Assassination Day

by David J. Wighton

  Winnie also spent a lot of time wandering around the empty halls of the university. The biology wing was particularly interesting because she found a skeleton that had moving parts. After playing with the arms and legs, Winnie decided to check if she had the same bones as the skeleton.

  That evening, when it was time for Will to read her a bedtime story, he looked up to see Winnie holding a big thick book instead of a bot. "This has the same pictures of a hand as the ones that I traced, Will. Would you read me the words?"

  "Nervous system of the human body?" Will asked. "This book would take a very long time to read out loud, Winnie."

  "Could you just explain some of the pictures then? Please?"

  So Friday evening, Winnie fell asleep in Will's lap, listening to him explain what the nervous system was. Will laid her gently into a sleeping hammock and went to see what was wrong with the pup. As soon as he opened the outside door, the howling ended and the pup was lying under Winnie's hammock by the time Will returned to her temporary bedroom.

  Saturday morning, Winnie was up early, ate out of Yolanda's hamper, and took the pup outside to play. One more carcass was thrown over the cliff and after a while, Winnie got bored and came into the physics lab. Will was concentrating and didn't see her. He came out of his trance to find Winnie sitting at his feet, his shoes and socks off, and her fingers poking and prodding at his left ankle.

  "What'cha doing?"

  "Looking for your nerves. I can't find them in the pup's body."

  "Different kind of body," Will said.

  "Did I hurt you a minute ago? I think I pressed too hard because you jumped."

  "I don't remember that."

  "OK."

  Will went back to his thoughts. When he came back to full awareness, his socks and shoes were back on, although his shoelaces were not done up. Winnie was sound asleep on the lawn, cuddled with the pup who once again was dreaming of something that involved running. Saturday night, she asked him to read about the nerves in the hands and the arms, the pup lying at Will's feet. Again Winnie fell asleep in his lap, and again Will carried her to her temporary bedroom. The pup led the way this time.

  The final day started about the same with breakfast for all, including the pup whose rabbit diet was still known only to Winnie. The rabbits were all in hiding whenever the pup was on the lawn now but that didn't seem to make much difference.

  Will warned Winnie that he'd been needing his arms and hands later in the day so if she was going to go exploring for nerves, she should do it in the morning. He rolled up his sleeves to make it easier for her. He came out of his trance once to find her poking at an elbow that was tingling a bit.

  "Sorry," she said. "This one is hard to find because it's tucked behind the bone." Will looked down to see Winnie peering at an anatomy book opened to the page showing the nerves in an elbow.

  "It just tingled. Didn't hurt." Then he went back to his problem. He came back to life with his sleeves rolled down, the buttons on the cuffs done, and Winnie once again asleep on the grass. The pup was awake and sitting motionless next to her, eying a rabbit. Will watched, wondering if the pup would lunge for it. When it hadn't budged after 15-minutes, Will left to go to the mass spectrometry lab to find out what was inside those pebbles. He knew what wasn't inside the pup. Rabbit. The pup wasn't much of a wolf if it wasn't interested in a rabbit.

  Stanford had anticipated that power to their labs might be lost occasionally. That's why their mass spectrometry lab had built-in bicycle-powered generators. Fifteen minutes later, Will knew how the pebbles worked. He also knew why lead-lined containers would keep the effect of the pebbles away from power generating equipment. That left him some time to explore what Wizard had raised in his briefing. What would happen if the pebbles were made into a ball? Will was 95% certain that he knew and, like all good scientists, he would test his theory with an experiment that night.

  Sunday night, Will read to Winnie about shoulder nerves and then let her watch his experiment. He talked about how a scientist should always keep detailed records of his experiments, and Will had not only made written notes but a visual record as well. Winnie wanted to see the experiment again, and then went to sleep in her hammock with a smile on her face, and the pup already asleep on the floor, her feet twitching in a chase of some kind. Had Will stayed a few minutes to watch Winnie sleeping, he would have seen her legs twitching in a chase of some kind as well. Had he watched closely, he would have seen that Winnie's legs were twitching in perfect synchronization with the pup's.

  Monday morning's trip home was slowed by the addition of four large books in the transportation sling carrying Will's lead-lined box and the pup. Three books were on human anatomy (Circulatory System, Nervous System, Skeletal System) and one book covered the anatomy of dogs. With Will's assistance, Winnie had signed the books out from the main library quite properly. Pictures of the library cards, with her childish signature Winnie W, are stored in many libraries now as part of the Wilizy legend. These are the only paper records I could find of Winnie's life from the years before she took her adult name.

  Back to the Table of Contents

  Chapter 22

  Monday afternoon, August 29. TG was sitting on the rocking chair on the porch of the cabin housing the four IOF babies – taking the opportunity to relax while the babies napped. He was watching two youngsters walking down the dusty trail to the cabin. He hadn't seen them before, but both were aboriginal and they probably were visiting one of the families in town. This had happened before so he didn't think anything of it. But he did notice the costumes that they were wearing and that piqued his curiosity.

  The little girl, probably about 4-years old, was swimming inside a white, short-sleeved shirt that hung down to her knees. Something was written on the breast pocket, but she was too far away for him to read it. The tot was carrying what appeared to be a child's lunch box. White but with a red cross on the top. Playing doctor, TG concluded.

  The young boy's costume was immediately recognizable from the gun belt around his waist and the two toy guns in the holsters. He even had a sort of sombrero on his head. Cowboy.

  The two walked directly up to the foot of the porch steps where they stopped. "Mister?" the little girl said.

  "Hi," TG replied. "What'cha doing?"

  "Playing dress-up."

  "Doctor Winnie?" TG asked. She was now close enough for him to see the stitching on the pocket.

  Winnie nodded. "My auntie said that some babies are in this house and maybe you'd let us see them?"

  "Sorry, Doctor. They've just started their nap and it's hard to get them all to sleep at the same time. Who's your cowboy friend?"

  "That's Reese. He's my older brother. He's not a cowboy. These were the only toy guns we could find. He's my body guard."

  "Hiya, Reese. You're Doctor Winnie's body guard?"

  Reese nodded. Eyes staring at TG. Hands at the ready.

  "Relax, Reese. I'm unarmed."

  Reese didn't relax. He did step back though.

  "Does Reese talk?"

  "Body guards aren't allowed to talk. They should just guard bodies. That's what my mommy said."

  When TG didn't keep the conversation going, Doctor Winnie put her lunch box down on the ground and sat down on one of the steps by TG's feet. Reese sort of coughed and she stood up and sat at the far end of the porch, her eyes on TG's face.

  "Relax, Reese. I would never hurt your sister."

  "Are the four babies yours, Mister?" Winnie asked.

  "No. I'm just babysitting them."

  "Is babysitting fun?"

  "Yes it's fun."

  "How did you learn to babysit? Did you practice on a baby in your family first? I can't do that because I'm the youngest in my family."

  "I never learned how to babysit. I'm just helping."

  "Could I help you babysit the babies when they wake up?"

  "Perhaps. If you're still here and if Reese says it's OK."

  "Ho
w long before they wake up?"

  "Maybe an hour."

  "There's a bot in my doctor's box. A lady with red hair said I should wait here while you read it. I'm supposed to tell her if you approve or not."

  Doctor Winnie didn't sound like a four year old any longer.

  # # # # # # # #

  Izzy waited high in the air for TG to finish reading the plan in the bot. Initially, both Yolanda and Izzy were going to provide security for Winnie. But after Reese learned that Winnie's visit could be a little dangerous, he said that he could be her bodyguard. He hadn't had a chance to be part of an operation yet, and he had passed all the tests on the ring weapon, so could he, huh, could he? The adults considered the idea. Two children playing dress up were better than one, and Izzy could provide all the security they needed, so Yolanda said OK. However she did insist that Reese focus on the body guarding and not do any talking. Once Reese started talking, he might never stop and who knew what he might reveal.

  Izzy had been close enough to hear the whole conversation on the porch, and of course, she had received the mental messages from Winnie. It was true that TG would not hurt her; it was true that TG found babysitting fun. Winnie had also caught the image of a newborn baby flashing through TG's brain when Winnie had mentioned learning how to babysit by practicing on a baby in one's own family.

  Izzy already knew from seeing the brown-faced prisoners in Prudhoe that TG had been telling the truth about the IOF and The Citadel collaborating. She knew from Yollie that almost his entire body had been immersed in a vat of brown dye and that his nose had been surgically altered when he had arrived in Edmonton. In time, the dye would work its way out of his system. Izzy had verified as much of his background story that she could hope to. What she didn't know is whether TG would betray them. Just because his life history was true, that didn't mean that he wouldn't do exactly what Zzyk had put him there to do.

  Izzy had two plans remaining under consideration. Both started with TG being involved in rescuing himself and his daughter. Both plans required TG to copy some files that would seriously hurt Zzyk's plans for the future. Winnie knew where in the plan that loyalty test, for the sake of a better description, was placed. If TG revealed happiness after reading that he'd be copying some files, they'd know that he could be trusted and the plan could proceed. If TG showed unhappiness about copying those files, they'd pretend to start the rescue plan and then leave TG in a disabled copter somewhere on a mountain side.

  Izzy had expected TG to read the bot in front of Winnie. But TG entered the cabin and shut the door firmly behind him. He came out half an hour later, put the bot back into the medical box, and said to Winnie. "Tell Izzy that I approve."

  Winnie could only tell Izzy that he was telling the truth. Izzy was left with two choices: Risk everyone's lives on the words of a man that she still didn't trust, or pretend to trust TG and use his involvement as a diversion for an entirely different operation.

  Back to the Table of Contents

  Chapter 23

  The Wilizy kept no written records of their preparations for the battle that would take place on Monday, August 29. At least, I was unable to find any such records. I do know, of course, what happened. And so probably do you. But to reveal the battle as it unfolded, from this point on, I must rely on the visual and written records that were recovered from Zzyk's offices decades afterwards.

  # # # # # # # #

  Zzyk was deep in the bowels of some Edmonton building in the early hours of Monday, August 29. He had several command center offices in Edmonton, as well as in Calgary, so it's difficult to know exactly which one he was using that night. It would have been a private office with a heavy door and a sliding glass panel that allowed him to give orders to the adjoining communications center. The Wilizy's 1:30 a.m. attack was supposed to be a surprise. The fact that Zzyk's command center was fully staffed at 1 a.m. reveals that it wasn't.

  With Zzyk was his executive assistant, Rick. Also in the room was a woman named Ingrid. She was the geneticist from The Citadel that Zzyk had worked with for decades. There were rumours that they were much more than business associates, but nothing has ever been substantiated. As far as the Wilizy knew, Zzyk was a neutered evil gnome.

  Ingrid was in her late 50s, or perhaps early 60s, which would make her younger than Zzyk. She had the average height of an IOF citizen, but not the colouring. Whenever she appeared in public, which was rarely, she wore a brown wig and used clothes to cover as much of her white skin as she could manage. She had a male beautician handle whatever make-up had to be applied. There were rumours about him as well, but again, nothing has ever been substantiated. Her hair would have been flaxen when she was young, but it was now silvered. She would have been a Nordic beauty in her youth. Now she was an angry, aging woman with substantial power. When Will had been living in the IOF as Zurt, Ingrid had been his volunteer-mother.

  "Are forces deployed around the childcare centers now?" Zzyk asked Rick absentmindedly.

  "Fully. We'll let the Wilizy enter the building and you can order the explosions." Rick had opened some discussions about bringing the children out of the childcare centers ahead of time, but Ivan's identification of the kind of target that Izzy had chosen to attack had arrived too late for such distractions. Zzyk ruled that it was better to blow the building and the children up and blame it all on the Wilizy. More children could be made next year to make up for the losses.

  "Any idea yet which childcare center the Wilizy's kidnap team will attack?"

  "No. Our last message from Ivan remains the one when he was leaving the little house where the four babies are being kept. The message was in clear on the Baby Channel. The hairs have been planted. Send the detonation signal at exactly the time that I designated earlier. Do not accidentally detonate my hair. I can tell you what Will has been using for energy/power."

  "What are the chances of that message being discovered by the Wilizy?"

  "Negligible," Ingrid spat. "They're all in the field preparing to attack. Ivan's been communicating via the Baby Channel for a week now, although not in the clear like this. Nobody watches that stupid thing this early in the morning. I do not understand how the Wilizy can take away his pinky computer but give him an unsupervised job in a house that has a live camera feed! Tell your people to be careful Zzyk. They can't be that stupid!"

  "But it's Ivan who's telling us what they're going to do."

  "I've said it before. I will say it again. Ivan betrayed his heritage when he married that commoner. He can't be trusted. He should be discarded after we've killed all the Wilizy."

  "But knowing about Will's inventions would be very useful."

  "That won't matter when Will is dead. You'll still have access to my people's armaments, like we agreed."

  # # # # # # # #

  "Ten minutes to the Wilizy attack," Rick announced.

  Zzyk looked up from trimming his fingernails. "Give me the Baby Channel on the big screen. Where's my entry team?"

  "Coming across the US border now. The Aboriginal Nation's border patrol doesn't even look that way any more."

  "Stupid, stupid people!" Ingrid spat.

  "You should be able to see them recover the babies," Rick assured. "They're sleeping in a back room. The entry team has been told to hold the babies in front of the baby channel camera, put a light on them, and then get them out fast."

  # # # # # # # #

  With five minutes to go, a baby care nurse rushed into the room where the camera was still recording. She was fumbling with her pinky ring. "Izzy, Izzy, answer me Izzy." Taking off her ring, she held it in front of her eyes and threw it to the ground. Looking around wildly, she spotted something on a bureau and grabbed it. "Izzy, Izzy. Emergency. Answer. Answer!"

  "This is not a secure line. Get off."

  "Izzy. TG's a traitor. He sent a message to Zzyk in the clear. Abort. Abort. TG's a traitor. Abort. Abort."

  "Explode Will and Izzy's hairs," Zzyk ordered.

&n
bsp; Izzy's voice came clearly through the device that the nurse was holding. "All forces. Abort! All forces. Abort." Then, Izzy's voice was almost drowned out by the howls of a male voice. "Will's burning up," Izzy could be heard screaming. "Will's on fire. Help us. Help us."

  Then Izzy began screeching too.

  Zzyk, Rick, and Ingrid listened intently for the full minute of Will and Izzy's deaths. When Izzy's screams abruptly ended, the Command Center staff burst into spontaneous applause. Rick and Zzyk had huge grins on their faces.

  "Did you hear that bit at the end, where she kind of hiccoughed for a bit before going into her final death scream? That was great! Replay the tape," Zzyk yelled through the window.

  Zzyk's office and command center were once again scenes of backslapping and excitement. Ingrid even smiled briefly.

  "Our entry team is on camera," an officer in the center announced. Zzyk and Rick paused in their celebrations to watch. Four shadowy figures entered, searched the house, and the soldier in charge spoke into the baby channel camera. "No babies are in the house." He left the room to obey his instructions to leave quickly.

  "Rick, where are my babies?" Zzyk asked.

  "Replay the tape from when the nurse enters the room," Rick bellowed to the command center. "Mute the audio."

  # # # # # # # #

  "See. The nurse put the phone down and went into the back room. She didn't come out." Again, Rick hollered to the command center. "Stop the replay! Bring back that entry team. Tell them to find out if the house has a back door."

  "Did we get any kills at any childcare center, Rick?"

  Rick had to leave to check the military net personally. "Negative," he said when he came back into the office. "There were no attacks."

  While they waited for the entry team to return to the house, Ingrid spoke up. "So, if I understand this correctly, you didn't kill any of the Wilizy who were going to kidnap babies and you haven't recovered any of the four kidnapped babies from their house in the Aboriginal Nation. All you have is a tape of two people screaming. Why are you celebrating?"