Chapter One #5
“A female?”
“Remote what?”
“Spying something with the mind? Then...going after it herself? Gentlemen, you must be out of your fucking minds!”
The idea was met with incredulity and disdain from all quarters. So they had agreed to come together for one final test on Helen Roston. If she could remote view and successfully perform the mission afterwards, then the agencies would leave Command Center alone for now.
Jed and his commandos had discussed it among themselves first. Theirs was a highly secretive outfit, and with people, no matter how highly placed, watching, there was a likelihood of making things a tad too public.
Also, they had their own agenda with the remote-viewing program and COS Command Center certainly didn’t want that part of it making it through the covert grapevine.
He thought of how important Helen had suddenly become.
For the last few years, COMCEN had been working on brain pattern simulation and bio-stimulants experiments, testing different drugs on their own operatives. With the addition of the CAVE, a cutting edge virtual environment, mind and body could be put in different simulated situations.
Helen Roston was the perfect addition. And she added another dimension—remote viewing. With the right handler-trainer, could they “share” what she saw in virtual reality?
That assignment, naturally, was offered to him first. His job would be to verify what she “saw” with the brain entrainment program that would sync their brainwaves during her remote-viewing sessions.
In essence, if the experiment worked, he himself would be “there” with her, “seeing” what she saw, and thus, the success rate of accomplishing a difficult mission would definitely be a lot higher than a regular remote viewer’s Intel.
Thinking back now, Jed understood why he’d been reluctant at first. He had had enough experience with mind-control experiments to understand the intimacy involved between subjects.
Helen Roston wasn’t going to be a regular “partner”.
Because he wasn’t a remote viewer himself, he’d have to be the one “in charge” of certain parts of her mind.
From the very first time he’d observed her, he’d known there was no fucking way in hell she would’ve gone for that.
Reasons not to accept the assignment came easily.
He didn’t want that kind of responsibility for a potential member of his team.
Number Eight had wanted to try the serum and this experiment would be up his alley.
Those were the reasons he admitted to out loud.
He didn’t tell anyone he was also very attracted to the candidate.
She was the kind of woman that had always gotten his attention—sassy, bold, and full of secrets.
She was also a GEM operative, so she was dangerous in many ways.
And therein lay the temptation. It was hard for him to say no to the challenge of probing a dangerous woman’s mind.
He knew he’d need to prep her mind for his access and to do that, he’d have to gain her trust through trickery. One couldn’t be direct about it because if she’d known, Helen would have mentally fought against it.
Elena. He mouthed her name, as he sleepily recalled the challenge to slowly implant a sexual trigger in her mind. Because she was a GEM operative, trained in NOPAIN, she knew how to counter mind- control techniques. He had been careful, working slowly to get what he wanted.
First, he’d kept her off-balance by training her in the CAVE Ultimate, a ten-by-ten room that allowed multiple participants to experience immersive virtual reality, with one participant controlling the environment.
He had chosen to be invisible during his training sessions with her, knowing that it would both frustrate and intrigue her.
Second, when they had advanced the training to the Portal, the VR machine controlled by the mind, he had asked Dr. Kirkland to tell her she’d been given total control in the creation of her avatar, so she could give her trainer a “face” and a “body” during their virtual interaction sessions.
He’d known the idea that she could choose a face would appeal to her.
He also knew she would create an avatar that would be appealing to her senses.
Third, once he had her mind and senses involved intimately with him, it was time to move into her comfort zone. And with a trained operative, he had to move in quickly and ruthlessly, before the first hint of suspicion came to her.
Seduction of mind and body. He’d done it before without getting too emotionally involved. Just stay focused and get the job done. He wasn’t chosen to be Number Nine of the COS commandos to expound on the complexities and consequences. Number Nine accomplished all operations simply and effectively.
Elena was a grown woman, a highly trained operative, who knew going into this experiment that drugs and virtual reality could affect her mind and body. So why did he feel he needed to hurry back and make sure she was okay?
Sleep now. Elena later.