The Gift (28 page)

Sam stared at his hands and took a deep breath. “It depends. He strengthens his hand by making me wait. Keeping me in the dark demonstrates his power over the situation. Even though I know that, it still works to some extent. On the other hand, he doesn’t want to give me much time to plan and he’ll want to show he’s accomplished his mission. I’d guess not less than an hour, not more than a few. Why?”

“Will he hurt them during that time?”

“No. He won’t escalate until he’s told me what he wants, which will be to turn myself and Matt in.”

“Then we have time.”

“Time for what?”

“Time to learn. You are a problem solver. This is a problem. Solve it.”

“You make it sound easy. Web has at least a couple of squads of soldiers. Jim was able to tell me that before they were taken. I don’t know where Web will take them…”

Chang was encouraged by the change in Sam’s expression. He was talking with Adia, a good sign. Chang waited silently. After less than a minute, Sam opened his eyes.

“I think we found them, and I know what Web used to drug them. There’s a group of eight gifted people at the armory. That’s the largest gathering of gifted individuals in such a small geographic region within hundreds of miles. It must be them. I’m sending a sensor network there now. We should know more in a few minutes.”
 

“I don’t think it will be easy, but you are proving my point. Once you started thinking about it, your instinct was to investigate, to gain information, to begin planning. Now we know where they were taken and how. Soon we’ll know their circumstances. There is hope, Sam.”

Sam wasn’t sure he agreed that there was much reason for hope, but if Chang insisted on staying, he was going to gain as much assistance from him as possible. “Web used buzz.”

“I assume buzz is some form of sleeping gas?”

“No, not quite. It’s a powerful hallucinogenic. It disconnects people from reality. The army developed it in the fifties as a non-lethal alternative to other chemical weapons. I know about it because the Yugoslav People’s Army used it against Bosnian Muslims in 1995. We were trained on how to recognize the symptoms and defend ourselves against it. Simple really, if your head is in the game. Damn it, I should have known he’d find a way to prevent them from communicating with us.”

“I don’t understand. Wouldn’t their gifts just filter it out as a toxin?”

“We’re free to ingest intoxicants. Our gifts will not interfere with our desire to get high unless we tell them to do so. I’ve already asked Adia to add such filtering to my respiratory system, and to assume the introduction of any debilitating substance into my body is against my will unless I specifically instruct her otherwise. If I’d been a bit more on the ball, I’d have told them to do the same. Speaking of which, you need to do that now, and make sure your wife and Matt do the same.”

“So, you have a lever.” Chang responded.

“What are you talking about?” Sam asked.

“Web will want you to turn yourself in immediately, right?”

“Yeah.”

“How long does this buzz drug stay in a person’s system?”

“If the dose they received was strong enough to take effect as quickly as it did, a person without a gift would be out of it for many hours, possibly even days.”

“So, you can tell Web you want to talk with them before you turn yourself in. You want to be sure they’re okay. He won’t like it, but it will fit with his worldview. It makes sense. It’s standard procedure.”

Sam thought about that for a minute. “You’re right. He would think that way.”

“You can still turn yourself in if we can’t come up with a plan during that time…”

Sam interrupted him. “How long have you known about how I lost my family?”

“Since you started working at the SCIF. Dan told me.”

“Do us both a favor. Don’t ever bring it up again.” Sam’s expression made it clear that he was deadly serious.

“Understood.” Chang knew that he’d walked a fine line.

Sam stood and stepped over to where Chang was sitting. He offered him a hand up, which Chang accepted. “But, thanks.” They walked in silence back to the heart of the newly created facility.

Sam didn’t wait for Web to contact him. Ignoring protocol and perhaps common sense, he communicated his demand to Web and held firm in his requirement to speak with each member of his team before turning himself in. Web had resisted, but in the end he capitulated. Sam didn’t know how much time they had gained, so he was wasting none of it. “Tell me again about the sphere’s transformation into a formation of gifts,” he directed Chang.

“You saw the video of the sphere landing. The events at the landing site were exactly as portrayed up to that point in time. As I told you earlier, eighteen minutes after that the sphere disappeared. Where it had been, there were two prisms consisting of 5,832 gifts. The high-speed video of the event provided a bit more detail, but not much more. It showed the sphere appearing to collapse, like a water balloon suddenly deprived of its skin, only much, much faster.” Chang answered.

Sam thought about this for a moment before saying, “I think we might have something. Let me discuss this with Adia.” He closed his eyes and began doing exactly that.

“There’s something familiar about what he’s describing, Adia. When you converted Lisa’s house to nanites, it appeared to dissolve. It wasn’t as fast as Chang is describing. I could clearly see what was happening, but it seems very similar. Is it possible that the rest of the sphere that landed was composed of nanites?”

“I have very little knowledge about the composition of the ship that brought me here, but it would be logical to conclude that it was constructed using technology similar to that which was used in my creation. Within the bounds of that assumption, your observation would be consistent with the way such an object would behave. The nanites we created from Lisa’s house were limited by the available raw materials. The nanites from which my original body was constructed were optimal. Again, within the bounds of our working assumption, it would seem logical that the sphere that landed in Kansas would consist of nanites similar in nature to those used in my body’s construction. They are significantly more capable than those we are able to build with the common materials we have been working with.”

“So, where did they go?”

“I do not know.”

“Then let’s do something to rectify our ignorance. Seek out any unassociated nanites in that immediate area and attempt to take control of them.”

“If Doctor Liu’s description is accurate, we don’t have the capacity to control that many nanites Sam, especially from this distance.”

“They’re better than anything we’ve built right?”

“Yes.”

“Then we’ll abandon control of all of our local nanites in order to control as many of these nanites as we can acquire, if any. Find them, Adia.”

Sam waited for several seconds before receiving a response from Adia. “They are there, Sam. There are far more than could have arrived with the sphere that landed, but I cannot acquire control of them. They have a controlling entity.”

“Someone from the government has already taken control of them?”

“No, Sam. No pair could control this many nanites, not even us.”

“What are you telling me, Adia?”

“That the nanites are already under control…Sam, someone wants to talk with you.”

“Who?”

“The controlling entity of those nanites.”

“Do you know anything about this being?”

“No, Sam.”

“Your makers did not make this easy. Okay, let’s see what’s behind door number three. Connect us.”

“Sam Steele, we have been waiting for you.” The voice Sam heard in his head was male and confident. It sounded slightly amused, as if the speaker was aware of something pleasant in Sam’s future that remained to be seen by him. “We were impressed by your decision to take control of the Worldnet, as you call it. As Adia has likely informed you, you are the only first who has ever even attempted such a feat. It will make some of the challenges you face in the short term much more tractable, though not without a cost in the longer term.

“You no doubt wonder with whom you are speaking. We have had many names in many languages. Just as other firsts have done in the past, you may name us if you wish. Controlling entity seems rather cold. We’d like to think we’re a bit more than the master of our tiny friends. We are hoping you can do better than that.

“Ah, but the name is not the being, is it? Among other things, we are who sent you your gift as a reward for solving our little puzzle. Your team was the only one to do so before we landed. We must admit that was a bit disappointing. Our analysis of your world’s cultures projected at least two groups would do so in time to meet one of us. On the other hand, which is an amusing expression for us, as we have neither a left nor a right hand, you have pleasantly surprised us since then. You also presented us with a bit of a dilemma; one we’d been debating since you acquired control of the Worldnet. You interrupted that debate when you attempted to gain personal control of some of our assets in North America, which is why we are now talking.

“Oh, but you must have questions. Ask them, please. We are wondering what will be of greatest interest to you, and why.”

Sam struggled to select the most pressing questions to ask. His desire to rescue his team was warring with his desire to finally understand more of what was going on. In the end, he rationalized that he’d need to better understand who he was communicating with in order to proceed sensibly. “When you say we, are you speaking of yourself in the third person or are there more than one of you communicating with a single voice?”

“A delightful question. It’s a bit of both, actually. There are many of us, 306 to be precise, but we speak to you as one. It is not how we communicate internally, nor is it how we would communicate with Adia or any other gift, but after our first contact with a human we determined that this would be the most effective way to exchange ideas with your species.”

Sam did some quick math before responding. “You said you landed. I’m guessing the fact that 306 divided by seventeen is eighteen is not coincidental. You are the beings who controlled the spheres that landed on Earth, right?”

“Indeed. We are here to help you build your gift ship so that we may continue our mission.”

Sam could feel his inclination to become immersed in a challenging puzzle pull on him. Not this time, he told himself. “The gift ship will have to wait for now. I was attempting to acquire more nanites because I have a problem. Members of my team have been taken and are being held against their will. In order to build the ship, I need to rescue them. I have a plan for how to do so, but it requires either more time than I believe I have or the ability to control more nanites than Adia and I can control. Can you help?”

“Our mission is to help you build the gift ship. We are not here to interfere in your species’ internal affairs.”

Sam considered pointing out that they could hardly have interfered with humanity more than they already had. Instead he asked, “Would you consider helping me move members of my team interfering with my species’ internal affairs?”

“Would such assistance result in physical harm to another member of your species?”

“Not intentionally. We are fragile creatures. Choosing not to act could also result in harm that might be avoided by acting. We can only control our intentions.”

“Then it is possible that we could offer such assistance if it will hasten the construction of your ship.”

Sam felt a bit of the weight lift from his shoulders. “Good. This is what I want you to do…”

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Web finished his conversation with Sam and returned his attention to Jack, who was standing next to him outside of the armory. They had been taking a walk when Web received Sam’s request for a connection. “He’s stalling for time.”

“What’s his excuse, Sir?” Jack asked.

“He wants to talk to our guests, to make sure they’re all right. I had hoped to rattle him enough to make him forget proper hostage negotiating techniques. He’s usually so easily handled. I’m surprised it didn’t work, not that it matters. It’s just him and that boy, the girl’s son. He may have the Worldnet on his side, but I don’t see how that’s going to help him against a company of soldiers and my team. No, this will all be over soon. Let him have his last few hours of helplessness. It’ll only make him more pliable when he turns himself in.”

“I’m sure you’re right, Sir,” Jack replied. “Are we suspending search operations?”

“Hell, no. It’d be even more humiliating if we caught him before he had the chance to do the right thing. Keep every bird in the air until he’s secured. How many gifted soldiers do we have patrolling our immediate area?”

“Four, Sir. I’m keeping them close as you directed. Each of them has developed sufficient skills to have an extended nanite sensor suite. We have two of them guarding the prisoners. The remaining six are with the two platoons you told Captain Fox to keep on patrol.”

“Good. We know Sam can take out a drone from a prepared position when he’s nearby. We don’t know if he can take out the one watching our position, or if he even knows where we are, but he’s not getting by my team.”

“No, Sir. I don’t see how anyone could.”

“Okay. It appears we are as prepared as we can be. Have the medic administer the antidote to the prisoners and then get some sleep. It’ll be a few hours until it takes sufficient effect for them to talk with Sam and you look like you’re about to drop where you stand. Have the medic wake you when the prisoners are ready to talk. I’m going to update the CO”

“Yes, Sir.”

Jim was the first to sufficiently recover from the effects of the drug to talk with his gift. He remained motionless, kept his eyes closed and asked Adam what had happened. Adam told him their body had received a gaseous intoxicant as the four gifted soldiers approached the cabin.

“Why didn’t you neutralize the poison, Adam?”