Chapter 47

 

It was early Wednesday evening. Fred had finished the last of his psychological profile tests. He was told that Black would call him that evening and advise him what time Shade would see him on Thursday.

Fred returned to his unit totally mentally exhausted. 

Maureen said, “You look like you spent the day lifting 300 pound weights.” 

“I think that would have been easier,” Fred groaned. “I really think I have a mental hernia.” 

“I know I can’t ask you any details about the tests, but how do you think you did?” 

“Who knows? With these damn tests they may categorize me as an ax murder and throw me in a CIA prison for the rest of my life.” 

“What’s the story for tomorrow?”

“I’ll meet with Shade, and I guess he will give me the results of the test. After that, who knows?”

“How long do you think we’ll be able to stay here?”

Fred knew Maureen had found a comfort zone in the unit. She was well protected in the compound; it was as close to a fortress on American soil as she had ever seen. She had almost forgotten about Donna over the last two days; and even her deep fear of the night had abated somewhat. 

“I’m not sure, maybe we’ll find out tomorrow.”

* * *

Shade met with Fred and Black the next afternoon.

“Well, Fred, everything looks good on your profile; so now I’m free to tell you what I want to do for America.”

Fred enjoyed the way Shade expanded on the meaning of his assignment to somehow relate it to abstract patriotic objectives.

“What I’m going to tell you is top secret. Much of it, however, I’m sure you already know. AU produces products for the entire black world; we’re simply one of its customers. The development of the psychic device was paid for by our agency. But other government agencies, including the Department of Defense, were interested in its development as well. Our initial intent was to use Donna as an agent assigned to various hot spots of the world. But then we were hopeful that she could use her remote viewing capability so she could do much of her spying out of danger on American soil.

“We had unsuccessfully tried remote viewing years ago; we tested it again in the last few years to evaluate its value to our community. Marv Atwell was the AU employee with the greatest ability in that field; but even he could only penetrate minds within a fairly short distance from his location. Our broader problem was that we could never use Atwell as an agent; he was too unpredictable. Hell, according to our research, he might even have murdered someone during his adolescence period. We decided to use his skills in a limited role as a type of conduit to place them in another subject - one that was more predicable, more malleable if you will.”

“When you say conduit, I assume you mean he was responsible for the software ingrained in the ESP unit. I also presume that the other subject was Donna Lang.”

“You presume correctly, Lieutenant.”

Shade gazed into the distance, his face revealing deep regret, failure in fact. His voice almost broke as he spoke. “She seemed to be the perfect subject. She was given a shortened version of the test that we administered to you. We conducted the same background investigation that we did for you. Damn it, everything seemed to be all right—everything. After her operation, we wanted to analyze Donna for an extended period to make sure our efforts were successful and to fine tune the device. Well, you know what happened.” 

“Wait a minute! Are you suggesting that you want to put the device in me? That makes no sense, I don’t have it; it was stolen from me.” 

“Oh, we know that too well and we also know that it’s in the hands of someone who could do us all great harm. We know she murdered Atwell and we learned recently that she murdered Doctor Anderson as well. Fred, we’re talking about another device.”

“But how would you duplicate the original?” 

“The truth of the matter is we still have the specifications as well as all the program data that we used in our prior experiment. Duplication doesn’t take that long; but actually, it won’t even be duplication. Due to technical advancements, we now have much smaller chips and are able to incorporate more sophisticated programs into a smaller version of the original. Because of the smaller size, it will be a safer operation.”

“How do you know that I wouldn’t turn out the same way as Donna did?” 

“To be completely honest, we don’t. Actually, Donna’s psychological tests revealed a latent ego issue, but we didn’t think it was material at the time. We were wrong. That’s one reason that we changed the battery of psychological tests. You were given the more comprehensive version. The good news is that you, Lieutenant, show no psychological problems except that your profile indicates you’re quite risk adverse, you tend to analyze thoroughly before you respond to a situation. But, actually, that’s a trait that we prefer in the Company. We don’t want our agents acting like Rambo and destroying our cover.” 

Fred was caught off guard, so he asked the obvious question again. 

“So you want to install the device in me?”

“Yes, because much earlier we had learned through Mr. Atwell that in the past you had already showed indications of some well developed psychic abilities. And, Fred, once you have such ability, you’ll never lose it. Oh, you might have to mentally exercise to return it to full function, but it will always be with you. Donna had none before we implanted the device in her. We believe you will be much more powerful than Donna, and with that super-charged power you should be able to capture her without incident. 

“But there is something you have to know before we proceed. We will be introducing a foreign object in your brain, an object intended to amplify the abilities you already have and to create new capabilities in you. Your neurons and synaptic connections will be impacted. They have to adapt somewhat to permit the integration of a piece of marvelous electronic equipment with your organic brain. I must tell you that you will never again be the same person; your skills will be beyond any that you ever had in the past. We worry slightly, very slightly, that this could affect parts of your brain which control your adherence to conventional social norms. We don’t have much empirical data, so we don’t fully appreciate what it might do to your emotional character but we do have safeguards—many safeguards.” 

“Like you had with Donna?” Fred’s response was rhetorical. He didn’t wait for a response, but moved on to that which he needed to know. 

“What’s the worst case scenario?” 

“You could, in fact, degrade into a type of psychopath where you start to set your own social standards and become indifferent to those of others.” Shade laughed, “But of course that won’t happen to you, and that’s the worst case in the extreme. You know the game—you can take a simple aspirin and it might have a book of possible side effects listed, none of which would ever actually happen. All that will ever happen is that your headache will go away.”

Fred didn’t understand Shade’s strange sense of humor. “Wait a minute; I didn’t think you guys were all priests. I’m sure that the company has had to disobey the law at times in order to reach its objectives, and that you sometimes violate an individual’s social mandates in the process. No, you’ll have to give me time to think this over.” 

“That’s perfectly acceptable. In fact, you can and should talk it over with Maureen. We are now starting to take the specifications, and are at this moment translating them into a finished product. We estimate that development will take about a week. And, Fred, that is all the time we will give you to make your decision.”