"But you did receive documentation outside the legal terms of the contract. That issue must be resolved before further transactions. It's outlined very clearly in the contract."Dawes scowled at Hall. "Sign the form.""I'll need two witnesses as well," Mahati said with a smile.With an angry expression on his face, Maurice signed the tablet. Wallace and Stephen were the witnesses."I could just say you forged my signature," the CIA Director snapped.Mahati tucked away the tablet and faced the group. "The signature plus your biometrics the tablet recorded while you faced its camera are incontestable in court." She turned to Henry. "We may proceed."The Directors were watching her uncomfortably as she'd handled them all quite effectively. Henry did his best to hide his smile.Instead, he nodded and looked to the podium. There was a server rack standing next to it with a blade server installed. He turned to Dawes. "Who on your team will be doing the application install?"The Director ges
One of the scientists pushed his way through the arguing crowds to get to Henry. He came rushing up to stop before Henry with an excited expression on his face."You must show us how to build arrays of quantum tunneling processors so we can create a probability/potentiality determination engine!" the older scientist exclaimed.Henry gave him a hesitant look. "Why the hell would you want that?""What's it do?" Wallace asked first."It can be used to predict things with great accuracy! Even social patterns," the scientist exclaimed excitedly.Wallace suddenly looked very interested."You'd have to enter so much data just to get the simplest responses, and you'd still have very low accuracy. It couldn't pay for itself." Henry looked to the scientist. "Sometimes doing something just because you can do it is a very bad idea." He didn't share that he was working on a more straightforward market trend prediction utility for Camila. His tool wouldn't target individuals.He looked at the agita
They slipped inside and added the three new wire mesh sections, eight foil pieces, and two gallons of the rain.When they stepped out of the barn and headed for the shack, a loud buzzing suddenly began, and they felt dizzy, experiencing a sensation much like vertigo.Jeannie took Sam's hand. "What's happening?" her voice came through their connection silently, but he felt her emotions. She was nervous.Sam glanced her way to smile at her, then looked at Jake who was tilting his head to the right. A short distance away, a soldier in camo gear could be seen beginning to peek around a tree. His movements were glacially slow due to their sped up perceptions.He spoke to Jeannie. "Looks like we walked into a trap. They found us. Not sure how, but there it is. How do you feel?""Dizzy. I could probably fast walk away from it, but it wouldn't feel good."Jake and Brenda moved closer and touched them to share the communication channel."I don't like this feeling. They must be crafty bastards
"Shit!" Crane exclaimed.Sam looked at his friends then back to the Colonel. "These things duking it out over a city would not be good. I don't know what effect the lightning would have on people, but I can't imagine it would be good." A sudden pang of guilt made him look to the new Silver People they'd made. "You should know, we get our energy from the lightning. I guess it's how we eat."Jake scowled at Sam, but he just shrugged. He wasn't about to let them starve to death.Brenda and Jeannie went back into the barn and returned with handfuls of the silver strips, handing them out to the soldiers. Brenda took the remaining strips back to the barn when they no longer melted into the soldier's skin."We have to leave," the Colonel said, looking at Sam."That's cool with us. It's up to you what happens to your people. We're just going to keep running as that's what feels best. We won't interfere with you. I'd like to ask that you do the same for us, but maybe you don't have that author
As he got closer, he could feel every hair on his body beginning to stand on end. Little sparks were jumping between the strands, and he could taste something metallic. The rain was picking up, as was the wind, and soon he was drenched. The closer Henry got, the brighter the sparks snapping across his body became. It felt like his entire body was being pricked by pins and needles. The woman suddenly looked up at him and stopped with a look of fear on her face, clutching her child to her side.Henry looked closely at her and realized her hair was as soaked as his, but hers wasn't attracting the sparks at all.He looked past the woman and saw the tiny sparks leaping through the gap between himself and the approaching storm. He was a lightning rod! FUCK! He had to get away from her and the children! He spotted two young men running by."STOP!" he roared, and they froze in fear. "Help her get her children to cover!" he ordered, and they rushed to her and got her moving, one pushing her ca
"Status report, Mick," Crane commanded through his mic. Their radios were shielded, so they still worked.The sergeant was still a little overwhelmed by the shared emotions, but she pulled it together and answered. "Colonel. The pseudo-clouds appear to be dead. The strike zone of the last prolonged bolt is too energized for us to enter. In the center of this zone is a body. We can't get close enough to make a positive identification or to determine if the person is alive or not. It looks to be a male based on body shape and clothing. The area is sprouting new growth unnaturally fast. Grasses and flowers are actually growing before our eyes. The four Silver People we met in Tennessee were here before we arrived, and they showed us how lightning affects the plant life where it strikes."And how exactly did they do that?" Crane asked, weariness in his tone.Mick felt a little uneasy with what she was about to confess, but she pushed ahead. "Uh, it seems we can speak mind to mind if we ho
Crane shrugged. "I might have gotten more information, but Palmer's team decided to make his attempt at capturing my team.""You informed your team to run. They're now on the loose," Palmer asserted."No, they've gone to ground and will contact me tomorrow. They're still my squad. They remain devoted to the mission, as do I," Gordon asserted."But they won't come in," Baines growled."Yes, they'll come in, but not if they're going to be experimented on. Fully human soldiers would behave the same way under this threat, and there's no need for it. They've already proven they'll tell us everything we need to know." He locked eyes with the General. "Having a squad of bulletproof soldiers able to move faster than we can register with our eyes gives us one hell of an advantage, wouldn't you say? And remember, we know how to make more."That got through to the man."I'd personally like to speak to one of these Silver People," said the man with the crooked smile.Crane nodded. "We saw a repor
He felt Xiong withdrawing, and through the magic in him, he picked up snippets of a conversation Xiong was having with all of the other Glass People. The volume was a bit overwhelming as there were so many voices, and they were upset. They seemed to be talking about making him a Glass Person because of his injuries. To save him. Xiong was trying to tell them it wouldn't work as he'd already been subjected to the same energies, and he wasn't glass now.Henry was beginning to get seriously worried. How badly was he hurt? He felt someone close by and reached out to the mind. It was one of the Silver People.It physically touched him, and he linked minds with the young female. Concepts and perceptions were flowing through their link. She was sad. She'd heard he was the hero who'd saved all of the people on this planet and many on Earth. He imagined looking through her eyes at him, and she allowed it.He saw his Human glamor, and he looked no worse for wear. That was a relief. He dropped t