Solomon's Private File #34
These stories about Stephen and Solomon take place starting in
1950's. Stephen wrote about his life in letters to a penpal, and then
in a secure blog, in case he lost his memory again, in the master
computer in his school for gifted students, which he started attending
in 2016 in a new incarnation, until his death. Now his son Solomon is
attending the same school, and is writing in his own secure blog for
his future incarnations.
All characters are fictitious, even if some of them might have names
that belong to some actual people, or act like people we know.
Solomon is 14 in this story, in the Fall of 2040.
Solomon's Private File #34 "Family Trouble"
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I did some research on the family of the boy who's father told him to
report everything. Then I had a meeting with Pete and Ivanna. I said,
"New student. Pushy father." I gave them the specifics. I said, "I
haven't read his mind, but there are some unanswered questions. Why did
he allow his wife to have a Stephen kid? I sense some purpose beyond
the usual. What will he do about the security restrictions, and his
son's refusal to break them? What will he do against the school for
that?" Pete said, "We should have foreseen this." I said, "Past is
past. Now and the future are our concerns. We might have to do
something bad to him, if we can find proper justification. His desires
and privacy, or the well being of his son, and all of us. Does he even
care about his son?" He said, "Wow!" I said, "I propose we invite him
here, and in the guise of a tour, ask him leading questions to illicit
the answers we want. Then if justified, a full read. And we go from
there. His memory of what he sees can always be erased." Ivanna said,
"Anything bad we do to him will negatively affect his son." I said,
"More. Full knowledge of his father can do even worse." That woke them
up.
Pete called the boy's father and invited him and his wife to the
school for a conference. His offer to port them was rejected. Pete gave
him an address and room number. The man drove to the address, and
discovered it was a hotel. He went to the room and knocked. I, with my
FBI disguise on, let him in. In the living room were Pete and Ivanna.
Pete did the introductions, omitting me. The man, Eugene Jones, said,
"Is this the school?" Pete said, "No, it isn't. We're meeting you here
because you refused to be ported." He said, "Some kind of stupid
punishment for not doing what you want?" Pete said, "Because you can't
get into the main part of the school without porting. Nobody can." He
said, "So your students are prisoners?" Pete smiled, and said, "No
prison in existence has ever had such happy and smiling kids. They are
no more restrained in their comings and goings than in any other modern
school. They are protected this way for their own security. Many
foreign governments and individuals want them all dead. We do
everything we can to ensure that doesn't happen." He obviously hadn't
thought of that.
Gene said, "Alright. I agree to be ported." Pete said, "You may leave
shake his head, who said, "Surely you noticed your son's abilities. He
would know when you lie, and he would have detected the gun. Shouldn't
it be reasonable to you, that we would be able to do that too, at least
as well, being graduates of our school, where those abilities are
required for admission?" That really woke him up. He put his gun on the
table. I checked the serial number, and reported my findings via
contact. We stood and ported to a hallway in the school. Pete said, "We
will not disturb the classes, but we have made the doors transparent to
you, like a one way mirror." He tried to go into one, and yelled to the
students. It didn't work. Pete said, "Do you realize that if you had
done that in any modern public school, you would have been arrested?"
He obviously didn't. Pete said, "Too many shootings. It's the law now.
I advise you to behave yourself, or there could be unpleasant
consequences." He said, "Oh? What would they be?" Pete said, "For one,
my ID and put it on. It had, besides my picture and name on it, FBI
printed in big letters. He was REALLY surprised.
Pete said, "Yes, he works for the FBI. Department head, actually.
Don't let his looks mislead you. Oh, and one more thing. He owns this
school." I nodded. Gene was completely flabbergasted. He said, "I don't
believe you!" Pete said, "We are unable to lie. No staff member is. Oh,
and our FBI man is a graduate of this school." More surprises. Pete
said, "Don't be so surprised. This school was started by the federal
government. The first Stephen took it over, but we still have good ties
with government agencies. Let's go to the office." We went to a big
office, which was actually mine, and sat in the informal area.
Pete said to Gene, "We invited your wife, too. She didn't come.
Please tell us why." He said, "She didn't want to." Pete said, "You
didn't believe me when I said we can tell when we are being lied to,
just like your son can?" He said, "Stop calling him my son!" Ivanna
said, "But he sure isn't your daughter." I tried not to laugh. He said,
"He's not mine!" Pete said, "He was born to your wife in your marriage.
Legally, he is your son, and you are required to be a good father to
him." He didn't have an answer to that. Pete said, "Why did you agree
to have the child that way, with a donor, if you didn't want him as
your own?" He didn't answer. I said, "I've got enough. Spousal abuse
said, "We'll see." I said to Gene, "Answer his questions. All of them."
He saw he didn't have much choice, and said with dejection, "I thought
I could use a powerful son to become rich and powerful myself."
I said, "Do you know why the government didn't oppose Stephen taking
over this school? Geniuses wouldn't do what the government wanted, and
couldn't be forced to. You wouldn't have succeeded, except in causing
so many faults in your son's mind, our teaching methods wouldn't work
on him, and he's been told that, too. But he still loves you. The big
question for him is, will you deserve that love?" He put his head in
his hands and said, "I don't know if I can." I said, "You can, if you
want to. First, look up and read the diplomas on the walls." He did,
and said, "Wow!" I said "Note the ones in psychology. And the name." He
said, "Oh! This is Solomon's office!" Pete said, "And he is Solomon." I
said, "Sol, to my friends. Do you want to be my friend?" He said, "Me?
With who I am and what I've done?" I said, "Past is past. You, with who
you can become." He dripped tears. I opened my arms, and he stood and
came into them. I hugged him with my love, and an enhanced Ki command
not to mistreat his family. Ivanna helped him to sit.
When he was recovered enough to listen, I said, "Change isn't easy.
You'll have to work at it, but you can always call us, even if it's
just to talk. Are you going to support our school's need for security?
If you think you might be temped to speak out of turn, we can help you
control that." He looked interested, and said, "How would you do that?"
I said, "I would plant a command in your mind against that, but only if
you approve of the words first, and you will be fully conscious and
aware of the process, and it can be removed at any time. I recommend
it. I know full well, with my almost irrepressible odd humor, how
difficult it is to keep one's mouth shut when one should." He laughed
really hard, partially because of the release of tension. Ivanna and
Pete grinned and nodded in agreement with me. He agreed to have the
command. We worked on the words until we were all satisfied, and I
implanted them. Then I said with a grin, "Didn't hurt at all." He
grinned back, and said."Right."
Gene said, "I've misjudged all of you. I'm very sorry about that. You
are better people than I believed possible. I know now you could have
done much worse to me, even with your amazing ethics." I said, "There
are a few more things to resolve. Could you help us, the FBI, with your
gun?" He said, "Oh. Right. I bought it on the street. Unlicensed." I
said, "And involved in some crimes. I ran a trace on the serial." He
said, "I never used it. Keep it. Lucky I wasn't caught with it." I
said, "VERY lucky. Killed two people in a robbery gone bad. Got any
info on who sold it to you?" He gave it to me. I said, "Lucky day! He's
one of the perps. Locked up on other charges, but it'll help. Yes, we
really do help law enforcement when we get involved with something, and
they are very appreciative of it. If not so much my humor." They all
grinned.
I said, "One more thing. Your son is waiting to see you, and he
really is worth loving. When you're ready, I'll take you to him.
Fortunate he's seen me in this disguise, so he knows who I am. Right.
For my privacy, this is how I am at my office in the FBI, but they do
know who I am." Ivanna said, "Can't mistake his humor." Chuckles. I
took him to an empty office where his son was, and left them. I had to
monitor for his safety. It went well, with a lot of tears. When they
came out, they both hugged me. I ported with Gene to the hotel, and he
left in his car.
In the meeting after, I said, "We were lucky. It could have been much
worse. I think we need to modify our procedures for candidate
research." Pete said, "Right. Like we do at the FBI, to the parents.
With the sperm donations, we've given them extra motives to be bad." I
said, "We could stop that, after we have enough genetic diversity to
continue on our own." He said, "Something to be considered." I said,
"It's not as if we all don't want to screw our brains out." They
laughed.
I met with Chad. I said, "We need to update the parent screening for
your sperm squirting clinic. Father of one of our new S Kids agreed to
it only in hopes of riding the kid's coattails to power and wealth. He
never loved his son, and for an S Kid, that took some hard work." He
tried not to smile at that. He said, "Right. They sign rights to all
investigation. You'll assist when needed?" I said, "You know I will. We
turned him around, but it was NOT fun!" We hugged with love.
Later at home, Griff, Gene's son, asked to speak to me privately. We
went to the den. I said, "You know we aren't really private." He said,
"I know, but this way I can make believe we are, a little. I don't know
how to thank you enough for what you did with my father. He's changed.
Better. I knew he didn't really love me, but I always hoped I could
earn his love." I said, "He can't really help loving you. Nobody can.
He was just resisting it. He was very good at that. Now he can be very
good the other way, even without printed directions." He said, "Wow!" I
said, "Absolutely!" He said, "They're right about your humor, but it's
much more than just humor. You sneak really important things into it."
I said, "Well said, but it's a secret. What they don't suspect, they
can't resist." He almost said wow again, but my kiss stopped it. Didn't
stop his giggle.
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Grant
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