Doctors Bachman and Wertz hovered behind Yancy as he frantically typed, calibrated and interpreted feedback on the master computer.
“I had her signal for a short while. Now it has disappeared.” Yancy sat back in his chair and ran his hands over his face.
“What happened?” Dr. Bachman asked, each word a sharp barb.
“The signal just disappeared. She must have gone somewhere that blocks the signal.”
“Where was her signal last located?” Dr. Wertz asked, his hands fisted in the pockets of his lab coat.
Yancy opened his mouth to speak, and faltered.
“Well?” Dr. Bachman asked.
“Yancy clicked a few buttons and stared at the screen for a moment, delaying while his mind furiously worked through scenarios. After a moment of indecision, Yancy lied. “The signal came from a small coastal town directly north. I will pull up the exact coordinates.” He began typing.
“Send John 18 and a recovery team once you have the coordinates,” Dr. Bachman instructed. “Dr. Mertz?”
“Yes, Dr. Bachman?”
“Will you assist me in evaluating the test subjects?”
They left the room. With shaking hands, Yancy entered a false trail for the recovery team to follow.
*
Frank sat back from the microscope and rubbed his eyes. Leaning forward, he again peered at the sample on the slide.
Jane took a deep breath. “Am I Einstein’s atom bomb or nuclear energy?”
Frank sighed. “Only you can decide that.”
Jane closed her eyes. Tristan watched her worriedly.
“You see this as a curse. Something forced upon you, which it is. However, it is yours to control. You can be a master or a guardian. Or in Marvel Universe terms, a superhero or a supervillan.” He snickered at his own joke but quickly sobered. “I don’t know whether to be jealous of you or afraid.” Frank turned in his seat and looked hard at Jane. “Tell me, which I should be.”
Jane looked at him like a startled deer.
“Let me try something.” He turned back to the microscope and peered through it again. “Think about your nanites spinning.”
There was a moment of silence. “Think about them being perfectly still.” Silence again. Frank sat back, stunned. “Freakin’ amazing.”
“What?” Tristan asked, alarmed.
“It’s just as I hoped. It appears that you have control of the nanites, not a master computer operated by someone with nefarious intentions.”
“You do like drama, don’t you?” Tristan remarked.
“You ask this of a man wearing ladies’ clothing, sitting in a copper room, who directs plays for a hobby?” Frank shook his head in consternation.
“How do I control them? Can I lose control?” Jane asked, oblivious to the verbal exchange between the men.
“You control them just as you demonstrated. Think. And I’m not sure if you can lose control. This is all uncharted territory we’re in now. Nothing like this has been done before.”
“Can you hypothesize?” Tristan asked.
“Sure. I’m good at that. What scientist isn’t? Whether it’s true or not…” He spread his hands in a ‘who knows’ gesture. “To me, it looks as if the nanites are a symbiotic network, uplinked, so-to-speak, with the host. Jane.”
YOU ARE READING
Jane 23
General FictionA woman runs through the night, seeking safety, a place to hide. She has no shoes. Her feet are bleeding. A town appears out of the night. Stumbling through the streets, she breaks into a flat. She takes some food and contemplates her next move when...
