Another Chance

Chapter 56

"Were you talking to Mr. Beckett?" Micah asks.

Alexis lays her phone on the table. "Um hmm. He heard back from the legal department. He got us a seven percent royalty on any sales from any improvement patents awarded to Living Capably, and we maintain the right to make improvements of our own. We can patent those after the five years of L.C.'s exclusive if we like, or hand them over to L.C. or another company for a bigger cut. With the backlog on patent approval right now, our term with L.C. will be almost over before they get anything through the process anyway. He says it's a really good deal. He sounded proud of himself - like my Dad when he gets good reviews."

"That's great! When are we supposed to be signing the papers?"

"He said he has time late tomorrow morning. I thought we could invite him to lunch as a thank you."

"Absolutely, that's the least we can do. But I have an idea for another product."

"Micah, you're amazing! What?"

"I thought we'd have hearing companions. You know, hear sound and throw it up on a screen."

"Almost any computer can do that. So can smartphones, although Siri has some strange interpretations of what she hears."

"Exactly," Micah agrees. "There's no ranking for meaning or urgency. A service animal can do that. A dog can be taught that a fire alarm is more important than the dialogue on a TV show. Siri can't distinguish between a lot of the sounds she hears or where they're coming from. That's all important. We'd need a companion that's at least as smart as an Irish Setter, more so if we could manage it. That would mean working with some cutting-edge artificial intelligence, like what they do at MIT or Carnegie Mellon. Columbia has a good program too. So, does Cornell."

"Sounds like you've decided on grad school."

"I'd want Columbia if I can get in. I know my way around the neighborhood, and we could keep using this condo as a base. You could apply too if you want to."

Alexis nods slowly. "Yeah, maybe, but not in AI. It would be better if we had complimentary programs, so we could both contribute our skills to the company. I'd say MBA except that I've never met one I could stand, and a lot of them tried to buddy up with my dad. After what Mr. Beckett's done for us, I'm thinking maybe law school, business law, not criminal, or maybe patent law. I might even be able to help keep you and other inventors from getting ripped off. Hey, maybe Kate and I could be in law school at the same time."

Micah shrugs. "You have some time to think about it before you make up your mind. And we will be getting married somewhere in there."

Alexis reaches for his hand. "That's the one thing I'm sure of."

Robert Crockett seems fully engrossed in selecting the right cards when Kate and Rick leave their secluded corner of the casino. Aletha is in the able hands of the ship's nursery workers, and the couple won't need to pick her up for a couple of hours yet. Castle leads the way down the stairs and into a narrow hallway. "This is it, number 17 on Mortimer deck. He punches a code into the pad by the door, and the click of the unlatching lock tells him it was the right one.

Crockett isn't the neatest man in the world. Clothes are lying on both the single bed and a chair. A pair of flip-flops is in the middle of what floor space the tiny cabin boasts. "Doesn't look like he was expecting to be entertaining anyone," Castle offers.

Kate's hands fist. "He just has to stay at his poker machine long enough for us to search this place and get out. We need to find the odd sock."

"You got that out of my books! That's what Nikki Heat is always looking for. The thing that doesn't fit."

"What can I say, Castle? She's seeped into my brain." Kate bumps against him, her eyes sparkling with mischief. "And you based Nikki on me, so she has to be right."

Castle's not about to dispute that. He scans the room. "Not much here. Maybe in a drawer - or in an oldie but goody." Castle squeezes into the tiny bathroom and feels around behind the vacuum powered toilet. "Ah ha!"

"What did you find?" Kate demands.

"Not sure yet," Castle responds, opening a plastic box. "Booyah! The modern version of hidden secret files. It's a USB drive, but I have no idea what's on it. Fortunately," he adds pulling a small device from his pocket, "I have this handy dandy adapter, so we can upload it to my phone - and up to the cloud if we need extra storage space."

"Castle, why do you even have that on you?"

"I use it to upload stories or ideas from my computer sometimes, so I have them handy, and I don't have to type in anything very long on a keyboard made for Lilliputian fingers. Let's see what's on here."

Kate looks on impatiently as Castle transfers data from the drive. "It looks like itineraries, schedules of where various people will be all over the world. I recognize some of those as heads of state."

"And there are business leaders too," Castle adds. "And if I'm not mistaken, some of those names are criminals. That guy is the head of a drug cartel. But what do they have in common and why would Crockett be selling this kind of information to the shipping company?"

"We can figure that out later, Castle. Put that drive back where you found it and let's get out of here while we can."

Castle salutes. "I hear, and I obey."

Esposito is surprised at what a workout his dance lesson was. He's sore in different places than after a trip to the gym or a long run, but he needs a couple of ibuprofen just as much, to get himself together before his shift. The suspect he and Ryan picked up turned out to have an alibi. He was on video singing in a mass gospel choir at the time of the murder. That was a new one, but it puts him and Ryan back at square one. He'd never admit it, but he misses Castle. At times like these, the man can always come up with some crazy theory. Sometimes he's even right, but even when he isn't, he's at least good for a laugh, and he usually starts Beckett thinking.

Lanie's calling. That's something good about the morning. She wants him to meet her at the morgue so they can have lunch together - and maybe get in a few dance moves. Things are looking up, as long as his thighs don't cramp on him again. Cheryl said he has to learn the basics before he can move on to anything else, but he's hoping she'll let him learn one of those fancy lifts sometime soon. He can make use of some of the upper body muscles he's been building up in his workouts, and the idea of having Lanie in his arms like that isn't bad either. He's wondering what she's thinking about for lunch. He's looking forward to something hot.

A/N For those of you interested in The Rookie, I have a new one shot posted, called Aftermath.