by K. Z. Howell
She continued “The problem now is not that we don’t know what needs to be done, the problem is in how to do it. Professor Bench managed to achieve some astounding results by using actual humans. Like Edgar Cayce’s unique abilities, the human brain can do a million things better than any machine ever will. It generates its own energy waves that interact with other humans on a level that we cannot measure. Through some process that we do not fully understand each of us is connected through these wavelengths as well. The last of Professor Bench’s experiments showed that the three test subjects could not only ‘see’ other dreaming minds, but could choose which mind to see.”
“You’ve made a case for being able to interlope into the minds of other people Dr. Mills, I see the intelligence value in that. It may be possible to gain valuable information from the subconscious of enemy operatives, but I sense another shoe is waiting to drop.” Said Robert Hall, “The government has invested millions into your project and now you are telling us you can’t deliver?”
“No, Mr. Hall, that is not what I am saying.” Mills replied. “What I am saying is that we can either spend years looking for the answer to controlling the system, or we can go right to the source and get our answers there.”
A.D. Minuchen asked testily, “How do you plan to do that Dr Mills? A séance? Professor Bench is dead. That makes getting answers a little difficult, don’t you think?”
“No, Director. I want to ask the test subjects themselves.” She replied, “Even if they don’t know the technical method, they are the only ones ever to achieve what we are trying to reproduce. I know how the experiments were set up and I can duplicate them in our own lab if we need to do so. The unfortunate death of Will Grant is a setback, he actually conducted many of the experiments and I always suspected that he and Professor Bench kept a separate set of records once they were successful. I also suspect that he continued the experiments with the test subjects long after the program folded. The professor gave him the equipment from the lab when it was closed down and I can think of no other reason for him to have had any interest in it other than to keep working on the experiment. Will, the two girls and the other boy were together for two more years. They may have managed to perfect a method of not only targeting a specific individual, but perhaps of even being able to influence the target.”
As she dropped that bombshell on the two Directors, she removed a sheet of EEG readings from her folder and placed them on the Powerpoint scanner. The machine projected the paper onto the screen for the men to see.
“This is dated almost two years after the program ended. It was sent to Professor Bench from Will and arrived the day after the Professor died. It was just found a few days ago when I had an agent revisit the Professors home. His granddaughter had kept a box of Bench’s letters and other personal papers and gave the agent the envelope containing this since it wasn’t in her grandfathers handwriting.”
Mills increased the magnification, “The EEG readings aren’t the interesting part. Look at the handwritten notes in the margins.”
No eqpt now!
J/K/ &B hundreds miles apart!
Subjects at will. Can implant at will. Anything!!!
You were right, Prof. Far too dangerous!! William.
Mills continued, “It is obvious that the experiments continued, if the notes are real they even managed to go far beyond what the Professor had originally envisioned. If this is all true, they even found a way to influence people through the dream state. That possibility is astounding, but it does make sense. Look at how people are influenced by their own dreams naturally. The implications of being able to manipulate the subconscious undetectably and from far away would change the geopolitical landscape without a single sanction or a single soldier on the ground. Diplomacy and treaties would become little more than matters of getting the signatures to agreements our opponents are already conditioned to accept on our terms.”
The silence from her superiors was telling. It went on for several minutes as the two spy agency directors mulled over the implications and considered their next move.
Assistant Director for NSA Minuchen finally broke the silence.
“Director Hall, I will authorize a rendition order for the remaining three and have it sent to your office. Despite the fact the action you two took resulted in the death of an American citizen, this technology is too important to just let slip away from us. I want there to be no mistake though. The death of Mr. Grant will be answered for at some point. Who answers for it is still being considered. Do not compound the error. Take them alive. Keep them well. Get what we need and then they will be dealt with under national security rules. Do I make myself clear?”
Director Hall shot Mills a withering glare. But they both answered “Yes, Sir. Perfectly clear.”
The video conference screen went black as the A.D. left the meeting. Dr. Mills shut down the powerpoint system and began gathering her papers, avoiding making eye contact with Director Hall as she did.
She didn’t hear him get out of his chair, no sound of footsteps, just the sudden feel of warm breath on her neck and a voice designed to chill her to her core.
“Doctor Mills” he said, calculated anger tingeing the drawn out ‘doctor’, “you may think that you have gotten away with your reckless order to take the two in New Mexico. You have not. Worse, for you, is that now your illegal action has drawn me into the problem.”
She felt him now, he moved closer to her, pressing himself against her, his shadow towering over hers across the wooden table. He placed his mouth so close to her ear that she could hear him breathe, warm air flowing down her neck to flow softly across her cleavage.
“Your error, Doctor Mills, was in thinking that you could go behind my back and send one of my action teams to do your bidding. You have made two grave miscalculations. Your first was in thinking that your position, or maybe your gender, would protect you. You are very, very wrong. Your second mistake was in thinking my silence on the matter would have no cost.”
He pressed himself tighter to her ass, the implication abundantly clear to the woman.
“This is what will happen. I will clean this mess up for you and I will acquire the three subjects for you, just as the AD wants. You will not interfere in any with my field operators. I will also deal with the matter of the man you caused to die. Don’t speak. Just nod yes if you understand.”
Mills understood. She had gone behind Halls back and now there was a potential murder charge pending against her. At this level, these people didn’t do trials by jury. They protected their secrets. They didn’t air them out for the public to watch. She had no doubt that the spy pressing his crotch to her butt could and would have her body buried somewhere even the worms wouldn’t find it. She nodded.
“Very good, Doctor Mills. Now, the matter of my recompense for dealing with your problems we will discuss very thoroughly tonight. I will send you a time and location in a few hours. Do you understand?”
She had no real choice. Her shoulders slumped and she nodded again.
He stepped back and walked back to stand at his chair. He suddenly smiled and acted as though nothing had occurred, removing his right hand from his pocket and holding it out for her to shake as he complimented her on her well delivered presentation before calmly leaving the room.
Mills finished gathering up her things, taking her time so as not to meet up with Hall in the corridor if he were talking to someone. She knew he had meant what he said, she could cooperate fully, with everything he demanded, or he would use Wills death as a noose around her neck Perhaps even in a literal sense. When she felt enough time had passed, she hurried out and down the corridor making a beeline for the security office. The duty officer let her in when she showed her identification and brought up the security footage from the conference room. She watched the last few minutes, hoping that the encounter with her boss had been captured and may be useful to her. She had heard rumors about Director Hall, whispered hints in the cafeteria from gos
sipy secretaries. Some stories worse and more graphic than others, but the general theme was always the same. Hall liked his women and he preferred them to cooperate out of fear.
Kendra Mills knew she was next on his list. The security footage played correctly up to the point where A.D. Minuchen left the video screen. Every word and sound in high definition and crystal clarity until Hall stood and reached a hand inside his pocket. There was the tiniest flicker of the digital film and then, as if she had imagined the entire experience, her boss took his hand out of his pocket and left the room. She had nothing now to use against him. Dr. Kendra Mills made her way back to her own office and closed the door, locking it before she sat at her desk and pulled the small flask of vodka from its hiding spot. As the burning liquid slid down her throat, she thought “Maybe it won’t be so bad.”
Dream State
Chapter 7
What was once the future is now the past.
We can re-live and we can pre-live. We must but dream.
Professor August Bench
Stafford, Texas
Jen turned off the motorcycle and eased it onto its kickstand. She had ridden for eight hours stopping twice to get fuel and food quickly before mounting up and moving on. She was exhausted, her entire body shivered from lack of sleep and stress. She really didn’t even remember the last hour or so. The vibration and the hum of the cycle’s engine lulled her into a state of highway hypnosis that kept forcing her back to attentiveness with shots of adrenalin. The hypnic jerk could only keep her going so long though, and she had now reached that point. Her wobbly knees managed to get her into the truck stop and into a booth but she knew they wouldn’t carry her much longer without proper food and some rest. The sun was just going down and the place was crowded with semi drivers and the occasional family eating and stretching their legs.
As she ate and drank coffee, Jen considered her options. She had the burner phone and could call or text Benji but what if he was being watched too? She still had no idea who was after her or why, but had to consider that anyone who could track her with a military drone would be thorough enough to also be watching her friends after she slipped from their grasp. Sending any message to Benji that could easily be tied back to her may be a bad idea. As she regained some strength and clarity, realized that anyone watching Benjis communications for signs of her would only have what information was public. She had known Benji for years, the inside jokes that long time friends had between them would be impossible to recognize, that was the whole point of inside jokes after all. She knew the perfect one too. One that only she and Will, Benji and Kathryn would be privy to, something she had said that had become the go to phrase for all of them that meant ‘Benji’ to them and would be gibberish to any outsider looking at it.
She took the new phone from her bag and powered it on while she wracked her brain looking for a way to get the message to him. Just sending an anonymous text or voicemail would probably be ignored. Benji was very popular with women, but he was very particular in the ones he chose. With a slight grin, she had it! His Twitter feed was always full of messages from strangers. She still remembered her old joke account she and Will used to tease Benji and Kathryn over back in college. It had been created with a fake profile that could not be tied back to her.
She signed on to Twitter and checked that Benji was still active on his public ‘girl chasing’ account. He was, she was not surprised to find it a very busy place either. She studied his responses and quickly found that he was usually active in the evening between 7pm and 9 pm. Perfect. It was nearing 7pm now, if she wrote her message and posted it now he would likely see it within an hour or two.
“Hey BIMBO MAGNET! You, me and the Red Menace. Tonight. A threeway dreams are made of”
That should get his attention. He would certainly recognize the tease and know it had come from her. With any luck he would see the message and understand it. Jen knew of only one way to avoid all detection, and only herself, Will, Kathryn and Benji even knew it existed. She knew she could reach Kathryn in her sleep easily; years of working together had made that connection simple. Benji was the power source for both of them but had far less control, he could be reached in his sleep but for some reason they never understood the connection was weaker if he wasn’t cooperative. She hoped he would see the message and be ready. Now she needed to rent a sleeping booth, one with a shower that the large truck stops have for truckers. Tonight she needed sleep and answers and she knew just how to do both at the same time.
Oil Field #17
Southwest Oklahoma
Benji Bartlett slowly drove along the gleaming white pipeline, carefully avoiding the worst of the ruts in the rain washed gravel road. The trip out was a long one. He had taken his own pickup from the company office in Amarillo up to the field office in Elk City where he had left his own vehicle in favor of the bigger heavy duty truck the company supplied to work in the rugged terrain of the remote oil fields. The last leg of the trip was over eighty miles of unpaved, often untended track far from any sign of civilization. His task was to locate and repair a damaged relay in the system that monitored the line for problems. The job was simple enough, at least on paper. Drive out along the pipe, attach a tester to the signal wires every few miles until he located the section that contained the bad relay. Then do the same to that area in shorter sections until he found the problem. Simple. On paper.
With eighty miles of wiring to check and not starting till well after mid day, he had decided to place a tester every five miles until he narrowed it down to one five mile stretch. Then he could place one every mile, then every half mile and so on until he found it. With only six testers, he couldn’t just start at one end and work to the other. He had decided to just do two sections at a time. That would have him placing one then testing a section before moving forward and testing the next. He would only have to double back for ten miles before moving on to his next set. He expected to spend two nights at least sleeping under the stars, He had packed his tent and camping gear with supplies for four days, just in case.
He finished the first part. Leaving the last tester in place, he drove back down the line and retrieved the other two before turning back north and leapfrogging an extra five miles to place another set, then driving on to place the third and begin testing. No luck. As he went back south to get his testers he checked the radio, this far out there was little chance that he would be able to get out and cell coverage was nonexistent. He would have to wait till he set up camp for the night to check in. He decided to push on and test one more ten mile section before pitching camp. Maybe he would get lucky and find the break, if he didn’t he would have one less section to worry about tomorrow.
When he had finished the tests on the second ten mile section it was beginning to get late. He was in a hilly section twenty five or so miles from the highway. He pulled the pickup to a fairly level spot near the pipeline and began setting up camp. His small tent went up quickly and using the tire inflator from the trucks tool kit he swiftly aired up a camp mattress, no point in sleeping on hard ground when he didn’t have to! His camp stove he just set on the tailgate and attached a small propane tank to its lead. The two burner fired right up and he set a percolator on to make coffee and poured a can of stew into a small pan to warm for his dinner. While his meal warmed up he pulled a line relay from behind the driver seat and attached the its wiring to the monitor system wiring on the pipeline. With no radio or cell communication he could use the same system to access the company internet reporting system and send in his report for the day. He didn’t mind being out away from everything but it would be nice to have a link back to the world.
He poured a cup of coffee from the battered blue percolator and sipped while he stirred his stew. When it was ready he took the pan off the stove and sat on the ground, leaning against a tire as he ate straight from the pan. He pulled out his phone and connected to the company network, taking bites from the spoon as waited for the device to load up. It took sev
eral minutes to finally connect and stop loading notifications from his email service and social media accounts. There were quite a few, but that was typical. He ignored all of them and signed straight in to his office email and began filling out his report with one hand while he ate with the other. He finished the report at the same time as he finished his food. Once he made sure the sent receipt had been loaded he took the stew pan and a bottle of water well away from his camp before rinsing it out onto the grass. This area was known for its fire ant population and he really wasn’t interested in giving them any reason to invade his camp in the middle of the night.
The sun had set and the last rays were fading on the horizon as he put away the stove and pan. He poured the last of the coffee into his cup and closed the tailgate. It had been a long day, he considered just disconnecting and going to sleep but it was only a little past 7 p.m. he may as well check his email first. He opened up his tent and crawled, leaning back against his sleeping bag roll on the air bed and pulled up his email account. The monitor system wasn’t really designed for this, it was simply better than nothing. It was slow better than nothing though. Even emails took a while to load and read and by the time he went through them he had already decided watching video or listening to music was out of the question. He yawned; he’d take a look at his Twitter then shut it down and go to sleep.
Palmstown Royal Suites
Palmstown, Va.