Veil

by Aaron Overfield

  “Or we probably would've never gotten here in the first place,” Ken finished her thought.

  “Right,” she smiled.

  The three sat in silence for nearly ten minutes before Hunter broke it by asking if anyone wanted something to drink. While Hunter headed to the wet bar, Ken prepped Suren for the information he knew she was dying to hear.

  “Although Hunter kept you at bay to protect me, thinking that all the questions would cause too much stress and too much damage, I hate to say it, but I didn’t really learn anything. Not about what you really want to know, at least.”

  “But you did learn some things?”

  “Oh good God, yes.”

  “About Jin?”

  “About Jin, about you, about the Veil, all of that.”

  “But what about Jin’s killer? You had to see something. I walked out the door with him. I saw it myself through Roy’s eyes. Clear as day, Ken.”

  “Yes, yes. For sure, you did. Yes. But I think it would be best if I start at the beginning. Give you everything I saw and heard when I Veiled you. Trying to piece things together here and there is too messy.”

  “Ok, I understand. That’s probably best. Start at the beginning. I’ll try not to interrupt … too much.”

  “Here, help me get situated,” Ken requested, already standing up from behind his desk and headed for the couch that was still in his office. “We’ll start when Hunter gets back in here. I haven’t told him anything yet, and I know he’ll want to hear everything as well.”

  When Hunter returned, Ken was lying on the couch with his hands folded across his chest. Suren was seated in a chair next to him with a notebook in one hand and a pen in the other. She had her feet up on a table in front of her. She was ready to take down every word. She didn’t want to miss a thing. Ken was about to give her back her memory and she wanted it all.

  “I didn’t realize I was going to be interrupting some shrink shit up in here,” Hunter joked as he walked across the office with a tray of drinks in front of him.

  Lying in that same position and with his eyes closed, Ken started.

  “Jin waited until that morning to tell you anything. He woke you up after he woke up. You weren’t expecting anything but an ordinary day. You expected to wake up, find him gone already, and then you planned on getting groceries.”

  “Must’ve been a Wednesday,” she noted and wrote it down. “It had to be a Wednesday, because every other day I tutored at the house. Every day a different subject, you know?” she mumbled and glanced up at the two. She was still writing in her notebook, which amused Hunter.

  Look at Lady Miss Toshiba over there. She all scratchety, scratchety.

  “Jin knew how much I loved kids, so we set up a little room in the house. Science day, math day, grocery day, history day, literature day. So, Wednesday was my grocery day,” Suren rambled and jotted notes.

  The more she babbled and wrote, the more Hunter was indulged.

  Scribble, scribble bitch. Scribble, scribble.

  Ken hoped Suren was finished but cleared his throat to stop her, in case she wasn’t. Before she could start up again, he continued, “Right well, that’s irrelevant. I mean … anyway. Anyway, he woke you up, sat on the edge of the bed and had you take a pill. He said if you didn’t agree to what he was about to ask of you, then the pill wouldn’t really do much of anything.”

  Suren set down her notebook when Ken derailed her. She was embarrassed by her own enthusiasm, mostly because of the smirk she noticed on Hunter’s face. Still, she wanted to make sure she got everything right, so she needed Ken to clarify what he just said.

  “Agree?”

  “Yes, agree. After you took the pill, he told you everything. He said there was no way he would do any of what he planned without your permission. Jin said he could never do something like that to you.”

  Suren could already feel some emotion welling up. The sore spot that Jin’s actions burned into her psyche would not be easily rubbed off with that knowledge, although the knowledge would certainly help—the knowledge that Jin asked her permission to do what he did to her. That Jin asked her.

  “I hope you’re not making that bit up, Ken. To make me feel better.”

  Ken opened his eyes and looked at her. “Oh definitely not. I wouldn’t do that. He said the only thing about him he’d ever let you mistrust was the ‘T’ in his name. I don’t even know what that means, Suren.”

  “I do,” she smiled and avoided Ken’s eyes. She also knew it meant Ken was telling the truth. “Please continue,” she requested without explanation.

  Ken looked at Hunter, who shrugged his shoulders. Ken closed his eyes and continued.

  “Jin told you everything you needed to know about Veil except for what it was. He said if he told you what it was then it would change too much. He needed to have a pure test run. He said after the first part was done, you would have to leave so he could do his work, and then you’d come back to the lab.”

  “He wanted me to think he was doing the work in the lab. He wanted me to go about my normal day and not realize he was Veiling me, so I would act naturally.”

  “Exactly. But that’s not all he told you, not by a long shot.”

  Hunter rubbed his hands together and teased, “This is getting good.”

  Suren laughed and nodded at Hunter.

  “As you got ready, he was kind of hurrying you along. As you got dressed, Jin told you that you wouldn’t remember any of that day. The pill he gave you would act as kind of a buffer. The markers he placed in your memory would only work from the moment you were Veiled until the moment the Veil ended. So, to buy him some time, he gave you a weak amnesiac before and after the process. He was hoping it would buy him enough time, meaning you wouldn’t remember enough of those time periods to realize anything happened at all.”

  “He was right … or, well, he bet the right bet. I don’t remember a dang thing. The whole day, waking up in the morning, going to bed later that night, nothing.”

  “Yeah, I don’t think he realized it would work that effectively. But anyway, that’s not the good stuff.”

  “Get to the good stuff, mister.” Hunter put his feet up and rolled his eyes, although Ken couldn’t see it.

  Ken opened one eye and squinted at him. “Do you want me to make you leave, baby boy?”

  Hunter raised both hands in surrender and shook his head.

  Ken closed his eye and continued.

  “By that point Jin had told you he was working on a top-secret project for the government. He told you he didn’t think it would be safe for you if you remembered any of it so that’s why he wanted to erase your memory. He wanted to feel like he was protecting you.”

  “I figured,” she nodded.

  “But that still wasn’t enough for him. Without being able to tell you how, because it would tell you too much about the project itself, he said he designed your test so that the first person who ever tried to perform the procedure on you again would be killed instantly. The process would train your brain—permanently and irreversibly alter its electrochemical structure—so that Veil would never work on you again. No one would ever be able to use it on you.”

  “What?!” Suren and Hunter asked simultaneously. They both took their feet down and bolted upright.

  Ken opened his eyes and sat up. He knew that one was going to take a minute for everyone to digest.

  “Yep, that’s what he said. Jin’s test Veil of you was designed to implant a method that would literally train your brain to kill the next person who tried to shadow you, which would then also trigger your brain to restructure itself so that it could never be shadowed again.”

  “Why … why in the world—” Suren began to ask.

  Ken held up his hand to stop her. “Think about it. Look at it from Jin’s perspective. He worked for the government on some top-secret spy initiative. Not only were you his first test subject, but you were also his wife. And, we’re talking Jin here. You were his Suren.”


  Suren nodded as Ken kept talking.

  “Someone could come for you one day. To find out what you knew. Someone from another government or something. It was a logical assumption. To keep that from happening, especially against your will or without your knowledge, he had to put some safeguards in place. Because he was the one doing it—and this is me speculating—he probably figured he could disarm the time bomb in the future, when things were safe. But no one else would know about it or be able to disarm it.”

  “But you Veiled her and you didn’t die. You didn’t die.”

  Ken looked at Hunter and smiled, “Right! And the only thing I can figure is that it’s because of the memory I’m Vaulting.”

  “I’m not following,” Suren responded.

  Not breaking eye contact with Ken, Hunter spoke out his thoughts at the same time he processed what Ken said.

  “Since Ken had gone through the trauma of Jin’s memory so many times … training his brain to where he could experience the memory but then block the horror of it out to prevent any more damage, he built up kind of a tolerance. His brain built up a tolerance to the same kind of damage that the method Jin implanted in you was intended to cause.” Hunter finished by snapping his fingers, looking at Suren, and pointing a finger at her.

  “Precisely,” Ken agreed, and also broke gaze with Hunter to look at Suren. “I might be the only person who could’ve shadowed you and not be killed by it. And it was only by chance that I happened to be the one who did it. If things hadn’t happened exactly the way they did, if I hadn’t gotten Jin’s memory, dealt with it for six years, and built up this tolerance, I probably would be dead right now.”

  Suren put her hand over her mouth in horror and threw herself back into the chair. She sat there motionless. Ken scooted along the couch to get closer to her and put his hand on her knee.

  “But it didn’t happen like that,” he reassured her. “So, it’s ok. Everyone is ok. And now we know. We know what he did, why he did it, and how. Better yet, we know he didn’t do it behind your back.”

  Suren lowered her hand from her mouth and shook her head, “I know, I know … it’s just, could you imagine? Could you imagine what would’ve happened if it killed you? It would’ve been … it would’ve been—”

  “Horrible, a nightmare,” Hunter finished for her. “But, it probably would've never happened if everything else before it hadn’t happened, so who’s to say if Ken ever would’ve Veiled you if everything hadn’t happened exactly the way it did?”

  That did soothe her somewhat, and her hand instinctually went to the top of her head as she asked, “So that means that I can never use Veil again? Ever?”

  “Well,” Ken began as he returned to his horizontal position on the couch, “it means that no one can Veil you, no one can shadow you. If I understand what Jin did, there’s no reason you shouldn’t be able to Veil someone else. All he did, I presume, was train your brain only to communicate, in either direction, with its own Witness. Except for you, everyone’s brain will communicate one-way with a foreign Witness. Everyone’s brain will provide information to someone else’s Witness, although it won’t receive information from a Witness it did not create. However, now your brain will only provide information to a Witness it created. So, in theory, you should be able to Veil people—to shadow people—but no one can Veil you. No one can shadow you. Your brain is a one-Witness kinda brain now.”

  “Ok … I—I think I get it,” she sighed, still unconsciously rubbing her head.

  “Will it kill whoever tries, though? Whoever tries to Veil her?” Hunter asked.

  Ken raised his head off the couch and looked at Hunter. “No, it shouldn’t. That was part of the process of training her brain to begin with. It was like a trigger that set off the dominos. Because no one’s Witness can receive information from her brain, if they tried to Veil her it simply wouldn’t work. So, no, It wouldn’t kill them.”

  “Gotcha ok.”

  Ken closed his eyes and asked, “So should I continue?”

  Having set Suren and Hunter’s mind ablaze with the news of the last ten minutes, he told them the remainder was probably going to be less exciting and more disappointing. He described how Jin and Suren made their way to Jin’s lab. Jin hooked them both up to his Veil prototype and started the procedure. Jin then sent Suren on her way and instructed her to return around 8pm. Jin told her he should be done with all his work in the lab by then.

  Ken recalled as Suren left the lab, rode the elevator down to the lobby, and headed for the exit. He distinctly remembered as the man known as Jin’s killer intercepted Suren while she headed for the door.

  “All he said was, ‘You’re Jin’s wife, right?’, to which you simply replied ‘Yes’,” Ken told her.

  Ken reported how the man claimed Jin once showed him a picture of her and that he and Jin were acquaintances from the military project in the lab. Since Jin told her about the project that morning, Suren accepted that and greeted him. Ken said the man told Suren it was nice to meet her in person, shook her hand, and then walked off. That was it.

  Suren shuddered at the thought of having touched that man. After the disgust subsided, she found herself disappointed. She hoped there was something she could use. Something, anything. The smallest, slightest bit of information she could latch onto. If it went somewhere, at least it would be something she could use. Something she could focus on since every other lead was fleshed out … since every other path ended up being a dead end.

  “I know you’re disappointed,” Ken said as he opened his eyes, sat up, and looked at Suren. “I’ve gone over that moment again and again, trying to delve as deeply as I could into that moment, using every Veilological trick I’ve heard about to try to uncover any clues or details that might be buried in your subconscious, but I’ve come up with nothing. I’m sorry, Suren. I know you were banking on finding something. Some sliver. I know that’s why you wanted me to Veil you in the first place. But I didn’t find anything. I just didn’t. Not about that. Not about him.”

  Suren sat speechless for a moment and then sighed and looked through the windows on the far wall.

  “It’s ok. It really is. I won’t lie. I am disappointed. It was like this was the last hope. Looking for that memory for two years, well, it kept me busy, gave me something to focus on. But,” she took a deep breath and exhaled loudly while she looked at the two men, “maybe it’s time. Maybe it’s time to let it go. Move on. You know, accept it.”

  They sat in silence for a few moments. Suren looked down and realized she was fidgeting with her wedding ring. She turned it and saw the dent along the bottom, from when she smacked Ken so hard. She laughed to herself and looked at Ken, who still didn’t know how relentless she was on his face that night. She placed her hand on Ken’s knee.

  “It’s ok, really,” she repeated herself.

  Ken finished describing the rest of his Veil with Suren. He outlined her day and noted it was pretty typical. She went grocery shopping, headed back to their home, and got things ready for a late dinner while she prepared and ate lunch. She had her hair done. Jin told her she should do something she enjoyed that day, so she went to the First Ladies at the Smithsonian exhibition. Her day wound down and she headed back to Jin’s lab.

  When she returned to the lab, Jin was waiting. He downloaded his Witness from Suren and then put her under a heavy anesthesia to, according to what he told her, conduct the wipe of her memory. Jin told her she’d be groggy when she came out of the anesthesia and wouldn’t remember much, so they’d go straight home. When they got home, he’d give her the pill that would provide the rest of the buffer he sought. The one that would keep her from remembering most of the day and all the events leading up to and following the Veil.

  “Jin didn’t have to put you under,” Ken stopped himself. “You didn’t need to be unconscious. I’m guessing he did it that way so he’d be uninterrupted when he uploaded his Witness back onto himself to finish the Veil. So he could experi
ence you … alone.”

  Ken said they left, went home, and Jin gave her the pill. They ate dinner and then Suren went to sleep. That was it. After a moment of silence, Ken added how, in the elevator back down to the hospital lobby after they left the lab, when Jin was so ecstatic, Suren thought Jin was so happy because his experiment had been successful. She remembered enough to recall why they went there that day, so she assumed the test was a success. She was also rather groggy.

  When the elevator doors opened, she wasn’t paying attention to Jin. She didn’t notice him being so happy that he skipped, because she was shocked by the fact that it was already dark outside. She was taken aback by how much time had gone by. She noticed the dark sky through the windows, the vacant lobby, and empty security station. She was simply surprised it was so late in the evening.

  “Roy!” Suren yelped. Ken reminded her.

  “Well yeah, Roy. It would’ve been Roy sitting there when you went up to the lab that morning.”

  “No, silly, I just remembered … Roy.”

  “What do you mean?” Hunter asked.

  “Roy! Roy! Roy! Roy and Jin,” she giggled and slapped her knees with each word. The two men looked at each other, equally confused and lost.

  They gave her the same look.

  Suren crinkled her nose, wiggled her shoulders, and offered up a seemingly sinister request. “I want you two to help me. I want you to help me use Roy.”

  18

  KEY

  “You want to explain what you did?” she bellowed and threw her vKey onto Ken’s desk. It bounced and landed directly in Ken’s lap.

  “Do I really need to?” he asked with a smug snicker. He grabbed the device from his lap and smacked it on the desk in front of him.