Ana

CH 21

Tom replied out loud, “Ana, did you just talk to me in my head?”

Naomi turned away from the window to give him a puzzled look. “What? Did you just ask if Ana was talking in your head?”

Meanwhile, Ana replied inside his head, “Yes, I’m transmitting directly to the hearing center of your brain. I wasn’t sure if you wanted Naomi to know about the pending attack on Paris so thought this was best.”

Tom concentrated and inside his head said, “Ana, can you hear this?”

Ana said, “Yes, you did that perfect. See, it works the same way as when you give internal instructions to your wrist band.”

“I think it’s okay for Naomi to know about these terrorists so we can discuss them out loud.”

Naomi was back to staring out the window with her mouth hanging slightly open and occasionally whispering, “Wow.”

Tom interrupted her trance by saying, “Ok Ana, show me what you’re talking about”.

That brought another curious look from Naomi. “Why do you keep talking like Ana is here?”

“I’ll explain later. Right now, I need to talk to Ana about something bad that’s about to happen to Paris.” Tom pulled himself over to the coffee table in the middle of the room.

Naomi followed and tugged on his arm. “Paris, what’s Paris got to do with this?”

Just then, Ana projected the image of a man walking through a crowded airport above the table. The people were dressed in Middle Eastern fashion although Tom had no idea what part of the world this was.

“Wow, what’s that?” Naomi asked.

Ana said, “This man is Ahmed Rasheed, a terrorist that has been living in a remote village in southern Turkey. Mr. Rasheed is heading to Paris on the next fight and has two cats infected with the mutated bubonic plague traveling with him in a carrier.”

“That can’t be good,” Naomi said.

Tom watched as Ahmed got in line to board a plane along with the normal crowd of business men and a few families. “We need to keep this guy from boarding the plane.”

“The infected cats are already loaded onto the plane, they are the real concern,” Ana said.

“Ok then, we need to stop those cats from getting to Paris.” He was finding it hard to concentrate while he and Naomi were floating like this.

“Tom, I’m not completely sure what you and your friend are talking about and I still have no idea how or why we are in space but if all this is true, can’t you tell the police and let them take care of it?” Naomi said.

“Ana, how about it? What do your predictions show if we do that? Tom said.

“The most likely outcome shows that the Paris police will detain Mr. Rasheed upon arrival for questioning then release him along with his cats when his papers are found to be in order and the cats appear healthy. The disease hasn’t had time to affect them yet so there is no justification to take custody of the cats for testing.

Tom tired to think of another way. Maybe they could get rid of the cats before they made it to Paris. “Is there a way we can destroy the cats without hurting anyone else on the plane?”

“I could use a microwave beam from one of the scout ships to kill them but the ship would have to be within a hundred meters to do that.”

Tom rubbed his chin, “Well I certainly can’t think of a better way. Let’s do it.”