A. I. Evolution: The Coming of Christopher

Chapter 27

I slowly open my eyes to see the ceiling of the room I am laying in, filled with pipes and electrical junction boxes in what I suspect must be the lower levels of the hotel or some other building. My head is pounding from whatever had been done to it, and it is a struggle to even sit up.

I look around the rest of the room, and what I see confirms my suspicion. One whole wall is taken up by banks of electrical circuit breakers, while the opposite wall displays what I assume can only be huge water heaters, judging by the water lines entering the bottom and others exiting the top, before joining the others traveling along the ceiling as a group before disappearing into the distance, of the long room.

I can tell right away that something has happened to me, because the enhanced senses that I have become used to having are now greatly diminished. I lay on the makeshift bed of hotel blankets for a moment, gathering my strength to get up and search my surroundings. I sit up slowly and glance around the end of the long corridor deep in the bowels of the building to see that I am not alone. Another bundle of blankets had been thrown down to the right side of mine up against the electrical wall.

The dark form laying there does not move, and I know who it is right away by the slant of the eyes and the jet-black hair. I panic and slowly slide away from the still form to the opposite side of my pile of sheets.

My movements must have startled him, because his eyes open suddenly, and he stares at me for a second. He sits up on the white bed sheets and looks to me suspiciously. "Who are you, and where am I?"

This is the last thing I expected my obvious abductor to utter upon seeing me. "What do you mean, who am I? You are the one that attacked me in my room and dragged me down here, and more importantly, what have you done to me. I feel drained and have lost some of my abilities."

The Asian man looks around the space, before settling on me again. "Why are you naked from the waist down, with your shirt opened?" he stares harder and points to my front. "And why is there a red line down your chest going to between your legs?"

I look down and realize that he is right. I seem to have lost my pants and underwear, and there is indeed a red line down my chest. I look back to him, as a strange feeling of dread comes over me. "What did you do to me?" At this point, I can start to feel the slight sting of the red line as if he had used a sharp object to trace a line down my front, and as I think about where the line ends, I get the impression that he extracted something from me through an exit point on the male body.

I look back up at him, angry now at what I suspect he has done. "Did you take something from me?"

He looks at me blankly. "I don't know. The last thing I remember is laying on the table in Mr. Chung's laboratory, getting ready to be injected with the Nanos. Where am I now?"

I can only stare at him as it is obvious that he is telling the truth, even though I don't seem to have the extra sensory ability, which I had become accustomed to. I manage to answer him as I relax some on the sheets. "You are in the United States, at a hotel in Las Vegas Nevada. And my name is..."

"Christopher Stronge. You are the American that was given the Nanos to heal your brain damage from a car accident. Mr. Chung said that you had fully recovered, but he suspected that you would have lasting abilities afterward. Is this true?"

I relax even more now. "Yes. I would be dead now if it were not for the treatment I had been given. Miss Dolts told me about you and her fear that you were coming for me, because she suspected that your experience with the Nanos had not gone as planned. She said that you had escaped from the institute in China and had moved quickly towards me here in America. You were able to accomplish this because your abilities were vastly superior to mine, but I also think they brought you too close to insanity."

The Asian nods his head. "I remember now. It was like looking at the world through a psychedelic dream. I was fighting to remain sane, and the only thing I knew for sure was that you held the key to helping me. The Nanos you were given could nullify the ones in my head, so that is why I had to find you at all costs. I have no idea how I knew that, but it was the only thing I focused on. The trip here to America and what I did during that time is lost to me."

I lean back against the tall white steel tanks behind me and watch him closely as I consider what I should do now. "Well, you were able to get onto just about any plane you wanted to and all efforts to track you failed. The C.I.A. has been searching for you ever since you left China. Your abilities were unbelievable, the report said that you seemed to be able to walk right past people and they would simply not see you, allowing you to move freely. The curious part was that you would show yourself every now and then, as if you wanted to let everybody know where you were going."

Wong sat still as he obviously tried to recall his memories. "I think that deep down I wanted to be caught and stopped. I can't remember everything I did, but I am afraid that I did terrible things along the way."

I suspect what one of those things might have been, but I kept that thought to myself as I look down the long hallway from our nesting place at the end. "OK, so now you have found me and cured yourself of the evil machines, what do we do now?"

Wong looks down the hallway also and lowers his head. "I must submit myself to the authorities here in America and beg for asylum. I can't go back to China, because if I do they will want to forcibly remove the Nanos from my brain and try again with someone else. I fear that I would probably not survive the extraction procedure, or if I did, I would be forever altered."

I look to him sadly, as I realize that he is as much a victim in this situation as I am. "I can't promise that the C.I.A. will be any different. You have managed to infiltrate this country with ease. They can't let that go unchallenged."

"I have no choice. It is the only thing I can do." Wong gets up and sways slightly, shaking his head, as if to clear it. "I think I lost more than I had gained in stopping the effect of the Nanos on me."

I get up myself and go to him, supporting him with an arm around his shoulders. "Here, I will help you."

I do up my shirt which is long enough to cover me, and together we manage to make our way down the long corridor to a set of steel stairs that wind back up inside the building. At the second landing, there is a door that I hope will lead to somebody that can help us, because the farther we go, the harder it is to move as we support each other.

The door leads to the outside of the building, and a small alleyway. We are encouraged by the warm sunlight and the bustle of cars and people at the end of the narrow access way, which ends at a busy street. The alleyway has garbage bins down each side, and we use them to support ourselves as we struggle to reach the end.

We manage to get to the sidewalk at the end and stop, barely able to remain standing. A black Suburban sees us and does a quick U-turn in the street and comes to a screeching halt partly on the sidewalk in front of us. I wave them over as two dark suited men get out and rush over to each side of us. One pulls a gun on Wong, who weakly puts his arm up in the air, as the other takes my arm and pulls me away from him.

The man with the gun steps behind Wong and forces him to his knees as he deftly puts handcuffs on his wrists behind his back. My protector is already on the mike at his left shoulder, calling in the capture of the assailant and condition of the abductee.

Wong is forced into the back, as I am guided to the front seat. We roar away from the sidewalk and go down three buildings to the hotel where I had my room.