Chapter 14

Over the Pacific Ocean, December 2166

James let the gunship fall through the atmosphere, getting a feel for how the craft handled as it fell through the air. Sometimes, that was just the best way to see how it would handle high stress turns. He took a deep breath, getting used to a craft that handled much more admirably than a shuttle. Behind him in the passenger compartment he could hear the rumblings from the Krogan riding with him. Apparently he didn't appreciate the fine art that was a rollback exit from Tartarus station. Or perhaps James wrongly assumed that he was safely strapped in.

Either way, the pilot knew his job, and that was to blow the living hell out of anyone threatening Jack Harper's children and their caretaker. He hadn't shot a gun from any vessel or his hand since Jack had hired him, but he had always stayed busy. In fact, he had become rated for nearly every vehicle that could theoretically be used or bought by Jack Harper. He never thought that he would need to be rated for cruisers or larger ships, since Jack was such a stickler for being on time and having as few people as possible knowing about his personal life.

Sneaking prostitutes and models past Hannah Shepard had been some of the harder things Jack has asked him to do. Other times it was simply the ease of driving. Stopping attacks on his person or items was mostly a practice in precautions. Keep the shuttle from being parked anywhere that wasn't actively patrolled or being monitored. Keep the engine running, and if possible stay up in the air. Jack hates the press, and enjoys his life away from them. Avoid any press van if at all possible.

Always be armed, or threaten those that are unarmed as if you are. Never sleep without checking on all electronic sources, and communications channels that are broadcasting around you. Always check the application that lists the location of all Alliance military personnel and vehicles. If those last two didn't match up, something was going wrong. Lastly, and most importantly, keep the windows up. Kinetic Barriers are no substitute for the armored paneling that the windows contained. That had been handy on more than one occasion.

He started piercing the cloud layer, and the exterior of the gunship was getting warmer. He slowed them down, letting the cooler upper atmosphere calm down the ship's exterior armor. He let the gunship come to a coasting speed, keeping him in the uppermost sections of the atmosphere. But his scanner could see everything below him.

A hundred miles ahead of him and twenty-five thousand feet lower, Jack's island sat submerged in the water. He saw two signatures around it, and a third more than fifty miles out. It didn't look like it was associated with the other two signatures, but he didn't take that chance. He primed his cannons and started heading lower. His signatures on the radar said that one was a shuttlecraft and the other was a passenger shuttle, meant for traversing between planets within the system. That meant is was near thirty or forty meters long, and could be armed without much trouble.

His gunship, though had missiles and the ability to blow away anything else in the sky. As he approached, he could see small scans hitting the gunship. Strangely, the entire spectrum of communication channels went quiet as he came within range. Jamming, then. He opened the onboard communications system.

"Hey, big Krogan fella, they're jamming us. I think they are going to start shooting at us soon."

"Alright, pilot. I trust your skill. May we have many battles together." Looking back, he could see the Krogan loading a large weapon, something that would probably knock him over and break bones if he fired it. "Just make sure to let me have a chance to help out."

"What is that thing?" He asked.

"Ryrrch Magnetic Rifle with a missile launcher. It shoots polarized chunks of metal, and if I can hit anything important, it sticks. You can lock on with missiles to the chunk, and it'll override the jamming."

James just thought about that for a moment. "I think this is a start to a beautiful friendship." He keyed the button to override the lock on the side door of the gunship. "Buckle yourself in and open the door when you're ready. We will be in combat range in a couple minutes."

He just heard deep baritone laughter emanating on the other side of the divider. He refocused on the incoming craft, seeing the larger vehicle hovering on top of the island, and the smaller shuttle was moving towards them at a fast clip. He noticed that it was at a speed that normal models of shuttle didn't achieve very often. He flipped off the safety, and didn't bother sending any hails. With the jamming, it was obvious that something was illegal or going down. It also explained why Jack hadn't heard anything from Nyra or the girls yet.

The shuttle had some sort of pod attached to the inside, and its doors slid open, letting the pods extend outwards. His eyes widened. Missiles pods, and fully loaded, painted him. He triggered his ECM, letting the first pair of missiles go wide. He had to break off from a direct course on the craft to dodge the missiles. Worse, the shuttle had ECM itself.

So he didn't use the missiles and just activated the turret cannons. Twin barrels spat shots at the other shuttle as it tried to line up on their rear, the turret able to hit any angle that wasn't directly above the cockpit. The other shuttle tried to break off, but took a heavy blow from something else. Whatever the Krogan was shooting, it hit hard. The cannons had stripped the shuttle of its shields, and were starting to carve into its plating. The Magnetic rifle struck the front of the shuttle, causing some sort of sparks to flare. The shuttle started losing altitude, but James didn't let up. Pilots had been known to fake their own deaths for centuries.

He made sure that the engines of the shuttle were scrap before turning to face the passenger transport. The time he had spent killing off the shuttle had been spent wisely, as he could see some sort of turrets poking out of the frame. He doubted that it would have missiles, but he didn't know. He kept over a mile away, not trusting his shots to hit the island below.

They didn't make any moves to change their position. They had the defensive advantage. They didn't have to move, and were probably the source of the jamming. With the island right beneath them, they had no need to move or abandon their position. James huffed in annoyance, as he had every right to blow them out of the sky. But he couldn't risk the island.

His board started bleeping with a missile lock. He rolled, diving towards the water. One nice thing about Element Zero engines and mass drivers was that they weren't weak to intake of water. If they stayed submerged, then the engine would flood, and the output would die. But it was safe enough to dip into water for a moment. He dove towards the water, finding a large swell to target. The missiles were behind his craft a few hundred feet, and he let them come.

The gunship swept towards the water like a hawk diving, and he leveled out right into the largest swell of water he could find. This required him diving under the water with the craft for a moment, getting warnings all over the place. He had sealed the cockpit, but cringed a bit when he remembered that the Krogan might not have been perfectly ready for that. He kicked in the thrusters as he hit the wall of water, boiling any water that tried to flood into the engine ports.

He kicked in enough to break through the water on the other side of the swell, and could hear the clap of the missiles hitting the other side of the swell. At that speed, they would be triggering their warheads on the water, which would be as hard as stone when the missiles were going faster than the speed of sound. The gunship James had taken to a speed slightly below the speed of sound, so that he wouldn't take any damage from the water. When he came out from the swell, he smiled at the sight of a second shuttle armed with missile pods and the passenger ship, now perfectly highlighted in front of his guns. Stray shots wouldn't hit the island.

The gunship rumbled as shots and droplets of water sprayed from it, charging out from the water level and to a few hundred feet in the air. His rounds splashed against the barriers of the passenger craft, and he was surprised that the barriers held. Must have been some black market ones, as these were rated for more than just space debris. He loosed a pair of missiles at it, but they flew past harmlessly, not seeing the target. The jamming must have been coming from on board that ship, as those missiles should have locked on.

He rolled, coming on a new heading that faced the other shuttle. With a bit of relish he got behind it and gave it all of the shot and flak that they could have ever asked for in a birthday present. It didn't have as many shields as its partner had, and went down within a few seconds. With the jamming, he couldn't hear or pay attention to whatever they were saying on the radio, and that was not his usual experience.

With both shuttles, gone, he executed a rather flashy flip roll, reorienting himself on the passenger shuttle. He could see stray fire from whatever turrets they had brought up spraying towards him, being only aimed by human hands. They had no computer assisted targeting systems, so James just smiled.

"Goodbye, and may someone have mercy on you." He said out loud, knowing that they wouldn't be able to reply. His shots started chewing holes in some of the bulkheads of the shuttlecraft, and eventually hit something that sparked and lit on fire. The shuttle lost altitude, and eventually hit the water. James let a deep breath that he was holding out, and leveled the gunship out. He looked back at the rear compartment, he spoke over the wireless. "Well, how was that?"

The Krogan was mid-puking, water and goodness knew what else coming out of him and onto the floor. Every single seat was soaked, and water trailed off the cabin in bursts. Water also flowed out of the Krogan's armor, draining out of the shuttle. His only reply to James' comment was to keep coughing, but he was sure that if the Krogan really was going to express himself it would be with his guns.

James flew towards the island, seeing no signs of any movement around the area. But the jamming was going down, and the regular bands of communication came back suddenly. His volume had been set to high so that he could notice when he had a signal, so that made him jump a little bit.

"Mayday! Mayday! We are going down!" The shuttle was making a wide band frequency call, which is exactly the wrong thing to hear. He activated the encrypted communications settings in his Omni-tool, and sent out a small signal to any other tools in range. If they had the encryption level correct, then they would get the message clearly. If not, it would be viewed as spam. Hey you little Hellions. Get up here already and let's get out of here.

He got a reply immediately. James! Along with a much more calmly typed We're Coming, Uncle. The girls must have clearly gotten his message. But he needed to get out of here fast, since the idiot mercenaries had called out an SOS.

Thankfully, Tartarus was well aware of the situation, and would be able to cover him. He was sure that some Alliance Intelligence Official had his eyes on them through a drone or satellite system. He noticed the water boiling, or so it appeared, as Jack's pleasure island rose out of the ocean. It looked pretty shot up already, with a few areas torn up from the turrets on the passenger shuttle The beach was completely gone, the sand having been lifted off by the ocean current as the island submerged. The grass topped huts were exposed, and the bar was completely shredded. Some sort of burn marks existed on the housing section of the island, and what was left standing was limited to the central building. It had holes throughout it, the indoor pool revealed as well as the kitchen.

He whistled. "Boss is gonna be pissed! His island is trashed."

The Krogan leaned forward out of the window, and made a sound that was between a burp and a snort. He assumed it was only laughter. "Looks like a party. Glad we were here before it ended, look at the flotation rings." He pointed, showing the underwater structure that rotated and kept the island afloat. The small spinning structures had been cut or shot up in many places, and only the air tanks located along some of the rings kept the island afloat. "I don't think it is rated for you to land any longer. Let's get a rope down for them."

James smirked. "You obviously don't trust my flying enough. Let me show you why I am one of the top rated pilots in Human Alliance space!"

Before he could complain to James about the mathematical probability that the island wouldn't support their weight, James flew the gunship into a rolling dive to the island, only having enough room to do one barrel roll. Then he carefully slowed the craft, letting the Krogan get up from where he had been thrown in his harness, and brought it level with the island. The actual beach was raised up, roughly sixty feet above the water level, with a small bay of salt water filtered up through the island. That bay was filled with water from the ocean and debris, and was draining through the holes blown in it. He turned the back of the gunship around, and activated the exterior camera. With it, he could measure the range from the tail fin to the nearest object.

The Krogan was swearing under his breath as the gunship came into range of the water level of the beach, the metal grating that had been containing the sand exposed. He set the autopilot to stay at current altitude, and then angled the ship sideways so that one of the wings was a few inches off the ground. An old fashioned anchor sat a few inches below the wing, and a few inches further would end with the wing getting caught in one of the shredded holes. But James skillfully moved with the island as it adjusted to the large swells. It was actually rather easy. He set the altitude relative to the object directly underneath the gunship, and then just had to control the forward motions.

The sound of squealing alerted him to his next passengers. He saw Jack's two little girls, perfectly fine and looking a bit tired. Behind them came a vision of beauty that James hadn't been prepared for. He was used to flying models and ridiculously beautiful women to anywhere Jack was, and getting completely ignored by them. The Asari he saw was deadly. She obviously had those biotics that had the human race all worried, and was carrying one of those Terminus pistols that were only technically legal in certain parts of the galaxy.

She also didn't have any armor on, which made him notice everything else about her. It seemed as though everything people had been saying about Asari was pretty true. The way she scanned James and the Krogan as threats, though, that was something he was used to feeling when Jack met with mercenaries or toughs. Soldiers from Cerberus would view people like this. Scan you as if they were sizing you up as a threat, see how fast they could kill you. He didn't like that. Thankfully her gaze drifted to the Krogan, who was scanning the water for signs of any of the mercenaries possibly making it to the island.

"Still got your magnetic gun thing?" James asked. The name escaped him. "Can you put that beacon on that hallway? Boss would prefer I sink this place." He turned to the girls. "Ok, you two, climb up on the wing. We have a boat to catch."

"What is a boat?" The Asari said, using some sort of biotics to make her own mass smaller. She wasn't destabilizing the wing at all. She walked across it with confidence, though. James was expecting to have to compensate for all of the weight on the wing, but the Asari managed to make it to the cabin without trouble. Miranda and Julia both piled in, making an effort to both get into the co-pilot seat. They were small enough to both fit.

"I think you managed to get every inch of this gunship wet." The Asari told him. "Impressive."

"Try being the passenger. I think I still have some of the water in my backup lungs." The Krogan grumbled. At that, the girls finally noticed him and went completely quiet. They had never seen something like him before.

The Krogan looked over at them, completely soaked and dripping all over. "What are you lookin' at?"

Miranda looked uncomfortable, but Julia leaned forward. "You look like a turtle."

The Krogan seemed to draw in on himself. Then he started laughing. "Alright, youngling. Is it bad to look like a turtle?" The alien had to slide his large tongue around the word. Obviously it didn't translate.

"You could be a ninja turtle!" She turned to Miranda. "Which one is he?"

Miranda just shook her head, looking terrified. Julia just gave her an expectant look. The Krogan looked up at James. "What is that?"

James grinned. "Girls, he is just like Donatello. His real name is Grundle or something."

"Gatatog Grkktn." He heard from the back.

"Don!" Julia said. "I'll call you Don!"

The Krogan seemed to smile. "What is this Donatergo famous for?"

"He invented things! Like a shuttle, with guns! And a grappling hook!" Julia was quick to extol one of her favorite TV shows. It was possibly one of the dozens of restarts of the market. Mutant Ninja Turtles were the heroes that made a resurgence every time a new generation of viewers came around.

"Don is the scientist." Miranda said, breaking through her fear of the big alien. "He makes all of the technology work."

At that, the Krogan barked a loud laugh. "I would be honored to be given such a name. Call me Gatatog Don, youngling. I am an Engineer and Shipbuilder among my people. Among humans, I shall take the name of Don!" His loud voice scared Miranda, James could see, but made Julia quite happy.

Nyra, the Asari, just laughed at him. "She just named you after a fictional hero. Not even something with proper ancestry."

"I care not for your prattle, wench. The name of a scientist is a rare thing to have bestowed upon you. As I am in the service of her father, I will gladly take the name of Don upon myself." James just raised an eyebrow. He wasn't paid to worry about this. It was way above his concern to worry about what an alien chose to call himself. He decided that aliens were just weird.

Contenting himself with that, he set the direction of the gunship to the nearby island of Hawaii. He had cash and a direction. The difficulty was just hiding a giant turtle-alien and a half naked blue woman with head tentacles. Oh, and the ability to ignore physics. As soon as he set the destination on the computer, he could see other vehicles inbound. Some were generic emergency vehicles, and others were military ones. He wrote a note to his contact at Tartarus, letting him know that he needed to disappear from the radar and focus of the investigations that would follow.

He ignored any arguments or comments that happened behind him, and just focused on driving fast enough to get out of the area but not fast enough to be noticed. Cloud cover didn't matter unless it was thick enough to block out hundreds of miles of territory. That would be risky to fly through, though. Jack returned his text, rather quickly. James grinned. Jack had no idea where he was going.

Following the rules drilled into him by Jack, he couldn't go to anywhere he had gone before, and he couldn't take the girls and their allies to somewhere they would be noticed. So that left very few places. With two aliens he couldn't hide and two children being targeted by someone, his options were limited. He had a place, though.

"Well, I think we are going to go to one of the safe houses." He said. "Attention passengers," He let over the intercom, "We are going to be experiencing scenic wilderness areas, and not a single person to be found within a hundred miles."

"Where are we going uncle James?" Julia's voice was loud. Typical that she would get her Omni-tool linked up to the gunship systems first.

"We are going to the old Midwestern States. Most people think that it's dangerous to go there after all the ecological damage and wars that happened last century. Your dad doesn't believe that. More importantly, he found a place that we can go hide at. But most people think we are going to go to California, where my house and your dad's house are. I don't want anyone shooting up my house, or your dad's house, so we are going to go and hide in the badlands."

"Where is Daddy, though?"

"Doing the really important thing." He said. "Stopping people from shooting at you. Your daddy is probably working on that right now." James had the more important job and he knew it. Jack Harper depended on his children being protected. He hated having to lie to them about where they were going, but Jack had told him to trust no one. The Krogan and the Asari might sell them out, and by telling them the location he was going to switch vehicles, that might prove that they couldn't be trusted. He sighed as he input the final destination's coordinates into his Omni-tool. He would upload it to the next vehicle when they got there. Until then, he disabled all communications and sent a short message to the girls explaining that their dad wanted them to hide, so they needed to wait until they were in a safe place before contacting him.

Tartarus Station, Sol System, May 2166

Jack sat outside the operating theatre, watching as the best doctors in the Alliance Navy went to work on Hannah. Initial scans of her knee revealed a mangled mess. The shot had gone through most of the ligaments and torn into the cartilage, and bounced around a bit when it hit the protective layer on the front of her kneecap. The armor she had been wearing had become more of a liability than a help, keeping the shot in and bouncing the small speck all around her kneecap.

With her nerves shredded, she had a lot longer than a few months to recuperate. She had at least a year of down time, and she wasn't looking forward to it. Or at least she wouldn't be when she woke up. She had been asleep since they got her onboard the station. Anesthetics were hardly required once Jack had given her some painkillers. She also had plenty of damage to her arm and face, and one of her cheekbones was out of alignment. Unfortunately, that was Jack's fault. He didn't secure her head well enough when the shuttle took off, and broke her cheekbone in his haste to get back here.

Her arm wasn't too badly wounded, just shot. Mostly muscle tissue was damaged in that. Her knee still had everything inside of it thanks to her armor, which kept all of the bits from going anywhere. He felt more than a little responsible for this, as the chief doctor tore into him about taking someone on medical leave into a combat situation. The man actually had the balls to write him up.

He couldn't fault the doctor for his choice, in fact if the shoe was on the other foot Jack would be sending lawyers. He loved the look on people's face when a lawyer showed up within minutes of the altercation. Unfortunately, there was no way he could go after this doctor. He was head of the most sophisticated department in the system, perhaps in all of the System Alliance. He actually had enough clout to come after Jack directly. That didn't make him feel any better about it, as the doctor had restricted him from being near Hannah for the near future.

James had mentioned that he was going near California, but the gunship dropped off the map somewhere over the old Utah territory. That was a few hours ago, and he had to stew there quietly. Benezia had asked for a status update about Nyra all of the sudden, suggesting that she had her own system of informants and spies in human space. Or Nyra had just been out of contact for a few days and Benezia had noticed. Her sister commandoes also noticed, and had discreetly asked him where she was. That could explode in his face if this situation wasn't resolved.

He had no agents he could ask for help, and he didn't have the Talon to move things safely and without being scanned. Amandeep was here on Tartarus, working on tracking the Talon, which had already been towed into Batarian space. The mobile connection that they had was all that Amandeep had to go on, and he was focusing on that.

So, with nothing but himself, he had to solve this situation. Salarians were somehow involved, and could be associated with the kidnappings of the children. Or they may have been aware of it and just timed their hit at the same time. It was coincidental, and it didn't sit well with him. Hannah was out of combat for more than a year now, thanks to him. James was in hiding in one of his safe houses, which he knew the location of. Jack had shown him all of them, and if he could guess, whoever was looking for his girls would be on the lookout for a couple of aliens and some children.

James knew his stuff, and he knew where all of the safe houses were. He had to trust him to do the job. He looked up, as a heavy boot thudded across the hallway. Henry Lawson was there, with a perplexed look on his face.

"Jack? You bloke! Get up from there and come with me. A man of your stature can't just sit down on the job." Henry grasped his arm, helping him stand up from his seat. "I've figured out why your daughter is having trouble with her biotics."

Jack pointed towards one of the doctor's offices. Confidentiality was important enough that the hospital had its own security system, one run by a civilian rather than a military directive. It was also something he had access to, and could turn off for sensitive reasons. He did so as soon as Henry followed him into the room, and then turned to him.

"Is this a flaw from when we started this process?" He asked carefully.

"Flaw in the genetics, perhaps. You and Hannah both had the same recessive gene, which became stronger in Julia. Miranda doesn't have it as strongly, but Julia has some traits that appear to be related to Autism, but are a bit more telling. Your daughters both have Asperger's a related syndrome."

Jack remembered being tested for that while he still lived with his mother. Not a pleasant memory, either. Asperger's Syndrome was considered a mental condition, a very disputed one. Some claimed that it was a natural path of evolution for the human brain, while others considered it to be a form of autism that had the possibility for normal functionality in life. Asperger's didn't have a cure, or a way around it. He could deal with the social skills part of things, but many people with Asperger's had issues with reading facial expressions or auditory input. That was crippling. But it was too late to try again. He didn't have much availability for a backup plan other than Miranda, who had the same syndrome.

"How does this relate to biotics?" He asked Henry, not seeing the connection. The syndrome did not affect the nerve synapses that controlled biotics, nor did it change the way the nervous system worked.

"Julia will have the same problem that all Asperger's have. A problem of emotions. They pick up on feelings around them and feel them more deeply than other people. Apparently. I have no idea, but that is what the book says. God knows I haven't cared about emotions in years. But to people with this, emotions are like the air they breathe. Apparently if they feel too strongly, they lock up. Sort of like how Julia has always hated the crowds. At first she likes being there, and then soon enough she locks up and doesn't know what to do. Same thing happens with her biotics. She will still be able to learn, but I would recommend private instruction for all biotics from now on."

"Are you trying to say that Julia can't handle peer pressure?" She would face much worse than that before everything was said and done.

"Until she can understand her condition and work past it, she will lock up anytime social situations become too much for her. One on one, she should be fine as long as you don't push her too hard."

"How will this affect her in the long run? Will it stunt her and Miranda's growth? Will it cripple their capabilities?"

Henry shrugged. "It shouldn't compromise her ability to function. Socially she will be considered below average. Her mental capacity though, will be considerably better. Most subjects with Asperger's developed or had photographic memory and amazing retention skills. I would say that Julia has that capacity already. What you aren't going to like is the social problems that occur with this syndrome. If she is going to overcome the social problems, it will have to be her choice."

Jack clenched his fist. He tried to find some connection to the Reapers, Constantine, anything. But logic could not be denied. His own contribution to this had caused this. He had effectively crippled Julia just because he had a gene. Nothing like your own body betraying you to make you feel down. That was when he felt a bottle pressed into his hand. Looking down, he could see it was some sort of brandy.

"Asari stuff. Figured you'd need it. Doctor's orders, drink up."

"I can't." Jack muttered, this being one occasion where he very much wanted to drink. "The others are still missing."

"What, your daughters having a little joy ride?"

"No, Henry. The other children in Solaris are being targeted." Henry slipped the bottle off to the side. It was going to be worth drinking later. "The strongest biotics are being abducted, and my daughters were on the list. Others are being taken, as well. But with Hannah here and James gone, I can't get to them in time."

"Want to call in a favor?" Henry said. "I owe you more than one, so don't mind me."

"What kind of connections do you have with Solaris?" Jack asked. Henry had been mostly hands off about the biotic end of the scientific research.

"Bah! None of those twits. All of those uneducated bastards can keep their theoretical science. I'll call someone who can find those kids for you." With that, Henry got on the line on his own Omni-tool. The face of Donovan Hock appeared roughly thirty seconds after he started the call.

"Don! It's Henry, and I need a bit of a favor."

"Of course! Anything for my friends. Is that Jack Harper behind you? I've been looking forward to seeing him again for years!" Donovan definitely had some powerful software to be able to tap into Henry's Omni-tool from so far away. It was the only way he could have registered Jack being there.

"This favor happens to be for Jack. But consider it one for me. He can explain better than I can what he needs." He hit the mute button on his Omni-tool, looking over at Jack. "Jack, I know you think he is the devil incarnate, but most people say that about you, too. But he has people all over, and connections that we don't." Or at least ones that Henry wasn't aware of. Jack had made plenty of enemies in his quest to dominate the direction of Earth's economy.

"Fine. Put him on, and I'll ask him for help." Jack said, not exactly welcoming the Senator. Henry hit the button, bringing back on the speaker. "Donovan. I have a sensitive problem that Henry tells me you might be able to help me with." Jack restrained any emotion in his voice. Today had been quite trying.

"Perhaps for an equally trying favor in the future, I would be willing to help you with this. I wouldn't demand you change your politics or stance for something minor like this." Donovan had no change of emotion on his face, but Jack was sure that he was gleefully rubbing his hands together over the thought of haggling a favor out of Jack Harper. "What can I help you with?"

"This has been time sensitive, and started less than twenty three hours ago." That was when the first move was executed, which thankfully Nyra was fully capable of dealing with. "Children with high biotic potential are being kidnapped and stolen from their parents and families while the Christmas vacation is going on, and some of the children have already disappeared. My daughters are one of the targeted individuals. At least one more went into the Rhine River to avoid their captors, but we haven't seen any more information. I have a list of children that are currently found, and another list of children that are actively being threatened. What I lack right now is feet on the ground and manpower to stop them."

"Now, Jack, I can call some friends of mine, but I don't condone any kind of violence, even to stop others." A blatant lie. "I will try my best to intervene on the children's behalf, and am prepared to pay any ransoms to get the children back. These biotic children are somewhat important to our future. Or at least you believe so and pay the doctors in your hospital enough to care."

"One of them went missing in South Africa. Surely your own constituents can help us out and find some of these children." Jack said, bringing up one of the children. Due to a lack of advanced technology in the area, it was hard to keep track of anything going on in that country. "We both know that we can call in other favors elsewhere. Places that normally are considered taboo. If you want to gain a favor from me, point me in the direction of who is after these children and why. Finding the children doesn't stop the attacks. If we remove the impetus, then the attacks stop for good."

"I'll find their Mecca, then." Hock said. "As long as you don't care about methods, I can find it."

"Neither of us care about methods. You knew that the moment we met. Just find me what I need and I'll take care of the dirty part." Donovan smiled a little.

"Alright Jack, it's a deal. I'll talk to you soon." Jack nodded to Henry, who turned off his Omni-tool. That Omni-tool was absolutely a threat to him. If Hock could so easily access it, then he could hear about the vulnerability in his daughters. Henry, not even realizing the threat he had just placed upon Jack, was grinning.

"Friends certainly have their place, eh? Come on, I am sure we can beat the bollocks off of that doctor before he files charges on you and restricts you from your own hospital." Henry offered, looking at the door. Jack stretched, his back popping a little as he gently adjusted the straps on his suit.

"Fair enough. Henry, I think I can pay you back for all the help you've given me today. Here is an encryption package for you Omni-tool. It'll keep your interns and other problems from getting places they shouldn't on your systems." As well as keep Hock from data Jack needed to be confidential. If Jack was seen as vulnerable, then his daughters would become higher value targets than he himself would be. Julia had Asperger's. She needed him and she needed a controlled environment where she could succeed.

"Sure, Jack. That sounds like just the thing. I haven't updated my security software on this for a good while, anyways." He nudged Jack. "So, you care about Hannah, eh?"

"I suppose that she has enough grounds to sue me for actively sending her into combat without proper medical care beforehand, or without the proper support." Jack admitted.

"That's practically saying you like the woman!" Henry laughed. "You haven't had a visitor like her or as steady as her in your life."

"Drop, it Henry. You gave up mistresses and that kind of lifestyle."

His only answer was to laugh as Jack felt his world shrinking around him.

Author's Note

What Jack is experiencing is what most parents who have special needs children feel. Autism is especially felt, as its not something that allows itself to be overcome or recovered from. It will stick with the person for their entire life. Asperger's is a bit different than Autism, but is always closely associated with it. The same genes that determine Autism are closely related to the ones that determine Asperger's.

Asperger's are a curious lot. I have been diagnosed with it, albeit extremely high functioning. Due to the fact that this is genetic, some of you might say that Jack should have caught this in the creation process of Julia and Miranda. It's hard to catch Asperger's. It's a small recessive gene that is normally benign. Jack wouldn't have noticed it as there were more important things to balance.

But Asperger's children have a lot of trouble with social requirements. Some have a hard time speaking, or understanding social nuance. Emotions are a tough thing, so I'll explain the connection between Asperger's and emotions in the succeeding chapters. When I was diagnosed, hardly anything was understood about it. That hasn't changed at all. So I'll explain a bit of how I overcame the social and behavioral weaknesses of this disorder.