Young Again
Copyright© 2018 by Edward Douglass Patterson
Chapter 40: Ancient Knowledge
After they exited the bunker, General McCausey guided Colonel Thomas to where they could talk privately. “Jonah, I intended to mention this when I got here, but we got caught up, and this is the first chance I had to talk to you alone. Your wife and daughter rode up here with me. Sarah mentioned she and Ashley thought that the Young Again change might help your daughter.”
“Diane has Down syndrome. It’s a genetic disorder. You can’t...” His eyes widened. “The Young Again change is a genetic change.”
“I met Ali Hajjar. He is the first person they know about who underwent the Young Again change. He was a mentally disadvantaged young boy who had become lost in the woods up here for several days. He’s now an intelligent young man who is a gifted artist. Your wife talked to Ali’s mother. She was convinced enough to come up here. She wanted to talk to you, but we didn’t want to advertise that we were hoping for another chance to get more people changed.”
“Why did they do it?”
“Jonah, they would have had the families of all the Marines here if they could have done it without notice. Their goal is to have everyone in the world undergo the change. Our job is to see that they are able to do it.”
Jinghua followed her sister into the cabin bedroom that they would be sharing. When Jian started to take up a guard position outside of the bedroom door, she waved him in and shut the door. Lyani smiled at her brother-in-law as she handed Jinghua a brown envelope.
“Mother left this for you.” She knew what her sister’s name looked like from when a passport had been explained to her.
Jinghua looked at her name neatly printed on the envelope. When she continued to stare at it, Jian spoke.
“You will never know what she has to say until you open it.”
Her eyes swept from the envelope to him. When she saw the smile on his face, she laughed. She saw a curious look on Lyani’s face. Speaking in their native tongue, she explained to her. “He told me to open it to find out what is inside. He’s what I have never had and didn’t understand what I was missing.” She smiled at Jian as she opened the envelope.
Inside she found two sheets of paper and another envelope with something more than paper inside it. She looked at the other envelope. “May and Barnaby? Why would she have something for them?” She looked at Jian whose smile was just slightly visible but whose expression reminded her of when she had watched him teaching and the student was slow in learning a move. “Yes, read what she has to say.” She quickly read the letter then handed it to Jian to read.
“Your mother is an interesting woman. Now tell your sister before she decides to beat it out of you.”
Using again their native tongue, Jinghua explained what was in the letter.
“Don’t show that I know her when I see her.” Lyani sat down on the bed. She looked both upset and tired. “Yes, Omara will want to kill her more than anyone else. How ... No, why did she contact him and agree to a meeting?”
“I don’t know what it was that gave her the information, but I and the others were in hiding from Omara, so she didn’t know to contact us. She wouldn’t have known that we had separated into warring groups. She agrees that he must be killed. I have no idea who she is.” She looked at Jian and switched to English. “I have no idea who she is. Do you?”
“No, and per her instructions, we shouldn’t talk about it. A wedding gift for May and Barnaby is interesting.” He took the unopened envelope from his wife. “I will give it to them. It will cause less notice. You need to find the girls so you can do as she asked.” He held out his hand to her for the two handwritten sheets. “I will look for a campfire to burn those in while you talk to them.”
Jinghua and Lyani found Ashley with the Marines of Cat Begay’s command. Ashley took a break and walked over when she saw them.
“Do you know who?” Jinghua cryptically asked.
“Yes.” Ashley didn’t say anything more but indicated that she wanted to look at the one of Lyani’s hands on which May had re-broken the little finger to straighten one of the deformations. She carefully took off the glove and examined it. She spoke to Lyani in her native tongue. “It is healing quickly. Make sure that you take some of your mother’s potion. In the morning, you should be part of the blood brother sharing. Sarah and I will come to you for that.” She looked into Lyani’s eyes. “Are you ready to have your hands fixed? If Jinghua takes you straight back to the infirmary in the morning, you can be in the hospital tomorrow night. You will have the best care that you have ever had. She will see to that.” Ashley had emphasized the word “ she” as she smiled at the sisters.
“She said in her message to me that she thought of you and Sarah as her daughters.” Jinghua studied the girl who had thought first of her sister’s needs.
“I feel that I have a lot of mothers or sisters that I have much to learn from. I need to help with this training.” She looked at Lyani. “I will visit you when you are recovering.” She bowed to both and returned to the Marines.
“I think she has much to teach me, also.” Lyani watched Ashley with the Marines for several minutes.
General Ryan McCausey had called a meeting of the senior military leaders. Captain Sheila McRae, Commander Nat Whitner, Colonel Jonas Thomas, Lt Colonel John Atkinson, and Lt Colonel Mosi ‘Cat’ Begay joined him in the cabin room used for meetings. Just as they were about to start, Mark Sawyer walked in.
“General, if you don’t mind, I would like to join you. I may be able to supply information that you may find useful.” Mark sat down at the table.
“Do you know who she is?” Ryan asked.
“Yes, that is related to the information that I wanted to give you. If you guess, don’t say the name. It is extremely important that her identity be kept secret.”
“What do we tell the President?”
“You should return to Washington and tell him that she is alive and is an active player in what is going on. I expect that she will soon make herself known.” Mark looked at the others to see if they understood. When he was sure they did, he continued. “The most important information that I have for you is that the primary target of the attacks that Omara set up was Earth Mother Jaia. Attacks in Washington will have her as the primary target.”
“You know there are attacks planned for Washington.” Jonas almost shouted. “Why haven’t we been told about the information?”
“I know the same way that I know the sun will rise tomorrow. Jinghua and her sisters have been an annoyance to Omara for thousands of years, but I believe he fears Jaia. He is the reason that the bunker was attacked by the aliens. The President will announce the meeting on Monday. Omara probably has already heard from his spies that the meeting was being set up. The President is only mentioning the Young Again change as the reason for the meeting. The rest he will bring up at the meeting.” He looked at Ryan. “Tell him to hold off on announcing the rest until Jaia makes herself known.”
“She will be at the meeting?” Ryan asked.
Mark just smiled. “I think that you should involve the FBI with this as soon as possible. Their people that have undergone the change will be more useful in Washington than yours will be unless things really go bad.”
Ryan considered that for a few seconds. “Mark, I think the first thing we need is a fuller understanding of the Young Again changes. Can you go over them?”
It was early Sunday morning when Josh Williams called out to his sister. Katie ran in and found Josh sitting in his wheelchair in his underwear reading an email.
“I received an email from Ashley Sawyer’s assistant. She says that Doctor May Flower and Jason Daniels will be coming to see us. Miss Sawyer will be paying for us to fly to California, where they are arranging to have Stanford Medical operate to help me regain the use of my legs.” He shifted to allow Katie to read the email. “I remember Mom and Dad discussing some report of a May Flower on medicinal properties of plants. I cannot believe that there can be two doctors with that name.”
“Josh, do you realize who Ashley’s assistant is? She did the duet with the lead singer of the Loremasters.”
“They are both no older than me. Why would she be Ashley Sawyer’s assistant?”
“Ashley and Sarah are my age. Did you get any other email?”
“Yes, but this one was from SawyerHoldings.com. There were three others.” He switched to look at his inbox. “May Flower, Christine Santry at the US State Department, and one from the government.” He clicked on that last one. “We have passports! We need to go over to the Lavarack Barracks in Townsville for photographs. It says the visas were granted for advanced medical treatment in the United States per request of the US State Department.” He switched over to the email from them. “We have been granted a visa for an operation for my medical treatment and for advanced education at Stanford.” He stopped and stared at the signature information at the bottom of the email. He pointed at it. “Christine Santry is the US Secretary of State.”
Katie had been reading over his shoulder. “She says that Sarah Pierce had contacted her and requested her help. Josh, open the one from May Flower.”
They both quickly read the email.
“They will be here tomorrow morning. Doctor Flower wants to talk to my doctors, but they want to leave on Tuesday. We have a meeting with the provost for Stanford University on Thursday.” He turned to look at his sister. “Why are they in such a rush?”
“Josh, that line there.” She pointed at the screen. “‘We are looking forward to meeting you and your sister to discuss the request for assistance that you submitted.’ The request was for help in our research. I think they are trying to hide that.”
They talked about it for a while, before starting the preparation for the trip.
The President had gone upstairs to have a private lunch with his wife. As they were eating, Anita brought up a topic that she had waited until they were alone.
“We both got our own copy of the songs from the Loremasters’ second album along with the ones for the kids. Well, you have to allow it onto your phone, but it just appeared on ours. I did get an email from Benny Franklin and Maria Cuervo. They asked me if I would set up a benefit concert by the Loremasters for those left homeless and injured by the North Korean attacks. They want it to be televised live the Sunday after Thanksgiving.”
“Have you listened to the songs?” Mario was shaking his head and smiling.
“Yes, the concert will set the stage for your announcements the next day. I can get a smaller stage at the Kennedy Center or the DAR Hall. I was leaning towards the DAR so as not to interfere with the Nutcracker performance.”
“I agree. I guess I need to listen to the songs to understand more of what is going on.” Mario pulled his phone out.
“Well, you could ask Benny and Maria when I have them for dinner on Wednesday. They said that they would be bringing prerelease copies of the album for the kids.”
That’s not all that they will be bringing. Maria is Ashley’s assistant. What didn’t they want to tell General McCausey that they wanted me to know? He sighed. Am I making too much of the coincidence?
British Prime Minister Henry Russell surveyed the people gathered to consider whether Great Britain should recognize the new Russian government. Beside the senior cabinet secretaries, he had also invited the members of the Joint Intelligence Committee. From what he saw, no one appeared happy with recent events. No, Alison Wentworth was reading something that was bringing a smile to her face. “Let’s begin. Alison, you appear to be the only one that may have something positive. Is it related to the Russians?”
“I previously reported that the United States government computer systems have made changes that have made them less susceptible to outside attack. Last week, Russia and China also made changes. We only know about the changes and about how effective the changes are by monitoring hacker chatter. Now normally, we don’t put a lot of weight behind this, but recent comments show that hackers are very upset at the changes.”
“What does this have to do with the new Russian government?” Lisa Owens, the Home Secretary, asked.
“First, the Russian and Chinese made their changes just after the new Russian government was announced. Within a day, we noticed the comments about the changes. Both governments implemented overnight changes identical to what the United States has implemented over the past few weeks. It looks like the US shared information with them.”
Alison’s comments shocked everyone, but she continued before anyone could speak. “This morning, we received a message from Wayne Sobczak. He is a known hacker but mostly benign. He supplied information on the changes that the three governments have made. He also gave us contact information for the three governments so that we can coordinate responses to computer attacks. I received emails from the three contacts confirming that they are working together. The NSA contact, Ray Arnold, invited us to send representatives to a meeting at the NSA headquarters in Maryland in a couple of weeks. Just before the meeting, I received confirmation that the changes that we were sent corrected problems that we hadn’t been aware of. At least on computer security, I would say that the three countries are cooperating more closely than we have with the US in recent years. We and the Israelis are being asked to join with them.”
“Why would this hacker, Wayne, be involved in this?” Henry asked.
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