Soon after the security force had cleared the room, Kreft pushed out of the cabinet and walked back over to the remains of the model. Quickly he spotted what he was looking for. “I bet the car we want is in this garage… it looks like it must be right outside the other side of that hallway, “ but as he turned to point at what he was talking about, Way discovered he had lost Parker’s attention somewhere.
To his disbelief, Kreft spotted that the man whom the TGR had hired because of his heartless skills was actually looking almost ready to cry. Anyone would look a bit messed up; Way assured himself, trying to adjust a wig with one hand; while holding his own bloody ear with the other. But watching the way in which the fearful ‘Tech of Terror’ was walking over and looking down upon the fallen fellow in the cage, could have broken his freedom craving heart. On ‘Sir sinister Samuel’s face was the very look a child might get when told his or her pet must be put to sleep, even though its injury had occurred when it was saving their life. Madman he might be called, but Samuel Parker was not going to assume that he could leave unpaid a debt of gratitude.
Putting his ample sized hand upon the front top corner of the cage, Parker turned so that Kreft fell under his demanding gaze. (Long ago Samuel had discovered the power lent to him by his impressive height, so he knew that even a casual pose might seem threatening.) At times like this, the unfounded rumors of my cruelty and insanity can actually be something of a help; he tried to convince himself that this was a good thing as he started speaking. “I am not leaving this man; he voluntarily got himself trounced to keep us hidden. Remember how I said it can be good to have people owing you? It works in reverse, as well; to owe someone else is never good. When you least expect it, they may just appear to call their debt. We get him out of here, we’re all even.”
With a look of embarrassment, his left hand came up to grab the pieces of his ear that had been torn through by one of the model towers in an attempt to stop the blood; as he eyed the caged man, breaking his eye contact with Kreft. “Anyway, you might not think much of me; but leaving a person tied down for the ‘bad guys’ to ‘play’ with just feels wrong. The key for this cage is in the cabinet there, probably..?” Parker asked; getting down on his knees to try reaching into the cage in an attempt to wake Lineal.
Somewhat astounded; Kreft was a little surprised to find himself looking around for the key. “I guess we do somewhat owe him. With a car his speed on foot won’t mater all that much more than yours. The people here do seem to think he’s important somehow, too; so it can never hurt to deprive them of him.”
Being shamed into doing the right thing by a man he had always heard described as a demon was nearly enough to make Kreft chuckle as he located the cage key. “Guess I never expected Samuel Parker to act so human. Sorry man, I’ve just never heard about you without reminders of-“
“NO ONE EVER DOES!” Parker nearly yelled as he jumped to his feet in an attempt to forestall yet another ‘artistic’ description of the life stopping shame he could never escape; it was only the reason he found himself to be universally either hated or (possibly even worse) worshiped in the first place. “Yes, it took a bit of technical skill to pull off. In fact, I’m quite sure it’s the only reason I can afford to even still be alive in the first place, seeing as there’s no lack of you people willing to hire me with hopes that I can be as effective for you as I was for those lunar nuts; free advertising, you know? Do you know what the problem with that is? They only paid me to knock out the satellites, 200 years ago. I did that, sure. The rest-? Pure happenstance. Not ever intended or foreseen in any way, shape, or form.
“Now, that’s not to say I can’t help you;” Sam was quick to clarify, as Kreft’s doubting gaze highlighted the fact that he had momentarily stopped in his return from the cabinet. “I’m confident I can play with your local computers, get them to spit out the facts you want, or act however you desire if need be. If this wasn’t such a low tech planet; I’d probably find a way to work remote, ya know? This gravity’s gonna kill me, sorry man. May just prevent me from doing much more than providing the mechanical fun you guys need. I will still do my best for you; just please, please, shut up about the Earth.” Parker continued on from here for a moment or so, so that a slight movement from within the cage escaped his eye. His frantic decrying of the fame he did not entirely want seemed to have been effective at waking Lineal.
Understandably, to regain consciousness and find himself practically underneath a freakishly tall and skinny stranger who was yelling something about distant stars or planets that had long ago virtually been abandoned as uninhabitable; Lenny now found himself to be just a bit confused and unsure of what to do. It was hard to pay full attention to the two newcomers as the shocks from the ‘obedience devise’ had left him trembling every few seconds; the damn wiring in my head does not seem content to lose its charge… Before he even knew what was going on, the tall man and that more average-looking fellow from earlier were thanking him as they unlocked the cage door and helped him to his feet. Because they introduced themselves as something fake sounding like “Jesse James” or “Joseph Hazelwood” (some famous ancient source of calamity, obviously a fake, so the name didn’t quite stick in his mind) and “Kreftway” or “Smithskay” (another not real sounding, forgettable name) he just introduced himself as Lenny. (At least his was real enough, it was almost close to his actual name; and it sounded more real than either of ‘theirs.’)
Whoever the two jokers really were, they seemed to be managing to finally get him a bit of freedom; so Lenny decided he should probably help them in return. Anyway, getting out of here just might come to my benefit; he decided. “You’re taking me along right?” he said, following the two men out of the room. “I have a quick way to block the signal on that car’s locator so it won’t be picked up at any of the roadway checkpoints;” Lenny was trying to inform his saviors quietly, between shudders; as the three of them were walking nonchalantly out of the spaceport towards the parking garage (in what the fugitive assumed was an attempt to stay cool and not attract any attention).
“What..?? The location of the car is monitored?” the oversized (was it Jeffery Dahmer? No, I’m almost sure he’s dead…Tony Hayward?? Hmmm…) was quick to ask [with such volume and obvious motion that he immediately rendered Lenny’s caution null and void]. “You mean without this guy, you’d have gotten some satellite blasting my whereabouts all over the airwaves?” The ‘famous’ tall man looked angrily at the normal-sized fellow that he seemed to be working for. “As I’m sure you can imagine, not everyone out there is my biggest fan. I can do without those demanding crucifixion for a few unintended miscalculations knowing my whereabouts...”
“That’s stupid. They shouldn’t be able to track us;” the guy from some (TGIF was it?) group was quick to argue. “There is no way that a government who refuses to pay for public schools or hospitals would pour cash into a satellite monitoring system for a few lousy spaceport maintenance vehicles…”
Lenny almost didn’t hear Kreft’s logic. The taller man’s reaction had momentarily thrown his mind for a loop. What name did he say, earlier? The man’s angry fear did not look like acting. Yes, obviously, he had grown up, or at least grown, somewhere without much, if any gravity. But somehow his emotions seem much older than the face they play upon. Looking closer at how the guy was walking, the man’s every action; his very demeanor was years older than the almost childlike perception of youth his skin portrayed, (despite the baldness). Classic Mitodesino symptoms, poor fool; Lenny decided as the slight chill that came from possibly being in the presence of one who had caused such dismay made him stiffen his shoulders in an attempt not to shake. Whoever he might be, he could actually be much older than he looks…
“I know a thing or two about the security here,” Lenny finally said just to shut up Kreft’s counting off all of the different security measures that the RGT could not have taken. Unfortunately, the act of speaking so forcefully momentarily took his mind off walking
. That is why the next tremor nearly toppled him; stopping for a second to rework his balance, the former prisoner continued. “The roadways here; in every habitat, and the highways in between, are lined with simple magnetic sensors. These sensors are designed to detect a certain rate of pulsing magnetic marker that the ‘Guard tends to place in every object that the Trustees want to be able to keep track of. They mark anything that those ‘great public servants’ don’t want on open roads, such as spaceport security vehicles that don’t need to travel. That way, when something that shouldn’t be out in the public is detected getting away; the closest Registered Guard station can be instantly alerted to the whereabouts of whatever marker is transmitting the lock-down frequency somewhere it shouldn’t be.”
“So when we find the car, we need to knock out the marker?” Parker quietly asked as they began to search the parking garage for the specific car their key was for.
“We can’t just do that,” Lenny answered, as he pointed to the hood of the car they had the key for when they stopped to look at it. “To prevent that from happening, the marker piece is generally built into an essential engine part so it can’t just be knocked out. It tends to be a different piece in most cars so we wouldn’t even know what to replace.”
Kreft was starting to get annoyed. He had never planned to get a car in the first place; and there was something about this ‘Lenny’ he just didn’t trust. He clearly doesn’t match the pictures of Lin Darrow that I’ve seen; so what were they getting at when they called him nothing but Lineal? Now, upon sighting the ease with which Parker seemed to be walking at the moment, was the whole purpose of the vehicle just to bring along this annoying tag-along (a fellow who seemed to be just a bit too knowledgeable about RGT secrets to simply be an innocent bystander)? “So astound us,” Way said as he practically bowed towards the man they had liberated (in case the annoyance in his overdramatic tone could be missed); “Just how does the great Lineal propose we attempt to steal a quite easily tracked and identifiable vehicle, that now we seem to need to have solely, for his benefit?”
Not missing the contempt in Kreft’s voice, Lenny decided to keep it simple “Somehow I’m sure you’ll like my plan,” he muttered placing his right hand on his left shoulder. “As the road ignores all signals that come at the wrong frequency, to avoid having some innocent/unrelated pulse setting off the monitors; you just need to pick up another signal to set alongside the one coming from the car, so that when the sensors scan your car, they get overloaded and ignore it. Wanting to keep track of me they put one of those markers in my shoulder. Bring me along, and neither the car nor I should be detected. If you just act like you’re a couple of RGT operatives with me as your prisoner; even a manned security station shouldn’t be too much of a problem. I really don’t see any other quick easy way around it unless you want to travel on foot.”
“I don’t know,” Kreft was already a little wary of what his brother’s reaction to Parker would be. Dare I bring along a fellow who answers to the name, Lineal? Someone who puts up no pretence against the fact that the RGT has reason to be looking for him? That his knowledge of security measures points to the possibility of him being a former Trustee himself? Already not liking the situation, Way decided that the simplest thing to do was just to cut their ties with this ‘Lenny’ here. “Why should we trust you so much? It’s actually some very nice land out there; perhaps we do want to travel on foot.”
Here Parker almost lost it. He had been trying to remain quiet and not argue with his link to a future paycheck; but he had been trudging along in this extended gravity for far too long. To come within sight of a way to rest his feet, only to hear the man he was trapped working for carelessly toy with the idea of abandoning such a sure and easy respite; that was just too much. These two might not notice the unreal force that was almost causing him to exert a conscious effort to simply hold his head up. They may be happily oblivious to the unreal heat outside the buildings (dear god, who sets the temperature here? what is it… like 82 degrees Fahrenheit?), but he was certainly not ready to tackle what Kreft had described as a multiple day hike, on foot.
“Yo!” Parker held his hands out in front of himself and looked to Kreft, “We got this guy out of his cage, and you’re the one earlier that didn’t want to leave him up a creek. If he’s tagged, getting rid of him here seems like it would be almost worse than leaving him as he was; it’s like practically handing him back to them, if you think he’s helpless! If we use the car to take him far from here, the problem of getting him caught again is temporarily avoided. Turns out we’ve got to have him if we want to use this car anyway.
“Look, I’m fine leaving him alone;” Parker looked apologetically at Lenny now, but then he held up his finger. “Now; it seems to me they wouldn’t have had him under lock and key, unless they had a bit more faith in his ability to get around than you do.” Looking back at Kreft he continued; “I’m gonna trust his jailers on that one. If they didn’t think that tag alone would stop him, perhaps it won’t. My point is we can leave him here, I’m fine with that.”
Now Sam looked at the car, placing his hand on the hood before turning back to Kreft; “What I am not fine with is walking much more. I’m not sure if you noticed back there, but those stairs were almost more than I could take. Sure, I’ve almost gotten my balance for this gravity down now, but even walking this far has made me ready to sit for a bit. If you don’t want him, fine; just get me another car that somehow won’t be tracked.”
“How would I know what can be tracked or not..?” Kreft did not like this man assuming his own leadership. This jerk would get along with my brother, Badeen; trying to claim pure innocence while vying for his own command. It took Way a moment to realize that Parker was pointing at Lenny-
-who was now walking slowly to the other end of the parking garage, eyeing the other vehicles. Kreft groaned. The little man had never argued when Parker suggested that they may not need him. Instead, the former prisoner had simply walked away, and now he seemed to be trying to figure out how he could steal another car himself (even though he had no key or apparent tools with him). That’s right, Kreft told himself, if he has one of those monitors in his shoulder, he needs another one like there is in the cars to cross over any road undetected just as much as we need his to move this car unseen… At least until he can find some way of removing it.
The idea of having something that Lenny required left Way feeling a bit less helpless. Taking a closer look at the way in which Parker was sweating and struggling not to breathe hard did make him rethink travel so far on foot, too. The man may not be complaining, but he’s certainly not well. Can gravity alone really take this much out of a person?
Hoping he wouldn’t regret it, Kreft started jogging after Lineal. If he could not have Parker without the car, and not have the car without Lenny; a bit of mistrust might have to be momentarily ignored.
But is this Samuel Parker even the man we thought we were hiring? The thought of intentionally leaving someone who wasn’t a vile fiend out in the dry cold wastelands of the south did not sit with him well; especially not when the man’s ability to even walk away is somewhat questionable.
“Hey, wait up!” Kreft heard himself calling to the back of Lenny. The sickly looking man turned back with just the slightest bit of hope lighting up his face. “So you’d be able to keep us hidden as we go south?” Way said as he found himself pulling to a stop next to the other man.
“South??” Lenny answered with the faint hint of disappointment in his eyes, “but I need to get to the north. Although…” Both men were smart enough to understand that unless they worked together, neither one of them had much of a chance of leaving the habitat with the electronic markers that they had both found themselves unwillingly tied to for the immediate future. Way wasn’t even sure how close to the garage that the roadway sensors started, but he was sure that this Lenny looked about ready to pass out.
&nbs
p; “We might be able to help you get north in a few weeks,” Kreft tried to convince the man he had unintentionally set free, even though the words sounded weak in his own ears; “in at most, within a month or two. For now, we need to go meet with someone in the south, instead. You help us stay hidden, we help you get away. You didn’t hesitate to keep us safe earlier there, and like Sam said; leaving you alone while under RGT watch may be just about as good as throwing you back in. You seem to know a thing or two about their security anyway. That’s exactly the kind of thing my friend Terry down South always needs. With your help, perhaps, we can hurt them more.”
With an unsure look, Lenny shook his head and closed his eyes as he decided to risk it all by agreeing. “Never made it this far undetected before; need to thank you for that somehow. Guess I haven’t much left to lose. Sure, I’ll keep your car hidden; explain whatever it is Terry wants. You say you’re gonna help me get away? I’m counting on it.”
Short Stories
Right Now
First Impressions
Unforeseen Help
Poetry
And I was Hungry
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