The Gifted (5 page)

“I think I've got it down,” she said. “It
gets tricky with the gunpowder, but I seem to have it under control
now.”

“Gunpowder!” I yell as I imagine her blowing
up everything in sight.

“Just kidding,” laughed Tracy. “But yes,
General, I’m ready.

The general ignored me. “And Han, you can
fold paper.”

“How's that supposed to help?” I asked.

“You'd be surprised,” said the general.

“Now you must prepare to leave. You will meet
in 20 minutes in the hangar. This is what you’ve been training for,
so you should be good to go.”

“Yeah, great to go,” said Guido, “to our
deaths.

“Did you think we were sending you out by
yourselves?” said the general. “I want you to meet someone.” From
the back of the room a mountain of a man stood up and walked
forward. He was enormous. He must have stood at around six and a
half feet tall and had the general shape of a gorilla, only without
all the hair and fleas. When he moved, it looked like his muscles
were planning to break out of his shirt at any moment. “This,” said
the general, “is Brock.

“Nice to meet you,” said Brock in a deep,
smooth voice.

“Okay, now I feel better,” said Guido from
near my right ear.

Han looked awed, “Can I get your
autograph?”

“Maybe later,” said Brock.

Tracy spoke up, “Okay, he's big, but what can
he do?”

Brock smiled. “I’m fluent in eight languages,
am a master in six forms of martial arts, and I have this!” Brock
pulled out a long steel pipe. Looking closer, I saw that it was a
gun. “Maybe you know the Smith & Wesson .50 Caliber Magnum is
the largest handgun on the planet. Some call it ‘the King of
Handguns.’”

“Is that what that is?” said Guido.

“No,” said Brock with another smile, “this
would eat a .50 caliber for breakfast. This is a .65 caliber. The
guy who invented it tested it only once. Blew his thumb clean off.
Luckily he had it sewn back on. He promptly threw it away and I
kindly volunteered to take out the trash that night. You'll sleep
safer knowing this is under my pillow.” He kissed his gun and
smiled.

“We’ll take him,” said Guido.

We walked back to our rooms without talking.
When you know you may not live much longer, what can you say? “Hi,
nice knowing you. I sure hope we don't all get shot today!”

On our way to the hangar, the general came up
alongside me, and in a stern voice said, “follow me.” I followed,
feeling like I was in trouble with the principal.

He took me out to a small office down the
hall. I thought maybe it was his, but didn’t want to ask.

He turned to me once I closed the door. “Now,
let me explain some things to you before you go and get everyone
killed. Brock is the leader here. Your gift means nothing other
than it’s a way to get you accepted by the other gifted kids. I
know you are used to people looking to you for advice. You are used
to being the leader, but that’s because people
feel
you can
lead. That’s your gift, but you are no leader. Try that on this
mission and you will likely get people killed. Hear that, killed!
Now you have no training in leadership, you do not know combat
tactics or even how to negotiate. You are in essence, useless on
this mission except to do what Brock tells you to do. Do you
understand?”

I felt numb, like I was detached from my
body. “Yes, sir,” I said. “M-may I leave now?” I didn’t know what
else to say.

“Yes,” he said. “The others will be getting
suited up so you can join them.”

“Thank you,” I said. I left and walked toward
the hangar where the others waited for me. I felt awkward, like I
had lost connection with my body.

When I got to the hangar, I saw the others
standing next to some lockers. They were talking and putting on
their wetsuits. I found a locker with my name on it and started
getting ready.

“You alright?” asked Han.

“Sure,” I said.

I could tell he was worried. I wanted to
hide. “Are you sure?” he said.

“Yeah, you look like someone stepped on your
kitten,” said Guido.

“I said I’m fine!” I yelled. Everyone stopped
talking.

“Just asking,” he said. He moved away from
me.

“Hey, what’s wrong with you?” said Tracy.

“Didn’t you hear?” said Guido. “He’s fine.
Let’s leave him alone.”

“Okay,” said Tracy. “I hear you.”

Once we were suited up and ready, we walked
outside the hangar and found our transportation.

The plane was a Rickshaw V-68. Nicknamed
“Wyvern”. It had been experimental. I read about it in that book in
my room. It was sleek, black, and beautiful, but at the time, I
didn’t care. Inside, it was a tight fit. I sat down and put on my
harness. I could hear what people were saying, but it was like I
was hearing it from a long ways away. I couldn’t seem to focus.

“Sorry about the squeeze everyone,” said the
pilot. “This plane has been modified a little to make it possible
to transport you all. Usually it only fits four, but we’re trying
to accommodate all five. . .” Brock crouched down while turning
sideways in order to move past the pilot. “Make that five and a
half of you.”

“Funny,” said Brock, who wasn’t laughing.
Neither was I.

Once we squeezed together and strapped in, I
heard Guido ask the pilot, “How fast does this plane go?”

“We should pass Mach 3 without much
difficulty,” he said. I just stared across the plane to the
opposite wall. What was wrong with me?

“Anything in case of missiles?” asked
Han.

“No worries there,” said the pilot. “This
thing outruns them. Since its deployment, the Wyvern has never been
shot down.”

“Good to hear,” said Guido. “How long ago was
this plane first deployed?”

“Last week,” said the pilot.

“Great!” Guido said, “So we’re guinea pigs.
We’re gonna die!”

“Once we get in the air,” said the pilot, “I
will have to turn on the inertial dampers. I just want to warn you
that it might make you feel pretty weird when that happens, but
it’s better than being crushed by the acceleration. People respond
differently to it, so I can’t tell you exactly what will happen. At
worst, you’ll feel sick.”

And with that we were in the air. He was
right about the inertial dampers. It felt really weird. Kind of
like when my brother and I spun around in circles until we fell
down. We would spin until we felt like barfing, then fall down and
get back up and try to walk. The plane was like that for me. Only
add to that being punched in the stomach. Tracy actually had to
grab a plastic bag and throw up. It made me feel sick too, but I
didn’t throw up. After that, I closed my eyes. I imagined I was
back home.

The trip took a couple of hours. The others
talked, especially Tracy who didn’t seem to stop talking except for
when she barfed. I think the others were pretty nervous, so they
were much quieter. Later, Tracy and Guido got talking and kept at
it for the rest of the trip. No one bothered me.

I think I fell asleep for a few minutes. Of
all the strange places to take a nap. Just then, someone hit my arm
and I heard the pilot. “We’re going to lower our altitude so we can
skim just above the water. You should get ready.” We put on our
scuba tanks and fins.

“This is where you get out,” he said a few
minutes later. “Ready to jump?”

“What?” I said. “This is a V-68. V is for
vertical landing, right? Can’t it stop?”

“Not this time,” he said. “No place to land
and I need to get out of this airspace before we get shot down. I'm
sorry you weren't briefed on this.”

A door opened at the side of the plane and
the sound of rushing air was loud.

Water was speeding by and I saw a seagull go
by like a bullet. “Are you nuts?” I yelled. I would either be
killed or crippled for life!

The plane slowed down more, but it was still
going fast. My heart started to beat faster. I was about to jump
out of a moving plane!

“Jump facing forward with your arms tucked!”
yelled Brock. We all nodded.

Before anything else was said, Tracy grabbed
my arm, turned to me and yelled with a smile, “Well, no time like
the present!” She took two steps and jumped out. That girl was
crazy! I didn’t want to look more afraid than a girl, so I jumped
after her.

As I fell I think I saw Han jump after me
right before I hit a brick wall with my face!

Well, maybe I didn’t really hit a brick wall,
but it felt like it. I was convinced I was dead. There was a bright
light and voices. I thought I must be in heaven until I heard the
others calling my name. “You okay, Andy?” I opened my eyes. I knew
the voice belonged to Guido but I still couldn't locate him until
he touched my arm. It was always weird when he did that. It's like
he just came out of nowhere, but at the same time I know he was
always there.

“Yeah, I'm just trying to find the rest of
me,” I said. “Anybody seen my brain?”

“Now you sound like yourself,” said
Guido.

I could see Brock swimming past us, big as a
tanker. “Now let's get going,” he said in his deep voice. “We can’t
stay out in the open for long. We might get spotted.”

Just before we started to follow him, I heard
Guido. “Brock, what would have happened if we jumped so our backs
hit the water instead?”

“I was thinking of doing that as well,” said
Tracy. “Maybe the tanks would have cushioned the fall.”

Brock answered, “Maybe your tanks would have
ripped your arms out of their sockets. Or better yet, your
head.”

“There’s a fun thought,” I said. We all
started following Brock.

It took maybe twenty minutes of steady
swimming before we approached land. There was an enormous building
not far from shore and I wondered if that was where we were going
to be if all this went well.

Brock motioned with two fingers that he
wanted all of us to follow him and then he dove under the water. I
shrugged and followed. Brock was diving deep, which scared me. The
water got a lot colder and darker as we dove. The practice tank
never prepared me for this! Brock headed toward a rock face and
disappeared into it. I could only guess there must be a cave. Still
unable to see it, I followed him anyway.

Darkness surrounded me for half a minute
until I saw light above us. I thought about swimming for it, but
remembered that we were diving so no one up top would see us.

We swam on and it got dark again. Before I
had time to get fully scared, Brock took out a glow stick and broke
it. We all followed suit. Behind Brock was Tracy, then Guido and
Han, and me at the end.

We swam for a while this way and I wondered
how far under the island we were traveling. I was impressed with
the size of this cave. A wall skirted my left side, but the right
was empty blackness.

Something bumped me from behind.
How could
that be
, I thought? I was the last one. I felt it again. It
felt like someone hitting me with their fist. I turned and looked
behind and in the eerie light of the glow stick I saw a great white
shark grinning at me, its long teeth shining in the dark. I
screamed. Have you ever tried to scream underwater? It comes out
something like “bebub bb b barbbb.” The shark nudged my feet with
its nose and kept following me. I tried to scream again and swam as
fast as I could, but the shark just followed close at my feet.

That's when it hit me. I knew what this shark
was doing. I didn't need to fear for my life. My gift was causing
the shark to like me. Not for dinner, but to want to be around me.
To play with me perhaps. I often had this effect on neighborhood
dogs. At that moment I was more thankful for my gift than I have
ever been in my life. I said a silent prayer of thanks, glad that I
could be the shark’s friend instead of his lunch. He never went
after the others, but was content to stay at my heels for the rest
of the journey until we came to a brightly lit area where it turned
and left me. This was where we stopped.

Brock gave a signal for all of us to stay in
one place. I realized this was where Guido was supposed to do his
stuff. I felt something brush by me and for just an instant I saw
Guido swimming to the top wearing nothing but his underwear. They
were white boxers with a red waistband. I turned away, embarrassed
for him. But when I turned back I couldn't find him anymore. Weird
how that happened, he might as well be invisible.

We waited for a long time. There was nothing
to do but tread water just below the surface. We couldn't really
talk to each other so I played a few rounds of roshambo with Tracy
while Brock just shook his head. After a long while I saw a hand
reach down through the water and touch my head. “It’s Guido,” I
said, which came out like “brib bribbbo.” We came up out of the
water and saw him smiling at us.

Guido was wearing the top part of one of the
guard’s uniforms. It was very loose on him, but at least we didn’t
see his chonies. “It took you long enough,” said Brock.

“How did you do it?” I asked.

“I came out of the water easily enough and no
one saw me,” he said. “Then I slowly crept to the top up there
where I saw two guards. They were carrying M16’s, so I took my
time. But when I got there, I just froze. I stood there just
watching these guys with their guns. Did I mention they had M16’s?
Then I wondered how I could do it without getting killed. Since
there were two of them I figured that if I hit one over the head
with a rock or something, then the other would see where I was.
What I finally did was wait until one had walked over close to the
edge over there where the rock slopes downward. Then I pushed him
so the other one would think he had just stumbled and fell. When
his friend looked after him, I took a large rock and I hit him
sideways over the head with it, the way I was taught.” I saw the
rock and there was some blood and hair stuck to it. “That was it
for him, for now.”