Senator Lee was not to be deterred, saying, “Can you give me some idea how you stand on the bill?” Sam interrupts, “Have you read it?”
“Of course,” Grant responds.
“So what do you think, do you have any questions for either Sam or myself regarding the bill? Senator Lee presses.
“What do you mean, what do I think? Treating all water with radiation couldn’t be a better idea, germs have become immune to chlorine, and it’s a great idea,” the President responds.
“Great! So we can expect your support?”
“I think so,” the president offers.
“You think it’s a good idea and good for the country, then why won’t you sign it?”
“I need to kick it around for a while, it needs to be approved. I have the good habit of never making a snap decision, and I need a few more opinions after the NIH guy gives me his take on it.”
“You’re the President, approval from whom?” Sam asks.
“The Cabinet of course, I need their feedback, I like getting feedback,” President Grant responds coolly. "But you're for it, right? We can count on your support?" Sam persists.
"I think so. It certainly seems like a good idea," The President responds nervously.
"Just a good idea, people are dying, doesn't something need to be done?" Sam persists.
"Needs to be done, yes I think so, yes I think so," the President responds mechanically.
"OK" Sam smiles and stands. Senator Lee is confused, he looks at Sam. Sam stares at the President. The way he looked at the President, Charles felt he was looking right at him.
“Amazing!” Charles exclaims aloud and then thinks, “Sam, you are amazing, I can’t believe I didn’t kill you sooner. Damn, that program for the President needs to be completely rewritten. I’ll make our President Grant a cardiac patient.”
Charles starts typing into the computer. He knew that Sam would not have told Senator Lee directly that the President was a puppet, a Guard, a robot. He wouldn’t do that, but this meeting would put the question into Lee’s mind. He also thought of the possible downside of having gotten rid of Sam.
Charles thinks to himself, “Sam, you and Beneizen lied to me, you’ve been keeping information from me, and I will find your records. You refused to keep my Doris alive. You both could have saved her. I didn't care if she ended up a synthetic; Guards in many cases are better humans than ordinary human beings. How could you betray me like this? We were friends, I liked both of you! “
Charles grabs his head and starts massaging it. He pushes the fingers into his scalp. He starts to hyperventilate. A panic attack begins and Charles believes he sees Doris in front of him. “Doris, why didn’t you let them help you?” he wails.
“Because it was my time,” he heard her say, “and I have a soul Charles. I was afraid that if you made me a Guard I would have lost that possibility. You never made a personal search into who or what you are Charles. You never asked the right question; ’Who am I?’” she complains in his hallucination.
“Doris, what about my needs, what about me, I never wanted any of this, this is all you? I never knew what I wanted. I never even knew what I liked. Life is passing me by, help me my love,” he pleads.
She smiles at him and says, “Beneizen and Sam will help you if you let them; they can even save the human race if you let them.”
He snaps out of his reverie and snarls, “You know Doris; you were always a lousy judge of people, of friends... friends don’t keep secrets, bitch and for your information, Sam is dead!” And he laughs insanely. Looking away from the apparition of Doris he says out loud, menacingly, “I will have the technology of that new language you developed to keep me out. Sam; I know you kept the knowledge that will give me a second chance to transform my sickly fat-bodied self, to the manly, handsome, and dashing picture I have of myself. I will live out my fantasy of myself. I want a doover, I deserve another chance.” He needed Sam’s notes to make this dream come true. That was the real key. He imagined that he needed Sam’s Nano notes for his fantasy to be actualized. How could he not have known about this research? He felt he had lost control. He took out his inhaler, took two deep drags and continued typing. He was having another panic attack but he didn't care - he saw his future before him: tall, slim, brilliant, feared, loved, charming; he would be all of that. It was going to be all about Charles!
Chapter 27 Sam slowly wakes up in the chair in the Microbiology Lab to find Beneizen sitting across from him. Serene as always, he studies Sam and says, "You allowed Ivan to do this; you just can't be that sloppy. You know what's at stake."
"Sorry, my friend, very sorry," says Sam groggily. Beneizen continues, "You know if this doesn't work I could be asked to destroy the earth or at least all organic life on it and reseed it the way I did eons ago. Human beings are interesting organisms and if a certain number are working correctly have the power to correct the imbalance in this universe. I'm trying help, to re-establish some kind of balance and you're not helping."
"OK," says Sam quietly.
Beneizen smiles, "You do not understand me at all, you still have your own agenda, your own sense of right and wrong. And I face the same danger; we both need to be watchful.”
Sam knows there is no value in arguing with Beneizen. First he needs to hear what he says and second Beneizen is over a million years old... that's what you call experience. "I need to understand what you’re bringing me,” Sam complains.
"We may need to move all the people and much of the organic life of earth to another planet; someplace where they could be less destructive to themselves, or maybe they could be used to destroy other worlds. They're very good at it. The same way some of your insects change leaves, twigs and other organic materials into compost. Another possibility would be to leave a team of Sentinels to monitor and control human behavior. Not only is organic life on earth alive, the earth itself is alive. Such a tragedy for mankind, they have the possibility for evolution, they are not limited as other organic life forms are. It pains me and our common creator to see humanity used for such destructive purposes. They die like dogs, because they never learn to attain their higher possibilities. They have lost the key to their own inner search. I have failed them. I failed Doris and Charles too," Beneizen says quietly to himself.
Sam leans forward and places his hand on Beneizen's hand, "We've both failed. How can we get humanity to rediscover their wish and abilities?”
Beneizen smiles, "You know the definition of a saint? It’s a sinner who keeps trying!"
Sam smiles, "Who says I want to be a saint? Listen, Beneizen I need to get the files out of my safe and move them. The Nano-life form technology has to be destroyed before Charles can get hold of it. That information in the wrong hands could prove a disaster for the universe."
"I agree," Beneizen says.
Suddenly Ivan walks into the room and stands there for a moment taking in the situation. Sam was removing the picture frame from the wall exposing the safe behind it.
"Sam, I need everything in safe," Ivan explodes. "Sorry I can't allow that," Sam retorts.
"Well look at this situation, this makes my day. I get both of you to kill at once, such unforeseen pleasure. Ivan takes out a gun, but first I need contents of safe," Ivan exclaims.
"What you're looking for is not in this safe," Sam says.
"Then why were you just now going to open it?" Ivan asks.
"I was getting money for Beneizen," Sam says. "So he can flee again," Ivan says with satisfaction. "Yes that's right. Let me finish opening it?" Sam says. "Open it," Ivan agrees.
Sam opens the safe, takes out a stack of cash and sets it on the table. Beneizen looks at the money.
"You see there is nothing else in the safe," Sam tells him.
"Let me see," Ivan pushes Sam away, points the gun at Sam's head and reaches into the safe to see if the files are there. He feels that there is nothing. The expression on his face changes from self-satisfaction to fury." "Where are files?"
he snarls.
Again Ivan reaches in and desperately feels all over inside the safe. He feels carefully along the roof of the safe and his finger comes across a very small piece of tape. He peels the tape back and there is a very small thin SD card. He says, "Ah, what is this?" Ivan takes the drive and smiles, "Very clever and small, but so mighty. Who uses paper anymore, right? Now I kill both of you." He places the gun right in front of Sam’s head and pulls the trigger. Beneizen, in an instant, raises his hand and stops the bullet. Sam and Ivan are frozen in the moment; it was as though time had stopped. He then takes the bullet and sets it down on the table. Beneizen takes the card out of Ivan's hand, awakens Sam and hands it to him. Beneizen says, "Take this card and replace it with another SD card."
Sam fumbles around in his desk drawer, finds another wafer thin SD card that looks identical and places it back in Ivan’s hand.
"Now Sam go back to where you were, no, slightly to the left so the bullet misses you. Sam you're going to have to disable Ivan when I unfreeze time. Beneizen takes the bullet that he set on the table walks over to the wall and pushes it into the wall lining it up so that it looks like it missed Sam's head.
"OK, now I want you to disarm Ivan and we leave," Beneizen says.
"Why don't we just kill Ivan?" Sam asks.
"Because he still has a role to play; even deadly predators serve great nature. Sam you need a much larger picture. Imagine you're on the moon looking at the earth. How would you perceive all of this behavior? Would you see only my country, my race, my wife, my things? No, you would see your world as a very small place - ready?" Beneizen says.
"I'm ready," gulps Sam.
Beneizen unfreezes time and Sam grabs Ivan around the neck and slams him to the floor. He grabs Ivan's gun and places it to Ivan's head. Ivan screams, "You dead, you hear me, you're dead. I could not have missed. I only inches from head!"
"You're hallucinating, and I have the gun.” Sam replies calmly, “You're slipping Ivan. Living in amoral America has made you weak, you hear me weak? Keep the card it has nothing important on it." Ivan seethes as he sits up on the floor.
Beneizen and Sam leave the room and lock Ivan inside. They need to find Chase and Ally and keep them safe.
Ivan screams, "You both dead, you just don't know it. Big mistake leaving me alive - big mistake! You hear me big mistake!” Ivan stands and looks perplexed for a moment. He goes over to the wall and sees the bullet. He takes out his knife and removes the bullet from the wall. And thinks to himself, "No damage to this bullet, what's going on here." He picks up the small SD card that he had dropped in the conflict squeezes it and an eight inch screen appears with images of various Guards and different stages of development. He scrolls through the images until he comes to a diagram; it was like nothing he had ever seen. It was in a language he had never seen. He blows up the diagram until it almost four feet wide. He reaches inside the diagram and turns it sideways. And again says to himself, "this must be language that Charles talking about, diagram looks like key." Sam and Beneizen get half way down the hall when Sam turns around and says to Beneizen, "I gave him the wrong card. It has the Klacknel language key on it."
Beneizen says, "We can't go back now besides it will be of no use to them at the moment."
Sam asks, "Could it unlock Chase and Ally?" "No, nothing can do that but me, they are not Klacknels," replies Beneizen.
"Beneizen, I need to know the plan, you're keeping me in the dark, now."
"Sam, I cannot, not when you continually make mistakes like these. Search in yourself for something you can trust, find it and then you will know the plan."
Chapter 28 Chase and Ally were just at the outskirts of Leesburg. Chase wondered, “What’s my real name, or did I even ever have a name?” As he looked over at Ally, he liked her face, and her wide smile. Then he said, “Ally, I need to stop somewhere before we go into EOJ headquarters.”
“No, we are going straight there with no stops,” she said, giving her programmed response.
“Then I’ll jump out of the car, and run away from you, and you’ll have to chase me. Let me ask you, what is more efficient, allow me to stop at a newspaper stand for a moment or chase me through the streets of Leesburg? You weren’t directed to kill me, you’re directive is to bring me in as soon as possible. It’s not efficient, to let me run,” Chase made his case.
Ally thought for a moment and then smiled, “OK, just for a moment, where are we stopping?”
“Edison’s Newspaper stand,” Chase said.
“OK, found it, I know where it is,” she replied. They were there in a few minutes; Chase got out of the car and went into the newspaper stand. The blind man sat behind the counter. He had bandages around his head and the entire place had been completely turned upside down. There were no magazines, or newspapers, nothing.
“They destroyed everything,” The blind man said. “I’m sorry, I was to pick up a magazine on crossword puzzles,” Chase begins.
“The brutes, they took everything, and hurt an old blind man!”
“Who were they?” Chase asked.
“Idiot, I have no idea, I’m blind! It was ‘them.’ Unless I know you and then it’s you,” sarcasm from a blind man was refreshing and they both laughed. “Sam told me to stop here,” Chase said.
“Sam? Do you know him?” the blind man asked. “No, we’ve never met at least as far as I can remember, but he told me to come here and find this magazine, replied Chase”
“What’s 2 + 2?” the blind man asked.
“Five,” Chase answered.
“You’re the man,” the blind man says reaching into the back of his pants and taking out the folded crossword magazine. “Is this what you’re looking for? It probably smells, I’ve been sitting on it all day”
“Thanks,” Chase said.
“Tell Sam he owes me big time for this one,” the blind man says.
“I will if I ever get to meet him,” replies Chase as he leaves to get back in the car.
Ally was relieved to see him return so quickly. He opens the crossword magazine and begins to look through it, finally coming upon a puzzle that was completely filled out. The filled out spaces had nothing to do with the answers to the questions. The first question across was, “around the circumference of the earth?” The seven letter answer was obviously “equator” but Sam had written in 5964561. Chases’ brain immediately accessed a file in his head and was able to scroll down his personal history from the time he had been first created. His whole history was there. He could actually replay it just like a long movie clip, seeing every detail of everything he had ever done. The rest of the puzzle was also filled just with numbers, each a code that opened up memory or data implant files in him. He needed to be alone to explore and learn and understand the contents of all of these files. Some of them were very large indeed. Ally had tapped into his head and knew what was going on.” “How did you do that?” she asked.
“Can’t a man have any privacy?” Chase snapped. “No, none, and you're not a man, how did you do that?” she persisted.
“I read this code and it opened up a subroutine in my mind, apparently it was a specific file number. There must a gigantic database in my brain, I seem to be able to access everything I know and have done. It’s strange, very strange. I’m able to access experiences and facts about things and events that I never knew existed, and I have no idea who or what part in me is even accessing this knowledge. It could drive a man crazy to know all about himself at once; it certainly puts everything about me into question. I’m happy to see that I apparently have a real past and a long one at that.”
Ally appears more and more anxiety ridden and snaps back, “You’ve put me into question too, and I don’t like that a bit, that code opened up the same kind of history in my own brain.”
“Then stay out of my head, and my business and I’ll try and stay out of yours,” Chase replies sternly. “You can’t access my thoughts,” Ally responds. “How do you know?” he says.
“I know,” she says.
“Ally just drive,” Chase said exasperated.
“Fine, whatever you say Mr. Man over there,” Ally seems even more angry and upset.”
“Are you angry and upset now, I thought you couldn’t get upset or have any emotions?” Chase probes. “I just don’t like it when you say things that are lies, it gives me a headache, and it’s disturbing. You know I really hate being selfconscious, I’d rather just be reprogrammed and sent on another assignment,” Ally spits out.
“Don’t turn away from the headaches. We have a second brain we know nothing about yet and it really controls us,” Chase said, then, continued… “Ally, what’s 2+2?” he asks.
“Four, of course,” she snapped.
“Wrong, it’s five!” Chase thought to himself, “She can’t read all my thoughts, and he thought that was very curious. He must have access to his second brain and maybe she does not have access to it. Chase tore the single page out of the magazine, and looked at it. He was aware of the difference between the two brains in him at once; one was a machine without reason or consciousness, and the other was human and mysterious, unknown, and much vaster. One had great knowledge and the other was a like a porthole onto a landscape he didn’t understand. He looked at the crossword page of numbers, and immediately committed all the numbers to memory. He could see that his mechanical brain, the Cybarium implant was coming more and more under the control of his human brain. He did not have to allow anything to access his thoughts and command him to carry out directives or missions that he did not agree with. He discovered he had a will of his own. He then looked at his fingers and was able to turn his fingernails black simply by willing it.
“I don’t know if I want to know,” Ally responds. “It may be too late, you may have no choice,” Chase says.
Ally pulled the car up in front of Antonio’s Pizzeria, and they went in, walked into the bathroom, entered a stall, and turned the toilet paper dispenser to begin the long descent into the bowels of the world of EOJ. Chase was uneasy, he knew that both he and Ally were in great danger, but his need for answers was greater than his fear; he was drawn to knowing more about himself at whatever the cost. “Did he have parents? I need a place to call home, is this it?” Chase thought, then just before the door opened he heard a voice in his head saying, "Chase, trust no one, and I will be with you, I am Beneizen, your father." When the doors to the elevator opened Senator Bennett and Ivan were there to greet them,
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