to another?"
"No, ma'am. We'd fly to where there are a bunch of them close together, like
at beltway exits along the Interstate. Then we'd walk. No vehicle records to
worry about that way."
Mandi nodded. "Yeah. Okay. Sounds good."

Chapter Seventeen

Mandi didn't particularly like the man she'd met in Washington, but the
President was the only one who could quietly approve a fairly large clandestine
expenditure.
It was one thing to select and convert people, but it was quite another to
provide them a base of operations, communications, training, equipment, and all
the other logistical necessities.
He'd easily understood the urgency of getting the program underway, but he'd
balked when Mandi -- well aware that their conversation was likely being
recorded -- avoided discussion of her method of converting regular people to
superpeople.
Leaning back in his chair, he'd asked, "Why can't we just convert one of our
Ranger units, ma'am? Wouldn't that be a lot simpler and faster than hand-picking
and having to train every single... what do we call them? Convertees?"
"Close enough," said Mandi. "Not everybody can be converted. Some people
simply aren't suitable for the process."
"You're saying it won't work on everybody?"
To avoid saying that she simply wouldn't accept everybody, Mandi said, "Some
of the money would go to pre-conversion evaluations. Training would eat most of
the rest of it."
"What kind of training?"
"Imagine that you instantly became ten times as strong as you'd ever been.
Could you immediately shake hands with someone? Hold a child? Could you take a
step and not leap fifty feet? Could you even hold a coffee cup without breaking
it? It takes time and training to adjust safely."
Their discussion had lasted almost an hour, at the end of which time he'd
promised her five million and the use of a decommissioned underground missile
facility in Nevada.
"If your program shows promise in six months," he said, "You'll get more
money. I'm basically giving you this first five million for all you've done
since you've been here."
Five million. It was a quarter of what she'd asked for and almost exactly
what she'd expected.
Concealing a grin, Mandi grimaced slightly, sighed, and said, "Well, if it's
the best you can do..."
The man held up a hand and said, "I"m sorry, but it is. For now, anyway.
Give me results that I can show the oth