Time passed and the excitement winded down. It took one month to repair the Lawrence estate. Alex and Grant still had to repair the lab themselves. Nobody else could put their computers and devices back together again. Penny was invited to come and help. So far she had shown little interest in performing any science on her own. They both hoped that getting her hands into the work would kick start something.
Rick proposed to Jessica. No one knew he was going to, except for Penny. He'd asked her if she would be ok with Jessica marrying him. To his surprise she had looked him in the eye and said: "Of course I will support your marriage to Jess, I have been waiting for you to."
Penny was quick, she observed everything, and she kept her mouth shut until someone brought the subject up. Unless it was something important.
Penny returned from helping her aunt and uncle with a box of computer parts. She had everything she needed to build her own lap top from scratch. She spread all the parts out on the kitchen table and with the help of a few books she'd borrowed from Grant, began piecing something together.
Rick watched silently. It was easy to forget that her brain had literally been grown to handle such tasks at an early age.
Penny's fingers moved swiftly over the parts, she held them up to the light inspecting them for flaws or defects and double checked them with the books. As she set things out in the design she wanted the whole mess of parts slowly took on the shape of a lap top.
She worked for hours, and seeing as it wasn't a school night Rick let her stay up. He continued to watch her. Sometimes she'd ask him to hold a part for her. He didn't ask her many questions. He hated people talking to him while he focused on certain tasks.
She ran up to her room halfway through and returned minutes later with a metal book decoration she'd been given. With his help she took it apart. She put the computer together inside the book. The screen had been among the parts given to her and when she was finished sometimes around four am there was a fully functional laptop hidden in what looked like a large book.
Penny wanted to continue with downloading software and hardware and setting at all up. But Rick wanted to go to bed and his daughter needed some rest before the weekend. It wasn't every Saturday that a girl got to go with her father's fiancé and help pick out wedding dresses.
Of course Rick wasn't as lucky. He was going to be spending the day with Alex and Grant. They were headed to the nearest AMA office in California. Unfortunately Rick was going to be part of Alex's presentation to them. A group of medical authorities had agreed to see what Alex could do with Cybernetic Organ Replacement.
The best way to show that was to offer up a live patient who had lived with the transplants for an extended period of time. Rick's body had been a cybernetic success for eight years; with no sign that the false organs were deteriorating or being rejected.
Alex was willing to bet her entire credibility on her cybernetic organs. And as a favor to her Rick had agreed to let her use him to prove they were
Alex and Jessica arrived at the house around 6:00. Penny was half asleep, but eager to go. Rick hugged her and Jessica before they got into the car. "You girls have fun."
"Oh I don't think we'll have any fun." Jessica said with a smile. Penny beamed at her words.
"Bye Daddy." She said as she climbed into the blue sedan.
"She stayed up all night putting a computer together. She may need to sleep in the car." Rick whispered to Jess.
"Don't worry," she assured. "I'll make sure she's ready to go." She kissed his cheek.
Rick nodded with a smile. Alex took it as a cue for her to nab the cyber-detective. "Ok Inspector Gadget," she said purposely using his celebrity moniker to annoy him. "Let's roll out, we don't have much time to waste on pretty girls."
Rick rolled his eyes. "Yes ma'am." He said giving her a crooked salute.
Alex shook her head as she climbed back into her SUV. Rick waved to Penny through the window and then climbed into the passenger seat.
Alex waited till Jess pulled out. "I worry about those two." Rick admitted.
"Why?" Alex asked as she drove away from the house.
Rick watched his house disappear in the rear view mirror. "They're related to you and I in so many ways it's easy to use them as bait for us." He explained. Alex looked at him with concern.
"I know, that's why I gave Jessica a couple modifications. Her car is equipped to handle dangerous situations. And her phone is indestructible and always transmits her whereabouts to my computers at home. If she goes somewhere that's out of her norm or out of a reasonable boundary I get a text message."
She sounded confident that nothing could happen.
"I guess it's no use worrying all the time. It's jus that that attack last month really shook me up." Rick continued.
"I know. It's got all of us paranoid. I programmed all of Jessica's proposed destinations into the computer today. If she goes somewhere else I'm calling her." The scientist admitted sheepishly.
Rick chuckled. "Guess we all worry." He mumbled.
A few minutes of quiet passed as the scenery changed from suburbia to the highway and the casino skyline of Reno. Hotels with blaring neon rose up above everything except for the snow capped mountains surrounding the city.
"Are you nervous about this afternoon?" Alex asked.
"Naw," Rick answered without looking at her. "I'm gettin used to the attention."
"That's good." Alex replied. "Hey Rick, you don't have any regrets do you?" Her question was dead serious.
"Why should I?" He asked. "I'm alive, I've got a daughter, a fiancé, and I'm a detective that doesn't have to worry so much about coming home in a body bag." He listed off the pros in his life.
"But do you regret giving up so much of your human body?" Alex asked. Her current line of questioning had caught Rick off guard.
"No. Hey, what man can get the remote off the TV stand without havin' to stand up?" He asked.
"Don't joke." She gave him a dark look. "Listen Rick, the AMA wants to know if you have any emotional trauma, any regrets, or even if you loathe your body."
That made a lot of sense. Alex had asked him once if he wanted to live, she'd never in her years of friendship asked him if he regretted accepting her offer.
"I regret nothin' at all." Rick replied sobering up. He didn't. He'd grown used to the HUD, was fond of having everyday tools in his fingers, and even enjoyed some of the publicity he was getting. "It's not the normal way, but it sure beats bein' six feet under." He added.
Alex sighed with relief. "I've never assumed that you might have negative emotions toward your current circumstances. When the AMA told me they were going to ask you all that stuff I started to wonder."
"You could of started the conversation with that. You still act like a June Bug sometimes Alex." Rick said with a brotherly smile.
The scientist laughed. "Wow you haven't called me that since the first time you walked after the surgery."
"Well maybe I ought to call you it more often." He waggled his eyebrows threateningly.
"You do and I swear I'll put that phone in your hand." She counter-threatened.
"You wouldn't dare." Rick's eyes were wide.
"I would." Alex replied. "It'll be your wedding present from me!" She announced with an evil cackle.
The two laughed as she took the airport exit. The Reno-Tahoe Airport was large, but it had nothing on the Kansas City Airport. It was just big enough for the business that came through it. For all of the city's advertisement it really wasn't a metropolitan area. It was small in comparison to big cities. For this Rick was grateful.
But it meant that Reno tried three times as hard for publicity. And the novelty of a cyborg detective was not exempt from such stunts.
Alex parked her car in the lot. She would come back for it late tonight. It was cheaper than paying for each hour it sat in the garage.
"You ready to be a specimen?" Alex asked as she pulled a suitcase from the back. Rick took it from her.
"Sure." He replied not trying to sound enthusiastic. "Where's Grant?"
"Already inside waiting for us. He wanted to get here early and get you the proper TSA clearance without making a scene."
Rick nodded. "Oh yea." He said suddenly remembering how much trouble the security agents could be.
"Don't be worried." Alex said. "I'm going to have to shut down your weapons system for the flight though. I promised TSA I would."
"That's fine. I can survive a two hour flight without my weapons." Rick returned.
The two headed into the long building. The sound of jet engines was suddenly cut off as the glass doors closed behind them. Alex found Grant with two TSA agents waiting for them.
She tugged on Rick's sleeve and they headed over. The TSA agents demanded to see that Rick was disarmed and would remain that way.
Alex had it done in ten minutes. Rick always felt a little off when the secondary systems were shut down. The targeting array in his eye was gone and he felt like something was missing. The dialogue box scrolled to let him know what Alex had done.
SECONDARY FUNCTIONS TEMPORARILY UNAVAILABLE.
DEFENSE SYSTEMS LOCKED.
WEAPONS SYSTEMS LOCKED.
ACCESS TO WEAPONS LIST AND CONFIGURATIONS LOCKED.
UNABLE TO LOAD AMMUNITION.
UNABLE TO ACTIVATE GPS.
UNABLE TO ACCESS RADAR.
FLIGHT MODE ACTIVATED.
The TSA agents weren't exactly sold that he couldn't activate anything, but they let Rick go. Alex had complied as far as they'd asked her without any trouble. They give Rick a sheet of paper and told him to take it to the check-in counter.
At the check-in counter a woman in a grey suit handed him a laminated card attached to a rubber lanyard. It read; TSA Clearance Card. Unable to pass through metal detector and body scan due to medical issues. This passenger is authorized to pass through without further examination.
Alex rolled her eyes, "they can't do anything that isn't by the book these days." She commented as they hurried up the stairs. The metal detector line was long. Alex sighed as they waited. While Rick didn't have to pass through the scanner, his jacket and shoes still did.
He was glad he'd remembered to wear normal shoes. The ones Alex had constructed were nice. But they wouldn't have passed the TSA. Not with all the electronic components crammed into them. And the leather jacket he had brought was old, worn to death, and comfortable. Jessica loathed the thing. She thought it looked like something a single guy would wear.
They got through the scanners without any problems and then boarded the plane. Their wait was short, Alex had not been so crazy as to leave hours of time to sit and do nothing. For one thing it wasn't comfortable or relaxing, and it wasn't fair to Rick to cut him off from all his cybernetic enhancements for longer than was required.
They had first class seats, Grant and Alex both disliked crammed quarters. Living in a mansion sure gave them a lot of space.
On the plane Rick tried to relax. He felt unbalanced and tense. He was beginning to expect danger at all times. It seemed that it followed him like a shadow and always jumped up at the worst of times.
He pulled a book from his pocket and glanced across the aisle at his traveling partners. They were looking over some written notes for the day's presentation. Rick grimaced and turned to his book. It was a western he'd been trying to read for months. He just didn't have the patience for reading though and usually something more pressing caught his attention whenever he opened the book.
He started reading and managed to get a chapter finished by the time the plane had taken off and was cruising. He had started the next chapter when a voice broke through to him. "Sir, can I get you a drink?" It was a flight attendant. She was young with dark short hair and bright crystal blue eyes.
"Um, just some water." Rick replied. The woman looked at him funny.
"Coming up." She poured him a plastic cup of water and handed him the cup and the half empty bottle. Rick nodded his thanks and sighed. Now that his focus was broken he was inclined to just put the book up. He'd be too worried about his drink spilling and he was no longer held by intrigue.
He sipped the water and returned the piece of yarn between the pages before closing the book.
In a dark room a blond man with piercing blue eyes sat in a chair shivering. Someone had pulled the strings to get him out of jail, and now he sat in a new one. The door opened and a man stepped in. "You failed me." The voice was like a roll of thunder hinted with European.
"I'm sorry." The man replied not looking up.
"You were to destroy one target. I gave you a single order. I gave you tools and money. Your foolish Nazi wannabes weren't good enough. Lawrence's creation is still alive. I wanted him dead for a reason. My plans have a weakness, he is that weakness.'
"We did our best." The leader of the Purist Reich assured.
"No. You turned to run. I saw it." The man replied. On his right arm gleamed a silver gauntlet.
"He's a monster."
"Yes. Did you feel fear?" There was no answer. The gauntleted arm swung a crushing backhand. A yelp of pain escaped the smaller man's lips. A few drops of blood fell to the concrete floor.
"Are you afraid now?"
"No." Came the weak reply.
"Really?" The voice carried surprise. "Why?"
"Because I plan to make good on my promise." The blond man looked up, the gash in his forehead left a scarlet smear. "I will destroy that abomination even if it kills me to do so."
"Good." The man chuckled darkly. "I will give you your freedom, but remember that I let you go once. It won't be a mistake I make twice."
"I understand."