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Present day. 2025. Meeting at the head of cyber division.
The Captain had called Lesley in for her usual updates, and as she sat with the Captain, something felt different about him today.
“So, Miss Fulham.”
“Please call me Lesley, Captain. I think after all this time we are past formalities.”
“As you wish, Lesley. Are the results of the tests done on the latest programs?”
“Yes. The new injection system is looking promising, and I think it will be the ones we well be using.”
“Has any side effects been found?”
“None. This seems to have been overcome.”
“He is one hell of a programmer, isn’t he?”
“Alex, yes. I really do not know how he does it! I am due to visit him later today and I have to say I am a little worried about him.”
“Does he suspect anything?”
“God no. He would never have agreed to this.”
“Yes, it’s a shame to lose him.”
“Lose him?”
“You don’t know!”
“Know what?”
“It has been decided he is to be entered into the program, fully. I thought you was briefed?”
“Who authorised this?”
“It’s not your concern who authorised this, just do it. You have not become... attached, have you?”
“What sort of god-damn question is that?”
“You had better get this done. You knew he was going to be... well, added to the program after we got what we needed from him.”
“No. I thought it was made clear he was to be isolated and kept away from all this.”
“Sorry, but that should have been made clear. We cannot have him out there, in that woodland retreat of his having all this information. He is a liability and if he ever found out what we are really doing, I dread to think what damage he could do! And besides all that, he has sent us his coding, so we have no further use for him.”
“I thought it was impossible to decipher.”
“We did too, but he has made that amazingly simple now by his choice to give it to us. Like everything Miss Fulham, there is always another way to skin a cat. This is the military, and we cannot be blackmailed for ever by some prodigy who thinks he is smarter than we are. He enters the program, or the other way is... he is dispatched.”
“This really is unacceptable. You cannot go around just killing people! And I thought this program was for people who could not be helped back into society. You have fed all this bullshit to him. Now you want to flush him away like a used piece of tissue.”
“You remember who you are talking to. I am not a man to be trifled with, and please do not be so naive. You knew exactly what you were getting into and difficult decisions must be made. You get this done in twenty-four hours, or I will. Collect him, bring him back here. We will be watching you closely on this Miss Fulham.”
“Yes Captain.” Lesley replied, now knowing what she was really dealing with, a monster dressed in uniform.
She was being used, as well as Alex, pure and simple. She was not even sure if they needed her for her Bio-chemical work and a lot of it she was not allowed access too anyway. Just the basic testing and was never allowed to see the results of her work. Lesley was not even sure why she was chosen, because she was not that experienced and although she knew her work as a Biochemist better than most, at the time she believed it was for that, not her looks and age. She had been fresh out of university and had no field experience back then. Why would they hire someone like that? She was twenty-five then, and was a looker, and she kidded herself that it was hard work and dedication to her studies and the top grades she had acquired that got her this far, but deep down she knew. They needed someone that Alex would see as a potential mate, a confidant, and hoped he would be more compliant if he had an interest within the organisation, and it did not take her long to figure that out. They must have been planning this for years. She went along for so long pretending this was not what it was all about, but the longer she was there, the more it became apparent. Alex was her only reason they wanted her, but that had not exactly worked out as they planned. He had no interest in her.
Over the time she had known him, there were constant questions about him, and the constant pressing for her to ask them. Some she refused to answer or pretended she had not asked them and other questions she felt so generalised; it seemed no harm to be telling them. Lesley had realised Alex was a complicated guy and was not easy to manipulate. He would always sniff out problems and was already acting suspicious of everyone, including Lesley. She still wanted him, but that never seemed possible after she never met him for that weekend. She was his only contact to the outside world and her questions would often be unanswered these days. They both knew it was not Lesley asking the questions and it was a process of extracting information for the benefit of the military. This had become their relationship, not the romantic kind she wished had developed.
Lesley watched as Captain Miller stormed off. He was prone to these outbursts from time to time and would often push his weight around if anyone undermined his authority. This had been the first time Lesley had been on the wrong end of one of his rants and was no way going to inject Alex with this mind-altering drug. She needed to figure a plan out, and fast. Twenty-four hours was not long to find one, but that was exactly what she had to do.
––––––––
Alex wanted Lesley, but for now, he knew it would have to wait to tell her the truth. He tolerated the questions, then choosing the ones he felt told her nothing about what he was up to. He would soon, and as he spent most of his life on his computers trawling the internet, he had seen the way the world was changing and long suspected his revolutionary programming was at the heart of it, but with Lesley. He believed every word that came out of her mouth and soon after she was contracted to look after him, he had fallen for her, but that was changing. Their plan to keep him just where they wanted him had worked and Alex had figured that out. Alex had even suspected that Lesley just flirted with him to get him to believe there could have been something between them. Little did he realise that she truly did love him but was caught up in this crazy game and dare not reveal her love for him for fear he might disappear. She too had seen the changes and suspected more was going on than was being told, but like millions of others, nobody dares speak out in these new times. The only thing the military could not change, was Alex’s location. Alex wanted privacy and was his only request when he played his trump card with the Captain. Professor Bourneski had convinced him that his talents needed focus, and a channel to realise his true worth, and then he too, disappeared. Unknowing to Alex, that was his only role to play in this game where they wanted him.
Alex had chosen this remote location deep on a woodland hillside for one simple reason. It was a logistical nightmare for the military to monitor him here, he knew that, and even their security rigged all around to monitor his secret hideaway was easy to manipulate. It was all deliberate for Alex. He knew something was not right from the beginning and had known he was being used. For what purpose? He hoped that answer would soon be delivered by Lesley!