controls and indicated the jump seat next to him. "Sitdown, son. We're going to get us and your car out of this mess beforewe all get clobbered."
He flicked the headlamp at Ferguson in the control seat of thepassenger car and the two vehicles moved out. Ben kept the emergencylights on while they eased carefully cross-stream to the north and thesafety of the police lane. Clay picked up speed at the outer edge ofthe blue lane and rolled along until he reached the first "patrolonly" entrance through the divider to the service strip. Ben followedhim in and then turned off the red blinkers and brought the patrol carto a halt behind the other vehicle.
The worried husband stood up and looked to the rear of the car."What's making it so long?" he asked anxiously. "They've been in therea long time."
Ben smiled. "Sit down, son. These things take time. Don't you worry.If there were anything wrong, Kelly would let us know. She can talk tous on the intercom anytime she wants anything."
The man sat back down. "What's your name?" Ben inquired.
"Haverstraw," the husband replied distractedly, "George Haverstraw.I'm an accountant. That's my wife back there," he cried, pointing tothe closed galley door. "That's Ellen."
"I know," Ben said gently. "You told us that."
Clay had come back to the patrol car and dropped into his seat acrossfrom the young husband. "Got a name picked out for the baby?" heasked.
Haverstraw's face lighted. "Oh, yes," he exclaimed. "If it's a boy,we're going to call him Harmon Pierce Haverstraw. That was mygrandfather's name. And if she's a girl, it's going to be Caroline Mayafter Ellen's mother and grandmother."
The intercom came to life. "Anyone up there?" Kelly's voice asked.Before they could answer, the wail of a baby sounded over the system.Haverstraw yelled.
"Congratulations, Mr. Haverstraw," Kelly said, "you've got afine-looking son."
"Hey," the happy young father yelped, "hey, how about that? I've got ason." He pounded the two grinning troopers on the back. Suddenly hefroze. "What about Ellen? How's Ellen?" he called out.
"She's just fine," Kelly replied. "We'll let you in here in a coupleof minutes but we've got to get us gals and your new son lookingpretty for papa. Just relax."
Haverstraw sank down onto the jump seat with a happy dazed look on hisface.
Ben smiled and reached for the radio. "I guess our newest citizendeserves a ride in style," he said. "We're going to have to transferMrs. Haverstraw and er, oh yes, Master Harmon Pierce to an ambulanceand then to a hospital now, George. You have any preference on wherethey go?"
"Gosh, no," the man replied. "I guess the closest one to wherever weare." He paused thoughtfully. "Just where are we? I've lost all senseof distance or time or anything else."
Ben looked at the radiodometer. "We're just about due south ofIndianapolis. How would that be?"
"Oh, that's fine," Haverstraw replied.
"You can come back now, Mr. Haverstraw," Kelly called out. Haverstrawjumped up. Clay got up with him. "Come on, papa," he grinned, "I'llshow you the way."
Ben smiled and then called into Indianapolis Control for an ambulance.
"Ambulance on the way," Control replied. "Don't you need a wrecker,too, Five Six?"
Ben grinned. "Not this time. We didn't lose one. We gained one."
He got up and went back to have a look at Harmon Pierce Haverstraw,age five minutes, temporary address, North American ContinentalThruway 26-West, Mile Marker 632.
Fifteen minutes later, mother and baby were in the ambulance headingnorth to the hospital. Haverstraw, calmed down with a sedativeadministered by Kelly, had nearly wrung their hands off in gratitudeas he said good-by.
"I'll mail you all cigars when I get home," he shouted as he waved andclimbed into his car.
Beulah's trio watched the new father ease carefully into the trafficas the ambulance headed down the police-way. Haverstraw would have tocut over to the next exchange and then go north to Indianapolis. He'darrive later than his family. This time, he was the very picture ofcareful driving and caution as he threaded his way across the green.
"I wonder if he knows what brand of cigars I smoke?" Kelly mused.
* * * * *
The chrono clicked up to 2335 as Car 56 resumed patrol. Kelly plumpeddown onto the jump seat beside Ben. Clay was fiddling in the galley."Why don't you go back to the sack?" Ben called.
"What, for a lousy twenty-five minutes," Clay replied. "I had a goodnap before you turned the burners up to high. Besides, I'm hungry.Anyone else want a snack?"
Ben shook his head. "No, thanks," Kelly said. Ferguson finishedslapping together a sandwich. Munching on it, he headed into theengine room to make the midnight check. Car 56 had now been on patroleight hours. Only two hundred thirty-two hours and two thousand milesto go.
Kelly looked around at the departing back of the younger trooper."I'll bet this is the only car in NorCon that has to stock twenty daysof groceries for a ten-day patrol," she said.
Ben chuckled. "He's still a growing boy."
"Well, if he is, it's all between the ears," the girl replied. "You'dthink that after a year I would have realized that nothing couldpenetrate that thick Canuck's skull. He gets me so mad sometimes thatI want to forget I'm a lady." She paused thoughtfully. "Come to thinkof it. No one ever accused me of being a lady in the first place."
"Sounds like love," Ben smiled.
Hunched over on the jump seat with her elbows on her knees and herchin cupped in both hands, Kelly gave the senior officer a quizzicalsideways look.
Ben was watching his monitors and missed the glance. Kelly sighed andstared out into the light streaked night of the thruway. The heavysurge of football traffic had distributed itself into the general flowon the road and while all lanes were busy, there were no indicationsof any overcrowding or jam-ups. Much of the pattern was shifting frompassenger to cargo vehicle as it neared midnight. The football crowdswere filtering off at each exchange and exit and the California fanshad worked into the blue and yellow--mostly the yellow--for the longtrip home. The fewer passenger cars on the thruway and the increase incargo carriers gave the troopers a breathing spell. The men in thecontrol buckets of the three hundred and four hundred-ton cargovehicles were the real pro's of the thruways; careful, courteous andfast. The NorCon patrol cars could settle down to watch out for theoccasional nuts and drunks that might bring disaster.
Once again, Martin had the patrol car on auto drive in the center ofthe police lane and he steeled back in his seat. Beside him, Kellystared moodily into the night.
"How come you've never married, Ben?" she asked. The senior troopergave her a startled look. "Why, I guess for the same reason you'restill a maiden," he answered. "This just doesn't seem to be the rightkind of a job for a married man."
Kelly shook her head. "No, it's not the same thing with me," she said."At least, not entirely the same thing. If I got married, I'd have toquit the Patrol and you wouldn't. And secondly, if you must know thetruth, I've never been asked."
Ben looked thoughtfully at the copper-haired Irish-Indian girl. All ofa sudden she seemed to have changed in his eyes. He shook his head andturned back to the road monitors.
"I just don't think that a patrol trooper has any business gettingmarried and trying to keep a marriage happy and make a home for afamily thirty days out of every three hundred sixty, with anoccasional weekend home if you're lucky enough to draw your hometownfor a terminal point. This might help the population rate but itsure doesn't do anything for the institution of matrimony."
"I know some troopers that are married," Kelly said.
"But there aren't very many," Ben countered. "Comes the time they pullme off the cars and stick me behind a desk somewhere, then I'll thinkabout it."
"You might be too old by then," Kelly murmured.
Ben grinned. "You sound as though you're worried about it," he said.
"No," Kelly replied softly, "no, I'm not worried about it. Justthinking." She averted her eyes and looked out into the ni
ght again."I wonder what NorCon would do with a husband-wife team?" shemurmured, almost to herself.
Ben looked sharply at her and frowned. "Why, they'd probably splitthem up," he said.
* * * * *
"Split what up?" Clay inquired, standing in the door of the cab.
"Split up all troopers named Clay Ferguson," Kelly said disgustedly,"and use them for firewood--especially the heads. They say thathardwood burns long and leaves a fine ash. And that's what you've beenfor years."
She sat erect in the jump seat and looked sourly at the young trooper.
Clay shuddered at the pun and squeezed by the girl to get to his seat."I'll take it now, pop," he said. "Go get your geriatrics treatment."
Ben got out of his seat with a snort. "I'll 'pop' you, skinhead," hesnapped. "You may be eight years younger than I am but you only haveone third the virility and one tenth the brains. And eight years fromnow you'll still be in deficit spending on both counts."
"Careful, venerable lord of my destiny," Clay admonished with a grin,"remember how I spent my vacation and remember how you spent yoursbefore you go making unsubstantiated statements about my virility."
Kelly stood up. "If you two will excuse me, I'll go back to thedispensary and take a good jolt of male hormones and then we can comeback and finish this man-to-man talk in good locker room company."
"Don't you dare," Ben cried, "I wouldn't let you tamper with onesingle, tiny one of your feminine traits, princess. I like you justthe way you are."
Kelly looked at him with a wide-eyed, cherubic smile. "You really meanthat, Ben?"
The older trooper flushed briefly and then turned quickly into thegalley. "I'm going to try for some shut-eye. Wake me at two, Clay, ifnothing else breaks." He turned to Kelly who still was smiling at him."And watch out for that lascivious young goat."
"It's all just talk, talk, talk," she said scornful. "You go to bedBen. I'm going to try something new in psychiatric annals. I'm goingto try and psychoanalyze a dummy." She sat back down on the jump seat.
At 2400 hours it was Vincennes Check with the density reports, alldown in the past hour. The patrol was settling into what looked like aquiet night routine. Kelly chatted with Ferguson for another half hourand then rose again. "I think I'll try to get some sleep," she said."I'll put on a fresh pot of coffee for you two before I turn in."
She rattled around in the galley for some time. "Whatcha cooking?"Clay called out. "Making coffee," Kelly replied.
"It take all that time to make coffee?" Clay queried.
"No," she said. "I'm also getting a few things ready so we can have afast breakfast in case we have to eat on the run. I'm just aboutthrough now."
A couple of minutes later she stuck her head into the cab. "Coffee'sdone. Want some?"
Clay nodded. "Please, princess."
She poured him a cup and set it in the rack beside his seat.
"Thanks," Clay said. "Good night, Hiawatha."
"Good night, Babe," she replied.
"You mean 'Paul Bunyon,' don't you?" Clay asked. "'Babe' was his blueox."
"I know what I said," Kelly retorted and strolled back to thedispensary. As she passed through the crew cubby, she glanced at Bensleeping on the bunk recently vacated by Ferguson. She paused andcarefully and gently pulled a blanket up over his sleeping form. Shesmiled down at the trooper and then went softly to her compartment.
In the cab, Clay sipped at his coffee and kept watchful eyes on thevideo monitors. Beulah was back on auto drive and Clay had dropped herspeed to a slow fifty as the traffic thinned.
At 0200 hours he left the cab long enough to go back and shake Benawake and was himself re-awakened at 0400 to take back control. He letBen sleep an extra hour before routing him out of the bunk again at0700. The thin, gray light of the winter morning was just taking holdwhen Ben came back into the cab. Clay had pulled Beulah off to theservice strip and was stopped while he finished transcribing hisscribbled notes from the 0700 Washington Criminal Control broadcast.
Ben ran his hand sleepily over his close-cropped head. "Anythingexciting?" he asked with a yawn. Clay shook his head. "Same old thing.'All cars exercise special vigilance over illegal crossovers. Keep alllanes within legal speed limits.' Same old noise."
"Anything new on our hit-runner?"
"Nope."
"Good morning, knights of the open road," Kelly said from the galleydoor. "Obviously you both went to sleep after I left and allowed ourhelpless citizens to slaughter each other."
"How do you figure that one?" Ben laughed.
"Oh, it's very simple," she replied. "I managed to get in a full sevenhours of sleep. When you sleep, I sleep. I slept. Ergo, you didlikewise."
"Nope," Clay said, "for once we had a really quiet night. Let's hopethe day is of like disposition."
Kelly began laying out the breakfast things. "You guys want eggs thismorning?"
"You gonna cook again today?" Clay inquired.
"Only breakfast," Kelly said. "You have the honors for the rest of theday. The diner is now open and we're taking orders."
"I'll have mine over easy," Ben said. "Make mine sunny-up," Claycalled.
Kelly began breaking eggs into the pan, muttering to herself. "Overeasy, sunny-up, I like 'em scrambled. Next tour I take I'm going toget on a team where everyone likes scrambled eggs."
A few minutes later, Beulah's crew sat down to breakfast. Ben had justdipped into his egg yolk when the radio blared. "Attention all cars.Special attention Cars 207, 56 and 82."
"Just once," Ben said, "just once, I want to sit down to a meal andget it all down my gullet before that radio gives me indigestion." Helaid down his fork and reached for the message pad.
The radio broadcast continued. "A late model, white over greenTravelaire, containing two men and believed to be the subjects wantedin earlier broadcast on murder, robbery and hit-run murder, wasinvolved in a service station robbery and murder at Vandalia,Illinois, at approximately 0710 this date. NorCon Criminal Divisionbelieves this subject car escaped filter check and left NAT 26-Westsometime during the night.
"Owner of this stolen vehicle states it had only half tanks of fuel atthe time it was taken. This would indicate wanted subjects stopped forfuel. It is further believed they were recognized by the stationattendant from video bulletins sent out by this department last dateand that he was shot and killed to prevent giving alarm.
"The shots alerted residents of the area and the subject car was lastseen headed south. This vehicle may attempt to regain access toNAT-26-West or it may take another thruway. All units are warned onceagain to approach this vehicle with extreme caution and only with theassistance of another unit where possible. Acknowledge. WashingtonCriminal Control out."
Ben looked at the chrono. "They hit Vandalia at 0710, eh. Even in theyellow they couldn't get this far for another half hour. Let's finishbreakfast. It may be a long time until lunch."
The crew returned to their meal. While Kelly was cleaning up afterbreakfast, Clay ran the quick morning engine room check. In the cab,Ben opened the arms rack and brought out two machine pistols andbelts. He checked them for loads and laid one on Clay's control seat.He strapped the other around his waist. Then he flipped up a cover inthe front panel of the cab. It exposed the breech mechanisms of apair of twin-mounted 25 mm auto-cannon. The ammunition loads werefull. Satisfied, Ben shut the inspection port and climbed into hisseat. Clay came forward, saw the machine pistol on his seat andstrapped it on without a word. He settled himself in his seat. "Engineroom check is all green. Let's go rabbit hunting."
Car 56 moved slowly out into the police lane. Both troopers had theirindividual sets of video monitors on in front of their seats and werewatching them intently. In the growing light of day, a white-toppedcar was going to be easy to spot.
* * * * *
It had all the earmarks of being another wintery, overcast day. Theoutside temperature at 0800 was right on the twenty-nine-de
gree markand the threat of more snow remained in the air. The 0800 densityreports from St. Louis Control were below the 14,000 mark in all lanesin the one-hundred-mile block west of the city. That was to beexpected. They listened to the eastbound densities peaking attwenty-six thousand vehicles in the same block, all heading into themetropolis and their jobs. The 0800, 1200 and 1600 hours densityreports also carried the weather forecasts for a five-hundred-mileradius from the broadcasting control point. Decreasing temperatureswith light to moderate snow was in the works for Car 56 for the firstcouple of hundred miles west of St. Louis, turning to almost blizzardconditions in central Kansas. Extra units had already been put intoservice on all thruways through the midwest and snow-burners werewaging a losing battle from Wichita west to the Rockies aroundAlamosa,