fingers between my legs. What did the watching mean?
* * * *
The Chameleon had a pleasant surprise with the new position. She was in charge of the corporate spies that the company used. Most of the spies worked for the magazines run by the company. It was strange but some of the companies seemed to expect and even work with the spies. One of the magazines would have spy pictures of the newest automobile designs with written articles that included quotes from the spied upon automobile company executives. This place was so much like the Users; she might just have to recommend that a permanent colony be placed here.
* * * *
Jones finally had something for Blythe. He hired a track student to injure the Czeminski girl. The student was to foul the girl during next track meet so Blythe could watch it happen. The detective he hired to find something on Karpinen was still having trouble. There was no easy way to observe the farmhouse he lived in. There was just too much open space in the country. The phone taps were not helping. There were few calls being made and except for a few odd email messages the Internet access was encrypted. The detective was able to break the codes but they were difficult enough that they were broken after the materials Karpinen was working on were publicly published. Jones knew he needed to make more happen to the Czeminskis and Karpinen soon or he would be looking for a new job.
* * * *
Tabitha rushed for the bus. There were twenty other athletes already aboard. It was a record for the college. Twenty invited to the pre-season invitational track meet in the Twin Cities. It was the third time Tabitha made it to the invitational. She settled back into the seat to sleep the hours to the arena. The noise from the first-timers was just a faint background hum to soother her to slumber.
* * * *
The limo pulled up to the arena fifteen minutes before the start of the meet. Jones had made sure that prime seats were saved for him and Blythe in the half full athletic center. Blythe had been occupied with financial reports during the flight down and had said only a dozen words to Jones. Nervous, Jones led Blythe to their seats. Praying that everything would go well, he told Blythe that the 3000-meter race was scheduled seventh in the line-up.
“This is your last chance Jones. If this doesn't work, you will be looking for a new job. Anything on Karpinen yet?
“Have you found leverage?'
“No, but I have arranged for a fire to take place at Czeminski's laundromat this weekend.'
“Why haven't you got something on Karpinen?'
“The company he works for is too big and he is too important to their operations for an attack on that front. He spends most of his time at home and with this being winter I can't get someone close to the farm he lives on without the possibility of being seen. You told me you wanted whatever happened to him to occur without someone tracing it back to us. To do that in the winter, we would have to go out-of-house and hire a professional fixer. You said you wanted to keep things in-house for now.
“Sir, the 3000 meters is about to start. The dark hair girl running next to Czeminski is the one I hired from her school. To play it safe, I also hired the blonde two lanes over. They were told to take her out on the
second lap on the curve right in front of us.'
They watched in silence as the race started. Czeminski was third through the first lap. On the backstretch of the second lap, the blond pulled along side her. The corner came. The blonde stumbled and fell into Czeminski. They both fell on the track with the blonde's legs tangled with Czeminski's. The brunette was running right behind the two. She clumsily tried to jump the tangle but landed on Czeminski's legs. They could hear the crack of the bone breaking from the stands.
“Good. You finally did something right, Jones.'
The two men left the meet and got into the waiting limo for the drive to the airport for the flight back.
Chapter 8
Pop
I was making the finishing touches to the contraption under Move-over's watchful eyes. The cat had climbed up into the rafters of the garage. Every so often, I would hear soft feet rustling the junk stored between the rafters or see dust dropping to the garage floor. I would look up to see Move-over's eyes glowing from overhead. The cat seemed to have a way of dropping dust so it would get into my nose. Other than the old boombox, the most noticeable change I made to the contraption was writing CONTRAPTION on the side of the transmission using a can of Alice Chalmers orange spray paint.
I heard the door open behind me.
“I see you decided to name it.'
“Tabitha! What are you doing here? I was going to drive up and see you this weekend.'
She stepped into the garage. I could see the split trouser leg and the walking cast that went up to her knee. “I had a little accident and took the rest of the week off.'
“What happened?'
“Not much. During the 3,000 meter invitational a runner from St. Cloud State tripped into me on a corner and a teammate ran into both of us.'
“Sit down ... Does it hurt ... Do you need anything ... What can I do?'
The laughter came. Gasp. “Yes.” Gasp. “Stop making meee laugh.'
She was okay. And even with the cast she was sexy. She knew immediately what I was thinking. It could have been the memory of what happened the first time we laughed together or the bulge in my pants.
“You just hold it there buddy. I want to see this contraption work before I let you scratch under my cast or anyplace else.'
It only took a few more minutes to finish checking the circuits. I lifted Tabby on the workbench and climbed up to sit beside her. We had a little countdown before flipping the switch. At first, nothing happened except for giggles, but then I saw a slight ripple near the focus of the reflector dish.
“Did you see that?'
“It looks sort of like the ripples from a stove burner. I wonder if it is hot.'
Meow. There was Move-over walking along the two by six rafter. A large dust bunny fell from his feet.
Slowly it drifted to the Contraption.
Pop.
The circuit breakers blew. The garage plunged to dark with the only light coming from a small north window. I ran to the electrical box and flipped the lights back on. The contraption was in pieces. The bolts holding the transmitters in place were pulled loose. The dish was pulled off the Dodge transmission. Most of the pieces were dangling from their wires. The rest were lying on the garage floor.
“I'll be damned. It worked.'
The only incident to mar the day happened much later. Tabitha was lying naked on my bed afer having me scratch her toes and the flesh around the top of the cast. I, of course, took the opportunity to scratch the rest of her body numerous times. After scratching for the tenth time the skin under the top edge of the cast, I was running my fingers up the inside of her thigh.
“That tickles.” She jerked her leg up. Since my head was between her knees at the time, the cast connected with my nose.
Later, I was in the bathroom pulling dried red toilet paper from my nose watching my eyes raccoon up from the bruises when I started to laugh.
“Dan, what's so funny?'
“Tabby, do you remember me telling you about when I figured out the equations?'
“Yes. You said that you had been working ten hours straight so you ran to the bathroom. You started laughing because if a reporter asked...” She hit me. “You are not going to tell anyone about what happened.'
* * * *
