by Lund, S.
Chapter Twenty-Three
The rain fell in sheets.
Her heart pounded and her legs were weak from excitement and a healthy measure of dread as Anna followed Blake down the street to a back alley in the warehouse district. Wind whipped the fine spray of rain across her face, sending a chill down her back.
"How far is this place?"
"Not far now. Just up ahead."
She watched Blake march down the alley, his head held high. He took long strides and was rapidly getting ahead of Anna.
They reached a dead end and Blake stopped in front of a metal door at the back of an old brick warehouse.
"Here we are."
He opened the door using a keycard, and waved Anna into the interior of the building. She entered a large warehouse, its interior dark. Behind them, the heavy door closed with a thud.
Blake spoke in a soft voice.
"Lights," he said and immediately, the warehouse soon filled with soft yellow light. The space had hardwood floors and brick walls. The lights cast the space into contrasting pools of light and shadow. There were no windows in the building, but its size gave it an airy feel.
"Welcome to my home."
Sparse black leather furniture lined the closest wall. A small kitchen nestled into the corner and opposite it, on the far wall, a platform bed.
"You live here?"
"It's not much but it's safe and protected on all sides. Faraday Cage." Blake went to a closet and opened it, searching through its contents.
He handed her a towel and she dried her wet hair. Her jacket was soaked and cold, so she removed it and hung it on the back of a chair.
On the wall beside them was a bank of video monitors, showing various views of the streets around the warehouse. Everywhere were shelves with tech equipment, old computer CPUs, monitors.
He led Anna to the sofas, and she sat down. He sat across from her.
"So, what was it you wanted me to know?" she asked, glancing around at the room. "What did Theo want me to meet with you about?"
"How to fight back," Blake said. "How to stop what's coming."
Anna exhaled, still frustrated and reluctant to believe any government conspiracy existed.
"You want me to believe that the government is planning to start a civil war? Why?"
"To keep power. They've seen the writing on the wall, and aren't going to go easily."
"So, they're willing to start a civil war? I don't like President Johnston, but I don't believe he'd start a war to keep power."
"The truth is hard to accept."
"The government is not run by the Russian Secret Police. Yes, they've hacked some computers, but our intelligence analysts have countered it."
Blake smiled as if he enjoyed her disbelief. "You mean, they think they countered the threat. They're wrong. The Russians successfully hacked in and have agents at the highest level in the bureaucracy and government."
Anna laughed again, but then she remembered hearing Professor Singer speaking in Russian on the phone that day.
"You mean to tell me that my boss is a Russian spy?"
"He's a Russian agent." Blake raised his eyebrows. "The government has been penetrated to the highest level."
"The FBI, the NSA and the CIA are all working to prevent foreign governments from hacking our systems. You're suggesting that the whole edifice has been compromised?"
"I am. Singer gave them access to the Black Unit and it's been taken over. Your brother, Brandon. The others. They were turned into weapons. When we found out, when your father and I found out, we tried to counter the hack, but the unit members were executed one by one before we could figure out how to fix it. Your father was murdered. I tried to deactivate Theo, but he was recaptured. Brandon's the last one. He's still under their control."
Anna frowned, unable able to believe that Professor Singer was a traitor.
"Hard to accept, right?" Blake said.
"I don't accept it."
Blake shook his head and went to the kitchen, filling a kettle at the sink. "Singer's counting on you to help them find me so they can stop the resistance. The real resistance, not the fake one that calls itself that. He needs your compliance."
She didn't want to believe it. Professor Singer cared about her. He had been close to her father for years. He saw her like a foster daughter.
"Professor Singer can't be a Russian spy." Her mind refused to believe it.
Blake said nothing, just stirred his coffee.
"You're wrong about him," she said but at that point, she was only arguing with herself. "I can accept that the Russian power structure has been lying in wait to re-take power, but to think they actually have control over our government? " She shook her head and sat back on the couch. "Ever heard of Occam's razor?"
Blake smiled and poured some more sugar in his coffee.
"William of Occam. He wrote One should not increase, beyond what is necessary, the number of entities required to explain anything. In other words, the simplest explanation is most likely true."
"That's right," she replied. "You're asking me to accept an awful lot, to believe so many outlandish things. The simplest explanation for what I see is that you're wrong. The Russians did try to hack into our elections and influence our political leaders, but we detected them and stopped them. It's an ongoing issue, but one the intelligence agencies and military are countering the threat."
"I hate to do this, but I suppose there's no alternative. When you joined the Unit, you got an implant. You just don't remember. If you check the back of your neck, you'll find a thin scar."
She slid her fingers to the back of her head, at the base of her skull and sure enough, there was a spot beneath her hairline. A thin line about a half inch long that felt like an old scar.
"Oh, my God..."
"I know this is upsetting. I wanted you to know that they've hijacked your brain. Your motivation and memory have been programmed to believe what they want you to believe."
Anna sat in stunned silence, her mind fighting with what he said, but at the same time, a sense of its rightness was building in her.
"Are they aware of what I'm doing now?"
"No," he said. "We're in a Faraday Cage. They have no reach inside here. Unfortunately, as we found out with Theo, we can't remove your chip, but we're working on a way to bypass it so we can prevent them from controlling you. That's why we wanted you here. That's why Theo tried to contact you. We need your help."
Anna looked in his eyes, searching for some sign of his honestly and saw an expression of sympathy on his face.
"Now, I hope you don't mind but I have to do this."
He grabbed her arm and before she could stop him, he injected her with some drug.
"What are you doing?"
She tried to pull away, but he was stronger than her and the injection went into her muscle.
"It's not as fast when we do it intra-muscular, but I didn't figure that you'd let me inject your vein. Theo had a kit with a drug that suppresses your programming. Brandon was supposed to bring it to you so you could be deprogrammed."
Anna thought about the small kit with the needles and vials of clear liquid that she thought were for Brandon.
They were instead for her…
Blake pulled the needle away and slipped it into a small black case that he must have withdrawn when he was in the kitchen.
Identical to the small black case she’d found in Brandon's vehicle…
"This is a drug that affects memory," Blake said. "Prepare yourself. Even when we do it IM, it's still a rush."
When it hit her, Anna felt like she was traveling down a steep hill on a roller coaster or was taking off in a jet.
"Ohhhh," she cried out. "What is this?"
Her heart raced, and everything seemed more acute, vivid, like the room and air itself was energized.
Then, it all came back to her in a rush.
Every single thing.
"Oh, shit," she said and grabbed the ar
ms of her chair.
"Yeah. Shit," Blake said. "It's always an experience."
And then, she remembered. She remembered it all.
"We call it zeroed," she said, her voice flat, for the memories about the program and her part in it – her membership in it – came back in a rush.
EWs all had chips that connected directly to their brains. When they needed the programming to be changed, they were zeroed. Their memories of the recent past erased selectively. New memories could be implanted using deep brain stimulation.
She had a chip and was one of the operatives working with Professor Singer on the problem EWs were facing.
Brandon and Anna had met when she joined the Unit as a scientist working with Professor Singer. When she first signed up, she thought Singer was a good guy, trying to help the military and intelligence service to fight all threats, external and internal. He wasn't.
Brandon and Anna had fallen in love.
They were lovers.
It all came back to her in a rush of emotion, the images of us together, dancing, spending days together, eating, talking, making love.
Brandon and Anna were lovers...
Brandon was sent to find Denton, and that was when he must have been captured and compromised, his program changed.
"Brandon was sent to Davis Cove to find one of your father's friends, who they suspected knew about the Black Unit and was going to expose what was happening. When Brandon was blanked after the accident, he forgot why they sent him. When he learned what happened, he knew he had to find you and bring you here. Restore your memories. Singer got him and zeroed him then gave him a new mission. To get rid of everyone who knew about the program or was part of it. Then, he was supposed to find Theo and me and kill us as well. Then, kill himself I expect."
"Oh, God..." she looked at him, searching his face. "Professor Singer..."
"He ordered it just like he ordered your father's murder. But when Brandon failed, I guess he decided to send you here in the hopes that he could take us all out at the same time. Brandon's probably here to find me and take me out. Then, he'll take out Theo and you as well. He probably doesn't even know that part of the mission yet. It'll stay suppressed until he hears the right code words."
"Professor Singer betrayed my father..."
"He did. I'm sorry. It's a harsh truth to accept."
“Tell me Brandon didn’t kill my father,” she said, swallowing back bile that rose in her throat at the thought.
He shrugged. “I can’t say who killed him. We just don’t know.”
“What happened? Why did I go back to my base identity?”
Blake shrugged. “You must have suspected Singer and he got to you, zeroed you and reprogrammed you. Gave you a new mission. Maybe to lay low? Maybe he sent Brandon to kill you.”
That sent a shock through Anna. “He didn’t seem to want to kill me. He had a kit and it must have been meant for me. To restore me?”
“Or to stop you,” Blake said. “All he needed was to hear the right words in the right sequence and his programming would kick in.”
Anna breathed in heavily, a sense of loss overwhelming her. Professor Singer had been her mentor all through college. He was like a second father to her.
“Good. Glad to have you back, Anna. We missed you.”
She dug her fingers into her palms. "What happens now?"
"Go back with Brandon,” Blake said. “Get inside and meet with Denton. Find out what they’re planning. That’s the mission. Then, we have to stop it. And Anna,” he said, his voice serious. “You have to protect Brandon. He’s the last EW. We need him.”
“I will,” she said. “Give me a weapon. I’ll do whatever it takes.”
A sense of mission filled Anna. She didn’t know how to stop what was coming, but she knew that everyone she loved was at risk.
There really was no other choice.
END OF BOOK ONE
BOOK TWO, THE MISSION, AVAILABLE FOR PREORDER NOW!
About the Author
S. Lund lives on the side of a mountain in sight of an active volcano, and dreams of living in a warm climate where snow is just a word in a dictionary.