Down Jersey Drive-shaft

Chapter Twenty Nine: Outflanking the Everywhere

"Crank!"

Going, going...

"Crank!"

Gone.

Shoot! Darn Italian broads! Swell a guy all up one second, pop his balloon the next! "Crank! Hey, Crank, wait! Okay, okay, I'm coming already!"

***

"Yes Kiss her for me, kiss her a hundred times. I love you too." Roy Fuse hangs up the telephone in the communications room. His other hand wipes tears from his eyes. He can't believe it. By God, he's glad it works, his tricking the comms, but it's unbelievable.

Alternating frequencies works. Got through to Seabrook Farms. Solid test run. That's a plus. Company and people are still alive after the attack, no major dilemmas, they said. Wasn't expecting them to put Chiyoko on the phone...

He chokes back tears. This war has been so brutal for him. Correction. It's been so fast for him, there hasn't been time to stop and think. Fuse has crisscrossed the United States, taking notes, doing experiments, ducking for cover, for over a year now. No rest. No quarter. No meditation. Special Technologies kept him running, so much so he'd forgotten why he had been angry last year, this year even. But Motherville brought it back, right along with childhood memories. The voice of his wife on the telephone, the tired voice of a younger woman working twelve-hour days six days a week or else, that voice, socks him right in the kisser.

The Tucson mission, October of Forty Three. Out in the desert, taking readings on the crashed plane we later found out was a Slick reconnaissance probe. Heh, the old man who showed it to me and Mechanic Furth drove us in that old Model T Runabout held together by wire and rust. Thing banged like a dozen busted drums. But we hauled it back to the ST research bay, a Quonset hut of all things. It was then that I found out about Chiyoko and Mary Sue. Man, the way Furth said it when he got off the telephone. Cold, a hint of joy. 'Yeah, your wife and daughter were rounded up by the Feds, told to go to Air-ee-zone-uh to sweat or New Jair-zee to work.' I thought, really thought, he was a swell guy, not like the other whites I'd been paired with. But then...'yeah, tough luck bein' a Jap an' all. Guess you might see 'em once we blow your people to Kingdom Come. Don't be too glum.' Bastard even gave me a friendly handshake after. I had considered our friendship alive and well til he killed it. When I worked from home, I had assurances my family would never be relocated because of my position. They waited. They waited until I was sent away--

He realizes he is still holding the telephone by the handle and slams it down. Chi sounded so bad. So...

More tears push out, overriding his futile attempts to calm down. She' s a seamstress for crying out loud, not a day laborer! He's losing it, and he knows it. Fuse shoves his body out of the old chair and heads outside. He sees Crank storming off, Traveler Haskins limping behind her. Glad he got back...my God, they probably have Mary Sue slaving in the field too. She's only nine. Nine!

He pinches his eyes shut, as if pain is a bright light he can deter by looking at the dark. Work. Work has been my salvation. I jumped right back in once you found ST wouldn't let me get them out of the dilemma. Not that I didn't try...

He had. Special Technologies set out a task force to find their expert in frequencies once he went AWOL two days after getting the distressing news. Roy was able to get home to California, but he found an empty house, one turned upside down, neighborhood kids his wife once babysat for busting the windows out with rocks. Not since childhood had the hate come at him so. He grabbed a shovel and chased them around the house. On the the second circuit, the ST Aerosedan pulled into the dirt driveway. Seeing colleagues point guns at him, well, it brought out a new reality. Was he ST's scientist, or captive? Why wouldn't they send his family with him?