Consigning Fate Read Free

Lars folded the paper with a smile. “If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go find Dean.”
    “Oh.”
    “Oh?” Lars stopped walking. “Why ‘Oh’?”
    “I’m not so sure he wants you there.”
    “I don’t care. I need some answers.” Lars walked to the door.
    “Oh, Lars, before you go. I have a question.”
    “Sure. Shoot.”
    “The woman’s meeting tonight? This one is the “getting In touch with your estrogen’ right?”
    “Right.”
    “Should no males be there?”
    “It would be best to leave all males at home as they wouldn’t understand,” Lars said.
    “Good. Thank you. He’s not gonna like it, but I’ll break it to him.”
    “Who?” Lars asked.
    “Joe.”
    His mouth parted to speak, to respond, but Lars didn’t. He smiled, said, ‘good luck’ and left the lab. He was on a mission to find Dean.
     
    <><><><>
     
    “How’s it going?” Danny Hoi asked.
    Danny’s entrance into the communications room took Jimmy away from his daydream break. He was staring at his bookmark, a picture of Jenny Matoose. He ran his thumb over her face, smiled peacefully and set the picture down.
    “Man,” Danny said and looked at the picture. “You got it bad.”
    “For Jenny.” Jimmy sighed out. “Yeah. But what can I do? She belongs to John.”
    “Understand, Brother.”
    Jimmy nodded. “So, what brings you here?”
    “Checking on you,” Danny said. “I was in the middle of a surprise for Frank and thought I’d come down.”
    “Surprise for Frank?” Jimmy asked.
    “Yep. When we were in his office, I was thinking how crowded it is.”
    “But you’re having an office built for us, right?”
    “Right. But until then, wait until he steps out of his office.” Danny winked. “I got him a little trailer.”
    “Sweet.” Jimmy nodded.
    “So how’s it going with this?” Danny pointed to the satellite link up manuscript.
    “Good. Good. I hit page fifty.”
    Danny winced. “It doesn’t read right.”
    “Actually, militarily, it reads fine. This things when working, when linked will change that whole board.” Jimmy said. “We will be able you do a random scan of air and sea, or punch in coordinates.”
    “So if an invasion is coming, we’ll see it.”
    “See it and identify the threat,” Jimmy said.
    “That explained all that in the first fifty pages?” Danny asked. “I must have really missed it.”
    Jimmy chuckled. “No, I skipped ahead. But I’m working on it.”
    “How long do you think this will take?”
    “Not long. Once I figure out what to do. How to hook it up and retrieve the information. It’s all a matter of learning to work it.”
    “How long?”
    “Weeks. Months. But then again, it depends how obsessive I get. If I feel close I won’t stop.”
    “Cool.”
    At that moment, the communications phone rang. Jimmy answered it, “Communications, Jimmy Slagel speaking. Oh, hey Frank.”
    Danny tapped him on the shoulder, mouthed the words, “I’ll catch you later’ and turned.
    “Yeah, he’s here. Hold on.” Jimmy extended the phone. “Danny. For you. Frank.”
    Danny looked oddly. “Why didn’t he call my …” He glanced down. “Shit. I left it at the trailer. Thanks.” He took the phone. “Hey, Frank, sorry I left my phone somewhere. What’s up?”
    “Hey, Danny, that’s OK,” Frank said. “The Dean SUT tracker, I’m having trouble with the history.”
    “What kind of problem?” Danny asked.
    “I can’t get it to go back any further than twenty-four hours.”
    “That’s because it resets,” Danny said.
    “Fuck. I need it to go back further”
    “It can.”
    “But you just said …”
    “Well it works like a cell phone Frank. You know how our cells send a signal here, and we are able to log calls. It keeps a log.”
    “Of where he’s been?” Frank asked.
    “Yep. I haven’t pulled it up. You’ve been on it.”
    “I’ve been lax,” Frank said.
    “Is there a problem?”
    “Could be. How far back can you go?”
    “I have that to