Stop shaking. Concentrate, or you’ll lose their interest. Deep breath, deep breath…Zoom.
Dark. Dark. Tell them what you see….“I see it now! Classified meeting. Nine men. Four in uniform, one with enough medals to add several pounds to his weight. Three in civilian suits and ties. Two in lab jackets. They are sitting in a half circle around a conference table, facing a media screen. Conversation is quiet, tense, with some of them shaking hands. Do you want me to go closer and get the conversation?”
“Jesus, I hate how we need to guide them through every step. Don’t they know that by asking them to look at the specific location, they’re supposed to get information? That means see and listen in, Agent 15, do you hear me? We want to know the person in charge of the new candidate.”
I hear you, fuckers. You’re my monitors and I’m remote viewing for you. What the hell do you want?
Zoom.
Random words. Relax.“Okay, I’m going to concentrate on their conversation now. I’ll tell you what I hear when I surface.”
Give them what they want. Come on, Andrew, you can do this. Concentrate on the one with all the medals. Yes, yes, the words are audible now….
The Pentagon
“They don’t have time to send talking heads to negotiate or discuss anything, Colonel. They functioned as a center for covert subversive training and activities, and the less said about what goes on in there, the better. It isn’t in the business to explain itself to anyone, even to the President’s most trusted men. Because of that, it’s a good neutral place to test our candidate.”
“Such as the multilateral test that’s coming up.” The colonel frowned, disapproval on his face.
“Yes. The best candidate just happens to be one of their own, so they’re sure to want a lot of control over the tests. COS Center’s operative won, so they get to set the rules. Some of them, anyway. This is a historic moment, though, don’t you agree? Nine government branches, active and covert, working together for national security?”
The colonel snorted and muttered something rude in connection with Homeland Security under his breath. Audio feed from the speaker interrupted the conversation and the scrambled signal on the video screen cleared. Everyone’s attention turned to the image addressing them.
“We’ve reviewed each of your task forces’ lab and training reports. You were sent a copy of each, and we have agreed that the Center’s test offer is by far the superior candidate of the program. So everyone here is on the same page, we’re going to quickly go through the subject’s profile in the file in front of you. The first page is the medical report from the D.I.A. scientists. The subject’s mental and physical health is stable at ninety percent. Her psychological evaluations prove a strong psyche and system of belief. Her decision-making tests are in the top percentile. The stress chart shows excellent capability in multitasking. Positives—good attentiveness, quick grasp of situations, fearlessness, has been pretrained outside. Negatives—a tendency to independence and secrecy.
“Second are the combined reports from the Special Forces trainers from Year One. Physical endurance is above normal and completion of the one-year training with Special Forces was above average. Subject passed basic and advanced tests.
“Third is acknowledgment from the CIA task force in charge of Project Inner Space from Year Two. Their report is classified Red. Acknowledgment that subject finished Phase Two of Project Inner Space and showed no signs of mental stress or behavioral changes.
“Four is FBI background reports. Subject, as are most operatives in this contract agency, is an orphan. No family history available. No attempt taken to look for natural mother and father. Contract agency will not release information. We see this as a nonissue.
“Here is what the Center will provide at the next stage. We’ll combine—”
Secret test facility, Virginia
No! Zoom!
No, no, please, no! Zoom!
“Dark, dark…oh, no…I can’t hear anything any more, sir. I tried to focus on the screen, to see who’s talking and…it just turned dark. I hear nothing now.”Blast of power. Really, really powerful energy.“I heard him but I couldn’t see…him.”
“Dammit, Agent 15! Zoom in. It’s important to identify him.”
They don’t understand. Too strong.“I tried…Can’t see any more.”
“Do it again, Agent. Zoom in. This is an order.”
“Tried.”Zoom. Dark, totally dark.“Tired. Mental block.”
“You’ll try again or there won’t be another dose, do you understand?”
“Please. I need…something…. Everything’s dark.”
“If it’s a mental block, you know you’d have felt it. Did you see any striking colors? Was there anything different?”
“No.”Don’t want to tell them yet about that odd feeling. Too hard to describe. They’ll start asking harder questions.
“Maybe he’s really used up for us. We should just get rid of him.”
