Orphaned when her birth parents were killed in a traffic accident months after she was born, Candy was adopted immediately by Marshall and Megan Foster ("Daddy” and “Momma,” in Candy's lexicon), Teacher's long-time friends, and, in Marshall's case, in everyday life an internationally well-regarded pathologist, but actually a top-secret government biowarfare consultant.
Following several years’ preternaturally rapid intellectual growth, possibly contributed to by the whipsaw effect of Momma's quietly clandestine encouragement and furnishing of any reading matter the child indicated a curiosity about, while Marshall, unaware of Megan's educational supplementation, worked to raise a “normal” girlchild, full of “sugar and spice,” Candy was revealed at about age five to be a Homo post hominem, and rather an advanced one at that.
Shortly thereafter, Megan died of leukemia. Teacher moved in next door and assumed her role as Candy's apparently clandestine educational facilitator and mentor, while Daddy, now aware of the situation, continued in his role as brake. Teacher also took her on as his personal karate student.
By the time Khraniteli zealots struck, wiping out all unprotected Homo sapiens on Earth, Candy, at age eleven, had absorbed substantial elements of a college education and achieved a Fifth Degree Black Belt in karate.
Home alone at the time (Marshall had been summoned to Washington, which was in effect carpet bombed during the attack), Candy rode out the holocaust in the huge shelter complex that Daddy had had built in secret deep beneath their small-town Wisconsin home. Thereafter she and Terry, her “retarded adopted twin brother,” a Hyacinth Macaw and her closest companion nearly from birth (with a history of never having been wrong about whether a new acquaintance was really friendship material), emerged into a depopulated world.
Learning of her Homo post hominem heritage from the letter Teacher had left her, Candy set off to search for others of her kind. The first person she met during her travels was “Adam,” a thirteen-year-old hominem boy (actually named Melville Winchester Higginbotham Grosvenor Penobscot-Jones, IV, by his parents, who had died in the holocaust), whose brashly obnoxious, rich-kid persona concealed astonishing electromechanical, musical, paramedical, and culinary talents. Ultimately, these qualities, as well as his compulsion for outrageous puns, helped endear him to her almost as much as the fact that, within hours of meeting, they had saved each others’ lives:
Initially, during their first encounter, Adam was unconscious, trapped in a burning car. Employing conscious control of hysterical strength, which Teacher had taught her as part of karate discipline, to extract him, she then had to overuse it further to remain conscious long enough to complete the necessary trauma treatment, which included stitching a nicked femoral artery (she had acquired advanced paramedic training “at Daddy's knee"). This cost her a metabolic burnout and, ultimately, cardiac arrest. However, her treatment had been adequate: Adam woke shortly afterward, found her unconscious and fading, was able to restart her heart when it stopped, nursed her back to health, and they've been together since.
During their search they encountered Rollo, an adult hominem physician with years of worldwide survival skills, who turned out to be a sociopath, living with his dead wife's cat, Tora-chan, who hated him. Rollo offered Candy his loyalty, skills, and experience in exchange for access to her bed. Candy deliberated and concluded, objectively, the benefits to Adam and herself outweighed the cost, and was on the point of accepting when Terry, who had disliked the man on sight, bit him severely. Rollo went berserk, tried to kill the bird, and, when Candy used her karate skills and hysterical strength to intervene, he turned on her. Strong and fast, he hurried her; she was forced to kill him. Thereafter, of course, Tora-chan joined their party.
Later, in California, while chasing on foot after a half-glimpsed child, Adam tripped and broke his arm; then taught Candy to fly his ultralight aircraft to perform a grid search, which turned up Kim Mellon, a young computer engineer, and her daughter, six-year-old Lisa, who joined them in the quest.
A subsequent engine failure forced Candy down in the Sequoia National Forest and separated her from the others. Repairing and restarting the engine, she observed a contrail that led her to the Vandenberg Space Shuttle Launch Complex, where she found Teacher and his community of hominems in the process of readying an orbiter for launch.
They had learned of a huge strontium-90 bomb left in orbit by the Khraniteli, programmed to descend and render the Earth uninhabitable for unprotected human life for the next two hundred years. Because the bomb lay in geosynchronous orbit, far above the shuttle's normal operating range, the necessary modifications meant the launch would be a one-way, suicide flight: The three-person crew would neutralize the weapon and die.
Almost at the last moment, the robotic device with which the hominems had planned to disarm the bomb proved inadequate, and Candy realized that only the unique combination of her diminutive size and hysterical strength could save what remained of humanity, so she volunteered for the mission.
Once in orbit, however, crewman Kyril Svetlanov turned out to be a Khraniteli agent and killed the third crewmember. And while Candy managed to kill him and then successfully disarm the bomb, in the process she learned that the Khraniteli were alive, well, and still actively plotting to kill off everyone who wasn't one of them, which meant all her newly found hominem friends and unofficial family members such as Adam, Teacher, Kim, and Lisa still were in danger.
At about the same time, Adam and Kim, searching the sequoias for Candy's downed plane, were coming to the unlikely conclusion that Terry's endless blatherings, reminiscent of CNN's spaceflight coverage, might actually be connected to Candy; that perhaps she was not where they thought she had crashed; that, unlikely as it seemed, she really might be in orbit, and in danger.
Belatedly, Candy realized that, with the detonator pulled, she could send a warning back down to Earth in the bomb-delivery vehicle; she could reprogram it to land at Edwards Dry Lake air force base—then it occurred to her that maybe she could ride down in it herself. But the vehicle was far from man-rated, and, by the time it touched down, she was again clinically dead.
However, having become convinced by then that Terry's continuing spaceflight monologue was in fact a direct, realtime link into Candy's mind, Adam and Kim made it to Edwards just in time to extricate her from the smoking hot reentry vehicle, and for Adam again to resuscitate her.
Thereafter, Candy, Adam, Kim, Lisa, Terry, and Tora-chan moved in with the hominems in Teacher's growing community near Mount Palomar, where, following Candy's recuperation, he and his colleagues resumed her education.
To Candy, however, the most enjoyable part was special-operations training under Danya Feinberg, an ex-Mossad field agent, and number two among Teacher's pseudomilitary operatives. With her karate Black Belt as a departure point, Candy progressed rapidly, achieving proficiency in the most advanced levels of hand-to-hand combat, use of nonstandard weapons, plus the more arcane skills that form the basis of special operations: infiltration, taking out sentries, undercover work, interrogation, ultra-long-range sniper marksmanship, and the like.
Several months into this idyllic existence, one of the hominems’ recon expeditions brought back word from the Russian/Kazakhstani Urals that Candy's adoptive father had not died in the bombing of Washington; that he might in fact still be alive, a prisoner of the Khraniteli in the laboratory at their main base, Serdtsevina Rasovyi. But, Teacher told her, regretfully, it would be at least another six months before the hominems could mount another expedition into the area.
The delay simply was not to be borne. Within hours Candy had gathered copies of the hominems’ expeditionary recon reports, weapons, clothing, supplies, and equipment, left a note assigning Lisa Terry-sitting duties, and was in the air in a “borrowed” bushplane, bound for Serdtsevina Rasovyi.
Her absence was not discovered until day's end. However, little detective work was required to figure out where she was headed.
At which point
Teacher reconsidered: It was time after all, he announced, that they went on the offensive, and the hominems began preparing an all-out invasion. Their primary objective was elimination of the base and cleaning out the Khraniteli living there; but rescuing Marshall and intercepting Candy before she got into trouble were next on the to-do list.
Unaware of these developments, of course, Candy flew on.
Cognizant of the Candy-Terry mindlink, Teacher asked Lisa to listen for and take down anything the bird said that sounded as if it might be from Candy.
During her first stopover, at Klamath Falls, Oregon, Candy encountered Maggie, a Border Collie, preternaturally intelligent, typical of the breed, who had been surviving on her own since the Khraniteli's attack. That night the BC awakened Candy with snarls—holding a pack of wolves at bay. Candy drove them off with warning shots. This ended Candy's indecision: Maggie was on the plane when she departed the next morning.
Crossing into Asia via the Bering Strait, Candy encountered no one until the morning of the eighth day, when she met a likeable, white-bearded, slightly rotund, older gentleman who went by the nicknames, Igrushka Izgotovlenie or “Toymaker,” and Otets Igrushkayami or “Father Toys.” In pre-armageddon days Toymaker had been a manufacturer of high-end, high-tech games and toys. He had once attended a technical conference at Serdtsevina Rasovyi and was able to furnish Candy with a detailed, hand-drawn map of the base.
The following day Candy landed in the wilds just outside Serdtsevina Rasovyi, pulled up under trees, tied the plane down, covered it with camouflage netting, and went to bed early, prepared to begin infiltration of the Khraniteli's headquarters in the morning....
Disguised as clumps of field grass, Candy and Maggie spent the day in special-ops mode, infiltrating and reconnoitering Serdtsevina Rasovyi. It turned out to be easier than she expected: Here in their homeland, Khraniteli security was laughable. She had no difficulty prowling the installation and confirming the accuracy of Father Toys’ map. However, she did find one structure not on the diagram: a razorwire-topped, fenced compound, obviously a prison.
Suspecting this was where Daddy was confined, Candy waited for nightfall, parked Maggie safely at a temporary encampment some distance outside Serdtsevina Rasovyi, assigned the BC to watch the campsite, their food, and camping gear, returned to the prison, and slipped over the fence.
Quickly she determined that Daddy wasn't there—but that some two dozen malnourished children were: captured Homo post hominem children, being used by the Khraniteli as lab rats in their effort to develop a biowarfare agent effective against them.
Candy gained the confidence of the children's leader, Tasha, a girl slightly older than herself, by promising to take them with her when she broke Daddy out. Tasha confirmed that Marshall was indeed there, but was being kept in the main laboratory building, which she pointed out, but asked that they not leave that night because Katia, one of the younger girls, had been taken for the night by Driutsk, a degenerate little troll high in the confidence of Vladislav Kazimirov, the cult leader originally responsible for founding the Khraniteli, and the primary architect of their strategy and tactics: the single individual most responsible for the deaths of more than seven billion people.
As Candy departed the prison camp to reconnoiter the laboratory's security situation, she left her lightweight, folding, Israeli bolt-cutter with Tasha, with instructions that, if she got caught, the Russian girl was to get the children out herself.
Investigation of the laboratory and its surroundings revealed that there were only two doors, both guarded. Sneaking in to find Daddy was impossible.
Returning to her camp, Candy decided to sleep on the problem.
At the same time, Teacher's expedition had gotten under way on schedule. They planned to arrive just in time to intercept Candy, rescue Marshall, and take out Serdtsevina Rasovyi. But over the Arctic Ocean, one of their two C-17s experienced engine trouble. They completed the crossing at reduced speed, put down at Norilsk, a Russian military base, and began repairs.
Everyone was chafing at the delay, but especially Danya, who was observed speculating whether it would be worthwhile to unload the two Black Hawk helicopters they carried to complete the journey. But upon sober consideration, everyone agreed that the resulting strike force would be so reduced in strength that the risk was unacceptable. Reluctantly, it was decided to complete repairs on the engine and go in in full force.
Candy, meanwhile, awoke with the solution to getting into the laboratory. She and Maggie adjourned to a nearby abandoned village where she got an old Russian automobile running, drove it back to the plane, dug out her civilian clothing, drove to her camp, parked Maggie with instructions again to watch the special-ops gear she stored there, and then drove openly into Serdtsevina Rasovyi, playing the role of an ordinary survivor.
Preliminarily, Kazimirov himself questioned her; then turned her over to Driutsk (a spooky, strangely built little man, who resembled Uncle Fester from New Yorker magazine's Addams Family cartoons) to be warehoused with the other children in the prison camp. But he ordered her brought to see the doctor in the morning....
To Candy, this meant Daddy! Maintaining a straight face with difficulty, she allowed Driutsk to lead her off the prison camp. Unfortunately, Driutsk evinced an immediate interest in her. Candy pretended not to understand his overtures, but as he dropped her off at the prison, he told her he would see her later.
Unexpectedly, however, later that afternoon Kazimirov summoned her to his office—to discuss American cinema: The Khraniteli leader was a collector of American movies, and fancied himself an authority.
Candy used the occasion to pick the monster's brain, finishing up with discussion of the Roy Rogers motif in Bruce Willis’ Die Hard movie. To irritate the Russian, Candy began hammering on the unswerving integrity of Willis’ character, John McClane; almost but not quite contrasting his qualities with Kazimirov's patent moral failings. The Khranitel responded by sneering that not even Roy Rogers would be able to save the few remaining Americans, who had been annoying him from their base near Mount Palomar, from the flight of thermonuclear ICBM missiles, which he planned to launch at them in a matter of days ... !
Learning this via the Terrylink, Teacher's expeditionary force, still making repairs on the ground at Norilsk, immediately called home and advised everyone to begin packing, though clearly there wouldn't be time.
That night Candy took Tasha over the fence and back to her camp to pick up some tools, where the Russian girl met Maggie. A snuggle session with the BC triggered Tasha's holocaust catharsis, and Candy and the dog held her and cried her through it.
Meanwhile, at Norilsk, those not working on the engine were jarred rudely from their bunks by the sound of jet engines spooling up to takeoff power. Spilling outside, they saw a small business jet lift off the runway and climb toward the horizon, clearly on course for Serdtsevina Rasovyi: Despite her grudging agreement that they should wait until the engine was repaired so they could go in full force, Danya's patience had run out.
Returning to the prison camp, Candy barely got to sleep before Driutsk and a pair of cohorts arrived to take her, Katia, and another girl off for a night's “partying.” Torn between the prospect of resisting, with three-to-one odds against her, thereby calling attention to her training and endangering her mission, versus the loathsome prospects otherwise, Candy had not quite decided what to do when Tasha pushed between Driutsk and Katia, telling him he was never to hurt the child again.
Driutsk aimed a contemptuous fist at Tasha's head. With all three Russians momentarily distracted, Candy exploded into action, simultaneously killing both of Driutsk's goons with a leaping double-kick—then abruptly found herself flat on her back on the floor, half stunned: Unexpectedly, despite his nebbishy appearance, Driutsk's hand-to-hand skills were first rate.
With spots before her eyes, Candy barely dodged the heart-burster punch the Russian launched down at her, which crashed painfully into the floor, smashing his
hand. She made it to her feet; however, before she could take further action, Driutsk pulled a gun and ordered Tasha to handcuff her or watch her die right then and there, declaring that he now intended to torture Candy until she begged to die—then give her to Fedka, the Khraniteli's Mengele-equivalent, who ran the biowarfare program, and who, the children reported, was fond of vivisecting live, conscious subjects.
But abruptly, Driutsk dropped the gun and toppled to the floor, revealing the Israeli bolt-cutter embedded in the back of his head, and Katia right behind him, beaming from ear to ear.
Efficiently Tasha and rest of the prison camp children pulled up floorboards, produced boards usable as shovels, and buried the three bodies beneath the dormitory.
Candy was not taken to “the doctor” the next morning, and, looking through the fence, it was obvious that the base was in an uproar; obviously Driutsk and his minions had been missed. As usual, prison camp security personnel had been sleeping on the job when the three had entered, so no one suspected that the children had had anything to do with the disappearance.
It was nearly evening before someone came for Candy. She spent the ride psyching herself up to meet Daddy without reacting, lest the Khraniteli realize they now had a lever to use against him. But as the door opened and she braced herself, in walked a tall, pale, cadaverous man—the vivisectionist Fedka....
After the buildup, the monster's examination of Candy was anticlimactic; his conduct was merely professionally impersonal: He took her vitals, a brief medical history, collected her DNA, and left, mentioning in parting that she'd be taken to Doctor Foster the next day.
However, instead of retracing their steps back down the central corridor on the way out, the guard took her the other way. And when he paused to light a cigarette at a closed door halfway between the ends of the building, Candy heard Kazimirov's voice raised in argument—with Daddy! The snippet she overheard before the guard again grabbed her arm and they moved on was brief, but it was enough to let her know that Daddy would be right there all night. That was all she needed....
Analog SFF, October 2008 Page 16