There Must Be A Mistake Ch. 25

"I won't sir."

"Where were we Zoie?"

"You asked me why I did it dad, and I told you I didn't know. It is the truth, deep down inside me when I look for that answer it's the only one I can come up with. I knew you would let us go with Monty, and there was no need for any subterfuge. Why I forced him to lie to you makes no sense to me now, or then. Everything was wonderful between us. Then I pull this stupid stunt that could only hurt the three of us, and that's exactly what it has done.

I hurt because of what happened between the two of you.

I hurt because of what is happening between the two of us.

I hurt because we have lost our future.

All of this is my fault, and for the life of me, I don't know why I did it. I'll call my mother, and have her pick me up as soon as possible. I want you and Gordon to be able to repair your relationship. That is very important to me. He has worked too hard to be left on Earth. It would not be fair to him to be left behind. I will not be one of my father's picks, so Gordon doesn't have to worry about being cooped up with me. I guess that's all I have to say."

I untied her, and pulled her into my arms.

"You are a very brave and very honest young woman Zoie. They should clone you, and make billions more just like you. You made a mistake, but all children do. That's how they learn, and grow up to be functioning adults. I'm very proud of you. Why don't you get something to eat, while we take Gordon down from his perch."

"Thank you dad, I'm sorry I did all this."

"As far as I'm concerned Zoie, it's all over, and we are starting anew."

I kissed her forehead. I opened the bedroom door, let her out, and closed the door.

"Do you believe her Gordon?"

"Yes, but it doesn't change anything. She made me lie to you, and I can't forgive her for that."

"Okay, Monty let's get him down."

"Doc put the pillows on the floor."

"Wait a minute, how are you going to get me down to the floor?"

"We're going to cut the knot on the rope, and let you drop to the floor."

"Are you two crazy, I could get killed doing that."

"You are absolutely correct, my son. However, I can never forgive you for lying to me. This is the way I've decided to get you down. Consider yourself lucky I'm not leaving you here."

"Dad you heard Zoie tell you it was her fault."

"You are the one that told me you had a mind of your own. You didn't have to lie to me. You could have asked me properly, and none of this would've happened. This is more your fault then Zoie's."

"How do you figure that out dad? She told me to do it, and I did it because I love her."

"I told you a long time ago that love is deaf, dumb, and blind. You just added stupid to that quotation. You didn't have to follow her request, because you have free will, and a mind of your own. Just because you love someone does not mean you are going to jump into an active volcano, or stand in the way of an oncoming tornado. Sometimes you have to use common sense, and you didn't use any at all."

"Monty, let's swing him before we cut the rope, and see if he lands on the pillows."

"Do you want to do any of your advanced mathematics to see what chance he has on landing on these pillows Doctor?"

"I already have Monty. The odds are 14.5 million to 1."

Gordon said, "I'll bet you $10 at those odds."

"I accept."

"If little turd is that sure, I'll go in too."

"Let's get Steve and the ladder in here, so he can cut the rope."

Steve was only too happy to oblige. This time he straddled the top of the ladder and sat on the top ledge. He twisted the rope as tight is it could go, and started swinging Gordon. As the twisting and swinging motion increased in speed, Steve started cutting the cord. When it finally snapped, Gordon went flying out the door, and into the hallway. He landed with a mighty thud against the opposite wall.

I said, "That will be $20 please."

"Don't you want to see if I'm hurt first?"

"I want my money. Then I will check you over. Monty I know you're good for it."

Gordon walked into the room, opened his wallet, and handed me a $10 bill.

"You look fine to me. You're standing up straight, you're not walking with a limp, and your arms are moving without any discomfort. What's going on in your head is another matter. You will have to figure that out for yourself. You are suspended from work for two days without pay for the stunt you pulled today."

"Yes sir, can I see the report on my filament."

"I'm sorry, it's not your filament. You told me to have it put in Holden's name."

"Okay, I'll run the program again and find out what my results were."

"You won't do that in my lab."

"Dad you asked Monty if she was ready to take on the world when she was 16 years old, and she said no. I'm going to hire a lawyer, and become emancipated. I may not be ready, but I know when I'm being taken advantage of, and you are doing it now. I lied to you, and I regret it. I will probably always regret it. However, I am not going to let you run roughshod over my life. I have a mind of my own and I'm going to use it the best way I know how. If I want to know how my filament experiment came out, and you won't give me the findings, I'm going to do it again and find out for myself. If you won't let me do it in your lab, I'll build one of my own. I will start from scratch like you did. It may take me years to get into space, but somehow someway, I will get there."

"Did you hear that little kernel of truth in the middle of that dialogue Monty? It took him a long time, but he finally realized what he had to say and what he had to do."

"I've told you Doctor, he has a big mouth, and when he takes his feet out of it, sometimes wisdom will fall out of it."

"Okay you two, what did I do this time?"

"Children, they don't hear what they're saying."

"Of course they do Monty. They just don't remember it from one second to the next."

"Come on guys this is not funny. What did I say or do that I was supposed to remember, but did not know I said."

"You should get him one of those tape recorders he can wear around his neck. Any time he says something the machine will record it."

"You mean something like this?"

I showed Monty a tiny voice activated transceiver.

"If you ever stop being a scientist doctor, you can be one of us. You think of everything."

Gordon used my line. "Not everyone, or everything, he still working on the pizza boy. Now please tell me when I said, or I was supposed to remember."

"Do you remember saying this Gordon? ' I have a mind of my own and I'm going to use it the best way I know how.' Do you remember saying that my son?"

"I hate myself. You gave me just enough rope to hang myself with, and I did. I thought I was angry with you, when I was actually angry with myself, and I walked right into your trap. Why do you even put up with me sometimes? I am so full of myself I don't think I could ever make a mistake. I've already made two of them today and I was about to make a third. If she will forgive me, I will keep that from happening."

"Monty, I want on to take the next three weeks off. I need you to do a hand count on your Buffalo."

"I have a lot of Buffalo Doctor. I'm going to need some help."

"Would you consider taking two deranged teenagers with you, while they work their problems out together?

"No, I won't mind. The buffalo might, but they have a way of scaring stupid children away from them."

"Okay, I'll charter a jet, and you can leave tomorrow. Take Liz with you, from what I understand there is going to be a war between the Colonel and the General over her status. We might as well keep her out of the line of fire."

"I said it before Doctor, you think of everything."

"Why are you still here Gordon? I thought you were going to start taking care of number three."

"I just wanted to tell you one thing dad. I'm going to circulate a petition through the membership of the Deep Space Science Project to get the profile changed. Monty is too important to me to leave behind. She could be head of security on the ship, and you don't have anyone designated for that position. If a problem develops while we are in space who is going to take care of it? We are going to need security, and there is no one better than she is. I just wanted you to know in advance, I am the one starting this petition drive, and I'm not doing it behind your back."

"You do what you feel you have to do Gordon, and the 20 of us will make that decision for you."

"That's all I can ask for dad."

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

123. Good Morning

"Good morning Adam, how was your night?"

"Good morning Laura, I must admit it was the most confusing and thrilling night, I've ever had. I learned more about space in the shortest period of time imaginable. I also got more confused about human relationships between you and your parents in an equally short period of time. I can understand why only one of you is going into space. If two of you were going, and we met another race of people, they wouldn't want to come any place near our planet for fear of catching whatever disease you two have."

"I know you're not going to believe this Adam, but my mother and I love one another fiercely. It just so happens that when we argue, we argue the same way, fiercely. When she plays back all her messages, and realizes I did call to tell her I was coming, and this wasn't a surprise visit, she will feel like the village idiot, and call me to apologize. I will tell her to go fuck herself, because I am as obstinate as she is. The one who will end this will be Anna. Anna has always been the peacemaker in our family."

"You are all idiots."

"How much money did you say you have in the bank?"

"It's not enough to cover one of your bets."

"Then don't go around calling us idiots. My mother was making over $1 million a day working for the FBI when she was 19 years old. How many people do you know, who work for the government get paid that amount of money per day?"

"Can I ask what your mother was doing to make that amount of money?"

"She was using her computer skills to take down the New York mob, and for a while it worked."

"Last night you told me that your husband's father was the head of one of the five families of New York."

"That is correct, and Don Bruno, my grandfather, was the man she was after."

"No wonder your family is screwed up. Have you ever thought of writing a book about your family?"

"One day one of our great-grandchildren may do it. However, who is going to believe a love story between two people, a man with a photographic memory, who makes fortunes for the mob in New York and finds one member stealing from the other four bosses. The code of the Mafia forces him to inform the other bosses about the theft. They kill the fifth member causing the rise of Bruno Valentino to the head of his family.

During his good times with the mob, this man made fortunes, hand over fist for everyone, including himself. He fell in love with an innocent and he fathered a child with her. For almost 19 years, this child lived an idyllic life in upstate New York. She received Three Masters Degree's in computer security, until at graduation day, pictures of her and her mother are taken and sent back to Don Bruno for verification. He sends a death warrant out on both of them. The phone in her dorm is attached to explosives and 40 students at the University are killed. A friend driving her car home is blown up on the Massachusetts Turnpike. Her mother is savagely beaten, tied up to their homes natural gas tank, and blown up with the house. The only thing that saved the young woman was one word, "Swordfish."

For the next hour, Laura told Adam the story of her mother's life. When she was finished, Adam sat there in thought for a few moments and finally shook his head.

"How did she hold herself together? I would've been a basket case."

"Do you want to sit here for the next month and talk about my mothers' life, or do you want to fill out your resume and submit it to get onto the spacecraft?"

"Can we make love first?"

"We don't know each other well enough to do that Adam. I think I want to go to my wedding bed as my mother did, as a virgin. My cousin Delicious went to her wedding bed the same way. I'm not promising you anything. You are a very nice guy, and I like you a lot. I am 24 years old and no one has ever touched me in a sexual area of my body. My sister Anna was the same way, until very recently. She and Cloudy are getting married very soon. They were sweethearts in college, but they never had sex until recently.

My brother is a totally different story. Girls went after him.

My father bought him condoms and put us on the pill when we were 15 years old. We found out, when he came home from the University of Michigan, that while he was getting his Master's Degree, and graduated with honors that he never studied. Girls were lined up outside his apartment waiting to get in so they could get laid. He had all the hormones working in overdrive, and Anna and I lived like nuns.

Therefore, if you want a chance with me, here are the rules: There will be no fooling around. No touching, even when we are overheated. Kissing is allowed as long as it's mutually agreed upon. Most important you have got to be accepted to go along with us into space. Our first night together will be in the spacecraft after we take off. I would like to get married on Christmas Eve, so my family can see it happen. When we go into stasis, I would like to arrange it so we can go side-by-side. I know this is an awful lot to put in front of you, but those are my rules, and unfortunately, for you, they are 'take them or leave them."

"Well, in that case, we better start on my resume. What do we need?"

Laura threw herself into his arms and kissed him.

"Really, you'll give it a try?"

"You just broke one of your own rules."

"Which one did I break?"

"You said kissing had to be mutually agreed upon. I didn't agreed-upon that one. I demand another one to get even."

"Tell me you didn't like the first one, and you can have a second one."

"In your rules there was nothing said about lying correct?"

"No, but it seems I'm going to have to put one in there for just that purpose."

"Come here Laura, I did not enjoy my first kiss."

"Liar."

His kiss was not like hers. It was slow, ardent, and meaningful.

When she backed away from him she said, "Paper and pen please."

As soon as Adam turned his back to her, Laura used her hand to fan her face. She mused, "Boy, he kisses good."

She reached into her handbag, took out her cell phone, and text her mother.

"Why didn't you tell me love was so grand?"

Her phone rang instantly.

"Hello this is the Adam and Laura Schiff residence."

"Are you trying to kill our mother before my wedding?"

"Hi Anna, how is your night?"

"About six feet two inches tall, and a little more than eight inches long. How was yours?"

"Lovely, truly lovely, Adam is a wonderful young man."

"You're still a virgin aren't you?"

"You're still a pain in the ass. How did you know?"

"The morning after Cloudy and I did it, I was bouncing off the walls. It was so much fun I nearly killed him. He slept the whole next day."

"I talked with Adam about it this morning. I told him if he really wanted me, he had to be approved as a plumber on the spacecraft, we would get married on the 24th, and our first night together would be in space."

"You don't want much do you?"

"I waited this long, I may as well wait a few more months and get what I want. He does kiss like the devil himself."

"Well at least you made it to first base. Are you going to call mom?"

"Sometime later today, but we have to fill out Adam's resume first, and get that out."

"Good girl, have fun."

"I'll talk to you later."

********

123 (A.) Good Afternoon

"Good afternoon General Morgan, this is Liz at the front security entrance."

"Hello Liz, how are you feeling?"

"I'm ready to get back to active duty sir, but we have a pain in the ass Colonel that won't let me. Every time he hears me grunt or groan, he puts me back on light duty. He really is a pain sir."

"Liz, this is the first time in my military career, I can say I agree with that pain in the ass. Take your time, and get completely well. We have nothing pressing going on right now, and everything is covered. What do you have for me?"

"Sir according to your schedule you are expecting two people: Jaclyn Smith, and David Doyle. Ms. Smith has brought a trainee with her. Her name is Katherine Jackson. Should I allow all three up?"

"I don't know why I have a weird feeling about this."

"I could always come up as your secretary, with a pad and paper to take notes of the meeting."

"You are just dying to get back into action, aren't you Liz?"

"Me sir, I would never go against Colonel Canyon's orders, unless they were countermanded by a higher ranking officer."

"Okay, escort the three of them up here, and bring two agents to stand by the open outside door. If anything happens, it's shoot to kill, with no questions asked. Put the building, and the NEST on silent lockdown, and advise everyone this is not a drill.

I didn't do my due diligence with Wells Fargo on these people, and they could be anyone. Tell them I apologize for the delay, but I'm on the phone with the Secret Service attempting to set up security arrangements for the President for our Christmas Day launch time, if he wants to attend. He's normally in Hawaii, at that time, but we felt obligated to extend the invitation. While they are waiting, find out the name of the head of the Secret Service. It would be embarrassing not knowing to whom I was speaking."

"No problems sir, I'll put them in the agents' ready room. They should be thrilled."

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

"Good afternoon, I apologize for keeping you waiting. The Secret Service is some piece of work. I have 300-armed professionals guarding this facility, and they want me to disarm them while the president is here. I told them I would send a list of the people that work for me and they could vet each one of them as we did before we hired them. We were not going to disarm any of them, because this project was more important than the President of the United States. If he wants to come, that's fine with us. Otherwise, he can watch it in the warmth of Hawaii, while he's playing golf."

Let's get down to business, because I have no idea what to do with this money, although I'd like to shoot the man that gave it to me.

Jaclyn Smith opened the discussion. "General, I can tell you were never a wealthy man, and most military men never are. The first thing that you must be aware of is the IRS is going to come after you, and take a huge chunk out of this. You should retain a tax attorney immediately. There were many good ones in Dallas, and Austin. Before you sign with that company, you should find out their fees, and decide if you want them as a yearly partner or only as necessary. Always keep track of your money, never let anyone, including Wells Fargo, our company, tell you everything is fine, and never give you a figure. You always want to know the exact amount of money that is in your account monthly. You are not dealing with a small amount of money, and you want this money to grow, not diminish. There are many ways to accomplish this goal, and we are not going to do it all in one day. There is too much information for you to absorb. It would not be fair to you to try and make a decision about your new wealth in one day. What we'd like to do today is simply show you some of our options, and there are many more. These are basic plans, simple to understand, and easy for you to move your money around. The fees are very low, and as you become more accustomed to dealing with your money, you may want to move them into more high-risk investments, or because of your age, stay with low risk investments that shield you from taxes, as you get older. Let me show you some of our brochures."