Samantha's Talent (42 page)

Gene furnished several of his undershirts to use for towels and they were soon all dressed and much refreshed by getting out of the blood-soaked clothes and into clean ones. Their transportation arrived a few minutes later in the form of a small jet seating six passengers. Jennie ushered them aboard and into their seats. With no need to refuel, they were in the air within minutes. As soon as they were airborne the doctor gave Elaine a shot, some antibiotics and began working on the gunshot wound on her arm. A bit over two hours later the plane began its descent.

"Where are we landing, Jennie?" Elaine asked.

"Let us get to your temporary quarters and I'll tell you. Can you wait until then?"

"I suppose we'll have to. All this secrecy is unnerving, though."

"It's necessary, and I think you'll agree once you've been briefed. I talked to my boss. He told me he'd be speaking with all of us tomorrow morning." She chuckled. "Gene and I are almost as anxious about it as you probably are. Neither of us knows yet just why he believes Samantha is so important."

Samantha had said little during the flight. She kept going over and over the fight at their home and trying to think of what she could have done to prevent the death of Fussy and Caw-Caw. When she wasn't reviewing those details again and again, she berated herself for not telling Ray sooner that she only wanted to be a friend, not a lover. Perhaps he would have stayed with his Dad in that case. But then he would probably have been killed at his home rather than dying trying to reach her. It was no use. Her talent was what should take the blame for all the deaths, she thought.

Perhaps Shufus sensed her feelings of despair. He was in a double seat with the armrests up so that he lay sideways with his head in her lap. He opened his eyes and looked up at her. She smoothed the fur on his shoulders and rubbed his ears the way he liked her to. If not for her talent she wouldn't have Shufus, she thought. Despite everything that had happened, including the deaths, she couldn't help but feel that he was worth it. After all, it wasn't his fault that bad people were after her. All his concern lay in loving and protecting her. He had very nearly given his life for her like Fussy and Caw-Caw had. Maybe one day soon she would understand why she was so important. She really, really hoped so. It would make her feel so much better to know that the deaths of her friends, animal and human alike, were part of something bigger than herself.

***

The quarters arranged for the two families weren't overly large but were quite sufficient. A small duplex where Gene and Jennie were placed was attached to the larger unit given to the Douglas family. It was so arranged that they could visit back and forth without having to go outside if they desired.

From somewhere that even Jennie didn't know of, a meal for them all was furnished, brought by a tall, handsome young man with dark brown hair that had a faint curl to it. His hair looked rumpled even though there was no wind. "Where can I put these?" he asked. He was holding a large cardboard container. "It's your dinner, or maybe supper. What time is it anyway?"

"Not quite three o'clock. Bring it in and I'll show you where to place it," Elaine said. She led him to the small dining room and pointed to the table.

"Okay. You folks enjoy your meal. I'm Juan Carrera, by the way, and I'll be seeing you again after you eat. No need for you to introduce yourselves. I know you all, or know of you, anyway." He smiled, touched his forehead with a finger and departed.

"I don't know about anyone else but I'm hungry," Gene announced. He sniffed dramatically at the wonderful aroma of hot food coming from the container.

"Then let's eat. I'm ready to find out what's going on here and I suspect the sooner we finish, the sooner we'll know," Ronald said. He and Elaine began removing small Styrofoam containers from the larger box. They contained fried chicken, mashed potatoes with gravy and biscuits with butter and jam. Presently everyone was eating and saying very little. It had been a long and very trying day and it wasn't finished yet.

The Skunk Works

"DARPA? You mean that's the agency so interested in Samantha's talent?" Ronald exclaimed later that afternoon with obvious surprise and not a little angry apprehension. It was the last department of the government he would have thought wanted to use his daughter's talent, and just about the last one
he
wanted her to work for. He knew that if they expected Samantha to convince animals to take part in military operations of any kind they were in for a big disappointment.

Anton McAllister smiled in response to the question. His empathic gaze covered the four adults as well as Samantha and Shufus as he looked at each of them in turn, then all of them as a group. "Yes, we're the one but with a caveat. This office--" he waved an arm around to indicate he was including his office and others in the building, as well as a small housing development nearby where the two families had been quartered "-- is part of an ultra-secret project that has been in progress for a number of years. It comes under the umbrella of DARPA, but is actually separate for reasons you'll presently understand. So far as anyone knows we're simply a research project financed by the military through DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. However, DARPA could be closed tomorrow and we'd continue right along with what we've been doing for years. Only a few, a very few, people know what we do here and we want to keep it that way. Our funding comes from sources so black that sometimes even the president knows nothing of us." He paused for a moment then said, "Are you sufficiently intrigued now?"

The startled, surprised expressions on everyone's faces told him that they were. "I know it's getting on toward evening, but understanding how curious you all are about your status, I'm going to ask you all to view a recording in a few minutes rather than wait until tomorrow morning. It's nearly two hours long and actually, it's a composite from a number of videos that will tell you what we're about and why we believe Samantha may be able to help us. Note that I said 'may', not can. But before we begin the movie, would you like to see it now or wait until tomorrow when you're more rested?"

"Elaine? Sammie? Which would you prefer?" Ronald asked his family.

"Let's get on with it, so long as you have some coffee to go with it," Elaine said.

Anton quickly saw that her opinion was unanimous. "Fine, but before we start, let me assure you that measures have been taken that absolves all of you from any participation in the deaths that occurred shortly before you were flown here. You don't have to worry at all about those events coming back to haunt you."

"I'm glad to hear that," Elaine said, glancing at Samantha. "But who were those... those... well, I hate to call them people. Those maniacs or terrorists or whatever they were. Who were they?"

"There were two separate groups," Anton began explaining. "One of them I had no knowledge of. That one consisted of the three agents who accosted you at your home and that you so adeptly took off the board. We've since learned they were a rogue outfit of the NSA. The person who originated it and all of his operatives have been arrested."

All eyes turned to Samantha. She looked down and smoothed the fur on Shufus and scratched behind his ears. "Shufus had the most to do with stopping them. Shufus and my two other animal friends, Fussy and Caw-Caw."

"Yes, and thank heavens they were able to. We've learned that those people had orders to kill you all if capturing you proved impossible. The other group was one of the Jihadist gangs originating in the Middle East. I knew of them but had no idea they would strike so soon, nor that they were aware of Ray Zimmerman. I also had no idea that they had an active branch operating out of Mexico. They must have been smuggled across the border just recently with orders to grab Ray and then you. If you want to blame anyone for the death of the Zimmermans, you can point your finger at me. My only excuse is that I didn't expect them to try for Samantha for at least another six months and more likely another year."

"But... why didn't you at least warn us if you knew of them?"

"I did warn Jennie and Gene of the group I knew of. However, like me, they had no knowledge of the Jihadists working from Mexico but under the sway of a parent group in the Middle East. The main reason you weren't warned, other than in general terms is that we, myself and the other members of our project all agreed that Samantha would be better off if left alone to develop naturally, or as naturally as a young lady with her talent could. Sixteen was the earliest age that we intended to contact you, and if possible we would have waited longer. As it happened... " he spread his hands in apology.

Elaine sighed, as she had done so many times during Samantha's girlhood. "I suppose we should be grateful it worked out as well as it did, despite the trauma and Ray's death and Fussy and Caw-Caw dying to protect Sammie."

"Yes, I imagine that you are and again, I can only tell you how sorry I am that it happened. Now before we begin the video, I should tell you that tomorrow there will be four scientists you'll be introduced to who are involved in the project you're about to learn of. One of them was the young man who fetched your dinner. Assuming you stay, and I believe you will, you will be seeing a lot of him. Samantha in particular will be working with him."

"Just to be clear, you're asking us to live here. Is that correct?" Elaine said.

"Yes. In fact, you will be detained here for several days while you learn about the project and how we'll be operating if you stay. I say detained because I want you to have time to thoroughly reflect on the project so that you don't have to make any hasty decisions."

"But we'll be free to go after that if we want to?"

"Yes, Mrs. Douglas, you will. I don't think you'll want to, though." he smiled again, enigmatically. "Now, shall I order some popcorn or shall we begin watching the movie?"

Elaine had to laugh. "Go ahead. We can do without the popcorn, I believe. Just bring the coffee before we start."

After coffee cups were in hand, the room darkened and the new, elevated large screen television on the wall facing Anton's guests brightened. As the video began running he leaned back in his comfortable chair and reflected on how it had all come about, and wondered again as he had numerous times, whether the project would end with success or failure, or perhaps neither but an outcome somewhere in the middle of the two extremes. With Samantha here and safe, he was leaning toward success--but without any real justification. It was just over ten years ago when he moved from the Virginia headquarters of DARPA to Lockheed's "Skunk Works", in California in order to help monitor the testing of several advanced propulsion techniques. It was supposed to be only a temporary assignment but here he was, ten years later and still without a solution to what he had inadvertently stumbled upon.

***

He had been out walking, or hiking rather. After driving as far as he could, he parked and locked his car. He set out into the San Gabriel Wilderness, using bike paths then game trails. Soon he abandoned even the rough trail that deer and other animals had made. He veered off further toward an area that was almost never used by anyone else since it belonged to the Lockheed Corporation. They discouraged visitors by a fence which had a nearby gate, one which he had the combination to. He drove two or three mornings a week to his regular parking spot then walked the other mile and through the gate for another few hundred yards. He liked the area for the solitude and for the boulder that marked the end of his trek before starting back. He liked to sit on the big hunk of granite and spend a half hour or so simply thinking, the thing he did best.

That day, just before he reached the boulder he walked squarely into an object that was higher than his head because that was what he bumped first. Whatever it was, it was completely invisible. He stood bewildered for a moment rubbing his forehead. He cautiously reached out his hand. It met a solid surface but not one he could see. Amazed, curious, astounded, shocked, astonished--any or all of those words could have been used to describe his reaction.

First and foremost, Anton McAllister was a scientist. He wanted to know what the object was. He began running his hands over the surface that he couldn't see, exploring its dimensions to find out how large it was, if possible. Perhaps he touched some part of it that caused its perfect stealth to dissipate. Or much more likely, the being inside intended to let him observe it and the object that contained it. The object was a box-like affair, perhaps a spaceship but he certainly didn't know. It wasn't all that large, perhaps thirty feet by fifty and twenty feet high. It was rectangular on three sides with the remaining side rounded into a projecting curved surface.

The creature was standing upright in a recessed alcove, an airlock, he thought. It was vaguely humanoid but smaller, and certainly not human. He knew immediately that it was not from earth. His heart beat wildly at the excitement of first contact with an alien.
We are not alone
, he remembered himself thinking.

Several days later that same thought was beginning to haunt him. Try as he might he couldn't establish any sort of communication. He tried mathematical concepts. He drew pictures of the solar system and the sun. He drew a man and a woman and named them individually and as human. He did all sorts of first contact protocols he had read in numerous books, both fiction and non-fiction. Nothing worked. It was as if the being had been struck deaf and dumb. It would open what he took to be a mouth but after opening it didn't move and no sound issued from it. Occasionally it made gestures but he couldn't tease any meaning from them. Apparently the alien couldn't understand what he was attempting to convey. It was the single most frustrating event of his life and it went on for days.

He told no one where he was going when he left each day, bringing a lunch and thermos with him. Once he arrived at the site all he had to do was place his hands on it and the object, along with its living subject became immediately visible to him, and apparently to him alone. Once a solitary hiker came near enough that she could have seen the alien's craft but she took no notice of either him or it.