(ATSSC) Chances Are . . . .Pt. I

Dead cows ! He saw dead cows ! But why? Why?

The satellite silently passed over the southwest part of the United States,
recording thousands of bits of information and taking pictures of anything
and everything. At precisely 10:00 A.M., Lisa down-loaded another batch
of miscelaneous information from the passing satellite and began her
analysis yet again. A stickler for detail, she scanned photos with a
magnifying glass, searching for discrepancies of any kind. She was into
her second day of remote field interpretation on this case, and now she
had enough data to compare and contrast.

Frank Draper steadied himself as his vision blurred again. Twenty feet
below, the wind swirled dry dirt into tiny tornados that, after rising to about
two feet high, zigged and zagged away aimlessly, abruptly disappearing.
Frank opened his eyes when he felt the dust devils leave, and inspected
the telephone cables for proper hook-up as well as any signs of dry rot
or deterioration of coatings. He found nothing out of the ordinary. Pulling
his in-line from his tool belt, he spliced into the cable and dialed a number.
A tired but friendly voice came on the line. "Hi Frank, how are we looking?"
"So far, so good Katie, nothing found that would indicate a problem with
our lines", he answered quickly.
"Frank, I'm sure you'll find the trouble. If anyone can, you can Frank!"
"Don't give me too much credit yet Katie. Ready for the numbers?"
She flipped a switch by her right hand and said "Go for it."
Frank began to read from his notes. "Area 3, Grid 2, Pole 47, all clear.
Repeat, all clear, satisfactory. Did you copy that Katie?"
"Affirmative Frank, and safely recorded. "
"Thanks Katie, I'll give you a another ring in about an hour."
"Okay sweetie, take care."
Frank took a last look around, marveling at the vastness of the land, and
then climbed down the pole to the ground, where his dusty truck quietly
waited for his return.

Lisa began to sweat. Three times she had compared the pictures and three
times she had arrived at the same conclusion. Once again she peered into
the magnifying glass, finding the cattle still watering at the same hole.
What she found strange was the fact that those cows hadn't moved so
much as an inch in two days. Two days, four photographic opportunities,
and yet no change whatsoever! Nothing! And right down the hill from the
waterhole was the fallen powerline. She had located the fallen pole during
the satellites first pass, two days ago. An easy task for someone like her.
Persavering, with an attitude. She had been right of course, and the
company would soon realize her computer skills were far superior to Frank
Draper's "sixth sense". It actually had been no contest at all. She had
located the cause of the outage probably before Frank Draper had even
arrived at Area 3. If she had mapped immediately, she could've called in
the coordinates yesterday, but she enjoyed the drama as much as the next
person, and so she had extended the timetable for Frank as a good will
gesture. She couldn't get those cows out of her head though. What was up
with that anyway?

Frank removed his tool belt and put it into the passenger seat. He wiped
his sweaty brow and gazed up the highway, visually checking all of the
power-poles for disconnections. His gut instinct told him that the problem
was just over the next hill, approximately two miles away. How he knew
this remained a mystery even to him, but he had always had "the gift".
He was one of a dying breed, a linesman! A linesman for the county! Just
like the song. He worked for Rio Arriba County, in New Mexico, USA.
And this afternoon he found himself pitted against Lisa Ogborn from "new
technology", a slangy title for the R&D department. A contest of sorts.
Three days ago all power and communications were lost in Area 3.
( His area.) He was asked to sniff out the cause, report the exact location,
and fix or repair as needed. They had asked him because he had an
uncanny ability to find trouble-spots faster than any other linesman ever.
He had a "nose" for it! But someone up in R&D had called down to dispatch
and said that an informal contest was "on", and that R&D's own Lisa
Ogborn would represent them in a race to see who could locate the
problem first. Lisa would use her computer, . . .Frank would use his "nose".
And so it was.
Frank hopped in the truck and headed down the road.

Please disregard this entry. Am super busy at work, and not happy with
the start of it anyway. Will wait until another opportunity comes along.

I have read, and will re-read all of the other stories. They're great. SIEGE

I have to say, I'm disappointed.

The tone of the whole thing had me hooked and I kind of want to know what's going on.

I'm not just blowing sunshine when I say that I've checked almost every day to see if you added on.

Don't sell yourself short!

Aww cmon siege, dont leave me hangin', you had me hooked as well.

mojo.

I'm removing this submission by author request.

However, I'm not going to delete this in the hope that the excellent writer can build on this idea. Let me know if I can help with a re-write, SEIGE.