Roy
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Verdandi was kind enough to not continue testing my fighting abilities. Skipped right over the rest of his lesson plan to get to physical testing. Looking back I wish we had started there. My ribs would have probably hurt less. Probably.
I don't think I've ever used some of those muscles before today.
Sure we did some of the usual suspects. Push ups, jumping jacks, burpees, Russian split squats, one handed planking. And those were plenty challenging on their own.
But then we got into the alien ones. I'm 100% certain that my leg is not supposed to be able to bend like that, let alone hold my body weight in that position.
There was a lot of failure.
And not a small amount of hidden disappointment from Verdandi.
To hear him tell it he wasn't starting with steel ready to be polished and sharpened. I was a lump of iron. Emphasis on lump.
If it wasn't for the cheerleading section going off in my head I'd have stopped by now.
I got up after another failed maneuver and tried to rotate my shoulder back into a comfortable position.
"Why you stopping, I've got one more in me." I said with my best mock confidence
"Because you are pushing yourself to injury. I have enough to plan your education. That is, if you still wish to continue not using your dungeon abilities." Was he trying to push me to use them? Knowing him, probably. I'm not gonna cheat. Yet. Besides, there's not exactly a downside to being strong for real in addition to having Nola help. Yeah. That's what I'm gonna keep telling myself
It definitely isn't because I have no idea how to share my strength like he keeps talking about. We both know how to do all the cool tricks thanks to the tutorial.
"Shut up Nola" I panted. "Come on V, hit me with something hard" I said facing him and weakly miming the 'bring it on' gesture
He shrugged, smiled and started explaining the next exercise "In that case you are going to want to bend your knee at a reverse angle and..."
....
I am going to sleep like the dead tonight.
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Tyler
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I do not trust this Cole character. Too many reporters are part of project mocking bird. He could be a spy for the shadow government. It would make sense that they'd spy on us, even without knowing the alien connection. We are a product of a rogue genius, supposedly. They hate it when tech improves too fast. Too many potential Einsteins have ended up committing suicide by shooting themselves in the back of the head... twice. I'm off track. Where was I? Cole. Yeah. Need to look into him more. Something doesn't click.
Gotta try and get his address from Dave, go do some digging.
He doesn't strike me as the type to booby trap his doors and windows when he's away, should be a piece of cake.
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Kathy
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"Yes Joshua, tomorrow. No we can't move it to a week day. Hun, trust me, even if this ends up not being something you can work with the spread is to die for. We got a steak house to cater for us. Free bar. Yes, free. Yes I am taking lead. I'll have you know I believe in all my causes, but this is far from a hopeless one. We'll be in magazines before the end of the month Joshua. If you want to join us on the cover, you'll be there. Wonderful! Plus one? Of course. Bring a city requisition form, I know you'll like what you'll see. Of course hun. See you there." I taped end call with a flourish and circled his name in red. Only a few more left to contact for our last minute shindig. Swag and steak were great motivators for these marks. We would have half of the decision makers in the county present and the rest 'sending their regrets'. They don't know how much they are going to regret it yet.
They passed on a golden ticket and they will have to come crawling to me to get another. After years of dead ends, lost causes and basket cases it was nice to back a real winner in the early stages.
Controlling access to this will be our ticket to the big tables. East or west coast high society doesn't matter, but lets get out of the fly overs and into a proper country club.
I took a minute to look over to my husband and blow him a kiss. He smiled at that, despite his discomfort of his current job as a garbage loader.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
He finally did it. He found 'the' client we needed.
I could not be more proud.
Now, who's next? Mayor of Firestone. Ugh. That fat hound is too tight fisted to take a risk on anything, but he will show up to eat his body weight in steak. Maybe I can feed him to Tyler at the party. That would be a match up I would pay to see. I dialed his secretaries number and waited.
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Roman
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I watched another unit start reading strange data near Barstow off highway 15. If the pattern continued it would hit San Bernadino sometime during the early morning rush tomorrow, and then it would accelerate again. The acceleration seemed to match the population of the area it moved into. If the pattern follows, we can see a 2.76% growth rate increase after whatever it is takes the city.
But the greater Los Angeles area? There are 18 million people living and working in that sprawl. Some of the most polluted air in the state. We could see a growth increase of more than 220% in less than a day. Probably by the end of tomorrow. After that it will take highway 5 up to San Francisco Bay and double again on the trip. That would allow the thing to affect nearly eight thousand miles a day of highway, side streets and whatever else it was infecting.
Every road on the west coast back to the Colorado origin would be subsumed in 2.87 days, if the growth module holds. The country in just over 6. And that is assuming this thing doesn't cross the border to high population zones like Tijuana before heading to the small towns. Re modeling for a non discriminator growth path we can lose the west coast in 1.98 days, but we would have more time before total infection due to the road ways of Canada being long and under utilized.
We may be too late to stop it already. I sounded the alarm to my contacts Thursday, yesterday, after we confirmed the readings and the growth of the anomaly, but NOAA has never commanded anything in the way of emergency reaction powers. If we didn't have a response by tomorrow, we would be into the weekend, and that is two more days of inaction before I can get a higher level decision maker to view the event. If we could convince anyone to take a look at it. Even if we did, this thing would be difficult to classify as a threat.
In a way it was everything we could want. The air was cleaner everywhere this thing operates. We tested it manually with mobile equipment. The sensors are not just showing lower pollution, there actually is lower air pollution.
And that isn't the only anomaly. The amount of driving deaths has also dived. It has only been a few days since Colorado was infected by 'it' but statistically they should have lost 2 a day on average. In the past 3 days, they lost one. And she crashed on a side street. We didn't have a sensor in the area to confirm, but I would bet anything if we did that unit would have been operating normally. Accidents are still occurring, I passed more than a few while driving, but not the statistically normal amount of deaths. I don't know how I know, but I would bet anything the trend continues as it takes California.
There was another potential anomaly I had seen. There was also a scheduled photo op clean up that got canceled outside a small rest stop town. It made the special interest page in the paper, the journalist determined it had to be people finally deciding to take care of mother earth and were no longer littering. Ha! I'd sooner bet on aliens cleaning up the roads. No, whatever this thing was, that was what was responsible for the clean streets.
This thing, whatever it is, has been surprisingly benevolent. Chelsie thought it was some sort of terrorist attack at the beginning. But that doesn't fit the data. IF it is hostile, it has not shown its intentions yet.
I wish I could figure out what it was.
Depending on who, or possibly what, this thing is and what its goals were... I could see myself joining forces.
It would break my models, the work of my entire career, but I suppose that was always the end goal anyway.
Following it to California would not help us with tracking or stopping the growth. No, we need to work backwards. Find the source.
There are 6 units. The first ones to start spitting anomalis data. All in a ring around Commerce City. Our origin is somewhere in there.
We have a car, a name, and an area. Not quite a needle in a haystack, but they aren't putting up signage either
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Dave
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"Kathy! the signs are here! Come take a look before we get them up around the place" I called out as her contact from the sign company arrived. Tyler, Cole and I worked with the driver to get the large lighted sign out of the crate and propped up for inspection.
"It's exactly what I was looking for! Wonderful as always Anders, give my complements to your boss" She said as she came over
She was right, the sign was turning heads of everyone currently inside.
'Greener World Recycling and Processing' with a diamond pattern crystal between greener world and the next line, our little nod to the real power house in the organization. I couldn't ask about her opinion yet, but I am sure I'd hear about it tomorrow from Roy.
Legally, things were looking up. Both of the victims of Roy's heist had accepted me as council, and earlier today the da asked to schedule a meeting to talk. I couldn't confirm yet, but I bet the cops have connected 'tip' to the lost equipment, and the case against the innocents is falling apart.
The only hiccup so far has been Melvin. I sent a process server to his home and work, and no one could tell me where he was.
We need to cut out that tumor soon.
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Melvin
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I've been to half a dozen different lawyers and they all said the same thing. I am shit out of luck, legally.
But I have never been afraid to step on a few toes to get what I want.
Maybe it is time to slit a few throats too.
I found someone to draw up a new contract. One that gives us an equal partnership with full rights transfer in the event of death. For the continuity of the business of course.
The only problem now, is Roy.
He'll have the original contract somewhere close by. Probably his home. That rube probably isn't even smart enough to hide his safe.
I take that, burn it, then there is just one more witness.
Mr. Stein can be... encouraged... to help, after we have our prize in hand. Rumor has it this wouldn't be his first time.
When he leaves tomorrow morning I will be waiting. And we can set this train in motion.
Hell, maybe I can get him when he comes back home. Little two for one action.
I should go buy some plastic wrap.