I don’t know what made me look up the retired Admiral, but when I tried, he wasn’t listed. Even his son wasn’t listed for some reason. I also wasn’t able to find the Sarge’s wife’s name listed, either under the Sarge’s or the retired Admiral’s last name in the directory listing.
For some reason, the mystery I stumbled into was getting larger instead of solved. It had expanded to where there were four people I knew of who weren’t listed in the directory as well as the one company. Out of curiosity, I looked up Fleet Admiral Reason’s directory listing and everything appeared to be normal.
Then I looked up my own and spotted an oddity. I was listed all right, but there was no reference to my being an employee of Pennyweight Shipping Company. It simply showed that I was a civilian with a temporary commission on duty with the Navy.
I next thought to look up the Thurman. Perhaps there was a cross-reference by way of the old Rust Bucket. It wasn’t listed, not even as a ship drafted into the Navy. When I looked up the Edmund and the Theodore, they were missing from the registry of ships in the directory as well. Other ships from other companies were fully listed showing their company names, crew and officer lists, and other information such as tonnage and so forth. But there wasn’t a single reference to the Pennyweight Shipping Company or any of its personnel except those of us who were serving with the Navy. Each of us was listed as a civilian on duty with the Navy.
I wished I had thought to look up myself before the war began. Would I have been listed then? Was I invisible to society for awhile without knowing it? If I was, then why was I invisible then? Why were these other people, ships, and the company invisible?
It didn’t make any sense. None of the business we conducted was done surreptitiously that I knew of. I had seen cargoes loaded and unloaded, just like other ships at the ports. No special precautions, other than what the other shipping companies did, were used by Pennyweight. People didn’t come on board for only one trip and disappear. The only people we got rid of were those we believed unsavory, but mostly we felt were untrustworthy. We hadn’t been issued any secret codes or weapons. Our weapons were just like all the other companies. Our building was about like the other companies. Some of our people had worked for the other companies and some of ours later worked at some of them. It seemed like an ordinary business, except that it wasn’t listed in the directory.
I finally went on to my quarters and fell asleep with most of those same questions attacking me. I must not have slept well at all that night. Annie noticed in the morning.
When I got up and walked out of my quarters, Annie was waiting with her hover next to her. “Want a ride to breakfast? You look tired, like you could use a lift.”
She handed me the ignition card and took her place in the passenger seat. She was dressed much like yesterday, except the clothing was of different fabrics and colors. As well off as I knew her to be, I reckoned that she could afford to wear whatever she wanted and have as many wardrobes as she wished. I powered up the hover and drove carefully to the Dining Facility.
“Did you check to see if what I told you was true?” she asked.
I replied, “I won’t lie to you. I did.”
She said, “Good! I like a man who speaks honestly when he can.”
It didn’t take long to reach the Dining Facility where I stopped the hover. I wondered what Annie was going to do while I went in to eat, but she took my arm and went inside with me. There were lots of stares, but no comments as we walked together to the serving line where I found out that she was eating in the facility as well. She produced a card to the cashier and had no problem getting served. We sat down together at a table and quietly ate. At least I tried to. I almost choked on some of what she said.
“I suppose you found more missing people, didn’t you?” she asked as I almost sputtered a mouthful of food onto the table. “I’m sorry. I guess I should let you finish eating first. Did you check your own name?” she continued saying anyway. I started to sputter again. She finally shut up like she said she would and we managed to finish eating. We left the facility and got back into the hover.
“Where to?” I asked.
“Same place, if you don’t mind,” she answered.
I drove us off base, finding the highway where I put the hover into high speed. She went ahead and removed what she was wearing instead of just untying her blouse. I had to work extra hard to keep my eyes and mind on driving.
With a few reminders from her about the turnoffs, we reached her property again where she bounded out of the parked hover to dive into the water. I didn’t wait to be reminded by her to join in, removed what I was wearing, and dove in after her a few moments later. She came along beside me a few moments later and asked, “How many people did you find missing?”
“Four,” I answered. “I suppose there’s probably more. I also didn’t see my employer listed with my name. I’m just a civilian on duty with the Navy.”
“So?” she replied as if that was nothing new to her.
“So, can you tell me anything about it all?” I asked.
“No, I can’t. But if you want to fuck, I can do that!” she exclaimed as she tried to change the subject.
“Would that make a difference?” I asked.
She replied, “No, but it would feel good to both of us.”
That day and the next few days of my shore leave were the same. She didn’t get me in bed. I didn’t get any answers from her.
Annie dropped me off at my quarters in the evening after we spent almost another entire day on her private island doing nothing other than swimming and sunning ourselves, besides having a picnic. She slid over into the driver’s seat. “You know you’ve only got tonight and tomorrow night before your leave is over. I’d gladly sleep with you and there’d be no obligations incurred.”
I finally surrendered as I lifted my hand and pointed with my thumb towards the door.
The hover dropped suddenly to the ground as she yanked the ignition card out. She bounded out of the hover onto the porch and into my room. She was barely inside the room when what little she was wearing flew off in different directions across the room before she leaped onto the bed and turned over to offer herself.
I was far behind her as I entered the room and went about undressing more methodically after shutting the door.
In the morning, we lay in each other’s arms as light from the windows filtered through the curtains so that we could see each other’s naked body fully. If nothing else, she was good in bed. But she was something else, though I wasn’t sure what or why. She apparently knew the answers to questions I had and wouldn’t answer them.
“Well, how was I compared to Majel?” she asked innocently.
I felt my blood boiling almost immediately. Majel had been a long time ago. I hadn’t mentioned taking her to bed at all. It was something that wasn’t listed in a directory, either. Just how long had Annie been watching me?
She seemed to sense immediately that she had said something she shouldn’t have as one hand went to her mouth. Annie started to get out of bed in a hurry.
“No, you don’t! Now you’re going to answer some questions,” I said as I grabbed at her and kept her on the bed.
She lay back down and looked up at me as if deciding whether to tell me something or yell rape.
“It’s not going to do you any good to yell rape as often as we’ve been together and because you were seen entering my quarters freely last night and taking your clothes off to jump into bed,” I stated. “You ought to wait until the door is shut before doing things like that.”