Young Again
Copyright© 2018 by Edward Douglass Patterson
Chapter 35: A New Ability
Sarah had sensed the large number of people in the Phoenix complex before leaving her room for breakfast. Today was the first day of the test to measure the changes that had occurred. The older people were still noticeably impacted by the continuing changes, but the younger ones were fully recovered. When she got to the food counter, she saw Maria supervising her brother and several of their friends as they served the food. Just as Jimmy put the scrambled eggs on her plate, she noticed Roberta Cuervo, Maria’s mother, sitting in a chair overseeing her domain. She stopped. With the ability she now had to sense those that had undergone the change, she could individually identify them.
“You want more,” Jimmy asked her.
“No, I haven’t been getting much exercise. I’ve spent too much time on the phone checking on everyone.” She looked into her brother’s eyes. “Jimmy, can you sense the others?” She swung her head to indicate those around them.
“I knew you were in the hall before you came through the door.” He looked around, then he closed his eyes. “Yes, not like I noticed you, but there is something that lets me know people are there.”
“Everyone or just those who underwent the change?”
He looked over at a couple of the security people that had just entered the line. “It is weaker for the others. Is this new?”
“Ash and I had something, but this is different.” When she mentioned Ash’s name, she realized that she could tell that she and three others had just driven up to the gate. “She will be here in a few minutes. Thanks.” She moved down the line so Jenny could place toast on her plate.
When Ashley entered the cafeteria, she was moving quickly, trying to keep up with the pretty, young-looking, oriental women, who were wearing tight designer jeans and an even tighter Stanford Cardinals tee shirt. People stopped eating and turned to watch them.
“Maureen.” Professor Gitler called and stood up to go and see why one of his favorite undergraduate students was there. When he saw Jian, he realized his mistake. “Jinghua!” His voice was just above a whisper, but she had heard.
“Yours isn’t the only class that I’ve sat in on while I’ve been here.” She continued across the room to where Marsha and Ken were seated. “I understand that you have some of your new training area set up. I would like to use it to test how I have been affected by the changes.”
“You were affected like we were?” Marsha asked since Ken was still trying to figure out who the young woman was.
“Yes, my mother must have added other changes beyond what I was born with. Understanding what they are will let us understand what advantages we have over Omara.”
“Jinghua.” Ken had finally figured out who she was. “Doctor Stevens has asked me to run a number of groups through starting today. When would you like to do it?”
“Whenever you’re ready. I need to be over at the Saudi consulate for lunch. Then I’ll come back here to check on the testing. There will be a phone conference with the President whenever Lenya can set it up.”
“You can’t just go into the consulate and kill him.” Marsha looked with alarm at Jinghua who had a large automatic holstered on her left hip for a quick cross draw and a knife on her right side. The knife looked like one of the sais that Ashley and Sarah had used.
“Of course not. I need you to come with me so you can take custody of him. The Russian and Chinese governments are demanding that he be turned over to the United States for questioning.” She looked back at Ken. “Do we have someone that can help qualify Ashley and Sarah for concealed carry permits? Sarah will need your approval. Ashley has gotten Mark’s approval.” She had turned to the next table where Sarah’s parents, Jim and Sally, were seated.
“How did you get the Russians’ support? They haven’t even announced a government.” Marsha and most of the others were confused by Jinghua.
Jinghua looked around until she saw Sergio Shiskin and Nadezhda Loginov. She waved them over. “I found that I have more family left than I knew.” She looked over the two Russians as they approached. “Sergio, do I look like your aunt? People were always getting us confused.”
“That’s who I thought you were when you came through the door, but she’s older now.”
“Only makeup. My great-great granddaughter is as young-looking as I am, though she is a little less than a quarter of my age. Lenya has taken control of Russia.” She took a long look at Sergio, then turned to the Russian geneticist. “How close was Lenya to breeding a male who wouldn’t age?”
“Sergio’s and Anna’s sons, but she died in Moscow.”
“какой?” Sergio turned and stared at Nada.
“She was planning to tell you. That’s why you were visiting them and not in Moscow.” Nada turned to Jinghua. “Do I have new orders?”
“Your mother told me to remind both of you that you were here to learn all that you can.” She walked over and embraced Nada.
“China?” Marsha asked.
Ashley answered. “General Haiyang was married to Jinghua’s granddaughter. They were part of Jinghua’s breeding program for long-lived males. Only he survived. He has been having long talks with the Chinese generals who are running the country. That he helped identify Omara’s people who were working to take over the government helped convince them to join more closely with us.”
“Does the President know?” May was enjoying how Jinghua was handling things.
Ashley laughed. “No, she is waiting for the meeting to tell him.”
“I would appreciate it if no one tells him before then.” Jinghua’s smile showed how much she was enjoying what she was doing.
Jinghua stood with Sarah and Ashley. Each of them was wearing a vest for laser tag, but only the two girls had laser guns. Jinghua was to be the medic in Sarah’s version of the game. The opposing force had twelve members from SEAL Team 5. They had a dozen captives who were a mixture from all of the different people that they were working with. Sarah was cheating. The three of them knew who was in each group. They had also walked through the rooms that were going to be used for the exercise.
They were at the door that Sarah had chosen for their entrance. “Can you sense all of them and tell where they are?”
“They have one of their men sitting in with the hostages.” Jinghua had been fascinated when Sarah had explained to her and Ashley about the ability to sense people. They had experimented for only about fifteen minutes while Sarah had explained the rescue exercise that she wanted to run. Then they had gone to Ken and asked him to set it up.
“Here, take half of my flash bangs.” After Sarah handed them to Jinghua, Ashley did the same.
“These are going to cause more trouble than they are worth.” Jinghua examined one of the devices. “We will be blinded for minutes even if we shut our eyes in time.”
“So, we’ll keep our eyes shut and these blindfolds on.” Sarah pulled three dark blindfolds out of her pocket and handed one to each of the others. “We have been through each of the rooms so we know where everything was. They may move some stuff to make barricades, but they won’t be expecting us to go in blind. We will make for the three shooters to the right before going after any prisoners.” She started to put her blindfold on as she turned towards Ken. “We’ll take a minute before we go in. Can you shut off all the lights?”
Ken chuckled as he turned out all the lights. “They aren’t going to expect you to cheat. If Jinghua was running this or even a shooter, they would have worried about what she would do, but you said that she was a medic and wouldn’t have a gun.”
“Any problems with that?” Sarah asked.
“No, if you aren’t cheating, you aren’t trying. They just aren’t going to expect either of you to cheat.”
“That’s why they’re all SEALs. Jimmy would know we would cheat and probably most of our friends. Brian might have said something to his marine buddies. If Ernie were here, he wouldn’t even consider that we wouldn’t cheat.”
“I wish I had the camera system set up so that we can replay it. We could teach using what you are going to do.” Ken’s smile couldn’t be seen in the dark.
“After this is over, go order another set of cameras but pay for overnight delivery. We’ll want to run everyone through variations of this. It will teach them how to keep track of people and how to use their eidetic memory. Also, look for another location off-site where we can set up and run people through a location of which they have no knowledge.”
Ken realized Ashley was having no trouble turning to follow him as he moved silently around them in the dark. After they left and he turned the lights on, he was surprised to find three sets of shoes and socks in the room with him.
The three of them approached their first targets. Jinghua circled around through another corridor as the two girls took up firing positions. They knew that they couldn’t match her experience.
Jinghua came up behind the first two SEALs. The third was in a room further back. He was situated so that if the other two were hit with a flash bang, he could come out and take over until their night goggles reset. She was standing outside of the doorway against the same wall that the third SEAL inside the room was. In her left hand was one of the hex nuts that she had picked up when they had toured the rooms. Her hand reached towards the door opening. She flicked the nut backhanded towards the trashcan on the far side of the room.
When the SEAL heard the nut hit the trashcan behind him, he turned towards the sound even though he knew he was at the only door.
When she sensed that he moved, she entered the room and drove her fingers into his side just below his armor. With her other hand, she hit the manual kill switch on the laser vest. The SEAL was surprised by the unexpected physical attack, especially with the pain in his side. He tried to bring his weapon to bear on his attacker, but she went low and moved past him. A hit to his hand allowed her to strip the gun from him.
The other SEALs cautiously reacted to the noise behind them. When they heard the lieutenant’s voice call out, ‘Got her’, they returned their attention to the direction from which they expected the girls to come.
Chuck Douglas was surprised to hear his attacker call out in his voice. How had Sarah snuck up and attacked me? Then he realized how bad the problem was. How did she know who I was?
Ashley waited for the two SEALs to return their attention to the hallway they were guarding, but she didn’t wait long enough for their minds to think about their lieutenant having gotten one of the adversaries. She threw the flash bang so it hit the floor half a dozen feet in front of them. Though it wasn’t directly in their line of vision, it was close enough to it that they were blinded.
Jinghua then quietly walked out of the room and shot both of the SEALs.
“Ernie, I just got an email from Ken Overton.”
Senior Chief Petty Officer Alvarez knew when his commander addressed him by his first name in that tone that something had gone wrong that he personally was going to have to fix. When he turned to face him, he was surprised at the amusement in Nat’s eyes.
“You have been talking about getting Ashley and Sarah training with the men. Well, they didn’t wait for you. Sarah asked Ken to set up a rescue scenario in the laser tag area.” He saw the scowl on the chief’s face. “Just accept it. No matter what name you put on it, that is what everyone will be calling it. Sarah, Ashley, and Jinghua were to rescue twelve hostages from Lt. Douglas and eleven of his men. Only Sarah and Ashley were armed. Jinghua was going in as an unarmed medic.”
“How bad did the guys do?”
“All dead. None of the rescuers or hostages were even wounded. It took them only twenty-three minutes to do it.”
The chief stood there for a minute trying to understand how they had so thoroughly beaten his men. “How did they cheat?”
“Ken knew you would ask that. He said that they cheated by going in barefoot and blindfolded.” He laughed as he saw the same confusion on Ernie’s face as he had felt as he read the message. “He wants to know when you would be available to help set up the training for the new abilities. You can eat lunch first before you leave. He said that Jinghua was going to have lunch at the Saudi consulate, then they were going to have a phone conference with the President.”
“What in the world is she going to do there? How did she even get invited?”
“I don’t know. The Captain and Mark are on the phone right now trying to find out what is going on. I thought you would want to know about the training first.”
“With yours and the Captain’s permission, I would like to find out more about what is going on.”
“I thought that’s what you would say.”
Jimmy and Bert had been two of the hostages that had been rescued. They and the other teens were waiting to take the physical abilities testing that Ken Overton was doing for Doctor Thad Stevens.
“OK, Jimmy. You obviously have some idea how they did it.” Bert looked at his friend, who had been very quiet since the end of the training exercise.
“Everyone, just close your eyes and try to sense everyone around you.” Jimmy knew that the others had turned towards him after Bert’s words.
Mei-Xing started to turn, then stopped. “I can even sense Cindy, and she’s in another building. You don’t even have to turn around.”
“That’s what you and Sarah were talking about.” Jenny was smiling, then she stopped. “Everyone will know when we are off together.”
Jimmy put his arm around her. “I don’t really care if they do.”
“Bruce, choose three others and plan to drive to LA. You’re to escort Wayne and his family back here.” Jason Daniels immediately issued orders when he walked up to their table, letting the six Sawyers’ security people know that it was an important assignment.
“What type of priority? Drive down tonight and back in the morning, or do we need to bring them back tonight?” Bruce Canham wanted to make sure of the urgency. He was in his late twenties and in good shape. He had recovered quickly except for his old football injury, which Commander Stanley had said would take a couple of weeks until it was gone. With the government providing extra security and Sarah, Ashley, and Mark not going out, there was little work for the Sawyers’ security people that had been guarding them. Besides the new training and talking with the others about what the change would mean to each of them, they had little to do. He had been looking for something to do.
“Julia found a Facebook posting by Wayne’s nephew about the Young Again change. It has already been getting a bit of attention. She contacted Wayne about it, and they agreed that it might be better for them to join us here. It’s just a precaution, but it sounds like Professor Sobczak has recovered enough to understand what is going on. He’s eager to learn more.” Jason was considering Bruce’s question as he spoke. “Go as soon as you have everything organized. Take two of the Suburbans. We’ll get Julia to take care of hotel reservations so it won’t be traceable to us, but plan to come back tonight if we find out the situation requires it. Take your armor, rifles, and anything else you think you might need. It’s better to have it and not need it.”
“How about two more in a car but traveling separately from us? They would be more likely to lose any tails on people leaving here. We could set it up so that they could check to see if we have a tail on the Suburbans. We don’t have that much to do right now. Between the military, FBI, and our uniformed guards, there are enough people to handle anything short of a major attack.”
“Good idea, Bruce.” Sarah had walked up without them noticing. “Put a man and woman in the car. We’ll use traffic cameras to check for tails, but having your people check for that also, as you suggested. It will give us a double check. Jason, Ruth has to be in court for the next few weeks, so they will be taking care of their own security. Ash and I have play practice tomorrow afternoon, but the FBI will be providing security, though we also want either you or Sandy to check things out. ABC has gotten a midweek night at the Castro Theater. They are going to broadcast the play. Principal Schott and Mr. Caldwell just called to ask if it was OK with us. We’ve known about it, but we were leaving it to them to decide on doing it and then telling us.”
Bruce understood the surprise and confusion on Jason’s face.
“I thought that the two of you were planning to keep a low profile.” Confusion but now also anger was evident in both his voice and expression.
“The school district is getting a bundle of money. How many high school plays get to be on TV during prime time?” She paused, watching both men’s faces. “Neither the FBI, NSA, nor our people are finding any more information about Omara’s agents. The only new lead was the guy at the Saudi consulate. It will confuse the other side more than it does you.”
“But everybody but you and Ashley?” Jason stopped as he realized what they had done. “You made them blood brothers!”
“It should be an exciting play practice tomorrow. Everyone will know their lines perfectly.” She was smiling as she walked away.
President DeSantis was talking quietly with FBI Director Sam Alexander and Attorney General Bob Alter.
“The only lead we have is the man at the Saudi Consulate in San Francisco.” Sam saw Chris Santry, the Secretary of State, who had just walked in the door, had gotten angry as he heard his words.
“You may not have him any longer. I just got off the phone with the Saudi Ambassador. He told me one of the employees at the consulate was killed. The consular general was meeting with one of your agents and another woman about taking the employee into custody.”
“Marsha Poe?” The President asked.
“Do you know anything about this?” She was still angry as she turned towards her boss.
“What did the ambassador say?” Mario could see that Chris was more confused than angry.
“Well, he actually was apologizing for not taking the warnings from the Russian president more seriously. I just found out that she would be attending the meeting that you have set up. When are you going to tell me more about that?”
“Chris, the Saudis apologized after one of their people was killed by an FBI agent at the consulate.”
“It was the other woman, not the agent. They had both turned over their weapons when they entered the consulate. She used a pen when the man drew a gun. Mario, what is going on?”
“Finish telling me what you know first. Was the other woman Ashley Sawyer or Sarah Pierce?”
“No, how are they involved? I guess they could have done what he said. The woman, Jinghua Mingyu, threw the ballpoint pen she was holding into the eye of the man. Why would both the Chinese and Russian governments ask the Saudis to meet with her? And why was she with an FBI agent?”
“She is the one that asked me to hold this meeting. The Russians and the Chinese will also participate. A lot has been going on while you were gone. I’m glad that your mother is doing better. Let’s try and get you caught up a little before the meeting.”
The introductions had been made. The Russians had a new leader, Lenya Tokmakov, who none of the US government officials had ever heard of. Mario remembered her voice from one of the meetings.