The Alberta Connection by R. Clint Peters Read Free Book Online

and Tanya had not yet
crossed the street. Tanya had somehow steered him to a bus bench.
He kissed her as they waited for the “WALK” signal.
    When Ryce and Tanya arrived at Research 1,
Marge introduced AP, John’s older brother, who introduced his wife,
Danielle. Ryce did not remember seeing AP at the reception, but he
remembered meeting Danielle. Marge confirmed AP had been
volunteered to deliver the wedding gifts to Ryce and Tanya’s
apartment. Marge pulled a laptop out of a case. Ryce noticed her
case was the same as the ones he and Tanya had just selected.
    As soon as Marge finished booting the laptop,
she showed Tanya a gift registration program. Danielle was asked to
enter the names of the givers and the gift description as the gift
was opened. Using the laptop camera, a picture was taken of the
gift. Even with the help of AP’s two children, opening the gifts
took almost three hours. AP promised he would have the gifts
delivered before dinner.
    After returning to the apartment, Ryce
plugged in his laptop. As he waited for it to warm up, he wondered
into what he had gotten himself. He thought he was a better than
average computer user, but he would find out extremely quickly that
he didn’t know anything.
    Tanya grabbed a seat next to Ryce in the
apartment living room and plugged in her laptop power adapter. They
both felt as if they were starting at the beginning. Ryce checked
the time that he started the program. It was 3:20 PM.
    At 6:00 PM, a window popped up on Ryce’s
laptop, telling him that it was time for dinner. He stared at the
screen for several moments. How did Doug know when he was going to
start working on the program? He waited until Tanya caught up, and
then they both walked into the kitchen and opened the
refrigerator.
    As they looked over the shelves, Ryce
commented, “Did someone get their hands on our shopping list?”
    Tanya chuckled. “This will do until we can
get to the grocery store.”
    The doorbell rang at 6:20 PM. When Ryce
answered the door, he found AP and several Ranch employees with
large wheeled laundry carts standing in the hall. The carts were
wheeled into the spare bedroom and the gifts unloaded. AP chuckled
and told them that they had made out like bandits.
    At 9:00 PM, a new window popped up on Ryce’s
laptop display. Doug announced that it was time for bed, and the
laptops would shut down and not restart for eight hours. Ryce and
Tanya were not inclined to argue about the issue.

Chapter 7
    Ryce reached over,
shut off the alarm on his cell phone, and then attempted to focus
on the time. Was it actually 5:30 AM? What day was it? Ryce
remembered it was Saturday, and he and Tanya were not expected to
spend all day on their laptops. He had no doubt they would be on
the laptops all day, but this was supposed to be a weekend.
    The previous two days of training had
revealed one important fact: He knew nothing about computers. And
he knew even less about the Internet. He thought it was possible to
follow someone around the Internet, but didn’t know where to start.
Forty-eight hours had changed all that.
    He looked across the bed and discovered that
Tanya was missing. He could not hear water running in the shower.
Where was she?
    Ryce slowly slid off the bed, grabbed a
bathrobe, and walked out of the bedroom. Tanya was sitting at the
dining table with her laptop open in front of her. It took several
moments for Ryce to realize she was naked. She looked up and
smiled.
    “I was getting in the shower and remembered
the answer to one of the test questions. I hope you don’t mind that
I just rushed out here to play with my laptop.”
    Ryce grinned. “Well, having no clothes on
could save a little time.”
    Ryce turned and walked back to the bedroom.
He was trying to decide if he should shower or go back to bed when
he felt two arms wrap around him.
    “We don’t have to be at the family table in
the chow hall until 7:00 AM, and I got 100% on the quiz. It’s time
to