Epilogue 1 #2
I remain silent as Daisy sheds a few tears and then unfolds the newspaper she brought with her.
Instead of looking at the casket, she moves her gaze Heavenward.
“Eva, I’ve never been one to believe that once a person dies, they still keep watch over their loved ones and friends or take note of current events.
Time moves differently in Heaven, so if a thousand years is a day, then you’re likely just arriving at the welcome celebration that Jesus throws when His children come home. ”
Daisy sighs. “But I’m going to admit something in front of my fiancé that I know will come back to bite me in the butt. I’m occasionally wrong.”
I hold back the chuckle as Daisy says goodbye in pure Daisy fashion.
“In case I am, and you are looking down on us, I thought I’d bring you up to speed on everything that happened afterward.
You missed the fireworks show as the Dominion facility imploded and Angel and I had to run for our lives.
As you can see, we made it out. Bennett did too, but not for long.
He’s now in FBI custody. I don’t know where he’s being held, but it’s probably Guantanamo or some other place he’ll never escape. ”
Unfolding the newspaper, Daisy smiles. “You never met my friend Grace, but she’s an investigative journalist who is now married to one of my teammates.
Twenty years ago, she was writing a story about my disappearance and found too many similarities to yours.
Forced to write an ending she didn’t agree with, she never stopped researching or gave up hope that we were all alive somewhere.
It took a long time for her to connect the dots—and I mean that in the literal sense—but what she discovered finally put me ahead of the next abduction and led me to you.
If you’re listening, then you’re likely wondering why I’m bringing this up.
It’s because she wrote an article that I think you would appreciate. ”
Handing the paper to me, she says, “Angel, will you read it? I don’t know if I can get through it.”
“Sure,” I tell her.
I look toward the sky, wink, and then begin reading aloud.
“The Cost of Secrecy: A Legacy of Lies. In a coordinated international operation spanning multiple countries, the CIA, FBI, Interpol, and other government agencies partnered together to raid 32 facilities connected to Dominion Atrix Group after investigators uncovered a secret human experimentation program with roots inside the Central Intelligence Agency.
Project CIPHER, short for Cognitive Influence and Persuasion in Human Emerging Reasoning, began in the mid-1980s as an attempt to determine whether enemy operatives could be psychologically manipulated into becoming American assets.
Over the decades, the program evolved, moving from adults to young adults and eventually to boys and girls between the ages of 14 and 18.
Investigators now believe teenagers from around the world were abducted and subjected to prolonged isolation, psychological conditioning, and psychotomimetic drugs intended to make them more receptive to suggestion.
Victims were fed lies about their families, shown manipulated images and, in some cases, told that the people they loved had abandoned them.
Dominion would then step in as the rescuer, offering those same victims a new identity, a sense of purpose, and a place within the organization that had destroyed their former lives.
Advances in technology, medicine, and security allowed the operation to become increasingly sophisticated and far more difficult to detect.
CIA Director William Ludlow has maintained that he knew nothing of CIPHER until the investigation reached his office, but he has not attempted to distance the agency from taking responsibility.
CIPHER was created by the CIA, funded through channels involving Dominion and, although officially discontinued years ago, allowed to survive after Dominion became capable of continuing the work on its own.
Ludlow responded by opening agency resources to investigators, authorizing cooperation with the FBI, and deploying CIA personnel in the raids against Dominion.
“I inherited an agency with a past I cannot change, but I can decide what we do with the truth now that we have it,” Ludlow told investigators.
“If accountability begins at the top, then it begins with me.”
The scandal has renewed an old and uncomfortable debate surrounding America’s intelligence community.
The CIA operates in secrecy because much of its work must be conducted in the shadows and in the darkest dregs of society.
Its officers have prevented terrorist attacks, rescued hostages, and carried out missions the public will never know about.
But that secrecy can also become a wall behind which wrongdoing survives.
Before one of the Dominion raids, Ludlow told his officers that protecting the country had never given them permission to become the very threat they were sworn to stop.
Whatever justification CIPHER once carried, he said, ended the moment innocent people became acceptable casualties.
The raids may have ended Project CIPHER, but they have not answered the questions it leaves behind.
Authorities must still determine how many children were taken, how many survived, and how many may still be living under assumed identities.
Congressional and international investigations are expected to follow, with particular focus on whether an intelligence agency built to operate beyond public view can remain clandestine without becoming unaccountable.
The CIA helped create CIPHER. Now it is helping to expose it. ”
Daisy takes the paper from me and tucks it under her arm.
“As you can tell from the article, we were able to get the drive Bennett downloaded containing the coordinates for every facility across the globe. The numbers are staggering: 1,819 teenagers taken, and not just girls. More than a dozen facilities housed males who were groomed to be the very political leaders the CIA, then Dominion, wanted to control. It’s a mess, but it’s a mess that is getting cleaned up. It just might take decades to do it.”
After a deep breath followed by a slow exhale, Daisy says, “You accomplished your mission, Eva. Dominion is exposed, hurt, and bleeding. And since you’ve moved on, it’s time that I do the same.
Like you, my mission is complete. But before I go, one last thing.
You didn’t just save Brit Larson; you saved a family.
While there is plenty of therapy in their future, it appears as though it will be a happy ending.
Your sacrifice was noble, and one day I’ll get to thank you in person.
For now, just know that you’ll always hold a special place in my heart. ”