She did to the people she encountered what her Users did to the worlds they savaged. She learned everything she could about the person. Swindled what she could from them and stole the rest. She used five people since she took her last prey. Her bank account now numbered in the millions of dollars. There again she thought, “What a wonderful planet!” Money was such an anonymous way to calculate success here.
The Chameleon would start her new job today, executive vice president. The old vice president had been her lover until she doctored the books and told his wife about the affair. Her new office had just been refurbished. After all, you can't just scrub clean brains, blood and bullet a hole after a suicide. Great Users! She loved this planet. Maybe she would retire here. It was so fun.
Chapter 6
Response
Leena had trouble sleeping. The bed was cold. She had sent her husband Fred to sleep on the couch after she heard about his helping Blythe and Jones mess with the Czeminskis’ bank accounts.
Leena had had a crush on Earl Czeminski in high school. He was so tall and his legs looked so good in his basketball shorts. Martha was a cheerleader and had the inside track with Earl but Leena just couldn't help fantasizing about Earl's long legs and butt during each basketball game. She never regretted marrying Fred but she always had a soft spot for Earl. She was furious with Fred for helping those out-of-towners, Blythe and Jones, hurt Earl and his family. Fred was the president of the bank. He should have stood up to Blythe and Jones even if Blythe had the most money in the bank. Fred knew that he personally would take care of Earl's financial problems or he wasn't going to get back into bed anytime soon.
Leena decided she would call Olga in the morning before the first soaps started. Oggie would know how to handle outsiders.
“Oggie?"
“Leena. Did you catch the end of Hospital? I think Julie is going to leave Spencer."
“You're, kidding. Is she going after Carlos?"
“I think so."
“Oggie, do you remember Earl Czeminski?"
“Oh, yes. He had great legs. I loved the way his ass looked when he bent over bouncing the ball before a free throw."
“Well, that rich guy Friedrick Blythe and his lawyer Johnny Jones have it in for Earl."
“You're kidding! Why?"
“You know about those kids trying to rob the video store a couple of weeks ago."
“Ya."
“The girl that stopped them was Earl's daughter Tabitha and the boy that helped was Danny Karpinen, Hazel's boy. Wellll, it was Blythe's son, Jordan, with the Jorgenson brat who tried to rob the place. Blythe wants to get back at Tabitha and Danny.
“My Fred told me that Blythe and Jones said they would pull their money out of the bank unless he called in all the loans the Czeminskis had. Fred pulled the loans but I told him he had to fix things or he would be sleeping on the couch for the next year."
“Good for you. My Tom better not be helping Blythe or he won't be doing any sheriffing in my bedroom.
I'll make sure that Tom will spread the news to the other deputies to keep an eye out for any dirty tricks by Blythe or Jones."
“Ya ... Uknow, Oggie. I think Julie is pregnant with Mitch's child."
“Damnit. I knew I should have taped Days yesterday..."
* * * *
“Erma?"
“Sylvia?"
“Yes. Just got off the phone with Oggie. Did you hear Mitch got Julie pregnant?"
“You're kidding, Mitch? I thought it would have been Bruce."
“And did you know about Blythe making trouble for Earl?"
“Not Legs Czeminski!"
“Yup, Legs. And he is also going after Hazel's son, Dan."
“Goddamnit, Syl. We godda do something about that..."
* * * *
“Emma, this is Betty again. I just got off the phone with Eleanor. She talked to Zoe, Stella, and Fran. With Helga, Johanna, Marta, and Gretta we will have enough votes to pull the investments of our Coffee Klutch Club from Blythe's company. Gertrude said her Al will take care of placing the new investments.
“Did you hear what Margrete did when she heard about Jeff helping Blythe?"
“What?"
“She grabbed him by the nuts and hauled his ass outside. She yelled at him for twenty minutes. Someone called the cops because Leena's Tom showed up. Tom got things settled down."
“That sounds like Marg. Do you remember the time in tenth grade when she found out David was seeing Sylvia on the side?"
“Oh, yes. David couldn't walk straight for a week and Syl still doesn't talk to Marg."
“Julie left Spencer and moved in with Carlos."
“Damn. Blythe made me miss Hospital. He's going to pay for that..."
* * * *
John W. Jones was worried. Friedrick Blythe was not a man to take bad news lightly. By now Earl Czeminski should have been trying to sell his assets. The video store closed. The small laundromat should have a ‘for sale’ sign in the window. And he should have been laid off his job at the electric co-operative.
This was crazy. Fred at the bank was putting off talking to him. Jeff at the co-operative stopped accepting his calls. And his local contact in the prosecutor's office had said that she wasn't going to be giving him any more information. He still had the local prosecutor in his pocket but the judge was starting to act hinky. Plus, it seemed that Blythe's companies had become a take-over target for some Wall Street investor. Jones was trying to stem the losses while finding out which investment firm was organizing the raid. But the biggest stock sale hadn't come from New York. It was some small Midwest company he couldn't track down that was incorporated under the strange name of Coffee Klutch Club.
God. It was only a half-hour before his next meeting with Blythe. He couldn't even give Blythe something on Daniel Karpinen. His employer was in Chicago and the company was large enough that Jones hadn't found any leverage that would work with the company to get him fired.
Chapter 7
Fizzle
It was the Christmas holidays and Tabitha and I were finally ready to test out our contraption. We worked for hours in the old garage so we could finish testing the setup before she had to leave for the start of the next semester in January. Tabitha said her financial problems were finally straightened out.
The old garage was cold so I dragged in an old propane salamander to keep the edge off while we were working. The salamander was able to hold the temperature just warm enough so we could work without our gloves and jackets. The old cement floor never got warm from the heater. I layered a dozen old gunnysacks around the Dodge transmission to cushion the concrete and keep the cold back. My legs just couldn't handle the hours of kneeling on the cement without the layers of burlap.
The salamander had been running for an hour. Our breath stopped making steam and we started to sweat. Taking off my jacket, I snatched a quick look at Tabby while she shrugged off hers. The fabric of her shirt pulled tight as she wiggled free. God was she built!
We triple checked the connections. The satellite dish was bolted firmly to the Dodge transmission. The four laser pointers were as close as we could get to the focus of the dish. We had five radio transmitters placed around the outside of the dish using the dish to reflect the signals to the focus. The two microwave and one infrared transmitters were balanced between the other units along the edge of the dish. We backed away, shaded our eyes and turned the switch on.