Version Innocent

Chapter 17

  Damon Harding was seeing the inside of a Chinese restaurant. His eyes were closed to block out the real world and his ocular displays showed him a real time view of what Sam 23.1 was doing. The bugged companion was working perfectly. The bug was relaying all sorts of interesting information about what Storm 23.1 was doing. Damon had been particularly amused with Jeff Hughes’ letter left at the anonymous mail drop, to which, of course, Damon now had all the codes. Jeff had thought that he had outwitted them, but he was wrong. Not that anything useful had come from the message, but Damon had wondered how Jeff would make contact with the old version of his friend.

  Damon thought it was also interesting that Jeff hadn’t really said that he was acting as director of the restoration division in earnest and not as part of some pact that Sam and Jeff had made as children. It made him chuckle. The audio was also coming in just superbly. Damon could hear the clattering of dishes in the restaurant and the chatter of young adults. It was so different than outside the children’s city. Sam was a Newbie through and through. He was excited about flying around, giddy as a kid. Of course Damon had to remember that Sam was really only twenty three which was still an infant compared to most people these days that were in their mid two hundreds to three hundreds. It didn’t take Sam long to figure out how to access the flying program and he was off.

  Damon felt momentarily ill when Sam sped off the ground, his body feeling like it should be moving but wasn’t. So there were some drawbacks to using the bug. Damon disconnected the direct display and told Julia to monitor Sam’s activities and let him know if anything interesting showed up. Damon opened his eyes back up to reality. Agent Dawson was sitting across from him, his eyes still closed.

  “So what do you think, Agent Dawson?” Damon said with a smirk.

  Dawson answered without opening his eyes. “It’s amazing…but still unethical. I really don’t want to see Sam use the bathroom, or anything else so personal.”

  “Don’t be squeamish. You can have your companion monitor Sam’s activities and let you know when anything interesting happens. So long as Sam has a connection to the datasphere, on Earth or elsewhere, we should be able to receive his signal. When he’s not connected, you can still access it but it will be a degraded image. The sound, however, should still be good so long as you’re within a hundred kilometers.”

  “Yes, I know,” Dawson replied. “I guess it’s worth it.” He opened his eyes.

  “When are you meeting with Terra Gates?”

  “In a few hours, in Washington. I’ll give her the bug to wear, even though we have a much more reliable source of information now.”

  “Good, it always helps to have a second source, and it should help us determine her loyalties as well.” Damon said. “What about Jeff Hughes?”

  “He hasn’t been up to much. We still have his apartment bugged, but he hasn’t been doing much of anything. Watching vids, eating out, playing stim games with his companion. But we can’t monitor his companion so we’re not sure what he’s up to all the time when he’s in the datasphere.”

  “Yes, well I’m sure he’s up to something. They obviously are going to go after 6.7. We just need to find out when and how. I have a ship standing by for you in orbit; it’s been reassigned from The Fleet to be under your command. There is also a squad of marines on board to help you in the event that you need a little brute force on your side. You should be able to follow them anywhere in the system with it.” Damon got up.

  It made Dawson’s stomach a little unsettled just thinking about it. He didn’t care for space that much. It always made him nauseous even though his companion could suppress most of it. “Will you be accompanying me?” he asked, trying to put the thoughts of space sickness out of his mind.

  “No, of course not, I trust you to handle the entire affair. Just bring back Storm and his coconspirators if there are any. And, of course, you will keep me updated with reports, and have the ship relay all of Sam 23.1’s transmissions to me,” Damon instructed.

  Great, a leash, Dawson thought. But at least he’ll be too far to do much but give general orders. And a navy ship will be interesting.

  “Sounds good. I’m going to head back to Washington and get ready for tonight,” Dawson said, getting up. Damon just nodded and walked away. Dismissed, Dawson thought and headed for the door. He’d be in Washington in a half-hour. Things were just starting to get interesting.