Balance (75 page)

“Why didn’t we just escape the same way as Meg, using the
Taser
to destroy the
chip?
”  Michael suggests, considering the complexity of Rena’s plan.

“I originally intended to use that
strategy
, but I realized
how valuable Takada and Chango regarded
you and I
.
W
e got Meg out early enough
Takada never really realized her value or potential.  He won’t waste time looking fo
r her.  You and I are different.
I
f
he suspects
either one of us
alive, he
would
look for us.  I had to make him think we had died bef
ore the building was destroyed.
  Dropping the tracking
chips into the
tepid
bath water
would
appear
as if
we had
died,
the chips reading no pulse while still registering body heat.
  The
tracking
beacon would have shown
we were in close proximity,
flatlining
within minutes of each other
, appearing as if
executed
. 
We died as
Takada
would have expected, together.”

“Rena, I trust you completely, but what aren’t you telling me
?
”

“Michael, you just woke up from a pretty bad ordeal.  The rest of this conversation can wait for another
time.  If you haven’t noticed
, time is something we now both have.”

Michael
walks to the windows, looking
out over the cavernous lake, calm and peaceful, “Yes
,
time …
is something
we do have.”

Rena
approaches
the wi
n
dows, standing next to him, matching his gaze.

Michael turns
, pulling
her
to him.  They wrap their arms around each other, Rena
pressing the side of her face against his chest
.

“Rena, I don’t know what to say … thank you
, doesn’t cover it ...
. I love you.  You’re the most amazing person I’ve ever
met
.  The way you explained all of this, you make it sound easy, logical.  Rena, these things are not easy, not logical.  I don’t even begin to und
erstand how you do this, think o
f these things. 
A
ll I can say
,
you
’
r
e
amazing.”

Rena says nothing, she just holds
on to him
thinking to herself, ‘
A
nother time, my love.  You will understand, another time
, soon
.
’

Sitting at the chopping block table, Rena
watch
es
Michael
cooking
dinner.  He looks so comfortable with
in
his surroundings
, at peace
. 
For him, t
he last couple of
weeks
have
been
so relaxing
, therapeutic
.

The meal is excellent.  They finish their dinner and
retire
to the
living
room,
each
with
a glass of
wine
.  Michael gazes
from his comfortable leather chair
at
Rena
,
curled-up on the couch, a
ppearing
lost
in deep thought, as if caught up on a
decision.
H
er attention suddenly returns
to the moment.
 
Her eyes engage his,
“Michael?”

“Welcome back.
”

“I have a theory.”

“About?”
He
replies,
intrigued by the vagueness of the statement
.

“About
how
you can do
…
what you do.”

“Okay … but didn’t
the
Bunker
have theories too.”

“Yes … I don
’t believe they were correct.  Alt
hough I think Takada was getting close to figuring it out
.” She
clarifies
.

“So, how
long have you had this theory?”

“A while now.”

“Alright
,
… l
et’s hear it
.
”
Michael concedes
.

Rena begins,
“I think
…
for starters
…
your brain processes certain types of information differently than m
ost people
or at least more efficiently.”

“S
o
,
my brain is like super human.
”
He laughs
.

Ignoring his levity, she continues,
“No more super human th
en
say
,
a savant. 
I think your mind can process more information faster,
specifically
with regard to mechanical relationships
.
”

“Isn’t
‘
more
’
and
‘
faster
’, with regard to the brain,
saying the same thing?
” He
questions.

Rena pauses for a moment to consider
how to explain the differences
…

“No
,
not necessarily. 
Think of the ‘more’ like this. 
I walk into a room for the first t
ime
, survey it
and the
n close my eyes
.
 
If
you asked me to
recall
everyt
hing
I remember about the room,
I
c
ould list off many features
, b
u
t I would also miss far more tha
n I remember
.
In addition, s
pecific miniscule details
like
color
or
texture
, likely
overlooked
.
 
It’s not that my eyes did not see all of
the
aspects
,
it’s just that
my mind is unable to process and log the almost
infinite number
of
details
my eyes register.

I’m pretty sure
your mind is able to log
more information per second tha
n most
.
 
I also believe
,
you
’
r
e
selective in what information it logs.
 
In addition to what I would remember, you
’
d rec
all
significantly more
with reg
ard to mechanical relationships.  You appear attuned to aspects
related to
motion and position,
like distance, speed, angle,
as well as
mass,
weight, s
ize …
I’m talking
v
ery detailed information.
Does this make sense so far?”

I
nt
rigued
,
Michael
responds politely,
“Yes, so far
.
” 

“Now the ‘faster’ part
is easier to explain with a football
analogy
.
  You are familiar with the
old
NFL
and how fast that game was?”

Michael nods understanding.

Rena continue
s
,
“Well the ph
r
ase ‘slowing the game down’ was used a lot when
referring to
quarterbacks.  Coaches talked about the quart
erback getting to a point in their
development
,
they could
process the information on the field so fast
,
the game seemed to a
ctually slow
down in front of them
.”

“So
,
you
’
r
e
saying this is a learned skill?”

Rena consider
s his comment before clarifying…

“In your
case …
it
’
s more in line with savant characteristics.  For the quarterback, the game slows down by improving h
is focus and
limiting
the noise
… t
he
chaos
going on around him
.
 
The best quarterb
acks learn
ed to ignore or filter out the noise and process only specific information
. 
Therefore,
instead of trying to process everything going on around them
,
overloading the brain, they process only pertinent information, same volume of information, just more relevant
.

Here’
s where you differ
,
slightly.  Your brain
also filters out the noise, but instead of the filtering being fixed, a product of repetition, it’s
instinctive and dynamic.  Your mind also
absorb
s
more information,
identifies
many more details. 
I
nstead
of
focusing on only
a
relatively small
constant
set
of
aspects, your mind
considers
far more
varia
bles
,
processing them all together
in less time,
to formulate cause and effect.  I
also
think your mind is tuned to fo
rmulate mechanical mathematics”

“
Y
ou lost me.”
  Michael advises.

“It took me a while to figure it out, but you remember the
tryout
?”

“Yes
?
”

“
Think back
,
to the second ‘roider
, the one
you dropped with the saucer.  I’m pretty sure you don’t even realize why you do some things.  I didn’t understand why you flipped the saucer end over end into the air.  Do you?”

Michael recalls the moment,
“Until people started mentioning it, I didn’t even remember doing it.”

Rena nods
, understanding, continuing…

“That’s kind of what I expected.  You flipped the saucer in
to
the air so you could id
entify its center of gravity. 
The saucer flipping
,
end over end
,
rotates about its CG.  Your mind needed that
piece of information
so you c
ould more accurately throw it. 
You then did the same type of thing with the ‘roider.  Your mind calculated his speed,
distance,
and angle
,
to identify a targeting point
.

You confirmed my theory with the knives in the dojo.  Your mind was processing, even without you being aware of it
,
recording
all the
physical
relationships
of the exerc
ise,
things like the
distance to the dummy, angle and speed of your walking
.  Your eyes were open and
your mind registering and
processing
information in the background
,
even
while you focused on other things
,
decompressing my day
.
  My theory f
urther
substantiated
by
the amazing sequence
with your eyes closed
, while
Ms. Smith
and I were watching
.  You were pacing the do
jo, eyes open.
Y
ou
were subconsciously
recording everythin
g about
your environment
,
the target,
distance, angle
, speed, elevation, paces.  Your mind us
ed mathematical triangulation, constantly computing
your location in
the room
in relation to the
stationary
target
,
even with
your eyes closed. 
You also seem
to
consider
how
your body moves
, taking into account
how much ground you cover when running
or walking.  It
explain
s
why you
took
different paths through the monolith
, never repeating the same route
.  You were cataloging how you progress along variant terrain,
for future use.
”

Michael takes a sip of wine,
“Okay, I’m with you
at
this point, but working thing
s
out in my mind only gets me so far.  The rest is physical. 
I still had to actually throw the saucer. 
You
’ve
said yourself
,
at time
s
I s
eem to move unnaturally fast.
”

“
Yes
,
that’s
where I think the
Bunker
took the easy route.  Remember,
we’ve established that
your brain process
es
more information faster. 
That same
theory
applies to your brain communicating
with
your
muscles.  The way your brain processes mechanical relationships
,
also influenc
es
how your brain triggers
muscle
synapse
.
  In addition
,
because
your brain process
es
the information
,
the
stimulus
,
so much faster
,
it’s able to assess and
trigger movement quicker.
”

“Getting lost again
.
”
 
He
warns
.