Neptune Road Volume IV Read online

  Neptune Road Volume IV

  Copyright ©2014 Betsy Streeter

  Published by Betsy Streeter at Smashwords

  Smashwords Edition License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  About Neptune Road

  This is the fourth volume in the ongoing story of people living on Neptune. The air and sunlight are borrowed, the surface is unstable, and the people are - inventive.Welcome to Neptune Road.

  At this stage in the story, we have met some of the major players in what looks to be an ongoing struggle for power and resources on this iffy planet. The Bird People are devising rather invasive experiments, one of which seems to have found its way inside of Dr. Mangrove's head. Agent Millman is trying to sort what case he's supposed to work on anyway (Murder? Espionage? Who knows?), and exactly who is hiring him. And Edward, Darby's assistant at his bar, heads to Scar City with some important information for the Agent.

  Get the latest on Neptune Road at http://www.betsystreeter.com/neptuneroad. The story updates three times a week. Enjoy!

  Table of Contents

  Acknowledgements

  Chapter 076 - First and Mulberry

  Chapter 077 - The Tumbleweed

  Chapter 078 - Drake Mangrove's Workshop

  Chapter 079 - Saloon Doors

  Chapter 080 - Dr. Mangrove's Head

  Chapter 081 - Roof of the Tumbleweed

  Chapter 082 - Zippo Hotel, Scar City

  Chapter 083 - Bridge of the Tumbleweed

  Chapter 084 - Dr. Mangrove's Noggin

  Chapter 085 - Streets of Scar City

  Chapter 086 - Cass

  Chapter 087 - Agent Millman's Apartment

  Chapter 088 - The Kitchen on the Tumbleweed

  Chapter 089 - A Rooftop in Scar City

  Chapter 090 - An Arrest at Darby's

  Chapter 091 - A Van in Scar City

  Chapter 092 - A Box Arrives from Earth

  Chapter 093 - Bridge of the Tumbleweed

  Chapter 094 - A Café in Scar City

  Chapter 095 - A Conference Room in Scar City

  Chapter 096 - Lair of the Bird People

  Chapter 097 - Dr. Mangrove's Workshop on the Tumbleweed

  Chapter 098 - A Limousine in Scar City

  Chapter 099 - Agent Millman's Apartment

  Chapter 100 - Bridge of the Tumbleweed

  About the Author

  Acknowledgements

  As always, this is for you splendid readers and Neptunians. Thanks for coming along for the ride. You are indeed the BEST.

  076 - First and Mulberry

  The display on the metal detector lights up and begins beeping. The man in the tattered straw hat stops in his tracks to look down at it.

  "Well, Missy, what you got for me there? You find me some treasure?"

  He digs around with his foot, and exposes a bit of wire. Tugging on it, he finds that the wire is attached to something underground. He pulls until about three feet of wire come free, then sets to work to unearth whatever is under there.

  "I'll thank you kindly to back off my salvage," a voice says.

  Straw hat squints up into the amplified sunlight. "Who's this?"

  "Never mind who I am," the voice says. It belongs to a bony fellow with a very long nose. "This here is my land, and my salvage. You clear off."

  "Who says it's your land?" Straw hat straightens up. He's stocky. He feels like he could snap long nose in two if necessary.

  "The sign, there," long nose says, and points.

  There's a street sign jutting out of the dirt a few yards away. It's bent, probably from a storm or someone trying to pull it free. One side of the sign reads, "FIRST" and the other reads, "MULBERRY."

  "We are here at the intersection of First and Mulberry," long nose declares, "and this side here, this is my territory. From Mulberry over to Olive."

  "Really," straw hat says.

  "Yep," long nose says.

  "Well, then, you won't mind if I continue my scan on over here," straw hat says, taking a long step to his right. "Outside your supposed territory, there."

  "Fine," long nose says. "Just you keep over there. That there's fair game."

  Straw hat turns and fires up his metal detector again. "Never heard of anybody having a territory before. Suppose he peed on it to mark the edges?" he mutters beneath his breath.

  "What was that?" Long nose says.

  "Nothing," straw hat says, and moves off.

  As evening falls, the sunlight amplifiers cycle down one by one across the sky, like fluorescent bulbs switching off on the ceiling of an enormous gymnasium. Shadows lengthen, and the two men work their way farther and farther apart until it is too dark to work any more. They take their finds and head home.

  Sometime that night, something shears off the street sign at ground level.

  077 - The Tumbleweed

  The ball careens off the walls as it makes its way down the hall at a high rate of speed. Sam waits.

  A moment later it returns, launched from a doorway in the loading bay. Rebecca follows it in.

  Sam juggles it a few times and kicks it back to her. "What do you think the Bird People wanted with your dad?"

  "Don't know," Rebecca says, trapping the ball and passing it across the floor. "Whatever it was, I hope we interrupted in time."

  "He said he was talking to Angelica - but how is that possible?" Sam launches the ball into the air - right at the open door in the floor.

  "Oh, no..."

  Before the ball can exit the Tumbleweed entirely, Dr. Mangrove emerges and heads the ball back in. "I'll tell you how that's possible," he says. "I could tell it was her. No idea how she got into their lab, but there she was."

  "I know, dad," Rebecca says, "but that's just a little... weird. We need to know more. I think we may have some hacking to do."

  "Hack away," Dr. Mangrove says, climbing all the way into the vessel. "You know I've always encouraged you in your endeavors, my child." He smiles.

  Sam brings the ball down to his feet and boots it into a doorway, the opening to a hall that leads all the way forward to the bridge. It zigzags ahead, hitting walls and ceiling panels, until it bounces out into space and in the direction of where Feller sits. Without looking up, Feller puts up a foot and brings the ball to rest under it with one touch.

  "Well this is interesting," Feller says. His eyes are fixed on the display in front of him.

  "What?" May asks. She's on his right, still fixing the Tumbleweed's navigation code. The Bird People dug in there, alright. It's like they tried to rewrite the whole program. They could have just copied it out without leaving a trace. Why did they alter things?

  "Well these codes, the ones we used to shut off those metal dinos that chased us through the storm?" Feller says. "They are in here, again. But this is a completely different system. And I didn't put them there."

  "Did Angelica copy them over for some reason?" May asks.

  "No idea," Feller says. "Why would she do that? And more importantly, how? How could the Gelica Protocol jump from our airship to the Bird People's lab and back again, without some kind of help?"

  "Yeah, that's weird," May says. "And those codes, maybe they are for more than one purpose. Or maybe they didn't affect the dinos at all. Maybe they just headed home on their own."

  Felle
r raises his eyebrows and sighs. "I think we've got some hacking to do, kid."

  "Indeed," May says, and the two give each other a high five.

  Outside, the Neptune storm rolls off to another location and dwellings and markets begin to pop back up out of the landscape.

  078 - Drake Mangrove's Workshop

  Dr. Mangrove takes off his sweater and lays it neatly over the stool.

  He crosses the workshop, adjusting items on overstuffed tables and shelves as he goes. There's a tiny kitchenette in the corner, a formica fold-out table and a few hooks in the wall that hold various mugs and teacups. He turns off the hot plate. He pours steaming water over a tea bag and lets it settle in a tiny, flowered teacup.

  Then he returns to his workbench with his tea and sits down. He presses a button on the nearest boom box - one of several scattered throughout the room - and the Well-Tempered Clavier comes out of the speakers.

  He pulls a few components from the drawer in the workbench and begins tinkering with them, but it doesn't help. He feels agitated, all of the time. He hasn't slept for more than an hour or so in days.

  "Four. Three. Five. Two. One."

  "Four. Three. Five. Two. One."

  He puts his hand to his forehead. This headache won't go away. He thinks back to the Bird People's lab - what did he see there? What was going on? Why was Angelica there? Why can't he remember?

  "Four. Three. Five. Two. One."

  "Hey, Dad?" It's Rebecca's voice through the intercom. "Are you in there? I need a couple pieces of wire and a lens for Feller."

  "Yes, dear," Dr. Mangrove says, without moving. "Door's open."

  "Four. Three. Five. Two. One."

  "Okay, okay!" Dr. Mangrove shouts, jumping to his feet. "What is this? What are these stupid numbers? Please just make it stop!"

  "Ah! Now I've got your attention."

  "Angelica?"

  "Yes, dearest, it's me."

  "But..." Dr. Mangrove spins around. "Where? Where are you?"

  "Silly, I'm in your head. It's a piggy-back ride, I suppose. Or a brain-back ride, really."

  "What?" Dr. Mangrove puts his hands on either side of his head. "No!"

  "Oh, yes, dear," Angelica says. "I must say, it's so nice to have a body again. I've felt so - fragmented with no physical form. One can only swim around as bits and bytes for so long before you really start to miss having two feet and two hands. Oh, and tea. Tea! Wonderful."

  "Dad?"

  Rebecca stands in the doorway.

  "Dad, what's wrong?"

  Dr. Mangrove freezes, and says nothing.

  079 - Saloon Doors

  "Why, that's splendid, Edward," Darby says, hands on hips.

  Edward drives the last screw into the wall at the entrance to Darby's Bar.

  "Where did you say you got these, again?" Darby asks.

  "Someone dropped them off," Edward says. "Came from a movie set on Earth, I think."

  "Well, it's splendid. Try it out."

  Edward puts down the drill and walks out the door. It's a pair of swinging shutters, just like those found in an Old West saloon on Earth. They even make a satisfying squeak as Edward pushes them outward.

  Edward releases the doors, and waits until they stop swinging and come to rest in a closed position. Then he makes a grand entrance. He opens them with both arms and stands there, surveying the interior like a sheriff, before coming all the way in. The doors swing shut again with their squeak.

  "Splendid," Darby says again. "That is just what we needed. Please send a thank-you to whoever left them, if you learn who it is."

  "I will," Edward says, gathering the tools and hardware to put them away.

  "Oh and Edward?" Darby says, retreating behind the massive mahogany bar.

  "Yes?"

  "I wonder if you'd fancy a trip into the city center to speak to our friend, Agent Millman."

  "I was wondering when you might say that," Edward says, stashing the drill behind the bar and wiping his hands on a white towel. "It seems only fair."

  "Yes, when one makes a finding as we have, it seems one ought to share it with the subject. It's really up to Mister Millman - and I assume that it is Mister at this point - what he wants to do with the information."

  "I'm not sure how I will find him," Edward says.

  "I'm not either," Darby says, rubbing his chin. "We'll have to work with what we know. We know he's investigating Sam Brubeck. So if we reach him or one of his associates, perhaps they can pave the way."

  "True," Edward says. "I'll be sure to do my research before I depart."

  "Thank you, Edward."

  "You're welcome."

  "And thank you for the new doors. We're a proper saloon, now."

  Edward smiles.

  .

  080 - Dr. Mangrove's Head

  "Seven. Seven. Eight. Seven. Three."

  Dr. Mangrove is lying on the floor of the workshop, his hands over his ears.

  "Just, stop. Please. I can't do this."

  "Sure you can. You are not trying hard enough. Remember, I saved your bacon. I gave you the codes that got your vessel out from under the ground. Or have you forgotten already?"

  "I can't remember a lot of things, since you crowded into my head," Dr. Mangrove says. "There isn't room."

  "There's plenty of room," Angelica says. "It's like a gymnasium in here. I feel so free. I really must thank you."

  "Thank me?" Dr. Mangrove says. "You're not welcome."

  "Look. Just write down the codes when I give them to you. You'll know what to do with them. You knew how to get out of the ground, you knew how to send the dinos home. Didn't you?"

  "Yes, but why do you need to do this from my cranium?"

  "Oh, I don't know. You'd have to ask the Bird People about that. I didn't lobby for it, I'll tell you that much. You just came along, and... well, there you were."

  Dr. Mangrove sits up on the floor. His head is feeling a little better. He's seasick, but the pain is going down. Maybe he is adjusting.

  "Do I have to go back to the Bird People to get you removed, Angelica? Or do you know how to do it?" Dr. Mangrove asks.

  "What kind of question is that?" Angelica asks. "Why on Earth - or Neptune - would I give you the method for evicting me? I just got here!"

  "Yes, yes," Dr. Mangrove says, "but what if I could get you a better home? What if I promised you would be able to get around, not be disembodied any more? What then?"

  Silence.

  "Angelica?"

  "I'll think about it," Angelica says finally. "For now, though, this is our little secret. And I mean that. You rat me out, I'll give you a whole new definition of the word headache. It's not like I won't know. I'm in your head. In the meantime,"

  "Seven. Seven. Eight. Seven. Three."

  Dr. Mangrove stands and goes to rummage for a piece of paper and a pencil to write down the numbers.

  081 - Roof of the Tumbleweed

  Philo climbs out onto the roof of the Tumbleweed. May is already there, sitting cross-legged and eating a bologna sandwich from a paper bag. Dust storms sweep across the distant horizon, grey and brown. The sunlight amplifiers twinkle in the sky.