BA Tortuga - Road Trip 02 - Steam And Sunshine.pdf

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Steam and Sunshine
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Steam and Sunshine
by BA Tortuga
Torquere Press
Copyright ©2006 by BA Tortuga
First published in www.torquerepress.com, 2007
NOTICE: This eBook is licensed to the original purchaser
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erroneous. This eBook cannot be legally lent or given to
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This eBook is displayed using 100% recycled electrons.
Distributed by Fictionwise.com
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Steam and Sunshine
by BA Tortuga
Prologue
He blew the center out of a cinderblock when he was in the
eighth grade for the science fair, dropping the chunk of
concrete exactly where he wanted it, causing a fake river to
redirect and feed the little fern forest he'd planted. A man in a
pair of sandals and swim trunks came up to him after school
and asked to meet his parents.
Manning took the guy to meet Mom and the Colonel,
watched the Colonel's eyes when the guy offered to take him
north for the summer to a camp for gifted students.
He'd never had so much fun and when August came, he
didn't go home. There were eight of them then. Seven boys
and Paula and they lived and breathed engineering. They built
things, they destroyed things.
It was fascinating.
By the time he was eighteen, there were only three of
them left from the original group. Greg and Paula and him.
Others came and went, burn-out and accidents took their toll.
They worked and played and studied and MJ found his niche
in the lab. Explosives.
Big ones, little ones, sharp and deadly and specific and ...
Yeah
They called him Boomer and he could set a charge
anywhere. In a pen cap, in a coffee cup, anywhere. Tiny and
perfect and deadly.
He excelled at his work—had his masters by nineteen, his
doctorate by twenty-two, and he was in the zone.
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Steam and Sunshine
by BA Tortuga
One night, he was up on the roof of the shed, harvesting a
little of their crop of green to dry, when he saw Greg outside,
talking to a stranger.
"...a risk to the project. She's beginning to ask questions."
"What kind of questions?"
"She wants to know what the devices she's creating could
be used for. I think there's a mole in the group, someone
creating waves."
"Fine. We'll eliminate her at the first opportunity."
MJ blinked and stopped. A mole. There could only be a
mole if this was a covert group. This was college. This was
engineering .
This was explosions.
There was only one 'her' and he knew. He knew she'd been
asking the mentors questions, knew she'd been talking about
traveling after going home to see her family in the desert.
Knew that something was up.
It was one of those weird, life-altering decisions, going
down the stairs to see her—or a short-haired, older version of
Paula, because she'd changed since that morning in the lab.
He caught her loading a gun and a load of equipment into
bags. "Paula? I. I came to tell you..."
"I know. I heard. Surveillance equipment. Thanks,
Boomer." Her eyes were blue. How could her eyes be blue?
Her eyes had never been blue before.
"Your eyes."
"Yeah. I ... I have a new job, man."
"Doing what?"
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Steam and Sunshine
by BA Tortuga
She grinned. "Fixing all the shit I broke. Don't trust Greg,
MJ. Don't trust anybody. This set up ... you look into it. You'll
figure it out. When you do, come find me."
Then she was gone.
He did figure it out and it didn't take him long. He was
quick and smart and partied and laughed enough that no one
thought he could be sneaking around. It was harder to
arrange his escape, but he had access to the right chemicals,
access to the right explosives, and it happened. He poofed
and headed toward the desert where she'd said her family
was. Where the encrypted emails sent from a Las Vegas
motel led him and he did find her in the middle of the low
desert in a little cabin, her eyes still blue.
He and Paula worked together for six and a half years—he
found out she was ten years older than he thought, that he
was considerably dumber than advertised, that the people
she worked for were very well-funded and very well-
protected, that the desert was damned hot, and that he
missed the beach. MJ also discovered that, much as he loved
Paula, he didn't want her, and as much as Paula wanted to,
she couldn't manage to quit hating anyone long enough to
trust them. He kept being the junior partner, the sidekick.
One night, about three years after he'd come back to the
desert after a big job involving an oil rig, involving meeting
people, getting to know them, and then doing his job anyway,
MJ caught sight of himself in a mirror and stared. He wasn't a
skinny little blond kid anymore. He was tanned and built and
strong and damn, blood did wash off.
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