Chapter 3

I watched Captain Morris’s mind as the four men slowly wound their way to McSorley’s base. They avoided Burnside and marched across the desert. How fast could a man cross twenty-five miles of desert on foot, after all? They had just the food and water they carried with them. They all seemed to remember going to sleep in the desert; some remembered having a strange dream. I modified that memory so they did not remember the SAME strange dream.

This was an uncomfortable part of my ‘superpower,’ for me. I had to remember what memories I put into which mind. And then I had to remember what I was doing in my own real life. What I told other people. Whoever said it was right: tell the truth, it’s much easier than remembering which lies you told to who.

[Lexi, you know that I can store the memory you implant in which mind. I have plenty of memory storage for that and can recall the exact thoughts involved.]

Oh, yeah. Sorry, I tend to forget what I’m supposed to remember. I need to have somebody jostle my elbow from time to time. So if you would, do that please.

Meantime, I needed to figure out what to do about the OGPA people. I didn’t need to bother with the lobbyists – they’re just paid flunkies. Well paid, but just flunkies. I couldn’t kill all of them, like I did with the Cheney lawyers. Those people wanted to kill me. Rape me first, then kill me. No, the OGPA just had what you might call a commercial dispute with SotH.

Time for a phone call. Ring ... ring ... ring.

“This is Linc. Go ahead, Lexi.”

“How’s Navajo Electric, these days?”

“Well, half the generating building is in rubble. The good news is Chas has determined that the fusion bottles were not damaged, and the electro-magnetic fields were just covered with dust, which didn’t bother them at all. They’re running on solar panel electricity, with Arizona Power as a backup. And the battery building wasn’t touched at all, so we’ve got plenty of battery power. It’s just a question of rebuilding what they demolished. Just a matter of time and money; both of which we got plenty of.”

“And the bad news?” I asked.

“The bad news is not really bad news. It’s more like a change of plans is needed. We need four generating buildings instead of just the one we had in mind. Clearwater is doing his job, it seems. He’s hired a Japanese site manager from a nuclear power company. The guy is all about building with safety redundancies and plenty of air conditioning. The problem is we’ll have to get a humongous amount of water to cool the refrigerant and get the hot air out of the buildings. And we’re located in a desert.”

[Lexi, a geothermal solution suggests itself.]

HUH?

[Geothermal. If you dig down in the earth far enough, you’ll find plenty of cool dirt to absorb the heat of the generating plants. You may have to sink several shafts, but there’s plenty of empty surrounding space. You can even put them fairly close to a building. All the cooling and heat exchange is going on deep underground. And this is a fairly stable seismic region, so we won’t be bothered by earth movement underground, too much.]

“I don’t think we’re going to need a large amount of water, Linc. We’ll just sink holes in the ground and cool the anti-freeze – or whatever air conditioners use – in the ground. Think geothermal,” I said, mimicking Red’s information.

“Oh, I guess we’ll need an outside expert for that, too,” Linc said. “Make sure you tell Clearwater about geo-whatsis ... I’m spending more of your money, though. I’m installing double fencing all around the much larger NE site. And I’m gonna build some pill boxes all over the place.”

“Pill boxes?” Did I really have to know all this stuff? Geothermal and pill boxes?

[You are the CEO of SotH. All the major decisions should go through you.]

Yeah. Okay.

“Pill boxes!” Linc emphasized. “They’re nothing more than reinforced guard stations. I expect more of this kind of sabotage crap. You need to expand Burnside North. Or set up a bus route to get ‘em in here. Or both. We’re going to need more guards, ‘round the clock. I know a gal from Pendleton who’s retiring soon. She handles transportation and buses and such like for the camp. She’s a helluva Marine.”

“You know I like hiring Native People as much as possible,” I objected.

“Fine. I’m just making a suggestion to get things going as expeditiously as possible. People with experience don’t grow on trees.” He was sulking. I never thought he was a sulker.

“I always have said to use Native People AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE. That doesn’t exclude others. Look at the Japanese site manager, for example.” Might as well pretend I knew about him before he was hired.

“Right, right. It’s just a suggestion anyway.” He knew when to stage a retreat, and call it a planned relocation of forces. “Oh. One other thing. A small thing ... We’re going to need some air power. And anti-air power.”

“A small thing? I thought you were a Marine. We’re going into the Air Force business now?”

“Well, yeah, actually. I figure just a small air component, besides Whirlwind One, I mean. Just a couple of choppers and some stinger missiles, if we can get them.”

[I can find them in the black market, Lexi. We’ll never be able to get them from legitimate sources.]

“Stinger missiles?” I echoed.

“I figure that after we block ground assault, our enemies will try air ingress eventually ... Lexi, we are going to cost a lot of people a lot of money. They are going to be desperate. They have powerful friends.”

“Uhm...” I’m gonna be real sorry if he needs to shoot down something. Of course, I’m gonna be SORRIER if he needs to shoot down something, and can’t. “Look, you’re the security expert. If you think we need ‘em, we’ll find a way to get ‘em ... I may have a contact.”

I tapped into his mind. ’I wonder if that one hundred grand payout is gonna pay dividends, so soon.’

“Lexi, there’s another thing,” Linc said. He was getting ready to ask me about messing with the invaders’ minds. “You got a lot of information from those four Special Forces guys. And we just turned them loose afterward. How much trouble are we going to have with McSorley after they get home?”

There was a pause on the phone call. This time it was me. I decided to pull the curtain back a little.

’Linc, this is me, Lexi. I don’t know what I can do, until I try to do it. I can send thoughts to people I’ve come in contact with, and read some of their thoughts. In this case, I messed with their memories of their capture and interrogations. We should be okay. I think. And I can read thoughts out of people’s mind, too. I don’t do it all the time, and never without permission – except for bad guys.’

’Well,’ he thought, ’I couldn’t stop you. So, I’ll trust you not to peek. I’ve thought you could do this for a while now. It explains so much ... Now, get out of my head.’

’I’m gone,’ I lied.

He seemed to be taking the news like a Marine. Circumstances have changed. Adjust, adapt, overcome.

And you don’t even know about reading tomorrow’s news, my friend.

...

McSorley took the news as a great success. His men had knocked out the Navajo Electric site and put it out of business. There was going to be at least a several-year delay. Meantime, the appeal to the Navajo Court of Appeals was progressing. The lawyers had submitted their papers, and judgment would be forthcoming, whenever. My money was on ‘sometime next year.’