In the safe house, Ramon also gave each of them an MP3 player with a recording of Jorge and Maria’s voices. Kyle started to ask how the recordings were obtained but changed his mind before saying anything. “The condo is stocked with food, but I can bring you takeout if you would like,” offered Ramon.
“What would you say to Chinese, Kyle?” asked Annette.
“That sounds like a safe bet,” answered Kyle. Annette wrote down some of their favorites on a notepad by the phone and handed it to Ramon.
“Enjoy it while you can. You will have to learn about Mexican food before you leave. And you will have to learn how to cook it,” instructed Ramon looking at Annette. Ramon ordered the meal using his cell phone and left to pick it up. While Ramon was gone, Kyle and Annette explored their temporary home. It was small but clean and new. There was a decent home entertainment system and a large library of DVDs and CDs. I’m going to miss my home and garden,” sighed Annette.
“To me, home is where you are,” responded Kyle as he took his lovely wife in his arms. “Do you think it will be OK if Jorge and Maria get married?”
“I don’t think so. Weddings draw a lot of attention. Maybe we will have to be naughty and just shack up.”
Their playful flirtation was interrupted as they heard Ramon come in. They thanked Ramon and he departed, after snagging an egg roll. “What do you say we eat in bed and watch a movie?” asked Annette.
“You got it babe.”
Chapter 27 – Saving a Life
Annette almost instantly had her new identity integrated into her programming. She could speak exactly like Maria, at least the words that were on the recording. She could extrapolate the rest. Kyle took only a couple of days to get the facts down. At Annette’s insistence, they spoke entirely in Spanish after the first week and called each other Maria and Jorge. She knew that she could do her part without mistake, but she wanted to give Kyle all of the help that she could. Kyle had developed a technique to directly program information into his brain over a year ago, but with Annette’s help, he learned how to adjust specific areas of the brain to perform their tasks differently. They were able to actually change Kyle’s accent to be like Jorge’s. What was even more impressive was that they built in a sort of switch in Kyle’s brain so that he could switch back and forth between his normal accent and Jorge’s. Annette cut their hair to match the styles that Jorge and Maria had worn. Kyle’s hair was now black, even at the roots. Annette had always had dark hair, but it also turned black. Their skin had taken on a light brown color. Kyle wrote his new mother a postcard explaining that he had gotten into serious trouble with the law and was in hiding. Annette did the same. Ramon mailed the cards from a far way state while on a trip.
Both Maria and Jorge had been college graduates. Maria had a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing. Jorge had a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry. Although Annette was a medical doctor, she still needed to learn some information and skills associated with nursing. Kyle needed to add some to his knowledge of chemistry. Each needed to learn about the schools their IDs attended, what teachers they had and even what classmates they might have had. It was important that their IDs were college graduates so that they could be admitted into the CIA training program for "clandestine service operations officers", as the CIA liked to call them. Ramon had already taken care of admitting them into the program. Ramon checked in on the future agents every few days. He was very impressed with their progress. He could not believe how fast they picked up the accents and the language. He dropped in on them after 19 days. After Kyle unloaded some fresh groceries from his arms, Ramon offered, “I think that I can significantly shorten your official training if you each knew Arabic and a little Russian. I do not have a cover story of how you would know these languages. Maybe you could say that you did a computer study course on your own or had a lover that spoke the language or something. What do you think?”
“We would need an extra week of preparation,” responded Annette. “Of course, Kyle will need a few more weeks to become fluent. You will need to bring us some training programs just so we have a good cover story. I will have to invent some Russian lovers for us.”
“What do you think Kyle?”
“If Maria says that we can do it, we will. She is never wrong about these things or anything else for that matter.” Kyle realized that he probably seemed hen pecked. At his size and strength, he did not feel like his manhood was threatened. However, he had already met and exceeded every goal in life that he ever had, and much of it was due to this unique combination of computer, beauty and clever brilliance that was his wife. His wife kept him very happy and he was thrilled to play whatever game she wanted to play. Especially when they would be serving the country that had given them so much. Despite his happiness, he wondered what would happen if he ever crossed the woman that he loved. He was afraid to challenge Annette, yet part of him wanted to, just to see how she would react. How deep and resilient was her love, he wondered.
Somehow, Kyle had imagined the initial training to be like Army boot camp. It was not. He and Annette posing as Jorge and Maria were treated as professionals. They were not humiliated, shouted at or belittled in any way. However, they were aggressively trained intellectually and physically. Both were fast learners academically. Even without computer assist, Kyle had always learned fast. Annette had been far sharper intellectually than most realized before her computerization and now she was unsurpassed in learning ability of things both intellectual and physical. She picked up physical combat instruction almost instantly. She was always the star of the class. Jorge always seemed to need a night to sleep on it to pick up the physical skills. Each night Annette transmitted to him information for nightly absorption that was uniquely tailored to his physique.
The Jameses communicated using their built in radios each night, but Kyle ached for Annette’s physical affection after only a few days. Since marrying Annette, he had been almost surfeited with romance from his beautiful wife. “Almost”, because for a man of his temperament that had lived celibate for over a quarter of a century there could not be too much of a good thing. He just reminded himself that he was doing this for the love of his live. Kyle was temporarily living in a modest motel until the apartment that he had located became available next month. As he exercised while watching the true “opiate of the masses”, television, there came a knock at the door. “House keeping,” uttered a middle-aged female voice with a strong Mexican accent.
“Come in,” commanded Kyle who grasped a one gallon can of black olives in each of his large hands. He had found that by doing arm rolls and other gyrations he could get a good upper-body work out without special equipment. He heard a key turn in the lock. A plump looking cleaning lady entered.
“Pardon me, Señor. I have clean sheets,” explained the woman as she walked to the bedroom.
“No problema, Señora. Gracias por su atención a mis necesidades,” (No problem, madam. Thank you for your attention to my needs) responded Kyle, practicing his habit of treating all in society with dignity and kindness. Kyle could hear the woman making his bed. After a few minutes, he heard the woman call out.
“Ayuda, por favor,” (Help, please) came the request from the bedroom. Kyle put down the cans and muted the TV, wondering what help the maid could need. He walked into the bedroom. Lying in the bed now made up with red silk sheets was Annette, dressed in a black teddy. A fat-suit leaned against the wall in a corner. Annette looked up at him seductively. “I’ve missed you my love.”
Incredulous, still not believing his eyes, Kyle asked, “Was that you that came a few minutes ago?”
“It’s me baby, 40 grams of silicon and not one ounce of silicone.”
The next morning Kyle was tired but happy. Annette had stayed until about 5 AM. Over the next few weeks, Annette found ways to be with Kyle. She repeated the maid act several times and at the agency occasionally reached out with an arm and pulled in Kyle as he walked by a closet door. There were no silk s
heets, but Kyle certainly did not complain. Kyle knew that few, if any wives, were this good to their husbands. He did not know how long his good fortune would continue, but he was going to enjoy every second of it. After Kyle moved into his apartment, Jorge asked Maria out on a date and she soon moved in with him, much to the disappointment of the other men in training.
Once those in charge of training became aware of Jorge and Maria’s extraordinary language attainments and capabilities there was a move to accelerate their training and get them into action as soon as possible. The plan was to still have them graduate with their class but pull them out of class for a pre-graduation mission. Medical personnel were being kidnapped by the Taliban in Afghanistan at an alarming rate. Others in the CIA were not so sure that Jorge and Maria were ready to pose as Arabians working in Afghanistan. They were sure that they would speak with American accents. When they heard Maria and Jorge speak Arabic, they could not believe their ears. There was no trace of an American accent.
They moved into one-on-one intense training as to their IDs and backgrounds. To eliminate family complications each was cast as an orphan. Jorge would be Awad and Maria would be Nida. Their IDs were married to each other and had the surname Mazin. Nida was infertile and thus they had no offspring. Awad was a lab technician and Nida a nurse. They had only just arrived in Kabul and would work in the Cure International Hospital. As part of their linguistics training, they were taught some basic Dari Persian and Pashto, the two official languages of Afghanistan. Ironically, the agents arranging the mission kept lamenting that Jorge was not a doctor, not knowing that Kyle was a doctor. They gave him a crash course in medical laboratory technology assuming that a bright chemist should be able to pick it right up. Finally, after eight weeks of intense training they were inserted into Afghanistan.
Awad and Nida worked without incident for two weeks in the hospital. One of the techniques that the Taliban was currently using was to call for medical assistance for a supposed life-threatening incident such as a heart attack or stroke. The medical responders were then ambushed. It was getting to the point that few medical personnel were willing to respond to calls. When the young couple volunteered for this duty expressing a desire to work together, they were gladly accepted, in spite of Awad’s apparent lack of training. In third world countries, degrees and certificates are valued but not always considered essential. Both Awad and Nida had been participating in EMT training given by the Red Cross and were recognized by all around them as very fast learners. In addition, they already were speaking the languages of the country with surprising fluency.
A call came in that a woman was suffering a heart attack in one of the most dangerous sections of the city. No one was willing to drive the ambulance so Awad had to do so. They approached the small apartment with great caution. A young woman met them in the street to explain the situation. “My mother had pain in her chest and left shoulder and then collapsed into unconsciousness. Please hurry,” she pleaded. Nida said to Awad in Arabic, “She is telling the truth. This is legitimate.” The couple rushed inside, each carrying a case of emergency supplies. A woman, who appeared to be about fifty, lay on the floor on a small throw rug with a blanket covering her. Nida rushed to her side to check her pulse and breathing. There was neither. She immediately began CPR and Awad joined her. They expected the exercise to be fruitless, but to their surprise, the woman revived. The young woman who had greeted them had been hovering over the threesome and began to almost hysterically cry out with joy. Kyle was even more surprised to see that his lovely wife was also crying. They had come as secret agents but had saved a life using their most basic medical training. Studying medicine has been a learning exercise for Kyle. He was not sure why Annette had gone to medical school. Regardless of why they had entered into medical training, they had just saved a life, or at least prolonged a life and it was a wonderful feeling. However, it was not at all clear how long this woman would live. Kyle raced to the ambulance to get a stretcher. Together, he and Annette carried the woman to the ambulance. The young woman pleaded to be able to ride with her mother. The couple consented and within moments, Kyle was racing back to the hospital with sirens blaring and lights flashing.
Unfortunately, the hospital lacked the kinds of modern treatment options common in American hospitals. They did have a working ultrasound unit and a competent technician to run it. It was clear from the echocardiogram that the woman had a blocked artery and another that was very restricted. Annette asked the technician to leave them with the patient. Annette took Kyle’s hand so that she could speak with him in total privacy. “This woman has little money and this hospital is not equipped to help her. However, I have been working on something as a weapon that may be used to treat her. Do you remember the video on You Tube showing a group of kids popping popcorn using their cell phones? It was a hoax, of course, but it gave me an idea. I have the equivalent of 104 cell phones in me. I can focus their output using phase array technology and output almost any frequency. I can pop an individual kernel. I figured that I could focus on a bad guy’s optic nerve and blind him. I should also be able to dissolve arterial plaque. I can use the ultrasound machine to guide me.”
“That is brilliant, Annette. The woman is already on Heparin and we can send her home with Warfarin to prevent clotting.”
Working together using Kyle’s radio transmitter/receivers in receiver mode as a detector and using the ultrasound to guide them, they freed the clogged artery. The woman was conscious but did not understand what her silent caregivers, who seemed to communicate without speaking, were doing. After completing the procedure Annette merely said to the woman in Persian, “You heart is fine now. You can go home with your lovely daughter.”
Later that evening in their small apartment Kyle asked Annette, “How did you know that the young woman was telling the truth?”
“I guess that I will have to share my secret. I have developed a very reliable lie detector. The idea was inspired by an article I read in the Deseret News years ago. It told about a group of people known as aphasics that have proven to be accurate natural lie detectors. Aphasics have lost the ability to understand or use words due to brain damage. They can still hear. They just can’t understand. These people have proven highly accurate at detecting liars through changes in facial expression and in the fundamental audible frequency of the voice. I have created a program like the Mrs. Monroe program that is basically an aphasic. It does not understand language but understands facial expressions and body cues. I use this program to tell if someone is lying. I can create a similar program for you if you want. Someday you are going to want to upgrade that little electronic brain of yours.”
Chapter 28 – Taking Lives
The next day another emergency call came into the hospital. This one was from another dangerous part of town where many terrorist sympathizers, if not actual terrorists, lived. A woman reported that her child had difficulty breathing and had turned blue. Once again, Awad and Nida Mazin were the only ones willing to respond. They raced to the location given, knowing that there was good chance that they could save another life. Awad brought the vehicle to a jerking halt and leaped from the vehicle. Nida was quickly at his side as they ran to the front door of the home. A woman burst out of the door holding a child of about two years of age. The woman was immediately followed by two hooded men carrying AK47 assault riffles. Annette could see using her rear head camera that four more men approached from her rear. This was precisely what Annette and Kyle had come for, but they were never the less terrified, more for each other than for themselves. Kyle had a sick feeling in his stomach; how would these vile men treat his lovely wife? Likewise, Annette felt a pang of guilt for what she had gotten her husband into. It was all her fault. He had just been trying to please her.
They had worried during their training about how well they would be able to pretend to be frightened and intimidated. No pretense was necessary now. Four barrels were pointed at Awad’s head, two at Nida’s. “On your k
nees!” commanded one of the men that emerged from the house. He was of medium build, shorter and thinner than Kyle. He had a large scar on his left check. His voice sounded young, almost soft and child-like, but his face looked prematurely aged. The men from behind quickly blindfolded the captives. They were commanded to stand. The men bound their hands behind their backs with what felt like plastic ties. The men spun their captives around to disorient them. Kyle had lost his bearings but not Annette; she always knew where she was and which way she was facing. Annette had placed several remote transmitter cameras on the ambulance and she could see most of what was happening from their images. Fortunately, for the couple, the captors used the ambulance to drive them to their lair.
The Computer Who Loved Me Page 26
