Thirty Four Minutes DEAD (16 page)

"Fuck you, man. That guy gave his all for this project. I know, he's been my best buddy for the last five years".

Mr Fray interrupted Carson.

"I think once you've composed yourself and sat down, Mr Carson, you will be able to listen to what Mr Denison has to say to us. I think you might change your opinion of the deceased. After all, I believe you have a couple of children don't you?"

Blyth Carson was confused, he sat down and Denison continued.

"There is absolutely no doubt that Brynley Stowles did work exceptionally hard for the MC project. However, if I had known five years ago what I have now found out about the man, I would have shot the bastard there and then. Yes it's true, much as I love this project, there are some things that no moral person can endure. Child pornography is one of them, and unfortunately it seems that Mr Stowles had a double life. On the one hand, Stowles was the dedicated colleague we all knew and admired but on the other, he was a distributor of obscene films featuring the sexual abuse of children. He also distributed publications of an equally obscene nature. Obviously Mr Stowles was investigated by security before he was selected for MC project work and his assessment report found strength after strength with just one negative trait being evident, involving a morose side to his character on occasions, that could possibly obstruct his teamwork. There was absolutely nothing to indicate the perversions that plagued Stowles.

Distributing filth like the merchandise Stowles traded in is a very dangerous practice, as you are probably aware. Child pornography creates a market just like respectable products do, but violence and death cement the rules of market competition here. Brynley Stowles was a small-time player in this sick industry, and it seems he upset one of the big Taiwanese cartels who trade this form of obscenity in Britain. He was subsequently executed".

Mishimo Ko-Chai raised his hand to ask Denison a question.

"Things don't seem to add up, Mr Denison. Brynley was a workaholic with regard to our project. He simply would not have had the time to operate the distribution of any product, let alone obscene material. He was also a good man as well; he wouldn't have traded such sick material. I think we owe it to him to carry out exploration work on his MC-vault and see if he HVd his killers. The parts we need to activate may still be responsive".

"That would be fine if we had it, Mishimo! His body is in the possession of non-project police officers, and when they found the corpse, the head was missing! The police initially thought that Stowles had been the victim of a kind of
juju
motivated murder and a story was leaked to a couple of twenty-four hour satellite channels giving sketchy details of the case. That was dismissed as garbage though, after police had visited Brynley's residence a day later. When they entered the house, the officers found the aforementioned child porn merchandise and a cartel killing became their logical conclusion. Their findings effectively closed the case. I mean no one was going to waste vast amounts of time looking for the severed head of a guy who traded kiddie-porn were they? Most of our project ranks were in the States at the time as you know, but Mr Voight capably followed the case, shadowing the investigations that were carried out by the 'regular' police authorities. An MC exploration is thus impossible Mishimo - we are denied our raw material!”

A wry smile flickered briefly on the face of Mr Voight, as he remembered the suffering of Stowles. Ko-Chai wasn't quite satisfied yet though.

"Surely the child pornography could have been 'planted' evidence, couldn't it, Mr Denison?"

"The guy was a pervert and we're well shot of him. The truth hurts sometimes and to answer your question more directly, let's just say that there was enough Stowles - related DNA evidence found on the merchandise to sink a fucking battleship!"

As Denison left his speaker's podium, he laughed inwardly to himself, as he thought of the genetic duplication work Voight's men had undertaken on the material planted at their former project member's residence.

The meeting had left project members feeling either suspicious or betrayed. Those members who had been close to Stowles dismissed the child pornography allegations, feeling that their friend would not stoop to such depravity. Project members who hadn't known Stowles well, tended to believe what they had heard but it left them feeling 'unclean' by their association with the man. The revelation had disrupted the good working rapport either way, and it was not the ideal form of scene setting for the 'vault extension' demonstration that would be carried out that afternoon by Vain's team.

As Ko-Chai, Tavini and Vain walked around the gardens of Designation B, they discussed the revelations surrounding Stowles. Tavini was rather ebullient, dismissing the issue as 'yesterday's news' but Ko-Chai and Vain felt that the specifics surrounding the death of their friend lacked plausibility. Vain was like Tavini keen to discuss the operations of their forthcoming exploration, but as the trio approached the Designation, he chose to add one more choice comment with regard to the Stowles incident.

"One final thing, fellas. When we split ranks a while back, Natassia Overson disappeared. This time on our return, we find that Brynley is dead. A lot happens in our absence doesn't it, guys? Perhaps Mr Voight would be able to tell us a bit more, after all he…"

Tavini interrupted.

"Leave it alone, Greg. Some stones have shit under them when they're turned over, you know. The man's dead and if I were you guys, I'd drop your detective role. You're alive and well thought of by most of the project staff, but if you rock too many fucking boats - who knows?”

Vain's team had lunch together and then proceeded to the exploration area. In readiness for them were Denison, Fray, Levene and Matthew Braddock - the project member who had agreed to be MC 'scanned' in the first 'living' exploration.

Once all the protagonists were assembled, the rest of the project ranks were ushered into the exploration room.

Mr Fray had been chosen to make the important introductory speech that would detail how visual thoughts would be created in the volunteer and how Vain's team would expose them. His tone was perhaps less sanguine than Denison's but he was a good speaker none the less.

"If this exploration is undertaken successfully, it will outrank the Venison showcase in terms of importance. We have dragged out 'seen' images from the mind and now we are going to try and record thought-determined visuals. This exploration will subsequently ascertain whether the MC project has the capacity to mind read or not! You will notice that the equipment used to search the living mind is innocuous by necessity when compared to the barbaric appearance of the vault-splicer used upon the dead! Micro-fibre sensory padding has thus replaced barbed edges. I understand that Mr Braddock is quite pleased about this transition".

Fray's use of humour did endeavour to partially raise the spirits of the previously subdued MC project ranks. Pleased with this rallying effect, Fray continued.

"In a few minutes Ms Levene is going to read to our volunteer. The selected text will hopefully conjure up images, which are beyond visual capture. In short, we should be able to access heightened visuals which are created through Mr Braddock's imagination. If all goes to plan, we will in effect read his mind".

Vain and his team finished their preparation duties and as the viewing screen was activated, Braddock was blindfolded. Greg had found out in his research that the membrane between the MC vault and the vault extension was gossamer thin in sections, and the chance of overlap between the two sections was possible if Vain's placement of the micro pads was even slightly erroneous. The blindfold aimed to counteract such overlap and if the 'physical sight' main vault section was accidentally activated all that would be seen would be the uniform blackness created by the utilised screening material. This was the understanding in practice and the digital conversion equipment would attempt to capture the 'imagined' HVs after Levene had read her short passage on three consecutive occasions. The equipment would be activated when Levene started her final reading.

Levene approached the raised speaker's podium and looked down at Braddock, who was laid on a marble slab a couple of metres beneath her. The ensuing silence from the project ranks was almost tangible in its presence. Levene looked resplendent in a black suit. Her hair was drawn tightly back and her eyes were accentuated by a dark eye shadow. She began her reading.

"The horses had heads like lion's heads and out of their mouths came fire, smoke and sulphur. By these three plagues, that is, by the fire, the smoke and the sulphur that came from their mouths, a third of mankind was killed. The power of the horses lay in their mouths and in their tails also; for their tails were like snakes, with heads, and with them too they dealt injuries".

Denison had selected the passage from Revelation because he knew that the subject matter involved a visual register which couldn't possibly be locked into the 'main' visually determined section of Braddock's MC vault. If images were located, they would have to be his thoughts.

As Levene started to approach the closure of her second reading, the atmosphere hanging over the exploration area was uniformly pensive. No one moved or spoke and all eyes were trained on the screen. As Levene referenced the horses for a third time, the wait was over.

Braddock had envisaged the beasts of the Revelation passage to a level of visual clarity that equalled film with regard to the quality level. Occasionally images of Levene's face would become interspersed within the Revelation visuals and thus a bizarre hybrid of speaker and text existed. Braddock's mind had thus activated an image of familiarity amidst the chaotic narrative. One amalgamated image was particularly memorable in its execution.

This particular visual featured Levene's face emanating through the flames, which were being exhaled by one of the beasts, and her eyes cast hatred down to the minions in purgatory below her. In Braddock's visual construction, Levene had thus become as menacing as the nightmarish creatures that destroyed mankind.

The exploration arena went wild with excitement. The quality of the accessed visuals had been so good, that even the most optimistic expectations had been surpassed. The pessimism that had been generated by the death of Stowles, had with the exception of Carson, been replaced with euphoria. Project members back-slapped each other and shouts of triumph added a resounding crescendo. Levene’s reading of the short biblical passage had been visually translated by Braddock in a fashion which sent pulses racing and his subconscious insertion of Levene's face had been the crowning glory. Tavini found Vain amongst the celebrating project ranks.

"Yo Greg, we did it man, we fucking did it! We're mind-readers now, buddy!”

Vain replied in the same enthusiastic tone as his team member.

"Dead right, Dave! I thought nothing could beat the Venison exploration but Fray was correct - this 'mindsight' raid was perfect, - short but fucking sweet. Let's go and see Braddock. That guy's going to go down in history you know - the first person to physically have their mind read!"

The two men made their way through the project throng and eventually located Braddock, who was surrounded by some high ranking project members. One of them was Leif Denison, and when he saw Tavini and Vain approaching, he was ecstatic in his praise.

"Congratulations, gentlemen. With Greg's excellent front-line team and this gentleman's vivid imagination we've taken our work into another dimension! Meet Mr Braddock, fellas. Forget Mr Armstrong, we've just taken one 'giant step for mankind.' These are the guys who exorcised your mental imagery, Matt!”

Tavini and Vain were introduced to Matthew Braddock. They had seen his face before but as he was in Dwight Richard's security section, they hadn't had direct interaction with him. Vain took the lead after Denison's introduction.

"Well done Matthew, you made a brave decision to be the first! Any problems with the sensory equipment?”

"Not really, Gregory. I knew all about the 'laser side-show' that would take place in my head beforehand, thanks to Leif and so I didn't feel any apprehension or anything like that. I suppose the pads seemed bigger than they actually were at the time, because I knew what they were capable of doing - their capability seems disguised by their mundane appearance! I'm dying to see the re-run though. I heard you guys screaming and applauding but I was blindfolded, remember! Any chance Leif?”

Denison quickly assured his young recruit that the exploration would be re-run for the remainder of the day in the demonstration area, directly after he had addressed the assembled project ranks. The project leader had been pinning a lot on successful vault-extension work because a forthcoming Washington event was in his eyes 'made' for grand-scale extension work. Once the euphoria had died down, Denison took his position on the speaker's podium.

"I'm damn proud of you. This morning was a bitch, but this afternoon has been our greatest moment thus far. All of you have enabled our success and each one of you should feel proud of our collective achievement. Matthew Braddock was willing to let his brain be used for experimental research and this type of indefatigable commitment is typical of the unanimous spirit that drives our scientific research forward. It will soon be time to let the world know, my friends! We have formatted all our explorations that were performed on the dead and we have Mr Braddock’s ‘mindsight’ exploration. However, we need to amplify the 'seeing is believing’ ethos by carrying out vault-extension testing on a larger audience who are collectively ignorant with regard to their test involvement. We need a non-primed test audience to silence the type of individual who may argue our MC work is an 'in house' fabricated construct. In twelve days time, we will have the perfect opportunity at the Washington Peace Conference".