The Gift (18 page)

Sam took a seat on the sofa across from the recliner. He knew Jim wouldn’t say a thing if he sat on the recliner, but a man just doesn’t do that in another man’s house.

Jim walked back into the room with two mugs of coffee. He placed Sam’s on the table in front of him and took his back to the side table next to the recliner, sipping it before setting it down.

“Careful, it’s hot. Damn machine hasn’t brewed at the right temperature for years. Suppose I could fix it now, huh?”

“You could, but I don’t think we’ll be taking it with us.” Sam replied.

“With us? Are we going somewhere?”

“Yeah, we are. Not sure where, though. I’m hoping you can help with that.”

“Why don’t you rewind this movie for me a bit?” Jim asked.

“It’s complicated and I’m not at my best, but I’ll give it a try.” Sam paused before continuing, “But maybe there’s a better way.”

Sam thought to Adia, “Can you tell Adam what we did with the network and what’s happened since?”

“Yes,” She answered.

“And he can relate it to Jim so I don’t have to?”

“Of course, Sam.”

“Do it, please.”

Sam told Jim what he’d just asked of Adia and waited for him to be brought up to speed. It took a couple of minutes. Sam took the time to close his eyes. He tried not to think while he waited. He didn’t succeed.

In less time than Sam could have told the tale when at his best, Jim said, “Yep, looks like we need to find a different place to be. You don’t take half measures, do you?”

“I’ve been told I’m a loose cannon. I prefer to think that cannons should be moved from time to time, or at least I did until I decided to change the way a far more advanced species with years to think about it determined the best way to establish a global communication network for entities they created. Hubris comes to mind, but there’s probably a stronger, more appropriate word that I can’t think of right now because my head’s about to explode.”

“Wasn’t a criticism, Son. Building a bridge that crosses half a river doesn’t do anybody any good and wastes a lot of time and resources. Anyway, as you so kindly pointed out during our little talk earlier, most of my family and friends are dead, so I don’t have a lot of options when it comes to places we can go. The best one is my daughter’s house She’s got a place in Montana. It’s pretty remote. Should buy us some time.”

“She have any other family up there?” Sam asked, concerned about minimizing the number of people who knew where they would be and what they would be doing.

“Just her son. He takes care of her. Good kid. Haven’t seen either of them in too long.”

“Are you sure you want to involve her in this? I’m sure you know the government is going to keep looking for me, for us.”

“She’s dying, Sam. It’s MS. Her good days aren’t so hot. Her bad days are terrible. Couldn’t do anything about it before; no one could. Tried to get her to move here, but she wouldn’t. Said she wanted to die where she loved to live. Sweet child, always was, but stubborn.” Jim paused. He looked at Sam for a long time, clearly trying to find a way to finish his thought. “You said you could get a gift for every member of your team, right?”

Sam was sorry he’d been thinking too slowly to stop Jim from having to spell it out. “Yes, and I can’t think of a better use for one of them than helping your daughter.”

Jim sat in the chair, nodding gently to himself, looking down. Finally, he rubbed his eyes and returned them to Sam. “That’s good. That’s real good, Sam.”

Sam didn’t say a word. There was nothing to say. Instead, he waited for Jim to continue. Some things shouldn’t be hurried, no matter how little time was available.

“Guess we should probably figure out what we’re going to take, pack it and get the hell out of here.” Jim said after a time. Sam knew he’d waited just long enough to speak without emotion. Sam could understand that, too.

“Could you call Esther and let her know we’ll be picking her up soon?” Sam asked.

“I will. She’ll get a kick out of this.” Jim did, and made arrangements for them to pick her up in half an hour. When he’d finished, they began packing. Jim had a fair amount of bottled water and camping food. Sam wasn’t sure why. To the best of his knowledge, Jim hadn’t been camping in many years. Old habits, apparently. He also had a lot of cash. They took as much of the former as they could load in ten minutes and all of the latter. Fifteen minutes later, they were on their way to get Esther.

Heading north on I25, Jim driving, Esther asleep in the passenger seat and Sam laying down in the back, Sam’s SUV had been transformed. At Sam’s direction, Adia had changed the color and plates of the vehicle to match that of a legitimate and unwanted vehicle of the same make and model. It wasn’t the best camouflage, but it was better than nothing. It only had to last for another 11 hours and they didn’t need to stop. Adia had assured Sam the modifications she’d made to the SUV would allow it to easily travel the 700 remaining miles with range to spare. Sam’s experience with Montana law enforcement left him inclined to believe they’d be less zealous than most in pursuit of federal government objectives. Some people would be bothered by that. Sam wasn’t.

Unable to think of anything else he could do to keep the team safe and get it to its destination, Sam decided to join Esther in sleep, if he could. With Adia’s assistance, it turned out that he could.

C
HAPTER
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WENTY
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The military police captain walked back from Sam’s house, leaving his team behind to search it more thoroughly while he reported in. When he arrived at his vehicle, he removed the secure phone from its cradle and called the number he’d been given on the way down to Pueblo.
 
Web answered on the second ring.

“Do you have him?” Web asked without preamble.

“No, Sir. There was no one here when we arrived. I have my men searching the house now, as ordered.”

“Have you or your team noticed anything unusual?”

“No, Sir. So far it just looks like an empty bachelor’s house. There aren’t any pictures on the walls. The refrigerator is nearly empty and the bed is unmade. Other than the condition of the bed and some clothes in the closet, it hardly looks like anyone lives there at all.”

“Have your team keep looking, but make it as inconspicuous as possible and post a lookout on both ends of the street. If he comes back, you must not let him get away. Do you understand me, Captain?”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Good. I’ve sent some reinforcements. While they’re en route, I have one other task for you. Mr. Steele’s sister in law lives just down the street. Her name is Sara Bryant. I want you to go to her house and convince her to accompany you back to base once the reinforcements have arrived. Don’t delegate this task and do it alone. Ms. Bryant understands military rank and will know this is important if a captain from the military police is at her door. Tell her it’s about Mr. Steele and that you are not privy to the details, but that it’s critical that she go with you to meet with me. Put on your best sincere and concerned face, Captain because it is critical that she come with you willingly. We need her help for a matter of national security. Do you understand your orders?”

“Yes, Sir. I am to go alone to Ms. Bryant’s house, be as personable and convincing as possible without telling her anything other than it is critical that she accompany me to the base where she will meet with you. If the support forces have not arrived by the time I have accomplished that task, I am to wait for their arrival before proceeding back to base, where I will deliver Ms. Bryant to your care.”

“Exactly. Call me when you have her. When I pick up, say ‘en route’ then hang up.” Web provided the captain with Sara’s address and terminated the call.

While Web was coordinating the search for Sam, the rest of the team was in a heated discussion about who would accept gifts. The National Command Authority had supported Web’s decision to accelerate the pace of discovery and encouraged him to convince the entire team to at least accept a gift, with the hope that all of those who accepted one would quickly come to the decision to merge so that progress could be made on building and accessing the Maker’s data store. Web had done as he was ordered and delivered a strong argument for the proposition. His case was weakened by the fact that he had yet to accept a gift, uncharacteristically citing an excuse. They needed to find Sam and he was the best person to lead the effort to do so. He couldn’t afford to be out of the hunt for hours while merging with a gift. It was clear that several members of the group found his argument to be of questionable value, but no one did question it. Instead, they held the remainder of the discussion without him.

At a pause in the discussion, Dan took the opportunity to summarize the team’s current position. “Okay, as of now, Angela, AJ and Chang have all accepted gifts and merged. Camilla and I have accepted gifts and have agreed to merge with them at the end of this discussion. Jack isn’t here to speak for himself, but I think we all agree that he will not be accepting a gift in the near future. It seems safe to say the same with regards to the Colonel. All of us who have accepted gifts have been informed by them that the composition of the team required to finish creating the Maker's Encyclopedia Galactica must be either four men and five women or visa-versa. We have three men and two women, leaving us four people short. Rui, is there any chance that you’ll change your mind?”

“None whatsoever. I am perfectly happy remaining entirely human, thank you very much.”

“Okay, then, I suggest we each discuss the issue with members of our support teams and request volunteers, keeping in mind that we must have at least two more women. I would also like to suggest that we do so as expeditiously as possible. Does anyone else see a better course of action?”

Chang replied, “I would like to define expeditiously before we begin. I say we each meet back here with our volunteers as quickly as we can find them. As soon as we have at least two of each sex, we hand them gifts and tell them to get started.”

“Do we really want to put this team together on a first come first served basis? Shouldn’t we be more selective than that?” Camilla asked.

“If we had unlimited time, certainly, but we do not. I fear we may have already spent more time on this issue than we should have. I hope I am wrong about that. May we proceed as I recommend?” Chang asked.

The room was silent. After a moment, Dan said, “There don’t appear to be any further objections, so that’s how we’ll do it. I’ll check my team for volunteers, then inform Colonel Web of our decisions and secure the required gifts. I’ll be back here with them as quickly as possible and will give one to each of the first four people capable of building a team with a workable gender ratio.”

“Thank you for coming in, Sara,” Web said as he gestured toward on of the chairs in his office. Until just a few days before, Web would have said there was no chance a civilian without the proper clearances would be in the SCIF at all, let alone at his request. He could have met her elsewhere, but hoped the security checks and surroundings would help him get what he wanted from her.

Web closed his door and took a seat before continuing. “I’m sure it must have been disconcerting to be disturbed by an MP so late in the evening, or at all for that matter.”

“Yes, yes it was. What’s this all about, Eric?”

“Before I start, can I offer you something to drink? Some water, perhaps a cup of coffee or tea?” Web asked.

“No, thank you. Please just tell me why I’m here.”

“It’s about Sam. We have reason to believe he may have become unstable again and he has access to information that could be damaging to national security. Of course, revealing or using such information would be damaging to him personally. I couldn’t protect him this time. You know I’d want to, but it just wouldn’t be possible under the circumstances. I know you want to help him, too. Can you tell me anything that might assist us in finding him before he does something he’ll regret?”

“Sam wouldn’t characterize what you did after the fire as protecting him. I know you did everything you could, Eric, but he’s never stopped blaming you for the way you insisted it be handled. The only person he blames more is himself.”

“I know Sam’s feelings about me. I’m not going to try to convince you we’ve become friends, but you know I had no choice in how we handled the situation. We followed the protocol proven to be most likely to succeed in rescuing Elizabeth and Zach. I am very sorry for your loss and for Sam’s. I truly am. I’ve relived that night hundreds of times and I still can’t think of a way we could have saved them. I hope you know that, and I hope you understand that I did protect Sam. I’m trying to do that right now. You two aren’t blood, but he loves you as much as he’d love a biological sister if he had one. He must have told you something.”

Sara wiped a tear from her eye and took a deep breath. “It still hurts.”

Web handed her a box of tissue while saying, “I know. I don’t think it ever goes away.”

After wiping both of her eyes for a minute and gently blowing her nose, Sara looked up at Web. “I don’t know where he’d go. I just spoke to him last night. I didn’t know he’d gone anywhere.”

“What did you two talk about?” Web asked gently.

“He said he had a strange story to share with me. I was being light so I asked him if it was strange good or strange bad. He told me both and then told me what he was about to say might make me uncomfortable. He was right about that. I was already getting uncomfortable. Then I asked him if it had anything to do with his job on the base. He said it did and I told him I didn’t want to hear it. I could tell that hurt him, but instead of leaving it at that, I told him I couldn’t be involved in another failure. I don’t know why I said it. It was cruel…” She stopped talking and started crying in earnest.

Web didn’t know what else to do, so he waited until she stopped. It took a while. Another man might have comforted her. Another man might not have sent police to pick her up in the middle of the night. When he thought he’d waited long enough, he asked, “Did you talk about anything else?”