Guns And Dogs (7 page)

He thought hard. “Well sir,” Johnny began, “I found the premise of the film amusing.”

“How so Mr. Veto? The film was on cosmology. I didn’t see or hear anything of comedic value?”

“What he means, Mr. Jacobs,” Maria interjected, “Johnny isn’t sold on the Big Bang Theory.”

Jacobs turned towards Maria and shot her a beleaguered glance. “Is that so Miss Garcia? Well now that explains everything.” He looked at Johnny again. “And what do you have against the Big Bang Theory, Mr. Veto, not conclusive enough for you?”

“There has to be another way of looking at it, sir.” Johnny pressed his mind for something that could hold up against Jacob’s vast arsenal of scientific knowledge. “I mean, wasn’t Hoyle’s Steady-State theory one alternative before it was eventually rejected by today’s cosmologists, astrophysicists and astronomers? My point is who’s to say another theory won’t be developed in the near-future that challenges what we know now about the universe?”

Jacobs nodded. “An interesting argument, Mr. Veto. I wasn’t aware that you felt so strongly about the origins of the universe.”

Johnny eyed the clock, and was about to say something when, seconds later, the bell rang, signaling the end of class.

The other students rose from their desks and gathered their backpacks before shuffling out of the classroom. Jacobs blocked Johnny’s path. “Not so fast there Mr. Veto. I’d like a 4-page report on the evolution of cosmology. Be prepared to present it to the class next week.”

“If you ask me, you got off easy, Johnny.” They were in Maria’s car, a late-model Mercedes Benz her parents had bought her for her 16
^th
birthday. Some people had all the luck.

“I know. Right?” He looked out the window and took in Tucson’s scenery. He loved eyeing the lush palm trees inside the city but longed to leave Arizona. With his father gone, and his mother planning on taking a job in Los Angeles after he graduated, he really had nothing to keep him here. But his grades weren’t good enough to get into NYU, and he desperately wanted to live the life of a writer. New York was the only city he could immerse himself in his desired trade. “But, it’s better than detention.” Johnny smiled. Writing papers was like breathing to him, and even a tiresome physics paper was more appealing than spending two hours with douche man Jacobs in study hall.

“Did you ever hear back from that literary agency you sent your query letter to a few weeks back?”

“No,” Johnny answered. Query letters were actually the only piece of writing he dreaded, and despite having written hundreds of them over the past two years the results had always been the same. A patronizing rejection letter, or worse, no response at all. “The only thing I hate more than writing a query letter is waiting to hear back from an agency. You see, they get slammed with thousands of letters every month.”

They pulled up to Diner 24, their favorite after school hangout spot. Inside Johnny ordered some blueberry pancakes with a Cherry Coke, while Maria ordered a grilled chicken salad.

Johnny looked out the diner window and stared at the planes taking off from Tucson International Airport. Why couldn’t he be on one of those flights? Heading east towards the Big Apple.

He felt the warmth of Maria’s hand and snapped out of his thoughts before turning his attention towards her. He smiled. She smiled back and kissed him softly on his lips. It tickled, but in a good way. He wanted to buy her a ring, but like the proverbial artist he was broke as a joke. “We need to talk,” she said.

“About?” The food arrived and Johnny’s appetite kicked in. He’d skipped lunch back at school.

“I’ve been thinking about going to Europe.”

Johnny looked up from his meal and swallowed a mouthful of blueberry pancake. “When?”

“This summer.” She looked down at her salad and pushed a tomato to the side of the plate with her fork. “I’m thinking about modeling over in Milan and Paris for a year or two.”

“Wait a minute! Did you say a year or two?”

She nodded without looking at him.

Johnny dropped his fork and took her hands in his. “I had no idea, Maria. Really.” The thought of her going away for more than a week made his appetite disappear as quickly as it had arrived.

“I’m sorry, Johnny, I thought you’d be happy for me.” She looked up at him and he could see tears welling up inside her caramel irises. He wanted to say he was happy for her, but the words were frozen inside his throat. Was he being selfish? Or just plain needy. Perhaps a little of both.

“I am happy for you, Maria,” he finally said. “But I thought we were going to go backpacking in Europe this summer. My mom is giving me some graduation money and I was going to use it. And what about attending Arizona? I thought you were going to study business administration?”

“I’m putting college off for now, Johnny.”

“This is news.” He clenched his fist and nearly slammed it on the table but held back. He was better than that. The last thing he wanted was to show indignation. Besides, this was the girl he loved.

“Will you at least think about it?” he asked.

She looked down again. “I suppose I could, but the answer would probably be the same.”

Is this the end? He thought. The end of us? The end of all the dreams we’d made for the future? It sure looked like it.

The presentation was still going strong when he awoke from the past. Luckily Patrice hadn’t noticed his lapse. He didn’t want to look like an idiot in front of her. Little Miss MIT would probably think he was patronizing her. But he wasn’t about to let down Argos and Doctor Murdoc, or Jessie and Studs, who had quickly grown on him. And how could he forget his father’s legacy at AL?
Can’t tarnish Dad’s reputation. Now can I?
The presentation ended and the lights brightened. “I hope you found that presentation informative, Mr. Veto?”

“Yeah, I sure did. What’s next?”

“A brief tour, then your training will commence.”

“So soon? You guys don’t waste any time do you?”

She smiled. And it nearly caught him off guard.
I wonder what’s so damn funny.

“Time, Mr. Veto, is the most precious commodity here at AL Command. As you shall find out shortly.”

AL Training Room 1

6:25 AM, PST

Sleep was hard to come by. Johnny’s next test would be in less than an hour and he had no idea what it entailed. He tried getting in touch with Argos but this wasn’t allowed during his training. Which, according to Patrice, would last two weeks.

After a quick breakfast in the cafeteria, he returned to his dormitory to find the HoverBot there. It had placed his new silver-colored training uniform on his bed, along with a pair of black boots. His closet was also stocked with new clothing. “You are to wear AL-issued clothing during your training candidate Veto,” it said. “If you require anything, you may contact me via your wristlink.” It hovered over towards Johnny and dropped a device into his hand.

Johnny strapped the device to his wrist and examined it. There was a row of keys. One green, one blue, one yellow, and one red. “Press the green button and speak into it to request something.”

“What about these other buttons?”

The HoverBot’s lights blinked rapidly before answering him. “Do not concern yourself with those yet. In time you will be trained in their uses.” The little robot then floated out of the room, leaving Johnny with a few unanswered questions.

“Mr. Veto.” Johnny looked up. Patrice’s voice was speaking to him through an intercom. “Please report to Training Room 1.”

Johnny cursed softly and quickly stripped off his civilian clothes before donning the training suit and boots. Both were surprisingly comfortable.

In the hallway he saw a technician working on a ceiling light and asked for directions to Training Room 1. A few minutes later he arrived at his destination.

Patrice was waiting in the room. A black helmet was sitting on a leather reclining chair behind her. She was also wearing a training suit but hers was black and had strange insignia patches sewn on its sleeves. “You’re late, Mr. Veto,” she said.

“Sorry. But it would’ve been nice if you’d given me directions on how to find this place.”

Patrice frowned at him. “An AL operative doesn’t make excuses, Mr. Veto. An AL operative executes.” She handed him the helmet. “Let’s get started. Take a seat in the chair.”

Johnny took a seat and looked around the room. There was no sign of anything. Not even a mirror. He wondered what this ‘training’ would be.

“Now, put the helmet on.”

Johnny placed it on his head. It fit snugly and a few seconds later a display activated inside the helmet. His last name, VETO, was listed in the lower right section of the readout along with his vital signs and mission time. “So now what?”

“Patience isn’t one of your strong points, now is it, Mr. Veto?” There was a moment of silence before the room lit up like an LED billboard. “You should now see the inner-lights of this room. Do you see them?”

“Yes.”

“Excellent. Now the purpose of this training exercise is to test your memory. In the field you will be required to memorize data and you won’t always be carrying a tablet with you on missions. The reason for that will be explained later.”

“Alright.”
I guess this is one of those need-to-know situations,
he thought. “So what am I supposed to memorize, Patrice?” He could feel his breath inside the helmet, but strangely the visor did not fog up.

“Your heads-up display, or HUD, will notify you. From there it is up to you to follow the directions to the best of your ability. Your scores will be fed directly into the main computer. After which you will be graded. You are allowed one practice-run before the first series of memory tests. Are you ready to begin Mr. Veto?”

“I guess so,” he said eagerly.

“Excellent.”

Johnny heard the door hiss shut and he knew he was alone. The HUD fed him his first set of visual instructions:

TEST EXERCISE ONE: PLEASE BE SURE TO REMEMBER EXACTLY WHERE THE RABBIT IS. THERE IS NO NEED TO VOICE YOUR ANSWER. YOU MUST REMEMBER AND ‘THINK’ YOUR ANSWER. THE COMPUTER WILL READ YOUR THOUGHTS AND AWARD YOUR SCORE ACCORDINGLY.

Three top hats appeared on the HUD. Each was labeled: A, B, & C from left to right. A white rabbit popped out from under top hat A and waved at Johnny before disappearing. Johnny made a mental note that the rabbit had been under the first hat on the left before the letters A, B, & C disappeared.

NOW THE EXERCISE WILL BEGIN. READY? REMEMBER, DO NOT SPEAK YOUR ANSWER. ‘THINK’ IT.

Johnny fed his thought into the simulation computer: “Understood.”

Seconds later the top hats began shuffling around until their speed increased. Johnny kept his eyes on the hat where the rabbit had first appeared. 15 seconds later the hats stopped moving. The letters A, B and C then reappeared.

NOW, UNDER WHICH HAT IS THE RABBIT? YOU HAVE FIVE SECONDS TO THINK YOUR ANSWER. GO.

Johnny was confident he’d remember. He knew the rabbit was initially under hat A before it had shuffled around. He fed another thought answer into the computer and waited for the result.

CORRECT. THE RABBIT IS STILL UNDER HAT A.

The white rabbit reappeared and waved at Johnny again. He couldn’t help but laugh. The exercise continued. But at a faster rate. He registered three more answers and they too were all correct.

CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE SUCCESSFULLY PASSED ROUND ONE.

The next set of exercises began flashing five license plates from different states. Again the test started at a slower rate before increasing in speed. This exercise required him to remember how many times each state was displayed. It then increased to ten plates, then fifteen, all the way up to twenty-five. He only had five seconds to register his answers via thought. His mind felt like it was being stretched to the limit. He couldn’t recall the last time he had done this much memorization. Maybe kindergarten? He seemed to recall a memorization game his teacher had made them all play on a computer. But that game was nothing compared to the vigorous demands of this AL program.

He exhaled and waited for the next round of his test results.

CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE SUCCESSFULLY PASSED ROUND TWO.

This wasn’t so hard.

After the 3rd test he was allowed to take a short break in the recreation room outside the training facility.

Inside the recreation room he saw Argos reading a book. When Jessie and Studs saw him they rushed over to him and leapt up and down around him before pawing at his boots. He smiled. “I don’t think I’ve seen them that happy for quite some time,” Argos said before shaking Johnny’s hand. “How are you doing? Patrice keeping you busy?”

“Yeah. You could say that. Where have you three been hiding?”

“I’ve been supervising the refit of Gina. Her Antimatter Drive, the system that helps us Time-Travel, hasn’t been working well and the repair technicians have been working overtime to get it up-and-running. Right now Gina is the only mobile Time-Healing unit we have. Everyone else has to go through the Time-Displacer.”

“What’s that?”

“Technically I shouldn’t be telling you this, since you don’t have the proper clearance, but since you’ll be Time-Healing with me, I don’t see why you shouldn’t have additional background knowledge of AL technology. The Time-Displacer is a stationary time-travel device that allows AL operatives to move through time in order to complete their Time-Healing missions. Until Gina was equipped with an Antimatter Drive, using the Time-Displacer was the only way we could carry out our missions. But enough talk of that, I’d like to know how your training is going.”

“Tough.” Johnny then checked his wristlink. He had only ten minutes left before his training resumed. “I don’t think Patrice likes me very much.”

“Why do you say that?”

“She’s so…
mechanical
. And on top of that she acts condescending. I’m starting to think she’s a robot or something.”

Argos grinned. “Give her a break Johnny. After all she’s only a few years older than you. Superior intellect doesn’t always guarantee maturity.”