Cleanup on Aisle Squatch by Jerry Boyd

Author:Jerry Boyd [Boyd, Jerry]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3, mobi
Published: 2023-10-16T16:00:00+00:00

“That doesn’t scare me at all, Jeeves.”

“Sorry, Boss. Didn’t mean to make it sound bad.”

“I was convinced it was bad before I came through the door, Jeeves. You had very little to do with it.”

“Whatever you say, Boss.”

Dixie had sent a report on Bruce’s implant. She hadn’t found anything much that I didn’t expect, other than they hadn’t sanitized the parts that the Squirrels had made. That made me think that they didn’t think anyone would ever be able to get one of the things out. I read a little farther, and saw that I was right about that. The implant had a destruct charge, set to blow if anyone tried to get the implant out surgically. Dixie noted that the Marines had safed the charge for her, and it was no longer a threat. There weren’t any new scout reports, but there was Scotti’s writeup of the first test of the BS Houdini. It sounded as if she was on the right track. I hoped she would find a way to fix the glitch in the drive killer, but given the size of the glitch she was talking about, I didn’t think it would be that bad to distract the operator enough that they would miss it. We might have to time things a little closer than I would have preferred, but it looked doable. She had sent another note informing me that the necessary exterior locks to secure the carriers were out of the printers, with a sizable overrun, in case the crews needed them. I worked through the rest of the messages. I saw one from the President of the United States, and I left it for last. I couldn’t imagine that he had anything to say that was going to change the way I had decided to do things. I got down to it, and sighed before I opened it. Jeeves asked, “The one from Earth?”

“Sure enough. I’m sure he’s going to have a lot of words, and not much to say. There’s nothing he can do about it, and he’s still going to moan and complain about what Steve did, even though he managed to save those people by doing it. I’m really not in a mood to deal with his crap.”

“Go ahead and get it over with, Boss. You don’t want to be thinking about it, while you’re actually trying to get something done.”

“You’re right about that.”

I opened it up, and read through it. To my surprise, he thanked us for finding the lost passengers, and rescuing them. Not a word about bringing a destroyer into his airspace. I began to think that I was, indeed, getting paranoid. I sent him a note, telling him he was welcome, and it was all part of the service. When I looked up, Jeeves was looking at me. I said, “Yes, you told me to go ahead and look at it, and yes, you were right. No, I’m not going to get it notarized for you.”

“Gee, Boss. I didn’t know you could read bot minds.

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