Unwanted Power

Failure of Imagination

Bill understood Heather's point. Especially when her point was laid down with such complete and biting sarcasm. He did not take it personally. It was not aimed at him. "Yeah. OK. You are right. There is still one thing that bothers me. Why do they say in the press release that people should be on the lookout, specifically in Texas? Why call out that one state? You have not appeared here in a long time. Not visibly since the Memorial Park incident, and not even mysteriously since the hostage situation with Al. You have gone out of your way not to do anything traceable, even remotely, back to you. They have no idea about any of your other local actions. Near as you can tell from internal sources at the department? The powers that be never pinned the Vegas heist on you. Even the deepest levels down seem to feel that all that happened is a bunch of con artists got conned. That the mysterious woman on camera was only the distracting face of some long con that was run on that casino. Hell: They looked into the teacher to see if she somehow was hooked up to an anonymous hacker group. No one found anything. The TLA's are not even concerned about that particular victim. They view it as just desserts. Their main worry is that there is a new hacker group running around. Someone who leveled up from Ransomware. The casino went under as quietly as they could to avoid negative publicity. Here is my question: Even if someone did suspect you, which they don't, that was Las Vegas, Nevada. Not Texas. Why are they naming Texas in the press release as the place to look? I don't like that."

Heather understood Bill's concern and considered it. "Well... Hmmm. The TLA's don't know about San Francisco either, even though there have been a few rumblings. The frozen ocean was fairly spectacular. Before I wised up to the negative reception Jessie was going to get? Texas is the only place he has been seen other than at the ISS. They are sure that was Jessie up there because of the cape flutters on the video. They have no one on the station willing to say it was. The arm returned to Earth without burning up, but that was Toronto. There were no close-in sightings of Jessie. More like: 'It looked like a person wearing a cape. Are you sure? No. Just what it looked like' style testimony than anything. All the powers-that-be know is that there were three solid sightings in Houston. By now, they think Jessie resides in Canada. With a move like this? This press release? It is pretty obvious that they are trying to get Jessie back to Texas. More important than Texas, they want Jessie back on US soil, where they have official authority. They have gotten to the place they are willing to go worldwide with an embarrassment. A press release about missing fissionable bomb bits will play widely in Canada. They have no way to call directly, so they did this." Heather asserted.

"To what end, though? Not as if they can capture and keep you." Bill asked. "Your actions, like with Kaleb and the building roofs, show you are not looking to sit down and have a casual chat."

"The Military think in terms of power. They don't know my limits. None of them have any idea what I can do. I have kept my demonstrated power limited to what was needed to solve each problem for that exact reason. I have engaged in misdirection at every turn. For example: They suspect I can divert Lava. Otherwise, how did that happen? Lava does not usually suddenly decide on its own to go a different way. Run away from populated areas. No one saw it happen, so they have no idea how I did it. They know I am bulletproof. As I said, they are pretty sure I can fly in space. Carry robot arms from orbit to the Toronto area. They have no idea how I do any of that."

"I don't know how you do any of that, Heather, and I'm married to you." Bill pointed out.

"I am the one doing it, and I'm not sure exactly how. It's all intuition and feeling my way through it when I'm in a physical form. I have looked at all the internal documentation they have. My work to emulate a Kryptonian sent them into a tailspin. Physicists were consulted about solar-powered beings, perhaps from other planets. Do you know what the physics community the military contacted says about me? They say the military is crazy and needs to stop using drugs. Not in those exact words, but that is the general feeling of their scorn. There is an actual paper, written by some people at Caltech, in response to a military query. It says in no uncertain terms: storing solar energy in my cells like that would not explain anything. Even if it was some sort of super-efficient battery method — space mitochondria — it does not explain defying gravity. Flying. The response goes on to say that if it was even possible to build a negative gravity environment, it would require far more power than the surface area one large man could reasonably collect. The power the Sun emits is about 1,360 watts per square meter by the time it reaches the surface of the Earth. On a clear day. A guy, the size of Jessie, has at most 2.7 square meters of surface area. Only half that surface would face the Sun at any one point in time. That sums to not even 2000 watts. No matter how good the battery, it would take forever to charge up enough to manipulate something like gravity. To create and emit something like anti-gravitons. Science has never found a graviton, more or less an anti-graviton. If it was even possible? It would take the power of a big fusion power plant at a minimum. At 2 kilowatts, IE 2 kilowatts per hour? It would take days to charge an electric car or truck with a big battery. There are no flying electric cars for a reason. That is not even slightly like the power of fusion. Therefore: science has concluded that Jessie does not exist. This is why the physics community implied that the Military, NSA, CIA, and FBI need to stop doing drugs. No evidence I have left behind has convinced even one qualified professor of physics, theoretical or otherwise, that Jessie can exist. That he can do what the powers that be say he can."