Winter break ended and it was back to school for me. School was a mixed bag. It was great to see my friends again and it was incredible to get away from doing morning training with Uncle Magnum and Sifu Zhang. Sitting through classes though had reached previously unheard-of levels of boring. Whereas before I was sitting through useless classes that I needed to force myself to pay attention in so that I could pass them and get my diploma, now I was sitting through useless classes in which I knew as much as or more than the teacher teaching the class. Even the less useless classes, such as biology and chemistry, were dumbed down so much that it was mentally painful to listen to the lectures. Imagine yourself watching the Paris Opera Ballet one night and then having to sit through your six-year-old cousins’ ballet recital the next. The six-year-old was still watchable because she was cute and she was your cousin, not because of her performance.
Despite the growing chasm between what was being taught at school and my level of knowledge, I still wanted to learn more. Who wouldn’t, when learning was so easy? I called up Howie to set up my next knowledge fix and he promptly called me back.
“It’s funny. I was on the phone with Gerry talking about you when you called.” Again, no hi, no hello.
“Hi Howie, how have you been?” Maybe someday he’d catch on.
“Good. Gerry was asking if you need these books to last? He says that he can seriously cut down on the cost of printing the books, if he uses cheaper paper and less metals in his inks. He wants to know if it’s ok to do some experimenting on the books he sends you. Do you care?”
“I don’t think it’s a problem, as long as he’s willing to replace any of the books that don’t end up being satisfactory to me. If the books are good for at least one reading, then I’m fine.”
“It’s a go then. Make sure to keep me advised if any don’t make the grade. Gerry also wanted to know if you minded if he were to put in some books that you didn’t ask for.”
“Gerry doesn’t approve of my choices of books?”
“Well, no, not really. He says that your selection relies too much on western medicine and that you’re completely ignoring eastern medicine. He feels you need a better balance between the two. Also, Gerry loves fiction books and thinks that all work and no play will seriously stunt your growth as a person. He wants to send you some classic and modern sci-fi and fantasy books to read. Maybe a few mystery titles.”
“I won’t say no to a little light reading. Fine. Tell him to print as many as he wants. I’m a fast reader. In fact, I have another list for you. I’m sending it to you now.”
I pushed send on my new list:
Textbook of Physiology by Gabriel C. Ezeilo
Basic and Clinical Pharmacology by Bertram G. Katzung
Harper’s Illustrated Biochemistry
Textbook of Human Histology by Inderbir Singh
Medical Terminology by M. Mastrenbjork
On Rounds : 1000 Internal Medicine Pearls
Essential Cell Biology
Surgical Recall
Handbook of Clinical Skills by Jane Dacre and Peter Kopelman
Essential Surgery by Burkitt, Quick and Reed
On a whim, I added in MCAT Complete 7, which is a test preparatory guide by Kaplan. If you were applying to medical school, you needed to take the MCAT test and do well. I didn’t know if I would ever bother going to medical school, but I remembered dad’s words about learning for things that I may not be interested in now. Being able to scan people with my field, coupled with my ability to remove cancers that couldn’t be removed using normal surgical methods, gave me a strong interest in medicine. However, becoming a doctor would take between eleven and fifteen years and I don’t know if I had the patience to wait that long. Four years to get my undergraduate degree, four years to get my medical degree, and three to seven years of residency. That was close to my entire life thus far and all that before I could help anyone! I had to see if there was another way. One that didn’t involve going to one of those Caribbean medical schools.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“Got it. He should get those out to you in a few days. He wants to butter you up because he’s hoping that you’ll put in another hundred thousand dollars into the business.”
“What!?” My surprise brought my voice up into the upper registers.
“Hold on now, don’t get your knickers in a twist. It only sounds bad if you don’t know the context. The business is doing very well and he want to expand and get some paper making machines as well as another industrial printing machine. He’s got a line on some used machines that he knows how to run and upkeep himself.”
“How had he been able to generate so much business in just three months?”
“That’s the easy part. He’s been in the business for over thirty years and he’s well respected. That and the fact that he’s able to undercut the competition by twenty-five percent. He’s offering to bring up your share of the profits to 45%.”
“Do I have enough money left from the sale of the diamond?”
“That much and more. If you ever have more to sell, there’s a really strong underground market for diamonds and gemstones; especially uncut ones.”
“I’ll keep that in mind. I guess since you got me more for the diamond than I expected and I’ve got nothing else to do with the money, I might as well fund Gerry again.”
“I know he’ll be ecstatic. He’s having a great time running his own show. He was telling me that he used to work half the year just to pay his taxes and he didn’t get anything for that. Now he’ll be working a little less than half the year for you, but you’re the investor and you’ve made it all possible.”
“Howie, what am I going to do with the money that I’ll eventually be making? I have no way to account for it. It’s not like I can spend it on just anything.”
“This from the girl that calls me every other week for something strange and exotic? In the past year you’ve asked me to get you specialized mining software, personnel recruitment, an exoskeleton suit, metallic ink printing, thumb drives, customized external drives, and a parachute. You’ll think of something, I’m sure, and if I can’t buy it for you, I’ll know someone who can build it for you.”
“I could use some more map packages for the mining software. Maybe even some European maps. I’ll probably have to get out there once I graduate. Hmmm…to bad I can’t use the software to map out people.” I don’t know why I said it. I just knew how well the mining software how turned out and my body scanning was essentially the same thing.
“Don’t see why you couldn’t. Well, not the same software, but something like it. There’s a bunch of body scanners on the market. Some of them use digital cameras to create a 3D model of your body and others use infrared cameras to get your body shape. They don’t tell you what’s going on inside though. You’d need x-rays, ultrasound, CT scanning or an MRI to see what’s inside.”
As soon as he said it, my mind started working in overdrive. That’s exactly what I needed. Only I couldn’t use any of those methods for scanning, because you needed a license for them. Not the ultrasound though. I’d heard that you can buy ultrasound machines for the home that would let you listen to the heartbeat of your unborn baby. I would use my scanning ability to fill in the details. I just needed everyone to think that I was using ultrasound or something like it, something non-invasive and completely safe and that emitted no radiation, to get the information.
“Howie. You’re a genius! I need you to build me an experimental ultrasound scanner that can scan a person through their clothes from ten feet away and provide a map of their body. I’ll also need software that can provide a 2D and 3D map of a person’s body with overlays for the skeletal structure, organs, and muscle groups along with a way to input information or structures using precise measurement tools.”
A long pause from Howie. “I don’t think that type of scanner exists. The software does and I can get you that no problem.”
“Just do the best you can on the scanner. I need it to look good though. I need to plug it in and have lights go on and some whirring powering up sounds for effect. For the software, I also need to be able to print the information in color and with measurements.”
“I can build or modify a scanner for you, Abby, but I can’t invent things that don’t exist. Are you sure you want to do this?” Howie sounded very skeptical about the whole thing.
“No problem, Howie. The scanner just has to look hi-tech, but it’s mostly for show. It’s the software that I really need. Plan on the scanner being for a room that’s approximately twelve feet wide by eighteen feet long. I’m thinking that of a system that puts an ultrasonic scanner on each of the four walls would look very impressive.”
“If the scanner is more for show, then what’s the point of it all? What’s the point of the software if there’s no input from a scanner?”
“What happened to no questions asked? Will you build it for me? Please?”
“Fine! I’ll call you tomorrow with a timeline for when it’ll be ready and a price.”
With that pronouncement I was holding a phone with no one on the other end of the line. I wasn’t upset at all this time. Howie had led me to a solution to my problem. Now all I had to do was wait for it to be built and figure out a way to get Sister Clara not to ask too many questions about it.