There Must Be a Mistae

Chapter 27

Note: All persons in this novel are fictitious. If you are looking for a great deal of explicit sexual activity, this story is not for you. Those scenes that are included will be evocative rather than just for the sake of sex itself. This story is for your reading pleasure. Its length is undetermined at this time, because I do not know where my mind will take me along the way. I hope you will stay with me during this journey until it reaches its inevitable conclusion.

Note: Can you find a way to fuck up good news? I did, and I will tell you about it later.

129. Let's Take A Bearing

All good things must come to an end, and when Even returned to his desk Monday morning he wanted to scream. So he did.

His secretary ran into his office. "What's wrong Doctor Luck?"

"Look at my desk; I'll never get back to the lab."

Cindy yelled. "What the fuck are you talking about; Suzanne and I got rid of three quarters of the shit that was on your desk. You should be able to get rid of that stuff by noon."

"Cindy, you cursed at me."

"You fucking deserved it. You took a week off with no notice, and left us with our asses hanging out. We worked like dogs to keep this office running, and the first thing you do when you walk in is complain. If I didn't need this dam fucking job, I'd quit."

"What is your job title Cindy?"

"I am your secretary."

"You are fired."

"What, for this one fucking righteous outburst?"

"You bet your ass for the one simple righteous outburst. You are rehired as my administrative assistant, at four times your salary and benefits. You can tell me where to go, and what to do anytime you want. It will keep me in line."

"Doctor Luck, I've wanted to tell you where to go for years. I don't know what stopped me."

"Good sense and timing. Where is Suzanne?"

"She is back in the secretarial pool."

"Get her up here. She is now your secretary, at double her salary."

"You don't know how thrilled she will be. Suzanne hates being in the pool."

"Get to work Cindy, before I change my mind."

"Do you want to know why you're not going to change your mind?"

"Of course I want to know."

"Suzanne and I will never touch your desk again."

"That's an excellent reason. Find your secretary and get to work."

"Yes Doctor."

"Doctor, can I still tell you to go fuck yourself?"

"I wouldn't suggest it, unless you really sure of yourself."

"That's what I thought. I'll be back in 30 minutes."

"Make that 10 minutes, I know where the secretarial pool is."

"I was going to use the bathroom."

"Make that 13 a half minutes."

"I'm not even going to ask you how you have that figured out."

"I'll give you the numbers if you would like?"

"No thank you Doctor, I'm sure you're correct."

"I am."

******************

The three boys were working on the second level of their spaceship, when Teddy decided today was a good day to be a rambunctious. She crawled across the board, moving all their pieces, smudging their pen marks, and destroying all their hard work as she went along.

"Do something with her mom, before I tie her up."

Delicious was at her wits end with her carrot top monster. However, she came up the perfect answer. Gray was horrified when she put the front loading baby carrier on him, and put Teddy in it. She put the baby bag into his left hand and his attache' case into his right. She kissed him goodbye, and wished him luck. She opened the door, and said, "Have a wonderful day dear."

Gray kissed her. "Bitch."

As he walked down the path, she yelled, "You'll be in trouble when you get home."

Gray turned, "When am I not in trouble when I come home?"

He got in the back of the SUV, kissed Teddy's head, and asked, "Are you going to cause me trouble today?"

"Yes daddy."

"Why?"

"Today is fun day. It rain outside, me have fun inside."

"You sure it rain today?"

"Bad rain, all day."

"Call the NEST Steve, and have them batten down the hatches. My little weather forecaster says we are going to have torrential rain all day."

"It's not in the forecast Doctor."

"Would you like to bet $20 on who is right?"

"No, I'll call the NEST."

************

As they entered the building, the first light drops of rain fell out of the clear blue sky.

He put the briefcase and the baby bag on the metal detector rack, and they went through the metal detector without a problem.

Teddy yelled, "Me To, Me to!"

"No Teddy, it uses X-rays to see inside the cases. It's not good for the human body."

"I want to go for a ride."

"Be quiet, or I'll put you through the shredder."

"I'll tell mommy."

"You won't be able to tell mommy after I put you through the shredder."

"You not fair."

"I don't have to be fair. I'm your father, and I have to teach you right from wrong."

"Like grandpa?"

"Yes, just like grandpa."

"Okay, I learn."

**********

By the time they got in the elevator, it was pouring outside.

Gray had been working on a project for almost 3 weeks, and kept running into the same problem. He could visualize it, and knew it should work, but he could not prove it to the computer.

He went back to his original program, which he knew inherently was the best, and began again. He reached the same point, and the computer faulted.

He pounded the keyboard, and yelled, "God dammit."

Teddy said, "God not do with it. You go wrong way."

"What are you talking about Teddy?"

"You go left, when posed go right."

"Where am I supposed to go right instead of left?"

"I tired, go sleep now."

Gray wanted to ring her neck for not giving him the answer, but the indication was he was supposed to find it himself.

Teddy's head was already slumped over to the left, quietly sleeping. He kissed her, and get back to work.

He went through every line of code looking for a place where he could have made an error. He wanted to kick himself when he found it. Three weeks wasted, because of a simple mathematical error. How could he be so stupid? How did he not see it when he went over and over it a dozen times?

"I'm sorry I said your name in vain. It is a human failing, and I am only human. This child will teach me more than I will teach her."

He picked up the phone and called me.

"Even, we have another patentable product. You may want to come over and look at it."

I was over at his desk in a minute, because I knew what he was working on something special.

"How did you make the breakthrough Gray?"

"My little wonder told me how to do it. She said I went left when I was supposed to go right. I went through every line of code with a fine toothcomb early in the project; I made a stupid mathematical error. When I fixed it, look at the outcome."

"Will you look at the strength of that fiber? It lightweight and can stop an armor-piercing round. Wait until the military sees this. Uniforms will be so light they will not need those bulky protectors. It will be interesting to find out if we can make shoes out of this that will help our guys not worry about IED's.

I will have Rod get to Washington tomorrow morning, and get the matrix to Dycke Schneider by courier tonight. He's going to go buggy."

Gray said, "I love the look in that man's eyes when we give him something like this to do. He looks like a kid in a toy store, with an unlimited budget."

"Well he does have an unlimited budget."

"It's a shame this won't be ready for 'The Best Luck', but it will make Holden's spaceship a great deal lighter than he anticipated. His initial speed estimates were between Warp 12 to 14 at 400,000 tons. If this new material drops him by 75,000 tons, he could hit Warp 16. You did great work Gray, absolutely great work. Between your material, and Gordon's, steel may be on the way out of the construction industry in 10 years. The Chinese will have a heart attack when that happens. They have based their new economy on selling cheap steel around the world. When this is ready, and we start to make, and sell these new materials here in the United States, the balance of trade will swing in the favor of the US. What are you going to call it? "

"Do I have a choice in naming it Even? This little one gave me the answer, so it gets named after her, TEDDY."

"Trade groups are going to ask you what it means."

"We will tell them it's an industrial secret."

"It will drive them all crazy Gray, but it's a great name, for a wonderful child."

***************

He shook his head, got up off the grass, and made sure all the important parts were still in working order. He tried to remember what happened to him, but there were pieces missing. He walked over to the oak bucket, submerged his head, and when he pulled it out he remembered.

"Holy shit, all I did was ask her how old she was. We have been together for 14 years, and I don't remember her changing one bit. She looks the same today as the day I first met her. I remember one of the first things she said to me.

"If I tell you you're going to die, you are going to die. If I tell you you're going to live you are going to live." Maybe she was 20 back then, but she hasn't aged a day. I've got to get her on our spacecraft. I won't know what to do without her. I'll sleep out here on the porch; I don't want to disturb anyone. It's a nice night to look at the stars anyhow."

Liz opened the front door, at 6:45 AM, and saw him sleeping on the bench.

"I see you're still alive."

"Yes I'm still here. Monty was nice to me; she didn't feed me to the wolves."

"Don't you know you never ask a woman her age"?

"I know it now. I didn't know it last night. I'm only 16, and there are certain nuances that go with women that I have not yet learned."

"I guess you won't make that mistake again."

"Not in this lifetime, or the next three, I learned that lesson the hard way."

"Dammit, I thought for sure he wouldn't wake up until noon."

"If you're still angry with me for making a boyish mistake, I'll go lay down on the grass where I was."

"No you spoiled my morning already."

"I'm sorry about last night; I didn't know it was offensive to women to ask their age."

"Just for the sake of argument, how old do you think I am?"

"I tried to figure that out when I woke up. Please don't kill me; I think you are 33 years old."

He heard something drop in the kitchen.

"I'm sorry, please don't kill me."

"How did you come up with that age?"

"Do you remember the conversation we had, while I was hanging from the ceiling?"

"Yes."

"You said you weren't ready for the world when you were 16. You weren't ready for what was outside the military gates. You trained your mind, and your body to a razor's edge those extra two years, to get yourself ready. When you were 18, you had no choice. You went outside the fence, and joined this group, who trained you even harder.

They didn't want you to have a high-value target as your first assignment, so they gave you me instead. They had no idea who I was, or what I was capable of doing, because I was only three years old. This morning I counted. You were 19, and we've been together for 14 years. So, I thought you could be 32 to 33 years old."

Liz laughed. "Monty you have to kill him, your secret is out."

"Not another word Liz or I will feed you to the Colonel."

"You're kidding Liz, Monty is 33?"

"On your birthday, Monty will be 33."

"Liz you're a dead woman."

"We share a birthday. How cool is that. Wait a minute, why don't you fit the profile?"

Liz said, "Stay away from that area Gordon, especially if you like living."

"I'm sorry Monty, I'm sorry if I went to an area I'm not supposed to."

"You had no way of knowing Gordon. Just don't bring it up again."

"I promise you won't hear a word from me ever again May I ask you a question and it doesn't have to do with that area."

"Yes you can."

"If you had the opportunity to go with us, would you go?"

"I would go in a heartbeat."

"Start packing, because I am going to get you onto that spacecraft."

"You have a long road to go, and those restrictions are not there to be taken lightly."

"I know, but I will get it done. If I have to change the rotation of the earth to do it, I will get it done."

Half-awake Zoie said, "If you listen to the tone of his voice, believe him, he will get it done. When he's angry like that, even his dad can't stop him."

"Well, if that's the case, I better kill a buffalo. I may need a warm coat where we're going."

"Can't you just buy a leather coat in the store?"

"Why would I buy a leather coat, when I have one on the hoof right in front of me?"

"Because you have to kill it, and you don't know what size coat you need."

"I need an extra-large, which means I have to kill a large buffalo. I will pick out an old one, who won't make it through the winter, because of the weather or the wolves. I will drag it into the barn and you will help me skin it, cut the meat off, and grind up the bones to make meal for the chickens and cows."

Zoie ran to the side of the porch and began giving back last night's dinner.

Liz said, "Somehow I don't think Zoie is going to be much help."

Gordon was a funny color green. "I'll do it. I will help. Can I wear a blindfold?"

"Yes you can, but you won't have hands or arms left when they get caught in the grinder. You will make it Gordon; you will even get the head as a prize."

"What would the Klingons think of me wearing a buffalo head?"

"Don't worry about the Klingons; it's the Kardasians you should worry about. Their eyes are bigger."

"Good thinking, their armaments are better also. That gives me a thought; I should start working on a cloaking device, just in case we run into some unfriendly people."

"Oh Lord, I will never see my laptop again."

"It's only two more days Monty. How much trouble can he possibly get into, in 48 hours?"

"

Oh Liz, you have no idea what trouble this boy can get into, in 48 hours, and a computer."

"I think we should kill that buffalo now. Once we have him slit it down the center, and have the innards fall out onto him, it will take his mind off work, and Zoie in a hurry."

"I think we should have Zoie watch him do it."

Zoie screamed, "I'm going back to bed. Don't wake me up until it's all over."

"Baby, Monty is giving me the head as a prize."

"If you bring a buffalo head into our room, one horn is going up your ass, and the other is going down your throat. When my hands meet, I'll leave the bones where they are, and pull your heart out for good measure."

"Monty not even I thought up something that evil."

"That's because you've never been in love. When it happens to you, anything goes, even your lover for any perceived indiscretion."

"That's not fair Monty, how would you feel if the person you love walked into the room with a buffalo head on."

"The Indians, who roamed these plains before we got here, used buffalo heads as a sign of status. Only Indian chiefs and medicine men wore them. The more buffalo horns you wore around your neck showed how great a hunter you were. There was very little infighting between the Indian tribes before we got here and started killing off buffalo just for their hides. One of our illustrious presidents said, "Kill a buffalo kill an Indian." Do you know who said that?

Both youngsters said, "No."

"The great hunter himself, "Theodore Roosevelt." He didn't care if the Indians starved as long as the white man continued to move west. There was gold in the Dakotas, and he wanted it. Nearly single-handedly, he wiped out the Sioux Nation. Today we call it genocide, back then they called it progress. The land my ranch is located on was once part of a large Indian reservation. It was taken away from them, as they were pushed further west, into areas that are more arid, and they couldn't grow food of any kind. In my Will, I give this land back to them. My parents will live here all the days of their lives with impunity, but all 250,000 acres are being returned to all the Sioux nations."

"How did you pay for all this land Monty?"

"You know my father was in the military. His father, and grandfather were prospectors and they hit it big. They were smart enough not to spend it all on frivolous things. They bought all this land just west of Yellowstone Park, piece by piece as it became available. People thought they were crazy, but they weren't. They let the Indians hunt on this property any time they wanted to, and there was never a problem between them. The Indians are still fighting the government for payment to the land that was stolen from them. I don't think they'll ever get the money. That's why I'm giving this land back to them."

"Monty when God made you, she broke the mold."

Liz said, "Look at the size of her, God didn't break the mold, she did."

"Liz, you're a dead woman."

"You may be able to hit a buffalo with that long rifle of yours, but you could never hit anything as small as me."

"Why don't you start running and we will find out."

"Running, I could crawl."

"That's it, you're gone."

"Liz took off like a rabbit, and Monty took off after her like a fox."

It was the funniest thing Gordon and Zoie had ever witnessed. Every time Monty got close, Liz would turn 90 degrees on a dime. Monty on the other hand, had to round it out because of her larger frame.

Liz kept yelling, "Come on slowpoke, what's keeping you?"

"When I get you, you're going to be hanging next to a buffalo."

"I guess you're not shooting a buffalo for two days."

Monty was within two feet of her, reached out her arm to grab her, and Liz made another of her patented turns.

Monty screamed in anger. "I will get you for this you little witch."

"Apparently it won't be today tubby."

"You are playing with fire little girl."

"You are not fast enough to put me out."

"Do you want to run 100 meter dash to see if I am faster than you are? I'll bet you $1000 I am."

Liz said, "I've never made such easy money in all my life. When do you want to do it?"

"Let's measure out 100 meters, and go."

"That works for me."

They came to a stop, and Monty smacked Liz on the back of her head.

Liz retaliated by smacking Monty's ass.

"Couldn't reach my head little girl?"

"I didn't want to damage that tiny brain of yours."

Monty screamed, "Zoie, in the kitchen cabinet, on the right side, is a large tape measure, get it for me please."

Zoie ran inside, and found the largest tape measure she had ever seen.

"Is this the one Monty?"

"That one will do."

Monty took a rock and pounded a stake through the large rectangular end.

"Make sure this doesn't move Gordon."

"Yes ma'am."

"Let's go Liz; we're going for a walk."

110 meters later, they stopped. Monty put a heavy rock on the tape. She walked back 10 meters and drew a line on both sides of the tape.

Liz said, "I would like my money in cash, when we get home."

"I won't tell the Colonel you shot that sleaze ball that killed Tanya and Margaret."

"I did not."

"You are a lying sack of shit and you know it. No one else had cause to put a bullet through his head. No one else is that good a shot from any distance to do that much damage. Half an inch lower, and his ears would've exploded."

"That's where I was aiming, but I missed."

"It's a hard shot from the back of a van when you don't have lateral movement."

"How did you know?"

"It's in the police pictures. Either they didn't care, or they were happy the bastard was dead. I would go with number two."

"I thought I was the smartest person on the planet."