Hidden Nature

by S. M. Savoy

  “I’m still working on the noises. I want more creaks and groans, but I got the fur down,” Amy said happily as the monster snapped its fingers, making the beach umbrella slid down with a soft clinking sound. The umbrella darkened and elongated, and the monster stepped through the newly formed portal and disappeared. Glowing orange words shimmered across the portal, Monster Maze! Enter If You Dare! and glints of eyes and teeth moved in the depths.

  “This is your game?’ Jeff asked in awe.

  “Was that a man in a costume?” Dave asked as Paul nodded.

  Amy said, “No, a hologram. Check this one out. Run add for Travel Terrors.”

  The cadets around Charlie milled and spoke excitedly among themselves as the cave disappeared, replaced by a bathroom door. The metal door was scratched and dirty and the slightest order of disinfected wafted to them.

  “It has a really great ominous air, Amy,” Paul said enthusiastically. “The vacancy sign is perfect. You were right. It looks just like a plane lavatory and it’s scarier than the cockpit I wanted to use in the ad.”

  “Can we play it?” Dave asked.

  “Sure,” Amy said and waved him forward.

  Charlie laughed as those closest eagerly stepped forward while others hurried to the other three booths.

  “You can sit at the table here and play with him using the gloves and glasses,” Amy was saying as Charlie turned to scan for Sara. He spotted her beside the buffet she’d set out and chuckled over how proud she was as she spoke to Camila who held a plate of the pasta Sara had made.

  His pulse jumped as it always did at first sight of her and her cheeks flushed as her head turned, looking for him.

  He didn’t have a word for the feeling that bounced between them when their eyes met. It was love, pride, lust, longing, satisfaction, and possessiveness all rolled into one. It was everything. She was everything to him as he was to her. He felt it in his soul and heaved a sigh of contentment that she echoed.

  Magic hummed beneath his skin but didn’t try to manifest. It knew better by now or maybe it was just content to bathe in that echo.

  Amy was explaining how to play as Charlie wove through the crowd that exclaimed excitedly as a stage appeared on the opposite side of the room. Charlie knew there was a wall there, but the projected image looked realistic enough to fool the eye into believing there was an actual stage where the wall had been. People were leaning forward to run their hands over the wall. A door in the back of the stage opened and an eighties girl band strolled onto the stage. Music drowned the excited exclamations, and Charlie reached Sara’s side in time to hear her say.

  “They seem to like it.”

  He laughed, and she turned from the woman she’d been speaking with to beam at him as she offered him a plate of pasta. She was prouder of the food then the programming, he thought in amusement as he accepted the offered plate.

  “Delicious,” he said truthfully, nodding with his chin at the stage. “It’s really realistic. You did a great job with perspective. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear there was a stage there.”

  “Doctor Mitchel, Mr. Hayes,” the commandant said, “It’s fabulous. Have you met our superintendent?”

  The commandant introduced Sara to the men who’d followed him while Charlie ate his pasta and watched bemusedly as they questioned her enthusiastically.

  Stasia grinned at him from across the room and jerked her head at Oz who was dancing with a girl from Charlie’s English class. He snickered as the song ended and a new girl approached.

  “Some things never change,” he murmured, and Sara followed his glance. He felt her amusement as her gaze lingered on Oz.

  “We’re being rude,” The commandant said, gesturing the man speaking to Sara away. “I’m sure we can talk later, and you have guests to see to. The food looks divine and smells even better.”

  The men made polite farewells and headed to the buffet, still talking excitedly about the holograms.

  “Let’s dance before they come back,” Charlie whispered and pulled her onto the dance floor.

  Life sized holograms of famous singers from the eighties wandered the room.

  The room itself had been transformed into an eighties-style dance hall. The tables now appeared to be black rusty metal and the chairs had funky designs. One of the walls was black with a laser light show. The server counters and the entryway were black and white striped. Another wall showed pictures of Stasia and her friends. Amy had designed metallic looking balloons with small wings that randomly floated around the room. They told jokes or made funny noises if you bumped into one, then dissolved into a shower of metallic glitter before reforming elsewhere.

  Holographic smoke that slowly changed colors covered the floor. The waitstaff Sara had hired all wore tight leather vests with studs and buckles with their hair spiked and gelled in different colors. Random people were picked out and their clothing holographically changed to eighties style while others were lit with random glows.

  A ton of food filled the tables and the holographic band changed with the song that played. All of Stasia’s favorite girl bands had been programmed as holograms. Sara, Amy, and a cadre of their new programmers had been working on it for months.

  The party was a raging success. Sara only danced with him. He danced with Stasia, Amy, and Joy, which made Sara giggle with happiness.

  None of the raid asked Sara to dance and he wondered if she told them not to or if they were afraid to upset him. A few of his classmates asked, likely encouraged by Oz accepting every offer, but she turned them all away. He had to admit he was happy she did, and he knew she felt it. He hoped he wasn’t inhibiting her from the raid though.

  Between dances she sat in a corner and observed his classmates playing the game and dancing with a smile on her face and in her heart. Charlie sat beside her, and they laughed at Oz who was surrounded by a group of laughing flirting girls between dances.

  The party ended at ten and Charlie drove Sara crazy by not telling her Rick planned to propose.

  “Come on you have to tell me what’s got you so excited.” Sara narrowed her eyes at him.

  “Sorry can’t. You’ll find out in a day or two.” He kissed her cheek. “Not my secret to tell, sweetheart.”

  She harrumphed, but she wasn’t really angry, she was intrigued and eyed the crowd speculatively, her gaze lingering on Stasia and Rick who danced cheek-to-cheek in the emptying room.

  Charlie kissed Sara goodnight, still chuckling to himself, and headed back to his dorm room with Paul.

  “I can’t believe they let her throw a party here,” Paul said as they entered their room.

  “The commandant likes Sara.” Charlie smiled smugly. “I think he wanted to see how the holograms worked. She told him it was a one-time only request and she wouldn’t make a habit of asking to throw parties here.”

  “It was fun. I’m glad they let her. The holograms looked great, very real.”

  Jeff said, “They really did. Your games were so cool, Paul. I don’t know what game I liked better. When will it be released?”

  Before Paul could answer Dave said, “I thought the singers were cool as shit. Did you see Amy had a little Elvis that popped up from her wristcomp to do her bidding?”

  “I saw her send a cartoon shark to Paul.”

  Paul said, “It delivers messages about the games. She uses it so I know the sort of message it is. But it doesn’t generally swim through the air. I think she was just playing with the system they set up.”

  Dave said, “She said we could design our own avatars, anything we want. I’d do my entire house if it didn’t cost a fortune. Hell, maybe even if it did. You could have any furniture you liked.

  “We might be on to a new business idea here,” Charlie said over his shoulder as he changed into sweats. “It only took them a few minutes to remove the hologram equipment. It did take them a week to make the program to cover the furniture, but setup was quick. The prog
ram is reusable, and they were teaching Valory to make that program. I see real potential for party designs.”

  Paul nodded thoughtfully. “A programmer like me could make a killing designing cool themes.”

  Charlie laughed. Dave and Jeff looked thoughtful.

  * * *

  Saturday afternoon Charlie headed to the boat. Sara was already there and had brought Lucky and Rhea with her. Hawk was training the animals to be safe on board. To Charlie’s surprise, Oz and Paul were there as well, taking out the boat’s engine and replacing it with one Oz had made. Sara greeted him with a hug and a kiss.

  The touch of her lips on his made his bones feel light. She pulled him down for a deeper kiss when the first one ended. Warmth spread from his center, filling his hollowed bones. He pulled away before his eyes could flare blue, smiling ruefully at her, lust echoing between them.

  “We have company.”

  “I’m going to go take a nap to be well rested for tonight when our company leaves.” She trailed her hand across his chest, kissed him again, and made a contended sound that he felt more than heard before heading to their cabin.

  Grinning, he went to help Oz and Paul move the old engine.

  Hawk joined them a while later. “I put sensors around the hull earlier,” Hawk said as he handed tools to Oz. “If Lucky or Rhea fall off, you’ll be notified immediately. They both have the new chips in them. Even without me or Oz, you should be able to find them anywhere. I tested it on Lucky.” He leaned closer and lowered his voice. “I dropped her off at the other end of the pier. She stayed off the roads just like she was trained to do, and the satellite found her in seconds. Your cat should be fine even if she does get off the ship. I was thinking we should chip Sara and Stasia.”

  Oz sat back on his heels, grimacing at Charlie over his shoulder. “I’ll make enough to do all of us. Liz is going to Texas to do our parents. There’s no point in taking chances with any of us.”

  * * *

  Rick picked up Stasia from her mother’s apartment later the night. “Is she okay with you spending the night with me?” He glanced back at the apartment as they walked to his car. Anticipation was keeping his stomach in a knot.

  “She isn’t thrilled, but yes.” Stasia leaned into his side and pulled him down for a kiss. “I miss you so much. Since you got magic, it’s much harder to be apart. I have to hold my magic back constantly. It wants you desperately too.”

  “I love you,” Rick murmured as he kissed her brow.

  His magic pushed for release, but he held it back with little effort.

  “We’re getting better at this.” He opened the car door for her and kissed her again once she was seated. Her breath on his lips sent a delicious thrill through his entire body. He couldn’t resist running his fingers through the soft thickness of her hair.

  Her soft exhalation made his fingers tighten and he reluctantly moved away before his magic could begin to press harder for release.

  He drove them to the mountain where they’d had the meeting. They had to hike into the camping spot where he had a tent already set up with a picnic laid out nearby. “I wanted to be alone with you. Somewhere our magic could do as it wished as well.”

  When she smiled, he sighed in relief. While the area was perfectly private it did have some unpleasant memories associated with it. His pulse fluttered and his palms sweat when he took both of her hands in his.

  “Anastasia Morales, I love you with all of my heart and soul. I want to be your husband, to have children with you, to be together forever. Will you marry me?”

  Stasia started to cry and threw her arms around his neck while her magic swirled wildly around them both. She nodded, too overcome to speak.

  “Is that a yes?” He knew it was because her happy excitement enfolded him like a warm blanket, but he wanted to hear her say it.

  “Yes! Oh, Rick, yes. I love you so much!” She pulled away and held his face in her hands, her brown eyes shining with tears. “I love you!” she continued to speak but her words were just sound lost in the thumping of his pulse, but he didn’t need words. He laughed as he whirled her around and the magic sparked as it flowed about them. It was as happy and excited as they were.

  * * *

  The head of the registrar’s office came to the commandant a week later.

  “We have a slight problem. Ninety percent of the student body wants to take Doctor Simmons’ and Doctor Mitchel’s classes. Even if we asked them to teach every single day all day, we couldn’t accommodate them all. There was already a waiting list, now it’s just ridiculous.”

  The commandant smiled in satisfaction. “Competition is vital for a well-rounded officer. Use the same system we have been to fill the class. Inform the applicants of the requirements. I’ve requested Midshipmen First Class Tillings and Frost to be assigned here next fall and Midshipman Martins the following year. We might be able to offer a few more classes. But keep that confidential for now. Let them compete.”

  The registrar laughed. “You planned that?”

  “Planned— no. Took advantage of— yes. Most of the student body had only hearsay to judge those classes on until the party. They all wanted one of the wristcomps, but they hadn’t seen or understood what the programming was capable of. They see it now and want to be a part of it. There are so many applications for the holograms alone it overwhelms. Doctor Mitchel and Midshipman Second Class Vlase have made a holographic program to hide ships at sea from sight visually.” He paused a moment to let that sink in.

  The registrar’s eyes widened. “If they can do that, they can hide tanks. Good lord, they could probably hide aircraft. Holy mother of God, the United States won’t be the only ones with this technology, other countries will reverse engineer it.”

  “Doctor Simmons assures me they can and it will take them approximately one year to make hardware once they acquire some to copy. He thinks it will be a bit longer until they can program effectively. Doctor Simmons and Mitchel are already working on a hologram detector. They’re working on so many things my mind boggles. The point of this discussion is we need highly trained, competent programmers of our own as soon as we can. We need our cadets to want this, to strive for it.”

  “You’ve succeeded brilliantly. Your entire student body is clamoring for the chance to learn it.”

  The commandant smiled complacently.

  - 11 -

  Progress

  The president received a phone call from Sara asking for a private meeting with her and Oz. He granted it immediately. She’d never called before, preferring to email him. If she wasn’t comfortable sending the information in an email, it had to be big.

  Their security escorted them to the White House. His security escorted them to him.

  “We wanted to talk about our findings personally,” Sara said when they were alone. “We’re ninety-two percent certain we’re correct in all of our surmises. I have the math to prove it, but I think you’ll just have to take our word for it.” The report she handed him contained over fifty pages of equations and graphs.

  Oz tweaked Sara’s ponytail and grinned at her when she made a face at him. “What Sara is trying to say is we found Mr. X. We won’t be able to prove it in court though.”

  “He means we found Mr. X, Y, and Z.” Sara opened a flatscreen. “These are the men people mean when they say ‘They’ – meaning the mysterious men who really run things. There are other behind the scenes mover and shakers, but these three are the ones trying to get you out of office. They’ll do whatever it takes to do it and they have the manpower and connections to do so.

  “First, we have Mr. X. The owner of Liniar Corp headed by Joseph Liniar, billionaire, philanthropist, maker of everything from children’s toys to car parts. He has interests and investments spanning the globe and just bought massive amounts of land in Alaska two years ago. A huge investment.”

  Oz leaned forward and adjusted her screen, highlighting portions of text. “We
ll, he didn’t buy them. He leased them. Long term leases from the government. He did buy some outright, but he leased the majority.”

  “Then we have Mr. Y.” Sara put up another picture. “Tro Industries is based in China and headed by Mr. Tachimori. Again, he has interests everywhere with a sixty percent overlap with Liniar Corp. Then we have Mr. Z. Mr. Nguyen who’s based in Vietnam. The head of Sinder business conglomerate. They have a seventy percent overlap. That means all of their businesses depend on each other. They’re aware of the dependency although maybe not as aware as we are.”

  Oz took up the explanation. “You know we’ve been correlating data from every source, from Ingra Arnault, the gang, your secretary, Senator Bishop, and every single one of the other men and women we even thought might be involved. Libya was an information windfall— our first solid connection. Joy has been searching for us, illegally I might add, totally non-admissible.”

  Sara changed the picture on her screen. “I have copies here in my report of her findings. Questions are bound to be asked on how you got the information. I wouldn’t recommend showing those reports to anyone except Pierce. We can prove legally they’ve all met numerous times, but that proves nothing. We have illegal recordings that are very damning, but we’ll get to that.”

  Oz laid a hand on Sara’s arm, interrupting her. He said, “I’ll skip ahead here; we can go over our evidence later on how we received each piece. What you need to know is they aren’t done. I don’t think they’ll ever be done. They have too much to lose. They need to control the White House to control the power industry. All their big money is in power, either producing it or manufacturing parts for it.”

  Oz showed a diagram to the president. “Your secretary sent them the transcript of your conversation about the skeins. They were already trying to replace you to put their choice in office and aware of us as a threat to the election. That made them aware of us as a threat to their investments. They still hoped a simple regime change would be enough to keep us in check.”