Free 3rd World Products, Book 16 by Ed Howdershelt Page B

snatched her hand back.  
    “You know what I mean. How do they work?”  
    “Unless you have a degree in Amaran physics, they might as well be smoke and magic.”  
    “Do you have a degree in Amaran physics?”  
    “No, and I can’t explain fields. I just use them.”  
    Giving me a flat, direct gaze, she asked, “If you don’t know how they work, how can you use them?”  
    Looking up at her, I drawled, “Well, ma’am, I just try to avoid people who ask how they work. That way I never have to realize I shouldn’t be able to use fields while I use them. Look, I have some studying to do here, so how much longer do you think you’ll continue in this vein?”  
    With a narrow glower and a bit of a pout, Tanya pulled a chair around the table and sat down beside me as she said, “I was just curious. What are you studying? Or is that something else you wouldn’t care to explain?”  
    “Not at all, milady. I was reading your mom’s med records and checking out the building. Can you explain to me how a TV turns radio waves into pictures?”  
    With narrow wariness, Tanya replied, “No.”  
    “But you can use a TV or a radio. That’s about the same way I use fields.”  
    “You could have just said so.”  
    “No, apparently I couldn’t right then. I’d just seen pictures of Marie. They probably flavored my mood a bit.”  
    Searching up a passport picture of Marie from 1972, I said, “That’s the Marie I remember. A younger version of you.”  
    Tanya startled hard, then goggled at the picture. She leaned to grab my forearm and asked in a tone of amazement, “Is there any way I can get that picture?! Are there any more pictures like that?! From back then?”  
    “I’ll see what I can find. Fire up your laptop.”  
    She hurried around the table and began unpacking the computer and its power cord. I located some routine verification, surveillance, and training pictures and stumbled onto a small group of pictures from what looked like a vacation in the Black Forest. In picture eight a wooden arch over a gate confirmed my guess. Marie stood grinning under it in hiking shorts and brown suede boots with a backpack. She had a hiking staff and wore one of those little forester’s hats with a small feather on the side.  
    In another picture, she and Brian Baker were laughing about something. When nobody else appeared in the other photos, I wondered who took the pictures.  
    Tanya excitedly yelped, “Ready!” and then saw the backside of a picture of Marie and Brian standing by one of the trail exhibit signs.  
    Tanya’s face fell open and her eyes went wide as she said in a wondering, almost little-girl voice, “That’s Daddy!”  
    Using my core, I sent the pix I’d found to her laptop and said, “I’ll look for his pictures, too,” as she got up to come back around the table.  
    Without taking her eyes off the screen, Tanya nodded slightly and softly said, “Yes. Please. Anything you can find.”  
    Taking her hand for a moment, I said, “I know that feeling very well, ma’am. I’ll make a special effort for you. Your mom’s pix are already in your laptop.”  
    Her head turned to face me. “What? How?”  
    “Oh, come on, lady, let’s not do that again. They just are. Look for a folder called ‘ Stuff ‘. You make sure they all work and I’ll send any others as I find them.”  
    Tanya’s expression asked, ‘ what the hell are you?! ‘, but after another long look at the screen, she went to her laptop. I found about sixty pictures altogether. I sent them to Tanya’s laptop and linked the big screen to them so she could view them in a two-foot format as they arrived.  
    She asked, “But won’t you need this screen thing?”  
    “I can make another one. I need to let some things rattle around and settle for a while. If you want to change the display size, move the lower right corner of the screen.”  
    My Dr. Pepper was gone. I fished my travel mug and