“Well I suppose so, but you’re buying dinner then; I’m starving.”
I laughed, “Absolutely. I’ll grab some takeout and have it waiting. Thank you for coming! I’ll text you my address and see you in a bit.”
I knew that once her mind adjusted to the fact that my predicament was real, she’d understand and not turn me in. It still felt like a giant risk, although one I had to take.
No turning back now.
By the time I got home from picking up some Chinese food for us, her car was already there, so I popped up the garage door, nodded, and we headed inside. I grabbed some wine and glasses, and we kept to small talk while we ate. I was dreading the discussion and knew she was curious, though restrained, but it was time.
“Janet, there has been some things going on with me, possibly since I woke up from the coma. Maybe even before that, but I have no idea. I could try to explain it, but you probably wouldn’t believe me without seeing it for yourself. Eh, okay that part was a joke, but you don’t understand why, yet.”
“Oh, I don’t think I’d…”
I held up my hand. “No, honestly, you wouldn’t just believe it on my word alone. And I need you to stay calm because this is going to really mess with you.” I made eye contact with her, and she looked back just as intensely.
Then I shielded, and everything changed.
“What the…?” Janet was in a mixture of jumping up, backing up, and turning around looking for me.
I unshielded, and she immediately grabbed her wine glass and emptied it, all the while not taking her eyes off me. Then she emptied mine too.
“Oh my God…. Please tell me I just imagined that, Sam.”
“I am sorry. I hope you can understand why I couldn’t just tell you.”
She struggled with her response and finally asked, “Wait, so did you really disappear in front of me at the hospital? I thought I was just seeing things because I was so tired. They all kind of made fun of me.”
“It’s possible. All I remember is that I woke up when you touched my wrist, and we both screamed. I thought the lights had gone out for a moment. The tests that Dr. Friedenstein ran showed no cancer or tumors to explain this ‘ability.’ I want to show you again, but also explain my theory of how I think it’s affecting me.”
She simply nodded, so I knelt in front of her; her face flickered some fear. “I am sorry, Janet, I don’t mean to frighten you. I will not, will never, hurt you. I am asking you to trust me because you’re also one of the few I can trust.”
She relaxed a bit, so I took her hands and placed them on each side of my head. I leaned forward so my face was about six inches from hers. I could tell she was still nervous, but was also curious. Good, that should help. She certainly recovers quickly.
“I need you to keep looking into my eyes and keep your hands on my face so you’ll know where I am. I am not teleporting or anything, only becoming invisible. At this distance you might understand better like I did when I first starting experimenting.”
She took a deep breath and nodded. I shielded again, and she jumped, then nervously laughed. She started looking at herself and gasped; I realized that her arms had also shielded almost to her elbows. I consciously resolved to unshield anything that was Janet, and immediately her forearms and hands appeared again.
“Uhh, sorry about that.” I stayed shielded and she had a slight smile of wonder as she turned my head back and forth, looking at the palms of her hands clearly even though they were flat against my skin. “Okay, Janet. I want you to look into my eyes, or where you imagine they are. And look closely.”
“Okay,” she said, her nervousness giving way to curiosity. “Oh! Oh!! I can see the outline of your cornea and what looks like your retina… and your optic nerve! Wow this is amazing!”
“Yes, I learned how to control at least that part of my body to become slightly visible. I believe it’s also why the lights seem to dim.”
“Haha yes! You had nothing for the light to register on because it was invisible!”
I smiled, then felt silly because she couldn’t see it, but she smiled, too, because she could feel the muscles in my face move.
“Okay, I’m coming back now.” I unshielded, and to her credit, she did not flinch.
After a few minutes she started laughing. “My, this is incredible! I am sorry for my initial reaction, but I suppose that’s pretty normal given the circumstance. Well maybe screaming would have been called for. And I’m glad no tumors are involved, although I have no idea how you can do this. Please tell me everything from the beginning! How you found out, what you went through, and, buddy, if you’ve been spying on me…”
I laughed and put my hands up in defense. “No, I assure you I am not spying on you, but I have been using my ability in some less-than-legal ways.”
I started talking, the first time I told anyone, and explained everything I could possibly remember. I spared her most of the details of death or violence, even though I know she’d have the stomach for it. She frowned, but did not interrupt. She was white as a sheet by the time I finished telling her what had happened the previous day and early morning.
“Look at my arm. You can still see some of the bite marks, but they’re nearly healed after only one day, and there’s no scarring. I know you disagree with some of my actions, but here’s how I look at it: I’m pretty much filtering my jobs to keep innocent people out of the criminal mix. Basically, I am taking money from one criminal at the expense of another. For me that’s a win-win scenario.”
“Unless you die… Oh Sam, you’ve got to stop this!”
“I know, at least more or less, but Matroni wants me dead and knows my face, and Bryson probably wants the same, even if to cut me open and get more information for his research.”
“I know you’ll have to stop them or spend the rest of your life in hiding, but please be careful. And this Bryson fellow feels really off to me. I’ll do some checking, quietly, and see what I can find out about him in the medical community.”
“Thanks, but please be careful.” I knew she had a good head on her shoulders. “I also wonder if you can research this nanobot stuff and learn if it can be controlled. I’m not sure if I want to get rid of them because that might be where my ability originated, but I still need more info. But be careful with that, too. If you talk to the wrong people, you could attract Bryson’s attention, and that isn’t a good thing.”
“Okay, Sam, I’ll let you know if I find anything.”
It was almost 1:00 a.m. I hadn’t realized we’d talked for so long. Janet said, “It is getting late, yes, but I still have more questions. You healed quickly in the hospital from an injury that probably should have been fatal. It’s possible these nanobots were already in your system. If Bryson was surprised they were being reprogrammed, then I think it’s possible they were indeed there. I mean, he thought it was due to a flaw on his end, but if they were already there, then much of what you told me makes more sense. What we don’t know, though, is how you were given them in the first place!”
I nodded for her to continue.
“Next, Bryson seems to think he’s the only person doing the research or creating the bots, and if he determines you already had some… Well I don’t know, but either he’s got a competitor or another person on his team has gone rogue. They must be related in some way. He said he had seen that signature before, so it must be something he worked on previously.
“Then, given the strange circumstances of how you were found and brought in the hospital in a coma, more and more about your situation doesn’t add up. You had head trauma due to an explosion, but no evidence of an explosion was found at the subway platform. The only glass present was embedded in your scalp, and we removed that during the first operation to stabilize you. If there is a link between your ‘accident’ and Bryson, then more people might be in on it. If this thing you saw in your dream, in a beaker, contained those nanobots then it’s possible they entered your bloodstream when it shattered
into your head.”
I nodded, following her logic, and glad I had chosen to trust her. She may very well be the tipping point to getting answers.
Janet continued: “Last, according to you, there seems to be some sort of military background in your past, but your fingerprints aren’t in the system, which doesn’t make much sense. As part of this train of thought you also mentioned some of these recurring dreams had a label from ‘ASP Systems,’ and the institute’s acronym is IASP. That can’t be a coincidence, and your conversation with Bryson confirmed as much. If you were part of a high-level experiment Bryson had been involved with earlier, I can’t imagine he wouldn’t recognize you immediately, right?
“Oh, and remember after you were brought to the coma ward, I had noticed your extreme weight loss. I remember seeing a documentary on how nanobots replicate, replacing themselves or growing into a critical mass of sorts. Or at least that seems to be the case, and Bryson indicated he could institute programming across a large group of nanobots. They may have been pulling from your own body to heal, replicate, and anything else they’d been programmed to do.”
“Hmm that is an interesting thought. I guess we’ll know more once you can research some of this mystery. I bet they could keep me from getting fat,” I noted wishfully.
“If that’s the case, your life is in jeopardy by me unless you get me some!”
I laughed. “So at least you’re familiar with some of this nanobot stuff. With your medical background, I hope you can get answers that I cannot.”
She nodded, then continued, “I also want to know if there are limits to this gift of yours, such as can you only remove light absorption in your entire body or in specific areas? I saw your clothing also disappear, as well as part of my arms and hands, now that I think about it, so you must have control over external objects, at least to an extent.”
“Yeah, that was one of the things I had noticed in the beginning. I call it ‘shielding.’ I can hide other objects, but only things I’m holding or that are on my person. I can’t just touch a car and make it disappear, and the larger the object, the bigger my headache. I mean, maybe I could shield a car, but I’d probably puke and pass out attempting it. My subconscious is intuitive enough to follow my focused thoughts, but I’ve never tried shielding only one body part. In a way, I suppose I’ve accomplished that with my eyes, but it might be so I can continue seeing.”
She looked thoughtful “Want to test it?”
“Sure, why not?”
I held up my hand, palm toward me with my fingers spread. I focused and tried to push the thought toward my hand. I felt my head start hurting a bit, but sure enough, after a few moments, my thumb and a few fingers disappeared, leaving a solitary middle one that gave her the finger.
“Oh….If that wasn’t so terribly cool, I would smack you!”
We both laughed. “Oh, I have no doubt. I was having trouble, though, and my head hurt, so I don’t know how long I could sustain it. It would be a neat trick though to slice myself into sections and look for cancer or other injuries, but I’m not sure the image would ever leave me!
“Yes, Sam, let’s just leave it at that. I need to get going. I can’t believe we’ve talked for hours; this is just amazing! I’ll let you know as soon as I find out anything, and I promise to be careful with inquiries. Thank you for your trust.”
“Not a problem, Jan. And thank you for hearing me out. I know it was a shock.”
I hugged her and saw her out. Tomorrow I would start planning, but tonight I simply needed sleep. As I saw her drive away, I realized that having someone to confide in helped immeasurably and knew I needed to stay in touch with her for the sake of my sanity if nothing else. Plus she was cute, which didn’t hurt.
Chapter 16
The next morning found me energetic and thoughtful. I knew Matroni and Bryson might still be able to learn my identity, although the nanobots obviously weren’t able to track me or they’d have been here by now. Regardless, I needed to protect not only myself, but now Janet. I didn’t think she understood the danger she might be in.
The first stop was to my attorney. Much of my cash would go directly into a trust with Janet as a beneficiary and the executor, in case of my prolonged absence, but she would need to sign documents later. It was the least I could do for potentially putting her in harm’s way.
Next, I spread the rest of my cash across other safety deposit boxes. I also gave Janet access to them and left the keys with another local attorney who would notify her in the event of anything unfortunate. She would not be thrilled to find evidence of the type of jobs I had pulled, based on my gear, but the cash would help her survive, if nothing else. Anything more I earned would also be added to the reservoir, compounding the effect. And I burned any remaining physical evidence of my clients. I couldn’t afford to have old clients know my identity, especially if they thought Janet may have access to evidence—a death sentence for her.
I also found another place to rent, a real dump, cash weekly, and paid three months in advance. There was no paperwork, which eliminated any sort of tracking, provided I had no phone, electric or Internet service in my name. I paid a bit extra for the landlord to keep the utilities in his name. I could always find Wi-Fi elsewhere when I needed it. I now had another layer of security in case I needed an immediate, anonymous escape plan.
I spent a few days moving some items to the rental, selling the rest, and getting settled in; then it was time to clean up anything else that could point back to me. I briefly talked to Janet a few times, but she’d found nothing new. She still seemed excited about my abilities, though a bit cautious. And she should be.
The hospital records were the best place to start. While they didn’t have my address, only my name, even that was risky. I couldn’t ask Janet to change my records—even though she’d be willing, invisibility has its perks—so I decided to inform her after the fact. I drove to the hospital, found a parking spot, and made my way inside to the records department. I didn’t want to stay shielded since it was so busy that I’d, literally, run into people. Once near the hospital administration department, I ducked into a bathroom to shield and proceeded to tuck myself into a corner near the admin door, which was controlled by a coded key-fob entry.
After a few moments someone exited, and as they walked away, I slipped inside. I walked through the nearly vacant hallways until I found a terminal in an empty office, one without the computer screen locked. Sure enough, the patient administration program was open, and I entered my name, found the entry, and edited “me” out of it. I changed my name from Samuel Jonathan Brown to Sakima Dakota, removed any images, changed the social security number, and listed my race as Native American.
I was worried that if I changed much more, it would prompt an investigation and restoration of the records from backup. I closed out my patient file and systematically reopened all of the entries in the recent-history list to bump my entry far down, in case anyone did a quick look at recently opened patients. I unshielded myself and walked back to the parking garage, avoiding cameras and keeping my head down.
I phoned Janet to let her know my new address, as well as give her the paperwork for the trust I had created. We settled on a nearby grill, and I grabbed a booth in a corner away from prying eyes and ears. About five minutes later she slid into a spot across from me as a waitress came over and handed her a menu. “Actually, I’ll just grab a water and a large salad, please”
“Sure, and for you, sir?”
“Same; sounds good enough”
“Right away, thanks!” I nodded, and she ventured back toward the kitchen.
“Janet, I have made some changes for safety reasons, and some of it isn’t exactly legal. Please tell me if you don’t want to know more for plausible-deniability reasons.”
“Ahh, okay, well this could get interesting. Proceed,” she said with a smirk.
“First things first. I created a trust for us to use and moved to minimize the ability for anyone t
o find me. Some money from my jobs is going directly into the trust through a roundabout way, hiding the trail as much as possible, and we are both listed as beneficiaries. I need you to stop by my attorney’s office and fill out the paperwork.”
“Oh seriously? Do you…” She stopped as the waitress delivered our water, stepping away to another patron.
“Yes, seriously. I don’t know what will happen next, but if anything bad happens to me and you don’t want the money, feel free to give it to charity. But I’d rather you kept it. In addition, you also have access to my safety deposit boxes with other cash and information. Be careful, as you don’t want to draw attention to yourself when accessing them. But if I go missing or worse, clear them out completely, and move whatever you want to keep into your own safe place.”
She started to speak, but I held up my hand and continued: “There’s nothing illegal in them, just some items and cash, which can be helpful. I trust your judgment, and you can always leave everything there if you’re uncomfortable. I trust you, but even if you ran off with everything, I could get more money. You’ve been more of a help to me than you know.”
She closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them. “Okay. I’ll think about it, but I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to buy myself a mansion on the beach as payment for being put in this position. And I never really thanked you for the gift and money you left Marcy and me. Thank you, it wasn’t necessary, but very thoughtful.” She then winked, and I knew I was safe, at least until I made my last point.
“Last, imagine, in theory, that someone had their hospital records changed to be harder to track.”
“Oh no, you didn’t! And you better not have used my freaking log in to do it!”
“Like I said: theory; I admit nothing. And not your log in. Would it raise flags if a patient’s name, social security number, and race were changed and pictures deleted?”
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