Chapter 11

Chapter 10  (13+) Annie tells about reading to JD11. The Brotherhood enters the game. #2036979 by Hyperiongate

Chapter 11
Lanier never slept; at least that’s what the prevailing thought was amongst those that worked for him. There were a lot of rumors about the colonel. He was trained by Shaolin monks. He’d been raised by wolves. He was psychic. He was born in a test tube at a secret government facility. He never aged. He was an expert in weaponry and hand-to-hand combat. He always knew what was going to happen next. The list went on and on. Lanier had heard them all; and did nothing to stop the speculation. It suited him to be seen as something greater than he was; which was just a man that was exceptionally good at his job.

Let them wonder. It was to his advantage. After all, he commanded the elite of the elite. Men of exceptional abilities needed to be led by someone they could look up to. Lanier was that man. He was the best of the best, but still just a man.

As he looked at the report in front of him, he was beginning to wonder if the same could be said about Mr. JD11. Growing eyelids didn’t seem to be such a big deal – unless you were the first person to do so…ever.

Stepping out of his tent/office, Lanier looked around at the fifteen structures that had gone up overnight. So far, the camp’s “footprint” was relatively small, not enough to draw any attention should anyone see it from the air. That was the only way to see it unless someone with a high-powered telescope was looking in from one of the distant peaks. Wes made a note to have the overhead B-2 conduct routine infrared scans on those few peaks.

There were over seventy-five men at the camp now. It looked abandoned which suited Wes just fine. If he could see people everywhere, so could anyone else.

The schedule for the next three nights would be more of the same - dropping prefabricated building components that would meet the needs of the Artifact lab. When the work was completed, they would have a physics lab in the middle of the Nevada desert that would rival some of the most sophisticated facilities in the world. At its very heart would reside the Artifact.

A movement off to the left caught the colonel’s attention. Dr. Szokoly came running up; his thinning hair standing wistfully on his head in classic mad-scientist fashion. Lanier wondered, not for the first time, if his head scientist cultivated this look on purpose.

“Colonel, you are not going to believe this!”

*****

Jack showed up at the hospital just after noon. He’d spent the morning finally unpacking the dozens of boxes that cluttered his place since the day he moved in. He wasn’t sure why it had taken him so long to get this done. But he knew why he was working on it now. Reno, it seemed was becoming a more and more attractive place to live every day thanks to a certain doctor.

He’d wanted to be at the hospital bright and early but decided that she probably had more on her plate than to entertain a love-sick puppy. Additionally, Jack wanted to spend time alone to consider what he’d gotten himself into. In the last four days, he’d found a dead guy that wasn’t dead; been kidnapped and taken to a base that didn’t exist; been told he may be targeted by an international assassin and fallen in love with a woman he’d spent one hour with.

“I’ve fallen in love?” He wondered with a smile.

Somehow, that one unanswered question gave him direction. If it was true, he realized that all other decisions about what to do next would fall neatly into place. If, he loved Lise he had little choice but to ride it out. He’d have to stay because staying meant he would be near her; and he suddenly needed that very badly.

By the time he’d processed all of this, his unpacking was done. There was nothing left to do but go to the hospital and see what happened. Jack had no idea what his next move should be. Maybe a date. Too much? Maybe coffee? He didn’t want to scare her off. If she didn’t feel like he did, going too fast would be a deal breaker. Maybe that was for the best. Get it over with. Then there was her pet project: JD11. He’s seen how she acted around the patient floating in the big fish tank. He knew he’d be competing with JD11 for her attention. This was so much harder than Special Ops.

Now at the hospital, he tried to read a magazine as he waited for her to meet him in the lobby. They hadn’t settled on a specific time for him to drop by so he was ready to wait for as long as it took.

A few minutes later, she came walking into the lobby, and in his eyes, everything else faded away. She was dressed in the standard white frock of a doctor but she couldn’t have been more attractive had she been wearing an evening dress. Her smile alone made a huge knot-like feeling in his chest. Her smile, the way her arms swung at her side, the way she brushed her hair back as entered the lobby – Jack drank it all up; surprised at the impact it had on him.

Jack stood quickly. Their eyes locked for a moment and everything became clear. She was as excited about him as he was about her. That left the question as to what should happen next.

“Hi, Jack. I was hoping you’d stop by.”

“Not a problem. I seem to have a pretty open schedule lately.”

Lise made a mental note to follow up on that one. She realized how little she knew about this man. Apparently, he was unemployed. What was the story behind that one?

Almost before she could finish the thought, she realized it didn’t really matter. He was the one; of that, there could be no question. How she could be so certain of such a mental pronouncement was another thing that she’d have to tackle later. Right now he was here and that was as it should be.

They shared a little “nice weather” chit-chat as she led him to her office. She found herself wishing that everything could be as easy as walking down the hallway with Jack, talking about nothing in particular. However, there were strange things going on with her patient; thing that Jack needed to know about.

Once they were in the privacy of her office, Lise said, “Jack, there is something very strange about JD11.” She told him about the extraordinary healing that seemed to be taking place. Knowing that he was not a doctor, she took extra efforts to make sure he understood how truly remarkable the recovery had been. There had never been a case, ever, of someone re-growing eyelids. There were certain things that just didn’t happen; and this was one of them. She said the staff was starting to talk about it. They were wandering what other body parts he would start to grow back next. If he could grow eyelids, why not grow back fingers or perhaps an ear?

She paused to see if Jack was following her. Lise could tell that he understood the eyelid thing but lacked the medical appreciation of just how impossible that actually was.

But there was more. She told him about Annie. He seemed interested but only moderately impressed by the apparent relationship between her reading and JD11’s progress.

“It seems like I’ve heard stories about people in coma’s responding to touch or sound. Just because it can’t be explained doesn’t mean it’s a miracle,” he said.

“This is a little different Jack. There is no way for him to hear her. In spite of the fact that he is isolated in the tank and in a medically induced coma; the physical parts of an ear needed for him to hear anything are missing or damaged beyond repair. When and if he ever emerges from that tank, he will certainly be deaf.”

Before Jack could respond, she said, “There’s more to this than just Annie reading to JD11. She said she could sense that he liked it. It was as if they had some sort of psychic connection.”

Jack thought for a moment and then, on an impulse asked, “Have you had any extraordinary intuitive feelings lately?”

Lise found herself blushing. “What do you mean?”

Jack took a deep breath and then committed himself with, “I seem to have feelings and awareness that seem unreasonable. All of this started after I came in contact with JD11 and… Let’s just say if feels like I see things more clearly.”

Lise looked into his eyes and said, “Are you talking about us?”

Well, there it was, right out in the open. Now it was Jack’s turn to blush. “Yes.”

They both sat quietly for a few moments. Neither sure about what to do next.

Finally, Lise said, “Jack, I had a dream about you the last night. I know that dreams are dreams, but this was something different. This felt real. I’m glad to hear that I’m not completely out of line with some Harlequin Romance fantasy. We both seem to have this – attraction. You know what I think? I think it could somehow be linked to the man floating in that tank out there. I’m not saying he is causing it. But it makes me feel like all of the things that are going on are like parts of a puzzle falling into place.”

Jack said, “I’m not sure about the puzzle thing but this attraction certainly seems to have a life of its own.” Then he smiled and said, “Whatever is going on; I like it.”

“Now what?” Lise asked.

“Have dinner with me tonight?”

“Pick me up at 7,” she said almost before he was done asking.

Jack stood up, walked around to her side of the desk and found her welcoming him as he kissed her long and slow. Then, realizing that they were at her place of work, took a step back, cleared his throat and said, “Can I see him?”

Lise felt flushed. She didn’t want to stop. Still, it wouldn’t do to have someone walk in and see them like that. She shifted gears as best she could and said, “Absolutely.”

They started for the door but then Jack stopped and said, “First, I think I need to tell the Colonel about your patient. He wanted to know if anything unexpected took place. I think this qualifies.”

“Go ahead, Jack. I need to check on a few things. You can call him from my office. I’ll be back in a few minutes.” She let her hand linger in his for a moment before heading out the door.

Jack waited until he was certain that he was alone. He didn’t want to hide anything from Lise, still, he didn’t want to scare here. He hadn’t told her the complete story about his trip to Nellis. To her, this was still just talk and conjecture. Jack was starting to believe otherwise.

“Yes, Jack. What is it?”

“Colonel, JD11, the patient, seems to be healing in ways that are not considered possible. Additionally, there seems to be some sort of psychological link developing between him and one of the nursing assistants.”

Jack went on to give him as many details as he could. The colonel took particular interest in the fact that the staff seemed to be speculating on what would happen next. This was the type of thing that would spread throughout the hospital like wildfire. It wouldn’t take long before it was “out there.” When that happened, the game would change significantly.

The colonel seemed to think this justified some face-to-face time with Jack. They agreed to meet at Jack’s place two hours. That gave Jack enough time to check in on JD11 and spend a little more time with Lise.

She showed up a few minutes later. She didn’t ask Jack about his conversation with the colonel. He’d tell her if he thought she needed to know.

“Come on, Jack. Let’s take a look at our miracle man.”

They tried to not walk overly close to each other still, a few heads turned and a few eyebrows were raised. It wasn’t hard for anyone to see the connection between the two.

They arrived in the observation booth and Lise pointed out the differences from the day before. To the untrained eye, JD11 looked dead. Jack could tell some difference between what he had found in the desert and what was floating in the tank. There was much less blackened skin but the thin, transparent film that replaced it wasn’t much more appealing. Jack could see muscle tissue through the developing skin. Still, his lack of medical expertise took away some of the awe.

He found the entire process interesting; all the more so because Lise was at his side explaining it all to him. The time for Jack to leave came all too soon. He needed to meet with the colonel, someone that didn’t strike Jack as a person that accepted lateness.

Lise walked him to the lobby and they said their goodbyes, both already looking forward to dinner that night. Jack headed home thinking that maybe all of this strangeness with JD11 was just that. Strange things happened all the time. Maybe that was what the colonel wanted to talk about. Maybe he wanted to tell Jack that there was nothing special about JD11 and to forget all of his warnings about assassins and UFO chasers and such. That would be perfect.

That was not what happened.

Chapter 12  (13+) There is a breach. Jack and Lanier discuss options. #2037218 by Hyperiongate