Aces

He watched her go, then pulled up his pants as he turned. He saw a half a dozen people staring, joking with each other, pointing, and laughing. He panicked and turned away from them as he hurriedly tucked himself away.

He decided to walk back to his dorm. There was no way he could go to class now.

What the hell was that? Once safely in his room, he sat on the bed and tried to process what had just happened. He'd had sex, he wasn't a virgin any more. It felt like an accident, like something that had happened to him rather than something he did.

It was, objectively speaking. Sure, he'd had to take action right there at the end, but even then it didn't feel like a conscious decision so much as a reaction.

He was a sticky mess so he grabbed his robe and went down the hall for a shower. He was alone, luckily enough. He stripped and stood in front of the mirror. He didn't look any different, he didn't feel any different. He looked down at his penis, flaccid now and not looking very impressive. It had been inside a vagina, it had cum inside a real live woman. The thought meant nothing to him.

It felt like it had all happened so fast that his brain hadn't kept up. He had watched it happen, like a voyeur instead of a participant. His orgasm felt no different than it had when he was watching someone else have sex on video.

Most of all, he didn't think anything of the nurse, he knew exactly nothing about her but insignificant details of her physical anatomy. There was no connection between them. She was just a body that had been offered to him. He took it, but he never even talked to her aside from a few dumb questions and her rote, mechanical instructions during the test. He got nothing but her body, nothing of who she was, what kind of person she was, what she thought of him, or of anything. He didn't even know her name. He realized he didn't want to.

He didn't buy her story of thinking he was cute and how he'd somehow gotten through the armor she'd built up to protect her soul from the awful job she had. But there was no alternative that made any sense. Especially not the one he didn't want to think about.

Back in his room, he checked his health service portal with a vague sense of dread. Nothing yet. It didn't matter. He was not an ace. Nobody was, the odds were astronomical. He'd honestly had zero hopes, there was no reason to worry about them. Still, that vague dread haunted him as he drifted off to sleep on top of the bed covers, still wearing his robe.

The next thing he knew, Ivan was slamming back into the room. He was Russian, from Russia, and very Russian. A walking stereotype. Barrel chest and what he called a good old fashioned Slav belly, round with the skin stretched over it like a drum. He had to be the hairiest guy Brian had ever seen.

They'd become friends of sorts, but mostly limited to the dorm. They didn't socialize much otherwise, but in the room, they got along well and often talked, played chess, drank. Vodka, of course, was their usual go to, but Ivan had recently discovered Kentucky Bourbon and immediately declared that America had beaten Russia at its own game.

Ivan could drink like a fish and show no obvious effects, but it would have been difficult for Brian to identify any effect that would qualify. He was a man with a big voice and big body language. His resting face was dour, almost angry looking, but his face rarely rested. He had a fatalist attitude that had come so full circle that he was almost always cheerful and outgoing. "Eat drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die" was his explicit motto.

In what Ivan said was the tradition of his Siberian peasant people, he made little distinction between wearing clothes or not, whether around the room or in the public areas of the dorm floor. He didn't own a robe, and when he went down the hall to the showers, he would not dress, wrapping a towel around him at most. He often wouldn't dress once he got back either, just hanging around swarthily nude or with a towel still on.

He occasionally brought girls back to the room, and didn't care about privacy unless the girl did. When he did not have a girl available, he made no bones about taking care of himself whenever the fancy struck him. More tradition, he said. His people lived communally, he said, and there was no time nor space for privacy through the long cold winters. They would have a sauna going constantly, just one for both sexes.

He once offered to bring a girl back for Brian, but after Brian turned him down on principle, he never brought it up again. He seemed to make no judgments, to let Brian live his own life and not worry about it, and expect the same in return. Brian had no doubt that Ivan would be good to his word, that he could bring back a girl that would be a sure thing, that Brian could enjoy for the night. He had been tempted, many times, but always chickened out, telling himself that he did not want mindless, anonymous sex.

Now that he'd had it, he was more sure than ever that it was not what he wanted.

"Did you see the fucking outside our building?" Ivan asked once he saw that Brian was awake.

"Outside our building? No, but I called in sick to class today." He wasn't going to tell anyone it was him, though he knew he'd been seen.

"Oh, you are ill?" He reached into his desk and pulled out a small flask sized bottle of vodka. "Will make you feel better." he said, offering it to Brian.

Brian took it. He drank occasionally, but rooming with Ivan made it nearly impossible to avoid, so he was well used to it. He never drank during the day. "You must be ill." Ivan said, seeing the full swig Brian had taken. "You keep, feel better." he said when Brian offered to hand it back.

Brian tipped the bottle to him and took another swig. He was used to it, but it still burned going down. He found it did make him feel better. That burning might just erase the dread he felt, and the creepy, dirty feeling that was growing the more he thought about what he'd done with the nurse.

"The fucking," Ivan said, "not unusual in these times. But somebody said the woman was the nurse who does the testing in the clinic. Nobody recognized the man."

"Hmm. The nurse? That's odd."

"Odd too because of the rumors."

"Rumors?"

"Rumor says they find another ace."

Brian was surprised. It had been a while since the last one was discovered. The guy's name and picture were all over the news. "Where?"

"Here"

"Here where, in town?" The university was in a medium sized city, six figure population but not millions.

"Here, at University."

Brian felt his stomach do a flip and wondered if he really was sick, or if it was the vodka.

"Is suspicious, Da?" Ivan said.

"What is?"

"The nurse. Very unusual for nurse and student, nyet? Only in movies.

"Sure, but why is it suspicious?" Brian's stomach flipped again. His subconscious was telling him something, but he didn't want to know it.

"Nurse would know results. Before anyone. Would want to be first in line, nyet?"

Brian's eyes went wide. He could feel all the blood drain from his face and he just stared at Ivan. 'I just wanted to be your first', she'd said.

He saw Ivan studying him. His usually dour mouth cracked into a subtle smile, then suddenly his whole face lit up and he ran to Brian. He clapped him on the back so hard it almost knocked him off the bed. Ivan put his arm around Brian's shoulder and gave him a giant bear hug from the side.

"We are best of friends, da?" Ivan said, laughing and all over Brian.

"Da" Brian said. He said it halfheartedly, but really, Ivan was just about his only friend at the University. The man had never treated him with anything but respect and good will. While they ran in different circles - if you could call Brian's social life a circle - they got along and Brian had always had the impression that Ivan really liked him. They'd roomed together their freshman year, and both wanted to keep the arrangement for this second year. Maybe it was just because Brian put up with Ivan's larger than life personality and habits without protest, but in any case, they'd made the deliberate mutual decision to room together this second year.

Ivan was even teaching him chess, saying that in Russia, it was like baseball in America. Every child learns the basics, and some get very good. Brian was improving quickly, and Ivan never had anything but praise for his progress, even if Brian still could not beat him without a handicap. That handicap was getting smaller by the day, but Brian knew he would always be the chess equivalent of the kid that did not grow up playing baseball and threw like a girl.

"I will guard the door for you. And maybe audition the girls, da? Make sure they will be to your liking?" Ivan clapped him on the back again, with a leering grin. It rattled Brian's teeth.

"Sure, Ivan, you can take the extras off my hands for me." Brian said, his head spinning.

"I will make sacrifice of this, for a good friend." Ivan said, leering and laughing.

"What makes you think it's me?" Brian asked.

"Everybody is tested already, except for a few. Includes you. You leave early in the morning, and this happened very early, right next to our dorm. You are not in class, but with honesty, my friend, you do not seem ill. Except in your head. And your hair is still not dry. You took shower, no?"

There was a sharp knock on the door. It sounded authoritative, not the tentative knock of a fellow student. Ivan jumped up, grinning. "Here is one now. I will protect you."

Ivan went to the door and opened it cheerfully, then stopped. "Is Brian Abernathy here?" he heard a deep male voice ask, clipped and precise.

Ivan backed up a step and allowed them into the room. "They are not your type, but they insist." he said as they walked past him. They approached Brian, a tall man in a dark suit and an earpiece in his ear. A shorter dark haired woman dressed in the feminine equivalent, right down to the earpiece, came in a step behind. She looked at a card in her hand, then at his face.

"Brian Abernathy?" she asked.

He nodded, and sat straight up in his bed, feeling like he'd been called into the principal's office, but for something a lot more serious than talking back to a teacher.

"Do you know Rebecca Swissfield?"

"Never heard of her."

"We have information that you may have had sexual relations with her this morning." the man said.

Brian's mouth worked like a fish. "I... I didn't know her name." he said, sure he was in trouble now.

"Understood." the man said. "Do you know where she is now?"

"She's a nurse. She's not at the clinic?"

"No, nor is she at home. You are apparently the last person to see her."

"I haven't seen or spoken to her before or since. Well, except at the clinic last night."

"Did you two discuss anything?"

"No, she never said a word beyond the instructions for.... the test. And nothing this morning except.... what she wanted"

The man nodded.

"Is that why you're here?" Brian asked, hopefully.

"No, that is a secondary issue. She did not tell you your test results?"

"No, why? What does that have to do with it?" Brian's stomach lurched again. Despite Ivan's certainty and happiness, he still could not really believe it.

"You're results were positive. Class A." the man said.

"You're an Ace, Brian" the woman said. "Congratulations."

Brian buried his face in his hands. He could not bring himself to celebrate.

"We'd like you to come with us." The man said. Then he held out an id and offered his hand. "I'm Special Agent Wilkins, United States Secret Service. This is Special Agent Broadman. We're assigned to you while you make arrangements."

"Am I in trouble?"

Ivan cut in. "If I know women of this school, da, you are in big, big trouble." he said, a huge leering grin on his face.

"And you are Ivan Duprovnik?" Broadman asked.

"Da, it is I."

Broadman looked at Brian. "We'd like to bring you to our office. There are things to discuss. You may have anyone accompany you if you wish."

"Do I need a lawyer?"

"You are not under arrest, Mr Abernathy. As far as we know, you have committed no crime. And if you have, we're sure that can be cleared up. We would like to assist you."

"What is to assist?" Ivan asked. "He already knows how to do it."

"I'm sure he does, Mr Dubrovnik," Wilkins said. "But life will become much more complicated than that, sooner than later." he walked to the window and peeked between the blinds. "Much sooner." he said.

"Ivan, will you come with me?" Brian asked.

"Da, my friend. Very definitely da."

"You may want to pack a bag." Broadman said. Brian did, finding a duffel bag in the small closet and shoveling clothes into it. Then books, his laptop, some papers and folders from his desk. He hefted the bag and looked around, wondering if and when he'd be back.

They led him outside, alert to everything around them. Jesus, Brian thought, the goddamn Secret Service?

A crowd of students were gathered around a pair of black SUVs parked illegally at the dorm entrance. The crowd seemed uncertain why it had gathered, but what looked like very obvious police activity combined with the rumors piqued everyone's interest. More people were arriving by the minute.

When he stepped through the door, all eyes were on him, and on Ivan by his side. How many of these people believed the rumor, and how many thought he was being arrested for something?

The agents sat Brian and Ivan in the back of one of the vehicles and joined them in a middle row of seats facing back. The car started off as soon as the doors closed, and Brian sat facing the two agents. "Can we just not tell anybody?" he asked lamely, already knowing the answer.

"It's too late for that." Broadman said. She punched her phone a couple times and held it up to him. It showed his school ID photo, above a big red "Breaking News!" banner.

The ground shifted under his feet. Up to that point, he could pretend it wasn't true, or that if it was, he could still find a way to live his normal life. He sat in silence for several minutes, shaking, trying to wrap his head around what was happening... what he is now. He was, among other things, a celebrity. Judging by what he'd seen about other aces elsewhere, he was a national celebrity.

"Isn't there some law about medical privacy?" Brian finally asked.

Wilkins shook his head. "Executive order from the President. He declared it a public health question."

"Jesus." Brian said.

"Most guys are pretty happy when they hear the news." Broadman said, her voice sympathetic.

"Da, you are big man now." Ivan said, still beaming, but more subdued seeing Brian's reaction.

"How happy are they a year after they hear the news?" Brian asked Broadman. She and Wilkins looked at each other.

"That's pretty perceptive for a college kid." she said.

"Is not perceptive," Ivan said, "Is just shy."

Wilkins and Broadman watched him silently while they rode to wherever they were going.

Where they were going was a large-ish house in the foothills just outside of town. The threaded down a long drive to a parking area with a multi car garage. The parking would be out of view from the road, probably chosen so the big black SUVs would not draw attention.

The rest of the day went by in a blur of meetings. He met with a counselor, the eight other Agents who would be assigned to provide him round the clock security and transportation, the man who ran the teams assigned to him, and a chef. By the end of the day, he was exhausted.

They all left around four except the chef, two of the guards, and Charles, the team leader who would double as a sort of butler, concierge, secretary, and whatever else Brian needed. He had a very large gun on a shoulder holster and an earpiece in his ear.

They ate and relaxed. Charles stayed out of sight after letting Brian and Ivan know that they could call on him any time, for any reason. They spent the evening talking, drinking Kentucky Bourbon, and imagining increasingly ludicrous possibilities for the future. No matter how ludicrous they got, Brian wondered if they really were really all that exaggerated.

Ivan suggested they should invite some girls. It had been made pretty clear that Charles could make that happen, probably by sending an agent to show his picture around campus and inviting any takers for a ride in the SUV.

Brian thought that that was the last thing he wanted right now, but that Ivan was welcome to. Ivan declined as well, whether in sympathy for Brian or because he doubted that his picture would generate the same level of volunteering.

The last thing Brian remembered before falling asleep was an admission from Wilkins. When Brian asked in the SUV if he had any choice about the Secret Service protection, Wilkins shook his head and said, "Frankly, you're more important than the President, and even he doesn't get any say in it."

===

Brian needed nothing more than some safe stability, something of his familiar routine. Over the next days at the safe house, he tried to come to terms with it all. He spoke with the counselor, a middle aged woman with a sternly sympathetic demeanor. He liked her, and opened up to her somewhat, but he always had the feeling she was trying to steer him into accepting the idea of making as many babies as humanly possible, as quickly as possible.

He mentioned it to Ivan the next morning over coffee. It was the third day in the safe house.

"Da." Ivan said. "They want you to fuck all the women. Makes lots of babies."

Charles happened to walk by then, and Ivan asked him. "Is this not so, Charles?"

Charles looked at Brian, as if asking permission to butt into the conversation. Brian nodded, and Charles approached the table. He looked to be in his fifties, fit and healthy with just a bit of graying at the temples. He had an honest face, but one that looked like he was haunted by an all too full understanding of how the world really worked.

"Of course it is so." Charles replied. "She is not manipulating your decisions, she just wants you to be able to deal with it in a healthy way." Brian looked at him, confused and worried. Charles went on. "You may not understand the crisis we are facing. Even in the best case scenario, even with you aces pumping out children like an assembly line, the world will become a nightmare within a generation."

Brian's eyes were wide. He hadn't really thought about it, hadn't wanted to, but he understood some of it.

"The economic affects alone will be devastating, and that won't take a generation. Already, companies that manufacture baby food, diapers, baby clothing, all of it, they are going out of business. All the companies that support them, trucking, packaging, accounting, they're all losing that business. It's marginal for the supporting companies, but it will start building on itself.

"Every year, as this demographic void progresses through the ages all these missing babies would be, more classes of goods and services will find they have no customers. Schools will close, then colleges. As this demographic void progresses, every single industry now in existence will eventually have almost no customers, as well as fewer and fewer workers.

"Many things we take for granted will simply end. Cars, computers, advanced medicine. Eventually, fuel, food, sanitation, all of it will just end."

"God." Brian said, finally grasping the big picture. "But a few more babies, even a few thousand more, can't really reverse this, can they?"

"No. But it is not about reversing it. You can't stop it." Charles said, looking intently at Brian. "All the aces in the world can't. A human population in the tens of thousands simply cannot support any of that. Our government is not saying it, but this is not about saving us, it is about after. About where we are when the dust clears and we are back in the stone age, more or less." Charles paused, contemplating something even more unpleasant. "And even that is a big if" Charles looked away, his eyes gone hard.