I was dying to hear what Leo had discovered. I needed to hit the drums, and hopefully they’d distract me.
I spent an hour jamming. I hadn’t had such a good session in days.
When I finally finished, I needed a shower.
I pulled out my books and folders and set them on my bed. I had some trig to do, which would be no big deal if I could manage to concentrate. Then I needed to read three chapters of my bio II for a quiz tomorrow.
Before I got started, I decided to get my shower over with. I took the cell phone into the bathroom in case Leo called while I was in the shower.
Like he was really going to call.
I shaved my legs and then wet my hair. I had reached for the shampoo bottle and dumped some onto my hand when the phone rang. At first, I thought I’d imagined it, but I hurried to wash the shampoo off my hand after it rang a second time.
I turned off the shower, jumped out, grabbed a towel, dried one hand and my face enough to avoid drowning the phone. Then I picked it up and answered, butt naked, with a towel clutched to my chest, and dripping wet.
“Hello?”
“Hey, Jen.”
“Hi,” I said avoiding saying his name. Talking to him while naked was one thing, saying his name was beyond me.
“You aren’t busy are you?”
“Um,” I glanced back at the shower. “No.”
“I just wanted to thank you again. I got to see my dad. He’d been pretty freaked out about having no visitors. When I got home, I had a message from the U.N.I.V.E.R.S.E. telling me the hearing was moved and that I could visit.”
“So did your dad know anything?”
“No. But whoever set him up is obviously well connected in the U.N.I.V.E.R.S.E. Rescheduling his hearing is way more involved than cloning those lottery tickets.”
I glanced down but realized I was staring at my breasts. I cleared my throat and focused on the fish shaped soap dish on the counter. “Um, so, what’s next? Did you find anything suspicious on the staffers?”
“Nothing so far. I forked over a bunch of cash to get the PI to check on the last batch. I didn’t think we had enough time.”
I shuddered to think about how much he’d spent. “Did you find out anything about David Laverdiere?”
“I had the PI rush on his background check. He’s not a good guy, but so far nothing connects him to anyone in the Genie world other than my father.”
“What do you mean he’s not a good guy?”
“He just did ten years in federal prison.”
“Leo, are you sure this PI is a good person? I mean she could be lying.”
“I don’t think so,” Leo said. “She seems okay.”
“How did your dad know her?”
“She investigated him once when his girlfriend thought he was cheating.”
“Was he?”
“Cheating?”
“Yeah.”
“Um. Yeah.”
“That’s not real reassuring. She may not like your father.”
“It was a long time ago, but I guess I should look into it.”
“Maybe you should hire somebody else to double check what she tells you.”
“You might be right. I’ll see if I can manage it. I’ll catch you at school in the morning?”
“Sure.”
I hung up the phone and set it on the counter.
Talking to Leo had kept me warm, but now the cool air was getting to me. I jumped back into the shower and turned it on. I’d forgotten again to tell him about the pictures. First I’d been distracted by his hug and now by my nudity. Aargh.
Maybe I should call him back.
As I dashed back to my room, Mom stopped me and asked what I thought of the memos she’d forwarded to my email.
Oh crap. I’d forgotten all about it. I had to show I was interested though. I’d made a big deal about it and I needed Mom to start giving me more information. “I’m just headed to my room to log on,” I told her.
I pulled up my email to find that Mom had taken my request seriously. She’d forwarded position papers arguing both sides of the Techno Echo issue. She also sent me a U.N.I.V.E.R.S.E. newsletter that mentioned Leo’s dad. Nothing as good as what I had found when snooping in my mother’s email, but still good information.
The newsletter also had a human interest section with a profile piece on Maximillian. He’d apparently died saving the love of his life at age sixty. The widely held belief that he had so much more to contribute had led to his appointment on the Directorate. The story was accompanied by a portrait of the woman. I’d never been able to tell much about people from a painting, but even I could see she was beautiful with exotic green eyes. Something about her was vaguely familiar. Maybe I had seen the painting before somewhere.
I guess that was why he’d chosen such a handsome persona this time. Maybe he wasn’t vain, maybe he just appreciated beauty. Yeah, right.
I didn’t even bother to read the RokrGirlz emails. I was days behind anyway.
I hadn’t started my homework, and I had another week to get through before the hearing. If I wanted to keep helping Leo, I had to get enough work done to avoid a concerned email to Mom from one of my teachers.
I woke up at two, sound asleep on my government book. With a grunt, I tossed it on the floor and pulled the covers over me.
Chapter Eleven
The alarm went off and I jumped up so I’d have some time left for my mother. I needed to talk to her, plus I didn’t want her to know I’d been up late with homework again.
I set a world record getting ready for school and bounded down the stairs to catch Mom.
Today she wore a black suit, which I’d noticed she pulled out when she had a lot of serious stuff going on at work. She was on the phone already, and the conversation sounded tense.
“I don’t care about the ramifications, Bob. We have to do something about the Richard Williams situation asap.”
Richard Williams? I’d heard her mention his name before, and it hadn’t been in a good way. Who was he?
Mom rubbed her temples with her thumb and forefinger as she listened. Finally, she said, “If you want to play it that way, fine, but you have until three p.m. and then I’m acting.”
Mom disconnected and shook her head.
“Sounds serious,” I said, hoping for some details.
“Hi, hon!”
“Hi, Mom,” I said pouring some OJ and taking a seat next to her.
“I’m glad to see you have more energy than yesterday.”
“Uh, yeah. So thanks for sending me all that stuff. I read it all, and it’s nice to feel like I know what’s going on.”
“The Techno Echo is a high pressure situation,” Mom said, cautioning me. “I’m hoping for a peaceful resolution, but we should be prepared in case that doesn’t pan out.”
“Which side is right? The freedom side or the monitoring side.”
Mom grimaced. “As a high level employee of the U.N.I.V.E.R.S.E., I’m afraid I’m not allowed to express an opinion, other than that of the U.N.I.V.E.R.S.E.”
“That sucks! Does Dad know about that?”
She nodded. “He’s pushing me to take a straight Genie Communications job so I’m not bound by all the secrecy and loyalty agreements.”
“Will they let you do it?”
“No. I’d love to though. The cell phone business is my favorite part of the day.”
“So why won’t they let you?” How come I never knew all this about my mother?
“They say my skills are irreplaceable,” she said with sarcastic emphasis on irreplaceable. “But I do have a plan. I’ve been studying up on several possible ways to expand the cell business. If they went with one of them, they’d need a devoted Genie Communications VP to handle the extra workload.”
“How do you know they’d pick you?”
Mom frowned. “I don’t. That’s the problem I haven’t managed to work around yet.”
“You’ll figure something out. How lon
g have you been working on this?”
“Six years,” Mom admitted with a grin. “But the longer I wait, the more options they have for well-trained possible replacements.”
“Uh, yeah.” I drank the rest of my juice. “So you really can’t talk about the Techno Echo with me?”
Mom leaned over and whispered, “Once you form your own opinions, I’ll tell you mine. Just remember, that I have to stay in good with the U.N.I.V.E.R.S.E., for my sake and for yours.”
“So I can’t tell anybody.”
“Exactly.”
“Don’t worry, Mom. I wouldn’t do anything to make you look bad.” Except that I already was, a voice called from the back of my head.
“I know,” Mom said, making me feel even worse. She put her hand on mine. “You’re the child I’ve never had to worry about.”
“You know Ian’s being really hard on Sean lately.”
She nodded and took another sip of her coffee. “Dad and I talked about it.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Well,” she leaned closer. “I wanted Dad to tell Ian that if he did it again he’d have to shave off all of his own pubic hair.”
Sorry I asked.
“But Dad was afraid that might be seen as child abuse.” Mom sighed. “We’re exploring other options.”
I so did not want to make my mother mad. I couldn’t bring myself to ask about Richard Williams. I’d have to try my other sources.
“Can’t you cut Sean some slack?” I asked as Ian drove the route to school.
“He’s a pain in the ass,” Ian said, turning a corner with a loud screech of the tires.
“Yeah, and…”
“Dad threatened to take away the car, so I guess I’ll back off the little weasel for a while.”