Mind Sync

by Kirsten Harrell

  Fuck off, Captain Intrusive. I’m doing this. Maybe you and Max should stay here and do whatever it is you’ve been whispering about and meeting in secret. Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream… Bree sang in her head to keep from leaking any further thoughts to Zuhl.

  “Jason, drive now or I’ll kick your ass out of this Jeep and drive myself.”

  Jason pulled into the parking lot at Sedona School of Metaphysics, locally known as SSM, with Max’s truck close behind. The small campus had four buildings and offered woo-woo type classes like “Meditation 101” and “How to connect with your spirit guide” - or maybe it was totem animal. Bree hadn’t realized that the school had actual science labs and equipment.

  “There’s his building.” Bree pointed to the third building. She’d called the main number to get the location of ‘Mr.-I-think-I’m-so-cool-I-renamed-myself-Sun Dragon.’ Unfortunately, making up weird new-agey names happened all too often in Sedona. At least among the transplants.

  Bree’s group, including two KGs who’d popped into the parking lot, walked into building C, a three-story brick structure with reflective windows. After checking out the building’s directory, Bree led her crew down the hall in search for Suite 114. She had drunk more of the medicated water on the short drive and hoped the relief would last long enough to get her through this part of the mission.

  A young man and woman walked out of an office, then stopped dead in their tracks at the sight of the strange group taking up most of the hallway. Bree gave them her best ‘don’t fuck with me’ look and almost broke out laughing at their reaction; they’d nearly tripped over each other trying to get back through the door.

  To be fair, seeing a battered and bloodied well-armed woman, an armed man in black paramilitary gear, two Kusharians, and two KGs probably would’ve scared most people. The pretty boy with nicely groomed brows and the hottie doc might’ve softened the look of the group were they not buried in the middle.

  They walked past doors that looked like offices and classrooms before reaching a door on the right labeled Suite 114. Unlike the other doors, this one had something dark over the window so they couldn’t see inside.

  Bree paused, wondering if she should send the guards in first. That’d be using her resources, but she’d also be working with the enemy again. Except she was no longer sure if they were the enemy. Fuck it. Either way, sending the KG in first meant they’d be taking the most risk, keeping her friends and family safe.

  But could she really trust them?

  An odd vibration tickled Bree’s insides, then the KG disappeared. “Oh, hell, no! I’m calling the shots on this op, not you.” Bree clenched her fists to keep from strangling Captain Intrusive.

  “It was the best plan.” Zuhl whispered in a tone harsh.

  “Let’s go.” Bree opened the door and walked in with her gun in both hands sweeping the room until she found her target. “Hands in the fucking air, now!”

  “What the hell? Who’re you?” The man yelled. His long hair, tied back, tattered jeans, and retro tee-shirt with Birkenstock sandals on top of wools socks screamed hippy. The big black disks stretching his ear lobes to freakish size, his nose ring, the piercings on his brows, and some decent ink on his body showed a punk-rock side.

  “Are you Sun Dragon?” Max demanded.

  “Yes, I am. This is my lab. Who are you people?”

  “We’re the ones shutting down your damn experiments,” Bree answered as she moved toward Dragon-boy, who stood next to a tall, beautiful woman sporting a nose piercing of her own.

  “You can’t shut us down. Who sent you?” The woman put her hands in the air, gaping at Bree and the group behind her.

  “We most definitely can and we will shut your asses down. You have two choices. Cooperate or take a little one-way trip with those two.” Bree pointed to the KGs. She lifted her brows and tilted her head to the woman. “I assume you’re Dr. Pema Griggs?”

  The woman nodded but turned her focus to Dragon-boy. The intensity in their eyes indicated a relationship more intimate than mere lab partners. Good. Bree could use their love for each other to her advantage.

  “We’re helping the human race, accelerating human enlightenment by shifting brain waves toward a more positive and peaceful mindset so that we can avoid the T’Lalz invasion. And the IKS,” Dragon-boy blathered, his face ghost-white. He kept looking at his girlfriend as he spoke. “Look, this was all my idea. It’s all on me. Please, let her go.”

  “Nobody is going anywhere yet.” Bree waved her gun toward a couple of chairs near a desk, unswayed by Dragon-boy’s noble attempt to save his damsel in distress. “Sit down. Both of you.”

  Bree’s vision blurred again. She holstered her weapon and sat on the edge of the desk. Zuhl handed her another bottle of laced water.

  I’m gonna be up to my eyeballs in water. I can’t afford to be running to the fucking bathroom every ten minutes.

  Zuhl nodded at the bottle. Ipeshe anticipated this and has adjusted the dose. You only need to sip this water.

  Bree yanked the bottle away from Zuhl and took a sip. Hmmm… it did taste different. Sweeter. She took another small sip before putting the bottle down.

  “Do you two numbskulls realize that your precious fucking brain zappers have killed people and caused several more to get k-snagged? Not to mention the blissed out folks who are comatose.” Bree looked back and forth between the two MBG inventors. She needed more information about their experiments before mentioning the sabotage.

  “We didn’t mean to hurt anyone.” Prema’s voice broke and she shifted in her seat.

  “I already told you, this is all me. Leave her alone.” Dragon-boy to the rescue again.

  Interesting. Did they know about the saboteurs?

  “Look… it doesn’t really matter that you didn’t intend to hurt anyone. People died because of you.” Max still had his gun in hand, but no longer pointed it at the couple.

  The hippy-punk assclown sat up straighter and looked directly at Bree. “Our work is solid. I admit, we’ve had some problems finding the correct pulse amps. It’s trial and error. That’s how experiments work.”

  “Did you run your experiments by an ethics panel?” Nina asked.

  “No, but don’t you get it? If - no when we get this right - we’ll save the human race. We’ll make our planet safe.” Dragon’s nostrils flared and his hands clenched the arm of his chair.

  “Settle down,” Bree ordered. “You’re not going to continue your research, scumbag. How many more people do you want to kill before you get it right?”

  “It’s for the greater good. A few deaths now could save the entire planet. I’d say that’s worth it.” The pompous ass nearly shot out of his chair, going from shaking in his Birkenstocks to threatening in seconds flat.

  “Dude, you’ve got balls. How ‘bout you tone it down.” Bree slid off the desk and stood over Prema with a hand on her shoulder. She slid a cold look to the Dragon-boy and then to his partner, indicating her intention to hurt Prema if he didn’t settle down. Not that she wanted to hurt the woman, but she figured the threat would get the bastard talking faster than anything else.

  He let out a loud sigh, sank back into his chair, then he glared at Bree and asked, “what do you want?”

  “Are you going to be a good little dragon and play nice now?” Bree flashed a fake smile at Dragon-boy. “How many of the little brain zappers are out there?”

  “Twenty.” Prema spat out before Dragon-boy could even think about answering.

  Bree shot a concerned glance at Max and Jason. “How many did we get?”

  “Five.” Jason looked about as sick as Bree felt. Clearly, they had a lot more work to do.

  “We need to know the locations of all of them.” Max stepped forward. “And you are going to need to shut them down. Immediately.

  Captain Intrusive looked back and forth at the two suspects. “Please give us the name of the Kusharian that was assisting you. We know that you’ve
used our technology to build your MBGs.”

  Kozeb had already told them who had helped build the MBGs, but it didn’t hurt to verify.

  Once again, Prema answered first. “We call her V. Her name is Vashaz something of the Tuhleng.”

  Zuhl and Ipeshe shared a look.

  “Ipeshe knows Vashaz,” Zuhl said. “She’s another medical consultant.”

  “I swear we were trying to help. This whole thing was meant to save Earth. We didn’t want to hurt anyone, but it hasn’t worked as well as we’d hoped. Please, don’t send us to the Karma Cocoons. I’m pregnant.” Tears streamed down Prema’s face.

  “Fuck! You’re such an ass.” Bree slapped Dragon-boy on the head. “Way to put your partner and baby in danger.”

  “I’m trying to ensure their safety. If we don’t do something fast, there might not even be a world left to bring our child into.”

  “Your intentions may be noble, but that does not mean that you should run such experiments,” Ipeshe said.

  “You Kusharians should be happy about this.” The ballsy shitbag looked directly at Ipeshe. “If we can make the MBGs work, your jobs’ll be much easier.”

  “How many people might be harmed or killed to get there?” Zuhl asked.

  “Um… I don’t know that answer. As Prema said, it hasn’t turned out as well as we’d intended. But I’ll do anything to save Prema and our baby. You’ve got to let us continue. What if we can get it down to thirty percent loss? Would that be acceptable?”

  Max’s hand twitched. “Please tell me you aren’t serious. Do you even know your experiments were being sabotaged?”

  “What are you talking about?” Prema’s eyes widened and the color drained from her beautiful brown face.

  “You didn’t know?” Bree let out a snarky laugh. She’d have held off on sharing that, but since Max brought it up, she’d go with it. “Yeah, a group of shitbags were fucking with your zappers, turning people into raging violent maniacs,” Bree informed the two stooges in front of her.

  The MBG creators looked at each other, then Dragon-boy looked at Bree and asked, “how many did they ruin?”

  “Are you serious? You’re more concerned about your equipment than the people whose lives have been destroyed? Oh my God, that’s sick!” Nina exclaimed.

  “We spent everything we had building the MBGs. With time, we could get them calibrated and really do some good. If someone was messing with them, maybe our work wasn’t even at fault. Let us figure out what’s going on.”

  “I don’t think anyone here is going to feel bad about your loss of life savings?” Bree glanced over her crew who were all shaking their heads. “Yeah, I didn’t think so.”

  “Not all of the injuries were due to the sabotage. You are responsible for all of those in comas and for some of the rage episodes.” Ipeshe looked serious.

  Is that true? Bree sent to Zuhl.

  As far as we can tell at this point, Zuhl answered.

  26

  “Ipeshe, we need to issue Karmic Justice to Dr. Griggs and Mr. Dragon, and then I need to find Vashaz.” Zuhl looked at Dragon as she spoke.

  Jason’s eyes darted back and forth between Zuhl and Ipeshe. “She’s pregnant. What will happen to her baby? I mean they were trying to help. Kinda.”

  “The stasis chambers are not designed for pregnant woman.” Ipeshe replied slowly.

  “What does that mean?” Jason’s face paled.

  “How many weeks are you pregnant?” Ipeshe asked.

  “Eight weeks.” Prema’s voice cracked.

  Ipeshe’s eye swirls slowed. “The pregnancy would be terminated.”

  “Please, I can’t lose my baby,” Prema sobbed.

  “Take me. Leave Prema out of this. I forced her to help me. She didn’t want to do any of this, but I needed her expertise. Do whatever you want with me. Just save my baby. I’m begging you.” Dragon-boy had tears streaming down his face.

  Jason’s face twisted and he looked like he might throw up. “You guys kill babies?”

  “The stasis process has negative effects on a developing human fetus. Under twelve weeks, the pregnancy is terminated.”

  “You can’t do that!” Jason yelled.

  “It is necessary when Karmic Justice is issued in such cases. Your government agreed to these terms.”

  “How many times do I have to tell you that the EUC is not our government?” Bree blurted.

  “What about after twelve weeks?” Nina asked.

  “Those women are held in a separate facility until the fetus reaches viability at twenty weeks. At that time, we put the fetus in an incubation chamber and the mother in stasis. These rules were developed with complete cooperation with the EUC.” Zuhl kept her head pointed at Bree and slid a look toward the MBG creators. This is not the best time for such a discussion.

  “What a clusterfuck. Okay. Can we shtick them in the Shedona jail until we figure out what to do with them? We might shtill need them…” Bree wobbled. She took a swig of the medicine water, hoping it would stop the slurring.

  Damn, it tasted good. She took another big gulp.

  Do not take too much at once. Zuhl’s thought pounded into her mind with some force.

  Bree glared at the Commander.

  “That would be against protocol.” Zuhl paused and looked at the couple in front of her.

  Ipeshe looked at Zuhl. “Since they did not intend to harm anyone, their nano-trackers did not signal the Karma Guards. Technically, we are not obligated to send them to the Karma Chambers. Perhaps we could allow them to be housed in the human jail.”

  Ipeshe, even though they didn’t trigger Phase One justice, their actions clearly violate Phase Two of the Instant Karma System.

  Bree’s eyes widened. She snapped her head to the left to look at Zuhl. What the hell do you mean Phase Two? What is that?

  We can discuss that later. Right now, we need to get the MBGs shut down and prevent any more deaths or problems. And, we have to severe this mind sync.

  “Just because I agree with that, doesn’t give you a pass.” Bree answered out loud and everyone in the room looked at her with a mixture of concern and confusion because they didn’t hear the silent part of the conversation. “You’ve got a fuckload of explaining to do and I won’t hesitate to force it out of you if necessary.”

  “We’ll allow them to be placed in your jail for the time being. First, they will help shut the MBGs down and give us the locations of each box.” Zuhl’s directive distracted the others from their concern over Bree’s last statement.

  Dragon-boy sniffled and wiped his eyes with the back of his hands. He got up and walked to the wall of computers and instrument panels, where he stood frozen.

  “Honey, please do what they ask,” Prema begged him.

  Dragon-boy huffed, then he leaned in to type and twist knobs and push buttons. “It’s done. They’re all off.” He looked like someone had just kicked his puppy when he stepped back.

  “Good. Now give us the locations,” Max demanded.

  “Please, don’t destroy them.” The pale, sweaty Dragon-boy handed a paper to Max.

  Max shook his head. “Dude, you have a hell of a lot more to worry about than the state of these things.”

  Bree sent Rick the list of coordinates of the remaining MBGs so he could get his crew to collect them. Since the brain zappers weren’t active, they wouldn’t need protective head gear.

  Max patted Bree’s head. “Okay, Bree. It’s time for you to get this head of yours looked at.”

  “This isn’t over. We still need to get more info out of Kozeb and track down the asshole behind the sabotage. Plus, we need to track down and deal with this Vashaz bitch who helped develop the MBGs. And, the Commander and I have some unfinished business we need to discuss.” Bree glared at Zuhl.

  A huge knot tightened in Bree’s belly. As if the Karma Cocoons weren’t bad enough? What the fuck was IK part two? Her anger teetered on rage.

  Breathe. One step at a time. One s
tep at a time. “Besides, this medicine seems to be working fine.”

  “Bree, that medicine is only a temporary solution. If we do not address the underlying problem, you will have permanent damage.” Ipeshe gave Bree a serious look. “The medicine is controlling your symptoms, but it does not cure the problem. The longer you delay actual treatment, the more you risk brain damage.”

  “Please, Bree, let us help you,” Nina pleaded.

  If only she hadn’t promised to let Ipeshe treat her. Her word was her bond. But the thought of letting the alien mess around in her head again twisted her insides. She looked at Max. Could she still trust him? Perhaps she’d ignore all of this crazy shit and go pound a few shots or a whole bottle of Tequila and sleep for days.

  You might not wake up if you do that, Zuhl countered.

  Shut the fuck up. You swirly-eyed karma bitch. I am so fucking done with your crazy parasitic presence in my head. Bree felt the flush hit her cheeks and turned to the door. Was she about to go berserk like the other ragers? “Fine, she can do her alien voodoo, but let’s go now before I change my mind.”

  Jason caught up to Bree in the hall and put his hand on her shoulder. “Thanks. I’m glad you’re going to let them help you.”

  “Well, I can’t really leave you alone to deal with all of this crazy crap. We’re family and we need to stick together. Besides who else would give you shit about your man-scaping?” Bree pulled her brother close. No need to tell him she needed the physical support to walk to the Jeep.

  Jason grumbled but Bree could feel his relief.

  She’d do anything for her brother - give her life for his. No hesitation. No question. But letting the Kusharian screw around in her head? That was nearly more than she could do. But a promise was a promise so she’d let Ipeshe and Nina fix her brain, which currently felt like it had a hot poker jabbing it again.

  Max left to update her parents then meet with Rick to help with the MBG roundup.

  Zuhl and the KG transported Dr. and Mr. Dumbfuck to the Sedona jail.

  Ipeshe and Nina piled into the back seat of the Jeep. With Bree in the passenger seat, Jason drove to the Kusharian Regional Headquarters in Scottsdale. As she watched the beautiful scenery, the double vision returned and brought another intense wave of nausea with it. Bree chugged the rest of the medicated water before leaning her head back and closing her eyes. Too exhausted to fight it, she slipped into nothingness.