Chapter 11: Couldn’t Never Happen

It shouldn’t happen. It couldn’t happen. It did happen.

<Alert! Alert! Alert!> Helva’s almost panicked voice rang throughout. <Inkie’s gone, disappeared, probably kidnapped! All security personnel and anyone with combat experience report to the dining hall.>

Inkie woke slowly, barely aware for some extended time. She couldn’t see or hear, and she was breathing through a SCUBA-like full-face mask. Her wrists were fastened together as were her legs at the ankles. After a while, she came to understand that she was submerged, probably in water.

<Inkie, Love. Don’t panic and don’t try to move.> Helva! <I have a fix on where you are and we have a pretty good idea who has you and how many there are. We’re assembling the team, but we aren’t going to take chances.>

<So, who has me? How did this happen?> Inkie asked her friend and lover.

<Who has you is likely one of two Earth First cells, and you are in a six-bedroom house seven miles west of your hotel. And by-the-way, Amore Mio, you are never, ever sleeping alone again!> Helva told her. <You’ve been gone for eighteen hours. I don’t know how they knocked you out, but I wasn’t paying close attention and didn’t realize something was wrong until you never started your usual pre-wake-up stirrings. I’m so sorry!> That last was a plaintive wail.

<It’s Okay, Love, > Inkie responded. <I know you’ll get me out. Alive!>

<I’ll fill you in later on the how-it-was-done, but there is more urgent stuff for now, > Helva continued. <Bossie is still here, and she’s minding the store while I have a lot of my processing time divided between you and the rescue team. She’s going to be a real cutie when she grows up.”>

<First, I’ve used your implant and nanites to mimic whatever state they had you in. It took me a while to figure out how to wake you without alerting them, but unless they have you hooked with an EEG headset, and they don’t, they couldn’t tell the difference.> If she hadn’t been so concerned, Helva would have appeared to be smug.

<Yeah, well, I’m either submerged in a huge tank or a swimming pool, > Inkie told her. <The water is body temperature, so except for my breathing, I’m getting little to no sensory input. I’m betting they plan to use sensory deprivation as a brainwashing tool. I wonder what it is they want.>

<Except for the potential for torture, that’s actually a good sign, > Helva responded. <That means they have an interest in keeping you alive, for some time, anyway. So, I’m preparing you the best I can for anything that might happen. Just remember, any changes you don’t want will be reversible once we get you free and back in my arms.>

<Seems like I have plenty of time, > Inkie quipped. <Why don’t you keep telling me all about it?>

<We may not have enough time for this, and lacking time and a med-tube, I can’t do what I really want, like armor plate.> Helva was not above gallows humor. <Now that you’ve confirmed my assessment that you are under water, the nanites will continue to modify your tissues to store more oxygen – think dolphin or even whale.> Helva hesitated, then continued, <I’m having to repurpose some of your tissues to make you stronger and faster. Your nanites are scavenging as much as they can from your surroundings and your waste processes, but you aren’t going to have very much fat left, just enough for emergency energy. Hair – gone! Digestive system – much reduced. Muscles, stronger and faster.>

<All this takes time, and I’ve been at it since I found you gone. Oh, Honey, > Helva appeared to be weeping, <Your beautiful cupcakes are pretty much already gone, and in many places your skin will stop or slow a knife or some bullets. I wish your nanites could create gills, but that kind of structural change takes specialized nanites and more time than I think we have. When I’m done, you’ll be a killing machine that will make Gunny and Melody look like wusses. For three or four minutes, maybe. That’s all the resources we have to work with.>

After a pause, Helva finished, <You WILL come back to me. I love Vivie, but you are my purpose!>

There wasn’t much that Inkie could say beyond, <Helva, I trust you. I love you. I will be with you again.>

<Silly, maudlin me, > Helva said, <I forgot to tell you that the plastic ties around your wrists and ankles are now only thick enough to keep up appearances. Same for your eye and ear coverings. They were all organic and are now materials contributing to your makeover.>

Wendy, make that Cadet Wendy Darling, sat almost glued to Vivie’s side. In only a short time, she’d done her best to become indispensable to Vivie, started formal martial arts and weapons training, and spent as much time as she could scrounge in a sleep trainer studying war: weapons, tactics, strategy, logistics. Mao, Sun Tzu, Clausewitz, Mitchell, Rommel, and her favorite, Machiavelli, were already roaming her head, not fully integrated, but there. Her estimated CAP wasn’t as high as Vivie’s initial score, but it was high enough that she had conned, make that convinced, Vivie and Helva into an implant and a provisional volunteer-cadet status.

Helva’s dining hall was full. No one wanted to be left out, and no one had the heart to forbid anyone’s presence. Vivie stood up and told them, <This can’t degenerate into a Tower of Babel, so if you have something pertinent, tell Helva and not the open channel. She’ll be our moderator, gatekeeper, and facilitator to sort the ideas and make sure they are all considered.>

Helva’s avatar appeared in the front of the hall, and she told them, <Inkie’s okay for now and I’ve programmed her nanites to make her more okay when it comes to the fight. Before I begin my briefing, I need permission, by treaty and by my preference; I would never directly stimulate your optic nerves, but for Inkie and only Inkie, I will likely need to show you something. If you decline, I won’t feel less.> There were no nays, only ayes.

<Here’s what we know, > Helva began her briefing. <Inkie is submerged in an indoor swimming pool in a large house about seven miles west of her hotel. She’s now awake and participating in this planning session. Say ‘hi’ Love.>

<Hi, all.> Inkie greeted them. <I hadn’t planned to go swimming until later in the day, but what can I say?!>

Wendy <I will!>

Vivie <You won’t! I didn’t pull you out just to throw you back in!>

Wendy <Who in Hell else do you think can pull this off? We don’t have time to downsize and remodel an adult. Another kid?>

Vivie <But... >

Wendy <So, what if it was Nate or Corporal Stuart – way back when? I know you love me, but you are not my mother!>

Vivie <That’s so below the belt! AND. I am your superior officer.>

Gunny <Dammit, Vivie! It’s like looking through a time machine. We don’t have time for this. Let the little stick of dynamite do this!>

Vivie <Wendy, Honey, take this with you and make your own luck.> She handed Wendy her now infamous Barlow knife and hugged her.

Wendy smiled, hugged her back, and went to the replicator to retrieve her uniform and props.

Pulling a little red wagon loaded with boxes of cookies, Wendy walked down the side of the street opposite her target. Helva had hacked into the Girl Scout database, and Wendy was stopping at almost every house on the block. Her Girl Scout uniform was usually met with a happy greeting and a ready check. If homeowners noticed that the delivery was by a different Scout, they were told that Laura was sick and Wendy was doing her good deed for the day. By the time she crossed over and returned to the target house, she had delivered over five hundred dollars in cookie orders.