“You’ve got 40. The driver’ll be here soon from Chicago.”
I can drive it,Canyon said.
“You need a CDL.”
I’ve got a CDL.
“Do you have a real CDL or did you hack into the system and give yourself a CDL?"
Canyon tried to be offended, but instead he just laughed. He didn't remember what was hacked and what was real anymore.
It doesn't matter,he said.I can drive this baby.He patted its massive front grill tenderly.
Trevor eyeballed him, then handed over the keys. He drove off, his last remarks inruhi:I want you at the station in the back parking lot in 40 minutes for briefing.
We’ll be there,Canyon said. That had been his big selling point to Trevor when he’d convinced him to buy an MCU—the possibility of mobile, holographic briefings.
Timber flipped through the paperwork.
“This monstrosity is 13 feet high, 42 feet long with a Detroit Diesel 60 engine. Tandem axle with two sleepers. Armored with bulletproof glass, weapons racks, and full internal network wiring.
This beautiful monstrosity,Canyon corrected. He strolled around it, noting each detail.
“There’s notes at the bottom in a tiny font.” Timber held the papers close to his face. “Something about the transmission slipping … you’ve got to shove in the clutch to get it into drive?”
Canyon was already heading to his truck to get his tools and some wire. Timber came and unlocked the snack chest, heaving handfuls of cookies, pretzels, juice boxes, beef jerky, and energy drinks, into a basket for easy carry and seeding.
Back at the MCU, Canyon dropped two rolls of wire and his toolkit to the ground and opened the door to the back, climbing inside with a smile on his face. The hologram table was long and right in the center of the space, with four stabilized chairs around it, and then a desk with chair in each corner. There was a bathroom at the back, and a sleeper next to it. There was a sleeper up front, too, which made this the perfect vehicle. He growled happily, then lifted up a floorboard and got to work.
They worked quickly, ignoring the chatter on the radio as best they could. Timber checked the time, then wound up a roll of wire and said, “We’ve only got five minutes to get to the station. I’ll drive.”
Canyon grunted and kept working. Timber went out the door. A minute later, the engine coughed and sputtered, and the floor and walls shook while the vehicle tried to start. Canyon connected his last two wires, and then laid out flat on the floor, his left hand still in the innards of the MCU.
“Come on, baby,” he whispered, stroking the underside of the floorboards. “Show us what you’ve got, beautiful.”
The vehicle shook as Timber cranked the engine.
“I know you’ve got it in you,” Canyon whispered. “Come on… give it to me.”
The engine roared to life and the floor jerked violently up on one side, knocking a tin of jerky off the cabinet next to Canyon. It dropped on his head, but he barely noticed. He smiled and patted the inner workings, then replaced the floorboard. The vehicle started to move—slowly. Canyon ran through the connections, checking them all, then found the on/off switch for the hologram table, pressing it. Nothing happened.
Canyon swore and dropped back to the floor. He pulled up all the floorboards and worked his way back through the connections quickly, determined to have his baby fully operational for Trevor’s briefing.
38— Wolves on Cleanup
The MCU swayed as Timber pulled out of the vehicle yard and onto the street. Canyon found a loose coupling and tightened the connection, bracing himself in place with his feet. Up front, Timber tried buttons as he drove. Canyon first heard the horn, then a siren, then five more different sirens, an air horn, then Timber told someone “Looking good,” on the loudspeaker.
They reached the station—Canyon could tell by the sharp turn and slight incline the MCU took—and then they were parked. Canyon replaced floorboards and tried the hologram table again. This time, it glowed blue at once. Canyon took Predator off his belt and slipped it into a docking cradle. The table beeped once, Predator beeped twice, then the table beeped once more and a glowing black wolf’s head with silver fire for eyes popped up above the table, slowly turning round and round, seeming to take in its surroundings.
The door opened and Timber came in. “Niiiiice,” he said when he saw the wolf. “That’s fire.”
Canyon found a microphone in his bag and plugged it in, then spoke quickly into it. “Prepare a map of Serenity proper. Open profile BIGDOG. Conform text to real-time inputs. Conform displays to three-dimensional.”
Two men were speaking outside, coming closer to the vehicle. Canyon recognized Trevor’s voice, and then Mac’s voice. Shit, he wasn’t going to have time to test anything. He changed the profile to TREVOR.
From outside, Mac was saying, “—the biggest taco truck I’ve ever seen.”
The door opened. Trevor came up the steps first. Canyon handed him the microphone. Trevor took it with his eyes glued to the rotating wolf over the top of the table. He nodded at Canyon and Timber, seeming pleased with them.
