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Stories from the Verse
Con Version
Chapter 115: Cooper 37
Table of Contents
Previous chapter: Brown 323
Having settled back in his room, Brian picked up the phone book and thumbed through it. There were six Kellers in the book, but none of them were either William or Belle. It figured, he reasoned--wealthy business magnates had unlisted phone numbers.
Yet there was a way to reach him. He flipped through the pages and found Tell, William, Junior. Picking up the phone, he asked the desk to put him through to that number. It was ringing in a moment.
Was the operator listening? They sometimes did that in the fifties, he thought. He should be careful, as this was not a secure line.
“Tell,” came the voice on the other end.
“Mister Tell, this is awkward. My name is Brian Barrelmaster, and I’m trying to reach Mister William Keller. I understand that you have a way to contact him. If you would be so kind as to ask him to contact me, I’d like to talk with him about a couple things.”
Perhaps somewhat awkwardly the superhero on the other end of the line, who obviously was having difficulty juggling his secret identity, said, “Yes, Mister--Barrelmaster, did you say? I’ll let him know.”
“Thank you,” Brian said, and hung up the phone.
Of course, it would take no time at all for Keller to get the message--he obviously had already gotten it. On the other hand, it would make sense for him to wait a few minutes before calling back. For one thing, he might want to use a phone in another room. For another, if he recognized that Cooper was calling from the hotel and that there might be an eavesdropper, it would be circumspect to delay the return call to make it seem as if Tell had had to contact him.
It was about five minutes when the phone rang and he answered it. “Barrelmaster,” he said.
“Mister Barrelmaster, this is the front desk. We have a call for you from a Mister Keller. Will you accept it?”
“Yes. Can you connect it to my room?”
“Please hold on a moment.” There were a few clicks, and then, “All right, Mister Keller, you are connected.”
“Brian! Is everything all right?”
“There are no serious problems,” he answered. “I just had an idea of something that I could do that would help you, and help me at the same time. I’m reluctant, though, to talk about it over the phone--and I have someone here I think you should meet. We can get a cab to--”
“Nonsense. Are you still at The Paris?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll come get you. Give me--half an hour?”
“I’ll be ready.”
Keller hung up, so Cooper settled the handset in the cradle. He paused for a moment, then rose and headed next door to find Tommy.
He knocked on the door of her cabana, and called, “Tommy? It’s Uncle Brian.”
There was no answer. He knocked again.
“Are you looking for Miss Takano?”
It was one of the people who worked the desk during the day.
“Yes, do you know where she is?”
“She left to take some clothes to the laundromat, maybe an hour ago?”
Had it been that long?
“Thank you,” he said, and walked back to his own cabana. He thought about the situation. He particularly wanted to introduce Tommy to Keller--but that wasn’t the important part.
There were benches on the front porches of each hut; he would wait there. First, he stepped inside and got his laptop and his cell phone. Returning to the front deck he looked over at Tommy’s cabin to see if it looked as if she had returned, but decided probably not. He settled on the bench and waited. One of them would arrive.
He didn’t have a watch, and hadn’t checked the time. He knew that half an hour was not really a short length of time, and that it seemed considerably longer if you were doing nothing during it, but he thought probably Keller was taking longer than he said. That was fine, really. He hoped that Tommy would arrive first.
He saw the Caddy approaching, and as it pulled into the drive he stood. However, looking down the street he saw the unmistakable jacket and hat Tommy had been wearing.
“Tommy!” he called. “Come quickly! There’s someone I want you to meet.”
She seemed to quicken her steps. Keller didn’t seem impatient, so the minute or so it took for the girl to reach them didn’t seem to be a problem. When she was close enough that he wouldn’t have to shout, he said, “I think you should bring your--your electronics. If you need to get them, do that; we’ll wait a moment.”
She nodded, and scampered over to her room. Vanishing inside, she emerged without the backpack, coat, or hat, but carrying a shoulder case. She still had the rope-like weapon on her belt. Cooper held the back door for her, and she hopped in and thanked him. He then addressed Keller.
“Mister Keller, I would like you to meet Tomiko Takano. She, like me, is a verser, a traveler from another universe, one very like mine. She’s posing as my niece so that it won’t seem strange that she’s visiting me. Tommy, Mister Keller is an important businessman, and I’m hoping he can help us with your idea.”
“What idea is that?” Keller asked. Cooper opened his laptop case and removed his computer, and booted it up.
“This,” he said, “is what personal computers look like in my time--about seventy years in your future. In that world, I was a professor of computer science. Your world is a long way behind that, but I know that International Business Machines is working on developing a computer for business use, which should hit the market around 1964, and they aren’t the only ones trying to do that. So I’m betting that you have connections to someone who could hire me to help with that.”
“And the girl?”
“She’s pretty good with computers, too, and she’s carrying a couple of computers from the future. I don’t know how much she knows, but I think if there’s a company that can hire me, they can probably also use an intern like her, and she can probably contribute quite a bit as well.”
Keller nodded. “I can introduce you to the head of employee relations at Berkeley Business Systems. I’m on the board there. We can do that now?”
“Now works for me. Tommy?”
“I’m not really dressed for a job interview,” she said, “but if that’s not a problem, the sooner I’ve got a job the better.”
“Then now it is,” Keller said, and sped up. Cooper remembered that for some reason everyone driving in this world wanted to drive fast, but he wasn’t going to complain despite the lack of seatbelts.
As to the old stories that have long been here:
