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"That sounds fine mate, but it sounds like there is more too it than that?" Sam replied.
"There is, let me try to explain. I've known both Victor and Anna for a long time and I still see them quite a lot and I even do weight training with Victor most weeks to help keep both of us motivated and also to help him see that he still has purpose in life.
Victor's in a wheelchair, as he got shot in the spine a few years ago on duty and Anna, well she got caught in an explosion and ended up losing part of one leg and getting badly burned on the same job that Victor got shot on. They both knew each other beforehand and anyone could see how they felt about each other, but they never did anything about it, I'm guessing because they thought it was unprofessional or something.
Anyway the incidents, put them both in rehab at the same time and they grew together and got married, despite the fact that they cannot have a physical relationship, because of Victors injury.
When you mentioned things, they were the first two that sprang to mind, simply because of their skill sets and their team leading experience, but spending time with Victor yesterday in the gym, made me realise that both of them are desperate, desperate for hope, probably more desperate than even they realise or would admit to.
If I send over a couple of encrypted files, can you have a look and see if you agree with me? I'm not asking you to commit to giving them the nanites now, but mate, I need them to have hope and I can't think of anyone better placed to help them find that."
"Ok, I understand, send them over and assuming they are as good as you say they are, I take it you want to arrange a meeting?"
"Yep, if you can take a look, I can probably arrange to get them over to you tommorow, if that's ok?"
"Ok, will take a look as soon as I get the files and yes tommorow would be fine."
"Ok, speak to you later then."
Sam didn't have to wait long for the files to arrive and spent the next half an hour or so reading through them. It was not easy reading. Their injuries were fairly horrific, especially Anna's, but it was their assessments and profiles that stood out most, which added to their skills, Sam could not help but agree with Pauls' assessment of their suitability.
Going back upstairs, he knew where Rebecca was and when she had finished writing the e-mail she was working on, he handed the tablet to her and asked her to read the files and see what she thought.
Sam couldn't help but notice the emotions that rolled off her as she read, everything from horror, to excitement, to concern and above all a deep empathy for two people that had clearly had life deal them a shitty hand.
When she had finished reading, she looked up and he got slightly lost in her deep blue eyes, he didn't need their new found telepathic connection to know what she was thinking.
"We have to help them." She said plainly and gently.
"I know. They are coming to talk with us tommorow and we are going to need a plan to help them." Sam said simply.
"Can the nanites defintely fix them?"
"I'm pretty certain they can, but on the other hand, repairing a spine, regrowing vertebrae and limbs, it will likely take quite a long time. They will need lot's of rest, lot's of food and with their damage, it could be very painful for them and they need to know that."
"Indeed my love, but even if it hurts more than you and I can imagine, can you imagine them thinking it's not worth it?"
"No, not really, but I think I need to do some digging with Jasmine's help to try and understand what options there might be to both get the food into them they will need and also to try and shield them from the pain. Can you imagine how much it might hurt, having your spinal cord repaired?"
Rebecca shuddered. "Well both me and Victoria will be here all day tommorow Sam, so invite them to come over any time you feel like.
Sam let Paul know that yes tommorow would not only be fine, but that he was looking forward to it and that both of the girls would be there too.
It was just before 11am the next day, when Paul arrived in a black minibus with Victor and Anna. Sam waited at the door as Paul helped them out of the minibus, before they came over.
"Sam, this is Victor and Anna, Victor and Anna, this is Sam Northrop, my friend I've told you about, along with his lady friends, Rebecca and Victoria." Paul said by way of introductions.
"Pleased to meet you." Sam said, offering his hand to each of them.
"So, shall we get on with this?" Victor said quickly, his face a picture of someone who thought he was having his chain yanked.
"Victor." Paul said quietly, a hint of warning in his voice. "What did we talk about?"
Victor sighed and nodded resignedly.
"So Paul tells us you may have a offer we will find hard to refuse?" Victor continued, his voice low and his expression still one of disbelief that anyone might be able to offer him anything he might want.
"Well that's up to you to decide Victor, Anna." Sam said gently but firmly. "However before I can even begin to discuss the offer, I'm going to need both of you to sign these non disclosure agreements." He said, as Rebecca handed each of them the agreement and a pen.
"Oh well, nothing to lose I guess." Victor replied in a resigned voice, signing. Anna by contrast said nothing, but nodded at Sam, before signing the agreement.
"Firstly, let me just say that I'm not going to patronise you, or start with platitudes, I've read both your files and I have at least some understanding about what both of you have been through." Sam started.
"I'm not going to offer you useless sympathy, but what I want to do is offer you hope." Sam waited for a second or two to let that hang in the air and give them a chance to absorb what they were hearing.
"Paul has identified that you both have skill sets that would be extremely beneficial to me in the near future and I agree."
"Had." Victor said.
"Have." Sam said slightly more firmly than before.
"I can only imagine what both of you have been through, however before we go any further, there is something I wanted to ask you both, that's not in your files."
Sam waited for a second or two before continuing.
"If your careers had not be stopped the way they had, would you want to continue doing what you did before, or something similar?"
"Well they were stopped, so what's the point of the fucking question?" Victor asked angrily. Anna reached across and put her hand on his arm and looked at him pointedly.
"Sorry," Victor grumbled quietly. "Since the incident, I've had anger issues."
"That's quite allright." Sam replied ruefully, "in truth I'd be surprised if you didn't."
Somehow the tension seemed to drain out of Victor as he raised his head slightly and looked at Anna, who nodded calmly at him.
"Yes, I guess so." Victor replied quietly and again Anna nodded in agreement.
Sam didn't really want to push it, but given the situation he didn't have much choice.
"That's not much of an answer Victor. I know you don't understand why I'm asking, but I'm going to need something a bit firmer than I guess so." Sam said quietly.
Victor's head came up and he met Sam's gaze. "Yes, I think we both would. Is that good enough?"
Sam looked at Anna. "Yes I would." She said more firmly than Victor.
"I guess that's good enough for now." Sam replied thoughtfully.
Sam waited for a moment, before continuing.
"Well, I know you aren't going to believe me to start with, nobody will or has to start with." Sam started glancing at Paul who laughed. "But if you hear me out, you will."
"I want to offer you both jobs, Victor, you as head of mine and my families security detail and you Anna as his support and intelligence specialist and liaison with Paul. However clearly, in your current physical conditions that's not possible." Sam could see the urge to ask him what the fuck he was talking about in both their eyes, but to their credit they held their tongues.
"I know, you're both thinking. Which is why you need to understand that with that job offer has a condition attached. Now I know that you aren't going to believe me at least to start with, but I can assure you that this is no joke. I am not yanking your chains, I am not taking the piss and I am not telling you something that I cannot deliver on."
Sam paused a moment, seeing the confused looks on their faces.
"The condition, is that you let me do what I'm pretty close to certain I can do for you, which is restore you to perfect health."
"Sorry what," Victor said clearly confused. "You're trying to tell us that you can restore us to perfect health?"
"Actually far better than perfect health, assuming I can fix your injuries." Sam added softly.
Victor burst out laughing, "You're taking the piss, nobody can fix a spinal, let alone re grow a limb." He added his tone flaring to aggression.
"He's not taking the piss Victor." Paul added gently. "Do you honestly think I would let anyone tell you something like that, if I didn't believe they could actually do what they said?"
Victor looked at Paul, his expression softening. Sam could feel the anger within him, controlled, bubbling below the surface, but he could also feel the glimmer of hope.
"Have you noticed how Paul looks different recently?" Sam waited as they both glanced at Paul. "What have you noticed?"
Anna spoke up. "That he looks somehow younger, healthier, if that's possible."
"And you'd dismissed that as your imagination, or that he'd had a holiday or something?" Sam asked.
They both nodded.
"Well it's not your imagination."
Sam let that sink in, as Paul smiled at them.
Sam allowed his consciousness to expand and gently skimmed both of them, Victor's anger has subsided, replaced by disbelief, the glimmer of hope had expanded a little. Anna was more hopeful, but also disbelieving. It kind of felt like they were both thinking they were going to wake up at some point and realise what they were being told was a dream. He tried to gently fan the glimmers of hope in them, as he started speaking again.
"What I'm about to tell you cannot pass beyond these four walls, you cannot discuss this with anyone outside of this room. If you do, you will likely end up getting people killed, or worse." Sam said seriously
They both nodded, he could feel the embers of hope get a little stronger and could tell that they would keep their words.
"Would it help, if showed you things that would be impossible, if I wasn't telling you the truth?"
"I guess." Victor replied, still with the tone of someone who really didn't believe.
"Watch my mouth and tell me if it moves?"
Paul sat up slightly straighter.
"Yes sorry mate, you don't know about this part yet." Sam laughed ruefully as he heard the mental giggles from Rebecca and Victoria.
"Ready, are you watching?" Sam asked, smiling seeing both of them and also Paul now looking at his mouth.
Sam opened his mind again and announced to all three of them mentally.
"So has my mouth moved? Did you all just hear my voice in your heads?"
Rebecca, couldn't help herself and started laughing. As Victor, Anna and Pauls' eyes widened in incredulity
Sam continued mentally. "I don't think Rebecca is helping, but yes you can hear me inside your heads. And yes, I can already hear the questions, the disbelief arising in your minds, but it's true."
Sam let it sink in for a moment.
"That feels freaky mate." Paul said.
"Ok, let's resume normality shall we." Sam said verbally. "How about I show the pair of you something else? Pauls seen this before."
Sam led them through to the gym and just like with Paul got them to check the weight bar to confirm it was as heavy as he said it was, before enjoying the expressions on their faces as Rebecca picked it up and started bicep curling it easily.
After they returned to the lounge, both Victor and Anna were still clearly struggling with disbelief, but he could feel the balance shifting inside their heads towards hope and questions.
Anna spoke softly first. "How is this possible, I have no idea what to think. Why us? Why are you offering this to us?" Victor nodded.
"Because I've spoken with Paul and I've read your files. You have exactly the skills I am going to need, but also I've seen who you are and understand at least a little of what you've been through. I believe that you deserve a second chance and that second chance will make you take this job far more seriously than other people might.
Neither of you have ties beyond this room, no families to ask questions or wonder how you are suddenly back in perfect health, so managing this, at least till we go public, becomes a lot easier. Plus you both have a lot of experience running teams and that is going to come in very handy as our security detail increases over the coming months and years.
Clearly I haven't told you yet how this is possible, but I think you may be starting to have an inkling of how this is going to change the world and I think you can imagine what people might do to get their hands on this technology."
"So how would this work?" Victor asked quietly
"Well for starters, I want you to go away and talk this through between the two of you. I want you to think of any questions you might have and write them down, but make sure it is on paper, because there cannot be any electronic record of this yet.
Assuming you agree, and I've answered any questions you might have to your satisfaction, then you will start working for me. You will have contracts drawn up by Rebecca, given that she is a corporate law barrister.
However you will also need to understand that I will expect the pair of you to live in house, so to speak. We will not be living in this house for that much longer and when we have moved, you will get your own place in our new property. However I will need you living in house to start with so that I can monitor you 24/7 whilst we fix you and also because you are going to train us in all of the areas we need to understand to ensure our security.
Over time, Paul is going to come fully on board and he will be running the security side of things, so you and the teams you will be managing will report directly to him.
However I feel I do need to warn you, that although I am as certain as I can be that I can fix both of you, I've never tried to regrow a spine or a leg and I have no idea how long it will take and how much pain it may cause either one or both of you. I will be doing my best to ensure it is as little as possible in both time and pain, but at this time I honestly do not know."
"When you say you don't know how long, I'm guessing you must have some idea? Days, weeks, months, years? If you want us working for you, I can't believe you think it will take a long time?"
"You would be correct Victor, whilst I don't know specifics, if I had to take an educated guess, based on the data I already have, I suspect it may take 2-4 weeks to fix you and then the improvements will take a week or two after that. It could be less, but I doubt it will be more."
"So when you say fixed, you mean fully fixed? I'd be able to make love to my wife?" Victor asked, gently holding Anna's hand.
"Yes and you'll both be able to experience pleasure from it far beyond anything you dreamed was possible." Rebecca replied quietly.
Sam felt the question bubble up on the surface of Anna's mind.
"I'd be able to have children?" she asked quietly?
"I'm fairly certain the answer to that would be Yes." Sam replied simply.
"Oh and before you make any decision, I want you to know one other thing." Sam said gently
"Although if you do come and work for us, it will happen significantly sooner, the offer to fix you, is not conditional on you working for us. I'm not sure how long it will take, but probably not more than a couple of years, but this will be available to everyone in the country at some point in the future and in your specific cases, you would be high up the list and it would be free."
"So you're not just going to keep this to a limited number of people?" Victor asked softly.
"No, the improvements to people will be strictly controlled, but fixing injuries, curing diseases and ailments will be generally available. In effect, I intend to put the NHS out of a job." Sam added with a small smile.
Anna looked at Victor quizzically, who smiled and nodded.
"Do we need to wait to say yes?" she asked gently, as tears rolled down her cheeks?
"Much as I'd like to say no, I think at a very minimum, I want you to take at least one day and think it over. Assuming you decided to say yes, then once you have signed your contracts, then I will explain everything in more detail as I'm sure you will have a million questions."
"You might say that," Victor laughed as he ran his fingers through his hair.
Sam could feel the hope welling in both of them, still twinged by slight disbelief, but he couldn't feel anything that caused him any concern.
Sam thought specifically to Paul. "Try not to react mate, but I need to make sure you keep an eye on them, now they know what is going on. I've skimmed their minds and whilst I don't think they would divulge anything discussed here today, I need to make sure. Just think your reply, don't say it."
"Ok, not a problem, will keep an eye on them." The thought came back.
"Ok, well unless, you have any more questions right now, I'll take you both back home and you can think about what Sam has told you." Paul said.
"However I would like to add one thing," he continued. "I hope you appreciate the risk Sam has taken, telling you even what he has, so please do not mention anything outside of these four walls and I know you understand that this can only be discussed face to face." He said slightly seriously.
Victor, looked at Anna, who nodded. "We understand."
After they had left, Sam looked quizzically at Rebecca and Victoria, "So what did you think?"
Rebecca glanced at Victoria, who nodded. "They are perfect, their skills and knowledge, make them that alone. But what they've been through..we need to help them."
"I know," Sam said thoughtfully.
"They wanted to say yes, right there and then," Rebecca added, gently stroking Sam's side. "I could feel it, they both had already made the decision inside, although Anna made it before Victor did."
"I know, I just want them to really think things through, even though I could feel that they didn't want to."
"I know my love." She whispered, gently kissing the side of his neck.
"I'd better start working through the potential problems with Jasmine and make sure we can try and make things as comfortable for them as possible." Sam mused, gently turning away and heading for the workshop.
Rebecca, held out her arms to Victoria and pulled her best friend and sister wife into a hug.
"Every time, you think you couldn't love him more, he somehow manages to turn that on it's head." Victoria whispered gently.
"I know." Rebecca murmured as she enjoyed feeling her sister in her arms for a minute or two, till she suddenly straightened.
"Now, given that Sam's so focused on other things, I think you and I need to work on some other things that need to happen?" She said pulling back with a smile.
Victoria laughed, "indeed, we need to get those houses of ours sold and resources pooled, so we can help find the right place." They both had seen Sam's vision for what he wanted and chuckled mentally to each other as rapid fire their thoughts melded and a list of jobs appeared in their minds.
"Glad we both think so alike." Rebecca laughed as they separated and started working on the list.
Sam had only just gotten downstairs, when Jasmine notified him that she'd been monitoring the firewall and another attempt by the mystery hacker and she'd managed to collect some information he might be interested in. She also noted that both UK GCHQ and the US DoD had been in contact via e-mail, wanting to arrange and expressing their interest in the firewall.
