Chapter 4

Chapter IV

The treadmill opened up and Pete was there on trail eight waiting for Ruby.  She hurried to him with a hugged greeting. 

“Hey, Rumble, it’s Saturday do you have to be any place?”

“No?”

“I’m thinking of a long visit with the man.”

“We have to keep walking or you disappear and I don’t want to be alone off the trail.”

He blew a breath thinking on that realization and with the thought, he knew they couldn’t stop. 

That might be what happened to the man, a thought they unwittingly shared.

“There’s the house,” Pete said, taking her hand to pull her along.

They rushed to the window, where they had seen the man the day before.

“You’re back and right on schedule,” the man said, when they arrived.  “We chose well.”

“What do you mean you chose well?” Pete asked.

“I’m Al Johnson, call me Al.  I wrote the program.  I helped pick you two for the ride.  I didn’t know then how much I needed someone who would stick to it.”

“Are you saying you’re real?  You look computerized,” Ruby said.

“But I’m human.  There’s a problem, one that I can’t correct from here.  If the power goes off, you’re stuck here until it comes back on,” Al said, “Have you met my replacement?”

“We’ve met Wells and Wilson,” Pete replied.

“Wells must be taking my place,” Al slid his tongue across his teeth, thinking.  “How much can I tell you?  To start with, call Wells today; do not speak to Wilson.  I don’t trust him that much, though he may have to know about the problem, he doesn’t have to know I’m here.”

“Are you saying you want us to tell Wells everything, but you want Wilson left out of all but the technical problem?” Ruby asked.

Al nodded.

“Is that wise?  You don’t know you can trust Wells,” Pete asked.

“I need Wells to get out of here,” Al said as though they should have known.  “Unless one of you is a genius hacker.”

“Not hardly,” Pete said.

“The problem you want fixed is the power supply?” Ruby asked.

“Yes and I don’t want you back until it’s fixed.  You’re my only hope.  I don’t want to be responsible for you being lost,” Al said, “Tell Wells this was not an accident.  We’re not playing with nice guys.  Did you go to the house?”

“Yes!” They answered together.

“Did they take the computer?”

“No, there was a computer,” Ruby said.

“Good, but odd they’d leave it.  Can you take it?  Its Fitness Opts property get Wells to give you permission.”

“We’ll do it,” Pete said.

Pete and Ruby ran back to the trail to finish the run and get off the treadmills. 

Pete called Wells home phone number and was happy to find him home.  He made an appointment to meet him away from the office and ‘spying eyes’.  He emphasized the spying part so Wells would be sure no one was watching them when they met; at least no one Wells knew about.

Ruby and Pete went to The Crescent Gardens at one o’clock.  It was a late lunch for them, but the hour was right for a quiet meeting. 

Wells came in as soon as they were seated.  They went through a ‘surprised, please join us’ scene so, if anyone was watching it would seem a chance meeting.

“You’ve perked my curiosity,” Wells said, when he was seated.

“Are you Al Johnson’s replacement?” Ruby asked first.

Wells nodded, “I don’t think that’s secret information.”

“We wanted to be sure you were the right man for the job,” Pete said. “We saw Al this morning.  He told us – first we need to tell you there is a problem with the Treadmill.”

“You saw Johnson?  No one has seen him in months,” Wells said, “That’s why we have some questions about the program.  He disappeared right after you received the treadmills.”

“He’s in a house on trail eight,” Pete said.

“Trail eight?” Wells was searching his memory for that street and shaking his head.

“On our treadmill,” Ruby said.

“You mean he programmed himself into the trip?”

“He said to tell you not to tell anyone, even Wilson, anything, except the problem.  You thought of it,” Pete said, “Al said to tell you, ‘this is no accident, we’re not playing with nice guys.’  I think we should take him seriously, for now.”

“What’s the problem?”

“We need a back-up power supply in case the electricity goes off,” Pete said.

“We can put a battery case and inverter on the treadmill; will it last long enough, if you don’t know the lights are out?” Wells asked rhetorically, thinking as he spoke.

The waitress took their orders.

“They have treadmills that run a TV.  We can’t stop walking or we fade, so we’d be charging it all the time,” Ruby said.

“That sounds workable.  I think I can do that without going through channels.  Couple of electricians extra job Sunday.” Wells nodded.  “If you’ll be home I’ll set it up so you can keep walking.  I’ll take a little extra to build a battery box.  We can do that later I want to find out what this Virtual Al has to say.”

“That’d be great.  I’m curious too,” Ruby said.

Their lunch was served.  They talked as they ate.

“I wonder if that’s why the corpse turned up,” Pete said.

“She was going out with Johnson when he left.  She swore he never left,” Wells paused to think, “Maybe that’s why she became a corpse.  I’m not mentioning this to anyone until I know more.”

“Oh, there’s a Fitness Opts computer we’re supposed to pick up.  Can we say we have your permission, if questioned?” Pete asked.

“Be sure to tell the person questioning to speak only to me, Herbert Maxwell… May I go with you?  There might be something about that is a clue, if you’re not really into computers you might over look it.”

“That’d be great.  I’m no hacker, but I know something about electricity,” Pete said, “We could pick up a couple of batteries, splitters and inverters.  I bet it wouldn’t take us an hour to set it up.  I’m really anxious to find out what this is about.”

“I’m an electrical engineer; together we can handle it, without involving anyone who is apt to say something to the wrong person.” Wells said.

They retrieved the computer without incident.  No one was watching the house, or they surely would have been questioned.  They thought that odd, but left the house with the computer and a few disks that were on the floor. 

“Maybe someone dropped the box and missed these or didn’t think them important enough to be recovered,” Ruby said when they were in the car.

“Hopefully he used an old trick, this one marked games could be the project,” Wells said.

Pete drove straight to Ruby’s apartment.  They had picked up the supplies they needed to hook up batteries on the way to the old house.

“You almost have room for a battery in here,” Pete teased her about the size of her apartment.

“I’m saving for a down payment on a house,” she retorted.

Pete and Wells found they worked well together and the wiring on the treadmill accepted the inverter with no problems.  When they finished Pete took Wells to his car and Wells followed Pete home to work on his treadmill.

Ruby stayed home while the men went to Pete’s apartment.  She was waiting for a call to say they were ready to start the trail; instead she got a knock on the door.

Wells entered her little apartment again. 

“Ms Vickers, would you mind if I took your place on the trail.  I’ve never taken the trip and your trips are very different than planned.  I would also like to speak to Johnson in person.”

Ruby didn’t want to give up her space, but she knew it was the reasonable thing to do.  They called Pete to tell him they were ready.

As they started the trip Ruby stared in awe, but could only wait for a report.

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