“What does that mean?” I demanded.
The holographic Nari winced, conveying this expression with remarkable accuracy. “Given your importance,” said the alien, “we, ah . . . took the liberty of infusing both you and Tessa with nanite technology. To enhance your performance levels. I know that you’ve written about super-soldiers, Jason. Well, the truth is, we kind of turned you into one.”
“What?” I whispered stupidly.
Nari nodded. “The strength and speed you displayed when attacking the Chinese soldiers,” he said, “was far too great to be explained by adrenaline or panic alone. Still, to give you your due, you did use your own fighting techniques. Your blows were just delivered a lot quicker and more effectively than they would have been otherwise.”
I stared at Brad Schoenfeld. “And you knew about this?”
His guilty expression said it all. “Yes. The aliens don’t like to visit in person. So they had a UAV deliver the nanites to me. I gassed you and the major in your sleep almost five months ago and administered the infusions myself. You didn’t feel any discomfort afterward, or find any puncture marks, because the nanites themselves healed you up.”
“I thought the Galactics didn’t share their advanced technology with us,” I said.
“They don’t,” replied Brad. “Usually. But their AI strongly recommended making an exception in this case.”
He blew out a long breath. “So here we are,” he finished.
19
I closed my eyes for several long seconds as a wave of dizziness passed over me. It was all so incredible. And equally hard to believe.
I stared intently at Nari. “So these nanites are swimming around in my bloodstream right now?” I said. “And in Tessa’s?”
The alien nodded. “They are.”
“Great!” I said sarcastically. “I’m so glad we had a choice in the matter. So what do they do?”
“Do you want the entire list?” said Nari.
“Yes!” I screeched emphatically.
“Well,” began the alien, “they improve your immune system. Strengthen your skeletal system. Increase muscle density. Retard aging. Improve the oxygen-carrying capacity of your blood. Enhance strength, speed, and endurance. Allow for dramatic gains in vision and hearing. Improve balance and fluidity of movement. Heal wounds at speeds you would find astonishing. Enhance neuronal firing and mental capacity. And provide a database much larger than your entire World Wide Web for you to draw on at will.”
The alien smiled. “You know,” he added, actually attempting to channel a human sense of humor, “the usual.”
“Does that mean that Tessa wasn’t really near death back at the warehouse?” I asked.
“That’s right,” said Nari. “It takes quite a lot to kill one of you now.”
“Wait a minute!” I said after a few additional moments of thought. “This is absurd! If we were enhanced all these months, how is that we didn’t know it? Wouldn’t it be obvious from the start? I don’t hear any better, or think any faster, even now. My heart doesn’t beat like a metronome, and I can’t lift heavy objects with ease. Don’t you think I would have noticed?”
“We knew that you’d notice,” said Nari. “Which is why you didn’t. Our AI recommended enhancing you both, but not telling you about us until long afterward. So the nanites were programmed not to give themselves away. There are many billions of them in each of you, and they have a collective storage and computer-processing capacity beyond the best supercomputers on Earth.
“It turns out that they actively respond to your mental commands. So now that you know they’re there, you can consciously decide to hear better, or to be stronger. But absent your mental orders, they’ve been programmed to only reveal their presence in emergencies.”
“In emergencies,” I repeated.
“Right,” said Brad. “So if you suffered a minor laceration last month, they knew not to seal it up and give themselves away. But when you were shot, on the other hand, they made sure to do their thing.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Or when you risked your life by going up against trained Chinese commandos, they knew to give you a considerable boost of speed and strength.”
I had to admit that made a lot of sense. And it was odd that I didn’t feel any pain from a gunshot wound I had received only handfuls of hours earlier. I hadn’t really thought about it because I was so absorbed in what the colonel and Nari were saying, but the pain should still be considerable.
“Why don’t you and Tessa remove your bandages and wash up,” said Nari, as if reading my mind. “By now, I think you’ll find that you’re both good as new. No sign of any gunshots. No problem moving the way you always have.”
The alien smiled. “Or moving a lot better than you always have, if you want to.”
Tessa was quickly unwrapping one of the blood-tinged white bandages on her upper right arm as Nari spoke. Once the wound was exposed, she grabbed a handful of napkins from the stack on the table, and doused them with several ounces of water. She then gently cleaned dried blood away to reveal nothing but flawless skin, matching the rest of her unbandaged body.
It was the ultimate magic act. A bullet had ripped a hole straight through her bicep, and now there wasn’t even the hint of a scar to commemorate the event.
I didn’t go to the trouble of removing the bandage around my left thigh, since I had no doubt that I’d also find it fully healed. Instead, I rose from my chair and walked around the room, feeling no discomfort whatsoever.
Emboldened, I began doing jumping jacks. No pain at all.
Finally, I set my sights on touching the ten-foot ceiling, almost four and half feet above my head. I overshot so badly that I had to retard my ascent with my forearm so my head wouldn’t slam into the ceiling. It was as if I had launched myself from a trampoline.