The Gifted (4 page)

“Well,” I said. “I saw some chairs, a bed, a
couch and some pots and pans.” I've always had a pretty good
memory.

“What color was the third chair on the
right?” he said. “How many chairs were there? How many pots and
pans? Which pot seemed to be made from a different company?”

“Huh?” I said.

“I want you to remember everything, and in
perfect detail. Sometimes a detail might mean the difference
between life and death.”

“Death?” I said, feeling panic rise again in
my chest.

“Did I say death? I meant victory,” he
said.

“Are you trying to scare me?” I said.
“Because it’s working.”

Then he looked at me and laughed. “No reason
to be scared. What you're doing, it's nothing really. And besides,
where's your sense of adventure?”

That last thing he said scared me most of
all. It was like he had practiced what to say, and said it. How
much of what we had been told was true? This was when I first
suspected something.

There were other rooms to memorize. In fact
we did that for the rest of the day until dinner. I got better, but
I could tell it was not nearly good enough for Greg.

When I saw the others again, Guido was lying
on the floor of the cafeteria. I wouldn’t have found him except I
tripped over him on the way to the table. When I asked him if he
wanted to eat, he just said, “Need. . .more. . .power.” I laughed.
But he still wasn't moving. I helped him up and got his food for
him.

As we all ate, I asked Tracy, “So, how was
your training this time?”

“Ouch,” she said. “This time we lifted
weights and ran,” she stared into space and her eyes looked tired,
“the whole time.” I couldn't help it, I smiled.

“How about you, Han?” I asked.

“Ran,” he said. “A lot.”

That night we went to bed early. No one
talked in the common room by our bedrooms. We just said goodnight
and went to our rooms. None of us could walk without pain.

The next day was much like the first, and so
was the next, and the next. Over time it got easier. Of course I
was sore at the beginning. I could hardly even walk on the second
day, but by a week and a half, the running felt good and the memory
exercises were getting easier. Greg started having me do more than
just memorize things, now I had to figure out what it meant. For
instance, I would walk into a room for 20 seconds and when I came
back out, he would ask me questions about what was in it, such as,
“So, was it a room for a man or a woman? How old do you think they
were? Was it a smoker? Do they have kids? What was their hobby?”
Things like that. He taught me how to read the signs for these
kinds of things.

Later he taught me some Tae Kwon Do, Jujitsu,
Aikido, and other ways to disable an opponent. One day we were
resting after a particularly brutal practice session. “Do you know
the best strategy when you realize you might get in a fight?” he
said.

“Kick ‘em in the nuts?” I answered.

“That works too, but what I was going to say,
was don’t be there when it happens. Why do you think we spend so
much time running?” He gave his smile with the missing tooth, and
for some reason, it scared me.

I learned a little about basic weapons. I
fired my first gun, which I had no idea could be so loud, or hurt
your hand so much. I learned the right way to hold a knife and how
to sharpen it. I even learned how to throw it a little.

For a few days he taught me how to scuba
dive. It turns out they had a whole area with a deep pool and a lot
of scuba supplies. He taught me how to put on a wet suit and how to
use all the gear.

One day he brought me to this huge garage,
bigger than a football field, with only one old car in it. “Get
in,” he said. I walked over to the passenger side and got in. Then
he came over to my side, opened the door again and said, “Get
out.”

“But you just told me to get in,” I said.

“You misunderstood me,” he pulled out a set
of keys and jingled them.

“But I'm only ten!” I said. “I'm not legal to
drive.”

“What if I said there's a guy with a gun
after you and you have the choice between driving or dying?”

“I'd probably scream, ‘ahhh, I’m going to
die, where are the keys?’”

It was not easy learning to drive. It was an
old Toyota, before they were all electric. It took a several days
to begin feeling more comfortable behind the wheel. Even then I
thought I was unsafe. About a week later when I came to the garage
there was a different car waiting for us. “What happened?” I said.
“You didn't like the old one?”

He only said two words, “Stick shift.”

“Oh,” I said. I got behind the wheel. This
took days and days to get used to. It was a good thing I was a
little tall for my age or else I couldn’t have even reached the
pedals.

During this time I picked up chess. It was
Guido who first got me into it. He had a chess set in his room and
brought it out to play. “Do you play chess?” he asked.

“A little,” I said. “But I haven’t played for
a while. My mom and I did it for a while, but I got bored of
it.”

“Bored of chess?” said Guido. “I don’t think
that’s possible. Let’s play.”

“Okay.” He got out the wooden pieces and we
set them up on the board. I was brown and he was white. I moved my
pawns out slowly, careful, to protect my king. He, on the other
hand, started moving all over the place, getting his main players
out in the open so they could fight. Each move I did was in fear
that he would get my king. He was more focused on the attack.

After about half an hour I had taken his
queen and both rooks, and his king was exposed.

“Your king is right in the open,” I said.
“Aren’t you afraid I’ll get it?”

Guido laughed. “Andy, if I was always afraid,
I’d never accomplish anything!” In a surprise attack from two
bishops and a knight, he put me in checkmate. The game was
over.

I was shocked, “Wow! I didn’t see that
coming!”

“Sometimes,” he said, “you have to take the
big risks to get the big reward.”

After that, we played almost every day.

One night when we had all finished our
training, all of us kids got together outside our rooms. We had
grown close in our time together. We sat on the steps that led to
our rooms. “So Guido, what do you miss most about being gone from
home?” I asked.

“My little brother,” he said. I did not see
Guido when he spoke, but I was able to tune in on his voice. “My
little brother used to drive me crazy, running around, always loud,
and taking my things without asking. But once I left, I missed him
most.”

“I have a little brother,” I said. “They do
that, but I still like him.”

“I guess so,” said Guido. “What about
you?”

“I think I miss my Mom. I used to get
frustrated at her sometimes, with all the rules and making me do my
homework, but I knew she loved me and I miss her. What about you
Tracy?”

Too late I remembered. Tracy was already up
and halfway to her room.

“I’m so stupid,” I said.

“You’ve got that right,” said Guido.

Han just sat quietly, looking at his
hands.

For a minute, no one said anything. Han
started cleaning his glasses. Guido tapped my arm. “We haven't seen
Han's gift yet.”

“That's right!” I said, glad to change the
topic. “You’ve been kind of a mystery, Han. Show us what you can
do.”

Han put his glasses back on and looked at us
as a smile grew on his face. “It takes paper,” he said.

“I have some in my room,” I said, running
into my room and getting out a notebook. I tore out a sheet and
went back out. “Here you go!”

Han still had a smile on his face. He took
the paper carefully in his hand and examined it. I don't know what
he was looking at, but then he started to fold. His folds were
large at first, but then at times intricate and complex. Sometimes
he would unfold something and then refold it in other ways. Once,
when he had unfolded it, he gathered parts of the paper and pressed
them together like an accordion and smiled. “This is called a
squash fold,” he said. When he was finally done he had made a
perfect paper pterodactyl.

“Wow,” Tracy said, “Now what?” We turned
around and Tracy was standing behind us.

“Magic,” he said. He set the pterodactyl down
as if it were standing up and put his index finger on it. I felt a
buzz.

Usually when I try to explain this, people
say that I must have meant that I heard a buzz. But that's not it,
I couldn’t hear anything. I felt a buzz just beyond my hearing. The
paper pterodactyl quivered for a second and then it started to flap
its wings as it lifted off and flew around the room. It was
beautiful and kind of scary at the same time. I stood there with my
mouth open in awe.

“The first time,” said Han in his quiet way,
“I thought it really was magic. I didn't know how it had happened.
Later I thought it must be my imagination and that it meant I was
losing my mind. This scared me, so I kept it a secret. Every time I
would do it, I thought my mind was playing tricks. I expected them
to take me away to an asylum.”

“You're not crazy,” said Tracy. “You just
have a gift. And it's a wonderful gift.”

“Yeah, that’s really cool,” said Guido, who I
didn’t notice in the room until he brushed by me. “If I had a gift
like that I’ll bet people would notice me more.”

“And it requires skill,” I said. “Not just
natural talent or a gift you’re born with. You had to learn to do
origami.” Han smiled at me when I said this. People do that.

I yawned. “I think I need some sleep.”

“Me too,” said Guido and Tracy almost
together.

“Okay, goodnight everyone,” said Han. He
walked into his room and closed the door.

“Hey, don’t you want. . .” said Tracy. But he
was already gone.

That night we went to bed while the paper
pterodactyl flew endlessly around the room.

The next morning General Garcia did not smile
when I entered the room. He never did.

We sat down in chairs around the table. “You
are now ready to hear about your mission,” he said. “You already
know why you were chosen. The four of you were kidnapped, or nearly
kidnapped, and the people responsible are still out there. They
know where you live, so your objective is to get information so we
can find out what all this is about and put a stop to it.”

“Psst,” I said into thin air, “What's
objective mean?”

The air said back, “It's the thing you're
trying to do.”

“Got it,” I said. “Thanks, Guido.”

“You are going to board a jet and be flown to
this location,” he said, and he pulled down a map and pointed to a
place in the middle of the ocean. “There is a small island here
named Nandu in the southern Pacific Ocean.” He pointed to nothing
you could see in the ocean. “The whole island is six square miles
in size, and is mostly uninhabited.

“Psst,” I said, “What’s uninhabited?”

“It means almost no one lives there.” Guido
again.

“You will be dropped off here,” he said
pointing at some place in the ocean. “You have all been instructed
in scuba diving I hear. You will swim undetected through an
underground cavern where you will come up in an area with guards
just outside their facility.”

Like a shot, I raised my hand like I was in
class. “Yes, Andy?” he said, looking annoyed.

“What are we going to do about the guards?” I
asked.

“I was going to come to that,” he said.
Turning to face no one in particular he said, “I hear Guido is in
the room. Am I right?”

“That's right, General,” said Guido from
somewhere behind me again.

“Guido, while the others stay hidden
underwater I want you to strip down to your skivvies and sneak past
them.”

“My what?” asked Guido.

“Your underwear,” said General Garcia. “Your
wet suit can keep you from getting stung or scraped, but once you
get out it will make it hard to walk undetected if you’re dripping
water. Since you will only be wearing underwear under the wetsuit,
you can keep those on if you dry off completely after getting out
of the water.”

“You’re kidding,” said Guido. “Remember,
there’s a girl here!”

The general continued, “After you take out
the guards. . .”

“Take out the what?” said Guido. “How am I
supposed to do that?”

“You have been trained in various forms of
combat, have you not?”

“Yes, but I didn't know I was going to be
using them!”

“Well then,” said the general, “this will be
good real-life practice for you—something to get you into the mood
of the thing. Doesn’t every boy dream of adventures like this?”

“Sure,” said Guido. “But most of us want it
to stay in our dreams, where it’s safe!”

The general continued as if he hadn’t heard
Guido. “Once you have disabled the guards, you can go back for
everyone else. Then you can change into the clothes you brought
with you and sneak into the facility together.”

“You will all follow that corridor to the end
where there is a ladder. This may be some kind of an escape exit
they use in case of emergencies. You will go up the ladder and
through a trapdoor. Our knowledge ends there. We are not sure what
you will find after that, but your goal is to act like new
recruits. Our information tells us that they have quite a lot of
kids your age there, and not a lot of organization, so just blend
in the best that you can. Since you all have these gifts, they will
assume you belong there, and probably wouldn’t even mind if you
didn’t, as long as you have gifts. Just don’t do anything that will
draw attention to yourselves.”

“You will have to use your wits and be
careful. Use the gifts you have been given when you need to. Guido
can go virtually unseen. Andy could walk up to his greatest enemy
and his enemy would buy him a cheeseburger and watch him eat it
with a smile on his face. Tracy, you have been working on a
diversionary tactic, I've heard. How is it coming?”