Heather sat beside Mark’s bed, holding his hand while he slept. He’d been unconscious for eighteen hours before awakening with a sharp headache, his bloodshot eyes giving mute testimony to the mind storm he’d endured. After managing to swallow some vegetable soup, he’d drifted into a fitful sleep. But as she held his hand, Mark’s face finally relaxed in peaceful repose.
Since then, except for obligatory bathroom breaks, Heather hadn’t left his side. Jennifer had offered to help her, but Heather had declined, more for herself than because Mark needed her there. Seized by an irrational fear that he’d slip away forever, she couldn’t bear more than a few minutes of separation.
In addition to Jen’s periodic visits, Jack had been in twice to check on Mark’s recovery. Heather had asked him about Robby, and he reported that the baby seemed to be doing fine. After they’d removed the alien headset, Robby had sought his mother’s breast, feeding and then falling sound asleep in her arms. Today, apart from being more playful and curious than usual, he’d shown no unusual symptoms from his trauma. Janet hovered over the child like a mama bear, alert for any sign of danger.
Through the window, the pink evening sky darkened to purple. The chirps of birds in the trees outside Mark’s open window grew in volume as more and more of the creatures settled in for the night, each determined to outsing its neighbors.
Heather reached out to turn on the lamp, its soft orange glow pushing the gathering shadows away from Mark’s bed. Somehow those shadows seemed to have acquired the thickness of San Francisco Bay fog swallowing the Golden Gate Bridge. As long as she was here, Heather wasn’t about to let that dark fog touch him.
Heather shook her head to clear it. She no longer required sleep, but the stress of the last two days had worn her down to the point that she longed for the relief of sleep’s healing embrace.
Suddenly Mark shifted, rapid eye movements indicating he’d entered a vivid dream state. Pain lanced through Heather’s fingers as Mark’s grip tightened. With a strong tug, she managed to pull her hand free from the iron grip, just as Mark awakened.
Heather felt him enter her mind with a force greater than any she had experienced during their headset links. A gasp of surprise slipped from her lips as her gaze shifted to his face.
Mark’s eyes had gone milky white.
President Leonard Jackson sat behind his desk in the Oval Office, the bright television lights adjusted to balance the light from the window directly behind the president’s chair. He hated waiting almost as much as he hated giving speeches, but it had to be done.
The cameraman nodded. On cue, the president leaned forward ever so slightly.
“My fellow Americans, I come before you today to correct a wrong that has been done to one of our true heroes. I do not speak of a war hero, but of an American who has spent a lifetime of hard work, a lifetime of true brilliance, sacrificing everything in the hopes of bringing about a better world, a world free of the damaging impact of fossil fuels, a world free of horrible diseases like AIDS and cancer.
“Late last year, this great American scientist found himself caught up in a maelstrom of disinformation, the victim of the most sophisticated con job ever conceived, framed for alleged crimes by a man the press has dubbed Jack the Ripper. This rogue operative conceived of and executed an operation so intricate in its attention to detail that, for months, it even deceived the US government, and in the midst of that deception, caused us to imprison the wrong man.
“Dr. Donald Stephenson, deputy director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, has been accused of conducting secret and horrifying experiments on helpless patients at the facility known as Henderson House and of making unauthorized modifications to the Rho Project’s nanite serum, allowing the nanites to be remotely programmed for nefarious purposes. However, after a thorough investigation, we have determined that these allegations are false.
“Let me give you a brief overview of what Dr. Stephenson actually did instead of the propaganda to which we have all inadvertently succumbed.
“It is true that a highly dangerous experimental nanite trial has been operating in the secret laboratories at Henderson House. What you haven’t been told is that this program was not originated by Dr. Stephenson, but by the chairman of the Henderson House Foundation, Dr. Anthony Frell. When Dr. Stephenson discovered that his serum was being misused in a wrongheaded attempt to regenerate missing limbs and correct genetic deficiencies, he made a special trip to Henderson House to see for himself exactly what was going on so that he could put a stop to it.
“That fateful trip resulted in the now-famous picture taken by the Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative reporter Freddy Hagerman.”
The president paused, placing his elbows on his desk, steepling his fingers.
“Now, let me be clear. Our strings have been pulled by a master manipulator and international criminal, the ultimate prodigy of our intelligence training program. I’m speaking of a brilliant, ruthless killer fueled by raging hatred for the very government that created him.
“The final issue I want to clarify is the allegation that Dr. Stephenson made irresponsible or criminal modifications to the nanite suspension fluid distributed around the world. Dr. Stephenson did add a simple external interface to the nanites. However, far from what you have been told, this interface was a fail-safe mechanism. Its only purpose was to allow the nanites to be shut down in the unlikely event that something went wrong after they had been administered to the world’s population. The nanites are incapable of taking any other external command. The rest of their programming comes from the genetic code of the person to whom they have been administered.
“By invoking the shutdown command across the GPS satellite link from Schreiver Air Force Base, Jack Gregory accomplished two critical parts of his terrorist agenda. He completed the frame-up of Dr. Donald Stephenson and ruined billions of dollars’ of work designed to free this world of some of its worst scourges.”
The president picked up the water glass on his desk and took a sip before continuing.
“As your president, I am here to make right the wrongs I have just described. First, I apologize directly to Dr. Donald Stephenson on behalf of the nation that owes him so much. Rather than go through all the red tape associated with judicial review, I hereby issue a complete pardon to Dr. Stephenson for any actions associated with his efforts on the Rho Project. I am pleased to announce that I have reinstated him as deputy director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, something that I discussed with him in my office earlier today. In addition, I am appointing him as special United States scientific advisor to the European nuclear agency, CERN.
“After consultations at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, I have also decided to restart the distribution of the original Rho Project nanotech formula in Africa, a continent with the most critical need for this medical breakthrough, and the one most harmed by Jack Gregory’s terrorist attack.
“Lastly, I pledge to you, the American people, that I will not rest until I have brought to justice the assassin and terrorist known as the Ripper. As president of the United States, I bear full responsibility for having allowed our nation to be caught in his web of deceit, and I assure you, I will not be deceived again.
“Thank you. May God watch over and guide each of us in the challenging days to come.”