Chapter 76

I woke up to the sound of Bud's laughter in my ears. His laugh sounded as giddy as I had been feeling just before Harley pulled me back from the rush I'd lost myself in.

"Uhh," I groaned.

"Ahh, Cooper, you're awake?" Bud asked.

"I think so," I groaned. "What happened?"

"You figured out how to power the suit," Bud said. "And more importantly, you survived the experience."

"Thanks to Harley."

"So he has been telling me," Bud laughed again, a little less giddily this time.

"Harley's been conscious without me?" I asked, but I didn't really need to, as Harley's awareness flooded my own. He had been, and had been the man in charge for a little while there.

"Yes," Bud agreed. "He has been telling me of your breakthrough, which I should be angry about, as I had told you not to attempt this."

"But you're not?" I laughed.

"Well I can hardly be mad at your success, now that it is achieved," he laughed with me. "Harley also reassures me that when it is time to charge the suit again, he can step forward again at the appropriate time if needed."

"Good, because it will probably be needed," I admitted.

"Your problem with drugs manifests itself when you charge the suit, doesn't it?" Bud asked.

"Apparently so," I muttered, feeling Harley's agreement.

"Don't feel as if you must explain yourself," Bud said, but I cut him off.

"No, the feeling is like the best of every drug rush I ever experienced," I admitted. "and I've done far worse things than the pills Harley found in the bike's gas tank. While I was overseas I was able to do opium and heroin. This combined the extreme inward peace of the one with the intense rush of the other, and everything in between."

"We would never have come back from it, if it had been up to Cooper," I heard Harley say with my voice.

"He's right," I said. "But since its done, and Harley says we can safely do it again, how did we do?"

"The suit is fully powered," Bud said. "This advances our schedule quite a bit in some ways."

"What does that mean for us?" I asked.

"It means we can resume training immediately with the exoskeletal features."

"Good," Harley and I both said at the same time.

"I will ask you to wear the suit to bed tonight," Bud said.

"Wear it to bed?"

"Yes, its time I rejoin you and Harley, and leave the suit."

"About time!" I said. "Finally!" Harley added.

"We have decided as well that it is time for the next of our major physical acts of interference. Perhaps our last major physical act."

"All right," we agreed with a great deal less confidence.

There was little we could do with the exoskeleton's features in the cavern. There just wasn't enough room. The same was true of our ability to fly. I went back to practicing grabbing large amounts of molecules in quantities and shapes that were casually safe if encountered by others.

One of the things I was trying to do was build structures out of thin air. Of course, air was mostly nitrogen, oxygen and argon, and at that, mostly nitrogen. There were four times as many nitrogen molecules available than oxygen molecules in any given sample of air. Getting those molecules locked and formed into something solid was not easy. Gathering molecular nitrogen required a refined 'touch' with my locking sense. Molecular nitrogen was an inert gas, but it did form molecular bonds with a lot of other things, and some of those could be very reactive. Explosively reactive, in fact. I had to be very discriminating when I began grabbing molecules out of the air.

I played around with nitrogen for a couple of hours before heading back upstairs. I took a shower upstairs and then pulled my new bedroom laptop out of its hiding place. I was becoming something of an amateur chemist, thanks to my new interest in molecules, and the internet provided endless research opportunities. I also had a half dozen emails waiting.

Mitch had a few questions about what had happened in Brookings, having only heard a halfhearted summary so far. Sonoma Pool and Spa hoped to have a meeting Thursday afternoon with their design team for finalization of the pool and accompanying landscaping. ADT was going to begin rewiring the house over the weekend. They'd already replaced the exterior doors, and would do the ground floor windows at the same time as the wiring.