Chapter 11: Baffled

Catherine woke with me freshly showered and mostly dressed, buttoning the remaining button. I hadn’t planned on a jacket today since we were leaving for home in a few hours. What she hadn’t realized was where she was or what direction she was curled up in.

“What time is it?” inquired the over tired, teen.

“Eight, local. Do you want breakfast in the room after your swim or in the restaurant?”

“Can we eat here? I haven’t done any studying in the last couple days.”

“That was the point and yes.”

“Look mum, that girl still failed her test.” A familiar little girl in yellow called out mortifying my student who was wearing a teal one-piece swim suit, simultaneously entertaining the few present at the pool and mortifying the ‘girl’ in question.

“Libby, apologize to Miss Larkin. Some tests are very hard.” Called out a focused minded mother behind her laptop.

“Sorry Miss Larking. I hope you pass your test soon,” the little girl called out cheerfully.

“Me too, Libby, me too.” Diving into the pool, she hoped to escape further embarrassment...

“How long before Catherine unlocks your test?”

“A year, give or take. She might push it back if something becomes more interesting.” I replied while accessing my email.

“I’ve heard she offered a Device to Belinda at Dino’s. Is it possible for me to acquire something similar for my business?”

“What would your place of business be, Miss?”

“Mary Worthington. Worthington Stamping and Machining in Warren, Ohio.”

“What is the square footage, decibel level and number of stations of your plant?” I had heard of them. They had a good reputation. I had even purchased from previously through one of my cutouts numerous times.

“We have two...” The CFO then went on to give an overview of the plant size and layout. After exchanging contact information, I left her with an approximate guess of the total cost for the two plants.

“When I return to Ohio in a few days, I will send you the official layout. I hope we can do business Smith.”

“I see no bar to that, Mrs. Worthington.”

“Ms. There wasn’t ever a Mr.”

“My apologies.” It was a non-issue to her regarding my mistake.

“How long before your student can make a Device like this on her own?”

“Twenty-four to thirty months.”

“She is sixteen now. By the time she is nineteen she will be that far? I am not sure who is more impressive, you or her.”

“Definitely her. I don’t get out much.”

“Your girl is going to shake the world. I hear that even Strife assigned her a Piece on the Board.”

I frowned. What was Moria thinking? “Did you hear of what piece she assigned Cat?”

“Crystal bishop.” Sigh. “You don’t look surprised.”

“Little of what Moria does surprises me. That doesn’t make it better though.”

“You are familiar with Moria O’Shannan?” There was admiration in her tone.

“Some.”

“Mommy, Mommy, you said no business. I’m hungry, can we eat?” A little yellow blur rushed to her mom’s side, dripping on her long legs.

“Let’s dry you off first. It was a pleasure meeting you, Smith.”

“Likewise.” The little girl stood steadfast while being smothered for the sake of dryness and waved goodbye to me as they left the pool.

“Interesting woman.” In a New Britannia way.

“Who’s interesting?” asked Cat while drying off next to me.

“A new customer. Seems that your suggestion at Dino’s sprouted a branch.” Cat sought details, once we returned to the room asked me, while waiting for room service.

“Do I get a commission from that too?”

“No. Just what you sell directly.” She didn’t expect one and was playing around.

Coincidently, Cat changed into a teal belly dancer costume and slippers while waiting. The belt was low enough to suit her tastes and just barely layered with enough hanging silk to make the outfit legal in public. Silver coins dangled from her belt and bra. Her only other adornments were silver bracelets and anklets with smaller coins dangling. That was the first play outfit that had not included either a panty or a bra, making her nervous. Each piece of the pale green silk gauze was almost completely transparent. Only by layering numerous times were the designers able to create the illusion of nudity while still maintaining coverage.

She and her outfit drew a lot of attention in the hotel lobby, more so when her identity was disclosed. I warned her to not let the bracelets touch, refusing to elaborate, on our way down in the elevator. She found out why on the way home in the airplane when her ankles crossed while stretching. The squawk of annoyance alerted me when the metal rings encircling her ankles refused to part.

Chuckling, I returned to finishing up Dino’s restaurant’s order.

“Jerk.” ‘you could have said.’

“I did warn you.” Which didn’t earn me a reply, other than the LooK. She hopped behind me for a hundred feet after we disembarked from the plane to the car in the private spot reserved for it before giving in and asking for help.

“How do I undo these?” The silk was plastered to her from the sweat caused by exertion and the direct sun of the ninety degree morning.

I held up a ring. “Choose; Hop and get carried or exchange ankles for wrists.”

“Wrists.” she agreed without hesitation.

“Cross them.” she did, with a light clink, they were firmly joined. I bent down and released the leg ones allowing her to walk unimpeded. The Images when we returned home made her speechless. The Device easily saw through the layers of silk which were arranged to fool the eye.

The pictures of her in the casino hotel lobby and hopping to the car while being led on a leash, made the new website which debuted after we first visited UNLV; ‘Smith’s_KittyCat.fan.’ Within the two short days, hundreds of photos had been posted and notated including a few from the first play we attended from either a low row audience member or one of the ushers. The fact that half of her butt cheeks were revealed in that sitting position along with all of her smooth back made them a site favorite along with the new ones of her belly dancers’ outfit. Over the course of the next few weeks, it would take over as the most popular fan site dedicated to my student, maintaining its dominance for years to come.

The administrators had even discovered photos from when she was a junior Heroine in Central City with her three friends. Needless to say, high school year book, and senior photographs were also included. The change in hairstyle had fifty pages of commentary the first day in that one particular forum.

A major concern of mine was that the logo of the website was a crystal bishop. Moria’s Board of Players was not advertised, nor known except by a few.

My young student, accompanied me each day when I was using the stations to create the Devices she inspired and sold, taking notes and learning. When I worked on Moria’s Device she spent less time with me. Most of my days for those weeks were spent in the workshop, leaving her a little lonely, she admitted.

“It’s too quiet when you are always down there,” she complained at dinner, one evening after a particularly long and difficult stretch of circuit board replication.

“But when I am up in my den, you can’t hear me.” I questioned her complaint.

“It’s different. I Know you are right there. Who knows where your workshop really is?”

Ah. She had figured that out. “You are welcome to come down.”

“I know. Just forget it.” Since neither of us had a good solution, that was all we could do for now.

The Larkin family plus the addition of one paternal grandmother arrived on August 8^th. Swimsuit week. The suddenly modest teen panicked hoping to find a more conservative suit than the unlined blood red Brazilian cut ‘V’ front with traditional triangular tops on strings. The petite teen even had reserved that particular suit for her family to see, as soon as the weekly lineup was discovered.

Lindsay hoped to steal one or two, but since her sister was older, larger and actually had curves, none fit well. That and since they all were unlined, Suzanne put her foot down. Cat did let her take a couple blouses with tight fits that weren’t over the top.

During dinner the youngest daughter of the Larkins asked a seemingly innocuous question. “Cat, why does your website have a chess piece as a logo? I didn’t know you played chess.”

“What are you talking about Lin, I don’t have a website.” Given leave, Cat fetched her tablet and returned letting her sister show us what she was talking about.

“It’s a fan site, not mine. Don’t believe what you read here. It’s just gossip.” The teen belied her words by quickly scanning the site and bookmarking it. “I don’t know what that is about.” Glaring at me for an answer.

Refusing to air the truth, “Since the site has that as an icon. I bet others have asked the same question. It’s probably somewhere. Put that aside for now. You have guests.”

Mr. and grandmother Larkin dealt with me as a perspective son in law as the day progressed which I found both alarming and amusing. When their daughter discovered that her father already considered her married and shipped off, she hit me. In front of them. Twice. Suzanne’s reaction to the ‘Slug’ was worrisome. She paled and left the room with her hand covering her mouth. Since Lindsay didn’t understand the byplay, she threw out a curve ball and asked if I had other remote toys.

Seeing an escape, I accepted the opening, letting youngest Larkin play with hummingbird 2 with the glasses remote and superior capabilities, while I kept an eye on her behind the house.

When the family was ready to leave, the forlorn younger sister showed that she missed her older sibling, but not as much as she hoped to take home Hummingbird 2. That request was denied when I informed them that it was built as a weapon, not a toy. Of course, that made Lindsay want it all the more.

Suzanne stopped to talk to us at the door when the rest were already in the car. Standing a step below her daughter and fingering the alloy leash. “You don’t even notice this anymore do you. And this is yours now.” the second was in reference to the collar. “I know others that had one for years, that don’t wear it as naturally as you do,” she sighed, as if in pain.

“Mom,” Cat complained using one of the one word, many meanings sentences that she was so adept at.

“Catherine can be over willful. A good punishment should settle her down. Who knows, an occasional good spanking might do wonders. It does for me. Keep my baby safe, Smith.” Hugging her daughter over smothered protests, Suzanne left with a tear and the older Larkin submissive returned to her husband and what was left of her family.

Cat, on the other hand was ready to do just that to her own mother for the embarrassing suggestions. “Don’t even think about it, Jerk.” ‘No, No, No, NO!’

“At least Lindsay didn’t lose her marbles. What are they thinking?” The mumbling was almost inaudible as she left to clean up, not that there was much to do. Her grandmother did most of that earlier.

“Thursday, I am going to deliver the Device to Moria, do you want to come?”

“Colleen leaves for Chicago on the twenty second. Can we meet with her for lunch or something after?” Cat looked a little lonely of late. I had spent too much time in the workshop finishing Moria’s Device.

“It’s a three-hour drive to Strife International. Expect thirty minutes for delivery and another thirty back to the city.”

“I’ll check with her. How about three?”

“That’s fine.” I returned to my eggs.

“What is it Darrin?” The President and CEO of the world’s second largest communication company was on edge. Something unexpected was going to happen today her senses told her.

“I need ten minutes, Lady.”

Staring at her screen, but not seeing the data, “Fine. Now is as good of a time as any.”

Her longtime assistant looked tired yet excited when he entered carrying a single magazine, ‘Restaurateur.’ “I think I found a solution for the vibration issue.” Opening to the marked page. “Smith and Larkin visited Vegas in July.” Strife nodded to herself, she had known that. “They dined at Dino’s at the Populous. The initial review was that the place, though beautiful, was noisy.” She motioned him to get on with it. “Apparently Miss Larkin offered the services of her Master in building a Device to remove the noise between the tables. The actual effects are 25db total for the areas between the tables.”

“Twenty-Five.”

“Yes Lady.”

“Master Smith would never have volunteered to make something like that. The kid can adapt. Good for her ... Contact Master Smith, after you get the exact specs for what we need and buy the blueprint.”

“He will be here tomorrow at one to deliver your Device.”

Checking her calendar, “Hold off until Monday then.”

“What do you want to be done with Teams Seventy through Seventy-two?”

“Keep Seventy where they are, Seventy-one and two- can be moved to radiation but not until you get confirmation from Smith. Oh, no hurry on the delivery of the print. Up to six months will do.”

“Why the delay, Lady?”

“He will be getting busier soon.”

“Everyone will want this Device. Demand will be high won’t it, Lady?”

“It will, he will probably create a generic one and have one of his automated plants do the dirty work.”

“Anything else, Lady?”

“Well done, Darrin. And thanks.”

“Thank you, Lady.”

Cat watched in delight as the cement floor of the garage split in two and opened up to a ninety degree angle revealing a steel plate which retracted allowing the FloatyBot to carry up its cargo from the workshop storage. The steel encased four by four by eight Device floated evenly up with the Bot’s efforts. The eight-inch-thick, six-foot-long transport Bot moved the thirteen-hundred-pound converter up and over the closed bed of the new pickup that I hadn’t used since delivering Cat to me.

...

I entered the line behind the two semis causing Cat to put away her tablet and notes. “We have to wait in line?”

“The sign says; ‘all deliveries’.” Her eyes rolled at my response.

The security guard gave Cat in the passenger seat an odd look, “Are you making a delivery?” the younger armed man inquired once I rolled the window down.

“For Moria O’Shannan.” I handed over the invoice to the guard with her passkey. Returning the printout, I was directed to bay twenty-three on the left.

A woman in a dark blue coverall with a SI badge arm and her last name stenciled on the chest came out. “What do you have and how much does it weigh?”

I repeated the procedure, handing the employee the invoice. “Sir, can you wait for boss? She isn’t here yet and we aren’t supposed to touch anything with that project number on it without her direct supervision.” I had no problem with waiting, since it was not out of my expectations.

While Cat and I waited, she pulled up the Strife International complex map from the satellite data, commenting on the size and number of the warehouses, which was located only a dozen miles from SI headquarters.

Two black sedans arrived ten minutes later. Five minutes beyond the expected meeting time. Which was unusual for Moria, she was rarely late unless it was an emergency.