Manipulator

by Thom Parsons

  Archer got another nod from the man in the back seat. The final pieces were coming together, allowing Owen to manage a faint, but distinct smile as a single thought crossed his mind.

  It’s almost over.

  Chapter Eighty Six

  Date: December 15th 2035 (Present Day)

  Location: Unknown

  "I guess that in the end you found somewhere to stay?"

  "Eventually," Owen answered. "Eli had, well, I'm not sure what he is, but lets call him a friend that owed him a favour."

  Victoria nodded, silently knowing exactly what Owen was talking about. She let him continue without interrupting. "I don't know the specifics," he said. "I didn't want to know either. But… whoever he was managed to hook us up at a safe-house on Staten Island."

  "With a hostage as well, I see," Victoria commented, talking about Ethan Darkes.

  "What other choice was there?" Owen answered back quickly, seemingly trying to defend his actions. "I'm not a monster. I couldn't just leave him there in my apartment to die from another Veridian onslaught. Believe what you want about me, but I'm not a cold blooded killer."

  "Even after everything that Ethan had said to you? After everything that he had put you and Annie through? You still decided to take him with you?"

  "Did he deserve it?" Owen asked, speaking more to himself than to Victoria. She was caught slightly off-guard with his question and went to answer it, but he cut in before she had a chance to speak. "Yes he did deserve it. But Ethan's time would come soon enough. The fact of the matter was, I still needed him. There were still questions that needed answering. There were still things that he wasn't sharing with me."

  "Like who the fourth person was?" she asked.

  Owen didn't answer and instead chose only to nod. "That was the only question on my mind," he said. "Am I the fourth person?"

  "And are you?" Victoria probed.

  Owen ungraciously dodged the question and went straight into explaining the next part of his story. "In the end, we made it to Staten Island and found the place we were looking for." He half expected Victoria to continue pressing him about the identity of the fourth person, but oddly she just let it slide.

  "Did Eli trust the man who set you up with this safe-house?"

  "He must have," Archer answered with a shrug, confused as to why she had dropped her earlier question so easily. Maybe she already knows the answer? "Eli's naturally suspicious anyway. So, if anything seemed wrong about the place then he would never have suggested that we all head there."

  "What was your next move?"

  "What do you think?" Owen replied, half sarcastically.

  "PRoGRaM?"

  "PRoGRaM," he confirmed with a nod. "We went in. One last time."

  "And just what were you expecting to find?"

  "The final piece."

  Chapter Eighty Seven

  Date: December 13th 2035

  Location: PRoGRaM

  Disorientation.

  "Are you awake?"

  Again.

  "Owen?"

  The last time.

  "Can you hear me?"

  Nothing was coherent. Every one of Owen Archer's senses was overloaded to the extreme. His perception of the world was shattered, and he struggled to even make sense of the simplest sentence. But this was it. This was the last challenge. This was Owen's last shot at the final answer, and he sure as hell wasn't going to miss it. So against his better judgement, Owen stuck it out, waiting patiently for his mind to come back around to reality.

  In time, he healed.

  "Owen?" A voice asked from above.

  He opened his eyes only to see Eli standing over him. "How long was I out?" Owen croaked, sounding almost like he'd swallowed a roll of sandpaper. The bright white glow of The White Room behind Eli forced him to squint his eyes. Despite his best efforts he just couldn't summon the strength to bring his hand up to shield his eyes from the lights.

  "Half an hour," Eli answered sympathetically. Owen's eyes and mouth opened in shock. Thirty minutes unconscious inside PRoGRaM? I could have died…

  Ethan didn't say a word about it and instead just reached a hand to Owen, offering him a way up to his feet. The next few minutes passed without issue and without either one of them bringing up the fact that this was the worst reaction Owen had ever gone through upon entry to PRoGRaM.

  “What if Ethan really wasn’t lying?” Owen asked Eli with a slight hint of fear evident in his voice. Together, the two of them stood in the middle of The White Room, patiently waiting for the PRoGRaM world to boot up. If Veridian really are taking back PRoGRaM from the FBI, then chances are that they're going to shut this world down soon…

  “What if he was telling the truth? What if they’ve done something to me? What if I was there from the beginning, and they erased it?”

  Despite Owen's onslaught of questions, Eli didn’t respond. After everything that he and Owen had been through together, even though he hadn’t been there for the entire ordeal, Eli knew that at this point… anything was possible. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” he replied as the light above the door of The White Room turned from red to green. Without another word the two of them walked through the door and stepped out into the huge common room of the PRoGRaM Headquarters.

  “I don’t even know where to start,” Eli admitted, suddenly realising that maybe, just maybe, he was in way over his head. His area of expertise had always been working on the outside of PRoGRaM, but it was too late to turn back now. “Right,” he continued, taking a deep breath inwards before turning to Owen. “You’ve been here before, and I’m going to help you to find that memory. Well… That's if there's even one to be found."

  "Okay," Owen answered solemnly, fully understanding what was about to happen.

  "Nick, can you overlay and project the combined voices of Marcus, Alex and Ethan into the room where we are now?” He waited a few seconds whilst Nick complied with his request. Hopefully, what he was about to do would kick Owen's memories into playing alongside these ones. But again, that was if they even existed.

  “It’s good to see you all again,” Ethan’s voice echoed out into thin air. Nick had begun to overlay the compiled memories of Marcus, Alex and Ethan into their current PRoGRaM world. Owen and Eli both jumped at the sound of the voice. Neither of them had been expecting it to begin so soon.

  “How have you been?” Marcus' voice replied. This part was almost completely committed into Owen's memory. He had heard Marcus' voice so many times before this moment that he could almost repeat his lines, word for word.

  “I am good thank you, I trust that all is well with you?" Ethan answered. "Shall I pour us all a drink?”

  “Of course, I never turn a drink down!”

  “Pause,” Eli said. His ears stood at full attention, listening out to make sure that Nick had heard his command. Nothing but silence followed. “So far, so good,” he continued, trying to get a grasp of the situation. “We're not picking up anything new yet, but this is all familiar territory to us. We’ve heard all this before. Resume”

  “Drinks for everyone else?” Ethan boasted out as the voices continued on at Eli’s request, playing out in the common room in which he and Owen were standing.

  “I won't say no.”

  There it was. The one thing that they had come here to find. A new voice.

  A familiar voice. A whisper amongst the static. Something that could have been easily missed had they not been actively looking for it. Ethan was right after all. Owen was the fourth person.

  “There!” Eli shouted excitedly, “There! That was you!” he said as he turned to look at Owen. “Nick, take us back to the start of the memories please. We need to see if we can get it out clearer this time.”

  Owen had heard the exact same thing that Eli had, but he wasn’t at all convinced, not yet. It can't be me, can it? He thought. It's going to take a lot more than that to change my perception on things. But… if it really is me. Then that means that some
one has been messing around with my memories.

  The audio-only memories stopped and the room fell silent once again. Both Owen and Eli waited anxiously for the voices to start playing over.

  “It’s good to see you all again,” the familiar chime of Ethan’s voice began.

  “Okay,” Eli said, speaking over the audio playing out in the room. “We really need to try this time. I know that there must be something in that head of yours. Something that's been hidden from you, and we need to find it."

  Owen nodded, only half taking in what he was being told. He was more focused on thinking things through logically. If this is all really true. If that really is me that's a part of their conversation? Then someone really has tampered with my memories. That just begs the question… what else is missing from my head?

  "Owen, we need to find out what happened to Annie, to find out what these bastards did!” Eli finished saying enthusiastically as the memories continued to play out in the background. Owen nodded and concentrated his focus on the voices he was hearing, trying desperately to make a connection between their memories and his own. Something inside him suddenly triggered and a sense of deja-vu overpowered him. That was the moment that he realised he really did know the truth after all.

  I've been here before.

  “Drinks for everyone else?” Ethan finished up saying to everyone in the background. This is it. This is the moment of truth.

  “I won't say no,” Owen Archer's voice replied.

  It was him, it was his voice. He stood up from the chair which he was sitting in and angrily began to grab at his hair whilst pacing around the room.

  “No… No! No way!" he said as he tried to shake the truth out of his head. His eyes moved manically as he spoke, unable to focus them on anything. "No fucking way! That’s not real. Its not me. It… It can’t be.”

  But hadn’t he felt this realisation bubbling inside him all along? Owen was the missing piece of the puzzle. It just took this for him to realise it. So I'm the fourth person. Someone out there has messed with my head. Someone has taken some memories out somewhere down the line. Someone has used PRoGRaM against me.

  “See, we’re getting somewhere!” Eli said, feeling strangely excited by what was unraveling around him. Owen, on the other hand, was less impressed as he began to realise the sheer scale of the implications that this new information was bringing to light. His situation was spiralling out of control and he was growing more and more concerned with every second that passed. Why is this conversation, of all things, missing?

  One thing was immensely clear. There was a hell of a lot more going on here than what met the eye.

  “And me,” Alex said in response to Ethan's earlier question about the drink before changing the subject completely. “It’s been a long, long time since I’ve seen this place. Doesn’t seem to have changed too much!”

  A short silence ensured before Marcus Ortega's voice chimed in. “So, lets get down to business," he said seriously. "What’s going on Ethan?”

  “Gentleman,” Ethan replied, the beaming pride obvious in his voice. “I’ve figured it out. Phase Two.”

  “Impossible,” Alex shouted out in surprise.

  “You can’t be serious!” Marcus said, speaking out almost at the exact same time that Alex had.

  “What?!” Owen called out angrily. There I am again. It wasn't right for him to hear his own voice mixed in amongst those who killed his wife.

  But his response wasn't right. It didn't fit in. It was angry and opposing. It sounded like the past version of himself just didn’t want to be there amongst the others. You could hear the resentment and the confliction in the tone of his voice. What exactly was going on? Whatever phase two is, you didn't seem to want any part of it Owen…

  “You continued your research?” Marcus asked excitedly, right on cue. They had heard all of this before. Together, Eli and Owen were only interested in the new developments, but to get the full picture, they had to endure the entire memory sequence.

  “I did,” Ethan replied. “It’s been such a long time coming, but I believe I’ve made it possible.”

  “Amazing! Have you tested this as such yet?”

  “You’ve got to be kidding,” Owen interjected, his voice still sounding stern and opposing. You could get the feel from the tone of his voice that Archer really didn’t want to be there. “I thought we agreed that this was pushing it too far?”

  “You were the only one to voice that opinion yes, but it cannot be the defining factor in determining the progress of science,” Ethan replied directly to Owen. His voice then seemed to redirect and his tone changed, sounding lighter and more casual than when he had been talking to Archer. “As for the testing Marcus, I have done partial testing and the results are very promising. With all of your help here, I believe we can iron out the kinks and make phase two a reality.”

  “You should know yourself that this is wrong. Why are you doing this?” Owen said through his projected memory.

  “Science isn’t about the ‘Why’, It’s about ‘Why not’,” Ethan responded.

  “Are either of you going to back me up?” Owen asked, presumably speaking to Alex Morgan and Marcus Ortega.

  “I’m sorry,” Alex replied. He hadn't really participated much in this entire conversation. He was merely just in the background, mostly listening in to what everybody else was saying. It was as if he was weighing his options before choosing a side. “I can’t turn this opportunity down.”

  “Neither can I,” Marcus answered, siding alongside Ethan and Alex. “This was always going to be the next logical step. Imagine the possibilities!”

  “I’m going to have to leave," Owen said. You could almost see the look of disappointment on his face. Whatever was going on, Archer really didn’t want to be involved. "Gentlemen, we’ve done some great work, but I’m afraid that it must end here for me, I cannot be a part of this any longer.”

  “But we’re going to need your help,” Ethan replied, speaking quickly. His words were sharp and concerning. Owen was seemingly preparing to leave the room.

  “We’re doing good work already with the PRoGRaM memory analyst teams,” Owen answered, speaking calmly back to Ethan. “Look at my team for example, it works perfectly. Why do we have to mess with a system that already works? We have everything we need already to do a good job! We’re already changing the world.”

  A few seconds passed in silence.

  “You do not have a choice!” Ethan shouted out almost unexpectedly. It seemed that Owen had taken his leave and was on his way out. “You will be a part of this one way or the other!”

  The voices stopped.

  “What the hell is going on?” Eli asked himself rhetorically. Owen, the real Owen anyway, hadn’t said a word in a while. He just occupied his mind by pacing around the room whilst quietly listening into the events unfolding before him. How am I supposed to react to this? How is anybody supposed to react in this situation?

  “This isn’t going the way I planned it,” Ethan’s voice said quietly, kicking in now that the digital Owen had seemingly left the room.

  “We need to call the boss,” Marcus replied, speaking to nobody in particular. Marcus, Alex and Ethan weren't the ones in control. All three of them had always been looking to an outsider to call the shots for them. The boss.

  A short gap in the conversation passed before Ethan's voice kicked things off again. “It’s me…” he said, putting on a more professional voice as he spoke on what Owen guessed was his mobile phone. “We have a problem… Yes? But it’s not been tested yet. … I understand … on Annie? Okay.”

  The phone call was over. “They hung up,” Ethan said to Alex and Marcus.

  “Are we to implement phase two?” Marcus asked eagerly, with a fearful spike in his voice.

  “Yes. Yes we are," Ethan replied quietly, before the anger of a madman began to seep in. "Why can’t we just kill him?”

  “You heard the boss,” Marcus answered, speaking a lit
tle sheepishly. He almost sounded scared. Maybe it's something to do with the situation that he found himself in? There was something about phase two that was putting him on edge.

  “It’s not our decision to make,” Ethan said slowly, as if he was trying to reassure himself. “The boss made the call. Not us.”

  “Why Annie though?” Alex asked in response, bringing a whole new level to the conversation. He sounded just like Marcus had. He too sounded scared and anxious. But why? “Why does it have to be her?”

  “I don’t know,” Ethan said slowly before concluding his innermost thoughts out loud for both Alex and Marcus to hear. “But we know what we have to do next.”

  The voices faded out. It was over.

  The final pieces of the puzzle were in place. Or were they? It still didn’t make sense to Eli, or Owen either for that matter. No matter how hard he thought about it, he still couldn't form a complete picture. “That’s it. It’s over,” Eli said.

  Owen quit his pacing and slumped himself down onto a nearby chair. He rested his elbows on his knees and brought his hands to the side of his head. Carefully and therapeutically, he began massaging his temples as he gazed at the laminate flooring beneath him.

  “Owen, what’s wrong?” Eli asked, seeing the confusion written all over Owen's face.

  “Do you know what it’s like?" Archer replied slowly and quietly, speaking down to the floor. "Do you know what it's like to know that something in your own head is missing? To know that a piece of you is gone? No, you don't. And neither did I until tonight. This is what I put people through, Eli. This is my job. To erase parts of people's lives!"

  Owen gradually got louder and louder as he made his speech, his voice building up to it's climactic end. He looked up from the floor and stared directly into Eli's eyes.

  "This must be how everyone feels when they’re on this side of the gun," Owen continued. "I had no idea that it was like this. If we get out of all this in one piece, and if things ever go back to the way they were, then I can promise you that I’m never using PRoGRaM again. Ever.”