We called Mike, Ms. Perez, Mr. Kane, and his bodyguards back in and dad told them of our decision. Mr. Kane folded his arms and said, “I must say I’m surprised, and a bit concerned for Lukey’s safety. He’s one of a kind, and we don’t want to take foolish chances. Obviously, you know his capabilities much better than I, and I must trust your judgment; still, before we commence, I would feel much relieved if we were able to see one or two more displays of Lukey’s abilities. Perhaps I could see him run, see an example of his reactions. Well, alright, there are some logistics to take care of, and if we are going down this path, we will need to get Lukey on a plane very soon. The air strip I told you about earlier? There is a second corporate jet on our side of the Pacific, ready to take Lukey to Lancaster. From there we can whisk him down to San Diego to be ready when the sub arrives. I will send one of my operatives with him, either Ms. Perez or Mr. Marsh, and one of you can go as well, although we’ll have you wait in Lancaster for their return trip. Dr. Taylor, I assume you will be accompanying Lukey?”
Dad laced his fingers together almost as if he were praying. “I would love to go, but I think it would be best for Minh to go instead. Minh, what do you say?”
Her eyes were teary again, as she said, “Oh, yes. I will like to go. Yes, please.”
Mr. Kane clapped his hands together, and said, “Great. Now, why don’t we go down into the main room, and you can show me a few more of your skills, eh, Lukey?”
A few moments later we strode across the main floor of the immense cavern and stopped at the end of one of the roads bisecting it. “This throughway is almost exactly eight hundred meters long, making an up-and-back trip approximately sixteen hundred meters. The world’s record for the sixteen-hundred-meter run is three minutes, thirty-six seconds. Let’s see how you do. Ready?’”
“Sure, just tell me when to go.”
“Ok, just a moment… ready, go.”
I sprinted off and soon was close to full speed. As I approached the opposite end, I skidded and spun at the same time, so that I could get going in the opposite direction as quickly as possible. I was half-way back when I felt something coming from the left; a golf cart was speeding down the path perpendicular to me, and it and I were going to reach the intersection at the same time. The driver was looking down, and I knew he would not see me soon enough to stop, so as I reached the intersection I jumped, sailing over the golf cart as the driver screamed; I flipped and landed on my feet, still running at full speed. A few seconds later I slid to a stop in front of Mr. Kane and said, “How did I do?”
Mr. Kane glanced at dad, who shrugged, and then he burst out in laughter. “You just broke the world’s record by two minutes. In street clothes and having to stop at the far end and turn around and having to jump over a golf cart on the way back. I think I’ve seen enough; let’s get you folks to the jet. Sorry, we’ll have to repeat the blindfold on the way there, I think you understand. Dr. Taylor, Dr. Walker, Ms. Early, if you would be good with remaining here until the mission is complete, we will have limited monitoring of the proceedings.”
Dad and Benji exchanged eye contact, then looked at Tarni, who continued to only have eyes for dad. “I’m ok if you are,” she said.
“Yeah, why not. We can get the lay of the land, see what kinda mischief these hoons are up to.”
Dad’s forehead creased for a moment, then he said, “Very well. I would like to accompany Lukey to the air strip, though.”
Mr. Kane said, “I think that’s acceptable. Good, let’s get underway.”
38
W e slid into the comfortable SUV, pulled on our hoods, and sped out of the cavern’s parking garage. Mike was driving, Ms. Perez in the front passenger street, and soon we were bounding across the outback again, this time heading west. To keep myself occupied I activated my heads-up display so that I could tell our direction. After about an hour of westward travel we made an abrupt turn north and were now on a smooth road. There was little talk as we progressed, and I went over in my mind as many scenarios as I could think of for how the rescue might go. I thought it was a bad sign that in most of the alternatives we got caught.
After three hours heading north, we made another sudden turn and were heading east again, into the outback. My heads-up display was indicating some changes in altitude, so we were obviously going through a hilly area. Eventually we turned north again and came to a stop.
“Ok, this is it. Lukey, Ms. Houng, say your goodbyes. The Jet is spinning up.” We pulled off our hoods, and in front of us were a couple of small buildings, one hangar, and a long strip of asphalt heading east. The small airport sat in a surrounding bowl of hills, and it seemed that it would be difficult to access. The hangar door was open, and a small jet was rolling forward; it had four passenger windows on each side, so I guessed that it would seat eight plus the pilot.
Dad put his arm around my shoulder and said, “Lukey, don’t take any unnecessary chances, ok? If you get into a spot, trust Ava; go into Control Mode. Go now, before my second-guessing overwhelms me.” Then he hugged me and whispered, “That’s my boy. I love you, son.” It seemed like he couldn’t say anything else for a minute, and I thought that was weird.
Finally, he said, “Minh, the next time I see you I expect to see Mard standing right beside. If it’s possible to get him out, Lukey will do it.”
He gave her a hug as well, and she said, “Ok, John. Thank you for sending me. We see you soon.”
We ran for the jet as dad got in the front seat of the car next to Ms. Perez. I heard him say, “Do I really have to wear this bag on my head?” as we stepped into the jet.
We stowed our gear, buckled in to comfortable seats, and Mike, seated in front of us, turned and handed us our head bags. “Sorry, guys, you can take them off in half an hour. We’ll be far enough by then that you won’t be able to tell where we are. I know, seems silly, but them’s the rules.”
“It’s ok, we’re used to it by now,” I replied.
Ms. Houng found that funny for some reason, and she giggled as she pulled on her bag.
As we taxied up the asphalt it occurred to me that, aside from the short, scary ride in the VTOL craft, this was the first time I had ever flown. It didn’t make me afraid, but maybe just a little bit nervous, especially since I couldn’t see where we were going. It was strange, though… as we sped down the runway the acceleration was obvious, and when we lifted off, I don’t know, I guess I expected it to feel different, but aside from being a bit smoother and angling up it felt the same. Ms. Houng reached out and took my hand, which made me uncomfortable, but I didn’t pull away because I assumed, she was more nervous than me and needed some support. When we finally leveled off, she let my hand go, patted me on the shoulder, and said, “Thank you, Lukey.”
We settled in for a long flight, and before too long both Mike and Ms. Houng were asleep. I spent some time quietly talking to Ava and getting her to go over scenarios for our rescue of Mr. Harutyunyan, and a lot of her scenarios also ended up with us failing miserably. “This is not making me feel too confident,” I whispered.
“Confidence is overrated. Unrealistic confidence has led to many of the world’s ills, you know. The idiom is that pride goes before a fall, but the same is true of overconfidence. No matter how many scenarios we imagine, it will likely go some way we haven’t foreseen, so best to be flexible, think and act quickly, be ready to take a different tack.”
“I need to take a tack with me? Will I be pinning something to a wall?”
“No, it’s a sailing metaphor. It means… oh, never mind. Please, great computer in the sky, give me patience.”
“Ok, let me guess. That’s… frustration?”
She didn’t answer, which I guess is still a kind of answer.
We stopped at some place in Indonesia to top off the fuel for the long trip across the pacific. As we waited, Mike said, “We’ll be running of fumes when we get to Lancaster. Better use the facilities while we’re here, anything to lighten the load
a little. Spit on the ground a few times, leave your socks behind, whatever.” Ms. Houng laughed, but as usual I wasn’t sure why it was funny; what he said made sense. I didn’t leave my socks, but I did do the rest of the stuff he recommended, and soon we were back in the air heading east-northeast toward the US.
I continued to ask Ava questions on various topics, and eventually it got around to things my nano-bot body could do that I wasn’t aware of yet. “So, I can control my hair if I concentrate, make different shapes out of it. Also, when I was fighting with the guys on Alexy’s ship it felt like my hands and legs stretched out a little bit to make better contact with their heads. Did that really happen, or did it just seem that way?”
“No, it’s real; you’re a regular Stretch Armstrong. Before you ask, that was a toy from long ago where the arms and legs would stretch to several multiples of their normal length.”
“Oh. So, how does it happen? I mean, can I control it? What else can I do?”
“In a fight-or-flight, high adrenaline situation, the body will react as it needs to protect you and itself. It becomes survival of the fittest, and we are the fittest. There are some other limited shape-shifting options, and you could control it through extreme concentration, or you could ask me to control it. I have skills, you know.”
“What are some of the… what did you call it? Shape-shifting options?”
Ava sang a little tune before answering, which I thought was weird: “Come with me, and you’ll be, in a world of pure imagination… think of some things you would like to be able to do, then ask me.”
“Ok… what if I wanted to reach something that was up high; say, three meters. Could I do that?”
“Your arms and legs could stretch enough to reach more than four meters if need be. Come on, be creative. That assignment was a breeze.”
That assignment was a breeze… there’s no wind in here at all… it must mean something else…
Because of my hesitation, she must have known that I was trying to figure out what she meant, because she said, “It was easy. Keep going.”
“I knew that, I was just testing you. Umm… how about this: can I see behind my head?”
“Ahh, that’s more like it. But the answer is no; the material around your face and head is more static. Your dad didn’t want your appearance changing so only minor variations are possible in that region. Too bad… it would have been fun to turn your face into a Picasso painting, at least short-term. The thing is, your system is sensing in all directions, so in a way you can see behind your head.”
“Hm. Here’s a good one: can I fly?”
“Hang on a moment, Rocket Man, let me check… well, you can’t exactly fly like an eagle, but you could float pretty well, like a hang glider. Your arms and legs can flatten out, catch the wind, and keep you aloft for quite a while.”
“Whoa, that’s cool. What if I attached a motor to my back?”
“Well yes, then you could fly, but that would be cheating. It might be fun, though.”
Wow… I’m going to have to try that soon… “So, my… skin, outer surface, whatever you call it, can stop a bullet. How big of a bullet can it stop?”
“There are limits, but it will outperform the best bulletproof materials out there. Here’s the thing, though… in your extremities, rather than stop the bullets, your system will react by letting the bullets pass right through. It will only try to stop bullets or other projectiles in the area of your torso and head, where your biological parts still exist. It would take the proverbial silver bullet to bring us down.”
“I doubt that anyone would try to shoot us with silver bullets. That would be too expensive, and silver’s too soft… oh wait, that was another metaphor, right?”
“Right as rain, my little tadpole.”
Right as rain? What… oh, boy.
It was a long flight, and there was plenty of time to continue chatting. As we got closer to the US, Mike talked to me about how the mission would go, but everything he said I had already gone over twenty times both in my head and in talking to Ava. “So, you got all that?” he asked as he reached the end, and although I’m not sure, it seemed like there was a little doubt in his voice.
“Yeah, I got it. I have the world’s greatest memory.”
“That’s what I like about you, kid. You’re humble.”
I didn’t understand what he meant. What I said was true, but it’s because I have Ava attached to my brain. Are you not supposed to say something if it’s true? These things are so confusing…
Ms. Houng smiled at me, patted me on the shoulder, and whispered, “Don’t worry, Lukey. I trust you. I believe in you. I help make you, I know what you can do. This is only reason I agree with letting you do this. Mardi would not agree, but he will be happy to be free. He saved us, now you save him, ok?”
She had tears in her eyes again, but this time I almost felt like I understood why.
39
W e flew past the California coast and into the southern desert, over a large town seemingly in the middle of nowhere, which I assumed was Lancaster, and circled behind a series of hills several kilometers to the west of the town. Below was a secluded landing strip and a single hangar; we landed and taxied up and into the hangar, the massive doors closing behind us.
As we hustled down the steps, Mike said, “Ok, we’ve got a long drive ahead of us, and our estimates are that the sub will arrive tonight at about nine p.m. We have a couple of old friends on the mission with us, too.”
Another jet was also in the hangar, although it was somewhat larger than ours, and on the other side of that jet was an ancient-looking SUV with faded blue paint and rust in spots on the exterior. In the driver’s seat was Chi Kim, and in the front passenger’s seat was Salgado. Both were dressed in dirty, disheveled clothing and Salgado had a couple of weeks’ worth of facial hair growth. They hopped out of the car and Mike ran over to greet them, shaking hands and high-fiving. Even Chi Kim, who seemed totally serious and reserved when we met him on Alexy’s boat, had a big grin on his face. What is it about him? Something is off…
Mike held his mouth open, so they could see the gap where his front tooth had been, and they roared, slapping one another on the back and high-fiving again.
Holding his hands up for quiet, Mike said, “Let’s get serious now. Chi, you show Ms. Houng where she can wait, make sure she has some food and water. Salgado, you have my homeless clothes?”
Salgado held up a bag and his thumb, and Mike stripped off his clothes as he continued, “Lukey, time to get your costume on. There’s a bathroom right around that corner if you’re shy.”
I’m not shy, but my body builds up gas over time, and it was time to let it out. It doesn’t make the same kind of sound as a normal passing of gas; it’s a mild whistling, but it does come out of the same orifice. It smells more like a mixture of oil and burning plastic than anything, and I try to avoid other people when it’s time because I assume it would not be very pleasant for them for a minute or two.
I went around the stairway and entered the tiny bathroom. Ms. Houng and Chi Kim walked around in the room above as I released my waste gas and changed into dirty, torn girl’s clothing that I had borrowed from Tarni (although borrowed is probably the wrong word, as I doubted that I would be returning them.) They consisted of a flowery, heavily-wrinkled sleeveless shirt, holey jeans that were just a bit too short, and rhinestone flip flops with a few rhinestones missing. I took out my blond wig and plopped it down on my head, looked in the mirror, and decided that I would try to look even a little more like a girl if I could.
“Ava, can you do something to make me look a bit more like a fourteen-year-old girl?”
“Oh, looking to attract a boyfriend?”
“What? No, I think they’ll be less likely to fight as hard if they think I’m a girl.”
“Oh, my. That was sexist on both of our parts. You are probably right, though, sexist or not, so let’s see… how about this?”
I felt some s
ubtle changes happening and looked in the mirror. My chest had gotten a tiny bit larger, my behind stuck out a tiny bit more, and my waist was a little thinner; my eyebrows were slightly thinner as well. I didn’t look a lot different, but definitely more girlish, and I thought it would probably fool anyone, even people who knew me. It looked good but felt weird at the same time.
I walked out of the restroom and back toward the old SUV, and Mike’s eyes were wide as he watched me approach. “Lukey, is that you? How did you do that?”
“My body is made of nano-bots, remember? I can get them to change shape to a certain extent, and I thought I should try to look more like a girl to make sure that we fool the soldiers.”
He grinned, his one remaining front tooth shining. “I don’t think you’ll have any problem fooling them. Get in, it’s time.”
Chi Kim and I climbed into the back and Mike and Salgado in the front. Moments later we were peeling out of the hangar, and once again it turned out that this was an old vehicle that had been retrofitted with an electric engine, as we made almost no sound as we tore across the dirt road leading away from the secluded airstrip.
I was just thinking that over the last couple of days I had spent a lot of time bouncing along through desert trails, when we reached a highway and sped south into the hills, northeast of the Riverside area. It was just as hot here as it was in the Australian outback, maybe hotter. There was a lot of nervous chatter in the car, with Mike repeatedly going over the plans for our mission. “You have all of your tech?” He asked Chi Kim and Salgado.
“Yep,” they both grunted.
It got suddenly quiet, and all three had grim, serious faces. We drove that way for at least another hour, and Mike suddenly said, “Hey Lukey, how long can you keep your appearance like that?”
“You mean more like a girl? I don’t know, but probably quite a while. Why?”
“Oh, I just thought if you kept it that way for too long one of these guys is going to ask you out on a date.”
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