For Love of Mother-Not - Alan Dean Foster [48]
Nudging Pip aside, Flinx slipped off his backpack and hunted through it. In addition to the concentrated foods and basic medical supplies, he carried equipment that would have shocked the innkeeper who had chatted with him earlier that day. He didn’t need long to find what he was looking for. From the pack he extracted one of several odd lengths of wire. A single contact switch was spliced to its center. Making certain the switch was open, he looped one end of the wire carefully around the tiny transmitter point on the left side of the gate latch. Gently, he formed the wire into an arch and brought it across the long latch to loop it over the transmitter on the opposite side. A minuscule LED on the wire’s switch glowed a satisfying green.
Then out of the backpack Flinx took a small, oddly formed piece of dull metal inserted it into the, gate lock, and turned it a couple of times. In the heat from his hand, the metal softened and flowed obediently. The latch clicked. Holding the metal tool with only two fingers, Flinx lowered the heat it was absorbing until it resolidified, and then turned it. He heard a second, softer click from the latch. He pulled it free, put a hand on the gate, and pushed. It moved two meters inward, swaying slightly on its supports. He hesitated. No audible alarm ran through the night. He hoped that a rural cummunity would have no need of silent alarms. Still, he gathered up his tools and backpack and retreated hastily to the forest.
He waited until half an hour had passed without anyone’s appearing to check the gate or the yard, then he crept back to the fence. The gate still sat ajar. The glass fiber, looped from terminal to terminal, permitted the alarm beam to flow uninterrupted, but there would be a problem when he had to open the gate farther than the length of the wire allowed.
He slipped easily into the maintenance yard. Pip flew over the fence and hovered just above its master’s tousled hair.
Flinx searched the yard. There was still no hint that his intrusion had been detected. The machine shed lay directly in front of him, doorless and open to the night. He used the huge repair vehicles for cover as he made his way into the shed. Among the equipment and supplies were a pair of two-passenger mudders. His heart beat a little faster. The compact vehicles had flared undersides and enclosed cabs to protect pilot and passenger in side-by-side comfort.
He tried them both. Jumping the simple electric engines was easy enough. He grew anxious when the fuel gauge on the first machine didn’t react, indicating an empty storage cell, but the second mudder showed a ninety-five-percent charge. That was better than good; it was critical, because he doubted he would have access to recharge stations where he was going.
Since the depot remained peaceful, Flinx gambled his success thus far to resolve one additional difficulty: the mudder’s government markings. In a storage cabinet, he found dozens of cans of catalytic bonding, paint. He chose a couple of cans of brown. After a moment’s thought, he went back to the cabinet and selected an additional canister of red. He had never had a personal transport of his own—as long as he was going to add a little art, he might as well put some flash into it. Besides, that would be more in keeping with the character of a sixteen-year old boy. The trees would still conceal it well.
When he had finished spraying the mudder, he climbed into the pilot’s seat. Pip settled into the empty one alongside. The controls were simple and straightforward, as he’d expected. His right hand went to the little steering wheel, his left to the jump he had installed beneath the dash. The engine came to life, its steady hum little louder than Pip’s. A nudge on the accelerator sent the mudder forward. The single, wide-beam searchlight mounted on its nose remained dark. It would stay that way until he was sure he was safe.
He drove into the yard, and still there was no sign of concern from the nearby buildings. At the gate, he left the craft on hover and jumped