FRACTAL

by Tony Ortiz

  This is bullshit, said Charlie. Would killing one of us be on your invisible list of viable options too?

  Put a pin in all that for a minute, said Laura, what possible benefit is there to dosing someone with Trancetol?

  The original idea was two-fold. First, I wanted to get a pure sample of Trancetol, to have some independent tests run on it. I thought we'd be able to reverse engineer a treatment of some sort. Secondly, I had it on good authority that Hector may have been a mole sent from either another team or even the creators of Trancetol to infiltrate and break up our team. I needed someone I could trust to keep an eye on him as well as things around here in general.

  Hector isn't some spy, said Laura.

  Hell no, he's not, interjected Charlie.

  I know that now, responded Miguel, but I didn't then. Also, I had no idea those supplements had Trancetol in them. I'm dead serious about that. I was told they'd bring the ability back. It was supposed to be a temporary thing Brooke. Honest.

  So, who did you get the supplements from? Jake asked.

  Someone on the team that helped create it. I've been playing their side to see how much intel I could get from them and their process.

  But wait, it didn't start with the supplements, said Laura. You had to have dosed her enough to curb her skipping in the first place. How'd that happen?

  During one of our Sunday dinners. Remember the one where I kept handing out shots of tequila? I made sure that one of Brooke’s contained the concentrated Trancetol dose.

  The tears welled up in Brooke's eyes, and she walked out, upset. Laura followed behind to console her. Before she walked out of the room she stopped and turned to say:

  You should be ashamed of yourself.

  I'm not proud of it, Miguel blurted out, but I don't apologize. I will always do anything that is in the long term benefit of this team. Shit, that's why most of you signed up and stayed on in the first place.

  Thereafter, everyone's default demeanor was distant. They were keeping to themselves for the most part and had no intentions of bridging the disconnect in either direction, anytime soon. So they did what each of them naturally gravitated towards and they buried themselves in their work.

  Trancetol was back at the forefront of everyone's minds. As the team in large part focused on how they missed the OTC supplement aspect during their mission, some useful information actually came out of this. Laura & Brooke found out how many supplements that were currently on the market had Trancetol in them. There were 49. Jake & Charlie reached out to Brance Centron to see if he could shed some light on any of this. Skippers across the board tend to coalesce around Trancetol related issues. It's a known and common evil. Brance told them that he's been on a five month long, and counting, mission where he's monitoring a new type of U.S. government surveillance that is nascent but gaining momentum at an alarming pace. He said he'll see what he could find out and get back to them. When he did, he showed up in person.

  Hey Brance, Jake said surprised to see him when answering the door.

  What's up, Jake? I looked into that OTC Trancetol thing you guys reached out about. I thought it would be better to show you what I found, in person. Charlie around?

  Yea, sure, let me get him. Come in. They huddled around Jakes station, and Brance started talking.

  One of the people largely behind the OTC arm of things, appears to be Dr. Feinstein.

  Yea, we figured that much, said Charlie.

  Is Miguel around? Asked Brance.

  I haven't seen him, responded Charlie.

  I think he's in his room, said Jake. That's how he's been lately. Avoiding face time and just working off his laptop.

  Ok well, Miguel is working with or for Feinstein.

  What? Responded Jake.

  It might not be as bad as it sounds though, said Brance. We don't know. Only he does. Other skippers have “worked with” anti-skippers in the past. Shit, I've even done it when I was hard up for some dough. But it was mostly a way to fuck with them. A way to feed them misinformation while making a quick buck.

  How do you know he's working with that guy? Asked Charlie.

  Remember that Government surveillance mission I mentioned that I'm working on?

  Both Jake and Charlie nodded in agreement.

  One of their programs called Ubiquity, can tap into any surveillance camera, public or private, at any point in time, across the country. There’s only a negligent number of Camera manufacturers that haven’t given the Government back-door access to their systems at the manufacturing level, and the consensus is that those will soon follow suit as pressure continues to build. Anyway, I was able to skip back and clone an earlier beta version of the program. It’s pretty unstable but is still live and does the trick. I found some footage from a Diner where they met up a while back. Check it out, Brance said as he pulled out his laptop to show us. This one happens to have audio as well, but this program is so sick that if it didn't, the conversation gets transcribed by A.I. using a lip reading technology that's crazy accurate. In newer versions that I saw, the transcription is read back to you like an audio book, completely in sync with their conversation. See, that's Feinstein right there in the corner booth, impatiently waiting for Miguel ... and there's Miguel walking in.

  You're late.

  It's not easy making sure you're not being followed and keeping these meetings on the low.

  Yes it is. Do what I do. Leave earlier.

  Watch how much of an asshole this guy is. A waitress approaches to take their order and he makes her walk away disgusted by rudely responding and shooing her away.

  Can I get you all anything?

  No, no. Nothing.

  You need to work on your people skills Doc. How do you know I'm not hungry or thirsty?

  This is a joke to you?

  Miguel sighed. Let's get this over with. What's so important?

  I have a prospect in my office who's skip-ability is off the charts. He won't take meds and I think he's a flight risk. You have to bring him in on your end.

  Ok fine. When and where?

  Today, right now. Aren't you paying attention?

  I didn't know you meant today. And by the way. I work with you, not for you. And not by choice. So take it easy.

  You can tell yourself whatever you need Miguel. Plug all the little altruistic fueled holes you want. But don't ever lose sight of who pays the bills and keeps the lights on in your little play house.

  Whatever, what's the plan?

  I'm headed to my office now. I'm sure he’ll try to escape. Here's a copy of his file with photo. Here's your take, and for that kind of money, you better be around with your team and answer when I call you.

  After Feinstein gets up and leaves, Miguel opens up the file, watch, says Brance. If I zoom into it like this ... you can see—

  Oh Shit, it’s Hector, said Charlie.

  I'll do you one better, I tapped the private surveillance in Feinstein's office. It shows Hector breaking out. Then, by jumping from surveillance camera to surveillance camera of the store fronts in the surrounding area, you can pretty much see, with minimal gaps, the route he took which landed him in front of you guys. The rest is history.

  This is some heavy shit, said Jake as he stood there, equally as dumbfounded as Charlie.

  Before I head out, here's the last bit of what I found. We can see Feinstein making a phone call from his office shortly after the escape. But he's playing to Hector’s parents which are there in the room with him. Ubiquity also lets you tap any phone line by the way. So we can hear both sides.

  That's a sinister-ass program, huh? Said Charlie.

  We probably don't even know the half of it yet, responded Brance. That's why I've been looking into this Agency for so long. Here, check it out, he calls what seems like his outdoor ambulatory staff or maybe the local Police:

  This is Dr. Feinstein. We have an escape. Hector Herrera just fled my practice.

  I’m already in the area with my team. Any idea whic
h direction he went in?

  Recognize that voice? Asked Brance.

  No, but we believe he exited through the window, from the back room of my practice.

  What was he wearing.

  Damn, that's Miguel, said Charlie as he looked over to Jake who nodded in agreeable disbelief.

  Gray-ish jeans, a black v-neck t-shirt and white sneakers.

  Got it. We’re closing in on the parameter around your practice. I’ll contain him on our end. You focus on dealing with his family.

  Done.

  At this point you can hear that Miguel hangs up, but Dr. Feinstein pretends to still be on the phone with someone. Clearly for the benefit of Hectors parents.

  Absolutely. His safety is our number one concern. Please find him and bring him back to my office. I’ll be accessible 24/7 if you need additional information you can reach me on my private line. Thank you for your time.

  That's all I got boys, said Brance. Now I got to go back to focusing on this surveillance mission.

  We can't thank you enough brother, said Jake.

  Yea bro, if you need help with anything on your end, let us know. We got your back, Charlie said.

  I just might hold you to that. Be safe fellas, Brance said as he gave them both a pound and left.

  Shortly after, Miguel called a team meeting, for senior members only. He sent out an alert with only 15 minutes notice. It was just enough time for everyone, except Brooke, to reluctantly attend. He told them that he was being played, just as much as he thought he was playing the other side. He let his guard down and apologized for putting the team in jeopardy.

  Listen, I know I'm nobody's favorite person. I'm not even that to me right now. I'm coming to you to apologize, share what I've found and to see how we can move forward from this point, in a productive way that will benefit the team as a whole. Like I told you before, I was extracting information from someone on the original Trancetol development team. His name is Dr. Feinstein and he's an avid anti-skipper. I know it seems counter-intuitive but my thought was that if I got close enough, I could find out what he knows, and get ahead of what he's working on, while feeding him misinformation from our side of things.

  Didn't you think he'd be approaching the relationship in the same exact way? Asked Jake.

  Absolutely, Miguel responded, and your suspicion is 100% right. I just thought that as long as I kept my guard up, and didn't give up anything important, we would benefit more than he ever could. Unfortunately, I must have slipped up and mentioned when our Trancetol mission became an impenetrable, because from what I could tell, sometime thereafter is when the OTC supplements began to come to market. He knew when we stopped paying close attention to it so there's no doubt in my mind that he's involved with that side of things somehow.

  Thanks for finally being forthright with us...about this, said Laura.

  So what's this guy do besides hawk Trancetol pills? Asked Charlie.

  He's a behavioral psychologist with his own practice. I know he has prescribed Trancetol before. He also micro-dosed patients in the past, whenever they showed even an inkling of what he refers to as a preventable mental illness.

  Wow, said Laura. Have you gotten anything worthwhile from him?

  Yea, responded Miguel ... Hector.

  What do you mean? Asked Laura

  He puts his patients through a myriad of psychological tests. Any of them that he couldn't mentally manipulate into becoming anti-skippers, or the ones that wouldn't take the medication he prescribed, he'd tell me about to see if I'd recruit them. Hector was one of those patients. I treated them as any other potential recruits and considered them. Hector was the first one I chose to bring on. He saw no other way of keeping tabs on them. From his perspective, he must have thought that if he couldn't control them, at least he would know where they were. It's the devil he knew versus the one he didn't. For him it was a better alternative, then having a rouge skipper out there.

  So Hector knows this Dr. Feinstein too? Asked Jake.

  As far as I know, he's not aware of how I recruited him. But he knows of Dr. Feinstein for sure. That's where he was running from when we scooped him up. As a matter of fact, Feinstein paid me to.

  Like, real money? Why? Asked Laura.

  Yea, a substantial amount too. More than normal. Responded Miguel.

  Wait, what do you mean by more than normal? Are you working for this guy? Asked Jake.

  I give Feinstein information on skippers that he's interested in. He pays for that intel.

  So you dime-out skippers now? Asked Charlie.

  No, I wouldn't call it that. I just give him surface level information that he could get from any other team he'd ask. Stuff like skipping history, frequency and affiliations. By the time he comes to me, he's already been monitoring them so it's not like I'm telling him about someone new. I also take it upon myself to alert them that they're on his radar. I've given each and every one of them a heads up. None have ever wound up in his custody. That, I can say, I'm actually proud of. Also, that money is largely responsible for all of our shit and for keeping the lights on here.

  Jake and Charlie looked over at one another. If looks could speak, this one would have said something along the lines of; he finally came clean about his bullshit and it seems like he's being honest now.

  Did any of those new guys get recruited that way? Asked Charlie.

  No, none of them, said Miguel. And honestly, in retrospect I think I just recruited them as a way to balance out the team. I felt like I was loosing a grip on things and I guess that was my way of coping. I compromised the quality of the team, of our work, and that was wrong. I shouldn't have done that. All of them will be gone inside of two weeks.

  You shouldn't feel as if you need to have a grip on this, on us, said Jake. We all recognize and respect you as the creator of this thing. You brought us all in. But we were brought in under the idea of a team. A structure that puts self, secondary and the collective, first. Somewhere along the line you went away from that. That’s what you lost the grip on.

  Yea, you're right, responded Miguel. I've been off my A-game for a minute. But I'm re-calibrated.

  You really screwed things up with Brooke, said Laura. How are you going to recalibrate that?

  I don't know...but that's my top priority now. Any suggestions?

  Just be real with her man, said Charlie. None of it can be undone. So just be real, be present and take your lumps as they come.

  And don't expect her to be receptive to you any time soon, if at all, said Laura. I'd also leave out any douchey comments you might have about doing her a favor by letting her stay here.

  Miguel put his head down and replied:

  Trust me, I know I owe her more than a roof over her head.

  She knows it too, said Laura.

  That night Miguel tried a different approach with the Brooke situation. He decided to hand-write her a letter. Maybe she’ll actually give this a chance he thought. He waited until morning when he knew he'd bump into her in the kitchen, while she was getting everyone's morning preferences in order.

  Hi Brooke, good morning, said Miguel.