Chapter 3

When the conversion was finally, a ‘full bake,’ as Sam put it, I said, when confronted by the ‘rescue’ assignment, “Make it two.”

Eva Caretaker Coordinator walked through the secret door and sent me home.

No matter how much I complained ... it’s in the rulebook.

“First timers have a three week ‘cooling down’ period. Go home, build your portal ... if ... at the end of your wait time ... you decide you don’t want to go ... don’t come back.”

Cin was sitting in her comfy chair ... the alarm clock rang. She put down her book and hesitated when I came through alone.

“Where is JW?”

“He stayed,” I said.

“Why did you leave him there?” Cyn asked ... but not politely.

“I didn’t have a choice, Eva Caretaker Coordinator put me out,” I said.

“Why?”

“New heros have a three week waiting period,” I explained.

“You weren’t a new hero, you were supposed to be a Hero’s Companion.” That was an accusation.

“I changed my mind.”

“Oh ... why?”

“Because I have a better record in the hero trade,” That was a ’Listen here, Missy. I don’t have to explain my actions to the likes of you,’ statement.

Cyn was working herself up to a hissy-fit when JW stumbled through the mirror.

The boat was still adrift ... sorta pissing around the same general area... 15 minutes is 15 minutes.

“Let’s go home,” JW said. “I’ze a tired puppy.”

When one is already at sea, evolutions for sea don’t happen ... the crew just keeps on keeping on ... only back-tracking. It’s a little more complicated than that ... the wind is still blowing in the same direction it was blowing in ... in other words ... going back takes a lot longer than going forward.

We made a start ... and would have been moored in a couple three hours ... except for that damn tsunami.

The cat didn’t see the mooring ball for weeks. A thirty foot hump in the water passed under the cat.

“What was that?” JW asked.

I was already headed to the helm, “Tsunami.” I was formal, “By the powers vested in me by the Diet. This boat is commandeered for the duration ... for however long it takes to clean this mess up. Hold on... ‘nother wave!”

All told, six great waves and a few small ones passed under the 100 foot cat. The biggest ones were about 40 feet ... a small roller-coaster ... but thrilling none the less.

If the water had been deeper we probably wouldn’t have noticed and shallower would have been dire. We were just far enough from shore to be in three or four hundred feet of water.

It was a serious National Disaster ... whole families never found ... wet paper records in the Records Center generated so much heat that the entire concrete building dissolved into the basement and burned for weeks.

Without records ownership was in dispute ... in many cases there was no one to summon to testify.

I will say this for the Flintkotes ... they were unstinting with their time and money.

The one hundred foot one inch catamaran had plenty of room for rescue crews and ... and the rescued.

But ... every three weeks, JW and I were ‘missing’... “napping,” Miss Cyn told any one who asked, “They’re napping ... and don’t you go botherin’ ‘em.”

What? Of course I went. Mioko was waiting. And ... this was the only portal I had.

She never aged.

I had no idea how much time passed in our three weeks wait ... but Mioko stayed the same ... well ... she did learn to play the Shamisen.

Ah ... JW didn’t know what a Shamisen was ... a shamisen is that long necked three string square bodied ‘discordant sounding’ banjo/guitar that features heavily in ‘geisha’ movies. Mioko got pretty good with the traditional wagakki and shigin songs ... then she graduated to ‘rock and roll’.

We might use the same portal ... but the white door at end of the white hall took us to different rooms. We could walk through together but ... he was sent to his caretaker and I was sent to Mioko. The first time JW disappeared ... Hoo Boy Howdy ... Hoo Boy Howdy? I been hanging out with southerners too long. What kind of a word is Hooboyhowdy.

Our rescues ... my first few ‘green sheet’ and JW’s gradually shifting to ‘yellow’ and then ‘red’ ... when one is more experienced at the hero trade the assignments ‘broaden... ‘ became more difficult and dangerous.

But ... no matter how long the rescue ... we left at the same time, were gone fifteen minutes and came out the portal together.

I don’t think I’ll get over that.

When ‘the mess’ was as cleaned up as could be expected we moved to ‘recovery’ ... the cat was less suited to recovery and released back to ownership control.

Finally ... my OWN portal.