April 3: The Middle of Nowhere (6 page)

"I can assure you she is very much in control of her office. She is however in a meeting that is sufficiently important she is taking no direct calls. If you'd like to hold she will take the calls after in the order she wishes. I'd say in another twenty minutes at least. If you wish to remain anonymous be aware she may give priority to identified callers. She will however be made aware the call is from an off planet number."

"That seems reasonable," April had to admit. "Please inform her April Lewis of Home called about a personal matter and I'll await her call back. It is not an immediately life or death issue."

"Thank you Miss Lewis. Your call is in the queue," she promised and logged off.

"I'm going to read some of my stuff from my brother. You want some tea? I'll make a pot."

"Sure, I'm still catching up on the Assembly videos. I'll take some tea."

It wasn't twenty minutes, but over an hour went by before April's com chimed and she transferred it to the big screen at the com desk. President Wiggen shocked April. She had bags under her eyes and was slumped like she was carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders.

"Miss Lewis, I was advised you were on the manifest for the Home supply shuttle. Your bodyguard was listed too. Did he really accompany you to Home? Or was that a ruse to lift somebody else?"

"Oh no, that was Master Sergeant Gunny Mack Tindal. He's really the reason I'm calling. He got caught up in the coup attempt on you. He tried calling Captain Yoder who assigned him to me and got a Captain Maddow who claimed to have no records of his duty assignment at all. He wanted to arrest him, so Gunny took the advice of the State Department lady and grabbed his cash money and disappeared with me."

"Ah, yes, I'm familiar with more of the details where they touched my personal protection. Captain Maddow actually was innocent of any conspiracy. He was however put in as a placeholder to get Captain Yoder out of the way. He sat in the stockade for a few days as did some others, but we sorted it all out and none of them will suffer for it."

"Well, Gunny wasn't so sure he wouldn't get sorted out into a shallow grave somewhere. He might lose his house if his automatic payments aren't made for utilities and taxes. He'd really just like to take the retirement he has the service to qualify for and be done with it."

Wiggen's face already tired went to unhappy. "I'm sorry he didn't have confidence we'd straighten things out. We weren't going to let them start executing our people. Maybe he thought the coup would succeed," she speculated.

"We didn't actually
know
there was a coup until we got up here," April assured her. "We simply were cut off and couldn't contact anyone. Carol Jordan was cut off too and suggested he go to ground like she was. Then we had a missile attack on Mr. Santo's home and an unknown force, maybe Chinese, landing aircars in their woods. We ran for it."

"Yes, you took care of the Chinese sub in your usual subtle manner," she accused. "The train of reentry vehicles blazing across the Hawaiian sky was on the island news that night. That was not Carol's place to tell anybody outside State what to do," she said angry.

"Well, if you know some subtle way to stop one launching missiles at you, let me know. At least I didn't use anything explosive on it, just some plain old Rods from God," April said.

"And the aircars?" Wiggen demanded.

"What about them? I didn't even shoot at them. When I shot the missile down it just happened to crash on them."

Even Wiggen couldn't help smiling at that. "From anyone else I wouldn't believe that," she assured her. "It's just…" she seemed at a loss for words.

"My one friend on Home said that by the most amazing coincidence there seems to be a history of expensive damage, death and destruction strewn closely behind me. I never meant that to happen."

"Very well put. I tell you what I'll do. I'll order the Navy to retire the Master Sergeant with a clean record and all his proper retirement. I owe him that much for his service. The arrest warrants against him and others that night are already gone. As to his house and other personal affairs, that is yours to straighten out. Smart politicians don't get involved in financial things down at that level, it always looks dirty to someone and I didn't make him yank his money and run. I'm still not sure I shouldn't be a bit miffed about that. I suspect the way this conversation is going he is in no big rush to come back?"

"I don't think so. I'm hoping to hire him at least temporarily," she said, shading the truth.

"Why am I not surprised?" Wiggen asked.

"I also have to thank you for your previous invitation to the state dinner, but I think it would be best for both of us if I stay home now that I'm back up here."

"Oh God yes," Wiggen agreed. "I have a few guests who'd probably crawl over the table to attack you with their silverware. Not that it wouldn't be entertaining. Now, if there is nothing else, I have some other calls to return and a nation to run," she said drolly.

"That's all. Thank you for straightening it out," April said heartfelt.

Wiggen disconnected with a nod.

"Well, you weren't the last call to get returned," Gunny noted, somewhat impressed.

"And she didn't ask anything about the Santos. I don't
like
Carol, but maybe I should not have mentioned her to Wiggen."

"Carol is a big girl. She can see to herself. I got the impression most people who know him would be happy to ignore Santos and hope he returns the favor."

"He's a sweet old guy," April said. "I can't imagine why anybody can't get along with him."

Gunny remembered reading Santos' folder. Santos the congenial host was a sweet old guy. Santos the master spy was scary. There was nothing he could say. Nothing he
should
say, it
was
classified, after all.

Chapter 5

April started researching what was available to study economics as she'd promised Jeff. She'd find a formal class, but needed to know enough to even pick one. Jeff would expect her to do much more than a superficial look at the subject and if she was going to be a bank owner she really should have a grasp of the matter. She hadn't been thinking of all that when she first had the idea they should grab rights to have a bank while the window of opportunity was open on Home. It was turning into a lot more time-consuming work she hadn't planned.

The array of books available was overwhelming. April usually didn't approve of popularized guides, but saw a book entitled "Economic Jargon and Surviving Economics 101" That got bought along with what were said to be classics, "The Wealth of Nations" and "The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money". Checking a few pages at random she had to admit they looked a little dry. "The Failure of the New Economics" was apparently devoted to refuting the Keynesian book. She could probably find a third tedious big fat book refuting this second one if she looked a little bit. She had to set limits.

 Eddie called her up and wanted to talk. He assured her it was too long and complicated to cover over dinner. She set aside tomorrow afternoon with some trepidation. He didn't sound upset with her, but she still had doubts about her trip and whether it was as successful as others seemed to think.

Gunny was still watching recordings of Home Assemblies. April set a timer and allowed an hour to try to absorb economic jargon and then she'd join her Japanese class. She hadn't been in the active class so long they'd probably forgotten who she was.

When the timer went off she was ready to move on. She had a hundred new words spinning in her head. Words she was used to using having new meanings were more difficult than entirely new ones. The language of economics seemed a bit archaic.

April knew Gunny would take tea, so she went ahead and made it to move around after sitting so long. They didn't have active furniture that moved around under you like some offices used. It might be more productive, but April agreed with her Dad that you need a mental break too.

Gunny got up and stretched and went off, probably to use the restroom. April took a slight break to look at the stocks. Nothing big was happening or the screen would have alerted her by changing line colors. But she examined trends and then looked at the news.

She had almost two hundred key words and phrases for her bots to gather. That was going to go up when she added economic terms. There were a number of stories about Home, commercial matters mostly. Contracts let and a couple stories about the new ring being built. Jeff's name came up a few times and the Rock was mentioned.

She'd skimmed over half when she came to a story gathered by the key word Santos, the name of the Earth family with who she'd been staying.

América del Sur Noticias Netos: Buenos Aires, (auto translated) – Search and rescue services report no sign of the American pleasure vessel
Tobiuo
registered to Tetsuo Santos. An inflatable  dinghy with the ship's name and various articles of clothing and food containers washed up on Horn Island shore north of the Drake passage. Chilean air assets aided in the search out of Puerto Williams. The vessel is presumed lost in the dangerous seas close to the Antarctic Circle.

"Gunny, look at this!" He got up and came over. She was too rattled to send it to his screen. She thought while he read it. When he finished and looked at her he was surprised she wasn't upset anymore.

"It's bullshit," she said with absolute conviction.

"You think so?" he asked, not even reproving her for the coarse language as he had before.

"Mama-san told me the
Tobiuo
was much stronger than boats made just thirty years ago. She said it could be pushed under by a rogue wave that would crush and demast those sort of boats and it would just bob back up. No way they got broke up and sank in the easiest season to make the passage. Papa-san wasn't the sort to take her into something he didn't have the skill to do."

Gunny pursed his lips and considered it. "If this were true you'd have heard from Adzusa by now. Until we hear something from her I don't believe it either. I bet he just decided to disappear himself lock stock and barrel. I imagine some of the intelligence community are skeptical too."

"I'm
not
going to call the lieutenants in Maine. In some form Papa-san will make his pickup or he'd have arranged to let me know."

"You going to say anything to Adzusa?"

"No. No condolences will tell her I don't believe it. Saying anything else is a security risk. If it was true she'll contact us personally with details."

"I agree," he said, nodding. "I bet this indicates he decided to leave Earth. He's abandoning his contacts and networks if he's going to fake his own death."

"Wouldn't they continue to have value?"

"Their value declines quickly with time," Gunny explained. "Their value hinges on people never being entirely sure he is fully retired. If he's still seen as a potential player he has leverage. If he left Earth and took up permanent residence off planet I think that would end most of his influence anyway. Home just isn't big enough or old enough to have an influence in the intelligence world. Maybe someday," he allowed.

April thought about it. "I'm going to just keep my mouth shut. I've got to log on my Japanese class or miss it again. Want to go get some supper after that?"

"Yes, but let me know when it's near. I want to shower and change first."

* * *

"Get ready if you still want to go," April said much later. "We're about done here and the instructor is giving us his usual little summation and pep talk."

Gunny grunted a response and disappeared to his room.

Her time with the Santos
had
polished her Japanese. The household help, not her hosts, had taken the time to couch her by explaining the common daily speech about laundry and meals and shopping trips. They had even patiently repeated phrases in both English and Japanese when she was completely out of her depth.

The instructor and even a few fellow students had expected her to be rusty after an absence, but instead she had improved her accent and vocabulary. Quite a bit of it had to do with fishing and sailboat handling, but those terms can be used nicely to build rich analogy and metaphor.

"Assuming my paperwork comes through clean and complete, I believe I'll set things in motion to assume Home citizenship and pay the severance taxes to end my North American citizenship," Gunny said.

"How much do they ding you to leave now? Most folks who come up here plan it ahead and just abscond."

"It will run about three hundred thousand over my regular taxes by the time I am done. I figure about a third of what I'll get for my house if that isn't screwed up. I put enough in my account to cover my utilities and the summer taxes when they come due. We'll see if they get applied or if somebody snatches them. At least the account accepted the deposit."

"If they don't, want me to drop a rod on it so they can't make anything from stealing it?"

"Let me see what else I can do before you bombard North America for me," Gunny asked. "I suspect that might work against me being able to freely visit the continent too. That was one of my goals in leaving quietly and politely."

"Yeah, I'm not sure when I'll feel free to visit Hawaii again."

"You are young. Smart to keep the option open if you can. You may really want to go down fifty years from now.

"Or I might not even be in the system in fifty years."

Gunny looked at her funny. "What system?"

"Why, the Solar System," she said, like it was obvious.

"You feel confident that is a possibility?"

"Jeff is working on it."

"Okay."

The cafeteria was past peak for supper, starting to empty out. April got fish and chips and a side salad with chilled shrimp and a lemonade. Gunny got weinersnitzle with potato pancakes and sauerkraut with apples.

April went to the far wall away from the coffee where everybody congregated. She greeted several people passing through, but nobody stopped her. She sat looking back as always because she enjoyed the people watching.