CHAPTER 245: NOV-A-CHUNK

"No, I guess not." Then in a thoughtful tone, but with a twinkle in his eye, Brandan said, "You know, I have a daughter about your age."

Jack shook his head in amusement. "You’re not the first person to say something like that to me. But seriously, I have my hands full at the moment. I wouldn’t be able to give your daughter the time she deserves."

"You sure?" asked Brandon. "She’s a patient girl, you could bond her now and just see how things go."

There was something in Brandon’s tone that made Jack realize Brandon wasn’t trying to hook Jack up with his daughter. He was trying to make sure he didn’t outlive his daughter.

At that moment, Jack realized there was something he hadn’t considered when he was deciding whether or not to save these men.

This whole thing had started when he had summoned a copy of Orin because Katie had wanted Jack to offer Orin a soul bond. Because she didn’t want to lose her father.

When he learned about the plight of Orin’s team, the one thing he hadn’t considered was that these men also had families. And they might want what Katie wanted.

Looking Brandon in the eye, Jack asked, "It’s not just your daughter, is it? Are the other men going to want the same for their families?"

"I’m not sure. I think I can handle losing my wife or son, but the thought of outliving my daughter? It eats at me. She inherited my craving for adventure, and I’ve always been worried I’ll get a call in the middle of the night."

He took a deep breath and let it out.

"But now? Now that fear is a certainty. And I just figured maybe if you soul bonded her, it wouldn’t hurt so much if she died before me."

"Let’s revisit this later. Once this current crisis is over."

Brandon nodded, "Alright."

Jack turned and found the men had pushed the truck back into the first shipping container.

He walked over to Smith. "Is it clear?" he asked.

He wasn’t sure what would happen if a man was standing inside the container when he tried to teleport the truck into it.

Smith concentrated for a moment, then nodded. "Yes."

Soon after Jack exported the changes, Smith yelled, "West! Status?"

"Tunnel’s done," yelled West. "Nov-a-chunk surprise is only half done, and Norman says he thinks the Nov’s might have a tank inbound, no ETA."

Smith turned to Brandon. "Parker?"

"If we use all our grenades in one big push, we can buy ourselves maybe thirty seconds of peace, but if we aren’t gone after that, we’re toast."

"Get the truck moved to the other container, then circle up!" yelled the captain.

The men rushed over and pulled the truck out of one container, then pushed it across the room to the other container. With ten men, it didn’t take long. Maybe 30 to 45 seconds.

Once the men huddled up, Jack listened as the men shared status and discussed what to do and in what order. Once they had a plan, they began verbally practicing the plan, each man in turn saying what they would do.

Several times a man would identify a potential problem, and they would modify the plan and return to verbally practicing.

They were halfway through their fifth uninterrupted practice run through when the captain turned to Jack and asked Jack, "When I say ’go’, do your thing."

"Just say ’export’," Jack replied. "Each time you yell export, I’ll apply whatever changes you’ve made here in this room."

"Understood," replied the captain. Then he looked at West.

West was concentrating, and Jack could tell that West was frequently syncing his memory with his physical self.

As soon as West looked up at the captain and nodded, the captain yelled, "Export!"

As soon as Jack exported the changes and yelled, "Done!" the men rushed over to move the truck.

Soon after the truck was in place, the captain yelled, "Export!" again.

This happened several more times, and with one last "Export!" the captain turned to Jack and grinned.

"We’re out!"

Jack checked his EP balance. All the teleports had chewed through most of his reserve.

"Great! Now, I need you all to stop using parallel self. This operation burned through most of my energy reserves."

"You heard the man!" yelled the captain, and all the men disappeared from his soul space except the captain.

Then, turning back to Jack, he asked, "Does it cost you if we enter the other way?"

"No. It’s free to enter directly. I’m going to restrict you and your men to this room for now. But I won’t block your access to parallel self. I trust that you will use it sparingly for now."

The captain stuck out his hand.

As they shook, the captain said. "Thank you. We owe you our lives and won’t forget what you’ve done for us. Even with the soul bond, I understand you are taking a risk by helping us. If you ever need our help, just ask."

"You’re welcome."

The captain saluted Jack, then disappeared.

Jack unlinked and deleted all the items in the room, then deleted all the templates.

Before he left the room, he used his remote-presence technique to take a look at the situation now that the men were all in the other warehouse, over a mile away.

When he got to the new warehouse, he saw that the men were in the the process of loading into two panel vans, and there was dust billowing out from the open warehouse door.

The men and the dust were moving in slow motion because he still had his soul space time ratio at ten-to-one and he was using his only self to run the remote-presence technique.

When he checked the tunnel, he found that rock was still falling, extending the original collapse in both directions.

And when he checked the warehouse that the team had previously occupied, he terminated his remote-presence technique immediately, finally understanding West’s "Nov-a-chunk surprise" comment.

The inside of the warehouse was filled with airborne debris, much of it some shade of red. He had no idea how many of the enemy had entered the recently vacated warehouse, but none of them were leaving in one piece.

Satisfied that his rescue mission was a success, he returned to his interview room.

Orin was sitting across from Katie, and they were discussing something heatedly.

When he got closer, he realized they were arguing about Katie’s mother.

"She’s not that bad, Katie. I just don’t understand why you would want to deny her this opportunity," said Orin. "She is my wife just as much as she is your mother."

"Dad, you don’t understand. She’s not the person you think she is. Was Chad not enough for you to understand? She doesn’t love you. She just loves your wallet!"

Katie glared at her father in exasperation while Orin frowned back at her.

"You know, there’s an easy way to find out what kind of person she really is," said Jack as he grabbed a chair and sat down next to Katie.