“Just make sure they don’t leave,” John said calmly. “It’s too dangerous for them to be spotted right now.”
Trigger held up his hands. “No, sir. It ain’t my job to keep them alive.”
John stared daggers at his friend, but realized that nothing he could say would change the man’s mind. Sighing, he strode to the hut and entered. Inside, Neesha, Ali, and Sylvester sat on separate mats, resting. None of them had had a decent night’s sleep in months, so it was no wonder that they had slept for nearly two days. They were awake—except Ali, who was still recuperating from his injuries. But he blinked and sat up when John pulled a stool near and sat on it.
“Neesha? How are you feeling?”
“My head still hurts,” she said softly.
Ali sat up straighter and threw a concerned look at John. “What is it, Ali?”
The young man cleared his throat. “As you know, I’ve been studying medicine and—well, I hate to say it—but she is exhibiting all the classic signs of a brain tumor.”
Neesha’s eyes snapped open at that and her face paled.
John put a comforting hand on her shoulder and for once, she didn’t bat it away and hiss at him. “I think you are right. While you slept I did a medical scan and the scans concur. We will need to get you to a doctor, Neesha. I think it is operable, but the longer we wait the harder it will be to remove.”
She nodded in a perfunctory manner. Brave kid, John thought.
“My scan on the rest of you turned up nothing too serious. The medicine should help you all to heal quickly.”
“What do we do now?” Ali asked. “We can’t stay here. They’ll eventually find us and kill us.”
“True.”
“Do you have a way off the Island?” Sty asked, his voice shaking some.
“No.”
“Again, what do we do?”
John settled more comfortably on his stool and folded his arms across his chest. “There is only one chance you have of making it out of here alive. We have to show the world that the Ts2 scanner is flawed.”
There was silence from the three of them. Finally Ali shook his head. “But it’s not. It knew exactly what we were thinking and what we were intending. It was right.”
“It was right then. But is it right now?” They gave him quizzical looks. “Listen. The scan finds violent tendencies and intentions in the brain, interprets it, and then identifies the exact intentions. I am betting that after nearly two months of living on your own—of just surviving—you have all changed. You’ve learned some things. Oh, you may harbor some thoughts of vengeance for the injustice of what has happened to you, but I doubt it. You see, deep down, all of you think you deserve the fate that was dealt to you. You knew you were guilty. Survival, however, taught you other lessons. Lessons that I am betting have changed the entire make up of your brain.”
John reached over and pulled out a device from under a loose cloth. “The Ts2 device that I used to entrap you I still have. Right here.” He held it up and clicked a switch. Turning on the recorder so that it could record the results, time, brain waves, and everything else it needed, John pointed it at each of the three youths.
Just like before, the scan was able to completely read the intentions and violent tendencies of the three. Only Neesha had elevated tendencies for violence, but they were well within tolerance range.
John grinned like a little boy. “Perfect! Your scans are clean.”
Sty, who had looked slightly green upon seeing the Ts2, asked, “But what good does that do us now?”
“Perhaps nothing. Perhaps everything. It does give us some leverage. If we can get these new readings to the right people, they would have to consider the one great big glaring flaw in this scanner.”
Ali looked confused. “What is that?”
John looked him right in the eye. “People can change.”
Silence hung in the air at this pronouncement. Finally, Ali nodded. “Yes, people can change.” Months ago, he wouldn’t have believed it. But now he did. He had changed. He didn’t want to kill anyone…even an unbeliever. He wanted just to help people. He had changed. He looked at Neesha. The girl was in so much pain, but the change was there too. Anyone could see it. She no longer acted as if everyone was her enemy. She had learned to trust someone. She trusted John Dale. Sylvester had changed too. His ideology had fundamentally changed. He realized now what anarchy could and would do. Now, for the first time in his young life, he actually understood the necessity for laws.
They had all changed. Each and every one of them. That is something the Ts2 scan could not scan for. That is something the machine could not understand. People have the capacity to change. People could change for the better. If someone could be prevented ahead of time and given the right treatment and influence, they could be rehabilitated back into society—no, not just a part of it, but a major contributor to society.
If the world knew this, they would have to reconsider the use of such devices. They would have to reconsider the point and purpose of these games. People would realize that they weren’t executing criminals who had committed a criminal act, they were murdering potential, real and active parts of a society.
As each of the three youths came to their independent yet similar conclusions regarding this revelation, they each turned hopeful looks upon John.
“There’s a chance then?” Sylvester asked.
John shrugged. “There is a small chance. I won’t lie. A large chunk of the world wants us dead, but I have some friends that might help.”
“Who?” Sty questioned. “Who would want to help us?”
“Well, I’m hoping the President of the United States will help. I am here—indirectly—at his request. He wanted me to find some way to turn this thing.” Trigger walked in and John threw him a look. “Do you have a secure uplink yet?”
“Yeah,” he nodded to the computer. “You should be able to have a private conversation with the President—assuming he will listen.”
“He’ll listen.”
“So you say,” Trigger said doubtfully.
John glared at him. “When did you become such a cynic?”
Trigger looked at John pointedly. “The day I met you.”