"I didn't know any of that."
"You know that story Mac told Bubba Franklin about how she wanted him to protect her from her husband?"
"Yeah."
"I believe she was talking about herself. I think her husband is in the army too."
"You figure the husband is the threat that she's running from?"
"Could be," Wolf replied. "If it's her husband, he's going to be big and nasty. Mac doesn't scare easily."
"And if the husband is the threat, what are we going to do about him?"
"We aren't going to do anything."
"What are you going to do?"
Wolf stared at me until I felt uncomfortable. "I will shake my finger at him and warn him to leave her alone in the future."
I kind of smiled at that. Wolf wasn't smiling.
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Chapter 16
Narrator: Wednesday, July 25.
TG watched the brain-band shipment as it left North Korea. Zzyk wasn't taking any chances this time. Alaska's aircraft carrier guarded the North Korean freighter all the way across the Pacific. In Anchorage, trucks hauled the brain-band crates to an old runway where soldiers loaded them onto one of Zzyk's air transports. Wolf watched as five DPS armed copters accompanied it all the way to their military base in Edmonton. Five of Anchorage's light planes also guarded the transport but peeled off and returned to their base when they got close to the populated areas near Edmonton.
TG saw no crates coming off the North Korean freighter that could have contained a re-supply of bubblegum ammo. Wherever the ammo was being manufactured, it wasn't that factory near Wonsan. However, Anchorage harbour was busy enough that the ammo could have been shipped from somewhere else and the Wilizy wouldn't have noticed it. Will asked Wolf to review the Anchorage surveillance tapes while he tested out a possible new weapon against their aircraft carrier. They'd have to delay the search for Mac until these other priorities were taken care of.
# # # # # # # #
Back at the compound, Izzy finally worked up the nerve to ask Yollie a question that she didn't really want to ask. "Has TG ever lied to you?"
Yollie answered emphatically "No! Why do you ask?"
With the issue out in the open, Yollie didn't let Izzy get away with her I was just wondering explanation.
"Will had a strange sunburn and lied to me when I asked about it. He said that he fell asleep in the sun. Will never sleeps during the day. This was July 1. I logged it because he seemed very nervous when I walked into the bathroom and saw him looking at his face."
"One time doesn't..."
"It wasn't one time, Yollie. He lied again about that sonic boom that we all heard a couple of days later. He said something about losing speed control on a drone. Those things operate on pinky ring batteries. Even with Will's magic, there's no way that a pinky ring battery is going to push a flimsy little thing like a drone through the sound barrier. Plus he looked guilty telling me the lie."
"Uh, perhaps there's a good explanation?"
"For the third lie too when he went down to Stanford? I accept that he went there to check out the Alaskan plane parts, but Will has never packed a food hamper all by himself before. And why did he take tomatoes, which he doesn't like? And why did he brush Winnie off so quickly when she asked if she could go with him? He likes having Winnie around."
"Making a surprise for you like the fireworks?"
"He's angry at me right now. He's not going to be making me any surprises."
"Why is he angry at you?"
"I don't know. All I know is that he's lying. Oh, I also know what happens when married folks start lying to each other. Their relationship self-destructs."
# # # # # # # #
Rick knocked on Zzyk's laboratory door prepared to explain his presence with a flimsy pretext about brain-bands. It had been some time since Zzyk had left the lab other than to go to his sleeping quarters.
"The new brain-bands are in Edmonton. Proceed as planned?"
"Of course. I told you this by e-mail. Why are you asking?"
"Just wondering about the special instructions. I wanted to confirm them."
Zzyk had been wondering too. About whether Rick had lost his conditioning. He was letting Rick run the government for now; Zzyk had more pressing matters to attend to in the lab. But Zzyk still had doubts, so that was why he had given Rick those special instructions. They'd be a little loyalty test. "Yes, do as I ordered."
Rick turned away.
Zzyk called him back. "Remember how I had told you that the Wilizy were bound to have a second command center and that it was bound to be mobile?"
Rick did indeed remember the conversation where that topic had come up. He remembered it differently, but no matter.
"I had told you that it would be disguised and in clear view. Remember?"
"I believe those were the exact words that you used." Rick knew that Zzyk had an excellent memory and could quote word-for-word-things that had been said months before. He just mis-remembered who had said them.
"Well, I was right. That big Saskatchewan copter is their mobile command center. I've been reviewing the transponder records. That copter has made lots of trips to B.C. and back. Secret meetings, I expect."
# # # # # # # #
Back in London, bar owner Mike didn't know what he was going to do about Mac's proposal to change the pub so that it attracted a different kind of customer. Customers who would want higher priced drinks than a pint of beer; customers who would want some food to eat that wasn't limited to stale crisps (potato chips) and peanuts. She was suggesting they sell food and drinks that would produce higher profit margins. She was also suggesting that he could keep his waitresses longer if he didn't force them to dress like strippers. The idea of higher profit margins was appealing. As to the stripper costumes, Mike liked the view. He'd think about it.
For her part, Mac didn't know how long Pug was going to stalk her and what she was going to do about that. She knew where Pug was working – a dive in the roughest part of the city. She also knew when he had days off because the device in her pocket warned her that he was nearby on those days. She had let Pug see her going down the stairs to London's tube after work. She had let him follow her to central London where he would conclude she was living. That kept him distracted for a while. Now he was back and he had a friend who was coming into the pub on the same nights that Pug was waiting outside.
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Chapter 17
From Will's journals: August 1.
Wolf and I weren't able to start our search for Mac as quickly as I had hoped. First, I had to build a time capsule for Wolf. We did a few test runs together so that we could fix any little bugs. Wolf suggested that both of us take four spare slings with us on any trip in case the particle storms were gradually eating away at the filaments around the time capsules. It was a good idea. I hadn't thought about that.
After that, Wolf was kept busy searching surveillance records of Anchorage harbour while I was trying to find a weapon that could beat the Alaskan aircraft carrier. I had noticed when Wolf and I had searched the underside of their carrier that it had no sonar defenses. I had immediately thought Submarine and asked Hank if B.C. had any subs. Our new military contact told me about four old submarines that Canada had bought from Britain about 85 years ago. They had never worked properly, and eventually, the navy had written them off as permanently unusable and stored them underwater in Victoria's waters. Out of sight, out of mind. After the oil crisis, everyone forgot about them. The general found them and gave me a tour of one of them.
They had survived the years and a tsunami extremely well. The one I inspected had come to the surface on command, and as I walked around its interior, I didn't see a single drop of water. I didn't see anything else either. No equipment, no gear, no engines. The periscope still worked, but that was about it. The sub was a hollow iron shell.
I couldn't see any potential for usi
ng this against the carrier, but I did ask if I could give Winnie and the boys a little tour. The general was very good about that. For days afterwards, the boys played submarine down by the river and their conversations were full of instructions to Up Scope, Down Scope, Fire 1, Fire 2, Periscope Depth, and Dive, Dive, Dive!
While I was doing that, Wolf had found a potential ammo carrier. The most effective way to determine its home port would be to track it backwards in time, which Wolf and I did as our test runs. It came from the Chinese Republic of Hawaii. Nice and close for supply and re-supply. Since we were both there, and since it was shift change, and since there didn't seem to be much security, Wolf and I snuck in with the cleaning staff (who were in chains), and poked around. We saw where the bubblegums and their ammo were built; saw thin sheets of what looked like lead; saw a computer with an English keyboard. "We hit the mother lode," I said to Wolf. "TG needs to see this."
Each of us grabbed one bubblegum and as much ammo as we could carry and left when the day shift came in. I have them stored in my work room and will take them to Stanford as soon as I have a chance. Finally, at the beginning of August, we had some time to start looking for Mac.
# # # # # # # #
Wolf and I both figured that finding a record of Mac's marriage ceremony would be a good starting point for our research into her life. Assuming that she was married in Saskatchewan, we took a quick overhead look at Regina and Saskatoon. Both had military bases, but Saskatoon had the bigger military base, so we started there. We'd look in the city's Star Phoenix newspaper office for wedding announcements in 2080, plus or minus one year. The office was easy to enter after hours – they didn't lock their doors. Wolf started reading the 2079 papers and I started at 2081. We'd meet in the middle. I found her wedding announcement first.
Barbara MacLatchie, daughter of Emily and General Jock MacLatchie, Commander of the Saskatoon military base was married to Master Sergeant Sven Neilsen, of Saskatchewan's Special Forces on August 31, 2081. Groom attendants were Otto Friedland and Dieter Krenshaw, both corporals in the Special Forces. Bride attendants were Kristy Laidlaw and Louise Dickson, high school chums.
Wolf concluded from the announcement that Mac was an only child, otherwise a sister or brother would have been in the wedding party.
Wolf and I TiTr'd to the reception, planning on taking a hard look at Mac's husband. Wolf lasted one minute staring at a blond Mac in her wedding dress. "I'll wait outside," he said. I suggested that he could TiTr to the end of the reception and follow Mac and her husband to their home so that we'd know how to find them when we needed to. Once he knew where Sven lived, he could TiTr back in time to the afternoon and observe Sven coming to the wedding. I'd stay at the reception, look for other key players and then meet him at 11:00 p.m. on the roof of the military church to plan what we'd do next.
# # # # # # # #
I started our planning session by telling Wolf what I had seen at the wedding.
The general was a tall man with a full head of silver hair that was cropped tight to his skull. All of the soldiers at the wedding wore their best uniforms but the general had the most medals and decorations. He also wore a short silver sword hanging off his belt – the only person at the wedding who had a weapon. The general was not a muscular man, but with his hand on the hilt of his sword, and standing ramrod straight with his shoulders back and his head straight, he did not appear to be the type of man you'd want to cross. The general hadn't exchanged a single word with his new son-in-law and I thought that rather strange, although my experience with weddings was very limited.
The general never had a moment alone. In the time that I was there, I believe everyone in the room came up and talked with him. All saluted or shook his hand. He spoke for several minutes with each one, calling the civilians by name and the military by rank. Some of the women gave him hugs that he returned but very awkwardly. One of the groomsmen stayed by his side except when he left to bring him a new drink. People were milling around him the whole time I was there.
Sven was a big, husky man with his blonde hair cut in what I presumed was a military buzz-cut. I had noticed that he was the tallest man there. Also, the man with the most muscles. He moved easily on the dance floor, although not in the one ceremonial first dance that he had had with Mac. That lasted only a few seconds before Mac broke it off and invited other couples to come on the dance floor. During the celebration, some of the women he approached for a dance turned him down. He took that opportunity to get another drink and talk with his two groomsmen who were also big and husky. I noticed that guests at military weddings consumed a lot of alcohol. Although I couldn't say this for sure, Sven looked quite drunk by 11 p.m. when I left. He had certainly become loud and obnoxious.
Mac didn't drink at all. She carried the same half-full wine glass around with her whenever she wasn't dancing. She and her father had one dance together at the beginning. Both of them danced very stiffly. If they had been further apart, one of them would have been in the next room. They had no conversation whatsoever during that dance and she never went near him again.
# # # # # # # #
Our basic plan had been to start on the wedding day and then TiTr forward in small steps to find out why Mac had left her marriage. We had no guarantee that this would tell us why she had left the Wilizy, but we thought that it was a good place to start. That plan changed when I told Wolf about the two dances that Mac had had.
"Something is very wrong," he said. "The three most important people at the wedding are not talking with each other. That's very unusual. And, where's Mac's mom?"
I told him that I hadn't seen any woman standing next to the general for any length of time. Nobody said anything about her in my hearing."
"Something bad happened between Mac and her dad. Plus she obviously doesn't like her husband. Whatever drove Mac away from the Wilizy happened before the wedding."
"How can you be so sure?"
"Mac hates her husband and yet she's marrying him. Why?
"We need to find out what happened before the wedding," I confirmed.
"You need to find out," Wolf corrected.
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Chapter 18
Narrator: Monday morning, August 6.
Zzyk's forces struck in Edmonton early in the morning, doing exactly what Hank had predicted they'd do. A massive armed presence funneled all Edmontonians into the old Edmonton Eskimos' football stadium as they left their homes. Obedient as ever, the citizens even came out of their homes on demand. The stands and old playing field were soon filled to capacity. Citizens were free to wander around the stadium although there wasn't much room for that activity in the morning. Water was freely available as it was a hot day, and washroom line ups were running smoothly.
As were the line ups leaving the stadium. Each exit had a team of medical staff installing the new brain-bands – the longer rivets posing a potential problem if they weren't installed properly. A DPS presence was also at each exit, testing that brain-bands responded properly at random settings. On passing that test, citizens were told to leave the area and go to work the next day.
What Hank hadn't predicted was that anyone who arrived at the stadium wearing any bright colour would be beaten, although word of that spread so quickly outside the arena that no more than twenty-five people total in the province were beaten. Most discarded their colours; the daring hid them inside their clothes with no repercussions.
The Edmonton installation was the only time citizens were beaten – word spread quickly through the province what had happened in Edmonton. This awareness was helped immensely by WZBN's hourly announcements of what other cities could expect. The Wilizy urged all citizens to comply peacefully and remove all colours ahead of time. Will and Izzy's When the goons dance was replayed frequently too. Citizens now understood what the song meant. After Edmonton, the DPS could have installed stale pretzels around citizens' heads and people would still have been shaking and vibrating when
the goons pressed their transponder buttons.
The Wilizy had had several days warning that the brain-band installations would start that Monday morning. They even knew where. However they couldn't give the citizens advance warning without revealing that they had surveillance cameras over each DPS military base and were watching the military move almost everyone in a uniform to Edmonton. This left every other city in Alberta virtually undefended. Izzy could have had a field day if she had wanted to attack those empty bases.
In fact, Izzy should have had a field day. She did attack. She had mobilized the entire Wilizy family to make coordinated attacks across the province that Monday night. They were going to show Zzyk that he wasn't going to have an easy time. Only two of Izzy's teams were successful. Wolf and Lucas used a lot of hammering noises to distract the sole sentry at an armoury. While he investigated, they went to the other end of the armory, demolished a door, and stole several crates of grenades. Will and TG also had success breaking into the IOF's off-site data backup building that they had broken into as part of the Dead Man Walking operation. TG uploaded the software that he had programmed earlier in the year into the backup servers and that took up most of the evening. While they were waiting, Will and TG browsed through the computer software that was in the archives and every now and then, TG made improvements to it. However since they had broken into that building on July 31, almost a week earlier, it could be said that their activities weren't part of a brain-band revenge operation.
Every other team that Izzy sent into the field on that Monday night failed miserably. Take for example, the teams assigned to break into IOF's sensitive buildings. Some teams tried to gain entry by carving a hole in the bottom panel of the doors. They couldn't break through the new metal panels that were protecting the doors. Other teams tried to gain entry by breaking windows. As soon as they put a foot or an arm through the broken window, an alarm would sound and they were forced to withdraw. This is where Izzy had focused almost all of her forces and all failed.