Neil stood silent for several minutes after Carl finished his story. Everything he described sounded so real. He was either an incredible liar, or he was telling the truth. Neil could see in his eyes that he had no intentions of doing any kind of harm to Neil. He was there to listen to his story, and do anything he could to help him if possible.
“Carl, I – I don’t know what to say. I’m sorry you had to go through that. I can’t imagine…” Neil said, looking down at the table in front of him.
“Don’t worry, Richard. I have had plenty of time to accept my life. I no longer have nightmares or flashbacks like I used to. I have spent my entire life searching for someone with a similar story to mine, so please, tell me yours, if you are ready.”
Neil told his story. He told Carl almost everything, from the first dream he had in the classroom, to the strange things that happened to him the next day, to the day in the woods where he first was able to control his abilities. He didn’t tell Carl about his dream where he killed all the people in the trucks, or the dream he had where Carl himself gave him the warning. He kept names and personal details out of it since he was still trying to move forward under the guise of anonymity.
Carl’s eyes grew wider as Neil recalled each detail of his story. When Neil described the feeling of flight, and breaking through the layer of clouds to see the sun, Carl smiled for the first time since they sat down to talk.
“I’ve heard enough. I believe you. Now I want you to show me.”
Carl placed three metallic marbles on the table in front of him.
“What do you want me to do with those?”
“Anything you want.”
Carl looked straight into Neil’s eyes. He was waiting for Neil to do something. He could tell the anticipation was making Carl excited, like a child waiting to open Christmas presents. He had been waiting for this moment for a long time.
Neil exhaled loudly.
“Ok, here goes nothing.”
He couldn’t believe he was actually about to show his ability to someone else. It had only been a little over a week since everything started happening to him, but the desire to confide in another human being was already overwhelming.
Neil raised the marbles off the table and formed them into the shape of a triangle in the air. He spun them around the room to demonstrate the speed and precision that he had over them.
His ego didn’t let him stop with just the marbles.
He took all of the objects in the room into his influence. The dry erase markers and erasers, the papers on the desk left over from previous students, and the box of office supplies in the corner – all of it became a part of him. He created a swirling vortex of small objects around the table.
Then, with one instantaneous movement, he returned the room to the exact orientation it was at when they entered. He outstretched his hand in the air and slowly lowered the metal marbles on top of it. He lowered his hand and spilled the marbles out onto the table in front of Carl.
“Satisfied?” Neil asked.
Carl was shaken. His forehead was sweating, and he had a look of terror on his face. Neil got the impression that Carl hadn’t been surprised in a very long time.
“That was…that was incredible. I’ve never seen anything like that. You have exceeded any expectations I could have possibly had, Richard. Thank you for trusting me enough to show me this.”
“No problem. You’re the first person I’ve shown. So, now what?”
Neil was curious to find out what would happen next. Truth be told, he hadn’t thought that far ahead. The temptation to come down there was only so that he could show his abilities to someone else. He didn’t really know or consider what might happen after that.
“Now, I’m going to give you a choice. You can stand up right now, walk out the door, fly home to Michigan, and never hear from me again. Your story will be told to no one. This conversation will have never happened, and for all intents and purposes, we have never heard of each other.”
Neil felt like there had to be a catch. He felt uneasy.
“Or?”
“Or, we can start being honest with each other.”
Neil didn’t like the sound of that. It was one thing that he knew Neil wasn’t being honest, but it was quite another that Carl was admitting to hiding something himself.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, for starters, you can begin by telling me that your name is Neil Hitchens, that you are a Senior Cadet in the ROTC program at Michigan State University, that you live with Bryan and Alex, and that you’ve recently been spending a lot of time with a girl named Emma.”
Neil was speechless. How did Carl know everything about him? Something wasn’t right. Neil started to sweat. His heart began beating faster. He couldn’t just run from this situation. Carl knew too much about him. He had to talk his way out of it.
“How…how do you know all that?”
Neil could hear the nervousness in his own voice.
“We’ll get to that. First I want you to answer a question for me. Is this you?”
Carl pulled a photograph out from his pocket and slid it across the table. It was the thermal image from the newspaper earlier, but it was blown up onto photo paper, and much higher resolution.
Neil saw no reason to lie anymore. He already told Carl his whole life story. He had him figured out.
“Yes. That’s me. I saw the article in the paper a few hours ago. I didn’t think there was any way I would get spotted.”
“Thank you for your honesty. Now it’s my turn to be honest with you. I’m not just a blogger. Most of my paycheck comes from somewhere else.”
That didn’t sound good. Neil had a feeling he already knew what was coming next.
“What are you?”
“I work with the NSA. They have a facility nearby on Fort Gordon. I am the head of a splinter organization there named Psychic Research Environment for Counter INtelligence and Counter Terrorism, or PRECINCT for short. I have dedicated my entire career to looking for someone like you. We need your help.”
Neil was furious. His hands started to tremble, and violent thoughts flashed through his mind. He half wanted to jump out of his chair and strangle Carl.
He had trusted Carl with his most important secret, and he had been betrayed for it. Neil thought about all the ways he could hurt Carl right now. He could slam him against the wall, break all of his limbs, rip his eyes out of their sockets – but Neil wasn’t that type of person. He wasn’t going to let his anger get the best of him. He was just going to walk away and never look back. He would go somewhere they could never find him.
Neil got up from his chair and headed towards the door without saying a word.
“Neil, wait!” Carl yelled.
“I FUCKING TRUSTED YOU.” Neil turned around and ran towards Carl. He had his hand around Carl’s throat. “I TOLD YOU EVERYTHING, AFTER YOU SPAT OUT THAT BULLSHIT LIE!!”
Neil’s hand was closing around Carl’s windpipe.
“N-Neil, I was t-telling the t-truth.” Carl choked out. Neil slightly loosened his grip. “My story, it was all true. All of those things really happened. They found me five years after I got out of the hospital and wanted to make amends. They wanted me to head the research department the right way, and to make sure that no one ever had to go through the terrible things I went through again.”
Was it just another lie? Was he just trying to get Neil to drop his guard so they could sedate him and haul him off to some underground testing lab? Neil decided, against his better judgment, to give him a chance to explain his case. He let go of Carl’s throat and stepped back.
“You have one minute to explain yourself, or I’ll be gone, and you’ll never hear from me again.” Neil said, with his arms crossed.
“Like I said, they wanted to make amends. The first time they picked me up was during the height of the Cold War. They thought that if they could teach me to control my powers, they could save millions of lives if war broke out. Ev
eryone was a little bit on edge back then. When they found me after the incident, they were a lot more diplomatic. They wanted me to help them find more people like me, because I knew what to look for.”
Carl continued, “I said no at first, obviously, but they ensured me that nothing like what happened at the abandoned school would ever happen again. They showed me my office, and I met the people I would be working with. They told me they would even hire me on the books. Our department was listed as an encryption research team, of course, but I would still be making a legitimate paycheck and paying legitimate taxes. I would have a pension, benefits, and even a free house - a nice one, too, by the way. To top it off, they offered me more money in a year than I would make in ten years at any other job. They convinced me, and I accepted.”
“They were true to their word. My team’s primary purpose was conducting electronic and field surveillance on potential candidates. Over time our surveillance methods became more advanced as the technology improved. Everyone we ever watched turned out to be a dead end – just people trying to look for attention. Everyone except you, Neil. We watched you from the time you sent me the e-mail. We have seen you do things we have never seen anyone do before. We saw you floating above your bed, we saw you going out at night for your evening flights. We even saw you with Emma in the garden. If you didn’t come down here on your own accord, we would have come to you. I had to meet you for myself, Neil. I had to see if you were real, and you are.”
Neil listened to his story, but he didn’t know what to make of it. It sounded plausible, but then again, Carl worked for the government. His entire career counted on the fact that he could be a convincing liar.
“What do you want from me?” Neil asked.
“I won’t lie, we want you to work for us. Not the NSA, but the United States government. With your ability, you could change the world, Neil. The good news is you’ve already accepted our job offer. Your Commissioning ceremony is, what, next Monday, correct?”
Neil didn’t answer. Carl knew he was right anyways.
“All you have to do is keep doing what you’re doing. You’ve already been selected to go to the Military Intelligence branch, so you already went through the steps to get your Top Secret clearance. The only difference is that instead of going to Fort Huachuca for your MI training, you’re going to come here, to Fort Gordon. You’ll report to work every day to the NSA building. You’ll work, go out to get fried chicken for lunch, come back to work, and go home. You’ll be just like everybody else. Everyone will see you walking around base with your rank of Second Lieutenant and assume you are some snot nosed butterbar that doesn’t know anything, and they’ll be right. At least, they will be for a little while.
“We won’t need you for long. All we want to do is watch you for a few months and figure out exactly what you are capable of. Once we know how to use you, you won’t be our project anymore. You’ll belong to the Army. They’ll figure out some Top Secret mission that they need your help with, and you’ll go save the world. Oh, I almost forgot, you’ll have all the money you could ever want. I’m not kidding – I can write you a check for a hundred million right now if I wanted to, but I’d prefer not to, because then the department might not have enough left over for me to get a Keurig in my new office. So, what do you say?”
Neil considered his offer. It seemed too good to be true. If he knew anything about history, it was that if something sounded too good to be true, it probably was.
“What do you mean you are going to watch me for a few months? You mean you’re going to stick me with needles until you figure out what makes me tick, right?”
“No. Absolutely not. We’re not going to make you do anything you don’t want to do. Think of us like your parents that just built you a new playground in the back yard. All we’re going to do is stand there and make home movies while you play on the swings, the monkey bars, or whatever. We aren’t even going to begin trying to figure out what makes you tick, because honestly, we don’t care. All we care about is figuring out the best place to point you and release the hound, so to speak. You’ll be there because you want to be there. If that ever changes, it means bad news for us, but not so much for you. I’ve seen what you can do. I can only imagine what happens to people that get on your bad side.”
Neil couldn’t help but see the appeal in his offer. It was only a small change from what his original post-graduation plan was, anyways.
“So, what’s the catch?”
Neil knew there had to be more to the story.
“Ah, the catch. I knew we were going to get to that. That catch is that you can never ever tell anybody what you can do, or what you do at PRECINCT. Not your best friend, not your mother, not your girlfriend. Absolutely no one can know. If someone does find out, either by you telling them or on their own, you will be fired, and the US government will never be able to work with you again. I would say you would be arrested, but I don’t think we could do that even if we tried. Also, whoever you told will be made to forget. The NSA is very good at cleaning up after themselves.”
So, that’s what it would take for Neil to use his ability to make an impact on the world. He would have to live a lifetime of secrecy. He would never be able to have an honest relationship with anyone, including Emma. He would be a government lapdog for the rest of his working life. But, he would be rich. More to the point, he would be important.
“Neil, I’m going to need an answer here. What do you say?”
Carl was folding his hands and leaning over the table. He wasn’t going to accept no for an answer.
“I say no.” Neil stated calmly.
CHAPTER 10
“No? What do you mean no? I don’t understand. I’m offering you everything you could ever dream of here.”
The volume rose in Carl’s voice, and he sounded annoyed. He clearly wasn’t expecting that answer.
“Everything except happiness. How can you expect me agree to a life where I do your bidding and get absolutely nothing worthwhile in return? I don’t think you understand the freedom I’ve felt lately. I flew here from Michigan in less than an hour without spending any money or going to an airport. I can do anything I want, so why should I agree to follow your rules just for a little bit of money? If I wanted money I could go to the nearest bank and pull the vault door off the hinges and walk out with millions.”
Neil was right, and he knew it. Carl would have been getting the better end of this deal by far, and Neil wasn’t about to be submissive to some government agency when he had more power than any politician or agency chairman could possibly imagine.
“Neil, you’re making a big mistake. Don’t do something that you’re going to regret.”
Carl was in disbelief. He came into that room thinking he would walk out with a business partner, but instead, he might not even walk out with his job.
“I’m sorry Carl, but that’s not the life for me. I appreciate you telling me your story, but that just made me realize that I’m better off on my own than working with people who don’t have my best interest at heart. Take care.”
Neil rose up out of his seat, walked over to the door, and left the room.
It took Neil a second for him to understand what he was looking at. There was a large group of people standing in the library, many dressed in body armor and camouflage. There were other men there in business suits with handguns holstered at their side. Clearly they were not having a private conversation in that room. These armed men were probably waiting for the signal to burst in and gun Neil down or at least knock him unconscious.
“Oh” Neil said in surprise.
What happened next was too fast for Neil to fully comprehend. He reacted purely by reflex. The men in the body armor raised their weapons and opened fire. Neil didn’t know if they were real bullets or some kind of less-than-lethal round, but he wasn’t going to find out.
Neil’s body recognized the threat before he did. He felt his entire skeleton turn to cement. His bones, muscles, and
skin were all hardened. His mind had commanded every part of his body to become immovable.
Neil watched in slow motion as the projectiles from the weapons flew through the air and impacted his skin. Rather than penetrate through, they shattered as if they were hitting a steel plate. Neil couldn’t feel so much as a tickle from the impact.
As the destroyed projectiles landed on the floor around him, he could see that they weren’t bullets after all. The weapons were firing small plastic darts. On the end of each dart was a capsule filled with a lime green liquid.
The men fired only one volley and lowered their weapons. It took them a few seconds to realize that they had been completely ineffective. Neil regained control over his body and scanned the room for all possible threats. He reached out with his mind and felt the weapons that the men were holding. They shattered into hundreds of small fragments. The men recoiled with surprise.
“What the fuck!” One of the men said.
“Gas him!”
The voice came from the librarian in the red dress. She was no librarian after all. This entire meeting was just a setup to try to take Neil in, one way or another.
Two of the men pulled a dark green canister out of their vests. They released the pin and chucked them towards Neil. While they were in mid-air, Neil located the pin and commanded them to re-insert into the grenade. The canisters landed harmlessly at his feet.
Neil had an idea. He located the remaining gas grenades in the men’s vests and pulled their pins. A thick cloud of slightly yellow smoke appeared from each of them. The cloud grew bigger, and the men began to realize what was happening. None of them were wearing gas masks, but they all started reaching for a pouch at their left hip.
He realized they must all have masks in that pocket. He forced the pouches to remain sealed shut. The men dug at their hips with their fingers, trying to retrieve the masks. They started coughing and gagging. After a few seconds, one of the men fell to his knees. The cloud of smoke now covered the entire half of the building.
Superhuman Nature Page 10
