Chapter 87

Kelli and I talked twice before dinner and once after. She was sticking close to home and family, on the assumption that Roberto wouldn't try anything with other family around. In between calls, I was in the cavern listening to transcribed conversations, sometimes over and over again, and poring over closeup video shots of the Standish Road warehouse. I could only wish that Bud's people could show me the inside of the warehouse. Sigh.

When it got dark enough, I put the suit on and Harley lifted us up through the tunnel to the secret entrance. Ah yes, the secret entrance. It wasn't much use to me until Harley and I got our act together with him doing the flight side of the telekinesis and me doing the rest. The secret entrance was covered by a slab of stone the size of a mack truck.

Lifting it was interesting. The inertia tied up in something that big made moving it feel weird. It didn't stop and start when you would expect it to, which could be tricky if you weren't prepared for it. Fortunately it had been equipped with some of the super-eager material that the door and the lights used, and was connected to the tunnel itself with some very cool, massive looking rods that let it be lifted straight up using them as guides. I'd only used it so far to make the training trips up into the mountains where I could smash trees and boulders without being observed. Tonight I used it again for that purpose.

I was learning how to travel through the air faster than the speed of sound, without making a sonic boom. It was possible, but tricky, and the hardest part was being patient. Accelerating too fast could push the number of G's I experienced too high, and I would black out. Not something you wanted to do when traveling at 700 miles an hour or more. I especially had to forget anything like a sudden turn at these speeds. The suit was more than capable of serving as a G suit under these conditions, but this wasn't science fiction. There were no 'inertial compensators' or other super-science gadgets to negate the effects of rapid acceleration. Harley and I had learned our lessons early about not just 'thinking' things from point to point, since that could cause speed problems leading to sonic booms and other things, such as death. Really wanted to avoid that last one.

Back up in the training grounds, the new suit's shakedown cruise proved to be anticlimactic. The suit behaved exactly like the old one. The balance and responsiveness were identical, and still left me thrilled at my abilities with the exoskeleton turned on.

After smashing stuff up for a while and doing my gymnast impression again, we cleaned up the area and headed home. I had a couple of new tricks filed away, including one that Bud had actually cheered about. I'd made myself some of my deadly little Frisbee weapons, and I figured out how to attach them to the outside of the suit so that I could 'pop' them off for use later without having to take the time to build them first.

"Minutes and seconds will count," Bud had crowed. "Good work!"

I stayed up late that night hoping to get some new communications between Roberto and Paco Serna, but they had taken the entire Sunday off, it appeared. While I waited for incoming messages, I did not waste my time. Bud and I tackled the problem of converting the suit into something that could be fit into my riding leathers. That meant bringing the leathers downstairs as well.

After several frustrating brainstorming sessions, Bud got tired of it.

"Okay, enough," he said. "I don't think this is going to work. We need to make something from scratch that can be fit into your leathers. The original idea of splitting the suit into two pieces would be best."

"Can we do both?"

"Of course," Bud snorted. "Working out the details of what to add to the suit, and how to tie that in to your helmet will require some research on our part. Since we've discussed it before, that research is probably already going on."

"All right, so those are both projects for another day," I said. "Lets get to bed. It's been a long day."

I did not have pleasant dreams that night. Roberto featured heavily in them. The one that scared me was when Kelli and I were attacked while we were riding in the parade. That one woke me up at quarter to five.

"What's wrong?" Bud asked.

"Do you share my dreams?" I asked. I already knew Harley did.

"No."

"Well I just dreamed of Kelli and I being attacked while riding in the fourth of July parade."

"How?"

"In the dream it was men with big swords, but if Roberto was to get Serna's men to do it, they would use guns, and do it from a distance."

I was wide awake and there was no way I was going back to sleep. I got up and made coffee. I went for a run while I waited for it to brew, just to get rid of some of the nervous energy the nightmare had generated.