April (32 page)

"So you need a job and a place to stay?" April asked.

"Yeah but both are pretty tough on M3. I can't even afford a real one room apartment. I'd have to rent a hot bunk like temporary workers do and keep my stuff in a locker like I already am. Try explaining that as a normal way to live to some judge in California, who has never been up here and has no idea what it costs to live. I'd look like a vagrant to him."

April got back in her purse and pulled out her key card for the Holiday Inn. "I'll probably have some hassles from this, but here, take this and you'll have a safe place to stay tonight. I'll tell Jon, who heads Security, you're afraid to go home and ask him what we can do to help you. Do you have anyone you can go to today and ask to tell the court they will give you a job?"

"My dad will kill me, but his foreman who quit and went to work for Trevor and Thompson, worked with me when I was running supplies out to my dad's work crews. He knows I can handle myself in zero-G. I do some helmet talk too and I have all the safety training. He was treated so crappy, I think he'd hire me just for the chance to get back at my dad."

April gave her a quizzical look. "Why was he having you work for him if he wanted you to stay at home and not have any contact with anyone?"

"Oh, he never was going to make a real place for me in the business. It was never a possibility being female. It's just that FedEx and UPS are pretty cheap to ship stuff to the hub and pick it up in pressure, but if you want it delivered to vacuum it costs about three times as much, when they have to go through a lock."

"He would save several thousands of dollars some weeks in vacuum fees. I'd run fasteners and wire and stuff out to them, but he just gave me a hundred dollars a week allowance. It's a wonder he didn't make me wear a skirt over my pressure suit, in case his church buddies thought I was wearing pants. Although I suppose in zero G it wouldn't hang very modest!"

April just shook her head in disbelief. "That's cheap. I mean a hundred bucks won't let you buy supper for you and a friend unless you get burgers."

"But he didn't want me buying supper for any friends. He doesn't want me keeping company with people who are a bad influence."

"You're able to handle yourself outside pressure. Have you ever gotten a ride in a construction scooter to deliver stuff?

"Oh sure, don't ever tell anyone, but a few times we were off a ways from M3 and if they needed to shift an empty scooter the guys would have me move it, just following one of them and typing in command lines to the autopilot instead of manual controls. We were always a couple hundred meters away from each other and if it hadn't done what I intended they made sure I knew how to do an emergency abort. One of them would have come over and helped. But I never had any problem. It's really simple to program a couple burns and make sure it's pointed in the right direction. But I'm not licensed so I could get in trouble." To April, Doris seemed to constantly fear being in trouble. What a horrible way to live.

"Put your pad up here and I want to give you something to read. This is the exam I am studying to take in a couple weeks for a scooter license and the study material and manual for the scooter. You look it over and tell me if you think you could study up and take it. I might know someone who would give you a job if you can do it, but you still go ahead and see what you can do for yourself."

Doris fished in her pocket and came out with a memory module and switched it with the one in her pad and April raised an eyebrow questioningly.

"I keep one for myself and one in the pad for my dad to snoop through," She explained. "He gets all bent if I even have somebody's address he hasn't approved. I'm not allowed to have an AI in my pad, so it doesn't take much to switch out a dumb system on a small chip. I could hide stuff too easily if I had an AI and he's not sure they aren't an abomination too."

April let the pad talk to Doris's pad and then keyed in a new action.

"Here's a couple hundred bucks. It's a loan until you get a job and get on your feet. You have to have something to eat on for a couple days."

Doris looked at the pad silently for few seconds. She had accepted breakfast easily, but it was obvious she didn't want to take more money. Finally she hit enter to accept it and looked back up at April.

"Thank you for believing me. We never got to know each other enough to feel really close, but you've turned out to be a real friend when I needed it. I do appreciate it."

"I have no doubt there's something wrong here. I suspect I haven't heard everything yet, but just the Art fellow being involved tells me there's something bad happening. I don't know if your dad is involved with him knowing what he was up to and willingly helping, or just foolishly working for him for the money. But he is a snake. I would expect him to hurt anyone who crossed him. Sorry to have to talk that way about your dad's man."

"Don't worry," Doris said, looking sad. "I pretty much had to lose any illusions about my dad, before I could walk out today. There's no way I can go back. I didn't have any idea what I would do until you came and offered to help. Thanks again."

"Don't be surprised if you see someone at the Holiday Inn, or see somebody's stuff in the room, but I'll make sure they know it's OK. The people who have a keycard are all good people. Why don't you go before your dad figures out you're here?"

"OK," Doris agreed and headed out the exit, stopping to take care of her tray and trash, but never looking back at April.

April watched her walk away, thinking -
I hope she can walk away from her horrible life the same way and never have to look back.

"Well!" Ruby said, catching April by surprise. "I was starting to think I'd have lunch with you instead of my break." She put her tray opposite April where she had walked up undetected.

"You seemed to be helping the child out so I stayed away. When I was tidying things up over here earlier I saw she was crying and upset. I'd have asked what the matter was, but she has never been one to talk to me. I wasn't sure it would be welcome. Is she a friend of yours?"

"Ruby, she hasn't been a friend, I haven't even seen her for a couple months, but she just really gave me an earful and I wouldn't be too hard on her for not speaking to you. From what she was saying her dad is a real control freak and he has kept her and her mom almost prisoners in their apartment. Won't let them have friends. Won't let them have money or carry an account for the cafeteria - snoops on them even. I'm going to see what I can do to help her. She left home this morning and is scared to try to go back. Her dad sounds like he could be violent. Maybe is already and covers it up." She explained the hidden bruises the mother laughed off.

"That son of a bitch, I wouldn't be surprised from what I've seen of him."

April was surprised and at once interested. Ruby didn't usually use even the mildest euphemisms. "You know him? I'd like to know. It might help me."

Ruby looked down at her plate and seemed unhappy she had said anything. She chewed on her muffin a bit and thought about what to say.

"Gary, right?" Ruby asked. April nodded yes. "You see the names on the charge register screen and they stick with the faces. You know down Groundside, they still have places you can get treated pretty crappy if you are black like me? Or red or yellow, or the wrong religion, or have an accent, or any number of things?"

"Sure Ruby. I was raised up here but I have been down below and I read the news. I'm not so sheltered I'm clueless. I've seen some crazy hateful web sites too."

"Well when her dad comes through the cafeteria, it isn't just that he doesn't act friendly or joke around. There is a look people give you. It's hard to explain. Oh, he acts anti-social with everybody, but if they just really hate you to the core, it stares out of their eyes at you and you have no doubt at all what you're looking at if you've seen it before."

"My husband and I won't even travel through the Deep South when we go down on leave. Oh - he'll go to Florida, because he says the Crackers lost that state to the Yankees years ago. But if you travel through Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana down the two lane back roads in a expensive rental car, dressed nice and stop in the small towns where you're not welcome, it's more than uncomfortable. You're gonna have your car damaged or have some trumped up bullshit traffic charge from the local police, which will cost you a big fine to leave behind you. Not what you want when you're on vacation, trying to relax and enjoy yourself. Easy says he'd rather take a driving trip through the Arab Protectorate, than the rural South."

"You may find out next visit you'll get hassled for being a station dweller too." April warned her. "My mom just came back from Australia and she had people confront her in public and tell her to go back home because she was from M3 and because they could see she had life extension therapy. She looked way too young compared to my grandparents. In fact that's another reason Doris was not supposed to have anything to do with me, because I'm gene altered so I'm an 'abomination'. Her dad is not just a garden variety control freak. He's a major religious nut too.  In fact she made it clear he thinks a lot of his own church people are not strict enough."

Ruby smiled, but it wasn't a pretty one. "Usually one of these groups splits every few years, when a few of them become truer believers than the rest. They have a hard time getting past a hundred members or so before they start bickering and split up. I feel badly I didn't come over to help her but I really wasn't sure it would be welcome."

"Do you know if there is anyone who is like a social worker on M3? I've never heard my dad talk about anyone being responsible for that kind of problem, maybe medical services, or security? I've never heard of such a thing."

"Reason we never have much of those kind of problems on M3 is they screen the people real hard and you have to be real sneaky and smart, not to have some clue turn up you're a trouble maker. Oh, if you have a really rare ability, they may be willing to let a marginal psychological profile slide by, in order to get your skills. Like in the construction crew they'll let a little more slip by."

"Those kids are only here for six months, most of them and they're mostly single and young, so you can't expect them not to cut up a bit. They will talk to them once if there is a problem, or even look the other way, if one gets out of line so bad their bunk mates gives them an attitude adjustment thumping. As long as they can still work Okay the next day. But the residents and corporate people up here long term, they will simply ship them back Earthside in a heartbeat if they cause trouble. If security has to tells a sponsor any workers are a hazard, they're on the next shuttle. Nobody wants to be liable for their actions once they're on record as a problem."

"It might be difficult with Doris's dad. He ran his own business, Chalmer's High Iron. So he has no contract or boss to send him Dirtside. But part of the problem is he says they're going home to Canada until the problems with the Rock are over and they'll come back. She doesn't want to go and doesn't believe he'll be coming back." She stopped and thought a little what she should say to Ruby.

"I can hear the wheels and gears turning," Ruby said over the edge of her coffee mug. "Why don't you spit out what you're holding back. Is it a secret or something?"

"I was trying to figure it out," April admitted. "All of a sudden I know a whole lot of stuff and I'm not sure what parts I can share with what people."

"Don't you trust old Ruby? When have I ever let you down? Tell me a bit more. What's this got to do with Mr. Creepo Chalmers?"

"Keep this for your own information. I mean, I know you'll tell your husband. But otherwise keep it tight please. Point is, Doris knew her dad was holding stuff for Art, the USNA spy we talked about who jumped from the lock. He's working for them."

"She said they told him the people here would get straightened out and more under control like back home. So tell me how they are going to make it happen. Huh? Seems like he must know who they are, if they share this sort of information with him. I figure if he comes back, he isn't expecting to start his business back up, although that's what Doris assumed. I figure he'll have some USNA administrative position handed him, for helping them spy now."

"Collaborator is the word you're hunting for," Ruby calmly stated.

"Well, we're not in the sort of conflict to justify the term," April insisted.

"I figured we were when they started sending armed spies in here and we'll be openly in conflict pretty soon won't we?" Ruby said pointedly. "Most folks just aren't aware of it yet and if they arrest a bunch of folks to take over control of M3, I'd say your dad has to be one of the first three guys on the short list."

April had a hard knot form in her stomach at the idea. "You're right, but I'm sorry to say I've been thinking of so many other things it hadn't occurred to me yet."

"Well, sorry to give you a new worry. One practical thing I can help you with. You tell Doris to come in here and I'll make sure she is fed without using cash like I saw you give her today. We can key it in on an account that never goes over the minimum charges and they'll never check the statement line by line if they're not paying extra."

"Mitsubishi can afford a couple meals, folded into the billions they run in overhead, without going broke. We throw away more every shift than she could eat. I'll tell Wanda to do the same. She may seem sour, but she'll do what I tell her, because she knows I'll help her when she needs it."

"Ruby you always talk about your husband, I wanted to ask about him, but I don't think I've ever heard you say his name."

"He is Washington Carter Dixon. But what he goes by at work and at home is Easy. What about him?"

"Well this may seem odd to ask," April squirmed feeling awkward, "but I wondered if he, or you, know how to shoot?"

Ruby looked to be struggling not to laugh.

"I used to be in the Air Force. It's how I got my college paid you see. The way I met Easy, is he jumped out of my perfectly good airplane a number of times into the dark of night. The way his guys were dressed in black with no uniforms, no insignia and carrying enough death dealing equipment to take on a small army, makes me suspect he can shoot a bit - yeah - just a bit maybe. Myself, I had to qualify like everyone else, with pistol and automatic rifle. We flew cargo planes and I eventually progressed from ramp grunt to loadmaster."