Later I had another session with Derek. “Okay, let’s get on with our lesson. It’s tricky what you are about to learn, but it can be very helpful. So far you worked on focusing. That was a good start, but there is a lot more to learn and especially practice. For instance, fear is also a great motivator. Most people think of fear as a bad thing, but for our purposes it can really be helpful. If you are afraid for your life, for instance, you will use whatever is within your power to save yourself. Now your power does not allow you to levitate off a burning building or to be bulletproof, but if something came to fight you, and you used your power out of a great fear, your power would be much greater. For instance. . .”
In through the open door walked a tiger. An actual tiger! Its eyes reflecting hunger as it stared at me like a piece of meat and growled. I almost peed my pants. The tiger crouched down as if it was about to attack, but then before it even left the ground, something changed about the animal. Its eyes grew sleepy, it stood up straighter, and I heard it purr like a hundred pound kitten as it walked over to me and rubbed against my leg.
“That’s what I mean,” Derek was smiling. “I knew you would be able to do it.”
“Are you nuts?” I said. “He almost ate me for lunch!”
“No,” said Derek. “I didn’t think he would do that or I wouldn’t have taken the risk.”
“Whose risk?” I shouted. “He wanted to eat me!”
“But you stopped it using the fear and your power,” said Derek. “You did very well.”
For the rest of that morning Derek had me try focusing my gift on the tiger, because even though it was not attacking me, I never felt comfortable with him in the room. That fear remained.
***
At lunch it was just Han and I. “What happened to the other two?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” he said, just above a whisper.
“You don’t think Tracy talked Guido into getting her into that training facility, do you?” I said.
“I hope not,” said Han. “But possibly. I think he likes her.”
“Hmm, I think you’re right,” I said.
There was an awkward pause for a couple of minutes as I ate some vegetable stew with more rice. “So, learn anything new lately?” I asked.
“Yes,” he said.
“Care to expand on that?” I said.
He laughed, “That’s what my mother says when she’s trying to get me to talk.”
“Is your whole family this talkative?” I asked.
“My mother and two sisters never stop talking. My dad and I have given up trying to compete. Not that we’d want to anyway.”
This was the most I had ever heard him talk.
“I miss them,” he said.
“Yeah, I miss my family too,” I said. We didn’t talk too much after that.
Once lunch was over we both cleared our table and headed toward the lecture hall.
***
This time the presenter was a military man. He wore glasses and looked a lot like my fourth grade teacher. Once students got quiet, he began speaking.
“Our Superior, Pandemonium Inducing, Destructive, Exoskeletal Robots are nearly ready.” A picture flashed up on the screen in front. It was a picture of one of the robots we had seen being built on the assembly line. “S.P.I.D.E.R. for short,” he continued. “They are all-terrain ready, combat optimal, and hyper-intelligent. But let me go into the details of how we got these. A little computer science, engineering, and a lot of money, thanks to a sizable donation, made it all possible. But let’s go into the history. Here is one of our first prototype models.” As the next picture was displayed I felt something bump my arm, “Hey, it’s me,” he said. It was Guido.
“Where were you?” I asked.
Tracy sat down on the other side of him. “Exploring the place some more.” She had a bright smile on her face. “I’ll tell you more later,” she said.
As I looked up front I saw that this lecture was going all the way back into the beginnings of robotic technology, something that was going to put me to sleep. And thankfully, it did.
***
Afterwards it was free time, which meant Conditioning and Sports.
I found a small three-on-three basketball game already in progress. “Can I join?” I asked.
“Sure,” one of the kids said with a smile. “Why don’t you join our team?” This was probably my gift at work again. “My name’s Tran.”
“I’m Andy,” I said.
“Okay,” he said. “You’re taller than most of us, but we’re playing with as few rules as possible, so powers are allowed. If you’ve got it, use it. Are you in?”
“Sure,” I said. He introduced me to the other player on our team, Jorge (pronounced Hor-hey). We got the ball first, so Jorge took it to the top of the key. He bounced it a few times and then threw it to me. I was a bit rusty on basketball, so I held it for a second, trying to think. Suddenly the ball started screaming, “What’s wrong with you, put me in the basket!” I looked down and I could see a big smiling face on the ball. I almost dropped it, but Jorge said, “Hey, it’s okay. It’s just me!”
I started dribbling the ball, but didn’t get far when a girl with long brown pigtails from the other team flew from the side and snatched the ball out of my hand. Without even touching the ground, she bounced the ball once and then flew over everyone’s heads and dunked the ball. Two points for their team.
Now they got the ball at the top. The boy who had it dribbled up to me. I waved my arms to block any shots or passes, so he opened his mouth and breathed fire in my face, freaking me out completely, and dribbled on past me. A second later, he had scored two more points.
How was I going to figure this game out? It was crazy. The girl on their team had the ball again at the top. This time she passed it to the fire breathing guy as the ball yelled, “What’s wrong with you, give the ball back!” He ignored this and passed it to the girl who was already soaring above the rest of us toward the hoop. He passed it to her and she threw it down into the hoop scoring another two points. Now it was six to zero. I still hadn’t seen their tall guy do anything.
They had the ball again at the top and this time the tall guy took it. I went to guard him, but he just kept dribbling, not going anywhere. I felt a pat on my shoulder and it was the tall guy standing behind me handing me the ball.
“Dude, they just scored,” said Tran.
“But he didn’t even move,” I said.
“Yeah, that’s Larry,” he said. “He can make any of your memories replay themselves in your head. Once you saw him dribble the ball, you kept seeing that memory play over and over in your head while he walked right on by.”
“But that’s crazy!” I said.
“Hey, welcome to the club,” he said. “Whatever you’ve got, you’d better start using it.”
Again, the girl had the ball at the top and Tran was guarding her. He reached out and lightly brushed her arm. When he did, she misdribbled the ball and he grabbed it. Looking over his shoulder he threw it to Jorge, who caught it. The ball suddenly broke into applause, like a crowd of a thousand. When he threw it to me, the ball became a face again and said, “Two points, two points!” like some cheerleader. I dribbled closer to the hoop, but then I started remembering eating oatmeal as a baby. All I could see was my mom trying to get the spoon into my mouth. It must have been a memory replay. I closed my eyes and I heard Tran say next to me, give me the ball. I handed it to him and I was in the present again. Tran shot the ball as I blocked his defender, making two points. At this, the backboard started to dance. Was this for real?
Now Tran had the ball at the top of the key. He dribbled it, and then passed it to me. I dribbled, planted my foot, pivoted around the flame thrower, and shot, making it in. Two more points.
We had it at the top of the key again. So far I had not tried using my gift, but now I had an idea. I dribbled the ball, but then out of the corner of my eye, I saw the girl swooping toward me again. I focused my gift, an
d as she came near, she suddenly stopped and then smiled. I dribbled forward and passed it to Jorge, while I cut toward the basket. He saw me and passed it back, while the ball was yelling, “Hooray for our side!” I grabbed the ball, about to make the shot when a rerun of Bugs Bunny started playing in my head. I was so close I closed my eyes and shot. When I opened them, Tran said, “Great job, Andy!” You made it! He patted me on the shoulder and my arm went immediately numb. “Sorry about that,” he said. “I forgot about my power.”
I looked up at the hoop and it was dancing again, and the ball was shouting. The boy behind me was breathing fire while the girl was flying in circles. “This is nuts!” I said to Tran.
“Yeah,” he said. “It does take some getting used to. But if we practice, we’ll do better at taking down the U.S. when we get a chance.”
That was it! That was the plan. Finally someone spilled the beans. I had to tell the others. “I’m really tired. Mind if I quit?” I said.
“Well, okay,” said Tran. “See you later?”
“Sure,” I said, hoping I wouldn’t.
***
Afterward we had dinner. Once everyone got their food and sat down we put our heads together. “Guys,” I whispered. “They’re planning to take on the U.S.”
“What?” said Guido too loudly. Then quietly, “What?”
I whispered. “I heard a guy say they planned to take down the U.S.”
“But that’s impossible,” said Tracy. “This little island couldn’t take down the fifth ranked superpower. Look how small it is.”
“Well, that’s what I heard,” I said.
“I’m sure they could do some damage,” said Guido. “They sure have a lot of weapons.”
“Yeah,” said Tracy. “But compared to the United States?”
“Tracy,” said Guido. “Tell them what we did earlier today.”
“Oh, yeah. Well I got Guido to get us both into the Lethal Training Facility. First he checked to make sure it was clear, and then he kept the door open just a crack when one of the men left. When we got in there I was shocked at how much military they have, and how many weapons. Not that it could take on the U.S., but still it was quite impressive.”
“But tell them what we did,” said Guido.
“We found a communications booth,” she said. “Then we tried to use one of their radios.”
“Did you radio the general?” I asked.
“No, we don’t know how to run that kind of equipment. I picked up a phone one of the guys left behind and called base on that. They say they will send someone out here to pick us up at the beach.”
“That’s great,” I said, “because this is really getting scary. I want out.”
“Me too,” said Tracy and Guido together.
“Me too,” said Han.
Just past my friends, I saw the girl I had played in basketball, with her dark braids, eating her broccoli and staring at me. It made me feel uncomfortable.
Just beyond her table, two men in camouflage with M16’s walked in from the hallway, looked around the room for a few seconds, and then left.
“Yeah,” I said. “There’s definitely something going on here.”
I didn’t say anything about the guards to the others because I didn’t want to scare them even more, so I kept it to myself. And I didn’t want to mention the girl because I would get teased. I looked up again and she was still staring.
We finished the rest of our dinner slowly and the clock on the wall said 7:15.
“Look at the time,” I said. “I didn’t know it was that late.”
“It feels late to me,” said Guido. “I’m wiped out. I’ll see you guys in the morning.” He got up to leave.
“Me too,” said Tracy, who followed Guido.
“Yup, I think something is going on between those two,” I said. Han just nodded.
Han and I decided to call it a night too. When we got back to our room, Guido was already snoring. Great. Han just got in bed and closed his eyes. It took me awhile longer because it was so early and due to the snoring, but finally, the exhaustion was too much and I found my way back to dreamland.
This time, I dreamed of tigers with guns.
Chapter 14: Too much at once!
The next morning I got up early and took a look out the window. The sky was blue with a few wispy clouds and the tops of waves could be seen in the distance. A dark blur flashed by my window and paused. It was a small, tan colored, curly-haired dog. Perhaps it was a poodle of some sort. It sat panting under my window, looking up at me, wagging its tail. I opened my window. A gush of warm air hit me in the face as I reached out my hand to pet the dog. I focused for a few seconds on having this animal like me just as I had the tiger the day before. Soon I felt the roughness of a small tongue licking my hand.
I heard the voices of men from around the corner outside. “I think he went this way!”
“How do you know?” another man said.
“Because I saw a blur this way.”
I didn't want to get in trouble so I closed the window. As soon as I did, I saw two men running around the corner after the dog. The dog, who had been panting at my window a second before, was gone. I don't mean he ran away. He disappeared. I saw a tan colored blur race across the rocks in the distance. I felt like I was in a dream.
As I was thinking about this, I heard Han stir in the bed to my left and get up. Then Guido did the same. They came over to me and Guido asked, “What's going on? You look confused.”
“I am,” I said. “I think there are things going on here that we don't know anything about yet. There’s more to discover here. And report when we get rescued.”
“Okay,” said Guido, who I couldn't see but heard. “You're the boss.” It almost hurt when he said that. I remembered the general’s voice, You are no leader. But if I went with Abe, I’d be going against everything I believe. I don’t want be a leader because no one has a choice. I don’t want people to follow me because they have to.
For the next few minutes I was quiet as we got dressed. We got our customary knock at the door. “Good morning!” said the voice from the same kid as yesterday. “This morning we’re going to run around the backside of the island.”
I was again surprised at the heat in this part of the world. Everyone was warming up as usual. Abe came out and told everyone to follow him, and we did. It was a good run, but at one point we came to a large enclosure I had never seen before. A fence, standing higher than my head, went in a giant square around. . .something. It was made of boards with metal poles, so I couldn’t see inside. As we passed I could hear growls, sniffling, and clawing. I could also hear men talking.
I thought of this for a while, and then it was Han who said “Look back.”
I did, and following me was the pigtailed girl.
Afterwards, we showered and got ready for breakfast, which I had with the others. I didn’t see the girl at breakfast, and I felt energized in a way only exercise can bring. This morning for breakfast we had a bowl full of cut up fruit and nuts with a little yogurt. It was good, and I went back for seconds. People chatted here and there at other tables, and we mostly talked about people we knew back home. I asked Han more questions about his family and he gave me a little more than he did earlier. Guido and Tracy were having their own conversation. We ended breakfast and headed off our separate ways again.
***
In the lecture hall I sat next to Han and saw Abe move to the front. “Good morning everyone,” he said.
I looked around the room and saw people in rapt attention as he spoke. What would it be like to have that kind of power over people? To not have anyone question you, but know you are the leader? But then again, I was questioning, wasn’t I?
Abe raised his voice in smooth commanding tones, “We get students from all over the world at this training facility. Some come because they have heard of our fame and want to be a part of our effort. Some we get from. . .other sources.” Students laughed at this.
Han and I looked at each other realizing he must have meant the kidnappings and a shock of realization hit me: He was making a joke of the kidnappings. How could I even consider being a part of this? Kidnapping kids? And then I remembered something I had memorized in school. It was from the Bible and it just started playing in my head like I was hearing it read aloud:
“In this world the kings and great men lord it over their people, yet they are called ‘friends of the people.’ But among you it will be different. Those who are the greatest among you should take the lowest rank, and the leader should be like a servant.”
This time, I believed it. I didn’t want to take power or fame by force. I didn’t want to be a leader because no one could resist me. I wanted to do what was really best for others. I wanted to really lead; not what Abe was doing.
Abe continued, “Whatever the source, we are glad to have new students regularly who add their abilities to our arsenal. And speaking of arsenal, our engineering department tells me their first battalion of robotic warriors has just been completed and is out for testing!” The crowd applauded around us. Han and I didn’t know what to do, so we clapped along. Abe went on, “This is a great event for us since these will be a big part of the plan. It is great to see progress.”
“And now, everyone, to your training. I would like you to work on the focus of pain today. So let's get with our trainers. Don't get too zealous and permanently damage yourself, but do your best.”
This caught my attention. I looked at Han and said, “Pain?”
“For focus, I guess,” said Han.
“What have we gotten ourselves into?” I said.
“Apparently pain,” he said.
This training worried me. Once in our training room, my instructor, Derek said, “There are five paths to using your gift. First is to focus. You did that yesterday. Second is to cut out all distractions. That’s kind of related to focus. Third is to use fear to drive you, and we practiced that too. Fourth is to use drugs to help you focus. We mostly avoid this because those drugs also kill you eventually or you might not be able to stop using them. But the fifth path is pain, and it works very well.”
After saying this he took out a whip from behind his back and I cringed. As he raised the whip, two kids ran past our room. Then three more. Derek put down the whip and yelled out in the hallway, “What’s going on?”