CHAPTER NINETEEN
Carl called an ambulance to pick up Alexandro's body. He and Enrique drove to the morgue. They would meet the rest at the movie lot. . Because of the heavy drugs given Tom, Attwood's group used the van as a makeshift hospital, Sloan gradually nursing Tom back to his own Dominant strength, but he was still too weak for his captors had kept him in a cage, removing him only when necessary and only after sedating him. According to one of the humans who survived the massacre, Tom was unaware of what was happening to him and besides, their form of mind control was helpless against the Chosen as was their usual forms of torture, water hoses, electric shock, and the like.
"We'll have you back to your own self," said Sloan.
"I never realized—how could you humans survive without our senses—with your lack of strength."
"We've had thousands of years, not millions as presumed. Someone sent us a DVD. One of your species. It appears your kind existed over six thousand years ago and then disappeared. Do you know much of our history? The Second World War?"
"I recall learning of the past of our ancestors, how a certain leader tried to put all under his sway. It was part of my training from Lewis, to learn who were too dangerous. Such a man like Adolph Hitler would have been a formidable foe."
"And what did you study?"
"His background, education so that we could stop such a man before he gains power. "
"So anyone who had that trait would have died, even if years later he did not use that."
"Yes. Prevention." He tried to move his right leg, but found it unable to respond.
"You have been cramped for so long. I'll massage it." She did so, gradually letting him regain his strength. Ed said that they should start on changing Tom to a human being, but she said no. Perhaps if he had fully changed back to the Dominant state, he would not have been captured so easily. Tom was now resting. She knocked on the small window.
Ed turned around for a second. "Is Tom all right?"
"Yes, but still weak. I have to manipulate his arms and legs to get them working again. The only time he's been out of the cage was for tests and it looks like he's been tortured but what I have to tell you, might change our ideas of reverting the Dominants to human beings."
Ed listened as she explained. The computer program that they used showed the registration 1 and 1.6 for homo sapiens and homo dominants. Tate upgraded the program so it would register the between setting of 1.4 for Kelly, however that was the only change he made and that took several hours of writing code.
"So you're saying that each change in degrees between human and Dominants, and reverse has certain characteristics?" he asked.
"Yes. You said yourself that the drug was in beta, that it was not perfect and Tom was trained as a Chameleon. He did not show the violent anti human reaction that Kelly did because he knew how to hide those feelings." She waited for it to sink it. "Ed, did you know if Kelly's acceptance of you as a friend and her willingness to cooperate was a human state or a state before the 1.4 level?"
Ed had no idea. He had tried to find out about her family. Her father on hearing of her death said that Kelly was adventurous and full of fun. Her mother said she never initiated trouble, but Kelly was a follower, not a leader. Dr. Tate had whitewashed her death, saying that she caught a virus that turned deadly. He knew the Dominants had killed her, but was it murder or mercy because of a result of the violent changes going through her body? The pin point would have been missed, if he had not looked for it. .
"That would mean that Tom's ability to hear things, and to see as in a red daze is much like what happens when one goes through sleep paralysis or in the alpha state before sleep of hearing a conversation," said Ed
"I'm sorry Ed, but that's just the person dreaming."
"When someone goes through the Alpha stage before sleep, it's like a waking dream. We've had it for so long that we naturally ignore hearing someone else's conversation or a radio one hundred miles away. As one leaves the human stage at 1.0, perhaps the Alpha stage does not resort in sleep, but becomes more permanent and the person stays wide awake."
"But would Kelly think it's unusual?"
"No. She'd assume she was overly tired. Hearing voices and might worry that she needed to get sleep, so she would not have mentioned it. That's why I don't pay much attention to psychic hotlines. They're just making money on something humans have for about ten minutes before falling asleep."
"So when Tom heard those people in the park, he was not in the 1.6 state, but one of the other states and that's when he was captured."
"It might be 1.3 or 1.2, possibly the former since he did not turn violent in the cage." He asked Sloan of Tom's behavior and she told him, how he was amazed at what he had seen and had missed it. When she saw the men grab him, he did not appear to notice them until it was too late. "It could be 1.4 like Kelly. Probably bravado and loud talk, no action," said Ed, "she just snapped, said in essence she was superior, but I could still handle her."
"And if she turned completely Dominant, you couldn't," said Sloan, "I don't know if Tom is fully himself yet."
They drove by the set where the movie company worked. A young woman, dark reddish hair done up in the Mexican style of the nineteenth century was playing a scene with another man done in a suit and bowtie. A man in the style of the nineteen forties came over, saying, "Now Señorita," he said, "you are offended by this man and Jerry, you are supposed to be a cad, not a dude from the East. Leer a bit more."
"It doesn't say that in my lines," said the actress, showing the director her script.
"Wait a minute." He shouted. "What idiot gave Miss Sedona the wrong lines? Do you know how much I spent getting them revised? Working with the writers? Sorry for my outburst, Señorita, but—"
Carl called an ambulance to pick up Alexandro's body. He and Enrique drove to the morgue. They would meet the rest at the movie lot. . Because of the heavy drugs given Tom, Attwood's group used the van as a makeshift hospital, Sloan gradually nursing Tom back to his own Dominant strength, but he was still too weak for his captors had kept him in a cage, removing him only when necessary and only after sedating him. According to one of the humans who survived the massacre, Tom was unaware of what was happening to him and besides, their form of mind control was helpless against the Chosen as was their usual forms of torture, water hoses, electric shock, and the like.
"We'll have you back to your own self," said Sloan.
"I never realized—how could you humans survive without our senses—with your lack of strength."
"We've had thousands of years, not millions as presumed. Someone sent us a DVD. One of your species. It appears your kind existed over six thousand years ago and then disappeared. Do you know much of our history? The Second World War?"
"I recall learning of the past of our ancestors, how a certain leader tried to put all under his sway. It was part of my training from Lewis, to learn who were too dangerous. Such a man like Adolph Hitler would have been a formidable foe."
"And what did you study?"
"His background, education so that we could stop such a man before he gains power. "
"So anyone who had that trait would have died, even if years later he did not use that."
"Yes. Prevention." He tried to move his right leg, but found it unable to respond.
"You have been cramped for so long. I'll massage it." She did so, gradually letting him regain his strength. Ed said that they should start on changing Tom to a human being, but she said no. Perhaps if he had fully changed back to the Dominant state, he would not have been captured so easily. Tom was now resting. She knocked on the small window.
Ed turned around for a second. "Is Tom all right?"
"Yes, but still weak. I have to manipulate his arms and legs to get them working again. The only time he's been out of the cage was for tests and it looks like he's been tortured but what I have to tell you, might change our ideas of reverting the Dominants to human beings."
Ed listened as she explained. The computer program that they used showed the registration 1 and 1.6 for homo sapiens and homo dominants. Tate upgraded the program so it would register the between setting of 1.4 for Kelly, however that was the only change he made and that took several hours of writing code.
"So you're saying that each change in degrees between human and Dominants, and reverse has certain characteristics?" he asked.
"Yes. You said yourself that the drug was in beta, that it was not perfect and Tom was trained as a Chameleon. He did not show the violent anti human reaction that Kelly did because he knew how to hide those feelings." She waited for it to sink it. "Ed, did you know if Kelly's acceptance of you as a friend and her willingness to cooperate was a human state or a state before the 1.4 level?"
Ed had no idea. He had tried to find out about her family. Her father on hearing of her death said that Kelly was adventurous and full of fun. Her mother said she never initiated trouble, but Kelly was a follower, not a leader. Dr. Tate had whitewashed her death, saying that she caught a virus that turned deadly. He knew the Dominants had killed her, but was it murder or mercy because of a result of the violent changes going through her body? The pin point would have been missed, if he had not looked for it. .
"That would mean that Tom's ability to hear things, and to see as in a red daze is much like what happens when one goes through sleep paralysis or in the alpha state before sleep of hearing a conversation," said Ed
"I'm sorry Ed, but that's just the person dreaming."
"When someone goes through the Alpha stage before sleep, it's like a waking dream. We've had it for so long that we naturally ignore hearing someone else's conversation or a radio one hundred miles away. As one leaves the human stage at 1.0, perhaps the Alpha stage does not resort in sleep, but becomes more permanent and the person stays wide awake."
"But would Kelly think it's unusual?"
"No. She'd assume she was overly tired. Hearing voices and might worry that she needed to get sleep, so she would not have mentioned it. That's why I don't pay much attention to psychic hotlines. They're just making money on something humans have for about ten minutes before falling asleep."
"So when Tom heard those people in the park, he was not in the 1.6 state, but one of the other states and that's when he was captured."
"It might be 1.3 or 1.2, possibly the former since he did not turn violent in the cage." He asked Sloan of Tom's behavior and she told him, how he was amazed at what he had seen and had missed it. When she saw the men grab him, he did not appear to notice them until it was too late. "It could be 1.4 like Kelly. Probably bravado and loud talk, no action," said Ed, "she just snapped, said in essence she was superior, but I could still handle her."
"And if she turned completely Dominant, you couldn't," said Sloan, "I don't know if Tom is fully himself yet."
They drove by the set where the movie company worked. A young woman, dark reddish hair done up in the Mexican style of the nineteenth century was playing a scene with another man done in a suit and bowtie. A man in the style of the nineteen forties came over, saying, "Now Señorita," he said, "you are offended by this man and Jerry, you are supposed to be a cad, not a dude from the East. Leer a bit more."
"It doesn't say that in my lines," said the actress, showing the director her script.
"Wait a minute." He shouted. "What idiot gave Miss Sedona the wrong lines? Do you know how much I spent getting them revised? Working with the writers? Sorry for my outburst, Señorita, but—"