Five Tribes

by Brian Nelson

  He felt someone’s hand in his.

  He looked down to see Karuma beside him, a look of joy and amazement on the boy’s face. He looked east toward the Capitol Building then turned toward the Washington Monument. “So many people! How can it be?” Eric smiled. Their roles had been reversed. Now Karuma was the visitor and he was the native, showing him his world.

  Then a cold wind hit them, and he felt a sudden dimming of the light as if a cloud had blocked the sun. Eric looked out over the lawn toward the Lincoln Memorial. It was then he saw it.

  Oh no, not again. A shock wave rolled across the lawn—a blurry, expanding ring of force, racing toward them. As it touched each person they fell, but there were no screams, no cries. It reached Eric and Karuma, like a hot wind, blowing their hair up and pulling at his clothes. He held tight to Karuma’s hand, but suddenly the hand was gone. He looked down. There was only a sprinkling of dirt in his palm.

  He looked around. Everyone was gone.

  Then he heard a deep moaning from above and looked up to see a dozen massive white balls streak across the sky, each one leaving a long contrail of black smoke behind it. Satellites. Something was pulling them back to earth. The buildings along the National Mall began to dissolve, disintegrating into the ground. He realized that humanity and all its creations were being erased. Cars and streetlights. Roads and sidewalks. Everything was being disassembled. Almost immediately grass began to grow up around him, reaching his knees then his hips. The trees grew taller and thicker. And the air became heavy with moisture. Soon he was standing in thick jungle, with vines and moss all around. He heard the growl of an animal and knew he was not safe. He began to run and almost immediately heard the rush of something large bounding after him.

  He awoke with a start, back in Africa, back in blindness.

  He tried to catch his breath, but his heart was beating so fast that it took many minutes.

  It’s just a dream. Relax. But it was not the first time he’d had the dream. It had come once before, when he’d returned from China. After he’d seen the Inventor.

  He realized now that he had become so absorbed in his immediate survival he had stopped thinking about the man who had saved his life five months ago.

  The memory of their meeting came back in lucid detail. The windswept crossroads. Surrounded by Chinese soldiers. General Meng had finally caught them. Eric had been clutching Mei in his arms, and the general had a pistol to his head, about to kill them both. It seemed there was no escape. That’s when he’d felt a cool sensation under his skull and suddenly he couldn’t move or breathe. It had happened to all of them, including Meng and his soldiers. They had been hacked. Someone (or something) had sent nanosites into their bodies and was controlling them. Then the Inventor had appeared. He had let Eric, Mei, and Ryan live, but he had killed everyone else, sadistically, brutally.

  And the dream? It had first come a few days later. At that time he’d suspected the Inventor’s nanosites were still in his body, and the dream was some sort of message. But as time had gone by, he’d dismissed that idea. It was just a nightmare brought on by the stress of almost dying, of seeing Meng and all his soldiers killed, and seeing the Inventor’s unprecedented power.

  But why had the dream come again, and why with Karuma by his side? He supposed it made sense on some level. He was far from the world he knew, blind and afraid. He had gone to sleep fearing he would be abandoned. So it was natural to dream of “the end of the world.” Yet he could not help thinking that his mind was trying to tell him something.

  He lay there for a time, arm over his forehead, trying to understand what it meant. Until he heard Karuma’s voice. “Moon-man! It is time to get up.” He felt Karuma’s hand shaking his shoulder. Eric was so grateful to hear his voice, for it was only a few moments ago that the boy had died beside him.

  “Come on!” the boy said. Eric stood and Karuma took his hand. “It is a beautiful day, but it will be hot again. Come, I’m hungry.”

  Over seven thousand miles away, in Admiral Curtiss’s office, “The Chinese are still looking,” Sawyer told Curtiss. “They had four sorties out today, one forty klicks from the crash site.”

  Curtiss looked at the image of Master Chief Nathan Sawyer on his iSheet. “And what about you? Anything?”

  “Since it was our first day back, we started at the crash site. The Chinese trashed it, of course, so we didn’t find anything useful. After that, we visited two other areas we know the Chinese haven’t looked. Right now I’m staying near the Cubango River. If Eric was smart enough to stay near the river basin where he’d have water and tree cover, he could still be alive. But if he wandered west, well, it gets very arid very fast . . . It would be hard for anyone to survive out there alone.”

  “Roger. Have you talked to Jane?”

  “I was hoping you could do that for me.”

  Curtiss nodded. “Fair enough.”

  “Oh, and Admiral, thanks for getting the aid to the Namibians. I’ve been going crazy on that damn boat.”

  “Don’t mention it. Just do your best to find Hill. The way things are going here, I’m going to need all the allies I can get.”

  “Copy that.”

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Olivia’s Secret

  November 15, 2026

  Washington, DC

  “Hey! Hey!”

  Ryan Lee swiveled around in his chair to find Olivia Rosario beaming. “I got good news!” she said, her eyes widening, clearly excited, but wanting to draw it out.

  In the four days since he had confronted her, they had been spending most of their workdays together, and while she had talked no more of her secret, the friendship between them had only grown stronger.

  Ryan smiled at her. He leaned back in his chair and put his hands behind his head. “Oh yeah?”

  She opened her mouth to speak then paused for effect. Making him wait.

  He couldn’t help but smile wider. “Go on, spit it out!”

  “We got approval for the Global Hologram!” She lifted up her arms and did a little dance.

  Ryan laughed. “You’re kidding. I thought Curtiss would never go for it.”

  “Well, in the end, he didn’t have much of a choice. Walden and Garrett pretty much made him give us a shot! The only catch is that we have six weeks to get something together that will impress him. If we can’t, then he can pull the plug.”

  “Whew! Six weeks?”

  “I know, I know, but don’t worry, we are going to make history!”

  He smiled. “Well done, Olivia Rosario!”

  She sat down next to him and gave him another warm smile. “Hey, I was thinking, why don’t you come over tonight? Sort of a celebration, but I also want you to meet someone.”

  “Emma?” Ryan said, referring to Olivia’s nine-year-old daughter, whose picture was proudly displayed throughout her office.

  “Yeah, I think it’s time.”

  Three hours later, Ryan was following her through the plush lobby of her Rosslyn high-rise. As he looked at the beautiful woman in front of him—the sway of her hips, her silky black hair, the way her calves balled and flexed—he once again had the feeling that life was good.

  They took the elevator to the fourteenth floor, and Olivia opened her door. “Hello! Anybody here?” she called playfully.

  Ryan heard a woman reply, “We’re in the bedroom.”

  He followed Olivia down a long hallway. There they found an older woman and . . . Ryan was startled by what he saw. Olivia’s daughter was in a wheelchair, slouched and emaciated, her mouth ajar and her eyes open but vacant. It was a startling contrast to all the pictures he’d seen.

  Olivia rushed to her and squeezed her tight.

  “Hello, mi vida! How was your day?” Ryan noticed that Olivia did not wait for an answer. “Oh, wow, who did your hair? You look so pretty!”

&nb
sp; “Oh, yes,” the older woman said. “She really enjoyed that.”

  “I bet!” she gave the girl a loud kiss.

  Olivia introduced the woman. “Natalie, this is my friend, Ryan.”

  “Nice to meet you, Natalie.”

  “It’s a pleasure,” Natalie said. They shook hands.

  “And this is my daughter, Emma.”

  “Hello,” Ryan smiled and waved awkwardly, but the girl made no response.

  “Will you be needing anything else, Miss R?”

  “No, Natalie, thank you so much. I couldn’t do it without you.” Olivia embraced her.

  “Oh, it’s my pleasure. I’ll be in my room if you need me.” The nurse kissed Emma on both cheeks. “I’ll see you later, darling,” and quietly left the room.

  Olivia turned to him: “Ryan, why don’t you push her to the living room.”

  “Of course,” Ryan said.

  Olivia went ahead of him into the living room and opened up the blinds that stretched across one side of the room. The vista that was revealed was breathtaking—an amazing night view of the Potomac River that spanned from Georgetown to the Kennedy Center. “She loves to look out the windows,” Olivia said. She lifted the girl onto the sofa then sat beside her, letting the girl slouch against her. She began tenderly caressing the girl’s head, and for a few moments they took in the view. There was a dinner cruise boat sliding south down the river and the opposing streams of red and white car lights crossing the Key Bridge.

  Ryan glanced again at Emma, who still did not seem aware that he was there.

  “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “I’m sorry. It’s just that sometimes I don’t even want to say it. It makes it too real . . . too permanent.” She sighed. “It’s called Alexander’s Disease. It’s a defective gene that affects nerve cells.”

  “I’m sorry, Olivia. This must be very hard.”

  She nodded. “Just two years ago, she was a perfectly normal seven-year-old, then she started falling for no apparent reason. It took the doctors ten months to diagnose her because it’s so rare. There have only been five hundred cases reported since the ’40s.”

  “Is there anything you can do?”

  She pinched her lips and shook her head. “The defective gene affects the myelin that insulates her neurons. As the myelin grows weaker, her nerve impulses fail.”

  It was a heartbreaking story, and Ryan wondered if there was some way to help her.

  Then for the first time, the girl moved. She shifted her head so that her mother could scratch the other side.

  “You see? She’s still in there. She can’t talk but she knows what’s going on.” Ryan nodded and smiled, though he suspected this was wishful thinking. He had studied neurology for years to become better at AI and he knew it was unlikely she was still cognizant. With degenerative neural disorders, higher brain function, such as speech, often went first, then they slowly worked their way to the lower brain, affecting swallowing, breathing, and finally the major muscle groups and the heart. From what he was seeing, the girl couldn’t have more than a year to live.

  “Any seizures?” he asked.

  “Not yet, but the doctors say they’re coming.” She looked him straight in the eye. “I’m scared, Ryan. Once they start, the brain damage will accelerate.”

  He nodded. “I’m so sorry.” It was the only thing he could think to say. He watched Olivia gently caress Emma until the girl nodded off.

  When Olivia was certain she was asleep, she produced an iSheet and handed it to Ryan. It was a video of Emma playing soccer. It was a bright fall day, and the field was surrounded by brilliant red and copper trees. Emma dribbled around one defender and then another. Ryan immediately recognized her mother’s gracefulness in the girl’s movements. Emma dodged one more defender, then shot the ball into the net. Olivia and the rest of the crowd cheered. Emma ran up to her mother, grinning from ear to ear. “Did you see me, mom? Did you see me?”

  Her mother laughed. “Yes, I saw you! You’re fantastic!”

  “Can I get an extra scoop of ice cream now?”

  “We’ll see,” Olivia said, “now go on back, they’re about to start again.”

  The girl ran off.

  Ryan stopped the video. This was the girl he’d expected to meet. The one in all the pictures in Olivia’s office. Not the one lying across from him on the sofa.

  Olivia scooted out from under Emma’s head then nestled her under a blanket. “Come on,” she said. “I need a drink.”

  They went to the kitchen, and she made them something strong with whiskey, then they went out on the balcony.

  “To numbing our brains,” she said, raising her glass.

  Ryan drank and felt the warm liquor coating his throat and stomach.

  “I could use a hug,” she said.

  He embraced her and together they looked out at the nation’s capital. The cool wind that blew against them contrasted with the warmth of their body heat.

  “Thank you for coming,” she said. “Now do you understand why I work so hard?”

  Ryan nodded his agreement reflexively then stopped himself. “But if there’s no cure, you should be working less. You should be spending as much time . . .” He stopped.

  “I’m sorry, Ryan. I have a confession to make. I didn’t come to the NRL to advance my career. I came here for you.”

  He pulled away from her. Was it the whiskey that was making his head spin?

  “I wasn’t sure when I got here if you were really the one, but now I know. What you did in Tangshan, the leaps you’ve made in AI development combined with your understanding of Forced Evolution. You’re the only one who can help me.”

  “Hold on a second. Does Walden know about this?”

  She shook her head. “Walden sees what he wants to see: an ambitious tech entrepreneur.”

  “And who exactly did he hire?”

  She looked out at the skyline a moment then fixed him with her gaze. “A desperate mother. Look, I’m not asking you to do anything illegal. I just need your help to find out if it’s possible. You can make iPS cells from Emma’s tissue. That’s harmless. Test it on those. That will tell us if it could work. If it doesn’t, you can forget about it. But if it does work, then I’ll go to Walden and Curtiss.”

  “You know I can’t do that.”

  “Of course you can, you’re Ryan Lee. They’d never fire you. They need you. And besides, all you have to do is tell them I told you to do it and I’ll take the blame.”

  Ryan shook his head. This was crazy. “Even if I could do it, there’s only a tiny chance of it working. The damage you’re describing is extensive and likely permanent.” He didn’t want to say it, but he felt she needed to hear it: “It’s probably too late already.”

  “Please don’t say that; I know it’s not. And yes, it can work! Don’t you see? All the pieces are already here.” She counted off with her fingers. “Recognition tunneling can read each gene in vivo. The virus programs can be used for gene therapy. Eric’s proofreading program can find the errors. And forced evolution will be smart enough to not only correct Emma’s genes but repair the damage to the myelin sheath. Ninety percent of the work is done. It just needs your skill as a programmer to put it all together.”

  He couldn’t stop shaking his head. At least now he understood why she’d been so interested in their nanotech files. “I don’t know. This is all happening too fast.”

  “I know, you’re absolutely right. I wish we could take our time, but that’s a luxury I don’t have.”

  “I—” he began, but couldn’t look at her and say it. He glanced away. “I thought you liked me. I mean, really liked me.”

  He looked back, and her expression showed she seemed hurt by this. “Oh, Ryan, please don’t doubt that. I do like you.” She took his hand and put it to her heart. “I’m not fak
ing this. You’re cute and funny and so insanely smart. You’re the first person I’ve met who knows more about AI than me, and that’s sexy.”

  She paused, seeing that he wasn’t convinced. “It’s also the reason I’m telling you the truth. I could have waited to introduce you to Emma. I could have let this get physical first. I’m trying to be honest, but I also know I’m desperate.”

  Ryan pulled his hand away. “I just need some time to think about it.” His eyes darted around like an animal looking for a place to bolt. “I’d better go.”

  “Please don’t.” She reached out for his hand again. “I know it’s sudden and my emotions are all mixed up, too, but let’s at least talk this through and . . . and stay . . . at least a little longer.”

  But Ryan pulled away and left the balcony. This time she didn’t try to stop him.

  It was gloomy, almost dark in the living room. He went to grab his coat, which he’d left on the chair across from Emma. As he picked it up he realized he’d left the iSheet there, propped up against the back of the seat. He thought he’d turned it off, but now he saw he’d only muted it. The video of the girl playing soccer had been repeating this whole time. He picked the device up, turned it off and tossed it back on the seat. As he was pulling on his coat, he looked down at the sleeping girl and was surprised to see her eyes open and her cheeks wet with tears.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  The Water Hole

  November 16, 2026

  Namibia

  They walked for the following two days. Despite his stiffness, Eric found he did surprisingly well. As always, Karuma took good care of him, holding his hand at times and always making sure he didn’t stumble or fall. Eric simultaneously hated his neediness and was grateful for Karuma’s care.

  On the morning of the fourth day, Karuma cautioned him.

  “This is your last egg of water. After this, there is no more.”

  It was stifling hot again, and by noon he had only a few ounces left. He gave a long sigh. How was he going to make it?