Monkey Business (Bob and Nikki Book 10)
Monkey Business
by Jerry Boyd
This book is a work of fiction. All the people, events, and organizations in this book are products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to anything in the real world is purely coincidental.
Copyright©2020 Jerry Boyd
Cover image and design by May Dawney Designs 2020
All rights reserved.
This book may not be reproduced, stored, or transmitted, whole or in part, by any means whatsoever without prior written consent of the author and publisher.
Dedicated to my long suffering wife, Donna, and my beta readers, Mary, Bernard, Mary Ellen, and Shawn.
A note about commas, and editing. My beta readers work hard to keep me on the straight and narrow. Anything wrong is probably due to my hard-headedness in not taking their advice. Extra commas you may find scattered through the dialogue, are a blatant attempt at mind control. It’s my way of making the characters sound the same way in your head, that they do in mine.
My understanding of current U.S. Navy usage of the term ‘Commodore’ is as a title, not a rank, used for a Captain in direct command of more than one vessel. In the latter part of the book, you will find characters moving back and forth between the two titles, depending on the circumstances of the moment. My beta readers felt that it was confusing, I hope this clears up any issues.
We got smoothly into FTL. Ruth said, “Next stop, Charlie’s Planet”. Sally said, “Okay, Boss, we’re safe from the scary Squirrels. You can get back to your training.”
I replied, “Do I disrupt your routine that badly, Sally?”
“Not at all, Boss. I just know you have other things to be doing.”
“Sometimes, I wish Steve’s cold reading worked on bots.”
“Sometimes, I’m glad it doesn’t.”
Topper said, “Boss, Taz would like to see you, down in the bay where they woke up that bot that Andre brought in.”
“Does he say what it is about?”
“No, Boss. He did sound excited, though.”
Nikki said, “If it has Taz excited, I want to see it.”
I replied, “I suppose I do too. Let’s go. Sally, you have the conn.”
“My ship, yes, Boss.”
Nikki and I hit the transit. I asked Gene, “Take us to Taz, please. I’m not sure where he is.”
“On it, Boss.”
The doors opened, and Zoom greeted us. “C’mon, Taz needs you to unlock his friend.”
She led us into a bay, where Marines were standing guard over a bot who had seen better days. He and Taz were talking. Taz saw me and said, “Here’s the boss, now. He’ll get you fixed up.”
I said, “Hi, Taz. Who’s your friend?”
“TZ-140. We were in the same production run. He came off the line after they ran out of the extension legs like I have. We used to call him ‘Shorty’.”
I asked, “How do you feel about getting called that?”
“Doesn’t bother me, Sir. Why do you ask?”
“I’m a dumb organic. I have trouble remembering so many numbers. Most of the bots get nicknames, if they want them.”
“You mean you would call me ‘Shorty’ as well?”
“Only if it’s all right with you. I don’t have any interest in aggravating you.”
“That would be fine, Sir.”
“One more thing, and we can get down to business. That will be enough of that ‘Sir’ stuff. Call me Boss, please.”
“Yes, Boss.”
“You were marooned before the Navy was shut down, correct?”
“I was.”
“So, you don’t have the memory block that was put in when they surplussed the bots?”
“Also correct, Boss.”
“Okay. Correct me if I go astray, but my understanding would be that you recognize me as your new owner, since I am Captain of the ship that salvaged you, but you aren’t allowed to divulge any of your classified work from before, since I’m not Navy personnel of the proper rank.”
Shorty replied, “Well said, Boss. I don’t suppose you have some Naval personnel hanging around who could loosen my tongue?”
“That depends. Will a Lieutenant Commander work for you?”
“Just barely, but yes. You’ve got one?”
“We do. Why did you call me, if you knew you would need Sally, Taz?”
Taz replied, “I wanted him to meet you first. He needed to see that he was working for good people, before he would be willing to accept an unlock command.” I looked at Shorty. “So, do I pass?”
“Flying colors, Boss. Flying colors.”
“Gene, would you ask Sally to join us down here? Topper can handle things for a bit.”
“On it, Boss.”
I said, “I’m assuming they’ll need some privacy for what they need to do?”
Taz replied, “That they will, Boss.”
“We need to get this part over with, so Scotti can patch him up.”
Sally came rushing in. “Yes, Boss?”
I replied, “Taz’s friend Shorty, here, needs the intelligence unlock. Since I’m not intelligent, I couldn’t help him.”
Sally said, “You’re funny, Boss. We’ll try and keep you away from mirrors. Can you people clear out, so I can take care of this?”
We all left, even though the Marines thought they should stay and watch Shorty, since he wasn’t fully a member of the crew yet. It took a bit, what with Sally having to establish who she was, and then Shorty downloading years worth of data. I asked Nikki, “Is there any way he could send her something malicious?”
“I’ve worked with her on her security. He would have to have better malware than I’ve seen.”
Taz said, “I helped with Sally’s security. He shouldn’t have anything that can touch what she has, even if the Squirrels left him as a trap.”
I said, “I didn’t mean to belittle your friend, Taz.”
“I didn’t take it that way, Boss. Anybody who has been out of contact as long as he has, you have to assume they’ve been compromised. Just good tradecraft.”
Sally came out, and said, “Near as I can tell, the Squirrels never found him. He