The Luddite Conspiracy Ch. 02

Not even if it was Neil himself.

-=-=-

Neil frowned as the answering machine picked up a second time. He opened his mouth to leave a message, and then thought better of it and hung up. He was eager to make amends, but he didn't want to do it to a machine. He wanted to hear his wife's voice. He wanted her to hear him apologize, hear that he was ready to live again, in real time. Starting that process with a machine seemed almost like bad mojo. It was incorrect.

He would try again in an hour, he decided. By then, he would be at the airport waiting for his flight. Even if he couldn't exchange his ticket, he didn't mind buying a new one. He just wanted to be home, with the woman he loved.

But there was work to be done, too. By now the FMEA would be over, and the problem with the Technica almost certainly identified. If his source had kept in touch with Paul, then Neil would know the truth within a matter of hours. He was still confident that, given the nature of the issue, the pedal linkage was the answer. And now, as he finally focused his thoughts and attention, that concerned him greatly.

Neil hadn't even begun to roll over the question in his mind until late last night, as he sat in his hotel room with a cold pack on his eye. And he hadn't started drawing answers until this morning. Now, they virtually slammed into his brain as he stared out the windshield at the passing world.

Why would the pedal linkage be malfunctioning, he wondered. What would cause it to err? Surely it had to have been changed. It was the only answer he could find that made any sense. And it had alarming implications.

After all, if the linkage had been changed, then it stood to reason that someone had changed it.

Should it turn out that the linkage was in fact the problem, then Neil Fenner knew who had changed it. He knew who had sabotaged his design. And he thought he knew why. The only question was how to prove it.

He did pray that he was wrong, but the more he thought about it the less he doubted his knew understanding.

Add it to the list of reasons he needed to get home.

-=-=-

"Hey, Paul," David Kearns said, sliding into the booth opposite his friend. "What's going on? It's not often I hear from you outside of work, so I assume it's something big."

Paul nodded, toying with his pen and legal pad. Neither was much of a substitute for a cigarette. "Need your help," he said. "It's about the Technica."

David tilted his head inquisitively. "I'll help you if I can, but you know just as much as I do. Anyway, isn't the FMEA report due out soon?"

"Soon. But I know what it says, and it's a problem."

David raised an eyebrow. "Neil?"

"Sort of. Neil's friends, called in to repay Neil's favors."

"That makes sense. Lot of us owe that guy, and some more than others. I hope he's doing okay. You heard from him?"

Paul shook his head. "Not for a few days now. About the car..."

"What's the report say?"

"Pedal linkage."

David nodded. "Just like he said. He'll be pleased."

"Maybe, but the problem is we didn't change the pedals. We didn't change anything around the pedals. You know that."

David nodded again. "So we're in the clear."

"Not exactly."

He squinted in confusion. "I don't understand. Why aren't we? They can't think we did it on purpose, can they?"

Paul nodded. "And it'll be up to us to prove otherwise."

"Shit," David looked ill. He glanced at the pen and paper resting in front of his coworker. "Shit!"

"Pretty much that. So I assume you'll be eager to help."

"Any way that I can."

Paul got into position to write. "I need you to tell me everything you remember about the Technica redesign, starting right after the first mule build was tested."

"Everything?"

"Every last detail," Paul nodded, his face stoney serious. "Every decision, every movement, every time you looked over a copy of the plans. But especially any memories that pertain to Cecile Schaefer."

-=-=-

Gina sat looking through a photo album, drinking from a glass of wine, when Cecile arrived. She was wearing a too-large "around the house" kind of t-shirt and gray sweatpants. She hadn't showered yet. It didn't matter to Cecile. She was still beautiful.

"What's up?" he asked, sitting down beside her and silently taking note of the half-empty bottle of red. "You not feeling up to going out?"

"I was just saying goodbye to my family." Gina reached out and delicately turned the page of the photo album. The pictures were of Neil and her in the earlier days of their marriage. The page she was on now showed the two of them posing in front of redwoods and landmarks in California. Her belly was swollen, her hand resting atop it in many of the photographs. Putting one hand now to her chest, she reached out with the other and traced the edge of the last photo on the page. In it, Neil was down on one knee with his head pressed against her tummy. A big, stupid grin was plastered on his face. She pressed her finger to the reproduction of his face. And then, she started crying.

Fuck,Cecile thought.More tears. So much for moving on.He put his arm around her, and she fell against his chest. Wrapping his arms around her, he let her cry against him for several minutes. Then, when it seemed to subside, he lifted her chin with his finger. It seemed like a good move. Like the kind of thing a movie star does just before he gets the girl.

"You know," he said softly, "as hard as it is to accept, Neil really isn't coming back. His office is all cleaned out at work. He must have had Paul or somebody do it for him. And eventually you are going to have to stop looking at what you're leaving behind and start seeing at what's standing right in front of you."

Her eyes searched his, and he knew it was a good line. Then, she lifted up and kissed him. It was a soft kiss, a little salty from the fallen tears, but it was a kiss nonetheless. Her hand touched his cheek. Then she pulled back. "I guess you're right," she admitted. "I'm sorry I didn't get ready. Would you mind waiting for just a few minutes? I can shower quickly, I promise."

"I would wait all night," he admitted.

Cecile spent the time that Gina was away in the master bedroom flipping through the photo album alone. Neil looked so young and happy in those pictures. Cecile had never seen him offer up a smile like the one that showed up on page after page. Until now, he hadn't fully understood how painful it could be to lose a child. And, for a moment, it occurred to him that he was working hard to take away the only person Neil had left to lose. But he brushed that off. If the old man didn't realize what he had...if he couldn't learn to live with the hand he was dealt...then that wasn't Cecile's problem. And it shouldn't be Gina's, either.

And when she came into the room, dressed for dinner and looking closer to perfect than any human being had a right to, Cecile stopped thinking about his absent coworker altogether.

Which he might not have done if he'd known that Neil Fenner's plane was set to land in just twenty minutes time.