Part 6 (1/2)
he couldn't be sure.
”Not the guard lady,” she said. ”The Alpha lady.”
Thomas froze. Then he picked her up and carried her to the reserved pad where he parked his hover car.
Jamie spoke uncertainly. ”Did I say a bad thing?”
”No, not at all.” He opened the back door of his car and set her in the child seat. As he strapped her into the contraption, she watched with deep concern.
Thomas sat next to her. ”How did you hear about Alpha?” He would have Matheson's hide if he was talking about secured matters in front of a child.
She shook her head and her curls bounced around her cheeks. ”You told the man who laughs.”
”What man?”
”The man inside your desk.”
”My desk?”
”Barl?”
”You mean Bartley?”
”Yes.” She brightened. ”That was his name.”
A chill went up his spine. She couldn't have heard the senator. That line was secured, besides which, it was impossible for someone in Matheson's office to hear anything in Thomas's office. ”How did you hear him?”
”I don't know. But you talked about Alpha.”
”G.o.d almighty,” he muttered. ”How could security be that bad?”
”I'm sorry, Grampy.” Jamie looked confused. ”Don't be mad.”
”I'm not.” He patted her arm. ”You helped me. You're my special agent.”
Relief poured across her face. ”Can I be a general, too?”
Thomas laughed softly. ”Maybe someday.”
”Where do we go now?”
”My friend Sam is going to look after you for a few hours.”
Jamie regarded him warily. ”Is he nice?”
”She.” Thomas smiled at her look of doubt. ”And she's very nice. I've known her since she was your size. Her father and I were friends.”
”Oh.” She sat considering that information. ”'Kay.”
”I'm glad you approve.”
He got into the front seat and put the car on the traffic grid. As it took them to Route 32, he contacted security at the base and set up an investigation into what Jamie had told him.
It made no sense. Conversation couldn't travel through those walls. She couldn't have heard him.
How had she done it?
III: An Autumn Walk
To look at Sam Bryton, Thomas doubted most people would guess she was one of the wealthiest people alive, and self-made. Her full name was Samantha Abigail Harriet Bryton, but she rarely used it. She had told him once it made her think of prep schools and pink and green clothes, neither of which came close to her life. She had gone by Sam for as long as he could remember.
Thomas couldn't figure her out. She was among the world's leading EI architects. She had developed a substantial fraction of the AIs and EIs currently in existence. The patents on that work alone made her a millionaire a hundred times over. Add to that her biomech patents and she was worth billions. So why did she hang out in jeans and thrift shop blouses, and wear her hair in that s.h.a.ggy mane of blond curls?
She reminded him of Goldie Hawn, one of his favorite actors from his youth, but she looked like a beach b.u.m rather than a world-cla.s.s innovator.
The lunchtime traffic was heavy enough to slow his commute, even with the vehicles controlled by the interstate grid. Sam was already at his house by the time he arrived. As his car settled in the carport, she opened the front door and leaned against the frame, watching him with undisguised curiosity.
Jamie was humming in her car seat. Although he was still a bit unfamiliar with its straps and buckles, he managed to get her out of the car without too much jostling. As he picked her up, she snuggled in his arms and peered at Sam.
”She's pretty,” Jamie decided.
”She is,” Thomas said. ”But don't tell her that. She gets annoyed easily.”
”Why would that make her mad?”
”If I could answer that,” he confided, ”many people would be in my debt.”