SG: Rad #100 (3/5): We've

[Gary W. Olson]

(continued from part two, preceding...)

                                 ***

     "...not really sure when the goats skipped out," Guido said,
following a long draw on his Cuban cigar.  The middle-aged
anthropomorphic donkey had somehow found a garment that had the look
of a tuxedo coat, yet was clearly--when seen up close--a trenchcoat.
Rumi Moroboshi guessed it was a specialty item.  "One minute they were
there, helping us get the wounded to the ambulances and such, the
next... gone."
     He passed his cigar to Marta, his wife.  Marta was also an
anthropomorphic donkey, and also a former mercenary, and also not
anymore on the slender side, though the similarities ended there.  Her
several-shades-of-green camouflage bodice showed off her curves to
great advantage, a fact not lost on many of the men passing by her
table.  It certainly had not been lost on Lemon, and only pointed
glares from Guido--and Esteban's insistence that Lemon had to
accompany him to the bar right that second--kept him from remarking on
this.  Rumi, who had wanted to hear more about what others had seen of
the battle, had elected to stay.
     "They probably ducked out to keep from having to answer
questions," China Moroboshi noted, while Marta smoked.  China, if she
had gotten the memo about the party being formal-dress, had
disregarded it.  The 'Combichrist' black t-shirt and black leather
pants she wore made it seem to Rumi as if she had only stopped in on
her way to someplace lower to the ground.  "I mean, think about it.
They're here on behalf of some weird-ass hollow earth empire from
another dimension that's supposed to be a secret from us.  They only
revealed their true capabilities *after* the _Subtler Than Light_
showed up to try to pick up Erasmus Fancy.  They probably want to keep
as much as they still can on the QT--like why they like nineteenth-
century-sounding names so much.  Right?"
     Marta exhaled a cloud of smoke, then passed her cigar to China.
"You're probably right," she said.  "But what I want to know about is
those demon monkeys.  Are they still hanging around up here on the
surface, or did they find another way down to their underground city
or whatever?  You said the elevator shaft down to the base Fancy was
using isn't there anymore..."
     "We dug down far enough to determine they deliberately collapsed
the shaft," China said, clapping her hands once for emphasis.
"Could've gone further, but both Chal and Karina think that'd be a
mistake.  We need a lot more intel before we go poking around
underground where there're a bunch of civilizations we know next-to-
nothing about."
     "Such as why," added Marta, "a civilization that supposedly wants
nothing to do with us would build and maintain a fully functional
elevator to Dodger Stadium's parking lot."
     "What about Bhossi and Cla'rabhelle?" Rumi asked.  "I thought
they knew a lot about it."
     "They know about as much as you might from a travel guide for a
country you've never visited," Guido replied.  "They say they were
held on Mu, forced to work for Capella and the Hidden Empire.  Mu
apparently being a floating island *above* the main inner world, and
don't ask me how that even works.  They escaped, made it through a
gate into one of the underground civs in our dimension, somehow evaded
pursuit and wound up beneath the Great Pyramid at Giza, where Harxxon
found them in some tunnels.  That they're here now tells me that their
knowledge isn't quite a revelation to Chal and Karina."
     "It ain't," China confirmed.  "And more than that, I cannot
tell."  She pulled a cell phone from her pants pocket and checked the
time.  "I probably shood be off.  Pag's in town, and I convinced him
to party with me for old time's sake."
     "Pag?" Rumi asked.
     "Paginini Noyae," said China, as she stood.  "A long time ago
known as 'Paranoia,' though he no longer has the power to generate
such.  We were tight for a time, but... well.  You know."  She paused,
considering.  "I wonder if he remembered to bring back my cuffs this
time."
     She then shrugged, waved, and left.  Rumi wondered where Esteban
and Lemon had got to, and decided now was a good time to find out.
     There was an assortment of people at the circular bar, though
none of them were the two she sought.  She saw Glum talking with Kent,
Key, Johnny, and a man she remembered, after a few seconds puzzlement,
as Dr. Pethas Scott.  She saw Rad heading over to where her Uncle
Kaoru was seated.  She saw Karina Selanova and a man she did not
recognize talking with Bhossi, Cla'rabhelle, and Dr. Gigawatt.  She
saw Slithis and Mysanga amidst a cluster of people she did not know--
current and former building staff, she guessed--with the tiny panting
hellbeast Roog on a leash by his feet.  She spotted Miguel and Cendra
at a table with Eivandt and Alice Seconds, discussing something
requiring vigorous hand gestures over dessert.  But she did not see
Esteban or Lemon.
     *Hey, Coco,* she thought, *where you at?*
     *Downstairs,* came Coco's reply.
     The stairwells were barred with red velvet ropes, but no one
seemed to notice or care that Rumi flew over said ropes on her way
down.  The lower, enclosed dining level was considerably darker than
the top level, illuminated by the light from this floor's (empty)
version of the bar, and by several standalone wall-size screens
displaying a variety of pictures.
     *Over here,* Coco called to her.  *To your left.*
     She saw a wall screen.  Three figures were silhouetted by the
illuminated pictures.  One, Coco, floated and waved.  The other two
seemed merged, and unaware of her presence.
     Rumi landed beside Coco, who hovered down to sit on her
shoulders.  She considered Esteban, who was leaning with his back
against the screen and one hand at the back of Lemon's neck.  She
considered their ongoing kiss, and wondered how long it might last.
She coughed.
     Esteban's eyes shot open, and he somehow ducked out of the kiss,
spun, tripped, staggered against the wall, straightened, and found a
picture to consider, all in the space of four seconds.  How he had
managed to do this without falling, or getting tangled up in his own
awkward-looking limbs, Rumi could not guess.  She heard Coco giggling
in her mind, while Esteban relaxed upon seeing who they had been
interrupted by.  Rumi wondered how often, despite his fears, he risked
discovery with Lemon.  And why.
     Lemon's response to discovery was a grin and a suggestion.
"Next?"
     Rumi made a face.  Esteban rolled his eyes.  Lemon laughed, then
looked behind him at a tray on a table.  Rumi saw there were three
thin glasses on said tray, filled with a bubbling, color-shifting
liquid.  He picked up the tray, picked one of the drinks off the tray,
and held it out to them.
     "Drink this," he said.  "I dare you."
     "What is it?" Esteban asked, accepting the glass but regarding it
with suspicion.
     "It's the same thing Bhossi and Cla'rabhelle are drinking," Lemon
explained.  "After you left to come down here, I told the bartender
I'd take it to their table."
     "Why three glasses?" Rumi asked.  In answer, Lemon handed one of
them to her.
     *Where's mine?* Coco asked.
     *It'll peel your paint,* Esteban suggested.
     *That's no excuse.*
     "We're not old enough yet," Esteban protested, aloud, to Lemon.
"We shouldn't."
     "Yeah, yeah," Lemon replied.  "I gotta deliver these two.  Bee
arr bee."
     Rumi watched as he zipped up the stairs, moving fast enough to
cause the drinks to tip.  She sniffed at the drink, and immediately
felt light-headed.  Esteban took it from her unresisting hand and did
likewise.  Twenty seconds passed before either spoke.
     "Why is it," he said, "I can hear my stomach curdling?"
     "Forget about it being illegal for us to drink," said Rumi.  "I'm
not sure some of what I smelled should legally even exist."  She
looked around, saw a potted fern, took the drink back from Esteban,
and poured it in.  She then considered the wall of pictures before
her.
     "They're changing," Esteban noted.
     Indeed, as Rumi considered the pictures, most of which appeared
to be of restaurant patrons that had added their signatures and best
wishes, some disappeared and others appeared.
     "Hey, there's Foxey Lady!" Esteban exclaimed, pointing to a
picture of a comely brown-furred anthropomorphic fox in a shiny red
dress.  She appeared to be blowing a kiss toward the camera.  "But
where's Spectrum... oh, right, off camera.  Secret identity.  Oh, and
that, in the picture next to her, that's Governor Spoonman, and that's
Governor Schwartzenegger, Glenn Beck and Roger Ailes with him..."
     "Is this mainly superguys?" Rumi noted.
     "Them and movie and tv celebs," said Esteban.  "Like... look,
there's Tom Hanks... Mel Brooks... assorted Kardashians... Emma Dunne,
from the 'Narrator' movies... you ever see those?  I love the parts
where she's describing huge explosions even as she's outrunning them."
     They heard running from the direction of the steps.  Lemon
reappeared, sans tray.  Rumi thought it best not to ask if the drinks
made it to the Mu'Kaos intact.
     "Over here's Dominic White, the artist," Lemon noted, gesturing
to a photo featuring three people.  "His ex, Kim Stone, and their son,
Donnie.  He's same age as us, I think.  A'course, this was taken,
what, three years ago...?  Yeah, three."
     Rumi examined the photo, which showed a smiling, dark-haired man,
a bemused-looking blond woman, and a twelve-year-old who had the
foresight to use the moment of a picture-taking to record for
posterity an image of his tongue.  Rumi remembered something.
     "Wasn't he...?"
     "Yeah," said Lemon.  "The one-and-only High Jinx.  After the G-
War ended, he decided to hang it up and moved back east.  He
reconciled with her, and soon after he started having success selling
his paintings.  They were out here for a gallery showing when this was
taken, I think..."
     "Wait, how do *you* know he was High Jinx?" Rumi asked.  "My dad
told me--well, after he let it slip when he was telling a story about
an Awesome Force party he and mom went to before leaving Earth--but I
thought High Jinx kept his identity secret to most people, even after
he retired."
     "People talk to me," Lemon replied, flashing her another of his
infuriating grins.  "I got an honest face."
     Esteban snorted with a sudden burst of laughter.  Coco did as
well, though she only heard it in her mind.
     "I do!" Lemon protested, albeit without much force.  "I mean...
hey, look here, look at this pic.  Manny Seconds, right here."
     Rumi looked.
     "Yeah, that's him," she said, nodding at the vaguely Belgian,
thirtysomething former U.S. President.  Manny's smile was exuberant to
the point of goofiness.  "So?"
     "That was taken in 1997," said Lemon.  Rumi briefly wondered how
Lemon knew so much about the pictures on the wall, and the people in
them.  "About four months after the G-War ended.  This place had just
opened back up for business, and he was one of the first ones in.  But
he wasn't alone."
     "Chalandra was with him," Rumi said.  "But that's obvious.  She's
just not in the picture because she's one of the kinds of vampires
that doesn't show up in pictures."
     "Not so obvious," Lemon replied, "but yes, she was there, too."
     "His Secret Service detail?" asked Esteban, who appeared to be
just getting over the 'honest face' remark.
     "They didn't push one on him until after nine-eleven," Lemon
replied.  "No, the other person not in the picture, besides Chalandra,
but there anyway, is Karina Selanova."
     "What?" asked Rumi.  She had met Karina only yesterday morning,
following her near-arrest for buzzing a jetliner with an
indestructible five-year-old.
     "She wasn't with Homeland Security then," Lemon went on.  "She'd
been working for Chalandra at Harxxon when the G-War broke out.  Now I
don't know what the circumstances were, but when the allies went into
the shafts that led close to the Earth's core, she and Manny had to
stay behind.  They joined the resistance that formed against the
ULA... and sometime between there and war's end, they hooked up."
     "It was the dreams," said Esteban.  "You told me about those."
     "Well, I *speculated* it had something to do with those," said
Lemon.  "See, what was going on was they were still in contact with
the allies, but only through their dreams.  That way, they could pass
on information without even being conscious of doing so, and without
Psybernet finding out.  Only I think maybe he found out something that
Chalandra was doing and it screwed with his head, because he knew it,
yet he wasn't, you know, conscious that he knew it. 'Cause I heard
things about who was down there and... anyway.  For whatever reason,
it happened."
     Rumi wanted to interrupt, but no words came out.  Her parents had
told her none of this.  Had they even known?
     "So when the allies came out of the tunnels with their
counterattack," Lemon went on, "the truth was learned.  Drama
followed.  Then, somehow, they reconciled.  That pic you saw was of
the night after."
     *Why can't his Belgian-ness be more specific?* Coco wondered.
     "It's none of our business," Esteban said.  Rumi had the
unaccountable feeling it was not the first time he had said it to
Lemon, or the first time he had waited until hearing every last detail
of gossip to say it.  "Come on, let's go back up.  I want some
dessert."
     "I'll catch up," said Rumi, as she contemplated the picture wall.
     "'Kay," Lemon replied, winking at her before dashing around the
corner, followed by Esteban and Coco.  Rumi sighed, and looked down.
The potted fern that she had poured the drink into earlier caught her
eye.
     She was fairly sure it had not been blue.  And almost certain it
had not been glowing.
     "Yes," she said, to no one in particular.  "Definitely something
illegal in that.  Or maybe just impossible."  She edged away from it a
bit, and returned to contemplating the shifting pictures.
     It seemed like everything she heard only made the world she was
on seem stranger, and perversely more fascinating.  Only the day
before, when she had known next to nothing about it save what her
parents had told her and what had been reported by Ottsamaddawiduan
anthropologists, she had barely been able to face waiting out the year
she would have to live here until she was a legal adult in the eyes of
the Confederation and could go on her own back to planet California,
or Hottentot, or wherever looked good.  But Hottentot seemed distant
now, a childhood home that held no secrets.  And California, while fun
and sun-filled, seemed now to be possessed of a sameness.  There had
been more mystery and strangeness for her on one day on Earth than
California could hope to provide.  Not just during the demon monkey-
filled parts of the day, but in the ordinary moments, when she heard
what people said, and sensed what they left out, and wondered 'why
this?' and 'why not that?'
     The pictures on the wall changed again, and one in particular
caught her attention.  It was a nearly all-white rectangle, right
before her at eye level.  It was a note that had been hand-written and
scanned in to whatever system was powering the picture wall, Rumi
realized.  She leaned forward.
     The note read 'Step out.  Drop in.'  The handwriting was
identical to a note she had received the day before.
     Rumi had to remind herself to breathe.

                                 ***

     "...so then, the contestant swims through Dr. Phlegm's Lake of
Bile, past the rotating squirrel guts, to the dancing circus carney
zone, where they have to eat a plateload of lutefisk topped with
haggis and weasel brains and... are you listening, brother?"
     Rad wanted to answer, but felt it safer not to remove his hand
from his mouth, lest he lose his dinner.  He nodded at Kaoru
Moroboshi, who grinned and pressed his fingertips together.
     "Now, at this point, the contestants have to race up the armpit-
hair rope to where the syphilitic chickens await," said Kaoru,
gesturing with increasing enthusiasm as he described his new game
show's scenario.  The violent-green-and-corn-yellow sleeves of his
alarming sport jacket--his typical attire while on 'Look Out! Flaming
Game Show Fish of Desire!,'--did not help Rad's increasing queasiness
in the slightest.  "Or maybe it should be monkeys... I wish I'd been
able to make it here yesterday, like I'd planned!  I would have loved
to see those devil monkeys or whatever they were."
     "Like, demon monkeys, brother dude," Rad managed to say.
     Kaoru grinned at this.  Though Rad had seen his Japanese brother
in many different phases--as a spy for the then-invasion-minded
Dalans, as a cut-rate cyborg, and as a superguy who used the code name
'Spatial K' during his relatively brief tenure with CalForce--his Game
Show Host phase was, to Rad, his most frightening yet.  Granted, it
had brought him fame and fortune throughout southeast Asia, and it
probably beat being a southern-California-based detective with weird
and rather silly powers.  It was still hard on the eyes--and the part
of his brain that resolutely tried to envision what he was talking
about.
     "My wife was wondering the same thing, too," said Kaoru.  The
ife he referred to, famous Japanese singer Lynt Minutemaid, was a
producer on Kaoru's game show.  "But we heard they only eat
nectarisite, and we don't have any.  You think they'd take cash?"
     "Dude," said Rad.  "I was told, like, they were, like,
mercenaries, y'know?  So, like, if you find them around, y'know, just,
like, make an offer."
     Kaoru grinned, and Rad could tell he was about to launch into
further descriptions of the disgusting challenges--all based, he had
said, on some of the milder recommendations made by the Ill Dudes,
official consultants to the show.  Then his arm was jostled.
     "Whoops," said Manny Seconds.  "Sorry about that, Rad..."
     "Dude!" Rad exclaimed, loudly enough to make heads turn.  "Like,
it has been, like, ages since I, like, saw you!"
     "It certainly has!" declared his former sidekick, who was
impeccably attired in a traditional black tuxedo.  "Come, let us get
caught up on our lives and so on, over there!"  He indicated an
expanse of mostly occupied tables with a wave of his hand.
     "Dude," said Rad, breathing a sigh of relief.  "Hey, like, K..."
     "No problem, brother," said Kaoru, his grin undiminished.  "I'm
supposed to go over and see Tom and Laura and their triplets.  I
promised to tell them about the pus cannon and the all-calamari
underpants."
     Rad nodded, felt his stomach twitch a bit, then let himself be
guided away by Manny.
     "Thanks, dude," said Rad.  "I know, like, he's my brother and
all, like, but, dude..."
     "Eivandt's told me about him," Manny replied.  "He thinks the
shows are hilarious.  So do Tom and Laura, apparently.  Alice and
Cendra think he's weird."
     "Like, he *is* weird."
     Manny shrugged.  "Runs in the family," he said.
     Rad noticed the two unsmiling men in government-issue suits as
they started following.  "New Secret Service, dude?" he asked.
     "My previous detail's off for a few days," said Manny.
"Recovering from having their nectarisite radio control chips
extracted, and from thinking they're ninjas.  Elizabeth did a pretty
good job of filing the rough edges off those memories, judging from
them."
     Rad followed Manny's eyes, and saw Dr. Elizabeth Tirkoff.  Her
dark blue evening gown sparkled in the ambient light as she talked
with a young-appearing woman in a severe-looking black leather bodice
and black pants, who he recognized as Chalandra Harkness.  As
Elizabeth talked, without taking her eyes off Chalandra, she reached
to her right and made a near-fist.  Immediately, a collar formed
around her near-fist, along with a neck, a coat, a shirt, a tie,
slacks, shoes, and a boy to fill them.  The boy, Kirby, looked up and
around at his mom with an expression that conveyed complete innocence
regarding any possible charges of using his ability to be
imperceptible to sneak away to have fun and how did you catch me,
anyway.  Elizabeth gave him an I'm Your Mother glance, then released
his collar.  Kirby watched the two women talk, unable to keep from
looking bored out of his mind.
     "Poor kid," said Manny, as he and Rad started walking in that
direction.  "Sneak onto a helicopter and fly into a combat zone just
to see what it's like, and you get punished by having to listen to
adults talk about boring stuff."
     "Like, Kirby," said Rad, rolling the name around in his mind.
"Like, hey, wasn't there, like, a Pac-Shmoe named Kirby?"
     Manny shrugged.  "Beats me," he said.
     As they approached, Karina Selanova--attired in the same (or at
least a similar) business outfit Rad remembered from the morning
before--came up to Elizabeth and Chalandra, flanked by a man in an
ordinary black sportcoat and tie.  She nodded to Elizabeth, then
whispered something in Chalandra's ear.  Both she and Chalandra looked
in Rad and Manny's direction.  Chalandra nodded.  Rad could not be
sure, but it seemed as if a corner of her mouth curled up.
     "Well," said Manny, "looks like that's decided."
     "What's decided, dude?"
     Karina went around Chalandra and Kirby and gave Manny a courteous
nod as he and Rad approached.  The man with Karina--who Rad now
recognized as being Carl, the burly Homeland Security guard who had
greeted him at the Homeland Security office a morning ago, and
apparently was here tonight as Karina's bodyguard--gave him a cool
stare in return.
     "I'm sorry to have to impose, Mr. Seconds," Karina said, "but the
statements that Homeland Security collected on last night's battle
against this so-called 'Hidden Empire' are incomplete.  I was hoping I
could come by later and get some more details from you and your wife."
     "Anything for greater security, Mrs. Selanova," Manny replied.
"You know where we're staying?"
     "Of course," Karina replied.  "I'll see you then."  She gave Rad
a nod.  "Mr. Moroboshi," she said, before heading past them, followed
by Carl.  Rad noticed that, though Manny had called her 'Mrs,' she was
no longer wearing the wedding band he had last seen on her left-hand
ring finger.
     "Dude," he said, after a few seconds.  "Like, more
reconciliation?"
     "Dude," Manny replied.  He put out his left hand, formed into a
fist.  Rad made a fist of his right hand, and bumped it against
Manny's fist.
     "Dude," Rad agreed.
     They reached Chalandra, Elizabeth, and Kirby.  Kirby looked like
a kid trying to contain a major fidget.
     "Like, hey, Liz, Chal," said Rad, as Manny gave Chalandra a quick
kiss.  "Like, hey, little dude.  You, like, look bored, y'know?"
     "A little," Kirby admitted.  "Mom says I got to stay close the
*whole evening.*"
     "Not the whole evening," Elizabeth Tirkoff corrected.  "Just
until I say."
     "Weren't you, like, kind of blurry, like, before?" Rad asked.
     "Bhossi said the stuff I got splashed with in her lab wore off,"
Kirby answered.  "No ill effects.  It sped me up for a bit, kinda like
Momma Alice.  You saw, right?"
     "Sure did, Kirby dude," Rad answered, remembering how, a day ago,
Kirby had sped around the control room of the _Vander Harkness_ and up
and over some anvils that Johnny Clark had been juggling.
     "I remember when my parents were just worried about me looking
both ways before crossing the street," Elizabeth said, before taking a
sip of her wine.
     "Or about talking to strangers," Manny added.
     "Or the Black Death," said Chalandra.  "Even though that was
technically over by the time I was born."
     "Like, hey, Liz, my bro Kaoru, like, is here," said Rad.  "He's,
like, telling people, like, about his game show, y'know?  Maybe, like,
Kirby would like to, y'know, hear about it."
     Elizabeth considered.  "Is that the one with... I'm trying to
think... the sheep-intestine slingshot?  And earwax-ball dodging?"
     "That sounds cool!" Kirby exclaimed.
     "He's downloaded a few of those shows," Elizabeth said.  "They're
amazing... in a way I never want to see."  She considered Kirby, who
was giving her his best 'please-let-me-go-even-though-i'm-playing-it-
too-cool-to-actually-look-like-i-want-to-go' look.  "Alright.  But
we'll head over together."
     "What time's your flight?" Chalandra asked.
     "Early," Elizabeth replied.  "6:30 AM, on Awesome Airways' _Silly
Wizzard._  I'll call when we're on our way."  She paused.  "Are you
leaving already?"
     "Lots of paperwork to go over tonight," Manny said.  "City of Los
Requemados wants to talk to us about having a flying structure docked
to our building there without a permit.  Plus, all the work that piled
up yesterday while we were out saving greater Los Angeles.  You know."
     "Okay," said Elizabeth.  She hugged Chalandra, then Manny.  Kirby
took this as his cue to head out, which he did at a run.  "Take care,
both of you.  Hard to say when I'll be back this way again."  She
started to turn, then looked back at Manny.  "Teatree oil will help
with the marks," she added, low enough that passerby could not hear.
"Also, loose-fitting shirts."
     "What?" asked Manny.  "Oh... um... right."  His cheeks reddened a
bit, and he considered his wine glass.  He smiled.  "Right, I'm cut
off."  Chalandra accepted the glass from him and handed it to a
passing waiter.
     Elizabeth and Rad made their way through the tables, following
Kirby, who would sprint forward a ways, turn, wait, then sprint some
more.  Rad got the sense that Elizabeth was trying to hide a grin
while watching him.
     "Some days," she said, "it's really hard to keep a straight
face."  She shook her head.  "How's Rumi doing?"
     "Like, better," said Rad.  "We, like, talked for a bit, like,
before we got here, y'know?  And, like, as weird, like, as my day was,
hers was, like, even weirder, and, like, stuff."
     "Did she tell you how she knew Capella?"
     "She, like, said she had, like, this vision, y'know?" Rad
replied.  "The _Subtler Than Light,_ like, in 1899 Central, like,
America.  Erasmus Fancy, like, in a sphere-ship, like, with a
Reptiloid, and, like, a short dude."  And Akane, he added but did not
say.  Then he inwardly cringed, but a quick check from his implant
revealed his standard [space science!] psi-shield was active, and no
probes were detected.  Unlike Manny, who no longer had a psi-shield
implant, he did not have to rely on mental exercises and techniques to
keep his thoughts to himself.
     "That's got to be worrisome," Elizabeth said.  "Having visions, I
mean.  Has she shown any clairvoyant tendencies before this?"
     "Like, nope," Rad replied.  "And, like, I'm not too worried.
Visions, like, happen, y'know?"
     "Right," said Elizabeth.  "I forgot you had a few in your day...
Kirby!  Don't get too far ahead!"
     "Come on, mom!" Kirby, three tables ahead, called to her.  "I can
hear him talking about the 'use those white things that you get in
cans of pork-and-beans as flotation devices' challenge!"
     "That's supposed to get me to hurry?" Elizabeth replied, too low
for Kirby to hear.  "You should get Rumiko in on this," she added.
"What teenage girl doesn't want to hear about pork-and-bean floaties?"
     Rad laughed, then looked around.  He saw Yury talking with
Templar and his guest... a surprise, but it seemed to be civil enough,
and even pleasant.  Kent and Key were describing something to Hal, who
was listening with an apparently inexhaustible patience.  He could not
see Johnny Clark right away, but noticed that Lemon Rydell--the kid
who had been threatened yesterday by Dana Wader--appeared to be
floating past surprised people, which was soon revealed to be because
he was standing on Johnny Clark's upturned right palm, arms out to
maintain his balance as Johnny ran.  Esteban Veracruz and Coco were
trying to keep up.  Cendra, Miguel, Eivandt, and Alice watched from
the bar.  Dr. Gigawatt was demonstrating a card trick of some kind to
Bhossi, Cla'rabhelle, Laura, and the McCavish-Laffalot brood.  Glum
was giving Manny a hug near the elevator, while Chalandra, Karina,
Carl, and Manny's Secret Service guys waited inside.  China, in front
of the other elevator, looked like she was giving directions to
something to Iris Adams, who was noting them down on her SpoonBerry.
Guido and Marta had been joined by Tom McCavish-Laffalot, Shadebeam,
Slithis, and Mysanga in chatting, drinking, and cigar-smoking, while
Roog panted and slavered and spun.
     Rumi was nowhere to be seen.
     He mentally tapped his sub-implant.  *Like, ping Rumi, y'know?*
he instructed.
     A fraction of a second passed, during which his house's Expert
System Intelligence received the command, processed it, retrieved
Rumi's current location from her implant, and replied.
     **Rumiko located,** said the ESI, in its usual dulcet tones.
**Relative positioning, forty-eight feet north-northwest, forty-six
feet down.**  The ESI fed him additional information to help him with
which directions 'north-northwest' and 'down' were.  Forty-eight
feet... that was close to the outer edge of the force-bubble dome, but
inside.  But down forty-six?  That was below the lowest level of the
restaurant.
     "I'll, like, catch up, Liz," said Rad.  "I've, like, got to,
like, find Rumi, like, y'know?"
     "See you," she replied, as she headed for Kirby.
     He headed for an elevator.

(continued in part four, following...)
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Copyright (c) 2009 by Gary W. Olson.  All Rights Reserved.
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Gary W. Olson
swede at novitious dot com
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