Chapter 13 Riven
Riven
Sloane looks terrified as she finally steps into the room on shaky legs. I begin to worry that she’s in some kind of shock. I walk toward her and reach out a hand to help her up onto the chair. She bats it away. There she is. Good. She helps herself into the chair and peers up at me, waiting.
“This is Sloane Keenan. Sloane, this is Ash, Graf, and Slate. Sloane is the journalist from Obsidian Press that I mentioned before.” I start, pausing when I notice Sloane tense at my words.
“Wait, you know who I work for?” she blurts out. I nod my head up and down and continue addressing the guys.
“Anyways, I don’t think that Sloane was affected by any of the frequencies. I think she’s still an outlier, and I’m worried that if Sabel finds out—”
“She won’t. What can we do?” Cal asks. Raithe and Kai nod in agreement.
“Well. I want to test—”
“Can someone tell me what the hell is going on?” Sloane says, frantic.
“I was about to,” I grit out, annoyed. Her mouth snaps shut, and I continue.
“What you’re about to hear is going to be a lot.
So, please, can you hold it together?” I ask, running my hand over my cloak that’s covering my hair.
Even though she’s about to get all the information she needs for her little story, I can’t keep this part a secret. I have to do this.
“Yes, tell me,” she spits out.
I sigh, looking over at the guys. I’m second-guessing everything I’m about to do when Callum nods, reassuring me to continue.
“Sabel is the leader of a biotech company parading as a record label called Sonus Corp. She’s the CEO, but we think she’s working closely with someone else.
Maybe a COO, or maybe even a group of people.
” I pause. “These people are very powerful, and they have been running a social experiment for the last several years, using us.” I assess her to gauge her reaction to everything I’ve said so far.
She looks worried, but otherwise seems fine. I continue.
“They’ve been manipulating our music, using certain frequencies to see if it would be possible to shift the mental states, emotions, and behaviors of listeners.
The guys and I figured out recently that this was only phase one of the experiment.
And now that Sonus knows the frequencies are working in their favor, we think they are progressing to phase two.
Though we aren’t sure what that entails yet.
” I pause. Sloane looks like she’s now given up on breathing. Great.
“Sloane,” I warn.
She nods her head up and down and whispers, “I’m okay, keep going,” without meeting my eyes. She finally sucks in a long breath and lets it out slowly, likely coming to terms with how right her music theory was.
“Today was a test for the outliers,” I say, continuing.
“The … outliers?” she asks, tilting her head. The fire that I’ve come to love is extinguished from her eyes, exchanged for a pale green of worry and panic.
“Yes. The bracelets that were given to you at the concert, and again today, were monitoring your vital signs. Heart rate and blood pressure readings.” She looks down, rubbing her fingers over the empty place on her wrist. “They provide readings that coincide with brain waves found in specific mental states. It allows Sonus to determine if the experiment is working, and to what extent,” I finish.
“And mine didn’t coincide,” she says in understanding.
I nod. “That’s what I need to figure out. I could tell that you weren’t as affected as the rest of the crowd, both at the concert and today. So, I need to test you myself to determine the extent of it.”
She stares at me for a few seconds. “Okay, do it. Do whatever you have to do,” she says.
I move away from her chair to grab an electrode cap from the cabinets above the monitors.
I attach the outlet wire to the monitor that will record her brain waves and bring the cap over to her.
I motion for Cal to come over and adjust the frequencies on the monitor for me. He stands and walks my way.
“Okay. I’m gonna put this over your head. It won’t hurt. It’s going to monitor your brain waves while we play different frequencies for you. Understand?”
She nods, looking a little nervous.
I measure to make sure the cap is the right fit, and then apply it over her hair, brushing the loose strands out of the way with my fingers. I watch as goosebumps erupt across her neck and chest, and immediately pocket the image for another time. Once the cap is on and secure, I grab the gel.
Her eyes shoot to my hand. “What’s that?” she asks.
“Calm down. It’s a gel. I’m going to inject it into the holes, and it’s going to help enhance the readings. Kind of like an ultrasound would,” I say, hoping to ease her tension.
She nods her head, relaxing back against the chair.
Callum plays a series of frequencies consisting of alpha, beta, and theta waves at my command, and Raithe and Kai record the readings.
“Hmmm,” I say, leaning back against the wall. My head rests between my thumb and forefinger while the other arm is crossed over my chest.
“What?” Sloane asks, sitting forward.
“Your recordings show that your brain waves aren’t synchronized with the sound frequencies. You aren’t affected by them. Even with the more powerful approach, the result was the same,” I answer, both fascinated and terrified.
“I want to try one more thing. Graf, grab the headphones for me,” I say.
Callum grabs them from an overhead cabinet and walks over to hand them to me.
“What are you doing now?” she asks, twisting her left earring between her fingers.
“I want to try another type of frequency using headphones. It’s going to play two slightly different frequencies, one into each ear.
The idea is that your brain will hear them and create a third tone which can have the capacity to influence brain wave activity.
” I hand the headphones to her, and she nods, placing them over her head and onto her ears.
Callum plays the frequencies, and as I’m studying the waves, I notice a change.
Her brain waves are now aligning with the sound of the frequencies. Interesting.
“There,” I say, turning the monitor toward her and pointing to it. “Your brain waves are moving in sync with the sound.”
She looks confused as she asks, “So, I am affected, then?”
“Yes, and no. This type of auditory manipulation is much harder to produce. You’d need headphones on, for one. And for two, the manipulation is merely an illusion created by the mind.”
“Uh-huh,” she says, taking off the headphones and handing them back to me. “What does any of this have to do with my safety again?”
I move toward her to remove the cap, wiping away the excess gel. “Well, if Sabel finds out that the frequencies can’t influence you, I’m afraid that she might come after you.” I pause. “I have no idea what Sonus and Sabel are planning with phase two, but I don’t have a good feeling about it.”
She swallows. “Might?”
“She’s not a good person, Sloane. I think these people are up to something much worse than influencing a few human emotions.
We think that they are attempting to experiment with mind control on a much bigger level.
” I pause, considering how much to divulge.
Especially because right now, this is all theoretical.
“Outliers are dangerous. Outliers would pose a risk to mass manipulation. You can’t manipulate the masses if the masses can’t be manipulated.
” Fuck, I don’t even know if that makes sense now that I’ve said it out loud.
I need to get to the bottom of this shit.
She swallows again, harder this time, causing my eyes to flick to her throat. I grind my molars.
“Oh. Um, wow. It’s much worse than I thought,” she says, staring blankly.
“Than you thought?” I ask, already knowing the answer but needing her to share it herself. I need to know that she trusts me … us.
“Yeah,” she says, looking up at me. “I’m working on a story about it. I thought something might have been going on with the fan base. I’ve been looking into something along these lines, but I never could have imagined it could be this … bad.”
I nod. “Yeah, well. I’m going to need you to stop looking and take another story. We can’t have this getting out.”
I see the red slowly taking over her green irises again as she says, “And what are all of you going to do about it? Why haven’t any of you stopped her yet?
Don’t you realize how screwed up it is …
what you’re doing to people?” She pauses.
“If it’s true that Sonus wants to potentially manipulate masses, don’t you see what they could do with that kind of power?
” Of fucking course I do, that’s why I’m doing all of this.
I start to speak, but Callum beats me to it.
“Look, Sloane, we know how serious this is, and we’re working on a way out.
But it’s going to take some time. This isn’t the way we need to go about this.
Sabel will have people looking into you since you’re now an outlier and a potential threat to her plans, if she doesn’t already.
Your life could be in danger, and if you come out with this in the press and she catches wind that someone is trying to expose her …
even more so.” Cal pauses, his next words barely audible.
“You don’t know what that bitch is capable of, and you don’t want to. Trust me.”
Sloane seems to consider him, taking it all in as she says, “Okay, fine. I get it. I’ve done my fair share of research on manipulative, corrupt leaders, and I understand the potential threat.
” She pauses. “What about Lydia? She was there today. Doesn’t that mean she’s also an outlier?
” Callum stiffens at the mention of Lydia’s name.
“Sabel personally had her invited to ensure that you showed up. Lydia isn’t an outlier. I think you already knew that, though,” I say.
She assesses me for a second before hopping down from the chair. She brushes her hands over her hair. “So, what now? How do we keep this from Sabel?” she asks.
“I’m working on it. I’m switching your data to look like the data for a person who isn’t an outlier. Sabel won’t be able to detect anything,” I say back, typing a code into the monitor to delete Sloane’s files.
“Done,” I say, hitting the enter button on the keyboard. “Now. Let’s get you home.”