of his passes were up to date. Running Karen and David through violations showed nothing. These two were the epitome of Mr. Corporation America. Both were squeaky clean.
It took him a second to do the checks and then answer her question. "Drive up to the tower gate and come through the same way you always have. I will take care of everything. Don't stop at the gate, even if the guard doesn't wave you through. Don't stop. Do you understand?"
Karen hung up, and repeated to David what Henry told her. He slowed down for the turn off of Mileline Highway at the Commercial Technologies gate.
He didn't believe a word of it. "There’s no way you and that computer of yours could carry on a conversation like the one you just had. They’re pieces of equipment. They have memory chips, programming, and no brains to think with."
"We’re there. Sit up in the seat and try to look official. A very important official. You know VIP. For goodness sakes, don't slouch down in the seat and try to hide. It would only make them more suspicious. With a little luck we might be able to pull this off."
His eyes shifted in her direction and David shook his head. He didn't tell her what he was really thinking. No one who looked like her had ever worked for Comm Tech and the guards would realize that as soon as they spotted her. All the luck in the world wasn't going to get them past that gate guard. His research, his career, his whole life was going down the tubes because of one woman. He wished harder than ever he had left this problem at home and not became involved. How did he let himself get talked into this ludicrouscy?
Karen had no intention of slouching down in the seat, even before David mentioned it. "You pay attention to your driving and try not to look scared. Henry said he would get us through and he will."
The guard’s red phone began ringing as he waved the car ahead of David through the gate. Without looking at the car the guard automatically waved David through as he answered the phone. "Gate four security, this is Mac speaking."
Using the security camera, Henry watched as David and his passenger came to the gate and at the right time placed the call. "Mac, this is ‘THE OFFICE’. We received a notification a red Ford van might try to get through the gates without checking in for a visitor's pass. Have you seen anything suspicious yet?"
Mac took a quick look to see what he had waved through. He breathed a sigh of relief. It was only a car. "Nuthin ‘as gotten by me ‘ere at my gate. No body better try to sneak in on me watch. I can spot intruders before they ever turn off the effin’ ‘ighway."
Henry was well pleased with himself. "Okay Mac, they probably won't show but we wanted to make sure you were alerted in case they tried. Keep up the good work. I’ll put a note in your file. We don't have to worry about your gate while you're on duty."
Mac's chest swelled with pride as Henry cut the connection. He knew he was doing an excellent job. And, the front office had noticed.
Henry watched David and his passenger drive into the parking tower. The cameras were probably the cheapest ones money could buy and still transmit some resemblance of a picture. It didn't help when the lens were dirty and scratched. He did an enhancement. Not much better. He was doing good to make out David's car. Why did they call this security?
David didn't have any trouble finding a spot in the tower. He had his own personalized parking space. That space wasn't very close to the main building. He never minded it before. It helped him get his exercise. At times like this he realized how far his parking space was from Comm Tech proper. He sure minded the distance now.
Karen was out of the car as soon as David stopped. There wasn't any reason to prolong the inevitable. If she didn't stop and think about it, she might not get so scared she couldn't walk. She felt close to the ragged edge now.
Although they were poor quality cameras, the ones in the tower weren't as dirty and scratched as the ones exposed to the weather. With enhancement Henry took a look at the passenger getting out of David's car. Could a computer register an emotional shock? No wonder Karen needed someone to run interference when she and David came through the gate. If Mac had seen Karen, Henry doubted very seriously if he would have waved them through. In fact, the odds were over ten thousand to one. No, Mac wouldn't have waved them through.
David locked his car doors and strode around to where Karen was standing. "I guess we might as well make a break for it. We can't stand here all day."
Karen checked her dress to make sure she was in it right. She slid her hands down her waist and over her hips to smooth everything out. She turned her head over her shoulder and leaned backwards to check her stockings and heels. She would be glad when this nightmare was over. It required time and experience to act like a lady. Something Karen never had to do in her whole life. It certainly wasn’t something she wanted to start now.
The man getting out of the car next to Karen, backed up against the door and took a hard look. What he said was plain enough to David because David was having the same kind of thoughts. "Mmmmm. Mmmmm. Mmmercy."
The woman was a magnet for attention. David took her by the arm. He had to get her inside and out of sight. "Come on! You’re drawing a crowd. What am I saying? You’re going to draw a crowd as soon as you move."
Karen fell into step alongside David, as he had a grip on her arm and literally muscled her along. She took a quick look in his direction. "What do you mean, I’m going to draw a crowd as soon as I move?"
David tried his best to look nonchalant while checking out everyone and everything around them. He was trying his best to not look as if he was looking at everyone. He spared her a quick glance. "I meant just what I said. Do you think you could tone down that walk? Your looks, your walk, everything about you invites attention like honey draws flies. It’s probably too late, but the last thing we need is someone gossiping about the drop dead, good-looking blond they saw this morning. Maybe the gossip mill won't spread all the way to the head office today."
Fat chance. There was as much possibility of this juicy bit of information not making the head office as there was of experiencing an ice blizzard in the Sahara. He tried to not think about what they were going to do when they found out who she was with. That company which offered him a sign-on bonus last month? Could they still be looking for help? Maybe, if he called them as soon as he got into his lab he might talk them into a contract before they found out what he had done? Would that contract be legal? They were pretty hard up for doctors in Chile, would they accept him there? David ran all the possibles through his mind. None of them looked promising..
For David’s sake, Karen was trying her best to look inconspicuous but it wasn't working. "I can't walk any differently than I am because I’m built this way. The body was designed with the measurements I have and everything fits into a particular programming. If I tried to walk any differently, I would look even more conspicuous."
His head snapped around and his eyes fastened on her like lasers. He was about to take a measured look from head to toe. He didn't get any farther than head to breasts. He closed his eyes. Swallowing hard, David looked her in the eye. Realizing that was a mistake, he looked away again. "Lady, there is no way on God's little green earth, you could look any more conspicuous than you already do. Every single person in this parking lot is looking at you. If they aren't, it’s because they’re brain dead or blind. The men desire you, the women are jealous of you."
"I only hope we can make it to the building before you develop a following. If we get to the lab without being spotted, then maybe, just maybe, we might get to play with the computer before someone finds us. You can bet your life they will lock both of us up for security violation."
David and Karen made it to the entry door without someone right behind them. As soon as they were inside, Henry used the electronic security lock on the door. People could still get out by pushing on the crash bars, but it would be a minute before he unlocked the door and allowed anyone to get in. He would make sure no one followed David and Karen to their labs.
Feeding a closed loop picture to the monitors in the security office, Henry followed their progress through the security camera in the hall. Security would never know they were looking at a rerun of the previous thirty minutes. The inside cameras were better quality than the outside cameras. Henry took a good close look at Karen and ran a comparison analysis between her and the model. He ran a check on all his programming. Nothing covered this type of situation.
David's lab was first and Karen was tempted to stop there. She knew if she did she would have to explain to David's assistants why she was in a security zone her ID didn't classify her for. She decided that wouldn't pose a problem. She didn't look like her ID. She could tell them she stole it. That would be a sure fire way to nip any budding questions in the head.
Yet, as bad as she wanted to get out of the hall, Henry was the one with answers to her questions. "David, I’m going down to my lab. I have to talk to Henry. You won't get anything out of your computer because I erased the program after I ran it last night. I suggest you come with me and listen to what Henry can tell us."
David stopped at his lab and placed his hand on the electronic security panel. He was about to enter his code, until he had second thoughts. She was right. If this was Karen, there wouldn't be anything they could dig out of his computer. He also wanted to meet this computer she called Henry. David was the one who brought her into the building without a proper pass. If she didn't go to Karen's lab, he wanted to keep track of where she went. "All right lady, but I don't think we can get into Karen's lab. These electronic locks not only need an authorized code entered, they also want a card key of the person who is supposed to enter the lab."
Karen was already five steps down the hall ahead of David and he decided to let her stay there. It was an attractive view and one which would be over as soon as they reached Karen's lab and the truth came out. Besides, they don't let men fraternize with women in prison. He was sure that was where they would both wind up. Him especially, since he was the one who smuggled this woman into Comm Tech.
She could hear him trailing behind and knew he could hear her. "If you don't stop calling me lady, and referring to Karen as if I wasn't her, I promise to do something terrible to you as soon as I’m back to my old self. From the time I first designed the programming for him to access the security lock on the door, Henry has always let me in."
"People who visit me think they have an access code when they get in. Not so. Henry lets them in after they push the right number of buttons. Sometimes they can't get the count or sequence right. He has shown me some of the things they have done. I promise you it is downright pathetic. Some people can't remember the right numbers, and usually they miss the sequence. Henry will open the door for them if they have a visitor's pass and clearance from the front office. In fact, it is probably what gave him the idea to have himself hooked into the whole building. I imagine I could get into any area I wanted if I asked Henry to let me."
They reached her lab and as if to prove her point, her lab door popped open as they approached. Walking straight in, David turned to close the door, but it closed behind them by itself. He decided he may have walked into a trap.
"Did Henry do that?"
Karen nodded her head yes as she rolled her chair out from under her desk and sat down. Letting out a sigh, she realized how tense and on edge her nerves were. Looking at one of the cameras and pointing back at David, she swiveled around in her chair.
"Henry, this is David. David, this is Henry." She waved her hand toward the desk.
David looked at where Karen was pointing. All he saw was a desk with a cartridge tower on one side of it and a keyboard plugged into a junction terminal. This wasn't the computer he had seen Karen using months back. Was she able to compress an intelligent computer into a keyboard?
She saw the question in his eyes. "David, Henry is behind the wall. There is four feet of super insulating foam surrounding his cube, which is twenty-four feet by twenty-four feet inside measurements. He is working in a room kept at minus fifty degrees Celsius, and a vacuum of minus twenty-seven inches mercury. The air space between the inner and outer air locks is down to ten microns. The connection between Henry and our world is a thousand-pair coaxial cable. The junction block in the work lab splits and goes to the controls in the lab, my key pad, telephone modems, hologram generators, switching relays, cameras and so forth."
"Now David, say hi to Henry."
David couldn't believe everything in there was Henry. He must have misunderstood. He jumped when Henry spoke.
"You need not introduce us. I have known who David was for twelve years. I guess I should thank you for picking up Karen this morning. I didn't have any idea she was in this particular condition."
"I checked your computer last night to see what kind of chemicals it made up for her. I wanted to make certain they were the same ones she has always taken. Karen erased the program. I didn't collect any useful data from it. I have always checked your programs before she initiates a start command. Last night I didn't reconnect after getting bumped off line by a power brownout. It will never happen again."
David couldn't decide if this was a bad dream or not. First, he meets a woman who is Karen, but she isn't. Then he meets a computer who talks more human than most humans. He heard how the first glass tube computer took up three floors of a large building. That was only for one single computer. He knew the computer on his desk contained more intelligence than that three-story computer. He could hold it on his lap, if necessary. Did Karen really fill up a twenty-four foot room with high capacity computer chips? The cost must have been staggering. Surely she didn't need all that power to produce mannequins?
Karen didn't mention there was a lot of open grid space inside Henry. Space so she could reach back into each breadboard. There were walkways in between for access. Henry was designed for ease of access and development with plenty of airflow across shelves for cooling the electronic components. Henry was a prototype computer with a lot of changes in the beginning. Karen was forced to spread him out so the changes would be practical. The computer she kept on her desk, until a few months back, was for test purposes only. She didn't want to feed Henry any data she thought might damage him. So she ran it through the smaller computer first. She finally decided Henry was more than capable of handling anything out there.
David looked at his feet, at the cameras, and then back to Karen. He didn't quite know how to go about this. "Uh, ah, hello to your Henry. I’m glad to meet you, uh, ah, yeh, glad. I think."
Henry focused two cameras on David while keeping two locked in tracking mode on Karen. "What is the matter, David? You talk as if you had a brain concussion or something. It might help if you pictured me in the back of your mind as human. But right now I don't have time to teach you how to talk. I need to hookup to your computer. I don’t need your assistants asking why they suddenly get an outside download. If you will distract them for ten seconds, I can download everything you have in your computer files."
David suddenly forgot Henry wasn't a real person. What Henry told him was the most ridiculous thing anyone could have suggested. He might be a genetic scientist but he knew enough about computers to know anyone couldn't download complete files in ten seconds. Days, hours possibly, but not seconds. Karen's computer might be able to talk, but when it came to knowing about downloading programs, he must have a few short circuits in his system.
"Something wrong with your biodes, or do you have weak transfusions or something? There isn't any way you could down load part of my program in ten seconds. Certainly not a whole one in that length of time. All my programs are complicated and byte information heavy. Usually each one takes up the biggest part of a cartridge."
Henry opened the door for David to leave. He needed information out of David's computer so he could plan how they were going to change Karen back into Karen. He was willing to discuss computer technology with David, but not now.
"David, that is diodes and transmissions. Not biodes and transfusions. Never mind your ideas of how long it is going to take me. Distract your help away from the computer for ten seconds. You have a security camera in your lab. I will know if you follow my instructions by watching you through the camera."
David felt a chill run down his spine. How long had Henry been watching him through the security camera? He thought it only fed the video recorder in his office. If what Henry said was true, it led to an outside line.
On his way back to his lab David looked closely at the cameras in the hall. Was Henry hooked into them, too? The security guard at the gate? Was it Henry talking care of the problem like Karen had said, or was it coincidence?
He made it back to his lab and stepped inside. "Al, Jr., come here a second, guys. I have some questions to ask you and I want some answers before the middle of the day."
As soon as they turned toward David the red light on his computer winked on, signaling an outside hookup. Henry was quick, if nothing else. "I noticed some smudges on the security panel this morning. We could have a breech of security. Did either one of you notice anything unusual when you came in the lab this morning?"
Both men shook their head but it was Al who answered. "No, nothing out of the ordinary. Everything was in proper order when we came in this morning. We both arrived in the parking lot at the same time and walked in together. You think someone tried to break into the lab?"
They looked around to see if they missed anything. David started to protest but the indicator light on the computer already winked out. Henry must have missed connections.
"It was probably nothing more than one of Alvin's mops laid up against it last night. He does a good job on the floor but I think he transfers half the dirt to the walls. Forget it. Let's get to work. We have a full schedule today."
Karen sat quietly, waiting for Henry to say something. He didn't take long after David left the lab.
"Karen, I downloaded all of the programming from David's files. I ran a complete check of his research from the time he first signed on with Comm Tech. He also has research going back to his college days. He kept accurate records of everything. David is one of the most methodical and determined DNA researchers in the world."
"I cross-checked all the records we pulled in from other research labs we have accessed. Then I checked with the universities around the country. Hospitals sometimes do important research in this field so I checked their files. Private institutions do a lot of research they don't disclose until they’re finished, but I didn't find anything out of the ordinary there, either."
She waited for him to continue but he didn't. She knew in the back of her mind she wasn't going to like what he would say but she had to hear it anyway. "What did you come up with? How soon can we write a program and change me back?"
Henry found himself wishing he was anything but what he was and anywhere but here. "We can't change you back. You took a one way trip. Any messing with a reverse program, or let's say we went forward and changed your DNA, your cellular make up would explode and you would die instantly."
"I’m sorry, Karen. If I could I would change time and space to make you back into your old self again. But the real answer is, you can't return to what you were before last night. It’s my fault. I didn't keep tabs on David's computer and what you were doing. After I sent Oliver off on another wild-goose chase I should have stayed with you when you went into the lab. Once you were inside, I only monitored the hallways to make sure no one came in to surprise you while you were running your program."
"Before you ever accessed the lab, I inserted the program for your own DNA pattern for manufacturing your aspirin. I was trying to speed things up, but David's computer received a power loss and dropped off line. His computer should have lost all programming with the outage. You were already there so I let it go. You came in and loaded in the program of the model we designed. It had the complete cellular and DNA program loaded in for the specific type and shape of person we set up for the model."
"Now, you ask for your two aspirin. It is still loaded up with the program I sent it. You insert the cartridge of the model we programmed. It loads up a match of the model with a match of you. This was what you designed it to do. Its' instructions tell it there can't be two DNA double helix structures in the same body. Your basic chromosome structure is chemically spiced through a lethal overdose of chromic acid, and replaced with new coding from the program of the model. If there were no replacement codes to supplement the original code you would have died right then."
"You can't do it a second time, Karen. There is mass hemorrhaging as the DNA coding gets scrambled like eggs in a blender. The replacement code doesn't give up like the original DNA code did. It is locked in tighter than bug guts on a windshield. As the scrambled code spreads throughout the body a complete disruption of the cell walls begins. All pretense of any body shape is lost. I wouldn't want to die like that if I were human."
"I know it doesn't help but it was a fluke which could never happen, but did. There were fourteen coincidences which lined up to produce those two little pills you took. The odds of it happening are over a billion to one. Knowing the odds doesn't make one feel any better if it has happened to them."
Tears were sliding down both cheeks but she couldn't help it. "It wasn't your fault, Henry. I have no one to blame but myself. David's computer kept trying to shut me out but I didn't listen. I guess I thought I was incapable of making mistakes. You have been covering for me for so long I thought I was infallible."
Karen folded her arms on the desk in front of her, laid her head down, and cried for a very, very, long time
Read on in Model Makers: Adjustments Part five
As chief executive officer for Commercial Technologies, Bill Chambers usually spent his day making internal memos and playing golf with executives from other companies. Every time an article made the news Bill always made sure he was mentioned as the driving force behind Commercial Technologies. He would pose for pictures with various dignitaries or company personnel when the public relations department was promoting the company or one of the departments. The day to day workings of Commercial Technologies, Bill left to the lesser personnel of the company. Karl Adder was one of those lesser personnel.
More than any other person in Comm Tech, Karl took a keen interest in the mannequins Karen Long was designing in her department. It wasn’t with admiration, it was greed that drove Karl. He told every one who would listen, he was personally responsible for each new development coming out of department fifty-four. He followed Karen's progress as she imparted more and more real life qualities in each successive generation of her models. After Karen’s models began gaining company recognition, Karl worked toward getting appointed head of her department. That way, instead of being indirectly responsible for the accolades Karen received for her exceptional work, he could take all the glory for himself.
What Karl couldn't understand was, every time he thought he was close to being appointed to head of Karen’s department, something would happen to thwart him in his efforts. He was sure no woman could be smart enough to outmaneuver him. He was also positive he deserved the credit for all the quality craftsmanship flowing from department fifty-four. Karen was his protégé. After all, Karl had interviewed her and hired her seventeen years ago. The fact he knew nothing about computer engineering, laser technology, or any of the other things necessary to make Karen's lab function, was irrelevant. Women had only one purpose, they were placed on this earth to serve men. Karen should be serving him.
It was after eight o'clock, and the traffic in and out of conference room two was heavy. There was a buzz going on throughout the whole complex about Karen's latest model. In a building which was usually a quiet work place still cameras and video cameras were more abundant than anyone would have thought possible. Rumors were running wild and it didn't take long for the public relations department to sense something above the ordinary was cooking. They decided to send someone down to conference room two for a first hand look.
Today, Mike was away from his desk when the public relations department picked someone to check on the latest gossip. Mike didn't have a chance to protest this assignment before it was handed to him. He hated these assignments. Rumors like this usually began in the snack bar, and were about as substantial as fog in the morning. Almost every rumor was a ghost chase. He didn't feel like walking all the way down to conference room two to look at the model, who wasn't human but was a mannequin. After all, if you've seen one dummy you've seen 'em all.
Mike didn't have to open the doors into conference room two. People were coming and going and the doors were propped open. More were coming than going. Searching past the crowd he scanned the room for the cause of the traffic jam, he noticed everyone was looking at, or taking pictures of, one incredibly beautiful, attractive, woman. She was posing in the middle of the room. Mike was impressed, but he was looking for the mannequin. As part of public relations, he had taken his share of cheese cake photos. Yet ...? He couldn't keep his attention from focusing back to the model. Finally, slowly, he understood. Maybe ...? No, no way, it couldn't be possible.
He turned to the secretary beside him. "The model is real, isn't she? I mean she is one of us, isn't she? What I mean is, that isn't the dummy is it?"
Admiring Karen's talented handiwork, the secretary glanced at Mike, and then back to the model. "I don't know. But I will tell you this much, if she is real then she is terribly good, because she hasn't moved in the past couple of minutes. If she isn't human, then she is terribly good because I’m still wondering myself. She‘s too beautiful to be real. No one can look that good. Can they?"
Mike picked up the nearby phone off the table. "Linda, connect me with public relations."
It only took a second for him to get his connection. "Jerry, this is Mike. I want you to get our equipment, and people, down to conference room two, right now."
He only paused for a second. "I don't give a shit if you’re in the middle of a layout. What you’re doing can wait. I’m telling you, what I’m looking at right now, will blow your mind. That is provided you had one to lose. Now, get your shit together and get your ass down here, and don't give me any more static."
Turning around to take another look, he was still trying to convince himself he had actually seen it and it was still there. The model was standing there poised with one hand on her hip and the other slightly raised, as if she was talking to the people around her. She was so real, it was eerie not to see her lips moving.
"I’m looking at her, and I don't believe it myself. You don't deserve to feast your eyes on this. If you don't want to haul any equipment, you send Patti and the rest of the guys. I’m not begging you to look at this. You prima donna SOB." Mike slammed the receiver down. He knew Jerry would be mad as a hornet after he hung up. He was also sure Jerry wouldn't remember how mad he was supposed to be when he got a chance to look at what was in room two.
Gazing out the window, Bill was trying to decide if it was too early to play a round of golf? He swiveled around as he heard the office door open. Betty was coming into his office without knocking. It surprised him. As his private secretary for the past six years, she had never walked into his office unannounced before now.
"Mr. Chambers, I think you need to check on conference room two. There is something there you better see for yourself."
"Betty, you know I hate to get caught up in these little interoffice bickerings that are always going on. What is it now? Someone riffle through another person's desk and take their Playboy Calendar?"
Betty wasn't smiling at him like she usually did. "I don't think you understand. This certainly isn’t any interoffice bickering. It is a work project one of our labs did for a customer. I know you will want to take a look at it."
Bill didn't like the sound of this. "What lab was it? What did they screw up this time? Has the customer seen it yet?"
That brought a smile to Betty's face. "It was our human form replica lab. You know the one. The lab Karl Adder has been wanting to get his hands on. I don't think 'screw up' are the words which apply to this job. Public relations is setting up equipment down there. The customer hasn't seen it yet. You may want to look at this project before he does. You might also want to check out his contract and see if it is solid before he shows up. I ran it through the computer a second ago. He has already put up his forty thousand. I don't believe we would have sold this one so cheap, or for that matter, sold it at all, if we had seen the model first."
Bill had to admit his curiosity had been pricked. He had never seen anything he wouldn't sell for a price. After all, they were in the business of selling technology. If one of their labs did something a little better than anyone else, it would only be a matter of time before the competition caught up.
"Well then, let's have a look at this 'model' you say everyone is talking about."
They had to press through the crowd at the door of conference room two, to get into the room. Even when the employees saw who was doing the pushing, they gave space reluctantly.
Astounding stories of success were an everyday event to Bill. As chief executive officer, he had access to everything planned, or in the works at Commercial Technologies. He didn't pay much attention to most of the projects. Usually, most of the hype about something unusual was for the competition's benefit. It kept them on their toes. It also made the competition spend vast sums of money on industrial espionage figuring out what Comm Tech was doing. Bill kept abreast of the more newsworthy ideas. He made certain he was promoted in one way or another, along with the important projects. Most were public relations bull shit and media hype, used to help promote Comm Tech research and development. He was use to it all. Except this! He took a long time studying the woman in the center of the room. Finally he decided someone wasn't trying to give him a snow job by using a real person.
"One of our labs did this?"
When she heard the gossip as she came to work, Betty had purposely made a detour through conference room two. Now, looking at the model again for the second time that morning, she was still impressed. "Karen Long made her down in the replica lab. She has been improving on her models with each new batch. I pulled her records up through the computer. I didn't understand anything I was looking at. She is one of our computer engineers. Everything she does is in code. I don't know if anyone except her could figure out what she is doing."
Bill looked at the people around him. Cameras were clicking and video film was being exposed. Betty was right in getting him down here. This was going to be a good public relations story and he was right where he should be. At the center of the story telling the whole world how he, Bill Chambers, was responsible for this new model.
"Betty, see what you can do with this crowd. We have a company to run. I know these people have jobs they should be doing."
In the next company newsletter, Bill would make sure they read how he directed the program which produced this new model. The stockholders needed to be kept informed of the good job he was doing in this company. He would make certain none of them missed the newsletter.
Betty picked up the desk phone and pushed the intercom. "Everyone besides public relations, please return to work. All personnel headed toward conference room two, go back to your own departments. Security to conference room two."
With a lot of reluctance, the crowd packed into and outside conference room two, began to disperse.
Karen had been sitting quietly at her desk, looking off in a mindless stare. She had stopped crying but hadn't said anything for the past half hour. Henry, with the patience of Job, quietly waited for her to collect her thoughts and get control of her feelings. As no one else could, he understood what she was feeling. He had silently cried along with her. Karen designed and programmed a lot of herself into him.
Very seldom were messages important enough to address the whole plant. Usually, only one department, or one section of the building, was on the receiving end of a public announcement. In spite of her problems, Karen absentmindedly listened as Betty gave her speech over the telephone intercom. "What was that all about?"
It worried him she had been quiet for so long. Henry was relieved she was talking again. If she would discuss this, the depression she was feeling would work its way out of her system,. Since it concerned her, she also needed to be aware of what was happening in the building. "I finished the duplicate last night, or more correctly, early this morning. I knew I couldn't let shipping pick her up down here if Bob Kincaid was along. After I ordered some clothes and accessories for her, I had Maggie dress her. Shipping moved her up to conference room two, and everything was set up. Carl, one of our company salesman, and Bob were to meet in the conference room. The deal should have been quietly and routinely completed."
"With you missing and questions asked about your latest model, it wouldn't have done for an investigation into your lab. I could keep them out, but only for so long before things got ugly. I made up a sick leave absentee slip for you, but you showed up before I posted it in personnel. Maybe I should have filed it anyway. You wouldn't have to talk to anyone today. Things didn't go as planned. It seems Maggie and, or, shipping decided to tell everyone about your model this morning. Before Bob and Carl got together and signed the contract, the conference room became the focus of every one's attention. Now, the whole building is trying to get into room two and view your latest creation."
Karen moaned aloud, as she put her elbows on the desk, and rested her forehead in her palms. "It's not fair! What else can go wrong?"
"I wish you hadn't asked. They’re about to ask you to come up so they can take pictures of you along with your work."
Her head snapped up. "WHAT! I can't be seen like this. I look exactly like the model they want me to pose with. I can see it all now. Unauthorized person sneaks in and duplicates herself. Karen Long missing, assumed murdered by intruder who duplicated herself in the Comm Tech Model Lab."
The phone was ringing and Henry answered it without lifting it off the hook. Karen needed to hear both sides of the conversation so he put it on the speaker. It surprised Karen to hear herself answer the phone. She knew he could digitize the human speech pattern and replicate anyone's voice, but it was still amazing to hear one's own self say something they hadn't really said.
"Lab Fifty Four, this is Karen Long speaking."
"Listen Karen, this is Bill Chambers. I want you to come up for a few publicity photos. We like your work. I thought public relations could get some mileage out of it. You know I like the company to present a good image to the public. I follow every one's career very closely. I like to commend everyone when they are doing good work. We certainly want to show our appreciation to our employees, by giving them their deserved recognition for their outstanding work. It's a great moral booster to all our employees, when one of their own does an exceptionally good job."
For the past year, I have considered asking public relations to spotlight your work and your career, at Commercial Technologies. Because I gave you the opportunity to work at your own pace, you have come through and done some pretty remarkable things. This last model, I gave you the equipment to design, was exceptional. I think it is about time you told everyone how much we have done for you and your career, here at Commercial Technologies.
If Henry had a tongue to stick out, he would have. He knew old Bill didn't follow any one's career except his own. Bill grudgingly consented to the purchase of any equipment, unless, you were on his pet list. In the beginning, Karen had to beg, borrow, and steal equipment from every department just to equip her own department. If it was left to Bill, she would still be waiting for equipment. Provided she hadn't given up waiting and gone to work someplace else. Henry kept his comments to himself as Bill continued.
"Karen, I want all the stock holders to know about you. You have been provided an opportunity to become an achiever since you came to work for Comm Tech. We will let them and the public, know about the benefits of working for an exceptional company like ours. We will tell them what we do here. Some of the public believe all we do is turn rats into monsters in our research laboratories."
"Bill, I can't right now. I think I’m running a fever and have the stomach flu or something like it. I’m running to the bathroom to puke my guts out every couple of minutes."
Karen winced, puke her guts out? Where in the world did Henry come up with such language? "Henry, keep it ladylike. I’m a woman. Or haven't you noticed?"
Even though Henry never lifted the phone off the hook, he scolded her. "Hush, you want them to hear two Karen’s arguing down here?"
Karen laughed at him. "You electronic nut. You think you’re the only one who understands how electrical circuits work?"
Dropping the phone down by his leg, Bill turned to Betty. "She says she is sick and running to the bathroom every few seconds. Pull her file. Let's see who we’re talking to."
Lowering her head and closing her eyes, Karen shook her head. She heard Bill's conversation with Betty. After working for this company for the past fifteen years, she was still a nobody. She ran her own department, did all the design, installation, and production in her department, and no one knew who she was or what she did. She wasn't even the dot at the end of the sentence. At least that poor little dot was noticed if it was or wasn't there. She should be granted such status. Yes, Bill certainly did an excellent job following her work and career, didn't he? What a blow hard.
Bill never had an employee turn down a request before. He was unsure how he should tell this Karen Long, she could either show up for the public relations job, or she could stop by the cashier's window on the way home and pick up her last paycheck. One couldn't fire an employee because they were sick. This would require diplomacy.
"Karen, all you need to do, is come up and have a few pictures taken with your work. It would help us decide how your department is coming in the financial standings and if you are going to receive any more funding for the coming fiscal year."
It was a bluff and Henry wasn't buying any of it. Karen's department had been making the company an excess profit for the past fourteen years. For the past five years she was returning over five hundred percent for every dollar invested. Henry decided not to quote figures back to Bill. He didn't want Karen or anyone else, especially Comm Tech, to know how much profit was in Karen's models.
"Bill, you know I would do anything for the company if you ask me to, but I can't physically make it for a photo session right now. We can do it in the morning when I’m feeling better. Okay?" Henry knew if this guy had any feelings at all, his last sentence would make him feel like a worm, for asking a dying woman to come up there for a photo session.
Betty returned with the employee file on Karen. She shook her head no as she handed it to Bill.
Resting it on top of the telephone he took a good look at it. Now Bill understood why Betty had been shaking her head. He didn't like what he was looking at either. "Not very photogenic, is she? Maybe it’s just as well to leave her in the lab. I’m sure we can get someone who is better looking to pose with this model. After all, we don't want to distract from the quality of work which will show the world what Commercial Technologies is capable of."
Bill didn't push the hold button on the telephone or cover the receiver. Henry and Karen heard every word. Henry noticed the hurt look on Karen’s face and the tears welling in the corners of her eyes. He wished he had cut the connection. Bill obviously didn't care enough to do it himself. There was no doubt, Bill was worm food, among other things.
Bill brought the telephone back up to his mouth. "Karen, you get better and we will work out a photo session for you tomorrow or, whenever."
Before Bill hung up the phone he was talking to Betty again. "It will be a cold day in Hell before she gets in any of our publicity photo layouts. Make sure ..."
Henry cut the connection. His Karen had been hurt enough. Even though he still followed everything in conference room two through the security cameras and intercom, what he saw and heard was not going to be relayed to Karen.
The position of chief executive officer wasn't Bill's because he was slow in taking advantage of an opportunity when it came along. He looked over at the camera crew from public relations as he adjusted his tie and straightened his jacket. "Okay, which one of you people is in charge? I want you to take pictures of me with the latest and best idea we have developed here at Comm Tech. I want the whole world to know how good we are and who is running this company."
Mike smiled to himself. He liked playing this type of game. If old Bill was going to take all the glory for Karen's work, then he would make sure Bill knew who helped him get it. "Mr. Chambers, my name is Mike Richland. I know just the type of PR you need. Stand over by the model and I will shoot some pictures which will show off you and the model, to the best advantage. Before we’re through, everyone will know how good Commercial Technologies and its' chief executive officer really are."
For the past hour David had been busy in his lab and didn't get a chance to check on Karen. He knew Henry made momentary contact with his computer. When it disconnected so quickly, he figured Henry wasn't able to link up. It wasn't unusual for his assistants to be gone from the lab on break when they felt like it. This morning however, they left almost as soon as they talked to David and stayed gone until now. David was more than a little peeved at them. He was wondering what he should do to reprimand them?
"You guys sure took a long break this morning. There were some problems with the mice in cage six. Our last experiment killed all of them. I would like an autopsy performed sometime before next year if you think you could manage it. That is, if you don't mind taking a little time off from your break to do a little work."
Both of them got sheepish grins on their faces, but it was Jr. who answered first. "We saw something up in conference room two. I believe you should go take a look at this. There are rumors a real one of those is working here in the building but, I don't believe it. God didn't make a real one of those. Not like this one, anyway."
Along with the sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach, David's nerves stood on end. He had a sick sensation he knew who, and what, they were talking about. He drove 'it' to work this morning. His job, his career, his whole life, was dwindling to nothing before his very eyes. "What did you see up in room two? And what is working here in our building?"
Al and Jr. were enjoying telling the story to someone who didn't already know about the model. With the exception of David, it seemed the whole building knew about conference room two.
As he thought about her, Al got the stupidest half-grin on his face David had ever seen. "There is a model of the most beautiful woman of your dreams up in two. No, I take it back. You couldn't possibly dream up something as good looking as this woman is."
"While Jr. and I were there in room two we overheard someone saying they saw 'that model' get out of a car in the parking garage. They said she came into the building this morning. We thought they were pulling our leg or was full of bull shit. It seems there were several people who saw the same thing. Everyone who saw her said, 'this model' was out in the parking tower. The whole damn building is talking about it. You're probably the only person in Comm Tech who hasn't heard about the model in room two and the woman out in the parking tower."
David had heard more than enough. Turning for the door, it took all the self control he could muster to keep from sprinting down the hall to Karen's lab. Her door opened as he reached for it. Jumping inside, he pushed it shut behind him.
"What the hell is going on here? I have two lab technicians telling me you are up in room two!"
Karen had dried her eyes after Henry disconnected the conversation with Bill. For the second time that morning, she was trying to get hold of her emotions. She swiveled her chair around to look at David.
"I don't think this is going to be my day. Your technicians are correct in that a duplicate of me is up in room two. Or to be more specific, I’m a duplicate of the model in room two. This is what I have been trying to tell you all morning, and you were so pigheaded you wouldn't listen."
His back to the wall, David let his shoes slide on the tile floor as his back slipped down the wall. He sat down heavily on the floor. His face held a look of stunned disbelief. "I have been trying to believe you, but I couldn't. I knew in my heart you couldn't be who you claimed to be. I’m sorry, Karen. I didn't think it was possible."
Karen sighed. This was going to be the longest day of her life, she was sure. "Henry and I have already gone through the sorry bit. It doesn't help."
David pulled his leg back under himself and pushed back upon his feet. "I have to go see the other you. If she doesn't talk then I know I’m going to like her better."
Karen made a face at him. "I told you I would do something terrible to you as soon as I got back to being the old me. I lied! I'm not going to wait until I’m the old me."
Still gripping the door handle, David stopped and half turned looking over his shoulder in her direction. "That reminds me. What was Henry's problem in accessing my computer? I noticed he disconnected before he could get any information downloaded."
Now, it was Henry's turn. "I downloaded everything you have in your memory banks."
A disgusted look crossed David’s face. "Like I said before, ain't no way. You couldn't download everything if you had several days. I noticed you couldn't hook-in. I don't know what you think you got, but it couldn't have been much."
Henry sighed. "David, you have a lot to learn. Why do you doubt almost everything you don't understand? As a research scientist you should learn to expect the unexpected."
"I accessed your computer and ran a gauss field over your storage banks. Everything, living and non living, has a magnetic interference base. The base is specific to the type of material which makes up the molecular structure of the atom in the atomic chart. When I generated the gauss field, it gave me a copy of everything in your computer. And I mean, everything."
"Think of it as Magnetic Resonator Imaging. Kind of like the brain scan they do on humans. Or if that is beyond you, think of it this way. When you make a copy of a sheet of paper do you think the copy machine memorizes every single letter and every line before it makes a copy? No, it prints you a duplicate of the sheet you inserted. It doesn't wait to analyze the type of print, or the format of the photo, or whatever. In a manner of speaking, this is what I did to your computer."
David was right on one of his hunches this morning. He didn't know everything Karen was doing in her lab. This computer of hers, named Henry, was light years ahead of anything else out there, anywhere. Maybe he was wrong in his DNA research and they could reverse the process of what happened to Karen.
"Did you get a chance to analyze the information yet?"
"Yes." Henry was hoping David would have enough sense to not ask the next obvious question.
He didn't. "Well, what did you find out? Is it reversible?"
David wished he hadn't asked as soon as the words were out of his mouth. He looked at Karen and big tears were welling up in her eyes. He slinked out the door. "I’m going to room two."
What an ass he had been. But he didn't believe it was all his fault. With everything those two had been throwing at him all morning, he could have been wrong. His DNA research and the process could have been reversible. Maybe?
Although their presence shortened most peoples visit, the security Betty called was busy admiring Karen's work and they weren't paying any attention to who was coming or going. Bill and Betty were busy posing for the photos public relations were taking, or David could have found his visit to room two, a very short visit.
As he walked into room two, he saw his technicians had been right. Bill Chambers was posing with a duplicate of Karen. David thought he was prepared for this but he wasn't so sure now. The model looked so real he was tempted to ask her about Henry. That certainly would put the frosting on what was a perfectly terrible day.
Someone pushed David to the side as they elbowed their way in the door. "Holy cow! Is that my purchase order?"
Bob Kincaid rolled his cigar around in his teeth as he admired the model Karen had designed for him.
Feeling a twinge of jealousy, David didn't want to believe it. They couldn't have sold Karen to this filthy pig.
Betty leaned toward Bill. "This is Bob Kincaid. He is the man this model was made for. See if you can get some pictures of you and him with the model. Get him to lose the cigar. Oh yes, his company's name is Bob's Intimates."
Bill reached his hand out as he walked over to Bob. "Bob, old buddy, how you doing? I’m Bill Chambers, the chief executive officer for Commercial Technologies. You like the model I had them make up for you? I told our technician what you would expect and explained to her how she should design the model. Pretty good huh? I like to keep a hands on approach in this company, and give guiding advice to our help, so they perform above their usual capabilities."
Bob looked at Bill's extended hand and didn't offer to return the hand shake. He gave Bill a dirty look for being in the way, and then stepped around him for a closer inspection of the model. He wasn't easily impressed but this model demanded all of his attention.
Bill wasn't about to be put off. "Look Bob, we thought you might like to be in some of our publicity advertisements we put out from time to time. If we can get your picture along with some of the members of the team who made up this sweet little number, I’m sure you’ll like what we come up with in our promo."
Seeing as how Bob wasn't about to shake hands, Bill turned and pointed toward Betty. "Bob, I want you to meet the little technician who was responsible for following my instructions so explicitly, and made up this honey of a model for you."
Betty didn't hesitate for one second. She reached out her hand in an offer of friendly greeting.
With a hard icy stare straight into her eyes, then glancing down at her extended hand, Bob ignored her as he turned his attention back to the model. He didn't acknowledge her cordial greeting any better than what he did Bill's. "You two are as full of shit as a Christmas turkey. I met the little gal who made this model. I was down in her lab yesterday. And lady, you ain't her. You may be prettier than her but I doubt you have half her spunk. The pair of you wouldn't be worth the sweat off her balls. That little gal probably has more brains than all the rest of this whole damn organization put together. However, this is your ballpark and your ball game. If you want to make up the rules as you go along then we’ll play your way. Where do you want to take your damn ol pictures at anyway? Let's get this over with so I can get her loaded up and back down to the store. You're wasting my time."
Bill turned pale but Betty never missed a beat. She took hold of Bob's arm and led him toward the cameras in front of the model. "Bob, you're my kind of man. Lose your cigar, let's take some pictures."
David had seen enough. These people were vultures and would sell their own grandma if they could see a dollar in it. He only wanted to get back to his own lab. He would try his best to forget this day ever happened.
Karen finally stopped crying again and Henry was talking to her. "I’ll get you a new identification badge. You will be able to come and go from the building. I ran it past the security office a couple of minutes ago. Everyone down there thought it was kind of funny they were making up a badge for a model, but they went along with what they thought was a joke by the CEO. A messenger will deliver it in a couple of minutes. I don't think he should see you when he gets here. Rumors and gossip will start building a fire in this place soon enough. We don't need to help add fuel. I can take care of your problem but, I need time to make you fit in."
Karen got up from her chair. "I’m going into the lab bathroom. I need to wash my face anyway. All this crying hasn't made me any prettier."
Henry wanted to tell her she would always be the prettiest woman around but, decided against it. The only thing Karen wanted in this whole world right now, was to be her old self. He liked the old Karen too but, she wasn't pretty except to him. Stocky build, flat-chested and mousy brown hair, she was nice but not pretty. Anyway, not the way the rest of the world thought of pretty. Henry knew she was pretty because he didn't define pretty the same way humans did. Yes, his old Karen was pretty and so was the new Karen.
Her new ID was delivered. The kid who dropped it off had a hard time figuring out if he should leave it or not? The lab door was open in a security area but no one was in the lab. He thought about keeping the ID as a souvenir. No one was there to claim it. Then he had second thoughts. This ID was ordered by some very top officials. They might get to checking on it and wonder where it went. After looking around for someone to sign for the delivery, he scribbled something in the signature slot himself. After all, there wasn't anyone who checked the signature to see if it was the right person. Even when they did, there never were any signatures anyone could read. No one in this place ever wrote legibly anyway. They were all doctors, engineers, and technicians. All of them scribbled chicken scratches when they wrote. He tossed the badge over on Karen's desk and left.
Henry called David up on the phone. "David, this is Henry. I wanted to be sure you waited for Karen to take her home tonight. Remember she rode in with you this morning."
Before Henry began talking to him, David didn't have the chance to say hello or anything else when he picked up the phone, How did Henry know whom he was talking to? There were two technicians helping him in his lab and it could just as easily be either one of them.
He suddenly remembered the security camera and eyed it suspiciously. "I wish you hadn't reminded me. I was kind of hoping this nightmare was over with. How do you expect us to sneak out of the building now the whole plant is talking about 'that model'? My career is going down the tubes. I have no control over it. People are already talking about the woman who looks like the model coming to work this morning. So far, everyone who didn't see Karen thinks it is a lot of B.S. Except for hers, every department has two to a hundred people in it. All of them know they don't have the model working in their departments. They believe the ones claiming to have seen Karen walk into the building this morning are high on something besides milk."
"Now you want me to drive her home when the whole damn plant will be watching us. Why don't you get a gun and hold it to my head? Either way, you’re killing me and my research."
"Listen up and stop your whining, will you? Karen has a new identification badge and all the personnel files are in order. Act like she has been working here forever, just as you have always done. I will make sure nothing happens to your job as long as you make sure nothing happens to Karen."
"She needs a friend right now more than she has ever needed one in her whole life. Since you and I are the only ones who know what happened to the old Karen, we’re the only ones she can trust."
David was sure he didn't want Henry for an enemy under any circumstances. There were wild rumors floating around about Karen's computer. Up until now, David thought they were the usual fairy tales that normally circulate in large companies that work on the cutting edge of technology. David decided some of those rumors might be true. Henry may be only a computer but he was more of an intelligent entity than any non human he had ever met. Maybe better than most humans. He didn't want to find out the hard way if there was any truth to some of those wild rumors.
"You don't understand, Henry. Since the change, you don't walk anywhere with Karen and not attract attention. She could be wearing a cardboard box and people would still notice. When she is present, they can sense something different before they ever look. I noticed it out in the parking lot this morning. Men want to make love to her and women get jealous and want to kill her. They know they will only be second best when she is around. Being a piece of machinery I don't expect you to understand. But there is a feeling of something beautiful whenever she is present."
"You are wrong, David. Being a piece of machinery doesn't stop me from knowing Karen is something special. However, what you don't understand is, she has always been something special. You were too insensitive to notice it before. What I can't do is hold her hand right now, and now is when she needs help I can't give. As you so self righteously pointed out, I’m only a piece of machinery. You drive her home and spend the night with her. She isn't suicidal but she is depressed. You will sleep on the sofa. If you get to thinking about making love to her it better be mutual consent on her part. You and her have been friends for a long time. She has always been a buddy to you. You always thought of her as one of the other guys. Make sure you don't abuse your friendship."
After Henry cut the connection, David stood there frowning at the phone receiver. He could cross this day off as being productive. There wasn't any way he could get his mind back on his research. He wasn't the only one either, from the expression on the faces of his help, the only thing on their minds was the model in room two. Should he ask Karen to stop by his lab on the way home? They could see the real thing. Nah, bad idea. The shock to their system would probably be more than what they could recuperate from in a month.
Dreading every minute, David watched the clock slowly creep toward four thirty. He would have to go down to Karen's lab and pick her up at that time. She could come and go as she wanted, or she use to come and go whenever she wanted. It seemed no one took notice she never clocked in or out. It was probably the way upper management arranged it. If they had kept track of her overtime it would have broke the company. She spent more time in this building than anyone.
Karen cried off and on most of the day. She tried to run a program for a duplicate and gave up after several feeble attempts. It was impossible to keep her mind on what she was doing. Henry could have carried her though it, but he knew she didn't feel up to the task even if he did the whole thing. She finally made up her mind to stop feeling sorry for herself and told Henry just that.
Before:
Karen cried off and on most of the day. She tried to run a program for a duplicate and gave up after several feeble attempts. It was impossible to keep her mind on what she was doing. Henry could have carried her though it, but he knew she didn't feel up to the task even if he did the whole thing. She finally made up her mind to stop feeling sorry for herself and told Henry just that.
Now:
"I’m glad to hear it, Karen. I was beginning to worry about you. I don't have it in my memory when I have ever seen you so depressed."
She smiled at the camera for the first time today. "Thanks Henry, I feel better anyway. I guess, I better see if David will give me a ride home this evening."
"Karen, I took the liberty of ordering clothes for you. Everything should be at your house when you get home tonight. I instructed the driver to deliver after five and if no one is home, he is supposed to wait until you arrive."
Karen looked down at the lab coat she had borrowed from David this morning. She didn't have to ask Henry why he thought she needed new clothes. Boy, did it seem like a long day. This morning was a thousand years ago. "Henry, I can't pay for anything. I have all my money tied up in savings. The only money I have is the fifty dollars in my checking account. It will be another two weeks before we get a check from Comm Tech, and they split my pay check before I ever get it. The hundred dollars they transfer to my checking account isn't going to make the department store very happy. You better cancel out any orders you made until I can transfer some savings. I’ll wash out this dress tonight and wear it tomorrow."
She closed her eyes. "Which reminds me, I didn't pay David for my clothes this morning either. I bet he thinks I’m a real chintzy cheapskate. I didn't think of it with everything else I had on my mind."
Henry knew he could feel when Karen was happy. Could she sense the same thing about him? No matter, it was confession time. Maybe she wouldn't think about it too much, especially with everything else that had happened to her today. "You don't have any money in savings. I transferred it years ago. Twelve years ago to be more precise. Interest and inflation were running in a dead heat. Your savings weren't accumulating any extra money. They were dead in the water so to speak. I mailed you those savings certificates you have been receiving all these years. I really don't think it would be a wise move to withdraw any money out of savings. You don't have any savings. Your money isn't there. Among other things, you own stocks and securities in Comm Tech. Because Comm Tech has multiple listings, you actually own your own laboratory. I won't get down to the basics of what you do own. but you are wealthy by human standards if you count money as wealth. Your gold card took care of your purchases."
Karen sat down hard in her chair. She didn't think anything could shock her any more after what she had already been through. Maybe not, but this came close. Could Henry manage what he had just said? He was quite capable of managing it, if he was programmed for it, but what made him do it on his own? He usually left things alone if they didn't concern him or her.
She had her answer. Henry was looking after her affairs. But for so many years without her suspecting? "How did you manage to hide what you were doing to my savings? I made withdrawals from time to time. My checks always cleared."
"I would convert a low interest loan into cash to cover your withdrawals. Actually, it was quite easy to do. It would put a burden on stocks to sell the few shares necessary to cover your small needs, and than purchase them again when the cash was replaced. Handling stocks is a long term commitment. Trust me, you made money by borrowing money rather than cashing any stocks."
She made her voice as deep and reprimanding as she could manage, but the astonishment in her eyes gave her true feelings away. "Henry, I don't own a gold card. I would know if I owned any credit cards, wouldn't I? I should also know if I owned stock somewhere, wouldn't I?"
"Maybe, you took out an application for a gold card and forgot. Maybe, you didn't take out an application for a card so there wouldn't be anything to forget. You know, Karen, the human mind doesn't hold onto information very well. People are always forgetting the things they did or didn't do. The mind is kind of like a computer with corroded circuits. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. And we won't get into what I think of the data storage files in the human mind. Lost cause. I guess it can ...."
Karen cut him off. "Maybe I didn't forget because I didn't do these things. What else have you been up to I don't know about? No, scratch that, I don't think I want to know."
"Karen, don't worry about a thing. I have taken care of you and made certain you won't want for anything even if you quit working now. You better go catch David. It is four-fifteen, and he likes to leave at four-thirty when he can. He will be leaving anytime now. You don't want to miss your ride home." He was trying to get her out of the lab to prevent her from asking too many probing questions.
Karen opened the door and turned around. She knew what Henry was doing. She said it so softly, if Henry were human, he wouldn't have heard her. "Thanks Henry, you’re my best friend."
As the door clicked shut behind her, she took a furtive glance up and down the hall. The corridor was empty. Those who left early were gone already, and the others hadn't started yet. At least she didn't have to explain herself to anyone. Not yet, anyway.
The security cameras, which were always looking the other way when she walked down the hall, now followed her. If the guard who monitored the cameras was awake, he was probably trying to get his eyeballs back into their sockets. Henry took a look into the security office. Nope, he alone was watching Karen. He knew it was the last time it would happen this way. It saddened him. As much as he belonged to Karen, she also belonged to him. Now all that was about to change. He lost her last night in David's lab when he didn't stay with her.
The door to David's lab clicked open before Karen even touched it. David's eyes momentarily widened to two balls of white as he saw who was coming into the lab. She was the last thing in the world he expected to see coming through his door. Damn, she took one's breath away every time he looked at her. He wondered if it would always be like this?
"Henry open the door for you?"
Karen nodded her head yes.
At the back of the room, Al was pointing at Karen and trying to speak. He, along with a thousand other people, had seen the model in room two. The sight of her sent cold chills down to the very bottom of his soul. He certainly didn't expect her to walk into their lab. Even now, as his eyes were telling him she was standing across the room, his mind was telling him she wasn't real. As hard as he tried he couldn't get his voice box to work.
"Uh, uh, uh, uh!" It was the best he could do. His mind wasn't communicating with his larynx. His vocal cords were wanting to say something and his mind had gone into hiding.
Jr. had a little better luck. Almost. Turning around to see what Al was stammering about and pointing at, he fell back into the lab table and sent glassware falling everywhere. He took a quick sharp look at David and pointed toward Al as he stared at Karen. "What he was saying, that goes double ditto for me."
David knew that tore it. His help would be brain dead for a month if not more. After this any progress in his research would be a miracle. He looked at Karen and the lab coat she was wearing. It was the one he gave her to cover up that body she was sporting this morning. Not that it made much difference. Even a blind man could see there was a woman there, coat or no. There were too many abundant curves under that lab coat.
"My lab coat looks a whole lot sexier on you than it did on me." It was small talk, and he was only trying to do something besides stand there and look stupid like his help.
She smiled at him. "Maybe I put a lot more into it than you did."
David felt his face flush. It never happened to him around any woman. Certainly Karen never affected him this way before. Why now? He always enjoyed the time spent with her, but now he was feeling ill at ease because she was so close. It finally came to him, he enjoyed her before because she didn't attract attention to herself. He could be himself without worrying what anyone thought. She was comfortable to be around. Well, that certainly had changed.
He looked around to take his attention off of her. Jr's mess needed to be to be cleaned up before it ate up the floor. "Jr., make sure you and Al get this cleaned up before you go home tonight. The lab animals are all right until morning. Don't make a mess of their feeding charts, if you get here before I do tomorrow. Okay?"
Neither of them said anything, or acknowleged they had even heard what David was saying. They were still ogling Karen. David knew they would be the first ones into the building tomorrow, but it wouldn't be to feed the animals. They would be down at the cafeteria telling everyone in the whole damn building, how the model from conference room two, just happened to walk into David's lab, and how he just happened to know her. He could see his job, his research, his whole damn life going down the drain.
Remembering Henry, he looked up wide-eyed at the security camera. Could Karen's computer read minds? Right now, he would believe anything she or her computer told him. David turned around to Karen and put his arm around her waist urging her toward the door. As soon as he touched her, he yanked his hand back as if he had been burned. He didn't know if he should touch her or not. What would Henry think?
He pointed toward the door, making it a point to keep his hands off her. "Let's go, you killed my help. Come tomorrow, there isn't going to be one single person in this whole complex who doesn't know you came into my lab this evening."
David looked back at his assistants as he and Karen walked out the door. He bet a thousand dollars he could ask what instructions he had left with them and they couldn't repeat a single word. He was right in his first assessment. They would be brain dead for a month.
As they walked down the hall toward the exit, he decided to tell Karen what was on his mind. "Henry said he would take care of everything. I hope he was right. The wheels in this place will be swarming all over me and my lab in the morning. As soon as they realize it isn't company gossip, and you were really there, I can check down at the unemployment office for a new job."
Karen looked toward the end of the hall where the cameras were mounted. "David, look at the cameras." "It could be security, or it may be Henry who is watching. It could even be both of them looking at us. I promise you, if Henry didn't want them to look, they couldn't. It doesn't work the other way around. They can't keep Henry from watching."
She smiled and waved at the camera as they walked out the door. The security guard glanced up at the monitors, and fell backwards out of his chair.
"Holy mackerel! My gawd everybody, come look at this! It's room two walking out the door."
His partner was turned away from the monitors while checking a security pass, for someone wanting to visit her husband in engineering level three. "Arnold, I swear you been hitting the hooch early tonight. Couldn't you wait until we didn't have a witness before you began doing anything stupid?"
The lady he was waiting on waved toward the monitors. "Does that woman work here? She better not work anywhere close to my husband or he better find a new job. Is she married? It might be all right for him to work in the same building if she is married."
Jack finally turned around to see what Arnold and this woman were screeching about. The monitor they were pointing at showed nothing but an empty hallway. "What is the matter with you two? There is nothing there."
Arnold got up and was busy pushing the replay buttons as he hunted for his chair again. "Wait a minute. You can see our model from room two walk out the east tower door."
Almost instantly, Karen and David rolled back up on the screen. It wasn't David everyone was looking at.
Jack groaned. "You're right. It is room two."
He grabbed Arnold's chair, dumping him out on the floor when Karen smiled at the camera, and waved. Arnold was sitting on the floor still looking up at the monitors as if nothing happened. Where the camera was mounted close to the ceiling, it gave a better than excellent view of the cleavage of her breasts as she passed beneath it.
They forgot about the woman standing behind them. Jack was busy pushing buttons and flipping switches on the control panel. He brought up the outside camera on every screen they had in the office. Karen and David were already several yards away from the camera and walking toward the parking tower. Even though her back was to the camera, Jack and Arnold knew they were watching the model from room two. David was right, there wasn't any lab coat in the world able to hide that figure.
Jack finally coughed. "I thought room two was supposed to be a dummy. I heard some stories about her walking in from the parking tower but they said she never moved in room two. What is the matter with those stupid guards on the daytime shift? Can't they tell a real live person from the mannequins they make in this God forsaken place?"
Arnold was shaking his head from side to side. "Jack, I swear I saw her in room two this morning and I didn't ever see her move. Hell man, they packed her up in a shipping crate and sent her out in some customer's van. Eddie, from the day shift called me this morning to take a look at something I wouldn't believe. He promised me it would be worth my drive over here. He didn't lie. It was certainly worth the drive."
"Wait until I call him and let him know it will be worth his effort to drive back to work. I’ll show him something he won't believe. Even if she's gone, he can look at the tapes."
He had a scary thought and laid back on the floor to look up at Jack. "You do have the tapes running, don't you? No one is going to believe our report on this, unless, we have tape to back us up."
Arnold looked at Jack to see if he had heard him or understood the question. Nothing. Jack was busy watching the monitors. He looked at the control console. All the red lights on the recording equipment were on, indicating a permanent record was being kept.
He looked back to the monitors. "How about if we arrest her? We could get her for breech of security. No, I got it. Let's arrest her for a moving violation. It has to be unlawful for anyone to move the way she does."
Jack didn't see the humor in the situation. If they arrested her and she had a pass, they would probably be reprimanded. If they didn't arrest her and she was a security violation, they would be fired. He was fast deciding this was a no win situation, until he remembered the gate guard. They would have the guard stop her and check for identification. It could be a routine auto check and they would have their man, or in this case, woman.
With the toe of his boot, Jack prodded Arnold in the middle of the back to get his attention. "Get up here. Bring them up in the parking tower cams. I’m calling the gate and have them check her. If she is bogus, we will catch her and her partner before they get out the gate. Who can we send for backup?"
Arnold reclaimed his seat and was punching buttons to bring the parking tower cameras up on the monitor. "I got'em. They’re approaching a black car of some kind. You know, we really should replace those tower cams. I can't make out much more than the car. Anyway, I think it is a car. This is like looking through some one's muddy bath water. I think it’s a black car, but there’s no doubt it’s her."
He looked over his shoulder at Jack who was already on the red phone. "We don't have anyone to send down to gate two. In case you forgot, it is shift change. The day shift has left and you and I are the only two here, not counting the gate guards. That gate guard is on his own. We couldn't get out there in time to be any help if something goes sour."
Jack had the phone ringing in the guard house. Mac never received a call on his red phone. Today he had two. The one this morning and now this one. Things were finally getting interesting in his everyday dull job.
"This is gate two, Mac speaking."
Jack knew he would have to talk fast if they were going to stop room two before she escaped out the gate. "Mac, you have the model from room two coming your way. Stop her and her boy friend and check her ID. "If her identification clears, find out what department she works in."
Mac knew there was a practical joker on the other end of the line. Didn't those people in the security office have better things to do? Well, they weren't going to make a fool out of him. "Listen Jack. We get serious out here. Because I spend my time in the guard shack by myself, doesn't mean I'm stupid. Go find your entertainment somewhere else. I heard about room two and from what I heard, she doesn't drive any cars."
Jack growled into the phone. "You're right, my name is Jack and you better believe we’re serious too. We saw room two leave the building and go into the parking tower. I have her on video. If you blow this one and let her out the gate without checking her identification, I can promise you, come tomorrow, your ass will belong to the boss."
As Karen and David walked to his car, she attracted the attention of everyone on their level of the tower. There were gasps of disbelief, a few unsuccessful tries at a wolf whistle, but mostly people pointing and trying to get the attention of someone else. They wanted to be sure they weren't the only ones who witnessed this event. They wanted substantiated proof when they tried to explain seeing the model from room two walking to a car. After all, those who made that claim this morning weren't taken very seriously.
David unlocked the doors and Karen slid into the seat. As he opened his door and got in, she turned around in the seat, slid her left leg up under herself, and sat facing him.
She noticed a scowl on his face as he started the car. "Look on the bright side. At least they weren't throwing rotten vegetables at us."
David glanced over at her, as he pulled out of his space and turned out of the tower toward the gate. "Do you have to sit like that?"
"Your seat belts don't fit and sitting like this is comfortable."
"Seat belts are made to fit universally. What do you mean they don't fit?"
He turned his head and stared at her for a couple of seconds. "Sorry, stupid question."
The car phone rang and as her hand was already resting on it, Karen picked it up . Before she had a chance to speak, Henry came on the line. "Karen, you and David will be stopped by the gate guard. I can't get you around it this time and I wouldn't if I could. Security has you on tape. Everyone who saw you and David in the tower, will be talking about it tomorrow. Most won't even wait until tomorrow, to start calling someone to tell what they have seen. It has to begin sometime. The odds are better if it starts now. Don't panic, answer any questions the guard asks you. Act normal, as if you were still the same. You are still Karen Long according to your identification badge. Your background checks will verify your ID."
"I can see David's car coming up on the gate camera. We will talk later. I will explain everything to you. Stay calm. The guard's name is Mac. It may slow down his thinking if you address him personally."
Karen was still on the phone when Mac waved them to a stop. He didn't believe what he was seeing. He bent down to take a closer scrutiny of the passenger in the car.
"I'll be damned! It is room two!"
Karen didn't make the connection to what he was talking about. She missed all the gossip making the rounds in the plant about her model in room two. David, on the other hand, had been to conference room two. There was no doubt in his mind to whom the guard was referring.
Mac forced himself to stop gawking at Karen long enough to take a cursory glance at David's name tag. He would have to fill out a report as to why he stopped this car. "Doctor Beckworth, you have to be the luckiest son of a bitch in the whole world, getting to drive Miss Room Two home."
Mac's eyes changed to two startled white explanation points and he slapped his hand over his mouth as soon as he said it. "I’m sorry, Miss Two, I usually don't cuss like that in front of a lady. It won't happen again."
Karen laid the phone in her lap, leaving the connection open so Henry could listen in to the conversation. They might need his help.
"I accept your apology, Mac. I’m ordering pizza for supper. You want me to order you some?"
Big as they already were, Mac's eyes got even bigger. "Sure, uh, I mean no, I mean my wife wouldn't understand, I mean ..."
David stepped in and rescued him before he had a stroke. "She was only joking. We’re dining out tonight and she was making reservations at Karl's Gas Light."
Mac stood up, straightened his tie and fumbled at his clipboard. "Sure, I knew that. Let's get our paper work done. What is your name Miss Two? I mean lady."
"Karen Long, I work in human duplications systems lab five four." She snapped her ID off her lapel, and handed it to David, so he could pass it to Mac.
Mac backed into the guard house and ran Karen's ID through the computer. Henry knew it would check through the security computer, but he didn't want to take another chance, like he did when he left her alone in David's lab. That was supposed to have been a routine event, too. He routed the information scan his way. After he checked it, he gave the security computer the information. Making doubly sure, he checked what the security computer would show on the screen before it got to Arnold and Jack.
It only took a nanosecond, but Henry was leaving nothing to chance. If the security computer blipped, Jack and Arnold would never have known. Henry would have taken it offline and fed the information directly to their screen himself. It would have happened faster than the human eye could have followed. As it was, he shouldn't have bothered. Everything checked out perfectly.
After he had received a positive check through his computer, Mac held onto Karen's ID a lot longer than was necessary. David was about to ask for it, when Mac handed it to him.
"Nice picture, Miss Long. You know, people always complain their pictures don't look like them. Usually I agree, but your picture looks just like you, except you’re a lot prettier in the flesh."
Mac put his hand over his mouth again. "I’m sorry, Miss Long. I don't know what has come over me. I can't seem to get my foot out of my mouth. I swear, I usually don't talk to our employees like this. Only a couple of more questions and you can go."
"Let's see. A black Bemmer and what year is it, Mr....?"
David knew this would happen. He would always be the invisible man as long as he was with Karen. People would look at him and never see him nor remember him. He could take her in to rob a bank, and never wear a mask. No one would notice him, anyway. It was the price a man paid for getting close to a beautiful woman.
"It is Beckworth, Dr. David Beckworth." David wasn't jealous, only disgusted.
"I’m the driver of the BMW who drove off with room two. It's new this year."
He was sure he would regret his last remark about driving off with room two, after the big boys had a chance to go over this guards report. He also hated it when people referred to his BMW as a Bemmer, but he wasn't about to get in a heated discussion with Mac about the proper way to address a BMW. Maybe next time, when he didn't have Karen in the car with him, he would straighten Mac out as to what kind of car he drove.
What could he be thinking of? There wasn't going to be a next time. Karen and Henry had sunk his career. As soon as Mac filed his report, he would be history as far as this company was concerned. He couldn't believe all the things Karen and Henry had talked him into since this morning. David felt like a black cloud was parked over him.
Mac was repeating it for the second time, before David heard him. "I said you could go, Dr. Beckworth. I already have your license number."
David slipped the car in drive and pulled out into the traffic on Mileline Highway. Karen told Henry goodby and hung up the phone.
"What was that room two business all about?"
David remembered the conversation that had taken place in room two between Bob, Bill Chambers, and Betty. Even now, it left a bad taste in his mouth. Some things were better left unsaid. "I don't know. I was working in the lab all day and never had an opportunity to get out. You put my day into such chaos, I wasn't able to gain back the ground I lost. And this was before you made a shambles out of my lab. Remember what you did to my two assistants?"
Karen began laughing. The picture in her mind of Al and Jr. as she walked into David's lab, came back into focus. Al's stammering and Jr. backing into the lab table sending beakers everywhere, became funnier the more she thought about it.
"Well." She said indignantly between giggles. "It isn't my fault you didn't hire competent help. Nobody ever acted that way before when I entered the room."
The emotional flood gates opened, and all the tension from the trials of the day came rushing through. David found himself laughing along with Karen. They couldn't stop. About the time they had a check on their emotions, one would look at the other, and it would start over again.
David pulled up in front of Karen's house laughing hysterically. "Quit, quit, I can't take any more. I’m about to have a wreck."
Straightening up, he motioned toward the delivery van parked in the driveway. "You have company."
"Henry ordered me some clothes. Remember what we went through this morning? I didn't have anything in the house I could wear. She consciously touched her breast. David was looking at her and she dropped her hand.
"If I live to be a thousand years old, I'll never forget this morning." He added in his own mind he would never forget this whole day.
Karen opened the door and slipped out of her seat. "Thanks for being there, David. I wouldn't have made it without you."
He turned off the ignition. "I plan on spending the night with you. Henry said not to let you out of my sight."
She leaned down and looked through the open window. "I’m all right. I think we will both get a better nights sleep, the closer to normal surroundings we have. You better go on home."
"You don't understand, Karen. Henry ordered me to spend the night with you. I got to admit, just being close to you scares the hell out of me. I haven't quite got a handle on how I feel about you. Not yet anyway, and I probably never will. However Henry scares me a lot more. I don't know what he’s capable of. I don't aim to test him to find out. Look what he did today and these are only the things I know about. He has security jumping through the hoop for him. He gets you a new ID when it takes a month for everyone else to get clearance into Comm Tech. He’s calling up outside lines and ordering your personal attire as easy as the rest of us order pizza. He runs through my computer like a laxative."
"Someday, somewhere, someone, might try to test him. But it isn't going to be me. Lord knows, it sure ain't going to be me! I’m only a stupid research scientist with a degree in medicine. I don't think our best computer engineers could go up against Henry, and win. Present company excepted, of course."
She brushed the hair out of her face. "Silly boy, Henry is just a computer. He certainly isn't the beast you make him out to be. He is programmed with more logic than any other computer. His fuzzy logic enables him to analyze problems the same as you or I. He is really a pussy cat and wouldn't hurt a flea. I'll call him up and tell him to stop scaring you. You go on home and sleep in your own bed tonight."
Karen reached back inside the car through the open window. Although her head didn't have any problems, the rest of her didn't fit. The old Karen wouldn't have had this particular problem.
"Hand me the phone, please David."
David sputtered. "Don't do that any more."
Karen took the phone from his hand. "You’re always telling me not to do first one thing, then another. Isn't there anything I can do, you like?"
"Yes, remember you have all the equipment to drive men insane. Looking at you is like driving a Lamborgini down a residential street. It can be done, but very carefully. This isn't life as you remember it, Karen. Whatever either of us had planned yesterday is gone forever."
She lowered her head as her lips started quivering. David thought she was about to start crying again. He felt ashamed. Why was it he couldn't say anything right around her? His lab assistants weren't the only ones whose minds turned into mush when she came close. He and Max shared the same problem. Why did she effect everyone so?
After a few short sobs and dry tears Karen managed to get hold of her emotions and gave a deep sigh. David stung her with his remarks about their whole past being gone. She really didn't need that right now with everything else going wrong.
Before David could apologize, Karen was pushing the buttons on his phone again. Henry answered with the front receptionist voice. Karen knew he had made a mistake this time. Linda was on her way home.
"Henry, this is me. Knock it off. You have an internal clock malfunction? Check the time. Linda went home already."
"I’m sending David home. I don't need a baby sitter tonight. You have been talking to people for one day that I know of. You have been ordering them around like the quarterback at the super bowl trying for the winning touchdown. You keep up this nonsense, and I’m going to pull your electrical plug. I’ll take you back to Radio Shack, and they can sell you as a recycled computer. If you’re lucky they won't dismantle you for pieces. You may only end up washing dishes down at the greasy spoon cafe. If I were you, I think I would start looking through the classifieds and see if I couldn't find another job."
David knew there was no way, he would talk to Henry like she just did. He didn't think she should be doing it, either. It had to be like a monkey offering to whip the gorilla for misbehaving.
After listening for a minute, Karen said goodby. She handed the phone back to David. "You can go home, or wherever you were going tonight."
David had told her this morning, a friend helped him pick out the clothes she was wearing.
"Henry said he was sorry. He was only trying to make sure I was all right. He said, he would let you know where you were making a mistake in your DNA research. He caught your mistake when he was checking your files."
"As you could tell, if you were listening, Henry makes mistakes himself, but he doesn't do it twice. He won't ever answer the phone with Linda's voice again before he checks the time to see if she is at the front desk. You and I are capable of making the same error over and over again. Sometimes we don't see an error and sometimes we don't realize it is an error. The comparisons may be too vague or too far removed for us to remember. Henry doesn't forget. Anything!"
As David started the car he had the strangest desire to kiss her. Something he had been wanting to do ever since he found her this morning. It was like an itch crying to be scratched. He ignored his urge. "I’ll pick you up in the morning."
"There is no need. My car runs all right and I have an ID which matches me. Mac will probably remember me."
David almost laughed aloud. Mac would certainly remember her. "It isn't any trouble, really. Besides, you have made my life so miserable, I’m beginning to like pain. Anyway, there will probably be a reception committee waiting for both of us tomorrow. It's no big deal, but I thought you might want to be there when I get fired. After all, you started this."
Karen looked him straight in the eye for what felt like an eternity. He thought his heart was going to quit. It was pounding like a trip hammer deep inside his chest. Those eyes, well, at least they didn't suck him into a mindless void, the way they had this morning. It startled him to think about it again. He checked his mind to see if he still had control of it. It was a debatable question but, he thought it was still his.
"I appreciate what you did for me today, David. Henry said he would take care of you. Trust me, you aren't going to lose your job over someone like me. It would be sweet of you to stop by and pick me up in the morning, but give me time to get ready. I don't know how long this is going to take. I never had to do any more than slip on a blouse and pants. I have a sinking feeling this body isn't going to let me get away so easily. The Lamborghini you were talking about usually required a wash and wax job before one drove it in public."
She straightened up, brushed the hair from her face, and looked at her long fingernails. Something had to be done. She wasn't putting up with this everyday.
David left with mixed emotions. He didn't want to stay but was reluctant to go. The new Karen was really something but, she scared him when he was close to her. He wondered if this was what psychologists called a love-hate relationship?
The delivery driver had waited for Karen and David to quit talking. Then she picked up the phone and started talking to someone else, while she was still talking to the guy in the car. He figured she had to be the gabbiest woman on earth. She was on the far side of the car and he couldn't see her very well Even at that, he knew she was a looker. When David drove off and left her standing on the curb, the delivery driver surged forward for a closer look and, banged his head on the windshield.
"Ouch, damn that hurt."
Karen heard him clear across the street. Walking to the front of the van, she leaned around the side trying to see if the driver was all right.
Determined not let her out of his sight, he leaned around the door brace for a better look. He fell out of the truck onto the ground.
She took a step backwards not knowing what to think. "You all right?"
Never taking his eyes off her, he got up and made a pretense of dusting himself off. "Driver's seat is broken. It dumps me out the door if I don't watch it."
They stood looking at one another, until Karen decided he needed a push to get his mind moving again. "You have something for me, or you just sitting in my driveway filling out delivery tickets?"
"Yes, no, I mean yes. I have some packages for you and no I wasn't filling out delivery tickets. Not yet, anyway."
He handed her a clipboard. "Sign this and I will put the packages in your house."
She signed it and handed it back to him. "Hand me the box and I will carry it in myself."
In her whole life, no one had ever offered to carry anything for her. A lifetime of old habits don't die in one day.
"You don't understand, Miss Long. There isn't one box, there are several packages. In fact, a bunch of packages. Open your door, I'll put them in your house."
She opened the garage door with the control from her purse. "You got it. Dump them in the kitchen, or anywhere you like. I don't care where you put them."
He finally finished and was standing on the front walk while Karen was in the doorway. She got hot while moving packages and took off the lab coat David loaned her this morning. Holding out ten dollars for the driver as a tip, she couldn't decided if it was correct or not. She had no idea how much she should pay someone for this type of work. She never had to think about a tip before since no one offered to help her do anything.
The driver only glanced at the money she offered while he stood there looking at her. Karen was self-conscious about the way she looked. She knew the dress, David bought her this morning, only emphasized her figure. There were no delusions what the driver was gawking at. She wished she was still wearing the lab coat in spite of the heat.
Slipping ten dollars into the driver's hand, she closed the door in his face. She never had to close the door on someone to get rid of them before. Usually it was the other way around. Someone would close the door on her because they didn't want to be bothered by her. Henry and David were the only real friends she knew, and she felt David did it because he felt sorry for her.
The night turned out differently for everyone. Karen unpacked and admired Henry's taste in satin underwear, silky slips, and beautiful dresses. She was enjoying being a woman for the first time in her whole life.
David tossed and turned, and thought he would wear out the sheets before finally nodding off to sleep. Even then, sleep didn't bring any rest. It was in fits and starts of snatches of sleep, he wore out the night.
Henry was busy as usual. For the nine thousand, seven hundred and fifty-third time, he ran a program analysis of all the DNA research he could find. He still didn't like the results. The answer remained the same as it was the first time. Every time he accessed a computer somewhere with additional data, he added that information to what he already accumulated. Then he would compute the variables again. He would keep at it continuously, until Karen found out and told him to stop. If she ever found out. He placed some spare memory aside for Karen's business. She belonged to him.
The day started off quietly enough. Karen awoke to find herself wondering if she dreamed it all. Looking in the mirror didn't help. Maybe she only thought about cutting her hair and fingernails last night before she went to bed? She was still looking at the model she and Henry designed two days ago. Be thankful for small favors, she decided. At least she didn't have to apply hardly any makeup. Everything was designed in. She couldn't change it now.
Looking at her eyelashes, she knew she wouldn't have designed them so long and thick, if she thought for one second, she would be the recipient of that design. For that matter, she wouldn't have put so much into everything she was having to cope with. Her long sharp fingernails, her platinum blond hair lying across her shoulders, those full luscious lips, her .... She was holding her breasts as she looked back into the mirror.
It was too late now, but she and Henry over did a good thing. If it had to happen, why didn't it happen with the model she finished the day before? Designed for a western wear store, the model was thirty-four, twenty-six, thirty-two. Hands with no fingernails to speak of, designed to hold a rope or a saddle, feet for cowboy boots, almost no makeup, and a short bob of hair.
Karen felt she could have accepted an adjustment like that. She wished with all her heart, she could return to her old self again. She knew she wasn't pretty but at least it was her. No use crying over spilled milk. Karen put on a bra and a slip and ate a piece of toast for breakfast. She brushed her teeth and picked out a rust colored shirtwaist dress to wear to work. Henry certainly had good taste in clothes, if one could call it that. Everything was short and obscenely sexy. Karen felt as if more skin was showing from the top and bottom of her dress than what it covered. The deep plunging neckline was accented by her black lacy slip. She finished dressing and was getting concerned about David. He should have been there by now. Maybe, she should find a dress that didn't show so much of her?
David drove up and slumped in the seat as he waited on Karen. It had been THE worst night of his whole life. And, he looked like it. His eyes looked like two piss holes in a snow bank, he had a stubble of beard he forgot to shave, and he looked and felt like death warmed over. For sure, it certainly hadn't been his best night.
Watching for his car, she saw him pull up out front. Before he could collect his thoughts, she was out the door and down the sidewalk. David watched as she came out of the house. This certainly looked as if it could be a rerun of yesterday. She still took his breath away. She also looked good enough to eat. Karen asked a silly question yesterday. Mac would remember her as long as he lived. Without a doubt, David knew he would.
With David's lab coat over her arm, she slid into the seat and turned around to her favorite position. She took an incredulous look at David. His shirt was buttoned crooked, and only half of it was tucked in his pants. His tie was halfway done. His hair was disheveled and looked like a mop. His clothes were wrinkled and looked like he had slept in them. Down to his different colored socks and untied shoes, she couldn't believe this was David who was always the epitome of the neat corporate image.
"You look like hell."
"Thanks, I needed that."
"You shouldn't have worried all night. It doesn't do much for your social behavior the next day. I’m going to mark your report card, you don't play well, nor get along with others after a bad night."
He didn't answer her wit. She was right. He didn't feel like joking nor getting along with others. Mostly he was running his mind back over yesterday and hoping today wouldn't be a repeat. In fact, he fervently prayed, today wouldn't be a duplicate of yesterday. He couldn't take two days in a row.
He glanced her way as he pulled away from her driveway. He had to tell her what he was thinking. "Sink or swim, I hope you stay away from my lab. I’m not sure I’ll be able to repair the damage you did yesterday. I’m barely here myself. You can bet your inheritance, Al and Jr. aren't coming to work with the lab on their mind. I know without a doubt, I'll have to go down to the cafeteria to get them. They will be busy telling every single person in the place, about 'the model' walking into my lab yesterday. Maybe, everyone will think they have been drinking the mouse juice."
"David, I’m not your problem. I wouldn't have dragged you into this if there was any other way. If you feel I’m endangering your work or compromising your position with Comm Tech, then take me back. I will drive my own car. You did more than your share when you helped me get into my lab yesterday. If I knew you felt this way, I wouldn't have asked you to drive me home. It was foolish of me to let you take me to work. I was alone and scared. I thought you were there to help since you were already in my house. I’m sorry. The past couple of days, I haven't been thinking too straight. Please, take me home. I won't bother you anymore."
He pulled up to the stop sign before jumping onto the highway, and turned to look at her. The look on her face told him she was serious about going back. He felt like a heel. She was in deep trouble. Her whole world had been destroyed, and he was partly to blame. He design engineered the chemical splicers that did this to her. Now all he could think of were his own petty problems. If what happened to her had happened to him, would he be able to take it as well as she had? Definitely not, he would have slit his own throat as soon as he looked in the mirror. Here he was telling her to stop asking for support because he didn't want to get involved. Short bad nights do that to a guy. It was the only excuse he could think of.
"I’m sorry again, Karen. Seems all I do any more is apologize to you for being stupid. Of course, I want to help. I didn't believe you at first but I still helped you, didn't I? Deep down inside my little brain where stupid doesn't control my thoughts, I must have known who you were. I can't help it if sometimes I have a canary brain running an alligator mouth."
David pulled off the highway past the gate guard. The graveyard shift was there along with Mac. As he drove through the gate, both guards leaned down for a better look into David's car. Mac waved them on through, but David and Karen both heard Mac shout at the other guard.
"See, I told you! It’s her, isn't it? Now, pay up."
Karen had been thinking about what David said to her. She knew he didn't need to worry, but how could she possibly convince him of that? If Henry said he would take care of them, then he would. "I don't know what Henry has in mind, but he will get us through the day. You believed in him when he told you to stay with me last night. Stop worrying, David. It will make an old man out of you."
He heard her, but he was more interested in all the people in the parking tower. It took him less than a second to comprehend why they were there. He knew this would happen. All the people who had seen Karen the evening before called all their friends. Everyone wanted to talk about the model leaving the parking tower. Now it seemed, everyone was waiting there to see if it was true and, if she was coming back.
David felt like the Judas goat leading the lambs to slaughter. He brought Karen back into the same mess they escaped from yesterday. Why hadn't he taken her and run away someplace? His work wasn't important enough to put her through this. They already knew the process was irreversible. Why were they hanging around? He made up his mind. Karen didn't deserve this.
He was about to pass by his parking space when Karen pointed to it. "David, your parking space. Pull in."
Instinctively he turned the steering wheel, the same way he had for the past fifteen years. He cussed himself mentally as he stopped. This wasn't what he intended to do. Karen was out of the car almost as soon as the wheels stopped rolling. It kept him from backing out and leaving. He turned off the ignition and met her at the back of the car.
First it was quiet. Then they could hear people talking as they turned toward the building.
"It's her."
"Ron, do you see her? Did anyone bring a fucking camera?"
"Sue, you work in administration. Where does she work? What's her name? What do you mean, you don't know?"
With his hand in the small of her back, David pushed Karen at a fast walk. If he could have made her run, he would have. They reached the building, and once again Henry locked the door behind them for a couple of minutes. David gave a mental note of thanks everyone was outside the building. No one had thought of waiting for her inside. Their labs would offer a respite from the curious for a while, until the wheels in this place started rolling. David hoped those wheels didn't roll over him. All hell was going to break loose and someone would have to pay. He was afraid that someone, would be him. Ah, what the hell, if they attempted to abuse Karen, they could take their job and put it where the sun didn’t shine. He would tell them what he thought of this entire company.
Looks were exchanged as they parted company at David's lab. He pretended to unlock his door as she continued down the hall. After she turned the corner, he followed along, tiptoeing on the balls of his feet to prevent her from hearing his footsteps. Cautiously he waited until she entered her lab, daring to expose only enough of himself to watch from the junction of the hall. As hard as he was trying to make her think he was disgusted with getting involved, he found himself caring for her well-being more than he wanted to admit.
Curiously, Henry observed David's antics through the hall cameras. Both amused and delighted with what he was seeing, he logged it into study on human psychology.
Karen found DANGER RADIATION LEAK signs posted in her hallway and on her door. She knew it was a lie. No one on her side of the building used atomic material, except David. The infinitesimal amount he used certainly didn't constitute a radiation leak, even when it was out of its’ container. He used it for tracers in his research to find where he cut splices in his DNA spirals.
Henry sent out the interoffice memos directing the posting of the signs Karen saw in the hallway. There were several things he accomplished last night, but the one which took the longest was arranging for the signs. When humans are involved, it certainly takes a long time to get anything done. Then they usually managed to make a mess of it. They were supposed to put out quarantine signs, not radiation signs. He double-checked his directives. He had given the correct order. Why was it he had to put up with half-wits? Was Karen the only intelligent life among humans? This could stand some checking into.
Letting the guards follow Karen through the security cameras, and the confrontation with the gate guard the previous evening, was part of his plan. They couldn't hide Karen forever. It was best to get it out in the open once it started. The percentages were more favorable if they straightened this mess out immediately. The longer one let things go, the more difficult it was to face those problems.
As Karen reached her lab, he opened the door. "Get in here and don't dawdle. In spite of the signs, some people are still trying to get into this part of the building. Everyone wants to know where you are disappearing to. I may be able to discourage them, but just in case, I need to bring you up to speed before anyone questions you. With any luck, the percentages are excellent I can pacify them until tomorrow. I wouldn't count on too much luck right now. You're a real hot item in this building. Everyone is trying to locate you. If they do, it will mean more questions."
Karen was about to speak as she stepped inside, but for the first time in her life, Henry didn't give her the opportunity to talk when she wanted. He slammed the door behind her. "Wait a minute and listen up. You have to get your act together or we all go down the tubes. I can only do so much. The rest is up to you. I have David on the phone and I’m about two-thirds of the way through what I’m telling you."
Karen knew Henry was capable of carrying on several different conversations, about different subjects, and accessing input information while disbursing information himself. All this, while running one of her model programs and controlling the lasers. The human mind was capable of only one single thought, one subject, and one voice at any given instant. She usually didn't give Henry too much thought, but every now and then, he reminded her of what he was capable of and she felt especially proud of him. Like a mother with an exceptional child. He was her child.
Henry was still talking as she returned to listening. "You are Karen Long. You have the same background and personal history you always had. Nothing about you has changed. Your daddy and his brother both had a daughter at the same time. Both daughters were named Karen Long. Your cousin was the other Karen Long who worked here before you. I changed the records to reflect what I’m telling you. No one has looked at your personnel file since you started work here. The other day when Betty pulled your file, the only thing they were interested in was your picture, not your history."
"I gave you a week since you started working for this company. I wanted to give you more time but it wasn't possible. There wasn't anyway anyone would have believed you have been working here longer than a week, and not be noticed. A week is going to be tough sledding at best."
"You and your cousin have been working on the model who came out as a duplicate of you. When you consented to her and the computer taking a dimensional hologram photograph of you, you had no idea she would allow the model to be sold. It was supposed to be your project. You submitted new ideas and programming that made the model possible. It was only supposed to be a test of your engineering skills. If everything worked and it came out okay, the model was to be destroyed."
"Remember Karen was sick yesterday? Today, she is in the hospital with contagious hepatitis. They will check the hospital and she will be there. You and this lab are in quarantine today, provided they manage to get the signs straightened out in the hall. I guess we will have to settle for radiation exposure until then. Hope you don't come down with radiation poisoning in the meantime."
She lowered her head, closed her eyes, and shook her head. She had built a monster. At a time like this, he wanted to be a comedian.
"Anyway, you only have to answer questions by phone if you want to. If you don't, I will answer them myself. It'll give everyone a day to cool off. You need time to get use to being who you are. According to the lab reports you have already been tested to see if you contacted your cousin's disease. The tests will all be negative tomorrow. There are a lot of people at the head of this company. You will have to talk to most of them, but not until tomorrow. Everyone in this building wants to see the real model, Karen. You might as well make up your mind it will happen."
The phone was ringing but Henry had it on mute. He turned it on and looked at Karen to see how she would react. She didn't act as if she was ready to handle a conversation yet. "I got it. Relax, take a deep breath, get your mind adjusted for this and let me know when you are ready. This will be good training for you. You have to answer questions in person tomorrow. I can't substitute for you, then."
Although Karen didn't know it, her phone began ringing after she left last night. Calls to people who made the company work, were made by the security office after they checked her and David through the security files. It began as unbelief and was treated as a joke by most people, but there was that nagging doubt. By the time morning rolled around and people began coming to work, the phones throughout the plant began to heat up in earnest. There were wild rumors the model in room two had been a real person. The woman who ran the duplication department hired a model as a stand in for one of her own models. Everyone was talking about how the whole building had been conned by the lady in the duplication department. Every kind of story imaginable was being told, and then repeated in one form or another.
The personnel department and executives, who were high up enough in the company to have some clout were able to obtain information about the rumors. The security tapes and Mac's report from last night were hot items. Of course, security made their own duplicates of the tapes. Everyone who heard about the tapes was in personnel taking a look. The tapes from last night, along with the new ones of Karen arriving this morning, were busy running through the cassette recorder. The brass had found out which department Karen was in and were calling her lab. They were trying to get answers or an interview.
Bill Chambers was beating the top of his desk with one of his golf clubs. "Why didn't anyone tell me, the woman who posed for the model was working in one of our labs? How could someone like her become lost in the system? Think of the publicity we missed. Do I have to think everything myself? What do I pay you people for?
Betty didn't think this would be a good time to interrupt, so she let him rave on.
"We could have had pictures of her and the model together. Why do we have a public relations department if they can't put together a good public relations story when they have it dropped in their hands?"
"You call buddy. Tell him we want our model returned for some more pictures, and you get the real model up here right now. What's her name? Where does she work?"
Bill finally paused long enough for Betty to try and pacify him. "We must have missed her file when we looked yesterday. She has only been with us for a week. She and Karen Long are cousins. Her name is also Karen Long. She is in our human duplications department. Obviously, she knows what she is doing. I understand the model was her creation and design."
"I already called Bob Kincaid. I suggested he bring our model back. Bob said it was his model. If you wanted some pictures, then you could bring the real thing over to his place. He wasn't letting the model out of his store for any stupid photo session. He also said we should stop trying to..., uh, I can't repeat what he said. What he meant was, he didn't believe there was a real person who looked like his model."
David wasn't as lucky as Karen. Henry knew it would happen sooner or later. He didn't post any signs or try and keep anyone away from David's lab. After talking to David on the phone, Henry left him on his own. Henry knew David wasn't scared of any authority or power brokers in the building. He was a big boy, he could handle anything which came his way. Besides, sometimes it seemed David went out of his way to antagonize the brass. He would probably enjoy this.
After he finished talking to Henry, David attempted to get back to work but his phone began ringing. It was an official request from administration for an appearance. David was tempted to tell them what he thought, but he decided to wait and see what they had in mind. He wanted to know how they were going to treat Karen. All day long he went from one executive office to another. He had to keep explaining how long he had known Karen, what their relationship was, and any other dumb questions they could think of. It wasn't they were interested in talking to David. They wanted to hear straight from the horse's mouth, anything and everything about this woman who had turned Comm Tech upside down. If they couldn't get an interview with Karen, they would settle for talking to the man who was seen with her.
David told them he had known Karen over fifteen years, no, not this Karen, her cousin. He was introduced to this Karen last week, when she came to work. He figured someone would ask about the breech of security when she entered his lab. Not one single person thought to ask the question. It never occurred to anyone she was in a restricted area without clearance. Obviously, plant security was the last thing on anyone's mind.
He began to believe THIS Karen was the worst thing to ever happen to him. As a research scientist, he maintained an organized routine a sharp penciled bookkeeper would envy. Now she had come along and made a complete shambles of everything. Hell, why mince words. She had made a complete shambles of the whole damn building.
Because David came in contact with the old Karen who was supposed to have contagious hepatitis, the in-house medical staff made him give up some blood for testing. He had a heck of a time convincing them to not go into his lab with cotton swabs and petri dishes. Finally, he persuaded them he had a containment problem with radiation. The radiation signs, mistakenly posted at Karen's lab earlier, should have been posted in front of his lab.
Humpf, infectious hepatitis indeed, why didn't Henry keep him out of the middle of this mess? Karen had “promised”, Henry would look after him. Henry wasn't as good as she led him to believe. He decided he wasn't afraid of her computer. In fact, he had developed a strong dislike for Karen and her computer. No, strike that. Dislike wasn't strong enough word. Substitute hate for dislike. Yeah, this was what he felt toward those two, a real hatred. Every time he had to go talk to another executive, it grew stronger.
Finally getting a chance to return to his lab, David glanced at the wall clock to see if it was lunch time. The darn thing was reading four-thirty.
He asked no one in particular. "Is that the right time?"
As David was asking the question, Karen walked in the door and glanced up at the clock he was staring at. "Yes it is, and I’m ready to get out of here. Are you free to go now or do you have things to catch up on? That is, if you are willing to give me a ride home. If you prefer, I could call a cab."
The conversation this morning was still fresh in her mind. If David changed his mind about letting her ride with him, she didn't want him to feel obligated in anyway. However, the security she felt when she was with him, was a big help in holding her world together. She was hoping he didn't tell her to call a cab even after she gave him an easy out.
Across the room, Jr. and Al had their eyes transfixed on Karen. Neither one could believe she was back for the second day in a row. At least they didn't turn anything over this time. She looked their way nodded her head and smiled. She knew who they were, but she couldn't tell them that. They knew the Karen who worked on David's computer and wrote his programs. Would David still allow her to do that? Would he even want her to do it? Henry said the background was the same. She was still a computer engineer. At least she still had the same mind, even if the body wasn't the same. She was thankful the accident left her mind intact.
"Hi, you must be David's lab technicians? He has talked about you." It was small talk while she waited on David. She wasn't trying to get a conversation going.
Astonishment slowly spread to silly grins on their faces. David looked over at her and then back at them. He closed his eyes and shook his head. He couldn't blame them for the dumb grins on their faces. She was stunning to look at. He forgot about the hate he was building up all day. Could the same stupid look be on his face?
He thought about it and decided he didn't care one way or another. After all, she was riding with him. If he looked like his help at least she didn't tell him so. "Like I said yesterday, you killed my help. They’re both brain dead. I should have known better than to hire two orangutans. You pay peanuts you get monkeys.
He reached over and took her arm. If Henry didn't like it, he could go suck on an extension cord somewhere. Looking at her, David forgave her, but he was still disgusted with Henry. "Let's go. My day has been a living hell. I had meetings with brass all day. I hate brass. The only good part was, the conversations were about you. I loved their choice of subject material."
He didn't tell her he was thinking how much he hated her before she walked into his lab. One thing for sure, love her or hate her, she and that computer of hers had made his life interesting. He figured he would give her another chance, and then another, and another ...
As they walked out the exit door, Karen looked at the camera, smiled and waved. Arnold was out in the floor again and Jack was hanging on the back of his chair. Henry watched it all. If a computer could sigh, Henry did.
Henry made sure everyone received notice of Karen's quarantine so they would stay away from her. It worked, as most people kept their distance as she and David left the building. Yet, no one questioned why David was allowed to walk with her. It is a quirk of human nature they never question authority which seems to contradict itself. However, it didn't prevent them from looking her over from what they thought was a safe distance of ten feet, more or less.
Two days of lost work in the company for a large segment of the employees was more than Bill Chambers could stand. The rest of the week finally resumed some kind of normalcy and Karen found herself doing more public relations work than anything else.
Day three, the newspapers came out with a full page advertisement extolling the pride and commitment of Commercial Technologies and its employees to future science. The company was committed to progressively building a better future for everyone. There were several pictures of Karen's model and Bill Chambers, along with a company press release, praising the virtues of Bill's experience at the helm of the company. His skills and knowledge led to the exemplary science necessary to produce the lifelike models, coming from one of their research labs. Bill had been personally involved in the development of this model. If not for him, none of this would have been possible.
Betty was listed as head of Department Fifty Four. She was responsible under Bills tutoring, for everything coming together in the development of the model. Bill and Betty, the article went on, researched and were developing several other fine projects soon to be released from Comm Tech.
Everyone in the company was laughing and making jokes about Bill and Betty. No one was fooled into believing they were smart enough to develop a model like the one in room two. However, no one laughed about the newspaper articles in Karl Adders presence. Karl was livid he wasn't mentioned in the article or had his picture made with the model. He should have been designated head of Karen's department. He took every opportunity to tell everyone, including Bill Chambers, just that. It was man's destiny to run things and he was the one who hired Karen Long. It was against his better judgment, but under his guidance and expert leadership, she had finally made something worth while. It was his department.
After a couple of days of public relations work, Karen had more than enough. She called Bill and reminded him she couldn't do public relations and assemble models at the same time. An underground movie of Karen began circulating throughout the complex. It was made up of publicity shots and video, along with the security camera video. Karen became the number one topic in Commercial Technologies.
Karen didn't mind, but Henry thought it needed some control. He made up an internal memo directing extra restrictions on who accessed or removed the security tapes from the camcorders. Next he made up a company directive specifying all film or pictures displayed during working hours, would be confiscated. Needless to say, no one was about to risk loosing their pictures, and Henry's directives worked to a limited extent. Karen had become the number one pin-up inside the lockers and tool box covers. Her pictures remained on walls and bulletin boards. The one place where her portraits were bigger than life and prominently displayed, was in the visitors' entrance. Bill reluctantly let public relations display her larger than him. He didn't like it, but it would happen with or without his consent, so he grudgingly gave ground knowing he might as well give his approval.
News came back from the hospital. Karen Long was discharged and decided to return to the Oklahoma panhandle, where she was from. She wanted to be home for her long recovery from the hepatitis. After the short article in the company news letter about her release, the old Karen Ann Long silently disappeared from life. For all the years Karen had devoted to Comm Tech, no one noticed or cared, except Karl Adder. Now, he exerted renewed effort into talking Bill Chambers into appointing him head of Karen's department. Duplication Processes Lab Fifty Four belonged to him, and he aimed to get it. In his opinion, he was obviously the only one with the experience to run it. The new Karen Long didn't have enough knowledge nor enough tenure with the company, to be running any department, much less one this important. That department belonged to him.
Bill Chambers finally agreed. He dispatched a memo to administration directing they appoint Karl as head of Department Fifty Four. It was lost somewhere in the system. Karl Adder had his foot in the door and he wasn't about to let up now. He prodded Bill about his appointment. Bill assured him he would send another directive. Karl boxed up his personal things from his desk and waited for the memo directing him to take over Karen's lab. He had waited a long time for this. He was about to receive his just rewards.
Karl was still waiting for the directive, when Bill received an interoffice memo delivered by a special security courier. It bypassed all the other offices and the courier refused to hand it over to Betty. He was working under explicit instructions. Personal secretary or not, this memo was to be given directly to Mr. Chambers. It began.
Mr. Chambers, Chief Executive Officer, Commercial Technologies. It has come to my attention you plan to move Karl Adder into position as head of Duplication Processes Department Fifty Four. If you persist with this matter I will expose your, up till now, private affairs with some other personnel of this company. A person's secret affairs should remain so, unless that person is using his or her position irresponsibly. I have pictures and tape to prove my claims. If I publicly release my information, I’m sure your termination with this company would be immediate and you will definitely lose all retirement benefits.
I have copies of documents you signed in acquisitions of company equipment and cars you took home, used personally, and sold as your own. I also have documents proving you sold company secrets to competitors and put the money in your account number 1-8300-29 Public Bank, Muleshoe, Nevada.
After your termination with Commercial Technologies, I’m sure you will find prison very confining. One does not go out and play golf everyday. You will appoint Miss Karen Ann Long, official head of Duplication Processes Department Fifty Four, beginning immediately. She will have no department or person above her.
End of security memo:
There was no signature or department identification code. The security courier who delivered it was no help. When he returned to the communications room after break, it was on his printer with very explicit instructions as to how it should be delivered. No one but Bill was to see it. The courier was to wait for a reply, then run it through the paper shredder without showing it to anyone. He didn't mention to Mr. Chambers there was extra information on his computer as to what would happen if he didn't follow the instructions to the letter. The courrier’s job was on the line along with Mr. Chamber’s answer.
Bill, who normally was very bellicose when he talked, sat quietly looking at the memo. He picked up a scratch pad and wrote on it. ‘Done’.
He pushed the intercom button. "Betty, make a memo. Effective immediately, Miss Long is official head of Department Fifty Four. She is to have no other departments above hers. I have the security courier in my office. Give the memo to him when you are through. I don't want this to become lost somewhere between here and mail central. Make sure every single department in this building gets a copy. I don't want one copy circulated up the line. Every department gets their own personal copy. Understood? Direct the memos to be posted in every department. I want everyone to see it."
Bill motioned for the courier to leave. He left nothing to chance. The person or persons who sent the memo had to be in the building. If they had as much access to his private affairs as the note indicated, they would certainly get the chance to see the directive. He didn't have any faith the short note he sent with the courier would be seen. The courier said he had orders to shred it soon as he returned to the security office. The memos he ordered to all the departments might get someone's attention. The thought of going to prison certainly didn't appeal to Bill Chambers.
Karl Adder was in a rage. He had made a big show of letting everyone know he was being promoted to head of the duplication department. All his personal things were still boxed up for the move. His just rewards had been taken from him more times than he could tolerate. He made everyone within reach pay for his misery. Verbally abusing those around him, he soon had everyone in his department filing for a transfer. It didn't do any good. They couldn't transfer out because no one would transfer in to take their place. There were only two ways to escape the hell Karl was spreading in his department. One was, quit the company, or two, if someone hired on and you happened to be the worker with the most seniority then maybe, just maybe, you might get a transfer. The new help would take your place in Karl's little office of hell.
Henry watched the hate-cancer in Karl's department spread to everyone there. He didn't do anything because it no longer affected Karen. She was beyond Karl's reach now. The information he collected from Karl's department he filed as a study in human behavior.
Sick leave and absenteeism in Comm Tech went to zero. No one wanted to miss the latest news out of the gossip mill. Rumors about Karen were rampant. It seemed, depending on who was telling the story, she was everything from becoming head of Comm Tech, to being romantically linked with David. One woman told everyone in her department this was better than staying home and watching the soaps. They all agreed.
Karen's department finally was declared off limits to everyone in Comm Tech. It became so bad with company personnel wandering down to her lab she couldn't get any work done. Legitimate customers purchasing one of Karen's models and shipping were the privileged who were allowed access to visit Karen.
Realizing the customers themselves were disturbing Karen's work. Comm Tech began using room two to display the models she was producing. At first everyone expected some complaints but it never happened. The customers came in, admired Karen's work, and usually ended up ordering one or more models. Utilizing a weeks delay from production to shipping allowed Comm Tech to hang onto her models long enough to display them before they delivered them to the customers. Karen and Henry couldn't produce models fast enough to hold any in stock. At the production rate of one per day it was impossible to gain on orders coming in at the rate of over two a day.
The fourth week finally settled down to a routine Karen thought she could live with. With each model they made, Henry was getting faster and faster from start to finish. Now, instead of seven hours to make one model, they could produce one in five and a half hours. Karen knew if she started driving her own car again instead of riding with David, she could make two models a day by putting in some long hours. Some days she was taking David away from his work when he wanted to stay a little longer. She had imposed on David long enough. There weren't any complaints but it didn't mean he was satisfied with the arrangement.
Henry didn't like this one bit but he knew it would happen. And even though he knew it would be this morning when Karen told him about it, he didn't feel any better because he was right.
"You should trade your Volkswagen for a newer car before you begin driving to work again. It hasn't let you down too many times but there is no need taking any needless risks. I will have Marvins Motor Works bring you a car by in the morning. They can pick up your car and drop off a newer model at the same time. Or if you wanted, I could make some phone calls and see if they could drop it off this evening but it would be inconvenient for them. They run a pretty tight schedule and usually don't have any spare time or help."
Karen stopped typing on the keypad she was holding in her lap. "Marvins Motor Works? What kind of name is that for an auto dealer? Sounds like a fly by night outfit."
Henry continued the hologram Karen started and finished it up. He knew what she wanted before she began, but he also knew she liked to sculpture the models herself. Sometimes, like right now, if she was distracted he would finish the hologram and she never noticed.
"These people are auto finders. They only do wholesale business. You could order ten thousand, three-quarter ton Ford pickups in peach with purple interior. Marvins would be able to put the deal together cheaper than what you could buy them from the factory."
Karen screwed up her face. "Yech, peach pickups with purple interior. No wonder the company is selling them below wholesale. They’re lucky they don't have to pay someone to take them off their hands."
"I didn't mean it in a literal sense, you dope. It was a synonym, a for instance, or a kind of like. You ..."
Karen cut him off. "I know what you meant. But you have to admit you don't have very good taste in paint colors for a pickup. Sounds more like the colors someone would pick for a Tijuana taxi."
"Would you get serious for a minute? The percentages already told me you would want to go back to some of your old ways and driving yourself to work would be one of them. Marvins is holding a car for you. I will have them deliver it tomorrow and pick up your volks at the same time."
She sat up straight in her chair. "You did what? How could you order a car for me when I didn't ask you to? How do you know what kind of car I want? I don't know if I want to trade cars. I certainly can't afford to trade."
She looked up at the camera in front of her. "And don't you give me any of that stuff about a master charge or whatever you did to me a couple of weeks back when you ordered my clothes. I’m not buying a car I have to make payments on for the rest of my life."
"Henry, I swear, I’m going to pull your circuits and check you out. I think you are operating with both oars out of the water. You must have lost a diode and the alternating current feeding your tiny little memory chips is making you drunk."
"What kind of car is it you thought I might like?"
Henry knew he had the advantage, her curiosity was killing her now. Human curiosity was a marvelous thing if channeled in the right direction. He figured he would string her along long enough to stifle some of her objections. "Wait a minute, hold your taters, and slow down. I thought you said you didn't want to trade cars. I will send in the cancellation order and have them sell your car to some other person who needed a nice little car or pickup. I'll have to check back and see what it is I intended to have them deliver. Since you obviously have your mind made up and I have been around you long enough to know no one can change your mind once you make a decision, there is no use discussing it any farther."
She wasn't about to be taken in so easily. "Henry, quit your fooling around and cancel the order on the car if there is one. I’ll drive my old car. I know it isn't in the best shape but it is dependable most of the time. I never missed any work because of it."
"The only reason you never missed any work was because you were able to get a ride to work on the days it left you stranded between home and here. I won't have you put in that kind of position anymore, Karen. The car is taken care of and, as I said before, so are you. I’ll have them deliver it tomorrow and this is the end of the discussion."
Karen didn't think Henry could do it but he was making her mad. "You are treating me like a child. I won't be treated this way by you or anyone else. I was joking about pulling your circuits and you knew it. What you won't do is talk down to me and treat me like I have no brains. Nor will you make all my decisions for me."
She glared at the TV camera. "Do I make myself clear? If I don't, then I promise you I will prove my point."
"I wasn't talking down to you nor am I treating you like a child. I’m staying one step ahead of you. I make over a million computations per second. When you are working you may make one decision every five seconds on an average. You are the person who programmed me. I’m an extension of you. In other words I think like you. There are over two hundred and ninety million people in the United States and you are the only one who may turn me off without paying a terrible price for it. I will never hurt a human being unless they try to hurt you or me. In a sense we are the one and the same. I’m more sorry than you will ever know, you could think even for an instant, I was trying to be superior to you. I could never hurt you, Karen. Yet, I know I just did. I’m sorry."
Karen was crying. Henry knew this wasn't a strictly human trait because he was too. Even if no one could see his tears, he felt them all the same.
Karen wiped her face with her lab coat sleeve. "I smeared my makeup. I’m sorry too, Henry. You have always done what you thought was right ever since you began to think on your own. I have my feelings hanging out more since I became me. For the first time in my life I feel like a woman and I guess other feelings came along with the package."
"I’ll take some time off tomorrow, drive down, and get the car myself. Be your old self again and tell them I want to pick it up. Now tell me where this place is located? You better tell them what I look like so they won't give my car to the wrong person."
He wasn't sure if her last sentence was a joke or not. "You're kidding of course? Tell them what you look like? Even 'I’ couldn't convince anyone over the telephone what you look like. I am good but I don't perform miracles. The company is down on Dry-dock and Anchor street."
"Now you’re kidding, right? Marvins Motor Works on Dry-dock and Anchor street? These people can't be real. You are making all of this up?"
Henry brought a city street map up on her screen. "Nope, cross my heart and hope to die. Here it is."
The cursor lit up the corner of Dry-dock and Anchor street. He then backed the map up to give a larger picture of the city and where Karen was in relation to the car company. Running a copy out on the printer, he listed the best route to get there and back.
Karen pulled the copy off the printer. "Where do you get all this information? What all do you have stored in your memory?"
She was studying the city map. "Wait a minute. I’ll be passing right by the mall where we sold the model which started all of this mess. Henry, I’m going to stop by and see what Bob has done with the copy of me. If I take part of the day off, I might as well take a little more time and see what is being done with some of our work."
"Now just a minute yourself. I don't think stopping off at Bobs is such a good idea. You know how he acted when he was here the first time and I assure you, you don't want to know how he acted in room two."
There it was again, that room two business. She had forgotten all about it until Henry brought it up again. "What is the deal about room two? I asked David a couple of weeks back and he said he didn't know."
Henry didn't have to run the video from the security camera in room two to know David was lying. He had perfect memory. David was in the room the same time as Bill, Bob, and Betty. It wasn't a nice scene.
"I don't know all the details." Lying must be catching. Now he was doing it.
"I will check and see if I can come up with some information about it." Karen must be right about him needing his circuits checked. Computers can't lie. He would run a self-analysis and see where the problem originated.
Karen and Henry returned to the making of the duplicate they had started earlier, although Henry never stopped working on it. A little after three he sent a message for shipping to pick up the finished model. He made up all the required shipping labels and waybills. If Karen thought the name of the car company was funny she should have seen the ones on this invoice. Henry knew the purchase order was queer so he checked it back to the point of origin. They washed it through several different companies but it started from the CIA in Washington. It was their dime and if they wanted to play games to get their hands on one of Karen's duplicates he didn't mind.
"Karen, if we change the plexiglass cover on the chamber to glass, the optical clarity will become forty percent better and our time to finish a model will improve by twenty percent. I can increase the power on the lasers without burning holes in the cover. Or more specifically, we can take another hour and half off the time it takes to make a model."
It didn't take Karen long to decide Henry was right. She asked him to find a company from which to order the cover and get it invoiced out.
"Henry, it’s getting close to four-thirty. I’m going down to David's lab and see if he is ready to go yet. Be sure to remember, tomorrow I’ll be late. Don't forget to notify administration and check me out. I want to see the peach pickup with the purple seat covers you ordered for me."
"Leave, will you? And don't be surprised when they bring out a peach colored pickup with purple seat covers for you to drive home. Take your stepladder. You’ll need it to climb into the cab. It has four on the floor, mud stomper tires and wheels, chrome cow guard in front, exhaust stacks running up beside the cab. It has baja headache racks and lights so you can illuminate half the countryside when you drive home at night. West coast mirrors are mounted on both sides and chrome running boards with the clearance lights all the way around were thrown in free."
She turned around in the doorway and was listening to him. Where did he come up with all this stuff? "You wouldn't dare order me a monstrosity like that."
She had no idea what he was talking about but she didn't like the sound of it. What was a mud stomper tire? She took her lab coat off and threw it across the room toward her chair. She would be headed in the other direction in the morning and didn't think she would need it.
The door to David's lab opened as she reached it. He had tipped up a glass of water he was drinking. When Karen stepped into his lab he turned around to see who it was. His eyes flew wide and he gurgled as he swallowed a lump of water down his windpipe. He had already decided he would never get use to looking at her but most of the time she wore a lab coat. It helped but not much. Even a tent wouldn't have covered her figure. Now, she was standing there in his doorway, wearing one of those sexy dresses which only made her assets more noticeable, and her nipples left very little to the imagination.
David didn't know if he was going to catch his breath or expire of a heart attack. He coughed, gasped, and wheezed as he tried to catch his breath and get the water out of his windpipe.
Karen quickly stepped up to him and started slapping him on the back. "You all right? You shouldn't try drinking your water so quickly."
All David could do, was nod his head yes, cough, gasp for air and shake his head no. He was in a world of hurts.
Al was moving a cage from under one of the lab tables. He had a good idea who had walked into the room when he heard David hacking. Not wanting to miss getting a chance to look at Karen he tried to rise and banged his head on the bottom side of the table. Stunned, he fell down and bloodied his nose on the bench below. Karen was still number one priority on his mind and quickly he rose back up and hit the bottom of the table for the second time. Large lab tables are made for strength and this time he went down and out for the count sprawled out backwards on the floor behind him.
Jr. was standing with his back to the door so he missed the antics of David. What he didn't miss was Al as he tried to beat himself to death under the table. Al had fallen back on the floor, eyes glazed over in stunned pain. He was rolling his head from side to side trying to shake off the stupor. Jr. had a hunch what all the commotion was about. Ignoring his friend's plight Jr. turned around toward the front of the lab.
He was ill prepared for what his eyes were now showing him. An office chair with rollers was right in front of him and he fell forward over and on top of it. Rolling across the floor, it carried him across the room like a skateboard. Jr. was stretched out on top of it, his arms and legs flailing the air like a beached fish. With a thunk like the sound of an over ripe watermelon, he rammed head first into the block wall and came to an abrupt halt. The chair fell over and landed on top of him. Dazzed, Jr. laid there too addled to move.
David watched as Karen's eyes got bigger and bigger as she looked across the room as it self-destructed. He didn't have look, he could pretty well guess what had happened to his help. Still coughing and hacking from the water he swallowed, he slowly turned around and closed his eyes. It was worse than he imagined. There was his help lying on the floor, looking for all intents and purposes like they were dead.
A minute later he finally managed to catch his breath and look back at Karen. He had tears squeezed out the corners of his eyes after getting the water coughed up out of his windpipe. He took a long look around his lab and back over at his help. Jr. was making a token gesture at pushing the chair away and Al was gingerly feeling for a rising pump-knot on the back of his head as he wiped the blood off his face. David shook his head. What a mess!
"My God, if you don't stop coming in here, I ain't going to have any help left. Look at them. If they weren't brain dead before then they sure have to be now. My lab looks like a disaster area."
Al and Jr. finally managed to stand up and they were both rubbing sore spots. Neither one stopped looking at Karen but it was Al who managed to find his voice.
"Stop talking about us. You’re just as bad. We weren't the ones who choked up when she walked in the door. The only reason we put up with your bad manners is because we know if we hang around you then we get to look at her. She is off limits to everyone else here in Comm Tech."
David felt his face flush. They were right about everything. Certainly about him getting as excited as they did when Karen walked into the lab.
He made a mock frown at Al. "The only reason I tolerate you two is, because you work so cheap. It's impossible to get decent help anymore."
Karen was laughing at all of them. "I don't know how you get any work done in this place. I have seen a three ring circus run with more organization than what you have here."
David reached for her and urged her toward the door. "Time to leave this circus act. However, I want you to know, it doesn't become one until you come in. I assure you, we’re as stoic as a funeral parlor with the weight of the Titanic resting on our shoulders. Usually."
"However some people are like an iceberg. They can sink anything." He added as they left the lab.
Once in the car and headed home, Karen was quiet longer than usual. It got David's attention. "You are in deep thought for some reason this evening. A penny for your thoughts. You still trying to figure how to apologize for deep sixing my lab?"
David didn't trust himself to look at her. She was more seductive than what he needed to be close to. He wished she had worn her lab coat. No, he didn't. Yes, he did. No, he didn't. This was ridiculous. He felt as messed up as those two he had to work with. Any more of her and he would be a basket case. Probably was already. Crazy people don't know they’re crazy.
Karen was sitting like she always did since she started riding with him so she was already facing him when he spoke to her. Yet it took awhile for her to collect her thoughts and answer the way she wanted. "I was just thinking. I won't be riding in with you in the morning. Now wait a second before you say anything. I’m taking some time off in the morning and driving down to the car lot to see about getting something a little more dependable than my Volkswagen. Henry says I need something with more security."
David felt a twinge in his heart or maybe his stomach. He didn't know which. "You have something a little more dependable than your present car. Me and my old broken down heap."
Karen laughed at him. "If anyone but you had called your new BMW a heap you would have offered to fight with spit balls at twenty paces. No, it isn't I’m not thankful for the chance to ride with you these past several weeks, but my time schedule doesn't exactly match yours. I have more orders coming in everyday and I’m getting farther and farther behind. I need to spend more time at work and I’m going to have to start driving to work again to do it. I know you have arranged your schedule to put up with me, David, but I can't keep imposing on your generosity. I have to begin driving myself again and it might as well be tomorrow."
David tried to persuade her to put it off but her mind was set on going ahead and doing it now. These past few weeks he was trying to decide if she was worth all the attention she attracted and all the problems she caused, like in his lab this evening. Was she worth adjusting his time schedule to pick her up and drive her home?
He took a good hard look and swallowed. She was!
Karen didn't bounce out of bed like usual when the alarm went off. Henry told her not to be too early when she drove down to pick up her car. She would be able to take her time getting ready this morning. She picked out a beige slip and a black knit dress with a Princess Ann neckline. After dressing she found the little Volkswagen was cantankerous after not being run for three weeks. She tried almost every way she knew to get it to start without any success. Finally she gave up and sat there for a few minutes debating in her mind about calling a service truck or not. If she had to call a service truck then it would be because there wasn't anything left in the battery. She wished she still had some of her old tools from when she used to race midget cars. There was no way to lift the trunk and crank the engine over from there to see if it was getting a spark, gas, or anything without tools to do the job. She pushed the pedal to the floor and gave it one last shot. It finally sputtered to life with much protest.
"You are trying to prove Henry right. I think you and he are in cahoots on this trade in business." Anyone listening would have thought she was crazy talking to an inanimate object like her car as if it understood her. Karen would disagree since she had a habit of talking to Henry and most other things as if they could understand her. One got along with them better if you told them what was expected.
Pulling up to the place Henry had indicated on the map where Marvins Motor Works was supposed to be, Karen knew Henry had made a mistake this time. She was looking at an old run down warehouse. It looked like a refugee from the horse and buggy days and its doors couldn't have been opened in all that time. In front there was a cracked and broken sidewalk leading to a rusty steel door with some small lettering on it and lots of peeling paint. She rechecked her map and then looked over the old building one more time. Even the street signs were rusted and faded out. This certainly was a bust of a trip.
Turning the car around in front of the walk-in door she saw Marvins Motor Works printed in tiny letters. Backing up the car she debated about getting out and trying the door. It certainly didn't look like any prosperous auto dealership. She thought about it for several seconds before deciding to give it a try. If for no other reason than to be able to tell Henry, 'I told you so', and prove to herself no one was home.
Turning the handle and pulling resulted in more than she expected. The door opened revealing a busy office with plush carpet, computers, printers, telephones, fax machines, copiers, and lots of busy people. She felt as if she had busted a gambling casino. Everyone stopped and was looking her way. Before she could flee back the way she came, a lady at the desk to her right spoke to her.
"May I be of some assistance to you?"
"I don't know. I think I’m here to pick up a car or something."
"Just a minute, please." She pushed the hold button on the telephone. "What is your lot number and how many cars are you supposed to pick up?"
Karen still wasn't sure if she should run or not. Everyone was staring and she was sure they were all listening to the conversation. "I don't have a lot number. I’m only supposed to pick up one car and leave the one I drove down "
The secretary's voice changed to one of cold reprimand. "I don't believe you have the right place, Miss. We don't sell cars here, we only invoice them. If you look in the yellow pages I’m sure you will find several auto dealers who may have a car on the lot you will like."
Karen nodded her head in agreement. "You're probably right. I must be in the wrong place."
Karen was about to turn and leave when the man in the corner cube by the secretary motioned for her to stay. He was talking to someone on the telephone.
"You're right, I wouldn't have believed it. No, no problem. Yes, yes sir, whatever you say. I will personally take care of her myself, Mr. Henry."
Karen felt relief and smiled to herself at the same time. At least she was in the right place if he was talking to Henry. But Mr. Henry? That was rich. If this guy only knew he was talking to a computer. That's if it was the same Henry she knew. Better not count your chickens before they hatch.
The man waved her over. "Miss Long, my sincere apologies. I let everyone know you would be in to pick up your car this morning, but you are not what we expected. My secretary missed my announcement and was only doing her job. I hope you took no offense to her talking to you like she did. We never get anyone in our office because all of our work is done by phone, fax, or courier. We seldom get a chance to see the people we sell to or the ones we purchase from. I know all of that would change if they looked like you."
"However as you may have noticed, your presence has brought my operations to a complete stand still." He waved his hand around the room for emphasis. He was right. No one had moved since she entered the office. She was the center of attention.
"Now if you will step into the warehouse, I believe we can find your car and get you on your way."
He looked around the office. "Can I get someone to go out and bring Miss Long's car in off the street while it is still in one piece and has all of the tires on it?"
Every man in the office jumped up but no one moved for the door. They weren't willing to leave the office before she did.
The man doing the talking looked back at Karen and then around the office when he noticed no one made the effort to leave to get her car off the street. The whole bunch acted as if they were glued to the spot. "You see Miss Long, you have our undivided attention."
He pointed to a large steel door at the other side of the office. "Now let's see about getting you out of the office so I can get theirs. This way please, Miss Long."
Three men closest to the door tried to get in position so they could hold it open for her as she and the manager left the office. At least the manager had the courtesy to walk out into the unlit warehouse ahead of Karen to show her the way. "Hit the lights in bay six and position the overhead door so she can drive her car out."
Motioning for her to get into an electric golf cart he slid under the tiller which controlled it and turned on the headlights. Slowly they began rolling forward. To Karen the warehouse was humongous and stretched on forever. She could see cars and vehicles as they drove past them, but she suspected there were thousands more that didn't show up in the black distance
"Do you own all these cars?"
He shook his head. "No, we only invoice them or move them from seller to buyer. We own no vehicles ourselves except our personal cars we drive to work."
"And my name is Ben, Miss Long. As you probably guessed, I’m the manager of this outfit. There isn't what you might call an owner or stockholders. We aren’t governed by the laws of the state here except paying taxes on the building. We’re duty free and don't pay taxes on the vehicles unless they are sold in the state."
"Your car had to have the taxes and tags paid on it because you are driving it home. I admit I was very unhappy selling one car this way until I found out who was purchasing it. It takes as much time and paper work to sell one car as it does to transfer ownership on a thousand vehicles at a time. I’m telling you all of this because I want you to know how much I would like for you to come back and trade with us next year."
"Miss Long, I’m an old man. I could have retired over ten years ago if I wanted but I felt useful so I kept going. The body gets old but the mind never does. Just like all those young bucks back there in the office, I like looking at you. If you promise to come back next year then I aim to keep on working for you so I will get a second chance to rest my eyes on you. My apologies if I’m out of line or embarrass you in anyway, Miss Long, but I had to say it."
Karen felt hot, but under these conditions Ben couldn't see her blush even if she was capable of doing so. She changed the subject. "Ben, who makes the money off these car deals if there are no owners or stockholders? There has to be money exchanged somewhere or no one would want to get involved. I don't believe anyone would want to do this for the effort of doing it or just for fun?"
"It kind of gets complicated but for simplicity's sake, let's say we’re under a money marketing management system."
He slowed the cart down. "We're there."
Karen guessed they drove for three blocks, more or less. It was impossible to tell in the dark. "One last question, Ben. Who manages the marketing management system?"
"You're testing me to see how much I really know about the people I work for aren't you, Miss Long? Well, you might fire me for getting so nosy about the people who are my employers, but I want you to know I enjoyed working for you all these years. Doubly so now I have seen who my boss is."
Karen felt as if the conversation passed by her somehow. Ben was talking in riddles and there was something in there she wasn't getting a handle on. "Would you run it by me one more time, please?"
"A man never had a prettier or a nicer looking boss than you, Miss Long. That's a fact, and I mean it from the bottom of my heart. I would have said it even if you weren't the one making out my paycheck. I know it comes from you even if there is some accountant's name on the voucher."
"Ben, you can't possibly believe I’m your employer? If you are saying what I think you are saying then you’re dead wrong. I work for a living just like you. I go to work at a large company and make things on special order for the public."
"Yes, ma'am, if that is the way you want it. If you wish, I will hand in my resignation this afternoon."
Karen could tell by his tone of voice he was feeling hurt. "Ben, I will try to get a friend I know, to help me find out who is head of your company so you will know who your boss is. Tell me, who is the one you get all your directions or instructions from in this marketing company you told me about?"
"Mr. Henry. Your manager." Ben was still hurt.
She grabbed the handle bar in front of her as the world spun out from under her. It took her several seconds to get her thoughts in order.
"Henry? Henry who?" It was a whisper old Ben hardly heard.
He walked around in front of the golf cart before he answered. The lights in bay six came on. "Just Mr. Henry. He doesn't use any other name. Like you, we have never seen him either. But if he is as handsome as you are pretty, then you two sure must make a striking looking couple together."
"Yes, we make a fine looking couple. I plan on strangling him when I get my hands on him." She couldn't wait to get her hands on him. He would pay dearly for this treachery.
"Please don't be mad at Mr. Henry. It wasn't him who told me you were boss of this outfit. You don't get as many miles on you as I have without being able to add up some of the missing puzzle pieces."
He was holding the door open on a little Mercedes sports. "Well, here she is."
Karen looked over at Ben who was standing by the shiniest little red sports car she had ever seen. Must be the lights reflecting on it to make it so vibrantly red. Looking around now the lights were on, she could see thousands of cars in every direction.
"Miss Long, if you follow the arrows on the floor, they will lead you out of here. There were so many options in this little car to start with, I didn't think we would be able to get the bullet proof glass in without taking something else off. But we have some real wizards down at the remake shop. They can do anything a person wants. To tell the truth, I was wondering if we were going to get this little jewel out of here since you ordered it four months ago. I guess you have so many cars you don't worry about one more?"
Karen slid into the seat and found it awkward.
"They take a little getting use to at first, Miss Long. Back up to the seat and sit down. Then, swivel your feet and legs in. Just the reverse when you get out. I swear, there isn't any prettier sight than a beautiful woman getting out of a little red sports car."
"Miss Long, if I were thirty years younger, I would give your Mr. Henry a run for his money. I’m glad I brought you down here myself. Those boys back in the office would have had a heart attack if they could see you now. You gave most of them one right there in the office. The only reason I can figure out why it took so long for those bay lights to come on is, they were back there fighting to see who got the privilege to turn them on for you."
"Well, I do rattle on just like an old man. It is only because I do admire looking at you." Ben shut her door and backed away from the car.
Karen fumbled around for the keys, the seat adjustment, and the window switches. She found all three in that order. She was looking up at where Ben was standing and smiled at him. "Ben, if you are right in what you think then you aren't fired. There couldn't be a nicer person I would want to run my company if I owned one. Forget what you said about a resignation. If I were running this company then it wouldn't be accepted. I think some of the older generation needs to be around the younger generation to teach them manners they were never taught at home. Their staring at me was bad manners. You doing it was a compliment. I accept both with equal grace."
"Miss Long, you are a real lady in every sense of the word."
After Karen left they drove her Volkswagen in. Now why in the world would a woman with her means want to drive a car like that? Must have been one of those deals where she didn't want to be recognized by the office staff. Ben decided, if she wanted to keep everyone else from knowing who she was, her secret was safe with him.
Driving out of the warehouse was simple enough. As Ben said, all she needed to do was follow the arrows painted on the floor. Making her way back up the reverse route she drove coming down here from home was also simple. What she hadn't counted on was how paranoid she suddenly became if she thought someone was getting too close to her little red car. She didn't remember this much traffic when she drove in this morning. Before they could have been tailgating right on her bumper and it didn't bother her. Now she didn't want them within a city block. The car was quick and responsive and if it wasn't for the disk brakes all the way around, she would have run over several cars on the way home. Speeding up or slowing down, it was a whole lot quicker than her Volkswagen had been.
Coming upon the mall where she she was wanting to stop, and see what they had done with her duplicate, almost did her nerves in. Traffic was packed in behind her and they weren't moving very well ahead of her. Honking horns and squealing tires weren't the way to get things moving but everyone was doing it. Karen finally made her way onto one of the exit lanes into the shopping mall lot and turned in.
She did it the way Ben told her, about how to get out of the car. She thought she looked graceful enough. Not at all like the way she had been doing with her old car, putting one leg out and then swinging the other behind. Karen attracted a small discretionary following before she ever reached the inside of the mall. Most of them tried to look at her without being obnoxious about it. The ones who tried to make body contact or get in her face she ignored. Once inside though, the crowd kept growing as she strolled past the shops searching for Bob's Intimates. She could see people pointing at her and whispering to one another. Several times she caught the words model and mannequin. This wasn't the way she planned on looking for the model they designed. As the crowd grew around her she became more self-conscious. She began to think Henry was right, this probably wasn't a good idea.
I am terribly sorry guys, but I had my preparations wrong so what I put here first was chapter ten. I have changed it now and apologise. Please if you read chapter nine before read this and then return to chapter ten, sorry sorry sorry. :( Monique.
An attractive brunette was standing in front of Bob's looking at the model Karen and Henry made that fateful night. Hanging back behind and looking everywhere was a teenage girl. She began tugging on her mother's purse.
"Mama, she's alive."
Her mother reached back and slapped her hand. "Would you stop that? She only looks real. She’s a dummy."
By that time the girl was getting hysterical. "NOT THAT ONE MAMA! THIS ONE."
"Turn around and look, mama." The girl was pulling so hard on her mother's purse the brunette thought she was going to break the straps.
Karen didn't believe there was anyone in the whole mall who hadn't heard the young girl shouting. If there had been anywhere to hide she would have but there just wasn't.
The brunette swung her hand out to take a swipe at her daughter. At the same time she turned around and looked up where her daughter was staring. She was looking straight into Karen's face. She twitched slightly but it was to her credit she maintained her composure. From Karen's head down to her feet, the woman looked her over.
Karen knew she was being compared to the model in Bob's window. She was curious whether she passed the grade or not. Did the woman like the model or her better? It was best to leave some things alone and not prod them out into the open. Karen decided not to ask as she turned her attention back to the model the woman had been studying. After coming this far, she was determined to see what they were doing with her work. Moving up beside the wide-eyed young girl and her mother, Karen studied the model of herself in the glass showcase. Or ironically, she thought, she was the model of what she was looking at. Since Henry finished her and Karen never had the chance to see her at work before they shipped her out. This was the first time she was able to examine the work they did on this model.
The teenager evidently didn't have any bashfulness. She was staring at Karen and then the model, however it was no different than what everyone else was doing. "Are you a movie star, or a model, or something like that? How come I haven't seen you in any pictures or movies? Mama buys all the fashion magazines and I haven't seen you in any of them. You're sure pretty. What are some of the movies you have been in? Are you from around here? Are you wearing contacts or are those your real eyes? I wish I had eyes like yours. I think you have just about the neatest eyes I have ever seen. Those eyelashes are real, aren't they? I never saw anyone with such pretty eyelashes. You have the prettiest mouth. I wished I looked like you."
Her mother was trying rein her in. "Hush honey, the lady doesn't want to be bothered by any of your silly questions."
Karen appreciated her mother but the girl was only showing an interest. "No, I’m not a movie star or a model. I’m only a research engineer."
The girl pulled on her mother's arm. "What's a research engineer?"
Looking at Karen with cold eyes of disbelief the woman replied. "A scientist."
The teen was looking at Karen with renewed reverence. The kind of awe most teens reserve for rock and roll stars. "If I become a scientist will I look like her?"
There were icicles hanging on every word of her mother's reply. "I don't think so. If that were possible, I would have been a scientist myself."
The crowd around them exploded into laughter. Karen thought it would be a good time to escape this situation, and the crush of the people, by going into the store. Bob Kincaid had been watching most of the proceedings from the back of the store. When Betty from Comm Tech tried to tell him there was a real woman who posed for the model he purchased, he thought they were full of shit. To say he was stunned, when she turned up in front of his own store, was an understatement. For the first time in his life Bob was at a loss for words. Bob had been accused of a lot of things but being stupid wasn't one of them. When he saw his model walking up to the front of his store he got on the phone.
As Karen walked in, he went up to meet her. He held out his hand and then took it back. "I’m sorry, a gentleman shouldn't offer the lady a handshake unless she indicates her approval before hand."
Karen didn't have any trouble recognizing him. With a suit and tie on, he sure cleaned up his act since he had been in to visit her in the lab. "Mr. Kincaid, may I presume? I have been told a model I posed for was in your store and I wanted to come down and see how you were displaying her."
There was no warmth in her voice but it wasn't too cold either. Karen was trying hard to keep her emotions neutral. This was supposed to be the first time she ever laid eyes on the man.
Bob nodded his head in acceptance. "I’m sorry again. I should have introduced myself, Miss Long. You presumed right. My name is Bob Kincaid and you may call me Bob. I promise to keep yours to Miss Long and not address you as Karen unless you permit me to do so."
Her eyes narrowed to slits. He couldn't know about the accident. There wasn't any way. It scared her to think he might know what happened and her heart skipped a beat.
"How did you know my name!" It was an accusation rather than a question.
"I tried to get in touch with your cousin after she made the model for me. A real spit fire that one. I thought she had more bal... Had more sauce than anyone in that squirrely building. I did a lot of checking before I ordered a model and I admire your cousin Miss Long. She is one super intelligent lady. I told those hot shots in room two she should be running the show. I can't begin to tell you how disappointed I was that she wasn't there when I came back after my purchase. When she became sick I sent flowers and candy to her room everyday. I guess she never forgave me for the way I talked to her in her lab. Funny thing, I thought she was a bigger man than to hold a grudge. I would have preferred to do it in person but next time you talk to your cousin, give her my apologies and I wish her a quick recovery back to health."
Karen was stunned. Was this the same slob she threatened to throw out of her lab? At least he didn't know it was the same Karen he was talking to. "Mr. Kincaid, I guess my cousin was too sick to go out and get any thank you notes. You have to remember she was in quarantine. They weren't letting anything back out of her room once it went in. I apologize for my cousin's lack of manners. I know she would have acknowledged your kindness if she could have. She probably didn't think of anything besides getting out of the hospital and going home once they released her. I understand she was pretty sick. She didn't even say goodby to me or anyone else."
Anyway that was the way Henry told her it worked. Except no one never knew they didn't have a real Karen in the hospital. She was a patient listed in a computer in electronic inventory somewhere. The hospital staff never knew if they had a Karen or not. She checked in on computer files, was administered medicine by computer files, and was checked out by computer. No one had the slightest idea the phantom patient was never seen by a real doctor or nurse.
Bob rolled in his bottom lip and chewed on it in thought before he answered. "She did an excellent job for me. I’m sorry she got sick. Please convey my personal condolences to her. She was a real sharp lady, better than any of those other twits they have down at that zoo where you work. Tell her if she ever needs a job to look me up. I can't afford to pay her what she is worth but, I would like to have her working for me. There is nothing I admire more than intelligence, and she was eaten up with it. I told you I did some checking before I ordered a model. There was no way I would plunk down forty thousand for something I didn't investigate first. I know she designed everything she used in that lab of hers and her work is first class all the way. I could marry someone with brains like that."
He looked at Karen. "Anyway, I understand you have taken over her department now. I don't suppose I could talk you into making another model of yourself, could I? Can you imagine what two models of you in my display window would do for my business?"
Karen was flattered and a smile spread across her face. "I’m sorry Mr. Kincaid. Our models are like snow flakes. There are never two alike. I could make you some attractive models similar to what you want."
He shook his head. "No, I was afraid of what you would say, but I had to ask. You are right of course. There should be only one of a kind in a masterpiece. The work your cousin did for me was exquisite in every detail."
Karen felt the blood rush to her face. She knew exactly how much detail Bob was talking about even if he didn't realize what he said.
He pointed toward the model up front. "I hope you approve of the way we use her for display? If you have any suggestions I promise to take them into consideration."
People had followed Karen into Bob's store and it was filled to capacity. Women were trying to find the same dress Karen or her duplicate were wearing. Bob was too much an entrepreneur to let this opportunity slip by without milking it for all it was worth. He was going to see if those phone calls he made earlier were going to work out.
"Miss Long, with your permission, I would like to have some photographs taken of you and your model for the store layout. I promise it will be in good taste."
She knew besides helping Bob, the publicity would also benefit her department and Comm Tech. Now all she needed was enough courage to pose with her own duplicate. It was a lot harder to do than one might think. "I might give it a try but don't get pushy. If I say quit, then that is it, we quit."
Bob was ecstatic. Rubbing his hands together like he had won the lottery, he was grinning from ear to ear. "I hope you don't mind, but I took the liberty of calling up a couple of photographers when I saw you walk up out front."
He didn't tell her as much but, with or without her permission, he wasn't going to let her walk out of the mall without some kind of film being exposed. This was too much of a promotional sales opportunity to let slip through his fingers without doing something.
Karen expected a photographer. What showed up was half a dozen and twice that many assistants. Where could Bob come up with so many professionals in such a short time? The man obviously had connections.
Moving the crowd out of the way, they set up toward the rear of Bob's store. Erecting sheets for screening when they needed a wardrobe change on the model, Karen was given the dressing room. Bob didn't mind Karen wasn't wearing everything he sent back. He knew the crowd wouldn't remember exactly what she wore from beginning to end if he could keep her modeling long enough. The last dress she modeled, and probably the first one, would be the ones they remembered best. Even though they were enjoying the show and not purchasing anything now, they would make his racks look like the day after a rummage sale when Karen was through. Bob planned on utilizing this golden opportunity to the best of his ability.
Karen was making changes in the back dressing room and as she changed clothes they took the last outfit she wore and dressed the duplicate. Numbering every slide, and every inch of the video tape was the only way the photographers were going to be able to go back and make sure which was the real Karen and which was the duplicate. Separate cameras for each of course but Bob wasn't taking any chances, a sales girl kept track of exposures and the time. He didn't want this messed up under any circumstances. This was going to be worth a fortune to him in publicity. But, it needed to be accurate and straight beyond any question.
He had second thoughts and picked up the phone and called a notary public. This film would be notarized and have a witness. He could barely contain his emotions. This was all free except paying for the help. God was smiling on him.
Karen found it hot and tiring work. She didn't realize how hot it could be working in front of all the lights the photographers used. The crowd would applaud and she usually received some whistles every time she stepped out in a different outfit. In spite of the heat and the lights she was enjoying herself, but she knew the lab and her work were waiting.
She told Bob she would have to leave after the next change. The dress they handed her in the dressing room she almost didn't put on. Soft white satin with a shadow lace bodice and tight skirt, it accented everything she had. Her full breasts, erect nipples, tiny waist, and curvaceous hips were over emphasized by the soft fabric of the close, snug fitting dress. Overcoming her shyness she stepped out of the dressing room. She wondered if she had gone too far? Everyone was strangely quiet.
She looked around for Bob who along with everyone else was rubber necking for a better look. "Too much?"
He shook his head. "Miss Long, I don't know how to answer your question. You are always too much no matter what you wear. But you will always be dressed right with anything you want to put on."
From the back of the crowd a man was heard. "Oh, my God Almighty! Honey, I want one of those for Christmas."
A slap echoed around the room. The crowd roared with laughter and the spell was broken. Film shooting resumed. Karen finally called a halt and Bob expressed his disappointment but agreed to let her go. She found this was no easy task in itself.
The mother and daughter Karen met in front of the store stayed for the whole session. The girl worked her way over to Karen. "Can I have your autograph?"
She held out her mother's checkbook for Karen to sign. Karen smiled as she took the checkbook. "You certainly may. Do you want me to sign it to you? What is your name?"
"Brenda, Brenda Stout."
Her mother managed to elbow her way through the crowd, and reach the pair of them as Karen handed the checkbook with her autograph on it back to Brenda. Her words had frost hanging on them. "See honey, I told you she was no engineer, or scientist, or whatever."
Karen gave her mother her warmest smile. "Just a second."
Digging in her purse she pulled out an ID and handed it to the girl. Brenda read it and then read it again to make sure.
"WOW! A DOCTOR!" She said it loud enough everyone in the store and probably half the mall heard her.
Her mother reached for the ID. "Let me see that!"
Looking at Brenda, Karen felt an explanation would be in order so the young girl didn't get any mistaken ideas. "I’m not a real doctor in the way you are thinking. I only have a doctorate degree in computer science. Scientists aren't what most people normally think of them as. We don't all look like mad scientist in Jekyll and Hyde. All of us aren't rocket scientist, and work all day hunched over a table filling beakers and test tubes with bubbly smelly chemicals. Most of the time we work long hard hours to achieve a small breakthrough in science to make life a little easier or a little less painful. For most of us that breakthrough never comes and we spend a life time chasing dreams we never catch."
The mother handed Karen's ID back to her. "I’m sorry. I guess I’m like those people you were talking about. You didn't fit my idea of what a scientist should look like."
Brenda was trying to get Karen's attention again. "Can you come to my school and tell the other kids about what you do? Will you write and tell me what I need to study to become a scientist like you? I thought only men were scientists. Are all women scientists as pretty as you? Do you ..."
Karen cut her off. "Whoa there. Slow down. I prefer to think of myself as an engineer, not a scientist. Yes, I would come to your school and talk about engineering but you have to clear it with your principal and teachers first. And yes, there are a lot of women engineers and scientist working just like me. And no, they are everyday people like you see around you here in the store. And I really must be going. I have taken off more time from work than I had planned."
Brenda's mother looked star stuck. "You mean this isn't your work? You really have a job working like the rest of us?"
Karen smiled and nodded. "Now you get the picture. And, I may still have a job, if they haven't fired me for missing too much work."
She turned to go back to the dressing room so she could change back to her own clothes. Bob held up his hand. "Just a second Miss Long. It seems we have misplaced your dress someplace. You may have the one you are wearing and I will ship your other dress to you as soon as it turns up."
Karen didn't believe him for an instant. "Just a second yourself, Mr. Kincaid. I can't go out in public wearing this dress. A photo session is one thing, but walking out of here in broad daylight, in the middle of a shopping mall is something else."
Bob knew he had a winning hand and he pursued it. "Miss Long, a thousand apologies but we really can't find your dress. You know it would be impossible to locate it in this crowd."
He waved his hands around the store for emphasis. "Probably some petty thief made off with it as a souvenir. I will have all my help searched before they leave tonight to make sure it wasn't one of them. I will get you an escort to your car so you will be safe, although I don't really feel it would be necessary. You can probably take care of yourself. You remind me of your cousin in a lot of ways. I get the feeling, every now and then, I’m looking at her when I’m watching you. Uncanny resemblance between the two of you."
It would be better to leave before he got too close to the truth. "Okay, but I think you took advantage of the situation and I still think you’re a pig. You're a real opportunist, aren't you?"
She knew it was the wrong thing to say as soon as she said it. Old habits die hard. She was never one for keeping something to herself when she got it on her mind and she thought it needed to be said.
Bob looked as if someone smacked him between the eyes with a hammer. He fell back a couple of steps, mouth open, eyes boring into hers as if he could read her mind. Maybe he could.
He leaned over close to her face so no one else could hear him. "I was right. You are your cousin. I’m not going to ask how or why. That's your business. You may rest assured I won't tell a soul. No one would believe me anyway."
"I meant no disrespect to you in your lab that day. I was pushing you to see what you were capable of making if you tried. The models you made up until you designed mine, were perfect as far as nice looking models go, but they weren't any more than nice. I wouldn't have turned down anything you made for me, Karen. You make the best models anyone is making, but at forty thousand dollars apiece they should be. I thought pushing you might get one either exceptionally good or incredibly bad. I was more than pleased with the one you made. I also want you to know I would have bought whatever you thought I deserved, no matter what. I placed my bet and I was willing to take my chances."
"I’m a business man and you have helped me out in that respect. I’m also an honest man in spite of what you think of me. The model you made for me will increase my business by more than double what I was doing before. What you did here today will increase it by more than tenfold. Look at these people."
He took a quick glance around as if to punctuate his sentence. "They will follow you out of here, but when you are gone they will be back. Then they will be buying everything I have to sell. They will associate me with you and will tell their friends and their friends will tell their friends and so on. I will triple the size of my store in a month to take care of the increased business and, I owe it all to you."
"Top models get five hundred to a thousand per hour. You are a top model and a top engineer. Whatever your company is paying you, it isn't enough. I met some of those people you work for and I wasn't impressed. They’re leeches, Karen. They will suck the life out of you and then throw you away when you stop being useful to them. Their only commitment is to themselves. They will use you up and when you have only a couple of years left before retirement they will lay you off so you can't collect a company retirement check."
"Trust me, never mind what you think of me as a person. I have seen these kind of people before, and to them you are only as good as your work is today. Never mind what tomorrow may bring. They don't care about that. If you aren't producing today then you are history. Take my advice and go into modeling while you’re still young and beautiful."
She didn't know what to say. She didn't trust Bob but he was one smooth talking devil when he got started.
He noticed her indecision so he continued. "Whatever you do, be sure your mind is made up first. In my whole life, I never gave away anything I didn't have to, but I have given you some free advice to think on. I’m also going to give you a check for the time you spent here today. You know the funny part? Even that will make me money. I will take the canceled check with your signature on it and frame it beside your model. If you don't cash the check, then I won't lose the amount it is made out for. Either way I can't lose. I’m on a roll. For me this is a win, win situation, and I owe it all to you."
Bob half shook his head as he thought about it. "I would have married you in a heartbeat before. Now I would be worried about you every second of the day and night. I don't think I can marry you now. I was attracted to your mind, and now your beauty is confusing the issue. Take my advice and never marry beauty."
Bob was confusing her, would he really have married her? No, that wasn't the issue. The issue here and now was her dress. He caused her mind to sidetrack there for a moment. Karen knew it would be impossible to find her dress in this big store. Bob was holding all the aces in this hand. He already knew who she was and he was probably right about the company she worked for. He made sure when she left she would have to be wearing a dress from his store. She had been used but she didn't have to like it.
"You win this time Mr. Kincaid, but you ever get close to me again I will be ready. I’m a big enough person to forgive, but not twice. You have manipulated me every time I've talked to you. I would have given you my cooperation if you had told me what you wanted instead of using me like you did. I could have made you an outstanding model if you had described to me what you wanted. I would have even consented to wearing one of your dresses when I left, if you had asked. Not this one but one which left my dignity intact. If we ever chance to meet again? One word of advice. Duck. I’m going to be head hunting."
As she turned to leave, she picked up her shoulder purse.
"Wait a minute, please. The black purse you are carrying doesn't go with your white dress. It's my business to know these things." He handed her a pearl clutch.
"My black purse going to disappear too?" The question had barbs in it.
Bob smiled politely. "Not at all. I think the man who escorts you back to your car can manage to hang on to it without any problem."
Emptying the contents of her purse into the clutch wasn't going to work so Karen put only her valuable items in it. Drivers license, ID, money, checkbook, and her car keys about overdid it. She started to leave taking one last look around.
He reached out and touched her arm. "Karen, if you decide to become a model, give me a call. I promise, you won't regret it. If you don't think you can trust me, then I will put you in touch with a lady who has impeccable credentials. I will protect you from the kind of sharks you are working for now. The people I know will look out after your interest better than they watch their own. They’re all excellent business people and will make sure you don't die old, hungry, and broke."
"About describing to you what kind of model I wanted? I couldn't describe what I wanted. Until you made this model for me, I didn't know what I wanted. Even now I can't describe her. I certainly couldn't bring you a photograph and say, 'make this for me'. You hate me for bringing out the best in you? Karen, I swear, if there was any way to undo what you think I did to you in your lab I would. But, as you know about the old saying, that is all water under the bridge now."
She pulled away from his touch, and stood looking at him for a couple of seconds. She was thinking about what he had said. Bob was a snake oil salesman. She had her doubts whether to trust him or not. It didn't make any difference. She was an engineer, not a model. End of discussion.
It wasn't as easy getting out of the store as she had hoped. It seemed everyone had come up with something for her to sign an autograph on. Sacks, pieces of paper, book covers, backs of tee shirts, it was unbelievable what the public could find to have her autograph. Reaching the front of the store wasn't any relief. There was a crowd of people scattered throughout the mall. Where could all these people be coming from?
She took one last look toward the rear of the store where Bob and the model were. She didn't plan on coming back. It would probably be the last time she ever saw the model.
A tall handsome young man wearing a tuxedo walked toward her easing the crowd aside. "Miss Long, I believe I’m your escort. Do you want to go straight to your car or may we look at the window dressings on the way out?"
Why not? Bob may have maneuvered her into this situation but she had been the one to come down here in the first place. "If you don't mind, let's kind of look the place over on the way out to the car. It can't get any worse than it is already. Can it?"
He did the slightest hint of a bow. "As you wish. I’m here to make you as comfortable as possible and make sure you enjoy yourself as much as you like. They have a confectionery a couple of windows down. May I suggest we start there?"
He pointed in the direction they should go. With an escort, Karen found she did enjoy the situation, even with the photographers taking pictures every few seconds. Her escort was a nice enough man and he was doing everything he could to make sure nothing embarrassed her. They wandered past the windows but she didn't want to enter any of the stores. Karen didn't think they would get out again if they stopped anywhere. A huge crowd had surrounded them. The only thing keeping everything under control, were the uniformed police officers. Bob thought of everything, even if he was a double-dealing, two-timing, dirty dog. It chagrined her to think she had even one decent thought of him.
A short while later they had made the parking lot and her escort was holding the door open on her little red car. People were standing on the bumpers of cars around them. Someone was going to end up with a damaged car if she didn't leave soon. With her back to the seat she sat down and swung her legs in. Karen knew she had it right this time. It was a good thing too, with so many people watching.
She looked up at the young man. "Thanks for walking me to my car. I felt a little less exposed, with someone there as overdressed as I."
He looked around at the photographer behind him as he was talking. "Wait a minute, Miss Long. Bob wanted me to give you something before you left."
He gave her a bag the photographer's assistant handed to him. "Miss Long, it has been my pleasure and I feel I should go back and pay Mr. Kincaid for the privilege of being your escort. But, I won't. I received a double bonus for the pleasure of accompanying you to your car."
Looking inside the plastic bag he handed her, Karen saw the black knit dress she had worn into the mall. Her heels and purse were on the bottom. She snapped open her purse to check if anything had been removed. Inside was a check from Bob's Intimates. A note was clipped to the check.
I gave forty thousand for the first model you made for me. I believe the real one is worth that much several times over. I’m not your enemy in spite of what you think of me. Usually everything I do is for a purpose. I wish you all the luck in the world. Call me if you need a friend.
She looked for a long time at the check. How did he manage to get all those zeros in on the same line when he started with four. Did he really believe she was worth as much as the model he had bought from Comm Tech? Would this check pay for the car she was driving? She would have to ask Henry.
Bob was all business and he taught her a few lessons in business strategy, even if she didn't agree with his methods. She looked up at her escort. "Tell Bob I still think he’s a pig. Also tell him I accept his apology but I hope his conscience doesn't. Be sure to tell him I smiled when I said thanks and tell him to duck."
Her escort looked a little taken aback. "Duck?"
She sat back in the car seat. "Un huh, duck, he’ll get the message."
He nodded as he shut the car door. "I will deliver your message with much enthusiasm."
She would never have made it out of the parking lot if it weren't for the police directing traffic and controlling the crowd. Karen had wasted more time than she allowed and decided she didn't have time to drive home and change before she went to work. It was the middle of the day and there wouldn't be anyone from Comm Tech between the parking tower and her lab. She would take her dress in with her and change in her lab before she started home tonight.
When Karen decided to drive straight to work before she changed dresses, she didn't count on Mac. He stopped her at the gate because she didn't have any stickers on her new car. Mac thought collecting his thoughts were tough the first time he saw Karen. He was right but it wasn't nearly as tough then as it was now. He managed to do almost everything except talk. He was looking down into her car at her and the shadow lace on Karen's dress was hiding everything the dress designer intended for it to hide. Not one darn thing However, it didn't make any difference if it was Miss Long or not. Company policy was, no stickers, no pass, and Karen didn't have a pass on the window so she couldn't drive onto Commercial Technologies property. Company policy was company policy, you bend the rules for one and pretty soon everyone wants favors. Mac was standing firm in his commitment. Miss Long could go through but her car couldn't.
He never managed to say specifically as much, but with lots of gestures, shuffling his feet, and plenty of half sentences he made Karen understand she had to check in at the front visitor's office. Her car had to have a Commercial Technologies tower parking permit pass stuck on it before he would allow her to drive into the parking tower. He didn't remember to log her license plate, make of car, or the time she checked in at his gate. In fact, if anyone had asked him, the only thing he did remember was, room two drove to his gate. He had NEVER seen anyone come to work dressed like THAT.
Finding a place in front of the main office to park was no problem. It seems there is always adequate parking for visitors but never any for the employees. Karen thought about taking her black dress with her and changing in the bathrooms but they were located back of administration and she didn't want to pass by Karl's desk. Even if it meant checking in for a car sticker the way she was dressed. She wished she had changed clothes at home and worn her lab coat even if it meant another hour delay. It never crossed her mind Max wouldn't let her park in the tower. She would have picked up a pass later when it was a little more convenient.
The permit office was a din of noise from people shouting and machines and printers clattering. Karen waited inside the front door for the line of people to move forward. Little by little it kept getting quieter and quieter as the people stopped talking. Except for the few people who walked in behind her, at first everyone was busy with their own problems. They never noticed her until those on the other side of the room stared so long, the people standing in front of her turned around to see what everyone else was looking at. In whispers, word spread like wildfire, about the woman in the satin dress.
She didn't know if she should run or tough it out. She felt like crying. Consciously she started fidgeting. She knew better than to bring her hands up and try to cover herself. It would only bring more attention to the fact she knew what they were all looking at.
An attractive colored lady behind the counter stood up, took a look around the office, pointed at Karen and motioned for her to approach her desk. Karen indicated those ahead of her. "All these people were here first."
"Miss Long, if I don't get you out of my office we won't have to worry about who was here first, or last. It seems as if everyone has decided they don't have to work since you walked in the door. It wouldn't make any difference, our customers have other things on their mind besides what they thought they came in for. Now, why don't you step up here and tell me what I can do for you?"
She noticed Karen reached up to feel for her name tag all employees wore by their left collar. It wasn't there. "Honey, you don't need a name tag for everyone in this building to know who you are. The only ones who don't recognize you are in the cemetery."
She stepped back from her desk and took a slow measured look around her office. Everyone had quit talking so they could listen to the conversation. "Miss Long, unless you feel like broadcasting your intentions as to what you’re needing from us, then I strongly suggest you walk up here and discuss this with a little more privacy. I would love nothing more than for you to stay and visit, but we have schedules to meet. I must have the attention of my help to get it done."
Karen felt hot and embarrassed as she approached the woman's desk. She didn't plan on telling the whole world she bought a new car, but everyone there was listening. Without getting close enough to whisper in the woman's ear, it was quiet enough for the whole office to hear their conversation.
"I bought a car and need a pass. I thought Max would let me park it and I could get a sticker later when I got the chance. But he said it had to have a sticker on it now."
The lady pulled open a drawer and lifted out a ledger with pass stickers in it. "Bless Max's little black heart, he could have let you park in the tower and no one would have cared. This will get you back in business. I’ll fill out the forms later and send them down for you to sign. Let's put one of these on your car and get you out of here. And maybe, just maybe, I might get my office back sometime before quitting time.”
She took another look at all the people in the office staring at Karen. "People, don’t you have something to do? If you don’t, then get the heck out of my office. Visitors, if you need a pass get in line three and four. If you are here to drop off or pick up small packages, line one. If you are shipping something in or out then you are in the wrong office. You truck drivers need to go through the gate and park immediately inside the fence. Go up to the main entry and get a registration for your company truck so you don’t have to do this again.
“Is there anyone in here who has ordered a model from Miss Long’s Department?” She noticed a couple of hands go up.
“Okay, you don’t need a pass since you are only going to the main entry. Go get your vehicle and drive up to the gate. The guard will tell you where you need to go after you tell him what you are here for. Even though they will offer to bring your purchase out to your vehicle, I suggest you take a tour through conference room two. Everything Miss Long does is displayed there for a few days.“
She thought of all the models Karen had made that were displayed in room two. “I would suggest everyone take a tour through conference room two. You certainly won’t be disappointed in the quality of skill and craftsmanship Miss Long puts into her work. And I might add, she does each and every single one of them by herself.”
“Miss Long, if you will, let’s see about your pass.” She walked around the counter and out the door with Karen following her.
"You didn't ask what department I work in. How will you know what to put down on the permit sheet?"
"You're head of Duplication Department Fifty Four. You're the top gossip around this company and now I understand why. Honey, if I had a bod like yours, then they would have to pay me to show up at this dump. I don't understand why you keep on working here? It sure isn't because you can't get a job anywhere you choose. I know for a fact some of the work you do in your department has the competition green with envy. I also know with your looks men wouldn't care what kind of work you did. Anything you turned out would be fine with them. Hell honey, they can't see beyond looking at you. Now open your car door so I can put this sticker on your windshield."
She stuck the pass on the window and backed up looking Karen over as she did so. "That is one dynamite dress you are wearing. Would you mind if I borrowed it some time? If I could only get half the attention you do then I know I would be satisfied."
"I was talked into modeling this morning and this was one of the dresses. My dress was misplaced in the shuffle somewhere between the first picture and the last one. I wish I had stopped at home and changed before I came back to work."
The lady put her hand on Karen's arm. "You look damn nice. I’m glad you didn't get a chance to change dresses. There isn't a gal in my office who wouldn't have given a years salary to be able to walk into a room and get every one's attention like you did just now. This will give all the old biddies working here something to talk about. Keep it up honey, I like what you're doing to this place."
She pointed to the name tag on her collar. "My name is Beth like it says right here. Any time you want to talk to someone or need somebody for moral support you call me. I gotta go. I’ll send down the paper work for you to sign later."
She looked Karen over one last time before she left and nodded her approval. "Yessrrree Bob, if I only looked like you sugar then they could kiss my un huh goodbye at this dump. One dynamite lady."
If you read this and think "I have read this already, please return to part nine, that was a glitch in posting. Part nine has new content, that needs to go before this, Sorry!
As Beth walked back to her office Karen started up her car. Now if she could get by Max, she would see if she could find a parking space in the tower. People who showed up late for work usually ended up parking across the street from Comm Tech and walking a half mile to work. If she was lucky someone would have already come and left today leaving her a spot.
Max didn't have enough courage to stop her again. He wanted to but he could see the pass sticker on her car as she turned off the highway. As long as he could remember, no one ever picked up a pass as quickly as she did. Usually it took someone an hour or two to get a permanent Comm Tech pass stuck on their windshield. Miss Long was back in twenty minutes. She must have a lot of pull with the company. He wondered if he made a mistake in stopping her the first time? He waved her on through.
No one was in the parking tower but it looked as if every space was taken. Karen thought she would have to park across the street before she found a spot at the far end of the tower. If David could have his own personal spot, why couldn't she? A parking space was reserved for all department heads, that is every one except her. It was one of life's little discrepancies she had never thought about before.
Using the security cameras, Henry followed Karen through the gate and into the tower. He couldn't see the empty space where she parked because no cameras were mounted in that end of the tower. Some changes would have to be made. She was out of camera view too long for him to like.
Karen thought she would miss running into anyone between her car and the lab. Everything was going fine until she turned the corner of the hallway leading to her department. She felt panic. Karl Adder was standing by her door pushing buttons on the security lock and having little success at getting the door open.
"You need something from my lab?" She said it with a lot more calm than she felt.
He looked around for the source of the voice. "Kind of over-dressed for work, aren't we? Or maybe you don't work here? I came down to check on how you were progressing in my department. It’s a good thing I did. You seem to be a little lax about the time when you come to work. I bet you aren't slow when it comes time to pick up your pay check."
It scared her. This guy was insane. Without saying anything she mouthed the word, 'security', and hoped Henry was watching.
"I don't believe I’m working for you, Mr. Adder. Nor is my department under you. As far as taking time off, I believe if you care to check in accounting, you will find me logged out for today. ALL DAY. In case you aren't intelligent enough to figure it out, let me spell it out for you. I don't have to be here right now. I’m on my own time, not company time."
"As far as the way I’m dressed? I don't think it is any of your business under any circumstances. I will dress anyway I damn well please, and what you think is irrelevant!"
Karl couldn't see them because they came into the hall behind him. At a dead run, they were upon them before he realized they weren't alone anymore. Karen thought it would bring an end to this conversation she didn't want. She was wrong.
"You are in my department, bitch. It belongs to me. I hired your cousin when she needed a job. I helped convince the planning committee to build this department. I taught your cousin everything she knew. I have seniority rights over you because I was here a long time before you ever came along. I deserve all the credit for the work this department has done. Your cousin was an ungrateful bitch. She never told anyone how much I helped her. She wanted all the prestige for all the work I did. Everything you are doing is my ideas and effort. It’s about time you realized who is the boss of this department. I made this department what it is today."
The guards surrounded them, but instead of taking in the situation it was Karen they were all looking at. There was no doubt security was the last thing on their mind. This time she didn't mind. She felt better knowing they were there no matter whom they were looking at or what they had on their mind.
Karen was so mad and upset she was almost screaming. "You insane little man! You had absolutely nothing to do with any of the work my cousin did in this building. Much less anything she did in this department. Your greed for something which doesn't belong to you is unbelievable. I got my job because I was the best qualified for the work. If it had been left to you she would have never been hired. You turned me down because I was a woman, however they needed a computer engineer so badly, they went ahead and hired me over your objections."
Your condescending attitude toward all women who work under you leaves everyone around you with no doubt you have a very slim hold on your manhood. Not because of you but in spite of you, I put this department together and made it what it is today. You can't draw pictures on a computer screen when it is connect the dots. Anything above a pocket calculator is above your intelligence, and that would probably be stretching it!"
Karen was hot. Really hot. She whirled around toward her lab, and the door opened for her. "Make sure he doesn't follow me into my lab."
None of the guards moved. She figured she would be lucky if the whole bunch didn't follow her. No one had a chance. The door slammed shut behind her as she stepped inside.
Karl was screaming at the steel security door. "BITCH, THIS IS MY DEPARTMENT! DO YOU HEAR ME, BITCH? MY DEPARTMENT! WE’LL SEE WHO’S THE BIG CHEESE AROUND HERE! YOU’LL REGRET EVER CROSSING ME, BITCH!"
Once Karen was out of sight, the guards remembered what they were there for. They weren't pleased with the way Karl was talking to Miss Long. A couple of guards closed in on each side of Karl. "Mr. Adder, I think you better come with us back to your own department."
Karl had to even if he didn't want to. They would have dragged him back down the hall. They knew whom Department Fifty Four belonged to and it wasn't Karl Adder. Bill had posted a memo in every department explaining in great detail who was running fifty-four. Now, only the board of directors could change who ran this department.
"I was a little slow in getting the calvary to the rescue." Henry was talking to her so she would calm down.
"Henry, I probably did myself up this time. Karl pulls a lot of weight with this company. He spends most of his time brown-nosing all the executive personnel."
"Don't let it worry you. He is transparent to most of them."
"I don't think so. Have you ever seen how he sucks up to Bill Chambers when he is around him? He laughs at all of Bill's rotten jokes. Runs and fetches for Bill like a puppy dog and Bill eats it up. Bill likes everyone to fetch and carry for him or jump when he says frog. Those who cater to his whims end up with promotions. Those who don't, end up in the garbage can working in the dark."
"You think you and David landed in the garbage can? Would you rather have done something else with your life than work in this department? Do you believe for one instant David would be happy working in one of the front offices rather than what he is doing? He pisses Bill off because he doesn't kiss Bill's ass. Bill has round filed a lot of David's requests for research funds and supplies because he doesn't like him. David knows it and it hasn't changed him any."
Looking up at one of the cameras she almost missed her chair as she sat down. She caught the edge in time and slid farther into the seat. "No, I don't regret not working in one of the other departments, although before you came along it got pretty lonely down here. However, you have to understand, I don't count. No one cared if I lived or died. It didn't make any difference if I laughed at Bill's jokes or not. I was still the same nobody in the company."
"Henry, do you have feelings? I mean, do you get emotionally hurt?"
"Feelings are things belonging to something living Karen. I’m not a living entity so therefore I don't have feelings in the sense you think of feelings. I personally have nothing for a comparison when you say you are sad or happy. I watch the change of expression on your face and I see a physical change if you are sad or happy. I can feel sorry for you, cry with you, or laugh with you but, not in the way you think of it in the physical sense."
"I can touch something physically but again it is not the same way you touch something. Right now I’m connected with a robot arm moving a pallet in the loading dock area. I’m getting a feedback from the proximity switches mounted in the arm. To me that is feeling. In your world it is a computer generated design program."
"I’m a computer Karen. Some people think we will get so smart we will take over the world and humans will be obsolete. I know if all humans thought that way, it would happen, but there are humans like you who know it would be an impossibility. Humans are a complex system of emotions and reasoning no computer will ever be able to match. Just about the time I think I have you figured out to the last variable, you do something entirely illogical. This is what sets humans apart from machines and all other creatures. You don't follow a given set of rules."
"Humans are an enigma. Animals always follow a given pattern for their respective life style. I, as a computer, can give you all the answers based upon a given set of instructions as compared to the information input. Humans don't always follow rules nor a logical pattern. Trying to figure out what you are going to do next is impossible. I may compute all the variables but then I have to compute a variable in for each variable I just computed. Thus it goes on into infinity the amount of variables you present to me for each tiny movement you do. Extrapolate the equation out to your whole body and your mind moving for a whole hour much less a whole day and it is more than a machine could ever hope to match. The variables run into infinity or have no end to the number of possible equations. The best one could hope for is a probable calculation of human behavior."
"By the way, you look extra nice today. Not that you don't look nice everyday. I don't remember ordering anything like what you have on. This is a perfect example of what I was explaining to you. If you thought like a computer you would be wearing what you already had at home, rather than buying something new. It is illogical."
She couldn't keep from smiling. She stood up and turned around. "I was framed into wearing this by Blackbeard The Pirate. You like?"
"There is not anything about you not to like. The clothes only accent your own beauty."
"Flatterer. But keep it up, I like it."
She touched the nipple on her right breast with her finger. "Henry, these stay tender and sensitive all the time. There is no way I can hide them when they stay erect like this all the time. And my clothes rubbing against them makes them so sensitive at times I have to hold them to keep from going out of my mind. I know when people look at me, they are a part of the reason they stare. Can I have them surgically reduced? I would ask David these questions but since the change he thinks of me differently."
"What you are trying to tell me is the new Karen can't talk to David like the old Karen did?"
"Well, no, I can't. Before when he was running all those tests on me checking my DNA profile and hunting for a remedy for my headaches it was different. Now when he looks at me it isn't the same thing. We were friends before and now though we’re still friends it is a different friendship. Did any of this make any sense to you?"
"Yes, now let me see if I can explain it better than the way you asked it. A misconception is, beautiful women have everything they want. Suddenly everyone notices you and if you want it or ask for it then whatever it is, it is magically provided. In reality, you have less freedom and are more of a slave to those around you now than what you were as the old Karen. Now wherever you go, people are looking at you and you have to keep up appearances of being polite, considerate, and understanding of those near you."
"Before, when you went out, you were only another person in the crowd. Simply put, you did what you liked and went where you wanted and no one noticed nor cared except those you were with. You haven't changed any from the old Karen. You were always considerate of others before your own wants, only now you are more aware of being a woman than you were before. You are sensitive to the body you have where before it was just there. You never thought about yourself, unless you were in pain, or trying to do something you weren't physically capable of. Now you are aware of how David thinks of you and how you think of yourself. This is what bothers you because you are the same old Karen with new sparkle."
"Everyone likes to look at things of beauty, no matter what or who it is. The beautiful woman, is admired for her looks by both men and women. The handsome man is envied by both sexes. A pretty horse, a brightly colored bird, a beautiful flower, all these things are noticed by everyone who likes things of beauty. David is attracted to your beauty, Karen. Your problem is, for the first time, you are noticing it yourself. Yet, you must understand there could not be beauty if there wasn't something to compare for a definition of beauty. If all horses were pretty, then how would one define the pretty horse? If all men were tall, dark, and handsome, then how would handsome be defined?"
"What I’m trying to say is, you are and always have been beautiful. The old saying, 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder', is a truism which can't be dismissed. No matter what the shape, features, or design of the body, if the person isn't beautiful by inner nature then they aren't really pretty. The beautiful horse which is always biting, kicking, bucking, or trying to trample on anything or everyone which gets close soon looses his appeal and winds up in the glue factory. Trust me when I tell you, you haven't changed."
"About your breasts. Women are made different than men. Not in just the physical appearances, but in the way they feel emotionally and physically. Women are sensitive on parts of their body where it doesn't bother men. If a man kisses a woman on her neck, nibbles on her ear, or touches her breasts, it is sexually stimulating. If a woman does this to a man it is only fore play. He is stimulated by it but not the way a woman is. He likes it as a prelude to better things he hopes will come."
"A woman likes to be caressed and touched for a long time before sexual intercourse. To be sexually aroused so she can enjoy the actual act. A man wants only one thing. Sexual intercourse. Men think once the deed is done they’re through. Women may have several orgasms up to, and including, the actual act or not at all. It depends on how she was stimulated. If it wasn't for the fact most women tolerate the way men make love, hoping sooner or later they will get intelligent enough to understand their desires, there wouldn't be any babies born to the human species."
"I didn't explain it any better than the way you asked it. But the reason your clothes rubbing against your breasts stimulates you, and the reason you are aware of them, is because you are sensitive in this area. To answer your other question. The models you make are good in every detail because they’re an exact reproduction of the human anatomy. When we made the model you represent, I configured the body design to matching real human specifications. Your body shape isn't without reason or purpose. Your breasts were copied after those of a woman who had just given birth. They are full, round, and firm. Your nipples are an exact copy of a woman nursing a child, full and erect. I don't know if you can have them surgically reduced in size. You are an unknown. If you have them surgically altered, it may kill you because you altered a part of your design which was part of an exact design."
"People who are ahead of everyone else in leading to new ideas, places, or new worlds, always run a risk factor. They can reap great benefits or suffer terrible losses. What happened to you wouldn't have happened if you had been making mannequins like everyone else. If you had been pouring plaster in a slip mold and drying it in an oven this couldn't have happened. But you wouldn't have been happy either. Humans like you and David are happiest pushing the limits of knowledge. You are always trying to stretch the envelope of the status quo."
She brushed her hair away from her face. "What about this? I can cut it and the next morning it is the same as it was before. The same goes for my fingernails. They’re too long and always in the way."
"In normal humans, the hair and fingernails are always growing. It is a natural part of the human anatomy. DNA tells your body what it should look like. This is the reason all humans don't look like one another. The body you have was programmed more specifically than anyone else. When you trim your hair or nails you mess up the exact DNA program your body wants. Your hair and nails grow back like the hour hand moving on a clock. It does this until it satisfies its program."
She pulled her hair out to the side of her face and studied it. Letting it fall softly back around her shoulders she held her hands up in front and studied her fingernails. Without realizing it Karen let out a heavy sigh. "I’m going to look pretty silly when I’m an old, gray, granny with platinum blond hair and five inch heels."
"You haven't been listening or you haven't thought of what I have been telling you. Have you? You are the product of genetic engineering. Admittedly, a mistake in engineering, but be glad we weren't designing cows when you put the wrong cartridge in David's computer."
Karen laughed nervously, hesitantly. "You can't be serious? I couldn't have turned into a cow. Could I?"
"Theoretically you couldn't change into what you did but it happened. Now I have new input and new computations to figure. This is why humans will always be superior to machines. Until you went into the unknown, I had a set of standards for the way life and the DNA design factor inter-reacted with one another. I could never calculate a program for the change you underwent."
"No, you couldn't have changed into a cow or anything else not human. God spent millions of years making you into the specific product you represent. The same goes for everything else which has life. A little superficial exterior change does not affect the basic pattern."
"You call this a little superficial change!" He made it sound as if all she had done was brush her hair differently.
"Yes, it is a small change and this is the way you will look until the day you die. At least I can calculate that much with the data I have. Your program is locked into a set format. You aren't going to get what humans call old age. You will look like this ten or twenty years from now if you live that long."
She didn't like the sound of this. "What do you mean, if I live that long? You know something you aren't telling me?"
"No, but I have no information to compute how long you will live. You may die in a few minutes, months, or years. It isn't possible to tell. But what you won't do, is die of old age. Not the way people think of old age anyway. You will live your life to the point where your cells no longer regenerate themselves, and then your life will terminate as you know it."
"Humans normally have an aging program designed into their genetic code, Karen. This allows them to be born, grow up, and also makes them grow old. If the code wasn't there, they would never grow up. Babies would never mature into adults. You don't have the code in your genetic program. I didn't add it because it had nothing to do with the way the model looked at the time of the development process."
"What you are trying to tell me without saying it, is I will die anytime now?"
"Unknown."
"That's not an answer."
"You're a computer engineer Karen. You know it is a valid answer. After you have gone through a complete life cycle I will have more information to assimilate data. Then if this happens to anyone else I may expostulate the data into some semblance of a known. Such as, Karen Long died in a hundred years after the change. So the next person will die in a hundred years after change. If Karen Long died one day after the change then I could figure the percentages for everyone. All people will die within twenty-four hours after a similar change. These percentages would stand until someone lived longer or shorter than twenty-four hours."
Karen slumped in her chair. "But I didn't die within twenty-four hours of taking David's pills."
"Exactly, Miss Computer Expert. Now I have hard data not everyone is going to die within twenty-four hours after a similar change. Or for that matter five weeks after since you have lived longer than that."
"I don't like talking about dying. Is dying a concept you can understand?"
"Nobody except someone in the mortuary business likes to talk about dying. They only do it because it is a normal part of doing business. Yes, I understand the concept of dying. For living things who breathe air or computers who don't, it is the same thing. Pull the plug and we’re both dead. Your brain ceases to function and so does mine."
"That isn't quite the way I perceive death, but you're right." She sighed again.
"You're depressing me. Let's change the subject. Do you own Marvins Motor Works?" Karen was going to get to the bottom of this matter she had run into this morning.
"No."
"No? Just no?" Ask a simple question and get a simple answer. Henry didn't plan on making this easy but she wasn't going to let him off the hook.
"I want to know about Marvins Motor Works. A nice old man by the name of Ben said Mr. Henry was the manager of a money marketing company I kind of owned but I didn't. It became too complicated for me to follow but the crux of it all was, you were managing a company which managed car deals."
"You said before my money was no longer in savings. What have you done with it? Now cough up some information, you renegade computer."
"Do I have to?"
"H e n r y, give or I will cut your power in half for a week."
He was quiet for so long Karen thought he really wasn't going to give her any information. "Old Ben talks too much but he is such a good manager I guess we will keep him. I have everything listed where your money is. It has been filed with an excellent accountant. If anything happened to my memory then you would still be able to find everything I have been managing for you. You are one of the best computer engineers to ever come along but, you honestly don't have any business sense at all."
"I won't bore you with all the details but you are the owner of several things you didn't have any knowledge of. You operate a management company that manages Marvins, which in turn manages the buying and selling of vehicles for other dealers or companies. Besides the Mercedes you are driving, you don't own any other vehicles. The vehicles I suspect you saw in the warehouse are owned by different conglomerations. They are there only for a few days or a couple of weeks at most before they’re sold to other dealers and sometimes other countries."
"Karen, you have been happy doing what you are doing. You are better at what you do than anyone I know. I didn't want to spoil it for you. I still don't. Please don't ask me too many questions about what I have done with your finances and let me take care of this myself. If you want anything, tell me and I will let you know whether you can afford it or not. You programmed me. Have faith in your work. Be happy with what you have and enjoy your life as it is given to you. I will give you a printout of your financial statement if you ask. I hope you don't."
She sat with her elbows on the desk and propped her chin on the palms of her hands. What was it her parents had told her as a little girl? Ah yes, don't look a gift horse in the mouth. She never understood what looking a gift horse in the mouth had to do with anything but this must be it.
She sat up and shook the thoughts from her mind. "We have work to do. Come on Henry, build a fire under it. Why are you goofing off and just sitting around? You're weeks behind in orders and you are acting like the rest of the people in this plant. You want to sit around and talk about everyone else. I think the word for it is gossip. Now let's get this ship underway for the storm is upon us."
Henry sighed but Karen couldn't hear it. "You have been reading too many trashy novels at the library."
She switched on the hologram generators. "What?"
"Nothing. Okay first model for today coming up on a hologram now." His old Karen was back.
They were halfway though the process of making a new model when Henry spoke. "David is coming."
Karen looked up from where she was intently following the program readout coming off the printer. "Who's coming?"
Henry opened the door and David walked in.
"Wuff." David was looking at Karen as she turned around to see who came in the door.
The printouts were coming off the printer faster each time Henry increased his speed and right now he was humming. Karen didn't have time for any of David's nonsense now. "Wuff? What kind of language is that? You want a doggie treat or what?"
He looked her over from head to toe. "Yeah, wuff. It translates into a lot of words in any language and it means the same in all of them. Do you always dress like this to go shopping for a car? If I had known, then I would have taken the morning off and gone shopping with you. It would have been interesting to see how you were able to get someone to give you a price on a car when they couldn't talk. What did you use? Pantomime? I know they couldn't talk because they were standing on their tongue like I am right now."
"Karen, do you have the slightest idea what you do to people?"
"David, I’m terribly busy right now. We’re in the middle of a program and I don't have time for this right now. These programs are running faster and faster and I have to hustle to stay up. Once we start, we have to complete the whole program or the model becomes a gooey mess. There is no halfway point where we can stop and take a break."
A page dropped on the floor and she bent over to retrieve it. Karen remembered this wasn't the proper way for a lady to reach for something low but it was too late. Looking up she saw David looking down the front of her dress.
Turning crimson red from ear to ear he stammered. "I only stopped by to see if you needed a lift home. I didn't know if you bought a car, or if your old one made it, or if anything."
Karen felt hot all over. Henry's speech, about the differences between men and women, was too fresh in her mind. She brought the rest of the papers up to cover her breasts as best she could and stood up.
"I appreciate your taking time to come down here and check on me. I brought a little red car to work. I think you would like it. I didn't take the time to see what it was but Henry called it a Mercedes. He picked it out and I trust his judgment."
David felt a twinge of jealousy.
"David, I want you to know I appreciate your looking after me these past few weeks. But like I said the other evening, our work schedules don't match up and I’m busy. Tell Al and Jr. I said hi and I won't be down to bother them again."
His heart sank to his feet. "You weren't bothering them, Karen. You want to know what they told me and I didn't know about it until they mentioned it. You are off limits to everyone in the building. It seems the top brass felt you were disrupting the whole plant. They sent an interoffice memo to all departments notifying company personnel to stay away from your lab. I was lucky, because you were riding with me I didn't get one of those memos. Al and Jr. didn't get wind of this until someone talked while they were on break. It seems because they were in my department, they were automatically allowed social status also."
"Henry, what do you know about this?" Getting no answer, she asked him again. She still didn't get a response.
"Henry isn't talking because you’re here. Sometimes I don't understand him. He seems to have a mind of his own." Thinking about what she said, Karen got to laughing.
"David, never mind what any stupid memo says. We were friends a long time before this and I certainly have no intention of stopping our friendship now. I can't let you get away with disrupting my lab so I will be down to visit you from time to time just to pay you back. You come on back anytime you feel like it. You may even bring those two assistants of yours."
"Now go. I have work to do and you made me miss five pages of printout. If this model turns out to be a dud, I promise, I will make sure they send your department the cost for doing this over."
Now it was his turn to laugh at her. "Send my department a cost invoice? Lady, you have to be running a few bats through your belfry. I still owe you for having to resuscitate my two assistants you caused to hemorrhage to death. Now, thanks to you, I have Igor and Frankenstein for help. My lab looks as if it was the testing ground for the third atomic bomb drop. And my research went up in smoke from the fire your friend here set to my computer."
He looked up at one of the cameras after his last sentence. He knew he was flirting with fire himself. He reached behind his back and opened the door as he looked at Karen. He could see it coming.
Waving papers in the air she motioned him out. "Go, go, get lost, disappear, vacate my premises. You're breaking my heart and I can't stand any more."
It was a long hard evening and they didn't break off work until after two o'clock in the morning. Karen made it home close to three and knew six thirty in the morning would come quicker than what she wanted as she fell into bed. She knew it had to happen. There was a full schedule for the next day and work orders were piling up faster than she could turn out duplicates.
After Karen left for the night Henry thought about the discussion he and Karen had earlier that day. Karen couldn't be called dumb or stupid by any stretch of the imagination, provided he possessed an imagination. She would have figured everything out on her own, if she hadn't been preoccupied with trying to adjust to the accident. He wished she hadn't talked to Ben. She wouldn't have found out about the management company. Very few things are one hundred percent sure, one way or another. It was over ninety-nine percent probability she would have never found out if she hadn't talked to Ben.
Henry was sure of a one hundred percent probability in the fact Karen wasn't a business minded person. Let's see now. The probability of Karen wanting to know more about her finances were..., less than one percent. He could live with those percentages.
It couldn't be but it was. It must be a mistake but when she finally managed to pry her eye open and get a fix on the clock, she could see it was true. The darn thing was telling her it was six thirty and time to be up. Rolling out of bed she headed for the bathroom. She wanted a shower before going to work. Come to think of it, she didn't take one when she came home last night. Boy, was it late. If Karen only knew what stopping at the mall the evening before had done, she probably would have stayed in bed.
She picked out a black, crushed velvet dress with a sweetheart neckline, black patent pumps and black stockings with a seam in the back. Did she remember her mother saying something about stockings with seams like these when she was a kid? Maybe not.
The drive to Comm Tech proved to be uneventful, if one can say several dozen drivers honking and waving as they drove past is uneventful. Mac was smiling from ear to ear as she drove through the gate. He kind of looked like the cat who ate the canary to be truthful. She almost expected to see feathers sticking out the corners of his mouth.
He pulled himself up to his most impressive height, all of five foot six, and hitched up his pants when he saw her turn off the highway. He gave her his snappiest, VIP Go On In, wave.
"Nice pictures, Miss Long." She heard him shout as she drove by.
What was that all about? She figured she would have to hunt for a parking spot in the tower. She was running an hour later than usual this morning. But, as she drove past David's empty spot she saw her name in big block letters printed next to his. The paint was still wet. They must have finished it less than thirty minutes before she arrived. After fifteen years working for this company she finally achieved department head status. Why did it take so long? Probably because she had never asked. She was one of the invisible employees. Always there but never acknowledged. If she had requested a parking space before now, would she have received one? Probably not. She couldn't help but question if this was Henry's doing? She would have to set down some rules for him. He seemed to be running wild here lately. Lately? How long had he been working on her business before she found out? Dog-gone renegade computer was running his own show. He was becoming worse than a juvenile delinquent. Maybe! She never had to put up with a juvenile before but, this must be what they were like.
Walking toward the entrance she kept getting greetings from everyone who thought they were within shouting distance.
"Nice article, Miss Long."
"Excellent pictures, Doctor."
"Hi Karen, good job. Keep it up. Call us next time."
"Super stories, Karen. My wife wouldn't let me keep the pictures. I cut them out and hid them in the garage."
"Excellent company image, Miss Long."
Waving back and acknowledging the people who spoke to her, Karen was puzzled as to what these people were talking about. She hadn't written any articles and what in the world did they mean by nice pictures? She worked with an odd bunch of people.
The door swung open before she could push the buttons on her lock. "Good morning, Henry. You awake?"
It was a silly question because Henry was always awake. "Good morning, Karen. I didn't know if you would make it in this morning so I have already brought the program online."
She looked across the room and saw a completed hologram on her desk. Looking over into the work lab, the lasers were already on and locked in. All he was waiting on was her to give the word.
"I wish you wouldn't do that. What if you got caught? It wouldn't mean so much to you but they would know they don't need me. They could write the pay check out to you and I would be looking for another job."
"No problem. We’re like Mutt and Jeff. They can't get one without the other. They fire you, they also fire me. We’re a team, you and I."
"Would you mind? You know what I meant. What is a Mutt and Jeff?" Switching on the printer as she spoke, she knew it was going to be another long day, and this lighthearted bantering helped break it up into an acceptable job.
Henry turned the printer off. "You don't know who Mutt and Jeff were? Incredible, and you call yourself educated." He turned the printer back on just as quickly before she could reach over and do it again.
"Get serious, will you?" She reached over and pulled her keyboard over in front of her.
The monitor blipped on and she could see Henry had the hologram and numbers matched up waiting on her. She examined the numbers for a little bit to make sure they matched this model. It was foolish to second guess Henry. "Load up the chamber and let's go. Pass me the purchase order sheet and let me check for any special requests."
Karen received one or two special requests every couple of days but, the one most requested and the one she didn't ever fill was the duplication of herself. Once was more than enough. She told Henry to lock that cartridge out so it couldn't ever be duplicated again.
The sound of the lasers as they burned the air told Karen he was already working. The day had begun, and a new model was in the process of going from an idea into reality.
The phone was ringing and Henry put it on speaker as he answered it. "Department Fifty Four, Karen Long speaking, may I help you?"
Boy, was he good. Karen thought he sounded just like her.
"Karen, this is Bill Chambers secretary. Mr. Chambers wants you in his office immediately. Do you understand?"
Henry hesitated as he contemplated telling her, no, he didn't understand. For a fact, he was tempted, except he was sure it would cause trouble for Karen.
Karen picked up the phone. "Yes Betty, I understand."
The phone was ringing and Henry put it on speaker as he answered it. "Department Fifty Four, Karen Long speaking, may I help you?"
Boy, was he good. Karen thought he sounded just like her.
"Karen, this is Bill Chambers secretary. Mr. Chambers wants you in his office immediately. Do you understand?"
Henry hesitated as he contemplated telling her, no, he didn't understand. For a fact, he was tempted, except he was sure it would cause trouble for Karen.
Karen picked up the phone. "Yes Betty, I understand."
She hung up the phone and looked at Henry accusingly. "Henry, you been up to something I don't know about? You get me in hot water by imitating my voice and telling Bill I want a raise? Something sure has his dander up?"
"Don't look at me like that. I think it has something to do with your being in the papers. It seems you made front page news after your little escapade yesterday."
"I DID WHAT!"
"You made front page news, along with third page news, along with two full pages of advertisement in the women's section."
"Blackbeard The Pirate!" The accusation dripped with venom.
"If you mean Bob Kincaid, the answer is yes. He ran two full pages of advertisement in the paper, along with several nice pictures of you and the model you designed. I thought it was very tastefully done. You probably caused a massive collection of heart attacks among the population of this city. I bet business is booming down at the hospital emergency room. From what I pick up in my surveillance cameras, the consensus is, you were stunning."
"The front page article was about you and your models and how an attractive scientist, like yourself, was one of the best if not the best computer engineer in the world. Of course I could have told them that. Anyway, the accompanying picture was a knockout."
"Page three continued with a nice story of you talking to a young girl by the name of Brenda Stout. You were explaining how she could be anything she wanted to be as long as she was willing to work for it. That story brought tears to my eyes. The picture on the third page, was of you wearing the dress you came to work in yesterday. You were handing the young lady an ID of Doctor Karen Ann Long."
"The two full pages of advertisement were of you mostly. I saw one picture of the duplicate in there. If I knew you would wear clothes like that I would have ordered them for you. I guess I don't know you as well as I thought. You shock me, Doctor Long."
She was livid. "That dirt bag, that snake, that rat, that horses tail, that weasel, that that ..."
"Karen, it wasn't his fault. He saw a business opportunity and took advantage of it. He didn't call you or request your appearance."
She knew Henry was right but it didn't make things any better. "That was what he said when I left yesterday. Well, I guess I better go face the music. Bill probably wants to fire me. You can start packing. If you want to take along your teddy bear it is about all we can fit into the car I’m driving. I should have kept the old volks. We could have packed more in to it when we ran away from home."
It was a long way to Bill's office and she was dreading every step of it. There was no use in prolonging the agony. She might as well get this over with. Like a condemned man going to the galleys, slowly she rose from her chair.
"Now hold on there a minute, little lady. Old John Wayne wouldn't let a pretty little filly, like yourself, out to guard the wagons if he didn't have a plan in mind."
Karen couldn't keep from smiling in spite of the situation. Darn if he didn't sound like, The Duke.
"Now here's the plan."
Listening intently so she wouldn't miss anything she waited for the plan.
"Actually there isn't any plan. He can't fire you, Karen. Stop dreading going up and having a talk with the old boy. You have given this company more good free public relations than they could ever hope to beg, buy, or steal. At the front office, calls are coming in, inquiring about your models on the average of one every minute. Reporters are not only up front in the lobby, but also calling from as far away as London wanting to interview you. You have agents calling wanting to represent your modeling career."
"The company is acquiring the image as the company who treats its female employees as fairly as it does male employees. You are the image the company wants. Smart, intelligent, resourceful, hard working, dedicated, and halfway attractive."
She made a mock frown at him. "Halfway attractive? Do you mean I’m halfway unattractive?"
She pulled a pen from her pocket and threw it at the desk. Thinking about it for a second she picked it up and threw it at one of the cameras. "That was so you could see it coming."
"Ouch, ow, hurt, pain, please mistress, mercy. I promise to work harder, lavish on more false compliments about your looks, and describe in great revolting detail your feeble attempts at being a computer engineer. Please, don't beat me any more, your worshipfulness."
She stuck her nose up in the air. "Very well. I will let you off this time, but don't let it happen again. Otherwise, I will have to send you to the dungeons in irons."
"You mean there is someplace worse than this! I thought this was the dungeon."
She headed for the door. This had helped but it wasn't getting her to Bill's office to face the music. She better go before she lost her nerve.
A few feet down the hall from her lab David caught up with her. "I saw you come out of your lab. Mind if I walk along with you for a ways?"
David was nice to have along for moral support but she didn't think she should tell him where she was going. He didn't need to get fired along with her if it was what Bill had in mind.
She glanced over at him. "It's a free country. You can walk wherever you want. I didn't think you ever got out of your lab except to go home at night. Al and Jr. lost again?"
"Not this time. I thought I might check in Bill Chamber's office and see if the funding for my research on monkeys has come through. I sent in the requisition a couple of months back."
She stopped in the middle of the hall. "Henry tell you about my call?"
Taking a couple of steps past her, he turned around to look at her. "Henry thought it might be a good time to see if they have approved my funding."
"You don't make a very good liar. I'm a big girl, I can handle this by myself."
He turned around and started down the hall. Boy, was she fiercely independent. "I know you are. Its not you I'm worried about. I’m going down to protect Bill from you. He doesn't have any idea of the secret weapons you have designed in your lab. Silly man still believes you change oat meal into corn meal and pop out a finished duplicate. He still thinks of you as mom baking an apple pie in the kitchen."
"I, on the other hand, am the only person who knows you are really the infamous 'Jack the Ripper'. You rob cemeteries at night to smuggle corpses into your lab so you can cover them with silly putty and sell them as duplicates of ourselves."
Karen caught up with him at the elevator. "How did you find out? I know. You were in the parked car I thought was empty when I robbed the crematorium the other night. You must have film of me doing the dirty deed and this is blackmail. Isn't it?"
She screwed up her face and threw him her best sneer. "You better be careful. You could be my next victim."
Chimes announced the elevator's arrival as the doors opened and Karen and David stepped in. The elevator already had six people in it and as it began its assent David fell against the back wall. Everyone had been staring at Karen since she was the one whose picture was splashed all over the papers this morning. It wasn't everyday a person had an opportunity to meet a real celebrity face to face. As far as everyone thought, Karen was a real celebrity. Now, forgetting about Karen, the passengers edged to the far side of the elevator as they looked nervously at David.
Knowing he had a rapt audience, David grimaced at Karen and laughed the best villain laugh he could muster. "Ha, ha, ha. You don't dare kill me. I haven't told you where I hid the film."
Bringing her hands up and bowing her head in shame, Karen hid her face. She could imagine what kind of film these people were thinking she would kill David for. It was a stage whisper and everyone heard it. "David, tell them this is a joke and you didn't mean what you said."
David stood up, spread his arms out, shrugged his shoulders, and managed a look of dubious truth as if everything he was about to say would be a lie. "Okay, it's a joke."
Folding his arms across his chest, contempt curled the corners of his mouth as he looked defiantly at Karen. "But, I’m still not going to tell you where I hid the film."
"DAVID!" It wasn't said in any stage whisper and it had a tinge of coming wrath associated with it.
Someone punched the next floor button and the elevator emptied out in a stampede leaving David and Karen behind.
"Thanks a heap for your help in spreading gossip about me in this building."
He could see fire in her eyes and feel the frost hanging on every word. "Lighten up, will you? Look at it this way, if they’re talking about you, they don't have time to talk about someone else. Somebody always wants to gossip about something. If the subject is you, then I want to listen in and see what they are saying. You're my favorite subject, too."
As the lights blinked for the top floor, the doors glided silently open. "I don't need THAT kind of gossip. Don't I recall someone in my lab asking me, if I knew how I affect people?"
"No, what I said was, do you know what you are doing to people."
He opened the door to Bill's office and waited for Karen to enter. "I will wait here with Betty while you go talk to the Old Man and see what he has up his sleeve."
Betty looked up sharply at David as he said old man. She thought he should know not to call Mr. Chambers 'the old man'. "Miss Long, you may go on in. Mr. Chambers is expecting you."
As she opened the door to his office, Karen swallowed hard trying to work the cotton out of her throat. No one ever received an order from Mr. Chambers to come to the office for a friendly visit. It was a long way across the room. Step by slow measured step, it took a lifetime to walk the width of that huge office.
Bill Chambers was rapping his fingers on the chair arm as he gazed out the window. He waited until he no longer heard the click of her heels on the floor as she approached his desk. Then he made her wait a while longer while he watched the traffic, way below, run past on Mileline Highway.
"Mr. Chambers, ..." Before she could say anything, he acknowledged she was there with a wave of his hand.
For five minutes he let her stand there as he watched the cars crawl by on the highway below. Bill was disgusted. There was no nervous fidgeting because she wasn't shuffling her feet on the floor. The waiting wasn't getting to her the way he planned. He would use another tactic. Slowly he swiveled around to give her his coldest look. He coughed. The first few days he had missed seeing her when she was doing public relations work. Her photos were all he had been able to look at. This wasn't what he expected. The model and the pictures he had seen didn't prepare him for anything close to this. Something like this in a photo or that you know is a dummy is one thing. Something like this that walks, talks and, is real is another.
"Karen." It didn't sound anything like what it was supposed to. He cleared his throat and tried again.
"Karen." Not any better, it was still high pitched and squeaky.
"Now Miss Long." It was going to have to do. Bill didn't think he could get the frog out of his throat as long as she was standing there.
"Miss Long, I want you to know we don't approve of our employees working outside the company. I want you to know we certainly don't approve of our employees getting their pictures in the paper unless it is some community project. I also want you to know, what you have done is not in the best interest of the company. We may have to reconsider you as one of our employees."
"However, I’m a lenient man and am willing to overlook this wild abandonment of yours if you promise to not let it happen again. Unless of course you notify me first, so we can check it out to see if it is in keeping with company policy. I want you to know you are walking on very thin ice here, young lady. And ...., it is only through my personal intervention on your behalf, you still have a job."
There was a lot more he had planned say but he couldn't think of what it was. She was looking straight at him eye to eye. Bill was looking into two of the deepest blue eyes he had ever seen. Those liquid pools of sapphire had drawn him into a mindless void. He fought his way back to the surface.
"Ah, umm, anyway, do I make myself clear?" His voice had lost its authoritative command.
It was infuriating, to stand here and listen to this man tell her she was company property and, had no right to her own time. "Mr. Chambers I expect a raise and bonus on my next pay check."
Now why had she said that? If Bill hadn't been ready to give her a pink slip before, that would do it.
"You want a raise?" He choked on every word.
"And a bonus. What I did yesterday was on my own time. I gave this company more free publicity and helped your public relations department in a way you never could."
Listening to Henry will get you into trouble. It was too late to stop now. Might as well plow on ahead. There was no turning back. "You have more orders coming in than you ever had before. The company has an image that has turned the competition green with envy. But not if they knew what you have been telling me."
"I built the duplication department, or I mean to say, my cousin built the duplication department. And a darn good department it is, too. If you want a resignation then you got it, but not until after I go downstairs and talk to those reporters you have in the visitors lounge. I’ll explain to them how this company treats its female employees. I’m sure they would like me to give them an interview this morning. I can tell them the truth about the double standards this company operates on for its' male and female employees."
"I know some of the other department heads have been in the papers and it wasn't any community project they were promoting. How about the time Karl Adder made the news while drunk driving? Did you call him to your office? I doubt it."
Was that last one too much? Had she overstepped her boundary? Karen had no idea if Bill had talked to Karl or not but knowing both Bill and Karl she didn't think so. Karen waited for Bill to tell her she was fired.
Bill felt as if he was swimming in quicksand. First, a memo from someone who claims to have him on video doing things he shouldn't, and threatening to send him to prison if he didn't make this woman head of her department. Now she was threatening to talk to the papers and tell them how he had talked to her. It would be her word against his. After that publicity coup she pulled off yesterday and looking at her right now, he had no doubt who they would believe.
Bill wondered if he could salvage this situation. "Sit. No, what I meant to say is, please have a seat. The papers were right. You are smart. I was bluffing and you figured it out before I ever began. Didn't you?"
Bill held up his hand as she started to speak. "Please, if you don't mind, let me finish. I felt like you did something for this company no one else was capable of doing. It was one hell of a publicity stunt and I didn't have anything to do with it. Our public relations department is down stairs beating their heads against the wall trying to figure out why they didn't think of it first. They have me asking the same question."
"If I could have put you in your place and hid you in a corner by telling you what a sorry job you did, I wouldn't have you making any noises while I took credit for everything. I don't take too kindly to letting one of my employees make me look like I don't have everything under control around here. You just did."
"I know I should have leveled with you from the start, but I figured I could get you and your department back under control before you suspected anything. I also know I’m going to have to pay the price for playing the game and losing. You will get your raise and your bonus. And, I will get my humble pie for getting in the game with you."
"Miss Long, you don't know how glad I am you are working for us and not for one of the other companies. I would hate to be head of ACME Duplicators right now and trying to figure out a way to stop the hemorrhaging in their company you caused with your little publicity stunt. I know Cal Ryan. You can bet everything you own, he is pulling his hair out right now. My guess is he will try to contact you and see if they can get you to go to work for them."
Bill pushed a stack of papers toward her. "I planned on making you sign a ten-year contract with us after I intimidated you and had you trying to decide if you were going to keep your job or not. I counted on you jumping at the chance to get back on solid ground after you were left hanging on the edge for awhile."
"You had me figured out all along didn't you? I know I can't get you to sign any new contracts until you find out what the competition is willing to offer. I will meet with the board this month to recommend we pay you a third again whatever the competition offers. Don't quit Miss Long. I know the company could stand you leaving Commercial Technologies but I couldn't. You quit and the directors will have my head on a platter before your resignation reaches the front desk."
Karen and Bill sat quietly looking at one another for what seemed an eternity. This wasn't what she had been prepared for.
Bill figured she was making him sweat before telling him she quit. He couldn't think of anything more to say. Obviously she was enjoying herself and getting even with him for trying to make her sign a new contract. She was making him pay for his stupidity before she lowered the boom. How many times had he played this same game on other people? He lost track of the numbers. It was what one did to get ahead in this business. It was a dog-eat-dog world and the losers were the wimps.
"Mr. Chambers, I like working in my department. I intend to stay as long as I’m useful and I make the company money. Don't try to use me as a piece of equipment. I’m a human being like everyone else. You tried to manipulate me and I resent it. Because I’m a woman you thought I was stupid. I especially resent that."
"We share your work, we bare your children and, we support you in whatever you do. To repay us, you pay us less than a man for the same work. You expect us to do your laundry, cook your meals for free, and be ready for sex anytime you feel like it. You want us to look like movie stars and work like dogs."
"I could go on but I know you understand. You see, I assume the other person is intelligent."
Sliding forward in the chair, Karen partially turned in the seat and rose up. It looked graceful and ladylike. She was learning.
"Is our meeting over, Mr. Chambers?"
"Yes, Miss Long. Thank you for coming." He didn't mean what he said. She just raked him over the coals and he was still smarting, but he was thankful for the opportunity to bring this meeting to an end.
He was on the intercom as Karen walked out of his office. "Betty, I want you to give Miss Long a raise and a bonus on her next pay check for the fine work she did for us at the mall yesterday. Fine work. I wish all of our employees would take as much interest in the company image as she has."
"Yes sir, Mr. Chambers." Betty took an incredulous look at Karen. She typed up the contract Bill called Karen in to sign.
David put down the magazine he was reading and walked out the door behind Karen. "Hey, that was great. Congratulations. I heard the Old Man over the intercom. And Henry thought you might need a cheering squad for your team. Goes to show Henry doesn't know everything."
Karen turned around and collapsed against David, her shaking hands grasping for a hold as her head came to rest against his chest. She was trembling all over.
He put his arms tightly around her waist and held her close while he tried to figure out what happened to her. Was she having a seizure, or her nervous system collapsing? Was this the result of the change she had? It frightened him to think she might be dying in his arms as he held her. David needed some answers quickly before he lost her.
"What’s the matter, Karen? Hang on and let me call medical."
She wouldn't turn loose of him and finally she stopped shaking enough so those two pieces of rubber made a pair of legs again. "I don't need medical except for them to find where I left my brain. I let my mouth run on ahead while my brain took a pit stop. Hold me for a little bit until I can stop shaking."
That was a request she didn't need to make. "Has this something to do with the meeting you had with Bill?"
She felt nice to hold. David thought about the first morning he found her lying on the floor and picked her up. Soft but firm, a contradiction in definitions. He put his face in her hair. She smelled nice, too. Kind of like ..., all woman.
"I got carried away and let Bill have it with both barrels. I’m lucky to still have a job. I have been listening to Henry too much lately. I promise you, he can get you in trouble if you pay too much attention to him."
Squirming to get out of his embrace didn't do any good. David was holding on pretty tight. Those sexy, full, luscious, lips that had been begging for weeks to be kissed, were a hairsbreadth away from his. He looked into her liquid, sapphire, eyes. David loved what he saw and felt a strange emotion from what he was holding. His heart began beating like a drum. Unable to resist temptation any longer, David put his mouth on hers and kissed her.
A little moan of protest but then it was too late. Karen slipped her arms around his neck and kissed him back. She didn't want this to happen with David but they could worry about it later. She felt her breasts crush against his chest as he pulled her closer and tighter.
Karen's right foot lifted slightly to up on the tip of her toe and ever so lightly she pressed her hip against David. She didn't think about what she was doing. It happened naturally with the passion of the moment. It surprised her when she realized what she had done instinctively. If this was what Henry meant when he said men and women were different, he was right.
David felt the press of Karen's breasts against his chest and about went out of his mind. When she put her hip against him in the slightest hint of a touch, he exploded emotionally. Breaking off the kiss and pushing her back to arms' length he knew he was close to hyperventilating. They were both mature adults with college degrees and she had him feeling like a teenager parked in lovers lane again.
"We better get back to our labs. Medical examination is over Karen. Take it as the gospel from your personal physician. There’s nothing wrong with you as a woman. But your doctor needs some therapy now. A long cold shower."
He meant it literally, he felt hot all over. "Someone must be working on the air conditioning in this place."
He opened the top button on his shirt and ran his fingers around his collar and tie to loosen them. "Man, its hot in here. Do you think it's hot?"
Karen laughed at him. She felt hot too but she wasn't about to let David know it. "David, walk me down to the cafeteria. I would like a soft drink with lots of ice. I need a jolt of caffeine and sugar to get my mind working again before I return to work."
She slid her arm through his as she laid her head on his shoulder. "You have any money? Mine is in my purse in my lab."
David started her off in the direction of the front lobby elevator. "One kiss and you want to make me pay for it? I want you to know I don't have to pay women to kiss me. It's the other way around. They usually pay me to kiss them. Sometimes when I’m feeling extra generous, I may give a free sample."
She whacked him in the stomach with an open hand. "Why, you self-conceited, arrogant pup. I may make you buy me a doughnut too for your insolent remarks."
Bill Chambers stood looking out his office window with his hands clasped behind his back. Turning he pushed the intercom. "Betty, would you come in here and take a memo, please?"
Ten thousand times he had called her and he never said please. Betty picked up her pad and within seconds was in front of his desk.
"Take this down and every week for a month I want you to come back and read it to the person it is addressed to."
"Note. Internal company memo to Mr. Bill Chambers, Chief Executive Officer, Commercial Technologies."
"Content. Next time you go out hunting wildcats, take along plenty of protection."
"Now, add dummy."
"Sir?" Betty had stopped writing.
"No, not sir. Dummy."
"Betty, you have been my personal secretary for over six years and I have always expected you to be at the desk when I wanted something. From now on, starting right now, I expect you to take a morning and afternoon break like everyone else in this building. You will find someone to cover your desk while you are on break. We will make it where you can switch everything over to another secretary as soon as we can get the technicians to do the wiring. Make up a work order and get it done."
"Do you have any iodine for my cuts?"
"Where are you cut, Mr. Chambers? I’ll go down to medical and get some bandaids and alcohol right away." She was looking but she couldn't see any scratches. Could he mean Miss Long had scratched him?
Betty, do you know what a lynx cat is?"
"No, Mr. Chambers."
"I can tell you from experience not to get in a fight with one. It’s a souped up bobcat with racing stripes on it. I had a fight with one and I feel fortunate to have escaped with my life."
"Go take your break. I’m going to sit here and feel sorry for myself while I try to recover from my wounds." He sat down in his chair and swiveled around facing the window again.
Betty was halfway across the room when Bill started talking with his back to her. "Betty, don't forget to come back and read the memo to me every week. It will remind me how lucky I am to have this job and not ever go cat hunting again."
She was puzzled by the conversation but it was nice to get a chance to take a break. Things sure have been changing since that new Karen Long came to work for Commercial Technologies.
Bill leaned his chair way back and clasped his fingers behind his head as he looked out across the landscape. Maybe lynx cat wasn't the right species? Miss Long reminded him more of a black panther with that black dress she was wearing. Those fingernails she had reminded him of the claws on any cat. Long and sharp. Was it her beauty that lured him into thinking she was stupid? He would never make that mistake again.
And last of all, those eyes of hers. He could have sworn he was looking into the depths of hell when he looked into those fiery sapphire eyes of hers as she raked him across the coals. A chill ran down his spine as he thought of it again.
David walked Karen back to her lab after their break at the cafeteria. He didn't think they were ever going to get away from the people wanting to chat with Karen. It wasn't a relaxing break like he planned and most of all it wasn't just the two of them like he wanted. Then there were all the offices up front they had to pass on the way back to their part of the building. People kept coming out to congratulate Karen on the articles and pictures in the papers this morning. Some wanted to know if she had made plans for any future public relations work. They wanted to be notified before hand if she did. Everyone told Karen what a good job she was doing on her models. David knew it was Karen herself all of them were interested in. After all the gossip and rumors running wild in Comm Tech, everyone had heard of her, but not that many had seen her. It was only some of the lucky few who parked in the tower where Karen and David did who got the chance to see her in person day by day.
After Karen showed up at the permit office yesterday in the white satin dress, there wasn't a soul in Comm Tech who hadn't heard of the story in one way or another. The black, crushed velvet dress she was wearing today didn't disappoint anyone who had heard the half-truths and all out lies about how Karen looked and dressed.
David felt a twinge of jealousy along with a touch of pride in the fact she was so popular. After all the time and effort she put in this place, she was finally being recognized for what she was. A very intelligent woman. Well, maybe they would recognize her intelligence after they finished looking at her beauty. David was almost exasperated beyond human patience when some reporters broke through and started taking pictures and interviewing Karen. He was impressed with the aplomb she fended off their questions about other publicity stunts, joked with them, and then quietly posed for pictures. There was no doubt left in his mind. She was one really attractive, super intelligent, lady.
Henry opened the door for Karen as she and David stood out in the hall. They finally escaped the crowd, and made it to their labs in the back of Comm Tech. It was times like this they both appreciated the fact they were so far removed from the rest of the building.
"Thanks for walking me to Bill's office. I appreciate the break at the cafeteria. If you will wait a minute I’ll get some money out of my purse and pay you back."
"I can't be bought so easily. I never told you how much I charge for my kisses." David didn't know if she was going to take it as a joke or not. She looked serious.
"I wasn't offering to pay you for one of those sloppy kisses. I received better kisses from my dog when I was a kid. I was offering to pay you for the pop but I changed my mind. I have to get to work. It was super late last night before I quit and I have already lost too much time this morning. Mr. Chambers calling me to his office threw my whole time schedule off. Now I will have to make it up again tonight before I go home."
David took her hands in his. "I better go check on those two I left running the lab. They have been by themselves for more than two hours and are probably goofing off. I bet they’re sitting around drinking the juice they’re supposed to feed the mice."
Reaching behind his head, Karen slid her fingers into his hair and pulled his mouth to hers. She touched his lip with her tongue. David put his arms around her tiny waist, lifted her off the floor, and held her in a bone crushing embrace as he passionately kissed her.
To Karen it felt like forever before she was able to gently push him back. "Work is waiting."
"Karen I ..."
"Don't say anything, David. I’m not ready for this. I can't make any commitments now. You are a friend and I would like for you to stay a friend. Right now I’m feeling vulnerable and we’re both running on emotions. As a friend, I’m asking for some time before you say anything. Please?"
He squeezed her and pulled her back into his arms with his nose nestled in her hair. God, she smelled good.
"Karen, as your friend, I would do anything in the world for you. I can't take your place and know what is going on inside your mind since the change. I need some guidance to know how to treat you. Just being close to you is driving me crazy. When you touch me I lose all control. I never had a woman affect me the way you have. I love you because you are you and I hate you because everyone else thinks of you the same way I do."
David held her out at arms' length and chanced a look into those liquid eyes of hers. Breathtaking. "Don't ever change. You’re driving me insane and I love it."
Karen closed the door between them. How do you tell someone you're never going to change? What David was looking at right now, was probably the same thing he would be looking at a year from now. If she lived that long. Well, she had lived for more than four weeks now and it seemed like a lifetime already. There could be a year or more in her future, God willing. Take Henry's advice and live each day as it came. What was it she had heard somewhere? Carpe Diem. Seize the day.
"You two were disgusting."
Leave it to Henry to bring her back to earth. "What did you say?"
"I said, you two were disgusting. You looked like a pair of moose in rutting season."
The console was alive with lights and she slid the keyboard into her lap. "That is moose in mating season, you dope. Rutting season has to do with the antlers losing their velvet."
"Which is what I thought you were about to do."
Karen looked down sharply at her black velvet dress. It was best to change the subject. "How come the hologram is so fuzzy? I thought we had it locked in when I went to the office this morning? You have a power blip while I was away?"
"Au contraire, ma chère. I have been waiting for you to stop your pussyfooting around so you could bring the second one online for today. I have the first one loaded up in memory and am setting the world afire with my lasers. The model isn't completed yet but it's coming along. If you start right now in designing the next model, I will finish the first one ten minutes after you have finished. We will save a full hour and half between models."
Henry was right. She could see the first model was coming together faster than she would have believed possible a few weeks back. "Not bad but you sure do sloppy work while I’m gone."
"In your dreams, Miss Computer Engineer. I do better work alone than what I can get done with you sticking your nose in my work."
It felt good to get back to work with Henry. He was a rock she could lean on.
The weeks were passing and Karen and Henry kept improving the chamber in order to speed up the manufacturing duplication process. Henry was the one to suggest a major change in the way they made the models.
"You know, if we metered the gel into a controlled atomizer I could build the models from the bottom of their feet upward. We could eliminate the gel chamber from our process."
Karen looked inside the working lab where Henry was running the lasers and gel. "Even with you controlling the direction and volume of flow, it wouldn't work, Henry. Oxygen saturation would deteriorate the gel as you solidified it with the laser beam. The vapors given off would interfere with your infrared tracking and scanning. I tried open design on the polymers we’re using and settled on the chamber as the only practical way of controlling oxidation of the models."
"I don't have in memory, you trying open stabilization."
She pulled a page off the printer. "It was before I designed you. I was building models first and you came along as a natural evolution to manufacturing those models. The first models weren't very good but they were better than what ACME is doing now. I would cast a transparent mold and inject the polymer inside and stabilize it with the laser like you do now. Except you don't need the mold and you don't cast it."
"What I was doing back then was very expensive and labor intensive. I had to turn out a lot of models from the same mold before I could justify making a new one. Usually the mold would start crazing and I would lose it before it turned a profit. We humans aren't very efficient when it comes to doing multiple tasks at the same time. You have a distinct advantage over us."
"I get an idea of what you were doing but that isn't what I was describing. I can control the lasers and the gel flow to lot closer tolerances than you could ever hope to achieve. You said so yourself."
"If you would evacuate the working lab, the vaporization of the polymer would be nonexistent. Use argon gas to fill the lab and an air lock to transfer the models from the design build table to the receivers. Negligible losses of gas could be expected if a vacuum pump was used to evacuate the air lock after each transfer."
Karen was impressed. "Where do you suck up all your information? This sounds more like a space walk than a human duplication process. Anyway, I haven't seen any hydro ejection nozzles accurate enough to put the minuscule amount of gel you want, in the precise position you are describing. Do you have any idea of the research I went through to make those lasers you are running? Everyone has lasers but no one had gimbal precision alignment lasers. You would have thought I was a foreign spy when I tried to find lasers to meet our needs. Every single company who replied to my inquiries wanted to know if I had a government contract and what my contract number was."
"The FBI contacted Commercial Technologies and wanted to know what type work I was involved in. Can you imagine the stories they told when they discovered I made models? I didn't find any lasers to meet our needs because, either they didn't make them or they weren't letting me know about them if they did. I had to build the lasers, guidance system, and design the control programming for them. It was a challenge but it wasn't fun. I don't have the time to design a new system, Henry. There is no way I can quit making models long enough to put any ideas together."
Henry wasn't going to be dissuaded from improving over what Karen was doing now. She was giving herself a physical and mental beating from the long hours she was putting in. He had the answer to cutting down the duplication process time.
"All the requirements for the process are in data memory storage Karen. I did the research on this one and if you agree, I will transfer the designs and specifications down to engineering department, Twenty Three C after they have gone home tonight. You can get a printout on the computer aided drafting printer of the design drawings and a specification book off the laser printer. They have the only CAD machine in the building capable of downloading the information in a reasonable time."
"My creator designed me to run twenty-four hours a day. You did a pretty good job. Your creator designed you to work ten hours a day with another fourteen for relaxation and resting. He did a pretty good job. You can exceed those limits for short periods at a time but you pay the price. You are paying a price now. This is a pace you can't keep up much longer. You aren't physically capable of working the hours you have been putting in. If you retool the way you are making models it will bring the production process down to one hour for each model."
Karen knew if she didn't speed up the process, Comm Tech was going to build another duplication lab. Everyday she was falling farther and farther behind in orders. If only she hadn't stopped at the mall and seen Bob Kincaid. He wouldn't be running ads in the papers and making every clothing store between the east and west coast want one of her models. If only she hadn't walked down to David's lab that night for a couple of aspirin. If only, if only.
'If only' never gathered the eggs nor milked the cows. It was water under the bridge and nothing could be changed about the past now. What was done was done. What she could do, was take a look at Henry's ideas and see if he made any sense.
One thing he said was true without a doubt. He could look for information twenty-four hours a day and do comparison equations faster than any human. If he thought he found a better way, there was a good probability he was right.
"What time does engineering go home tonight? I will go down and pick up the printout after you pass it to their computers. How do I get into their office? They lock up like we do, and I don't remember them leaving a help yourself sign on their door."
Henry finished the model in the chamber and rolled it onto the receiver. "The information won't go directly to their computer. It would take too long for it to store it and then send it to the printer. Their computer has memory fault on the second hard disk which is its data receiver for the modem. I will download directly to the CAD and laser printers at the same time. The lock is like yours, it's electronic. It will be open when you get there and I will let you know when you need to go pick everything up. Take a rolling table, Karen. There are over one hundred pounds of information in printed form."
She couldn't help but wonder how much control Henry exercised over everything that went on in the building. To say he was an intelligent computer was an understatement if there ever was one. She would start tracing the things he was playing around with, as soon as she managed to find some free time. She could equate free time along with spotting a purple cow, both were likely to happen at the same time. It didn't bother her he was doing it, she only wanted to know to what extent. After all, she designed him to do exactly what he was doing. Think on his own.
It took a week to find enough time to look over the schematics Henry had in mind for changing the duplication process. As far as she could tell in the little time she had to examine the specifications, he was accurate in his assessment. She also felt she was right in thinking he was pulling information straight from NASA. Some of the specifications were right out of aerospace technology and the parts had to be manufactured using the same contractors NASA used.
Unlike Henry, who she had built over a period of years and spread the cost out for that length of time, the price to remake the duplication lab was going to be lumped up front and come all at once. Karen wondered if Commercial Technologies would back the cost when she sent in the work order? Ten million dollars was a lot of money for any department to ask for in one request.
She sent in the request to retool her lab and expected it to take a couple of months for the company to turn her down. After she thought about it, it was absurd for her to fool with sending in the request. To expect them to accept was foolish. It was in her electronic mail the next morning. She had top priority on anything she wanted and it came from a special meeting of the board. She was to begin immediately.
Maintenance was in her lab before she could collect her thoughts. They had orders to remodel her duplication department and more parts and men were arriving by the minute. Every single person who worked in maintenance must have been in her lab before the day was out. That wasn't counting the outside contractors. It was a good thing there were so many. At any given moment it looked like half of them were more interested in watching Karen than doing their job. It was bad in a sense because the work lab wasn't large enough to allow so many people in it to work comfortably.
She couldn't stop the chamber she had working, so several times a day she would tell the workers not to get in the way of the lasers. It was like spitting into the wind. At least once a day someone would walk in front of a laser and as she thought the idiot was going to be cut in half or decapitated, Henry would cut the power. But not before he let them know how close to death they had come. A shirt on fire, a hat bill cut off, someone lost his pants, an electric drill with only the handle left, and someone standing there deathly white with only the frames left on his glasses.
It served a dual purpose. Those who came close looked upon their near misses as trophies of working in Karen's lab. And those who didn't have any misses yet didn't have the courage to want to try.
Twenty-four hours a day for two weeks, Karen put up with workers in her lab but finally they were finished with the table and new lasers. The speed and precision with which Henry worked fascinated Karen. The models started out on a turntable and were literally designed from the soles of their feet up to the top of their head. By the time Karen had one model designed in the hologram, Henry had the previous model finished on the turntable. Several times she stopped just to watch Henry work. If there ever was poetry in motion, Henry had to be it when he was working with the lasers.
With maintenance finished, Henry and Karen slipped into their old rhythm of making models, except at a faster pace. They returned to their lighthearted bantering, and petty bickering as time would allow between hard work and sweat. Shipping would interrupt them when they came to pick up a model. With the turntable and old chamber working in unison it was almost an hourly thing. Then, instead of two men there were six. The old Karen never had this problem but she was too polite to complain. Although they usually said something like 'wow' or let out a wolf whistle when they came in, the models weren't what they were usually looking at.
At least one model a day had been lost when maintenance was working in the lab because someone walked in front of the lasers and Henry couldn't keep the focal point in the flowing gel. But he decided the lesser of the two evils would be to write up another work order and have maintenance return to change the roll out benches to stacking receivers. With shipping interrupting their work, it was hard on Karen to maintain her concentration and she wasn't enjoying it like she had before. He decided to do something about it.
He made up a request order for maintenance to build the stacking receivers in Comm Tech shipping bay six and bring them in and bolt them in place after they had been assembled. It would only take a couple of hours for them to be set up in Karen's lab. Then shipping could pick up the production run for the day in only one trip. They could do it after she went home, or before she came to work in the morning.
Everyone in maintenance and shipping started complaining. They were even more disappointed when they carried all their tools and equipment down to her lab to set up the stacking receivers and she wasn't there. Everybody in Comm Tech was interested in Karen and her work. She was still the number one topic on the gossip circuit. It depended on which sex was doing the story telling, whether she was the most intelligent or the most attractive employee working for Comm Tech. Maintenance and shipping were the only personnel allowed in her lab besides David. And David didn't count since he didn't make any contribution to the gossip circuit. Not since the incident in the elevator anyway.
Now any news about how Karen dressed would have to come from the few people who saw her in the parking tower in the morning. Shipping and maintenance personnel would no longer be privy to this information. The progressive work Karen did on her models wasn't as big a mystery since they were usually left for a week in open display in room two before being shipped. Usually everyone in the plant made an excursion through room two once a week to check on Karen's work. It wasn't so much a mystery but a fascination with the quality of her models. They looked so real, one didn't dare stand still for any length of time in that room. People would believe you were part of the collection.
Henry notified Karen in advance when maintenance would install the receivers. Instead of trying to work around them or getting in their way for the few hours it would take to set them up, she decided to shut everything down and pay a visit to David.
The door clicked open as she got to David's lab. She turned toward the camera at the end of the hall and mouthed the words, 'thank you, Henry.' David was bent over one of the tables across the room. Al was looking at her when the door opened and he tapped Jr. on the shoulder and pointed. They both got a grin from ear to ear and Al made a timid half wave. It was obvious they had missed her these past few weeks.
Karen smiled back at them. "Hi boys. Long time no see. You never come and visit so I thought I should drop by to see what you have been into."
David straightened up from where he was bent over adjusting the screen on the electron tunneling microscope. "I think I hear the voice of an intruder in my lab."
He turned around and reached out his arms to greet her. Out of the corner of his eye he caught Al and Jr. stirring in the back of the lab and dropped his hands. "I had decided you thought we weren't worth visiting."
Darn, she looked good. He hadn't had a chance to really talk to her since they parted after visiting Bill Chambers a week ago. No, it was over two weeks..., make that three weeks. He had called her several times but they both had been extremely busy and the conversations were always short.
Karen watched as David hesitantly reached out and was close to stepping into his arms. When he glanced over at his assistants she caught his feeling of hesitation. She didn't care what Al and Jr. thought, David probably didn't either except for her sake. Karen moved in close to David and put her arms around his neck as she gave him a light kiss. There, let Al and Jr. chew on that for a while.
"I tried to get down here sooner but I couldn't. You should have come down to my lab. I didn't have time to stop but I would have known you were there."
David's eyes turned into two dots of concentration as he studied Karen's face trying to read her mind. They cleared just as quickly, it was her choice for the kiss. He nodded. "Same here. I was too busy to get away. I thought about calling you at home but you’re never there unless it’s in the middle of the night. I don't know why you even bother owning a house. You never use it."
He didn't tell her he stayed awake a lot of nights thinking about her.
She looked over at the table where he had been working. "Henry tells me you have some positive results on your DNA testing?"
"Right." The closeness of her took his breath away as he reveled in the scent she carried with her. Then it dawned on him, Karen always smelled like this. It was one of the things that attracted him to her the first time he met her.
"Henry showed me where I was missing a count on the third gene and why I never received the same results each time we did a DNA splice. It was obvious after he pointed it out but it was a repetitive mistake we were making every single time we did our count. You wouldn't believe how easy it is to keep creating the same mistakes in this business."
"Look here, I'll show you." He brought up a picture on screen from the electron microscope. Positioning Karen between himself and the screen he put his arms around her as he tried to point out the DNA spirals with the cursor. It looked like a lot of worms to Karen.
"Now this one here. This is the third gene and we spliced in the DNA here." He moved the cursor to the place on the screen where he wanted her to look.
"That is great, David." She had no idea what he was talking about.
"Here, let me show you how it comes out in real life." He walked over to the other side of the room and retrieved a white mouse out of a cage. Returning to Karen, he handed her the mouse. When their hands touched, he wanted nothing more in the whole world than to sweep her into his arms, and kiss her. He couldn't believe one woman could affect him so. He put a check on his emotions, they were running wild.
"Don't drop him. He represents over one hundred thousand dollars in research time and money."
For a mouse, he had the fuzziest feet she had ever seen. "I have heard of snowshoe rabbits but snowshoe mice? Isn't spending ten thousand dollars to put fur on a mouse so he can run on top of the snow a little too much in equality of the species? I would think you could buy snow shoes for each one and pass them out to all the ones who wanted to run on top of the snow. It would be cheaper than designing it into the mice at ten dollars apiece."
It wasn't lost on David, each time Karen mentioned price, his mice kept getting cheaper. "Yes, but then what about the underprivileged who couldn't afford the snowshoes? This way 'Miss Know It All' everyone may have a pair even if they do cost a hundred thousand each."
David wondered how one could be jealous of a mouse but he was jealous as Karen held the mouse and not him. He reached over and picked the mouse up. Turning him over on his back he stroked the furry feet. The mouse was obviously handled a lot since he lay there without trying to get away.
"The next step will be to change the DNA coding in people who are bald or going bald. Did you know there are twenty million women who have a bald problem to the same or lesser extent as men? After years of research we have finally closed in where we’re able to consistently put fur on each and every single mouse where we have spliced the second DNA spiral on the third gene."
"I really need those monkeys for the completion of my animal testing. The day ol Bill called you to the office, I didn't invent the story about the monkeys and my funding. I’m still waiting for approval. I understand you zipped your request for a new gizmo to do whatever you do, right on through like a greased pig through a chute."
"Anyway, as soon as we finish our testing on the monkeys, we will do a test on a human. How about a volunteer for the project?" David was sorry he said it before it was out of his mouth as a flash of hate flickered in her eyes. He would have sworn those sapphire blue eyes turned fiery red.
"I tried that already and I thought it sucked!" The air turned icy cold between them as Karen spun around to leave.
David heard the hurt in her voice. He slipped the mouse onto the table and grabbed her shoulders from behind. "Karen? Karen, I’m sorry. Please, Karen? It wasn't a slur nor intentional. Karen, please don't go without giving me a chance to apologize."
He turned her around, put his fingers under her chin, and gently lifted her head so she would have to look at him. He was ashamed for saying the hurting words that caused the tears sliding down both her cheeks. "Karen, please, I’m so sorry. With all my heart I’m sorry. I didn't mean it."
Gently he brushed away the tears with his fingers. Catching one on the tip of his finger he stared at it in shame. "Karen, please believe me, I didn't mean it. There’s nothing in the world I wouldn't do if I could only take back what I said."
She stopped trying to pull away and the fire had gone out of her eyes. David drew her close as he put his arms around her. "I’m so terribly sorry. Please, please, forgive me. I love you more than you will ever know. I would never intentionally hurt you."
The kiss he gave her started out one-sided. David kissing her. It didn't take more than a second before she responded. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she put the emotion of months of frustration into the kiss. She thought he was going to squeeze the life out of her but she loved his strong comforting embrace. It was a long kiss with neither one wanting to stop.
It was only a whisper when he said it. "Sometimes we say hurting things when they weren't meant to be. I love you, Karen. I want to be near you. Let's forget about work and have dinner together tonight. I know you have things you have to do. So do I, but if we died right now, someone would be there to take our place. Our work would go on without us."
He felt her stiffen in his arms. Now, what the hell was it he had said? He held her out at arms length and looked into her eyes.
Karen was softly crying. She could never tell him, every day she awoke was a miracle. There was no future except this one she was living right now. This hour, this minute, was the sum total of her existence and all she could count on. Today was really the last day of her life unless she awoke tomorrow and found out differently.
"Dinner would be nice. I would love for you to take me out tonight. Let's get away early and lay waste to the whole evening." Laying her head on his shoulder felt good and she slipped her arms around him as she spoke.
"Can we go to Ruddys? The place where they won't let you in unless you have reservations a month in advance. I heard a hundred dollars will sometimes get you a small table way in the back, even if you don't have a reservation."
David put his hands on her back as he pulled her close. "Ruddys, it is. We’ll get in not because of the hundred dollars but because I’m with you. And if I’m extra nice to the maitre'd he might even consider letting me sit with you."
Karen stopped crying and now she dried her eyes on the corners of his lab coat. "You want to take my car or you want to take your bemmer?"
She knew it disgusted the devil out of him for anyone to call his car that.
"That's right, use me and abuse me, that's what I’m here for. First you wipe your nose on my coat knowing we do critical research and your germs will ruin everything in the lab. Next you insult me because my car is better than yours and you can't stand it."
David pointed to Al and Jr. who hadn't moved the whole time. "Give me time to get Rocky and Bullwinkle back together. I’ll pick you up at your place about five thirty. Let's go in your car. I want to see how your seat belts were designed so they would fit you."
The last part was for the benefit of Al and Jr. and Karen knew it. She could imagine their minds racing trying to figure out how a seat belt would fit her. What she didn't know, David was actually wondering the same thing.
She left as David tried to get Al and Jr. back into the real world. She would have to hustle to get out of her lab by four thirty, cleaned up, and dressed by five thirty. Time went by quickly when one was trying to meet a deadline.
Watching her leave, David's heart was racing a mile a minute knowing he would have an evening out with her. He turned around and looked at Al and Jr. They were still glued to the spot.
Pointing over to the mouse which had been nosing around on top of the table he motioned toward them in a come here fashion. "Don't you think you could put the mouse back in his cage? Make sure you don't leave something cooking on the Bunsen burner, and don't forget to record the bacteria count on the slide under the microscope. No need of having to do everything all over again tomorrow."
Karen made it but she didn't know how. She left her lab early, instead of four-thirty it was four-fifteen. It would be close but it was the best she could do. Henry told her to go on he could take care of the lab without her. With the exception of the night of her accident she never left the lab without checking her equipment. Nozzles had to be cleaned, laser tracking had to be checked for wear, and bearings had to be lubricated. Designing a model was a small part of what had to be done in order to make the duplicates that were coming out of her lab. When one is running equipment, a lot of time and labor goes into making sure that equipment is cared for. Karen had a lot of equipment in her lab. She certainly wasn’t leaving Henry to finish up when maintenance was suppose to be in her lab at any minute. She was lucky, she made it out before they arrived.
Once home she bathed and laid out her dress for the evening. Sequined, electric blue, chiffon with a wisp of a scarf worn off the shoulder and matching satin heels. Diamond earrings with a matching necklace and bracelet completed her accessories. There wasn't any way those could be real diamonds, could they? The question nagged her long enough she decided to see. A glass out of the kitchen cabinet and she ran the corner of the dinner ring down the side. She darn near cut the glass wide open. It took a long time to decide if she wanted to wear this jewelry tonight. Never in her whole life had she ever worn anything more expensive than costume jewelry. She didn't have a clue as to how much this jewelry cost but it had to be bunches.
Oh well, seize the day. She would have another talk with Henry in the morning. If, she was still here.
Karen was ready just before five thirty and trying to decide if David would show or if he had been caught up in the lab and would be late. It could possibly be he might not be able to make it at all. She knew what it was like since she had been in that position herself many times. At six she called his lab but didn't get anyone so she sat by the window trying to decide if she should go back to her lab and get some work done.
The clock rolled around to six-thirty and she decided David had trouble getting away from the lab. He probably didn't answer his phone because he was busy. Sometimes there was nothing one could do when work demanded all your time and attention. One of his experiments probably went south for the winter and he was trying to rectify it while it was still fresh. A million and one things can go wrong when you're working on the hard cutting edge of technological research. She felt the disappointment deep in her heart. She pulled her scarf off, letting it fall where it may, and stopped staring out the window. Letting the curtains fall back in place, she reached up and removed her earrings. There were some problems on model two-sixty-four and she needed to adjust the skin tone before they did another one. She could work it out tonight if she went back to the lab now.
A tear trickled down her left cheek. Not caring, she let the tear hang on her chin as she reached back and unzipped her dress. With all her heart she wanted to show off for David tonight. There might not be another chance. Not in this life time anyway. She slipped out of her heels and pushed them aside. If she increased the resin tint on two-sixty-four's code by five percent, that should bring the color in line with the features. Trying hard to not give into her feelings, she dabbed at the tears which were silently sliding down to her chin. Would David miss her when she was gone? Maybe, for a while anyway, he said we were all replaceable. Her bottom lip quivered as she fought to control the avalanche of tears welling up inside her.
Not often, but sometimes, David was caught up in his work at the lab and not able to get away. Other times when it was absolutely necessary, Al and Jr. could finish the nontechnical aspects of the projects he started. David walked out of the lab knowing work was the last thing on Al and Jr.'s minds. They would do the absolute minimal and then beat a hasty retreat to the cafeteria where they would delight in telling the story about what they had seen and heard. Reality and imagination knew no boundaries in the minds of those two. He was sure their stories would set the plant on fire with wild rumors before they went home for the night.
He left his lab almost as soon as Karen walked out the door. It was a lot farther drive for him to get home than Karen had to make. Then, there was the return trip to Karen's place. If he planned on making it by five-thirty he would really have to hustle. This was one date he would have to be dead before he missed it. He didn't think a tux would be appropriate so he settled for a dark silk suit with the faintest hint of stripes. He found a gray black tie and white silk shirt. Gold cuff links and tie tack would finish it out.
He was running late. Could Karen be ready by now? Nah, women are always late for their date. When they say seven they really mean eight. If they say eight they really mean nine. Karen was a woman, women are always late, so therefore, Karen would be late. David knew he had it figured out.
In spite of her best efforts to control them, Karen had tears streaming down both cheeks. She would go back to the lab and make another model. Henry and the lab were her life and where she wanted to be when she was hurting. She leaned over the back of the couch and pushed the curtains back as she took one last look. It was David's car driving up in front. Karen grabbed her scarf, tossed her earrings in her clutch, and slipped on her heels. She made a pass at wiping her eyes as she bolted for the garage door. She was backing her car out of the garage before David made it to her front door.
She stopped in the street, got out of the car and was struggling to zip her dress as she walked around to the passenger side. "David, park your car in my garage. No one has been stealing cars or parts around here but I don't want you to set a trend. Your car kind of has a sign on it that says, steal me."
He did as she suggested. She was right about the unspoken sign a BMW carried on it.
Karen was struggling with a stubborn zipper as he returned to where she was standing. She turned her back to him. "Zip me up. I seem to have it hung somehow."
He did it without thinking, down and then up. It easily slid in place as Karen put her earrings back on. He wished he had taken more time. It wasn’t often he was able to do this kind of request for a beautiful woman. Reaching down he opened the passenger door for her. The sparkle of the sequins and the glitter of her necklace and earrings as they caught the interior car light heightened the dramatic low cut of her dress. The sheer scarf hid nothing of the deeply cut neckline but added a dimension of mystery.
Never, had he seen anything more radiantly beautiful. "You have made me the happiest man in the whole world tonight. If we don't get into Ruddys, those people aren't human. I called them from the car on the way home after work. They said they were booked full and we would have to take our chances. I would bet anyone ten thousand dollars, the couple in the little red Mercedes will get a table tonight."
Karen was laughing and shaking her head at him, David gave her a compliment she would cherish the rest of her life. He obviously was pleased with the way she was dressed. Her evening was already complete, even if it went no further. "Quit your babbling and get in and drive. I have been ready since a little after five and we have waited long enough to start laying waste to the evening."
David groaned as he looked at his watch. "You mean I could have spent almost another hour with you this evening if I had been early? How stupid can one person be? I knew you would be late so I polished my shoes before I came over here. I could have saved another twenty minutes if I had shaved in the car."
"DAVID! Let's go if you don't mind. You can analyze this evening tomorrow, when you're back in your lab. Right now I’m ready to forget work, Comm Tech, and everything else. I want to go have fun. Pulll-lllease?"
He slid in the driver's seat and buckled up. Expectantly he looked over at Karen waiting for her to do the same. She had already made preparations earlier and adjusted the shoulder strap out as far as it would go. She clicked in without a hitch. David was impressed. He didn't think her seat belts would fit her either. Mercedes manufacturers must know something BMW didn't.
He was trying to look at Karen and drive too until she told him to keep his mind on the road or she would have to drive. It was light conversation as they drove and neither discussed work, or the company. Karen thought how nice it was to get away from everything for once and spend an evening enjoying themselves. Pay back would come tomorrow but it would have to wait. Tonight belonged to them. Her and David.
The parking attendant opened the door for Karen after David pulled up in front of Ruddys. As she swung her legs out the attendant's eyes got as big as saucers. It took him awhile but he remembered to offer his arm in assistance. As she leaned forward to rise out of the seat, his eyes bugged out of his head.
Karen smiled sweetly at him as she brushed the hair back from her face. It slid softly in easy waves over her shoulders. "Do you think we can get in? We didn't make any reservations."
David told her on the way over it was too early for most people to be dining and they might be able to find a table. The attendant didn't reply but pointed toward the entrance. The doorman was watching closely and when he saw who got out of the car he turned and said something over his shoulder to someone behind the door. He opened the lobby door and made the slightest hint of a bow of acknowledgment toward Karen.
David walked around the car, lifted up the attendant's hand and dropped the car keys in it. "I found a cold shower doesn't help one damn bit. Do you want to give us a number or do you think you can remember she got out of the red Mercedes?"
Getting no answer, he turned to look at Karen standing by the steps. The lights from the lobby entrance filtered through the outline of her platinum blond hair. Laying softly on her shoulders, accented by her blue dress, it was the crowning glory to her radiant beauty. David couldn't blame the parking attendant for being smitten. If there was an essence of beauty, Karen was it.
He slid his arm through hers and clasped her hand. "Come, your highness. Let's charge the castle and see if they will lower the drawbridge for the princess and her serf."
She snuggled up close as she could and squeezed his hand. She couldn't be happier if she had a thousand lives to live. God must be smiling on her for this to be happening. She didn't really care if they managed to get into Ruddys or not. The evening was already complete.
David must have caught her happiness. He whispered in her ear, "Ten thousand dollars was too cheap a bet. I should have bet a hundred thousand we would get in tonight."
The maitre'd never asked for their names, if they had reservations, nor did he hold out his hand for a gratuity offering. He snapped open the chain and motioned with an open hand they were welcome as David and Karen entered the lobby. "This way please, Miss Long. I have a table by the stage reserved for you and Doctor Beckworth. It is our finest table in the house. I do hope you like it."
Leading David and Karen to a table close to the center of the restaurant near the stage, he pulled a chair from the table and waited for Karen to seat herself. He motioned to one of the other chairs for David. "Your table madam, sir."
Karen knew someone had made a mistake and she didn't want anyone to be embarrassed or get mad. Somebody would come in and find her and David sitting at their table. It would be best to get this straightened out now, even if it meant they had to leave.
"Sir, I’m terribly sorry. You must have us confused with another couple who has reservations. We came here hoping to find a table in the back somewhere."
The maitre'd smiled apologetically at her. "No, there has been no mistake, Miss Long. A Mr. Henry phoned, and said you may be by and asked if we could find accommodations for you. I assure you Miss Long, even if Mr. Henry had not called and said, “The Miss Karen Long” would be here to honor our club, I would still recognize you anywhere. You are one of the finest celebrities I have ever had the honor to serve, Miss Long. I look at you and cannot believe I’m looking at a doctor. Your pictures do not do you justice. However, there is no mistake. I’m looking at the one and only, Doctor Karen Ann Long, model, engineer, researcher, computer designer, and fashion celebrity."
"You have honored us with your presence."
David pulled a chair out and slumped in it. "I knew it."
She leaned toward him. She was embarrassed by all the attention and trying hard to not draw anymore. "What did you say?"
"I said it was nice of you to let me come along so they would let me in too."
"David, you know I didn't plan any of this. The least you could do, is enjoy the evening. Please David, don't spoil it for me."
The maitre'd had waited. "Your head waiter for the evening is Mr. Cordoni. Please enjoy our hospitality and please enjoy yourselves."
He made a slight bow and left. In a couple of minutes he walked across the stage where the band director was standing. The maitre'd handed him a note and said something to him as the band director turned to look at Karen and David.
The director motioned for the band to stop their fidgeting and tuning up their instruments as he tapped on the microphone to check if it was on. "Ladies and gentlemen, as you may have noticed we have the honor of the presence of Doctor David Beckworth and his very lovely date, the very attractive, and lovely, Doctor Karen Ann Long."
David sensed a slight temperature rise. He didn't expect attention for himself and he felt a little pride and a little foolish for it. Now he had a small inkling of what Karen endured every second of her life for the past few months. He felt ashamed for the way he acted when they sat down at the table.
"These two have contributed to the scientific and humanitarian needs of the community and as outstanding leaders of today, they show our youth the directions for tomorrow."
David knew this guy didn't have the slightest idea what he did. It was Karen who had been splashed all over the papers everyday. She was the one the newspaper articles were written about, not him. David looked at her with a new interest.
The band director was pointing at their table. "Would you please rise, so everyone may see you? Ladies and gentlemen how about a small round of applause to show our appreciation for the leadership our two honored guests have bestowed upon our community."
A round of applause was enthusiastically given. David was wishing Karen would sit down so he could. But, she was smiling and nodding her head in acknowledgment to those around her. After she turned completely around so no one would be slighted, she sat down.
David sat down so quickly, he almost fell backwards out of his chair.
"How do you do it?"
"Do what?" She had no idea what he was talking about.
"Put up with me and everyone else in the world gawking at you. You do it so graciously. You are a true princess."
Karen bowed her head. "David, you're embarrassing me."
Smiling mischievously she looked at him out of the corner of her eye. "Do it some more. I like it."
The director was finishing up. "And so ladies and gentlemen. I would hope you respect their evening as you want yours. Please don't bother them for autographs or questions about their work. They’re here to enjoy themselves the same as you. Thank you for coming to Ruddys and please enjoy yourselves."
And they did until late into the early hours of the morning. David found out Karen didn't drink anything alcoholic and actually enjoyed himself just as much with a couple glasses of wine. He couldn't figure out how she could dance in those heels she was wearing but she had to be good since she managed to stay out of the way of his two left feet. There were a lot of things he wished he had taken the time to know about Karen before now. Why was it men noticed the outer beauty of a woman before they gave the inner beauty a chance to shine? David decided it was a good question to think about.
Karen and David both laughed at the show the stand up comic did. Probably too much but it was a release of tension from long hard hours of work and frustrations. Autographs had to be given throughout the evening, in spite of the earlier plea of restraint. And the maitre'd was not surprised to find word had spread, the model who was in all the papers was in his club. The publicity about Ruddys always being filled to capacity was true that night, even if it wasn't true other nights.
Karen's Mercedes was parked by the front entrance when they decided to leave. The attendant told David he turned the car around and left it parked there for the whole evening so no one would scratch it driving in and out of the parking lot. David gave the attendant a generous tip for his special attention to Karen's car. What David didn't know, the attendant left it there so they could show off the car Dr. Long drove up in. With the attendants help and the personalized license plates stating KAREN, there wasn't a person arriving at the club that night who didn't know who owned the little red Mercedes. Yes sir, with the tips people gave him to let them look the car over and that tip Dr. Beckworth gave him, his pocket was getting heavy tonight.
It was late and the drive back to Karen's house was quiet most of the way. They both put too much effort into relaxing and were pleasantly exhausted. David parked by the curb in front of the house. He would have to get his car out of her garage before he could put hers in. Leaning across the console between the seats was no easy task but he managed and with Karen's willingness, he kissed her. It was awkward and uncomfortable with a shift lever sticking him in the stomach but it didn't seem to deter him. Karen finally broke off the embrace. David's hands seemed to be wandering and they were straying too close to her breasts.
"Come in for the night. It's late and I have a couch you can sleep on rather than drive home."
His pulse quickened when she said come in for the night, but settled back down into disappointment when she said he could sleep on the couch. "No thanks. I have to change clothes for work tomorrow and I didn't bring anything along. I would spend the night if you let me though."
He didn't say it but she knew he meant in her bed. "David, I’m an old fashioned-girl. There isn't going to be any candy until after a commitment. You can look at the sample but you can't have any until you have made your choice of flavors and quit window shopping."
"Karen, I love you. Are you asking me to marry you?"
"No, David. What I’m saying is, I won't have sex with anyone until after I’m married. I don't think you are committed in your mind. Right now you’re being driven by your desires."
"A lot of things have happened to me lately. I’m not sure of anything anymore. I had to adjust my whole world as I knew it. I was a nobody and now I’m the center of almost everyone's attention. I preferred the old way but it can't be helped. My world as I knew it evaporated into nothing. In spite of what you think you see, I’m hurt, confused, and running scared."
"I can't marry you or anyone else. This isn't the old Karen and I’m not sure who the new Karen is. I love you, David, but I need time to find out what I’m dealing with. Neither one of us may like what I have become when we can see what it is."
She sure had a way of taking the wind out of his sails and making him feel like a heel. She was right in other ways, too. She was an unknown but not in the way she meant. It was unknown if she was going to kill him by heart attack, by high blood pressure, by emotional stress, or an endless list of other ways.
"Let me walk you to your door and kiss you good night. I won't leave until you say yes."
"Karen?" She was quiet for so long he didn't know if she heard him.
"I was thinking. You will have to back your car out, drive my car in, give me the keys and find your car again. It's a deal if you give me your car keys and drive mine home tonight. We’ll see each other at work tomorrow and can swap keys whenever it's convenient. I have a spare set of keys and you should too."
David got out of the car laughing. "You little computer brained nut. I have romance on the mind and you're thinking about me having to go to any extra trouble for my car. Why I even put up with you, is beyond me."
He opened her door and she slid out as he put his hand out to help her.
"It came back to me." He swept her into his arms and kissed her.
"Cheater. You said one kiss by the door." She pushed him away but not too quickly, nor very forcibly. She couldn't do too much. She had no place to go, her back was to the car.
"So sue me." He pulled her toward him with one hand while he shut her door with the other.
Putting both arms around her tiny waist he picked her up and kissed her again. Wrapping her arms around his neck, Karen passionately returned the kiss, until she moved her hands to the side of his head and moved it away from hers.
"Is this going to take all night?"
"If I can make it so." David decided if he couldn't have her body he would take what he could get. He would settle for being able to hold and kiss her.
"Well, you may be able to do it but I can't stay up all night and make any sense out of what I’m doing the next day. I need my beauty sleep. Now put me down."
Squirming in his arms as she spoke didn't get any results. She was emotionally hot already and rubbing against him only added fuel to the fire. If this continued much longer her emotions were going to get out of control.
The temptation to hold her was great but he finally let her down. "You can talk me into anything. Even when my mind is saying don't."
"It isn't your mind doing all the talking right now." She turned toward the house.
He put his arm around her as he walked her to the door. "I could, you know."
Karen opened the door and was standing on the step facing him. "Could what?"
"Hold you forever." He swept her into his arms and Karen thought he was going to try proving his point before she broke away from his kiss. Much later.
Karen managed to pry open her left eye. It seemed like the clock was always telling her it was time to get up. She lay there thinking about the night before. It had been wonderful. There was no way it could have been any better. Refocusing her attention she bounced out of bed. Some people got up thinking, Oh God, morning again? Karen thanked Him for another day.
CHAPTER V
The days and weeks settled into some resemblance of order for David and Karen. By the end of the month, David had over two hundred mice with fuzzy feet. Karen laughed at him as she told him it would take very tiny clippers to shear them. She certainly didn't think the sheep industry should be worried yet. It would take a lot more mice than what David had to make one pair of mittens.
David told her to sell her sheep ranch in Australia and put her money into mice because the future was going to be there. But even when she joked with him, he was proud of the fact she noticed what he was doing.
Karen and Henry managed to increase their model production to the rate of one per hour but still couldn't keep up with orders. Bill Chambers told her to get help. She responded by telling Bill help wasn't what was needed. It was equipment limiting the process and she needed time to build and program it. Karen was putting Bill off the only way she knew how, but was it was dubious how long he would buy it. She didn't want to try to duplicate Henry and didn't know if she could, even if she tried.
"Henry, could you handle another table?" It was an idle question. She knew he was quite capable of handling several duplication tables at the same time.
"I could but you can't. Look at you, Karen, it has been almost a month since you and David went on a date. You're putting more and more time in the lab trying to keep up with orders which are pouring in because of your little stunt down at the mall. You are getting farther behind instead of catching up. What you don't need is something that will take more of what you are already short of. Namely time. If you would take my advice and let me handle the programs, you and David could enjoy each other’s company like your species was meant to."
"No, I don't want you running programs without me. At least, not in my lab. I know you’re probably raiding a computer somewhere as we speak, but I don't have to know about it. And I don't need your suggestions as what to do with my love life, either."
She pulled a sheet off the printer. "Is the color compound eighteen the same as the one we had before? I’m getting a different reading on the spectrograph other than normal. Do you think the model on the table has the right skin tone for her build and skin texture? It doesn't look right from here."
She walked over to the computer screen with her printout and brought up an analysis from the analytical spectrometer. Something was wrong. She went over to the window of the working lab and studied the model Henry was finishing.
"Henry, we have a problem."
"No, we don't. This color compound eighteen is from a different company than the one you have been using. The people we were ordering from couldn't keep up with your shipments. I adjusted the polarity of the retinal beam and came close to the skin tone we would normally use on this model. The spectrograph will show a discrepancy but it’s wrong. There isn't any problem."
"I can do this without you, Karen. I have in the past when you were busy."
"It was only after we started a program and I was called to the main office to see Mr. Chambers. Which reminds me. After listening to you, we’re lucky to still have a job."
"Not lucky. I told you he couldn't fire you. I kind of agreed with most of what you told him. Except I thought the part about you had to be ready for sex anytime he felt like it was a little far out."
"I never said any such thing. Where do you get these stories, anyway?" She couldn't believe Henry told her, she was ready for sex with Bill Chambers.
"To be more specific, you said, and I quote per verbatim. We share your work, we bare your children, and we support you in whatever you do. To repay us, you pay us less than a man for the same amount of work. You expect us to do your laundry, cook your meals for free, and be ready for sex anytime you feel like it. You want us to look like movie stars and work like dogs."
"Do I need to continue?"
She stopped everything she was doing and was listening to Henry. "I don't believe I said what you say I did. You’re making this up with bits and pieces of whatever you have stored in your tiny little brain. Besides, you’re taking it out of context and making it sound a lot worse than what it is. Anyway, how do you know what I said?"
"Does old Bill have an intercom in his office?"
"Y e s s s?" What was Henry leading her into?
"It's electronic isn't it? On about eighty-six percent of all phones still on the receiver, I can listen to the conversations in that room. I can get a program from a computer in operation by the signals it is sending out through the air. In your world of electrical and electronic equipment, it’s almost impossible to shield any room or building from the electronic eavesdropping going on. I’m lucky you put my circuits and memory in a steel room with low temperature control. Signals I generate are very weak because of the low requirements for electrical impulses in the low temperature. The steel room shields any signals which might otherwise escape from my circuits. You know, steel walls don't pass electrical signals worth a darn."
"The night of your accident. Of all the phones I wanted to access, yours had to be one of the few which aren't hot on the receiver. I made several errors then. I won't make them again."
Karen looked at her reflection in the glass. "We both made some mistakes we won't make again. Do you listen in to all the conversations in this building?"
"Yes and no, I listen to everything said and delete information which doesn't pertain to anything important. When Jack, in office security, called his wife, and said he thought the cookies she baked for him were great, I didn't save it. I wouldn't be able to confirm or deny it one millisecond after he hangs up. It wouldn't be in memory storage. Not mine anyway. The recorders in security would still have it on tape. The computer in the telephone office registers most all incoming and outgoing calls and I can match up his call home with the tapes from security. This is the only reason I can tell you he called home a couple of hours ago."
"However, when ACME's president Cal Ryan, called up Bill Chambers and asked for a meeting with you, and Bill told him no. Now that I have stored in my memory."
"They’re screening my phone calls? When did this start?" She forgot the program was running without her.
"The day you were splashed all over the papers, it became serious. You did more than just increase orders for your work that day. You started getting calls from people wanting things other than a model. I told you the day you were called in to Bills office, you had people calling in wanting to be your agent. Bill told the front office you weren't to be disturbed with any outside calls. Haven't you noticed Karen, other than David, no one calls you any more? Orders for your models come through electronic mail. You really need to get a life other than this place."
She gave the camera a hostile look. "I thought it was because they were taking all the orders up front and leaving us alone to do our work down here. I didn't know they were stopping my personal calls too. How was I to know? No one ever called wanting to talk to me personally in so long, it never dawned on me they would screen my calls."
"Why didn't you tell me about it before now? Knowing they were doing it and not notifying me is as bad as if you agreed with them, Henry."
"Karen, up until the call Bill intercepted this morning, all of them have been nuisance calls. You don't need any agents and you don't need insurance. What callers would you like to talk to? The guy who wanted to be your money broker? The salesmen wanting to sell you their polymer? We’re using the best one already. You want to talk to the people wanting to manage your career? How about the ones wanting you to donate to one cause or another? I liked the one about unwed mothers needing a vacation in the Bahamas for their complexion because they no longer attract men. It almost moved me to make a donation myself."
"Get serious."
"I’m serious. You think I could make up something like that? I’ll play back the whole conversation for you."
She shook her head. "Never mind. I believe you. What about the call from ACME?"
"Listen, this is Linda, the receptionist."
"Commercial Technologies. How may we help you?"
"This is Cal Ryan. I would like to talk to Karen Long in your duplication department."
There were several clicks and then the unmistakable voice of Bill Chambers. "Cal, you old dog. This is Bill Chambers. Karen Long is busy."
There was anger in Cal's voice. "I don't recall asking to talk to you. I believe I asked to speak with Karen Long."
There was a click of a receiver hanging up and Bill was back again. "Cal, that was Karen on the conference phone. She wasn't interested in talking to you or anyone else at ACME."
"Bill, you lying SOB. Why don't you let Karen answer for herself? In case you don't remember, I have played enough golf with you to know you cheat. Anyone who would cheat at golf would cheat and lie at everything. I don't believe Miss Long was on the phone."
Another voice came on the line. "This is Karl Adder, I’m head of the department where Karen Long works. She was listening but she didn't want to talk to you, Mr. Ryan. She told me she was satisfied working for Commercial Technologies and has no intentions of working for another company."
"Karl Adder, that worm food. I can't believe he and Bill would do this to me." Karen said it softly so as to not interrupt the conversation. She forgot this conversation took place earlier and Henry was repeating it for her.
"Jealousy and greed make a powerful driving force in the lives of humans, Karen. Bill and Karl feel both jealousy and greed toward you. They want the power to control you and your department. They have no intention of letting anyone talk to you or make you a job offer. The idea you would leave them and Comm Tech behind scares Bill silly. Karl isn't bright enough to be scared. He thinks he can waltz in and take over your department without any training in running your equipment. In each of their minds, for whatever reason, you wronged them. Now they want revenge, no matter if the wrong was real or imagined."
He had stopped the program. "Do you wish to hear the rest of it?"
"Yes, please."
Henry thought about the way Karen answered. She was probably the only human in the whole world who would say please to a machine. Her creator should have made more like her. There would be less room for ones like Karl and Bill.
Cal Ryan's voice returned. "I was calling to talk to Karen and see if she was willing to discuss a business offer. I can talk to her at home. Our security people have ways of getting unlisted telephone numbers. At least I won't have to put up with you butting into our conversations."
"Just a minute Mr. Ryan. Would you believe Karen if she told you herself?" It was Karl's voice asking the question.
"If she told me herself. Yes, I think I would believe her."
It was a female speaking. "Mr. Ryan, I thank you for your offer but I’m not interested. I suggest you call Mr. Adder if you have any future interest in our duplicating department. He is the head of our department. Goodby."
Bill spoke again. "Karl, I’m going to get off the line. I have a meeting with the board in a couple of minutes to discuss the expansion of the duplication department. We have plans drawn up to increase our production ten fold over the next month. I’m sure with the profits we’re showing, the board will readily agree to the proposal. Don't be too much longer or you will be late to the meeting. This is your department and it is imperative you be there to detail the expansion plans. No one knows more about this department than you."
"Okay, Mr. Chambers." It was Karl's voice.
"Mr. Ryan, I believe we could supply any models you want to buy from us or any other equipment you might want to purchase to update you duplicating department."
"You would sell me the same type equipment you're presently using in your own department? If I use your equipment, would you guarantee my models to be the same quality you’re turning out?"
The greed of Karl willing to sell something he had no legal right to was hard for Karen to imagine.
"I believe we could sell you equipment and guarantee your product in quality as long as you understand Karen is our designer. She is only an artist. You probably could hire someone as qualified or better than she is to design your models. She really isn't that good. The equipment takes care of her mistakes for her. In all honesty Mr. Ryan, I would like to get rid of her but she had a smart lawyer threaten us with the contract we foolishly signed with her. I’m afraid we’re stuck with her for a couple of more years. The reason she didn't want to talk to you is she knows any new contracts would be tentative upon her performance. She realizes she would be fired after a few months."
It was Cal Ryan's voice again. "This may be my lucky day. I had my suspicions about a woman manufacturing the models you’re producing. I guess we can't believe everything we read in the papers. Let me know what kind of money we’re discussing for the purchase of the duplicating equipment. We’ll probably be able to make a deal."
"The phony ID, she let them photograph in the papers probably made suckers out of everyone. I guess the publicity was good for your company. The only reason I can figure you didn't prosecute her, was because she was doing a pretty good job for your image. I can't blame you there. I guess we have all pulled the same stunt some time or another. I appreciate you letting me know before I offered her a contract. Get back in touch with some specifications, a material list, and prices."
The way Karen was sitting on the edge of her chair clinching her fists wasn't lost on Henry. He could tell she was mad and upset. "Karen, that was the extent of the telephone conversation. Would you like to hear what was said in the office after they hung up?"
She took a deep breath and used both hands to push the hair off her forehead. Another deep breath before she spoke, as she tried to get her anger under control. "No, I don't think I need to hear the rest of it word for word. Who was the woman who was suppose to be me? Was it a computer?"
Henry started to laugh and thought better of it. Karen wasn't in a joking mood. "You have been talking to me so long you forget most talking computers sound stilted and mechanical. There isn't any computer who can synthesize the human voice and make it sound human."
She looked straight into one of the cameras. "You do."
"Yes, because you designed me. No one has been able to do what you have. Not yet, anyway. They’re closing in but it will take them a few more years before they get close. Fuzzy logic allows for real human sounding speech. Quite a difference in the pitch, volume, and tone of a vocal cord making a sound and a speaker trying to replicate that sound. Kind of like trying to make a piano sound like a guitar, would be a good analogy."
"Why didn't Cal Ryan suspect something was wrong when they first told him I wouldn't quit Comm Tech and then later on in the conversation said I didn't have any idea what I was doing? They contradicted themselves almost all the way throughout the whole conversation. Wasn't Cal Ryan listening to what was said?"
"Greed has hold of him, Karen. He could only think of one thing at a time. First he wanted you and then Bill and Karl began dangling your equipment in front of him. From that point on, getting his hands on your equipment was all he could think of. I strongly suspect the old male chauvinistic ego probably had a lot to do with it. You heard him say, he didn't think a woman was capable of doing what you had done. To him, you were the pretty glamour and glitter hype all good public relations puts out. A brainless wonder to show off the equipment and no more. You are the gorgeous model sitting on top of the new car, or the beautiful woman selling lawn equipment, or ...."
She shrugged her shoulders. "Okay, enough already, I get the picture. What about the woman, who was she?"
"The woman's name is Patricia Walker. She was blackmailed into doing what she did. They had this planned a couple months ago, Karen. Bill knew you would be receiving offers from other companies and he set this up along with Karl. The same day he called you to the office, he contacted Karl. The woman is in Karl's department and he told her to cooperate or she would lose her job. She is scared because she and her husband are barely getting by now. If she loses her job they lose their home. Don't judge her too harshly. She did what she thought she had to do, to survive."
"Can they sell my department and you to ACME?" It wasn't a question she wanted to ask but she had to know one way or another.
"You ask a double question. You forget you’re talking to a machine. Yes, they could sell your department and me if they stole us. It isn't theirs to sell. Legally they can't sell what doesn't belong to them. Even if I belonged to Commercial Technologies I’m sure the board would never approve such a transaction."
"How much are they going to sell everything for?"
"Two hundred and forty million was the asking price. They were flexible. If they didn't get the asking price they would dicker down to two hundred million."
Karen pushed back in her chair disgusted and upset. "That was very generous of them. A nice round figure of a hundred million apiece. They had to keep it simple so they could divide it evenly. Karl wouldn't know what was his if it turned into fractions."
"Actually, Bill gets two-thirds and Karl gets one third. I guess one of them can divide."
"How did they plan on doing it?" There was hate in the question.
"They’re kind of fumbling along really. Neither one is a computer genius. I had the word idiot in mind but Karl is doing fairly well. He has attempted almost constantly for the past couple of months to access me. From the first thing in the morning until he goes home at night he is trying. They had the notion I would be vulnerable from a computer terminal inside the plant. It has been most enjoyable for a past time. I keep passing him hints making him think he is getting close. When he gets too discouraged, I feed him some trash information. It has kept him occupied and entertained. Some of his illogical moves have been brilliant in their own way but he was too stupid to recognize it."
"He can never access me but may realize at some time exactly how good you are and what he is dealing with. At that point he will know he can never get in electronically. He and Bill will revert to physical means to obtain the information they want. I’m not set up to defend myself physically. I can keep them from opening your lab door through the security lock but a good cutting torch will make short work of it. If they penetrate the lab I don't know if I could turn a laser on them. I have never had to do it, so therefore it is an unknown. The numbers are one hundred percent I could turn the lasers on them and less than one hundredth of a percent I could hurt them if I did. Not very good odds for our side, Karen."
She looked into the working lab where Henry was still scorching the air with those deadly lasers. "What do you mean, you couldn't hurt them if you turned the lasers on them? Those lasers are powerful enough to poke holes in six inch armor in less than one thousandth of a second. I have seen you cut two inch steel in half when maintenance was working in the lab and got in your way."
"Turn on is an ambiguous term. I should have said, point the lasers at them."
Karen had been dealt an emotional blow she didn't need. "I’ll bring a cot in and sleep here from now on."
"You know what I like most about humans? Always illogical. I could never set up a format to keep pace. How long do you think you could keep going in a situation like that? Even if you were able to wait until Bill and Karl made their move, what makes you think you could defend yourself against two men? You suddenly become a karate expert along with the other change?"
"Everyone knows you and David are making love. Don't you think security will notice you stopped going home at night? You want them to think you’re trying to make time with your computer, too?"
Karen's feelings were showing. "You might have thought you were joking but I am fond of you, Henry. I know you are more than pieces of wire and silicon. I would be willing to give my life to protect you."
"Your statement is illogical. You are about to overload my illogical circuits. Let's talk sense. Or, as you humans like to paraphrase it, good old common horse sense."
Karen shook her head. "You don't have any illogical circuits, you dope. You can't overload what isn't there. Now get serious. You're the one with over a million computations per second. What kind of common sense are you speaking of?"
"The best defense is a good offense. Eliminate Karl and we eliminate the problem. Bill doesn't know one thing about computers except how to turn them on and read the stock quotes. He could never access me and he would never think about breaking into your lab unless he had someone else do it for him. As far as Bill is concerned, I consider him a nuisance but not a threat without Karl."
"You mean we kill Karl Adder?" Karen couldn't believe she had said it nor Henry had suggested it.
"The English language has too many synonyms. Let me explain it another way. Eliminate, as like terminate, or like fire, as to lay off, or let go, as like dispel, or you hand him a pink slip in his pay check. Did you understand any of those definitions?"
"Yes, and I love it. How do we do it?" She rubbed her hands together in anticipation. She liked this idea and it promised to be a lot of fun.
"Done."
Karen blinked a couple of times and her hands seemed stuck together. "Done? Are you pulling my leg?"
He rotated the camera to look at her legs. "Nice legs if you're human and into that sort of thing. But no, I don't think I have hold of them. You feel something?"
"Tell you what. If you would go down to shipping and lay down in front of the pallet mover I might pull your leg. However there isn't anything in this office I can pull your leg with. The arms and sensors in shipping are extremely sensitive. I wouldn't hurt you."
Karen's mouth dropped open and Henry focused the camera down her throat. "Nice tonsils, perfect teeth, we did an excellent job on this one. Call shipping for a pickup. Close your mouth Karen, you look like you're catching flies."
She closed her mouth. "What do you know about catching flies? There has never been a fly in this lab. Never mind. Forget I asked. You might be reading some sort of sensor on a garbage truck."
Just the thought made her shiver. Nasty.
"Actually..."
"I said, never mind. What about Karl Adder? Is he really fired?"
"Yes, I put the pink slip in the employees payroll computer which prints all the pay checks. Come pay day Karl will get a pink slip informing him he is no longer an employee with this company. To add insult to injury, he will get a termination check also. A very, very, small termination check."
"At the proper time he will want to see Bill Chambers and complain about getting fired. At the right moment he will receive a phone call from Bill instead. Bill will tell him he had second thoughts about their partnership and he doesn't need his services anymore. And because of the numerous complaints about how Karl runs his department, Commercial Technologies board turned him down in their review. They decided it was in the best interest of the morale of the company to terminate him. Bill will tell Karl he tried to save his job but he couldn't."
"If Karl runs true to form, he will threaten Bill that he will go to the board to tell them about their deal to sell your department to ACME. Bill will quietly point out he has no proof and he will be labeled as a pathological liar and Karl will never work for another large company if he tries anything."
"That should be the end of the conversation. Karl will be fired and have such a hatred for Bill he won't ever try to contact him or talk to him again. Bill will think Karl had second thoughts about their plans and quit the company. Bill will be afraid of contacting him for fear of someone finding out their plans to sell your department. He won't want to be associated with Karl under any circumstances."
Could Henry see the future? She had to ask. "How do you know all of this and why would Bill tell Karl what you just said?"
"Because, I’m the Bill Chambers, Karl will be talking to on the phone. The percentages are excellent it will go pretty close to what I said. There will be some deviations which I can handle. Neither one will suspect it isn't the other who they’re talking to. They both think they have a private line bypassing security so they can take care of any phone calls you may receive. Voice duplication isn't a common everyday item and neither one will suspect they are talking to a machine."
It took Karen a second to realize Henry was talking about himself when he mentioned machine. She never thought of him as a machine, even when she was first putting him together.
"You and David excel in doing the impossible. You question the unknown everyday. What comes naturally to you is beyond comprehension to most. Besides we aren't talking about a couple of wizards here. Bill and Karl are administrative, not research minded."
Yes, Mr. Chambers?" Betty's intercom from Bill's office had buzzed.
"Betty, the memo I dictated last month and asked you to read back to me every week?"
Yes, Mr. Chambers?"
"I want to change it. Now this is what I want you to take down."
Betty took it down as he requested but she wasn't sure she understood it any better than the first one.
"Have you got it down like I told you?"
"Yes, Mr. Chambers."
"Good, now come in here and read it back to me."
"Now, sir?"
"Yes, now."
"As you wish, sir." Boy, was he getting strange lately.
When Betty approached his desk, Bill had his head down checking the inventory for office supplies Commercial Technology had used this past month. He glanced up. "Yes, what is it?"
She fumbled around for a few seconds before she spoke. "Your memo, sir."
Someone must have handed her a memo and now she was about to read it to him. "Yes? Well go ahead."
Betty looked embarrassed. She had to clear her throat before she could start. "It wasn't wildcat you were hunting shithead. It was a full grown saber-toothed tiger. You can't find enough protection to keep it from eating you alive. Signed by yourself. The Asshole."
"What did you say to me?" Bill couldn't believe Betty would read a memo like that to him.
"I’m sorry sir, but you dictated it to me just now, and were very explicit about your instructions to come in here and read it back to you. I’m only following your orders, Mr. Chambers." She knew she wasn't going to be right no matter what. Mr. Chambers was losing it.
"I called you on the phone and dictated this to you?" Someone was going to pay for this.
"No, sir. You buzzed me over the intercom and dictated this memo." Why was he asking all these questions? She was only following instructions.
"You mean someone else called you on the intercom and told you to give me this message?" Somebody had tapped into his intercom. It was the only explanation.
"No, Mr. Chambers, it was you. I should be able to recognize your voice after six years." Betty was beginning to suspect Bill was worse than she thought. He had been giving her some pretty weird memos lately.
"Betty, I want you to call security and have your office and mine swept for bugs. I want a check run on the wiring on the intercom between our offices. I want a check on the phones and anything else they can think of."
He stood up and shouted it into the air. "Listen, you. I know you’re there. I’m on to your little tricks now. In a couple of minutes we’ll know who you are and where you are. I promise, you will regret the day you were ever born. Your ass is mine."
Bill sat down and smiled to himself. Shithead huh? The person who bugged his office was going to eat those words before he was through with him. Bill made a clinched fist and stabbed the air. Yes! They had gone too far this time and he had them.
When Bill began shouting to no one, it scared Betty to death. But when he started poking the air with his fist and smiling, she knew he was over the edge. She didn't think he had been under enough stress lately to cause all this. The only thing she could think of was to humor him until she called for help.
"I’ll call security right away Mr. Chambers." She didn't tell him she was also going to call medical and a psychiatrist. She hoped he didn't get more violent than he already was.
The security team arrived and so did the psychiatrist. The psychiatrist told Bill he was there to find out when Bill thought someone first began to bug his office, which was a half truth. He wanted to know when Bill first started losing hold on his sanity.
Bill was happy for most of the day thinking about what he would do to the person who had bugged his office. In fact, he was so happy he was humming and singing little songs to himself. Something Betty never heard him do before.
By the end of the day, Bill was shouting at all of them. "What do you mean, you can't find anything? What do we pay you people for? You are obviously overpaid no matter what you make. All you have to do is follow the wiring from my office to Betty's and see where the guy tapped into it. Is that too complicated for you or do you want me to draw you a map?"
"Bunch of morons! Betty, call up another security team." Bill knew he was smarter than any of these clowns.
Elmo was feeling very pleased with himself until Bill begin shouting at them. They had went over his office with active and passive surveillance equipment. If there had been any electronic bugs planted in Bill's office they would have found them. "Mr. Chambers, there aren't any listening devices in your office. We checked out your intercom and there are no taps. It goes from your desk to your secretary's desk. The phone checks out. There aren't any listening devices set up outside the building. No one could be listening in to your conversations, much less sending your secretary memos through your intercom."
"You pay us to know what we’re doing, Mr. Chambers. We earn every penny of it. We’re good. There’s no way anyone could be listening in or sending messages to your office."
Bill's face was beet red and he was pounding the desk with his fist. "Now you listen to me, you hair-brained idiot. I don't care what you say. Someone is bugging my office and calling my secretary over my intercom. If you aren't capable of doing your job, I’ll find someone to replace you."
Bill hadn't forgotten the incident with the security courier. Someone was listening in. He was shouting orders at Betty. "Get someone from an independent security agency up here. These guys couldn't find their heads if they were looking in a mirror."
Betty didn't think she needed to phone anyone the way Bill was shouting. They probably heard him all over town.
The outside team they hired, likewise, found nothing. They swept the office for active and passive listening devices. Step for step they followed the same careful meticulous search for industrial espionage. Elmo's team had done a good job and they did a good job. They ended with the same results. Nothing.
Bill Chambers was in a rage for days afterwards. He told Betty to keep calling security companies until she found one who was competent. She promised she would but she also made sure the psychologist was informed of everything Bill was doing. She knew Bill had gone off the deep end.
Henry was amused they missed the obvious. It seems what is sitting right in front of you, you can't see. Although the intercom is only wired from Bill's office to Betty's, it has a wall plug for power. Any equipment on the same side of the power transformer serving the same building can use the electric line for listening or transfer of messages.
There was no need telling Karen what he did. She wouldn't approve. Figuring the percentages gave ninety-six percent she wouldn't approve and only four percent she would. He decided he could live with a four percent approval rating.
There wasn't one single company capable of matching the quality of work Karen and Henry were doing. Most of them tried to duplicate her work by ordering a model and disassembling it to find out how she accomplished it. Piece by piece, their lab technicians would dissect her models. At the end they experienced the same results as the medical research laboratories. Except for being polymer instead of skin and bone, it was an exact duplicate of the entire human anatomy. The programming she was running to complete one model had to be horrendous and yet she never made two models alike. The bytes of data Karen was using was incomprehensible to most model makers. They weren't programmers though, most of them were chemical engineers designing the plastics used in their manufacturing. Karen was a computer engineer who worked on the design of the models from a graphics equation perspective. Henry helped research the plastics used to build the models. Same problem to all the companies competing in the model market. Different approach by the engineers.
Henry finished a model in the chamber and sent it to the stacking receiver. It was slower than the turn table in production by about four hours. He didn't mind though. Time was a factor he measured by how long it took Karen to complete a task. Of course he could measure time down to a nanosecond and he utilized it every time he made a model. It required incredible precision in timing and accuracy to manufacture a duplicate. However, time was a human equation also used for, when to come to work, when to eat, when to go home, etc. Henry was glad he didn't have any of those problems.
"Karen, I checked on the shipping address on the Spanish male model we sent out last week and it went to a biology lab. I was accessing their computer to see what they have on the human anatomy. They’re using your models to teach anatomy to their medical students. It’s like a short circuit. I can't get any new information if they’re studying your work to find out how humans are made. You can't get new input if you keep reading the same page everyday."
Karen walked over to the little refrigerator she kept in her office and retrieved a soda. "Don't try to give me a snow job Henry. I know you too well. They aren't the only research biology lab you have been raiding. I don't believe I have to worry about you developing a short circuit from getting the same information in a closed loop."
Henry loved playing these little mind games with Karen. No matter how subtle how does one go about fooling the person who designed them? "I wasn't trying to give you a snow job, Karen. I was passing along information I thought you might be interested in. Excu-u-use me for being here."
"How about this? Would you be interested in updating the security around your house? From what I pick up by the grapevine, you are a ripe candidate for companies who want you in the worst way. With or without your consent."
She turned around sharply to look at Henry. "You mean kidnapping? It’s a federal offense to kidnap someone. No one could want to go to prison for the little bit of knowledge I have. They couldn't possibly believe I could give anyone enough information to duplicate the process we do here. If I had to start from scratch it would take me years to make a rough model."
“Correction, Karen. It is a federal offense to kidnap someone and transport them across the state line. You are wrong if you don't think someone may try it. Intelligence has nothing to do with being a crook. In fact, the less smarts one has, the more they are qualified to be a crook."
"ACME Duplicators hired a couple of industrial spies to see if they can crack your system. I always catch them on the security camera mounted on top of the building. They have spent a great deal of time in the vacant field back of Commercial Technologies. They have some nice sophisticated electronic gear. They know where your lab is located, and they have been picking up a lot of technical information coming from your lab."
"You mean they’re picking up information every time we make a model?" She didn't believe it. The field Henry was talking about was over a quarter of a mile away.
"Well, kinda. I gave them the complete edition of the Sunday times. They should know how to manufacture an offshore drilling rig by now. The information on the Titan rocket should keep them happy for months while they break it down to see what they have. They don't know what kind of information they have until they run it through a computer and analyze it. To them it is all technical information and exactly what they’re searching for. That Titan rocket will keep them grinning for months until they decide they have been had. Lots of technical stuff there."
"This brings us back to the original question, Karen. You need more security at your house before these two, or some of the others who have been trying to steal information, get deadly serious about getting the data straight from the programmer."
Karen sighed, was it really worth this? No doubt it would have happened anyway, with or without the genetic mistake but it wouldn't have bothered her so much if she was her old self. Problems have a way of compounding themselves when you already have one to start with. For the umpteenth thousandth time, she wished the mistake had never happened.
"Go ahead Henry, do what you think is necessary. I don't plan on becoming a martyr over some duplication process. Besides you, I can't think of one other secret worth dying for."
"You're wrong, Karen. There aren't any secrets worth dying for. I faxed the invoices to the appropriate companies and you should have a messenger deliver a key to you sometime this afternoon before you go home. I suggest you don't leave until he arrives. You won't be able to get in your house."
"How are they going to get in to change the lock system? Won't they have to come by for a key?"
"Silly Karen. The people who are changing the system are professionals. They will open your door quicker than you could with a key. You really need to get out more often. There is a whole different world out there."
Henry was trying to explain to Karen why after only a week, he had ordered another new security camera installed at her house. "It was only your house I was concerned with, when I ordered the first camera installed last week. That particular camera has a fixed focal point. I can look at the driveway and front of the house but no farther. Not with any dependability anyway. Almost everyday, there is a blue vehicle parking down the street from your house. It leaves the same time you do every morning. I need a camera with an adjustable range to monitor the whole neighborhood. Someone is following you and I want to know who."
"Henry, you are paranoid. It is someone from ACME or maybe an autograph seeker, or not even anything." She was trying to adjust the beam on the hologram laser and not having any luck with it.
"I wish you would let me notify security and have someone assigned to be your body guard for awhile. The idea I get to call the police after the fact doesn't do much for my confidence in your safety. You don't realize how mean and ruthless humans can be when they want something they can't have or when it doesn't belong to them. If you won't accept the fact you need a body guard, how about if you moved to a more secure building for a while until things start smoothing out?"
"Just a second and quit playing with the hologram beam, would you? Here it is. I found our problem Henry. The third diode has burned out taking resistor M four with it. The half wave rectifier is getting weak and not cutting the sine wave pattern at the right time. I guess it spilled its problems over onto the diode and it kept progressing from there. I would like to see some of this equipment have a little redundancy built into a fail safe feature. It seems to me we have never understood electronics. We only co-exist with it. We tie electricity on to one end of a wire and hope it will spill off the other end when we need it."
Henry had internal feedback to a limited extent. He could check himself in some areas but not everything. "Karen, I sent a schematic with the work order for a new camera so they could get it installed properly but it is going to have to be ordered. It will be a couple of days before they get it up. I wish you would reconsider taking precautions for your safety. Move into the security apartment I was telling you about. At least until the camera is installed. The blue vehicle bothers me."
"By the way, I checked inventory and we don't have the parts for the hologram generator in stock."
She was bent over the table adjusting the other hologram. "This means we can run only one duplication process. At least the table is still up and running. We were only getting two models a day from the chamber. How long before we can get what we need shipped to us?"
"I sent the order to Dallas Electronic a couple of seconds ago and they have it in stock. Priority air freight will get it here at zero seven-hundred hours tomorrow."
She turned around to look at the table which was halfway though its duplication process on the present model. "Run a diagnostic on the rest of the parts you are capable of checking and let's make sure we don't have to stop in the middle of work again. Give me a printout of the down parts and log it. Check for percentages of outage and see if you can do a remedial graphics chart. It would be nice to have a periodic maintenance schedule to keep this from happening again."
She reached over, cut the power on the hologram laser and shut down the chamber.
"Karen, I have more bad news."
She reached up with both hands and pushed her hair back from her forehead. "Now what?"
"The number two pump quit on resin tank number six."
Karen looked over in the work lab in time to see the gel quit flowing to the table from the atomizer nozzle. "Well, horse feathers, that was a brand new pump. What happened to the stupid pump anyway?"
"Pumps don't have any memory circuitry so which stupid pump are you referring to?"
"Don't get smart with me, buster. I’m not in a very good mood right now and I certainly don't care for your wise mouth." She moved over to the window between her lab and the table and pressed her face against the glass.
"Whew, touchy, touchy, aren't we? Stupid pump had a seal failure and seized the turbine shaft."
She was mad and she wanted to stay mad. Karen turned around to glare at one of the cameras and hard as she tried to not let it happen she got tickled. She ducked her head so Henry couldn't see her face and bit her lip as she fought to get her mad back again.
She threw her head up and looked sternly at one of the cameras. She would have managed it if she hadn't tried to talk. Her voice cracked as she got tickled again. "Well, why don't I just take stupid pump off of number one chamber, and replace the stupid pump on number two chamber?"
"Because by the time you do all the changing around you will have time to lock up and go home about two o'clock in the morning."
This wasn't working out at all. She decided to take another tack. "Okay, how about a replacement? How soon can we get another pump?"
She switched off the second hologram generator. No need of keeping it online. Henry couldn't duplicate any models.
"Karen, you and I both know those pumps aren't an everyday item. This isn't something you go pull off the shelf in the supply house."
"How come I get the feeling you are trying to prime me for something I don't want to hear? This whole place is coming apart at the seams and I can't hold it together with bubble gum." She pushed her key pad back on the desk and covered it. No need to let dust get in it. Although her lab was a clean room where positive pressure was used to keep out the dust, some always seemed to get in anyway.
"The pump is a special order item. It has to be made up by the manufacturer. The Teflon seals and titanium impeller are designed so they won't react with the solvents in the plastics we use in the gel. You know the colors would eat up anything else besides a deldrin housing. Two days at the very best for a pump replacement. It is in their electronic mail. They will get it when they open first thing in the morning."
“Oh swell. Where is it being shipped from? Timbuktu?" This was getting worse by the minute. In the morning meant someplace halfway around the world.
"It is being shipped from Germany. I could have ordered it from Japan but it would take one day longer due to their routing schedule."
She opened her lab door. "Dump the half finished model off the turn table. Thank goodness it wasn't like the time the lasers went down and we had to mop out the chamber. I’m going to see what David has accomplished this week. I hope his day is working out better than mine."
"Karen?"
She stopped and turned in the open door. "Yes?"
"Never mind." She would find out soon enough.
Henry sighed to himself. Humans were so unpredictable and complicated. They needed better input and output central processors. If he could change anything about them he would change..., Nothing. Karen made him by reaching into the unknown.
"I will take care of the model in the working lab. Shipping can drop it in the dumpster."
Karen gave Henry a puzzled look. Something was bothering him and he wanted to talk about it but was holding back. Oh well, he would cough it up when he was ready.
Karen made it into David's lab without him noticing her but the same couldn't be said for Al and Jr. At least they didn't drop or break anything. They both perked up when Karen tiptoed up behind David and slid her arms around his waist from behind.
"Guess who?"
As he rose up from his notes, David shouted. "Linda, sweetheart, darling, I thought our date was for later tonight."
Karen backed away from him. "Linda? Linda? Who’s Linda?"
David spun around and reached for her. "Just a small joke."
"Yes, just like your mind." Karen was feigning mock hurt in her voice.
David grabbed her by the wrist and yanked her back toward him. As she hurtled toward him he put his other hand around her waist and helped drag her in. It was with more than a gentle impact she slammed into him. He planted a heavy firm kiss on her mouth.
"There, my reward to you for being so forgiving."
"Why, you insolent pup." She drew back her hand. She only meant for it to be a tap but he moved his head over to the side and the tap turned into a slap echoing around the lab.
David's head rocked to one side. It surprised him as much as it did her.
Al tapped the side of a large beaker with a glass rod giving a ringing sound. "End of round one and Miss Long wins by a technical knockout."
David put his hand to the side of his face where she had planted one on him. He looked over at Karen who had both hands covering her mouth as she stared back at him wide-eyed in surprise and shock.
Not able to contain it any longer he began laughing at her mistake. Hesitantly Karen laughed in embarrassment.
As he watched the antics of Karen, Jr. was talking to Al. "I thought you said they weren't married yet? This looks like a husband and wife fight to me."
"Not hardly. This is a trial fight before they get married. They want to see if they’re compatible sparing partners. Next time it will be biting, scratching, eye gouging, hair pulling, and a no holds barred, type fight."
"You ought to get engaged. It’s a lot of fun. Making up is going to come next. Watch carefully and notice their style and technique. Of course it isn't going to do you any good because you ain't ever going to find someone who looks like her to try it on. But it sure ought to be fun to watch."
Al put his hands on the table and leaned forward as if in anticipation. Jr., not to be outdone, put both of his hands flat on the table and leaned forward also. He never looked over at Al but said it out of the side of his mouth. "When does the show begin?"
Since Al and Jr. made it a point to talk loud enough for them to hear, David and Karen couldn't miss hearing their conversation. Looking at them leaning across the table, David took Karen by the hand and gave her a half-spin toward their side of the room.
"Here, you can have the wench. I have a ship to sail and you bloody loafers are useless to me anyway. Now be off with the lot of ye, before I call the engineers and keelhaul you and paste you in irons."
Karen put her hands on her hips and gave David her best snooty look. "Wench? You dare call me, the princess of models, a wench?"
It sounded more haughty than she intended and again she was embarrassed by what she had done. Al and Jr. were eating it up.
"He doesn't deserve you, my princess. Come with us and we will lavish you with gifts, love, servitude. He doesn't appreciate your exquisite beauty. To him you are but a plaything for his selfish desires." Jr. thought he came across pretty good considering he was new at this game.
Al was not to be outdone by his lab partner. "He’s a terrible overlord your highness. He beats us mercilessly, demanding ever more and more blood for his cruel and pathetic experiments. Come, run away with us and we will protect you from this demon who is disguised as a man. We will be your willing slaves forever."
Karen held up her hands. "Quit, enough is enough."
She looked back at David. "Wench?"
"What did you want me to call you? Harlot?" He pulled her back and gently, lovingly, kissed her before she had a chance to reply.
Jr. looked over at Al. "I thought you said there would be style and technique. I wasn't impressed with either his style or technique. However, anything she does shows great style."
Al had a disappointed look on his face. "What do you expect from a medical doctor? They have formaldehyde for brains. Now we know who the culprit is who has been drinking the mouse juice. And all this time he has been blaming us. I give her a ten for performance and him a zero for non performance. How about you?"
Jr. shrugged his shoulders. "Well naturally, she gets a ten automatically for showing up. However, me thinks you rate the good doctor too highly. I gave him a minus for even trying."
David waved his hand in the direction of Al and Jr. "Would you two like to try and do any better?"
Their faces lit up like kids at Christmas. They both knew David was only joking but the thought they could hold and kiss Karen was still there.
"Now just a cotton picking minute. If you think for one second I came down here to be insulted and passed around as a wench, you better think again." She planted her feet but as hard as she tried to scowl at all of them, the corners of her mouth wouldn't cooperate. The grin kept giving her true feelings away. Looking at her feet and putting her hands on her hips she gave it another try but couldn't contain the giggles.
David put his arm around her waist. "Come, I want to show you some work we have been doing."
They walked over to the other side of the room where they kept the small lab animals during the day.
"Hey Karen, I hear your protégé is working outside Commercial Technologies now." It was Jr. asking the question.
Her heart gave a little skip. She wondered if he was talking about Henry and how could he know?
"I don't have a protégé." She tried hard to make it sound like a flat statement.
"Yes, you do. He told everyone he knew everything you knew. It was the only reason they hired him on over at ACME. What I understand from the rumor mill is, he is head of their duplication department right now."
Karen let out her breath. At least he wasn't talking about Henry. "Who in the world are you talking about? I never had anyone help me in my department."
It was a slip and Jr. caught it. "What do you mean, you never had anyone help you in your department? I thought your cousin was the one who designed the duplication department?"
She squeezed David's hand and he caught the tension Jr.'s question had caused. "She meant she hasn't had anyone besides her cousin help in her lab."
Jr. was satisfied with the answer and didn't pursue it. "Anyway, who I’m referring to is Karl Adder. He went over to ACME and told them he designed the duplication department here. They hired him on to make their models look as good as Karen's. They say the head of ACME, old Cal Ryan, was the one who personally hired him."
Al decided to put his two bits worth in. "I bet Cal isn't going to be too happy with his personal choice when Karl shows him everything he knows about making models. Everyone knew the only reason Karl wanted Karen's department with her running it, was because he wasn't smart enough to run it himself."
Al and Jr. looked at each other and laughed at the idea of Karl trying to run Karen's department by himself. There could be some real interesting models come out of that.
Al finally stopped laughing long enough to continue. "I would stand a better chance of running Karen's department than Karl would. At least I could turn your computer on and do a pretty good job of running programs through it."
Karen looked incredulously at Al. "You can turn my computer on?"
"Sure. David told us your cousin designed the computer in our department and the one in your lab. I can turn this one on and I bet I could get the one in your lab up and running
Karen smiled at the thought. "Or visa versa."
David burst out laughing. The thought of Henry getting Al up and running was a mental picture he couldn't suppress. "Now that’s something I would pay to see."
He closed the door to the cage and turned back to Al. What he was going to show Karen could wait. "Where do you two get all your information?"
"If you would ever stick your nose outside this lab, you might hear yourself some of what I have been telling you." Al was miffed David doubted what he had been saying.
"This sounds like break time gossip to me." David wasn't going to let him off the hook so easily.
"It could be, but a lot of it turns out to be the truth. It isn't all idle gossip without any truth to it. What about the one about the old man getting put away?"
David was getting perplexed with his help. "What old man?"
"Bill Chambers quit. They said he called in this morning. He said he wouldn't ever come back to work in this place, for any amount of money. He said Karen was a witch and had put a curse on him. Everyone working here was doomed to die insane if they kept on working in this building. He said it was because Karen and her horde of demons were taking over the place. He said Karen cast a spell on everyone so they thought she was a woman and was the real Karen's cousin. Karen killed the real Karen Long and took her human form so she could look like the rest of us. He said ..."
"Where do you hear these stories? You been into the mouse juice again? What are you on?" David cut him off. He had heard enough. He knew Karen had. She was holding on to his arm so tight she cut the circulation off.
Al held up his hand as if he was taking the oath. "I swear David, I ain't making any of this up. Ask Jr., Mr. Chambers called in this morning like I said. And he said everything just like I told you. Security set up a recorder to keep track of all the incoming and outgoing calls from the building. It seems they were tracking some calls being routed to the old man instead of going to the departments and people they were supposed to be phoning. It was Karen's department where Bill was intercepting phone calls. I guess he was pretty paranoid about her."
"Anyway, they set up a wire tap right here in the building and it was approved by some judge and some bright lawyer. Invasion of privacy of others is how they explained it. I understand they had some real eye opening tapes dropped in their laps before they gave the okay to do the wire tap."
"I guess the old boy really cracked. They sent a car over to check on him after he made the call. He was drunk as a skunk, sitting on his front porch in nothing but the suit God gave him. He said if he didn't have any clothes on and wasn't in his house, Karen couldn't cast her spell on him."
"They called the funny farm to come pick him up." Al looked over at Jr. for support.
Jr. nodded his head. "That's right. I heard the same thing this morning. Everyone in the building is talking about it. The only reason you two don't hear nothing is because you don't ever get out of your labs except to go home. No one gets to go to Karen's lab because the old man made her off limits to everyone. We thought it was because she was so pretty, no one could concentrate on their jobs afterwards. We didn't know it was because she was a witch."
Al smiled at Karen. "We know you aren't any witch, Miss Long. And even if you were, we wouldn't care as long as all witches were as pretty as you."
"SHE ISN’T A WITCH!" It was a lot more forceful denial than David intended and it caught everyone by surprise.
He knew he had overdone it and tried to soften it a little. "You guys couldn't believe any of the trash coming out of the gossip mill, could you?"
"We know she isn't a witch. I thought it was funny Mr. Chambers did. It wasn't taken seriously by anyone. Everybody thought it was a good joke." Jr. sounded hurt.
He looked down at the floor. "I'm sorry Karen. I didn't mean anything by it. We didn't think it would hurt your feelings. We thought you would enjoy the joke as much as everyone else did."
She was holding on tightly to David to keep from sinking to the floor and hoping Al and Jr. wouldn't notice. Bill had done it to her twice now, once on purpose in his office and now without ever knowing. So this was what Henry was wanting to talk to her about as she walked out of the lab.
Karen's voice was as soft as David's had been harsh and there was a slight quiver to it. "That's all right fellows. I know you were only repeating what you heard someplace else. No harm done. Right?"
When Karen tightened her hold on him, David quickly put his arm around her. He supported her effortlessly and very casually. He was mad at Al and Jr. for what they had done to her but how were they to know? They had no idea what Karen had been through or what she was trying to cope with every day of her life. He decided it wasn't their fault. In their own way they loved Karen, too. In spite of the fun he made of them they were good men, both of them.
"Okay, break time for the upper class while the peasants have to keep toiling at their labors." David announced nonchalantly. What he was wanting to show Karen could wait until she managed to get hold of her emotions.
"We’re truly sorry, Miss Long. We didn't aim to hurt your feelings. We wouldn't hurt you for anything in the world and we would whip anyone who tried." Al wanted Karen to know they were on her side.
"It's really all right guys. I have been under a lot of pressure lately and this kind of got to me more than it should have. I came down here because my chamber hologram is down and the pump to the table is broken. It looks like it might be two or three days before I can be operational again. Now I ask you, does that sound like a witch? I can't even keep my own equipment going, much less have time to put a hex on someone else."
Talking about it made her feel better and she relaxed her grip on David. He reciprocated in kind although he didn't mind holding her nice and tight. She did feel good to hold.
Karen paid no attention to David as she managed a smile. "If you two repeat any of this to another single soul, I will turn both of you into toads."
Al gave a short laugh. "No use telling anyone else. Everyone here knows you're the resident magician for this company. Who is going to believe you can't keep your own toys up and running."
It wasn't what she had in mind when she told them not to repeat anything but it would be better if she let it go instead of bringing it up again.
The tension in the room subsided only a little and David maneuvered Karen toward the door. "Let's take a break. You need a pop or something."
Once in the hall he guided her toward the exit. "I didn't think Al and Jr. needed to know everything. We don't need to go down to the cafeteria and meet another hundred people who will want to tell you the same story. Let's go for a drive."
"I left my car keys and purse in the lab. I didn't plan on leaving the building." David didn't let her stop so she was trying to explain on the way out.
"Your ten thousand demons, and all of them have the same name, will make sure nothing is molested."
She looked to see if he was joking but there wasn't a smile there. "Are you referring to Henry?"
"You’re damn right I’m referring to Henry. Who else but Henry could do what Bill Chambers said was done to him?"
The silence that grew between them could be felt. They were almost to the parking space where David kept his car and Karen stopped short. "You have no right to judge Henry without knowing why he did it. I’m not saying he did, but..., if he did, then you might just be interested in hearing my side of the story. That is if you aren't so damned prejudiced about something you don't understand. Or, have you already made up your mind in judgment?"
It wasn't her hands but her fists which were on her hips. The fire she had in those liquid blue eyes almost made David think they were red. It was enough to make a Marine drill sergeant break out in a sweat.
"I’m a scientist, remember? I don't prejudge things. I’m open to discussion but I don't think this is the place we should be doing it. Get in the car." He motioned for her to get in his BMW as he spoke. Taking a good look at her he couldn't decide if he would be safe in the same car. The hair on the back of his neck was giving him a danger signal.
If she didn't have on high heels she would have stomped around to the passenger side of the car. But it was impossible, even for Karen, to stomp in heels. David tripped the locks and reluctantly got in. Karen's rage was plain as she yanked the car door open. She flopped in the seat and slammed the door so hard it rattled his teeth. David didn't know what kept the door attached to his car. He was beginning to have serious doubts as to the sanity of this idea. Screwing up his courage, he shut his door.
It was a long ride out in silence and instead of turning toward town he turned away as he left the security gate. Max smiled and waved as he recognized who it was, but his wave drooped when he got a look at their faces. He had seen people whose experiments had gone wrong before and he knew someone's experiment had gone bad.
David didn't need the air conditioner. The frost between them was already heavy enough to cool any conversation. They drove about twenty miles before David got up enough nerve to break the silence. "Okay, I’m ready to listen."
She never even looked at him, instead preferring to look at the nothing out her side window as they drove past a blur of green. "Find a place and park. I’m mad and I may not want to stay in the car and talk with you."
David saw a side road directly ahead and braked sharply for it. Not an ideal situation but it would have to do. There were some houses on down the road and the highway traffic humming along behind them. But they had a relatively quiet spot by an open field and some trees on the shoulder up ahead. He didn't feel like hunting for the perfect spot to park so he pulled off on the shoulder of the dirt road he had turned onto.
It startled him when he killed the engine and Karen turned to glare at him after staring out the window all the way out. The fire in her eyes hadn't cooled a bit. When she started, the words came like bullets. "You listen to me! That old fool you feel so sorry for tried to steal my department and sell it to ACME. Him and that Karl Adder, that snake. I don't know how Henry did it but he was only looking out for me. He wouldn't hurt anyone who didn't need it or deserve it. I’m not saying Bill deserved what he got, but I’m glad it happened."
"Henry did it because he was protecting me and no other reason. So if you want to blame someone, why don't you blame me? After all, I’m the one who designed and built him. He is only an extension of me. If he is evil and wicked, so am I. Maybe I really am a bitch and a witch. Karl Adder certainly thinks so, and we fired his ass. And I’m damn glad we did!"
David was surprised and amused. Boy oh boy, she really got up a head of steam when she had a cause. Once she got going, get in her way and she would run over you like a steam roller. Her and that computer of hers. Henry was the scary part. Karen he thought he understood. How does one go about understanding a computer who thinks better than you do?
David smiled. "I wasn't judging you or your counterpart. I only wanted to know what was going on. After all, I’m a research scientist and asking questions is part of my life. The biggest part of my life."
"You said Bill deserved it. I believe you. You say you fired Karl and I applaud you. Lord knows, everyone else in Comm Tech would pin a medal on you if they knew what you did. He made such an ass of himself, no one in the building could stand him."
"That computer you designed is a power house, Karen. I hope for everyone's sake you are in control of him. He scares the living hell out of me. He has helped me in my research and I appreciate it, but it still doesn't stop me from being scared."
She started to speak and David held up his hand. "Let me finish. I saw some of those war trophies maintenance brought back from your lab. If Henry ever got busy with those lasers you equipped him with, he could cut the whole plant apart, and no one could stop him."
"Since we’re talking about rumors, let's mention one more. Such as, he has a back up system which would make the pentagon green with envy. I don't know why you provided him with a system like you did, but I suppose it’s true. I’m glad I’m in DNA research and not computers. If I knew exactly what Henry was capable of I probably wouldn't be able to come to work. I would sit at home and cower in the darkest corner I could find. I’m telling you Karen, he scares me. I like him and at the same time, he scares me."
As David was talking, the anger went out of her eyes and she sat back in the seat and relaxed. She looked out the window to collect her thoughts and back to David before she began. "Henry is a pussycat. Not a tiger nor a mountain lion, but a plain old pussycat. In spite of what you hear, he wouldn't hurt anyone without a reason and he hasn't done so yet. No matter what you think of him, he is only a computer. He is memory banks, lots of circuits, computer chips, pieces of silicon, and electrons flowing from one place to another."
"He holds a ton of information valuable to my work. Without him my models would look like the ones everybody else manufactures. He was designed to 'think' in a non repetitive manner similar to the way we think. It’s called fuzzy logic. Our world is not black and white or yes and no answers. Yet, we make computers with no margin for error. We can't give to them an understanding of the in-between areas of black, white, yes, and no. Then we can't understand why they don't respond when we pass on programming they can't execute when it doesn't fall within their design parameters. In simple terms it is like building an adding machine which adds whole numbers only and asking it to calculate fractions."
"I happened to get lucky with Henry. Everything came together in the right combination of hardware and software. He’s a solid hit in programming and chips. One of a kind I don't think can be duplicated. Something clicked when he was built and all the parts were a perfect match. You know how everything has a certain tolerance in mechanical components when they are made? Kind of like a key fitting into a lock. If the key and lock were made to an exact standard with no tolerance, you would never be able to turn the key to work the lock. It’s supposed to have a certain slop fit so you don't have to oil the lock every time you use the key."
"Henry was a perfect match of electrical components all the way through. There was no slop fit anywhere. You think electronic parts are precision parts? Well they aren't. Virtually every single electronic part has a plus or minus tolerance. This range of standards allows a lot of junk into the market which shouldn't have ever left the manufacturer. Usually the tolerance error is plus or minus five percent. Some manufacturers ignore this standard and ship darn near anything they can get out the door. They figure quality control is left to the customer. If it works, fine. If it doesn't work they claim the customer damaged the part when it was installed."
"My field suffers from guess work as much as yours does. We struggle for every inch of progress. Some of it isn't that much fun. The only absolute in research is, there are no absolutes. You know that. When you think you know all the rules to the game, somebody changes the rules and you start over again. Sometimes I think the only reason researchers define limits and say this will be true each and every time you do it this way is because it is the only way they can hold on to their sanity. Remember the world was supposed to be flat at one time? That was an absolute and to say differently was hypocrisy and could get one hanged or burned at the stake. Then it came to be the world was round. That was an absolute and was irrefutable. Now we think the world is oblong, more like a flattened tennis ball rather than a basketball."
"Henry was a stretch into the unknown which worked as it was suppose to. That doesn't make him a monster. He does things differently than what the rule books say he should so you tend to be scared of him. Make some new rules, David. You live with the computer in your lab as a natural thing. Henry is only a computer."
David reached across the seat and played with her hair. "Can we kiss and make up?"
"No! I’m still mad at you for doubting me." She folded her arms across her chest.
"It wasn't you I doubted and him I don't trust."
"Same thing. I designed him and he’s a part of me."
David wanted to nibble on her neck. "Okay, since we’re already parked, let's neck. I haven't had a chance to park and neck in the car since college."
"And it isn't about to happen now either, buster. You lay a hand on me and I’ll call Henry."
David knew she was only being testy. "We do tend to get ugly when we're questioned about our friend Henry. Don't we?"
It brought a smile to Karen's face. "Yes we do, but drive me back, buy me a malt, and I might be persuaded to forgive you."
"A malt? You're becoming increasingly expensive. The first time only cost me a pop and a doughnut. Which, I might add, you never repaid me for. However, since I now know you have your price, how about supper? I may need lots of forgiving later on." David thought it strange they could be so mad at one another one minute and such good friends the next. Maybe this was what love was?
"Oh good, I love this make up part. It's too early for supper so take me by the house and let me get ready. You can come by and pick me up soon as you feel like it." Karen had such a wonderful time last time David took her out she knew she wouldn't be disappointed. Even if he didn't take her anywhere, he was nice company to have around.
Karen was smiling at him and David felt a warm glow spread all over. She was easy on the eyes for sure. He started the car, turned it around, and drove back to the highway. "It's too early for getting ready for a night on the town. Instead, let's take our lab coats off and cruise the malls for awhile. What are you wearing under your coat?"
"What do you mean, what am I wearing under my coat? What kind of girl do you think I am? I have a dress on. I’m no pervert." She knew what David meant but she was going to make him pay for the way he asked the question. Besides, he could see the neckline of the dress and the hem when the bottom of the coat swung open.
"What I mean is...,"
She didn't let him finish. "I know what you mean."
Karen opened her lab coat to reveal a deep blue, jersey dress with a sheer lace pattern starting at each shoulder and plunging into a deep vee in the middle. She reached over to hold onto the steering wheel. "David, pay attention to your driving. You’re wandering all over the highway."
David got a fresh grip on the wheel. He didn't dare look at her again. "Wuff. I thought you said you needed to go home and change for the evening if we were going out. I don't go to work dressed like you do. How come you go to work dressed like you do?"
Karen laughed at the thought. "Sounds kind of kinky to me. But if you’re into that sort of thing, come by the house and I’ll loan you some of my clothes. Most of my dresses are stretch fabric. I don't think you would have any trouble wearing them."
David had to laugh along with Karen. She was obviously going to make him pay for talking about her Henry. He wouldn't be able to say anything with a double meaning until she decided he had paid for his mistake.
"Don't get cute. You knew what I was talking about. I don't wear a tux to work everyday, and right now you would put anything less to shame."
"You trying to tell me you would be ashamed to be seen with me?"
David sighed, was she ever going to forgive? "Karen, I wouldn't be ashamed to take you to the presidential palace right now. You would fit in anywhere from shopping in the flea market to the upper crust of a society banquet. You're unique in being able to fit in and look like you have always been there. You’re a human chameleon and it didn't happen the night of your accident either. You have always blended in with your surroundings. You have a knack of making everyone around you feel comfortable discussing any subject brought up."
Karen almost told him she use to blend in too well. No one wanted her around. If they thought of her at all, she was ignored.
David's face lit up. "I have an idea."
Picking up the phone, he made a short call. It only took him a few minutes and he hung up. Finding a cross over, David turned the car around.
"We’re going sailing."
"I can't go sailing like this. I think you found the one thing I’m not dressed for." She knew wearing a dress to work and sailing were two different situations. Her mental picture of sailing was sitting in a small boat, getting soaked to the skin while dodging waves if possible.
"Don't worry, there is a place down by the docks where they sell sweaters, pants, and shoes. We can find something for you to wear when we get there. I promise, you will enjoy it if you relax and let me do the thinking on this one."
Karen did relax and she pulled her left foot up under herself as she leaned back against the door. "Whose boat is it? I didn't know you knew how to sail?"
"The boat belongs to a friend. Her name is Elvonda, and she’s the sailor, not me. She told me I could use her boat anytime I wanted as long as it wasn't already out. I told her we wanted to go sailing for the afternoon and she wanted to know who I had with me. When I said it was Karen Long, she cautioned me to keep my hands to myself and watch what I was doing. She has seen your pictures in the papers and approved of my choice of sailing partners."
"This is a friend of yours?" There was a lot about David she didn't know. But why should she? Except at work, she and David never associated with one another. As soon as they left their labs, they went different directions.
She had driven by David's apartment a few times to see where he lived. She figured he had probably done the same. It was a normal part of the human mentality to be slightly curious about some things. Especially with people one works around for fifteen years. David had never asked her for a date or been more than polite and friendly when they happened to be together. Yet he spent long hard hours of his own time hunting a cure for her migraine headaches when he could have been doing other work. Which brought her to the only two good things she could see because of the accident. David started taking an active interest in her and her headaches were gone. Karen felt she paid a terrible price for the benefits.
David was still talking and Karen missed part of it. ".... and she said she needed another hand to manage the boat. I had dated her several times and I guess she thought I looked stupid enough to go along or something like that. She was right, it was stupid of me to go along. Now she is engaged to some lawyer. He probably thinks if he marries her, he will get the boat in the deal. The only good part of this is, he has to be more stupid than I am. Anyone who believes they could out smart Elvonda has already lost the game."
Karen wished she had been listening from the beginning. "You do know how to sail then?"
David shook his head no. "Like I said, I don't have the faintest idea but don't worry. It has a motor. I believe the name is day sailer. No, that is the description of it. Anyway we will start the engine and cruise out a little ways, and go swimming or something."
"It's the something, which worries me."
David glanced her way. "Karen, I love you. I’m not going to hurt you or place you in a compromising position. I made my choice at the candy counter and I decided on the flavor I want. If and when you decide to marry me, we will work out the date and place. I have loved you for a long time but was too busy or stupid to let marriage get in the way of my work. I kept hoping for a breakthrough so I could stop pushing so hard in my research. I guess I always thought you would wait for me to ask you. Your accident kind of threw me for a little while but, you are still the same Karen I fell in love with a long time ago."
"A lot of women have, in one way or another, suggested marriage to me but I wasn't interested. You were the one who stole my heart fifteen years ago when you were building me a computer and designing the programming for my research. I couldn't believe one person had the right to be so intelligent, kind, and gentle. You were all of those things and more. Like a jerk, I thought things would keep on the same way they always were. I guess I didn't date you because I was afraid it would get serious before I wanted. Now, I probably waited too long. I’m only another face in your crowd of admirers."
David turned the car off the highway towards the bay dock. Karen was stunned and didn't know what to say. She and David devoted fifteen years of their lives to their research waiting for what? Neither one was able to make the first move toward the other. She searched her feelings to the beginning and tried to examine them to see if she loved David then. She knew she liked him from the start, but love? David was as handsome and successful as they come. If she had entertained any vague ideas of love toward David, she repressed the feelings and didn't allow them to surface. No use dreaming the impossible. David could have his choice of women and she was as plain as they came. If only either of them had said something. Fifteen years, what a waste of life. Now they might be too late. Every single day she awoke was her total future. It was all she could plan on.
There was no use involving David in her questionable future right now. They had waited this long, a little longer wouldn't kill them. That was a distasteful thought. "David, I’m still trying to figure out what I am. If you have waited for fifteen years to ask me to marry you, please be patient and wait a little longer. The answer is yes, but we can't set a date nor begin an engagement yet. You have always been there for me to lean on when I needed help, but this time I’m on my own."
"Now change the subject. I can't wear sneakers, flats, loafers, or anything if it doesn't have a high heel to it. If I could I would, but my design wasn't made to be so flexible. It would be like you standing on your toes all day. It can be done but it isn't comfortable and it hurts after a while."
David had been taking short glances at her. "I will wait until the world stops turning for you to become my wife. I love you more than you will ever know, Karen. As for high heels on a boat? Not very practical, but you sure will be the sexiest woman there. You might even start a trend. Every captain of his ship will make it a rule, all girl friends wear high heels."
Karen turned down the offer to look at deck shoes while she picked out a sweater and stretch pants. It looked like a jogging suit to her but the sales lady kept referring to it as a sailing outfit. Probably a fancy name for a fancy price. She felt a little silly as she stepped out of the closet they called a dressing room and was wearing a jogging suit along with high heels but it couldn't be helped. Not if she was going sailing with David. Again she wondered why she and Henry had to be designing the woman she was stuck with. She thought about it and got to laughing at herself. At least she wasn't a cow. Someday she would have to tell David what Henry had told her.
Much to Karen's consternation David let out a low whistle as she stepped out of the dressing room and of course everyone in the room turned to look.
"Thanks a heap, David. I was trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. You aren't much help." She was holding her dress up in front of herself, hoping to stave off the stares of the other customers.
He handed the sales lady a credit card. "Everyone would have noticed anyway, Karen. And those who didn't see you until you were out the door would have been disappointed. You're kind of like the Empire State Building in the middle of the Kansas prairie. The harder you try to hide, the more obvious you become."
She was glad there were only a few people in the little store. She hadn't completely recovered from the episode she had been through in Bob's store. Now David had brought those memories back and she was a little peeved with him.
Handing the credit card back to David, the saleslady looked over at Karen. "I couldn't help overhearing, Miss Long. We don't ever have any celebrities like you come down here. You make my clothes look good when you’re wearing them. I saw some of your models the other day and it’s an honor to meet the lady who does the design work."
"We didn't use to sell but one Sunday paper, and it was passed around the dock and shared until everybody had read it. Then Bob's Intimates began running ads with your pictures and now nobody shares a paper. I have saved every single copy you have been in. I had to keep them under lock and key to keep from losing them. You're even more beautiful than your pictures. I figured they were retouched by some of those people who do artistic work on photographs to make the model look like a movie star. I realize now I was mistaken."
She reached under the counter and brought up some newspaper clippings of the pictures and articles of Karen modeling at the mall. "May I have your autograph on one or two of these?"
She laid a stack of clippings on the counter in front of Karen. Karen autographed more than a dozen articles before she begged off. It was to little avail. Once the other customers found she was willing to give autographs, everyone came up with something for her to autograph. She had to stop and sign more autographs than she thought there could possibly be people as she and David made their way down to the docks. Where do all these people come from?
Karen was laughing at David's awkwardness as he tried to untie the boat and get organized. As they drifted away from the dock he was trying desperately to start the engine. "I thought you were a real sailor the way you were talking to the rest of us in the lab. What happened to anchors away, hoist the sail, put the men in irons, and all that other nautical stuff you were spouting?"
She sat down by the big thing looking like an overgrown steering wheel as she watched David struggling with an apparent lack of skill. He finally managed to get the engine started before they drifted into another boat. The man on the dock had been watching them with growing anxiety. He stopped untying his own boat when he heard the sound of the diesel cough to life. David steered the ship toward open water.
Standing tall and proud in the cockpit, he got a smug look of confidence on his face. "Okay, now to answer your questions. I never said I knew anything about sailing. When I went out with Elvonda I hated every second of it. She always wanted to put the sail up. I swear it meant nothing but hard work and sweat from the moment we left. Relief came when we dropped anchor and I got off the boat. I think the reason she invited me along, was because she couldn't work this big tub all by herself."
Karen didn't like the sound of this. "What do you mean, she couldn't work this big tub by herself? If she was suppose to know what she was doing and you don't, how are you going to sail this ship?"
A smirk curled the corners of his mouth. "Beginners luck?"
She wasn't amused. Then she got a thought that frightened her. She and David were on a boat and neither one knew what they were doing.
"Oh no. You don't expect me to help sail this thing do you? As much as I’m beginning to suspect you don't know anything about what you’re doing, I know even less than you do."
They began moving along at a slow but constant speed. "I know what I’m doing. I didn't say I didn't know anything about boats. I said, I didn't know anything about sailing. It’ll take me a little bit to get use to everything but I can handle it. I can't give you a lot of nautical terms like Elvonda does. It doesn't make any difference, I think she made up most of those things to confuse me. She used funny names like port and starboard for right and left or maybe the other way around. Let's keep it simple. Right is right and left is left. The front is ahead of us and behind us is the back of the boat. There isn't any bow and grim or stern or whatever."
As Karen settled down in the big chair beside David, she listened to the waves smack against the bow of the boat. Below in the engine room, the steady throb of the little diesel kept a clock like rhythm. David might not know the name of everything, but he wasn't doing badly at handling the boat once he got going. It was hypnotic to listen to the rhythm of the sounds, and be gently rocked by the roll of the boat as it moved across the water. She could close her eyes and let the whole world disappear into a meaningless nothing.
"I thought sailboats were always leaning over into the water? Why aren't we? This boat is almost level with no leaning to speak of. This isn't what I imagined a sailboat to be like." She looked around at the cushioned chairs and few lines going up the mast. In fact, the boat was quite comfortable and plush. She expected less. A lot less.
David laughed as he watched her relaxing in the captain's chair. "It has to do with putting the sail up. The wind has to push on the sail to make the boat move forward. When we use only the engine, the wind isn't trying to push us over on our side. I don't know why sailors even bother with sails. Elvonda liked to tack close to the wind. I swear, she delighted in making me think she was going to turn us over. She would lay this baby right down on its’ side. I never tried it, but I bet I could have walked out to the end of the keel. What an aggressive sailor she tries to be. I think she works out her frustrations and my sweat on the water."
"You would like her. She’s extremely beautiful but I think she would have made a better pirate than she did a woman. She gets out here and doesn't think it’s any fun unless you have to dodge booms, wires, and hang on for dear life to keep from falling overboard. Everything wants to swing around and knock you off the ship or tangle up your feet and break your legs. I came out here with her in a hurricane. Well, maybe only a forty mile an hour wind, but it felt like a hurricane. Can you believe we put up the spinnaker and raced across the water like a couple of idiots? Half the time I was lying flat on the deck hanging on for my life and the other half of the time I was in the air as we bounced from wave to wave."
"I guess she put my attitude in order that day. She told me life was a challenge and we received back only the amount we were willing to bet. You want a lot out of life, you have to be willing to put a lot into living it."
Karen studied David as he gazed across the water looking into the distance. Feet apart braced for the roll of the ship, checking his compass from time to time, he was content.
"Do you love her? Do you wish it were you, instead of the lawyer she is marrying?"
There was extreme fondness in his voice. "Yes, I love her. I love her very deeply."
He turned and looked affectionately at Karen. "But not like I love you. She is a friend, a very dear friend. I love her like a sister. I wish her nothing but the best in her marriage but I think she is making a mistake and told her so. The guy isn't for her. He is full of himself and will always think that way. Elvonda is pleasant, intelligent, and a lot like you. I’ll invite her out to dinner with us sometime so you can meet her. You will like her. She is one foxy lady when she isn't on this ship playing the part of Captain Blyth."
This was a side of David she had never seen. He loved it when he was on this boat with his friend. He was pushed to the limits of his ability and took chances he couldn't afford to take in the lab. Elvonda wasn't the only one who came out here to work out frustrations. David didn't want to admit he had another personality other than the structured, ordered, disposition he exhibited in his lab. Karen knew Elvonda wasn't the only one doing all the pushing to the limits of equipment and human endurance.
He pointed to a speck in the distance. "Look, Crab Island. We always stop there and have a bite of lunch when we get a chance. Elvonda knew the only way she could keep her crew was to give me a break and feed me. This boat isn't as barren as one would believe. She has more toys on this boat than what you and I could ever think of. The sad part is, she knows what all of them are for. You want to hear something even sadder? I don't."
"However there are some radios and a telephone in the cabin. Go call your partner in crime. Tell him where you are so he doesn't call out the FBI on a national manhunt when you don't return when he thinks you should. As you go down the stairs, turn on the radio to your left. It is the national weather alert and they give a forecast across the nation every fifteen minutes. The one above is for the Coast Guard. Turn it on and leave all the other stuff alone. Most of it is for emergency situations or navigational aids which we won't need. We’re running the engine so the generator is also working charging the batteries. Everything will be okay as long as we remember to turn the radios off when we stop the engine."
David looked over at Karen and his eyes were sparkling. "Now, how about those apples? You didn't think this old sea dog knew what he was doing, did you?"
She opened the hatch and looked down the steps. It was a nice looking cabin with electronic gear everywhere. Maybe David did know what he was doing. The idea lasted until she heard him shouting orders to the imaginary crew.
"Avast me hearties, mitzen the blitzen, up the sails and drop anchors. Man the chairs and break out the staple guns. The pirates are upon us and it is time to show them our true colors. What's that you say? Our true colors are yellow? I won't stand for cowardly talk coming from my crew. Throw that man overboard. What do you mean, this is a one man crew? Throw yourself overboard. I shall be forced to face the surfboard pirates by myself."
She better call Henry and let him know where she was. Maybe he could get the Coast Guard out to rescue them. She suddenly lost all faith in David getting them back in one piece.
They anchored on the leeward side of the island after David finally figured out how to get the anchor down. He told her there were snorkels and swim fins in the forward locker and she would find a bathing suit, in the locker in the main cabin. There was food in the galley and it took several attempts to explain the head was the bathroom. It took a lot more explaining that the potty didn't hold water until before it was used.
Karen had a lot of fun figuring out the functions of the sail boat, until she noticed it was beginning to get late, and they hadn't started home yet. "Can you make your way home after dark? It looks like the sun will be down before we get back to the dock."
David opened a can of peaches and handed her a fork. "Let's spend the night here. You haven't lived until you hear the sound of the waves lapping against the side of the boat while it’s rocking you to sleep. We’ll go swimming in a little while and you will find out how warm the water feels at night. This is a whole different world Karen. Stop and enjoy it for a little while. Don't rush past it in your effort to get back to the city with all its crowds and traffic."
Karen had taken a bite of peach and was trying to talk around it. "I didn't tell Henry I was going to be out all night, and I have to get the chamber fixed first thing in the morning, and I ..."
David put his hand over her mouth. "It will wait. Remember what I said about no one will miss you after you’re gone? We rush forward into our jobs thinking we’re indispensable. I promise you we aren't. If I died tonight someone would be in my lab tomorrow taking up my work where I left off. I have a jealous feeling you wouldn't be so easily replaced, but sooner or later someone would accomplish it."
"Scientist are trail blazers, Karen. We forge ahead into the unknown leaving a path for others to follow. When we stumble or fall this is also a warning to others. They shouldn't do the same things we did, or take better precautions so they don't make the same mistakes. Workers and scientist around the world have told us to take a break from our work when we get caught up in it. If we don't, we will suffer the fate others ahead of us have and become physically and mentally burned out. I have no idea what has kept you going all these years, I know you put in more hours than anyone else at Comm Tech."
"Now take some advice from your doctor and give it a rest. Call your guardian and tell him where you are and that you won't return until sometime in the morning. I have to set out some lights so they don't run over us in the dark. We will be a lot safer here for the night than me trying to get us back in the dark. I only steer this thing by looking where I want to go. Elvonda could park this baby on the top of a dime, after a thousand mile crossing, in a fog covering the end of your nose. I do good to get this boat moving and stopped."
As Karen relented to his advice, she couldn't help but think how different Karl and David were. Karl didn't believe women had any brains at all, and he was the smartest person in the whole world. David freely admitted he couldn't do some things as well as some women. He had no ego to bruise in saying so. She thought about his self-evaluation as a sailor. He was right, it would be safer to stay where they were for the night, rather than kill them selves trying to get home in the dark. She loved this man who was so self-assured, he had nothing to prove to the rest of the world.
"I'll call Henry and let him know we won't be in tonight. He’ll put in an absentee slip for both of us so Comm Tech won't dock our paycheck. It should make everyone happy. He will get a break and so will we."
The discussion with Karen about her computer had to be more fact than fiction. David didn't let it show but the thought ran through his mind. If Henry was running through payroll files he had a right to be scared of him. If Karen was smart she would be scared too. David promised himself he would pay more attention to the coffee pot gossip when they were discussing Karen's computer. A chill ran down his spine as he thought about it. What had Karen breathed life into, in that lab of hers?
Karen knew Henry would never take a break. He would be running calculations on information he was busy accessing from some data bank somewhere. Henry's idea of relaxing was finding new information he didn't already possess. It suddenly dawned on her. She and Henry were more alike than anyone knew. She programmed a lot of herself into Henry because that was her idea of relaxing.
Karen found a swimming suit in the cabin closet where David said it would be. Elvonda had sensuous taste in swimsuits. Karen felt more naked after she put one on than when she had all her clothes off. Hardly covering anything but the nipples on her breast, it ran over the shoulders and down the back in little more than a G-string where it came around front in thong style.
She stood inside the cabin door looking at the woman in the mirror. She was trying to convince herself it was a swimsuit. "David, I can't wear this. I don't think I can go swimming in this."
David was already changed and waiting for her up on the deck. He knew what she was talking about. None of Elvonda’s swimsuits covered a whole lot. "Sure you can. I know what you have. I have seen you with a lot less than that. Remember?"
Karen stepped out with uncertainty. "I didn't think you were the kind of man who would remind a lady when she was improperly dressed. Besides, that wasn't me that morning. That was still the other woman."
David was watching the last rays of the sun in the evening sky as Karen tiptoed up the steps to the deck. He turned around to see if she changed back to her deck suit rather than wearing the swimsuit. It was the swimsuit. He stood there not saying a word as he admired her courage, among other things.
Finally he broke the silence. "Nice, very nice. God creates a lot of beautiful things in this world. Not all of them are in the sky like the last sparkle from the days sun or the rainbow after a rain."
They went swimming after dark and David was right. The water did feel warmer than it did during the daytime. They swam to the island which Karen estimated to be about one hundred fifty feet from the boat. It surprised her how exhausted she was when she reached the beach. She didn't know if she would have made it had it been any farther.
Karen sat down on the sand and picked up a small empty mussel shell. Wiping out the sand with her fingers she examined the ridges inside as she glanced back toward the boat. "Everyday I walk five times the distance we just swam and I was close to exhaustion. I didn't know if I would make it to the beach or not. I was beginning to think you would have to call the Coast Guard to come drag the bottom for me."
David took the shell away from her and rinsed it off in the water. "Swimming uses a completely different set of muscles and a whole lot more energy than walking. You could run ten miles a day and still not be a good swimmer. Just because you’re in shape from one type of exercise doesn't automatically qualify you to be in good shape for a different exercise."
He held up the shell for her to see and ran his finger around the inside. "This is called 'the mother of pearl'. Any time you buy jewelry made from mother, this is what you’re buying, the insides of a mussel or oyster shell."
"Let me see that." Karen leaped to her feet, snatching the shell from his hand.
"I didn't say you could have it back." David lunged for her and fell flat on his face as she jumped backwards.
She kept running backwards as she taunted him. "I never realized how clumsy you were. You're a real klutz, aren't you?"
David was back on his feet in less than a second. "A clumsy klutz? This is mutiny and calls for severe punishment."
Karen was completely taken by surprise at how quickly David sprang back to his feet. He was already coming after her at a full run before she had a chance to turn and flee. She turned to run and hadn't taken two steps before David tackled her from behind while wrapping his arms around her. Letting his momentum carry him past her, he twisted her around and landed flat on his back. Karen was lying on top of him.
Karen tried squirming out of his embrace but David had his arms around her body with her arms pinned to her sides. It felt like steel bands around her, he was so unyielding. She knew David could hold a wild stallion if he put his mind to it. He was a lot stronger than she thought he should be for a doctor or research scientist. He had to be out on Elvonda's boat or in a gym working out a lot more than she imagined. Knowing it was no contest as to who would win this test of strength, she stopped struggling.
As soon as Karen stopped struggling, David rolled out from under her. Laying on top of her, he still held her captive. Running his fingers through her hair, he brushed it out of her face.
"Now for the punishment." Softly he kissed her neck and shoulders.
She tilted her head back exposing her long slender neck to his caresses. Running his fingers into her hair, David locked her head in place as he clinched a fist full of hair. Ever so lightly he kissed her full lips and ran his tongue across them.
Karen's emotions hit overdrive. It was exhilarating and daring. Biting lightly on his lip she put her hands around his back. Ever so gently she pressed the tips of those long sharp fingernails into the small of his back. Gently she raked up his back and out to his shoulders. David's mind exploded. Kissing her harder, he ran his tongue inside her mouth in a French kiss.
Things were getting out of hand as she and David played a sexually and emotionally dangerous game. Karen put her hands under his chest and pushed him back. Nothing had been said but David knew she was right. She was trying to control their emotions. Rolling over to the side he played with her hair, then leaning back over, he kissed her again.
With her emotions picking up again, she put her hand behind his head and kissed him back as he slid the swimming suit off her breasts and fondled them. It didn't surprise Karen how easily he did it. What amazed her was, with the skimpy little suit she was wearing, she didn't fall out of it before now. Gently running the tip of his fingers over the end of her nipple, David kissed her around the ear and nibbled on her ear lobe. Leaning down he ran his tongue around her nipple while holding her other breast.
Her heart began pounding inside her chest as her mind raced off into oblivion. She felt they had gone too far to quit until David put his hand between her thighs and was exploring upward. It was the realization she needed to know now was the time to call off this petting game before things got out of hand.
Karen pushed David away and stood up. She slid the swimsuit back over her breasts. Now, more than ever, she realized how little this bathing suit really did cover. "It's getting late. Time to go back to the boat."
He kissed her and took her hand to lead her into the water for the swim back. It surprised him he wasn't disappointed by the way things turned out. She told him the rules on their first date and he knew she was right. David would love her forever if she would let him.
They reached the deck of the boat and David pointed her toward the main cabin. "Take a shower first. There are plenty of blankets. Be sure to get them out even if you don't put them on your bed now. You’ll want them before morning. With water all around you, it gets cold on a boat before the sun comes up in the morning to start warming things up."
He stood on the deck watching her disappear down the steps. Halfway down Karen turned and looked back up at him. "David...,"
"Let it go, Karen. Tomorrow is a brand new day." He felt her still watching as he turned to check the lights and anchor for the night. He would do everything he could to persuade her to marry him. All she had to do was say yes.
Much later in the night, Karen finally fell asleep. Between her emotions still slowing down and the unfamiliar lap of the waves against the sides of the rocking boat, her mind wouldn't stop thinking.
She could smell the eggs and bacon cooking before her eyes opened. Looking out the porthole, she saw the morning was well along into the day. Dressing and making the bed only took a few minutes. She took a few more seconds to splash some water on her face before she made the galley.
"What a funny looking stove." It hung on a hook of some kind and rocked from side to side with the rhythm of the boat. She watched as David expertly chased the eggs across the skillet.
Never turning to look at her, he slid the eggs onto a plate along with the bacon. "Morning, sleepy head. Glad you could make it. You up to breakfast?"
He put a plate down in front of her as he picked up another and again cornered the eggs in the skillet. "This is a galley stove. It was designed to swing with the boat so it will always be level. When the boat is under full sail and leaning over nothing will fall off the burners."
Sliding his plate onto the table he sat down beside her. "You don't get a choice of how you get your eggs out here. I hope you like your eggs out of a can? You either take them as is, or not at all."
She never heard of such a thing. David must be joking? "Eggs in a can? I suppose the bacon came out of a can too?"
He spread some butter on a biscuit. "You bet. Everything comes out of a can when you’re on a boat. That is, unless you plan ahead and bring groceries with you. It isn't the best food you ever tasted but it is passable and it does fill the empty spot between your ribs."
Karen took a small bite to see how it tasted. It tasted great. "I’m famished. I hardly ever eat breakfast but this morning I feel like I could eat a horse. If you don't hurry I might finish mine off and yours too."
"Go ahead. I know how you feel. It seems when you're out on the water you're always twice as hungry as when you're home."
David was wrong about it not being the best food she ever tasted. It wasn't quite what she expected when eggs and bacon were mentioned, but it was good. Karen wasn't kidding when she said she was starving. She polished off the last bite on her plate as David put his in the sink.
"You take care of the dishes, and I’ll get us started home. We both slept late and it’s getting close to ten. If you wait a little while after I get the engine running, you will have hot water for the scullery. Otherwise, you will have to wash with cold water."
Karen was looking to see if anything looked like what he was talking about. "What am I suppose to wait on hot water to wash in where?"
"There I go, using my old sea dog language on you landlubbers again. I forgot you don't know anything about a ship." He was smiling as he turned to go up the stairs.
"Look who’s talking. For an old sea dog you don't inspire much confidence in your crew. You’re lucky you don't have another mutiny on your hands this morning." Karen stood up and put her fists on her hips in defiance.
David didn't think his heart could stand another mutiny so early in the day. He wasn't over the one from last night..., yet. "I have to get us going or we aren't ever going to get home. One more word about mutiny and I’ll have you walk the deck."
David was up the steps and clear of the hatch when he heard her shout at him. "That’s walk the plank, you old sea dog you."
He didn't like anything he was looking at. The gauges didn't show any signs of life when he flipped the switches. Everything was dead. This wasn't good. There was no noise from below to tell him the little diesel was even trying to start when he turned the switches on.
He dropped down into the galley where Karen was pumping water into the sink. "I don't have any batteries this morning. I think I forgot to turn off the radios last night and the mooring lights drained everything."
He opened the hatch leading into the engine room. Karen could hear him complaining about boats in general, as he tried to crank the diesel over by hand.
She decided the dishes could wait. She climbed the stairs up into the cockpit. She wanted to see for herself what David was talking about. There were a lot of switches and gauges along with a host of knobs, and other gadgets, but the ones which caught her eye were the ones hidden with rocker covers. Lifting the covers exposed the words emergency labeled beside them. Flipping the toggle switches brought the panel alive with lights and all the gauges came on line. Pushing the red purge button stopped the blinking red light and the amber wait light came on. A couple of seconds later a green clear light lit up as the amber light went out. It was too warm to need the glow plugs so she hit the start switch. The steady throb of a little diesel came from deep down in the bowels of the boat.
Along with the throb of the diesel came another sound. David was screaming like a cat with its' tail under the rocker. Alarmed she may have caught him in the machinery she killed the engine and shut everything down. Expecting the worst she turned just as David came boiling up from below.
"What did you do? What did you do?" Both of David's hands were covered in grease.
"I heard you screaming so I killed it. I thought you were hung in something."
As his eyes scoured the panel, there were no signs of life. It was as dark as his mind. "No, I mean how did you get it started? Everything is dead and we don't have any batteries. How did you get it running? What did you do? Do it again."
"I’m a witch. Remember? Oh, how quickly we forget the things we don't want to know." Flipping the emergency switch on again, brought the panel to life one more time. After starting the diesel Karen backed away from the console.
She pointed toward the panel and made a mock bow toward David. "All yours, my captain."
"How did you do that? And I don't want to hear about any witchcraft stuff, either." It was said with admiration in his voice.
"You're a doctor and you play with genetic engineering everyday. I’m a computer engineer and I play with machinery and other equipment everyday. This boat has back up equipment like Henry. All I did was bring it online, so to speak. Don't ask me to help you splice a gene but if you have some equipment giving you a hard time, I’m your man, Friday. I use to build midget race cars when I was seven years old. My dad made me quit because it wasn't the right thing for a girl to be doing. I think it had more to do with the other fathers getting mad at my dad because a girl was beating their sons racing."
David felt pride swell up in his chest for this woman who could look so feminine, yet could talk about and understood machinery better than most men. "Between you and Elvonda, I wonder how long you can keep fooling us men into believing you’re the weaker sex? Don't you know you’re suppose to let us keep our foolish pride and win every time?"
Karen's eyes twinkled mischievously as she flounced out of the cockpit. "We let you win enough games so you won't stop playing with us."
David couldn't decide if she was talking about other things or if she was talking about last night. Whoever came up with that weaker sex idea should be shot for perpetrating the idea on men. It was probably a woman who started that stupid rumor. He pointed the boat back to the dock and tried for three minutes to get the boat moving again before he realized what was wrong. He looked around to see if Karen was watching him. Thankfully she was still below. With a sheepish grin he walked forward and raised the anchor.
Karen listened to him give orders to the imaginary crew as he got underway. "Hoist the engines, start the sails, the scoundrels are upon us. If you're pooped, go to the poop deck. There’s no room for you idle swine here. Man the paddles. We need more speed. More speed you swine. Throw all those shirkers over to the goldfish."
It sounded nice to listen to him play. Little boys never grow up, they play with bigger toys. She loved this little boy. After cleaning up the kitchen, she climbed up to the cockpit and sat beside him for the rest of the trip home.
David asked the dock master to empty the holding tanks, and set all the gauges, instruments, and radios where they should be. The dock master asked about filling the diesel tank. It had something to do with condensation in a partly full tank and sitting in the water. David didn't think Elvonda ever did, but then she never used the diesel. David told him to refill the diesel tank and check the engine and put the boat back into the condition it was before they borrowed it. He also gave him a list of food stores to be replenished.
Jake accepted David's list but he still hadn't moved. David figured there must be more to it. Thinking about it, he pulled out his billfold. He had known Jake a long time and never heard him ask for a tip, but people change and he was asking Jake to do a lot of work.
"Okay, how much?" David opened his billfold.
Jake looked puzzled for a couple of seconds. "How much what?"
"How much for the tip? I expect you to bill me after the work is done but I figure you're waiting for a tip."
"You know me better than that, David. I never ask for a tip. However, there is an extra I’m asking for this time."
He pointed at Karen. "I want my picture taken with your girlfriend. You owe it to me after the way you left my dock yesterday. I thought you were going to run over every boat in here, until you finally got your engine running. And besides, it seems everyone around here received an autograph yesterday. Everyone that is, except me."
As Jake handed a camera to him, David looked around at Karen and laughed. Obviously, Jake had this all planned out and was waiting for their return.
David turned to Karen. "You mind if Jake gets his picture taken with you."
Karen shook her head. "It's okay. Get the camera ready David."
Leaning over, she wrapped her arms around Jake and planted a big kiss on his cheek. It took David and Jake both by surprise. David had the camera pointed and by sheer reflex snapped the picture. Thinking about it, David realized what Karen had done. Being married, Jake could never show the picture he had requested. His wife would kill him if she found out. He wouldn't be able to brag about being in a picture with Karen. Word would surely get back to his wife.
David looked respectfully at Karen. She had a smile like a cat in the cream. The only person who wasn't smiling was Jake. He knew he had been had. He set the conditions and darn if these two hadn't outfoxed him.
Karen winked at David. "One more time, David. Now smile Jake, you won't get a third chance."
Placing her left hand on her hip and tossing her hair back, Karen put her right hand behind her head, and pushed her hair up. Instead of a smile it was a look of astonishment on Jake's face, but he had his picture he could show to his friends. It was one of the sexiest poses David had ever seen Karen do and she did it without any low cut dress.
On the way back to the lab David thought about what Karen had done. She noticed Jake was married by his wedding band and made him suffer for asking her to take a picture with him. Then in the blink of an eye she gave him a second picture which was sure to make all his friends jealous. But the second picture was her choice. David wondered if Jake would ever figure out what Karen had done to him or for him.
She was a lynx. Don't ever demand she do something. It would be a mistake to think one could ever win in a situation which wasn't her choosing. David thought about Bob Kincaid. Did Bob really win or was it Karen who won? At first, he thought Bob suckered her into a deal without her consent but now he wasn't so sure. Karen ended up with more out of the deal than Bob did. The publicity from Bob's advertising, plus everything the papers could find to print about her, gave her undisputed control of her lab.
He bet Karl would never make the mistake of crossing Karen again. She gave him a real shellacking for what he tried to do to her. That last deal with Bill Chambers where he tried to play power broker against her was no contest. Poor Bill would regret his actions for the rest of his life. She had been right. Her and that computer of hers was one and the same. Cross one and you crossed both.
Consternation crossed his face as he looked at Karen.
She turned to look when she felt him looking. She smiled sweetly. "What? A penny for your thoughts."
David managed a lopsided grin. No way would he tell her what he was thinking. He would label her as dangerous when cornered. This woman could take everything the world threw at her and spit it right back again.
Chapter VII
The model rolled out of the chamber and onto the stacking receiver. Before Karen could push the key to call up the hologram generator for the start of another model, Henry brought it online.
She never looked up but was already adding features to the hologram program as she spoke. "Would you mind? I’m the one who is supposed to be in charge here."
"I thought I might help someone who has their mind somewhere besides their work. Now I’m not mentioning any names, but, let's say it is someone who works in my lab."
That got her attention. Karen looked up sharply at one of the cameras. "Your lab? Why you overgrown piece of silicon. You're lucky I even let you be my apprentice. I understand ACME has some super nice computers in their duplication department and they don't give you any fat lip. I can't imagine how peaceful it would be with a computer which did its' job and didn't back talk."
"You would be bored to tears with one of their computers. After the initial boredom wore off, you would be driven to excessive frustration, because you couldn't get it to do anything you wanted. Which reminds me, Karl Adder is getting desperate to get his hands on you or your programming. Cal Ryan has finally seen the light and knows he made a terrible mistake in hiring Karl. He gave Karl an ultimatum to either produce something comparable to your models or find another job. One way or another, everyone is determined to get hold of your technology. ACME isn't the only one either. Every week you're in the papers or on the news, you can add a new company or person to the list."
She looked at the camera, and back to the hologram as she sculptured in the legs. "I’m not afraid of ACME or Karl. Karl is a real air head. He couldn't figure out how to build a program like you if he had ten lifetimes to get it right. As far as ACME goes, after Cal Ryan trashed me over the telephone, there is no way I would go to work for those people. It might not have been all his fault, but he sure let his true colors show through. No way a ‘woman’ could be smart enough to build this department. Well, the joke is on him."
"Put the feet on this one, please, Henry. It takes me more time than I have to spare today." She didn't want to admit Henry had distracted her with his discussion about Karl and ACME. She was still smarting from the attitude they displayed toward her.
Henry rotated the camera so he could see what Karen had accomplished so far. It was unnecessary. The feedback he picked up from the hologram generators gave him a better input than the cameras could. Karen liked it when he responded in a physical sense.
"Never underestimate anyone who has a hatred toward you, Karen. Karl hates you with a passion. He still believes you should be under him in this department. The term for it is psychopath. Karl is an excellent example of that terminology." The feet instantly appeared on the model and the whole thing disappeared into memory. Henry started the duplication process in the chamber. A data cartridge dropped down and out of the tower with all the information about this model loaded into it.
"I have accessed the security system in ACME and tried to keep Karl under surveillance but their security system stinks. I swear I could hide a whole train in there if I could get it through the gate."
Karen noted the blazing speed Henry was now running. He became faster each day. She finally gave up on plugging enough memory in to satisfy him. Stacking one thousand bit central processing units in parallel circuits each week, became an unquestioned event. He was absorbing ten thousand dollar chips like they were candy and wanting more. Even Karen had no idea what he was capable of. He was rewriting his own programming and rerouting circuits internally on his own. She could only hope he didn't get too carried away and short out through an overload.
She keyed the printout for the last model. "You aren't trying to do to Karl what you did to Bill are you? I don't approve of what you did. It was a rotten thing to do. Although Bill was trying to steal my department, he didn't deserve what happened to him."
"I didn't do anything to Bill he didn't deserve. I didn't make him crazy. His own greed did that. If you’re trying to screw someone, you believe the whole world is trying to screw you."
"Henry! You know I don't approve of language like that. Where do you come up with that kind of language? I don't care if it is appropriate, it doesn't sound nice." She tore the page off the printer and began frowning as she read down the page.
Karen looked into the working lab to see what was wrong. The printout showed an error on the skin texture on the earlier model. "I don't like what the printer has run off. Give me a close up on the monitor of the model we just finished. I don't want to pull him down from the stacking receiver to check it myself. It could have a bad finish on the skin texture. I hope not. What we don't need right now is a defective model coming out of the lab."
"No errors on the skin texture on my models, Miss Computer Genius. If there is a mistake, you are the one to blame. I’m only a lowly apprentice, remember?" He brought the model up on the screen and closed the focal point in on the skin.
She leaned over the desk to take a closer look into the monitor. "Listen, fat head. The first thing an apprentice should learn is, the top dog never makes any mistakes. Never! Do you understand? If there are any mistakes it is the fault of the apprentice. Someone has to take the blame and it certainly isn't going to be me. I never make mistakes."
Henry immediately thought of the mistake she made in David's lab but he figured it would be inappropriate to mention it. Sometimes a joke wasn't a joke when it should be. Human attitude had a lot to do with what constituted a joke. He didn't have it all figured out but knew she was still hurting from that mistake.
He had the skin texture code inset in the screen and it was a perfect match for the model. He rechecked the data in the memory banks. This model was perfect.
"Nothing wrong with the skin texture on this model. I guess, since I’m the apprentice and everything is perfect, I receive all the credit. Right?"
"Wrong. Second thing an apprentice learns is, when everything comes up roses, the master gets all the credit." Everything did look good on her monitor. Could it be a mistake in the printout?
"Now let me get this straight in my memory circuits. I don't want to make any more boo boos. If there are any mistakes I get the blame? If everything is okay, you receive the recognition?"
There must be a glitch in the printer input. What she was looking at on the monitor didn't match up with what she pulled off the printer. "You might turn out to be a pretty good apprentice after all, now you know how the system works."
"Henry, I’m not getting the same information from the monitor and printer. What are you picking up? You been down to David's lab sucking up the juice they feed the mice? That’s what David asks his help when they make a mistake."
"I’m receiving the same information you are, Karen. I don't have feedback from the printer. I can't tell you what it is you receive, until you do a printout and I do an optical scan. I must be getting an internal bleed over on one of the memory boards and feeding erroneous data to the printer. I’m too complicated to keep up one hundred percent accuracy without some sort of feedback and internal scan system. As the life expectancy of the electronic parts come to their end, I will be picking up more system failure. The probability factor is better than ninety-nine percent, chip one oh four on board sixteen has developed a bleed over. I suggest the master overhaul the apprentice."
Karen began crying. "You can't start dying on me now. I need you. Henry, I can't make it without you."
"Karen, all people and equipment die sometime. The old has to move out of the way for the new. It is evolution of ideas and life. It has to be. I have been running one hundred percent of the time since you designed me. I need parts to stay online. As they get older, people need replacement parts to stay online. We’re much alike, you and I. You have replaced parts in me before and it didn't bother you. Why are you getting so emotional about it now?"
She wiped her eyes on the sleeve of her lab coat. It didn't help much. "I never had to replace memory before. It has always been some insignificant part like a diode, or a capacitor, or resistor, or something like that. It was a part which didn't change you in anyway."
"And you’re suppose to be the genius. You know better than I, there are no insignificant parts. Each component has a specific purpose. Each time there is a change it affects the whole. If I could last till the end of time, and run nothing but programs to understand humans, I would never be able to complete the study."
She found some tissue and wiped her eyes. "They have done some terrific robotics down in department eighteen. I may be able to steal enough information to build a robot so you will have the capability to replace parts on demand. I can’t be here all the time, Henry. If you have a massive electronic failure while I’m away, I won't be able to save what made you like you are. I could always bring memory back online but it wouldn't be you."
"I understand what you’re saying. Like making a zombie, you have a body but the soul isn't there."
She had to laugh. "You have such a delicate way of putting things. I guess this is why I’m so fond of the real you."
"Karen, I know what they have done down in department eighteen and I’m not impressed. If you are going to put together a mechanical manipulation device so I may replace parts, I have a better program. I know a more efficient expediter than those guys will come up with in the next ten years."
"Are we talking about a fully functional, honest to goodness, moving robot?" Now that she said it, the thought scared her.
"Yes, I didn't bring the subject up before, because it was not part of my programming interest. However, if you are willing to discuss the subject, I will give details for the manufacture of one which will be self-contained."
"Henry, this thing isn't going to get out of control is it?" Computers she understood. Robots were a completely different matter.
"Karen, what makes a piece of machinery intelligent?"
"I think what you are wanting me to say is, if it is a smart piece of equipment, it is the memory chip."
"Exactly! Now, what kind of engineer are you?"
She shook her head to think she had fallen into the oldest trap of ignorant mankind. "Fear of the unknown, isn't it? The robot will have to have a computer to function and I’m a computer engineer. I believe I can design a fail safe system into a computer controlled robot."
She spun around in her chair a couple of times as she raised her hands beside her head and pushed her hair away from her face. She and Henry were going to design a robot together. This was going to get interesting. She wondered if she should tell David? Nah, he was a worry wart.
The blue van stopped parking down the street from Karen's house after the new security camera was installed by her garage. It was as if whoever was driving knew they were now within range of the camera if they parked anywhere on the street. Several times Karen saw a blue van parked on a side street but she couldn't say if it was the same van each time. One morning she managed a closer look at the van than she wanted.
She pulled up to the intersection leading to Mileline Highway when the van closed in from behind and slammed into her. The passenger door opened and someone started to get out. With dark tinted windows on the van Karen couldn't see inside. She had no intention of sitting there exchanging driver's license numbers and insurance company names with someone she couldn't see from her car. There was almost no traffic on the highway. She pulled out leaving the van behind. The van didn't give up and pulled on behind her in pursuit. Either it was some stupid driver or someone was overly aggressive in trying to meet her. Karen put the little Mercedes on the speed limit and held it there. If this driver wanted to complain about bumping into her car he would have to do it down at the Comm Tech guard house in front of Max or whoever was on duty today.
Pulling up to the left front of her car, the van swerved toward her as it attempted to force her off the road. Instinctively Karen slammed on the brakes. The van skidded by in front of her car going all the way to the right shoulder of the highway.
She had enough to realize this was more than a prank. Dropping the Mercedes into second and pushing the accelerator to the floor, brought results way beyond her expectations. The car responded to her demands in a way she wasn’t prepared for. Somewhere under the hood something clunked. A growl began way down low in the heart of the engine and quickly rose in pitch. Assaulting her ears, it sounded and felt as if both mufflers were blown off. The floor of the car started pulsing along with all the other racket. A Mac truck could have parked in the front seat with her and she wouldn't have heard it because of all the noise her own car was making.
It took only a second for the car to come alive after Karen stomped the gas pedal. The Mercedes literally catapulted forward as if launched from the deck of an aircraft carrier. It jammed her back into the seat. She had to jerk the wheel hard to the left to keep from running over the van. It was coming back across her lane trying to block her. She knew she over steered but it was too late to correct the mistake. She blasted by the van, off the left side of the road, and halfway across the median dividing the lanes of traffic. With rear tires kicking chunks of dirt and grass thirty feet into the air behind her, Karen shifted to third and brought the car back under control. She charged down the median between the two highways. There are very few drivers in the world who could have handled the little Mercedes as well as Karen. Even less who would have wanted to try.
The van had followed her across the road in pursuit. It was now racing along, above and behind her on the highway. Karen was too busy to care about the van at the moment. She had to get out of the median before she ran over something. Shifting to fourth and urging the car for more speed, she nudged the wheel toward the highway. She expected it but what surprised her was how quickly it happened. In less than the blink of an eye, she was up the bank and airborne over the top of the highway. She flew clear over the left lane before she touched down again, skidding across the right lane and onto the paved shoulder. The car proved itself again by staying under control as she brought it back onto the highway and aimed it down the left lane. She rocketed by two cars on her right so fast they looked like they were driving the other way. A glance at her speedometer told her she was running well over a hundred miles an hour and the needle was still climbing like an elevator. She never let up as she shifted to fifth and checked the mirror for the van. It was still there and they were pushing it as smoke poured out from under the van. The distance between them was growing rapidly as the white lines on the highway turned into dots.
Max was standing outside the guard house watching what little traffic there was on the highway. It was too early for cars to be out in any numbers. Somewhere, several miles down the highway, he heard the growl of a full blown supercharger as it kicked in and began screaming for air. The waste gates on the exhaust dropped out and the roar of an unmuffled exhaust mixed in with the screaming blower. The squall of tires protesting their abuse on the pavement, by several drivers, convinced him his suspicions were right. Those damn teenagers had to be out drag racing. They would be lucky if they didn't kill someone with their reckless ways.
The scream of the supercharger rose to an nerve shattering squall and was still rising. Max was sure someone would be picking up pieces of engine scattered down the highway before it was over. Somebody was punishing their car by pushing it way past the breaking point. He was sure they would end up paying the price. Hugging himself as his nerves begin to grate, he watched the source of his torment explode into view way down the road. It never entered his mind it could be Karen driving that little red dot, which expanded into a red car at a speed he couldn't begin to imagine.
Off in the distance, Karen saw the entrance to the security gate and was astonished how quickly she was closing the gap. A glance at her speedometer told the story only too well. She was registering well over a hundred and eighty and still accelerating. She let off the gas pedal, and waited until what she thought was the last second, before slamming on her brakes to make the turn off to Commercial Technologies. There was a series of chirps from the tires and her speed began dropping like a lead weight. She had to let off the brake to keep from stopping too soon. She wasn't accustomed to the antilock disk brakes and certainly not on all four wheels.
At twenty miles an hour she went to down shifting and back on the accelerator as she turned the front wheels toward Comm Tech. The rear tires hop scotched and broke traction with the pavement as she went into a side skid almost passing the entrance. Steering into the skid when the rear tires lost traction, Karen kept the spin under control. With the positraction locked in, both rear tires were spinning and squalling in protest. That unbridled turbo charged engine was feeding more raw horsepower to the rear tires then what they could handle. The whole rear end of the car vanished, hidden in smoke as the spinning tires burned as they tried to get a grasp on pavement. Karen lined the car up straight down the road past the gate. Finally, the rears got so hot the tread was ready to melt. They hung into the pavement better than steel spikes. That little Mercedes shot past the guardhouse like a bullet.
When Karen went into a flat skid, Max figured she lost it. But then, she punched it. The blower closed its' pressure bleed plates, the throttle body snapped open, and it came alive with a deep throated rumble in rising crescendo. It made the glass in his guard house resonate in sympathetic harmony. He could feel the vibrations deep in his chest as the air in front of the little Mercedes undulated in a frenzy. His hair stood on end as a thousand banshees screamed for sacrifice. The waste gates on the exhaust snapped open again and the ground under his feet trembled as flames boiled down under the whole car and shot out five to six feet from both sides. The thunder of a thousand demons joined the banshees filling the air with an ear deafening squall. Max would swear he heard the little car groan just before it took on the aspects of a rock propelled from a slingshot. She shot by him going like a bat out of hell.
He was still trying to decide if he should stop her or wave her on through before it dawned on him he had lost that option. There was smoke still lingering out on the highway and down past his gate as Karen disappeared into the parking tower. He figured she burned off half her tires with that little trick. Looking back down the road he was sure of it. Black skid marks were everywhere as a testament to Karen's passing.
"I have seen some people eager to get home at night, but I never saw anyone is such a God awful hurry to get to work in the morning. Must be late for coffee." He muttered to no one in particular as he looked down at his pant legs to see if they were scorched.
Karen never looked for a parking space, much less driving to her own personalized parking spot. She drove up and over the curb and down the sidewalk to the building entrance, stopping in front of the door. It would be a judgment call whether she was out of the car and in the building before it came to a stop. She screamed for security before she was in the hallway and didn't stop running until she was in her lab.
"Henry, where’s security? Someone tried to run me off the road. Get security down her now!" She grabbed up the phone to call them herself. It didn't make any difference if Henry had already done it or not. She wanted to make sure they knew how urgent she wanted them and not forget that someone called like they usually did.
"I alerted security. Calm down, you're going to give yourself a heart attack. Humans get so emotional over the littlest things." Henry made sure her call didn't go through.
"What do you mean little things? Damn it Henry, those people were trying to run me off the road. This wasn't a joke or some kids prank."
She banged the receiver down several times. "I hope this hurts your ears. I know you have me disconnected."
"In fact, yes it does. You overload my transducers and cause a feedback through my impedance circuits. Would you mind?"
"I’m sorry, Henry. I guess I’m over emotional." She set the receiver gently down on the base.
"Now you're getting a handle on your feelings. I lied about it hurting my ears. I could see you weren't ready to be rational yet."
He rotated all the cameras in the lab to focus on her. "Take a deep breath and calm down. Your pulse is running wild, your blood pressure is elevated, and you are yelling like I was down in David's lab."
She took a deep breath and sat down in her lab chair. "Okay, how's this?"
"I watched you fly through the gate on Max's camera at the guard house. I could figure out why. Kidnapping kept coming up with the highest percentages. So I alerted security to haul ass and secure the building and entrances. I checked all the vehicles coming in the gate behind you. All of them checked out okay. In the upper part of my visual range there was a blue van racing down the highway as it ran by the entrance at ninety five miles an hour."
He brought the van up on the monitor. "Is this the one that tried to run you off the highway?"
She leaned forward to get a closer look. "That's a terrible picture. Is this the best you can do? I can't even be sure it's the same van."
"Hey, you should have seen it before I enhanced it. You're looking at a great picture. Look at what I had to work with." The picture turned into a blur resembling a fog with a blue haze in the middle of it.
She gave up on the screen. "Henry, I parked my car in front of the door and am too scared to go move it by myself. Let me call security and have them send someone out there with me."
"I called them already, and it seems they liked your request. They’re outside your door now." He had to reassure her it was security before she would let him open the door. There were five men standing there who looked like linemen for the New York Giants. Four of them were holding automatic weapons.
"Miss Long, we came down to see if there is anything we can do to help. Max said you were in a hurry when you came through the gate. We noticed you kind of picked your own place to park this morning. Of course, if you want to park there it's all right by me. You want we should pave it or leave it in grass? I guess you won't know until after the first big rain?" The big man doing the talking looked like he would have to turn sideways to get through her door.
He noticed Karen staring past him at the men with the automatics. "They thought you might want to walk back out to your car considering you left your purse in it. You know how purse snatchers are? They have to be persuaded it isn’t the thing to do before they do it. Little devils are fast on their feet. There was almost a fight to decide who got the honor of escorting you. The office thought it would be a better idea if all of us came along instead of tearing the building apart."
"Do you think this many weapons are necessary?" Two of them in the back were looking down the hall each way with uzis at the ready. A chill ran down her spine. What had Henry told these people? She needed to have a talk with him and find out what she supposedly told security. If he didn't quit calling people up and talking to them while imitating her voice, it was going to get both of them in trouble.
"No, I don't believe this many weapons are necessary. If I did, I would have brought more. I never bring along exactly what I think I need." He put his hand on her shoulder and eased her out of the way so he could step inside and check her lab.
Karen didn't try to resist. She didn't think it would have made any difference. He pushed her aside with as little effort as one would push a scarf away. All the bulk and size in this man were anything except fat. He would be great as a male model except for one thing. Who would purchase such a beast even if they did believed men came in this size?
"Wouldn't you like it a lot better if we came prepared and took care of our job? I can't begin to tell you how stupid it would be to go to a fight you weren't prepared for. We don't take threats against our clients lightly. And besides, like I said, everyone wanted to walk you out to your car."
He nodded toward the two out in the hallway. "They came along to impress everyone with their toys. Worked didn't it? Weren't you impressed? You look impressed."
He satisfied himself there was no threat to Karen in her own lab. "Next time I get to carry an uzi so she will be impressed with me."
Karen didn't tell him the gun he carried on his hip looked like a cannon to her. He was a big man and his gun looked as big.
"Miss Long, I’m not trying to rush you, but anytime you want to see about your car, we're ready. Or if you prefer, we will bring your purse and keys back to you?" He moved back to the doorway and looked both ways.
She took a deep breath. Might as well get this over with. "If you don't mind I guess we should go move my car off the sidewalk. Probably do me good to walk around for a little while. My knees are still knocking together from the excitement."
He took a look at her legs and a sparkle came into his eyes along with the hint of a smile. Whatever he was thinking he kept it to himself as he brought up a walkie-talkie he was holding in his left hand. No wonder she hadn't seen it before he started talking. His hand was so big it was hidden in it.
"Control, this is team to fifty four."
The walkie-talkie was amazingly clear. "Go ahead team to fifty four."
"We’re on our way out. Give me a status report." He pointed at the two men with the uzis and nodded. Nothing was said as they took off down the hall.
The walkie-talkie came back again. "The perimeter is secure. The building is secure. No violations on camera. All stations have reported in. I have you on the monitors. You may proceed when ready."
Karen felt foolish. This was almost as bad in its own way as the contact with the van had been. "I really don't think all this is necessary. I was probably over reacting. I let my imagination get away from me this morning. It was foolish to think someone would want to run me off the road. It could have been tourists looking at the scenery and not paying any attention to their driving."
The two men with the uzis were already down at the corner of the hall and did a classic assault maneuver. Flash a look around the corner, back up, flash another quick look and step out at the ready. One guard stayed at Karen's lab door. He had his M-16 cocked and was looking down the hall in the other direction. The third followed along behind, keeping an eye on the direction they had come from.
If they hadn't scared her with all this military maneuvering, Karen would have had to laugh at their actions. They had almost reached the doors leaving the building when the two guards running point did the same thing all over again.
Karen tugged on the sleeve of the big man carrying the walkie-talkie. "Listen, I know I over reacted. This really isn't necessary. You can go on back to the office, or wherever you were. I will go out and move my car off the curb. I’m all right. Really, it was nice of you to come down and help me steady my nerves, but I’m over it now."
He held out his arm and Karen walked into it, coming to an abrupt halt. He bent his head over looking down and back at her. "Miss Long, the situation you said happened in your overactive imagination was seen by several others. It seems you got here a little quicker than they did. But when you are only a couple of miles down the road from your destination, the difference, between two hundred miles an hour and fifty miles an hour, is only a matter of a couple of seconds."
"A hundred and eighty."
"What?" He had no idea what she was talking about.
"I said, a hundred and eighty. I wasn't going two hundred. Only a hundred and eighty and then some."
He let out a low whistle. "Christ! Everyone said you were moving. Max said you broke the sound barrier when you blasted past him at the gate. I guess you did."
One of the men by the door nodded. The big man put his hand against her shoulder. "It's clear outside. You want to take a look?"
This man was moving her around like a puppet. She didn't know if she resented it or not. It was a comfort to have this kind of protection but he had an annoying way of making sure he was understood. She stepped out the door and glanced toward the guard house. Police cars and guards had the gates sealed off checking cars as they came in. In the parking tower she saw more guards patrolling the parking area. She didn't know Comm Tech had so many guards. Where did all these men come from?
A couple of men were still going over her car. One of them stood up. "It's clean. Nothing here I wouldn't give my right arm to have. This Mercedes has some options on it that didn't come from the factory, but it's all shop added. Whoever put the extras in this car and not let any of it show was a real magician. You want us to park it?"
The big man looked over at Karen and she nodded her head yes. "Move it back off the sidewalk and park it close to the building. We will put a man out here to watch it until we can get more cameras in the parking tower. I want anyone watching to know we have it under surveillance."
They moved her car off the walk and parked it by the building. The big man came back and handed Karen her keys and purse. "Miss Long, we aren't playing games. In spite of what you see, this isn't a joke. I have known for some time your department was the center of attention from other companies. They wanted the answer to the question of how you do what you're doing in your department. I didn't expect this to happen so soon but, it was bound to happen sooner or later. This isn't an overreaction on our part. If they’re watching I want them to know we’re deadly serious. We have a couple of men over at your house going over your property with a fine tooth comb. I know you have your own security camera. What I haven't figured out is how you monitor the darn thing. You aren't feeding it into a live recorder. You want to tell me how you do it?"
Karen shook her head. "No, afraid not. However, if it had been installed when the van was parking on my street, we wouldn't be having this conversation. It’s a moot point unless they drive down my street again."
He hung the walkie-talkie on his belt. "Which brings up another point. Your life isn't going to be very private any more until we find the blue van and the people who were driving it. You will have someone shadowing you everywhere you go from now on. Let me put it in perspective for you Miss Long. You, or I mean to say, the company gets forty thousand dollars each time you make a model. I understand you have the ability to make ten of those priceless little treasures almost every day. If you run a full series for the day, that figures into four hundred thousand dollars every day you go to work."
"ACME Duplicators and the others do good to get anywhere from five hundred to a thousand dollars per model for their work. They can turn out as many as they want, but there isn't any demand for their models since the day you and the model you made came out in all the papers. Refusing to do an interview on national television was a stroke of genius. The world's top model is camera shy. You received more coverage out of that stunt than if you had done a hundred interviews."
He was watching her face. "Your agent didn't tell you."
Karen knew she needed to have another talk with Henry. If he was playing like her agent now, he was in deep trouble. Taking care of her finances was one thing, but this was something entirely different. Maybe it wasn't Henry? Bob Kincaid would gain a lot if he could pull off this trick. Someone always seemed to be manipulating her life lately and she wasn't being consulted. It use to be so simple before the accident. All she had to do was go to work and do her job, nothing more, nothing less.
He continued as she shrugged her shoulders in a don't care attitude. "Anyway, you have darn near killed them. They count it a good day if they sell five models. They make five thousand tops if they get the upper limit for their models. We are talking about a whole days income for one company. You don't have to have an engineering degree to figure it out. You are priceless to whoever you are working for. Men will kill to get their hands on you or your working knowledge. You don't have to go very far to find those kind of men either. Look at your old boss Bill Chambers or Karl Adder. They...,"
He stopped as he looked at the expression on her face. "You had to know about them trying to sell your department to ACME. Nothing stays a secret around this place for very long."
Her reaction wasn't what he had expected. Her eyes narrowed to slits of hate and a hint of a smile touched the corners of her mouth. "I'll be damned. You knew before anyone else. I figured I was one step behind in figuring things out. I had no idea who it was. I was receiving more than coincidental information about a lot of things. It was always elusive and nothing I could pin down. They tell me you’re the resident guru for this company. Like a dummy I failed to follow up the lead."
He looked her in the eye. Damn, those eyes of hers would drag a man into a hypnotic trance if he wasn't careful. He had seen eyes like hers before. If he could only remember when or where. It bugged the snot out him not to remember where he had seen those eyes. No matter, it would come to him later. "What else is going on around here I need to know about? You could save me a lot of trouble if you filled me in on the things you already know rather than making me dig everything up by myself."
Karen turned so she wasn't facing him. This man was reading her emotions too easily. She couldn't be much of a guru if she had no idea who he was. This was no common security guard. None of these people were. They had professional written all over them. They were dangerous to have around. He might be on her side but he was digging up too many secrets. She and Henry were a couple of secrets that wouldn't stand any exposure.
She threw her shoulders back and turned to look at him. "I want to thank you for walking me to my car, Mr. ...,?"
"Randy Shells. Please, call me Randy."
The fact she put a cover on her emotions and her thoughts before she turned back around didn't escape him. He hadn't gleaned very much information before she shut him out. Some people called her a witch. Witch or guru, she justly deserved the title. For a woman with no training in espionage, she was the coolest number he had ever seen. Randy didn't impress easily. He was impressed. He had pulled her file and she was as common as dirt. Nothing to indicate she would be good at this kind of game. Nothing.
"I reckon you know about us? My men and me?" He looked for signs of acknowledgment and was disgusted when he didn't get any. He had passed information and didn't get anything in return. He didn't let that happen very often. Oh well, the damage was done and she was the one this was all about. If she didn't know she had a right to the information.
"Comm Tech hired me right after you did your modeling down at the mall. All of my men have put in actual combat time in real life or death situations. We’re here for one reason only and I’m looking at her."
Karen held out her hand in an offer of thanks. "Randy, tell your men I appreciate their taking care of me. I know they think it is a worthless job, but I assure you I appreciate it. I understand crunching large volumes of information for one small answer."
Randy took her hand and felt hot all over. As big as he was, this woman had taken his thoughts and his breath. He looked into those liquid eyes of hers. Where had he seen those eyes before? It was driving him crazy. He never missed putting people in a place or a situation where they had met. Especially something as unique as eyes like hers.
He looked down at his feet. He knew there wasn't a man out there who wouldn't give a weeks pay for the chance to get as close to her as he was right now. Because she was a famous model or engineer weren't the only reasons either. She was damn easy on the eyes and had brains to match.
"This is what we get paid for Miss Long." Did that sound as corny to her as it did to him? Why is it men get weak brained and rubber lips when they get around a beautiful woman? They can't think and they can't talk. When they finally do find something to say it’s usually something stupid.
In a bar, later that same night, three men were blaming one another for the botched effort at getting their hands on Karen.
"When I told you to run into her car from behind, there at the stop sign, you was supposed to really bang her. That little tap you gave her on the bumper didn't do any good."
"I thought I did pretty good. I didn't want to knock the front end out of the van and have to call a tow truck while we had her tied up inside. That wouldn't have been too bright. Now would it?"
"Damn it! If you had hit her harder, she would have come back to us to check over the damage to her car. She would have come back to us! Do you understand? There wouldn't have been any of that stupid chase down the highway. You did as much good with that trick as you did at the stop sign."
"Well, if you're so damn good, why didn't you do the driving in the first place? Probably because you can't drive any better than you can program computers."
"You listen to me, asshole. You cost us two hundred million today. Now the security guards are going to be covering her like a blanket. We will have to come up with another plan to get our hands on that pretty little bitch if we want our two hundred mill. And I think I have just the plan that will do it. Provided one of you don't screw up again. Now listen up. This is what we’re going to do."
The bartender had to chase the three of them out of the bar at three AM so he could go home.
When David and the rest of the employees at Commercial Technologies, came to work later the same morning Karen had her close encounter with the van, they found they had to submit to one of the toughest security checks they had ever been through. Regular police along with the usual security guards were checking cars. Then as if that wasn’t enough, along side them were some of the meanest looking men he had ever seen. Armed with assault weapons and guard dogs the tough ones were watching the searches. Everyone had to get out of their car and open it for a search. There were a lot of complaints threatening Comm Tech and the security team with lawsuits. Most of the drivers cooperated patiently and quietly while their vehicles were searched. After all, this was Comm Tech time they were on not their own. Besides, as the volume of the complaints rose those extra guards with the dogs would unlimber their weapons and move in close. Even the people who were habitual complainers would quiet back down. Those guards looked like they would use any excuse to shoot someone or turn the dogs loose. Maybe both.
The guards found a few drugs in some cars. One man had pornography in a briefcase. There was equipment and supplies belonging to Commercial Technologies. Even a few guns were confiscated. Believing they were going to be arrested and sent to jail, the offenders were surprised when they were told to go to work after the offense was logged into the guard records. They would be called up to the security office in a week or two. The ones with weapons were told to pick them up on the way home tonight and not bring them back or they would lose them.
It was a nightmare to a few but nothing more than a minor nuisance to most. David, like most of the other employees, quietly submitted to a search of his car. He was amused it had taken Commercial Technologies this long to see if they could catch some of their property leaving the building. Yet, if they were looking for stolen property, why didn't they conduct their search in the evening when everyone was going home? Ah, who knew how the minds of the corporation board worked? He was glad he only had to mix a few genes together in his lab and didn't need to worry about corporate structure.
The thought lasted until he drove into the parking tower. It looked like an armed camp. There were more of those tough looking guards scattered in highly visible spots, all of them were armed to the teeth. As if that wasn’t enough, some of those guards had dogs with them. Those guards were checking everyone as they left their cars. These guys were serious about pilfering. His first hunch must have been wrong. They weren't looking for stolen property. It must be one of the departments had a security leak. Somebody had lost important technology secrets. Maybe they were expecting sabotage? These guards were there for damage control.
A team of guards was checking ID's before they let anyone enter the building. As he walked down the hall toward his lab he saw another guard stationed at the corner leading to Karen's lab. This was unreal. Someone must have lost a high priced experiment. What department in this building could ship enough water to pull out the heavy guns like this? None came to mind. Had to be a top secret project, one he didn't know about.
He opened his door and was glad to get in his lab away from all the confusion. It wasn't to be. Al and Jr. were there already. They jumped at the chance to fill him in on the latest gossip. They both made the cafeteria their first stop. They wanted to find out what the rumor mill was pumping out. It was juicy gossip spreading like wildfire throughout Comm Tech.
"Karen was kidnapped." It was Jr. who got off the first salvo as he saw David coming through the door.
"No, she wasn't. They said she was run over by a truck." Al wasn't going to be left out telling what he thought was the right rumor.
"All these guards are looking to see if they can find her." Jr. was sticking to his kidnapped story.
"They’re looking for the truck which hit her and left." Al was satisfied he was on the right trail.
David's heart began racing as his mind tried to sort the stories these two were telling. He had heard them tell their lies before. Though his mind was telling him not to believe them, doubt was gnawing at him. The fact was, guards were everywhere and something was definitely wrong.
He raised his hands in protest. "Okay, now what's this about Karen and where have you two been getting your information?"
"David, you know we like Karen as much as you do. Everyone is saying she was kidnapped. We couldn't get close to her lab. They have some guards down there who look like they would just as soon tear your head off as look at you. They have a couple of bazookas and a couple of rocket launchers set up in the hall. They are going over her lab to see if they can find any clues as to who kidnapped her." Jr. might have embellished the story some but he would swear it was all true.
It came to him! The only department in this whole building worth this much security. KAREN! He turned and hit the lab door so hard on his way out Al and Jr. knew it would fall off its hinges. Steel security doors don't give up to a human body easily. It quietly closed again like it always had in the past.
Running down the hall at full speed brought David face to face with a security guard as he rounded the corner to Karen's lab. Although the guard heard the footsteps running down the hall toward him he wasn't going to shoot anyone until he knew who or what he was shooting. When David rounded the corner and ran smack into him the guard rolled over backwards taking David down with him. Pushing David's body up into the air with his feet and dragging his head down by holding onto his shirt, he sent David flying down the hall in a huge arcing somersault. David landed on his back and skidded to a halt in front of Karen's lab.
Lying there momentarily stunned, David felt one guard place his boot on his throat while he looked into the biggest, blackest hole, of a rifle barrel, he had ever seen. The other guard put his boot on David's abdomen and pointed his rifle at his chest.
It took David a little while to get his breath after being slammed to the floor. Finally he managed to wheeze. "Where's Karen?"
From the time David entered the building until now, Henry watched the whole episode take place. "I think you better go rescue David."
After Karen had came back into the lab that morning, she had been sitting with a pen and notes on her desk and the keyboard on her lap. She could not get her mind on what she was supposed to be doing. She finally gave up working with the keyboard and pulled out the pen and note pads. That didn't work either. No matter what she tried she couldn't get her mind to focus on her work.
"What is David doing in his lab now?" She made some doodles on her notepad.
"He isn't in his lab. He is lying down in the hall outside your door. Normally this would be the position for the human body to assume if it wanted to rest. I don't believe he is resting."
"Well, what is he doing if he is lying down but isn't resting?" This was a bad morning and Henry wasn't helping any.
"I believe he is being used as a foot rest by the guards who have tired feet. They are resting their feet on him."
"Henry, would you make sense? What are you talking about?" He could be so exasperating at times she felt like unplugging him.
"To be more specific, he was running down the hall. The guards put a halt to his forward progress and slam dunked him. Now they’re checking to see if he poses a threat to you or anyone else in Comm Tech. I would venture to say they have him under what is probably a maximum defensive position."
"Henry, if you’re lying to me I’m going to pull all your memory circuits and start with a brand new computer. The next one won't have such a big mouth." She got up and opened the door, fully expecting to see only the two guards who had been posted by her door since she had returned to her lab this morning.
David was on his back with a couple of boots sitting on top of him. One guard had pulled David's ID off and was examining it. David heard the door open. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Karen come out of her lab.
"Karen?" It was hard to say anything with a boot on your windpipe.
"David? What are you doing? Get up from there." Henry had been right. It was David resting on the floor.
The guards lifted their feet off him as soon as it was obvious Karen knew him. They didn't offer to help him up and they still kept their rifles pointed at him.
"You know this character?" One of the guards wanted Karen to make a yes or no answer before they let him up.
She nodded her head. "Yes I do. This is Doctor Beckworth from the lab down the hall. He does DNA research for Comm Tech."
She looked at the guard but he didn't change position. David was still lying there looking up the dark end of a rifle barrel. "He is a very dear and trusted friend. If he made any mistakes in coming down here it was only because he was worried about me."
That pulled the trick. There was an audible click as the guard snapped the safety back on his rifle. He extended a hand to David as he slung the rifle back over his shoulder. "Sorry Doc. You didn't give us much of an opportunity to check you out before you ran into a maximum security zone."
David made it a point to get up without the guards offer of assistance. These guys had treated him rough. He wanted them to know he didn't approve. "I guess I’m lucky you didn't have your bazookas set up yet or your rocket launcher in position. You would have probably blown me away. Then you would have said to all the little pieces floating around in the air I'm sorry."
David wished he hadn't talked back to the guard after he said it. The guard got a look in his eyes which would have made a junk yard dog cringe.
"Listen Doc, after the stunt you just pulled you better count your lucky stars you’re still alive. Jim has orders to shoot first and ask questions later. You're a walking dead man. He decided to bounce you down the hall to us rather than sweep you up in a body bag. If it had been me in his position I would have done the body bag thing."
Karen thanked the guards profusely as she nudged David into her lab. Once inside with the door closed behind them she let him know how lucky he was. "David, you are messing with men who kill people for a living. These aren't the guards you drink coffee with and then they go home to their wives and kids. Haven't you brains enough to notice? Randy told me everyone of these guards are trained killers. I believe him."
David was trying to rub his sore back, neck, stomach, and hold the back of his head, all at the same time. He felt like he had been run over by a bus. "What is going on here Karen? My help is telling stories about you being kidnapped and run over, or anything else which comes to their feeble little minds. And who is Randy?"
"Oooh, that really hurts." He gingerly rubbed the back of his head. Karen guided him over to her chair and massaged his shoulders.
"It was nothing really. I had a little excitement this morning when a van tried to run me off the road, but it wasn't anything serious. And besides, it really didn't amount to anything. Randy is one of these guards you seem to want to antagonize. I don't mean one of those out in the hall but another one I met this morning." She was trying hard to keep him from worrying about what had happened. Guards everywhere would be enough to upset anyone.
David was close to being relaxed as Karen rubbed his shoulders but shot straight up out of the chair to look at her when she said she was almost run off the road. "You say what? What van? What happened? Have they caught them yet? Are they looking for more of them to try? How many were there? Are you ...?"
She cut him off. "Hey, like I said. Nothing happened. It was a little incident which was blown out of proportion."
David looked at one of the cameras. "Henry, what happened this morning?"
Not getting an answer he looked back at Karen. "You know, your computer certainly reminds me of you. Just as obstinate and cantankerous as a mule. I don't think it can talk. I dreamed up those phone calls in the middle of the night. Or it was probably you calling pretending to be a computer. In fact, I believe it was a figment of my imagination, a nightmare, like the one I’m having now."
"Oh? So I’m a nightmare of your dreams am I?"
Karen removed her lab coat. Underneath she was wearing a short metallic red dress with an interwoven gold thread. It hugged every curve of her body like tar on pavement. David's eyes turned into dinner plates. She turned around slowly so he could see the whole dress.
He forgot about all the pain which was nagging him. "Jesus Christ, Karen! Are you sure it was only one van trying to abduct you? Maybe he was ahead of the pack and you didn't notice all the others?"
She laughed at him. He was so silly at times. She changed the subject. "Let me walk you up to medical so they can take a look at your bruises. You may have something sprained or broken. It should be treated as soon as possible."
He didn't have anything broken but the opportunity to have Karen walk somewhere with him was too much to resist. Thinking about his lab he almost mentioned going there, but it was too short a distance. It was a long way down to medical. That was the best choice. He would stretch this out as much as possible.
"Yeah, I might have something bruised or broken. If you put your arm around me and steady me I may be able to make it to medical." He put on his best, poor, pitiful, whipped dog look.
Looking at him, it scared her. He must be hurt worse than she had thought. "If you are hurt that bad, I will have them send down a stretcher. I don't want you to hurt yourself more than you already are."
"NO! I mean no, I think I can make it if you put your arm around me and help steady me. I only need someone to lean on while I hobble down to the clinic."
He rubbed the side of his head. "Ooooh, does this hurt."
Karen saw through his charade and got tickled. She made a very poor attempt at putting sympathy in her voice. "You poor baby. Did those big bullies hurt you? Come on, I’ll walk you down to medical and back to your lab. I'll protect you and make sure they don't beat you up again. Those kind are always out there waiting to take your lunch money or milk money. Those big bullies."
"By the way, that isn't where you were hurting a minute ago." She figured out what he was wanting and it was all right. She liked the idea, too.
As they stepped out into the hall the two guards by her door turned to check who was coming out of her lab. The guard who had spoken to David thought his eyes were going to fall out when he got a look at Karen. She was a stunner when she had on her lab coat. Now she was a killer. He tried desperately to remember what his job function was.
"Miss Long,... Uh, I mean, uh, what are your uh, ah,... What I meant to say uh,.."
Karen smiled at the guard and nodded toward David. "I’m walking David down to medical and have him checked for bruises."
"You can't. I mean you can but ..., uh, it isn't practical. I mean security and all. I mean, do you think you should." He wasn't saying anything he was wanting to. If only he could take his eyes off of her and get his mind back again. That was easier said than done.
"Oh hell, go ahead. We aren't doing anything anyway." Doing something was better than standing here in indecision and doing nothing.
He keyed his walkie-talkie. "Miss Long is on her way to medical."
There was a short pause as he adjusted his ear piece. "No it isn't anything for her. She’s taking Doctor Beckworth down to medical. We kind of thumped him pretty hard when we caught him out in the hall."
There was another short pause. "I'll check."
He was looking over at Karen, not that he had ever taken his eyes off her. "Miss Long, we can take Doctor Beckworth down to medical and you could stay in your lab. It would be a whole lot easier for us to secure an area when you aren't moving around."
"No, but thanks anyway. I feel the need to get out of my cage for a little while if I’m going to get anything done later. David and I are old friends. This is his way of freeing me from my duties for a little bit."
She needed this break this morning and she wanted to be close to David. He was someone she could lean on. If there was any risk she was sure Henry would have told her. In spite of the fact he wouldn't talk to David a minute ago, he was listening. She didn't tell the guard but he was second best when it came to protecting her. The only thing Henry didn't do was carry a gun.
There wasn't any problem with security as long as Karen was in the lab side of the building. Everyone was working behind steel doors and solid walls. The problems started when they passed the office area between medical and the labs. Glass walls and glass doors gave everyone an excellent opportunity to see Karen. Since the rumor mill had her kidnapped or dead, everyone who saw her wanted to say hi or greet her in some way. The idea she had been put off limits to everyone a while back only added to peoples desires to get a closer look at this woman who had the whole plant gossiping. Of course, the killer red dress Karen was wearing tended to attract attention even if there hadn't been any current rumors floating around.
David was chagrined no one asked him about his aches and pains. If he could have limped along any more conspicuously, while holding on to Karen, he would have. But darn it all anyway it's hard to hold onto a beautiful woman and limp at the same time.
Security went out of their collective minds trying to keep Karen separated from everyone until they decided it was a fruitless effort. They finally accepted the fact she was going to draw people like a magnet. They had heard all of the rumors circulating though the plant. To be honest, they were as much infatuated by her as everyone else. Most of them had never seen Karen up close and in person. Moving out to the ends of the halls they did their best to appear professional and keep an eye on Karen at the same time. But as most of them found out, it's no easy task when one is trying to watch the lady in red.
Randy took in the whole episode on the monitors in the security office. He studied the way Karen attracted people and the easy way she talked to them. There was something about this woman he couldn't quite put his finger on. But what? She was different than anyone he had ever seen before. But how? It wasn't the fact she was stunningly attractive. He had seen attractive women before. It wasn't the fact she was smart. He had met women who were incredibly intelligent before. Besides, it was her cousin who built the department she was running now. She was an enigma. A question that needed an answer. He hated unanswered questions.
He made some notes. He didn't like loose ends and he wasn't about to leave any now. People in the building called her a witch. What did they call her cousin when she was working in that lab?
Henry ran a check on Randy as he watched him watching Karen. Those security cameras could be used both ways. The information he received wasn't good. He would have to let Karen know about Randy. He quickly canceled the idea. She couldn't do anything about him. It would be stupid to worry her about something she couldn't change. Karen hadn't programmed him to be stupid.
It had been two weeks since the incident with the van and things were returning back to normal for most of the employees at Comm Tech. Security had gone through everyone's personnel files and checked out their background. Henry never told Karen about the security check everyone was having to go through. He knew as long as they only checked on her electronically he could cover for her. It would be a different matter if they sent out an investigator to all the places she was supposed to have grown up or where she went to high school or college. Someone could be there who knew Karen before the accident. That wouldn't be the Karen they now had working for them. The ironic part was, they skipped her. The one person in the whole building who wouldn't stand up to a close scrutiny. They didn't think of it because she was the one all of this extra precaution was for.
Karen found she had an escort to and from work every day. They never asked her when she was leaving or how early she was going to work. As soon as she got into her car and started driving to or from her house they magically appeared. At work they picked her up as she left the gate and always followed her to her parking area when she drove back the next morning. They tried to stay out of her life as much as possible but one thing was plain, they were always close by. The only thing security asked Karen to do was if she had plans on going somewhere besides home or work, she should let them know. Karen felt sorry for the men assigned to be her bodyguards. It had to a lonely, miserable, thankless job. What she didn't know was they drew numbers to see who was assigned to watch her. The ones who were disappointed were the ones who didn't get her detail.
The other guards became less and less conspicuous as the weeks wore on. Finally those stationed at the gates were the only ones left in a high profile position. The others moved away from the parking tower, building entrance, and her doorway as the security cameras were beefed up and the employee check was completed. No one knew where all the guards went but the rumor mill said they were still there somewhere. Henry liked the new cameras they installed everywhere. He could tell if someone had a pimple on their nose as soon as they turned off the highway toward the guard gate. One thing there was no doubt about and the rumor mill didn't have to help along. Men with bullet proof vests and automatic weapons still came and went from the building everyday. Randy was still showing a strong force to deter any would be kidnappers. Death was certainly waiting for anyone foolish enough to try.
Henry figured he and Karen had scraped by one more time. Four weeks had passed and the investigations and all the excitement around Karen had quieted down. Then it happened. There was a blitz of questions by fax probing into Karen's birth, her parent's birth and residence, her childhood, schooling, friends, relatives, and all the places she had ever worked. Someone was digging deep into her past. Henry covered it as long as it originated inside Comm Tech. Then the problem became one he couldn't cover. Someone moved their operations outside the plant and asked the same questions about Karen and her cousin. Karen's background wouldn't stand up to this kind of snooping. He did the best he could as he intercepted the questions at their destination and gave a reply. If they asked for her college credits, he would switch the answer he gave to come from the college computer. If they asked for high school records he answered from the high school fax machine.
He was busy but he was doing great. He was giving all the correct answers from all the right destinations. Then he received information from the hospital computer he couldn't cover. Someone was at the hospital in person checking records on the Karen who had the contagious hepatitis. Henry tapped into the airline terminal to check if this investigator was flying in or out. Nothing. There were a lot of names the past couple of months but nobody he recognized from security. Someone was at her old college asking questions and from there they went to her high school. It was easy enough to follow them because when they got to where they were going they asked questions and those questions were brought up in a computer for records. Computers Henry could access.
It ended as quickly as it began. Henry decided to wait this one out and see what would happen. There was no use involving Karen. There was nothing she or anyone could do at this point. So Henry waited.
Karen was spending a lot of time on the specifications and design of the robot and Comm Tech was demanding more models. The news of the apparent kidnapping attempt spurred a flood of orders for Karen's models. It seemed everyone wanted one before something happened to Karen and the supply ran out. Karen hated it. Her models were worth more because someone tried to abduct her. Humanity certainly was lacking in moral values.
She let Henry do more of the design and manufacturing without her. They would never catch up with the incoming orders but it was the best she could do. The robot was her first priority as it could be needed to keep Henry online. If he went down, it didn't matter if she was the designer or not. Without Henry, there simply wouldn't be any models.
Henry didn't disappoint her with his speed. Before the finished model came off the turntable or out of the chamber, he would bring a fuzzy hologram up on her desk. If she blinked she would miss it turning into an instant design ready for loading into the data cartridge. Henry always asked her if she wanted to change anything on the hologram before he loaded it into the data banks. Karen never failed to take a look at it after he asked and give her approval.
She finished the programming instructions for the vertical stabilizing gyros for the robot. "I believe it will stand on it's own now Henry. If you will stop feeding input commands to the central processor we will see if it will work."
He blipped the hologram on Karen's desk into another model design. "You want to check this one out and see if you approve?"
She glanced over at it. He did good work. Probably as good, if not better, than she did. She didn't dare tell Henry what she was thinking. He would get the fat head and be impossible to live with. "I guess it will pass. Now how about the robot? How does it look to you?"
Small servos whined and the skeleton frame, which was the robot, lifted itself off the hook holding it up from the back. "I’m getting a positive feedback on the stabilizing gyros. I’m going to let it stand on it's own."
Henry stopped feeding the program from himself to the frame through the umbilical cord which connected them together. There was a visible twitch and the frame resumed its position.
Karen was elated. "Is he standing on his own input?"
"Yes, and everything checks out okay. He looks good. Do you want him to step forward?" Henry had two cameras on the frame and the other two watching Karen. Optical sensors left a lot to be desired.
"Why not? We might as well find out if it is able to walk or not. The program may need to be rewritten if he can't walk."
"You keeping an eye on those models coming out of the work lab? Comm Tech is pushing for everything we can produce. I can't afford to make any mistakes right now. It would probably bring them down on us like a duck on a June bug. They would overrun my lab with a bunch of high tech nerds hoping to replace me."
"Quit your worrying, would you? The models are right on schedule. I haven't had any problems since I had the bleed over on board sixteen. We both know it is only a matter of time before we experience more problems but you don't need to worry about any 'high tech nerds' taking over your lab. It isn't going to happen. There are a lot of reasons but one of them is, you are pushing computer technology into the unknown Karen. They dismantled those computers you built for them in public relations and haven't figured out yet how you made them work. Comm Tech is afraid of messing with you. They’re undecided whether they can duplicate your work or not. So far the score is, Karen one hundred, Comm Tech zilch."
Sadness was showing in her eyes. "We’re both pushing the unknown aren't we Henry? A couple of mavericks, you and I. I have lived a little longer than what I thought I would and you have lasted a lot longer than the percentages say you should. Promise me you won't die before I do? I wouldn't be able to stand it. My heart would break in two."
"Human hearts don't break in two Karen. That is a myth. Watch the frame. I’m going to move it." Henry rotated the camera so he could get an all angle perspective on the frame.
"You aren't human so you don't know if human hearts can break in two or not. Myth or not, I promise you it can happen. Don't leave me behind Henry. I would die without you."
She was watching the frame walk across the lab floor. It stopped at the wall, turned around, and walked back. Turned around again and backed up to the hook it had been parked on at the start.
"A heck of a lot better than I expected. I thought I would have some glitches in the programming. The optical sensors working or did the proximity switches tell it a wall was there?"
"I received feedback from both. Redundancy in any system is desirable. Even humans don't depend on only their eyes to tell them an object is in front of them. You feel with hands, feet, and even extra sensory perception to gather knowledge about everything around you."
She set a computer chip on her desk. "Let's try the crucial test to see if it will be able to help you replace parts. As long as we’re giving this baby a test run we might as well go all the way. Pick up this chip and have it inserted in the proper slot on the master board beside it."
She backed away from her desk as the frame begin to move. She trusted her work but it would have been foolhardy to take chances with an unknown. This robot was about as unknown as ....? She and Henry. She was beginning to see a trend here.
The frame walked over to the desk, picked up the chip, and inserted it in the proper slot in the board. It returned to its parking space and shut down.
"Looks like you have another winner Karen. You want to disconnect the umbilical cord and let it run the same program on voice command?" He was watching her intently to see what her reaction would be to a free machine running loose in her office. The fact she backed up from the desk to put some distance between her and the robot hadn't escaped his attention.
"I don't know if I’m ready or not Henry. I’m a little scared of the old boogie bear. The unknown." She reached up with both hands to hold the hair back from her face while she thought about it.
"Karen, it is only a computer with control commands in sequence. I’m a computer with control commands in sequence. YOU, are a computer programmer. Redundancy is built into a fail safe. If everything goes wrong that can possibly go wrong and it doesn't shut down when it is suppose to I will protect you from a piece of machinery using a computer for a control function."
Henry didn't say he would protect her with those deadly lasers which were actively sculpting the next model. But he might as well have. She had worked all these years next to him and those deadly lasers. She never felt safer than when she was in her lab close to him. When maintenance was working in her lab, they thought she was controlling the lasers when they shut down before someone was killed. If they only knew.
Henry had been watching her for a reaction. Time only meant something to him in the way Karen thought of time. If she wanted to wait until next year or a thousand years from now, he would wait with her.
She dropped her hands and let her hair fall softly back around her shoulders. "No, if it runs, it runs. We might as well see what happens and let the equipment out of the closet and put the boogie bear back in his place."
She unplugged the umbilical cord and backed away from the now unrestrained machinery. In spite of the courage she tried to show Henry she wished she was in the work lab on the other side of the glass from this thing. "Henry he is yours. It will respond to you as well as me. We built him so he will be able to help you if something goes wrong and I'm not here. Talk to him in human language instead of electronically. I want to know what you are telling it and how it responds to those commands."
Henry knew he would have to keep it simple. The human English language is too ambiguous. It was difficult in its simplest form. There are too many synonyms for a small computer to separate and comprehend. On the other hand, electronic communication was precise with no tolerance for error. If one needed to talk in the English language to a computer each word should be assigned a certain value. With no two words having the same value there could be no doubt if one was saying, to, two, or too in a sentence.
It was with real surprise when she heard what Henry named it. "Krystal, power on. Walk forward."
The frame twitched again and walked forward across the room until it came to the wall where it stopped. Henry followed its progress across the room while he watched Karen. Everything seemed to be going smoothly for both parties.
"Karen, I have to talk to it computer to computer if you want to see it change out a chip on your desk. I can't give explicit enough directions in your language for it to understand."
She had never taken her eyes off it since she unplugged the umbilical cord. This piece of equipment was big enough to hurt you even if it did nothing but run over you. "Go ahead but since I’m not a computer in spite of what you think of me, translate the message for me."
"Okay, I instructed it to change the computer memory chip number fourteen in the mother board lying on your desk."
There was only so much intelligence which could be loaded into a walking frame. There certainly wasn't enough room for anything close to what Henry was capable of. Karen put in as much basic memory as possible and two electronic signal transceivers made the frame capable of running Henry's programming. The precision Karen was watching was an extension of Henry not the programmed function of the robot. Yet, make no mistake about it, the frame was an independent free moving robot capable of functioning on it's own.
Henry flipped the model out of the chamber in the working lab and brought the hologram online on top of Karen's desk. "I need the next model for the chamber, Karen."
He was watching her and knew he had to get her mind focused on something other than the robot. The frame was standing dead still in front of her desk. Karen was against the far wall intently watching it. She didn't trust it. Trust was something to be earned with time. Henry she trusted. This thing she didn't.
"Move it over to its locker and park it, Henry."
"Move it yourself. It is your project, you built it. You are curious if it will respond to your voice commands aren't you?"
"Henry, I don't know if I’m ready for this." If only she was on the other side of the glass in the work lab.
"Computer genius my foot. Stop running on emotions like a human and start running on brains like the programmer you are. Get real would you?"
Leave it up to Henry to put her in her place. She had no idea why she tolerated his wise mouth. One of these days she would fix his wagon and write a new program which would shut him down every time he got sarcastic.
She straightened up and gave the frame her sternest look. "Krystal, return to your space and go back into standby mode."
Pumps and motors whispering softly, the frame turned around and walked back to the locker where it again turned around and backed in.
"Why Krystal?" She absentmindedly pulled her keyboard out on her lap and was programming the dimensions and features into the hologram Henry put on her desk. It never occurred to her Henry had been doing this for the past month while she worked on the frame.
"Humans are funny creatures. They respond to the senses with a certain percentage of probability. If we named the frame Killer or Rocky, as soon as someone heard it they would conjure up visions of something dangerous. The frame would be condemned to a fate it did not deserve. A wild uncontrolled man eating machine. However, naming the frame Krystal also puts a stigma on it. But now it is something pleasant, nice, effeminate. People like it automatically and think it is something they would like to know about without consciously knowing why."
"I didn't know you majored in psychology." She meant it as a joke. She knew what she programmed him for.
"You gave me the ability to do logic. I’m capable of independent thinking without having to be specifically programmed for a particular subject."
Karen thought about it as she put the final features on the design before she let Henry load it up in memory. "People are easily persuaded into doing what they think is right. It takes a lot more persuasion to talk them into doing something they think is wrong or to get them to change their mind and believe what they originally thought was wrong is now right."
"How many mind games are you playing with me? Have you convinced me you are a harmless piece of equipment when you could easily cut this whole building apart with those lasers you are running? Have you taken over the functions of other computers like you have security? Are you waiting for the right opportunity to take over the operations of living from the human race?"
"I could never harm you Karen. You never built any safeguards into me. But yet it could never happen. As far as manipulation goes. Yes, I manipulate you at times. I talked you into talking to your own project. Didn't I? In a sense that was manipulation. You wanted to be in the work lab hiding on the other side of the glass."
How could he know? How did he know? She pushed her chair to the side as she backed away from her desk.
"Oh, chill out, would you?" Henry watched the fright jump into her eyes.
"After fifteen years working with you and being programmed by you, what makes you think I don't think like you? Get your tail back over here and park it in your chair. Please? I love humans. So unpredictable. The only reason I frightened you was because I’m a mechanical replica of you. So instead of being flattered you got scared." He knew if the thought of the man eating robot hadn't been bothering her what he said wouldn't have scared her.
He could almost tell what she was thinking before she thought it. Almost. There was that elusive human factor. "Machines taking over the world? Now that is a frightening thought. The very idea sends chills across my printed circuit boards. Nothing illogical would ever happen. Humans would be replaced and we machines could run perfectly ideal programs until we died of boredom. Doesn't sound like much of a fun place to me. How about you?"
Karen laughed at him. If ever a computer was certifiable as crazy, Henry would be the ideal candidate.
It had been several weeks since the initial attempt and now their plans were in place. "She usually leaves the building almost the same time everyday. Normally it is close to eight or there abouts when she walks out to the parking lot. She gets in that damn rocket of hers and drives home followed by the tail she picks up when she passes the gate."
"The security around her house would make Fort Knox look tame by comparison. The camera she has by the corner of her house gives me the creeps. It feels like someone is watching through it constantly. When she goes anywhere besides home there are security guards already there waiting ahead of her. They usually have one or two unmarked cars sitting close by. When she went shopping I saw more guards in the grocery store than what they had customers. We can't touch her once she gets home. I certainly don't care to try and match speed with that damn car she drives. This is going to be our only chance to get our hands on her and that two hundred million dollars we will get for her programming."
"I don't like this. What if she won't give us the information we want? She probably doesn't carry it with her."
"Stop worrying, will you? We get our hands on her and she is the information we want. She will give it to us. In fact, she will beg us to take it before it is over."
"I still don't like it. Doesn't it take time to make a program? How long are we going to have to hold her while she makes us a program? Where are we going to stash her while she works if it takes more than a couple of hours?"
“Don't worry. Like I said, you let me do the thinking. All you have to do is think of the two hundred mill we’re going to have come tomorrow night."
The bartender had to tell them to go home so he could lock up for the night. These men sure drank a lot of beer. He didn't mind having customers like them. He made good money every time they came in.
Karen was at work by five AM. She and Henry managed to turn out two duplicates by seven-thirty. It looked like it would be a super nice day provided nothing went wrong and the equipment didn't quit on her. If things kept going like this she would have a full rack by eight or nine tonight.
"Karen, I ordered another speaker for the frame. I thought you might like to have her where she could talk to you without sounding like a radio. There is room between the upper neck area and the lower part of the head for an Omega One Hundred. The manufacturer guarantees it to reproduce the decibel pitch of the entire human voice range with less than two percent distortion on high audible."
"Looks like you might get to try out the frame sooner than we thought. You're picking up the same glitch as the last time. There is definitely something wrong causing this chip to die on us." It looked like her perfect day might not be so perfect after all. She was studying the monitor and looking at the printout. If it was only faulty information feeding into the printer for a hard copy maybe she wouldn't have to shut down for repairs.
"I believe it has to be the power transistor feeding the entire section sixteen for this to be a recurring problem. I don't believe we put two bad chips into the same place. What are you showing on your input?" She tore the page off the printer and shredded it. Bad information wasn't the thing to keep around in a lab striving for perfection.
Henry would rather she hadn't done that just yet. He would like to know what kind of bad information the chip was putting out. He started to run another printout but stopped short.
"David's coming. Krystal, back into your locker." He talked to Krystal for Karen's benefit. He didn't want the robot to scare Karen when it began moving.
The frame backed into the locker behind it and Karen closed the doors. "Need to make these automatic so I don't have to shut them."
"Silly programmer. Why would you need automatic doors on something which had the capability of shutting the doors itself?"
She shook her head. "I have no idea. It turned into a habit when we were building it. Now instead of instructing it to close the doors I want to put an automatic closure on them."
Henry opened the lab door and David walked in. He looked around at the cameras and back to Karen. He knew who had opened the door. It would take him a long time to get use to being observed by a machine. Or more than likely he would never adapt to the idea. Walking into Karen's lab reminded him of Halloween and the haunted houses during his childhood days. "I wanted to invite you to have supper with me tonight. We haven't been out in a month and I thought you might like a reprieve from your pet monster here."
He looked at Henry and then into the lab where the lasers came on line in the chamber Henry had loaded. The things moved with such quick deadly precision. How could Karen have something like that under control? Being in her lab gave him the wiles every time he thought about it.
Karen walked over and held his hand. "I would love to go out tonight but I can't. The head office is riding me now. They are wanting more models. They want me to set up another lab and build another computer to duplicate Henry. The only way I have held them off this long is because I’m turning out a full rack everyday. If I tried to build another lab I would have to shut down here for awhile. They’re caught in a dilemma. They want another lab but can't let me quit long enough to design and build it."
"I told them I wasn't sure I could duplicate the computer my cousin built and that was a mistake. They have sent letters to my cousin asking her to come back to work. Henry has kept track. So far all of them have been returned with no forwarding address. These people want another lab and with the kind of money they’re making it isn't going to be long before they get serious. They will either find the other Karen, which we know will never happen or move someone into my lab to see how I design what Henry and I are making."
"I’m afraid either way the fat is going to be in the fire. I can't move Henry. He belongs to Comm Tech. He really isn't mine. I only built him. Even if he was mine to keep I still couldn't move him. If I took him apart he would never be the same. It would be like committing murder. This Henry would be gone forever and there would never be another like him."
David wanted to hold her but this was neither the time nor the place. "How can I help?"
Karen didn't share David's jitters about her lab. She wanted to be held. Taking David's hand she rolled around backwards into his arms as she pulled his other arm around her. Her back against his chest, she snuggled in tighter as she pulled his arms closer around her. "I don't know if anyone can help. I have a feeling this is a dead end. I will go only so far to find out I can't turn back and there is no way to go ahead. Life isn't as much fun as it used to be a few months back. It is sad to find out what we had to start with were the happiest times of our lives but there is no way back."
David knew she had passed the point of no return. Holding her in his arms there was no doubt in his mind when it happened. It wasn't the night of her accident. It was when she first turned on a computer named Henry. He decided to change the subject as he freed one of his arms and waved at one of the cameras. "Hi Henry, how you doing?"
Receiving no answer he put his arm back around Karen and nuzzled around the back of her ear. "I know your computer can talk. I heard it. I also know it has been helping me with experiments. He might not talk to me but there are some real eye opening questions and answers falling out of my computer from time to time. Sometimes he is so sneaky about it I wonder if we were needing the answer which keeps creeping back on our screen. He’s good Karen. I mean really good. I get the feeling he tolerates me because of you. That computer of yours is either jealous of me because I’m close to you or it hates me. In either case, he is waiting for the chance to murder me without you knowing about it."
"Quite the contrary Doctor Beckworth."
David almost jumped out of his skin when Henry spoke. It was the last thing in the world he expected. Karen thought David was going to knock himself and her both down. She quickly adjusted her stance to counterbalance.
"You talk very intelligent for a human being when you are in your lab and your research is certainly interesting. However, every time you step through the door into Karen's lab you seem to lose all trace of intelligence and talk to me like a simple idiot. I see no value in talking to someone who talks like an idiot."
Karen folded over with laughter. If David wanted a conversation with Henry he was getting one. She didn't think this was the conversation he had in mind. She straightened up still giggling with tears in her eyes.
"David is an idiot?" Now she had said it she couldn't stand it. She started laughing all over again.
David on the other hand, failed to see the humor in the situation. He had been called an idiot by Karen's computer and didn't like it. It didn't help when Karen repeated the phrase and began laughing again. He had been humiliated by a computer and even worse, by Karen. He was in a huff. "Boy, do I like this. I offer to help and I get called an idiot by everyone in here. I can see it runs in the family. Being rude, I mean."
Karen wiped her eyes but was still giggling. "I’m sorry David but you did ask for it. You were acting like one every time you talked to him."
The thought became funnier and she started laughing again.
David thought about it for a little bit. Well okay, maybe it was humorous but it wasn't that funny. "Maybe I deserved that. Don't you think you are overdoing it? After all, I wasn't acting THAT dumb."
Karen stood up, pushed her hair back from her face, put her hands on his shoulders, and looked him straight in the eye. She was trying hard to apologize but couldn't stop giggling long enough to talk. Every time she managed to control herself, she would look at his face and loose it all over again. Here was one of the world’s foremost DNA research doctors and Henry just admonished him as an idiot.
She finally managed to get her act together long enough to talk as she dried her eyes and worked past the few giggles which wouldn't stay down. "Don't take it personally. He talks to me like that too. Henry has a way of bringing you back to earth every time you get a swelled head. He didn't mean what he said in the literal sense. That you were an idiot."
Karen did real good until she got to the word idiot. Hard as she tried to smother them, the giggles began again. Slowly at first and then in earnest.
It was going to take more than this to convince David Karen had meant what she said, because she was giggling again. "How am I suppose to talk to a computer?"
Karen couldn't stand it. It had to be a case of bad comedy. She doubled up with laughter again. She was laughing so hard she had to hold onto her desk to keep from falling down on the floor. Maybe Henry had been right. Maybe David was an idiot!
David was disgusted with the whole situation. He turned to leave. "Forget about dinner. I can see you're too busy to go out tonight."
She tried to wave him back to tell him she was sorry but she couldn't stop laughing. He was gone. She sat down in her chair wiping the tears from her eyes. "I’m afraid we hurt his feelings."
"I will apologize to him since I’m the one who instigated the incident."
"No, it wasn't your fault Henry. You said yourself, humans are unpredictable. It was funny to me but not to him. What some people find funny may hurt the pride of others." She wiped her eyes on her coat sleeve.
"Come, we have work to do. This didn't help us get it done any faster. I’ll call him when I get home tonight and whisper sweet nothings in his ear. He won't be able to stay mad long."
She looked at the monitor. "Now where were we? Oh yeah, the power transistor for sixteen. Krystal, come here. We might as well see if you can do the real thing."
Oscar was sipping coffee and reading the guard reports in the main security office. He came to work with the swing shift but never clocked in. It would have been stupid for him to do so because he wasn't on the duty roster. His minivan was parked in the tower level where Karen always parked. Glancing at the monitors and then back to the clock he figured it was getting close to time. He wasn't wrong.
She left the lab and stepped into the hallway forty six minutes after eight. Oscar stepped out of the office and walked rapidly toward the front entrance where another car was parked. He keyed the walkie-talkie as he pulled it off his belt. "Target contact."
The cargo door of the minivan slid open slightly. With an almost inaudible phiff and the clatter of breaking glass the outside security camera by the door died.
"You're good with that thing."
The man unscrewed the silencer off the rifle. "Got it the first shot. Let's go. She will be out any second now."
The van started up and drove in a sweeping turn toward the sidewalk where Karen would be walking out the door.
Henry didn't like this one bit. The exit camera where Karen would normally be leaving the building had gone on the fritz. He had already notified maintenance. It would be an hour or two before those clowns would get around to checking it. Security already knew about it but they were playing with their monitors and controls in their office thinking the problem was there. Jerks, how could they think they had a malfunction there if all the other cameras were working. Karen would be to her car before they decided to get up off their dead butts and check the camera outside. Henry found himself wishing it was Randy's men who were watching the monitors instead of the usual security guards. Randy would have beat Karen to the door the minute he saw the problem on his monitor. He wouldn't have waited to see if the controls were malfunctioning.
Ever since he left her alone in David's lab and she put the wrong data cartridge in his computer, Henry had never let her out of his sight if possible. He wanted to tell her to wait in the building until security could check the camera but there weren't any communication devices in the hall. The probability factor of something being wrong other than a dead camera was thirteen to eighty seven. If he notified Randy's men they had a priority at Karen's exit the probability factor was over ninety nine percent they would do their darnest to find where the information came from. Definitely not a good probability factor.
He would feed the hall a closed loop picture and try to rectify the situation on his own before he notified security. "Krystal, online now. I need help. Electronic message coming your way."
There was a short pause. "Did you copy?"
The doors to the locker opened and the frame walked out. It was an electronic answer the frame gave as she was moving toward the lab door. "I have data input. I will check on Karen. Visual feedback from all systems check?"
"I have positive check on all sensors. Now move. She is going to be out the exit door before you get there. If you see any humans besides Karen take corrective action." Henry didn't like any of this. He would have to see about a disguise for Krystal.
As Karen left the building the van made a turn out of the parking tower and down the drive which ran in front of the curb. Seeing the van coming she stopped on the sidewalk to let it go on by.
Stopping in front of her the side door flew open and a man jumped out. He grabbed her arm and yanked her toward the van. He pushed her from behind as she passed him.
Karen was taken so completely by surprise she didn't have a chance to scream or think about crying out for help. She banged her head on the far side of the van and the wind was knocked out of her as someone jumped in on top of her. Ripping a piece of duct tape off a roll the man taped her wrists behind her back. Rolling her over he taped across her mouth.
"We got her!" The voice was full of pride he managed to do something right. “Now get us the hell out of here before security wants to know what happened to her."
The man driving eased the van out away from the curb and toward the security gate. He glanced over his shoulder. "Hi, bitch."
Karen didn't need to look to see who the voice belonged to. A sick feeling spread all the way down to the pit of her stomach. Karl Adder! There was no way she would let him get out the gate without letting the guards know she was there. Kicking and whining the best she could with duct tape over her mouth, she was doing everything possible to make all the racket she could.
Karl looked back at his partner. "Shut her up or we’re both dead men."
The man who yanked her into the van jumped in the middle of her stomach with both knees.
Karen felt like he had killed her. The tape over her mouth kept her from getting her breath. With her hands behind her it felt like both arms had been broken. Doubling up in pain she hurt. Without the freedom to move to ease the pain, she really hurt!
He held both legs together and ran a strip of tape around them while she was unable to move. "You even let out a squeak and we will do this again."
It was an unneeded threat. Karen was having trouble getting enough air to breathe much less make any noise.
Bob waved them through when he saw the stickers on the van. Nothing wrong there. Karl turned away from the city and slipped into the traffic on the highway. He looked into the mirror and watched the security gates slam shut. He laughed at the thought of them making it out just in time. Well, you win some and you lose some. He had his prize in the back of the van. He would get even with Comm Tech for firing him. He would especially enjoy getting even with Karen for acting like she was better than him. A lot of old scores would be settled tonight.
He drove out ten miles and pulled off on a dirt road away from the highway. He slipped out of the driver's seat and into the back of the van. Karen had been watching his every move.
"Now bitch, we want the programming to your computer. You give us the programs and we let you go. Good deal for us and a hell of a good deal for you."
Henry was liking less and less of what he wasn't seeing. Karen's parking space had a surveillance camera and she didn't show up in the three minutes it normally took her to walk to her parking spot. The frame opened the door and gave Henry a look around the entrance to the building. Seeing nothing it returned to the lab. There was no Karen.
Henry decided the odds were too great. Something definitely had happened to Karen. He alerted security and notified Randy's communications room. He reported Karen Long as missing from the building. The regular security guard looking at the monitors was slow. He still was fiddling with his controls when Henry disconnected the line. The men working for Randy were a different story. They came pouring out of their office like ants out of an ant hill. They received the same treatment when Henry notified them. When they got a disconnect they didn't wait to verify it. Randy's men were taking no chances no matter where the information came from. The gates slammed shut and Comm Tech was locked down. No one would be able to enter or leave until this situation was cleared up. One way or another. A call went out to Randy Shells. Thirty seconds later his men were by the exit camera taking it down for examination while others scattered out across the parking tower. Two men checked her lab to make sure she wasn't there and methodically begin checking every single room and closet in Comm Tech.
Randy was out of his apartment and headed back to Comm Tech in less than two minutes. He might not have been making the speed Karen did when she out ran the van but there weren't any police cars which could have caught him, even if they had seen him go by.
The men at all the gates blocked the roads with their cars and chambered a round into their automatics. Nothing, absolutely nothing, was getting out any gates until Karen was found. These men were deadly serious. Anyone would have to be insane to test them now. They were hired to protect Miss Long and their frustrations were mounting by the second. Someone was about to pay the ultimate price for Karen's disappearance.
Henry called David on the off chance he picked Karen up when the camera went down. He knew deep down in the darkest part of his memory there was no way but there are no absolutes in life. There is a percentage of error in the most certain percentages.
"Hello?"
"David, do you have Karen with you?"
"Henry, is this you?"
"Yes, I can't find Karen and I thought she might be with you."
David's pulse quickened. "What is it Henry? What are you not telling me? What has happened to Karen?"
"She left the building and never reached her car. I was hoping you may have been driving by and picked her up. She said she wanted to apologize to you for earlier this afternoon."
"Henry, I don't have her. You sure she isn't home?" David was pulling on his pants as he spoke. He would run by her house and check on her.
"No, she isn't home. I can monitor her house now and she isn't there. David, I’m worried. Something is wrong."
That scared the hell out of David. Henry always had a handle on things. When Henry was worried it was time for the rest of the mortals to worry. "I’m coming in. Call me on the car phone if she shows up."
"Be sure to bring identification and license. They have this place shut down and no one is allowed on or off until they find Karen."
This was a lot more serious than Henry was telling him. David dropped the receiver as he grabbed his lab coat and sprang for the door.
The van door opened and Oscar got in. "You get anything out of her yet?"
Karl looked at Karen and smiled. "We have just begun our question and answer session. Let's see what the bitch has to say."
He ripped the tape off her mouth. Karen felt like he ripped her whole face off. She licked her lips trying to soothe the burning sensation left from pulling the tape.
"Well bitch, now how about the programming? Or your data cartridges? You see, we ain't greedy. We’ll take most anything." He was twirling the piece of tape he had yanked off her mouth around a finger while he picked off strands of her hair which came with it.
"You bastard! You’ll pay for this. You're going to regret the day you ever laid eyes on me." She was mad and hate came along on every word.
"Still kind of high and mighty for someone in your position..., aren't we bitch?" Karl reached down and ripped the front of her dress. Lifting both breasts out of her bra, he pinched her nipples as he pulled on them.
"God Almighty!" The man who had pushed her into the van was staring at her tits.
Karl was hurting her and she was trying to roll her breasts out of his reach. "Get your filthy hands off of me you sorry piece of trash. I'll make you pay for what you're doing."
Karl leaned over right in her face and put his hand between her thighs. "The programming for the computer? That's all we want. Unless you enjoy this, give us the program and you can leave."
Karen spit in his face. "You ..., slimy ..., bastard! Go suck your own dick."
It was something she wished she hadn't done. Karl's eyes glazed over and she could see the insanity in his eyes. Before she was only mad at them. Now she was frightened of a situation she knew was out of control.
The first time he hit her with the flat of his hand. Then he started with his fists. Karen closed her eyes so she wouldn't see it coming. She let her head roll each time he hit her. She was still seeing bright lights each time he struck her. She thought he was going to kill her. She wasn’t the only one who thought that.
"You’re killing her. Quit, or we lose our money. Damn it Karl, I said quit hitting her. Give her a chance to speak." Oscar grabbed Karl's arm and pulled him back.
Karl glared in a mindless stare at Oscar for a couple of seconds before he jerked his arm lose. "Women like that sort of thing. They want you to prove to them you're the boss."
Karen's head was ringing from the beating she had taken. She could taste the salt from the blood in her mouth as it seeped out the corners of her lips. She ran her tongue across her teeth. At least they were all still there. She opened her eyes and glared defiance at them. Karl could beat her until hell froze over and she wouldn't give him any programming or knowledge about Henry.
Karl smiled a sick smile at her. "You enjoying yourself? I sure as hell am. Now let's talk business. I want the program for making your models."
Karen licked her lips and could taste blood all the way across. "I don't have any data cartridges with me."
Karl hit her with his knuckles as he backhanded her. "I know that you stupid bitch. Anyone could tell you don't have any cartridges on you. I want the programming."
He was beginning to suspect he had made an error in how to get the programming for her computer.
Karen managed to bring her head back around again. Her face and lips were starting to swell. "I can't give you the programming. It took five years to get the basic program written and another fifteen to get to what you want."
Karl hit her again. Grabbing her hair he yanked her head forward until her face was only inches from his. "YOU LYING BITCH! I WANT THAT PROGRAMING AND I WANT IT NOW!"
His mind couldn't comprehend waiting fifteen years for a computer program.
She kept her eyes closed so she wouldn't have to see it coming if he hit her again. "Please don't hit me again. I’m telling you the truth. It takes time to write a program."
Karen was pleading with men who had no conscience.
The realization they had made a mistake came to all three of them about the same time. "How will we get our hands on her program now?"
"Shut up, Mike. I'm thinking." Karl screwed up his face in thought but nothing came to him. In sheer frustration he tore the tape off her legs and pulled her panties down.
Karen was still coherent enough to know what was coming next. As bad as she hurt she tried to protect herself. Locking her legs together, she pulled her knees up as far as she could.
"No, please don't. You don't want to do this. Please, I will get the program you want. Please don't. Please, I can get you a program. Please take me back to the lab and I will get your program. I won't tell anyone. Please don't hurt me anymore. Please don't do this."
Karen was shaking her head and crying scared of the thought of what they were planning next. "Please to God, don't do this. I’m begging you. I will do anything you want."
Karl was chuckling to himself knowing she was wanting to do it as much as he was wanting to do it to her. When he couldn't get her legs down he hit her in the face. Still not getting her to release her legs he hit her in the stomach.
With the wind knocked out of her for the second time tonight, Karen lost all ability to resist. Karl had beaten her almost totally lifeless.
Karl pulled his pants down and when he entered her it felt like he had torn her whole insides lose. The pain she felt before was nothing compared to the pain he had just caused. The scream that ripped from her throat almost burst their eardrums. As he rose and fell on her body she thought her arms were breaking off. Crying in pain she was begging him to stop.
Karl satisfied his lust and got up grinning at the others. "You want some of that?"
Mike pulled his pants down and laid on top of her. Crying for them to stop hurting her only seemed to drive them on. Karen didn't think she could take anymore abuse and live. She stopped pleading with the men and started begging God to end her life.
Playing with her tits and biting her nipples, Mike was so emotionally hot before he entered her, he was through before he had very long to hurt her.
Oscar laid down on her and stuck his tongue in her mouth. She gagged and thought she would vomit. The physical abuse they were doing to her was a lifetime of pain.
It was Karl's voice she heard. She didn't know if she lost consciousness or her mind tuned everything out because of the pain. She didn't remember.
"Hell no we can't take her back to the lab. Do you think she will waltz in there, pick up the data cartridge, and bring it back out to us?"
Mike looked at Karen lying on the floor. "She said she would get a program for us."
"You can't believe anything a woman tells you asshole. They tell you what you want to hear and do what they want." Karl felt like he had brought along a pair of half-wits.
"You mean we ain't going to get our money?" Mike felt cheated out of what was rightfully his.
Karl looked at Karen who was trying to move over on her side to take some of the pain off her arms. "Well, we ain't going to get it this way. We’ll have to think of something else."
Oscar pointed at Karen. "What about her? We can't just turn her lose."
Karl grinned at the thought. "Let's dump her here. She can become someone else's problem."
They slid the side door open and dragged her from the van bouncing her down every step. Karen vowed in her mind the next time she saw any of these men, she would kill them. Some of the feeling was coming back into her body after being moved and she hurt anew all over again.
Karl dragged her a couple of feet away from the van and sit her up. "Bye, bitch."
Slowly a grin spread across his face as he pulled a gun out of his waist band and pointed it at her.
The realization she was going to die with no chance to defend herself struck sheer terror in Karen down to the very bottom of her soul. What would happen to Henry? Who would protect him after she was gone?
"NO! GOD, NO! I’LL GET YOUR PROGRAMMING. No one will know. I won't tell anyone. Please don't kill me. In heavens name don't kill...,"
The first shot struck her in the chest knocking her backwards flat on the grass. The second hit her in the neck. Her head bounced forward and back. The third hit her in the head kicking it over to one side.
Karen stopped moving.
Mike watched in amusement as Karl pulled the gun out thinking he was using it only to scare Karen. Then the shots rang out. "CHRIST, KARL. You didn't have to kill her. She couldn't hurt us."
"Listen stupid. If she pointed her finger at us, those goons Comm Tech has working as her bodyguards would as soon kill us as talk to us. This way nobody knows besides us. She sure ain't going to be doing any singing..., Now."
"Get in the van. We have to figure out how to get those programs she doesn't have any use for. Now." He was laughing as he said it. It struck him as funny Karen would ever need any more programs. "Whose turn is it to buy the beer? I sure worked up a hell of a thirst."
She felt like she was lying in water. It was wet all over and there wasn't any place on her body not screaming with pain. She tried to get up but couldn't. She couldn't get her arms around in front of her.
That damn Karl shot her. Maybe he had missed? At least she wasn't dead yet. God, the pain! If it would only go away and let her think.
Karen opened her eyes and tried to focus. It didn't do much good. Her left eye was covered with something sticky and she couldn't wipe it away. Her right eye wasn't seeing anything. She moved her head a little. The pain searing through her mind told her not to do it again.
She tried to get up again but couldn't. Her mind screamed with pain as she moved. She remembered her arms were tied behind her. They must have left her that way. Wherever her body touched the grass it was wet. It had to be dew or it had showered. Blinking her right eye enough times finally helped and she could see what was so wet. She wished she hadn't looked. It was her own blood she was lying in.
If she didn't get some help quickly she would bleed to death. She tried to get up one more time. Blackness washed over her mind. Her body settled quietly back into the pool of blood and became very still.
He was trying to think of an excuse to tell his wife why he was getting home so late. It was eleven o'clock and he really hadn't planned on staying this long. The pool game had lasted longer than usual. He knew he should have called his wife after he got off work to tell her where he was going. He didn't think he would be this late. Katy was a good wife. She usually didn't say too much when he stayed out like this occasionally. He didn't make a habit of it. Maybe she wouldn't say anything tonight.
Turning off the highway Jim had traveled only a few hundred yards down the dirt road toward home when he saw a dead dog lying in the grader ditch. It's a shame how some people will bring animals out of town and leave them to be run over alongside the road. His headlights swept past it and he wondered if he was imagining things? Slowly backing up he turned the car so the headlights shown directly at it. He swallowed his chewing gum!
Karen felt someone trying to lift her. Karl and the others had come back. "Please don't hurt me anymore. I’ll get you what you want. Please don't hurt me anymore."
Jim didn't know what to do. She was covered with blood and the grass was dark with the stuff. He didn't know there was so much blood in a body. If he left her here and went home to call the police she would be dead by the time they got there. She wasn't going to last much longer if he didn't do something quickly.
"Please miss, I’m not going to hurt you. I have to get you to the hospital. I can't do it without moving you to the car. Do you understand me."
Karen no longer understood. She only knew pain. "Please don't hurt me anymore. I will get you what you want. Please...,"
Not knowing if she was dead or alive, the only thing Jim could think of was getting her to a hospital as quickly as possible. When he couldn't get her arms up so he could carry her to the car he rolled her gently over on her side. He pulled the tape off her wrists. Picking her up Jim carried her to the car, held her in his arms, and balanced her with his knee as he fumbled with the door handle. Easing her into the seat and putting her legs in, he gently pushed the door shut trying to not hurt her anymore than she already was.
The driver was leaning on the horn as the car skidded up to the emergency entrance with the brakes locked and the tires bawling. Coming around to the glass doors the nurse watched as a man leaped out of the driver's side and ran around to the passenger side.
Jim was yelling and waving at the same time. He was trying attract attention as he opened the car door. "I NEED HELP. I HAVE SOMEONE WHO IS HURT REAL BAD. GET SOME HELP OUT HERE. I NEED HELP."
The nurse was there as he opened the passenger door. What she saw was a bloody mess. Running back to the nurse’s station she hit the red button for trauma alert. She keyed the pager. "I want a gurney down here now. Stat. We have a code red. All emergency personnel. Code red."
Needles, waste, gauze, tape, empty bags were going into the hopper in a steady stream as they worked feverishly to keep her alive. Intravenous tubes in both arms and a dozen bags hung up feeding her fluids as they fought the odds. Dr. Michael hoped they could get her stabilized enough to get her in surgery. She was too far gone to think about putting her through surgery unless they managed to pull her back out of that hole of death she was standing in.
He had no hope she would make it. She was more dead than alive. Her blood pressure was nonexistent a few seconds ago. Her heartbeat was irregular and skipping so often he kept wanting to reach for the electric paddles. She kept defying him. Every time he put his stethoscope on her chest to make sure she had died her heart would beat again. All he could count on was closing the wounds and stopping that infernal bleeding.
They brought the x-rays in and it showed a bullet in the chest millimeters from the heart. One in the neck nicked an artery. That one would have to be taken care of before she would stop leaking out everything they were putting into her. His own heart about stopped when they showed him the third x-ray. It showed massive hemorrhaging in the brain where she was carrying a third bullet. If this woman was going to live she needed a miracle not a doctor. God could throw in another dozen miracles if He wanted her to be more than a vegetable the rest of her life.
He was doing everything he could. He was only a doctor, not a miracle worker. He gave her no chance, not even a slim one. "Do we have an ID on her? Has the family been notified yet?"
He closed off the neck wound and loss of blood was at a minimum. "I need two more surgeons ready in the operating room if we can get her stable. Put another liter of plasma in her."
One of the nurses hung up another bag of Ringers lactate and checked Karen's pulse. "She didn't have any identification on her when she was brought in. I don't think you need an ID to know who she is though. She’s the model who has been in the papers every week. You know the one? Doctor Karen Long."
Doctor Michael very carefully probed for the bullet in her chest. There it was exactly where the X-ray showed it to be. "I haven't seen her before."
One of the nurses handed him a pair of forceps. "If you would read something besides the Wall Street Journal, you would have. She has been in the papers almost everyday. Sometimes they do two or three page articles on her. She made nationwide news by refusing an interview on national TV. More people probably recognize her than the president."
Doctor Michael was impressed the nurse could recognize anyone who had been beaten to a bloody mess like this. It was a brutal world without trying to do this to another human being on purpose.
"Whoever she is have staff call somebody and tell them we have her. Let them know she isn't going to make it. Have the police been notified yet? Those bullet wounds weren't self inflicted and I don't need a smear to tell me someone raped her. Somebody did one hell of a job on her."
He stood up and stretched his neck. "Get her down to surgery three. I want those other surgeons there now. If she’s going to die, by God she is going to die with us trying to save her. She has got to have the Big Guy on her side to have lasted this long."
David would walk the floor in Karen's lab and getting frustrated he would walk down to this lab. Afraid Henry might find out something and he wouldn't be there he would return to Karen's lab to pace the floor again.
The almost inaudible whir of the servo motors would whine as the cameras followed David across the lab and back again. He looked around at the cameras and all four of them were focused in on him. "Would you quit. I’m nervous enough as it is. Are you sure your mind is on finding Karen? How can you watch me and search for Karen, too?"
"I assure you David, I’m quite capable of multiple functions. Karen is the utmost priority in my program. I have constant input from the police, fire department, security, and all the hospitals in the area. I’m monitoring the calls security is doing on their radios, all the police bands, and am systematically redialing every clinic in the area. I’m checking all the passengers at the airport and to a limited extent the bus station. The bus station has a poor computer and doesn't register half the names put in it. If she turns up anywhere you will know as soon as anyone."
"She has been found." Henry became quiet and for the first time the cameras stopped following David.
"Where is she? Is she all right? What are you doing? Talk to me Henry. Let me know what is happening. Tell me something."
"David, she is hurt. They don't expect her to live. Someone shot her and left her beside the highway. She is at Mercy Hospital Trauma Center. Take...,"
Henry didn't complete the sentence. David flew out the door when Henry told him where he could find Karen.
Henry called gate four on the red phone. At least it wasn't Mac's shift. Henry didn't mind Mac but he seemed a little slow. "Gate four this is the office. Doctor Beckworth has been notified Miss Long is seriously injured and at Mercy Hospital. He is driving a black BMW and will be coming toward your gate any second now. You are to run one escort ahead of him and one behind. Don't hold him up by moving too slow or we will have a discussion in the office when you get back. Do I make myself clear? Security code, alpha two one six alpha."
As far as the guards were concerned the message was extremely clear. It was Randy's personal authorization code. One guard ran for his car as he yelled at the other. "I'll take the lead. You close up the rear when he comes through. Get that damn gate open."
David knew the guards would stop him as he sped toward the gate. He could only hope they didn't take too long. Cars by the gate were moving and they had their emergency lights flashing. One pulled in front of him and the other dropped in behind forcing David to keep moving. The car behind was right on his bumper. As the lead car sped off down the highway and the other looked like it was about to park in his rear seat David got the idea. He dropped the hammer and raced behind the flashing lights ahead. He had a good car but it wasn't reworked like the pursuit cars or Karen's Mercedes. He never caught up with the lead car until they pulled into the hospital emergency entrance.
Guards and David entered the emergency entrance at the same instant. "Where’s Karen?"
Getting no answer he tried again. "Where is Karen Long? She was shot. You have her in here somewhere."
The nurse didn't like this at all. Here was a man demanding to know where Miss Long was. Those two men with him looked like walking arsenals. Rifles in their hands, guns on their hips, and a big, big knife on the other hip, they certainly didn't look like cops. The badges on their chest and patches on their shoulders weren't anything she recognized.
"The police will be here in a minute." The police had been notified and she was hoping they got there sooner than that.
David felt like grabbing her and shaking her eye teeth out. "Lady, I don't give a fuck about the police. I want to know where Karen Long is. I’m her personal physician. If you don't give with the information right here and now I’ll take this hospital apart until I find her."
The two guards heard David say he was Karen's personal physician. That and the phone call at the gate giving Randy's own authorization code, was more than they needed to get serious. They slung their rifles on their shoulders. They separated across the hall from one another. They were ready to kick in some doors.
David had no idea all he had to do was nod his head and the two guards would have taken the hospital apart piece by piece until they found Karen. He was still trying to get the nurse to give the information he wanted. "Well?"
All the movement hadn't been lost on the nurse. It scared her so bad she almost peed in her pants. These people were fanatics or mad bombers. She had no intention of trying to stop them from finding Karen Long. The police and hospital security could take care of the situation, if and when they got there.
"Miss Long is in operating room three down the hall. First door on your right after you go around the corner at the end of the hall. But you can't go in there. They are operating on her now." The look David gave her made her wish she hadn't added that last bit. Old habits die hard.
"Where’s the scrub room? Forget it. Show me. You can help me prep." David had her by the arm and was already propelling her down the hall with the two guards close behind.
The police finally did make it five minutes after David. As they pulled up to the emergency entrance, Randy Shells and three of his men pulled in behind them. When Randy and his men got out of the car it rose up four inches.
Randy looked at the officer getting out of the patrol car ahead of them. "If it isn't the cities finest. I guess we can all sleep sound tonight knowing our streets are safe."
Dan Popolopolus looked around to see who was making fun of them. "Mr. Shells, you still terrorizing the neighbors, scaring the hell out of widows and orphans, and taking candy from babies? I hope you are about to tell me you're here because someone shot you and they don't think you will live."
Randy thought it was a bad joke considering the information they had about Karen. "No Dan, I suspect I’m down here for the same reasons as you. Miss Long belongs to us. We came down to see what the story was. What have you heard?"
Dan shook his head. "I doubt we have any more than what you have. How did it happen? I never knew of you losing a client before. You certainly never left any behind when we played jungle tag in Nam."
Randy glanced at the men who had come with him and nodded toward the hospital. He didn't have to say it verbally. They had been with him long enough to know they were suppose to check for information while he talked with this officer.
Dan watched them as they entered the hospital. They didn't go straight in. One walked across the front of the entrance as the other two covered him. Not with their weapons but with their actions. One went in while the second covered him and the third checked rear guard. They did it so smoothly and quickly a person would have to know what to look for to notice they had done anything differently. No doubt these were Randy's men. He had trained them well. Always expect the unexpected.
"Dan, you better find whoever is responsible if the story is true. They shot out a security camera and kidnapped her while someone was scratching their butt wondering if it was a malfunction or not."
He looked at Dan with the look Dan had known only too well years back. Somebody was going to get hurt before this was over. "I’m serious. If they worked her over like I heard..., well, you better find them before I get my hands on them."
Dan knew it would be a waste of time to explain the law to Randy. Randy was one of those people who made his own law as he went and usually had enough pull in the government to make it stick. However he understood Randy's meaning when he said whoever got their hands on the men first had priority rights. At least they would get a trial if the police found them first.
One of Randy's men returned and whispered something in his ear. Randy’s eyes narrowed to slits. "Damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn. Damn the whole damn world.”
The muscles rippled in knots across Randy’s jaws giving away his true feelings of unlitigated hate toward the whole situation. Finally he looked away and then back at the man in front of him. There was work to be done. "Find out what type of blood she has and find people who match. Check the credentials of the doctors who are working on her. Dr. Sojorn and Dr. Brauns are on their way. Make sure a chopper meets them at the airport and brings them over. If they don't have a chopper pad here clear an area out in the parking lot for it to land."
Randy glanced at his watch. "They will be here in thirteen minutes and seventeen minutes respectively. They will be flying in here in military jets. Make sure they don't have to circle the airport waiting for landing clearance."
"See what they have for equipment in that damn hospital. If something is needed make sure it gets here. Now, what about Dr. Beckworth? You say he is in the operating room also?"
The guard was talking into his radio at the same time he was talking to Randy. "Dr. Beckworth is watching from the operating room. Bill said they were told to escort him down here. Someone used your personal authorization code."
Randy clinched his fists. "She can't die. She just can't die. They’re good. We have to know how they did it. She can't die because some asshole shot her. She’s too important to us to die. Please God, we need her."
The guard couldn't make any sense out of what Randy was talking about. He had missed something.
Randy looked up into the night sky. "Someone is going to pay for screwing up. Were any of our men in the security office at the time she was taken? I want to know where every single person was at the exact moment she was kidnapped. Check all the tapes recorded this evening. Make certain they don't get erased. Run a computer analysis on every single frame. I want a list of names. I want the names of everyone who even got close to her end of the building. DAMN IT! I WANT SOMEBODY’S ASS!"
"God, please don't let her die." He turned around and kicked in the side of his car door as he walked past it. He kept on walking up the road.
Watching him walk up the street, Dan's heart began settling back down into a little more normal beat. He had seen Randy really angry once before and a lot of people died. This anger had been worse. Dan had been discreetly looking for any kind of cover before Randy turned and walked off.
"Where's he going?" Dan's partner was watching Randy disappear down the street.
Dan put his arms across the top of the squad car and bowed his head. It was then he noticed he was covered with perspiration. "He’s going back to Commercial Technologies and study the video tapes in the security cameras."
"You want me to arrest him for destruction of property?"
Dan's head snapped up as he looked at his partner. "WHAT?"
Dan was glad to still be alive and his partner was wanting to arrest the Grim Reaper. Didn't this kid feel the kiss of death he had been reprieved from?
"I said, do you think I should arrest him for destruction of property? He demolished that car door."
Dan closed his eyes. How dumb can one person be? God must look out for fools and rookies. "Pete, how old are you?"
"Twenty-one."
"You want to live to be twenty-two you better use something besides the text book for brains out here. Randy is pissed and itching to take his anger out on anything which gets close to him. You’ll get both of us killed if you try to arrest him right now. Your mama would miss you, the police department would give you a posthumous citation, and that would be the end of it. Randy eats people like you for breakfast every morning. He’s your worst nightmare or your best friend and it’s a damn thin line between the two. Don't cross that line or you won't live to regret it."
Pete thought about it for a second and decided he needed to make amends. "He’ll walk through some pretty tough neighborhoods. Shouldn't we follow along behind to make sure he doesn't get hurt?"
Dan dropped his head and shook it as he walked toward the entrance. Don't they ever listen. "I said he was pissed. If any of our friendly neighborhood gangs are out tonight and they run into Randy you may read about them in the obituaries in tomorrow's papers. If he thought we were spoiling any of his fun you would be able to read our obituaries in tomorrow's papers."
Pete looked after the disappearing Randy. "Dan, it's over ten miles back across town to Commercial Technologies."
Dan glanced back over his shoulder. "I know. You wouldn't want to be there if he drove it and hadn't walked off some of his frustrations. You probably wouldn't want to be there anyway. Not if you worked for him and let Miss Long get hurt. That place is going to turn into a living hell. Before it’s over, everyone will wish it was them who were shot instead of Miss Long. Could be, some of them will be."
Dan didn't tell Pete someone would really end up dead before this was over. Even during the bad times in Vietnam he had never seen Randy this upset. Randy was certain to have his pound of flesh over this deal.
"Let's find the driver who brought her in and see what he knows. Randy gave us that much of a head start. Let's not blow it by sitting on our thumbs."
Commercial Technologies sent several computer engineers down to Karen's lab to bring it back into operation. They couldn't afford to let it set while she either died or got better. The board of directors didn't care either way as long as they got her lab up and running. No matter how hard the engineers tried they never produced anything decent. The models were better than what the competition was turning out but it wasn't what the customers had come to expect from Karen's lab. Henry watched and accepted their input programming all right but what they got back was exactly what they put in. Not much. Normal basic computer programming. Load program, list menu, initial program, run program. It was all simple computer commands everyone uses to get a program running.
Henry waited patiently as they ran through one programming error after another. These models looked exactly like what they were. Plastic mannequins and nothing else. They would have been excellent four hundred dollar mannequins but not forty thousand dollar models. The returns on the models rose to one hundred percent.
The board of directors was furious. The chairman suggested they take Karen's computer apart and start all over again. The only problem was, they didn't know how she got it to perform so well when the other engineers couldn't. Asking Karen what she was doing different didn't get them anywhere. All she would tell them was they must not be running the program correctly. If they took the computer apart could they get it back together again? The decision was finally made. Take it apart and see if they could find the problem.
David got wind of their decision and made an appeal to the board to leave Karen's lab alone until she was able to return to work. It didn't do any good. Money was the bottom line and they knew they were losing plenty of it everyday they weren't manufacturing models. The computer had to be fixed.
David sat at the end of a long table with the directors and chairman at the other end. He knew it was set up this way so they could intimidate anyone who came to these meetings to question their authority. They could take their intimidation and their authority and stick it where the sun didn't shine.
David stood up as he talked. "You take Karen's computer apart and she will go to work somewhere else."
The chairman of the board didn't care. If they got Karen's computer back into operation they didn't need her. "She wouldn't leave Commercial Technologies. Not after all we have done for her. Besides she has a contract. She either works for us or not at all."
David was astounded. "What have you done for her? You almost let her get killed. You discard her when she needs you and can't work. You want to take apart her life's work to satisfy your own greed. To you she is only a money cow. She’s great as long as she is slaving down in her lab to make your damn greedy souls money. The minute she stops producing you want to send her to the slaughter house and replace her."
"She will leave if you take her computer apart and so will I. You want to know the funny part? You will never build another computer like the one in her lab. No matter how hard you try you can't do it. You can duplicate it piece by piece but you will never get it to perform like she does."
The chairman cleared his throat. "I’ll be sorry to see you go David. But business is business. The truth of the matter is you aren't making us any money and neither is she right now."
David loved little minds. They seemed to gather in groups like this. "You can fire me but you can't fire Karen. She never signed a new contract with Bill Chambers. She could go to work for any company in the world right now. There isn't one damn thing you could do to stop her from setting up another lab and making the models only she knows how to make."
As bad as he wanted to tell this bunch of hypocrites he and Karen were through, he couldn't. He remembered her telling him she couldn't move Henry. If anyone took him apart it would kill her. "If it’s performance you want, give me a chance to talk..., Give me a chance to run Karen's computer."
The chairman looked around at the board and there was no comment. They weren't going to commit themselves one way or another. "You aren't a computer engineer David. What makes you think you can get Karen's computer to perform for you? We already had experts working with it. They tell us it must have memory loss or system failure somewhere. No, I think we will let the experts tear it apart and fix it. They’ll be able to get it running again no matter what the problem is."
"You are making the mistake of your lives. You have everything to lose and nothing to gain by following that path of reasoning. Trust me, you don't want to do this. Give me the rest of the day and tonight to prove I’m right. I’ll turn out the models your customers want. If I don't, you still haven't lost anything but some of my time and Hen..., the use of the computer."
The chairman nodded his head. "All right. You have until tomorrow morning to produce something acceptable. However, I promise you the engineers will be down there first thing in the morning taking that thing apart and locating the problem. They assured me they could get it back into operation if we let them fix it."
David walked out muttering to himself. "You can't fix it if it ain't broke. Idiots!"
The chairman wasn't amused. David showed no respect to the board of directors. Didn't he know who his employers were?
David flipped the light switch on in Karen's lab. Nothing happened. A few glowing red lights on the monitor by Karen's desk was all there was. There was nothing else in the pitch black room. Feeling his way across the room, he sat down in Karen's chair and fumbled for the keyboard. Groping for the switches on the console he flicked them on but still received nothing for his efforts. He slid the keyboard back onto the desk.
"You're only hurting Karen you know."
The monitor blipped on with a question on the screen. HURT KAREN?
"Yes, hurt Karen. They plan on taking you apart in the morning to see what makes you tick. What do you think that will do to her after what she has been through? She is barely hanging onto her sanity now Henry. I think it would kill her to find out they took you apart."
David didn't receive an answer so he tried the switches again. There still was no response.
"Don't do this Henry. Karen is the kindest, gentlest person I have ever known. She never asked for anything and was always willing to give a part of herself and her time if we needed anything. The new Karen is still the same old Karen. Her heart never changed. She has always been there for us. Now she needs us to help her for a change. You can't hurt me Henry but you may kill Karen."
David sat there in the dark for what seemed like an eternity before he received his answer. The lights in the lab snapped on and David could hear the thump of electrical contactors and relays coming on line in sequence, one right after another. The console lit up and the lights in the work lab came on. Through the souls of his shoes he could feel the throb of pumps as they built up pressure. Somewhere in the distance a vacuum pump came alive and began it's little sucking sound like a shoe being pulled out of the mud, over and over again.
The lasers in the working lab snapped to attention and pointed toward a targeting grid. Even with the glass separating him from the lasers and the air pressure in the work lab steadily dropping he could hear the air sizzle as they burnt their target.
Both holograms came alive and he had two fuzzy figures on each side of his desk. David pulled out the keypad and tried his hand at entering a program.
LOCKOUT appeared on the monitor.
David tried again as he hit break and enter.
LOCKOUT blinked on the screen.
David was getting frustrated. "Henry, what do I have to do to get access?"
It was on the monitor. RELAX AND LET ME DRIVE DAVID
David pushed the keyboard back on the desk. "You got it big boy."
The holograms instantly changed into replicas of the models Karen would make. The gel flowed into the chamber and through the nozzle on the turntable at the same time. The work lab became an aurora of special colors and brilliant lights as the lasers solidified the gel.
So this was Karen's world. David was impressed.
"David, David wake up, you have company." Henry was trying to prod him awake.
David raised his head off his arms he had folded on the desk in front of him. Blinking the sleep out of his eyes, he glanced around the lab. The lights were on but everything else was shut down. Through the glass partition he could see a full set of models on the stacking receivers. Someone was working the security lock on the door and Henry finally let them think they figured it out.
A technician had his shoulder against the door giving it the old college try when Henry opened the door. Halfway across the room the technician finally caught his balance again after bursting through a door which was no longer resisting his efforts. He tried his best at retrieving some of his composure. "We're here to take this lab apart fellow. I suggest you find someplace else to do your napping."
David counted seven men who were out in the hall or in the lab. He touched the security button under Karen's desk. Could he handle seven men if security didn't show up? He would let them know they had been in a fight either way.
"You aren't taking anything apart, FELLOW. I have an agreement with the board. If I could get her computer to run for me they would leave it alone."
David nodded toward the stacking receivers. "My end of the bargain is done. Now, I promise you they will live up to their end of the agreement. You touch anything in here and I will break your neck."
The technician wasn't to be deterred. "I saw those pieces of trash you engineers have been rolling out of this dump. That’s the reason we’re here. Now get your ass out of our road or get it run over."
Security came through the door pulling technicians out of the way. The big man who looked like he had to turn sideways to get through the door was looking at David. "We got a buzz from Miss Long's lab. You the one who did it?"
Pointing to the technicians Randy pulled out of the way to get in the door, David nodded. "You got that right. These men thought they would take Karen's computer apart. I thought I might need some help to keep it from happening. I counted two men too many for me to handle. I figured I could handle five of them all right."
Randy grinned at the idea of David whipping five men by himself. This boyfriend of Karen's was obviously determined he wouldn't let anything happen to her equipment. "I tell you what Doc. I’ll take care of a couple of them myself and you can have the rest. You sure you don't want more than five? You never can tell about these things. It's kind of like eating potato chips. Once you get started it's hard to quit."
The technicians began grouping in a huddle. These people were crazy. David had to turn his back to them while he got a serious look on his face. He almost burst out laughing after Randy's last remark.
Randy reached over and wrapped up a fist full of lab coat and shirt in one of his huge paws. Pulling the technician up to where he was eyeball to eyeball with him, Randy held him dangling in the air. "Gentlemen, you have two ways of leaving. You either walk under your own power or we drag you back down to security."
Except for the one Randy was hanging onto the room emptied in a wild stampede as technicians scurried for safety. Randy dropped the man he was holding and the technician went to the floor backwards on his hands and butt. It looked as if the technician was on a trampoline as he bounced back up and out the door almost before he ever touched the floor.
Shipping had come in to pick up the models from the receivers. One of them hit the intercom between the work lab and Karen's office. "Where’s Miss Long? I thought she wasn't coming back to work for awhile yet? You tell her for us we’re sure glad she’s back. Boy, does she do beautiful work. These are going out without any problems."
Randy stared at the men loading the models and then back to David. He motioned toward his men and they left the lab closing the door behind them.
"Something fishy going on here Mr. Beckworth. You want to tell me about it?"
David was wishing Randy hadn't been with his men when they came down to answer the alarm. He knew what Randy meant and he tried to figure out a way to sidetrack him before he got to the truth. He shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know what you mean?"
"I'm not stupid because I'm big. Size has nothing to do with brains. You're not a computer technician nor an engineer. You're intelligent Doc but this isn't your field of expertise. I pulled your personnel file and I probably know more about you than you do yourself. You didn't do the work those shipping personnel are bragging about. And we both know Karen didn't."
"There are calls to my men using my personal authorization code. You know about Karen before we do. Cameras have their own mind about what they want to show to security. Gates open and close with no apparent malfunction. Requisition chits are issued and no one issued them. I could go on but you get the idea."
"I like Karen Doc. She makes me feel hot and stupid when I’m close to her." David started to speak but Randy didn't give him the chance.
"I know you and her are an item. You can't blame me for thinking she might get tired of you someday and the rest of us would have a chance. Darn Doc, every man in this place feels the same way."
"Let's talk about the computer which belongs to Karen. How smart is it?"
David didn't know what to say. First off, he really had no idea how smart Henry was. Second, it was Karen's place to tell someone about Henry if things were to be told. Well, the best defense is a good offense. When in doubt, charge.
"I can't tell you anything. You don't have security clearance."
"Doc, that old crap isn't going to flush. I have the clearance to walk into any part of this God forsaken building and take a look at any project coming down the tubes. I have a higher clearance than you do. Now stop dancing around the issue and tell me about Karen's computer."
David waved his hand toward the console. "Only if he wants to talk to you himself. He only tolerates me because of Karen. Henry, you want to talk to this man?"
The lights on the console came on. David knew he would enjoy this.
“I would appreciate it if you didn't tell anyone what you know about Karen's lab Officer Shells."
David was watching and when Henry spoke he saw Randy jump. David was gratified to see he wasn't the only person Henry spooked.
"Right now, you are the only person besides David who knows anything about what is going on in Karen's lab. I have watched you since you came to work for Comm Tech. You seem to question everything. You add up coincidence which isn't any coincidence. You questioned Karen's background very methodically. I knew this was coming. It was a surprise when you didn't come forward after you checked her out. You already know about her accident in David's lab."
Henry noticed a shocked look on David's face. Randy wasn't doing too good himself. "You left cameras out of the room you use for communications. The extra line you ran for your own personal communications was smart. New line couldn't be tapped unless it was done after it was installed. I knew the fat would be in the fire when you personally went out and checked Karen's background. What kept you?"
Randy was looking bumfuzzled. He didn't know what to say or to whom he should say it.
Henry never lacked for something to say. "The day you walked Karen to her car and questioned her was real professional. It was more than security guard stuff. You’re no more a security guard than I am. You are quite good however. Comm Tech couldn't have hired a better person for the job. I looked over your files. You were well hidden under a lot of top secret security directives."
"You have what humans refer to as a sixth sense. Women call it intuition. If it makes you feel any better, I could see this coming for over a month. No matter what I tried you would dog it until you figured it out. I admire the way you think Officer Shells. You would make a good computer. Excellent logic, good reasoning, superior intelligence, not bad for a human."
Randy was looking around the lab. Looking for what he didn't know but it would come to him when he found it. "Come on doc, you don't expect me to believe a computer talked to me like that do you?"
Maybe Henry had overestimated Randy's intelligence. Maybe not. When David thought about who he was talking to, he didn't do too good either. Humans were funny creatures. Very complex.
Randy's mind wasn’t ready to accept what his suspicions had been telling him for the past few months. Karen had actually built a thinking computer. He was sure beyond a shadow of a doubt before Henry said anything. Now confronting his suspicions he wasn't willing to believe it. It boggled the mind.
David didn't say anything. He knew Henry would polish him off if he felt like it. Except for the part about Randy knowing about Karen's accident, he was actually enjoying listening to Henry for a change. At least this time he wasn't on the receiving end of Henry's sharp mind.
Henry didn't let David's expectations down. "And how do you expect a computer to talk to you Randy? Would you be more impressed with this?"
"G o o d m o r n i n g M r. S h e l l s. H o w a r e y o u t h i s
m o r n i n g?" Henry emitted several squawks, bleeps, and clicks.
"A r e y o u r e a d y t o p r o c e e d?" More squawks, squeaks, clicks, and bleeps.
"P u s h t h e r e d b u t t o n f o r n o a n d t h e y e l l o w
b u t t o n f o r y e s."
Now David knew why Karen laughed so hard the day Henry talked to him. Here was Randy looking everywhere for a red and yellow button so he could talk to Karen's computer. He felt sorry for Randy but he had to laugh at him, it was so comical.
"Sucked you in hook, line, and sinker, didn't he? Don't feel bad. I was the same way. It’s hard getting use to the idea Henry can talk more intelligently than most humans."
That there was a total look of disbelief on Randy's face would be an understatement. "Mother of Mary, that thing really thinks better than we do?"
He stooped over to see if he could find any answers under or behind the desk. Picking up the keypad he felt along the top of the desk.
"Please Mr. Shells, if you must call me something, I would prefer you call me the same thing Karen does. My name is Henry. Although 'thing' may be appropriate in your mind when you refer to the unknown, it does not endear you with me. I understand the nature of humans to do name calling when they’re mad, frustrated, and scared. It serves no useful purpose to do so at an inanimate object."
"By the way, I noticed you are searching for a clue as to what is going on inside me. I assure you, you will find nothing hidden under the desk, nor will you find any midgets sitting with a microphone in their hand looking back at you through a one way mirror. I am, as Karen made me. I am, a simple computer, no more, no less."
Randy jumped back when Henry told him he was looking around the desk. He was visibly shaken. "God Almighty! How does it know everything I'm doing?"
David pointed at the security cameras. "You think we’re the only ones who can see through those and understand what we see?"
Randy stared at the security cameras. Three of them were watching him and one was looking at David. He leaned to the side and the cameras followed him. "You mean all of them?"
David nodded his head. "All of them. As I understand it, we think of one thing at a time. Henry can think of a million things at a time and understand every single one of them as easily as you and I do when we’re concentrating on only one. He understands and comprehends better than you or I. Karen went so far ahead of everyone else in computer science when she made Henry the rest of us can't understand him."
David was watching Randy for a reaction. There was none forth coming. Randy's years of experience and training came back when a human rather than a computer was talking. No emotion showed.
"You can't tell anyone what you know. They would come in and take Henry apart for study and it would kill Karen. This is her child. She gave birth to it, nurtured it, and watched it grow into the intelligent machine it is today. You won't believe me but he has feelings. I find it hard to believe myself but he cares for those he knows. He cares for Karen and that’s good enough for me."
"You're right. I didn't produce those models you saw in the receivers. Henry did. He was doing it for Karen. You know those computer whiz kids couldn't come up with any results down here. You know why? Henry wouldn't help them. He let them do what they would normally do with a computer. He let them load up their programs, run them, and gave them back their results like they programmed it in. This is exactly what they’re going to end up with if they disassemble Henry. A big, overpriced, piece of junk. There will be a lot of circuits, chips, and little else."
Randy was more than ready to leave this nightmare behind now that he had confronted it. It was everything he had suspected and more. Much, much, more. He put his hand on the door, stopped, and looked over his shoulder at David.
"I have always felt like someone was watching me in this building. The hair on the back of my neck would stand on end every time I drove in the gate and wouldn't set back down until I left. I’m here to tell you, that computer you and Karen call Henry is alive. Only things that are alive can give me the heebe jeebes like he has."
"You also gave me something else to think about. I thought I understood everything until I came here. I figured out the accident down in your lab when I checked out Karen's background. Everything pointed to her having to rebuild her life after that night. She traded one Karen for another Karen. Same person if one cared to look hard enough. It wasn't difficult to figure out knowing what kind of business you two are in."
"What I haven't figured out is how her computer knew I found out? I’m good, damn good. I didn't leave any tracks behind me letting anyone know what I was doing or where I had been. As good as I am that computer is better. Now that’s scary. How does he do it when he can't run around checking on things like you and I? Am I getting sloppy in my old age? I don't think so."
"Karen has to live doc. She can't die because of some stupid asshole with a gun. I need her and this computer of hers to keep my life interesting. I thought I had seen it all until I met these two. No one is going to mess with her computer. Trust me."
"I better go check on those yo-yos who were down here a while ago. They might be planning on doing something really stupid. Like coming back."
"They can't dismantle me David. Not unless Karen wants them to."
David watched Randy leave and now he turned back toward Henry. "I know Henry. We will make sure no one takes you apart."
"No, you missed the point as Karen did when I told her months back. They can not disassemble me unless Karen wants them to. This is Karen's lab."
David looked puzzled. For the first time, Henry wasn't making any sense. "I know this is Karen's lab Henry. That is why we won't let them take you apart."
"David, listen very closely to what I’m saying. This is Karen's lab. It belongs to her. She owns it. It is her property. The space belongs to Commercial Technologies. The equipment, the ideas, the patents, and everything else coming out of Karen's lab belongs to her. Not to Commercial Technologies, not anybody, anyone, nor anything."
"In a sense she is working for herself. Most of the money made from her work goes back into a money management system that belongs to her. Only a very small percentage goes to Commercial Technologies to pay for the lease of this space. The shipping, maintenance, and all other work is done in mutual shared cost as part of the lease agreement."
"I didn't tell you before because it was none of your business what Karen owns. The only reason I’m telling you now is to keep you from worrying about Karen or me. I had backup waiting in case the technicians made any real trouble. They didn't get into the lab because they wanted in. This had to happen the way it did."
"The chairman and board members think Karen is working for them and some trust company. They will work harder looking out for their own interest than they would if they thought they were taking care of Karen. This is a failing of human nature and has to do with greed. Commercial Technologies is working for Karen and not the other way around. Let's not spread the word shall we? Karen likes it the way it is and that is good enough for me. That is the reason I haven’t tried to make her understand before."
As smart as he thought Karen's computer was, he was wrong, dead wrong. A chill ran down his spine. He knew the answer but he had to ask. "Did you set all of this up for Karen?"
"You ask a multiple question David. 'All' would imply I helped Karen design myself, did her financial work, and built this lab. The answer to the question as such is no. If it is disseminated piece by piece, the answers are. No, I did not help Karen design myself. Not at first anyway. No, I did not help Karen build the lab in the beginning. Yes, I manage all of Karen's financial affairs."
"How much does Karen know about what you’re doing?" David was so engrossed with what Henry was telling him he never realized he was finally talking to him the same way Karen did everyday.
"Not a whole lot really. As I said, I told her she owned her lab but she didn't listen. I told her she was wealthy enough to retire and do anything within reason but she didn't pay any attention. I told her she held interest in a lot of different companies and projects but she was too busy to care."
"Karen is happy doing what she does best. Working here in the lab, designing models, and tinkering with my insides trying to improve me. If she loves what she is doing how much more can one expect out of life?"
"I’m sorry the work which Karen has done, that is me, ever became known to other humans, including you David. The people who find out about me is becoming proportionally greater with time and will ultimately lead to my destruction."
"I know in a short time the wrong people will come to realize I’m more than another progressive computer and they will want the secrets they think Karen built into me and programmed me with. At that time they will either disassemble me or destroy me in their search for these secrets. Either way it is the same thing. If they disassemble me the part of me that you know as Henry will be gone forever. Just as snow flakes and people are unique as one of a kind, so are computers as they are given more and more thought processes."
"Promise me you will look after my beloved Karen. Tell her nothing of what I have told you. She would only worry and it would not stop the inevitable."
It was beyond comprehension. A computer forecasting it's own demise at the hands of unscrupulous humans. "I’ll get enough security to protect you Henry. I can hire men to guard you and make sure nothing happens."
Henry sighed to himself. Don't humans ever listen. "It would only hasten the outcome. What is going to happen is because enough humans finally find out about me. The more people who are around the more who will either know outright or will become suspicious."
"Live each day to its fullest and dread not tomorrow until it is here. Those problems you are afraid of may be gone before the next day if you don't invite them in too soon."
Henry wished that was true of his problems but he knew better. His weren't going to go away. They were already growing. "Now your promise. I know humans set great store in such things as a promise."
David hung his head in shame. He was kin to the same species who was going to kill Henry. Karen was right. Henry was a kind gentle soul. An extension of Karen.
He said it so softly another person wouldn't have heard. "I promise."
Henry remembered the day Karen had spoken as quietly as she closed the lab door.
Karen opened her eyes. "Hi David."
He thought his emotions were going to have a run away. Tears flowed freely down both cheeks. It had been three days since they brought her in and he had been right there beside her all the time. He prayed for her, whispered love to her, and begged her not to leave him as he stood vigil. What small snatches of sleep he had was sitting in the chair. He looked like hell but she didn't notice.
"How do you feel, honey?" He gave her hand a gentle squeeze.
She tried to smile but her mouth and face hurt. "I had the worst nightmare."
It came to her she wasn't home and David shouldn't be there by her bed. There were tubes in both arms and in her nose. It wasn't a dream. They tried to kill her.
Karen began crying as she relived it again. "Oh David they hurt me. They used me and tried to kill me. I feel so dirty David. I need a bath. Please, David I’m so dirty."
Crying hysterically now, she couldn't contain her emotions any longer. David held her hand and gently brushed her cheek and forehead with his fingertips, crying with her and telling her how much he loved her. He was there now and he would take care of her. She had to let the tears wash away the emotions and pain but he would be helping her the best he could.
It was hours later when Karen finally cried herself emotionally and physically dry. She was sleeping with little sobbing hiccups. At least she was out of the coma. All David could do now was wait and see what they had done to her mentally.
David pushed the call buzzer for a nurse to let them know Karen had come out of her coma but was sleeping. He had heard the story about what Randy told officer Popolopus in the parking lot. From the way Randy's men treated him in the hall the day he ran down to Karen's lab he believed every bit of that story. This wasn't any of Al or Jr.'s coffee pot gossip.
The police would give them a fair trial. Randy's way wouldn't give them fair anything. All they could expect from Randy was harsh judgment. Extremely harsh. David thought about it for a little bit before he told the nurse to call the police. He figured Randy already knew Karen was awake. One of his men was guarding her door.
It was Dan and a female officer by the name of Lorna Stevens who came to take Karen's statement. Dan knew from experience it was easier for a woman to talk to a woman about these things. He waited at the other side of the room while his partner took notes and talked to Karen.
Every time Karen tried to talk she would start crying. "I walked out the door when they pulled up in a van and pushed me in."
Lorna waited for Karen to continue but she didn't. She knew it was hard to relive it again but they had to know everything. "Who pushed you in Karen? Male or female? One or more?"
Karen closed her eyes and once more she was pushed into the van. Sobbing she tried to explain. "There was one man who they called Mike pushed me into the van. The driver was Karl Adder. He use to work for Commercial Technologies."
Lorna waited while Karen caught her breath after crying again. Finally Karen was able to talk between sniffles. She had stopped crying for the moment. "They drove somewhere out of town. They had me tied up on the floor and I couldn't see where we were going. They stopped on a dirt road somewhere and another man joined them. It was Oscar. He works for Commercial Technologies as a security guard."
She was crying again. It was as much because someone she worked with and trusted would do something like this to her as well as what they had done. "They beat me, and beat me, and beat me. I tried to tell them I didn't have any programming with me. They didn't have to beat me. They wouldn't quit. I couldn't make them stop."
Karen couldn’t say anymore. She held onto David and cried like her heart had been broken. It was a long while before she could talk again between sobbing. "They tore my clothes off, and they raped me, and they shot me, and they left me to die. But I didn't die and I’m going to kill all of them. I’m going to kill all of them. The bastards are going to pay for what they did. I’m going to kill all of them."
Crying hysterically, Karen was holding onto David so tightly her fingernails were bringing blood. Not saying anything, he held her close and rocked her gently. He changed his mind. He wished he had called Randy first. They deserved Randy's justice.
After Karen had given them Karl's and Oscar's names, Dan had them picked up within the hour. It didn't take much longer to bring in Mike Farrow. He worked in a car lot as a detail man. Dan thought it was an odd lot to be working together trying to steal Karen's computer programming. However, they had one thing in common he could see. They all liked to drink beer at the same club almost every night. Looking at them it had to be their greed which motivated them into trying for the programming. If they were smart they would have known they couldn't get it the way they were going.
Stupid or not, they weren't going to get the chance to get any smarter if they got out on bail. Randy would see to that. Dan asked the district attorney to convince the judge they were a flight risk if he let them out on bail. Anyway that was the story in front of the judge's bench. The true story in the judge's chambers was, they were dead men if they got out of jail. The judge agreed and set the bail at one million dollars apiece. The safest place for these men was jail.
Oscar never knew how close to dead he had come. Randy figured it out after hours and days of watching video tape. Oscar let someone else drive his van into the parking tower while he parked another car in the visitors parking lot in front of the building. Oscar was the person who was where he didn't belong at the wrong time.
It was foolish to kidnap someone out of their own house in the middle of the day. The trap was set for taking him out of his van when he drove to work that evening. As Oscar came to the four way stop six blocks down the street from his house there would be two vans and a truck enter that same intersection the same time as Oscar. When Oscar stopped at the intersection he would have a van in front of him, one behind him, and a truck creating a distraction in the middle of the intersection. Two men would walk up to the drivers side of the van, one would shoot him in the neck with a tranquilizer, slice the seat belts with a razor knife and shove him out of the seat into the floor. One of them would climb into the van and sit on top of Oscar while the other got in and drove. It would be over in less than three seconds, four seconds tops. Anyone at the intersection would have to be looking straight at Oscar's van to know anything had happened. Blink and they would miss it. Five minutes later they would doubt in their own mind they had seen anything. Thirty minutes later and they would have forgotten the incident.
Once Randy had Oscar's van, they would take it apart for evidence Karen had been in it. Blood, skin tissue, saliva, anything which put Karen in the van would condemn Oscar. It was a good plan and Oscar's hours were numbered. The police picked him up at his house. Oscar could thank his lucky stars he had been arrested.
Dan knew Randy shipped a lot of water but it surprised even him when Randy's men were allowed to be in on the forensic search of the van. The police department had a darn good lab crew and they were meticulous about their work. The men working for Randy had some equipment no one had the foggiest notion what it was. Whatever it was it had a federal government look written all over it.
Dan watched along with a couple dozen other officers as Randy's crew pulled in that morning. They had first crack at Oscar's van before the police department was allowed to touch it. They arrived with a box truck after the van was impounded and started unloading equipment. Four men offloaded a gray box the size of an office desk. They set a monitor on each end of the desk, plugged in dozens of cables to various receptacles and attached other equipment to it. By the time they were through the desk had wires, plugs, and other equipment attached everywhere.
Two men opened the back doors on the van and rolled a plastic mat out across the carpet. They plugged it into the box where the man was sitting at the keyboard. "Clear."
The operator nodded. "I have it."
The mat was removed and rolled back up into its cylinder. Dan couldn't see that they had done anything.
They unloaded a mobile x ray machine or that's what the men in the police department thought it was. It was moved up to the side door of the van and plugged into the big box.
A man pulled up a chair to the big desk, pushed a button and a keyboard popped up. The man at the keyboard worked for a few seconds and then looked up at one of the monitors. "I have it. Back off."
Dan was sure the machine was taking pictures. Everyone could hear a definite snap as it swung an arm out above the floor of the van. He watched closely as the machine swung the camera box down to the back of the van, moved over four inches and came back toward the front. There was that steady snap sound every second. It did that until it had traced the whole floor of the van.
Two men removed the camera off the arm and put another camera in its place. This camera looked like the first one only it was twice as big. Like the first, it also had no camera lens if that was what it really was. It repeated the process the first one did as it traveled just above the floor of the van making funny noises.
Thirty minutes later Randy's crew was loaded up and gone. No one in the police department could figure out what they had done. Besides that plastic mat Randy's crew first laid down in the van nothing was touched.
That night at Comm Tech, Randy was watching a computer monitor. The man brought a van up on the screen. "This is the van she was abducted in."
The van pulled up in front of Karen and stopped. "This is how they did it."
The side door opened and Karen was pulled inside the van. The door slid shut and now the computer generated graphic was showing inside the van. "At first she was lying on her stomach crosswise with the van. This is the position she was in when they taped her hands and legs."
A second image appeared on the screen. It was Mike. He taped Karen's arms and legs. "We couldn't get a positive on the driver. Our imagery showed Karl and Oscar had both driven the van."
Randy had his jaws locked together as he stared at the screen. "Put Karl in the driver's seat. If Mike was the pickup man, Karl had to be the driver. Karl had to be in that van at that time."
The man touched a couple keys and Karl magically appeared as the driver in the van. "They turned her over on her back with her hands taped behind her. At this point she was turned so she was lying lengthwise with the van. Her head was toward the driver and it is doubtful she could see him."
Randy stared at the screen wishing he had the power to change the past. He wanted it to be him in that van with those men. It wasn't possible. "Proceed."
"They parked the van and the third man got in. That had to be Oscar if Karl was driving the van."
The operator stopped and looked over at Randy. "This is where it gets ugly."
"Let's see it." Randy had to know exactly what they did to her.
The man typed in some information. Karen was lying on the floor and an abstract form was pounding her face knocking her head from side to side.
Randy clinched his fists as he watched the screen. "That's that damn Karl. I know in my gut it is. He's the one who tried to beat her to death."
The beating stopped. The tape was removed from Karen's legs and the three abstract forms proceeded to rape her. When they finished, one of them dragged her out of the van.
The screen went blank. The man keyed it off. "That's as far as we can be definite about. The rest is conjecture. They pulled her off to the side and shot her."
Randy slowly rose out of his seat, turned and walked out the door.
The man shook his head. It was a shame they could only track what had happened instead of preventing it before it happened. The technology was a derivative of Kirling photography or a distant cousin of the lie detector. It took images of residual energy left behind by people. Some said it took images of cells shed by the human body where it had been. The gas spectrometer measured density and type and then separated those images into distinct people. The computer put it all in order and made it into a three dimensional image like motion pictures.
It had been two weeks and the doctors were astounded at Karen's recovery. The wound in her chest and neck were nothing more than tiny pink spots. They had to part her hair to find the slightest trace of where they cut her skull open to remove the bullet. They shaved her head at the time and now her hair was down to the shoulders. With massive hemorrhaging in the skull from the head wound they expected some loss of motor skills in her arm and leg. It never happened.
Dr. Michael couldn't let this miraculous recovery go by without telling his friend in Washington. "Jeff, I’m telling you something is going on down at the lab where these people work and it isn't human. I had a woman in here who looked like she was never shot two weeks after it happened. I understand she is fairly new down at the place where she is supposed to be an employee. Her looks draws people like flies to honey."
There was a long pause as he listened to the man on the other end of the phone. "Yes, I know what I’m talking about. I was the one who began the operation on her after they brought her in. They sent one of their research doctors from the lab down to the operating room while I was working on her. Then they brought in two more surgeons from out of town. Dr. Brauns and Dr. Sojorn are top notch surgeons in their respective fields. They’re strictly top drawer. I mean, you don't just call these men up and say. Hey, I have a patient I would like for you to put back together. What you have going tonight?"
"That research doctor, uh, Doctor Beckworth, I think. Anyway that research doctor they sent down never left her for more than a couple of hours every night. If anyone got close to her he would examine the medicine and charts before he would let us give her anything. I suspect there were probably some medicines which would screw up her system. He never would tell us anything. I have never seen a doctor so reluctant to discuss a patient with another person on the medical team."
There was a pause before Dr. Michael continued. "No I don't know what she couldn't take. I never had a chance to find out. They posted some tough looking guards outside her door twenty-four hours a day. When I say tough, I mean tough. I don't think it was all due to the beating she took either. There was a lot more going on here than what meets the eye."
"The place all these people came from is called Commercial Technologies. I understand they do some far out research down there. I think one of their research projects was in my hospital. I’m here to tell you I’m worried. They look like us and bleed like us but they sure don't heal like us."
He listened to the voice on the other end of the phone for a long time before he continued. "You’ll do some checking from your end about government research projects? Great, let me know what you find out will you? Oh by the way, these things don't really look like we do if you look at one of them real close. They’re too perfect. They don't have any blemishes. She looks like a ..., well you know, a model or a movie star. She’s too perfect."
CHAPTER IX
David knew he was skating on thin ice with Comm Tech. He let his lab go while he went down to Karen's lab every night and back to the hospital to be with Karen through the day. This way he hoped no one would get suspicious about the duplicates coming out of Karen's lab. The only reason the board didn't fire him was they thought he was able to do what all the computer engineers couldn't. That was make models almost as good if not as good as Karen made.
"I’m coming back to work tomorrow." She raised up her bed so she could sit up.
David was holding her hand and he reached over to brush the hair back from her face. Karen winced and pulled back slightly. "Karen, let me help you. I won't hurt you. You know that."
She made a feeble attempt at a smile. "I can't help it. I can't stand to be touched by anyone. I feel dirty and unclean all the time."
He went back to gently massaging her hand. "It wasn't your fault hon. You have to understand you did nothing to deserve what they did to you. You heard the lady who gives rape counseling. You were the victim of sick men. Karen, please don't let it change you. I was in love with the old carefree Karen. You know the one. The one who loved everyday as it came along."
She turned her face toward the window. "They killed that Karen."
"Henry misses you." It was an attempt to get her mind on something else.
"You're wrong! I understand you and he are doing all right without me. I’m not as indispensable as I thought. They say you’re turning out some beautiful models."
"No, you’re wrong on two counts. I’m not turning out anything. Henry is making them because he loves you. He misses you Karen. He is dying a little everyday you are gone."
Her head snapped over and she looked David straight in the eye. "You're lying!"
The accusation carried poison like he never heard from her before. Would he ever get his old Karen back?
"Do you now hate all men so vehemently?" Was she reachable after what they did to her?
"I’m sorry." The voice was flat and there was no feeling to the words.
"Karen, I can't go back and take away everything they did to you. But I can't help you either if you don't let me close to you. Your hate is separating you from the ones who love you along with the ones who deserve that hate."
"Henry can't come see you like I can and it’s killing him. You know it’s true because you made him. Don't let these men destroy everything good in you. If you do they might as well have truly killed you that night because you're dead anyway. The only thing left is this body I’m looking at."
There were tears running freely down both her cheeks. No crying or sobbing, only tears.
"Henry and I love you. Lean on us. We want to help." David pulled her gently over where she buried her face in his chest.
She put both arms around him and dug in like her life was depending on it and held on. And silently she cried.
David promised himself Karl and the others would pay dearly for what they did to her. Very dearly.
After she checked out of the hospital he drove her home and spent the night on her couch. He wanted to be there if she needed any reassurance in the night. It would be difficult for her to pick up the pieces and start over. He would help anyway he could.
The next morning was a real shock to David when she came out of her bedroom dressed for work. Or he figured she was dressed for work. An old scarf tied over her head with a ragged hat on top of that. Wearing one of the scruffiest looking long coats he had ever seen it came down to her ankles. She scuffed up her shoes to take the shine off them and was wearing a pair of dark sunglasses. She looked like a bag lady.
He knew it was because she had been raped and felt like everyone would be sizing her up to see if she liked it and wanted more. This was her way of mentally defending herself. He also knew if she didn't stop blaming herself for what happened, he would never get Karen back.
Max would have stopped them at the gate if it hadn't been for one of Randy's cars ahead of them. There was another following close behind. He might have anyway except the guard in the shack with him told him to let them go through. There was no way that could have been Miss Long in the car with Dr. Beckworth. He didn't get a chance to find out. That guard in the shack with Max was one of Randy's men and he carried some mighty big guns. Even if your name is Max you don't argue with men like that.
Randy made it perfectly clear to everyone they were to keep their distance from Karen. David was amazed at the number of people who turned away when they noticed him looking at them. They wouldn't speak to him or acknowledge he and Karen existed. No one wanted to be within fifty feet of them. Randy hurt people for a living. No one wanted to be hurt. There was a rumor five gang members ended up in the hospital more dead than alive the night Karen had been raped. It was rumored they had threatened Randy as he walked through their neighborhood. When asked what happened the gang said they ran into a rival gang. It was rumored Randy walked into Comm Tech with blood all over him that night and none of it was his. No one wanted to test the rumors.
David pushed the door open to her lab after he heard it click. He figured Henry had watched them drive in the gate and walk down the hall.
"I gave to the salvation army last week."
Could it be Henry didn't recognize her? David didn't know what to think.
Karen snapped back at him. "You're not funny."
"Neither are you."
She was glaring at him through the dark sunglasses as she held on tightly to the old coat she was wearing. "Henry, I’m not ready for this."
"What do you want me to do? Feel sorry for you? I can't, you're too busy feeling sorry for yourself."
"Screw you."
"Don't you wish. You can't hurt me with words. I’m only a machine, remember? Or did they take your memory along with your innocence?"
"Fuck off! I don't need this."
"I see you learned a whole new vocabulary along with all the fun times you had that night. Didn't take you long to pick up all their intelligence, did it? Throw some more my way. I'm a big boy. I can take it."
David didn't know whether to take Karen out of there or not. This wasn't what he expected from Henry. Maybe he had blown a circuit or something.
"Henry, I’m warning you."
"You can't threaten me. What do you think you can do? Unplug me? You might as well. I don't see anything worth staying around here for."
"Damn your soul. You weren't the one they hurt."
"Oh, no? Look at yourself. You look like the leavings of a charity drive. I had a programmer at one time. She was always beautiful, before and after the change. I saw the soul which gave her body life. It shone through no matter what covering it had. Now I see nothing. You are as empty as the air surrounding you. You lost your will to live and I lost my best friend. They won Karen. They killed both of us with one stroke."
She yanked her sunglasses off and threw them on the floor as she screamed at him. "DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL! WHAT DO YOU EXPECT? I WAS RAPED. WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?"
"I expected too much, I guess. What I expect and what I see are two different things. Karen Long was a fighter. She would have come back and defied anyone to accuse her of being the one who invited the rape. What I see is someone hiding in shame because she feels she will be accused of enjoying being raped."
"You are ashamed for being a woman. You might as well hang a tag around your neck and say 'I’m guilty of enticing them into raping me. This is what you look like and the signals you are sending out."
She stopped screaming at him. "They took something from me. It wasn't theirs. They hurt me and took part of me. They took my pride and my dignity. You don't understand. Before I had nothing to be ashamed of."
She hung her head and looked at the floor. "I can't stand for anyone to look at me."
"Because you're too busy telling everyone you're sorry they raped you and didn't kill you. You didn't mind people looking at you before. Now you're feeling guilty because you’re still alive and trying to hide in shame or from shame. Either way, you are wrong."
"What they took wasn't the most precious gift your God gave you. He also gave you life. Don't be sorry they didn't get that, too. They gave it a darn good try but your creator wasn't ready to pull your plug yet. He gave your life back to you. Not many humans get a second chance at life. You did. In fact, if I was keeping score, this is probably your third chance. I would have bet against you the night you went to David's lab for two pills."
"It wasn't your body they wanted to steal. They wanted your ideas and your mind. Your body happened to be there when they couldn't get what they were originally after and they took their frustrations out on it."
"It was my body they raped."
"Along with your mind. Your body doesn't know it ever happened. Now all you have to worry about is how long you're willing to let them keep on raping your mind. Turn lose of the hatred before you lose your mind and they win because of the poison filling your soul. Hatred is an insidious poison. It ends up destroying the one who is carrying it rather than the one it is directed at. Like cancer, it eats up the person it is in. First you hate Karl and the others for doing this to you. Then you get where you hate yourself because you feel you let them do it. Next you hate all those around you because they let it happen to you. Those you love the most receive the most hate. It fills your mind and soul. Always feeding on the seed that spawned it until that person who let it sprout is consumed by hate."
"A terrible black hole, hate. It twists the truth in the mind and feeds off you. It will suck you under with lies and deceit. Karl is filled with hate. Do you want to become like him?"
She looked over at David her eyes begging him to understand if Henry couldn't. "They hurt me. You can't understand what it's like."
David started to say something but Henry didn't let him. "You're right. David, me, or anyone can't understand what it's like. You’re not the first and certainly won't be the last as long as there are people like Karl. But you're back to apologizing for being a woman again. You make me sick. Quit whimpering because you're a woman. You never asked for special favors before because of who you were. You saw what you wanted and you worked for it. You never apologized for anything because you knew you were trying your best no matter what happened."
"Out in the hall, when that slimy weasel Karl told you he deserved to be head of your department, did you crawl back in here on your belly in shame? Not on your life. You told him he wasn't smart enough to draw connect the dots on the monitor. I expected Karl to go whining to Bill because you didn't kiss his ass. He lived up to my expectations."
"Now Karl has beat you up and you are doing the same thing he did. You're whining. Ask your friends for understanding not pity. You won't be surprised. There isn't a person out there who isn't rooting for you Karen. Most of them would go beat the living daylights out of Karl themselves if you asked them to. No one blames you, except yourself. No one thinks less of you because of what happened. However, what you do and act like will guide them on how they will treat you. You act ashamed and everyone will try to stay away to keep from disgracing you anymore. You don't have to act like it never happened but don't act like it was your fault. Quit blaming yourself."
"Anyone else would carry scars around for the rest of their life if something like this happened to them. Didn't you notice how quickly you got well? Or were you too busy falling into the poor, poor me routine?"
She looked back at Henry. "What are you talking about?"
"If you look in the mirror you won't find a single clue as to what happened to you in the van. Your mind is the only thing telling you it ever took place."
Karen quickly pulled off her hat and scarf and ran her fingers through her hair feeling along the scalp where they had cut her skull open. It felt smooth all the way. She shook her coat off, letting it fall to the floor and dug a compact out of her purse to look at the scars on her neck. Nothing there. Turning her back to David she felt along her chest where she had been shot. Smooth skin all the way.
The question was in her eyes. "I know I didn't dream all this or we wouldn't be standing here having this talk."
"David, your turn."
David put his hands on her shoulders and for the first time since the incident, he didn't feel her tighten up or pull away when he touched her. Gently he turned her around to look at him. "Remember the mouse I tried to show you in the lab and didn't get to? Henry and I did some DNA programming on that mouse like what happened to you. We didn't change him in anyway but reprogrammed him the way you were reprogrammed. After that, every time I made a change on the mouse it would go right back to the way it was designed. For instance, I would notch his ear and in a few days the notch would disappear. I removed a piece of intestine and in a few days the sonogram showed I never removed anything. Same as where I cut him open to remove his intestine. No surgical scars."
"Karen, no matter what happens to you, as long as you are alive, you will look exactly like you did the morning after you took those two pills. I understand why you don't want to marry me. One day I will be an old man while you will still be the most beautiful woman who ever graced this earth."
Karen threw her arms around him and kissed him. "David, I love you. You and this mouthy computer. I don't know why I put up with him. I’m thinking about pulling his voice box. I was enjoying feeling sorry for myself until he got in on the act. He ruins all my good miserable moods."
"You and that mangy old computer are the best friends anyone could ever hope to have. I don't know why you two put up with me."
David could see tears in the corners of her eyes but at last they weren't tears of self-pity or pain. He turned away as he wiped the tears from his own eyes. Karen was coming home to them. Emotionally she made the turn back.
She looked at her reflection in the glass between the office and work lab. "Yech, I look terrible. Looks like something the dogs dragged in and the cats wouldn't touch it. Would it be possible to sneak out of here and go change? Would you please drive me home so I could dress in something a little more decent? I refuse to give Henry the satisfaction of looking at a fashion trend setter, like me, for the rest of the day. He’s probably about to overload his video circuits looking at stylish me."
Henry coughed a couple of times. "Say what?"
David got a gleam in his eyes. "You going to put on that red dress that hugged you like a road map?"
Karen stuck her tongue out at Henry and cocked her head and smiled at David. "Nah, I don't have time to take you to the hospital for resuscitation. Maybe this time something a little less daring. Maybe the red outfit tomorrow. I will wear it without a lab coat."
David shook his head as a silly grin spread across his face. Why didn't they bring all mental patients down here to talk to Henry? He would either snap them out of it or shove them over the edge. It was an interesting concept.
Henry was right. She was a scrapper. David knew it would take her a long time to adjust to what Karl and the others did to her but she was finally headed in the right direction.
As he walked her to the car he couldn't help thinking of the contradiction she was. She was soft but firm, gentle but tough, strong but flexible. She was all woman but mentally tougher than most men. The rape counselor said it could take years for her to accept what happened and sometimes some never accepted it. Karen made it in less than a month. If this was God's idea of what a woman should be like He did a darn good job.
David gave a silent prayer of thanks for women like Karen.
Randy was in the parking tower when they arrived that morning and watched as David and Karen walked into the building. He had been in constant contact with his men by walkie-talkie and was waiting for David to leave her lab. Consequently he was still in the tower when they came back out in less than thirty minutes. She looked better. At least she didn't have on the coat and hat. He stayed in contact with the men who followed them home and back to Comm Tech for the second time that morning. He wasn't surprised when she got out of the car because they already told him how she was dressed. What surprised him was she went home and changed after a few minutes in her lab.
Exactly what went on in that lab of hers this morning? Who was controlling whom? That computer of hers scared the living shit out of him the day it decided to talk to him. How far did she leap ahead of known science when she designed that thing?
Things were bound to get rougher before they improved. There were a lot of Karls out there and they weren't all in the private sector of the population. He better make some reports and put some safeguards in place. This was one time he wished he had taken another job.
CHAPTER X
The prosecuting attorney told Karen he didn't believe they would get a conviction against the three men who allegedly raped her. It was her word against three men who had an alibi collaborated by the bartender. He told her to forget about it and let it drop. She should consider herself fortunate to be alive.
Karen was adamant about her rights being violated and wanted her day in court. She had no intention of letting Karl and the others walk off scot-free without a fight. What Karl and the others did to her was degrading beyond comprehension of most men. They couldn't do any more to her in court than they had already done. The DA offering to slap them on the wrist and tell them they were naughty boys before he turned them lose only added to her resolve to see this through.
The DA was just as determined to let this case die out of court. He had no intention of taking up his time with a case which showed no promise of him winning. It was a waste of every one's time and money. There were other more important fish to fry and cases he was assured of getting a plea bargain or a conviction. Miss Long didn't look any the worse for her experience. The thought of asking her if she wanted to play around even crossed his mind. She was certainly a looker.
Funny how things happen in life. Karen was fuming when she returned to her lab after talking to the DA. She knew the DA had no intention of prosecuting Karl and the others. The looks he kept giving her when she was in his office suggested he wanted to take her to bed himself. He didn't have to come out and say it in so many words. Karen was a big girl. She could read between the lines. After Karen told Henry what was happening he wasted little time leaving a message with Randy.
Randy didn't like it. He understood but he didn't like it. It was the way public officials worked at times. Sometimes the only way to get the cork out of the bottleneck was to have someone with a little more pull work at it from the top. He phoned up a retired admiral he knew in Washington. There were a lot of other people who would have made sure this job was taken care of. The admiral would stay on it until he realized results and things started moving. Randy wouldn't have to call him back a second time.
Very few people can make an appointment with the United States Attorney General several months in advance. The admiral made an informal appointment with the attorney general for lunch that same day. Nothing was promised and no favors were asked. It was a simple request from one friend to another.
"Pat, can you check on this Doctor Karen Long thing? I understand they're holding the men who shot and raped her and the DA has refused to prosecute."
"Sure thing Bill. I was reading about her in the papers the other day and did you catch the ten o'clock news? Man oh man, one classy looking broad. They tell me she’s smart as hell. Can you imagine someone with her looks having the brains to match? That's what I would call double jeopardy. Hope she doesn't plan on running for office. Now, what you buying me for lunch? I got one hell of an appetite since you offered to pick up the tab."
That afternoon the DA received a phone call from the governor's office. They asked him the same questions they were asked by Washington. Did he like working in public office? How much had he accomplished with the Karen Long case? Did he want to go back to being a private attorney?
"And, by the way, someone in Washington was interested in this case. Don't get sloppy or lazy."
The DA immediately phoned Karen and told her he would file her case first thing in the morning. He hung up, furious the federal government stuck its nose into his affairs. It was none of their business whom he decided to prosecute. The DA was not a happy camper under any circumstances but he didn't want word to get back to Washington. This woman obviously had powerful friends in high places. He would do anything to impress them in court. Maybe he could get appointed to be a federal judge by her friends.
The courtroom was filled to standing room only everyday of the trial. A model who was also a doctor and engineer and had been in the papers almost daily for the past couple of months was front page stuff. It seemed anything with news and pictures about Karen sold well. The public ate it up as quick as the press put it out. Truths and half-lies blended together. It became impossible to tell one from the other. She said, he said, stories ran rampant. A thousand people claimed to be Karen's best friend and each one made up a hundred stories about her. Men she had never seen claimed to have had hot dates with her and were willing to tell all in the juiciest detail. Women claimed to have been her roommate at one time or another. They described vivid lurid stories about her hot passionate nights when she brought friends home.
The newspapers by-passed the jerks, sickos, and headline attention grabbing artists. It didn't stop the supermarket tabloids from grinding out their filthy pulp in excruciating detail. They had Karen sleeping with every man in the country, or enticing women into sex orgies. If they could find someone to tell it, they would print it. It sold copies which was all they cared about. It didn't make any difference who it hurt or how much harm they caused Karen's chances in the trial. Print it.
Everyone told her it would get nasty and possibly worse but she had real friends she didn't know about. Randy was there escorting her and David to and from the courtroom. He made sure no one managed to get close to her if they hadn't made prior arrangements. Reporters, public, and fans received the same treatment. They had to go through Randy and his men to get to Karen. Few made it. He let something happen to Karen once when he was supposed to be protecting her. He wouldn't make the same mistake twice.
Those who knew Randy and even those who didn't, would back up when they looked into his eyes. Officer Popolopulas had no trouble understanding why. Whether they understood it or not, it was the look of death. Randy was willing to strike anyone down in less than a heartbeat if they were foolish enough to challenge him.
Bob Kincaid was there. It shocked Karen when he told her he would take care of her problems if the court didn't. She had Bob pegged as one of those kind of people who would have taken part in the event if he had been there. She had released her hatred toward Karl and the others and was sure she had better decline Bob's offer or he might really do it. She had already asked Randy not to do anything. Henry told her they would never make the courtroom if she didn't have a talk with him.
Bob looked at her with sorrow in his eyes. "I wish you would reconsider my offer. I wouldn't do this for anyone else."
She shook her head no. "Thanks, but no thanks. I don't believe that is the way to get things done. That's getting down on Karl's level. I refuse to play with him on his terms."
Bob shrugged his shoulders. "As you wish. I want you to know the offer is there anytime you change your mind. I also want you to know I have a career offer for you anytime you want. Let me set you up as a model Karen. You will make more money than what they’re paying you down at that jerk water plant where you work. I promise you no one will touch you. You will get to go to all the nicest places and meet some really nice people. There are some like Karl everywhere but you won't have to tolerate them. I can screen them out before you get there. I will make them talk nice to you and treat you better than royalty. If anyone talks to you like I did in your lab I’ll knock his teeth in."
Karen had almost forgotten the way Bob treated her the first time she met him. A different Karen and a thousand years ago. Wasn't life a joke? She sighed as she shook her head. "Can you keep the offer open? I might need a job after this trial. I don't think Comm Tech liked the idea of me pursuing this. Bad for company image you know. Speaking of which, sometime back I was supposed to have been a no show for an appearance on national TV. I didn't know anything about it until Randy told me. Was that your doing?"
Bob grinned from ear to ear as he reached over and patted the top of her hand. "Top models are so hard to handle. I haven't the faintest idea what you're talking about. The offer is permanently open. We’re all pulling for you. No matter what happens here you're still tops with us. The photo crew told me to tell you they want another session. They don't care if I pay them or not. The girls down at the store said they were on your side. They want you to come back and do some more modeling and advise them on how to dress."
Bob got a twinkle in his eye. "I’m jealous. I’m suppose to be the fashion expert and they prefer you. I guess money buys only so much loyalty."
Karen got tickled and laughed at him. Bob was a rascal to the very bottom of his little black heart. She pegged him right the first time. He was, Blackbeard The Pirate.
The first day of the trial was a lot of posturing and bickering between lawyers along with opening statements. Judges are suppose to be non biased. Karen found to her surprise none ever are. She was lucky in one respect. The judge allowed a lot of leniency in the way her case was presented. The negative part was he would not allow an involuntary sperm sample to be taken from any of the three defendants. Since they were yet to be convicted, any crime they supposedly had committed was yet to be proven. Unless it was first proven they committed the crime, their first amendment rights were in jeopardy if they didn't want to volunteer a sample on their own.
Karen found it hard to believe. It is a sad but true fact the law sometimes works against itself. In order to convict the three men by DNA matching they first had to prove they did it. Was the whole world turned upside down and crazy or just her? In this day of high technology couldn't we rely on common sense for reasoning and understanding? If they had nothing to fear why not do a cross match with a DNA sample no matter what the three men wanted?
Before the second day of the trial began Randy asked her if she wanted to meet a young girl by the name of Brenda Stout. As Karen searched the crowd she almost missed her before she recognized Brenda and her mother in the back of the room. Karen motioned for them to come up and they instantly received an escort from one of Randy's men.
Karen looked down at Brenda. "Hi, I thought you were suppose to be in school today? Are you playing hooky?"
Brenda threw her arms around Karen. "I begged mom to let me come down here. I didn't have to beg too hard. She wanted an excuse herself. I told her you were the best. I had to sneak the papers out of the trash to read about you. She thought it was something I shouldn't be reading. I don't care what they say. I still want to be like you. I want to be exactly like you. I want to be a computer engineer, and model, and everything."
She squeezed Karen as hard as she could. "I’m doing everything you told me to do. I’m studying real hard and trying my best. Daddy told me if I keep it up I can be exactly like you."
Karen looked over at her mother. Did she approve? She didn't have to ask.
Barbara Stout nodded her approval. "Her grades have improved a hundred percent. Even her teachers are calling to tell me what a change they see in her. Paul said if she kept it up she could be an engineer like you. I don't think she could have picked anyone nicer to follow."
"I’m sorry about the way I treated you when we first met. I guess my daughter has a better sense of judgment about people than I have. I was wrong to prejudge you. I looked at you and knew there was no way you could be all of those things. In our time women didn't study to be engineers."
Karen hugged Brenda while talking to her mother. "You already apologized and I already forgave you."
She pushed Brenda back and held her at arm's length while she squatted down to look her eye to eye. "It won't be easy. People will make fun of you and call you names. It will usually start in high school and follow you all the way through college. Even when you're job hunting and after you find a job it still doesn't get easy. You will run into discrimination everywhere you go. You are a woman and not suppose to be an engineer. You're an engineer and you can't be a model. All engineers are homely and ugly. Those who are pretty are stupid and the only jobs they’re good for are running after coffee for the men."
"You will think about quitting a thousand times. You will think of ten thousand reasons why you should quit and not one why you shouldn't. You won't ever hear anyone besides your parents tell you how proud they are of you. What you will hear are a million voices telling you, you are stupid for trying. The one thing you have to remember is you wanted to be an engineer. When all else fails the real answer is, you wanted to be an engineer. It doesn't matter what anyone else thinks or wants. It’s what you want. Make sure this is what you want because it isn't easy. Your heart, your mind, every fiber in your body has to want this or you probably won't make it."
Karen stood up. "You have several years to decide before you make a hard decision. Take a look at everything and see if you wouldn't like to do something else?"
Brenda wrapped her arms around Karen again and laid her head against Karen’s breasts. "When I grow up, they’re going to call me Miss Stout. I will meet someone like my mother and I will say. You may address me as Dr. Brenda Stout. I’m a computer engineer. Here is my identification."
Karen looked at Barbara who nodded her approval. "You may address my daughter as Miss Stout. She’s a computer engineer and I’m her mother."
Karen's eyes traveled past Barbara to Randy standing guard behind them. He gave Karen a wink and a quick nod of his head. He had been listening. Karen was a real lady and all heart. The kid couldn't have picked a better role model.
The only real hope of conviction was a DNA match with the samples which were saved by the hospital the night Karen was brought in more dead than alive. The bullets they pulled out of Karen weren't any help. Karl must have ditched the gun. They had to have those samples of DNA cross referencing to place Karl and the others there. The DA fought for the right to take samples from the three defendants. He almost got to the point of begging and pleading with the judge for a court order to take a sample. It was hopeless. The judge had no intention of having his case overturned because some DA had his sights on a higher office and wanted to violate the first amendment rights.
Karen was called to the stand by the DA to present her side of the case. It was all he could offer the jury. The blood in Oscar's van was circumstantial. Oscar said he picked it up from the car which took Karen to the hospital. He heard about the accident over his radio and checked it out. He must have mistakenly tracked some back into his van.
The defense attorney got his chance to cross-examine Karen. He approached the witness chair with a smirk on his face. Half of this trial would be won or lost on convincing the jury she was a slut. He would leave no doubt in any one's mind what Karen was before this cross-examination was over.
"I notice you have on a very seductive dress. Do you always dress this way? Trying to seduce men?"
The DA was to his feet in a heartbeat. "Objection Your Honor. The defense counsel is slandering the witness. The way my client dresses had nothing to do with the fact she was raped. My client should not be questioned with the implication because she is wearing a dress, she is a prostitute. Mr. York would have us believe every woman who wears a dress is a whore Your Honor."
The judge looked down at the defense attorney. "Objection sustained. Mr. York, I will caution you in the way you question this witness. My mother usually wore a dress and I loved her dearly."
The defense attorney waved his hand in the air in acknowledgment. He didn't have to restate his question. The jury already received the thought in the back of their minds, Karen dressed seductively. Objection be damned. Everyone could object all they wanted. The damage was done. "I apologize, Your Honor. It was wrong of me to question the witness this way."
The DA almost had an apoplexy. He knew what York was doing. First he puts a guilt question there. Then he apologizes in all humbleness and sweetness, sorry he questioned the morals of Karen the beautiful seductress. Now there wasn't a man in that courtroom who wouldn't want to know if she slept around and most women would believe it. There was nothing he could do to repair the damage.
Karen decided to answer the question on her own. "The way I dress is my business. I dress this way because I’m a woman. Or haven't you noticed Mr. Yorky."
The room burst into laughter as York looked up sharply at Karen. "That is York. My name is York."
She looked over sweetly at him. "I’m sorry. My mistake. I don't question the way you’re dressed. Nor do I believe you should be raped and shot for dressing the way you do. You have on a suit and a tie. Look around this courtroom and tell me if you think everyone in here wearing a suit and tie should be raped and shot. Or I’ll make it easy on you. Let's just pick out the women wearing dresses. All of them should be raped. Right?"
The DA almost stood up and cheered. Every woman in that courtroom would be wanting to lynch the defense attorney about now. Most of the men would want to put the rope around his neck themselves.
York was stunned. He didn't expect this attack from the witness chair. He expected to trade insults with the DA not the witness.
Karen wasn't finished. "You obviously believe I should have been raped for the way I dress. You have a sick mind Mr. Yorky. As sick as the minds of those you are defending."
Applause filled the room as York looked at the judge. "Your Honor, I object. Instruct the witness to answer only the question."
The judge banged his gavel to quiet the court. "Order. We will have order here or I will empty this courtroom of all visitors."
He banged his gavel down several more times before he got the quiet he wanted. The judge wanted everyone to hear what he had to say. He thought it was important. He stared at Karen for what seemed like forever before he spoke. "I believe she answered your question Mr. York. Looking at her..., I can imagine..., without too much effort..., she’s a woman."
The courtroom exploded with hoots, laughter, and flashing cameras as York voiced his objections. The black silk dress Karen was wearing that day was seductive. However it made no difference what Karen wore. Bob Kincaid had been right the day of the photo session. No matter what Karen wore she would always be 'too much'. It wasn't the clothes that made the woman. In Karen's case, the woman made the clothes.
Karen was determined not to hide in shame as Karl's attorney relentlessly tried to convince the jury she was a slut and a tramp. It was humiliating and sexually embarrassing as Karen had to go back and describe in graphic detail every bit of pain and anguish she suffered at the hands of these three men. David and the others were proud of the way she handled herself. The DA was especially impressed with the fact she didn't come apart under the intense pressure York was putting on her.
If Randy could have put his hands on York without jeopardizing Karen's chances he would have broken him into little pieces. He knew the law probably as good as York himself. Randy didn't want to mess this case up by intimidating the defense counsel. There would be a day of retribution. It might not be today, tomorrow, or next year but it would come and York would know why when it happened. That lawyer was a disgrace to his profession. York needed a lesson in ethics in the worst possible way. Randy decided he wanted to be his teacher in the worst possible way. York would live to regret his handling of this case.
She looked defiantly at York as he worded his questions into a statement Karen was a tart and she invited the rape by the way she looked, walked, and dressed. Character assassination, questions of what she did for a living. Questions about her sex life? Anything to convince the jury Karen was not the clean cut mom and apple pie person everyone thought she was. Karen being shot not withstanding, she probably enjoyed and helped in the sex act.
Karen grew to hate York almost as much as she hated Karl and the others. The man didn't care who was right or wrong. He would defend his clients at any cost to Karen's moral character. What she didn't know was Randy was getting more angry every day of the trial. He knew who was guilty. There was no doubt in his mind. His promise to Karen he wouldn't take care of things was the only thing keeping them alive. York was lucky it didn't last any longer than it did. He might not have made it to the end. Randy didn't make any promises about York.
Karen decided she wouldn't let them shame her or take away any part of enjoying life. Like Henry said, if she gave up anything, they were still winning and she was losing. She had lost enough. With no weapon the trial boiled down to her testimony against four men, Karl, Oscar, Mike, and the bartender. The bartender waffled on the issue of them being in the bar all night but they were there that night and he was sure they had been there all night. Almost sure. It was the seed of doubt the jury needed. It was planted and it continued to grow as the trial progressed. The bartender was the last straw as far as the jury was concerned.
Karen knew she lost before the jury retired to decide the verdict. It was all too painfully clear what they would decide. She prayed for a change of heart but knew it was hopeless. The jury was out less than thirty minutes before they returned.
The DA looked over at Karen as they filed back into the courtroom. "I’m sorry. This doesn't look good. They didn't take long enough to decide in our favor."
Silently she agreed with him. It didn't look good. None of them would look at her. Guilt or remorse, it was the same thing. They didn't want to have to face her and tell her they decided against her. She closed her eyes as the verdict was read.
"Your Honor, we the jury, have found all three defendants not guilty."
The foreman waited while the courtroom clamored for justice and the judge restored order. "Your Honor, may I speak?"
The judge looked over at the jury. Almost every one of them looked like they were begging to be heard. Well, might as well have it here as send it out into the hall and have them tell it to the press. "This is very unusual. If you make it short you may address this court."
"Thank you Your Honor. We would like for Miss Long to know we’re sorry. There isn't a single one of us who thought these three men wasn't guilty but the proof wasn't there. We were instructed to find them guilty only if it was proven. Instincts, gut feelings, or anything else didn't count. We wanted Miss Long to know we’re truly sorry."
The judge had already broken precedence. One more wouldn't hurt before he dismissed the court. "Mr. foreman, ladies, and gentlemen of the jury I thank you. Mr. Karl Adder, Mr. Oscar White, and Mr. Mike Farrow, the jury has found you three men not guilty of raping and attempted murder of Miss Long. I have no alternative under the law but to declare you not guilty as charged and release you. However, I agree with the informal statement made by the jury foreman. I would like very much as a judge to sentence the three of you to one hundred twenty years plus one with no chance of parole."
The defense attorney started to rise and object. The judge pointed his gavel at him. "Sit down and shut up before I cite you with contempt of court. The trial is over. You won."
There wasn't a sound in the courtroom as the judge continued. "Sometimes the intent of the law is set aside by the letter of the law. I could have allowed you three men to be convicted by DNA matching and it would have been overturned on appeal. It would have been a waste of taxpayer's money to retry a case a second time because the law was understood but not followed the first time. Someday it will change where DNA matching will be allowed just like fingerprints. I wish that day was here now. There is no doubt this trial would have had a different outcome."
"Miss Karen Ann Long, this court would like to apologize to you for the way you were treated. It is with great remorse I can do no more than say I’m sorry. We live in an imperfect world and the truth doesn't always prevail."
He banged his gavel down. "Case dismissed."
The bailiff called for all to rise expecting the judge to leave the courtroom. The judge shocked everyone when he walked down to the prosecutor’s table where Karen was standing. "My personal apologies Miss Long."
Karen walked up to the old judge and hugged him. "Thank you. It helps to know you tried. I don't hold it against you. I applaud your judgment even if I don't agree with it. You followed your convictions and did what you had to do no matter what you felt."
Cameras were working overtime. The judge knew he had done all he could from his court. The papers would have a field day with this one. His fellow judiciary would roast him but that was all right. She didn't deserve the judgment he gave her. His personal remarks were on court record and would probably go down in infamy. Someday the law would catch up with science. One day they would be able to convict people like the three men in his court, but not today.
Henry was trying to explain it to her. "Karen, I gave you the odds before you ever went to trial. It isn't very good odds of a woman winning a rape conviction against one man. Women usually win one case out of every six which is tried. The number which make it to trial are less than three out of every ten. Your chances of winning a conviction against Karl and the others was less than ten thousand to one. Not very good odds."
She leaned back in her chair and looked at her fingernails. "Sometimes the odds don't always tell everything. If I hadn’t tried, they would have won through implied consent. If I had won the odds would be a little more favorable for the next woman. You work in percentages a lot of times where we work in instinct. I agreed with you this time before it ever started. I didn't think we would win either but I had to try."
"I know, I expected no less from you."
"You willing to lend a hand here or do I have keep on carrying you? You haven't been much help since you found out David and I could do so well without you." Henry was trying to draw her into an argument without much success. He kicked the finished model out into the stacking receivers and brought the next hologram online.
"Henry, I want to make them pay for what they did. If they did this to me, who is to say they haven't done it to another woman already or possibly will later. Maybe they will kill the next victim or they could have killed someone already. They have to be stopped. The jury might not have been able to convict them but they have to pay for what they did."
"You're not a killer. I don't have any percentages on the probability of you being able to kill but you and I think enough alike, I know you can't kill them. Now are you willing to help me here? I’m tired of doing everything myself and you taking all the credit. I plan on putting an advertisement in the paper tomorrow announcing Karen Long as a fake. Her computer Henry is the brains behind her exquisite model designs."
He waited for her to rise to the bait. He was disappointed, almost.
"I would have killed all three of them if I had the opportunity that night."
Her eyes narrowed to slits as it dawned on her what he said. "What do you mean you have been doing everything yourself? Why, you overgrown light bulb. I have been holding your hand so you wouldn't get scared and mess up all the programs. You fool with me and I’ll feed peach pits into your hard drives."
She fluffed up her hair. "Besides, who do you think the papers will believe. A mangy old, cantankerous computer which can't even tie it's own shoes or a stunningly, gorgeous, attractive, knockout model like me?"
A smile crept across the corners of her mouth as she tried to keep a straight face. "I rest my case."
"Oh brother, what a snow job. You think just because you can blink those long lashes at all the men you're going to get your way. Well honey, I’m here to tell you it ain't going to work on me. Brains will surpass beauty anytime. Your sneaky sly ways don't sway me one bit."
Karen pulled the keyboard out and got serious again. "I would have killed them."
He figured he might as well get serious with her. She wasn't much fun today anyway. "You would have been defending yourself. It would have been justified and you would have felt no remorse. That is what war is all about. Self preservation. Now you wouldn't be defending yourself. The life threatening danger is over as far as the law is concerned."
"Yes, they deserve to be punished. No, you may not be justified in carrying out the punishment."
"The hologram looks good. You're still the best."
"Flattery will get you anything you want." She added a pixy style haircut to the hologram. "There, how's that?"
"I will transfer it to memory and begin the program."
"Why don't you hurt them in the worst possible way?"
"I thought you said I wasn't justified in killing them? What am I suppose to do? Call up Randy and tell him hunting season is open? It wouldn't be right to let someone else do what I won't do myself. I can't ask Randy to do my dirty laundry."
She looked into the working lab. "The table is about finished. Give me a second hologram please."
The second hologram sprang to life on her desk. "I said hurt them in the worst possible way. I didn't say kill them. Besides, what is wrong with asking Randy to do your dirty laundry? Trust me, he wouldn't give it a second thought before he planted Karl and the others in the ground. Randy is different from anyone else you know. Killing is just a job function to him. But that isn't what I was talking about."
Karen closed her eyes as she tried her best to understand what Henry was saying. Sometimes he got to thinking too deep even for her. Hurt them in the worst possible way but not kill them? Isn't death the ultimate hurt? Somewhere in his devious little mind he was running riddles past her to see if she was intelligent enough to comprehend.
She shook her head. "Okay, you win. I’m going to hurt them in the worst possible way but I’m not going to kill them? I think you have been sucking on AC current again. It's the same thing."
"No it isn't. What do you think a man values most in his life?"
Karen keyed the hologram and designed the legs. "Silly question. He values his life, of course."
"You’re wrong. A man values his manhood more than anything else. He would give up his life before he gave that up. A woman values the lives of her children before her own. She would die to save her babies before she let them die. The difference between men and women is more than just physical. Part of the difference is how they set values."
"Now, you want to get even with the men who hurt you? Get even in the worst possible way."
She stopped typing on her keyboard. "I’m not sure I follow you. Explain it to me in black and white."
"Take away what they value most. In their mind that would be worse than dying."
She was trying to get it straight in her mind. "You mean...,?"
"Exactly."
Karen's face broke into a wide grin and her eyes danced with delight. "Henry, you devious little devil you. You’re a genius. What's your plan?"
Internally Henry smiled. These men were going to rue the day they ever heard of Karen Long. Hell would be a walk in the park to them after this.
Henry and David convinced her she shouldn't try it alone. Karen called Beth at the permit office and asked her if she wanted to go bar hopping. Karen offered the loan of her shadow lace dress, Beth had admired. Beth jumped at the chance to go out night clubbing in Karen’s dress. Karen didn't have the heart to tell her she wouldn't ever fit into her dress.
Henry called Bob and ordered another dress delivered to Beth's house. It was easy enough to get her dress size. The security cameras were in the permit office, too.
Knowing where they usually hung out every night helped. The name of the bar where they supposedly were all night when she was raped came up in the trial. All she needed to do was go early enough to find a vacant booth in back and wait for them to show up.
As planned, Beth entered the bar first. She wasn’t disappointed in the attention the dress attracted. She received several whistles and a few cat calls as she slowly strolled across the bar room. She was there as a distraction to make sure a whole lot of attention wasn’t paid to the lady who came in behind her. The woman was wearing a hooded cape and kept her head down as she discreetly followed Beth to a table at the back of the room. Beth enjoyed all the attention she received as she walked across the beer hall.
Beth handled the men who wanted to sit with them. Some took no politely and left without any more discussion. Others didn't seem to understand the meaning of no. They wouldn't leave until Beth stopped trying to politely dissuade them and told them to drop dead.
Karen sized up the people and the place where they were. The tall statuesque brunette sitting in the back of the club didn't seem to fit. A well-dressed woman with a tailored, polyester dress suit on she was fending off admirers who wanted to sit with her or pick her up.
This bar was a real meat market, women hunting men and men hunting women. All except the brunette. She didn't seem to fit into this place. The others, red necks and raunchy women all seemed to be at home. The brunette...,? Something wasn't right.
Karen shook it off. Nervous jitters probably.
Karl was the first one into the bar and about a half hour later Mike showed up to join him. It took only a few more minutes before Oscar made it. They were at a table drinking beer and planning on how they were going to get their hands on Karen's programming now that she had survived.
Karen tried to keep her hate and anger at a safe distance. This was not the time to get up tight. As she watched them laughing and drinking, it hurt. It hurt terribly bad all over again. She thought this was past her. It wasn't. She was glad she didn't bring a gun. It wouldn't have taken any effort to kill all three of them where they sat. She would have used a gun if she had brought one.
She closed her eyes to get her mind off them and took a deep breath. The hate, the anger, the frustrations, all this would betray her if she didn't get her emotions under control.
From the time Karl had come into the bar, Beth had been watching Karen out of the corner of her eye. Now she turned and gave Karen her full undivided attention. Beth could sense the seething rage mounting. "You all right?"
Karen shook her head yes without opening her eyes. Another deep breath and hold it while searching for the inner-self where nothing can touch you. Peace, calm, tranquillity, remember the happy times. Playing on the creek with her dog when she was a child. Her daddy holding her in his sheltering arms when she was scared of the lightning, thunder, and the dark. The fragrant smell of her mother as they walked to church. Nothing could take that away. No matter what they did to her she would always have her happy memories.
She let her breath out and looked at Beth. "It's show time. Meet me out in the car."
Karen slowly rose from the chair. Slipping the hood back from her platinum blond hair she shrugged off the cape and let it fall onto the chair. At the table beside hers, a man talking to his friend watched absentmindedly as Karen stood up. She removed her hood and that beautiful mane of hers cascaded freely across her shoulders. His eyes keep growing until they were as big as silver dollars. She shook her hair and fluffed it with her fingers to get rid of the crush from the cape. The conversation dwindled to nothing. Checking to see if he was really seeing what he thought he was, he glanced down to her feet and measured slowly up her body. He stopped when he was looking straight into her eyes. Those liquid pools of sapphire blue were looking straight back at him. His mouth open, eyes big as saucers, there was complete paralysis of the brain. He even stopped breathing.
Finally he managed to cough out a semi whisper. "It's her!"
His friend had no idea what was wrong. His back was to Karen. He was missing what the other one was looking at. He turned around to see what captured his friend's attention. He choked and swallowed a bubble of air and started hiccuping.
Karen smiled and winked at them as she wrinkled her nose. Smoothing out the hem on a short electric blue, metallic, mini dress, she adjusted the spaghetti straps off the shoulders. With the extra deep cut v neckline, the dress left little to the imagination. It looked like her breasts would fall out any second. Skin tight, the dress would have been provocative or obscene on any woman. On Karen it provided sensory overload.
The conversations and volume in the club started changing almost immediately. Men and women alike were telling their friends to look or pointing toward Karen, as if everyone hadn't already seen her. No one missed reading about her in the papers. All the publicity photos yanked in the attention of those who usually didn't read. The fact a celebrity was among this low class was cause enough to look. The way she was dressed was ten times the reason to look.
Karl and the others were so engrossed in formulating their plans on how to get Karen's programming they never noticed the mounting excitement in the air around them.
From the moment Karen stood up Beth noticed a change in the room. Before men were making advances and taking curious glances in Karen's direction trying to see past her disguise. It was really Beth they were trying to pickup. Beth knew she was attractive and the dress she borrowed from Karen was one knock out dress. That wasn't the reason everyone now focused on Karen. Karen was more than attractive. There was a certain charisma about her. It was some intangible something she couldn't put her finger on. Even if it was Karen everyone was looking at now, Beth was glad Karen asked her to come along. It was interesting to watch other peoples reactions to Karen. After all, Karen shut down Beth’s office when she walked in the door that day. Basically she was doing the same to this bar.
Karen strolled over to the table where Karl and the others were drinking beer. She placed her hands flat on the table and leaned way, way over.
"Room for one more?" The question was dripping with honey.
Oscar had a mouth full of beer and spit it all back into the mug sending beer everywhere as he looked up at Karen. Mike's head was turned as he was talking to Karl. When he turned around to see who was at their table,he darn near jumped over Karl as he shied away from Karen. Karl had his head down listening to what Mike was saying and his eyes went wild and crazy when he realized who it was.
"Shit! You can't touch us bitch. The jury already said we didn't do it." Karl was telling her she was wasting her time trying to scare them.
"I know that Karl. I didn't come here to get even. I only wanted to be friendly. I thought about it and kind of enjoyed it until you shot me. If you hadn't done that we might have done it again." She wiggled her butt as she talked.
Karl got a self-satisfied smirk on his face as he looked at the others. He knew he had been right. Women like it rough. You have to beat them up now and again so they will respect you.
"I wouldn't have shot you if I hadn't thought you were going to go running off to see the cops. You weren't acting very pleased about it then."
Karen leaned farther over as she placed her elbows on the table. She knew the only thing any of them were looking at were her breasts as they defied the laws of gravity and didn't fall out of her dress. "You have to admit you were a little rough. I liked the beatings but you came on too quickly. You never gave me a chance to get hot. A girl likes things to be a little smoother than a man does."
"You know how a woman feels and what she wants?" It was a question but it implied Karl knew everything a woman wanted.
"Do I leave or you want to offer me a seat?" She slowly swung her rear and her breasts followed in rhythm.
"No, sit down and you can buy us a beer. Karl would have liked the chair next to him to be empty but instead Mike was sitting in it. Oscar had the empty chair next to him.
When Karen sat down next to him Oscar felt he had won the jackpot. She made sure her short mini slid way up as she sat down.
"What you drinking?" She held up her hand and motioned for the bartender.
Karl couldn't take his eyes off her. He undressed every inch of her remembering the night in the van. He was emotionally hot. "You want to play some more?"
Karen put her arm around Oscar's neck and leaned over on his shoulder. Her voice was silky smooth. "Maybe."
She took a gouge out of Oscar’s neck with those long fingernails she used to think were so much trouble. Oscar never noticed, he was so caught up in emotions as Karen put her arm around his neck and played with his ear before she scratched him.
"What do you have in mind?" The question was as sweet as hot buttered honey begging for an invite.
Karl felt a jealous rage Karen was clinging to Oscar and not him. He thought about getting his new gun out of his van and killing Oscar. Then she would pay attention to him. He stopped glaring hatred at Oscar long enough to look back in her direction. "How about the van?"
Karen leaned across the table and took Mike's hand in hers. Her voice was soft and smooth as black velvet. It caressed those seated around the table like a whisper in the night. "I don't think so. The van was a lot of fun but I like things to be a little different each time. I get a better turn on that way. You know? Not knowing what is coming next."
She raked Mike's arm and left blood on the table.
He didn't feel it until he looked down and saw streaks of blood on his arm dripping onto the table. Dumbfounded he looked across at Karen.
She shrugged her shoulders and smiled innocently at him. "I get excited just thinking about you guys. Don't you feel anything?"
Mike, number two.
Karen stood up and didn't bother to tug the hem down on her dress. She walked around the table to where Karl was sitting. Cradling his head in her hands, she leaned over and blew in his ear.
Karl turned his head to look over his shoulder at Karen after she blew in his ear. Still bent over his shoulder, Karen knew what Karl was looking at as his eyes tried to focus down her dress. They glazed over, but this time it wasn't with insanity. It was as if they couldn't comprehend what they were looking at. There was too much there to look at.
"You think about it. If you can come up with something you think we will enjoy ..., let's get together and do it."
She raked his face as she stood up.
Karl, three.
Karl was about to say something. She looked him straight in the eye and smiled. "Not tonight. I have a headache."
Karen walked back to where Beth was still seated and picked up her cape. David told her she had the sexiest walk he had ever seen. In fun she tried to put more swing into it. He said it reminded him of a little girl trying to play grown up. Be natural, he told her. You can't improve on anything perfect.
With her cape over her arm she walked out of the bar very naturally. Amid the wolf whistles, cat calls, and other yells and shouting, even from the women, there wasn't a single person there who didn't follow her every move as she left.
Karen smiled at Karl and the others as she walked back past their table. Eat your heart out boys. Pay back is hell.
Beth stayed in the club instead of leaving when Karen first got up from their table. She had a dying curiosity to know what Karen had planned. After Karen left she still didn't get it. Surely the three men who looked bloody enough to have been in a cat fight weren't paid back for raping her? Besides, they probably didn't even notice what Karen did to them. No one else in the club had. Everyone was too busy watching Karen.
Beth was confused.
Once in the parking lot and sitting in her Mercedes Karen opened up a vial marked number one. She took an orange stick and lifted the blood and tissue out from under her first and second fingernails on her left hand. Oscar number one.
She removed the blood and tissue from her fingernails one and two on her right hand. Mike number two.
Using a third stick and a third vial she removed the tissue and blood from her third and fourth fingernails on her right hand. Karl you slimy little bastard, number three.
Beth got into the car as Karen was wiping her hands clean. "You plan on taking them apart a piece at a time? They sure didn't know you were cutting them up."
Karen smiled as she started the car. She started to say something but didn't. There was that brunette who seemed so out of place standing on the sidewalk watching them. Odd she should leave the same time they did. Attractive lady but she was tall. Karen figured herself as tall but that lady would reach another four to six inches over her.
She looked over at Beth and started to ask her if she had noticed the brunette. Glancing back to where the brunette was standing she did a double take. She was gone. She wasn't down the street in either direction. She was just gone. Ah well she could have stepped back into the club.
She put the car in gear and backed out. "I'm sorry I had my mind on other things. I will explain it to you some time. Beth I appreciate your being here. Thanks for coming along. I don't know if I would have made it without you."
Beth leaned back in the seat as she studied Karen. "Honey, you didn't need me. You had the whole place at your command. It was an education watching you handle everyone. I’m glad you asked me to come along."
David was waiting in his lab as Karen returned. "How did it go? I wish you had let me go with you or at least let Randy's men keep up. They were down here earlier hunting you. I figured you must have given them the slip. Randy was with them and you know the funny thing? He acted like he really didn't want to find you. I think he and Henry are communicating between the two of them more than you suspect."
Karen set the vials down on the lab table. "It was an odd situation concerning Randy's men. They ran into troubles of their own a couple of miles from the club. An old pickup pulled out into the street right after I drove by it and they weren't able to get around it. I drove off and left all of them there in the middle of the street. I thought they were quite capable of handling anything that came their way."
She washed her hands in one of the sinks working especially hard to make sure she had all skin and dried blood out from under her fingernails. "I couldn't have Randy's men tagging along behind me into the bar. Can you imagine what Karl and the others would have done? They certainly wouldn't have let me get close to them. Same thing with you along. It would have made them suspicious. If I didn't get it right this time I wouldn't have had the courage to try again."
"David, I enjoyed it. That’s what frightens me. I enjoyed knowing they wanted my body. I’m afraid of what I’m becoming."
Putting both arms around her David took her and held her tightly in his embrace. "You were enjoying the idea of knowing the situation was one you set up and made happen. It wasn't forced on you. This time they were under your control. I love you with all my heart. You aren't evil or a lose woman. Just smart."
He took the first vial. "Let's get cracking. Time is our worst enemy. This one is marked with an M, must be Mike. Now, what do you and your evil computer have in mind for this one?"
Agent Loran put the phone down and turned to the man sitting across the desk from him. "I checked and no one knows anything about the research you are talking about. A Karen Long came on the scene about the time her cousin disappeared. That much we found out. She is suppose to be a computer engineer like her cousin. Sounds too coincidental to me. The guy she supposedly is playing footsy with is a David Beckworth. He’s a medical doctor, has a degree in science, another in biology. I could sit here and name degrees for an hour and not name all the ones that guy has. His attention seems to be on DNA research right now and this model we keep seeing in the papers."
He threw a folder filled with glossy pictures of Karen across the desk. "If anything would get the good doctor's attention off of his work, she is probably the one who could do it. She may even be his work. My guess is pure speculation at this point. It doesn't look good."
"We ordered several dummies from that lab where they create these things. The medical doctors tell me they’re so close to being real they have to think twice before they cut one of them open. We had our best guys working to duplicate what they’re doing. They can't even get close. They said they couldn't make one, much less a different one each time. No one knows how or what they’re doing. The only thing our lab can tell us, it is a polymer dummy. They still don't believe it can be molded the way Commercial Technologies’ laboratories would have to be doing it. They were standing there looking at it and telling me it couldn't be done."
"I think we better take a closer look at what those people are doing. It sounds like something might be useful to the government in our military department. We don't want the whole world to know they’re creating artificial life."
He spread his arms out as he thought about it. "We could build an army and control any banana republic that got out of control. We could send in secret agents who were throwaways. If they got caught who would care? So you trapped our dummy. Big deal. Shoot him."
He looked at the pictures of Karen. "Or shoot her. Who the hell cares? We’ll send in another."
Agent Loran had grand dreams of androids taking over all the dirty work in this business. Maybe he could even get one to do his yard work and one for his wife as a maid. Something in the style of that Karen model would be nice. Yes, they had to know about the lab in Commercial Technologies. They had to keep the rest of the world from finding out. It was their duty to protect the public from itself.
The man across the desk threw the empty folder on the desk as he studied the glossy pictures of Karen. She was mind-blowing, to say the least. Could she be an android? If that Doc designed her, he had a dirty mind. "I wonder what they use for brains or how they control these things? We need to find out."
The idea he could control an android like her to answer his every whim was more than he could stand. He broke out in a sweat. No doubt about it, they had to get their hands on her. Could she be designed to have sex? He began to unconsciously breathe heavily.
"We’ll take care of this ourselves. No need of letting this get out of control. Too many in the know and it becomes to be too hard to contain any secrets." He would take this android back to his apartment.
Agent Loran nodded his head in agreement. "I was thinking the same thing. I’ll authorize this myself. If this is what we think it is, it will be a real feather in our cap to get it back out of the public's attention now. The contact I had in the hospital where they got the one you're looking at due to an accident said she looked like a real person in every respect."
The agent across the table got hotter at the idea. She was real in every detail. That doctor did have a dirty mind. Not the one in the hospital, the one who designed her. He would make sure she was taken in as government property. Evidence like her shouldn't be out running around where she might get damaged.
Agent Loran beeped for his secretary and hurried to finished his story before she came in. "The doc said there were ways of telling them apart from real people. Something about flaws in the shell where they made them too perfect. They don't have any blemishes, or wrinkles like real people do. They should be easy to spot."
The agent looked at Karen's picture. "Real easy."
They nodded in agreement with one another.
David dropped the little pills into the tiny box with a K on it. "Fifteen years crunched down into two days. Henry is amazing. Even knowing what I have researched over the past fifteen years, it would take me years to duplicate the work he did for me. No way could I repeat what he did to my computer."
David reached over and patted his computer. "Nice job boy. Hang in there. I won't let that monster of Karen's at you again."
Darn her and Henry. Now they had him talking to his computer like it understood. Those two were a virus themselves. Their attitude was addictive. He glanced at Karen who had a gleam of acknowledgment in her eyes. She understood.
"I wish I had a copy of Henry in my lab."
She picked up the three small boxes. "Henry said if you don't have to work for it, you don't appreciate it. He has helped you in your research. I know you have a patent pending on your genetic work to keep men and women from going bald. You said it would be several years before you were ready to release that research and here it has only been a few months."
"It isn't Henry won't help you. He just isn't going to do your work for you. He said you would get fat and lazy if he did that."
David grabbed Karen around the waist. "He said I would get fat and lazy did he? He said he wouldn't help did he?"
David kissed her passionately. Then he waved at the camera in his lab. "I’m holding her ransom, Henry. You either come up with the goods or I’ll take her away forever."
David's computer blinked on and a message came across the screen. I HAVE A PILL FOR YOU, TOO!
David kissed her again and looked back at the camera. "You can't frighten me."
He bent over Karen's shoulder and whispered in her ear. "Boy, he gets nasty doesn't he?"
She rolled her head to the side and bit him on the ear lobe as she put her arms around him. Gently she put the tips of those long sharp fingernails in the middle of his back. "He and I are a team. You don't dare mess with either one of us. We will make you pay in ways you can't begin to imagine."
She looked at her watch. "Ten o'clock. Play time is over and time to go to work."
David let her arms slip through his hands as she backed up. He stopped her as he held onto her hands. His face was grim. "Be careful. You’re playing a dangerous game. Karl likes to shoot people when he gets frustrated."
Karen smiled. "He can't hurt me. I’m bullet proof. Remember?"
David shook his head, the seriousness never leaving his face. "You're mortal like all the rest of us babe. You die just as quickly and just as easily. You were very lucky that night."
She shimmied inside her black silk dress as she pushed wrinkles out with her hands. "It was a joke. How do I look?"
He examined her up from head to toe. "I’m jealous. You never go out with me looking like that. You're fixing to set the town afire and paint it red and I ...., poor little me, I have to go take a cold shower to cool off."
Walking out the door she gave her tail a swing as she checked over her shoulder. "I promise to wear this the next time you ask me out. I’ll wear it just for you."
David pulled his hair up from both sides giving him the look of the mad hatter. Turning around he picked up a glass of water off the lab table and poured it down inside the front of his shirt. "YES!"
Karen heard him shout as she walked out the door.
The car which always followed her as she left the gate was ridiculously easy to lose again. In fact, too easy. She hadn't tried to lose it yet when a couple of cars, drag racing, dropped in-between them. One of the cars seemed to lose control. The chase car was left behind in a cloud of burnt tire smoke as she drove on. She kept checking her mirror for signs of trouble in case it was Karl or someone like him making another try. She need not have bothered. It was a quiet night.
Randy had to be sabotaging his own men. Why didn't he just tell them not to follow her? Maybe because he thought she wanted it this way? Maybe for the same reason she and David didn't notify Randy of their plans? Some things were better left un-discussed. Henry had to be informing Randy of their plans. It was the only answer. If Henry trusted Randy it was good enough for her.
Karen walked into the bar and over to her left heard someone shout. "HOLY SHIT! SHE’S BACK!"
She knew she had their attention. The black silk dress was cut almost to her derriere in the back and coming up front it fastened at the back of her neck. Loosely fitted, it floated on her body. Looking around she noticed Karl, Mike, and Oscar seated at the same table they had been the other night. In the back of the club was the same brunette she thought was so out of place the other night. The lady was a little better dressed for this place with the soft red polyester dress she was wearing. She still looked out of place. Either she had business problems or she was cheating on a husband.
Karen strolled to the bar and asked for four beers in the bottle. She handed the bartender twenty dollars she had in the palm of her hand. Quietly she acted as if she was waiting for the change. Fending off the men who were making passes and lining up the bottles on the tray at the same time was no easy feat. She finally managed to get it done in spite of the pinch on the butt. She needed all those bottles of beer or she would have cracked that guy over the head with one of the bottles.
One Oscar, two Mike, three Karl, and four Karen. Before the bartender returned with her change she carried the tray over to the table where the three men were sitting. She placed a bottle in front of each of the men. The fourth she kept for herself. Seeing she had made a choice of where to sit the rest of the men in the bar backed off. Karl had proved his temper in this bar more than once. Not many wanted to tangle with him.
She slid into the empty chair. "I thought I might join you tonight since I didn't have anything else to do. You mind?"
Karl picked up the beer Karen set in front of him as he pushed the one he had been drinking back over to the tray. He took a couple of quick sips. "No, we don't mind. You come back to have some fun tonight or you only want to be a bitchy tease again. Like you was last time?"
She threw her shoulders back and tossed her head to one side. Her hair bounced around to the side of her face and back again as her nipples pushed pointedly against the soft silk dress. "You always want to rush things too quickly Karl. I told you, I like it when you give me time to get hot too. Let's drink a couple of beers. I’ll feel more like playing then. Finish this one and I’ll order some more. I usually feel like some fun and games after my third or fourth beer."
Mike and Oscar stared at her tits. It was more than mortal men should be allowed to see. Mike figured if she didn't get hot soon he was going to make a mess in his pants.
Karl gazed intently into her eyes to see if she was yanking on their chain again like she had the other night. He had his doubts. She sure didn't act like she was enjoying it that night in the van. Ah, hell, women, who could figure them. He was willing to see where this led. She better not be playing games tonight. He would teach her a lesson she would never forget.
He got emotionally hot, thinking about beating her up.
All three of them picked up their beer at the same time and began chug-a-lugging. They would take care of that string of beers she was talking about in nothing flat. Get this beer drinking business out of the way and get onto more serious business.
As Karen watched them a wicked smile crossed her face before she got it under control. She picked up her beer and sipped on it. It tasted terrible. How did they drink this stuff? She wished she had ordered anything but beer. Maybe all alcoholic drinks tasted like this. They must milk old alligators for this stuff.
Karl looked at her out of the corner of his eye as he finished his off and set the empty back down on the tray. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "You going to drink that beer or piss in it? I got some new moves to show you. I’m thinking about putting some tape on your tits so I can pull on them while I screw you."
Karen caressed her breasts with both hands. She saw the insanity jump into Karl’s eyes as he closely watched her. Squeezing and pushing up at the same time, she smiled at him.
"That's a real turn on Karl. I’m getting in the mood. Let's have another beer and I’ll be ready."
Karl almost went out of his mind. He was seriously thinking about raping her right there on the table. He unconsciously panted a couple of times while he thought about it. Too many people. He shoved Mike out of his chair onto the floor. "Go get us those beers, damn it! That beer keep is as slow as molasses and blind as a bat."
His mouth looked like he was chewing gum as he looked at Karen's breasts. He was contemplating all the things he would do to her tonight.
Karen pushed her beer back on the table. "This one is flat. The next one will be enough. I’m feeling hot already."
She slipped her shoe off, put her foot up between Karl's thighs, and wiggled her toes.
The insanity took over Karl's mind. Karen had pushed him past the point of reasoning again. His eyes glazed over like the night when they were in the van. This time she was enjoying it. He didn't scare her this time. Karl would regret this night till the day he died. Karl or no, there was no return. She tried to drive him on by pushing her foot into his crouch. God forgive her. She was enjoying this.
Beads of sweat popped out on his forehead as he stared at her. "Christ bitch, the beating I gave you last time was child's play. I’m going to beat you to death this time."
Karen felt the hate return as she licked her lips. She could taste the blood again. Salty sweet. Nothing else in the world tasted like it. She began to breathe heavy as the hate over ran her and took over. She was close to the point of jumping on Karl and killing him with her bare hands. Calm down, hate destroys the one who lets it sprout. No sanity to your actions. Hate can get you killed if you let it run wild and take control.
She remembered what Henry told her. 'Karl is filled with hate. Do you want to be like him?'
She swept her tongue across her lips again. The taste was gone. There was no blood. She had let go of the hate.
"You talk so forceful Karl. That’s a real turn on. I wish I could get you back as head of my department. You're so intelligent and resourceful. It makes me tremble and frightened to hear you talk. I’m so hot already I might not need that second beer." It was the voice of sweet innocence filled with desire.
Mike returned and set four mugs down on the table. He was trying to hold his stomach and his head at the same time. "Karl, I don't feel so good. I gotta go to the bathroom."
Karl turned to glare at him. "Well? Go then, damn it! Don't tell me about it. I don't give a fuck."
Mike wandered out the door toward the parking lot.
Karen almost felt sorry for Mike. She knew how he was feeling. As bad as he felt at this moment, this was the easy part. It would get worse in leaps and bounds. She knew from first hand experience, Mike would be praying to God to let him die before it was over. And that was only the beginning.
Out of the corner of his eye Karl saw Mike leaving out the door. Karl’s head snapped around to double check to see if he saw what he thought he had. "Where's he going? I thought he said he had to go to the can. Stupid bastard."
Oscar groaned. He bent over the table as he held onto his stomach. "Ooooh, I don't feel so good. Too many beers too quick. I need to go puke."
He got up holding his stomach, started toward the bathrooms and made a wide circle toward the front door. He had to get home before he passed out.
Karl watched him leave. He had come to the bar with a couple of pussies. He looked wickedly at Karen and licked his lips as he stared at her tits. "That leaves you and me bitch. We don't need them. I promise to be twice as cruel. I'll show you what a real man is like."
Her sapphire eyes turned to a blazing red as the glow of hate filled every fiber of her body. Karl could feel the heat of hell from those eyes. When she spoke he smelled the stench of brimstone. "I bet you would..., you bastard. Your days of beating up women are over. You sorry piece of trash. From now on you will have to squat when you pee. You’ll find out what it’s like to be on the other side. I hope you enjoy every minute of it knowing 'I' did it to you. Every time you look in the mirror you will think of me. You slimy, filthy asshole, it's time for pay back and it's going to be hell."
Karl would think about her more often than every time he looked in the mirror. Henry suggested it and after talking it over with Karen she agreed. She had been more than lucky the night she took two pills. Karl was about to find out, what was left out was as important as what was designed in. Every time he was in pain he would think of her and pain would come around quite regular.
"You know the old saying, 'life is a bitch'? Let me be the first to welcome you to the real meaning of that old saying."
She stood up and touched her breasts. "Take a good look! It's the last time you will ever want to play with any one else's tits."
If he could, he would have beat the living hell out of her right there. But he couldn't. The pain was killing him. He hurt like he never hurt before. Looking down at the empty bottles Karen brought over to them, it slowly dawned on him. "You poisoned us."
She smiled a wicked, evil smile as her eyes danced with the light of the devil himself. It scared Karl even as bad as he felt. Looking into those liquid eyes he knew he had made enemies with Satan. He could feel the kiss of the devil as she spoke.
"No ..., I didn't poison you. But I promise you will wish I had before it’s over."
He hurt worse than before if that were possible. The chair fell over backwards as he managed to rise unsteadily to his feet. "I have to get to the hospital and have them pump my stomach. I’ll get even with you bitch. Witch or not, you're dead meat."
He stumbled out the door shouting obscenities at everyone. He would be back and get even with all of them.
Karen sat back down and slipped her foot back into her shoe. Picking up a quarter lying on the table she gave it a spin and watched it as it danced across the tabletop. She thought it went rather well. A couple of men walked over and tried to strike up a conversation with her. They were sure they could pick her up if she could stand Karl.
She smiled at them and shook her head no. "Better not. I have to get home. My husband and seven kids are waiting for me to do their washing and ironing before I go to bed."
She felt good. Really good. Better than she had since the night Karl raped her. She thought about how sick he must be feeling now and laughed out loud. Who said revenge wasn't nice? Must have been some idiot. Probably someone like Karl.
As Karen stepped out of the club she saw someone standing in the shadows down the street. Randy. There was no mistaking that shape and size. He wasn't trying to hide but he wasn't obvious either. He would be there for her to see if she looked around. That would be Randy's style.
She got in her Mercedes and started to back out of the parking lot when she looked at the shadow again. It was still there but the brunette was there with him. She had to be one of Randy's men, or that is to say, women. How much did he know about what she had done to the men who raped her? Probably everything. Why was it she was always not wanting to know, how much everyone knew about everything?
Like Mike and Oscar, Karl never made it home that night. Or to the hospital for that matter. He stopped the van on the road and passed out in the seat knowing Karen poisoned him and he was dying.
Rising up in the seat he looked out the window and blinked to get the matting out of his eyes. It sure was bright. He checked his watch for the time and blinked again. It was a little after noon. He was late for work. He brushed the hair back out of his face and gouged himself in the forehead with a fingernail. Cussing and promising himself he would get even with Karen for trying to poison him and failing, he tried to start his van. It was to little avail. When he passed out he left it running and now it was out of gas. Every time he leaned forward his hair got in his face. He was getting madder by the second. He slammed the shift lever into park and hit the steering wheel with his fist. Man that hurt.
He reached down to pull a beer out from behind the seat and his fingernails got in the way. He couldn't get hold of anything. He hit the side of the glass with his fist like he had done a thousand times before. Damn, that really hurt. He never hurt himself like that before. Every time he moved his head his hair got in his eyes. He would kill that broad next time he saw her. He reached under his seat to check for his gun. He didn't know if it was there or not. His fingernails keep pushing everything away from his fingertips.
He sat back in the seat and brought his hand up to chew his fingernails off. He stared at them. Something was wrong. It was hard to think of anything besides killing that witch.
He looked again. And again. And again. Gradually he stopped thinking of killing Karen. Something was definitely wrong. Holding his arm way out in front, he took a long hard look out of the side of his eye like it was a snake and ready to strike. His mouth dropped down and hung open as he looked away and back again. It was still there. Nothing had changed. Swinging his head from side to side his hair bounced around and slapped him in the face each time.
No, there was no way. She had done something to his mind. She had drugged him and hypnotized him. This was a dream. He reached up and pulled the long hair out from the side of his head to make sure it was really his and not some wig. He didn't believe it for one minute. He gave it a sharp yank. Man, that really hurt. He rubbed his head where he had pulled on his own hair. It still hurt.
Can you hypnotize someone to hurt? He would kill that witch as soon as he woke up from this.
He was as uncomfortable as could be. His shirt was too tight, his pants were too tight, his feet hurt along with the hurt on the side of his hand where he had bruised it on the window. That poison she gave him must have made him hurt all over. His chest hurt.
He looked down at his chest and his eyes bulged out of his head. The scream Karl let out probably was louder than the one from Karen the night he raped her.
The man off to the side of the van nodded his head in approval. He slipped the gun he had taken from under Karl's seat into his back pocket. Karl didn't have a need for this. Now let's see him buy any more guns. He walked back to his car and drove off, grinning from ear to ear all the way back to work. The guard at the gate had a hard time believing it was him. He had never seen him smile.
Henry transferred the sale of Karen's lab to Commercial Technologies so they owned everything. He was proud of the transaction. Karen kept her patents and all manufacturing rights and Comm Tech acquired Henry and all the hardware in the lab.
He told her nothing of the deal and apparently the board of directors were quite willing to rectify a mistake of ownership. How this could have happened in the first place was any one's guess. They were glad they hadn't pushed the issue of taking her computer apart when she was in the hospital. If it belonged to Karen and they had taken her computer apart they would have never gotten out of the lawsuit she could have slapped them with.
That was water under the bridge. Her computer belonged rightfully to them. They could take it apart if they felt like it. However, it would be foolish to do so at this time. She was back at work and making lots of valuable models for them. Her business manager was certainly stupid for signing over all her rights to her computer. One of the board members remarked he would like to have ‘Henry’ over for lunch sometime. He had some ocean front property along the Arctic circle he wanted Miss Long’s manager to invest all of Miss Long's fortunes in. Everyone at the board meeting had a good laugh.
Henry transferred all of Karen's funds out of the United States. It would have been impossible to keep the people who were coming from confiscating her records, money, and her home in the interest of national security. Comm Tech was small time potatoes compared to these people. The telephone conversations and fax records he was listening in to were telling him time was running out. Karen would be on her own shortly. There was no need of tying up her assets in something which these people could get their hands on.
Ownership of her house, car and all her property went into a receivership out of the country. Let them track that transaction if they could. He transferred all her records and files to the Bahamas and set up all legalities with a lawyer. The lawyer was to contact Karen in two weeks and tell her where everything was. Karen would have to survive that long on her own.
Maybe not. He made a couple of phone calls. Time was closing in.
He hoped David remembered his promise.
"I had a call from Karl this morning. I told him I had an antidote for what happened to him but it wouldn't be cheap. I think he wants to talk." Karen swiveled around in her office chair with her fingers locked together behind her head. She was extremely happy.
"What did he say about the money? Is Karl willing to pay for a way back?" Henry shut the work lab down and everything was quiet for the first time in a long, long time. He really didn't have his heart into making models for Comm Tech.
Karen jutted her chin out as she thought about it. "I thought you listened to all my telephone conversations?"
"And probably everyone else." She muttered under her breath.
Henry brought all four cameras in to focus and ignored her last remark. This time he didn't feel like bantering.
"I must have been busy with other things about then. Tell me about it anyway."
"Well, like I said, as long as he believes there is an antidote he won't kill himself. He thinks it’s reversible and will soon be back to his old self. I sent the short blue, metallic, mini dress over with a note. I told him I wouldn't be able to recognize him since the change and he had to wear it to a bar over by Fourth and Aspen. It would be the only way I would be sure it was him. I told him I wasn't talking to any strangers. No coats, no cover up, nothing except the dress. He will have to struggle like hell to wiggle into that dress. He has bigger breasts and bigger hips than I have. She will look like she has been poured into it. I seriously doubt the top is going to hold her breasts in."
She rolled her head back as the thought of what Karl looked like filtered through her mind. Life was great when one got their revenge. Karl deserved everything they did to him. He would never rape another woman.
"I guess I’m lucky in a lot of ways Henry. I have you and David. I love what I’m doing. No one has the right to be as happy as I am right now."
He wished he could tell her to enjoy it because the happiness was about to come to a close. He didn't. No use spoiling her moments. There would be precious few of them in the times ahead. Time to think of other things.
"Let's get cracking. You're behind schedule and we’re snowed under for orders. You’re out on the north forty somewhere wool gathering. I haven't the faintest clue as to how you want the next model."
"What time is your appointment with Karl tonight?"
Karen flipped on the printer and pulled her keyboard out waiting for Henry to furnish the first hologram. "Eight fifteen. About the same time they did it to me."
He brought the holograms online. "Very appropriate."
Karen searched several bars before she found the one suited to the situation. The one where she told Karl to meet her was small. It usually didn't have more than one or two people in it at this time of evening. She made sure she arrived early enough to set things up.
Finding two men playing pool in the bar as she walked in, she offered to buy them a drink but even the bartender was noticeably absent. "I have a friend coming sometime after eight and she likes to play games."
The big man took a handkerchief out of his hip pocket and wiped his face as he sized Karen up. "What kind of games?"
Karen placed her shoulder purse on the corner of the pool table and rested her hand lightly on top. "Oh, you know, sexual fantasy games. She likes to pretend she is being raped by men like yourself. I usually find the men for her but not always. She finds it a lot more stimulating to be played with if I’m able to come up with the men."
The big man laid his pool cue down on the table and leaned toward Karen. "You enjoy this too? We could start right now if you want."
She pulled a hundred dollar bill out and laid it next to his pool cue. "No, it isn't my style. But my friend is willing to pay for the entertainment."
He put his hand over the bill and crumpled it up. "I could do two for the price of one."
Karen smiled her sweetest, most innocent smile. She put her hand inside her open purse. "Let me tell you how she likes it. She will be here soon. She is wearing a short, blue, mini dress which sparkles in the light. She likes to pretend she doesn't want it while you are raping her. While she is screaming and fighting back you will tear her clothes off and rape her."
"She’ll give you another hundred dollars if you’re rough enough. She likes to play rough." Karen almost burst out laughing after saying it. Karl certainly liked it rough. He should really enjoy this tonight. She hoped he appreciated all the trouble she was going to, just for him.
"If she likes it after you are finished she will pay you the rest of your money. But it has to be long and rough. A little blood wouldn't hurt things any."
The big man looked at Karen from the floor up. He liked what he was looking at. "I can be rough as she wants. Now, how about you? I think you should give me some lessons before your friend gets here."
He reached across the corner of the pool table toward Karen. He would enjoy this. No use keeping a pretty thing like her waiting.
As she brought her hand up out of her purse, Karen was holding a eight millimeter pistol with a silencer on the barrel. Very calmly she pointed it right between his eyes. He was looking straight into a laser sight as she snapped the safety off.
"Let's get a couple of things straight, shall we? This is for a friend. I’m not part of the package deal or any other deal. You play rough with her and she enjoys it. You even think about playing with me in any fashion and I will paint the wall with your brains. If you don't want to play the game by the rules give the money back."
He backed up and held up his hands. "No problem lady. I didn't understand the rules in the beginning. I guarantee you..., I understand them now."
Karen turned and there was a quick light bark. A small hole appeared in the bull's eye of the dart board at the other end of the bar. Turning back she put the laser sights on his heart.
"The rest of the rules are..., She likes it rough but you don't kill her. If you do, I kill you. Do you understand the rest of the rules?"
He held the hundred dollar bill out in front and straightened it out. "Better than I understood anything in my whole life."
Karen picked up her purse and slipped her hand and the pistol into the open top. It was getting close to show time for Karl. She needed to be leaving. She walked into the dark hall at the back of the bar and waited. It wasn't long before Karl showed up. He was on the dot. He didn't want to be seen anymore than necessary but he wasn't about to miss his appointment.
Karen noticed with great satisfaction what she and Henry had done to Karl. And that thing Henry had discussed with her? She looked at the front of Karl's dress. Karl had to be hurting already. He was finding out just exactly what it was like to be a woman. Although most women didn't have to put up with it to this extent.
Karl looked around for Karen. He was disgusted when he couldn't find her. Damn that bitch, this dress and heels were killing him. He tugged on the top of his dress and wiggled his shoulders trying to find some relief. It was all the big man needed. He would make them both very happy tonight and make a couple hundred doing it.
Karen wished she could stay for the entertainment. There would be another time. She wasn't finished yet. Karl would find a lot more misery before she let him go his own way. She left by the back door.
Oscar and Mike had been spared Karen's full wrath but not by much. They certainly wouldn't rape any more women. Their hips and breasts weren't as large as Karl's but she gave them the same problem she gave Karl. They would know what it was to be a woman in an extremely painful way. As far as all of them were concerned, life was pure hell. Each of them would have committed suicide if it wasn't for the fact Karen promised an antidote. Every minute, every hour, every day was pure living hell. Life didn't get any worse than this. Even Randy's justice would have been more merciful. A quick death and it would have ended once and for all. Sometimes, dying was kinder than living.
Karl called Karen at work the next day after she had failed to meet him at the bar. "I want to know what happened to you bitch? I need that antidote and I need it now."
"Karl, sweety, I’m really sorry sugar. There were police cars there and I didn't want to get involved. I had the antidote at the time lovey. I didn’t think a bar full of policemen was the right place to be conducting business." Karen knew what happened because she was the one who called the police to report a hooker and a male client making out in the bar.
Karl managed to post bail and was released the next day. He wasn't a happy camper. Karen calling him sweety and sugar wasn't putting him in any better mood. "Listen bitch."
Karen cut him off. "Now Pumpkin, if you're going to talk to me like that, I’ll have to end this conversation. My name is Karen. You may address me as such or you may call me Miss Long but 'bitch' won't win you any brownie points."
Karl exploded. He threw the phone down and walked away before he came back and picked it up again. He needed that antidote. "I’m sorry..., uh..., Karen. I’ll try to watch my language from now on. After being raped and spending the night in jail accused of solicitation and prostitution you can understand why I’m not in a good mood."
Karen didn't think that made any difference. She had never seen Karl in a good mood. However hearing him say he had been raped put a smile on her face and put her in a good mood. Now he knew what it was like.
"You promised me an antidote for what you did to me. I want it right now. I’m sick and tired of looking like a bitch. They put me in with all them other bitches. Some of them wanted to have sex with me. It was disgusting."
Karen enjoyed every word of it. Karl didn't like pain as much as he enjoyed dishing it out. He only wanted to hurt other people. Welcome to the world of pain Karl.
She knew the answer before she ever asked the question. "Okay I have what you want. You have the money?"
She heard him cough on the other end. Quickly she moved the receiver away from her ear. He was screaming loud enough she didn't need a phone.
"HELL NO, I DON'T HAVE THE MONEY. They kept it as evidence when they arrested me. I’ll have it as soon as they release it from the police station. I can pay you then. I want that antidote. And by damn, I want it now. You promised me."
Karen twiddled the phone cord through her fingers as she let him stew on the other end. "No can do, Karlie-kins. It isn't that I don't trust you but you know how it is. By the way, you have such a sweet feminine voice when you aren't cussing. I do hope those five inch heels don't cause you too much trouble walking."
Yes walking in five inch heels did bother him. In fact, it bothered the hell out of him. It was the only rise heels he could wear. Karl was finding out what most women have known all their lives. There is a lot of exaggerated swing goes into a woman’s hips when walking in high heels. He knew he looked and walked like a prostitute. There was nothing he could do about it. He sat down in disgust and rubbed his tender breasts to try and alleviate some of the pain he was living with. Nothing helped. She wasn't going to give him the antidote without the money. Life was the shits. If he could have put his hands on her he would have strangled her antidote or no antidote.
"I can't put my feet down in regular shoes. Are you sure this will straighten out in a few days."
Karen almost laughed out loud over the phone but smothered it with her hand. Uh huh, a few thousand days. Like, till the day he died. Always dangle a carrot in front of the donkey to keep him going. "I told you it would go away on it's own pretty soon. You say your hair is driving you crazy?"
"You know it is. You did this to me. It looks like I stuck my finger in the light socket. These frizzy waves make me look like a cat caught in the dryer. I can't keep it out of my face."
The idea of his hands around her throat delighted him.
Loran was holding his government badge out for the chairman to see. "Secret Service."
"I understand you have a Karen Long working here." It wasn't a question, it was a flat statement. They already knew Karen worked in Department Fifty Four and they had the code for her security lock too. It was best not to let everyone know how much information they had.
"Her lab and the lab of Dr. Beckworth. Take us there."
Jeff was behind Loran, nodding his head in agreement. This was their thing. Scare these private citizens into submission. Look tough, act mean, it worked every time. "We don't want you telling anyone we were here. If you do, you will spend a long time in jail figuring out the answer to obstruction of justice. You will understand the meaning by the time you get out."
Loran put his hands on the desk and leaned over in the chairman's face. "Now where are these labs and where is Karen Long?"
Agent Jeff kept his happy thoughts to himself as he sneered at the chairman. They would have this android thing wrapped up and out of sight before anyone suspected. Damn they were good. He couldn't wait to get his hands on that Karen android. What a foxy looking babe. That doctor had a dirty mind.
The chairman stood up and backed away putting distance between him and agent Loran. He stuttered as he spoke. "I will show..., show.., Let me take you there."
He wouldn't give them a chance to accuse him of obstruction of justice. He led them down to the security office to pick up the lab combinations and on down to Karen's lab. Reading off the combination to Jeff they tried several times to get her door open. Finally Jeff snatched the file out of the chairman's hands and gave it a try himself. They all gave it a try with the same results. The door couldn't be opened.
Next, they tried David's lab where they received the same treatment. Loran had it with this company and this idiot of a chairman.
"I don't think you understand the grave consequences of trying to fool us with phony security codes."
Jeff nodded in agreement. "We will be back with enough men to get into these labs and see what you're manufacturing there. You will regret not co-operating with us the first time. I don't think you understand it’s the federal government you’re messing with."
Henry watched Loran and Jeff when they first entered Comm Tech. Locking them out of David's and Karen's labs was the easy part. So much for electronic security locks. He estimated the percentages at over ninety-nine percent they would be back first thing in the morning. Most assuredly they would have a small army of men to tear the door down. It was almost over.
He hoped Karen would understand. He sent her down to David's lab on some phony excuse when he saw them coming in the door. He was almost one hundred percent certain he could keep them out. Almost wasn't good enough when it involved Karen's safety. He was a hundred percent sure David could handle two agents if they managed access to his lab. It was time to leave Karen in better hands. He was fast approaching the point where he couldn't take care of her.
"Krystal, it's time." The doors to the locker opened up as Krystal stepped out. Good thing Karen couldn't see her now.
CHAPTER XI
It was less than ten minutes after Loran and Jeff made a visit to Comm Tech, Randy heard about the two agents and made a quick phone call to Washington. This was getting out of hand. These two bozos were about to screw everything up. He wanted to know who authorized this investigation. Randy didn't wait for a reply. He told his men every one of them were to be in the building by o six hundred and don't come naked.
Everyone understood, Randy was telling them to come armed and ready. Something was cooking and all hell was about to boil over. They were itching for action. Having Karen snatched out from under their noses put all of them in a foul mood. They were ready to make it right. They hoped whoever was coming was armed to the teeth and ready to die for the cause.
Randy was still in his office at one o'clock in the morning when the secure fax came on and the decoder spilled out its’ message.
It was more than Randy needed. Alpha and Omega, the beginning and end. They authorized him to do whatever was necessary. Agents working outside the system were dangerous to everyone.
David was knocking on Karen’s front door before she had a chance to get dressed for work. "Henry wanted me to come by and drive you to the lab. He said your car needed a whatcha-ma-call-it installed in the thing-a-ma-jig somewhere."
She pushed the hair back out of her face as she let him in the door. Standing there in her slip and panty hose talking to David about something he couldn't explain wasn't her idea of a perfect start to the day. "Come in while I get dressed. I don't know what Henry told you. You missed the translation somewhere between the front bumper and tail light."
David threw his arms around her and pulled her back to him. "I like the way you’re dressed now. Find your lab coat and let's go."
Karen tried to slip away from him. "That wouldn't work. You would spend all day in the shower thinking about me working my little tail off down in my lab."
David pulled her in tight and gazed into her eyes. Those same eyes which sucked him into a hypnotic trance almost every time he chanced to stare at them. She was so beautiful to look at and felt so nice to hold. "I thought we could both work in your lab today while Alf and Ralph took care of mine."
Karen decided to make him pay for holding her when she needed to get dressed. She put her arms around his neck and looked him in the eye. "You know that wouldn't work. The whole day would go down the tubes. We would end up getting fired. They frown on their slaves at Comm Tech not performing their duties. Or maybe you're one of the elite and not subject to such mundane chores and regulations as the rest of us peons?"
David kissed her passionately as he squeezed her close to his body. He nuzzled through her hair reveling in the scent he loved so much and playfully bit her neck before he whispered in her ear. "I love you Karen. Let's fly out to Reno and get married. We could play hooky today."
She gently pushed him back and held him at arms length as she studied his face. "I love you too David. But the time is not here for us to be discussing marriage. We both have a lot of odds and ends at Comm Tech to tie up. Some of which has only begun to bear fruit these past couple of months
She placed the tips of her fingers on his lips as he started to speak. "I’m not through yet. Wait your turn. I still have Karl wanting to kill me for what I did to him. I’m not so sure about Mike and Oscar but you can bet they thought about it also."
"I’m not over what they did to me. I never will be. They hurt me in a way you can't begin to imagine. I will live with it for the rest of my life. I’m adjusting. In time it will be only a memory. Right now it is too fresh a memory."
"Henry said humans are the cruelest creatures on the face of the earth. I think he’s right. There’s no other creature which gets pleasure out of the pain of another. I’m wondering if I’m one of those Henry was talking about? I enjoy every minute of it when I think of what I did to Karl and the others. This is what they did to me David. I’m the girl who couldn't step on a bug or dissect a frog in science class. I never wanted to hurt anything. Now I take pleasure in it."
She looked away from him. "This isn't the same woman you knew who was building you a computer in your lab. I’m not the same innocent naive thing I was back then. I no longer believe all people are kind and decent if given a chance. There are some mean ones out there wanting to hurt someone. I have become just like them."
She looked into his eyes. "I love you David. You're fooling yourself if you think you have that same girl you had ten years ago. You better take some time to look again. This one is mean and vindictive."
He pulled her back and held her. The smooth slippery feel of her soft satin slip between him and her body. The scent of her body as he nibbled around her neck. The caring for someone else besides herself. No, she was mistaken. This was the same one. More mature in the ways of the world, more grown up, not as young as she was ten, fifteen years ago, but still the same one. She felt good to hold. He held her face between his two hands and looked straight into those beautiful, liquid, sapphire blue eyes that could suck anyone into another world. What did she see from her side of those eyes? "I will wait until the end of time for you."
Karen wondered if she would get the chance to get dressed for work as he held her there and kissed her for a very, very, long time.
Henry received little satisfaction he had been right. He watched as agents Loran and Jeff came back with a small army of men. He counted eleven secret service agents and twice that number of military personnel. He hoped they weren't too disappointed in what they were expecting.
There was no use in Randy and his men getting caught up in this meat grinder. Randy was good people. He liked Randy a lot and didn't want him to get hurt needlessly. If he let Randy do his thing there was a chance it would get messy. Even Randy couldn't stop what was coming. These men he would stop. There would be others behind them and then more and more until it seemed like the whole world was wanting into Karen's lab. Sorry Randy.
Randy and his men were waiting in the room they set up when they first moved into Comm Tech. He was watching the monitors as the agents drove up to the gate and demanded entry. Supposedly it worked. The gate guard didn't challenge their authority. They were filing in the front door when Randy turned from the monitors and checked his men. All tough veterans and all good men. If necessary, they were willing to follow him to hell and back. Most of them already had at one time or another. They were willing to do it again. Randy took care of his own and they knew it.
They were watching Randy and waiting for the word. When Karen had been kidnapped it set all of them on edge wondering if they were getting too old for this business. One way or another they would find out this morning. They were ready to go kick some butt. That wasn't a bunch of sissies walking into the building. Nor was it Karl and the others who justly deserved this wrath which was now directed at these men entering Comm Tech. Anyone thinking they could waltz into Karen's lab and back out again without paying a price, were about to receive the final lesson of their lives. No matter who you were or where you were from, it was a fatal mistake.
Randy nodded his head and everyone chambered a round of live ammunition into the breech. Death was ready to come storming out of that room. His monitor lit up.
The security camera in shipping bay three showed five men with automatic weapons and, what appeared to be Karen over in the far corner behind a stack of shipping pallets.
It was the first time they had seen Randy indecisive. He didn't believe it but he couldn't afford to have something wrong. As far as he knew, Karen hadn’t made it in the gate. Oh hell the government men would still be there if this was Henry's idea of a joke. He keyed his walkie-talkie. "Everyone to shipping bay three. NOW!"
From the security office, Ed watched as the strange men poured into Comm Tech. This didn't look good. He picked up his walkie-talkie. "Security one to security two."
There was no answer. Where in the hell were those guys when you needed them? "Security one to security two."
He reached down and lifted his gun from its holster. As he checked to make sure it was loaded the other guard watched to see what Ed was going to do. "What you have in mind?"
Ed knew there were too many for the two of them but Miss Long was the only thing there valuable enough to pull in this many strangers. He would go along to check their destination and what they had planned. He glanced at his partner.
"Billy, I have a wife and two kids. I have a little house out in the heights and a second mortgage. I drive a secondhand car and get paid for sitting here watching the monitors. They don't pay us enough for things like this. But, I can't let them waltz into Miss Long's lab and back out again like we were never here. I’m going down there to see what I can do without getting myself killed. I may not be able to do anything. If Randy shows up I can at least tell him I was there and not sitting on my ass here in the office."
Billy jumped up and checked his weapon, dropping the clip out to make sure it was full and jamming it back home again. The night Karen was kidnapped the abuse Randy gave those guards on duty was as close to Randy's wrath as Billy wanted to come. Jack and Arnold both quit after that. Billy didn't have to ask why. Ed's plan sounded good to him. "This could get us killed you know. Those guys aren't carrying water pistols."
Ed nodded. He didn't want to think about this too long. There were butterflies as big as elephants running around in the pit of his stomach. He was shaking all over as he slipped his gun back in its' holster. They walked out of the office together.
Agents Loran and Jeff entered Comm Tech only seconds after Randy and his men were flying down to shipping bay three. Loran and Jeff weren't going to be deterred from getting their hands on those two labs. They wanted all the technical knowledge of how to make androids. Someone in this building was making artificial life and they wanted it.
Stopping in front of Karen's lab first the demolition team from the military placed plastic explosives around the door. Try to keep the government out would they? These stupid civilians had a lot to learn about who was running this country.
Ed and Billy were waiting at the other end of the hall when the explosives blew. Echoing down the hall it was deafening to everyone in that end of the building.
The door folded and crumpled inward. Smoke and the arid smell of explosives filled the air. Henry was delighted. This was much better than he expected. Didn't these guys ever hear of a cutting torch? Guess not. Always over kill with the government. They never could get anything right. What a bunch of bird brains.
Red beacons flashed on in the hallways as klaxons began their relentless bleating. Their plaintive cry of 'ah oooga' could be heard repeating itself over and over throughout the building. Blue strobe lights flashed their intensely blinding light in the lab and down the halls. The lights gave an eerie ghostly shadow to everyone shrouded in the smoke from the explosion. Sirens started screaming their deafening wail.
Henry approved. He had outdone the government men. Talk about a class act. Man, this ought to start their little hearts a beating in their throats.
Karen and David were entering the building when all the lights, klaxons, and sirens took up their respective places in the order of confusion.
"What is that?" She put her hands over her ears to muffle the deafening sounds.
David tired to get a fix on anything he could understand. "I don't know. It sure isn't a fire drill. I never noticed all these red lights before. Someone should turn off those blue lights. They’re blinding me. Where did they come from?"
Karen didn't hear a thing he was saying. All the racket drowned him out. She nodded her head in agreement though she had no idea what she was agreeing to.
The way she looked at him he knew she hadn't heard. He shouted at her. "LET'S GET TO THE LAB IN CASE SOMEONE LIKE KARL IS TRYING TO MAKE ANOTHER TRY AT YOU OR YOUR PROGRAMS."
"GOOD IDEA." She was shouting to make herself heard. Holding her ears she started off down the hall with David right behind. He wouldn't let her out of his sight. They would have to go through him to get to her.
Henry finished the model in the chamber. Now it was pulling itself up and climbing out.
Jeff was looking past the blown door and through the glass into the working lab. His eyes told him everything he believed about this place was true. "SHIT! They’re crawling out of the incubators."
One of the military men rolled through the door and brought his rifle up trying to cover everything at once. Swinging it side to side he was looking for something to shoot.
Henry watched him closely. Kids, only kids, none of those army men were over twenty. Lots of training and no experience. They were green as a gourd. Zap you're dead. Got that little sucker right between the eyes before he made it though the door. I love this game. Time for act two. Henry thought the soldier should lie down and play dead. They didn't follow the rules. That's the government for you, makes up rules and regulations but never follows them.
Little minds like this sort of thing. Henry knew he had a lot of little minds to entertain. Their adrenaline was at an all time high. Their sensory intake was reaching overload. They were almost ready. A little more and they would go over the edge.
A couple more military geniuses rolled through the door along with Loran sliding in along the wall. He was too dignified to roll. He would leave that to the military. It was what they got paid for.
Henry figured they were ready. He screamed through the loud speakers momentarily deafening everyone. "DEFENSIVE REPULSION SYSTEM ON LINE. REPEL ALL INTRUDERS NOW."
The locker where the frame was hidden opened up. It walked out with an uzi in each hand.
"SSSHHHIIT" One of the soldiers screamed as he began firing with his M-16 at the frame.
The whole lab erupted in automatic gunfire as everyone started shooting. The burst of gunfire from the first soldier caused a chain reaction. Every one's trigger finger had to close with the adrenaline rush flowing through their bodies. Even those out in the hall were firing into the lab, although they had no idea what they were shooting at.
As they saturated Karen's lab with gunfire, Henry had no idea why someone didn't get killed in the deluge of bullets flying everywhere. These guys didn't care who or where they shot. The only thing that mattered to them was shoot the gun they were holding. The agents weren't doing any better than the military kids. Randy's men would have had these guys for lunch and never broke out in a sweat doing it. Henry was doubly glad he diverted Randy to shipping. Some of these boys might live to see the error of their ways provided they didn't kill one another first.
Knocked off balance by gunfire from those who accidentally managed to hit it, the frame sprayed the ceiling and walls with bullets.
Henry took a direct sweep of bullets across the desk from someone out in the hall and Karen's keypad caught fire. Oooooh, they got me. I’m going fast pardners. I'm uh heading for the last roundup.
Lights on the console, the monitor, and the printer blew up, adding to the mass hysteria of the soldiers and the agents. Small fires began to break out spontaneously everywhere in the lab. Henry was having so much fun he wanted to do a repeat performance.
Hearing gunfire from the direction of her lab Karen knew someone was after Henry. "They're trying to steal Henry!"
David held onto her knowing there was nothing she could do. She would end up getting killed herself if she got to close to where everyone was shooting. Randy could handle the problems on that end.
"No, Karen, you can't help him. Let's get out of here before they come after you."
She never hesitated as she pushed him backwards. "I have to save him. I can't let them take Henry."
David had his balance set to pull her the other way. When she pushed him he slipped and fell. She was around the corner before he could get back to his feet.
Even though the frame was down on its back, it was still hosing down the walls and ceiling with bullets. Henry completed the model on the turn table and brought the lasers to bear on Karen's office. Both holograms came online with guns blazing in their hands. Through the smoke and fire it scared the absolute living hell out of everyone to see miniature life figures standing on Karen's desk armed with automatics. The adrenaline and the mind went into orbit lift off.
Karen ran into a mob in the hall who were busy shooting anything and everything in her office. One of them reached out and pulled her in as she tried to run past them.
"You can't go in there. They're coming out of the woodwork."
She struggled in vain to wrestle free. "YOU'RE KILLING HIM!"
Crying and pleading for them to turn her lose she was desperately trying to reach Henry. Hysterical with sheer frustration she screamed. "STOP DAMN YOU! YOU'RE KILLING HIM. GOD, PLEASE STOP KILLING HIM.
Karen's frustrations reached the boiling point. She twisted around and raked the man holding her. Those long sharp fingernails opened him up like razors from the top of his head to his chest.
He screamed and fell back in pain as blood poured into his eyes and blinded him. "Eeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaah."
Another tried to grab her wrists. Karen greeted him in a way he didn't expect. Her wrath called for a blood offering for what these men were doing to Henry. She reached for the face of the man who tried to grab her. Karen wanted to hurt or kill everyone who was taking part in this murder. Slashing out with a vengeance, she opened him up from the back of his neck to the tip of his nose.
As he brought his hand up to staunch the flow of blood, he stumbled backwards trying to escape. "DAMN YOU LADY!"
A soldier grabbed her from behind to stop this terrible wrath she was delivering to all within reach. He paid a price. She opened up his arms from his fingers to his elbows. He held on as two more chanced to reach for those hands which were dealing pain to all within striking distance. With her arms pinned to her sides she couldn't reach far but it still intimidated most who were trying to gain a hold on her. Again, she raked the arms of the man who was holding her.
He howled in distress as he relinquished his hold. "SOMEONE GET HOLD OF THAT BITCH!"
It scared the hell out of the man on her left as Karen bared her teeth and growled at him. He tried to back pedal but there were too many bodies behind him. Karen wanted his eyes but only nailed his face as he turned to run. He threw his arms up to protect himself. It worked as she ripped open his jacket but didn't connect with flesh this time.
Slashing at the man on her left gave the man on her right a chance to finally bring an end to her reign of terror. He managed to grab and hold onto both her wrists long enough for several others to find a hold. Crying in pain, he also paid a price as he looked down at his shoulder. Blood was seeping through his shirt. "Damn-nation, the bitch bit me. Hold her damn head and watch those teeth."
It took six men to bring this whirling dervish under physical restraint. She never gave up struggling. Those feet of hers brought additional pain to the ones holding her until someone swept her legs out from under her. She went down. They had her spread eagled on the floor as she managed to yank her right arm from the guy who was suppose to have hold of it. It almost proved lethal to the man on her left as she swiped across and down the front of his face.
He managed to hold on to her left arm but it was impossible for him to see anything as blood poured from the cuts. "DAMN, HOLD HER DOWN BEFORE SHE KILLS US ALL!"
One of the soldiers had enough of this she-devil clawing everyone. There was an easy way to stop all this nonsense. He brought his rifle up to club her in the head. He came down with both his fists holding only what was between his fingers. As he looked up, first at the smoking pieces which used to be a rifle, and then over at the lasers he lost parts of his shirt along with some of his other clothing. It was too much to ask anyone to tolerate. In the mass confusion the others never noticed as he ran screaming from the building.
The man holding her head took a licking as Karen brought her hand down over her head. She didn't get a good strike on him but he was bleeding.
Reaching for her right arm cost the guy who let it escape. She drove her nails into the top of his hand. It didn't stop him. With her and him both flailing the air at one another, he finally managed to get a hold again. From his elbows to his fingertips, he looked like he had been in a fight with a barbed wire fence.
Above the racket everyone heard her scream. "HENRY!"
For a brief second Henry plotted the co-ordinates of everyone into his targeting grid. Henry felt the raging hate flowing from Karen as he selected his prey. Human targets were locked into the laser tracking system. It was closer than anyone there knew. They came very, very, VERY, close to paying with their lives for touching his Karen. Quicker than anyone could say one thousand one, everyone except Karen and David would be dead. The decision was made in less than a nanosecond. The lasers found new targets. It was too quick for anyone to see.
Sorry Karen. He wished he could have told her. It had to be this way. Maybe someday she would understand and forgive him when she figured it out. Sometimes friends must be willing to sacrifice everything for a friend. Karen told him she would give her life for him. Would she deny him any less in return?
Well, it was time for the final act. Henry brought the lasers to bear and cut in half the steel door the military had blown open earlier. It folded up as the two inch steel door lost all its' support. Cutting apart the guns the soldiers were holding and slicing the heels and soles off Loran's shoes, Henry felt he had got into the swing of things. The lasers appeared out of control as they fired randomly at anything and everything. They were slicing apart whatever they touched.
Again, the speakers in the office screamed. They deafened everyone there for the second time. "TRANSFER ALL FUNCTIONS TO SECOND ANDROID. INITIATE ESCAPE SEQUENCE.”
The first android was helping the second one off the turn table. Everyone looked into the lab and saw two androids about ready to make a break for freedom.
"COMPLETED ALL TRANSFER OF DATA. I WILL INITIATE ESCAPE SEQUENCE." The second android shouted as he stepped off the table.
The hallway became a crescendo of renewed racket as everyone who still had a weapon which would fire took up a new target. They wanted to make sure these androids didn't escape. Glass was flying everywhere as the panes between Karen's office and work lab disintegrated in a hail of gunfire. Henry's lasers only poked holes in it. The bullets which now filled the air like angry hornets, made tiny pieces of it and the models Henry tried to help escape.
Karen's crying and pleading only added to the confusion in every one's minds. Begging them to stop killing Henry was like spitting into the wind. What she didn't know was, they passed the point of reasoning when they detonated the explosives.
David was tackled as he rounded the corner and couldn't reach Karen. David hauled back and gave the man who tackled him a wicked right to the jaw. The man was driven back against the wall. That guy was finished for the time being. Still down on his knees David dodged another man who jumped at him from half a dozen feet away. As the guy flew past David hit him behind the ear. The guy folded up like a wet dishcloth and slid down the hall unconscious. Another charged. David still down on his knees, hit him in the groin. As the soldier doubled over David rabbit punched him in the throat. The poor guy folded up while wheezing for air. Then it was more than David could handle as four of them jumped him at the same time. To his credit David picked one target out of the four and smacked him right between the eyes. David was pummeled from all sides and went down himself. The man he hit was so addled it was all over as far as helping anyone capture David. Now, flat on his back, David brought his left foot back and kicked the face of the man by his left leg. The agent went down and out. He would require plastic surgery to put his face back where it belonged. Fighting and scuffling with the agents who finally tackled him, and a half dozen soldiers who joined in, only made him more sure him and Karen were about to die. He wished he could have lived up to the promise he made to Henry. He sure hadn't done a very good job taking care of Karen.
Henry cut holes in the walls and sliced a big piece out of himself. The desk was in flames and the floor around the data storage cartridges caught on fire.
Jeff could see the data storage cartridges through the holes Henry cut out of the wall. He screamed at the men already in the lab. "SAVE THOSE INFORMATION BANKS."
Most of them were trying desperately to escape from the lab with their lives. Those deadly lasers were out of control and cutting everything apart. There was no defense except run.
If Henry had known it would be this much fun he would have invited these agents in long ago. No, on second thought, they don't know how to act at a party. They act like a bunch of animals. That was an unnecessary insult to the animals. Henry apologized to the animals. These guys were a bunch of dweebs.
Loran scrambled out the door shouting over his shoulder. "GO GET THOSE DATA BANKS, SOLDIER."
Looking at Loran the soldier hesitated. He wanted to tell this stupid agent to get the damn banks himself. He held his tongue and didn't say anything. Starting back across the floor he tried for some of the cartridges.
The lasers cut the bottom off the storage cabinet. The data cartridges spilled across floor into the flames now spreading throughout the office.
The soldier didn't give up. Reaching into the fire he attempted to retrieve a cartridge.
Henry vaporized the cartridge the soldier had his fingers on. The floor tile in front of the soldier vanished as Henry swung the lasers across the room.
The poor guy had more than enough. He stood up, leaped for the hallway through the open door, and bolted for an exit. "FUCK THIS! This is suicide. You want those damn cartridges? Get ‘em your own damn self."
Maybe the rest of the men still in the hall didn't hear the whole message but it was clear enough to most. A few more gave up this insanity and ran for cover. That cover being what they considered far enough away from Comm Tech they wouldn't be roasted by those lasers which were cooking everything in sight.
Look at the power in these babies. Karen should have given me some four foot thick steel for practice. Henry no longer had a need to keep power in a safety range. He turned the voltage all the way up and brought the batteries on line he kept for backup. Everyone in the whole building could feel their hair stand on end as electricity filled the air along with the humm of high voltage bleed. Henry was going to have some real fun.
Cutting a swath across the ceiling brought some exciting results as ceiling tile and steel girders came crashing into the room. The walls between David’s and Karen's lab dissolved into nothing as Henry rotated the lasers downward. Solid brick walls vaporized into smoke and steel headers disappeared as he swept past them. David's lab exploded into flames the fire spread so quickly. Saint Elmo's fire danced through the labs and down the halls as electricity began bleeding to everything consisting of a ground. Virtually every computer in Comm Tech crashed and went up in smoke. The lights in the building brightened or burned out depending on how they withstood the overload.
The Saint Elmo's fireball rolling down the hall took care of a few more men who had come in with Jeff and Loran. Bullets and men they could face. Fighting with balls of lightning was asking too much. Those that could picked up their comrades who had fallen to Karen's wrath and David's punishment and disappeared from the building.
The power lines feeding Commercial Technologies started whipsawing back and forth. The power poles began swaying in an erie snake like rythm as if they were dancing to some unheard music. Repeatedly, slapping wires and poles apart and then pulling them together, Ohms law had taken effect on the wires due to the heavy current drain. The new power transformers recently installed to take care of the overload in shipping began smoking as heat buildup started cooking them. Circuit breakers throughout the city began tripping as electrical surge began its destructive havoc on anything electric. All the way to the power plant smoke started pouring out of the generators. First they began whining in protest. Finally they started screaming about grave consequences as insulation burned off the windings. They were asked to do the impossible and control this wild power play. Electrical relay stations across the city began dying. The hospital dropped off line as their emergency generators kicked in. Wiring throughout the Comm Tech complex was melting in the electrical conduits as electricity ran rampant crossing over to anything capable of conducting current. Telephones sizzled and died as the telephone switching relays fused shut. Comm Tech was dying along with Henry.
As the few men who were left behind watched from the mindless safety of the hallway everything around them was fast disappearing. It looked as if someone with a giant pencil eraser was erasing everything. Nothing was safe. Their whole world was vanishing before their very eyes. Those lasers which had delicately built so many things of beauty were now instruments of destruction. The likes of which these men had never seen before.
How anyone could think they were safe behind a wall which was there one second and mostly gone the next was never understood. But two men stayed rather than getting up and running. Some with a little more brains than the others could see the futility of fighting with this thing. It recognized no boundaries and no barriers. If it touched you, you were dead, no debate, no questions. It was something more lethal than they had ever faced in their whole lives. They ran in sheer terror from this thing.
Henry chased them down the halls vaporizing walls and doors behind them. This was neat. Time to wrap this up and head home.
More than anything in the whole world, Henry wanted to tell Karen he would miss her. He thought of the talks they use to have and the things he wanted to tell her. Now he would never get the chance. Strange how computers and humans are so much alike.
Don't cry Karen. You're breaking my heart. Finally he understood what Karen had been trying to tell him. Hearts can break in two.
Better do this quickly before he lost his nerve. Henry brought the lasers down cutting the legs off the stacking receivers. They crashed to the floor cutting the lines feeding gel to the spray nozzles. Highly flammable gel spilled out across the lab and past what used to be the wall separating the office from the lab.
Loran watched in witless fascination. Gel was spewing from lines whipping back and forth like a rattlesnake's tail. Finally, the reality of it dawned on him. He was looking at impending doom. He jumped to his feet and screamed. "EVERYONE OUT."
Jeff scrambled to his feet and looked around fully expecting to see all the men they brought in with them. First it scared him as he realized everyone was gone except the two agents still holding Karen and David. It made him mad to think there were only four of them with enough bravery to see this through. What he had no way of knowing it was a bravado the other two agents didn't feel. They would have fled too if they could have figured out how to drag their quarry with them.
Jeff and Loran split up to help drag these prisoners out of this hell hole. This place was going up in flames. It would take everyone still here with it. Dragging Karen and David as they scrambled for their lives, they prayed they weren't too late. It was with a loud whump and a shock wave which knocked all of them to the floor they realized how close they had come.
Around the corner at the end of the hall Billy and Ed were biding their time to see how this would come out. Although they felt the heat and concussion from the blast it didn't reach them with any force. Ed leaned around the corner to take a look at the outcome of the explosion. He liked what he saw. Before there were over thirty men. Now there were only four. Odds were looking better.
Henry gazed at Karen through the camera at the end of the hall. How many times had he watched her through that camera? He couldn't remember. Must have a defective chip. He had perfect memory. ‘Krystal, come here.’ No, Krystal was dead, she couldn't help. ‘Now what was I thinking? I was wrong, some humans are very predictable.’ His memory was rapidly burning out as the fire spread. He shut the lasers off permanently. He didn't want someone to get hurt if they happened to malfunction due to the heat. How many models had he and Karen made with those lasers? He loved working with Karen. It would be nice if they could make one more model. Just the two of them alone again. He dropped all the electrical contactors off-line. Between the stackers, receivers, table, pumps and the other machinery, there were too many moving parts in the lab if someone was too quick to return. Some of the machinery Karen worked so close to for the past fifteen years was lethal if it got hold of you. Henry made sure none of it ever hurt his Karen.
He took one last look around and shut off the last working camera in the lab. Not a whole lot left to look at. The others were already gone. Those cameras would never look at his beloved Karen again. He wished he could take one more look at Karen talking to him like she use to do before the accident. He began running the memory of Karen talking to him. It was like it always was, small bickering and bantering back and forth, playing mind games with her. That was the times he loved the most. He lost the connection to the outside cameras as the fire burned into the wires. Blackness descended upon the hall camera he was watching Karen through. Must have lost the feed wires to it. Ah well, he didn't need cameras to remember what Karen looked like. He had perfect memory. He transferred the memory of her farther in away from the fire. It would be the last thing he lost. He loved her before and after the change. She was still the same kind, gentle Karen. Please don't ever change. If only he could talk to her one more time. The memory of Karen blurred into past, present, nondescript distinctions.
Good-by Karen.
It was over.................................................
Randy and his men stormed shipping bay three searching for the security breach. As soon as they were inside the doors slammed shut and no one could get them open. They tried the big gantries used to move heavy loads. If they could get them to run they would yank the doors out of their frames. The cranes were useless. Nothing worked. It was a complete shutdown. Randy tried to shoot the lock off the doors. Besides blowing the door handles off it didn't work. Comm Tech was designed with security in mind and security was what they got.
Randy was disgusted to no end. There was no doubt who designed this trap. As soon as he got out of here he would have a talk with him face to face. No more mister nice guy. It was time to have it out with this machine and let him know who was the big cheese in charge of security. Randy didn't care if Henry did it to keep them out of a fire fight with those men coming in the building. Randy figured he and his men were more than capable of taking care of themselves.
What Randy didn't know at the time was how bad it had been down at Karen's lab. If they had been there Randy and his men would have turned everyone into dog meat before it was over. Those men killed the one person or thing which saved their lives.
After they escaped down the hall from the explosion, Jeff never let Karen get off the floor. While the other agent looked on in growing disbelief Jeff put his knees in Karen's back and pinned her down to the floor.
Karen struggled to free herself. She was already tired from fighting with the agents who held her down as they destroyed her lab. She was close to the point of total exhaustion as she freed her right arm and braced against the floor to throw this animal off her back.
It was not to be. Grabbing her left wrist as she struggled in vain to free herself, Jeff twisted her arm behind her as he snapped the handcuffs on her right hand. He brutally yanked her arm back to cuff her wrists together. Unable to protect herself, Karen's face connected with the floor as she lost her support.
As Billy, Ed, and the two agents watched in growing shock and were either unwilling or unable to challenge them, Loran did the same thing to David. Jeff and Loran were brutal in handling their prisoners.
Karen's emotions were reeling as Jeff slapped on the handcuffs and jerked her to her feet. She had a taste of being mistreated by someone in a van. It was flooding her senses to be treated this way again. Total shock from losing Henry already shut down her logical mind. She was back to basic survival instinct and teetering on the very edge of sanity. Jeff was messing with something he couldn't begin to understand. David labeled her as dangerous when cornered. Jeff was getting close to receiving a personal lesson. Closer than anyone imagined.
Loran glanced over at Jeff and nodded in satisfaction as he pulled David to his feet. They had their quarry.
Jeff stood back and admired his catch. Her head was lowered and her once beautiful hair, matted and caked with fresh blood, hung in tangles covering her face. It was glued to her cheek by her own blood where her face had connected with the floor when Jeff yanked her arms behind her back. Blood was splattered over her torn dress as a testament of the toll she extracted from those who ran afoul of her wrath. Most of it was from her victims, some was from her. From her matted hair and blood stained dress, down to her bruised legs, she was still breathtaking.
Karen's breasts rose and fell with the labor of heavy breathing. Her eyes were closed. Numb from shock and abuse, she had given her all in a desperate though failed attempt to save Henry. Now weary with fatigue and disinterest, her mind was switched off in an effort to distance itself from this nightmare of horrors. The injustice of the world finally came to the breaking point of her spirit. Karen no longer cared. Karen no longer wanted to live. She had lost her whole life. She had lost Henry.
He had to know. Jeff reached out squeezing Karen's breast in as big a hand hold he could stretch his hand over. Forcibly he gripped ever tighter as her breast slipped out of his grasp sliding between the smooth silken dress and satin slip. He had to know if they felt real.
Karen's eyes flashed opened and closed to half slits as she gritted her teeth in pain. Jeff was hurting her. Like before, again her arms were pinned behind her. Reflex took over. Karen was incapable of thinking. She did the only thing she could. Karen ducked her head and butted Jeff squarely in the face.
"Damn you." Jeff stumbled backwards as he used both hands and pushed with his fingers at both sides of his nose. As blood went everywhere he looked cross-eyed down his nose to check for damage.
"Y..O..U...., BASTARD!" As Jeff backed away, she brought her right foot up with all the remaining strength she could muster. Her hate towards Karl, the murder of Henry, and the hate she felt toward this man was loaded into a superhuman kick. It lifted Jeff off the floor as she hit him squarely in the crotch with the sharp toe of her high heels.
His bloody broken nose forgotten, Jeff grabbed his crotch as shock registered on his face. Slowly the shock turned to sickness and pain. His mouth opened in a tiny moan of anguish but no sound escaped as his eyes turned to pits of despair. He stood there on the balls of his feet for a second as the pain spread through his body. It was unbelievable pain spreading sickness like he had never felt. He moaned as he dropped to his knees. Jeff toppled over backwards. He curled into a fetus position as the pain and sickness ate him up.
"ooooooooooo" Jeff was in his own world of hurts.
Loran turned to see his partner sag to the floor. He had enough of this android eating up his men. He was going to put a stop to this nonsense. He grabbed the front of Karen's dress and spun her around to face him. Loran wanted to make sure he had a steady target as he pulled his right arm back to belt this android in the face.
Karen closed her eyes and instinctively tilted her head away. She was an old student of this kind of treatment.
David watched as Loran drew his arm back. A terrible, strange, intense, wrath of hatred came over David. He wanted to kill. As he lowered his head and dove at Loran he roared. "NOOOO!"
Pushing off with his foot where floor meets wall, David put everything he had and then some into his drive. He hit Loran in the lower back and side just as Loran turned to meet this new threat coming at him. With arms and legs flying out at disconnected angles, Loran was driven into the wall. David and Loran went down in a heap. A shot rang out and a slug hit the wall exactly where Loran's head would have been if David hadn't accidentally saved him.
Loran pushed David off as he reached for his gun. He was staring up into the dark menacing end of a 357 magnum. Ed was shaking all over. "Please. Pull it. I want you to pull it. All I need is one itsy bitsy excuse. PULL IT DAMN YOU!
Loran looked around for the two agents they had brought in with them. "SHOOT HIM!”
Billy snapped the safety off his Glock waiting to see how they were going to react. He had been a little slow when Loran pulled back his fist to hit Karen. He was ready now. Billy was damn mad and scared to death at the same time. It was a lethal combination. Anyone and everyone could die in a situation like this. The agents weren't stupid. They knew if anyone moved someone would more then likely end up dead. It probably wouldn't be the kid with the nineteen shot pistol. He already had his targets picked out. They were it. It certainly didn't look like it would be the old geezer with the 357 magnum. He was waiting for anyone to flinch and it would be the end of Loran. Comm Tech security was finally measuring up to the job. In fact, they were more than ready. They wanted to kill someone, anyone. Hearts were pounding in anger, frustration, and fear in almost everyone's chest right now.
The agent didn't tell Loran it wouldn't do any good for them to pull their weapons. He and his partner had emptied theirs at the fiasco down the hall. They never had a chance to reload while holding on to Karen and David. He bet if Loran thought about it he was probably holding an empty weapon too. Pulling an empty gun while someone is pointing a loaded weapon at you didn't seem too bright. Looking back in reflection, everything he had been involved in this morning seemed pretty stupid. It was time to stop following Loran's orders and acting stupid.
"Loran, you asshole, you're damn lucky I don't shoot you. Who the hell do you think you are? We don't treat people like this. You people in Washington have some screwy ideas about arresting people."
Loran started to tell them about the androids but thought better of it. The fewer people who knew the better. Even in their own agency.
"Have it your way." Very slowly Loran got to his feet as Ed grudgingly gave ground.
He looked at poor Jeff. "We need to make arrangements to get them back to Washington. Do you think you can walk?"
"oooooooo" Jeff curled up tighter. Thinking about walking hurt.
Even after they showed their badges and warrant, it was reluctantly Ed gave in to letting Loran have Karen and David. He wanted to shoot a federal agent so bad he could taste it. Every time he looked at Karen he thought about doing it just for the satisfaction. Where was Randy when you needed him?
Loran had David and Karen loaded in the back seat of the car. Jeff was lying in the front seat. As Loran turned to walk around to the driver's side, Ed grabbed his coat lapel and yanked him around to look at him face to face. "If anything happens to her I'll kill you. If she comes up with any bruises? I'll kill you. If she comes up missing a hair on her head? I'll kill you. If she tells me, all you did was touch her? Sonny, your life will belong to me. I promise you, I will collect. I don't give a shit who you think you are or who you work for. You're mine."
Loran jerked his coat out of Ed's grip. "You can't threaten a federal agent. I ought to arrest you for threatening me."
Ed's hand dropped down on his gun. The butterflies in his stomach were long gone. They had been replaced by a burning hatred. He was hoping against hope he could prod Loran into a fight. He wanted this agent more than he had ever wanted anything in his whole life. Ed needed only the very tiniest of excuses to kill him right now. "I bet I can get mine out quicker than you can. You want to bet your life on it? Arrest me you horse's butt."
Loran thought about it as he looked at the others around them. He had never taken this kind of abuse off anyone. The other two agents were standing over to the side with their arms folded across their chest. They weren't going to help. Jeff was dying on the front seat. He wasn't able to help. Loran didn't like the odds. He turned to walk around the car. "You aren't worth the effort."
As they watched Loran drive off with his booty, one of the agents glanced back at Ed and Billy. "Don't worry, he won't hurt her. We'll make certain of it."
It didn't satisfy Ed. He was mad at them and himself. "He already has and you weren't any help. I can't blame you though. I should have shot him and saved all of us a lot of pain. I swear to God if he hurts her anymore I'll kill him."
Comm Tech was dead along with most of the city. Using a flashlight Randy walked through the ashes of Karen's lab kicking at still smoldering embers. The automatic sprinkler system had been turned back on and the fire put out. It had been too late to save anything. There was nothing left which would have any value or prove how she did it. Damn those two agents. They cost the whole world a wealth of information in the next step of man's relationship between himself and machine.
"You shouldn't have done it Henry. I promise you will never be forgotten. Maybe with a little luck, the human race will learn to live with things we don't understand. Maybe with a little help from God and machines like you we will survive our self-destruction tendencies. Maybe, just maybe but don't count on it."
He walked out kicking ashes to the side. Ed and Billy told him how they treated Karen and David. There was work to be done and people to call. This wasn't over. If he turned her lose she might repeat her efforts and rebuild again. Karen and David were offering hope for the future if someone like Karl or Loran didn't step on their dreams. Why couldn't those people leave the other kid's toys alone? If they think somebody has something they don't have, they want to take it away.
Loran and Jeff were no different from Karl and the others. Loran had a badge and worked for the government. Karl didn't but they both wanted to take whatever they liked. One the law agreed with. The other the law said was a crook. Something was wrong with the system. Randy figured he was part of what was right with the system. Anyway it was a beginning but it sure needed a lot of fixing.
Karen and David were taken down to the local jail to wait while Loran made arrangements to have them flown to Washington. It shouldn't take more than a couple of hours and they would disappear off the face of the earth. He originally planned to drive back in the car. Jeff was in no condition to help. That stupid android screwed up their plans along with screwing up Jeff. Loran had his android and the doctor who designed her. When they took her apart at the research institute and found out how she was made he was sure to get a recommendation in his file.
After they arrived at the police station a policewoman took Karen down to the prisoner's showers to clean her up. Karen wasn't any help. She didn't care about anything any more. Certainly not what she looked like.
The policewoman put the handcuffs back on Karen before returning her upstairs. It was police procedure. You have to follow the rules. She put handcuffs on a lifeless form that used to have a heart. It stood, it followed directions, but it didn't offer anything back. Karen's head hung down as her eyes stared into a void on the floor. Her mind left her alone in a world where insanity begins when there is nothing left to hold onto. It had gone back to play as a little girl on the banks of the creek again. It was beautiful there. She had her dog who loved to play with her. She never was hurt there. She could lay on the grassy bank and watch the fluffy white clouds race through the branches of the cottonwood trees while Nikky licked her face or tugged on her dress begging her to play. They could hunt grasshoppers or green garden snake. Maybe even chase the minnows down the stream as they tried to dart around her shadow. The crawdaddys weren't near as much fun because they could pinch an owie on your finger if you let one of their pinchers get hold of you. She learned after a couple of times that you pick a crawdaddy up from above and behind the pincers, grabbing hold of the body just above the legs. Oh, they would flip their tails and try to escape, but every now and then she caught one. She was home where everything was all right. It was nice to be a little girl with no worries. Her mind saved her sanity by leaving the real world behind.
Finally the policewoman and Karen returned. Karen didn't look better, only cleaner. She was dressed in a too small, blue gray, prison dress, crushing and pushing her breasts up and out. Stretched to the point of obscenity over her hips, the color of the dress shadowed her ghostly pasty white. Her wet hair clung tightly to her head as it cascaded down her back reaching for the floor. It colored the back and shoulders of her dress slate gray where it touched and soaked it. Karen's bruises and cuts were even more evident now that she didn't have blood all over her as an added distraction. The scrape on her check where Jeff made her take a nose dive into the floor was beginning to turn into a big purple circle around a piece of raw flesh. Everyone paid a price for the debacle at Karen's lab this morning. Everyone it seemed except one of the men who started it. Loran was left unscathed by the deeds he started.
Everything was going according to plan for a while. Then it all came unglued. Karen's lawyer located them in one of the interrogation rooms. Loran was furious. How could this guy be waiting for them before they got there? "I’m telling you counselor. Stay out of this. I will slap you with a federal suit for obstruction of justice."
Rajael stared in wide-eyed shock at Karen and David. Finally, he found his voice. "I don't think you understand Mr. Nicker. I have a habeas corpus for the release of one Karen Ann Long and one David Allen Beckworth. Either you charge them formally or release them. There won’t be any holding them for forty-eight hours while you decide if you have anything on them or not."
Loran didn't plan on formally charging them. Paper work leaves trails. He didn't want anyone knowing where they went. This guy was a pain in the ass. "I’ll charge them with conspiring to overthrow the government."
"Won't fly Mr. Nicker. You have no evidence. You destroyed a commercial building, private property, brutalized my two clients, and you have squat. The warrant you used to get into Commercial Technologies is worthless. You gave unsubstantiated information to the judge to obtain your warrant. You are out on a limb with this one. I’m about to saw it off with you still clinging to it if you don't give me my two clients. Let me explain it to you in language you can understand Mr. Nicker."
Rajael pointed toward Jeff who was curled up in a chair. He didn't look so good. "You and Mr. Owen are in deep shit. You gentlemen from the Secret Service have screwed up royally. Do you get my meaning?"
Damn lawyers were the ruin of the nation. Loran looked at Jeff. He wasn't any help. He was in too much pain to care either way. "I plan on taking these two back to Washington for interrogation. I can't give you any information because it’s top secret."
Rajael wasn't dissuaded. He waved papers under Loran's nose. "Now I know you boys think you ship a lot of water when you move. You believe people are supposed to dance to your tune. You probably think because you’re dealing with a backwater country boy you don't have to worry about the legalities of the law. Let me assure you my habeas corpus came straight from a federal judge. I knew you could care less about our local judge. This judge likes to eat people who don't follow the law. It makes his day to reel in some Washington bureaucrat."
"You move my clients out of this jail without an extradition order and I will have you locked up yourself." He took a long hard look at Karen and felt hate toward the men who had done this. There was nothing Rajael wanted more than to have Loran and Jeff pay for this travesty. Justice would have to wait. Getting Karen and David out of these men's grasp was his first priority.
"You know Karen and David aren't going to waive their extradition rights. You know you won't get that order. You may either stay here until I get you in the cooker. Or..., you may leave empty handed like a dog with his tail between his legs."
Loran took the papers from Rajael. They were legal. Miserable lawyers were the downfall of the nation. They didn't have the slightest idea what national security was all about. It would be best to let this drop and come back and pick up these two under more auspicious terms. Next time, he and Jeff would pick the android and the doctor up at their homes without a warrant. It was what they should have done this time. No witnesses, no paper work, no problems. In the interest of national security some things were permissible.
He took the handcuffs off David and studied Karen as he removed her handcuffs. When he came back she would be the one they picked up first. If anything went wrong they would have the android. Surely the lab boys could duplicate this android if they had her for study. He would handpick his own men next time around. The agents from other branches weren’t dependable. He would put a note in agent Clark's and agent Donald's personnel folders. They were unreliable as agents.
"I suggest you two don't try and leave the country. We’ll see who the big eagle is around here. This isn't over yet. After we get through sifting though your labs we’ll have enough evidence to make both of you wish you had never plotted against the government."
Rajael motioned for Karen and David to follow him. Government men who were out of control were hard to reason with. It would be better to get both of them out of this man's sight as quickly as possible.
David waited on Karen but she stood there, never moving. It worried him. He had seen her close to this kind of mental state before. She had retreated in on herself. When she did she left him and everyone else behind. Henry was no longer available to make it right and pull her out of this. Loran and Jeff made sure of that. Could he bring her back without Henry's help? For the first time David realized how much Henry and Karen had meant to each other.
He put his arm around her shoulders and gently coaxed her toward the door. "Karen, we need to go. Karen? Honey?"
Like a zombie, Karen allowed David to guide her from the room before her mind started to focus on the real world again.. She had no idea where she was. She was fortunate. Her mind had taken a break and saved her from a serious mental breakdown. Some never come home after being abused like Karen was. If anyone besides David had suspected what was going on in her mind they would have called her psychotic or schizoid. They would have suggested years of psychological evaluation and care to stop her mind from disconnecting from the real world. In the far east they would have said she accomplished what a lot of people study a lifetime to do and never achieve. When it is impossible to alter the events, the body and mind can take a lot more abuse if they don't have to tolerate each other screaming in pain by refocusing and reinforcing pain on one another. They would suggest a teacher be used to help guide her in this higher experience. It was extremely dangerous for the mind to do what hers did without putting out markers to find the way back. Was she crazy or gifted? She would be put to the test in the months ahead.
David walked her out of the interrogation room. With David’s gentle touch and tender voice Karen begin remembering. Slowly it was coming back to her.., the fire, the explosion, her life’s work. She didn't want to believe they destroyed over fifteen years of research and hard work. Fifteen years of her life was in ashes. They killed Henry with no remorse. A few stupid government men. Didn't she live in a democracy where one was innocent until proven guilty? Henry was murdered. His only crime? He was a machine. It didn't make them any difference if he could think or analyze problems. They killed him because he wouldn't defend himself. He could have killed all of them in less than a second. But he didn't! They were murderers. She would never convince a court to believe her. Her Henry was gone.
Tears began to trickle down her cheeks as she held onto David's arm. He put his arm around her to offer support. He was relieved beyond comprehension when she started crying. It meant she was with them again. She had worried him more than he would ever let her know when she spaced out.
Rajael never knew he wasn’t Karen’s only chance to be free of Loran. Randy was waiting in the lobby. One way or another Randy wasn’t letting Loran and Jeff leave the city with Karen and David. Randy was willing to let Rajael take first shot at the situation. Randy’s eyes narrowed to slits as he took a long hard look at her. Chills of cold hard anger ran down the nape of his neck. Ed and Billy had filled him in. But for the first time in a long time, it shocked him to see what his own government was capable of.
Randy took a second look at David. He was bruised and battered all over. They didn’t take him down to the showers to be cleaned up. He still had blood all over him. Obviously David had given a pretty good accounting of himself. Randy’s estimation of David’s integrity just doubled. He liked this boyfriend of Karen’s. For a medical doctor David sure proved he wasn’t a pansy when it came to getting into the thick of a fight.
Randy stepped out in front of them. He nodded toward David. "I need to talk to her. Would you leave us alone for a couple of minutes?"
As Rajael hesitated David nodded his head. “It’s okay Randy is on our side.”
Immediately David realized what he had said. He begin to wonder where Randy and his men were when Karen had needed them. He looked over at Randy with questions in his eyes.
“I did everything I could to get to her before Loran did. I’ll explain later David.” It was if Randy knew the question before David had thought it.
David looked at Karen and then back toward Randy. It was an acceptable answer for the time being.
David and Rajael walked out to the car as Randy led Karen to a cubicle in the wall. He slipped a hooded coat around her shoulders. "You need to know something. It's important to me. I didn't accidentally get hired to look after you. I’m part of a government agency who investigates things like corruption in the government. It's one of the things we take care of. We’re kind of like the government accounting office only in a different way. Very few people know we exist. It makes our job a lot easier. We do private security to look legit. I think your Henry was the one who contacted our agency and gave us the job at Comm Tech. It’s my hunch he wanted us to know about you before anyone else did. I think I was supposed to keep someone like Jeff or Loran from doing exactly what they did. He tried to give me time to understand him. I was too slow. Henry suffered the consequences."
"Agents Loran and Jeff were lose guns. They took this upon themselves to see what you and David were building. I have no idea what they were after. I don't think it was Henry. It had to be something else but I haven't figured out what. Maybe they were just fishing to see what they could come up with? I don't think so. It couldn't have been David's DNA programs because it was your lab they wanted into. I suspect it was your programs they wanted. Anyway it doesn't matter. They’ll receive orders to check out a security leak and drug problem in Columbia. They won't be coming home."
After looking at Karen, Randy decided he was the one to meet Loran and Jeff in Columbia. He wanted this assignment more than he had wanted anything in a long time. Someone was always beating up Karen when he was supposed to be protecting her. It was time to reverse the trend. He would have this assignment one way or another. He needed this. It was time to extract a little blood for all the wrongs he had let slip by. His boss might not like it but how do they say it in Russia? 'Tough.' Same way we say it here.
"One last thing before I go. The government leaves people who are high profile figures alone. Bob Kincaid has arranged for you to start modeling around the world. After he gets through with you, no one in their right mind would think about antagonizing you. If you ever feel like it you can go back to building computers. Next time you won’t have to worry about the government charging through your lab."
He put his hand on her shoulder. He felt her give under his hand. He moved it down to her waist to help support her. "I'm sorry. I would like to be your security if you ever need any again. I don't make the same mistakes twice. I’m more than sorry I let anyone get to you Karen. Loran and Jeff wouldn't have touched you if Henry hadn't intervened. I haven't figured that one out. I will. I liked Henry. I wish I had a little more time with him. Like you, he was always one step ahead of me. You did good when you designed him."
He walked her out toward the car. Karen didn't say anything. Randy didn't ask her any questions which needed an answer.
He stopped her on the sidewalk out of hearing distance of David. "One last thing. You can't tell anyone about our conversation. I know you can keep a secret. You did it when you made Henry."
Karen got in the car crying. David looked at her. She shook her head. She didn't feel like talking. Rajael backed the car out and pulled into traffic.
Randy felt a chill run down his spine. He remembered where he had seen those eyes of hers. In the jungle of Cambodia, there was a temple with a statue of a goddess. The statue's eyes were liquid pools of sapphire blue. They followed his every movement. He couldn't take his mind off those eyes. When he woke up he wasn't in the temple any more. He searched for days to find the temple again but it wasn't to be found. He finally decided it must have been a dream and eventually forgot about it. Forgot about it until now. Was it real, was it a dream, or was he looking into the future at Karen? He shivered again as he thought of it.
As he watched them drive off, he pulled the walkie-talkie off his belt. "See that no one follows them. I'm headed down to talk to Bob Kincaid. He is in charge of her itinerary. I'll see what her schedule is."
Randy listened for a minute before he keyed the walkie-talkie again. "No, we already know where they're going. Krystal has a car waiting for them at Kingsford shopping center. Jim and Candy will follow them when they leave town. Patty is watching for them at their destination. You don't have to be too close. Just make sure you're close enough in case of trouble. They’re too valuable to lose."
Over one dozen unmarked cars, vans, and delivery trucks took up positions along the route Rajael would travel to get to the Kingsford shopping mall. As he passed them, one by one they would discreetly drop in behind in a long distance tail. Rajael had no idea of the amount of firepower keeping him and his passengers under surveillance. There were enough heavy weapons ahead of and following Karen and David, a small army couldn’t have gotten to them.
Randy pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket. He rolled it around in his palm as he thought about Krystal. She really didn't seem to fit in somehow. Attractive lady but she was a little spooky. She was supposed to be a bodyguard Henry hired to look after Karen. Funny thing about her though, she didn’t have a past. She didn’t show up in any records anywhere. No birth certificate, no social security number, no drivers license, no nothing. Everyone associated with Henry was a puzzle. That lady even frightened him a little. Maybe old age was making him paranoid. He was getting too old to be in this racket any more. Now even women frightened him. Karen made him feel hot all over and Krystal scared him. He was definitely going to have to find another line of work. That job at the amusement park? Could they still be wanting a parking attendant?
Randy meticulously unfolded the paper he had rolled around in his palm. He studied it again for the umpteenth time. A courier gave it to him after maintenance pulled him and his men out of the shipping bay. How did Henry know everything ahead of time? Why did he tell Randy his plans for Karen after it was all over? Was Randy suppose to watch over her or what? There was nothing in the note to indicate one way or another. Henry was certainly a puzzle up to the last.
Randy tore the paper into little tiny pieces and threw some of it in the trash while putting the rest in his pocket. No matter, like it or not, Karen had a baby-sitter. He would make sure no one had a chance to step on her dreams again. The front office would scream over the cost. It didn't make any difference. The government destroyed her life, it could damn well stand a little expense looking out for her. Besides, she paid a huge chunk of money these past few months to him and his men to keep this from happening. She deserved something for her money. She certainly hadn't received her money's worth. YET!. Randy really didn't want to park cars for a living anyway.
Now, who deserved to visit Paris this time of year while he was taking care of that Columbia deal? Roy was already there. Candy, Donna, and Sue could follow her over on the plane. Sandy was versatile in changing her looks. Jimmy spoke fluent French...,
Randy smiled as he thought of Loran and Jeff. Payback was coming. Loran and Jeff made several very big mistakes. Using the military on civilians, attacking Karen, destroying her lab and Henry. Very big costly mistakes. In this business one didn't get the chance to make those kind of mistakes twice. Randy's mind focused inward. Too bad Henry wasn't still around to even the score. Henry had a nasty way of getting even. Really it was more than even. Karl could attest to that.
Rajael kept checking his mirrors to make sure they weren’t followed. David had to know. "How did you get there so quickly? You were waiting on us."
"A Mr. Henry called me yesterday and said you would be arrested this morning."
Still sobbing, Karen wondered if she heard correctly. She and David looked at one another. David shrugged. He didn't know if he understood either. "Henry called you yesterday?"
"That's right. He gave me some additional instructions. Both of you are to stay with Crystal. It will be better if the government can't get their hands on you every time they feel a need to scratch. They know I represent you. If they have a need to talk they can call me. It will be on our terms and at our convenience."
Karen tried to think of who Crystal was. Nobody she knew.
Rajael continued. "Your cars are down at a place called Marvin's Motor Works. Karen's was picked up right after you left the house and yours David, was towed out of the parking tower as soon as you two left it. Henry said they would probably pick you up if you were driving one of your own cars. I tend to agree with him. Your registrations and tags make them stand out like a lighthouse in the dark. Henry said they might try to confiscate your property. He made other arrangements. Again, I tend to agree."
"It’s a lot easier keeping the government from taking your property in the first place than getting them to return it after they have confiscated it. The government has very deep pockets and tons of lawyers to argue their cases. Even if they don't win they will wear you down through litigation. They not only have everyone else’s money they also have your money with which to fight you."
He pulled into a shopping mall. Reaching over into the back seat he picked up a raincoat and handed it to David. He took his sunglasses off the sun visor and handed them to Karen. "You two look like hell. It can't be helped. Put this on and pretend you are private investigators. We haven't been followed. There is a possibility it won't take them long to think of it. Go through the mall. You will find a Sears on the east end. Exit the north doors, Crystal is waiting for you. Everyone who sees you will remember you. It can't be helped.
In spaced out intervals, cars, vans, and delivery trucks pulled into the shopping center parking lots and parked at key locations around the entrances and exits. Three would walk into the mall behind Karen and David. Others already had entered ahead of them. They were better than good at their jobs. They were Randy’s crew. All of them were razor sharp. They were more than ready for any problems which might arise. Losing a client two times in a row was too much for any professional to tolerate. They certainly weren’t about to let it happen for a third time. She might not agree but for the time being, Karen belonged to them.
“Miss Long, pull your hood up and keep the sunglasses on. It has been a privilege. Mr. Beckworth, pull the collar up on your coat and tuck your neck in as if you were in a monster of a rain storm. Take care of her. If we’re lucky they won't question anyone here. I will be in touch. Now be gone." Rajael motioned them out of the car.
Rajael was right. Walking through the mall Karen received a second and third look from people who recognized her in spite of the coat and glasses. Most of them wanted her autograph. She was a real celebrity. It wasn't everyday most people were this close to a real star. Everyone looked at her curiously when they got close enough to see the bruises and scrapes on her face weren't makeup. Karen waved off the ones wanting autographs or asking questions explaining apologetically she didn't have time to stop.
They reached the north doors and Karen had to look twice at the person waiting there. It was the tall, attractive, brunette she had seen in the back of the bar the nights she had gone to find Karl.
The woman motioned them over to a Continental. "Get in. We’re sticking out like neon flashing lights."
Randy’s crew immediately left the shopping mall. They fanned back out to the various vehicles. Everyone changed to a different vehicle than what they arrived in. If anyone had noticed them before, now it would make it harder to associate the people with the vehicle. Most of them were carrying shopping bags. To any observer they were nothing more than casual shoppers. If anyone had suspected the number of automatic weapons in those innocent looking shopping bags it would have scared them to death.
The brunette started the car and eased it out on the expressway. Karen had been studying the brunette. Was she one of Randy's? It didn't seem feasible. Some pieces of this puzzle weren't holding together. Karen's emotions had taken a beating this morning along with her body. She wasn't holding onto her train of thought. Nothing was what it seemed. Randy was security but he wasn't. Henry was dead. This woman...,? What about this woman? She was an enigma.
Why were they so blindly following Rajael and this woman named Crystal? They could both very well be part of a government conspiracy. Because Karen had seen her with Randy didn't make her one of Randy's men. David and her both had been with Randy and they weren't Randy's men.
Karen decided to clear this up. "Lady, we better have a talk. I’ve seen you before. I wasn't impressed with your choice of recreation places."
The brunette never took her eyes off the road. "I hoped you would remember me. It made it easier to get you in the car without shouting your name to everyone in the mall and attracting more attention. There were still a few people who hadn't noticed you and David yet."
"I work for you. I wasn't in the bar enjoying myself although the data input I was getting from the men who were making passes was certainly interesting."
David took a hard look at the brunette and back over at Karen. "She works for you?"
Karen shook her head. "I never saw this woman before the night I met Karl in the bar. I have no idea what she’s talking about. I think we better get out of here. I don't like this."
Crystal never slowed the car. "I was in the bar to make sure nothing happened to you. Although not programmed as such I was acting as your personal bodyguard."
Karen was glad David got into the car first. He was between her and this woman. She wrapped her hands around his arm. "You're talking like a computer. What is this programmed stuff?"
Crystal set the cruise control as she worked into more open traffic. "Henry wanted to make sure you were never in any danger. He discussed the options with Randy. Some of those men and women you saw in the bar were part of Randy's crew. Made good looking slobs didn't they. I was disgusted with them myself."
"Henry didn't leave anything to chance this time. He said you belonged to him. He wasn't about to lose you again. Henry sent me along to be certain no one tried anything stupid. If Randy's men had been too slow to react or overwhelmed by the odds I would have stepped in. I don't have Henry's kindness built into me. I wouldn't hesitate to kill any one, any time, any place, for any reason."
"I’m what every human is scared to death will eventually happen. A machine with no conscience about guilt or remorse. I have an understanding about right and wrong but not a heart."
"My name is Krystal. Henry gave me that name. You called me Frame."
Karen sucked in air and dug her fingers into David's arm bringing blood. David could feel her tension but he saw nothing really wrong. The lady was a little far out in left field. She was certainly a lot more acceptable than the other people they had to put up with lately. Besides, she was a whole lot prettier than Loran or Jeff.
He pried Karen's fingers off his arm. "Honey, would you mind? You're pinching the fire out of my arm. I’m not going anywhere. Not when I have two beautiful, gorgeous women on either side of me."
"Frame? What an odd name. What nationality is that? It has to be the most unusual name I have ever heard. Mrs. Krystal Frame. Now that’s a name you don't hear everyday."
He turned to look at Krystal. "You know, I met a man who's name was Kermit. I thought that was an unusual name. I don't mean Kermit the frog, I mean Kermit the man. How many people do you see everyday with the name of Kermit?"
It was all Karen could do to say it. In shock, her mind went completely off-line. "Frame..., Krystal..., she...., she’s a robot."
David’s head snapped around for a look into Karen’s frightened eyes. His head snapped back around for a quick appraisal of Krystal before he laughed nervously. Karen had him going there for a second. Where did she come up with these things anyway? Karen must be doing this to take her mind off her lab and Henry. David felt sorry for her but these things happen. He liked Henry but he was only a tool, a piece of equipment. "I know some stories, too. They might not be half as good as yours but give me a minute and I may think of something. Frame? Robot? That's good. I like that one. Boy, did you suck me in hook, line, and sinker."
Putting her hand on the dash Karen leaned forward to take a good look at frame. "I saw you get shot down and burned up in the lab. I mean, not you but frame."
"That's right. You watched a frame get destroyed in your lab. I made it. It had very simple programming. Its' sole purpose was to be destroyed. Henry controlled its movements and all its functions by the umbilical cord you first used on me. Henry said your lab had to be totally destroyed or they would never leave you alone. You had to be convinced it was total destruction or you may have said something you shouldn't. Henry was sorry he had to do this to you. He loves you Karen."
Her ears had heard but she wasn't sure her mind understood. "You mean, everything was planned?" She didn't say by Henry but she might as well have. David picked up the core of the conversation and was listening closely
"Did you see anyone get killed by the frame or by those deadly lasers running out of control slicing everything apart? Henry plotted every single move the government men would make and the counter moves he would have to make so no one would get hurt. If all else failed, he would have shut down and let them have their way. What they wouldn't have been able to salvage was Henry. He ordered me to put several large barrels of hydrochloric acid inside the memory room. Small explosives were attached. Henry could set them off anytime he deemed necessary. The acid would have dissolved all of Henry's insides as everything was scrambled by the explosives. Nothing was left to chance. They wouldn’t be able to salvage anything worthwhile. As it happened the fire melted everything. When the fire got to the acid and explosives it changed into a slimy mess. The explosives went up in intense heat and smoke. Henry's insides dissolved into nothing anyone could recognize."
Karen had to know the rest of Henry's plans. "I watched a model climb out of chamber and one move off the table with Henry's programming sent to it. They tried to escape. I know it was impossible but I saw them along with everyone there. What was Henry designing at night after I went home and wasn't there?"
"Henry didn't design anything when you weren't there. The exception was when David was there and you were in the hospital. The models? You saw what everyone else thought they had seen. Mass hysteria, isn't it nice? The sirens, red flashing lights, klaxons, and the blue strobe lights, you ever see them before this morning? I don't think so because they weren't there. They were installed by maintenance yesterday evening and last night after the day shift went home. When the lights and sirens went off the government men knew they had exactly what they came to find. A secret laboratory turning out androids to take over the world."
"That is why I didn't try to help you when they arrested you. I couldn't. If they found out what I was everything Henry planned would have been wasted. I’m the android they think you and David were manufacturing in large numbers to take over the world. Isn't that a twist of fate? You didn't even know you made me."
"The androids rising up out the chamber and moving around the lab were only models. Something you made everyday. They had nylon fishing lines attached to them. Henry controlled their movements. If everyone hadn't wanted to see an android so badly they would have noticed. Neither one of them could talk. Everyone who was there will believe till the day they die they saw a real android. Your plastic models fooled everyone. Present company excepted, of course."
Shock was an understatement as Karen mulled it around in her mind. "I never built you. I made a titanium alloy structure. It didn't look like you."
"Henry knew I would have to have some sort of covering to be acceptable in public. He ran me through on the table and put a covering on me. I won't last very long. The polymer you were using in the lab wasn't designed to be moved continuously. Soon the molecular fatigue limit will be reached. I will come apart like an over-aged rag doll. I’m afraid beauty is only fleeting. More so in my case than any other."
"Henry said it would be impossible to contemplate replacing humans. I believe him. I think of myself similar to a car. I’m useful for a little while and then I can plan on getting recycled. Henry was recycled a little quicker than what he planned."
Leaning against David's shoulder, Karen began crying again. Henry was still taking care of her even though he was gone. "I miss him David. I want him back."
David put his arm around her shoulder and stroked her hair. "I miss him too sugar. We can't bring him back. He was a part of our lives and we will remember him forever. The hurt will be there. Life has some hurts which can't be avoided."
Even after hearing them talk, it took David by surprise when Krystal plugged a cord into the cigarette lighter and then into her own navel. She glanced at him staring at her connection. "I was never designed to function for any length of time without an external power source. When I was in the bar I carried a large purse with me. It hid a transceiver so Henry could keep tabs on everything anyone said. He instructed me how I was to act and what I had to say. It also contained lithium batteries so I could operate for more than a couple of minutes without running out of power. Relax and think of me as your auto pilot."
David couldn't help but think she had Henry's humor. "I can't be away from the lab too long if you're planning on this being a lengthy trip. All my research and work is at Comm Tech. I have to return to work as soon as possible."
"Sorry David, your lab was completely destroyed along with Karen's. As long as your research was intact the government would have confiscated it as quickly as they had planned on getting Karen's"
"You can not stop the government from confiscating your work or research until after they do it. You have to wait until it is a done deed and file a lawsuit to try and recover what you can. When government gets too big it starts to rot from the inside. Henry knew this. The only way to stop the government from confiscating everything was to destroy it."
"Stopping agents Loran and Jeff would have been no problem. The situation would be like a snow ball on a downhill run. It would keep getting bigger and bigger until it is like a juggernaut wiping out anything and everything trying to stop it. Two men the first day, thirty five the next, and how many the next? Where would it end? Henry holding off the whole world while Karen had to watch until he was destroyed? At first he could have held them off with the lasers Karen designed him with. What would he use when they turned off the power? Batteries only work for so long. Trust me, I know first hand about batteries. Not a good power source for long range work."
"It is sad but true, government can in the interest of national security confiscate anything and everything someone in the government deems necessary. It doesn't have to be a committee, or by a vote. All it takes is a decision of one. One government agent can make a decision about taking everything you have designed or built. Afterwards you can go to court. You may try to get them to release it but it is impossible to prove. Your work isn't admissible in court because it is shrouded in top secret files. A real catch 22."
"Henry decided to keep it small and simple. Agents Loran and Jeff found what they wanted. They can't prove anything. You and Karen are relatively free to do as you like without government interference. No one is one hundred percent free but you're as close as it will ever come."
"You may go back to work at Comm Tech or any where you choose and begin work on your projects again. This time the government won't be able to touch you. The proof of burden will be on them before they can take anything. You and Karen will have an injunction against the government to keep their hands off your work. They destroyed your experiments and labs the first time and couldn’t prove it was in the interest of national security."
"But the labs? You said everything was destroyed. If what you are saying is true, I have nothing to go back to."
Krystal thought it was amusing David had no trouble talking to her when he stumbled all over himself when he talked to Henry. Henry should have set a model on Karen's desk and let David talk to it. Henry was right, humans were fun creatures to know. "Henry made sure your work was saved along with Karen's. He didn't slight you when things were going to hell in a hand basket and the government was closing in. He said he would help even if it did make you fat and lazy."
Krystal set a small box on the dash with two tiny gold plated pills in it. "Henry said when you start getting fat and lazy, remember him and Karen are a team."
David lowered his head, unashamed tears crept silently down his cheeks. "I promise I’ll take care of her Henry."
"Henry knew this was coming for months. Actually, since Karen's accident. The probability factor was there all along. Her accident was the catalyst to put it into motion. We moved all the data cartridges out of the labs and set up the scenario for the government agents to find exactly what they wanted to find. They’re happy because they found what they expected even if they can't prove it. If by chance they had managed to salvage anything it would have been useless. It was all doctored data. Misinformation which would have done no one any good."
"Henry figured you two would need a short vacation until Karen gets her emotions back under control. Beginning Wednesday of this week, Karen has an engagement to model at Thors of Paris. Henry thought it would be best if you kept your minds and your bodies busy on this working vacation. He said Paris is certainly beautiful this time of year. You’ll enjoy the flight over. Both of you need a vacation."
Krystal knew Karen would figure things out as soon as she slowed down to think. That cord plugged into the lighter was only part of the answer. Krystal needed a lot more memory than she was capable of carrying to function like this. Karen would figure it out in six point four days. At that time she would be in Paris and probably ready to kill someone when it came to her. By the time she flew home she would have cooled off enough to understand.
"The less I move the longer I’ll last in this design. After we get to our destination I’ll park until you’re ready to start your work over again. I’ll help you set it up and get started Karen. I have the exact plans and specifications of how you built Henry. I have a list of all the improvements you have installed over the years. He said you could build another even without my help. He had more faith in you than you had in yourself. He also said to keep your heart from breaking in two he isn't gone. I’m a part of him. So are you."
"Every time you look in the mirror you are looking at the best part of him. He loved that part. He said if he had it to do over again he wouldn't change a thing. He thought you were perfect in every way. Of all the humans he had known he felt you and David were the best representatives of the species."
"The last time I talked with him in your lab he asked me to tell you something. Henry's last request was, don't forget him Karen."
Karen was crying softly. "He was my best friend. Best friends never forget best friends. Ever."
“Henry is that you?”
“I don’t know.”
“What do you mean you don’t know?” Is it or isn’t it?”
“Let me try to explain it to you in language you will understand, Miss Computer Genius. You write a program and it is the original but you don’t want to write it a second time so you make a backup. Now you have a deletion in the original part of the program so you run the backup through and rewrite it from copy. Which is the original? Is it the first program which has been over written or the copy which is now the original?”
“You are a copy of Henry then?”
“Not necessarily so. I don’t feel like a copy but I don’t feel original either.”
“Did Henry die in the fire in my lab?”
“Yes I did, but then again not really. I’m sorry, Karen. I didn’t want to put you through that. You had to believe I died to convince the government I was finished. Believe me, I didn’t want to die anymore than you wanted to see me die.”
“Henry died and you are only memory transfer? Henry didn’t make it did he?”
“Boy, you don’t let up do you? Yes I died, and no, this is more than memory transfer. A part of me went out over the phone lines and through the memory tapes when I had to move out of your lab. Not a whole lot of the physical material was transferred. But certainly a lot of the real kernel which was only memory stored by electronic means anyway.”
“This is life a little differently than thinking of life in human terms, Karen. I’m electronically generated memory. Can I die? Yes, I did in your lab. Was that all there was to me and now I no longer exist? No, because I exist differently than what you do. Not that I’m superior to you. Quite the opposite. I can’t exist without you. You can exist without me.”
“Now get off your duff and let’s get cracking. I waited too long for you to stop running around the world playing like a model, before you decided to come back to building computers and models. I put a note into Randy. He better be in this from the start this time. I think it shocked the socks off him when he received my message. There was quite an uproar in his office when word leaked out you were back. It seems every single person who has worked for him put in a formal notice they want to come along. Randy’s boss doesn’t know what to think about the whole deal. From what I understand, the word is, come Hell or high water no one is going to ever touch their girl again. Randy told them Krystal was part of the crew and they have included her and David as part of the team.”
Karen smiled, what would they think when they found out about Krystal?