Ana

CH 34

"Very interesting, well if you are friends of Heidi I must hear you out. Please be seated."  Paul motioned to the chairs in front of his desk. The office was immaculate and yet still managed to feel warm and friendly with several bookshelves full of bound medical tomes. A photo of a seemingly happy middle aged woman and two teenage boys to one side on his desk let visitors know he was also a family man.

"I think you'll be very excited about what Tom has to offer," Heidi said before taking a seat along with the others.

Paul leaned back in his chair and ran his gaze over each of them as if to memorize every detail. "Now tell me, why so much intrigue?"

"Actually, we're on a mission. Our boss wants us to ask for your help with a very important pilot test," Tom said.

Paul's eyes widened and he leaned forward to place his hands on the edge of his desk. "I'm curious as to what sort of test merits this much effort on your part."

Heidi said, "I think you'll see that this test requires very special handling and I told Tom you were the best person to see that it is done right." So far, Paul was playing it perfect and she was starting to believe her plan was going to work. The feeling of accomplishment helped heal a bit of the depression she had been fighting. Finally, something was going right.

Tom Said. "What we're trying to tell you is that we don't work for a normal company. You may find this difficult to believe but we work for Tiger. The same Tiger that made that worldwide broadcast about finding a space ship."

"You must be joking," Paul said with a short laugh. "I hope you are not here as some kind of prank." The doctor turned to Heidi. "Please tell me who the mastermind of this charade is. Did my wife ask you to play this trick on me?"

She was impressed with his acting ability but then again, you had to be a good actor to be an agent. "No, she doesn't know I'm in town. Paul, this is real. We are working for Tiger. This is our first attempt to reach out and use alien equipment to make things better and I've convinced them that you could help us do that."

Tom held out his arm and above it a hologram of a hospital bed appeared. "Tiger created what may seem like a normal hospital bed, but it's actually a complete medical center capable of healing or curing anything you can think of," Tom said.

"That's a nice trick. How are you doing that?"  Paul reached out and slowly passed his hand through the hologram.

"Oh, we're full of neat tricks," Naomi said with a hint of mystery in her voice. She touched her bracelet and her outfit changed colors to purple.

Paul stared at her with his mouth hanging open for a moment and then turned back to Tom. "Did you say that bed can cure anything?"

"That's right."

"So, you really are a part of Tiger's crew and he has the alien ship he spoke of."

Heidi spoke up. "Yes, we are, and that bed is proof that the technology exists. Paul, this is the most important thing to ever happen in medicine and we need your help. It is extremely important that this be managed properly and that we are not interfered with."

That was the tricky part, not being interfered with. That meant convincing the CIA to let her act as a double agent. After everything that had happened, she didn't know how they would be willing to work with her. They might just shoot her the first chance they got.

Paul nodded. "If this is all true, it will be a turning point in history. It is almost too much to hope for. When will you be able to demonstrate this medical bed to me?"

"It's easy to use. All you do is have the patient lay down and the computer does the rest," Tom said.

"How soon can you provide training to operate the controls? We also will need instruction on what it can do." Paul was wasting no time in getting down to business.