The conference room’s response to Jessie’s win was mixed. Of course Alec cheered. Clay’s frown may have been from him being more upset with Sofie’s shenanigans than losing to Jessie. Olivia applauded while Cleveland gave one of his patented and overused grunts.
The room went silent as one by one they noticed that the helicopter, still holding its enormous ball of water, was now hovering directly above the kids. What happened next only took a few seconds. With the remote raised over Jessie’s head, both girls looked up at the same time to see the water hovering dangerously above them. Unfortunately, it was Sofie who first realized their danger and she instinctively made a grab for the remote. But what she didn’t know was that during their short tussle, Jessie’s thumb worked its way over the ‘X’ button. Her reaction to Sofie’s reach was all it took.
The outburst in the conference room was instantaneous. They roared with laughter watching a soaking wet Sofie, chase a soaking wet Jessie back into the building... leaving the helicopter flying in a slow, out of control upwards spiral.
“Let’s get back to work.” Still chuckling, Cleveland settled his large frame into one of the chairs. He dabbed his forehead with a handkerchief before stuffing into his vest pocket.
Alec took a step toward the table, then remembering the helicopter he turned back to the window in time to see Eugene running out the back door of the old mill section. He stopped at the edge of the pond with another remote in hand.
“Where did he get that remote?” Clay asked noticing the original remote laying wet on the ground.
“Eugene’s a pretty good building super, but he really doesn’t understand technical things. He probably just grabbed any remote thinking it would work.” Alec then craned his neck looking upwards at the still out-of-control helicopter, wondering how Eugene could be so unaware his labors were futile.
Clay returned to the table. Alec was about to follow when he glimpsed a large ball of light where the helicopter should have been. He looked up and all he saw was a sun-like orb. It diminished in size until it was nothing but a bright speck, hovering for a few seconds before winking out. He squeezed his eyes shut wondering what he just saw. When he opened them again, the sky was clear and Eugene was gone.
“SIT!” Olivia commanded. He looked around to find he was the only one left standing and sheepishly shuffled over to sit next to Clay.
“What we just saw was totally new, wasn’t it?” She glared at him for a few more moments.
Alec assumed she was referring to the water incident and that no one else saw the explosion... or whatever it was.
“I’ve learned enough to know that that was not the affects of the gravity blanket.” She paused examining each of their reactions focusing mostly on Alec. Not satisfied with his dumb look, she tried another tactic. “I thought we agreed that we weren’t going to have any more of those gravity inductors made… You realize how much they cost… and you…. you let a couple of kids play with them?” she visibly shook with anger.
The gravity inductors were built on an entirely different concept than the box and blanket. Unlike the box that worked by redirecting the flow of space, the gravity inductor pushed space. This was Alec’s idea, theory and design and he had talked Clay and Olivia into having a batch of them made for his private experiments. Olivia now stared only at him. Even though he knew he didn’t do it, he couldn’t resist. Looking impishly back he said. “It was Clay’s idea.”
Clay joined Olivia’s glare. Alec just grinned.
“We don’t have time to play with those things. Besides, we have dozens of the best engineers in the world. If we would have let them work with the gravity inductors maybe we wouldn’t be in this mess.”
Finally Clay stepped in. “You know, that was impressive… that ball of water. I would have never thought of that, would you?” he asked her. “And you know as well as me, those gravity inductors are prototypes. Once we produce in volume, their costs will go down.”
Acknowledging she lost the argument, Olivia gave a tight lipped smile and gathered up her materials.
“Hi Meester MeeCuf. Hi Meester Matteeson.” Eugene said mopping the wet floor between the back exit and the ladies room. They were on the first floor of the old red brick school section of the building, in the back hallway connecting the old and new mill sections.
“Quite a mess, eh Eugene?” Alec gave him a curious look.
“Ya, dat was quite a dumping of water. I theenk the girls are steeel in the bathroom drying off.” Eugene leaned on the mop.
“I was referring to the helicopter.”
“Oooo dat. It seems dat I grabbed de wrong remote.” Eugene wrung out the mop. “It look like der must have been a short circuit or sometheeeng. Dat was some blast.”
Alec didn’t respond as Eugene went back to his mopping. Perhaps that was an explosion. The gravity inductor was just a crazy idea, and unlike the blanket, it didn’t, or couldn’t generate electricity; surely not enough to cause that size of an explosion. Except that it wasn’t an explosion, it was more like a reverse explosion. Blinking into existence at its full size then shrinking down to nothing. It didn’t make sense. Only the blanket could generate enough power to make that size of an explosion... and as far as he knew, nobody else, not even Jessie knew how much power the blanket could generate. Unless she figured it out. He decided he’d have to ask her... but once he did, it wouldn’t be long before she’d figure it out for herself.
“Alec.” Clay interrupted him from his thoughts. “You’re holding out on me, aren’t you?”
“Like what?” Alec answered, surprised by his question.
“There’s more to this technology than you’re letting on.”
He looked at Clay as though for the first time. He’d been keeping his research pretty close to his chest... doing it only during weekends and after work and of late, not at all.
“What makes you say that?” Alec was curious…did Clay have a spy too? Why the heck not, McDonald had at least one in here already.
“I’ve been going over our books and expenditures.” Clay answered. “I noticed you’ve been ordering some… well, odd items. Don’t worry, I didn’t tell anyone. As a matter of fact, I made a few ‘corrections’ to the books.” He added after seeing Alec’s concern.
“Thanks.” Alec said, then after some thought added. “You know Clay, I trust you with my life. But with this McDonald thing going on, I’m just trying to be careful.”
“Are you sure you’re being careful enough? You know McDonald gets everything if we fail.”
“He wouldn’t know what he has… as a matter of fact… I really don’t know what it is we have.”
“You mean the gravity inductor?” Clay asked curiously.
“Yes… and no. I’ve got some ideas, but I really haven’t been able to make any inductor experiments work yet… I’ve only been able to increase the electricity generated from the blanket.”
“Really? By how much?”
“Enough to power this building with one blanket… I haven’t fully tested it out yet.”
Clay looked stunned. “We need to keep this from McDonald.”
“Don’t worry. I’ve hidden all my data, no one will get it unless I give it to them... and I won’t give it to McDonald.”
“You said you had other ideas?”
“Remember… they’re only theoretical.” Alec hesitated.
“Well?”
“I don’t even want to say it out loud.” Alec looked around. Eugene’s head was down as he concentrated on his mopping.
“Don’t worry, were alone.”
“That’s not it… it’s just that these ideas sound kind of… well stupid when said out loud.”
“I won’t laugh.”
“Weapons and sub-space fields.”
Clay brightened. “Weapons? Like… Star Wars light sabers?”
“I knew you’d make fun.” Alec grumbled as they were interrupted by the girls.
“We’re ready.” Sofie said stepping out of the bathroom. She easily sidestepped Eugene who was mopping near the door.
“Oh, sorry Eugene.” Jessie said picking up the mop she just tripped over.
“You guys look like a couple of drowned rats.” Alec laughed at their still wet and wrinkled clothes. It looked like they tried wringing them out by hand.
“You have a good night.” Eugene smiled, showing off his crooked teeth.
The girls shouldered their backpacks. “See you Eugene.” Sofie smiled and waved. They followed their dads through the darkening parking lot… their dads bent in quiet conversation. When they reached their cars, Clay put his arm over Sofie’s shoulder. “See you Sunday.” He said to Alec and Jessie as they parted. Ever since their kids were born, they seldom missed the Sunday services.