The Identity: The Black Unit Series: Book One

by Lund, S.

  Once inside, Anna and Pete went to an office where a technician walked them through a clearance protocol that involved iris scanning and taking an electronic palm imprint that was meant to identify them and provide them with ID so they could move around the camp. Anna was surprised at the ease with which she gained admittance. They really must have trusted Brandon and wanted her to be taken to her brother. She could tell by the way people treated her that they held a certain reverence for him.

  A guard next drove her to another building in the center of the camp, and led her into an elevator to a sub-basement that seemed relatively new as if it had just been dug and the foundation laid. It still had that wet cement smell. It was cool and damp on the level where Theo was located, and the lighting was unnatural, fluorescent. The walls were whitewashed cinderblock except for the medical room, which was fully finished. There were banks of telemetry and what appeared to be the latest medical equipment.

  "They woke him up just for you," the guard said. "He's still incoherent, though, so don't expect anything sane out of him. And he's pretty banged up. Tried to escape several times. Don’t worry though. He'll heal up soon enough."

  Inside the small interrogation room, Theo sat at a table, his head bowed, his hands and feet shackled to an anchor in the floor beneath the table. A chair faced him on the other side of the table and there were several visible cameras and a large two-way mirror on either wall facing them.

  There was no reason to hide the fact of surveillance.

  Theo himself looked a mess – a wreck of his former self, and Anna’s heart skipped a beat when she saw him again. He was tall and well-built, priding himself on his fitness. Usually meticulously groomed, he now had a grizzled beard, his dark hair mussed, and bandages covered half his face. His lips and cheeks were still swollen.

  "Theo?"

  He looked up and blinked a few times as if he had to struggle to focus. His eyes haunted Anna – blue and usually sharp, they were now bloodshot, empty, and almost mindless.

  "Hello, little mouse." His speech was slurred and a bit garbled because of the injuries to his mouth and the splint on his broken nose. "Why did you come? Are you on their side? Did you come to spit in my face?"

  "Theo," she said, sadness filling her. "How could you think that? I came because I wanted to find you. See how you are."

  "You should have stayed away. I wanted you to stay away. Now, everything's wrong..."

  "I'm fine, Theo," she said. "I'm here to see how you are. That's all. I was so worried when I didn't hear from you for so long."

  He said nothing for a moment and just stared at her, shaking his head slowly.

  "Anna, you should never have come. If you knew what I know, you'd run like hell."

  "That's why I'm here. To try to understand what you know."

  He pulled on the chains that led to the shackles on his wrists and feet, the links clinking against each other. They had him on a short chain that provided him very little mobility and he could only move his hands a couple of inches in any direction.

  "You're living a lie, Anna. You think you're working for the militia, but there hasn't been a legitimate leadership since Denton took over. The men you see? They're just puppets. Brandon? He's still a puppet like I was."

  Anna sighed. There it was -- the evidence of psychosis Pete had spoken about.

  "You're experiencing some kind of psychosis induced by removing the chip, Theo. I've only read the preliminary research on how it's possible to use implants to trigger certain neurochemicals and stimulate specific parts of the brain. When they tried to remove your neural chip, it caused damage. They tried to repair it, the fix wasn't perfect. You're suffering delusions, Theo. What you think you believe is a delusion. It's not reality."

  "You see what they want you to see, Anna." He turned to Brandon, whose expression was almost painful to see. He was distraught at the state Theo was in. "That chip you have? They use it to make you see and believe things. You have to take it out to see the truth."

  "Theo," Brandon said, his voice exasperated. "I don't know where you got these ideas, but it's the brain damage that did this to you. You're hallucinating."

  Theo said nothing and Brandon shook his head in dismay. "The nano-fibers were disrupted from their normal pathways that control EWs and prevent us from experiencing PTSD. Now, they're inducing a psychotic state in you. That's all. There is no huge plot to deceive us all."

  "When you have yours removed, Brandon, you'll realize just how duped you are."

  "I can't have it removed or I'll lose consciousness like you did. That's what happened to you."

  "That's because they tried to put it back, but they should have left it out. It's a machine in your mind. It controls you."

  "Theo, if you could only hear yourself speak..." Anna said, alarmed at how out of touch he was.

  "You don't understand. That implant does more than just prevent PTSD. You feel what they want you to feel. It's a brain hack that keeps you on your mission, no matter what. It removes your free will."

  Anna leaned back in her chair and glanced away from him, the insanity in his face painful to see. The gibberish he was spouting made her heart sink. He really was delusional.

  "You have to stop Denton. He's a traitor." Theo pulled on his shackles once again as if testing them. "Remove your chip, Brandon. You'll see, just like I did."

  Sadness filled Anna and I had to bite the side of her cheek to stop the emotions from surfacing.

  "Theo, you're psychotic," Brandon said, his voice soft, his tone defeated.

  "You're wrong. I'm very much sane. It's you who are insane. Take out your chip, Brandon. You'll see proof. You too, Anna. Take yours out as well."

  "Theo, I don't have a neural chip," she said, pointing to the back of her hand. "All I have is a tracker."

  "No," Theo said, shaking his head. "You have a neural chip. Just like all of us."

  She shook her head. "It's just a tracker. Nothing else."

  Beside me, Brandon exhaled in exasperation.

  "I'm thirsty," Theo said. "Can you get me some water? The meds they give me make my mouth dry."

  Brandon turned to the guard.

  "Can I get him some water?"

  The guard nodded, gesturing to the hallway with his chin. "Drinking fountain is down the hall. There's paper cups beside it."

  Brandon left them, the guard staying where he was at the door.

  "I love you, little mouse," Theo said and looked at Anna, his face almost collapsing beneath the bandages. "I wanted Brandon to find you and for you both to go into hiding but I failed." He bowed his head and closed his eyes. I could hear the tick tick tick of the clock on the wall, feel the beating of her own heart in her chest. Emotions were roiling inside of her, threatening her composure and she had to blink back tears.

  As she watched, Theo's hands clenched to fists, the skin blanching, the knuckles bulging. He seemed to strain as if in pain, his lips thin, his eyes clenched tightly shut.

  He whispered, his voice thin, almost a hiss. "I can't save myself, but maybe I can save you." With a roar, he pulled the links apart that were holding the chain to his shackles and lunged over the table, grabbing Anna, his hands circling her neck, his fingers choking off her breath.

  They crashed to the floor and Theo came to rest on top of Anna, his hands still around her neck, his face beside hers. "Contact Blake88," he whispered in her ear. "Go to the Ocean of Storms. Don't tell Brandon. He's compromised. Then you'll understand."

  She didn't struggle. He was trying to tell her something so no one else could hear, but whatever it was made no sense.

  Just as he was getting the last word out, the guards and Brandon pulled Theo off her, but he didn't fight. He went completely limp in their hands and the guards dragged him out of the room.

  Brandon helped her stand. "Are you okay?" he asked, holding her shoulders.

  "I'm fine." Anna rubbed her neck where Theo had choked her. He didn't mean to harm her – she knew that. He
wanted to give her the message without his words being recorded. "How did he do that? Those links were very heavy."

  "He's an EW and we have really strong muscle fibers and stronger than normal bones. Besides, madness can make a man exceptionally strong," Brandon said. "I've seen it before. Unnatural feats of strength. He's clearly delusional to attack you, Anna."

  Anna exhaled and tried to get control over her emotions. Theo hadn't tried to hurt her. He tried to give her a message. He wanted her to meet someone named Blake88 at the Ocean of Storms, wherever that was. He also didn't want her to tell Brandon.

  She followed Brandon out of the interrogation room.

  "I'm sorry that happened to you," Pete said, after they were back in the main area. "We thought he was secure, but he really went crazy to be able to pull those chains out of the floor."

  "That's okay. You didn't know. What happens to him now?"

  "We wait. See what the new shrinks can do with him. There's a neurosurgeon coming who specializes in deep brain stimulation. Hopefully, he'll be able to do something, but we need the original research on what the implant does before we can fix it."

  Pete took them back to our barracks and she sat on the sofa across from him and watched as Brandon went into the kitchen.

  "There's fresh coffee," Brandon said from the other room. "Can I fix you both a cup?"

  "Please. Cream and sugar."

  "Make that two," Pete replied.

  In a moment, Brandon brought them both a cup and she took hers gladly, needing some caffeine to clear her head. She sipped, enjoying the taste. It felt a bit like normalcy in a world that had become so incredibly abnormal.

  "If you're going to be here for a while, we've got a safe house you can stay in," Pete said. "The town's only a few miles down the highway, and you can come for meetings when you're called. I know that Commander Denton will want to speak with you, Brandon."

  "I'm happy to meet with him if he thinks I can help the cause."

  "What about me?" Anna asked. "I want to help if I can. I'll do anything to help Theo."

  "We'll want you to work for us, but first, we need to see what the docs think about Theo's problems. Until we have some better idea of what to do, you'll have to stay at the safe house. You can go out, do whatever you want. There's a library, a movie theater, and shopping center in the neighborhood."

  Brandon turned to her. "Will she be okay staying by herself?"

  "You can stay with her if you want. There's a second bedroom."

  Anna turned to Brandon. "I'd feel a lot safer if you were here, frankly."

  Brandon nodded. "Fine with me."

  That afternoon, Pete took them to the safe house and got them settled in. It was a two bedroom, in a building a few blocks from the downtown area. The furniture was all second-hand. The kitchen had been stocked with dishes and some basics were in the refrigerator. Cream, juice, bread, jam. Coffee and a coffee maker on the counter. There was a flatscreen TV on the wall that looked quite old, but it was better than nothing.

  They brought in their personal possessions and each of them took a bedroom.

  Pete handed them each a cell phone.

  "This is a burner phone you can use. There's a computer in the apartment but you should know it's hooked into the network so anything you look at will be tracked. No porn, Brandon."

  Brandon laughed. "Don't worry. I'm in need of sleep more than anything."

  Anna turned to Brandon. "Now what?" she asked.

  "I have a meeting on base with Pete," he said and came over to where Anna stood. "You should rest. Will you be all right by yourself?"

  "Yes," she said, wanting to sleep. "I'll probably go to the store and get some popcorn and watch a movie on Netflix."

  "Okay. I'm sure you're safe. There's been no sign that we were tracked here. If you need me, call me." They exchanged cell numbers. Then, he and Pete left Anna alone.

  She waited a good fifteen minutes and then left the apartment, walking the few blocks to a street with shops and restaurants. She walked around the streets, and found a café down the street with free Wi-Fi. She went inside and ordered a coffee so she could use it, hoping that the militia wasn't watching her browsing history. The café was largely deserted so she sat by the window and surfed the web. As she did, she watched the streets, wondering how anyone could believe that the government had been taken over by an enemy state. Outside, the clouds were gathering and the wind picked up. It looked like it could rain.

  Theo had given her a couple of names, Blake88 and Ocean of Storms, so she googled both. There was one Blake88 linked to a 4Chan account on Reddit. She read his posts and saw that he was one of those preppers who was preparing for a grid failure and civil war.

  More of the nonsense that Theo had been spouting.

  Anna knew it was crazy, and that she would be reprimanded for following up on something Theo said to her in secret, but she felt such incredible blackness fill her that she had to do something to assuage her doubts.

  She posted a message on his account profile.

  Hi, I'm Anna, Theo's sister. He said I should find Blake88. I'm here in town at the Harvest Moon café.

  She had no idea of he was the right Blake88, but it seemed like such a unique handle that it had to be him. She sent the message and then leaned back, wondering if she had made a big mistake.

  Next, she googled Ocean of Storms and discovered it was a restaurant that doubled as a club at night, located in the theatre district just a few blocks away.

  For the next hour, she caught up on the latest news. As she sipped a cup of decaf coffee and tried to figure out what it all meant, a homeless man with filthy clothes and a long beard approached her table and knocked against it with such force that her cup rattled and fell over, spilling the dregs of her coffee on the tabletop.

  "Sorry," he mumbled and leaned down, picking up the cup. He took a napkin out of a pocket and wiped the spill, then dropped the napkin beside her hand. She looked down and saw writing in red ink. She covered it quickly with a hand and smiled at the man, but he was already out the door.

  She tucked the napkin in her pocket and stood to leave. With one last glance around, she opened the door and walked out into the streets. Thunder rumbled overhead and the first drops of rain began to fall.

  As she stopped for shelter in a doorway, she took out the napkin and read the message.

  Ocean of Storms. Blake88. Now.

  She stood in the rain, unable to decide what to do. The napkin was crunched into a ball in her hand. Opening it, she read the message once again and watched as the rain soaked the paper, smudging the message, the ink running over her opened palm like blood.

  The dark interior was largely empty, the music some brand of alternative pop with a mechanized beat. She entered and sat at a table by the window, looking out onto the street. A waitress came by and Anna ordered a decaf coffee, which she brought out in a few moments. She sipped it and took in a deep cleansing breath to calm herself. She watched the cars driving by on the street. It was a pretty quiet little town.

  After a moment, she felt someone join her and turned to see a man sit across from her. In his forties, with greying hair and piercing blue eyes, he had a neatly trimmed beard and his hair was a little long. He was wearing hunting gear.

  Was it the mysterious Blake?

  "Anna." He extended his hand and she took it, but he leaned in and kissed her on the cheek. "Good to see you again."

  She pulled her hand away from his grasp. "I've never met you in my life…"

  He shook his head sadly.

  "I suspected as much. Look. Theo told me that we should try to contact you, convince you to join."

  "Theo's suffering from brain damage. The doctor said he's delusional."

  "No. He's far from delusional. He learned the truth, that's all. Nietzsche said, 'You shall learn the truth and the truth shall drive you mad.' Did you really think your brother would join an anti-government militia?"

  "He didn't?"

&
nbsp; "No. He's a patriot."

  Anna frowned. "Who are you?"

  "I'm the militia's public enemy number one. They're tools of a corrupt government, a black flag operation designed to send the US into civil war. I found out and had to leave. They tried to kill me, but they failed. I want to stop them. Theo wanted to stop them. Your father wanted to stop them. But they killed your father. They tried to hack Theo's implant, hoping to use him to find me. When he tried to take it out, he saw the truth."

  "Wait, you're telling me that the militia is actually a government op?"

  "I am," he said and leaned back like he'd just told her a punchline to a story.

  "I can't believe it. Why would they do that?"

  "Plausible deniability for instituting martial law. Enacting a state of emergency to stop elections. Did you really think Theo was the kind of man to join an anti-government group?"

  "No. I figured he must have brainwashed him."

  "Close but no," he said and leaned in closer. "It was the implant. We deactivated it. The implant controls emotions, and their technology controls thoughts and even implants false memories."

  "They said they tried to remove his implant and that he suffered from brain damage because of it."

  "They tried to put it back in, but it wouldn't take. We'll do the same with you. Brandon too, if he'll cooperate."

  Anna shook her head and sighed. "I have a tracker– nothing more." She held out her hand to show the chip, embedded beneath the skin on the side of her wrist.

  "You have the other chip. The neural chip."

  "No. They did nothing to me besides put this in. I watched."

  "No, I mean the chip you had put in when you joined the Unit. Two years ago."

  "What are you talking about?" she said, a jolt of adrenaline coursing through her. "I didn't join the Unit. I've been doing my PhD for the past two years at John Jay."

  He sighed. "I know it's hard to take in, but if you come with me, I'll show you."

  "Show me what?"

  He inhaled and held out his hand. "The truth."