It had probably only been five or six hours after I had been released by the police before Toni and I were picked up by one of Killer's gang members. Toni and I were both sleepy-eyed. We rode in the front of a large truck with a guy called Slick.
Slick was a thin, tall man. He had made Toni and me get down on the floor of the cab of the truck until we were out of town. Slick impressed me as being very serious when he had told me and Toni that we were to sit on the floor, but once we got out on the open road and he had allowed us the comfort of the seat he turned into an easy-going sort of guy.
He wanted to talk about the truck or flirt with Toni (after he had hit on me and I had told him I was spoken for) or just talk about anything. I got the impression he was a happy go lucky kind of a fellow--not my idea of a gang member at all. I felt more than a little foolish. Here I was going to figure out what was on some top secret encoded document and I didn't know the first thing about how to do it. I might get to where we were going and have Killer laugh at my attempts to help. It didn't help that Toni was flirting with the driver and they both had a hand on each other's knees.
We had driven for about three hours over to one place and back to another place. I thought the driver was lost at first and told him so. He explained to me that he was making sure we weren't being followed. That made me feel just that much more foolish. I knew I was doing something dangerous. It had to be done. I had to do something to help us CBs. If nothing else came of what I was about to do I would at least be able to determine Killer's real motives. If his document had to do with money or booze or pills I would know Killer wasn't trying to help the common person.
We finally pulled into a dinner. I was certain we were out near the frontier somewhere even though I was lost and probably couldn't have found my way back to Tower city proper. I had been watching the roadside imagining looking for a home for Sid and me to live in when he got out of jail. It was awful. You could tell the dweeb's homes and farms from the CB's shantys. Even out of the city CBs were given the hard way to go.
I jumped out of the truck when Slick told us we would be getting a bite to eat. I was starved. Toni and I both ordered large breakfast plates. We were eating when I asked Slick if we would be going out onto the frontier. He wanted to know how I knew we were close to it. I couldn't very well explain to him that when I had been back in school we kids had driven all around out by the frontier. CB kids didn't drive anywhere. Toni realized the predicament I had put myself in and told Slick I had been on several missions for Killer and he was getting too noisy. He immediately got serious and let the matter drop. He couldn't tell me where we were going and I couldn't tell him where I had been. Subterfuge.
We had half-finished our meal when a car pulled up outside. I hadn't been paying that much attention to what was going on outside the dinner but white-haired guy walking across the parking lot caught my eye. It was Killer. He went over to the truck we had come in on and got behind the controls.
Slick told us to go out and get into the truck. I took one last bite of my peach toast and went to the truck behind Toni. Slick had stayed inside to pay our bill. When he came out he got into the car and Toni and I got back into the truck. Killer acknowledged Toni and me then the truck was rolling. The car left one way, the truck another.
I remember saying to myself, "You are in now!" Indeed I was. There was no turning back. We continued down the main roadway for no more than a few kilometers before turning onto a series of back roads which got smaller and more convoluted as we went. I kept trying to imagine some sort of 'lab' there would be out where we were going. That's what Killer had called it.
I chastised myself for still thinking like a dweeb. I had been thinking of a dweeb lab with clean floors and people walking around in sanitary white smocks. We were evidently going to the CB version of a lab with dirt floors and people walking around in jeans--something like that.
I was tremendously disappointed when Killer pulled the truck up in front of an old dilapidated barn. He jumped out of the truck and opened the doors to the place. It was small and it was totally filled when Killer pulled the truck inside. I could barely open the door on my side to get out. Toni had, of course, been sitting in the middle with her hand on Killer's knee. I was beginning to think she thought she had to do that to help the driver, whoever he was.
Thankfully the barn proved to not be Killer's secret lab. I was standing around with my hands in the pockets of my jeans when Killer handed me and Toni a knapsack each. We were told we would have to hike a way. We crossed a low hill behind the barn and went into a rock canyon. Killer had it all mapped out in his mind. We were warned to hit the dirt and hide if we heard any aircraft overhead.
I was amazed at the trail/path that we followed. 99% of the time we were walking on stone. That was to keep from leaving any tracks. Killer said he had been using that path at least once a week for nearly a year. I could see no trace that anyone had ever been that way. We walked for hours then stopped for lunch. We had walked for a dozen kilometers but due to the way the trail wandered in and out of the rocks we had probably only gone five kilometers from where we had left the truck.
We ate from the food provided in the knapsacks. We had been drinking our water all along. I was hot and sweaty. It was beautiful but it was the worst time I had ever experienced on the frontier. Killer said we had been lucky because we had not encountered any aircraft. I don't know, I guess he was right. Around three in the afternoon we were at the point where there was a hidden utility truck.
All it was was a set of four wheels, a motor, and a control station. It was a meter and a half wide and two maybe three meters long. I guess the platform or bed was about 75 centimeters off the ground. Killer had the only seat. Toni had to sit next to him, of course, and I sat in the back.
After all the care we had taken not to be followed I was surprised when Killer started off across the desert in the thing. We followed a well worn track. It was disgusting in a way the way all the vehicle tracks had defaced the purity of the desert. It was amazing just how many tracks were out there. It was like when anyone found an untouched spot they had taken pains to come back around and go across it so they could leave their tire tracks. I don't want to mislead you. While the whole desert floor was completely covered in tracks there were 'paths' wore in the sand to offer some degree of organization. A system of 'paths', if you will, to provide guidance.
We rode for hours. Every once in a while Killer would pick up a different path. I guess we went out about 100 or maybe 200 kilometers out into the desert of the frontier before we left the desert floor and began transversing a huge rock ridge. About ten kilometers into the rocks and Killer parked the utility truck in a crevice and we covered it up with the same camouflage tarp it had been under when Killer had first showed it to us. You would have to walk right up on it to see it.
It was evident that Killer had made this trip many times. What the mystery was why he had selected such a desolate location for his lab. Shucks, you put a lab in the city and it would be just as hard to find as that one--if you took just as many precautions. I decided that I didn't have enough experience in subterfuge to pass judgement on Killer's methods.
We hiked about another kilometer across the rocks. I was glad when we entered the mouth of a cave. I assumed the lab would be inside. I was tired. We had run out of water and food. If we had gotten lost or had trouble we might have died out there.
***
"Is this it?" Toni asked tiredly.
"Yep." Killer responded. He looked as tired as Toni and myself. "In the back of the cave there."
"I hope there's food and water in there." I inquired.
"Yea, we could stay out here for a month, if need be."
"I hope not, Killer." I said shocked at the idea.
"Well, don't be too quick to judge, Cookie. There are certain things you don't know yet."
"Like what?"
"All in good time. Let's get something to drink and eat. I'll show you around afterwards. You're going to be surprised."
"I don't think I like surprises, Killer. If you've tricked me then you can take me back right now!"
"I've tricked you, but I don't think you'll want to leave. This wasn't built by us. The natives of this planet built it."
"Aliens?" Toni and I asked in unison.
"That's right. They've left us some kind of a machine. I don't know what it is or how to turn it on, but it's in perfect shape--I think. There's a computer terminal inside. If you can figure it out, Cookie, we'll be able to turn on the machine."
"Turn it on? Killer! You don't even know what it does. It could just be a food processor. This is ludicrous! We're wasting our time. Hell Killer, you would have been better off turning this over to the state. You could have gotten big bucks!"
"I still can--if we can't use it for a better cause."
"Are we going to talk all night?" Toni wanted to know. "Let's have a look at this thing. I wanna see it!"
"No problem. That's what I like about you, Toni. You're always ready to try something new. Come on in here. You're going to flip!"
We went to the back of the cave. The back wall opened at a touch from Killer.
"How'd you do that?" I wanted to know.
"When I first found this the door was stuck open a little. I cleaned things up and the door closed on me. I thought I had locked myself out. I was frantic. I felt around for a place to pry the door back open and found that if I touched that spot near the top there it would open automatically."
"How could it do that? This place must be at least a thousand years..." I told him as I looked around. I was in a dweeb lab. Heck, it was cleaner than any dweeb lab! "Did you do all this cleaning, Killer?"
"Nope, look here." he said as he pointed at the floor. "What do you see?"
"Nothing--just the floor."
"The last time I was here I dropped some java there and I didn't clean it up."
"What are you saying?" I asked worried.
"There are machines here that come out at night and clean and polish this place everyday. Everything is immaculate and everything works. Come on, I'll show you the machine."
We went deep into the cave/lab. Everything was indeed spotless, pristine in fact. The scale of the place was a bit larger than I was used to. I began to wonder how big those aliens had been and if there were any still around. We passed many compartments. There were some that were offices, one that looked like it may have been a break room, a restroom/shower room, sleeping quarters, a lounge area, some more offices, and we were at the end of the main corridor in front of a big double door.
In spite of the strangeness of the complex we were in it was fun to look around at all the rooms and explore as many as I could on the way to the machine. We were finally at it. We went through the double doors and were inside a huge, well lit cavern. Inside stood the machine. It was impressive. It stood three, maybe four, maybe even five stories high. It was like a tower or maybe a nozzle of some sort. It looked like it could do something but I didn't have any idea what it was.
There were hatches and access plates all along it's exterior. Oh, don't let me forget the framework that surrounded it--you could have made a building with it. If the scale in the corridor had been big then this was huge. The machine was so big that it was hard to judge just how big it really was.
Suddenly I saw some movement on the surface of the machine. "Killer! I just saw something move!"
"Relax Cookie, it's just some kind of maintenance droid. I think we caught them in the middle of painting the machine. Watch it work.""
"'Droid'? Hell Killer, if you could figure out how just the droid works and how you could make more of 'em you'd be rich." Toni enthused.
"If Cookie here can figure out what that thing does we'd probably be even richer. There has got to be a way to use it to get freedom for all CBs. There has got to be some way we can either turn it against Tower colony and force what we want out of them or give it to them in exchange for enough land to start our own colony. We've got the answer right in front of us, all we've got to do is figure out how to use it."
"I don't know what I can do." I told Killer. "I might be able to cipher a document for you, but I don't know if I can do anything with an alien instruction manual. First of all it'll be completely foreign and besides that I don't know diddly about machines. Dick could help you more here than I can."
"Follow me." Killer instructed. We went down the ramp on the gantry to a series of catwalks to a large control room. Inside we found three computer positions in front of a large glass window looking out to the machine. Along the back wall was a fourth position that looked like it would belong to whoever was overseeing the whole operation. All the terminals were dark.
"Sit there, Cookie." Killer invited. "See that keypad? Press any key and the terminal will come on."
I sat down in the oversized chair and looked at the key board. There were only seven keys! "How can you type anything with only seven keys?" I asked Killer.
"How should I know? Maybe there were only seven letters in their alphabet."
"How about numbers?" Toni wanted to know. "They'd need at least ten keys just to do the numbers alone!"
"No." I told her. Using just two characters, zero and one, we can express any number we want to...um, any whole number...as long as it's positive."
"How can you do that, Cookie?" Killer asked.
"You've heard of binary numbers, haven't you?"
"Oh, ok. I see what you mean. Well what about this keyboard?"
"Hmmm...really it's two keyboards, it looks like to me. There are four keys over here for my left hand and three more where my right hand would sit. Say there were sets of letters. With three keys I can have eight different combinations. Say that was a set. With the other four keys I could have sixteen sets of eight apiece for umm, sixty four different key combinations. That's similar to the keyboards we use."
"Oww!" Toni complained. "You do know your shit. I would have never figured that out."
"I could be wrong." I admitted. "This could be a voice input system and all they needed was a few keys to turn it on and off with and dim the screen or something. I'm just throwing out guesses right now. I have no idea what an alien mind might consider a good system to use. Whoever they were they were definitely more advanced than us. We don't have the technology to build droids."
"Ok Cookie don't get into it right now. I have a regular computer set up in one of the offices along side one of tiers. I'll show you where it's at and what I've been able to do so far later. Right now I just want to get something to eat and to rest up a little. How's that sound?"
"Ok I guess, I'm a little tired too. All of the excitement has worn me out. I'm still curious what you've been able to do though." I admitted to Killer as I began to follow him and Toni back up to where we had come into the cavern.
Toni went on ahead as Killer slowed down to talk with me. "I haven't been able to do anything I want, Cookie. I have been able to find certain keystrokes that bring up screens that look like menus, I think. It's a very sophisticated system. I'm lost in it though. I have had one other person come by and look at it. He didn't do as well as I did. The state did right by not educating CBs. You don't know how lucky you are to have been given what you have. They must have made some mistake in their records somewhere."
"That's what I believe too." I confided to Killer. "I was 100% dweeb until I went after my driving permit. That must have been where my records were flagged. I did get a fairly good education, but I'd be lying to you if I told you I think I can figure this out."
"I know, Cookie. Thanks for being honest. Let me be honest with you... I think that you are probably going to be about the best hope the CBs have. Just do the best that you can. You have all the time in the world. If I have to recruit a dweeb I'll never be able to let the fool go after he tells me what I need to know. I would either have to kill him or keep him a prisoner until he couldn't hurt the cause any."
"What are you going to do to me...and Toni. Are we prisoners?"
"If you want to think of it that way I suppose you could. Don't worry, Cookie, I won't harm either of you. I just hope you will be willing to remain here until this matter is resolved."
"I understand. No problem. I just want you to be open with me. No more lies about some fictitious document, ok?"
"I can't promise you that, Cookie. I've got to do what is best for the cause. I will promise to let you know just as much as I can afford to. Is that fair?"
"Alright, just don't give me a line. If you have something that you can't tell me then just say something like; 'I can't tell you that', ok? If I notice a pattern of lying then I will lose faith in you. I don't want to do that."
The whole book in zipfile format.
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