Chapter 16

Chapter 15  (13+) The Brotherhood enters the picture. #2037971 by Hyperiongate

Chapter 16

Lise typically took the morning off following duty night. However, today she fiddled with this and that at her desk. She was waiting for Annie to come by after her shift ended. There was no way she was going to let the events of last night past. If there was a chance that Annie was…unbalanced, there would be no question about taking her off duty immediately.

“JD11 said you were here. He told me to thank you for all of your help.”

When it had occurred, Lise had let the comment go by as if Annie had just been kidding; all the while knowing she was not. Could it be that Annie really believed that she was in communication with the man in the tank? Could it be that Annie, not only believed it, but it was actually true? Lise surprised herself by even considering such an outlandish idea.

“I suppose there’s always room for one more oddity ,” she thought adding it onto the ever-growing pile of strangeness associated with JD11. Things like a comatose man with an “awake” brain listening to a woman reading silently next to him; this in spite of Annie making no sound and him having no way of hearing even if she did. Not to mention he was growing back eyelids and who-knows-what-else. And, lest she forget, she had her own personal entourage of giant janitors and secretive vans looking over her shoulder.

Yes, there was an upside to all of this. There was the apparent over-the-top success of her TIG process; something that was bound to revolutionized medicine far beyond its originally intended scope of just helping burn victim. And there was Jack. Both of these were such a bonus that Lise was willing to put up with a bit of the supernatural every now and then. Still, this was starting to get a little spooky. She’d confided in Jack when he’d called her this morning. Lise could tell he was trying to be supportive; still she could see that he had his doubts. “Maybe the hand had floated over to the edge of the tank. Maybe Annie was kidding. “ And finally, “Maybe I should call the colonel.”

The colonel. Lise disliked him immensely in spite of the fact that she’d never met him. He was responsible for the surveillance which somehow associated him with the need for protection. If the colonel hadn’t gotten involved, would there be any threat. She suspected the answer was “yes”. Still, Lise winched every time Jack mentioned “the colonel.”

Jack and she agreed that before they did anything, she would confront Annie with her concerns. If it turned out that Annie was a nut, she’d be taken off the case. If it looked like she really was in touch with JD11, the colonel would have to be called. There was simply no way to medically explain such a phenomenon. Perhaps the Colonel, who made a career out of dealing with the inexplicable, could bring in some outside expertise at dealing with such “out of the box” type events.

Annie arrived right on time and took the offered seat. Lise went straight to the heart of the matter.

“Annie, what do you mean that JD11 wanted to thank me? How can you know what he wants?” Lise glanced down at printout indicating that JD11 had, in fact, biologically ramped up during the time Annie had been reading to him. Strange that she’d come to accept this unacceptable fact as “nothing out of the ordinary.”

“I’m not sure Dr. Marshall. It’s not like he talks to me or anything. It feels like I just know what he wants me to know. Does that make any sense to you?”

Lise could see that Annie was genuinely trying to make herself understood. “Is it like you are hearing voices in your head? Maybe you nodded off while you were reading to him and you dreamt that you talked to him.”

“No, I never sleep during my shift. And no, I am not hearing voices. Let me see if I can explain.” Annie thought for a moment before continuing, “Imagine that out there, somewhere in the universe, there is this idea about something. It is just there waiting for you to come across it. It is meant for you alone. Then, one day, you and this thought come together. The time and space that you both share is as one. When this happens, it becomes part of you. That is what this feels like. I just know something that I didn’t know earlier.”

Lise watched the young woman as she was talking. Annie clearly believed everything she was saying. Even now, she sat calmly, looking at Lise as if she had not just explained how the universe worked.

“Annie …”

“Dr. Marshall,” Annie interrupted, “JD11 says it will be time to take him out of the tank one week from today.”

Lise sat back in her chair. Was this nursing assistant really trying to tell her how to do her job? No, that wasn’t it. It felt more like she was just relaying a message she believed to be from JD11.

“Annie, I’ll take him out when I think it’s time to take him out and not before. I don’t care what you think he’s telling you. The Immersion technology has succeeded beyond our wildest expectation. Still, there is no way he will be physically ready to come out for at least another several months.”

Annie said nothing. She sat and smiled as Lise told her “No.” She clearly thought that JD11 was more the expert in this matter.

“Annie, do you understand what I am telling you?”

“Yes, Doctor, I understand. Still, he will be out of the tank one week from today. I don’t know how or why, but it will happen. It must happen.”

Lise thought that last bit sounded more like a threat than anything else. “What do you mean it must happen?”

Annie closed her eyes for a minute. Lise couldn’t tell if she was trying to remember, but for some reason, it looked like Annie was listening.

“He said to tell you there is danger coming this way. He cannot be in the tank when it gets here. There is no path to success if he is in the tank one week from today.”

“Path to success? Annie, what does that even mean?” asked Lise.

Annie could only shrug. She didn’t understand the meaning of her words any more than Lise did. It was as if the girl was just passing a note in class.

Lise sent Annie home and then considered the woman’s comments. It would have been easy to dismiss the girl as delusional. If Lise truly believed that to be the case, she should have Annie relieved immediately. However, suppose she really was communicating with JD11. Suppose everything she said was true. What would that mean? Did she really need to take him out of the tank in just one more week? How could he, as a patient, know this? He was healing at a miraculous rate but could it be that JD11 was that far along?

Danger was coming? That bit sent a chill up her spine. She found herself looking around in hopes that a well-armed janitor was nearby. Unbeknownst to her, a “janitor” was in a mop closet sending the colonel a copy of the “overheard” conversation between Annie and Dr. Marshall.

Lise pushed thoughts of Annie aside for the moment but did decide to run the idea of an emergency extraction by her team at their daily briefing. However, she’d keep Annie’s comments to herself for the time being. She’d just offer it up as a “just in case we need to” type scenario. Meanwhile, she decided to drop by and take a look at JD11 herself, up close.

He floated in the middle of a glass tank. Wires connected all of his vitals to readouts in the observation booth. Pumps kept the gel-like fluid oxygenated and nutrient enriched. There was no visible sign that he was anything other than sound asleep.

Lise scanned him from head to toe. Most of his skin had grown back but was still a translucent pink. His eye lids had grown back which was a relief to most of those that worked with him. It had been more than a little disturbing to work around him when his eyes were exposed and appeared to be watching their every move.

Over the last two days, there had been signs that other body parts would grow back as well; including many that were considered to be gone for good. A week ago, he’d been missing an ear, part of his nose and three fingers. All were in the early stages of reformation. There was even hair growing back. Apparently he was a blonde.

Lise looked around, making sure she was alone. She then reached out and touched the side of the tank.

“Are you awake in there?” she asked out loud.

“I need to know what’s going on. If you can hear me, you need to find a way to tell me. I can’t have a crazy girl in here looking after you. So if you want her to stay, you’d better let me know right now.”

Nothing.

After a minute, Lise dropped her hand. She was being silly thinking that JD11 was going to pop his head out of the top of the tank and explain everything to her.

Lise turned to leave. As she walked towards the door, she was struck by a thought. It was as if she’d walked through a time and place where that thought had been waiting an eternity for her. She didn’t hear anything. But she knew and instantly understood.

“One week from today…”

She spun back towards the tank where JD11 floated silently. The thought was there in her mind as if it had always been there; just as Annie had described it.

“I’ll see what I can do,” Lise said with a calmness that surprised her.

She stood looking at JD11 for a moment as if she expected him to continue the conversation. After a full minute of nothing, she turned and left wandering, “Am I going crazy?”


Just after noon, her team assembled for the morning meeting. After a brief look around, making sure everyone was paying attention, Lise said, “I think it is time to start thinking about when JD11 should be extracted. Your thoughts?”

Everyone looked around at each other. Clearly, no one was ready to thing that far ahead just yet. When the TIG had been designed, the idea was to leave the victim submerged until it was time to bring him out of a coma. This was expected to take months, not days or weeks. JD11 had been at the hospital for eight days.

Dr. Ruiz, ever the nay-sayer said, “I see no reason to take him out anytime soon. Why would we? He is still in a coma and healing quite nicely.”

Ben Shepherd, the group optimist broke ranks with the past and sided with Ruiz. “I agree. I can see no benefit to early extraction.”

Lise expected as much. She, however, had information they didn’t. Forget what Annie said. A “thought” from a nurse’s assistant didn’t count as science and was certainly not something she wanted to share just yet. However, a brainwave printout showing coherent thought certainly was. She handed out copies to everyone.

The room was silent as each team member absorbed this new information.

Finally, surprising everyone, Dr. Ruiz spoke up. “How is this possible? The man is in a coma, not wide awake as this printout is indicating. If this data is accurate, we need to get him out sooner rather than later; perhaps within the next week.”

Lise looked around. Slowly, everyone nodded agreement.

“Great. Let’s start working on a procedure; one we can implement at a moment’s notice.”

----------

Annie sat in the strip mall parking lot until the gun shop opened at 10:00 am. She walked in, not sure what she was looking for but certain she would know it when she found it.

“Looking for anything in particular little lady?”

She looked up at the obese, unshaven hulk behind the counter. A week ago, such a man would have frightened her. Now, she could see through the outer shell. She saw a lonely man harboring fear. He was afraid of rejection so he maintained a “stay away from me” attitude that protected him from what he believed to be the inevitable. Annie didn’t fear him. Nor did she pity him. She accepted him and sent positive feelings his way.

The impact was immediately visible. He softened around the edges and his eyes took on a kinder look. It was as if he were saying he knew that she knew and he wanted to thank her for not turning away from him in disgust. An outside observer would have noticed nothing. Even the man was not sure what had happened. All he knew was that he wanted to help her, to make her safe.

“I think I need a gun.”

“I see. How about this one here?” he said holding up a small pistol. “It fits nicely into a purse; Perfect for protection.”

“What about that one?” she asked pointing at a huge handgun under the glass counter.


“I’m not sure that is the gun for you. It’s big, heavy and costs a lot more. You will need to get a bigger purse, that’s for sure.”

“That’s the one. I’ll take it.” She knew it was the right gun for her.

She filled out some paperwork. The salesman said she could pick up the gun in three days.

Annie went home, anxious to get to sleep. It had been a long night and maybe…maybe he would meet her in her dreams.

*****

As Annie fell asleep, Isaac Schroeder disembarked from his plane and headed toward baggage claim. It had been a long night of flights and misdirection but it was just about over. One more identity change and one more short flight to Reno would finally put him near his target.

Schroeder entered a bathroom and exited as Mike Halpin. At baggage claim, he picked up a bag that he had never seen before, but knew to be his none the less. In it he would find the latest reconnaissance for his mission.

He exited the terminal and caught a taxi which would take him to another nearby, but much smaller airport. He’d be in Reno before 5:00 pm. From there, his next contact would fill him in on any more information. After that, he’d have to start following up on the various leads himself. Thus far, much of what he was supposed to be doing was little more than speculation. That’s how it always was. The secretive nature of his enemy made information hard to come by.

Rudolfo wasn’t worried. He knew how to tickle the right information from even the smallest hint of a trail.

As the taxi made its way through the dense LA traffic, Rudolfo opened a folder and studied the latest satellite images.

It seems that someone had been very busy over the last week; building something on a patch of nothing about fifty miles east of Reno. Seemed like as good a place to start as any. He’d have to swing by and take a bit of a peek later on tonight.

Chapter 17  (13+) Lanier and the Artifact; Jack and Lise; Rudolfo arrives on the scene... #2038309 by Hyperiongate