Free With These Eyes by Horst Steiner Page B

passed and an image of
Isabelle and Tonati enjoying their dinner filled the view-screen of
the book-mobile. The heat vision of the drone showed a
bright-orange outline on Isabelle's plate where her dinner had
been. Isabelle took the last bite. She placed her fork and knife on
her plate with the handles pointing right - she was finished.
Isabelle picked up her research folder. She rifled through the
documents until she reached one that consisted of about 20
double-sided sheets filled with drawings and formulas. The paper
described a curious concept it named as Quantum Energy .
Isabelle was fascinated by this idea. It seemed to pull large
amounts of energy out of thin air.
    Tasha's eyes were virtually glued to
Isabelle's image. Isabelle felt her pursuer’s prying electronic
eyes on her skin. She knew whoever had been following her didn't
just sit around waiting. She was aware of the possibilities that
digital electronics offered an outsider who wanted to spy on the
consumer of such technology. Although Isabelle lived her life as
close to nature as practical, the need to stay 'connected' to the
world via digital communications and her use of modern-day
conveniences, such as her robotic vacuum, offered plenty of
opportunities to have her privacy invaded. It was difficult for
Isabelle to concentrate. She looked at her television's cable box.
She had a hunch that its sensors did more than read the remote's
signal. For a moment, Tasha felt like she was looking directly into
Isabelle's eyes. The hunted had gotten conscious of the hunter's
methods.
    Isabelle rose from the sofa. "C'mon Tonati,
it's time to get to sleep."
    The puma's ears perked up and he jumped to
his feet. Isabelle grabbed a snowboarding hat off her trophy shelf
and together they headed for the large glass doors in the kitchen.
In passing, Isabelle reached for the faucet and pulled the lever
towards its hot setting. A steady stream of water flowed
into the drain. The faucet was still running at room temperature
until the hotter water arrived from the water heater at the far end
of the house.
    This left little heat signature for Tasha to
take note of Isabelle's actions. Tasha's main display offered a
piercing overhead view of Isabelle in the kitchen. A plume of heat
could be seen escaping to the outside. Tasha knew it meant Isabelle
had pushed one of the large sliding doors open.
    "Give me a medium-wide view of the exterior,"
Tasha barked in her drill-sergeant tone.
    With a sharp "Aye!", the Trooper behind the
digital flight controls repositioned the drone. He sent a command
that prompted the lens on the heavenly spy ship to zoom out and
present a wider view of Isabelle's house and garden. The false
colors of the infrared vision showed Isabelle and Tonati in orange
and yellow against blue and black architecture and plant life.
Intensely yellow blobs identified light sources around the
house.
    Isabelle and Tonati walked towards the part
of the property that was Tonati's area. California law dictated
that a big cat like him was to be kept caged or chained. A law for
which neither cat nor woman had much regard. Tonati had been around
Isabelle from the time he was a cub and proven that he was
intelligent enough to live around people without physical
restrictions like chains or imprisonment. He understood that most
humans were deathly afraid of the fact that he could tear them to
shreds. He had seen in the jungle that most people will shoot and
kill a puma simply out of fear. Tonati felt safe on Isabelle's
property; it was his home. He didn't seek to expand his territory
beyond the fence where dangerous people with guns could attack him
in the street. Isabelle knew how utterly sad a chain made Tonati.
She was enough in rhythm with her animal that she had every bit of
confidence in his intelligence, so she allowed him to roam free at
home. Along the way to Tonati's enclosed arena were the house's
heat pump and natural-gas water heater. The running faucet in the
kitchen had