Neptune Road Volume IV

Copyright ©2014 Betsy Streeter

Published by Betsy Streeter at Smashwords

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About Neptune Road

This is the fourth volume in the ongoing
story of people living on Neptune. The air and sunlight are
borrowed, the surface is unstable, and the people are -
inventive.Welcome to Neptune Road.

At this stage in the story, we have met some
of the major players in what looks to be an ongoing struggle for
power and resources on this iffy planet. The Bird People are
devising rather invasive experiments, one of which seems to have
found its way inside of Dr. Mangrove's head. Agent Millman is
trying to sort what case he's supposed to work on anyway (Murder?
Espionage? Who knows?), and exactly who is hiring him. And Edward,
Darby's assistant at his bar, heads to Scar City with some
important information for the Agent.

Get the latest on Neptune Road at
http://www.betsystreeter.com/neptuneroad
.
The story updates three times a week. Enjoy!

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Chapter 076 - First and Mulberry

Chapter 077 - The Tumbleweed

Chapter 078 - Drake Mangrove's Workshop

Chapter 079 - Saloon Doors

Chapter 080 - Dr. Mangrove's Head

Chapter 081 - Roof of the Tumbleweed

Chapter 082 - Zippo Hotel, Scar City

Chapter 083 - Bridge of the Tumbleweed

Chapter 084 - Dr. Mangrove's Noggin

Chapter 085 - Streets of Scar City

Chapter 086 - Cass

Chapter 087 - Agent Millman's Apartment

Chapter 088 - The Kitchen on the Tumbleweed

Chapter 089 - A Rooftop in Scar City

Chapter 090 - An Arrest at Darby's

Chapter 091 - A Van in Scar City

Chapter 092 - A Box Arrives from Earth

Chapter 093 - Bridge of the Tumbleweed

Chapter 094 - A Café in Scar City

Chapter 095 - A Conference Room in Scar
City

Chapter 096 - Lair of the Bird People

Chapter 097 - Dr. Mangrove's Workshop on the
Tumbleweed

Chapter 098 - A Limousine in Scar City

Chapter 099 - Agent Millman's Apartment

Chapter 100 - Bridge of the Tumbleweed

About the Author

Acknowledgements

As always, this is for you splendid readers and
Neptunians. Thanks for coming along for the ride. You are indeed
the BEST.

076 - First and Mulberry

The display on the metal detector lights up and
begins beeping. The man in the tattered straw hat stops in his
tracks to look down at it.

"Well, Missy, what you got for me there? You find me
some treasure?"

He digs around with his foot, and exposes a bit of
wire. Tugging on it, he finds that the wire is attached to
something underground. He pulls until about three feet of wire come
free, then sets to work to unearth whatever is under there.

"I'll thank you kindly to back off my salvage," a
voice says.

Straw hat squints up into the amplified sunlight.
"Who's this?"

"Never mind who I am," the voice says. It belongs to
a bony fellow with a very long nose. "This here is my land, and my
salvage. You clear off."

"Who says it's your land?" Straw hat straightens up.
He's stocky. He feels like he could snap long nose in two if
necessary.

"The sign, there," long nose says, and points.

There's a street sign jutting out of the dirt a few
yards away. It's bent, probably from a storm or someone trying to
pull it free. One side of the sign reads, "FIRST" and the other
reads, "MULBERRY."

"We are here at the intersection of First and
Mulberry," long nose declares, "and this side here, this is my
territory. From Mulberry over to Olive."

"Really," straw hat says.

"Yep," long nose says.

"Well, then, you won't mind if I continue my scan on
over here," straw hat says, taking a long step to his right.
"Outside your supposed territory, there."

"Fine," long nose says. "Just you keep over there.
That there's fair game."

Straw hat turns and fires up his metal detector
again. "Never heard of anybody having a territory before. Suppose
he peed on it to mark the edges?" he mutters beneath his
breath.

"What was that?" Long nose says.

"Nothing," straw hat says, and moves off.

As evening falls, the sunlight amplifiers cycle down
one by one across the sky, like fluorescent bulbs switching off on
the ceiling of an enormous gymnasium. Shadows lengthen, and the two
men work their way farther and farther apart until it is too dark
to work any more. They take their finds and head home.

Sometime that night, something shears off the street
sign at ground level.

077 - The Tumbleweed

The ball careens off the walls as it makes its way
down the hall at a high rate of speed. Sam waits.

A moment later it returns, launched from a doorway in
the loading bay. Rebecca follows it in.

Sam juggles it a few times and kicks it back to her.
"What do you think the Bird People wanted with your dad?"

"Don't know," Rebecca says, trapping the ball and
passing it across the floor. "Whatever it was, I hope we
interrupted in time."

"He said he was talking to Angelica - but how is that
possible?" Sam launches the ball into the air - right at the open
door in the floor.

"Oh, no..."

Before the ball can exit the Tumbleweed entirely, Dr.
Mangrove emerges and heads the ball back in. "I'll tell you how
that's possible," he says. "I could tell it was her. No idea how
she got into their lab, but there she was."

"I know, dad," Rebecca says, "but that's just a
little... weird. We need to know more. I think we may have some
hacking to do."

"Hack away," Dr. Mangrove says, climbing all the way
into the vessel. "You know I've always encouraged you in your
endeavors, my child." He smiles.

Sam brings the ball down to his feet and boots it
into a doorway, the opening to a hall that leads all the way
forward to the bridge. It zigzags ahead, hitting walls and ceiling
panels, until it bounces out into space and in the direction of
where Feller sits. Without looking up, Feller puts up a foot and
brings the ball to rest under it with one touch.

"Well this is interesting," Feller says. His eyes are
fixed on the display in front of him.

"What?" May asks. She's on his right, still fixing
the Tumbleweed's navigation code. The Bird People dug in there,
alright. It's like they tried to rewrite the whole program. They
could have just copied it out without leaving a trace. Why did they
alter things?

"Well these codes, the ones we used to shut off those
metal dinos that chased us through the storm?" Feller says. "They
are in here, again. But this is a completely different system. And
I didn't put them there."

"Did Angelica copy them over for some reason?" May
asks.

"No idea," Feller says. "Why would she do that? And
more importantly, how? How could the Gelica Protocol jump from our
airship to the Bird People's lab and back again, without some kind
of help?"

"Yeah, that's weird," May says. "And those codes,
maybe they are for more than one purpose. Or maybe they didn't
affect the dinos at all. Maybe they just headed home on their
own."

Feller raises his eyebrows and sighs. "I think we've
got some hacking to do, kid."

"Indeed," May says, and the two give each other a
high five.

Outside, the Neptune storm rolls off to another
location and dwellings and markets begin to pop back up out of the
landscape.

078 - Drake Mangrove's Workshop

Dr. Mangrove takes off his sweater and lays it neatly
over the stool.

He crosses the workshop, adjusting items on
overstuffed tables and shelves as he goes. There's a tiny
kitchenette in the corner, a formica fold-out table and a few hooks
in the wall that hold various mugs and teacups. He turns off the
hot plate. He pours steaming water over a tea bag and lets it
settle in a tiny, flowered teacup.

Then he returns to his workbench with his tea and
sits down. He presses a button on the nearest boom box - one of
several scattered throughout the room - and the Well-Tempered
Clavier comes out of the speakers.