At first I tried to talk but all I could do was wheeze and cough, breathing heavily. “Is this in order to prepare us for torture?” I said between gulps of air.
“Oh no,” he said with a smile. “This is what we call a warm-up. Let's hit the gym.” Was this guy for real?
He took me to a room filled with weight machines and free weights. “Okay,” he said, “Let me see you take your shirt off.” I took off my shirt, embarrassed. I thought of gym class, skins verses shirts. “Just as I suspected,” he said. “When I get done with you, where that flat chest is now, you will have a slab of muscle you could bounce a nickel off.”
“Great,” I said “that's been a lifelong goal of mine. Bouncing nickels off my chest will really come in handy back at school.”
He stopped and gave me a hard stare. “You know you are doing this so there will be a school to come back to. Remember what they did to it the first time?” I swallowed hard and took a deep breath. “Think about that when you get tired.”
Greg sat me down at a bench press machine and I did twelve reps, rested and then another twelve. Afterwards I did arm curls, and then tricep extensions. If you don't know what any of these are, let me just say we did a lot of arm exercises. Just lifting my arms was hard afterwards.
We went from one form of exercise to another until Greg declared that it was lunch time. I followed him to the lunch area where we saw the other kids. Greg sat with the trainers at one table and I went to the food line. This cafeteria was a lot like the one at school, but everything was healthy. There were cooked vegetables, a selection of fruit, some chicken, and burritos. Not a bag of chips in sight! The soda machines didn’t have soda, only water and juice. I got a burrito and some apple juice and sat down with the other kids.
“That was great!” said Tracy with a smile on her face. Was it me or was she really happy?
“You're kidding,” I said. “Why? Do you like pain?”
“What do you mean? I just loved the tour, and the underground gardens are beautiful. My personal trainer is so nice. I'm so glad I'm here. Did you guys have fun? What did you do?”
“Pain,” was all I said.
“Weights,” said Han. “I hurt.”
“Me too,” said Guido. “It hurts just to sit. Or to breathe. Running, then jogging, then running again. Then weights.”
“That's what you guys did?” Tracy said.
“I guess your trainer has other ideas for you,” I said.
We didn’t talk a whole lot. The boys were too tired, so we let Tracy do all the talking. She was good at it.
***
After lunch, Greg got me and we continued to train, but this time it wasn’t physical. Greg had me walk into a room full of furniture or other items, look at it for 30 seconds, and then walk back out. “So what did you see?” He asked, “Describe it all.”
“Well,” I said. “I saw some chairs, a bed, a couch and some pots and pans.” I've always had a pretty good memory.
“What color was the third chair on the right?” he said. “How many chairs were there? How many pots and pans? Which pot seemed to be made from a different company?”
“Huh?” I said.
“I want you to remember everything, and in perfect detail. Sometimes a detail might mean the difference between life and death.”
“Death?” I said, feeling panic rise again in my chest.
“Did I say death? I meant victory,” he said.
“Are you trying to scare me?” I said. “Because it’s working.”
Then he looked at me and laughed. “No reason to be scared. What you're doing, it's nothing really. And besides, where's your sense of adventure?”
That last thing he said scared me most of all. It was like he had practiced what to say, and said it. How much of what we had been told was true? This was when I first suspected something.
There were other rooms to memorize. In fact we did that for the rest of the day until dinner. I got better, but I could tell it was not nearly good enough for Greg.
When I saw the others again, Guido was lying on the floor of the cafeteria. I wouldn’t have found him except I tripped over him on the way to the table. When I asked him if he wanted to eat, he just said, “Need. . .more. . .power.” I laughed. But he still wasn't moving. I helped him up and got his food for him.
As we all ate, I asked Tracy, “So, how was your training this time?”
“Ouch,” she said. “This time we lifted weights and ran,” she stared into space and her eyes looked tired, “the whole time.” I couldn't help it, I smiled.
“How about you, Han?” I asked.
“Ran,” he said. “A lot.”
That night we went to bed early. No one talked in the common room by our bedrooms. We just said goodnight and went to our rooms. None of us could walk without pain.
Chapter 6: When things fly at night
The next day was much like the first, and so was the next, and the next. Over time it got easier. Of course I was sore at the beginning. I could hardly even walk on the second day, but by a week and a half, the running felt good and the memory exercises were getting easier. Greg started having me do more than just memorize things, now I had to figure out what it meant. For instance, I would walk into a room for 20 seconds and when I came back out, he would ask me questions about what was in it, such as, “So, was it a room for a man or a woman? How old do you think they were? Was it a smoker? Do they have kids? What was their hobby?” Things like that. He taught me how to read the signs for these kinds of things.
Later he taught me some Tae Kwon Do, Jujitsu, Aikido, and other ways to disable an opponent. One day we were resting after a particularly brutal practice session. “Do you know the best strategy when you realize you might get in a fight?” he said.
“Kick ‘em in the nuts?” I answered.
“That works too, but what I was going to say, was don’t be there when it happens. Why do you think we spend so much time running?” He gave his smile with the missing tooth, and for some reason, it scared me.
I learned a little about basic weapons. I fired my first gun, which I had no idea could be so loud, or hurt your hand so much. I learned the right way to hold a knife and how to sharpen it. I even learned how to throw it a little.
For a few days he taught me how to scuba dive. It turns out they had a whole area with a deep pool and a lot of scuba supplies. He taught me how to put on a wet suit and how to use all the gear.
One day he brought me to this huge garage, bigger than a football field, with only one old car in it. “Get in,” he said. I walked over to the passenger side and got in. Then he came over to my side, opened the door again and said, “Get out.”
“But you just told me to get in,” I said.
“You misunderstood me,” he pulled out a set of keys and jingled them.
“But I'm only ten!” I said. “I'm not legal to drive.”
“What if I said there's a guy with a gun after you and you have the choice between driving or dying?”
“I'd probably scream, ‘ahhh, I’m going to die, where are the keys?’”
It was not easy learning to drive. It was an old Toyota, before they were all electric. It took a several days to begin feeling more comfortable behind the wheel. Even then I thought I was unsafe. About a week later when I came to the garage there was a different car waiting for us. “What happened?” I said. “You didn't like the old one?”
He only said two words, “Stick shift.”
“Oh,” I said. I got behind the wheel. This took days and days to get used to. It was a good thing I was a little tall for my age or else I couldn’t have even reached the pedals.
***
During this time I picked up chess. It was Guido who first got me into it. He had a chess set in his room and brought it out to play. “Do you play chess?” he asked.
“A little,” I said. “But I haven’t played for a while. My mom and I did it for a while, but I got bored of it.”
“Bored of
chess?” said Guido. “I don’t think that’s possible. Let’s play.”
“Okay.” He got out the wooden pieces and we set them up on the board. I was brown and he was white. I moved my pawns out slowly, careful, to protect my king. He, on the other hand, started moving all over the place, getting his main players out in the open so they could fight. Each move I did was in fear that he would get my king. He was more focused on the attack.
After about half an hour I had taken his queen and both rooks, and his king was exposed.
“Your king is right in the open,” I said. “Aren’t you afraid I’ll get it?”
Guido laughed. “Andy, if I was always afraid, I’d never accomplish anything!” In a surprise attack from two bishops and a knight, he put me in checkmate. The game was over.
I was shocked, “Wow! I didn’t see that coming!”
“Sometimes,” he said, “you have to take the big risks to get the big reward.”
After that, we played almost every day.
One night when we had all finished our training, all of us kids got together outside our rooms. We had grown close in our time together. We sat on the steps that led to our rooms. “So Guido, what do you miss most about being gone from home?” I asked.
“My little brother,” he said. I did not see Guido when he spoke, but I was able to tune in on his voice. “My little brother used to drive me crazy, running around, always loud, and taking my things without asking. But once I left, I missed him most.”
“I have a little brother,” I said. “They do that, but I still like him.”
“I guess so,” said Guido. “What about you?”
“I think I miss my Mom. I used to get frustrated at her sometimes, with all the rules and making me do my homework, but I knew she loved me and I miss her. What about you Tracy?”
Too late I remembered. Tracy was already up and halfway to her room.
“I’m so stupid,” I said.
“You’ve got that right,” said Guido.
Han just sat quietly, looking at his hands.
For a minute, no one said anything. Han started cleaning his glasses. Guido tapped my arm. “We haven't seen Han's gift yet.”
“That's right!” I said, glad to change the topic. “You’ve been kind of a mystery, Han. Show us what you can do.”
Han put his glasses back on and looked at us as a smile grew on his face. “It takes paper,” he said.
“I have some in my room,” I said, running into my room and getting out a notebook. I tore out a sheet and went back out. “Here you go!”
Han still had a smile on his face. He took the paper carefully in his hand and examined it. I don't know what he was looking at, but then he started to fold. His folds were large at first, but then at times intricate and complex. Sometimes he would unfold something and then refold it in other ways. Once, when he had unfolded it, he gathered parts of the paper and pressed them together like an accordion and smiled. “This is called a squash fold,” he said. When he was finally done he had made a perfect paper pterodactyl.
“Wow,” Tracy said, “Now what?” We turned around and Tracy was standing behind us.
“Magic,” he said. He set the pterodactyl down as if it were standing up and put his index finger on it. I felt a buzz.
Usually when I try to explain this, people say that I must have meant that I heard a buzz. But that's not it, I couldn’t hear anything. I felt a buzz just beyond my hearing. The paper pterodactyl quivered for a second and then it started to flap its wings as it lifted off and flew around the room. It was beautiful and kind of scary at the same time. I stood there with my mouth open in awe.
“The first time,” said Han in his quiet way, “I thought it really was magic. I didn't know how it had happened. Later I thought it must be my imagination and that it meant I was losing my mind. This scared me, so I kept it a secret. Every time I would do it, I thought my mind was playing tricks. I expected them to take me away to an asylum.”
“You're not crazy,” said Tracy. “You just have a gift. And it's a wonderful gift.”
“Yeah, that’s really cool,” said Guido, who I didn’t notice in the room until he brushed by me. “If I had a gift like that I’ll bet people would notice me more.”
“And it requires skill,” I said. “Not just natural talent or a gift you’re born with. You had to learn to do origami.” Han smiled at me when I said this. People do that.
I yawned. “I think I need some sleep.”
“Me too,” said Guido and Tracy almost together.
“Okay, goodnight everyone,” said Han. He walked into his room and closed the door.
“Hey, don’t you want. . .” said Tracy. But he was already gone.
That night we went to bed while the paper pterodactyl flew endlessly around the room.
Chapter 7: Our mission explained
The next morning General Garcia did not smile when I entered the room. He never did.
We sat down in chairs around the table. “You are now ready to hear about your mission,” he said. “You already know why you were chosen. The four of you were kidnapped, or nearly kidnapped, and the people responsible are still out there. They know where you live, so your objective is to get information so we can find out what all this is about and put a stop to it.”
“Psst,” I said into thin air, “What's objective mean?”
The air said back, “It's the thing you're trying to do.”
“Got it,” I said. “Thanks, Guido.”
“You are going to board a jet and be flown to this location,” he said, and he pulled down a map and pointed to a place in the middle of the ocean. “There is a small island here named Nandu in the southern Pacific Ocean.” He pointed to nothing you could see in the ocean. “The whole island is six square miles in size, and is mostly uninhabited.
“Psst,” I said, “What’s uninhabited?”
“It means almost no one lives there.” Guido again.
“You will be dropped off here,” he said pointing at some place in the ocean. “You have all been instructed in scuba diving I hear. You will swim undetected through an underground cavern where you will come up in an area with guards just outside their facility.”
Like a shot, I raised my hand like I was in class. “Yes, Andy?” he said, looking annoyed.
“What are we going to do about the guards?” I asked.
“I was going to come to that,” he said. Turning to face no one in particular he said, “I hear Guido is in the room. Am I right?”
“That's right, General,” said Guido from somewhere behind me again.
“Guido, while the others stay hidden underwater I want you to strip down to your skivvies and sneak past them.”
“My what?” asked Guido.
“Your underwear,” said General Garcia. “Your wet suit can keep you from getting stung or scraped, but once you get out it will make it hard to walk undetected if you’re dripping water. Since you will only be wearing underwear under the wetsuit, you can keep those on if you dry off completely after getting out of the water.”
“You’re kidding,” said Guido. “Remember, there’s a girl here!”
The general continued, “After you take out the guards. . .”
“Take out the what?” said Guido. “How am I supposed to do that?”
“You have been trained in various forms of combat, have you not?”
“Yes, but I didn't know I was going to be using them!”
“Well then,” said the general, “this will be good real-life practice for you—something to get you into the mood of the thing. Doesn’t every boy dream of adventures like this?”
“Sure,” said Guido. “But most of us want it to stay in our dreams, where it’s safe!”
The general continued as if he hadn’t heard Guido. “Once you have disabled the guards, you can go back for everyone else. Then you can change into the clothes you brought with you and sneak into the facility together.”
“You will all foll
ow that corridor to the end where there is a ladder. This may be some kind of an escape exit they use in case of emergencies. You will go up the ladder and through a trapdoor. Our knowledge ends there. We are not sure what you will find after that, but your goal is to act like new recruits. Our information tells us that they have quite a lot of kids your age there, and not a lot of organization, so just blend in the best that you can. Since you all have these gifts, they will assume you belong there, and probably wouldn’t even mind if you didn’t, as long as you have gifts. Just don’t do anything that will draw attention to yourselves.”
“You will have to use your wits and be careful. Use the gifts you have been given when you need to. Guido can go virtually unseen. Andy could walk up to his greatest enemy and his enemy would buy him a cheeseburger and watch him eat it with a smile on his face. Tracy, you have been working on a diversionary tactic, I've heard. How is it coming?”
“I think I've got it down,” she said. “It gets tricky with the gunpowder, but I seem to have it under control now.”
“Gunpowder!” I yell as I imagine her blowing up everything in sight.
“Just kidding,” laughed Tracy. “But yes, General, I’m ready.
The general ignored me. “And Han, you can fold paper.”
“How's that supposed to help?” I asked.
“You'd be surprised,” said the general.
“Now you must prepare to leave. You will meet in 20 minutes in the hangar. This is what you’ve been training for, so you should be good to go.”
“Yeah, great to go,” said Guido, “to our deaths.
“Did you think we were sending you out by yourselves?” said the general. “I want you to meet someone.” From the back of the room a mountain of a man stood up and walked forward. He was enormous. He must have stood at around six and a half feet tall and had the general shape of a gorilla, only without all the hair and fleas. When he moved, it looked like his muscles were planning to break out of his shirt at any moment. “This,” said the general, “is Brock.
“Nice to meet you,” said Brock in a deep, smooth voice.
“Okay, now I feel better,” said Guido from near my right ear.
Han looked awed, “Can I get your autograph?”
“Maybe later,” said Brock.
Tracy spoke up, “Okay, he's big, but what can he do?”
Brock smiled. “I’m fluent in eight languages, am a master in six forms of martial arts, and I have this!” Brock pulled out a long steel pipe. Looking closer, I saw that it was a gun. “Maybe you know the Smith & Wesson .50 Caliber Magnum is the largest handgun on the planet. Some call it ‘the King of Handguns.’”