Connection Lost

        Took a swig out of her water bottle, poured a tiny bit in the palm of her hand, then used the hand to flick it at him.  He inhaled deeply, his eye's opened more than seemed possible, and he whispered, "my M-corp connection seems to have been dropped".  She pursed her lips, squinted and briefly had a thought about the tragedy of game addiction, "you don't have make excuses, people are too hard on gamers, they need to give you're kind, a break, it's an addiction, a disease, maybe a chronic condition, I just hope you're in a recovery program".  Vogt seemed to try to speak but just let out air, she flung more water at him; he closed his eyes, inhaled deeply, and forced out, "no connection" she turned the dash fan toward him, "sure like I told ya, the Tunnel Authority is down right iron fisted when the traffic snarls like this, it's got all the bandwidth tied up, emergency only.  Is it emergency?" in the mean time, the truck had started moving faster and before long they could see daylight at the end of the tunnel, the radio came back on, and control was given over fifty feet on the other side.  She glanced sideways, and Vogt seemed to be in the land of the living once again.

   

Bibs: For Air Circulation

       The red truck was not Jen's favorite, the air ride system right down to her seat was flat, and if she hit a big bump she would bottom out with a clunk.  It looked as though the seat could be slid back further than it did, which pissed her off, she could have used the extra leg room.  The steering wheel was too close, and no matter how they were adjusted, the vents always seem to blow in her face, requiring her to put on quite a bit of moisturizer, that facilitated the adhesion on dirt, resulting in a thorough pumice cleansing every night that left her so skin raw that a special night time moisturiser had to be used.  The sun beating through the driver side window tended to just affect one side of her body: she wore thin white leather gloves, a long sleeve canvas shirt, and a soft long sleeve under garment; bibs: for air flow, a wide brim hat with the side tied down on windy days, and pair of goggles that were disguise as stylish sunglasses.

 

Information Black Hole

       Jen had made two more left turns and was on the black top; Vogt was already in a deep thought about his next question, most likely consulting M-corp,when she felt she ought to slow down while going past a large patch of ivy. 

"Ya know their dad controlled quite a bit of land.... before the Ivy"

Vogt couldn't help but look at that mess of unnatural life.

"that's one of his fields right there" she pointed at the ivy for a little too long.

"but he could tell you all about this place"

The ivy infestation rolled away but Vogt still was looking out the window.  "Maybe there is someone else?"

"Sure there is, you could head down to Edwards and see if you could get any of those Amish to fill ya in".

Vogt seemed to latch on to that.  The Amish had always been a information black hole to M-corp, and not only might they be able to tell him what pipeline was run through here in 1953, but why it had be so easily forgotten.

"Yes, at least I could fill in a few blanks".

Jen had turned on to 36 and a long few minutes had passed

"So you must have found out what caused it"

Vogt had been thinking about the possibility of a secretive Amish organization.

"no, I had to call in a specialist, and will need to stay a few days" Jen let off juice a little, adjusted the mirrors, turned on the radio,roll the window down then back up, raise her seat,yawned, and had sent Wade an encrypted heads up about an emergence of an extended investigation.

Map 1953 {exit} | {quit} | {off}

        He was getting used to the ghost of 1953, but it was making it hard to concentrate.  The auger wagon was smack dab over where the septagonal house used to be, he noticed that there was faint outline of a stoop in the middle of every side, "were those seven corner houses multi-family?" The combine had just started taking in it's auger and LJ had set the wagon to auto,"hang on!" it took off with a snap, and the question was so out of the blue that LJ was caught off guard. "ya.. most of them" LJ watched him as he tracked a spot on the ground, "sometimes the family would get big enough,  n'take over the whole thing" Vogt was now looking out the back window at a spot about forty yards through the bin "early on though it was just the Quakers, ya know".  LJ tried finding just exactly what on the bin he was looking at when he figured he must have an overlay on. "whatcha lookin at"..."ya got overlay on or what?" Vogt started a bit that he knew, but then again why wouldn't he.  Map 1953 was clearly a driver to M-corp, a key, and probably a closely held asset.  "I was consulting a weather map"  

  

The Septagon

        Lucky looked straight ahead, he knew that old seven corner house had been close to their position, dared not to call up, Map 1953, or even think about it.  Vogt, looking at the seven corner house overlay,"I remember going on a field trip to one",
"that would'a been the old settlers village in park", lucky shook his head in nervous disappointment "smashed to pieces, the combine rebellion, those bots threw some low punches".
"Are there any examples I could tour". Lucky saw his opening to divert the questioning, "I think you can arrange ta go through one down around Edwards", and tried to change the subject, "you know, those Amish still drive around in horse and buggies".  Vogt seemed to take the bait, "yes, the M-corp file on that population is thin, not something we like to admit, but their refusal or should I say inability to be infected is troubling".  The auger wagon had roared up and was turning around behind the combine, positioning the low side of the wagon towards lucky.  Vogt watching for the right moment to hop out, said one last thing, "I'd like to know who lived here back in fifties, maybe they're still around?"  And he opened the door to a great rush of sound,wind,and dust, leaving Lucky trying to layer the calm.

Dancing with the Dust Devil.

       A dust devil used the harvesters heat column and profile as a leverage to gain strength,definition and mass; vacuumed up the dust that had some how settled on the harvester, and took aim for Vogt.  Stopped, astonished, looked up the length of it, looked down the row, then looked back where he had just came from; a conundrum, he walk as fast as he could one way and it seemed as though the thing had changed course to cut him off, he ran back the other way, slowed a bit to look over his shoulder and the damn thing was shadowing him.  In a perfect state helplessness, he sat down and gave up, waiting for it to suck him up and spit him out.  Swirling, and scouring the ground as it approached, the colossal dust devil danced around him in a primitive ceremonial ritual preparing him as the sacrificial offering; he lay down on his stomach, gripping the stalks on either side, digging his toes into the dirt waiting for the end.  The crashing sound moved over him and although he fully expected to be flung up into the sky, he was only pelted with dirt,chaff, and other debris.  No torn limbs, just thoroughly impregnated with grime.  Sat up, and watched it dance off,  doing what only could be described as cross between the Hokey Pokey, and the Twist, he even thought he heard a tune in the crashing wind.

   

Exhale Delta Waves

Vogt was lost, looking over at that ivy, a massive field of it.  The combine made the turn at the other end, the auger wagon roared to the truck with a full load.  One or two nights in Agropolis would be a trip down memory lane, a regular tangle of recollections he had never wanted to collect, M-corp could be in for a feast. As a rule: Vogt operated on a superficial level, denying a deeper connection to M-corp, moving around from place to place; a rootless, unsettled way of life, that made sure every day was new, and when he eventually started to develop a familiarity with a location, he would request a transfer.  M-corp had caught on to this strategy that was employed by quite a few of its associates and a mass involuntary separation occurred. 
 At the time he had been embroiled in project that had become a bag of snakes, and separation would've left the snake problem to one the true 'bleeds chartreuse' M-corp executives, and that kind of admistrivia was not in her job description.  It was mess, but in avoiding that large purge, it had afforded him an immunisation of a sort: he was allowed to keep some memories from loading into M-corp, in exchange for becoming a snake charmer, and was usually rushed in a moments notice to put out the figurative fire.  It seemed a good trade off, he didn't have to go through the human resource bureaucracy for a transfer, and in-fact was constantly on the move, a dream job at M-corp.  
  He pulled up the probe, packed away the seismic device, transit, scanner,and tripods; only slightly recognizing that he seemed to have gotten the best of M-corp, and that he had never heard of anybody or thing, coming out ahead on a negotiation with that behemoth.  He started for the wagon, walking down the long straight row, trying not to go there, but he did, and subconsciously triggered a delta wave message, that started with 'Dear, M-corp', as is only proper, and ended correctly with 'sincerely Ward Vogt'.