35. Angel #2
“We have a plane on standby in Medford,” Owen says. “That’s only an hour away. Give me a few minutes to contact the pilots and have them file a flight plan.”
I secure Brad into the back of one of the FBI vehicles waiting for us, thanks to Director Finnegan. “LaGuardia is either going to be a fuel stop or a transfer point. If it’s the latter, we risk losing Daisy.”
Roger picks up the phone and calls Director Finnegan, relaying the information. “I need eyes on the ground at LaGuardia, but do not have your men engage. We need to find out the final destination. Where are we at with CIA Director Ludlow?”
Director Finnegan’s gruff voice blares through the speaker. “I’ll let Ludlow tell you.”
William Ludlow speaks up. “As I’m sure you know, the CIA has to hide money for its clandestine operations through other parts of the federal budget, usually under science or philanthropy grants.
We can’t exactly publicize that we paid a member of an Islamic terrorist group half a million dollars and a farm in Kentucky for giving us intel to stop a terrorist attack of epic proportions.
That certainly wouldn’t go over well with half the American population. ”
Roger retorts, “Yes, I can see where you’d need to hide things with a 70-billion-dollar budget.”
Ludlow doesn’t back down. “A budget where every dollar is scrutinized. Regardless, Dominion Atrix Group often backs such ‘projects,’ allowing us to distribute allocations that help us achieve mission success but would raise suspicions or incite backlash if discovered. After doing a little digging, not all of those projects used to funnel money were fake. The CIA has been funding a project called CIPHER since the mid-80s. CIPHER stands for Cognitive Influence and Persuasion in Human Emerging Reasoning. Funding for this project increased tenfold in 2003.”
“That’s when they took Emily’s research for helping teens with trauma and used it to further their quest for global power,” I say.
“You’re not understanding me. The project was shut down 15 years ago by the CIA, but it was a CIA project to start with.
In the 80s, the primary test subjects were adults, and we used propaganda similar to that in the POW camps during Vietnam.
The success rate of total indoctrination was less than one percent.
In the 90s, there was a shift to young adults in their early to mid-20s.
The success was higher, but still below 30 percent. ”
Owen puts it together faster than the rest of us. “The major difference in the success rate was the age of the test subject, and those in their early 20s were in the last stages of maturity for the prefrontal cortex.”
“Yes,” Ludlow says. “Please know that until a few hours ago, I had no idea this project even existed. I would never condone abducting American citizens for the purpose of science, or any other human being for that matter. Unfortunately, some of my predecessors did not agree with that mindset. They’d do anything to protect our country, even if it’s at the expense of Americans. ”
“You said that the project was nixed more than a decade ago, but girls are still being taken. Young ones, and not just from America,” Jaxon says. “Clearly, the people who work for you aren’t telling you everything, Director.”
“I’m not informed of past projects that were well before my time as Director. Consider it plausible deniability. Dominion no longer needed our funding to continue the project on their own, and I suspect my predecessors chose to look the other way in order to keep our ability to hide money intact.”
Director Finnegan steps in. “CIPHER was initially created by the CIA as an experiment to determine whether enemies could be turned into assets against their will. However, loyalists to a cause are much more difficult to turn. During the 90s, when there was some measure of success, the nature of the project morphed into a different beast. Rather than using enemies of our nation, the idea of taking average Americans and turning them into spies was born. Still relatively unsuccessful until the early 2000s.”
“That’s when they stole Emily’s research paper,” Jeremy says.
I feel sick to my stomach that I ever thought working for the CIA was a noble cause. “And Emily’s theory that teenagers could have their memories overwritten changed the scope yet again.”
Ludlow answers the question even though I didn’t pose it as one. “I assume that’s the case. Instead of simply creating assets loyal to us, they created assets and CIA officers that were embedded in the global political arena at a much earlier age than most of our officers.”
“Agents like Eva Vidal. The CIA gave her a new identity as Maarika Kivem?e,” Vinny says. “But when she didn’t follow orders, she became a liability. How very Jason Bourne.”
“Or Black Widow,” Faith quips. “By all accounts, Eva Vidal was a success in the project until she failed her mission. Why close it down—other than the ethical issues?”
“When has the CIA been ethical?” Owen asks snidely.
“Agent Zurkowski, rein it in,” Finnegan scolds.
“The FBI has had its fair share of ethical failures as well. My predecessor being one of them, or have you already forgotten what he tried to do? What we need to focus on now is stopping this from going any further by working together, not by casting blame. Director Ludlow wants to see justice as much as any of us.”
Ludlow says one last thing before we head to the airport.
“I may not be at fault, but the CIA is responsible for this mess. When the time comes, I will bear the weight of it and deal with the fallout, regardless of the consequences. As for you and your team, whatever you need from me, you’ve got it. ”
As we load up into the vehicles, Roger says, “What we could use is an agent on the inside and your men on standby ready to exfil my team member.”
Ludlow agrees. “If the intel you’ve provided me is correct, then I know just the person to make that happen.”