Free Ancient Birthright by Kendrick E. Knight Page A

their toll. The upgrades had been completed on the remaining antenna systems, and the array was back on line.
    Fortunately, the two spare antennas I’m using are well away from the others, so no one has noticed me using them.
    Turning sixteen didn’t make life any easier. My problems still exist. Problems like Billy Breathsword, Danny Wilkins, my nosey sisters, and the added pressure of being horny all the time. If there is a good-looking girl around, I have my very own compass pointing the way. God, I’m tired of carrying my books in front of me at school.
    His mom was back to work and was as overloaded as she’d been before the upgrades. His dad was home all the time now. He’d been injured on the job during the upgrades and the required eighteen-hour days. He was on extended disability due to the injury to his spine and left leg. He fell from an antenna after his crew had followed the boss’s orders not to use the safety harness fall protection in order to speed up the installation.
    Mr. Wilkins had tried to cover up the accident and blame it on shoddy work from the maintenance crew, but someone had called OSHA and reported the accident. A team of investigators showed up the following day and shut down the entire operation when they found the maintenance crew working twenty-five feet above the ground without fall protection. The final report was still pending, but the preliminary findings had pointed at overwork and mismanagement. The OSHA investigation found that upper management’s orders to complete a job with too little staff and on an unrealistic schedule could only be accomplished by disregarding OSHA safety standards.
    At dinner, his mom relayed a rumor that said that Mr. Wilkins would be fired as the scapegoat to satisfy the inspectors. It was common knowledge that his orders to complete the upgrades as quickly as possible came from the director.
    Beldon and his sisters tiptoed around the house trying to stay out of their dad’s sight.
    Either he’s so high on painkillers that he’s out of it, or the pain is so bad he’ll bite my head off just for walking in the room.
    Terrie came home from school that afternoon and walked in the front door. Duane, startled out of a drug-induced nap, grabbed her and shook her so hard Beldon had stepped in to try to get her away from his dad’s grasp. It’d taken him several minutes to calm his Dad and bring him back to reality but Terrie got away with little more than a scare.
    Not only do I have to avoid Bruiser Billy and his sidekick Dumber-than-Dirt Dan, but with Dad acting this way, home’s not a safe haven either.
    A few days later when Beldon got home from school, he noticed that his stuff was disturbed. His computer was on, and his stack of programming books, tipped over. He was beginning to wonder if his dad was searching his room looking for something to relieve his boredom or just looking for something to confront him with so he could use it to make Beldon’s life as miserable as his own was from the pain.
    When Beldon started his project, he’d added file encryption and password protection to his computer and all of his files involved with the VLA. It wouldn’t stop the FBI or CIA from being able to read them, but it should at least keep his father and sisters out of his business.
    “What are you up to, Bel?” his Dad said from the doorway in slow drug slurred speech. “I tried to use your computer today and all the data files were locked.”
    “That’s my private stuff Dad. It’s just data I’ve been compiling for the science fair this summer.”
    “So why’s it locked?”
    “I don’t want anyone messing with it and changing anything. My entire project could be ruined.”
    “I don’t like it. I don’t want you hiding things from me. Just the other day I heard the Wilkins’ housekeeper found naked pictures of high school girls displayed on his kid Danny’s computer when she went in to clean his room. His father searched his system and