Prologue

I had always known I was special. Since I was young, I've had the unshakable conviction that in some way, for some unknown reason, I was chosen for something. The feeling persists to this day, but at least now I know why. You will too. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's start at the beginning. In fact, let's start at the very beginning. Let's start with my birth.

February 26th, 1993

12:18 PM


While my mother was in labor, disturbing news came via the television screen nestled in the top right corner of the room. Breaking news; the World Trade Center had been attacked. A car bomb had been detonated in the basement of Tower One. Six died, and over 1,000 people had sustained injuries. The attack was laid at the hands of an extremist group, whose intent had been to topple Tower One, causing it to fall into Tower Two. However, all this was discovered later. At 12:18, all anybody new was that a bomb had exploded in the basement of Tower Two, which is enough to scare anybody.   


Half a minute later, I was born. Well, not born, exactly. More like pulled out. At 12:18, for unknown reasons, all of my mother's vital signs had sped up. And, since the doctor was monitoring me as well, he could see mine had too. Heart rate, blood pressure, it all skyrocketed. The doctor and his nurse had to make a spur of the moment decision and they knew that a cesarean section would be inevitable. Since my mother was already on anesthesia (and as a precaution the tools were already on hand) the operation could begin immediately. At 12:19, I was rudely removed from my mother's womb and introduced to the bright new world around me. At the time I was just like any other baby, dirty, crying, and screaming so hard you wouldn't have been surprised if my lungs had popped right out of my mouth. But, even if they couldn't see how I was different, they knew. The circumstances of my birth had been enough of a warning. What are the chances of a baby being born the same day, hour, and minute six people die in a bombing of the World Trade Center? What are the chances of the same baby being born through an emergency cesarean section? What are the chances of that exact same baby (and his mother) experiencing a sudden, unexplained rise in vitals immediately prior to birth? The chances for any one of the three are not extremely high, but needless to say, for all three to happen to the same child is practically unheard of. And, though I was the talk of the hospital for the next several weeks, I managed to live through a fairly uneventful childhood. There were only a few events, things that at first looked like pure bad luck, things that couldn't be readily explained, that marked the next few years of my life. They were the first signs of what my life would be like, of what I'd have to live through to reach the point I'm at today. Signs of the days to come.