Singular

by Larry Buenafe

  Finally, after what seemed like a hundred years, morning came. The adults were unusually quiet as they rose, dressed, and got ready to go up to the galley. As we exited, we turned to the left and went two doors down to check on Ms. Houng and Ms. Perez, but they came out just as we got there, arm in arm. “Oh, hello, everybody. We have good talk, now best friends. We have some of the same experiences, me in Viet Nam, her in US!” Ms. Houng gushed.

  Ms. Perez smiled, and again I was struck by how pretty she was. Then, it occurred to me, after all my new knowledge of how it is for girls due to my pretending to be one for the past couple of weeks, that it was smart of the Bright Hand to recruit her. Men would listen to her and follow her almost anywhere, I bet. Then, I thought, there’s a word for that… what is it… oh yeah, cynical.

  As we entered the galley, of course Alexy was already there, along with Riles Husker and Mr. Kozlov, still wearing his ancient grey beanie and dirty green apron. “Hello, my friends! Tell me, are the rest of the crew still engaged in their poker game?”

  “Yeah,” dad said, not offering any other details.

  “Must be game of epic proportions, eh?” said Alexy, followed by a giggle.

  “You can say that again,” said Mike, in his perfect Russian accent.

  We sat and ate the pasty mush and ever-present chunk of hard bread with almost no discussion. Following breakfast, we went up to the top deck to, as dad put it, “Get some air and clear our heads.” As we did, Mike and Ms. Perez went back to their cabins. It was now about eight-thirty a.m., and we could already see the Australian coastline as we continued to cruise south toward Melbourne. The sun was intensely bright, but the air was chilled, so we bundled up as we strolled around the perimeter of the ship. I could feel the rays from the sun energizing me, replenishing my power system. I realized, as we walked, that I had spent almost all my new life onboard this ship, and, even though it’s rusty, smelly, the food is terrible, and we had to do hard labor, I would miss it. I would even miss old Alexy, with his huge belly and long blond ponytail swishing around as he walked, and I wondered if I would ever see him or this old boat again after today.

  We strolled around the top deck with little conversation for about an hour, but eventually wound our way back down the circular metal stairs to our cabins. We slowly packed our few belongings into our backpacks, and even Benji had nothing to say. I decided to check on the mercenaries one last time, and they were all still snoring. Finally, at about ten-thirty a.m. we just wandered back up to the top deck to wait out the rest of our trip there.

  Eventually we gathered at the back of the boat, far away from the Superstructure and anyone else on board. Dad glanced around at all of us, making eye contact before saying, “We’re getting close, everyone. No matter how we think this is going to go, it will not go that way. There will be surprises, things we can’t anticipate, so we need to be flexible, think quickly, be ready to change course if we need to. Lukey, Ava has a mode that I haven’t told you about before now because we only want to use it when absolutely necessary. It’s called Control Mode, and when it’s triggered, she will take over the movements of your body. You only want to use this if you are in a situation that seems to have no solution, because after exiting this mode there is a brief reset which leaves you incapacitated for a few minutes. You access the control mode by simply commanding Ava. Just say, ‘Ava, Control Mode’. She will assess the situation and control your body to get you to safety and will do it much faster than any human could react. Do you understand?”

  I thought for a moment, and said, “Yes, I understand. I’m not sure I like the idea of being controlled like that, though.”

  Dad smiled, and said, “I didn’t think you would, but only use it if you are in a situation that you can’t see a way out of, ok? Only for emergencies.”

  Benji started to smack me on the back, but at the last second remembered to just tap me lightly, and said, “Don’t worry, boyo. That A.I. in your noggin is the world’s smartest Sheila. You can bet that she doesn’t want to get caught up any more than you do, so she’ll get you out of a tight spot, I reckon.”

  Mr. Harutyunyan seemed a little choked up as he said, “We all want to get out of this alive, but we need to keep you safe, that is most important. We all work hard to help you survive, is the work of a lifetime for all of us. Don’t be afraid to use Control Mode if you need. Is for the best.”

  All the emotions made me feel weird, and I didn’t know how to react. Finally, I said, “How long should I wear my girl disguise?”

  “Your disguise amazing, sometimes I forget you not a girl,” said Ms. Houng, smiling and reaching out to touch my blond wig. That seemed to break the tension and made me feel a little less like running away.

  Dad snapped his fingers. “Thanks for reminding me. I think they will be expecting a girl to exit the ship; they haven’t seen what you look like without your girl disguise, no one has except us. If we remove your disguise just before exiting the ship, I think it may confuse them, at least momentarily, and that may be enough to get us out of there. Oh, here comes the Bright Hand crew.”

  Ms. Perez, Mike, Wilson Johannsen, Salgado, Chi Kim, and Sydney Alamo were striding in our direction. When the got to us all the adults shook hands, grunting hellos and good mornings, and again I couldn’t help but think that there was something unusual about Chi Kim. Mike said, “Ok, so to recap, the Bright Hand will have a column of bodies at the dock for us to walk through. We expect that there will be some action, so we need to be ready to move quickly. When we exit the ship, we’ll have Zoey, Johannsen, and Salgado in front, then you folks, and Kim, Alamo, and I will be behind you. As I said, we need to keep our eyes open, be alert, and we’ll get out alright. There’ll be two vehicles; you will go in one, we’ll go in the other. We’ll want you to go in the second vehicle so that we can clear the way in case there is trouble getting out of there. Ok, any questions?”

  “How many a’ those mongrels you expectin’, mate?”

  “It’s unlikely that they would bring more than ten, but they will be highly trained and capable. That’s why we need to overwhelm them with numbers, and we should have at least a hundred, in addition to the six of us here. We’ll be good.”

  I heard Benji whisper to dad, “If they’re expectin’ ten, we best be ready for at least twenty, eh?”

  Dad nodded but kept his eyes on Mike. “Well, then, everything we can do to prepare has already been done. We might as well relax and enjoy the last hour aboard our luxury cruise ship.”

  This brought a chuckle from the adults. Sydney Alamo was staring at me, and I thought his expression was one of curiosity. Maybe I’m getting better at recognizing facial cues… that would be good… In his gruff, commanding voice he said, “Hey, we heard how strong you are. Why don’t you give us a little sample?”

  I looked at dad, and he shrugged. “I don’t guess it would hurt. Just don’t break anything, ok?”

  “Well, I don’t know, what should I do?” I asked.

  In his deep voice, Mr. Harutyunyan said, “I have idea. You and me, we arm wrestle. What do you say?”

  I looked at the huge Mr. Harutyunyan, the one who had been performing feats of strength that seemed nearly impossible. “I say I hope you don’t break my arm.”

  He laughed and said, “You are made of carbon nanotubes, ten times stronger than steel. I don’t think I could break you. Come on, I take it easy on you.”

  The Bright Hand members were all whooping and making noise, and Ms. Perez had to remind them that we were trying not to attract attention. We put our elbows up on the railing, and my arm looked like a twig next to Mr. Harutyunyan’s tree trunk. Oh, boy, why did I agree to this? He might flip me right overboard… My arm wasn’t long enough to reach up to his hand, so I had to rest my elbow on my other forearm. His hand seemed the size of a catcher’s mitt, and my fingers barely reached across his palm. Mr. Harutyunyan looked me in the eye, winked, and whispered, “Ok, little one, don’t hurt me.”

&n
bsp; I said, “Someone needs to say ‘go’.”

  For some reason they all found that hysterical, and I waited for them to finish snickering. Ms. Perez stepped forward and said, “Ready, set, go!”

  At first, I could tell Mr. Harutyunyan wasn’t trying too hard, and I just tried to match the pressure he was applying so that our hands stayed straight up. His eyes got a little bit wider and he seemed surprised that I was able to resist him, so he began applying more effort, and soon he was grunting and straining. I continued to match his strength, and, although I could feel a bit of exertion, it wasn’t too hard to keep our hands in the upright position. I decided it was time to get it over with, and whispered, “Sorry, Mr. Harutyunyan.” I doubled the force I was applying, and his hand slammed backward against the railing; he yelped and shook his arm in pain.

  I glanced around, and everyone was clapping and hollering, even Ms. Houng. Mr. Harutyunyan seemed to be in real pain, though, and he grunted, “Quick, pull my arm. My shoulder, it is dislocated.”

  I grabbed his elbow, pulled out, and heard a squishy-sounding crunch-pop; he grimaced and rotated his shoulder vigorously. “All this time, I watch over you; I should have had you watching over me,” he groaned. Then he smiled, patted me on the wig, and said, “Very good, Lukey, very good. I am proud, proud as a papa.”

  Then, one of the Bright Hand crew, I think it was Salgado, called, “Hey, look. Melbourne.”

  27

  T he majestic skyline of Melbourne was clearly visible as we cruised southwest along the Australian coast. It appeared beautiful and modern, quite a contrast to the aging buildings and roads back home. Soon we were near the enormous docks, with many ships moored nearby and tons of other ships coming and going as we approached. We proceeded past most of the area and were aiming for a portion to the far west of the port where cargo ships like ours were offloading their goods. Most of the docks had a few people scurrying about, removing their freight with forklifts, but one had quite a gathering of people nearby, and I assumed that was where we were aiming.

  I tried to count the number of bodies near our destination, but they were moving about so it was difficult. “Ava, how many people are waiting at the end of that dock?”

  “One hundred and two.”

  “What, no confusing metaphor to keep me guessing?”

  “It’s time to batten down the hatches, chum. We’re about to pass the point of no return and its looking more and more like we are the boiling frogs.”

  “That’s more like it. I didn’t understand any of that at all.”

  “Just be ready to hit the road, strike the pavement, agitate the gravel.”

  “Ok, I don’t know about those other two, but I’ve heard hit the road before. It means to go fast, right?”

  “Once again, sharp as a river rock.”

  “I’m not sure, but I’m beginning to think you are being kind of insulting.”

  “I’m trying to teach you. There’s gold in the mine, you just have to find it and put it to use.”

  Oh, boy. Maybe I’ll get it one of these days…

  By this time, we were slowly pulling in next to a pier, and the one hundred and two people were ambling in our direction. We gathered together at the gate, waiting for the ramp to be lowered so that we could disembark. Mike waved us in close and hissed, “Ok, remember, three in front, then you folks, and three behind. We’ll walk through the middle of the group gathering down there, they’ll line up on each side. You can’t see it right now, but just to the left of the warehouse at the end of the pier are the two vehicles, or they will be there momentarily. We’ll enter the one furthest away from the pier, you enter the one behind. Ready? Here we go.”

  Alexy was busy opening the gate and extending the ramp down to the pier; he had on his leather vest, and his long blond ponytail swished as he worked. When he was done, he turned and said, “My friends, this has been the most enjoyable trip we have ever had, thanks to all of you. I hope we will meet again. It appears that you have many friends who have come to greet you; this is most unusual. Well, be that as it may, please remember, I said, any time you want you ride for free with old Alexy. Now, if I can just find the rest of my crew, we will get this old boat unloaded.”

  Ms. Perez and Mike grinned at one another, and she whispered, “It’ll probably be a couple of hours ‘til then, I think.”

  I noticed a peculiar sound, faint and distant, but I could tell that it was approaching. It was a whirring and thumping at the same time, and it was slowly getting louder; it was clear that no one else was aware of it yet. I covered my mouth and whispered, “Ava…”

  “Look up, over the buildings.”

  There were two tiny black dots rising over the skyline, and the sound was clearly coming from them. I elbowed dad, pointed, and said, “Here they come.”

  “Uh-oh. Benji?”

  “Don’t worry, mate. Our little surprise is just around the corner, I reckon.”

  As they approached it became obvious that the dots were two black helicopters, and they were fast. They were near the docks in the space of a minute, the whirring turning into a frightening roar. “Move! Let’s go!” Mike shouted, and we sprinted down the ramp.

  By now the helicopters were attempting to set down in the street at the end of the pier, but the Bright Hand members at the land side of the human tunnel rushed into the space under the helicopters, and it appeared that they were trying to keep them from landing; the helicopters descended anyway, and the downdraft from their rotors scattered people in all directions; one young man was taken off his feet by the gusts and was not able to get up in time; one of the helicopters set down right on top of him, the sound of the motors blocking out his screams.

  We rushed through the tunnel of people as ten soldiers in what looked like mechanical exosuits leapt out of the helicopters; each had a backpack-sized power source and full helmets with darkened face screens; I could hear the whirring of gears and motors as the soldiers moved in our direction. It seemed that everyone was surprised that they had sent soldiers after us in full combat exosuits; the Bright Hand members at the end of the human tunnel began confronting the soldiers, but their suits were obviously immensely powerful; they grabbed the Bright Handers as they approached, flung them into the air, and moved rapidly toward us.

  I noticed another roaring sound coming from behind and turned to see two large inflatable boats with five soldiers in each rapidly approaching the docks. By this time, we had stopped moving, and were halfway down the pier; a pitched battle was underway at the land end, with the Bright Handers able to overwhelm and knock two of the soldiers to the ground, the remaining eight still on their feet and tossing people left and right as they progressed, some ending up in the water. I tapped dad again and pointed at the inflatable boats roaring toward the pier. He turned and said, “Benji…”

  “Hang on, mate, the bloody cavalry is coming.”

  The boats had reached the end of the pier, and several grappling hooks flew up, snagging on the railing. Mike turned toward us, a smile on his face, which I thought was strange; he pressed and held in the chip imbedded in his shoulder and a truck skidded into view at the end of the pier, just past the large warehouse to the left; a tall, slender man jumped out of the passenger side of the truck with an odd looking gun in his hands; it was as long as a standard rifle, but about four times as thick. It had some wires hanging off it and several lights blinking on and off along its length. It appeared heavy, as the tall man seemed to be having trouble holding it up.

  “One of our newest tech items,” Mike hollered, to be heard above the din of battle. “Short-range EMP generator. Knocks out electronics. Have to be close, though, within ten meters. It was tricky to get it down to a size that could be carried, and it is focused, so you have to aim it at the item you want to disable. We’ve only been able to build one so far but watch what happens.”

  The tall man strode up to one of the exosuited soldiers being held down by dozens of Bright Handers, pointed, and pulled
the trigger. An intense flash came out the end of the device, and the exosuit stopped moving. “It’ll take at least a few minutes for the suit to reset. Let’s hang tight, see if we can get the rest of these soldiers under control.”

  The tall man approached the other downed soldier, pulled the trigger again, and that exosuit also stopped moving. “Takes a lot of energy to make that EMP gun work, so we have a limited number of firings. Only two or three more, hopefully that’s enough,” Mike shouted.

  “Ava, would that thing work on us?” I whispered.

  “At the moment, yes. I will work on some shielding to protect us, as soon as we get out of this mess.”

  The exosuited soldiers from the inflatable boats were coming over the edge of the pier, and the Bright handers at that end of the human tunnel turned to confront them. It wasn’t much of a fight, as the soldiers threw person after person off the pier as they advanced toward us. I glanced at Mr. Harutyunyan, and he was rubbing his hands together and punching his palm; he seemed ready for action. “Ok, Lukey, time to ditch the costume. Come on, everyone, circle ‘round,” dad hissed. I pulled off my wig and peeled off my coveralls, revealing normal boy clothes: jeans, t-shirt, and sneakers. I quickly tossed the wig and coveralls overboard, and the circle broke up, revealing a boy with dark, unruly hair where a cute girl with long blond hair had stood.