by Thom Parsons
Owen appreciated his honesty, but wasn’t sure about the thought of bringing in an outside party to look at the video. “See if you can find anything out, make some phone calls. But be discreet about it, okay?” he asked, getting a nod in return.
“Lets look at the facts,” Owen called out loud to no-one in particular. “We received this video message this morning on the secure work account, with a very clear message aimed at me in particular. It’s heavily encrypted and has come from a secure source. It’s completely untraceable, which solidifies my conclusion that this was a professional job. The fact that it has even made it through onto our work server is impressive, only authorised people can do this,” Owen said, more for the benefit of Kate than Nick, as she wasn't exactly up to speed on how a lot of this team's processes worked.
“This is clearly something of high importance,” he continued. “Somebody went to a lot of effort to make sure that this video would be seen by us… However, there’s just one thing which I don't understand about all of this.” Owen felt all eyes on him. “Annie’s death was an accident. I’ve accepted that. It doesn’t make sense that we’ve received this information stating otherwise.“
“Sorry for speaking bluntly,” Nick said. “But should we run with the assumption that maybe this was a targeted attack? Maybe someone, God forbid, was actually out to cause your car crash all along?”
He was clearly, yet uncomfortably thinking outside of the box already. It was why Nick was a part of this team. His logical thinking and ability to look at any situation differently was second to none.
“I’d like to say yes,” Owen responded cautiously, not put off in any way by Nick’s brazen statement. “But I was there Nick, and I know it was an accident.” How could I forget? He thought solemnly, as the group sat in silence for a few seconds.
“However,” Owen continued, his voice perking up slightly. “This is definitely worth following up. There’s a lot of information that’s been sent to us in this video,” he said, pointing at the screen. “Too much information to just play it off as some kind of elaborate hoax. Although saying that, I’m going to remain skeptical about this until proven otherwise. Luckily for us, we’ve got a clear calendar for a while. I’m still waiting to hear back on how we should proceed with Eli. So until then, I want a bit of an un-official investigation done on this.”
“Kate,” Owen announced, spinning himself in his chair to face her so that he could talk to her directly. “I want you to call your boss at the Bureau and see if you can get us some sort of sanctioning to carry out an investigation. Play it down a bit, don’t mention the personal connection. Mention that this job means that we’ll be able to keep you on here for a little while longer to continue training. It will give them a reason to say yes.”
“No problem,” she responded, standing up and heading off to complete her assigned task immediately. Owen had asked her to do this because it was all politics. He knew that it was going to be frowned upon, looking into something like this. Something personal to one of the members of the team. If he went and told the FBI’s Special Projects Division about it, they’d probably bring in one of the other six teams to deal with the situation.
“We’ll start running preliminary investigations now, while we wait for the official sanctioning on this,” Owen said to Nick, carrying on with his briefing whilst Kate completed her task in the background. “See what you can pull up on those three names… Marcus Ortega, Alex Morgan and Ethan Darkes. Start locally, see what you can find, then branch out. See how many people pop up across all the databases with those names. Then look for links, run some algorithms, see if you can find a connection between any three of them.”
“On it,” he said, turning away and getting on with it.
Marcus Ortega, Alex Morgan and Ethan Darkes.
Chapter Sixteen
Date: December 9th 2035
Location: New York PRoGRaM Analytic Base
It wasn’t hard for them to find some privacy. In fact, it was relatively easy, purely due to the fact that the other two people that were dotted around the PRoGRaM Analytic Base were too busy doing their own thing to notice them. Reaching into the inside of their jacket pocket, they took out their second cellphone which nobody else on the team knew existed.
Punching some numbers into the phone, they called their contact on the outside. After a few seconds of ringing, somebody on the other end of the phone picked up. But they didn’t say anything. They waited for the caller to make the first move.
“You won’t believe the development that I’ve just witnessed,” they said in a hushed tone as to not alert anybody else in the base to their phone call.
“I’m listening,” said a dark and serious male voice on the other end of the line.
The caller looked around inconspicuously, double checking that nobody was nearby and that nobody was listening to what they were saying. “Owen has just received a video message telling him about three people who went after his wife. Marcus Ortega, Alex Morgan and… Ethan Darkes.”
“You’re joking,” the voice said intently back to them, their tone of voice no longer emotionless.
“I wish I were.”
“Amazing,” the man on the other end of the phone said, perking up. “Who sent it?” They had started out sounding dark and suspicious to the caller, but now they were curious and intrigued by the current developments.
“We don't know,” they whispered sincerely. “It’s all scrambled.”
“I see. Keep me informed. I will let the boss know of these… developments. I knew there was a good reason that we made you a part of that team. But don't forget the real reason you're there. Remember what you're a part of that team for, and don't let me down.”
And on that note, without a goodbye, the man on the other end of the phone hung up.
Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.
Chapter Seventeen
Date: December 9th 2035
Location: New York PRoGRaM Analytic Base
The office was abuzz with activity, with everyone working hard on their assigned tasks. Due to it being fairly personal to one of the team members, you could feel their enthusiasm. Owen made himself feel useful by trying to put together a list of people that could have possibly known all that information about him that was stated on the video. He was still concerned that it was sent by someone who knew him personally. But that was a very short list, as he wasn’t exactly one to socialise well with others. He never had been, and he knew that he never really would be. He didn’t feel the need to go out and meet new people. The ones that were in his life at the moment were good enough for him.
“Owen?" Kate called out from nearby. He turned his head to look at her. “The investigation has now been recognised by the New York FBI branch as official. As soon as I mentioned that you’d keep me on over here a bit longer with training on PRoGRaM, my supervisor seemed very eager to comply.”
“Good to hear,” Owen said. He could feel everything coming together nicely, just like being on a real, professional job. “Please inform them that we will give them updates once every twenty four hours."
“Will do,” she said, scurrying off again, eager to please.
“Nick?” Owen shouted out, causing the man to lift his head above the computer screens that he was currently hidden behind. “Boot up PRoGRaM, I’m going to need to go in.”
“No problem,” he responded, tapping furiously away at his keyboard in front of him. “I’ve still come up with no connections on any of those names by the way. The system is still running them through, I’ll let you know if anything crops up.”
“Good job Nick.”
“I’ll need ten minutes to get the software running and connect to the main PRoGRaM server,” Nick replied, dodging Owen’s compliment.
The actual PRoGRaM server wasn’t actually based in their HQ, but rather in an unknown location somewhere top secret. Not even Owen or Nick knew where that location was. Owen doubted that even his boss, Richard Sterling, the leader
of the Special Projects Division of the FBI knew. It was crazy to think that the entire PRoGRaM world was just sitting there on one super powered, hidden machine. Each of the seven PRoGRaM teams scattered across the United States all had to connect to the same server, and therefore, were a part of the same PRoGRaM world as Owen was.
Was it possible that any two different teams could meet in the PRoGRaM world? Sure it was, but the chances of that ever happening were slim to none.
“Where do you want to go?” Nick asked.
“Back to the scene of the accident. Down at Redford Avenue,” Owen replied solemnly whilst climbing into the PRoGRaM Chair. “If there’s something odd going on here, I want to find it by doing a complete memory check.” He turned to Kate, who was now waiting for further instructions, feeling a bit lost in herself by being the new girl at the office. “Kate, I need you in here with me to look at all of this objectively, as you have no personal connection to what happened. You may be able to see something happening in my memory that I didn’t notice at the time.”
“Of course,” she replied, happy to please and show them what she was capable of. She jumped eagerly into the chair nearby.
“I want you to go in with the Manipulator headset,” Owen explained to her. "I’ll wear the Target headset, so please… don’t kill me.” He looked over and saw a smile on her face.
“Are you both ready?” Nick asked as he walked around their PRoGRaM chairs, connecting up the varying headsets that they were wearing to the main system. He also kicked to life a few computer terminals to watch over Owen and Kate's vital signs whilst they weren't a part of this real world. Together, they acknowledged their readiness to Nick, who then went about the final stage of getting both of them into PRoGRaM’s digital world.
He walked over to his computer system and grabbed a shiny metal briefcase from underneath his desk. Carefully, he brought it over and set it down on the table at the side of Kate’s PRoGRaM chair. Flipping it open and reaching inside, Nick pulled out a small syringe that had a tiny amount of red liquid inside.
“See you on the other side,” he said as he injected the red liquid into Kate’s upper arm.
Nick grabbed another syringe out of the briefcase and walked over to Owen, looking over his shoulder to check on Kate’s vital signs before he continued. Everything seemed perfectly fine with her, so he turned his head around to look at Owen.
“Good luck in there,” he said as he pricked the top of Owen’s arm with the syringe, injecting the red fluid into his bloodstream. Unconsciousness was about to slip away from him, but before it did, only one thought was running through Owen Archer’s head.
Marcus Ortega, Alex Morgan and Ethan Darkes.
Chapter Eighteen
Date: December 9th 2035
Location: PRoGRaM
It’s just like that stupid recurring dream. Owen thought to himself as he stood in the middle of his own memory. Here he was, standing on the corner of Redford Avenue, back in the memory of the night where everything changed. Both he and Kate stood on the sidewalk as Owen's memory slowly projected out around them, recreating the scene of the night that Annie died. The rain was hammering down, yet despite this digital world not being real, Owen and Kate felt every single drop.
“What are we looking for?” Kate asked loudly, raising her voice to talk to him over the sound of the heavy rain smashing into the ground.
“I’m not exactly sure,” Owen answered sheepishly. Right here and now was the first time he’d ever come back to this place in both PRoGRaM and in reality. He tried to stay away from Redford Avenue as much as he possibly could. It only brought bad memories and pain back to him. “Just anything out of the ordinary I suppose,” Owen continued. “It was a strange event, the crash I mean. Some odd things were happening.”
“Why haven’t you ever come back here?" Kate asked seriously, almost ignoring his ramblings. "Why haven't you used PRoGRaM to do this before? To see if you could find out who was driving that van?"
“I try not to think about it,” Owen said. “Until today I believed that the crash was just an accident, I had no reason to come back here. This place only causes me pain,” he admitted, looking to the ground as he felt a wash of emotions run over him, unsure of whether or not he should be showing his real side to Kate. “I’d have no control over myself if I ever did find out who was driving that van. I’m afraid of what I might end up doing to them.”
“Even though whoever was driving the van didn’t stop to help? And that he just drove away? Don’t you think he deserves it?”
“I know what you’re thinking,” Owen answered. That’s because I’ve thought about it every day since. “Yes he deserves it. But I’m not going to actively seek out whoever it was. The entire crash was an accident. I’ve accepted that. Annie wouldn’t have wanted me to go seeking revenge. She thought better of me than that. I refuse to do wrong by her, even if she’s not here anymore.”
“I understand, Owen,” Kate replied sympathetically.
“Okay, lets carry on playing it out,” Owen spoke reluctantly. He would rather play out the memory in front of him that have to answer more of Kate’s difficult questions.
The two of them stood on the sidelines and continued to watch as his memory played out in front of them. Owen watched on, remembering in exact detail everything that was about to happen. After all, everything that he was seeing was coming from inside his head, similar to the events of the night before with Eli Roth's memories.
“Kate, pause it,” Owen said out loud, getting her to stop the transfer of information. She quickly clenched her fist tightly and willed the memory to stop. The entire scene around them froze, but the rain kept hammering on down. Owen and Kate both stood and observed everything that was happening. Owen’s car, with Annie in the driver's seat was seconds away from being smashed into and flipped over. The van was now in sight, coming in from the other direction of the crossroads at Redford Avenue.
“Oh my God!” Kate gasped as she saw what was happening at the side of the road. She had seen what Owen had seen on the night of the accident.
The man with the gun.
There he was, standing on the pavement of Redford Avenue, just across the road from where Owen and Kate now stood. There was a man next to him, down on his knee’s with a black bag over his head and his hands bound behind his back. The man on the side of the road held a gun to the back of the bound man’s head, ready to execute him in cold blood on the street. And no-one was around to see it.
“It may not be real,” Owen replied to her with a sigh. He knew that his head was messed up, but having to admit it to other people when it was all out on display was difficult and embarrassing. “The doctors told me that the crash could have severely messed with some of my memories. Even though I believe that this is what happened, it may not be an accurate account of events. For all I know, it was something I was thinking about at the time and it just worked its way into my version of events.”
“Okay…” Kate said slowly, unsure of what to make of it.
“I think we should look around whilst the memory is frozen,” Owen said. “To see if anything stands out.”
“You don’t sound like you want to,” Kate replied.
“You know, I was almost over all this,” Owen said with a hint of anger showing in his tone of voice. “I was so close to just putting it behind me and moving on. Then out of nowhere, all this shit just gets opened up again. So yeah, I’ll admit it, I don't want to be here,” he finished, getting right up close to Kate’s face as he spoke.
“Owen, I don’t know what to…”
“It’s okay,” he said back to her as he backed off a little, his tone settling down. “It’s not your fault. it’s no-ones fault.”
A few moments of silence passed between them as they looked at each other.
“Hey, look at that,” Kate said as her facial expression changed to sudden surprise. She pointed to something that was happening behind Owen.
Nick was communica
ting with the two of them from the real world, from the outside of PRoGRaM. This was extremely rare. It would’ve had to have been something really important in order for Nick to interrupt a live memory. The wall behind where Owen was standing began to transform as he turned to look at it.
The entire wall of the huge building before him slowly morphed from its natural red and orange brickwork into a solid, pure, white wall. It looked completely unreal and out of place compared to the rest of the world around them.
Nick was altering the properties of the PRoGRaM world. None of his changes would be permanent, or would stick to this world forever. The world of PRoGRaM was like a protected, read-only file. Any changes you did make could never be saved.
Black letters began to appear on the huge white wall that had materialised only moments before. A message from Nick began to appear as he was typing it out on his computer in the real world. It was the easiest way to convey information from the outside of PRoGRaM, to the people on the inside.
Quick information drop. Not sure if this event is relevant but it seems suspicious. A man named Marcus Ortega has minutes ago been involved in a car accident, strangely similar to your wife’s hit and run. He's being taken to a local hospital. Incoming picture of the man now. Stand by…
A few seconds passed by with Owen and Kate staring up at the message that Nick had just left for them. The message began to dissolve away, random letters disappearing in no sequence, leaving the canvas white once more. Slowly loading, from top to bottom, an image of a mans face digitally began to manifest itself on the huge white wall in front of them. Neither Owen nor Kate said anything, They both just stood there, staring at the picture. This mans face… Owen thought to himself.
“Owen?” Kate said as he stood there dumbfounded, looking up at the picture.
“That’s the guy,” Owen responded confidently. “That’s the Marcus we’re looking for.” Kate could hear undertones of anger seeping through Owen’s tone of voice.