The Gift (27 page)

“Exactly so. Each of us began asking our gifts questions related to our specialties. Camilla learned about the Maker’s reproductive process and some of their evolution. AJ studied their social patterns. Dan focussed on how the gifts had come to be. I studied how they played and thought. Whenever any of us learned something we thought the others would benefit from knowing, we shared it. We were becoming different, and closer. I believe that we were on track to discover how to connect with each other in such a way that we would be able to use the EG as it was intended to be used. It was then that I decided I must leave. Having access to such information would make the government more powerful, but no wiser.”

Sam’s already appreciable respect for Chang rose to another level.

Sam and Matt were sitting across from Chang and Jing-Wei at a simple table positioned in the middle of their rough-hewn, nearly completed headquarters 274 feet inside the mountain. Matt had continued his efforts to ensure there were sufficient, and sufficiently baffled air shafts positioned throughout the tunnel. Chang had helped Sam with the design of the facilities and had begun the process of outfitting the room they were in with furniture. Jing-Wei and her gift were learning how to manage nanites. Sam and Adia had done most of the heavy lifting, including building the primary tunnel as well as redundant separate and parallel tunnels alongside the primary one to provide a home for communications nanites that would ensure they remained connected to the Worldnet regardless of their location within the mountain. Sam had decided their efforts had produced a sufficiently secure environment to house the entire team and was now leading a discussion on how to get Jim, Esther and Lisa to it without their movement being detected.

“Why don’t they come the same way we did? We made it here undetected,” Jing-Wei asked.

“You were coming from outside the area of observation. Web will put a higher priority on traffic moving within that area, with the highest priority being put on anything attempting to leave. It’s an option, but it’s not optimal. The most secure way would be to bring them underground, but we just don’t have time.” Sam responded.

“What if they came by air? Could they build something that the government couldn’t detect that they could fly here?” Chang asked.

Before Sam could respond, Matt asked, “Why don’t they just run here? I mean, they’ve all got gifts, right?”

Sam had to admit the thought hadn’t occurred to him. “Adia, how fast can a gifted human run and for how long?”

“It would depend on a number of factors, most significant of which would be how augmented the human was. Jim, Esther and Lisa have followed your lead and allowed little beyond redundancy of critical systems. They would be able to move at approximately twelve miles per hour for several hours, though they would need to stay hydrated to do so.”

“Thank you, Adia.”

Sam returned his attention to the group. “Matt, that’s a great idea. Each of them would be a small enough target to provide their own personal active camouflage. They’d be almost impossible to spot. Excellent. Unless someone can come up with a better plan, we’re going with Matt’s idea.

“They won’t be able to bring much with them,” Chang commented.

Sam was about to respond when Jim contacted him. “We’ve got a problem, Sam. I think we’ve been found. There are dozens of soldiers outside…”

C
HAPTER
T
HIRTY
-O
NE

Sam attempted to reconnect to Jim without success. His attempts to contact Lisa and Esther failed as well. Frustrated and confused, he asked Adia to confirm they were still on the Worldnet. She confirmed that they were, and that their gifts were still capable of communication.

“Ask them what happened,” Sam directed Adia.

Her response was immediate. “Our team members at the cabin appear to be intoxicated, so much so that they are incapable of coherent communication.”

“Can’t their gifts fix that?”

“They could if they received instructions to do so from their human partners. The decision to allow intoxicants into one’s body is a matter of free will.”

“Adia, they did not choose to become intoxicated. They were drugged. That is not an exercise of free will. Have their gifts clean their systems.”

Adia’s thoughts in response carried a note of sadness. “It would serve no purpose to ask them to do so. They will not, nor would I do anything to you at the request of another gift. Each of us is merged with our partners by mutual consent, but it is not an equal relationship. It was only through you that I am alive and it is only through you that I can become what I am capable of being. It is your free will that I am bound to and that is so for all gifts, within the limits of sanity.”

“Althia intervened at Jim’s request,” Sam argued.

“Althia’s actions were consistent with Lisa’s decision to merge. Clearly, Lisa did not agree to merge in order to remain unconscious for the rest of her life. Jim provided parental advice on how Althia could wake his daughter. The advice was in keeping with Lisa’s wishes as Althia understood them, so she accepted it. Had she been proven wrong once Lisa regained consciousness, she would have died. We cannot knowingly act in contradiction to our human partners and survive.”

Despite her obvious discomfort with the situation, Sam was more frustrated with Adia than he had ever been. “You’re not making sense. They didn’t choose to be impaired. If they could tell their gifts what they wanted, it would be to have their systems cleaned. As you’ve reminded me more than once, you’re part me. You must know what I’m telling you is true.”

“I believe what you are saying is true, but I cannot and would not if I could, force other gifts to act according to your will. Our friends could have decided to be immune to intoxicants. The fact that they did not make that decision means their gifts can do nothing to change the fact that they are now incapacitated. Had you chosen not to allow me to eliminate single points of failure in your body, you could have died from a failure of one of them. That result would have been in accordance with your previous decision. There are still ways in which you are vulnerable that you have chosen to accept. I must respect your decisions in this regard, just as our friends’ gifts must respect the results of their decisions.”

Sam tried to develop an argument that would contradict Adia’s logic. He failed. “Let me know when one of them regains consciousness, and find out what they were drugged with.”

“As you wish.”

Sam opened his eyes and looked around him. The efforts he’d been so proud of moments ago now seemed pathetic. What had made him think he could out maneuver the entire United States Government? Of course Web would find them. He’d nearly done so twice in the past couple of days and that was before he’d accepted a gift and built a dedicated team. It was only a matter of time.

“Web found them,” Sam told the rest of his team when he finally found his voice. “I’m sorry, Matt.”

“What do you mean? He can’t just take them. They didn’t do anything wrong,” Matt said.

“You’re right. They didn’t do anything wrong. I did. I got you all into this and now they have your mother and my friends. I thought we could beat them. I don’t know what the hell made me believe that, but it’s over. I have to turn myself in. Web will let them go if I do. I’ll take you with me, Matt. You’ll see your mother soon. Everything is going to be okay.” Sam didn’t believe everything was going to be okay for a minute. He only hoped he could limit the damage to the lives of his friends.

Sam turned his attention from Matt to Chang and Jing-Wei. “No one has to know that you were ever here. You can use my truck to get back to Colorado Springs and then destroy it. There’d be no evidence you had anything to do with me. Adia and I can shield you on your way out the same way we did on your way in. It isn’t perfect, but it has a good chance of working. Running might be the best solution for a few miles, but it isn’t going to get you home soon enough for a plausible backstory. You should probably leave right away. I don’t know how long I’ll be able to stall Web once he makes contact.”

Chang let Sam finish before responding, “So, you are just giving up? You think we care more about our personal safety than what we must achieve, what you must achieve?”

“I don’t see that I have much choice, Chang. Web has them. He has the other half of our team and we don’t have a fraction of the resources he has. I can’t just leave them there and I know what he’s going to demand. The only thing he’ll accept for their release is me.”

Chang knew what had happened to Sam’s family. He knew that Sam had agreed to follow hostage negotiation procedure against his better judgment and that it had cost him nearly everything. He had no doubt that Web was manipulating the situation to force Sam to repeat that mistake and that doing so would break Sam. Chang used the Worldnet to ask Jing-Wei to look after Matt before standing up. “We need to talk, Sam.”

Sam stood. The two of them walked silently down the dimly lit tunnel until they were within sight of the exit. Sam could tell that Chang was troubled, and rightfully so. Chang had risked everything to join him and now it was all falling apart.

Chang took a seat on the floor of the tunnel and waited for Sam to do the same. Facing each other, Chang took a deep breath before beginning. “Sam, I have always respected your privacy. I am a very private man as well. It was how I was raised, and it has been how I have chosen to live my life. I do not wish to cause you pain, but I am afraid I will. I see no other course of action.” He paused, perhaps hoping to be interrupted. He wasn’t. “Do you see what Web is trying to do to you?”

“I see that he has Lisa, Jim and Esther,” Sam replied.

“Yes, he will hold people you care about hostage and tell you what you must do to save them.”

They sat in silence for a while before Sam responded, “I see the parallel. What am I supposed to do about it?”

“What he won’t expect. Rescue them.”

“Are you out of your fucking mind?” Sam stood and glared down at Chang, his hands balled in fists. “You have no right to ask the impossible of me. I didn’t ask to be the fucking first and I’m doing a pretty shitty job of it; so I’m done.” Sam started to walk back toward Matt and Jing-Wei. Chang called after him.

“If you could relive the day your family was taken, would you do it Web’s way again?”

Sam stopped, turned and walked back to where Chang remained seated. “Get up.”

“No. If you wish to harm me, you can do so while I sit here.” Chang waited a moment before he said, “If you turn yourself in, you will be harming all of us, the whole world, including Lisa, Jim and Esther. You have been right, Sam! Web has been wrong. Trust that. I do.”

Sam stood over Chang. It didn’t take long for him to realize he didn’t want to hurt him. He wanted to hurt himself because he knew if he could go back in time, he would live that day differently. Taking a couple of steps back, Sam slumped against the wall. “I don’t have the slightest idea how to rescue them.”

“If you don’t try, you will never forgive yourself. Web will not hurt them. They are his only leverage over you. He wants you to believe you have no choice but to accede to his wishes. That is not so.”

“What makes you so certain?” Sam asked.

“He is still acting as if the world has not changed. As I’ve said, you are acting rationally by responding to a completely new reality in a different manner than you responded to the old one. He remains irrationally caught in the paradigm of his previous existence. He will assume you will act within that paradigm. You must not.” Chang replied.

“Your logic may be sound, but you’re missing some facts. You have only known Web as a member of a scientific team. I have known him as the leader of a military team. He won’t hesitate to hurt them if he thinks that’s the right thing to do for his country and he doesn’t need all three of them to have leverage over me. One of them will do. I didn’t want to worry Matt, but they are in real danger, Chang. Have you considered the fact that there are only two ways to stop us from being able to communicate using the Worldnet?”

Chang shook his head.

“One option is to create enough interference to overpower the signal. It’s a technique I’ve used against terrorists in the past; so I’m very familiar with our jamming equipment. It’s the best in the world. None of it is capable of blocking all the frequencies available to the Worldnet simultaneously. So, unless they’ve developed a vastly superior jammer in the past few days, that’s not how they’re preventing us from contacting them.

“The other option is to incapacitate the gifted person. Based on what we know, that’s what Web had his men do. In other words, he’s already hurt them and put them at risk. Don’t think for a minute he won’t go farther.”

Chang was taken aback by Sam’s vehemence. He’d never seen him so emotional. “You’re talking about U.S. citizens, Sam, not a group of terrorists. Web…”

Sam didn’t let him finish. “I destroyed military drones and I’m in possession of technology that could harm the government, not to mention the fact that I’m cooperating with a foreign government of sorts. To Web, that makes me a terrorist. If I’m a terrorist, he could decide that everyone on the team is a terrorist. That decision might not be supported, but for now we don’t have the same rights as other citizens. The Patriot Act makes that perfectly clear. We can be detained indefinitely. Accidents can happen in detention. I won’t let that happen to them.”

Chang took a few moments to absorb the new information before he gestured to the floor across from him and said, “Please sit.” Sam reluctantly did so. When he was settled, Chang continued. “You are angry, my friend. You are angry at yourself and you feel trapped. That is exactly how Web wants you to feel and you know it. You must put your self recriminations aside. Everyone on this team chose to join you. They, we, exercised free will. We knew there were grave risks and we each accepted them. You did not force us. Please let the anger go and do what you do best, analyze the situation. How long will Web wait before he contacts you?”