by Jacob Gowans
“Not today,” his mother agreed.
Commander Byron asked, “Have you ever heard Samuel’s name mentioned?”
“No,” his dad answered. “That isn’t even on our list of target words.” He looked at his wife. “Dang, honey, why didn’t I think of that?”
The commander set his mug down. “Better late than never, right? How could you have known the CAG is targeting Samuel?”
“What do you mean ‘targeting him?’” his mother asked. “He’s a boy. What do they want him for?”
Commander Byron stared at the swirling contents within his mug, his thoughts momentarily lost.
“Sammy has a gift, doesn’t he, Walter?” Thomas asked. “We noticed things. He shoulders burdens unlike any boy I’ve ever seen.”
“An amazing gift, Pop. He is one of a kind, which is why I worry so much about him. Not only does he have my Anomaly Fourteen, but also Anomaly Eleven, which makes his mind brilliant. In fact, when I discovered him in Johannesburg, the Tensais—our name for the Elevens—made a big push to train him instead of me. Fortunately, I won that battle. But one of the consequences of me training him is that we still have no idea exactly what his mind is capable of. General Wu is pushing and pushing to get him through Beta training so he can start tapping that well of potential in his skull. I resisted the general so much that he promoted me. Now I am out of his way.”
“Why did you resist?” his mother asked.
Byron closed his eyes. “Because with Samuel’s gift, there is also a curse.”
“What do you mean?”
Byron’s eyes were still closed. “Sammy’s DNA will decide this war. In reality, Sammy may decide this war. Can you imagine the CAG, with their advanced genetics research and technology, getting a hold of it? What might they create?”
“Do they have his DNA?” Lara asked.
“I have to assume they do. What I do not know is how intact the sample is and how long they have had it. Sammy was captured in Rio de Janeiro six months ago, but he started at Beta headquarters fourteen months ago. That is a long time to tinker if Wrobel gave the CAG his DNA all the way back then.”
“What could they do with it?”
Byron shrugged his shoulders as though he did not know. This was misleading. He did know, but the information was classified. “We have people who study that stuff, but some of us worry that our own laws are going to be our detriment. Our genetics research is so limited that we cannot hold a candle to what the CAG is capable of.”
Thomas placed his hand on Lara’s as they listened to their son.
“Does Sammy know about this?” Lara asked. “Is he going to be all right?”
Byron shook his head. “All I can say is that we are handling him with all the care of a nuclear bomb. We take him that seriously. That mission in Rio was a terrible error—my error. We needed Sammy to have experience, we thought the mission would be as controlled as possible, but we never foresaw what would happen if one of our own. . . . ”
Thomas and Lara exchanged a look of concern. “We can’t even imagine the choices you have to deal with everyday, son. If that was your call, don’t second-guess yourself.”
“My decisions are no more difficult than yours, Pop. And yours, Mom. I look around here and cannot imagine the hard work you two are doing. It is incredible.”
“So you’re sure about leaving tomorrow?” his mother asked.
“I wish I could stay longer, but I have so much work to do.”
“No way we can convince you otherwise?” his dad pressed.
Commander Byron smiled mournfully. His parents assured them that they understood, but Byron could not mistake their sorrow. Early the next morning, they gathered one last time for breakfast. Byron’s mother stalled as much as she could, and then tearfully hugged her son and grandchildren. Commander Byron and his father embraced once again, and Byron heard his father whisper words of love into his ear along with a line from a familiar poem:
“‘Life is hard; be steel; be a rock.’”
Commander Byron patted his father hard on the back. “I will, Pop. I will.”
14.
Alpha
Monday July 15, 2086
Monday morning, Sammy breezed through the last portions of the Psion Panel. When he finished, Commander Zahn pronounced him fit for graduation and stated multiple times that he had never seen anyone as prepared as Sammy to become a Psion Alpha. Sammy thanked the commander graciously and went to his room where he celebrated the event by himself, reading the last pages of War of the Worlds while his friends finished up their sims and instructions.
When he headed upstairs for lunch, he knew he wouldn’t hear any words of praise or congratulations from Jeffie. She still treated him as though he’d contracted a rare and deadly strain of smallpox. He also foresaw Brickert and Natalia being more excited about seeing each other after a four-hour break than hearing about Sammy’s success. Strawberry’s reaction would be enthusiastic, but less so than it would have been two weeks earlier before Sammy’s breakdown when he’d smelled her cinnamon breath. And as he guessed, the biggest cheers and applause came from Kawai. She was the only person who really seemed to understand him lately, and consequently, he spent more time with her than anyone else. That evening, his friends quietly celebrated with him and he went to bed feeling both happy and lonely.
At breakfast the next morning, Sammy plopped into the chair next to Kawai, who was well into a bowl of bananas and sugar-coated quinoa.
She touched him on the arm and smiled. “Morning!”
“I got a text from Tawhiri. He wants to meet with me after I eat.”
“What about?” she asked.
Sammy shrugged, his mouth full of oatmeal.
“Probably just about your mission. Are you nervous?”
“Nope. Fine.”
“Okay. You want to do a picnic for lunch? You can tell me about the meeting and whatever else is on your mind.”
Sammy glanced around the room. Jeffie and Kobe were both drinking their breakfast shakes. Two seats away, Brickert and Natalia looked at each other and giggled randomly. Strawberry sat among Antonio, Hefani, and the new Betas whose names Sammy still hadn’t learned. He didn’t see the point.
“Sure. Sounds good.”
As Kawai smiled at him, her face turned slightly redder, and she changed the subject for the rest of the meal. At 0815, exactly the time Tawhiri had requested, Sammy knocked on the major’s door. Tawhiri greeted Sammy like an old chum and showed him into the kitchen.
“I forgot to tell you to skip breakfast, but if you want an omelet, I’m happy to make one for you.”
Sammy was about to decline when he got a whiff of the food cooking. Instead, he accepted. His response made the major glow.
“So congratulations are in order, aren’t they?” he stated as he poured the eggs and milk onto a frying pan. “Are you excited? I hope so, because I certainly am.”
“Yeah, I’m excited,” Sammy said dully.
“Good, good. Cheese? You can never have too much cheese, that’s what I always say.” Major Tawhiri sprinkled cheese before Sammy answered yes. Then he began chopping strips of bacon and ham. “I’ve been asked by Command to give you your mission information. I don’t know too much about the details, but I can tell you that you should pack a bag on Thursday because you’re heading to Alpha headquarters with your squadron leader. You’ll be training with your new squadron for about a week before heading out on the mission. Anna Lukic, your honcho, will evaluate your performance. Any questions?”
“Yeah,” Sammy said. “What kind of role am I going to have on the mission? Am I there only to watch? Is this a fighting mission?”
“No idea. Anna will give you all that information.”
“Has a date been set yet for my graduation?”
“Actually, yes, thank you for bringing that up. I forgot to mention that. Command has approved two possible dates for your graduation, and they are willing to let you decide between them. The
fourth of August or the first of September. Which would you prefer?”
Sammy thought about it and didn’t know. “Can I sleep on it?”
“Sure, take some time and mull it over. But let me know before you go to Alpha so I can tell Command your preferences. I can’t guarantee anything, but your opinion counts.”
They stood in the kitchen in silence while Tawhiri finished making the omelets. Sammy’s thoughts wandered as he thought about his mission and graduating. A nervous sensation hit his stomach as Major Tawhiri slid the omelets onto plates and went into the dining room. “Smells delicious, doesn’t it?”
Sammy didn’t hear the question. His thoughts stayed on his impending graduation, questioning his recent decisions. When the scent of the omelet hit his nose, he decided to ask the major. “Do—Sir, do you think I’m ready to become an Alpha?”
Major Tawhiri’s façade of constant giddiness fell away, and Sammy saw on his face an expression of genuine concern. “I wouldn’t have recommended you if I didn’t.”
“I’m not even sixteen. I don’t think I’m mature enough to handle it.”
“Why?”
“I—I—” Sammy stammered because he felt his face growing hot. “Girls.”
“Girls make you immature?”
“Yes! I can’t stop thinking about them, I get depressed when one of them doesn’t like me, and I—I really can’t stop thinking about them. What if I’m on a mission and I’m thinking about a girl, and I get myself or my team killed?”
Major Tawhiri’s mouth twitched into a half-smile which gave Sammy the impression that Tawhiri was suppressing a laugh. “Sammy. . . . ” His mouth twitched even faster. “Constantly thinking about girls doesn’t make you immature, it makes you normal.” Finally the major could hold it in no longer and he gave a deep-bellied laugh at Sammy’s question.
Sammy smirked and joined in with his superior.
“You got a lot to learn, buddy. About girls, that is. But I think you’re doing fine in all the other things. The girl stuff comes with life experience.”
“Thanks.”
“No problem. I’ve got your back, Sammy. I hope you have mine, too. I’ll be waiting for your answer about your graduation date. In the meantime, my omelet is getting cold and that’s no good, is it?”
Thirty minutes later, Sammy left the major’s apartment full of omelet and still wondering if he’d made the right decision in choosing to graduate early. The conversation with his superior had been helpful, but his frustrations remained. He asked his com to give him the time: 0855. His picnic date (not a date, he reminded himself, just lunch with Kawai) wasn’t for more than two hours. What do I do till then?
The simplicity of the answer startled him: violence.
Yes, he wanted to hurt someone. And he knew if anything could cure him of the confusion and the stress, it was killing Thirteens. He found an empty sim room and dialed up the toughest sim the computer offered. He imagined that all the Thirteens had Katie Carpenter’s face and went to work at taking out his revenge. Two hours and a quick shower later, he and Kawai met in the cafeteria and grabbed lunches to take outside. As they walked out of the room together, Sammy felt Jeffie’s eyes on them. It gave him a mixture of sadistic pleasure and stabbing guilt to ignore her stare.
You have no claim on me, Jeffie.
“How was the meeting?” Kawai asked when they reached the grounds.
Sammy told her about the breakfast and the choice Tawhiri had offered him on graduation dates.
“So are you going to stay the extra month?” was her next question.
“I don’t know. Part of me wants to make this last, and part of me says to quit prolonging the inevitable. On the one hand, that’s an extra month I could be training with my squadron, but on the other I’ll be an Alpha for a long, long time.”
“Looooooooong,” Kawai agreed with a dramatic tone.
“Exactly. What’s my rush?”
Kawai lay sideways while she ate, one hand supporting her head while eating with the other. Sammy couldn’t help but notice her lean, toned figure and slender face.
“You don’t wear your, uh, you know . . . stuff. The stuff you used to wear.”
“My feathers?” Kawai asked while stabbing at grapes. “And all my jewelry?”
“Yeah. What happened?”
“Nothing.” Kawai’s laugh was light and pretty. There was a maturity in it that Sammy had never heard from the other girls in his group of friends. It reminded him that Kawai was a year his senior. “I got tired of them.”
“How come?”
“How come part of you wants to leave?”
“I asked you first.”
“In my home territory, the feathers were in fashion. I liked the look, too, so I copied it. No one else caught onto the trend here, so rather than be the-girl-with-the-feathers, I stopped.”
“I never had a problem with them.”
“Yeah, but when you want boys to notice you, sometimes it’s better when they have their eyes on your face, not what’s in your hair.”
Sammy wanted to tell Kawai that he noticed her, but didn’t say it.
“What was that look for?” she asked him.
“I didn’t have a look, did I?”
Kawai sat up smiling and adjusted the wrinkles out of her green and yellow Beta jumpsuit. “Yes, you did. I don’t know what it means, though.”
“Me, neither.” He laughed, but it was a nervous laugh.
“So back to what you were saying. If you and Jeffie had gotten together, do you think you’d be leaving?”
The response took no thought, but Sammy didn’t want to reveal that to Kawai, and he wasn’t sure why. “I don’t know. Good thing I don’t have to worry about it, huh?”
Kawai’s small frown told him that she didn’t believe him. They ate in silence for a couple minutes. Sammy’s thoughts stayed on her question. He needed a better answer. I don’t want Kawai telling other girls that I’m leaving because I’m mad at Jeffie.
“There are a lot of reasons I’m leaving. It’s not Jeffie. It’s Brickert, too. And Natalia. And—and me. Nothing’s the same. Don’t get me wrong, Kawai. I’m glad I’m back. But I think that after six months apart, I changed. And you guys moved on.”
“I like the way you’ve changed.” She didn’t smile as she said this, but her eyes were fixed on his. “You’ve always been more mature than most of the other guys, but I think what you went through while you were gone widened that gap. So maybe it’s more noticeable now. Maybe. Don’t feel bad about being mature. It’s a good thing. I—yeah—it’s a good thing.”
“I don’t feel bad.”
“Sad?”
“A little,” Sammy admitted. “There’s a lot here to miss.”
The corners of her lips turned upward and her eyes had a teasing gleam in them. “Such as what . . . or whom?”
“You, for one.” He glanced at Kawai briefly before looking away, embarrassed that he’d named her first. “Brickert . . . Natalia . . . all of my friends. The Game, too.”
The light Sammy had seen in her eyes dimmed a little. “And Jeffie?”
Sammy shooed a fly away from his sandwich and watched it zip over to Kawai’s cup of fruit. “We don’t talk anymore. What’s to miss?”
“What is it between you two? You both like each other and hate each other. She’s been a brat to you, Sammy. It shocks me sometimes that you’re still so gaga over her. And I’m not the only one. Believe me.”
Sammy took a bite of his sandwich and chewed it so as to stall for more time. “What does it matter? Whatever was there is gone now, especially now that I’m leaving.”
Kawai sighed. “I don’t think you know how hard it will be on everyone when you leave.”
“Maybe I don’t.”
Kawai’s large brown eyes locked onto Sammy’s once more. “People here respect you. We admire you. And we all want to be on your team each Saturday to win.”
Sammy gave a reluctant nod. “Thanks.”
>
“You inspire me, Sammy. You make me want to be a better soldier. Where I come from, there’s so much corruption and many women are still treated like—like nothing more than garbage. I got out of there as fast as I could. I didn’t care about the Silent War or anything when we started. But Commander Byron helped me see his vision, and then you. . . . ” Her voice broke off and she looked away as she brushed her hair back behind her ear.
“I what?”
“You pushed yourself so hard. I knew all along that you were better than us, but you didn’t brag about it. You lied about your rankings, and I respected you even more for that. For you, it wasn’t about beating us. It was about beating them.”
Sammy thought Kawai gave him a lot more credit than he deserved, but he didn’t say anything. He couldn’t stop staring back at her. Her face had become illuminated with an invisible inner light. She looked as happy as he’d ever seen her.
With a deep breath, she continued, “I am attracted to you on so many levels. In so many ways.” Her voice shook, but she wasn’t done. “I know you have this thing for Jeffie, but she doesn’t measure up to you. She’s had so many chances. And I love her. I do. I just—I had to tell you all that before you go because you deserve to know how special I think you are. I haven’t always realized it, but I do now. That’s why I’m sharing it with you.”
No girl had ever told Sammy such things before. Jeffie had kissed him on the cheek, then alluded to the idea of dating him. Strawberry, only a week ago, though it seemed now like a year or two, had told Sammy she wanted to kiss him. Kawai had given him something different, a feeling of being appreciated and loved in a deeper way.
He wanted to kiss her. He wanted to know what a kiss felt like. The thought of placing his lips on hers and feeling so connected to someone pulled at him like being a stretched out rubber band waiting to be released. Her lips were full and pink, slightly parted, surrounded by her soft, dark brown skin. If he looked closely he could see every fold and wrinkle in them. She watched him watching her. He wondered. . . .