Chapter 12: New Intrigues

"Can I help you?" I asked as the two men got out of their nondescript blue sedan. They had pulled up in front of my machine shed, blocking the entrance into the bay I had my car in.

"Are you Paul Taylor?" The taller of the two asked. He had a dark suit on that did not really look comfortable in the summer heat.

"I am. And you are?"

They scanned the yard and then pulled off their sunglasses. "I'm Special Agent Michaels and this is Special Agent Samuelson. We're with the FBI office in Chicago." They both pulled out little leather ID cases and held their badges out for me.

I reached out for the badges, which seemed to surprise them.

"What are you doing?" Samuelson asked.

"I've never seen an FBI badge up close. I want to make sure they're legitimate."

He let me have his badge and was surprised when I turned and headed into the office. I was on the phone before they were both through the door.

"Jim, it's Paul," I said. "A couple of FBI agents just showed up at the shop."

I listened.

"Special Agent Stanley Samuelson. ID number 1412327711. The other is..." I motioned for the other agent's badge. He handed it to me without a word. "Special Agent Randal Michaels. ID number 5439866534. They said they are out of the Chicago Office."

Jim told me to be polite and he would call right back.

I returned the badges to the agents and asked if they would like a soda. Neither accepted.

"We'd like to ask a few questions, Paul," Agent Michaels said.

"Until I hear back from my lawyer who is verifying your credentials, I'm sorry but I must decline."

Samuelson leaned away from the counter toward me. "Do you have something to hide that you need a lawyer?"

I knew he was trying to intimidate me, but I did not know why. I shrugged. "Under the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution I have the right to remain silent and not incriminate myself. I am also a legal minor and have the right to not be questioned without either a parent, guardian, or competent counsel present. The man I just called on the phone is my attorney as well as my step-father. My mother is away today. If you want to ask me questions, you are going to have to wait until he says it is alright. Are you sure you don't want a soda while we wait?"

Agent Michaels laughed, which seemed to make his partner relax. "Sure, I'll take a Coke." I looked at Agent Samuelson as I reached into the refrigerator. He finally nodded and I handed them both a can of soda.

I asked how the drive down from Chicago was and tried to make light conversation until the phone rang. I picked it up before the second ring.

"Paul, you can talk to them about your patent portfolio and how you came up with your ideas. If they want to talk about any of your other research efforts, I need to be there with you," Jim said without preamble.

"Okay," I said neutrally, knowing they were listening to my side of the conversation. "Anything else?"

"If they push the issue, give them my card and drive down here. Tell them I'll clear my calendar for them to talk with you. If they try anything else, invoke your Fifth Amendment rights to say nothing and call me back. Do you understand?"

"Got it. Thanks, Jim."

I hung up the phone and looked at the agents. "My lawyer has okayed it for me to discuss any of my current patented, or patent pending inventions. Any other topic we need to have him present to discuss. Will that work?"

Samuelson scowled again, but Michaels nodded. "It's a start. We understand you have eleven patents that you have licensed to several auto makers. Is that correct?"

I shook my head. "Right now, the portfolio is sitting at twenty-seven inventions either patented or filed for a patent. The automakers we have agreements with have rights to any invention in the portfolio. Additionally, Caterpillar and John Deere have licenses to them as well as the Big Three automakers."

"And just how did you come up with twenty-seven inventions that would make you millions of dollars before your eighteenth birthday? It sounds a little fishy to us," Samuelson said.

I looked at the two agents for a moment before answering. "I worked hard and thought logically. Something more people should spend time doing."

I sat back waiting for the next question, knowing they expected a much longer answer.

Finally, Agent Michaels spoke again. "So you're saying you had no outside partners in crafting these ideas?"

"Define partners? I had a lawyer and a girlfriend who helped with the filing of the patent applications. I had cousins who helped with some of the fabrication efforts on a few items. But the ideas and majority of the work is all mine. Perhaps if you told me what you were after, I might be able to better answer your questions."

They traded a look.

"A certain defense contractor has raised questions of how you developed a few ideas that are strikingly similar to their efforts in some classified projects."

I nodded. I knew that I had advanced the state of the art by years. I was not surprised that something I remembered and re-invented already existed inside some DARPA or secret project. "I did draw some inspiration from the description of a military fly-by-wire system that was written about in Popular Science a few years ago, but I hardly have access to any classified materials. I'm a high school student for God's sake, not some sort of spy."

Michaels nodded, but Samuelson frowned.

"I still find it hard to believe you came up with all these ideas. You visited Europe last summer. Did you meet with anyone in their automotive industry during that trip?"

This was getting a little ridiculous. "No, and I had already filed almost a dozen patent applications before taking that trip, so it's not very logical to think that I could have gotten the idea from someone over there, even if I did meet some spy."

"So you met someone, but you don't think they were a spy?" He asked, almost jumping at the stupid conclusion.

"No. I met no one that I discussed my work with while in Europe. Now that you mention it though, I'll have to get Jim talking to Mercedes and BMW and maybe Fiat and Volvo. Those might be good markets for me. The Europeans have always been more fuel and safety conscious than the American auto industry."

I grabbed my small notebook and jotted down a note while ignoring the two agents.

"Are you seriously going to sell out to the Europeans?" Michaels asked.

"It's not selling out. It's capitalism at its best. I'm going to get paid for my ideas and hard work. Thanks for the thought."

Samuelson tried to get me to misstate stupid assertions a few more times before finally giving up. Michaels thanked me for the drink and my time and guided his partner out the door. I watched them drive away before going back inside to call Jim back.

"Well, Paul it looks like we've kicked a hornet's nest," Jim said after he gave Mom a kiss hello.

I smirked at them and then turned to give Jeryl a kiss hello as well. "Sorry, I wanted to follow your good example," I said. Mom smiled and Jeryl laughed. Kelly just groaned.

"The difference is that's how you greet a wife."

"Or a girlfriend," I echoed.

Jim shook his head and we all headed to the table for dinner.

"So, it seems a certain defense contractor wanted to use your ideas but didn't want to pay for them."

I frowned. "Did they even contact us?"

"Nope. We never would have known a thing, but somebody in their organization either tried to get too smart and discredit you, or they knew the company was breaking the rules and accused you of taking the idea from them to tip their hand."

"And told the FBI?"

Jim nodded. "I don't know if we'll ever find out. My guess is some junior executive thought freezing you out of a big chunk of business or stealing your profits would make his company and him look better. Instead, we will be suing them for patent infringement."

"Who is it?"

"General Dynamics."

"Wow."

"Wow is right. It's their Land Systems division. They make a lot of military vehicles. Right now they are trying to get a new fighting vehicle procurement from the DoD. American Motors is their big competitor. They seemed to think your ruggedized drive-by-wire system could give them the edge over AMC. My guess is they want to incorporate it into some other things like the new tank they are building for the Army as well."

"Wow. You know, if they had asked, I would have given them a pretty good deal on things. I don't like the idea of making a ton of money at the expense of our soldiers or from taxes."

Jim nodded. "We both know it, but those greedy SOBs didn't. Now they can pay the piper. I'll have a suit filed against them tomorrow."

"Do we really need to? They will probably try to say it's a logical derivative of the fly-by-wire work they did in the F-111 in the late sixties."

"Then they should have filed the patent for it. You credited them with prior art in at least one filing. They had thirteen years to patent it. If we don't protect your work, it risks all our contracts. Candace and I will be flying up to Detroit to get going on this tomorrow, no doubt about it."

I nodded. "I guess so." Then with a grin, "Besides, it's time for you to get back to work after the honeymoon."

Everyone laughed and the topic of conversation turned to more mundane activities from the day.

"Are you glad to be home, Jeryl?" my mother asked as she served us dinner. Jeryl had returned from her grandmothers the day before. I knew I was glad she was back. She and Kelly had been down in Bloomington with Jim all day during my adventure with the FBI.

"I am, but given how many notes Paul had for us to go through, maybe I should take a vacation more often. He had three months of notes, instead of the three weeks' worth I was expecting."

Kelly laughed. "Lord knows he didn't do anything besides work while you were gone," she said. "If I wasn't coming up here to check on him, I think he would have lived in the shop."

I blushed. "It wasn't that bad, but I had a lot of things come together that I needed to check out. I think the lithium-ion approach for batteries could be used in a lot of other applications. I wanted to get those written up while they were fresh. Also, the carbon fiber fabrication method looks promising. I think we need to focus some efforts there before school starts."

"What do you mean?" Jim asked.

"Well, while you are flying to Detroit, I think I should be heading down to Texas to meet with the team. They are on a good track, but I think we can streamline the approach they have and increase yields if we tweak a few things. I need to see their set up and talk to the folks on the ground. Papers aren't doing it for me."

Jim nodded. "It makes sense. Do you want to take anyone with you?" He hid his smile well.

I glanced at Jeryl. "I think Jeryl should go to help keep the new notes documented and organized. Since you want to take Candace with you, that leaves either Mom or Kelly to go as a chaperone, which I'm certain Jeryl's mother will want."

"Texas in the summer. Ugh!" Kelly said. Mom nodded with her.

"Hey, nobody said this job would be all fun. Besides, summer is when I can get free for a trip during working hours. I hate the idea of them wasting time until school starts and then having to meet me on a weekend." I decided to change topics while I let Mom mull over the idea of me taking Jeryl on a trip.

"Speaking of work, I think we need to have a board meeting and change a few things."

Everyone looked surprised. "What did you have in mind," Jim finally asked.

"I think we need to review and institute salaries. Mom not wanting me to pay her a regular, fulltime salary I can understand, since she insists she is just a figurehead until I turn eighteen, but I don't think we're being fair to Kelly, Jeryl, or you, Jim. Candace and I are the only ones being paid enough to file income taxes on right now. You guys are working just as hard as I am."

Kelly snorted. "Not hardly, but I wouldn't mind a raise."

"Not just a raise. I think we need to make everyone an employee and have benefits and regular paychecks. Our cash flows will support it and frankly, we could use the expenses to offset some income. Right now, we are doing nothing to drive down our corporate tax rate and we should be."

Jim nodded. "I agree, but I also caution us to not pay ourselves too much now and have the well run dry in the next couple of quarters."

"We can be prudent, but I think a living wage for us all should be the goal. With the latest contracts and GM and Ford both starting royalty payments, we have the cash flow for a much larger company. We're funding research and grants, but not paying ourselves."

Mom frowned at me. "I don't know if paying you and Jeryl full salaries is wise..."

"Mom, it's no different than if I increased the cattle herd and then cashed out. Right now, the money is just sitting in an account. The salary will as well, for the most part, but that's not what this is about for us. It's about being able to save and have a legitimate employment record. It's about all of us having health insurance and not being caught out-of-pocket in an emergency. As employees, we can have before-taxes benefits."

"I'm sure Janet and Jerry have good insurance," Mom said.

"They do, but I think I understand what Paul is really getting at," Jeryl said. "Right now, if I slipped and broke my arm in the shop, Mom and Dad would have to pay for my care. I could technically file for workers comp and I'm sure Dad's insurance would look to the company's liability coverage to defer the cost, but in the meantime, everyone involved would be stressed and possibly hurt our relationships." I nodded in agreement. "If I were a full-time employee with insurance, that would be reduced."

"And, God forbid, but if Jim or Kelly or you had a real disease, cancer or something, I'd like to know that we had coverage in place to take care of things, not have to take it out of savings or profits." I added.

"I just think it is a prudent thing for us to do as a business," I concluded.

Jim was nodding and seemed to catch my mother's eye. Finally, she sighed and nodded. "I guess it's just another sign of you growing up that I don't like seeing, Paul." She reached over and patted my hand. "So, okay, I'll agree to salaries and insurance."

Jim nodded. "What else?" I had thought he was going to get into details of the salaries.

"Well, I think we should get corporate cards for full-time employees. I know you and Kelly and Candace are spending your own money driving around. It would be better for travel as well. Candace and I already have them. You guys should as well."

"Okay, I can see that. What else?"

"I want to get you, Kelly and Candace corporate cars. I think we should be using our own products, but right now I'm the only person driving a car that has any of our work in it. I hate the idea of anyone getting hurt in an accident when we are patenting and selling safety improving designs."

This time Jeryl squeezed my hand. It felt good.

Jim shook his head. "You know, that is something I should have thought of with all my years working for State Farm. Anything else?"

"Nope. I think that's enough for now. Do we want to have the board meeting tonight, or do you want better numbers before we approve things?"

"I think we need to approve it tonight and then get the salary and corporate cards and what-not sorted out before we scatter traveling. As president, Beth can handle any paperwork while Candace and I fly up to Detroit. You'll have to sort out with her and Jeryl's mother the idea of a trip to Texas."

"If we're going to be on salary, I suppose I can go even in the middle of summer," Kelly added with a grin at Jeryl and me.

"I can't believe we are finally going to be spending the whole night together," Jeryl whispered as she slipped into the airline seat next to me. We were flying into Dallas and then driving down to Austin with Kelly being the "legal" driver on the rental car. We would be meeting with one of our research teams on Tuesday and Wednesday and then going home Thursday.

"Me, too. I've missed you this summer." We had been out on dates twice since the wedding for some sweaty sex in the back seat of my car, but no extended private time together.

We had been up before dawn to catch the small plane flight from Bloomington to St. Louis and were now settling into much more comfortable first class seats on American to Dallas. Kelly was in the row behind us.

"Thanks for booking us first class, Paul." Kelly said as she settled in.

"No choice, but you're welcome."

"What do you mean?"

"To get down there today, it was first class or not get into Austin until nearly midnight. I made an executive decision."

Kelly laughed. "I guess it's good to travel with the chairman of the board, then." The stewardess gave me a look at that comment and then proceeded to ask if we wanted a drink before take-off.

Jeryl teased me during the first thirty minutes of the almost two-hour flight whispering naughty thoughts in my ear and stroking my leg through my khaki pants. I thought of making an offer the help her join the mile-high club, but was afraid she might actually take me up on it, so thought better of it. I did make use of the light blanket covering her to stroke my way under her skirt and tickle her pussy a little. Once she realized I had no intention of actually letting her cum, she decided we needed to behave ourselves. I relented with a kiss and pulled out the team's latest research report to review once again. Jeryl pulled out a set of my notes and began summarizing them. We hardly acted like two teenagers.

The remainder of the flight was uneventful, but we landed to learn we might be stuck in Texas for longer than our planned stay. Evidently the Air Traffic Controllers had walked out on strike this morning sometime after we took off from St. Louis.

We were thankful to be leaving the airport by car rather than flying out, as we looked at the mass of stranded passengers at the gates and ticket counters. A lot of people would not be happy. I called our travel agent to make sure our hotel reservations could be extended. I vaguely recalled this crisis from my past and knew it was not going to end quickly.

The drive was about three hours, but we broke it up with a stop for lunch and one rest stop break, so we all felt fairly fresh when we arrived in Austin. We managed to find the Hilton downtown with little trouble and were soon checked into three rooms. Jeryl and I managed to have an adjoining door, while Kelly was one floor up from us. She gave us a look and then decided to be blunt.

"Okay, you two love birds, we need to have a chat." Jeryl frowned at her and I just shrugged.

"What's up, sis?" I knew she still got a kick out of me calling her that.

"I'm the chaperone. I know you two love each other and I know Jeryl is safe, so I don't really care what you do behind the privacy of your own doors." Jeryl grinned. "But, I'm also not going to just sit around while you two play house. We're here for work first and private time second.

"Yes, Mom," Jeryl chided. I just smiled.

"I'm serious, Jeryl. I'd love to have fun and relax, but we're all being paid now and we need to get what we came here for done. That means Paul has to focus on the research and production aspects and we need to support him. Acting like a flighty blonde or his girlfriend in front of these folks won't make his job easier. We need to be professional."

Jeryl seemed to sober. "We will be." She couldn't resist a grin though. "I'll only jump his bones tonight and tomorrow morning and then outside working hours, alright?"

Kelly scowled at us both. "And I don't need to hear about any bone jumping, unless you find me a good looking cowboy first." Then she gave us a quick hug and grabbed her suitcase. "Let's meet in the lounge at five and decide what to do for dinner."

That would give us almost two hours to "unpack". Jeryl and I took it.

I still reveled at the feel of her naked body against mine. The fact that we were more classically intimate did not diminish how much pleasure we took from exploring and pleasuring each other over the next sixty minutes. Jeryl managed to coax two large orgasms from me while enjoying four or five of her own. By five minutes before five, we were both freshly showered and in the elevator going down to the lobby. Jeryl had a happy smile on her face and I felt incredibly honored to have such a beautiful girl on my arm as we greeted Kelly in the lounge.

I was surprised to see her with a gentleman. She wasted no time introducing us to Special Agent Johnson from the FBI field office in Dallas.

"And what brings you to Austin," I asked as we all sat down and Special Agent 'call me Sam' waved to the waitress.

"You do, Paul."

"Uh-oh. Maybe we should get Jim on the phone."

Sam laughed. "Kelly already did and I spoke to the man myself. This has nothing to do with the suit you filed against General Dynamics last week, other than that case brought your amazing portfolio of work to our attention."

"Our being the FBI?" I asked. I had no idea why the FBI would be interested in my inventions.

"Well, not directly the FBI. I happen to be doing a rotation with another government agency and a few of us got to brainstorming how some of your work might get applied to other areas. That led us to look a little deeper at what areas of research you are looking into. Your work in batteries is what sent me down here to try and meet with you."

I took a sip of water and thought about his words. "So, NSA, CIA or DOD?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"Are you rotating at the National Security Agency, the Central Intelligence Agency or the Department of Defense? Those are the only government agencies other than NASA that might be interested in this line of research. NASA would just wait until we published. The others might want a technical edge. So which is it?"

Sam gave me a shrewd look and then nodded. "I guess I should have known you would figure it out. I'm doing a tour in DoD."

Of course, I knew that did not exclude the NSA since it was technically a part of the Department of Defense. I could imagine an FBI agent working at NSA for a tour much more easily than in the regular DoD establishment.

I decided to accept his fiction at face value. "So what specifically are you interested in?"

He seemed to relax once it was clear I was not going to probe more on his background or reasons for meeting us.

"We're curious on what sort of operating regime and power density profile you were targeting."

"I don't have a specific target set for this team. I'm looking for enough of a breakthrough to make good enough batteries to act as an accumulator and storage facility for a car right now. I believe the same technology will enable high-power capacity for a large number of portable electronics as well, but again, I'm not targeting something specific."

He nodded, accepting my own statements at face value. "So what sort of power density will make a solution viable for your needs?"

A smart question. I might not have a stated goal, but he knew I had some sort of threshold in mind.

"A typical starter battery needs 2.6 Mega Joules and weighs about thirty pounds. Its specific energy works out to about 0.17 Mega Joules per kilo and an energy density of 0.34 Mega Joules per liter. I need something in that range for specific energy after a seventy percent drain."

He looked like he wanted a calculator.

"To be feasible for my needs, that works out to about a 0.5 Mega Joules per kilo and a density of about 2 Mega Joules per liter."

He nodded. "So these will be relatively small."

"Relatively. I plan on packaging them for greater capacity, which is what most of trip down here is about."

"Packaging?"

"I need a lightweight but strong system to put a large number of high capacity batteries into a car in a safe manner. Lithium based batteries have a good safety margin, but it's not zero and I need to ensure safety in a car or on an aircraft."

He nodded again. "And you're looking at carbon fibers to provide that?"

It was my turn to nod. He paused and took a sip of his drink. I was curious how much more he would probe.

"So if you were looking at storage capacity of ten Mega Joules, you want weight to come in below twenty kilos and volume to be about five liters?"

"I would put that sort of battery in my car tomorrow, so long as I can package and configure it to deliver at least 40 kilowatt-hours. That makes a hybrid electric-combustion vehicle viable. 60 K-watt-hours gives me a decent commuter car with no engine required."

"Impressive. Are you close?"

I sat back and looked at him. "We'll have to see."

He chuckled. "Well, you've been more than forthcoming, and I appreciate it. Any chance I could tag along with you on your visit up the road to the campus?"

I smiled and shook my head. "I'm sorry, Special Agent Johnson, but I'll have to say no. We're going to be working up there, not just looking around. If you want to have a serious review of my work, I'd be happy to come to Dallas or Washington, or wherever to have a talk. But not during this trip."

"Fair enough. I'll talk to a few sponsors and see what they have to say. I'll be in touch." He stood and shook my hand before nodding to the ladies and leaving the lounge. I watched him walk out of the lobby, glad he was not heading toward the elevators. I did not like the thought of him staying here and following us around.

"That was weird," Jeryl said.

"It was. He was fishing for something and it was not just battery specs."

Kelly nodded. "Dad said he was legit, but I agree it was strange. Should we postpone our meetings?"

I shook my head. "No. Just keep an eye out while we're talking. Two encounters with the FBI in two weeks makes me think someone is more interested in us than I ever thought possible."

"It's not like we planned the air traffic controllers' strike, mother," Jeryl said with more than a little exasperation in her voice. "If we can't get a flight tomorrow, we have tickets on the train Friday and should get home Saturday."

I smiled as I listened to one side of the conversation she was having. I'm sure it would have been an entirely different topic if her mother could see her stretched out on her stomach, naked on the bed with one foot bouncing over the edge as she spoke. We had been working hard until this afternoon.

We had spent two days at the University of Texas talking with one of the research teams we were funding looking at the process of making carbon nanotubes. I almost always said carbon fiber to outsiders, but Kelly and Jeryl knew this process was much more than better yields for carbon fiber. This was about creating significantly stronger materials that had some very interesting electrical properties. They would revolutionize batteries and electronics in thirty years if I could not re-invent them decades ahead of time.

Finally, we had a little breakthrough and took the afternoon off as the researchers started a new batch using a slightly different process. Kelly was proofing the revised process for a patent application that Jeryl had drafted from my notes and descriptions. I had read through it briefly, but was too keyed up to focus.

Jeryl had dragged me back to the hotel and given me something else to focus on, namely her and multiple orgasms. Despite having regular sex, or rather sex on a regular basis for the past three days, she made our afternoon session as wild and vividly carnal as she could. I was totally spent when she decided it was time to call home to update her folks.

While she and her mother argued over our travel plans, I tried to recover and settled for just admiring her firm backside and sleek back.

"Yes, mother. We have our own rooms and Kelly keeps a close eye on us." She glanced my way and caught me admiring her. She grinned and rolled on her side so I could admire her breasts and tight stomach as well.

"Kelly is in her room proofing a patent application Paul and I finished drafting today. No, I'm not going to go get her so you can talk to her. I'll have her call you when she's done. Do you have any idea how dense some of these filings are? If Paul didn't take the time to go over them with me, I would not have clue what they were describing."

Jeryl scooted closer to me and reached out to cup my penis through the sheet I had pulled up to my waist. She smiled wickedly at me. "Mom, it's not like Paul and I are down here on a wild spring break. We're working. I'm being paid a good salary to be here on company business, not roll around with my boss just because he's my boyfriend."

I almost choked trying not to laugh at her rolling eyes.

"If we can't get a flight tomorrow, I'll call to let you know. I love you too, Mom." She hung up the phone and then bounced up and pounced on me. "God, I hate having that talk with her. Hopefully it's the last time I'll do it before we go home."

I kissed her and stroked my fingers up and down her spine a few times.

"Easy, tiger. Kelly will be back down here in the next hour. We just have time to hop in the shower and get cleaned up."

"That sounds as fun as what I was thinking," I said with a grin. Soon we were helping each other get as clean as possible. I paid particular attention to all of her loveliest parts. If we had not started to wrinkle, we probably would have still been at it when Kelly knocked on my door.

Instead, I was dressed and Jeryl was in a hotel robe, drying her hair in her bathroom. Kelly came into my room, shook her head at me as she looked at the wide open adjoining room and noticed the untouched bed in Jeryl's room as I pulled the bedspread up on mine. "You know, you two could at least pretend to try and sneak around behind my back."

"Sorry, sis. You'll just have to pretend that we tried to sneak around you if anyone asks. Of course, you'd be too sharp for us to get past you." I said with a grin.

She swatted my arm and then grabbed the chair by the desk. "I got through the first review of the new process, but thought my brain would flip. I need Dad and Candace to review this one before we send it off."

"If the process works," I cautioned.

She nodded. "How soon will the brainiacs up the road know?"

"We should have a new batch in the morning. Testing the useful ratio of that batch should let us know if it is going to work. The process is pretty new. It opens up some other areas of consideration that I'll need to think about."

"If what you claim in that patent is any hint, this is a big breakthrough. Once you can manufacture these nanotubes, you'll have a lot of applications to look at."

"I know." I also knew that the linear fusion rig I had built needed carbon nanotube strength in its construction. It was one of six materials I was pushing to get a jump start on. It was also one area I had previously known little about, hence funding the core research to drive the results I needed.

"What are our plans for dinner?" Jeryl asked as she came into my room and began going through a drawer looking for some clothes.

Kelly arched her eyebrow at me as Jeryl pulled a clean shirt from the drawer, shrugged out of her robe and pulled the top on without bothering with a bra.

"I was thinking about that Tex-Mex place up by the campus that we saw." I said nonchalantly, while trying not to stare at my lovely girlfriend as she pulled out a pair of shorts and casually pulled them on. She was just too damned sexy not to admire.

Kelly shook her head. "Okay, but if you two rub your romance in my face any more, I swear I'm going to pick up some strange guy."

Jeryl laughed. "We won't rub anything in your face that you don't ask us to, Kelly. And why would you want to pick up a strange guy? Isn't Paul strange enough for us both."

Kelly looked a little shocked and then laughed it off. Jeryl grinned and grabbed my arm as we headed out. I wondered what my little vixen was up to, but just went along with her. Soon, we were seated in a lovely former house with a nice outside patio ordering authentic Tex-Mex for dinner.

"Paul, don't look right away, but I think our friend Sam is sitting at the bar," Kelly said after we ordered.

"Really?" I sipped my water and then decided to take a trip to the men's room. Sure enough, Agent Johnson was sitting at the bar nursing a beer. He looked different out of his dark suit, but even in civvies, it was a bit of a coincidence that he was here.

"Special Agent Johnson," I said as I swerved out of the hallway leading to the restroom and into the bar. "Are you following us for some reason?"

He looked embarrassed for a second, but then covered his reaction. "Of course not, Paul. I was still in town on some other business. I'm meeting someone from the University. They recommended this place for some food while we talk."

I smiled. "We got the recommendation from some folks here as well. It must be popular with the campus crowd." I glanced toward the ladies, wishing for psychic powers. "Well, I don't want to keep the ladies waiting. I hope you enjoy your dinner." I waved and returned to our table, sitting down with my back to the bar.

"Kelly, keep an eye peeled and see if you recognize who he meets."

"Why? Do you think ... hey isn't that the research assistant on Dr. Wilkerson's team?" Wilkerson was the primary researcher we had hired.

I glanced over my shoulder. "It is. Steve or Stephen, isn't it?" I watched the two men glance our way and the young doctoral candidate paled when he saw me.

Agent Johnson waved and then put his hand on the younger man's shoulder and guided him out of the bar.

"I don't like the looks of that," I said.

"Should we go after them?" Jeryl asked.

I shook my head. "No. Let's eat and then go back to the hotel. I'll call Dr. Wilkerson and have Stephen removed from the project. I'll make it especially clear that he is not to be told of the results of the test process."

"No, make sure Dr. Wilkerson lets him know it did not work. If that little snake is spying on you, let him think it was a dead end trial instead of thinking it might be worth something."

The waitress arrived with our food, and while I tried to put the incident out of my mind, it kept coming back to haunt me. Something was up with the government and my research. I did not like the feeling of that.

We made it home without any further run-ins with the FBI, but I was suddenly concerned. Not that I had done something wrong, but that I did not know what they were searching for. A long talk with Jim had set in mind the need to put some better security in place around our projects. A pair of large fire-proof safes were the most evident change as a result of that conversation. They were mounted to the floor like file cabinets under the work space in the office.

I returned a copy of the Austin team's latest report to the safe, closed the heavy door and spun the dial to clear the combination. Jeryl hated having to lock things up at the end of each day, but was slowly getting use to it. She brought me a soda as I looked around to make sure everything was tucked away safely.

"I almost can't wait for school to start up next week," she said as she dropped onto the couch. "This has been a busy summer."

I joined her on the couch. "It has been. Trying to figure out what the government is looking for over the past two weeks hasn't helped any. Do you think we're trying to do too much?"

She grabbed the soda out of my hand, took a sip, set it on the end table and swung astride me before kissing me soundly. "No, you are doing what you need to in order to change things and make them better. We've talked enough. I know you recognized that sooner or later someone would take an interest in what you were pursuing. The fact it's the government is the only surprise."

I sighed and kissed her back. "You're right. We're not doing anything illegal." I kissed her again. "Are you really ready to go back to school?"

She frowned and snuggled into me. "I'll miss seeing you every day, but it will also be nice to see my friends. I've only seen Kay twice this summer outside of cheerleading camp. I think she's a little pissed I haven't made time for her."

"We haven't seen Jim and Lisa either," I said. "We keep telling each other we need to take time for others, but then we keep falling into our own world. How can we change that?"

"It's a shame you don't have jobs for them."

"Yeah, but I want them as friends, not employees, so maybe it's not all bad that we don't."

"Yeah, I can imagine how pissy Kay would get if you fired her." We laughed at the thought and kissed again.

"I think I'll miss ending the day with you the most once school is back on. It's been nice driving you home each night and getting a little alone time with you."

"I know what you mean. I love when we make love. Hell, I love when we have sex, but most days I feel closest to you just when your wrap me up in these wonderful arms and kiss me good night."

"Parting is such sweet sorrow," I intoned with another kiss.

We kissed a bit more and then I drove her home. Parting was sweet sorrow, but we also knew we would see each other the next day at church. Monday would be back to the school grind, both as juniors this year. I was actually not looking forward to school.

"So Paul, are you still seeing that girl that goes to Standard?" Molly was the head cheerleader this year. She had decided to join Lisa, Jim and I at lunch on the first day back at school. She was a cute redhead, but had a nasally voice that grated on my nerves. Lisa liked her, so I hid my feelings as best I could.

"Yep. Her name is Jeryl."

"That's too bad. You should go with someone here. You could see a lot more of them."

"We see quite a bit of each other, so it's no problem."

Molly took a bite of her food and looked thoughtful for a minute. "You know, I don't think I ever thanked you for donating the pool here. I used it a lot this summer. It's going to be nice to be able to go for a swim all year round."

"Yeah, Paul. You should have come by. I expected you to at least attend the grand opening," Lisa said.

"It was while Mom and Jim were on their honeymoon. I didn't really feel like coming without them. Besides, I don't want credit for it." Uncle Ben had come to represent the family.

"Why not?" Molly asked. "It's so cool you could do that."

I shrugged. "I just wanted to give something back to the community."

"Well it's still pretty cool," Molly said as she reached across the table to pat my hand. "I think we're pretty lucky to have you around."

Jim came to my rescue. "So, genius, are you in AP Calculus this year?" It was a senior course and would give us college credit if we maintained a B average. I nodded. "Lisa and I are too. Do you think it will be hard?"

"I don't think so. I've looked at it some before."

Molly pulled her hand back. I didn't think Molly had taken a math course other than the required basic algebra freshman year.

"So are you going to help us less than genius students?"

"Sure. What do you have in mind, a study group or something?"

Lisa nodded. "Jim and I were talking, and know that you have a leg up on us. Since it is for college credit, we want to make sure we do well."

"What did you have in mind?"

"Well, you have a nice place to study, if you don't mind providing the location. We could pick a regular evening and meet for an hour or so to go over homework and any problems we're having."

I thought about it for a second. "Sure. Just us three or anyone else?"

"Heather might be interested. I'll ask her." Molly retreated a little more from our conversation.

"What night? With football I think Thursday and Friday are out." Jim nodded.

"What about Tuesday?"

"That works for me. Do we start tomorrow?"

Lisa and Jim nodded. "I looked at the book at the end of last semester. I think we need to get ahead and stay there to keep on top of things."

"Okay. Let's say seven? That gives us enough time after practice to clean up and eat and do some other homework."

"Sounds good."

Jeryl greeted Lisa with a hug as they came into the break area of the shop with books in hand. "It's so good to see you again," she said.

Lisa echoed her sentiment and quickly introduced Heather who had decided to join us.

"I hope you guys don't mind, but Jeryl has AP Calculus at Standard, so I asked her to join us. Her Mom is the math teacher there, so if we run into any problems, we can get help from her."

"Sounds good to me," Jim said. "I'm already feeling a little overwhelmed by this course."

Since it was for college credit, it was run more like a college course than a high school one. We had an assignment every night and were promised a quiz every week with full tests about once a month. The course built on itself, so if you fell behind, you would quickly become lost.

"No problem. Let's get today's homework out of the way and then look ahead."

We were soon settled in around the round table in the break room working through the problems. Whenever someone got stuck, we would work through the problem together on the chalkboard I had against one wall. It was fun helping everyone and watching them help each other.

Homework along with the next day's reading assignment took us about an hour. We all felt good about the work and concepts as we packed things up.

"This is quite a shop, Paul," Heather said as we relaxed before heading out. "Is this what you spent your money on?"

Jeryl laughed. "This is what he makes his money on. Come on, I'll show you around." She grabbed Heather's hand and pulled her toward the shop door. Lisa hopped up and followed them.

Jim grabbed another soda from the refrigerator. "I was a little worried about bringing Heather out when you told me Jeryl was joining us. I think she has a little crush on you ever since the winter dance a couple years ago."

"Nah, she turned me down for a second date."

Jim laughed. "A bunch of girls had their eyes on you then. They had some sort of agreement to not date you twice until more than one girl had a shot at you. They figured you would need a few friends before getting over Wendy. Hooking back up with Jeryl ruined their plans to get you out of your shell."

"What?"

Jim nodded.

"And you are only now telling me this?"

He blushed. "Well, I didn't really know until Lisa told me last year before you and Jeryl went to the winter dance with us. Since then, it's never really come up."

"Well, I'm glad no one got their hooks into me before I went skiing then."

"Me too, buddy. I like Jeryl. So does Lisa."

"That makes three of us, then," I said.

"Just don't forget it. Lisa warned me that there are some girls looking to get closer to you ever since your money came out."

"Molly?"

"Maybe, but there are a couple others she has heard whispers about. Don't get yourself in trouble with any of them."

"Shit, I don't need this. I just want to have a normal junior year."

Jim laughed again. "Would that be a normal junior year for me, or one where you make another ton of money with inventions and keep out-performing our rivals on the football field?"

I shook my head. "I meant a normal year with no teenage girl drama. I'm with the woman I love. Can't that be good enough?"

"I feel for you buddy."

"I nominate Paul Taylor," Candice O'Sullivan said.

"I second the nomination," William Sims said before I could even protest.

"I decline the nomination," I said firmly. Someone had decided I should be the head of the Prom committee. The junior class put on the Junior-Senior prom each year. Some classmates seemed to think I would be a good chairman for the committee. I suspected some girls wanted an excuse to be close to me, but I was a little cynical and paranoid so that could have been my imagination.

I looked around the room hoping to see some support and realized it was too bad I was good friends with more seniors than juniors. Candice was good friends with Rebecca Tilmore, the class president whom I suspected of wanting me to volunteer. "Look, I'm happy to help, but I can't run things. I've got too much on my plate already and the spring is going to be worse."

Most of them had no idea what I was talking about. That was my own fault. Thankfully, a couple other names were nominated. When Rebecca called for a vote, I was thankful that my unwillingness was accepted.

"Okay, our final order of business is to elect a chairman for the homecoming float committee," Rebecca said after Tina Helmsworth was elected for the prom committee.

"I nominate Paul Taylor," Tina said.

I scowled and shook my head. No one seconded it as they looked at me.

"I second it," Candice said with a smirk my direction. "You can do something for our class, Paul. It won't kill you."

"Fine," I said with resignation. I knew the girls I needed to watch out for would all find their way onto the committee for building the float. So much for a drama-free junior year.

No other nominations were made and I found myself the chairman of the homecoming float committee. As soon as the class meeting was called to a close, several girls came up to me filled with enthusiasm for building a float.

"When will we start meeting to come up with a design and theme?" Candice asked as she stood next to me.

"How about Tuesday morning before school?" I suggested. Next Monday was Labor Day. Homecoming was October 2nd. We were playing Flanagan at home. "That will give us four weeks to decide and build whatever we are doing."

"Great. I'll have Rebecca put the meetings in the school paper. What time?"

"Seven fifteen." Classes started at seven thirty-five. Twenty minutes would be enough time to get everything sorted out for the first meeting, I hoped.

I shook my head in disgust and grabbed my things to go to football practice. Jim had no sympathy for me and Bill Tanner actually thought the class meeting was funny.

"Look on the bright side, Paul." Bill said. "You'll probably get to witness some major catfights as they try to outdo each other and catch your attention. If nothing else, it will be entertaining."

"Thanks Bill. Thanks a lot." The guys in the locker room laughed and soon we headed out to practice. I just hoped Jeryl understood.

"Come on, Taylor. Make something happen out there!"

I nodded to Jim as I headed back out to the field. It was our first game of the season and I had just watched Jim and the offense held to three and out on their first possession of the game.

We were playing Peru, and they were a much bigger team. They had not shown much skill yet, just size. We had been able to hold them to three and out in their first possession as well. The first series had been three passing plays. The QB had thrown the ball away all three times due to our tight coverage. I figured they would try the ground this time.

Two running backs were on the field and the tight-end was lined up close in. As soon as the ball was snapped, the line pulled and charged my way. I saw the smaller back take the handoff and tuck in behind a wall of blockers. Our line did well and moved them parallel to the line of scrimmage as the runner looked for a hole.

He saw the slight seam a second before I did, but he had more ground to cover. I was in the gap a half step before him and kept my eyes open as I drove into his numbers and wrapped him up for a tackle. We slammed into the ground and a second later a helmeted head slammed into my side.

Pain shot across my back and shoulders as the breath whooshed out of me. I was dazed as I heard the whistles blow and tried to roll away from and off the running back. I managed to get to my hands and knees, but could not catch my breath. Another whistle sounded as I noticed the running back next to me holding his knee. Teammates tried to help me to my feet, but instead, I rolled over and fell back to the turf. A minute later the coaches were there.

"How bad is it, Taylor?" Coach J asked as someone held my head and shoulders down.

"Ribs," I managed to say.

Coach probed a little and hit something that sent a spasm through my torso. "Shit!"

"Okay. Let's get you up and over to the sideline. Don't be afraid to lean on us." Coach J and Coach Miller helped get me to my feet but I could not straighten out fully. I headed toward our sideline and the bench there.

"What happened?"

"You stopped him at the line and their full back speared you. The idiot also landed on his own running back's knee. Fifteen yard penalty and they just lost their best ball carrier," Coach Miller said as they eased me onto the bench and the local doctor came over to begin checking me out.

I had a pretty good idea of the diagnosis from my broken ribs two years ago. I did not think I was going to be playing for a few weeks. The doctor confirmed it and told me to leave the pads off after he taped me up. At least two cracked ribs would keep me on the sideline.

I got my jersey back on just in time for our first touchdown of the game as Jim went deep on second and four. Peru's previously stout defense had put on a run blitz and let Bill Tanner behind the secondary coverage. Jim's perfect pass put him ten yards closer to the end zone than any defenders. Bill ran it in untouched and the crowd cheered.

"Shit," was all I could say. It was a great way to start the season.

I was puttering around the shop and office trying to avoid twisting and sending a stab of pain through my chest. We had won the game last night, and I tried to be pleasant at the Salaway's annual back to school party afterward, but could not muster much enthusiasm. Jeryl was understanding, so at least I didn't have to deal with yet more drama.

It was frustrating. I put the effort into football because I enjoyed playing. Sitting on the sidelines, even due to an injury, pissed me off. I understood needing to heal, but I had better things to do than attend practice if I was not going to play. I could be helping Jim work a deal with the European car makers, or following up on the carbon nanotube work we had done in Austin, or figuring out what the damned FBI was really up to.

"Damn," I said as I threw a wrench onto the workbench.

"Anything I can help with, Paul?" Jim asked. I had not heard him come into the shop.

"No. I'm just frustrated. I didn't need to get hurt in the first game. If it was toward the end of the season, I could hang up my cleats and heal and get on with other things, but now I'll have the same time commitments as if I were playing, but none of the field time."

Jim nodded. "I understand, but let me ask you this; are you playing to fill time or because you enjoy it?"

I laughed. He knew I had plenty of things to fill my time.

"I really do enjoy the game. There is something about testing myself each time I suit up that is really rewarding. It's something I realized I needed my freshman year. I want to do better each time I compete or even work out."

Jim nodded again. "And you're going to lose that opportunity for a few weeks."

"The next two games for sure, according to the doctor. Then he'll decide how I'm healing."

"Okay, so what else can you do to challenge yourself during the next two weeks? Box?"

Jim knew about my training with Uncle Ben. I shook my head. "The doctor said no workouts for a week." I didn't tell him that I planned on running as soon as it no longer hurt to breathe deeply.

"So what else challenges you?"

I looked around the shop and then back to him. Aside from my car, the shop was pretty much empty. "I guess not much."

"No projects here?"

"No. I haven't started any other hands-on projects since the stock car."

"I'd say it's a great time to start something new that will give you some mental challenges, then." He looked at me for a few moments. "Surely you have some ideas you'd like to tinker with. I've never known you not to be thinking two or three steps further down the road than the rest of us."

I sighed. "That's the problem. I need some of the fundamental research we're funding to produce before I can tackle the problems I'm most interested in."

"So go another direction. You got hurt because of an illegal hit. Can you make something to give you better protection on the field?"

Now that was an interesting idea. I thought about it for a minute. "I don't know," I finally said. "Maybe, but it would have to be light and thin to wear under the regular gear."

It was Jim's turn to shrug. "I bet you can figure something out. Let me know if you need a hand to bounce ideas off of." He turned and left the shop. I went toward the office.

I knew Under Armor was a few years away from being founded, but even their gear would not have helped my problem aside from giving me a thin layer of padding. I doubted it would have prevented the broken ribs. But their basic idea could act as a foundation. I sat at my desk and pulled out the latest report from Austin. I had a glimmer of an idea.

A few hours later, Jeryl found me still at my desk with a pile of paper filled with sketches and equations.

After a gentle hug and kiss to my cheek, she looked over my shoulder at what I was working on. "This looks completely new, Paul. What is it?"

"Protection. Maybe," I said as I shuffled the papers to find my best drawing. It looked like a t-shirt with horizontal bands around the midriff. "Jim got me thinking about figuring out something to better protect a player's ribs. If I make this t-shirt with the right materials, I can incorporate these bands of semi-rigid carbon nanotubes. I think, if we get the alignment right, they would transfer a lot of the force of a sharp blow around the body. The foundation would also have a little padding to help with bruising. I just don't know if I can make it work the way I need to for the forces to interact correctly."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, the compression load at the point of impact needs to make the material become rigid. I think if we stopped the carbon nanotube formation process one step sooner, we would have a solution that could be used. If we can align the nanotubes inside the solution, we could create an interlocking matrix that would be rigid in one dimension and elastic in another."

"I love you, but you are speaking gibberish," she said with a laugh.

"Let me try this. A shock absorber converts kinetic energy into potential energy by compressing a cylinder of gas."

She nodded.

"But it only stores that energy for long enough to change its direction by 180 degrees; it pushes back."

"Yeah, but the total force is still applied to the mounting point."

"Right, but it's similar in principle. What if instead of mounting to one point it was mounted across an infinite number of points? And what if it transferred the direction of the energy 90 degrees instead? If I can align the nanotubes correctly, the initial impact increases surface area of the overall impact, but lessens the force by diverting some of the energy away from the locus of impact. The math seems to indicate that I can't do it in three dimensions, but I can make it work in two."

"But you're three dimensional. You could get hit from any angle."

"Right, which is why I'll make a two-dimensional solution." I held up a piece of paper. "And form it in three dimensions." I curled the paper onto itself to make a tube. "If I can align things right, the material will be rigid in one-dimension relative to itself, which should be around the tube, not up and down the tube. That will distribute the force of the impact over a larger area and reduce the force at any one point by a square of the different dimensions. It should be flexible enough to not impede the wearer. If you need something stronger, like a bullet proof vest, you would weave the material in differing directions to create rigidity along multiple axes."

Jeryl shook her head and then kissed me. "So what do we need to do to make a prototype? I'd like you to not get hurt anymore this season, you know."

I laughed and then winced. Let's see if we can make a small batch using the Austin process and stop it. I think we have everything we need in the shop, if you can be a pair of hands for me."

She kissed me. "You know I can do that for you," she said with a smile.

"It doesn't look like much," Mom said as Jeryl showed them our experiment. We had worked late into the night Saturday and Sunday and finally thought we had something to show for it early Monday afternoon.

Rather than say anything, I laid our piece of gray fabric over a sheet of glass on the work bench and hit it with a ball peen hammer. I pulled the fabric away and showed them the unbroken glass beneath it.

"Wow," Jim said as he moved closer to inspect the glass. "How much force can it withstand?"

"We don't know yet. Paul's done some math, but it assumes a perfect solution in process and we know we don't have that."

"But it should reduce the impulse delivered to a specific locus by about a factor of ten, at least with this thickness of material."

"So no bulletproof vests?" Jim joked.

"Not from this material, but it might be possible to change the formulation and thickness to make one. This is about five mils thick. No worse than a wetsuit. We were able to get about a hundred fold dispersal of area."

"What?"

"If the blow were an impulse delivered in one square centimeter, it would be reduced by a factor of ten and spread over an area of one hundred centimeters."

Mom went over and picked up the cloth. "It feels silky. And lighter than I expected. I thought it would be more like a wetsuit."

"It's about a thick as one, but because it's really a semi-porous fiber between two layers of thin microfiber fabric, it is much lighter and less dense than neoprene."

"It sounds like magic to me."

"And you two did this in the past two days?"

"Paul did most of it," Jeryl insisted.

"But Jeryl helped a ton. She is just as much the inventor as I am. It was her idea to sandwich our material in the microfiber. It should wick away moisture in this configuration and not be too hot to wear."

"So this will keep your ribs whole?" Mom asked.

"We'll see. At a minimum it should help reduce impact injuries quite a bit. I can see using it in a lot of other places too."

"Like where?" Jim asked.

"Ski gear. Work clothes for safety. Interior panels for cars. Emergency shelters. Lots of stuff. Once we have a bigger sample, we'll have to test and play around with it, but I can see this making us more money than any of my other inventions over the long haul."

"Really?"

"Can you imagine any mother not buying two or three of these shirts if they help protect her darling son from football injuries or skiing injuries? Just the sportswear market could be huge." And we would be over a decade ahead of the market, I knew.

"What do we need to do?" Mom asked.

"We need to get a production run started so we have a bigger sample to test with. Then we need to start looking at the market and who we want to license it to or partner with. Does Candace have any contacts with DuPont? If not, we need to develop some so we can have a talk after we get the patent filed. I have no idea who we would talk to for garment manufacturing, but if we want to run this as a line of business, that would be the next step."

Jim shook his head. "We need a partner. None of us have that sort of manufacturing experience."

"I agree," Jeryl said. "If we are getting a cut of the materials margin as well as the end-unit revenue, we can see much greater rewards without all the overhead of manufacturing and sales."

Jim looked at her in surprise.

"Hey, I hang out with a genius who is always reading something. I can at least keep up with the business books," she said defensively.

Despite my still tender ribs, I pulled her in for a hug and whispered, "I love you."