Chapter 5: Further Experimentation

Anthony Barlow picked up the phone as soon as it rang this time. He wasn't about to miss this call. Things were getting more extreme and he was anxious to get a handle on them.

"Good evening, Barlow residence," he answered.

"Hello, Mr. Barlow. This is Harry Wittmore again," answered the reassuring voice he'd been so anxiously awaiting.

"What have you got for me?" Anthony asked, hardly able to contain his nerves. Things hadn't been going well at home.

"Well, I've got some upsetting news," Harry warned him.

Damn, the little shithead left town and it's too late to catch him, Anthony thought to himself as his mind filled in the likeliest possibility of what happened. He'd tried to settle things with his daughter, Grace, after she'd been running after this Alex character. This supposed angel. He'd put his foot down, trying to get her to see where things stood, but she'd resisted. Now she had moved out and he had no way of keeping track of her. Hopefully the little scammer had left town before he could take anything from her, but...

"And what would the bad news be?" Anthony asked since Harry wasn't forthcoming.

"Remember when I said I was having my associate, Ms. Evens, try to make inroads with the 'angel community' here in New Orleans?" he asked. "Well, she wasn't so much my associate as she was my girlfriend," Harry confessed, leaving Anthony confused as to why he was talking about nonsense when his client was so anxious. "It turns out it worked well, too well in fact. They accepted her as if she was one of their own, and it turns out that isn't far from the truth. They said they thought she had some 'traits' this angel character is looking for, and that she should seek him out in order to learn 'who she is' so he could 'reveal a whole new world to her'."

Anthony's hands grew cold. This wasn't going the way he'd anticipated at all.

"She made some good points about it, and there's one thing I've learned seeking out people's dirty laundry over the years: nobody is helped by suspicion. Even if I find no evidence of cheating, the person who seeks my services isn't always appeased, and if I find it neither party is happy. Jealousy and possessiveness can be poisonous, and a lack of trust destroys more marriages than infidelity ever has. Cheating can be dealt with, whereas the absence of trust, justified or not, can't be. I've learned suspicion is about the worst thing you can do to a relationship, and I'm not going to fall into that trap. My own relationship is too important to me for me to poison it with my own insecurities."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Anthony asked, his hands literally shaking with rage even though he managed to keep his voice neutral and somewhat calm, finding himself frustrated with this man's inability to get to the point.

"What I'm trying to tell you is I've got a conflict of interest here, and my relationship with my girlfriend is more important to me than what you're paying me, so I'll have to cancel our arrangement. Now I'll give you recommendations for others in the field you can use instead, but—"

Anthony's mind starting sprinting, he had to get ahead of this. There wasn't much time before that Alex creep left town, either with his money, his daughter's dreams, or even possibly with his daughter. He didn't have time to dick around with some confused gumshoe.

"That's OK, I'm not interested in anyone else," he responded, having found the reservoir to respond somewhat calmly, an idea growing which gave him the confidence to withhold his anger and frustration. "I'll tell you what, Mr. Wittmore, I think we can come to an understanding if you can do me a little favor."

"Yeah?" Harry was intrigued but cautious about what he might be asked to do for the amount of money they were talking about here.

"Just tell me where your girlfriend is supposed to meet with this Angel, and I'll forget what I've already paid you, and I'll even throw in a nice little bonus. I just want to see what this character is up to myself, maybe ask him what he's after. I don't mean to cause anyone any trouble, but I want to make sure my little girl is going to be OK. If he can assure me that—" Harry didn't even wait for him to finish before he made up his mind.

"Sure, I think I can do that. He's supposed to show up at a Diane Kennedy concert in Dallas on Saturday evening. I don't know how long he's going to be there, or where he's supposed to go after that, but that's where she's planning on meeting him. In fact, she's already made ... hello? Are you there? Did we get disconnected, Mr. Barlow?"

That night's concert went much better than the ones in Houston. It didn't attract quite as many people, which didn't bother Alex since he'd been a bit overwhelmed at the Reliant. Alex took to hiding in the men's room again, but he wasn't accosted there this time, although he did find several women waiting for him when he came out as the concert was about to begin. Like they'd done before, they used the people they met that day to work the crowd, and since they now had more experience at it they managed to avoid some of the scenes they'd had the other night.

In all they got fewer new followers than they did in Houston, but they still got more than they normally did, so the numbers still stunned Alex, who was still used to meeting one or two at a time, not dozens. There was only one Seer this time, but there were quite a few Watchers.

At the end of the evening, when they met in the Alamodome parking lot, Alex was once again faced with a small dilemma: who to take to bed with him. As usual, Alex wasn't really anxious about sleeping with anyone, but he had the same problem he'd faced before, he felt he needed to leave someone in charge of the local community, or at least someone who could provide some security for them, once he left. But as usual it wasn't quite as clear cut as that. Martha Dunbar and Linny Gabberts were both from out of town, so they wouldn't be able to help with the community if they weren't there frequently enough. Caity would have been a good choice, but she was a good Mormon girl who didn't believe in premarital sex, even if it involved an angel who was looking to change the world. What's more, being active military she'd only be in the area for a short time anyway. The new Seer wasn't much better, as she already had several kids, none of whose father's supported them. It seemed she fell into the trap many women do, falling for 'bad boys' while ignoring their own intuition, despite how strong it may be.

Knowing he couldn't really get out of it, Alex chose two Watchers. While they wouldn't be able to protect his fledgling community like a Seer could, at least they'd be in a better position to help those within it. One of those was Lisa Beadrow, the Macy's sales girl, while the other was Debbie Barrows, a Hispanic-American Alex thought might be able to reach out to the local Hispanic community to connect to anyone who might not relate to the mostly white people he'd met so far.

Although Alex tried to respect everyone's personal choices and beliefs, he couldn't see Caity's worries about her chastity. After all, if God could forgive her for committing his greatest sin, taking a life, then surely he could forgive one instance of premarital sex to help others like herself.

Caity had relayed a bit of her personal history from her last trip to Afghanistan which she'd just returned from that continued to trouble her. Like the other Seers, she'd recognized how useful her sense of intuition was, and it served her well. She'd often know just where to focus when a new patient came in, even when there were no physical symptoms to indicate there was a problem. Like when an IED victim came in and she worked on his stomach rather than his shredded arm. Puncturing his stomach herself, she demonstrated to the physician he was suffering from internal bleeding that, if untreated, would have killed him.

Caity's experience led her to trust her intuition, and it had proved vital in Afghanistan. She remembered one day, she was out with her unit one day when they ran into trouble. Enroute back to their FOB (forward operating base), an Afghani vehicle 'just happened' to break down in front of their convoy on the narrow road. The translator went to speak with the driver while the rest of the unit went on high alert guarding against an ambush. While trying to get situated, she'd felt a sudden sense of maliciousness. She knew such animosity didn't bring good things, so going against her training and ROE (rules of engagement), she used her rifle to shoot into an obstructed doorway. There was a cry from within, and a moment later a young boy of about fifteen years of age came stumbling out, only to collapse on the ground in front of the building he was in.

In semi-passable English he called out to them for help. Caity's heart went out to him and she felt terrible for what she'd done, but she still couldn't shake the sense of hostility coming from him. When the other medic and one of her fellow soldiers started to move towards the boy, she held them back. Trusting her judgment, even though she didn't explain why she was hesitating, they watched him as he pleaded for help.

Finally, seeing they weren't going to come to assist him, he finally cursed at them in Pashtun, raised his right hand and pressed the plunger he'd been holding. His body exploded, killing him and spraying the building with shrapnel and gore. That very well could have been Caity and the members of her unit if she hadn't hesitated. It was a trap laid out for them. If she hadn't shot him, he likely would have walked up to them. If they'd gone to help him they would have died.

But she still couldn't shake her sense of guilt she felt from causing his death. First, that she had shot someone who hadn't actually threatened her, and second, she had a direct role in his death, even if it was at his own hands. She knew it made no sense, and she made no apologies for her actions, but it continued to haunt her. Thus she confessed the incident to Alex, hoping he'd grant her the absolution she desired.

He told her he personally forgave her, and that he was sure God wouldn't blame her, which seemed to set her mind at ease. Despite her willingness to have his children, she still remained firm in her decision to remain chaste until she was married in the Mormon Church, though.

"You aren't interested in converting to Mormonism, are you?" she asked. "You could keep your harem, as long as you married each of them," she teased.

Cate liked the two girls and they got along well, but she was mostly pleased that Alex wasn't stressing himself about his inability to boost the perfect girl for the situation, like he had the other night. Hopefully that would keep him from getting himself into ridiculous situations like he had the previous night. Gail also liked the two girls, but then she usually liked all the women he brought home, as they were usually easy on the eyes. Unfortunately, they tended to be straight, too, so she didn't get to play along with him, but she was glad for what she could get and she'd take watching over total abstinence any day.

Cate decided she liked having her brother warn whoever he was with she might show up to cuddle with him. Somehow it seemed less creepy that way, and she didn't discount that hearing it from him made it sound more acceptable to the girls as well. So while Alex dallied with his two Watchers, Cate and Gail entertained each other in the other room, knowing Gail could always detect when he had an orgasm with one of his girls through their shared telepathic connection. That way Cate was right on time with his snack, and she snuggled into his bed once she was sure the two girls had fallen asleep.

Debbie had also provided her own little surprise when Alex asked at the last moment whether she was protected. She'd just smiled and told him she wasn't afraid of sleeping with an angel, and she also wasn't afraid of carrying said angel's baby out of wedlock. What resulted were several long minutes as Alex tried to talk her out of her decision, but she wasn't to be dissuaded and he finally relented, since that was one aspect of his mission. Lisa wasn't as anxious to get pregnant at the moment, but she looked at Debbie holding her stomach afterwards with a certain feeling of jealousy, thinking both how nice it would be to have her own child and how wonderful it would be to grasp the future in your hands by potentially bringing the next angel into being. Needless to say, emotions were running high that night.

The next morning saw them all bright and chipper, as usual, although Gail was a bit grouchy without her coffee. After all, she hadn't gotten a shot of the big O the night before. Cate, though, was fine after having soaked up energy from Alex all night, even if she hadn't gotten to fool around herself.

Arriving at breakfast, there was quite a crowd awaiting them. Alex had asked the girls not to cause a disruption by surrounding him, but it only went so far. Martha was there with her three grandkids, along with her son-in-law, who didn't look very comfortable meeting Alex. Caity was there too, as were two new Watchers who'd been waiting for him.

Of the young girls aged seven and five, respectively, one was a Seer and another was a Watcher. They both stared at Alex as if he were a certain purple dinosaur, although the one girl had trouble looking directly at him while their other sister ignored him the whole time. Their father eventually paid for breakfast, but never warmed up to Alex, as he couldn't bring himself to believe the wild tales his mother-in-law had told him, although the girls' reactions to Alex said the same thing more eloquently. Alex gave them an overview of what they needed to know, promising them he'd tell them a little bit at a time, so they could learn more as they needed it, rather than all at once.

As they were leaving for the hospital, Cate asked Caity if she'd "made any arrangements". She replied she had, and had made reservations for later, but neither would explain to Alex what they were talking about.

They stopped off at a clinic which Cate directed them to, where Alex met yet another fertility specialist and made a certain deposit while the girls waited. They talked to the doctor for a while, ensuring she was qualified to care for anyone getting pregnant in the community and that she could keep and respect their secrets. When they were comfortable she was, they headed off.

Alex was nervous as they approached the gate of the Brooke Army Medical Center. He had severe reservations about entering the military base, being a bit paranoid about what the 'government' might do if they had any idea of what he was capable of, but he tried to not let it show. Caity took them to her office, which was festooned with a large cardboard cutout of a Disney princess to which she'd affixed a military M-16A2 rifle. It stood besides multiple pictures of Caity posing with various young girls in either her uniform or wearing her Miss Utah crown. She briefly spoke to someone outside of her office and led Alex and his group off again.

"The thing is," she said, as they walked into one of the wards, "while I'm impressed with what you've been able to do in the past, we have some unique medical problems in the military we continue to have problems with. I was hoping you might have some success where we haven't so far.

"The other girls told me about how you managed to heal burn and cancer victims, and I'm intrigued. Cate also mentioned how you seem to have a problem with your energy causing more bleeding than normal, so I'm keeping that in mind," she said, as she led them into a room with a couple of young soldiers who looked at them curiously. She'd stopped on the way in to talk to the ward nurse, who in this case happened to be male, which was more typical of the military. The nurse had sent word she was on the floor to one of the ward doctors and then followed them into the room, but she remained in the background, giving them plenty of room to do what they needed to.

"Peter and Jonathon here have both suffered mTBI, or 'mild traumatic brain injuries'. Basically their brains got shook up when their vehicle ran over an IED. Neither suffered significant wounds, but both have suffered mild mental impairment as a result. We're anxious to be able to treat these types of wounds, as it means they'll have to be discharged if we can't, something that neither one wants."

Alex looked them over without saying a word. Gail, however, stepped up and, getting Jonathon to lean forward, examined the back of his head. Finally she turned back to Alex.

"There's diffuse impairment across a region about the size of a softball in the back of their head, plus a lesser effect in the front and side of his head," she told him.

'Show Caity what you're seeing, ' Alex responded telepathically. However there wasn't any outward sign of a response by either woman.

Alex took that under advisement before addressing Caity. "We've worked with this a little in terms of sports injuries. In fact we set up a program where we've been monitoring anyone suffering from a minor head trauma, determining who's suffered damage and who hasn't. I haven't really tried to heal one of these wounds myself, simply because we haven't encountered many of them."

Caity and Jonathon looked positive at this news, but Alex had to disappoint them.

"The problem is with the wound. There's been too much time for scar tissue within the brain to form. The idea is we need to address the problem before the body starts to take action on its own. When I worked with the burn victim, I found we could reduce the amount of scar tissue that formed, but once it forms it's almost impossible to remove without seriously impacting the patient."

"Ah, I was afraid of that," Caity responded. "The problem is these men get injured in the field, get a simple dressing, then get shipped to the closest field hospital where they get their initial treatment. If they're hurt badly enough, which these men weren't considered to have been, they're shipped off to Germany for further treatment. They only come here for long term treatment, so we only get them long after the wounds have been inflicted."

"That's what I figured," Alex said. "I can give the area a general energy bath, but aside from making him feel better temporarily I doubt it will have much effect."

"Well, just try what you can. After all, we're interesting in seeing what works and what doesn't."

Alex and Gail switched position, and Alex began applying a diffuse application of energy to the impacted region of the soldier's brain as Gail directed him. As he was doing it, Caity proceeded to ask Jonathon a series of questions, trying to detect a difference in his mental acuity. After only a couple of minutes, his mind seemed noticeably clearer and both he and Caity seemed enthused, but Alex had to remind her it was likely only short term.

"Still, it's an improvement, and it's possible if we could do this over a longer time period they might regain more functionality for a longer time."

"Sadly, this is more akin to those he, uh ... spends time with," Cate explained to her. "They're bursting with fresh energy and feel like they can take on the world, but once the energy dissipates nothing has really changed. Well, actually, in those cases something significant did change, but aside from that, simply being exposed to Alex's energy won't do much besides make someone feel good."

"Are you sure of that? Have you actually tested prolonged exposure?" Caity asked, trying to say what needed to be said without giving too much away.

"Actually, Liv asked the same thing and I couldn't really answer her. I was doing some longer term studies, but unfortunately once we hit the road I had to discontinue them."

"Ah, so your other request makes more sense now," she replied. "You should really try taking a standard IQ test both before and after being exposed, just to see if there's any noticeable difference."

"That makes sense. It would be a simple test with immediate answers. Of course it wouldn't hold up under scrutiny, but we aren't looking for that level of proof at this stage."

"Do you and Gail have any standard IQ test results on record?" Caity asked, curious about what they might produce.

"I have some somewhere," Cate answered, "although in my case it may not be indicative, since I've been exposed to Alex for a long time."

"Man, I have no idea what you people are talking about, but if you have an IQ test, I'm ready. My mind hasn't felt this clear in a long time," the young man interrupted.

"Well I'm glad," Caity told him with a smile before they moved to the next soldier. They performed the same procedure on him, with the observing nurse paying much more attention this time. However, since they'd said what they needed to, they didn't bother to explain what they were doing.

"That's amazing," the nurse said. "We need to try that more often."

"I'm afraid it's an unproven procedure, and we probably shouldn't be trying it without patient authorizations," Alex said, trying to cover himself since he knew the nurse was likely to object to what they were doing.

"I can tell you're a civilian," he replied with a smile. "Military personnel get free medical care, but they also have more limits than civilian patients. They don't have the legal right to sue for malpractice if anything goes wrong."

About this time the ward doctor entered the room and Alex started getting nervous again. Caity noticed this and led them from the room. The doctor and nurse followed them, but stayed back as the nurse quickly described what he'd observed.

Caity led them to a nearby room which housed another young soldier with mTBI. After making explanations and giving them the soldier's personal history, Gail repeated her in-depth analysis of his head, something the doctor and nurse were fascinated to watch.

"There's really no physical damage I can isolate in his brain, as there are no weak spots in his aura," she said aloud, making no attempt to hide her observations. "Chances are any damage has already healed, or the damage isn't so much a result of scar tissue in the brain as it is the experience of having suffered the trauma."

"This seems to be the other end of the spectrum," Alex said. "This time there's nothing specific to heal. As you just heard, I might have been able to do something if I'd gotten here just after it happened, but this long after the fact there isn't really anything to address."

Caity and the soldier looked disappointed at this news, even though the young soldier had no real expectation Alex could have helped him anyway.

"That's why I presented you with this case," Caity said. "You managed to help the last man, even though you specifically said you couldn't heal the underlying damage. I was interested in seeing if you could do something similar in this case."

"What's the nature of his problem," Alex asked.

"It's just as Gail described. He's suffering from what they used to call 'shell shock', or what we now call 'Post Traumatic Stress Disorder'. It mostly consists of his having visions and memories of the events he experienced. As such, you're right, there are no specific injuries, but he's still suffering, and we'd like to know if you can give us any more clue as to how to treat it.

"We've had the most success with behavioral conditioning with these cases, where we work with the victims to try to diminish their negative memories, the bad dreams and the panic attacks, and focus on the positive social connections of friends and family. We do this by giving them specific exercises to do whenever they suffer a negative response, we've even tried doing it more directly, having them stay in the hospital so we can address them when they have a panic attack. The process works quite well, but it's fairly labor intensive so it's difficult to implement on a wide scale basis.

"I thought if you could make him feel better it might provide a more direct method of applying this behavioral modification. If you could apply either a boost or a negative reinforcement directly to the area of the—"

"Wait a minute," Alex interrupted, cautioning her, "you're getting into dangerous territory here. I'm hesitant about apply energy directly to the brain, largely because even if it's specifically applied, it still affects all those regions between it and the surface of the brain, and we don't know what effect it would have. When you add the fact we can't identify what region of the brain a specific memory originates from means we'd just be shooting in the dark. That's bad enough to begin with, but if you then suggest I remove excess energy from the brain, we're talking about even more severe possible repercussions. Every time I drain energy I run the risk of killing healthy cells. Simply removing a small amount of energy risks killing or injuring brain cells which may house specific memories."

"I was thinking a more general approach. Simply applying an overall application may be enough to reward positive thoughts, though your points about draining energy would be more problematic."

"What about using an fMRI?" Gail asked, having learned from being involved with Alex the difference between a functional and a regular MRI.

"It would be too difficult," Cate answered. "It would mean getting Alex inside the MRI while it's working, giving him enough room to operate, and trying to identify which mental activity was a negative thought and which ones were positive ones."

"How about we try the general approach first, just to see how well it works?" Caity suggested.

Alex simply smiled as he glanced at the young soldier. "Are you currently having a flashback?"

"No, but I'm starting to feel a little nervous about you doing something which might destroy my memory."

"Don't worry," Alex answered, "I'll give you a brief treatment. It won't help you one way or the other, but it should make you feel better temporarily."

When Alex finished the man did in fact feel much better, but it wasn't a very specific treatment, so as they left Cate and Caity started discussing possible variations in treatment while the doctor and nurse trailing them got into a whispered conversation as well.

Caity led them to another room which, upon entering, revealed a young man suffering from what appeared to be a head wound. His head was shaved on one side and there was a good sized gash running along his skull. He looked up at them in confusion, but didn't seem to be able to focus on them for very long.

"PFC Johnson here suffered a shrapnel wound to the head," Caity told them. "He's lost a lot of his cognitive ability. You mentioned you'd managed to ... uh, regrow kidney tissue. I was wondering if—"

"I don't think it will do any good to have me try a procedure which is almost guaranteed to fail," Alex told her, not terribly happy to be put into this position.

"That's not what I was suggesting, I—" Caity tried to explain once again but never managed to finish.

"I think what Alex is trying to say is there are a lot of problems with trying to regrow damaged tissue," Cate said.

"Essentially, there's not a lot of spare room," Alex explained. "If something new grows, other things are going to be shoved aside."

"In the kidney there's room for things to move to a certain degree," Cate continued, alternating with Alex in describing what happens during these procedures.

"But in the brain, which is already packed pretty tight, there isn't," Alex finished. "What will happen is the internal pressure in the brain will increase, possibly causing additional cell death."

"Not only that, but the kidneys, for as complex as they are, are a pretty homogenous structure," Cate continued. "Getting them to grow is pretty straightforward, whereas trying to regrow portions of a human brain are fraught with difficulties. Will each of the various cells grow at the same rate, will they be able to differentiate themselves, can they function together, will some form while others don't? You could end up with a mess of nonfunctioning cells, which would simply act as a benign tumor."

"But this man is largely unaware of his surroundings," Caity argued. "He has no quality of life, he has no future. He's got nothing to lose."

"No, but I stand to lose a lot by doing this," Alex countered. "Mainly, it would demonstrate I can damage and cripple a somewhat functional mind, it could also incapacitate or possibly even kill the patient, and it would break the central covenant of 'first, do no harm'."

Caity was about to counter that when a corpsman came up to Caity and said something to her the others couldn't really hear. They stopped the discussion, and as the corpsman left Caity turned back to them.

"We'll get back to this, but right now your wish has been granted," Caity told Alex, which piqued his curiosity.

She led them to yet another room where a man lay unconscious on a gurney. His head was freshly shaved and showed fresh stitches which revealed he'd just come from a recent brain surgery.

"You said you couldn't do anything with a brain after it had already managed to form scar tissues following a trauma to it. Well, here we have someone who's just suffered fresh trauma. True, the trauma probably saved his life, as the surgeons removed shrapnel embedded in his brain, but we're interested in seeing if you can minimize the damage he suffered from the surgery."