Controller

by Stephen W Bennett

  “You’re saying there’s a send and receive version?”

  “Yes, and you carry both, but inactive. Mike here only has the one active Compeller gene, to let him send his thoughts. Another Compeller can insert thoughts in his mind, and from what he and others tell me, he only suspects they are not his thoughts because he’s so aware of what he can do, and knows his usual thought processes. He must be on guard all the time. That’s why we need Immunes so badly. They always know when the thoughts are from a Compeller.”

  “I thought the term was Controller? That’s what my husband called Stiles.”

  There was no point in not telling her more, so Brogan admitted, “Stiles has two active copies of the gene to send his thoughts. He seems to be able to exert greater influence over other people than someone like Mike. We’d always called those with a single active sender copy a Compeller, but after finding Stiles, we’ll be calling him and others like him a Controller, a description he gave for himself, I might add.”

  “Now I feel so vulnerable to him.”

  To reassure her, Dan said, “At least you aren’t an ordinary Susceptible. You might someday become an Immune if your gene is activated.”

  Brogan glanced at Gorka and rolled his eyes. This sort of revelation was exactly why the BII couldn’t keep families from learning more than was safe for them to know. He knew Grayson would eventually tell his wife that geneticists might learn how to activate both of her inactive genes. He headed that off for the moment. “We don’t know what activates the genes, so don’t hold your breath.”

  “No matter. I’m relieved that Stacy has some protection. We can go home now, and she can return to school. She needs to keep her GPA up so…” She stopped and looked at Brogan.

  “Can you get her into any school she selects, even if her GPA slips?”

  Brogan laughed despite himself. “I did say a full ride at a school of her choice. I know people in high places, and I mean the very highest. That should give us an edge for her application.” He thought for a moment about what she’d asked, and chuckled.

  “You know what, Mrs. Grayson? I could use you for some of my interagency negotiations. Want a job?” At least if she were sworn in, he could make sure she read and followed the security procedures. The same procedures he was supposed to make his herd of cats, his miscast secret agents follow. Keeping these men and women of the BII focused on the security facets of their work was a perpetual challenge. It drove a CIA trained field agent crazy.

  “Thanks. I’ll take it into consideration Superintendent.” She shifted her focus.

  “Dan, Stacy and I are going home. I’ll stop at Mom and Dad’s place to pick up our stuff and say goodbye. I’ll see you at home. We need to discuss our next steps as a family.”

  ****

  On the drive back to Louisville, Brogan and Mike talked about mundane things such as neighborhoods where agents lived near the District of Columbia, and the commute. They spoke of the long hours they sometimes worked, the people they protected from outside influence and the hostile nations that were known to be using Compellers to influence leaders in the US Government, and of our allies.

  Grason broached a subject Brogan mentioned previously. “You spoke of a female North Korean agent. How did they train one of their agents so well that her thoughts to the President or Senators would pass for their thoughts? A female with an accent would seem to be a giveaway.”

  “Ah,” Brogan smiled. “There’s another missing part of your indoctrination into how our talents work. Someone like Mike doesn’t send the words you sense as thoughts in your mind. They send the intent of the thoughts they want you to have, but your mind fabricates the exact words you perceive. That’s why they seem like your own if you are not an Immune.”

  “How do you mean?”

  Brogan told him, “Here are the words I recall sensing from Mike’s question to Stacy. I thought he sent, ‘Do you know what your father does for the BII, Stacy?’ What do you recall sensing, Dan?”

  “It was worded differently, something like ‘Stacy, what it is you think your Dad will do for the BII?’”

  Mike said, “What I practiced to send was ‘Miss, do you know what your father will do for the government?’”

  Grayson nodded and offered his interpretation. “The words I formed in my mind from Mike’s thoughts are how I might phrase the intent of the thought he sent?”

  “For the most part that’s true for an ordinary Susceptible. Also, I’m sure neither of us detected Mike’s northern Michigan accent in our minds unless we were also from Northern Michigan. I sensed them in a Boston accent. Even as Immunes we each use our speech patterns for the phrasing of those thoughts, but we can sense if the thoughts came from a Compeller that we know well, or if it's from a stranger. You can go a step further than I can with directionality and range and pinpoint who sent to you. If an acquaintance Compeller sent that question, the thought would have some aspect of familiarity with an Immune that normally helps you identify the sender. Not so for ordinary people.”

  Brogan posed an instructive question. “If we make up the words in our minds, based only on the intent of the Compellers thoughts, what does that tell you if the thoughts come from someone we can’t identify, who speaks a language we don’t speak?”

  Grayson thought for a moment. “I think you’re implying we sense the wording based on what our mind fabricates in our language, based on what the Compeller or Controller intended us to think.”

  “Correct. And the average citizen cannot tell that a thought originated from someone that can’t speak their language, or is of a different gender. That’s how a North Korean woman influenced the President and several US Senators without their being aware of her influence on their decision-making. She spoke English fluently enough to converse with people around her, pretending to be a South Korean journalist, with perfect but false identification.”

  “Did she come here alone?”

  “You mean with a support staff? Like a photographer or translator?”

  “No, I mean another Compeller or an Immune.”

  “Dan, the population of North Korea is about twenty-five million. She’s possibly the only one they had, but they may have another Compeller. It’s doubtful they have more than two Immunes either, out of a population their size.”

  “Why would they risk sending someone like her here if they’re so rare?”

  “If you were a paranoid fat little dictator, would you let a Compeller like her stay in North Korea with you? Certainly not within many miles of Kim Jong-un, and she might influence her guards to do what she wants. It was safer to send her here, and hold her family hostage to ensure her actions on behalf of The Dear Leader. She died resisting us without our ever speaking with her.

  “We believe the North Koreans are testing the DNA of their entire population, and have established a crash program for genetic studies to match their nuclear program. But we have no idea how far along the hermit kingdom is in their research, or how long they’ve known about this ability.”

  Brogan offered a warning and a prediction. “To our certain knowledge from ongoing intelligence, the North Koreans are not alone in conducting such genetic research, and they and other authoritarian governments have no compunction against employing risky human testing of gene modifications, nor would they honor human rights if they produced people like Stiles for their use. It’s a race we want the US to win, or at a minimum to not fall behind.”

  Once they returned to the mobile BII command post, Grayson got a ride to the Walmart where he’d left his car, and then drove home to wait for his wife and daughter, to discuss family decisions. Changes were coming for them, but as future empty nesters, it wasn’t a subject Dan and Barb had never discussed. If anything, for Grayson, there was a sense of excitement at being involved in a new career having considerable importance. He could serve more than his local community; he could now help protect his nation.

  The excitement he was soon to encounter wasn’t what he antic
ipated from a new job.

  Chapter 6: PsychChaos

  The chaos started largely out of sight of American news and was initially misidentified as sports hooliganism in a sport not as widely followed in the US as were other American sports. The game was between the South Korean national football team and Qatar, held in Seoul, and it started out no more contentious than typical soccer games, with staunch supporters cheering loudly for their teams. The stadium was full, with a capacity crowd of 66,700 fans for this must-win World Cup qualifier game, the majority in attendance being home team South Korean fans, of course.

  It was in the second period with no score when a popular South Korean player received a yellow card for a foul of which the partisan crowd took objection. Their noise grew into screams and throwing water bottles until fights erupted between opposing fans. The Qatari supporters were outnumbered, naturally. The combat quickly became violent. Exceptionally violent.

  Those supporting the Qatar team were the initial targets of South Korean fans, but then those fans strangely turned on one another, on the game officials, and then against both teams. The players joined in the fighting by energetically attacking the officials, the opposing team, and any fan that ran onto the field. The fans used anything they could tear loose as clubs and cudgels and even attacked members of the team they had energetically cheered for only minutes earlier. There were dozens of spectators crushed to death against barriers by the stampede to reach the open field, and another hundred fifty or more people died from beatings or bullets, including many of the officials that failed to get off the field at the start, although they joined in the fighting. Police that responded to the rioting shot and wounded over a hundred fans, and killed a third of those that died. Four officers were overwhelmed and killed by people undeterred by their guns.

  The violence ended even faster than it had started, with dazed but uninjured formerly crazed fans suddenly dropping their improvised weapons, wondering what had come over them. The police lowered their guns and stood looking around as if trying to comprehend what had happened. It had lasted less than fifteen minutes.

  The level of violence displayed, by those that became wrapped up in its expression, couldn’t explain to anyone how their initial vocal protest turned into unrestrained anger over a relatively meaningless foul. The fans didn’t know why it grew as violent as it did, or why they targeted people that had nothing to do with what made them angry. The original targets of anger were unable to defend or explain their actions. The referee that showed the yellow card didn’t survive the game and a group of Qatar supporters fought their way onto the field to find the player that was shown the yellow card and beat and kicked him to death.

  If several high-ranking members of the South Korean government had not been present as guests in a private Sky Box, the mystery of how the escalating violence started would have persisted. Their security detail included one of three Immunes who worked for their government. The Immune’s report of a probable enemy agent inciting the violence reached a US intelligence officer who passed the report to his superiors in Washington. The heads of various Intelligence organizations had orders to report certain classes of unusual events to a new international intelligence agency, the BII.

  ****

  Brogan read the summary page of the report, and instantly recognized the implications for not only South Korea but for the US and the world at large. He promptly called the National Security Advisor in the White House, who knew what the function of the BII was, and forwarded the report to him, along with the Superintendent's opinion and recommendation. From there the President was informed, and a decision reached.

  Brogan promptly issued orders for the C-17 crew to ready their aircraft and for it to taxi over to the terminal area. He left it up to the pilot to notify the airport police and TSA that access was needed for the mobile command post and his team’s three SUVs to drive onto the ramp area for loading onto the large aircraft. He recalled his remaining four agents, all Compellers, from Jeffersonville and around Louisville, authorizing their use of seldom-used emergency lights and sirens to get to the airport, for a flight back to Joint Base Andrews, in Washinton.

  He called Grayson at his home. “Dan, I’m sorry to do this to you, because I wanted to allow you more time to report to BII headquarters. Something has happened that has triggered an emergency contingency plan. Hector and James are on their way to your house to pick you up on their way to the airport, for our imminent departure to Washington. You’ll only have thirty minutes to get ready after they arrive.

  “I know you needed to work out personal issues with your family, and I told you you’d have days of briefings on what we’ve learned about psych ability. I’m afraid the briefings will be done on the fly, on our flight today.

  “Barb and Stacy will receive a packet with contact numbers from the BII staff personnel by FedEx tomorrow, and it will contain explanations of your new family federal benefits. You’ll be able to give your wife the number for a global satellite phone you’ll be issued later today. That number is only to be used by your family in an emergency. You need to pack in a hurry, but you’ll be provided a cash travel allowance and government credit card to pick up anything you forget after you get to DC.”

  Grayson absorbed the rush of information, and with a surge of excitement said, “I’ll be ready. Should I pack my guns? I have travel cases for both to get them aboard.”

  “You can carry your privately owned weapons on your person onto our C-17. You won’t be flying commercial. You’ll also be issued a selection of other weapons in a day or two, as soon as you pass qualification and safety training on their use. Before you ask, all I can say on this unsecured line is that something significant has occurred, and the President has ordered us back to DC.”

  “Yes, Sir. I’ll be packed and ready.”

  He explained the situation to his wife and daughter as he threw clothes into a suitcase, and they helped him gather items he’d need. He was pulling his suit coat on, and adjusting his Glock in a shoulder holster when Stacy rushed into the bedroom and announced, “They’re here Dad. They have police lights switched on. The neighbors will think you’re back on the force.”

  “Or that I beat my family,” he kidded. “Brogan said I’d have thirty more minutes after they arrived, but my suitcase is packed. I’m feeling rather self-important I suppose, but I think I need to go now.”

  Hurried hugs, kisses, and goodbyes, then new BII Agent Grayson, double Immune, rolled his suitcase out the door to join his fellow agents in the SUV. It didn’t feel like a 007 moment at all. Where in Hell was his gadget equipped sports car?

  ****

  The three-person crew, pilot, co-pilot, and a loadmaster supervised the loading and tie down of the command post and SUVs in the aircraft's hold, and the agents helped when asked to lend a hand, leaving the task largely to the professionals. There was a small pallet with nine seats secured near the front of the cargo bay, for the six BII agents during taking off and landings.

  Once they were airborne, Brogan coordinated with the loadmaster before the six unbuckled and entered the command post for a secure and confidential group briefing. Only Brogan knew why they were in such a rush.

  “Gentlemen, and Lady,” he nodded to Dalia Nadeer. “About sixteen hours ago a major riot in a soccer stadium in Seoul, South Korea, was triggered by what was likely a North Korean infiltrator, who was a Compeller, or possibly a Controller like Stiles. Three SK government officials were present for the game in a Sky Box, accompanied in the box by a seven-person security detail, one of which was an Immune. They were guarding the Prime Minister, the Chief Justice, and the Speaker of the National Assembly, who were watching their national team play the Qatar team in a World Cup qualifier.”

  That revelation drew rapt attention from all the agents. Grayson suddenly realized he was about to gain insights into the strange job he had signed up to do.

  “You said a major riot?” Mike asked that question. “Not just a focused attack o
n the VIPs?”

  “You heard right. I’ll get to that aspect shortly. The probable North Korean agent, let’s call him Agent-X, initiated a group broadcast to boost a gradually increasing disturbance by fans that were reacting to a penalty foul on the field of play. As their anger grew, they became more susceptible to suggestions to escalate their actions to ever greater violence.

  “The Immune in the protection detail sensed there was a very strong group mental command sent to control and escalate the riot. She sensed it from the very start and immediately initiated their equivalent of our Tin Man protective measures for the three government officials. The security detail promptly turned over their weapons to the Immune, who locked them in the same steel box from which she removed the folded Faraday suits.”

  Brogan saw Grayson’s bewildered look. “Dan, Faraday suits are metalized mylar, silver looking on the outside so that people wearing them resemble a Tin Man. They’re variations of fire suits but must be completely electromagnetic radiation proof at the specific frequencies of pysch transmissions. Yes, I told you psych ability is electromagnetic. I’ll tell you more about it later.”

  He continued, “Just as we’ve trained to do, their security team surrendered their weapons to the Immune and then suited up before helping cover up the VIPs. However, the Immune was forced to shoot three security detail members with a short-term fast-acting tranquilizer before they finished donning their Faraday suits. They suddenly tried to recover their weapons. Two of the dressed security team members helped the Immune subdue the three VIPs, one after the other, who had become combative and forced them into their Faraday suits. Once protected, the VIPs instantly recovered and then helped dress the three tranquilized members of the detail. The Immune then returned weapons to the protected members of the security detail, including those that recovered from the effects of the darts.