Ramez Naam - Crux

They’re careful , she thought. Can I blame them?

The vehicles stopped and four Mira Foundation staff emerged. Two men from the jeep. A man and a woman from the van. The woman moved like a model. The men moved like soldiers. Nexus emanations radiated from all four of their minds.

She stood paralyzed as they loaded the children’s things into the van, paralyzed by jealousy and loss and fear. Khun Mae and one of the men stepped back inside the house. She could see the other two men watching her now. She forced a smile, forced happy thoughts, and stepped forward to hug the children goodbye, to kiss Jake for the last time…

They were still watching her. One of the men turned to the side, focusing on the back of the van, but his body language gave him away. His attention was on her. She must be hiding her fear and loss more poorly than she’d imagined.

But he was wound up so tight… They both were… As if…

Sarai threw herself into Sam’s arms and Sam held her tight, kissed her on the brow, told her she loved her. Then she kissed and hugged each of the children as they filed into the van and took their seats.

“Panda!” Kit said, and she felt it from his mind at the same time. His beloved Panda wasn’t in the small pile of belongings in the back of the van.

Jake turned, but Sam smiled and spoke first. “I’ll get it!” she told them, grateful for something to do.

She turned and she felt the men tense up more. Maybe they were worried she’d make a scene. But she wouldn’t. She’d bide her time. And she’d be with her new family again.

Sam strode into the house and towards the room Kit and the other four boys shared. It was far enough that she couldn’t feel the minds of the children any more, could just feel one mind in here, of one of the men. And he was far enough away that she doubted he could feel her in return. It was a relief to have that privacy.

She didn’t see Panda on any of the beds in the boys’ room or on the floor. She ducked her head down to the floor and, sure enough, there the toy was, under Kit’s bed. She reached under, pulled it up, and stood to take it outside.

Then she heard the voices. Khun Mae and the man from the Mira foundation she hadn’t met. Low. Conspiratorial. Why?

She stepped towards the door softly, reeled her Nexus in and put it into receive-only mode, then closed her eyes, and let her superhuman hearing do the work.

They were speaking in Thai. She heard snippets: “Ten thousand baht… in the American girl’s food… make her unconscious… come collect her.”

What?

She stepped out of the room, into the hallway. They were at the other end, just inside the kitchen. The light lit them from behind, rendering them black silhouettes.

They froze into silence when Sam emerged. The man’s mind radiated alarm. Khun Mae’s posture radiated fright.

“Khun Mae…” Sam started.

Then the man pulled out his gun and started firing.

33

CONFRONTATION

Saturday October 27th

Jake smiled, rubbed the children’s heads, and did his best to exude calm and love. Leaving Sunee, leaving Sam, was hitting him already. He could feel it tugging at him, the sense of separation, the fear that he wouldn’t be able to get her into Mira’s good graces, that she’d disappear before he could find her again.

Something came from the house. Sounds like soft pops, and then the sound of something crashing, falling, things breaking. He turned in concern. The minds around him radiated alarm. Then the two men from Mira had guns in their hands.

Fear burst through him. The children!

He grabbed the hand of the man nearest him. “There are kids here!” he yelled.

The man shrugged Jake away with one arm, almost casually, and Jake felt himself hurled through the air. His feet left the ground and for a moment he was in free flight. Then his back struck the van and it knocked the wind out of him. His world dimmed for a moment, and fear coursed through him. The kids! He forced himself to look, forced himself to see. The man still had the gun out, was spinning, looking around. Jake was on his knees. He acted without thinking, hauled himself up, threw himself at the man, grabbing at his gun arm again, with both hands, whirling him around.

Then the gun went off, and a freight train punched Jake in the chest.

Sam dove through the doorway into the boys’ room as the man opened fire. Something grazed her side as she did. She came down in a roll, back up to her feat, her mind working overtime.

“I’m not your enemy!” she yelled out through the door.

No response. The man’s mind was gone. He’d gone into receive-only mode so she couldn’t sense him.

She stepped behind the door, nearest the shooter, then looked around. She could dive out through the window, run towards Jake and the children. But the other men must be armed too. She needed a weapon. She needed to know what the fuck was going on.

Her augmented hearing picked up the footfalls in the hallway. He was stalking her, coming this way, quietly.

She closed her eyes, gave her hearing her full attention. The man’s footfalls gave him away. He was almost to the door, hugging the opposite wall of the hallway to give himself space, keep the advantage of his gun.

He was just across the thin wall from her now.

Sam made up her mind. She backed away from the wall, then hurled herself forward, turning her shoulder into it at the last instant.

Her augmented muscles and organic carbon-fiber bones crashed her through the thin wall. Wood splintered and gave. Drywall exploded. Then she was through, and her momentum drove her into the surprised soldier as he tried to turn, to bring his gun around.

The blow knocked him back, even as the gun boomed again in the small space. He kicked out from her, lightning fast, trying to create room, and she caught the foot with both hands, used it to spin him around like a plank. He hit the ground hard, face first, but rolled like a pro, faster than any normal human, clearly enhanced, the gun still in his hand, rising around to get a shot.

Then her foot stomped down on the forearm of his gun hand, pinning it as she stepped over him. He kept fighting, lashed out with a vicious, inhumanly fast fist towards her exposed groin. She brought her knee up faster, blocked his fist with her shin, then dropped all her weight on him with that knee, knocking the wind from him. Still he struggled, boosted muscles straining at her. So Sam took the gun from his hand and slammed it grip-first into the side of his head, below his ear. Once, twice, three times. And finally the man went limp.

Sam rose, the gun in her hand. Silenced. At least four rounds left. She turned towards the front of the house, kicked the door open in time to see one of the men put a bullet into Jake’s chest.

“NO!” Sam screamed. Distantly she heard the man who’d shot Jake cursing.

Sam raised her gun to fire but Sarai was there, in the line of sight, screaming now. She’d was trying to exit the van but the Mira woman had her by the arm. The other Mira soldier fired towards the house, and Sam dropped and rolled, her heart pounding in her chest.

She heard gravel crunch outside. They were coming towards her. She forced herself to visualize the courtyard. She had to shoot low, aim for the soldiers’ legs, stay clear of Sarai and the van and any other kids that had managed to break free.

Sam popped up in the window of the girls’ room, forced herself to take stock of the situation before she fired, to be sure that no children were in the way.

Her hesitation almost killed her. The Mira soldier who’d shot Jake fired on her and she felt a bullet punch into her left tricep. She fired back twice, ignored the burning pain, and saw the man go down as her bullets took him in the left leg.