Chapter Two #2
Helen looked up and grinned. “You know, I can get Derek to make my VR trainer look like you and then I can do all those unmentionable things that you keep promising me.”
Flyboy grinned back and winked. Derek coughed.
“I could,” he said in a careful voice, “but really, I think it best if your trainer-avatar is someone you imagine, Miss Roston. It is simulated training, but there’s a real person whose brain waves will be connected to yours, and, it’s not a great idea psychologically to bond with a real person who isn’t real… I mean, you know what I mean….”
His voice trailed off and he shrugged. He opened his mouth to continue but Helen waved him off.
“Understood,” she told him and shrugged at Flyboy.
“See? Can’t have you as my dream guy either.
There’s too much brain wave—” She waved her hand dramatically and added, in a mock British accent, “Brain wave immersion, creating cerebral confusion between reality and illusion.”
Even Derek couldn’t help chuckling at the wry mimicry of the professorial tone of Dr. Hollingsworth, the scientist in charge of Mind Viewer, the thought immersion program.
Helen had had to sit through a few of his lectures as he explained what she meant to the program and how the experiments were supposed to work.
That was when she’d first met Flyboy. Since he had been in a simulation program recently, he’d joined her a couple of times so he could also answer her questions.
She was glad. She understood Flyboy’s easy layman’s description better than Dr. Hollingsworth’s technical language.
Besides, Flyboy was the only one of the infamous nine commandos who had taken the time to get to know her. He had introduced her to other operatives, widening her circle of new friends.
Helen liked him. She hoped the rest of the commandos would accept her as easily as he did.
“I’m heartbroken,” Flyboy said, giving her ponytail a swift tug. “You’ll just have to go out with me and I can make your dreams come true, Hell.”
“Yeah, yeah, okay, let’s get this started.” Helen straightened in her chair and sucked on her forefinger. “First, forget those bulging muscles. I mean, you made him look like some romance model, like what’s-his-name…”
“Fabio,” Derek supplied helpfully.
“Now how is it you come up with his name immediately?” Flyboy countered.
Derek whipped out a paperback. His face was flushed again. “I took this off my sister’s bookshelf. He is Fabio, isn’t he? I thought I did a pretty good job with the digital imaging. I did add some changes, of course.”
“You did use Fabio as a model!” Helen stared at the book cover in amazement.
It portrayed a half-naked man with long hair, his muscles impossibly ripped.
She looked at the other model on the computer screen.
Yup, the likeness was there. Same longish hair and muscle tone.
She thought of what had happened to her during that first run-through of CAVE Ultimate.
Revenge was going to be so sweet. A wicked grin broke free.
“Well, let’s see the goods, Derek. Take his pants off. ”
“What?”
“Sheesh, if you’re going to design my trainer’s avatar and he’s to be specifically to my taste, shouldn’t I get to order all the details?”
There was a short silence. Flyboy burst into laughter. He pulled a nearby chair between Helen and Derek. “I want to see this. Let’s check out the junk on Miss Roston’s made-to-order trainer, Derek.”
“I…”
Helen patted the man on the back. He had the look of someone facing torture. “Come on, I promise it’ll be over soon. Let’s start easy. Peel off his pants. And I want him blond, please.”
“What happened to tall, dark and handsome? Or is it because I’m blond?” Flyboy asked.
“Oh, shut up, you. He’s my Greek god, and I want him blond, and much sleeker, with chocolate eyes.”
“Hey, I have blue eyes!”
“Make his eyes chocolate, Derek.”
“Yes, ma’am.” But he was clearly reluctant to give up his “creation.”
“Leaner, not so muscular.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“I know you meant well, Derek, adding that fur, but really, not so much chest hair, please.” She suspected that Derek grew up playing too much interactive Dungeons and Dragons on the Internet.
The avatar he created was the classic “I kill for food and magic” stereotype she’d seen advertised in game store windows.
“What, you’re going to bury your face in his chest? These are going to be some VR training sessions! Are you sure the powers-that-be want that?” Flyboy asked, laughing.
Helen turned to Derek. “Didn’t they order you to tailor the thing to my taste?” she asked.
“Yes, ma’am. The idea for this phase of your training is to simulate the missions before you get your dosage. You need your trainer to talk you through as your body reacts to the drugs and the doctors thought it best to give you a measure of control of his avatar.”
“Uh-huh. Hear that mumbo-jumbo, Flyboy? That means I get to make the guy as sexy as I like, and I demand a blond Greek god with chocolate eyes. For a start.” Helen cracked her knuckles.
They were going to play with her mind, anyway, so why not have some fun with it?
It was strange, but meeting her so far invisible trainer added a level of excitement that she couldn’t explain.
It wasn’t going to be a real meeting, but better than that shadow he’d been using in the CAVE. “Let’s start from the top.”
“He looks a lot better than the model Derek cooked up for your avatar,” T. observed. She leaned over to take a better look, then laughed. “Oh my God, she’s having fun, isn’t she? That’s Helen for you.”
“Is she ready?” the man questioned.
“Oh yes, as ready as a test supersoldier superspy can be,” T.
said, half-seriously. “She’s been trained by Special Ops.
She passed several of the CIA remote viewing tests with flying colors.
She’s achieved 72.5 percent accuracy. She’s one of my best operatives and she’s not called Hell for nothing, you know. ”
“Yes, but she isn’t the best.” He turned to look at T.
“You are.” T. fluffed her hair. “Darling, how do you do that? Praise and accusation at the same time. I couldn’t take two years off for that kind of training, you know that.
It’d ruin my nails. I picked the best operative we had.
She’s single, unattached, and very ambitious. She wants to do this.”
It wasn’t a good enough explanation for him. He wanted to know the real reasons. “She’s single and unattached—you’re sure of that.” It wasn’t a question. He didn’t want any third-party complications when he was just beginning this phase of their relationship.
“That’s what she says and she’s been training very hard all this time. I haven’t seen any romantic affiliations except for some go-nowhere dates. I trust my operatives, and when Helen said she would do it, she meant it. That girl is very talented—I’m lucky the CIA didn’t snatch her from me.”
“She’s too independent. CIA doesn’t like that.
” T. shrugged. “That’s what GEM is. We’re all independent and if they don’t like it, why do they keep contracting us?
Are you going to have a problem? This is going to be just as tough for you.
Your brain waves being linked to hers during experimentation.
Those scientists called it mind-bonding, darling and…
” She cocked a brow. “We know how your mind is.”
He smiled for the first time, a small quirk of his lips. He canted a brow in answer. “What, you don’t have confidence in your top operative playing mind games with me? And it’s Mind Setter, T.”
The two phases to the Mind Viewer program were named Mind Setter and Mind Former. The first phase set the brain immersion in motion, linking him to Helen by synchronizing their brain waves during sleep, then after a period, during tests. They’d started this phase a couple of months ago.
“Darling, I prefer my term. What’s happening is more intimate than mind-setting, or whatever Dr. Hollingsworth calls it.
” T. crossed her arms. “Remember, Helen isn’t just trained in NOPAIN now.
She has all these things being experimented within her mind.
Who knows what she would do to you?” A challenging gleam entered her golden eyes.
“Bet she’ll fight you all the way. GEM operatives have great resistance. ”
Yes. A dangerous woman. The man returned his gaze back to the screen. “Not if I look like that. She can’t do anything to me with that image in her head.”
T. looked at the new image of the avatar.
“Superspy. Remote viewing-trained. Combat-ready. And once she takes the drugs, she should be a supersoldier—fearless, with little capacity for emotion, and less need for sleep. You’ll probably be the only one holding on to her mind. Be gentle with her, hmm?”
“I thought you said she would give me trouble?”
“I just don’t know about the drugs. You never know with drugs. You, better than most, understand how that is. They’ve done things to you in your program. That’s why you’re a perfect balance. Guide her through her first mission and get her back safely.”
“I’ve no intention of failing, T.,” he said softly. It wasn’t the guidance part of Mind Setter that would be the problem between him and Elena Rostova. It was getting her ready for him.
“Okay, I put on these goggles and then he’s just going to be there?” Helen loosened her ponytail. She weighed the goggles in her hand. Lightweight plastic, malleable in feel. “We can talk and everything? Do we need to go to the CAVE to test this?”
Dr. Kirkland, Dr. Hollingsworth’s second-in-command, shook his head and pointed to the virtual reality chair and equipment at the far corner of the room.
“Not today. This is just a run-through and we thought we’d try out the new VR Portal. We’re going to monitor your heart rate and vital statistics. You can talk while we get both your brain waves in sync.”
“Wait, he’s here somewhere? We aren’t using a simulated program?” Helen looked up at the doctor sharply. “Where?”