Artifact 33: My Mother! The Car!

EMPs! Black Holes! Hypercars!

Artifact 33: My Mother! The Car!

 

            We last quit Josh in the company of two Toms, Joan, and Sheri in the near future Midwest with Josh about to tell them how he obtained his hypercar. They had endured a severe thunderstorm, but soon afterward, a news report surfaced about a strange unnatural anomaly that exhibited Electromagnetic Pulse characteristics. One report likened it to a Black Hole! Josh reacted perceptibly to the news much to the astonishment of the others. I wonder…could this have something to do with his missing “cargo”?

 

            To accentuate the enigmatic point, a distant rumble of thunder made itself heard to the small group gathered in the living room. The others sat there in muted astonishment to Josh’s sudden exclamation that he needed to get right back on the road despite having a flat tire that needed replacing. After a moment, acknowledging to himself that it was obvious to everyone that he had reacted impetuously, he calmed and sat back down knowing darn well that he was going nowhere fast with his hypercar temporarily out of commission.

            “So John, we all know that you can’t pursue whatever this�"event indicates,” Tom senior said addressing Josh with his assumed name. “But would you care to expand on what you know about this�"anomaly?”

            Self-conscious, Josh sat there a few more moments gazing about at the expectant faces looking back at him. Only seconds earlier these were cheerful faces waited to hear the story of his car, but now the faces wore expectant, quizzical expressions.

            “Well,” Josh began but then swallowed with a gulp. “If you search for another event with those parameters, you’ll find a very similar event had occurred way back when.” He saw that Tommy and Sheri had begun searching before the words had left his mouth.

            “You’re right,” Tom said, scanning his phone. “Actually, there were two such events. One only a few months ago in New York City, of all places, and the other before that in, listen to this, a scrapyard in Upstate New York.” He paused to see if everyone listening closely. Josh knew this would escalate into a sticky situation, but�" Tom continued. “Actually, there were two more events unconfirmed back in the nineteen forties that were reported briefly but then classified by the US Army.”

            A flickering-flash of lightning and a double-crack of thunder punctuated the statement. They all paused to look out the windows.

            “Sounds like more storms coming through,” Tom Senior said. “Anyway Tommy, then how’d you come up with those on your search if they were classified?” Tom Senior asked.

            “The Notorious. BlackCom. It’s a catch-all conspiracy site,” Sheri snidely said. “His go to site for all matters strange, unusual, and unexplained.”

            Lightning flashed. Thunder boomed.     

Tommy ignored her and the thunder. “Apparently, it was revealed in the latest FOIA release.”

“Well Tommy, can you believe it?” His mother asked him.

“Yeah, most of it is credible.”

Sheri raised her eyes to the ceiling.

“I saw that! Cut it out!” Tommy exclaimed. “What’s with you tonight? Did the storm somehow affect your mind?” He paused with another thought. “Though John’s car doesn’t come up when I searched for it�"I tried before”

“Meaning that his car is not strange or unusual nor�"extraterrestrial or paranormal,” Sheri said still trying to aggravate Tom.

“That’s obvious,” Tommy said ignoring her for the moment. “But there’s also little known facts and details included on the site and so thought on a whim there might be something about the car.”

Josh relaxed and rested a bit easier seeing the conversation had drifted from his sudden inherent interest in the reported anomaly, but his comfort didn’t last long.

“So John, where did you hear about this strange unnatural anomaly or�"was there more to it…?” Tommy let the question hang there dangling for Josh to answer.

Josh, halfway expecting the inquiry, let out a long sigh. “As you two Toms might have figured out from our previous conversations, I had done business with that particular scrapyard in Upstate New York. I knew the owner quite well from some hmmm, under-the-table, questionable transactions. Anyway, he explained the event to me. He told me that a strange bright light and a bizarre noise had erupted from a pile of automotive scrap and soon thereafter government agents,” Josh made air quotes, “came and literally tore the place apart.” Josh leaned back and laughed. “Not that I could see any difference in the place�"you know�"a scrap yard?” He shrugged nonchalantly. “Not the neatest place.”

“I guess from what you told us, I don’t understand your reaction to the news, John,” Sheri said. “If you don’t mind me saying�"you seemed a bit�"anxious, alarmed maybe, over the news of that unexplained event.”

“I suppose so,” Josh said, now having a little time to reason through his impulsive reaction. “I thought that I should jump on the opportunity to maybe find out what it was, even though I think now that the so-called authorities would beat me to it, now that the news of it has been reported.” He got up and looked at Tom Senior’s wide-screen phone display. “Although I won’t get on the road until later tomorrow, I’d like to drive by there to see what’s the what�"you know? Where was it exactly? Did they say?”

“Oh yeah, they have the exact address here�"of a fuel dispensing station.”

“Really?” Tommy inserted. “How odd�"but you said a scrap yard before. Is there some automotive connection about these events?” He shrugged. “Maybe a correlation of some sort with your car, John.”

“Yeah!” Sheri excitedly said. “Maybe your car came through a black hole. Check your Notorious.Blackcom site for that, Tom.”

 “Well, there’s no need to do that,” Josh said. “As you probably already found out Tom, my car was originally built to race at NASCAR. That was before the war. Attendance at the races and interest in the races had slumped over the years, so in their infinite wisdom, the racing promoters decided to scrap all the restrictions and adopted the car specification mentality of ‘anything goes.’ In other words, if you can get the parts, if you can afford the parts, go ahead and build an outrageous race car.”

“What? How irresponsible!” Tom senior exclaimed. “It would end up being a suicidal race like�"what were those old B movies called? Oh yeah I remember, “Death Race. The races would be just like that old bloody movie!”

“I think so Dad, just imagining the movie from the title!”

“So the war ended that wonderful plan for the races?”             

            “Yeah, good thing, huh? So there were a few cars like mine built to run by the rich guys who had the money to throw away. And anything goes pretty much described the cars: Huge engines with superchargers, turbochargers, lightweight materials like carbon fiber, aluminum and titanium with total disregard to safety. Aerodynamics? There were spoilers, wings, air dams, body pans the works!”

            “I don’t know what half those things were but I have to guess they were expensive?” Sheri asked.

            “Yep! Outragously so. In the end, or I guess the beginning of the war, a grand total of thirteen cars were built and of course they weren’t all exactly the same as mine. Most of them were scrapped for the war or wrecked by inexperienced drivers. That’s why I incorporated as many safety and technological features into my car as I could.” 

            “Like what kind of features?” Joan asked suddenly interested.   

            Tommy grabbed his popcorn and beer and moved in closer to Josh eager not to miss a single fact.

“Okay, I thought we were going to miss out on the car story with this black hole business, but I think the story is now in progress. So yeah John, what kind of features did you incorporate?” 

            “Well, safety wise it already had a rudimentary roll cage which I improved upon. The five point harness I added, but I would hope they had one originally installed. I added the hydraulic suspension so I could drive in on the open highways. Also, I added nerf bars because there were no bumpers in the name of aerodynamics.” Josh paused to think. “I think I told you about the noise suppression system. In essence it’s a noise canceling system from a military aircraft.”

            “Really?” Tom Senior said. “Off, what, a C-130? How’s that work on a car?”

            “Exactly from a C-130. Well, it works real well if I maintain a steady throttle. Quiet as a mouse, but if I accelerate, especially hard, it doesn’t work at all.”

            “So what else did you add,” Sheri asked, with a light coming on in her expression. “Mmmmm, anything illegal?”

            “What are you asking, Sheri?” Tommy asked. “Want to get John in trouble?”

            “Of course not! Just making John’s car more exciting for us non-car geeks.”

            “Well, nothing illegal per se,” Josh said. “But like the noise suppression. A few things could be a bit sticky if identified by the authorities because they’re controlled because of their intended purpose and kept from those who would misuse them.” He glanced about. “So, I have a computer built in with applications for navigation, internet search, and self-analysis.”

            “Well, that’s not so different than most cars,” Joan offered.

            “Well�"true,” Josh said in a way that left the subject hanging. “I have a Heads-Up-Display projection on the windshield. I can monitor complete engine and different readings like ambient temperatures and road condition analysis; then, I have infrared display scanning 360 degrees around, so I can drive without lights.”

            “Wow!” Sheri said. “You can go completely clandestine!”

            “Yeah, I suppose,” Josh grinned. “The flat paint is radar absorbing, too.”

            “Holy smokes!” Tommy exclaimed. “A stealth car!”

            “Not only that, electrostatically I can change the color of the car.”

            “So what sort of work are you into?” Sheri asked. “International espionage?’

            Josh laughed. “No, nothing exciting like that at all. Most of this stuff on the car I picked up at the scrapyard or my buddies, who had buddies that held on to this stuff, ya’ know?”

            “Sure, but what a set up!” Tom Senior said. “Quite phenomenal in a former conceptual race car!”

            “Then add the expense of self-healing, high-speed tires,” Josh said with a bit of disgust. “Lots of good they did me as you well know.”

            “Do you have more to tell us about?” Tommy asked.

            “Yeah, something I’ll never use, but well, it was at the scrapyard,” he shrugged, “I have a self-driving AI on board and connected. I don’t why I keep it. Thought it might come in handy someday, ya’ know?”

            “Taken from a vehicle from before the war I take it?” Tom added. Josh nodded. “We all know how that so-called safety feature worked out on America’s highways�"mass carnage! Pedestrians mowed down, passenger driven off cliffs, into lakes, and so on! Another mass-marketed great idea! Hope if you use it, you don’t go to sleep and trust it with your life.”

            “You can bet on it.” Josh glanced around and thought they wanted more. “Well, let’s see�"I have shortwave radio, satellite connectivity, laser range finder, connectivity with all major mass transportation frequencies�"”       

            “So do you have any laser-guided missiles on that thing too?” Sheri asked. “Maybe a death ray? Hmmmm, perhaps a black hole inducer?”

            “Sheeerrrrrriii! Please,” Tommy complained.

            Josh sat there mutely until the others noticed his silence. Disparagingly, he accusingly said to Sheri, “you’ve been looking very closely at my car haven’t you, Sheri?”

            Rolling thunder broke the pregnant silence.

 

 

           

Artifact 34:

  

  Josh maneuvered through the few side roads he remembered from when Tommy took him to repair the tire and in minutes was accelerating almost silently up the on ramp to the interstate.  Josh took a deep breath and keyed up his map program to see what lied ahead.  The operations screen just flickered and went blank.  “Oh this is great.” Josh said aloud as he typed up the command to back up a few steps to call up the map while keeping one eye on the road. Nothing.  OK, let’s reboot. 

   The engine monitoring system was on a subroutine so was unaffected by a reboot and the heads up display continued to show engine data.  As the processor went through its self-diagnosis as Josh instructed it, the transom display flickered a couple times grew dim and brightened. e

 The TALON Skreen Doktor came out of a door that appeared.   “Da’ Doktor es enn, ah, ha you have problem, no?”

The Doktor was a rotund, frizzy white-haired man dressed in scrubs with a surgeon’s cap on his head and stethoscope wrapped around his neck.  He walked across the transom, pulled out his stethoscope, put the earpieces in his ears and placed the sensor pad on various places around the outside frame. He then put the sensor on what appeared as the inside of the display a few times in a couple locations seemingly outwards toward Josh. 

The Doktor shook his head and said “Thet, thet.” 

            Josh was getting pissed now.  “Fix the damn thing!”  A door appeared in the transom and the Doktor took off his stethoscope, hung them around his neck, and went through the door.  The twice times before Josh ran this program, he thought it was entertaining but now the Doktor’s comic strip demeanor just irritated him.  

   The screen changed and the Doktor was wearing reading glasses looking at x-rays he was holding out in front of him.

 “Thet, thet” he said again shaking his head.  “Ah so, solly, Josh old boy ah plognosis is velly glim.”  The Doktor’s accent changed every time he spoke. 

             Josh stabbed the help function key.  “I ahm besides maself, wit’ ‘dis problem. Me dinks you got bugs. Parasites to be quite exactly precisely correct. But me taak car of dem.” The Doktor said looking out at Josh with a determined face he suddenly moved in toward the screen with his nose getting unbelievable huge.

            “Well okay, where did I get them?” Josh mumbled to the grotesque Doktor. .       The Doktor went through a door and into another room with overhead surgery lights, donned a thick surgical gown, pulled up a facemask, pulled down a clear face shield, and wielded a long tool connected to a hose. “Stand back all, da Doktor is truly in, I do in ‘dem pesky varmints!” 

With that, he pulled a trigger on the tool and with flames bursting from the tool; the Doktor ran across the screen directing the flames all around the screen. 

   The computer then went into an automatic program check, with all files, folders and operating schemes rapidly scrolling down the transom.  Josh thought that he really needed to check his route again so pulled off the side of the highway.  Cars continued to stream by as he waited for the anti-virus scan to run.  Periodically the Doktor would come back along side the scrolling list with goggles and flamethrower ablaze; a nasty grin now across his soot smudged face.   “Gott en himmel vee geeting the best of ‘vem!”  And ran off the side again flames spurting from his gun.

   Josh had an idea. He reached into the dashboard storage compartment and pulled out his handheld, along with the tube of his rolled up flex screen.  He pulled out the flexscreen and stuck the tab on the passenger seat.  He unrolled the screen to its twelve-inch length.  Then he connected the power source and IR connection to his handheld and turned it on.  It came up instantly.  Using the mini-joystick, he hesitatively toggled on the AOL icon and signed on.  Don’t know if this is wise, he thought.

The AOL home page displayed: version 28, and it said, “You’ve got mail.”  Hmmmm, I shouldn’t have mail on this account but I’ll check later.   He stopped a second, wondering if this would be traced.  Supposedly, this was a discrete account, but still Josh hesitated.  It’s the only way, so I gotta do it.  Well, if someone is watching I’ll let them sort it out.

   With that, he logged into the ‘Find-your-way’ map program and requested a route to Minneapolis. Yeah, conceivably I could go there.   After looking at that a few seconds he stored it and requested a map to Alamogordo. New Mexico.  Maybe that would get their interest up. For added interest, he called up a follow-on trip to Tijuana, Mexico.  He grinned at that, storing it on the mini-hard drive.  Okay how about Anchorage? Let’s be specific, ahhh…Northern Lights Boulevard.  That side-trip took a little longer to store with over a thousand miles of route to plot.   It just occurred to Josh that he remembered when everyone used paper fold out maps or atlases.  Boy, those days are long gone but would sure save my butt here!  A couple more trips: San Francisco: Golden Gate Bridge and then a continuation to Sunnyvale, or specifically Silicon Valley!  Finally, for good measure he plotted out a round about way to Las Vegas.  Good place to spend my well-deserved cash.

  All maps were stored on his drive and he thought about his mail on the welcome page. Who could it be?  He mentally went through the list of people that knew his account but didn’t recognize the address, maybe junk mail, maybe more bugs.  “Not this time” and signed off.

    He turned back to the operations screen and the Doktor was standing there; frozen from the so-called auto-fire extinguisher.  “Dey got the best of me!”  The Doktor’s scrubs were tattered and burned, his hair burned off in patches and his face shield half melted away and face black.  “I tought I had ‘im but they’re too powerful for me, we need professional help!”  The Skreen Doktor automatically shut itself down and the image dissolved with the Doktor grimly waving good-bye and soon disappeared.

  “Well ain’t this sweet? So I’ll wing it, no mapping, proximity, special contacts or anything else.”  Josh shut down the operations drive, stowed his handheld and flexscreen.  Calculating his route, he checked traffic and pulled out onto the highway a little faster than he should have, venting a little of his frustration. He told himself to be careful about that; he didn’t need to get nailed out here by the old NSPS.  They’d love to impound this car, take it for a drive, take it apart and so on.  Not an altogether appealing situation.

  So he pressed on. No Public Safety lights in his rear view and all systems were go; on his heads up at least.  Still plenty of gas for a couple of hours, maybe should relax a bit. He stuck the stereo ear pieces in his ears and turned on the digital download player.  ‘Cars’ by Gary Newman played.  He remembered liking that song when he downloaded it. 

   An old hopped up Honda with a teenager at the wheel buzzed along side pacing him and gave Josh the thumbs up.  Then the youngster pointed ahead vigorously.  “I don’t think I’m into street racing in the middle of nowhere.”  He mumbled, shook his head and just maintained his speed. The kid shrugged his shoulders, geared down and floored it accelerating out away from Josh.  “Yeah no cruise control or safe following for you, PS fodder huh kid.”   Josh controlled his speed, stayed in his lane and acted as his car was locked tight onto the highway system controls.

   After putting on a bunch of kilometers, another sunset was approaching, along with the Rocky Mountains in his windshield.  The mountains were a ways off, but he could make out snow on the peaks.  His bypass route was coming up his fuel was getting low so he was on the search for a gas stop.  He pulled out his earpieces and hung them on the dashboard with the player.  Traffic was light, just a few families in their eini-vans, maybe on vacation.  A camper or two passed going the other way but they were few and far between.  “Pretty slow out here.” Josh reassured himself.  He looked at his case, where it rested behind the passenger seat.  “Yeah maybe a pipe dream, wild goose chase huh?”

   The sun was dipping down behind the mountains in a clear air sunset. Not very colorful, just a few high cirrus clouds reflecting silver linings.  A sign of positive aspects to come?  Josh doubted it.  A sign announced a gas stop up ahead a few kilometers.  “There we go.” Josh thought. 

    The time slipped by in seemingly seconds, when he saw the station up ahead on the left.  He pulled off the ramp, across the overpass and into the pump area.  The station area was brightly lit and very clean.  A few other customers were either pumping gas or getting some snacks. He sighed hoping this fill up was better than the last.  That incident seemed like a year ago to Josh now.

   Josh followed the routine of ‘pay inside’ selection and hoped for the best.  Probably few people use cash these days and so set the stage for unsavory characters like the one that managed the other gas station.  As Josh pumped, he smelled what he thought was cigarette smoke wafting by.  He looked quickly around trying to see where the smoke was coming from but didn’t see anyone smoking.  Kind of makes you really nervous when you smell smoke while pumping gas Josh reflected.  He completed filling his tank and glanced inside the car, ensuring that the case was covered behind the seat with his jacket.  Walking in the storefront a young couple walked out drinking Cokes.  He decided that was a good idea and went back to the cooler area and pulled out a liter.  There was a clear view across the tarmac and keeping an eye on the car he picked up a sandwich and a bag of chocolate cookies.  A far stretch from those meals at Milfords Josh considered, but it’ll do for now. 

  A pleasant looking middle-aged woman was behind the counter with a teenaged boy stocking shelves in the rear of the counter area who seemed preoccupied with something out the window.  The woman seemed to notice Josh’s attention.  “Young men.” She said pointing and smirking.  “Interested in the young ladies.” 

  Josh smiled back and not seeing where the young man’s attention was focused and said “Pump eight ah a hundred and two…cash okay?” 

  “Sure thing, honey Norte-dollars?”

   “Oh Amero dollars.”

   “Better yet no stinking exchange rate, huh.”

   “You bet.”

   Josh did a double take when he saw the young stocker’s focus.  The young girl had her back to the store but was dark-haired in braids curled now around her head like a silken black rope with the same backpack, jeans and boots.  “No, couldn’t be.” Josh mumbled.

   “Pardon me Hon?” the woman inquired.  

   “Nothing, aahh thinking out loud.”

  “Like a bag for your things?”

   “Oh, yeah...sure thanks.”

   With that Josh picked up his change and bag, strolled out the door, wondering about the girl but glancing at the car too, and saw no one was around. 

   “Hey, Mister!  How are ya.”  Came the voice. Josh jolted with recognition of the voice. His adrenaline spiked and his anger built.

   “You; you! He said fuming. “What’s this? Hanging out at gas stations a thing with you and stealing guy’s stuff?”  

   “Stealing? Naa, and coincidence I’m here.  See you could’ve gave me a ride and we’d been here at the same time anyway.  BeTW, what took you so long to get here? You go by way of Canada?” She giggled.  “I walked halfway here after a trucker broad got fresh with me and I bailed ASAP.  Tell you what, you think you’re safe staying away from the guys and then that happens.  Crazy days indeed.”

  “Oh, right…I had car problems and had a delay, but to the point where’s my stuff?”

            She seemed to ignore his inquiry. “Don’t tell me about mechanical malfunctions in that thing.” She nodded toward the car, and then blew a huge bubble gum bubble that popped across her chin and nose.  She tongues the feathery pink bubble fragments back into her mouth and chews again, snapping the air pockets with her mouth open, making a statement that Josh picked up on. 

   “So what happened to your death sticks?”

   “Mean the cigarettes?  Quit.”

   “C’mon, like that in what two days?”  Josh said snapping his fingers.

   Dawn nodded, smiled, snapped her fingers and blew another bubble that popped over on her chin and she nodded licking up the sticky goo on the tip of her tongue.  Josh just looked on grinning. “No you can’t.”

  “What sha mean?”

  “You were going to ask to ride along.” He answered backing a few steps and started walking toward the car.

  “Ohhhhhhhwweeee.” Dawn whined.  “You need me.”

   Josh let out his breath out audibly between his lips.  “I need you? What to rip me off again?”

“What do ya think I have anyway?”

 “ Don’t act all innocent with me, sticky fingers. And My needing you? I don’t think so!””  He answered pointing to himself and then her.  Then reached out and flicked off a fleck of pink goo off her cheek.  A tingle went through his hand that he quickly withdrew and she twisted her head away. 

  She turned and looked him hard, straight in the eyes.  “I’m a world-class hacker.”

  “Oh really.” Josh said raising his eyes heavenward.  “And that’s why I need you.” He did the pointing to himself and to her again.  “I got enough problems as it is, sis.”

   “And, and I can protect you too.” 

  “Provide comic relief maybe.” Josh said smiling looking down the length of her.  “Let’s see, karate, ju jitsu or something cool like that, huh?

  “Heck no that’s sissy stuff, Dawn said backing up and tightening her waist belt on her back pack, she squatted quickly and sprung up, flipping backwards heels over head, spun a 360 on her toes, sprang forward and brandishing a samari sword, swished the air  over Josh’s head.

 She stood legs spread wide, feet arched high and stood on the balls of her feet-unmoving, sword gripped with whitened knuckles hands together and right forearm twisted over the left in a thrust pose.  Josh eyes were opened wide; he saw the tight, sinewy muscles in her forearms, and biceps taut like fine cables.    

   Josh stood his ground feet firmly planted. “S**t! Where’d that thing come from?”

   With a gleam in her eye and a determined grin, “Back pack: and I usually get that reaction.”  They both looked around and seen the man at the pumps and the hormonal young stocker staring with their mouths open.  She reached over her head and guided the sword back into the backpack with her right hand.  Josh noticed she was left-handed.  She flipped the cover over the sword’s handle and relaxed her fighting stance. “Well…convinced?”

  “Yeah, I guess but the demonstration doesn’t really change your status.   You’re obviously underage, obviously on the road by yourself and wielding an obviously illegal weapon. Then in all probability you’re a runaway or delinquent on the run. Not to mention you stole my stuff.”

  “What stuff?” Dawn said looking sincere  and all. “And your point of pointing all that out?”

  “I don’t need any heat from the PS guys. One look at us and they’ll assume kidnapping or molestation.  You can figure that out.”

  “Possibly could happen.” Dawn said matter of factly.  “But not probable.  My foster parents are liberal free-thinkers. They let me do what ever I want as long as there’s no PS record and I call them every two weeks.”

  “Whatever. Doesn’t change my answer, miss sword bearing, bubble gum popping liberal roadster princess.”  Josh said turning and walking toward his car.

   Dawn flaunted a phony pout for a second and quickly re-brightened. “Hey, but I’m multi-talented, remember?”

   “Certainly, you’re a hacker in more ways than one!”  Josh stopped and faced her again keeping a straight face. “Just what I need, the PS guys and the computer geek regulators to worry about. Come on, give me a break.”

   “Hey, I’m sure you know enough about ‘puting that a hack knows more of the ins and outs of computers than those ‘board jockeys’ who write the programs. Besides I got my own avatar to jump into programs and sort things out.” 

   “My bug surgeon just got toasted in my system, does your system emissary want to join him in the cyberspace necropolis? You think you can do better?” 

   “Yes; without a doubt.” She said confidently.

   “Oh just crammed full of yourself I see.”

   Seeing that she felt her foot edging closer to an open door to stick it in, Dawn started chewing and popping her gum again.  Josh walked a few steps closer to the car. “Weird.” He thought. Cigarette smoke again.  He looked around, no one else in sight. 

   “Ah.” Dawn said glancing aside.  “What seems to be the problem with your system?” She took a couple quick steps, stepping between Josh and the car.  She was unstrapping her backpack, wiggling out of one shoulder strap, and looking inside the car.  

  “A little presumptuous here aren’t we?  I didn’t agree to anything and I am nervous about this.”

  “You, nervous?  Ha, I saw that look when my sword split the air over your head.  You didn’t blink and I seen the flex in your legs, you’re probably fast enough to dodge my next move.  I can read my opponents.”

  “Sure…maybe.”  He contemplated a moment.   We’re wasting time now. Okay, okay you can come along.  But some rules:  keep a low profile, draw attention to this car, us or you, like junior over there and you’re on foot again.  He lectured with a finger point toward the stocker boy still glancing out across the pump area at them. “…And no drugs, vengeful boyfriends and so on. Cappish?”         

   She grinned.  “That’s kind of corny, sure.  Brutum fulmen.”

   “What’s that?” 

    “I’ll tell you later. Let’s go.” She pulled her backpack off her shoulder where it was dangling for the last minute and swung it to the pavement. Pulling open the door, she looked in the back of the car and shoved her pack between the seat and doorpost.  

   Josh swung into his seat behind the wheel and stuck his bag of food between the seats.  His jacket was undisturbed with Dawn’s backpack farther in the rear of the car.  “Get your shoulder harness?”

  “Easy.  Just like a parachute harness, I’ll get it in a flash.”  A second later, he heard the center buckle snap shut. 

  “Good.  Sounds like you’ve been through a lot of experiences for your age.”

  “You might say that I had the liberty, money and took advantage of them.”

  Josh fired off the engine and turned on the normal running mode lights.  Dawn was quickly eyeballing the car from floorboards, to roof, to heads up display and controls under the bright lights of the station. 

   Josh noticed her investigation.  “What do you think?”

   “Definitely not heavy on the comfort features, but I’d say this thing was build for speed.  I see a lot of aluminum, titanium and a lot of other weight saving stuff. Like an aircraft really.”

  “How’d you know that?”

  “Oh, skydiving and once I stowed aboard a military transport with a bud to Europe.  Cold enough to freeze your tities off but we made it.” 

  Josh laughed.   They pulled out of the station toward the west and headed for the interstate. The sun had set an hour ago and now there was just a soft amethyst glow silhouetting the rugged mountains.  In the darkness, the craggy precipices looked even more huge and sinister.     

  “This thing is amazing!” Dawn said brushing her hand across the instrument panel top.  “You’ll have to teach me to drive it…you know, let me put it through it’s paces.  What’ll it do? 230?”

  Josh concentrated on the road but wrinkled up his forehead as he turned slightly toward her and curled up the corner of his lips.

 “Faster?  I’ve never been faster than 230 and that was on a bike.”

  Josh shook his head and from memory figured he had about 10 kilometers to the interchange.  A couple minutes later, a sign told him that he was close in his assessment. 

  “So is your hud your only screen for your system?  She asked businesslike. 

  “I have a flex screen tube stowed in the panel box in front of you there.”   He flipped on a map light over her head.

  She mashed the button with the side of her fist and the door popped open.  Reaching in she pulled out Josh’s handheld, turned it over looking at it, put it back in and withdrew the screen tube. 

  “Oh how quaint! Where’d you get this stuff at the Salvation Army rummage sale?”

   “Friend of mind set me up in this stuff a few months ago…said it was state-of-the-art.”

  “Yeah, and …..is the latest fashion statement.”

  She shoved his things back in the compartment roughly and slammed the door shut.  Turning and reaching around between the seats, she slid her backpack closer so she could rummage around in it. 

“Hey what’s this, your luggage?”  She asked thumping the cigar box.

 “My cash, miss nosy.”

  “Sorry, sorry.” She was still rolling and spinning her pack around shoving her blunt end of the sword grip into Josh’s ribs, getting an oomph out of him.

  “Careful there!”

  “Sorry, sorry.”

    She took two small cases out and set them beside Josh’s food bag while she shoved her pack into place.  

 “Now this stuff is state-of-the-art.”  She said holding them up in front of Josh’s face and settled back in her seat. 

   “Right.  Nice boxes.”

  “So where are the interfaces?  Never mind, I see,” she said pressing a small panel alongside the storage compartment that revealed six ports.  “Okay, first things first.”

She folded open the rectangular case and pulled out a pair of what looked like heavy framed sunglasses.  She put them on but Josh saw that the lenses were opaque.  She grinned big toward Josh evidently not seeing him at all. Flipping the glasses up to her forehead, she opened the other cube case that held what looked like a handheld and a set of patch cords.

  “You called my stuff archaic?  You’ve got patch cords to hook equipment up?”

  “Makes sense you know, some old stuff is better for different reasons than the technology that tried to replace them.  Like patch cords, takes less power to run, actually takes up less room and best of all,” she said hooking up the wires, “no unpredictable leaking emissions.  Best when your desire is to keep a low profile.”

  With the glasses on and her handheld plugged into Josh’s power she slid down her glasses and keyed in a command on a miniature keyboard.  Josh did a double-take when he seen lights flashing erratically onto Dawn’s wide open eyes from inside the glasses.

  “Now what?”     

  “Don’t interrupt, I’m recharging my alpha brain waves.”

  No one seen it of course but Josh rolled up his eyes with the absurdity of it all. 

  Interrupting his mockery, Josh noticed that their interchange was right there, so he slowed and turned onto the highway heading north.  Dawn made no comment or notice of the turn but kept concentrating on the now warm-color flashing lights; red, yellow, orange and white.

  After a few more minutes, Dawn’s light show was growing dimmer with slower pulsations.  Still staring ahead, she said, “You know the aborigines had it right, you can get closest to God and transcendentalism with your alpha waves recharged, the brain operates more efficiently and they did it by staring into fire while chanting and meditating.  Television and CRTs with their overbearing beta waves make zombies out of us.”

  “Yeah I’ve heard of that.”

   “Okay lets see what ailing you.” Dawn said with her glasses pulled up again to the computer as she inserted a patch cord plug into the car’s operations computer terminal.  “Let’s get my avatar up and running first.”

    “You always talk to your computer?” Josh inquired.

   “No, just thought you’d be interested, usually I just crank up the 21^st techno-drive music.  Here…we…go!”  She said blowing a huge bubble that popped over her lips and she retrieved it with her tongue.

    Josh had his ops transom on the HUD so he could see what was going on the operations side.  Not that he didn’t entirely trust her, but he couldn’t interfere until it was too late anyhow.  A background of what looked like wrinkled course fabric or burlap blurred into focus.  A dial with a partial indicator hand ticked off seconds on the bottom left and 15 seconds ticked off before anything happened.  Dawn in the meantime was jostling with her tiny keyboard and a cord that ran under the instrument panel to as near Josh could tell in the dark to her bare foot. 

   “Hi-yaaaaa”  came out of the system that snapped Josh’s attention back to the ops screen.  Right after that a blade sliced through the fabric, carving back and forth with a likeness of Dawn leaping through the opening to the forefront of the display.  Her avatar was styled after the Japanese animatron cartoon characters.  Her face was oddly oval like Dawn with a Japanese ancestry and dark oval eyes that sparkled when she turned her eyes or head.  Her hair was black, cut square at the nape of the neck with a perfectly triangular part on her forehead.  Her hair spun straight out horizontally when she turned her head.   Her character ran up to the edge of screen and ran halfway up before flipping over backwards, followed by an seemingly endless volley of backflips, spins and sword maneuvers.

   “All right.  Borrow this from a Game Boy Five?”  Josh asked sarcastically reaching for his Coke, opening it and taking a long drink.  “Like some?” He offered his drink.   

   “No. on both questions.”  Dawn answered indignantly. “I wrote her myself.”  Screen Dawn stood for a few seconds with feet spread wide apart and sword held above her head in outstretched arms her right hand’s fingers pinching the blade.  A gust of cyberspace wind blew at Screen Dawn blowing her hair out straight, she leaned into it while words appeared. “Dawn Twilight’s Last Gleaning.” With small print “Of all unwanted ‘puter crawlers.”

   “Dawn’s cure all, huh?  Cute.” 

   Dawn turned to Josh in her opaque glasses and smirked at him.  Screen Dawn went to work.  With a few Hi-yaa’s and slashing of her sword she hacked and whacked through a hundred files, folders and operations programs. 

   “Here’s the log-in page” She said and Screen Dawn stopped.  The page opened up.  “Oh come on!  And you made fun of me.” she yelled.  The page had “TOMS” written in stone surrounded by clouds and below the acronym was spelled out: Talon Omniscient Monitoring System.  “Tom a friend of yours I assume? Apparently not a real good monitoring system anyway.” She said as Screen Dawn stabbed the page, flipped it off the side of the screen, pulled a pistol and shot at it off screen.  Then avatar started going through data like some kind of rabid cartoon.

   “I have to admit that thing of yours is covering ground.”

   “You betcha.” Dawn said snapping her gum out the side of her mouth as she was still manipulating data along with the avatar.   I checked your used versus available digital storage units versus fixed drive and I should have known right away.  It was too perfect. Now after she checked the usual hiding places I’m beginning to realize it was like my first inclination, but it’ll take a bit to finalize the findings.”   Screen Dawn was showing some signs of tiring.  Her leaps were shorter, spins slower and thrusts seemed less enthusiastic.

   “What’s up with her tiring out? It looks like she sweating.” 

   “Yeah I wrote that in to show me she’s getting close to the end and/or solution.  Just a little realism thrown in for good measure.”

   “Whoa there girl,” she mumbled at the screen. “There it is, pesky bugger.  Yep, a bit dauber.”

   “A what? A Bit Dauber?” Josh said with a bit of nonverbal disbelief. “Never heard of one of those.” 

  “Definitely a high-tech bit dauber bugger, for sure.  They wall up your useable space and transfer blank, unusable space into your operations inquiry page and storage areas at the same time.  It looks and acts like everything is A-OK but it’s so slow, a bit every two microseconds or so, that normal, in system detection devices don’t see them in action until…oops they lose so much data they malfunction.   

   “But my Screen Doktor seemed to function.”

   “Mean this guy?”  Dawn flipped through a few locations and the Screen Doktor came up wearing a cowboy hat.  “Howdy dare partner.”  He said with bow-legged stance with a cowboy hat, boots and spurs. 

 “Your guy probably was acting normally and going through the motions but wasn’t really checking anything.”  Dawn said matter-of-factly. 

  “Hi-yaaaa.” Screen Dawn leaped into Skreen Doktor’s page.  “Hey an intruder.” Skreen Doktor yelled.”  Screen Dawn did a few flips and spins while Dawn continued to manipulate data and mash buttons to tell the Skreen Doktor that Screen Dawn was okay and not an evil intruder.  

  Everything seemed to get back into order with Skreen Doktor going through a door, disappearing and Screen Dawn calmed down by going into screen saver mode by doing some slow-motion moves and flat-footed sword motions.  “Now comes the hard and time-consuming work to get rid of the trouble makers and restore your data.” Dawn said with a sigh.  “Look, La Luna is rising and full tonight.”  She added pointing across her body out the side window and peeking over the top of her glasses. 

   Josh was concentrating on the driving but took a look at the huge, bright green moon that was highlighting the scrubland and stunted trees along the highway.  A few low, thin-banded stratocumulus hung across the moon like strips of dark confetti. “Looks like a nice night for wolves to howl.”  He said.  Dawn grinned even while she was in deep concentration at her task. 

  “Can I ask you a question while you’re working?” He asked.

  “Depends.”

  “Well, you didn’t even ask me where I was going.  What if I’m not headed in your direction?” 

   “You were generally heading west, same as me and besides I’m not overly particular.  You didn’t ask me either.”

   “Yeah your salesperson skills about hacking and computers convinced me to give you your chance at my computer. On the road, I didn’t have much choice, huh?” “Course I could toss you out on your ear if you give me a problem.”  Josh smiled still looking straight ahead to the headlight and moonlight lit highway.    

   “Right.”

  “So my ops screen is dead now, how about yours? You seem to be still working at something.”

  “I’m going through the program writing and searching now, so I turned off your display.  A lot of gunk.”  Dawn added with a gum pop.

   They continued driving onward as the moon climbed into the starlit heavens.  Traffic was practically non-existent but they maintained their pace nevertheless.  Josh had plugged into his digital music download and was enjoying some classic grunge again.  Dawn worked hard to clear the system but had to take a break before she got the system on line again.

    She pulled off her glasses and folded them up into the case, then rubbed her eyes.   Tugging on Josh’s sleeve to get his attention she signaled that she wanted to talk so he pulled out his earpieces.  “I needed to take a break from crunching data and sterilizing command strings.”

   “Sure thing I’m not going to crack the whip and make you work through the night you’ve been going at it for three hours or more now.”  Josh answered.

  Dawn popped her gum, and looked serious.  “I mean I have to take a break.”

  “Okay I said. Oh… Okay, hold on.”

    The terrain was becoming hillier as they drove along the foothills of the Rockies getting closer and gaining altitude as they went.  Josh remembered from his quick look earlier in the day that they’d climb slowly for awhile and then turn more westerly into the mountains with a few passes that he noticed were closed in the wintertime.  There was nothing along the highway in way of rest stops, towns for awhile now and for that matter no real bushes, shrubbery or trees to speak of either. 

  “So how modest are you.”

  “Not at all if you behave yourself.”

  “Come on I’m an adult!”

  “Are you using that as an excuse or rationalization?”

  “No you don’t have anything to worry about so I’ll pull over right here at this rise.” Josh pointed. “You can watch for traffic, which you can see for twenty miles out.”      

   “Fine with me.”

   A few seconds later Josh pulled over on the gravelly shoulder in a cloud of dust and turned off the engine and lights.  The highway behind them looked like a dark ribbon in the dusty hills with the highway marker lines glowing faintly in the lunar illumination.  Ahead the highway fell for a couple kilometers, then turned and disappeared into the higher hills but there was no traffic to be seen in either direction. 

    Dawn unsnapped and got out of the car and disappeared from sight.  Josh kept an eye out on the highway as he munched on a cookie but was unusually quiet even for out here.  After a couple minutes, Dawn came back still popping her gum.  “Thanks for the stop, I needed that.  I sure wouldn’t want to be left behind out here, you’d be fodder for the wolves and rattlesnakes in no time.”  She said pulling her harness over her shoulders.

  “Yes no doubt.  Seeing we’re stopped out here I might take a break.” Josh said as he got out.   Josh walked across the highway that was still warm from the daytime heat.  A cool breeze blowing up the rise rustled his hair and he took a deep breath.  Quite fresh for no vegetation he thought as he watered the road shoulder.  He looked over his own shoulder back and the car and seen rummaging around in the back of the car again.  “Probably looking for gadgets.”  Josh smiled to himself.      

    After he zipped up he noticed aircraft lights aloft cutting across the highway heading for higher ground.   He stopped moving for a second but the aircraft was so far off he couldn’t hear the engine.  He headed back to the car and got in.

   “So how far are we going in this stretch?”  Dawn solicited.

   “I’d like to get through the mountains tonight even though it’s not safest driving there shouldn’t be much traffic…obviously.”  He gesticulated with his hand in front of himself.  “Okay?”

  “Mighty fine with me, I can sleep anywhere.” She answered.

  The continued on their journey as the car almost coasted a few seconds down the rise and over the next couple of rises Josh had seen from the stop.   Dawn had put on her glasses and booted up again.  Josh could see flashes of pages or data changes reflect off her black eyes and then seen an aircraft off Dawn’s side of the car skirting the highlands to the northeast.  “Same one?”  He considered.  

  They pressed on for another 45 minutes and he could see where they were headed: straight into the mountains.  He loved racing through the mountains as if back home in the Appalachians but this was vastly different in the dark and with heavy shadows from the still low moon, making eerie patterns in the road and hard on the eyes with the shift from light to dark.  A steep climb started off the ascension and he downshifted for the first time, dropping their speed to about 60.  Still not bad, many huge, jumbled boulders along the sides and perpendicular cut rock walls momentarily where the road builders drilled blasted or excavated for the highway.  Shortly afterwards a sign showed him that the road doubled-back apparently to lessen the climb.  He geared down again as he entered the sharp curve.

    Dawn took her glasses off and put her equipment away.  She wasn’t even silently chewing her gum just looking around.  “You okay?”  He asked.

   “Oh I should have quit before we started the roller coaster ride, got a little woozy.” 

   “The little tough girl getting sick?” 

   “I think it was the sensory disconnection, no sight or sound but the motion definitely got through.” She grinned dourly. “I’m fine.”  

    The ess turn finally straightened out and road leveled out for a short period.   Dawn was just calm watching out the windshield, her color seemed back to normal.  Josh was actually enjoying the drive despite being quite road weary but the short break before the climb began.  Again, there was a sharp curve and then a pass with steep vertical sides.

   Suddenly, the car was engulfed in fiery bright white light.  “What the!”  Josh shouted.  The light was coming from above and behind; an aircraft.  Dawn spun in her seat and looked out the window.

  “I can’t make it out with those light and can’t hear it.” She yelled. 

  “Computer up?”  Josh asked as he speeded up.  “Give me identification or something on this thing on our tail.”     

    Dawn didn’t waste time with her equipment by just reaching over and pulling out the car’s keypad and punching up the operations screen.  “I know where your location and identification program is but it’s still corrupted.”

   “Satellite link?”

   “Maybe.” Dawn answered tersely typing like mad.   She ran up the program and the system showed it was searching for a satellite.  In the meantime she looked out her window again even though the car was still bathed in searing white light hurting her eyes.  The aircraft was staying right with them.  “I think it’s a hover jet. Probably military…expecting anyone?”  She asked loudly, looking at Josh.  “And why you?”  She added not too convincingly.

   The satellite link came on the screen and Josh shot glances at it between driving on the wildly curving road, up and down shifting but not really pushing the car too hard or fast.  Dawn studied the map from the link display with infrared enhancement.  The car showed weakly on the display but the aircraft that dogged them came in hot as it swerved and banked to maintain the contact with them. 

   “You want to outrun them don’t you?”  She asked.

  “Normally on flatland I could, maybe, but not here, they have the upper hand.”

  “Don’t even try to evade them.” Dawn said flatly.

  “Huh.”  Josh is taken aback.   “You don’t know why they’re after me.” He said downshifting for yet another turn.

   “It’s not worth it to you.”

   “Worth a couple million dollars to me.”

   “Listen to me…you don’t really know what it is, its worth much more than that: it is priceless.”

   “What do you know?” Josh yelled crossly.

   “More than you think but look on the screen.” She pointed.  “If you take drastic measures to elude whoever this is will only make it worse before we can go much farther…look out!”

   On the screen there was an intermingling of warm objects across the road and on the shoulders ahead and simultaneously the hover jet dropped to about twenty feet off the highway shining its retina burners in the car’s back window. 

   “Damn!”  Josh said.  “A roadblock.  But how?”  He flashed a quizzical look at Dawn who was staring ahead.

    As they rounded the turn Josh began to slow, knowing what he was about to see.  On the screen, they in the car, the jet and the roadblock ahead all merged in to a mass of warmth on the satellite sensor.       

   Josh had the car’s bright lights on already and with the jet’s lights they lit up the highway and rock banks for meters around like the radiance of the midday sun but then there was just a mass of black darkness ahead.  A sharp turn and deep shadows?  He knew.  Abruptly, headlights and flashing lights blazed on.  Josh took a deep breath as he braked for the upcoming altercation.  

  “Before it’s too late, tell me why and what you know about what I have.”

  “Never mind that, Josh, I told you I could help you and am pretty sure I can get us out of this.”

   “Sorry, but I’m not too confident in your ability to possibly control this whole blasted out of control situation. In fact, I didn’t have any problems until...”  Josh said emphatically while looking Dawn in the face; in a dismal doubt of their prospect as the jet deafeningly settled in behind and an amplified voice blared out from ahead…