Zach stared at him for another few seconds before looking away and nodding. "Thanks for being honest with me about that. I'm surprised you're willing to be that honest, considering the people you work for."
"She saved my life, Zach. I don't know if she mentioned that. My car was spinning out of control on a wet road headed straight for a stalled truck when she snapped me out of there to a nearby field."
"She didn't mention that. But I'm not surprised she would do that – even for the government agent who helped track her down."
"That's why I'm being honest with you. I owe her. And I don't want anything bad to happen to you or Jamie or her family."
"She must believe you or she wouldn't have chosen you as her liaison."
"I appreciate that, but she has to know that the government considers me to be just the little kid in the big grownup room. When things get serious, I will get sent out of the room."
"Jamie told me she wouldn't work with the government – with the Tomlinson Administration – until they'd removed our new chips."
"I know."
"Do you know if that's going to happen?"
"No. That wasn't discussed in front of me, but if I had to guess I'd say President Tomlinson won't agree to that. After they meet, though, that might change."
"I don't see Jamie backing off that demand – not with her own daughter having been implanted."
Nathan massaged a kinking muscle at the back of his neck. "I hope she'll reconsider. Getting into a pissing contest with President Tomlinson..." He frowned and shook his head. "She is one stone-cold bitch –" Nate glanced at the sky in sudden panic. "What I mean is that she's not someone who tolerates being pressured or pushed around."
"I think you got it right the first time." Zach smiled a little. "But with Jamie's kind of power I'm not sure Tomlinson will have a choice."
"I wouldn't underestimate the government's resources. I'm fairly sure our military has a lot of far-out stuff we've never heard about. And if it came down to it, really, what would Jamie do? Take out the Whitehouse? I can't see her doing anything that would harm other people. President Tomlinson, on the other hand..."
"Good point. The last time someone tried to push her, she planted a nuke on their back step and millions died. Still, if Jamie tried to get to her individually, I'm not sure any number of Secret Service agents or a hardened bunker would be enough to keep her safe."
"And then what, Zach? Go to war with the federal government? Even if she took out Tomlinson, someone else would step in to take her place. There are a lot of deep, dark government organizations with God knows how many freaky weapons that I doubt would sit idle if someone threatened the status quo. I really don't think this is a path she wants to go down. And I'll tell her that if and when I see her."
Zach nodded, his head lowered in thought. None of them knew the limits of Jamie's powers. On the other hand, none of them knew the limits of their government's powers, either. He didn't doubt that Nathan was right about deep, dark organizations and freaky weapons.
"This is so insane," he said. "Here we are, facing possible extermination from an alien civilization, and Tomlinson's first priority is to coerce the person who might be most capable of saving us."
"That's an excellent point. And I'm sure I'm not alone among her advisors in thinking that."
"You know," said Zach, "I really hope she decides to take that meeting, because if things go bad I have this feeling I might be the first of her friends and family to discover what that implant does."
FLYING OVER Utah toward a remote Army facility called Dugway Proving Ground, Jamie wasn't sure what to expect in her first meeting with President Loretta Tomlinson, but she wasn't feeling optimistic.
First, the Tomlinson Administration had refused to even discuss removing whatever they'd implanted into her daughter, father, Dennis, and Zachary. Second, they would be meeting "remotely" in a teleconference, not in person. Third, her internet search on Dugway Proving Ground indicated that it developed and tested biological and chemical weapons. Convenient if they wanted to test some of their exotic weapons out on her. And while she could understand why the President and her people might be reluctant to meet her face to face, those exotic weapons would be conveniently located if the negotiations didn't go well.
Could they hurt her? The unnerving fact was that she didn't know. She'd fought other super-powered people and the Elementals, but never her own military. But the fact that the super-virus had been designed to make humans able to fight advanced alien technology made her optimistic. Surely the marvelous alien nanovirus circulating in her body wouldn't allow her to fall victim to a mere 21st century biological or chemical weapon?
Jamie landed near a small red shed in the mountains on the far north edge of the nearly 800,000-acre Army test area. Vegetation was scarce; a few stunted trees waved their barren branches in a gust of hot dessert air and then were still.
The shed's door opened as she approached. A young man in green fatigues stepped aside to let her enter.
"Good afternoon, ma'am," he said.
"Afternoon."
A steel compartment that resembled an elevator rested in the center of a cement pad. The walls of the shed itself, while appearing to be thin sheet metal from the outside, were buttressed by slabs of steel the thickness of a bank vault. The soldier gazed into a biometric reader and tapped a code. The steel compartment's front section parted.
"Ma'am."
Jamie preceded him inside. It was an elevator, but with hundreds of level indicators represented by small, glowing rectangular panels bearing numerals and letters. Far more levels than she'd ever seen in even the tallest skyscrapers she'd visited.
The descent to level 33 was breathtakingly fast – or would've been if she hadn't become so accustomed to breathtaking ascents and descents. Their exit required another retinal scan and password. Jamie followed the young soldier down a hallway bathed in a warm, orange-yellow light to a pair of theater-sized doors. Another retinal scan and code-entry caused the steel doors to slide apart, revealing a dome-roofed room the size and dimensions of a planetarium. Rows of seats extended in long semi-circles beginning a few yards from her.
Jamie turned to ask her guide a question, but he was already backing out and the doors closing behind him. The walls lit up in segments, portraying a number of grave-looking individuals. Front and center was the easily recognizable face of the President of the United States, Loretta Tomlinson. With her round, fleshy face and icy, squinty blue eyes and the hint of cruelty in her thin smile she made Jamie think of a mother superior or maybe a banking executive who was about to deny her a loan.
"Hello, Ms. Shepherd," she said. "I'm President Tomlinson. Let me introduce my distinguished guests..."
Jamie found it hard to pay attention as the President breezily named the men and one woman facing her. The Secretary of Defense, Directors of the FBI and DHS, Vice President Molly Winters, a couple of generals, a science advisor with a grey mane and beard, and some of her Chiefs of Staff. No one except the science advisor gave her a nod of acknowledgment. The others might have been on a probation or execution panel.
"Why don't you make yourself comfortable," the President suggested.
Jamie took a seat in the rearmost row of chairs.
"We're all very curious about what happened on your world and what brought you here," said President Tomlinson. "Perhaps you could start by telling us about that?"
"I'd like you to tell me why you've seen fit to place harmful devices in my father, husband, and child's bodies and in Zachary Walters' body?"
Jamie hadn't been planning to say that, but the President's coldly smug face – the expression of someone who believed she held all the cards – summoned her growing resentment to the surface.
"I'm sure you, as a former law enforcement officer, can understand the position we're in," said the President. "You are an agent of unknown power and motives. You violate our airspace with impunity and give every indication you consider yourse
lf to be above the law – such as when you prevented a TSA Highway Patrol officer from carrying out his lawful duties recently in Duluth, Minnesota."
Jamie reigned in her surprise. These people were thorough. President Tomlinson smiled as if she heard Jamie's thoughts.
"You do not approve of our laws and how we are governing this country," Tomlinson continued. "That is obvious from the email and phone transcripts we've obtained – as well as testimony from your husband and Zachary Walters. As someone who could, in theory, cause considerable harm to this country, we were well within our rights to take defensive measures. Measures, I should add, that we have no intention of fully exercising as long as you abide by our laws and do not aggress against this country."
Jamie sat simmering, battling her anger – some of which stemmed from frustration that she couldn't think of a clear refutation of the President's logic.
"You should bear in mind that you're a guest here, and an illegal one at that," said President Tomlinson. "You have committed illegal acts while here. Interfering with a TSA officer and the flight of a drone are both felonies carrying long prison sentences. Being unchipped is a felony. But we're not unreasonable or inflexible or utterly lacking in compassion. We trust your word that you came here with good intent, so we are willing to let these transgressions pass for the greater good. We've simply taken reasonable steps – taken out an insurance policy, you might say – to protect ourselves."
Jamie's anger – her urge to lash out at this moon-faced tyrant – slowly lost its steam. She came to Earth with grandiose goals and perhaps unrealistic expectations. She hadn't counted on entering an Orwellian nightmare, but even if this world hadn't been a government bureaucrat's wet dream, her expectations were a bit Pollyannaish. Maybe it was time to tone down her approach and try to work with the Powers That Be? As the President had said, there was a greater good here.
"So if I demonstrate my goodwill," said Jamie, "if I'm respectful of your laws and do nothing to harm this country – but work with you for its greater good, as you said – then will you remove the threats to the people I care about?"
President Tomlinson met her gaze, her blue eyes turning cool and remote. "Certainly," she said. "If we determine you pose no threat, there would be no further purpose in that."
Jamie nodded. She couldn’t say she trusted the President, but at least they had some reasonable basis on which to proceed.
"Okay," she said. "I'll tell you what happened on my world."
An hour later, Jamie had laid out an outline of the main events leading up to the Elementals' decision to spare their planet. Most of the interruptions were questions about the aliens' technology – particularly the nanovirus – and about the nature of the superpowers, with a not-so-subtle emphasis on discovering her own strengths and limitations. She declined to reveal many specifics about her own powers, aided by the DARE scientists' shortcomings in explaining and measuring her and many of the other "Apex Class" individuals. She sensed skepticism in her virtual hosts' faces and questions about her forthrightness, but she could assure them in all honesty that in many ways the nanovirus-directed transformations had defied their scientists' best analytic efforts.
"Not really that surprising," Professor Whitehead mused – looking and sounding exactly like his self on Jamie's world – the single reassuring presence in the room. "Would cavemen understand a microwave?"
President Tomlinson gave him a tolerant smile. "The question before us, accepting your account as true, is whether we attempt to follow the path you followed or devise an alternative. I'm open to all suggestions."
"I'm a bit unclear on one point," said Defense Secretary Burt Sanders, smoothing back the few strands of remaining hair on his shiny skull. "Was the ship where the people were being held in a virtual 'heaven' the same ship that would've destroyed Earth?"
"As far as I know, yes," said Jamie.
"And you couldn't destroy the ship in time, so you attacked the source – the aliens controlling the ship – at their home world?"
"Right."
"They only had that one ship near Mars?" asked General Akron, USSC Commander.
"As far as we knew."
"We have several bases on Mars. No one's reported an alien craft nearby. Could it be cloaked?"
"I guess so. I don't know all its capabilities. It wasn't cloaked when I visited it."
"But your Earth appears to lack our spacefaring technology," Professor Whitehead observed. "How close would their craft need to be to deal a killing blow? Do you have any idea, Jamie?"
"Not really. But I would guess it was that close for a reason. Maybe its teleportation range is limited?"
"In any case, my suspicion is that even if we knew where it was a frontal attack from our space fleet would fail."
"I don't know your level of technology or what kind of weapons your fleet has, General Akron, but I would be shocked if you could do anything against one of their craft."
"Could you?" President Tomlinson was giving her a look of shrewd appraisal.
"I don't know. It was something I considered. But from what I know now, I doubt I could've done much. It took everything I had to destroy one of their smaller scout ships. Even inside their main ship with all my people it wasn't clear if we could destroy it."
"What if we placed a powerful explosive inside this ship through the teleportation 'portal' or whatever it is?" asked Jacob Kushner.
Jamie didn't remember where the rather reptilian-looking individual with the thin body and hairless head worked or what his name was. She thought he was the director or representative of some mysterious research agency in the defense department.
"A nuke?" she ventured.
"Something more powerful than that."
The man's reptilian smile made Jamie uneasy. She looked to the President, whose smile wasn't much more comforting.
"I suppose there's no reason to be coy," said President Tomlinson. "We possess anti-matter bombs and missiles. That's what Mr. Kushner is referring to."
"Matter Anti-Matter Explosives," said Kushner. "What we affectionately call 'MAME.'"
"How much more powerful than a nuclear bomb are they?"
"MAMEs are measured in gigatons instead of megatons. Our largest MAME is Proteus, a missile on our starcruisers, with a 12 gigaton yield. That's 12,000 megatons, over two hundred times more powerful than the most powerful nuclear weapon ever tested on Earth – the so-called 'Tsar Bomb' in 1961."
"I remember that bomb." Jamie was impressed despite her growing misgivings. "So...I don't understand something. How did you get so far ahead of technology on my world?"
"Ah, but do you know how advanced the technology was on your world?" Kushner asked. "The man in the street doesn't know here, either."
"Your people don't know you possess starships and anti-matter weapons?"
"Among many other things." Kushner's smile struck Jamie as gloating.
"But..." Jamie tried to sort out her thoughts. "If you're so advanced, how did a primitive country like North Korea get the drop on you with that EMP?"
The smile appeared to freeze on Jacob Kushner's face. The Defense Secretary stared straight ahead, as if lost in some distant meditation. Some subtle looks were traded. Professor Whitehead massaged the corners of a frown. The President's gaze at Jamie had acquired a fixed quality.
"Just dumb luck, I would imagine," she said. "But more importantly, that was an intriguing suggestion, Jacob. What if someone was teleported into the ship bearing gifts?"
"A special care package, as it were," Kushner chuckled.
The idea bloomed in Jamie's head. It was intriguing. "How big are these 12 gigaton 'MAME's?"
Kushner joined the others in looking to the USSC Commander.
"3.2 tons," said General Akron. "Roughly thirty-five feet by eight feet in diameter."
Jamie felt some of her enthusiasm dissipate. "I don't see how we'd get something that size through a portal...or even inside Brian Loving's mansion or one of his churches where t
he teleportation might be taking place. Besides, we'd have to convince him to let someone in." The logical consequences were slowly and painfully dawning on her. "An explosion like that would probably kill all of the people in the alien ship – the people living in the virtual heaven."
"A few thousand lives," said President Tomlinson, "versus billions of lives here on Earth. Which they chose to desert for a fake paradise sold to them by an obvious charlatan."
The thought of all those heaven-goers disappearing in a brilliant flash settled like a cold knot in Jamie's stomach. "I'm not sure one bomb – even one that powerful – would destroy the ship. In my universe it had to be many miles long and wide. And whatever it's made of is a lot stronger than steel."
"But it surely would have a disabling effect," said General Akron. "If we could position our fleet close by, we might be able to finish it off. Of course, we'd need to know where the ship is, and it would have to be close enough to reach it."
"If it's like in my world, the ship wouldn't be too far. Do you have the ability to search the space around Earth out to the distance of Mars or other of the nearest planets?"
"An object that distance out and a few miles long should be well within our ability to find, unless it's camouflaging itself. But if we did find it, how would it respond to being found?"
"In my case, it directed two small craft to check me out, as I mentioned. One tried to tractor beam me in –"
"And you destroyed it, if memory serves," said President Tomlinson. "Yet the larger craft made no attempt to intercept you when you fled. Perhaps there's hope for our ships."
"Another possibility is deploying our fleet at various points in an octant fifty or sixty million kilometers out," said General Akron. "If we are able to detonate a MAME inside the craft, we should be able to detect if it's within a few AUs. We could then move quickly to the location."
"Quickly?" Jamie frowned at him. "How quickly can you travel over 93 million miles?"
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