Matt then took over, “The other issue is how to reverse the damage to the individual brains that have been so essentially restructured. It’s kind of like a virus that has taken over the machinery of a cell to produce more viruses. These brains seem to have and that’s a guess, had a significant restructuring of their synapses and energy oscillations, and hence memories, motivations. We have here a parasitic invasion that are turning people into semi zombies. For the good of humanity, we have IMMERSION that all Moderns and a few Noncoms like Jonah, allow themselves to undergo where we are put into a totally brainwashed state, some might say, to gain the advantage of super knowledge imparted to our brains in just one week. The volume of information pumped into our brains by far surpasses any that would be gained through a four year college education. That’s building a brain and it’s connections under the influence of chemicals, visual and auditory stimulation, isn’t it? So really what is being done through the video games is bad and not being done for the betterment of society, but it’s being done already all around us, truly. Whoever is doing this is not disclosing it nor getting truly willing participants yes, and certainly can’t possibly be doing it for the good of society by our traditional way of thinking. You can bet that if it isn’t some intelligent AI trying to get rid of humanity, then it’s humans doing it. It will be up to us humans to fix it and we in Six will play our role in doing so. Team Six was set up to deal with such unusual crimes. We will expose the issue for what it is. The big heads will come together and have to decide quickly how to gather a team to quarantine the ‘infected ones’, how to rehabilitate them, how to follow clues back to the originators, how to eventually shut down the system or systems pushing it out, how to set up scanning systems to prevent such ruses from ever being able to sneak out undiscovered and pervade our society.” The Captain was nodding his head approvingly at these explanations and Rona seemed totally satisfied.
She turned to Matt and asked, “So I understand the concept now based on what you, Mader and Charlie have said. What therefore did you do to help our Josh?”
Matt said, “Look at Charlie here who built this top of the line AI machine and he is a Noncom without any special enhancements as we Moderns routinely get. Jonah too although a Noncom helped him to do so before he started getting enhanced at age 10 or 11. These guys are geniuses and naturally born so. Then Jonah got through the Immersion because he personally wanted it and his parents allowed it. Jonah was able to fly a dasher with mind power since age 4 or 5. All of us in Six have gifts inborn that may have been helped by enhancements, that’s been magnified by our training together making us more powerful overall. One of those gifts involves being able to sense disorder within the mind of a person who consents and without knowing exactly how we do it, pool out resources to help that person to become more whole, if that’s their genuine desire. Ok?”
Rona stood there for a long moment, with everyone including her parents watching her fixedly. She had been tense and ramrod stiff all along, radiating the impatient air of someone who would not settle for any old ‘brush off’ answer. With that explanation, there was a visible slow relaxing of her face, softening of her eyes, shoulders easing down a bit. She nodded and said, “Ok I will take that for now. I understand how difficult it must have been for you all to pitch in to create such a clear set of explanations. So it sounds like the way to cure this will be to devise a special immersion type treatment for the ones affected, like my brother. Also once the perpetrators are found it’s crucial to really set in place mechanisms to remind society again of this type of dangerous transgression, so this terrible episode isn’t periodically repeated. Long term it will be necessary to build better safeguards against this sort of thing.”
Matt said, “That’s about how we see the situation right now, but we don’t know all of the big picture yet and there are technocrats and government decision makers all over including Threeme, Baclet and here on Toigan who will have a say. We are really tiny cogs in a small part of the machinery.”
She said, “That whets my appetite a bit, thank you all so very much for helping Josh and us as a family. What an incredible team you all are. Thank you Charlie.” With that she ran to Charlie and tearfully gave him a tight hug. He just stood there arms hanging loosely, chagrined. She went on to hug all of Six leaving Matt for last. His hug was the longest and he even got a little peck on his cheek. Then she rushed out of the room and down the hall, clearly near tears. Esmeralda was in tears and unabashedly went to everyone saying “thank you, thank you.” Captain Ronald swung around and grabbed a rolling cart full of drinks and snacks from the hallway where it had been hidden and pulled it into the room. I suppose he had to have a distraction from all the emotional stuff. He said, “I just can’t thank you enough Charlie for your hard work, preparation and you too Fetch. Thank you Six. You are my personal heroes. Let’s have some snacks. Lunch is being catered and will be here shortly so don’t eat too much of the snacks. Save room for the good stuff.” Josh went around murmuring his thanks and joy at feeling ‘back’ to almost normal.
After the tense heavy atmosphere, it was a relief to see the Captain, his wife, Rona and Josh transition to a far more relaxed state of mind. They all looked like a load had been lifted off their shoulders. Charlie was still sifting through the data conjured up by Fetch, eyes glued to his main monitor with frequent glances at his other three smaller monitors as he clicked and typed and voice commanded the files here and there. Fetch who was now in his rest position with his cooling fans slowly ramping down too. He was in a squatting position, head tilted forward on his chest both arms resting on his knees. His padded knees were on the floor and heels against his behind just like any squatting human. Everyone went for the lemonade but Jonah saw ‘Malt’ written on a bottle that was coated with moisture and went for it. He popped off the cap took a swig and made a wry grimace. Jessi saw him do that as she was walking over from the cart and asked, “Did you think it was a regular Malt?” He said, ”Yes, but it turned out to be only slightly malt flavored with a strong bent of fake pineapple! Not what I wanted.”
She held the bottom of the bottle while it was still in his hand being held by the neck and read it. She said, “It does say pineapple Malt, you just didn’t read it well.”
He said, “I agree, it was my fault, but I likely would still have tried it. I just love the slight molasses flavor in malts.”
She said, “You and your exotic flavor cravings Jonah.”
He said, “There’s nothing exotic about Malts. It’s my alcohol substitute, since I don’t drink that stuff. Never liked how alcohol clogged my brain. “
She said, “Neither do I, I don’t like alcohol but I also have not acquired the taste for malts!”
They bantered back and forth, just like lovers do, until Matt remarked, “You guys need to set a good loving example for those of us who aren’t yet married and don’t want to get turned off, right!”
Esmeralda said to Rona, “Would you take a lemonade and some cookies over to Charlie. He is the only one still working hard here.” Rona got a little stool, placed it next to Charlie’s right knee and placed a drink with a few cookies on a small serving tray there and kneeled by him. Even hard hearted Charlie had to break down and pay her some attention. Jonah who was observing the interaction thought to himself that Charlie became afraid that she might very shortly start to force feed him. Anyway they ended up in an intense discussion somehow, with the snack eaten and her sitting on the little stool and even taking turns at the keyboard. Jonah and Jessi looked on in amazement. It was no little feat to get Charlie to seed control of his keyboard to anyone. She was animated, her medium cut thick black hair bobbing around her slender neck over coffee colored skin just like her mother. There was no denying the lineage here. Her father Captain Ronald tall and handsome though he was, was pale and blonde haired. Jonah thought that Josh favored his father a lot, on the other hand. Most of the group wandered away toward the pool and the comfortable lounge chairs over the next f
ew minutes until the driveway chimes chirped loudly and then the doorbell also rang. The Captain and his son went to take care of it. Apparently the catered lunch had arrived from Rossini’s, a well known Italian style food place that had several branches in the Pommerose area. It was all soon spread out buffet style in the dining room when Six along with Charlie were summoned, though their acute sense of smell had long ago informed therm of the food. Then another set of chimes was heard, after the food caterers had left with their tips. This time the door opened to two gorgeous young ladies, both around Rona’s and our age groups. Rona and Charlie materialized from the recreation room where they had been ensconced and Rona introduced them first to Charlie then to everyone else saying, “Michelle and Janey, meet the Team Six who came over to help Josh with some major gaming issues. They have worked with my Dad out in space on some special projects before and he had begged them to come over. Team Six meet my neighbors and friends who I had invited over before we knew you’d be here. Mary lives one house away on the left out our driveway and Janey four houses down. Janey and I actually work in the finance department of this aerospace company Nugent. I mentally said it to Jessi, “Man, it’s raining pretty young ladies over in these parts. We have to bring Matt and Charlie over here more often.” Jessi nodded her head in agreement.
Anyway, it turned into a wonderful late lunch since it was almost 2 pm. Everyone truly enjoyed themselves. Matt and Charlie were abandoned in the pool enclosure with the three young ladies and Dillion, Mader, Cherese, Jessi and Jonah snuck off with Josh back to the recreation room to carefully dissemble the computer under Jonah’s guidance and pack them gingerly back into Jonah’s van. Fetch also having recharged fully, got strapped into the backseat too. Charlie had indicated to the crew that Rona had been helping him encrypt and send off copies of the gathered info to the Council of Scientists’ secured site as Jongi and Breecher had directed us to. Jonah had given the requisite site information to Charlie. The Council had their highly specialized technicians waiting and ready to process the brainwashing codes to engineer, with the help of AI, a solution to re-program the brains of those affected. Within days to weeks, they intended to start testing such interventions on volunteers and actively contaminated gamers.
By 330pm Six took leave of Captain Ronald and his lovely family and the visiting young ladies who seemed to regret Matt and Charlie’s departure. Jessi and the others were thrilled to see their colleagues relaxed and socializing. Josh most of all was having a reunion with his own family. Really the Captain’s family seemed to be a loving, caring family and as they boarded their vans for the journey home, they all felt that it had been a day well spent indeed. The hope was that now the family had been through this horrible experience, that their bonds would be even stronger. They felt that they had helped the family on several different levels as well as made progress in defining the mode of ‘infection’ of the gamers. Having been able to share the code with the specialists who may be able to devise a ‘cure’ made it even more satisfying. It could only be called a day of ‘progress’.
The drive home with Jonah at the wheel went smoothly, with Jonah keeping the vehicle in the auto mode all the way, hands on the wheel ready to take over in case there was a need from the auto’s AI. The satellites and gps were flawless though throughout. Having arrived at Charlie’s farm back in Vinceland, they went through the process of quite carefully unloading all of the computer trays and stacking them back on the stands in Charlie’s section of the living room. Fetch was quite happy to find his way in and connect himself back on the grid once unstrapped from his seat. All chores done, Jessi gave Charlie an appreciative hug and Jonah went to him and said, “Charlie, thank you for what you did today. We all appreciate the effort and the success you brought to the effort to help the Captain and his family. Thank you.”
Charlie said, “Jonah, you know how much it meant to me to be asked and how many times have I been the one receiving your help. So it was a pleasure, I thank you.” They said hello to Charlie’s parents who seemed curious about that trip with all of Charlie’s computers and Fetch. Charlie assured them that he would fill in his parents on the details and sent them on their way. Jonah went around to do the gentlemanly thing of opening the door for his bride and then closing it after she was tucked in and buckled. He took the liberty of giving her a little peck on her lips just before closing the door. It was a down payment on the evening games.
8. FIVE IN THE HUNT
Over in Bainbridge the members of Five, Arthur, Wesley, Serena, Dorothy and Adrianna had arrived and were whisked by two Securinet autos with blue lights flashing straight from the air force base to their Bainbridge Headquarters (HQ). As soon as their air force hypersonic jet had landed prior to that, they had deplaned and brought to the terminal treated to a small snack, drinks and got to use the restroom. Then they were on their way. They paid attention to the computers built in to the vehicles to learn the basic outline of the city and its demographics. They had been coached to be ready to survive as individuals with zero outside support in all environments that they may be thrown into. Unfortunately this was a surprise trip with no time to prepare and they had used what little resources that were available on the airborne part of the trip to start bringing themselves up to spec about this part of the country. They also did indulge in the opportunity for the twenty minutes or so that it was possible to do some weightlessness practice in cabin. That opportunity could not be passed up! Hence they were busy during the one hour plus drive catching up. The autos sped through the urban environment between modest skyscrapers and through a few tunnels before emerging into a sprawling city center with typical government style buildings. They pulled up to a side alley and their drivers walked up to the electronic door sentries and got them inside. After a brief elevator ride, they emerged into a long corridor and were led into a modest conference room. There they met with the local Securinet Chief and several underlings all smartly dressed and on their best behavior as they were meeting the overall Chief of Securinet Mr. Breecher and his crack team.
Time was of the essence and after introductions all around, the head of the task force specifically formed to investigate these crimes Sarah Whiteman gave a narrative on the issues overall, plus the situation from yesterday. She said, “So the latest was that two people in their twenties had colluded to murder one person with a potent poison in the street as he was walking to work from a nearby coffee shop by shooting poison into his skin in the neck area. Even without fully breaking the skin, the ampoule with faintly greenish liquid was able to kill him within three minutes. Then the young lady perpetrator was picked up by a young man for the getaway. They both disguised themselves and in a different auto, went to ambush a second individual, also someone in a managerial role. There the young man disguised as an elderly man, attempted to similarly poison the victim, but was thwarted from doing so by coordination between with the police in that area of the city and Securinet officials who had been following the whole sordid drama by drone and street cameras. The young man was captured alive and gave indications that he’d be willing to help by giving up whatever information he knew. The young lady committed ‘harakiri’, killing herself. The young man Ashley Dunn is here in the building in a holding cell awaiting interrogation by Securinet’s Team Five.”
Mr. Breecher asked a few questions about the young man and his family. It turned out that he had prominent parents who were quite wealthy and he was quite a brilliant teen but had degenerated into a life of playboy, fun and games. With a lot of time and resources, he had become a hardcore gamer and even online gambler. He was allowed a quick supervised call to his parents and lawyer and remained still officially ‘under investigation’. He had asked to give information and was being treated well.
Mr. Breecher and Team Five had a short pow wow and decided to swing by to see the young ‘Ashley Dunn.’ They were led to his holding cell and the door was opened. The young man was seated on a metal contoured bench that was fully anchored into floor
with similar sparse furnishings all sturdy and immovably fixed including toileting facilities. Serena and Adrianna as assigned waved at him as he lifted his bowed head out of his hands to look up at the crowd as the loud electronic latch first clacked open then the keys turned in the manual lock to finally allow the heavy door to swing open. They all had on slacks and simple tops like teenagers out on a spiffy casual outing. The team Five Members certainly looked non-threatening and the very old looking gentleman with them looked pretty benign. Serena said, “Hi Ashley I’m Serena and we are members of an investigative group to try to understand what’s going on here. This place is pretty severe looking. Would you like to go with us to a more relaxed setting to have a word or two?” She walked over to him and shook his hand saying, “Meet Dorothy and my other colleagues as well as Mr Breecher who leads Securinet and Adrianna , Arthur and Wesley.” The local Securinet people on the task force would via video look on and listen and record. He already been informed that he did not have to give information that could be used against himself, but since he wanted to help his assistance was welcomed.
Serena led him past the team who all got to lightly touch him as he walked by. His whole mind was now fully available to them. With the right prodding to make it clear that he was volunteering information of his own free will, they would certainly now know whether he was telling the truth or not. They were into his mind seeing the jumble of chaotic thoughts that were there. They could see the the tumult inside him as he was torn between his own normal impulses and that of his programmed ones, telling him to try to eliminate the enemy. He was pretty disgusted with himself that he had not been able to fight those impulses. Now he had gotten Felicity killed and he was likely to never see the light of day again as a normal person. He reeked self pity and loathing. The least he felt he could do is expose the source of this filthy impulses and hope to save some other young people from getting involved. Serena led him down the corridor to a room with a table surrounded by eight chairs. They all sat down. He was informed that he would be recorded and asked why he was here. He said, “I requested to speak to officers who are in a position to take the information I have to give to help stop this madness from continuing.”
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