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In the past half hour, the place had turned into a refugee camp. Kira had finally gotten some medical attention, too. Her right arm was in a sling, but she’d turned down the pain meds. I’d started to ask one of the medics to check the gash in my forehead, but then I realized that it had totally healed. That brought up a question I was dying to get answered. It had been stuck in my head for a long time. Maybe it was a way to get Kira talking.
I looked over at her. “Can I ask you something?”
She nodded.
“What can Ido?”
She stayed quiet for a moment, then looked at me with an annoyed expression. “What can youdo?? There’splentyto do,” she said, looking at the chaos across the compound. “For one thing, we need to figure out where all these babies belong.”
She wasn’t understanding my question.
“No,” I said. “I mean, what can Ido? What are my powers?”
“Yourpowers?”
“I mean, obviously, I can survive plane crashes. I can learn languages overnight, swim for miles in freezing water, repair my body, lift an ATV with my bare hands. What else??”
“This is really what’s on your mind right now?” Kira asked.
“Just curious.”
Kira got quiet again and looked away. She was giving me nothing. I’d obviously picked the wrong time. And the wrong topic.
“Never mind,” I said. “Forget it.”
She let out a slow breath and turned back toward me.
“Okay,” she said, “if you really need to know, start with this: your reaction time is three times faster than normal. Your muscle strength and endurance have quadrupled. You can run a quarter mile in under forty seconds. Your vision is 20/10 in both eyes. Your skin is thicker, more resilient…”
“Like Superman??”
She grabbed my arm.
“Look at me,” she said. “You’renotSuperman. You’re just the best version of yourself. New and improved. We’ve maxed out your natural potential. That’s what the original Doc Savage experiment was all about—seeing how far native ability could be pushed. Not by coming from another planet. Just by starting with what you already have.”
“And how did you know what I already had?” I asked.
“I studied your ancestors,” she said. “I knew the techniques. Ilivedthe techniques. I gambled that you were a diamond in the rough. And I was right.”
She went back to staring into the distance. I couldn’t leave it alone.
“So could I stop a bullet with my body?” I asked.
“Don’t push your luck, Doctor.”
CHAPTER 100
LATER THAT MORNING, another INTERPOL chopper settled down in the main yard and a dozen more commandos poured out. Kira had wandered off. I had no idea where to. I knew I’d pissed her off with my questions about superpowers. Probably good to give her some space, I thought. As the chopper blades wound down, a new squad leader walked up to me, goggles on his face, rifle across his chest. I must have looked like somebody who knew something.
“What the hellisthis place?” he asked.
“It’s a school,” I said.
The commando looked around at the crowd of kids sitting on the grass, sullen and quiet. Some of them were picking at the ground or mumbling to themselves.
“So where are the shooters?” he asked.
“You’re looking at them,” I said.
