There Must Be A Mistake Ch. 18

"Oh I'm sorry, are you feeling better now."

Yes I am."

"Would you like me to explain it to you?"

"Unless you have something better to do, I would really appreciate it."

"Can I have a piece of paper please?"

"Here you are."

"Dad, this flat piece of paper represents time and space. If you want to get from one end to the other you have to cross the entire piece of paper. If you want to shorten time you take both edges of the paper and have them meet. Now what do you have?"

"You have a cylinder."

"That's right. Now you've shortened time, and you want to shorten space. May I have a pencil please. Using your formula is like punching a hole in the center of the cylinder to go in. You punch another hole on the other side of the cylinder to go out. There is your wormhole, and you have shortened space."

"Newton that is amazing. How did you learn that?"

"It's your formula dad the rest of it was easy."

Logan said, "I think I'm going to be sick."

"Newt it may be my formula, but I had no idea what to do with it. I would like you to name it."

"Mommy is going to name it, because she has something good to tell you."

"I was going to tell him when we were alone Newton, not in the middle of the facility."

"What's wrong babe, you've got that funny look on your face."

Delicious looked down at the floor and said softly, "Gray, I'm 4 ½ months pregnant."

Newt said, "With Teddy."

"I know how, but weren't you taking birth control pills?"

"I must've forgotten to take them."

"No you didn't. Grandma had me exchange them with baby aspirin."

Delicious screamed, "Mom, I'm going to kill you."

Newt said, "Grandma is laughing at you."

"Tell your grandmother thank you for me and for my new son."

"Dad, Teddy is a girl."

"Thank your grandmother for my next child."

"She says you're welcome."

"We have to get this news to your father and to Gordon. This could change the planning for our entire trip."

"Newt can we open the wormhole wherever we want to?"

"I would be very careful that the wormhole did not travel through a black hole. Grandma hasn't taught me about them yet."

"I agree with you, I wouldn't want to go through a black hole either."

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

86. Time Waits For ...

The news was not good, the tumor did not shrink. After six weeks of radiation and chemotherapy, I was bald, thin, and hollow eyed.

As Doctor Nu stated at our first meeting, I was going to get sicker before I got better. I definitely was sicker than I was when I was wheeled into this hospital, and so far I had received no benefit from it. I was going to a rehabilitation center for three weeks to regain my strength, and increase my weight to prepare myself for the operation.

I didn't want to have anyone look at me the way I was, so needless to say I had a constant stream of visitors. I could see the horror in their eyes as they saw the shadow of my former self. Even William could not control his emotions. He did not tell me about the threat to his and his family's lives, nor his feelings about the threat to the spacecraft.

No one told me any bad news about the project, only the good news.

Dycke and Payne came to see me, and thanked me for being ill. It was an excuse for being away from home, and Zoie whose behavior was only getting worse with time.

I remembered a conversation I had with Dycke, some time ago, when we were talking about Gordon's sex drive kicking in.

He said, "Before they meet I'm putting her on the pill."

"Dammit Dycke put her on the pill, and let her get laid. It may solve Zoie's problems, and yours."

Payne was shocked. "Even she's only 16."

"Payne, do you always want to run away to visit a sick friend, because you're afraid of your daughter's behavior, or would you rather be at home with her and have her happy? Gordon told me that two thirds of high school students have sex by the time they are 16. That would put Zoie in the majority, rather than in the minority of students."

"Don't you love it when my husband gets logical when he's talking about your daughter?"

"Jennifer wasn't I the same way with Delicious? Did I tell her to wait until she was 18, or was it her idea?"

"Don't you dare get logical with me Doctor Luck. I could put an air bubble in your intravenous line, and get rid of you quickly."

"Would you put two air bubbles in there. The way I'm feeling it would be the merciful thing to do."

Dycke reproached me. "Even this project will not get off the ground without you. The Beach Ball will sit in that hanger and gathered dust because of some details only you will be able to solve. Don't do anything stupid; take your punishment, and get back to work. I'll carry you on my back if I have to, but I want to see your spaceship fly. I don't care about our money. I want to see your name in the history books."

"It's not my spaceship, it's our spaceship, and that ship will get off the ground and land on another planet before I die. I give you my word."

"You could at least put a smile on your face when you say that."

"It hurts too much to smile, but I will after the operation is over. I appreciate both of you coming, but I'm tired now and I'd like to get some rest."

"We will always be here for you; Even. Jen if he needs anything at all, call us."

"I will Payne, thank you for coming."

As they were walking out the door I said, "Put Zoie on the pill."

"Stop being a pest. We heard you the first time, and the second time. We didn't have to hear it a third time."

"Yes you did."

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

"Are you feeling a little feisty my love?"

"It all depends on what you mean by feisty Jen. If you mean am I going to throw up again, the answer is no. If you mean I would like to have sex with my wife, the answer is yes. I don't know how you managed to hold up during this past six weeks. I would have run into the hills screaming."

"You are a terrible liar Even Luck. You would do for me exactly what I am doing for you. You would not let go of my hand if they threatened to arrest you."

"I hate what I'm doing to you Jen. It's not fair. You're too young to have to suffer like this."

"Whose suffering, I'm just making sure the life insurance policies are paid up."

"That's very smart Jen. In what currency do you want to be paid?"

"Gold will be fine, platinum would be better, and uranium would be the best."

"Someone has been studying the fine art of dealing with aliens."

"They are not aliens Even; they are our neighbors."

Delicious knocked on the door, stuck her head in, and waved.

"Oh good, you're up. I brought someone to visit with you."

Newton came bounding in the room. "Hi grandpa, grandma says hello. It's not time yet."

I looked at Delicious and she smiled.

"Dad, I have things to tell you that you are not going to believe."

"Should Jen put the air bubbles in my IV now or later?"

"Listen to me first, and make your decision later. Newt sit down we are going to talk about the things that went on during this week. When we leave grandpa, we will get some ice cream, okay?"

"One scoop only mommy."

"Wes Purcell from Babcock came to the house Saturday with a chunk of the containment vessel for our reactor. Something that should have been unbreakable was broken and he didn't know why. Tell grandpa what you told Mister Purcell about the rock."

"I told him I knew why the rock was dusty. There was too much mercury in the water, and it would not allow the two ceramic's to bond to properly."

I am most a lot of bed.

"Delicious, we have another one?"

"We are only getting started dad, just wait."

"When Mister Purcell left the house what happened next?"

"I told you how grandma showed me how to open your bedroom door, get into your computer, and fix the mistakes you made."

"You missed one part. He told me that Gordon was smarter than I am. I asked him if he wanted to get a spanking and he asked me why. He thought everyone knew that Gordon was smarter than I was. I wanted to kill him. Then he threw me the knockout punch. Tell grandpa what you said next."

"You mean Teddy being in your belly?"

"Yes that's what I mean."

Jennifer squealed, "You're pregnant?"

"How many months Newton?"

"Grandma says your 4 ½ months pregnant."

"What did grandma tell you to do with my birth control pills?"

"Grandma told me to change them with baby aspirin's."

I shook my head. That's your mother for you. She's probably laughing right now."

"That's what Newt said she was doing when I yelled at her, "Mom, I'm going to kill you."

"Tell grandpa how you showed daddy to make a wormhole."

"He did what?"

"Trust me dad, Gray had to sit down; he was shaking."

Newton went through the entire demonstration using a piece of paper, and the two pencil holes.

I was happy I was lying down; otherwise I may have fallen down. He did it so matter-of-factly it was like second nature to him. I asked him if everything was going to be okay with the spaceship.

He said everything was going to be better than we expected it to be. "I fixed mommy's engines so they would work better."

Through clenched teeth Delicious said, "I'm going to kill my own son."

"Grandma says no you're not."

"Tell grandma if I ever get there she and I are going to have a very long talk."

"Grandma says you will get here, but she will have seniority."

"Delicious, don't argue with your mother. I argued with Divine until I was blue in the face, and I couldn't win either."

"Maybe you gave up too easily dad."

"I lived with her for 17 years; there was nothing easy about it."

"Grandma says she's going to get you for that."

"Tell my sister she always did."

"Delicious, your dad was just about to take a nap when you walked in. Would you mind taking Newton for his ice cream now?"

"I'm sorry dad I didn't realize you were so tired. I will bring my little monster back to see you another time. Ninety percent of the people at work miss you. The other ten percent miss you a lot. I will see you in a few days."

"Take care of your babies, baby, I love you."

I watched them leave the room, closed my eyes, and was asleep as soon as my eyelids touched.

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

I dreamt of my sister laughing, and doing graceful cartwheels, from cloud to cloud. She saw me looking at her and smiled.

"No Even, it's not time yet. You have many battles to fight, things to do, and miles to travel before you can sleep. I will be with you when your time comes."

"I'm so tired sis, I just want it to stop."

"Bear the pain brother; you are suffering because of my mistakes. I did one bad thing in life, and compounded it with another. I did not suffer enough on earth to make up for those misdeeds. They have fallen upon you, because you truly loved me. You have stars in your future, if you can only bear the pain."

"I will sis. I will take whatever the doctors throw at me, and ask them for more. I will not let you down."

I fell into such a deep sleep the nurses could not wake me up for my evening medication. The next morning I woke up refreshed.

Jen was in my bed, lying beside me, holding on tight. When I moved, she jumped.

"Morning baby, you feel wonderful lying next to me."

She punched my shoulder. "You son of a bitch, I thought I was lost you last night. You kept mumbling, and breathing erratically. The nurses couldn't wake you up for your meds, and they tried everything. Your jaws were locked tight, and your eyes were not reactive to light. It was like you went into a coma.

Doctor Nu told them to leave you alone, as long as your vitals were stable. They would check how you were doing this morning. Don't you dare do that to me again or I'll kick you from here, until next Sunday."

"I'm sorry I scared you Jen. My sister paid me a visit last night. She said I'm going to be fine. It's going to be a hard fight, and it's going to take time, but we are going for the ride of our lives together."

"No air bubbles in your intravenous lines?"

"Only if you want to get rid of me Jen."

"I died 1000 times last night. I certainly don't want to go through that again."

"Do you think you could get me some breakfast, I'm hungry."

"Would you say that again please?"

"I'm hungry?"

Jen hopped out of bed, and ran towards the nurse's station screaming, "He's hungry, he's hungry."

She said those words so joyfully you would think I had been cured. Two weeks from Tuesday my body had an appointment with several knives and several doctors; each of whom were going to remove a part of my body, in an attempt to save it from the ravages of the cancer that invaded it. I can't say I was looking forward to it, but my sister's information came from a highly placed source, or at least I hoped it did, and it was not some figment of my imagination. I had to get my body and my mind ready for whatever was to come.

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

"Dad, I have the information you wanted on those two crooks, and they were very good at it. $2.75 billion over 21 years, and they are using seven shadow companies depositing money into one bank in Malaysia. Either Silver has something really big on Pierce, which I haven't found yet, or he trusts him implicitly, because Pierce is the only signatory on the account."

"No baby, that's because Silver's name can't show up anywhere because he was a public servant. When you run for the Senate they do a good background check on you. When you run for the presidency they check under your toenails. He would have to come out spotless, and any reference to his name on any account with Pierce would kill him before it started."

"Let's just say I agree with you for a moment. Would you trust a friend to hold on to $1.35 billion in cash for you and not have any recourse if he absconds with it?"

"I let you have my account numbers, but you're my daughter. Except for Jemma and Junior, who will have access to them after I die, I don't know if I would trust anyone else."

"That's exactly my point dad. How does Silver control Pierce and the money?"

"You are the one with the computer Patricia, find out."

"What do you want me to do with the money?"

"You can access it all in one lump sum?"

"Dad, I could empty the vault."

"Bad girl Patricia, bad girl. Empty their accounts into two of my larger accounts in China. Let it sit there for 24 hours, then transfer it to Saudi Arabia and then to Germany quickly. Can you let their account keep showing the full amount for three or four days?"

"I can show the account at the full amount until they make their next transaction. According to their records, they make deposits on the 10^th and 25^th of the month, electronically, from three of the seven businesses.

The bank sends out the statement on the sixth of every month."

"That would give us a 10 day dark period where they wouldn't know they were robbed, wouldn't it."

"That's right dad, that's three days away. Let's wait until then to do it."

"Very good Patricia, do it that way, I have to call a friend in the Justice Department."

"Okay dad be safe. Patrick is taking riding lessons."

"You put my son on the back of an animal. If he gets a scratch I'm going to sue you."

"Dad, I know where all your money is."

"I can still sue you."

"Stay safe dad, I don't want you to get hurt."

"Okay, I'll keep my head down."

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

"Colonel, including Marcus we have five men on standby."

"Is Gentile one of them?"

"No sir he's not."

"Seven is not enough to use as a counter force, but just enough to cause a diversion. I'm going to have to use you as our communications man, when we enter the battle. We are going to have the bad guys in front of us, as well as the good guys. We're going to have to move swiftly into our defensive positions, and stay very low once the shooting starts.

The op force will come at them from the north and south as a diversion trying to pull Dan away from their main force which will come from the West. I have to convince Dan to build berms 10 feet high across this area, and defend it. If he does, it will defeat the purpose of their long-distance rocket propelled grenades, and any other long-range weapons they bring with them. They may try to use their drones again also. They are a game breaker.

I better call Dan and coordinate this with him, otherwise still shit on me."

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

I was sitting in the lounge resting, with Jen at my side, when I heard this awful noise.

"I want a raise."

I didn't have to open my eyes to know who it was. Where was my sister when I needed her.

"$10 million a year isn't enough for you?"

"I'm getting blisters on my ass flying back and forth to Washington. The people in the patent office run away every time they see me walk through the door. I went there 83 times in the past five months. This is getting ridiculous."

"Why don't you buy a private plane with all your money?"

"My money, why would I use my money to do your work."

"Rod, I am a sick man. If you don't start being nice to me I'm going to have Stephano buy you tickets in coach, put you in a single room, and make you fly back and forth in one day."

"I would quit before I let you do that to me."

"Jen do you think I could get another attorney to do rods work for $5 million a year?"

"Dear, I think you could get five attorneys to do Rod's work for $5 million a year."

"Jennifer keep out of this, this is between Even and me."

"I guess you haven't received the letter yet, because you've been too busy flying first class and living in luxury hotels. Even has given me power of attorney over all his affairs, until he gets well."

"He can't do that; I'm his attorney."

"As I said Rod, I guess you didn't get the letter."

"What letter didn't I get?"

"The letter that says I am in charge of all his affairs while he is getting better."

"You wouldn't do that to me Even."

"I had to do it Rod. You were so busy flying to Washington and back in the discomfort of first-class, and staying in the smallest suites in Washington's worst hotels, I knew you couldn't handle any more work than you were suffering through now. I asked my sweet Jennifer if she would be able to take that strain off your back, and she said she would be willing to help you. She doesn't like the amount of time you have to take away from your children, and now mine because your lovely wife Rosalynn is taking care of Richard and Holden also. She needs you at home to give her a helping hand now and again."

"Rosalynn could run the Army without help. You forget we have two in college, and one going there in September. If we lose anymore, she won't know what to do with herself. She will want to open a day care center, or go back to teaching just to be around children."

"Why Rod, she still hasn't finished with you?"

"That's not funny Even."

"Tell me what's going on at the N.E.S.T.?"

"Even, you have never seen so much activity going on at one place at one time. It looks like an ant farm. They have people hanging from the trusses installing the cameras, the Japanese technicians in between the exterior wall and number two wall doing the installation, and our electricians outside wall number two testing each camera as it's finished, then tying it into the grid. They're doing one camera every half hour. It's absolutely amazing to watch.

The floors are going in on schedule, and every test they run on the material exceeds expectations. I now know why Schneider industries is the largest privately held corporation in the world. Their products are the best."

"Did you bring the package I asked you to pick up in Houston?"