00083

For several days, Albert Zoeniga and X-9 foraged for supplies for their planned big trip up north to the Research and Development Lab. The second night they came back to the cave at Abyss Gorge with a bunch of thick, heavy overcoats. X-9 assured Albert Zoeniga and Nina McCleer, "The weather in Sparkle City is moderate, but once we get up to the polar region- Well, I just hope that these coats prove adequate."

Nina tried on a jacket. "Oh, my size. Good guess, Bro. Al!"

The robot corrected. "I am a better judge of size than is Mr. Zoeniga, Ma'm.”

“Oh? So, you got this one for me?" Nina McCleer patted the robot's shoulder affectionately. "Too bad you robots don't marry. You'd make somebody a wonderful husband, X-9."

"Thank you for saying so, Mrs. McCleer."

Albert Zoeniga presented the food items. "We have freeze-dried and preserved. Not much in the way of fresh food, unfortunately. But we'll probably need anything and everything we can get our hands on. X-9 thinks we can hunt some wild animals, if we are lucky. He says the snow is greenish but we can still use it to make drinking water, and before we get there to the snow zone, we will get a nice supply of water with us. And, of course this..." Albert held up a large can of coffee for Nina's view. "Ta da!"

Nina brightened upon seeing that last item. She gave Albert Zoeniga a giant hug. "Oh, Al! Great! We can at least take a little piece of civilization with us."

"Yeah, my thoughts, too," smiled Albert. "We'll be facing hardship and freezing temperatures, but there's no reason to rough it without any coffee.”

Nina McCleer took off the coat and helped stack some of the items in a corner, to be packed for their travel. "You know, guys, I feel very strong already, ready to go on our trip. I could even go today, if we had all that we will need."

Albert Zoeniga smiled. "That is good. I was praying for your return to health."

"I know. Thanks. I've been praying a lot, too, when you two are gone. I pray we have success and can free George, if he is a miner. Now, I have a question., Tell me, where do you find all these things that you get for the trip? I pray for your supplies-hunting success, but I doubt they just drop out of the sky.”

Albert Zoeniga said, "I know where many of our brothers and sisters in the church had lived, so we visit their houses, and get their things. Of course, if any of them have survivors left behind and living there, we don't pilfer their goods then. Until the government learns all the names of those who had been lost in the disaster and confiscates all thier unclaimed property, we will continue to take what things we can get. Of course, also, some houses have already been looted, but many of them are left undisturbed. Perhaps the neighbors don't yet grasp that no one lives in those places anymore- Perhaps they think the lost families are on vacation somewhere, visiting relatives, or just not home. Sometimes, and in some neighborhoods here in Sparkle, it pays not to know too much about one's neighbors, so I figure many of their neighbors will just mind their own business...” Albert admitted, "I don't exactly like taking the stuff, it almost feels like stealing to me, but..."

Nina McCleer shook her head. "Oh, Bro. Al, don't feel so guilty. I bet if they can see us from up there, they would be happy for us to use their things for such a good purpose. Rather it is we who use the stuff they left behind, than Gov. Bright, who opposed our state-free worship so strongly, and imprisoned some of the church folks at the mines or the farms. If we succeed, we may be able to see some of their missing ones get freed, too, even if now they are turned into miners."

Albert Zoeniga said, “So many of the members had so little at their homes to forage. We are forced to hunt far and wide throughout the City, which increases our chances of being spotted. Bro. Smythe and family actually had a bit more money than most, and so sometimes they vacationed in the cold regions when they could, to ski, so at least we got some nice coats from their house. The coats are a God-send."

X-9 reminded, "However, the winter resort park where they vacationed is not nearly as cold as where we are going. I hope the jackets keep you from freezing. It may be that the both of you will have to wear more than one coat at a time."

In the days that followed, the authorities must have gotten more reports of homes with no one anymore living in them, for a definite state-run drive to locate and grab all the abandoned merchandise caused difficulties for Albert Zoeniga and X-9 in finding enough supplies. Entering one apartment late at night, they found it completely empty. Empty of everything.

Albert Zoeniga frowned. "Looks like we can't get much more from the church members. Too bad. We should have taken one of the vehicles when we had the chance  before Gov. Bright got their properties.”

"Perhaps you are right," X-9 conceded. "When you had suggested it several days ago, I worried that there would be no place to hide a vehicle for so long a time as we would require, as we were gathering our supplies during those days. We should have tried, though. We could have camouflaged it. As it is, now that Mr. Clyden is no longer there to supervise the Security Agents, the Agents are exerting more energies in their endeavors to catch criminals, perhaps bucking for his place as Security Leader, or from fear of angering the Governor because of their failings, and joining the ranks of the unemployable. It might be quite difficult for us to take a vehicle now."

When they shared their tale with Nina McCleer regarding the dwindling chances of finding more supplies, she thought for a few moments. "But to where do Xavier’s people take those things that they confiscate? Surely, there must be some way of finding out, no? Maybe if we know, we can get a vehicle from where they store everything. I'm feeling a lot better. I think it is time I do something for the team. In the morning, I shall go into town and make discrete inquiries."

Both Albert Zoeniga and the robot raised their protests. "No no no! You stay and continue to build up your strength. We'll take care of it. If it is possible to do, we'll get a car. It sure beats walking all the way to the Research and Development Lab."

And in the morning, Albert Zoeniga set out on his mission of finding the location or locations where the confiscated goods were stored. He kept a low profile. He dressed as poorly as many of the townsmen, and he kept a cap tugged down to his eyes. No one recognized him as the youth who had recently preached on the street corner, as the one who had missed being caught in the Incident.

He talked about the Incident off-handedly in a coffee shop. It was old news by now to most of the patrons and not as interesting as when it had first happened. Albert Zoeniga idly wondered what became of the property left behind. Soon he learned. Much of it was just pinched, by state workers who were supposed to turn it in, or even by some neighbors, like black marketeers, courageous enough to steal what the government wanted to confiscate, these members of gangs- But the majority of the big, useful items ended up in the usual place in such a situation- a certain fenced in lot with a cheap canvas roof, in which were impounded cars and necessary appliances of life which were repossessed when borrowers missed two successive payments on their government loans.

Returning to the cave after his morning of ferreting out the location, Albert Zoeniga slept the afternoon away, and then, in the dark of late night, he and X-9 once more departed from their hiding cave and visited the storage lot whose location Albert had learned that morning.

A thick concrete eight-foot wall surrounded the lot- not the chain link fence he had inferred from the stories he had heard earlier in the day. A swinging wire mesh gate guarded the entrance, locked and secured.

Albert Zoeniga crouched outside the gate, in the shadows of the night, peering at the heavy padlock. "Now what?"

X-9 took the lock in his robot hand and silently squashed the lock, tugging it gently off the hasp.

"Okay, that's one way to take care of it," said Albert. He put his hands on the gate, about to swing it open. X-9 put his hand on Al's forearm, not hurting him, but using his superior strength to prevent Albert Zoeniga from swinging the gate.

"What is it, X-9?" Then, Albert heard it, too- The steps of some people inside the lot, and their conversing voices, approaching them.

Albert Zoeniga and X-9 split, each one huddling along the wall just to the side of the gate, in the shadows and out of view- Albert having taken cover off the left side of the gate, and X-9 off the right.

The voices walked closer and stopped directly at the gate. It was a pair of Security Agents, their forms visible through the wire mesh gate in the dim light inside the storage lot. Albert stole a quick glance and then again concealed himself in the shadows.

He almost gasped out loud, shocked to recognize one of the Agents- His friend, Osmo Martin!

"I don't know how we got stuck, patrolling this big lot of junk tonight, Osmo," the other guard complained.

Agent Osmo Martin replied, "Somebody's gotta do it. Gov. Bright says there's too much looting going on, mostly in those empty homes. He says that the World of Hope can't afford to lose any of what resources we have."

"Yeah, he certainly is concerned about losing so much as a bottle of dirt. He's becoming very aggressive lately in collecting from tax delinquents, too. I don't know what's up with that..."

"Yup. And I guess the new tax hike is starting to hurt some folks, too, making it necessary to take their possessions for payment. Too bad. Anyway, Pete, I guess we owe our thanks to the Melville gang for our duty here tonight. Rumor is that that's who is grabbing and looting so much of the stuff lately.”

“Boy, Osmo, I'd like to see them try to swipe anything from here tonight, with us on duty. It'd sure be a feather in our caps, if we could catch them in the act."

"We won't catch anybody just standing here yakking. Let's keep patrolling."

"Hey, who made you Security Leader, since Clyden's demotion?"

"Ha ha, I wish, Pete."

Agent Pete asked, as they resumed walking, "So who do you think it will be? Maybe me, eh?”

Osmo Martin laughed. "I'm sure, Pete."

"Hey, that Mita chick who's always hanging out with the Governor and his niece- what's that all about? Is she, eh, seeing the Governor?"

"What, Mita Morgan? Ha, that's a good one. I don't really know her. I went to school with her back on Earth, as you know, but I never did understand her or know her. We moved in different circles. Why do you ask, are you interested in her..." Osmo Martin’s voice faded into the background, along with his and Pete's departing footsteps.

X-9 carefully, patiently, and quietly, but also swiftly, opened the gate when the Agents were gone. He moved into the lot, Albert Zoeniga behind him. They surveyed the place. This place had it all- refrigerators, screens, a stove, many cars. Albert pointed to a monster truck.

"Mr. Boothe's baby. I always wanted to drive that thing, although its ugly color scheme is almost so bad and embarrassing, I would be afraid of having an accident in that thing, and someone seeing me in a truck with such an ugly-looking paintjob. Think we can snatch that?”

“A good choice," said the robot. "A lot of room for many supplies to fit in it, even if we are a bit short for now on those needed supplies.. Yes, we can snatch it."

X-9 went over to the truck's door and soon had it open without setting off any alarms. Next, he popped the hood. He did not raise it very high, so as to risk attracting unwanted attention. Albert crouched down to the side of the truck and held the hood up a few inches for X-9 while the robot reached in, his robot hands searching and probing the engine by his robot sense of touch. It took X-9 over a minute until he found the tracking device and yanked it out.

The robot told Albert Zoeniga, “You board the vehicle and steer. I'll push the truck through the gate and down the street. When we are far enough from here, we'll start it up and be long gone before the guards even know what happened."

The plan worked flawlessly. As Albert Zoeniga drove away with X-9, the young man turned and peered out the back window, to see if any Security Agents ran after them and their new truck. None. The two guards didn't yet notice the theft. Albert shrugged. "Sorry, Osmo, ol' pal. I hope the Governor doesn't take this stolen vehicle out of your pay!"

X-9 suggested, "Mr. Zoeniga, please watch where you are driving. You almost hit that post.”

(c) drk 2012