Manipulator (3 page)

Location: PRoGRaM

Owen gathered his thoughts and brought himself back into the present. Standing around looking at the view was mesmerising. Before him lay a perfect world, but regardless of this, he had work to do. He turned around and walked back towards the door from which he and Kate came from.

“Nick?” Owen said out loud. Kate glanced back as she heard Owen speak, but when she realised that he wasn’t talking to her, she continued to admire the scenery beyond the edge of the rooftop. “Take us back to The White Room, through the same door we came here through please.”

Owen felt stupid, standing there talking to himself, it was something that felt perfectly natural with when he was alone inside PRoGRaM, but now that he had company, he found talking out loud to someone who wasn’t physically there sort of embarrassing. He doubted that he would ever get used to it, although a piece of him was glad that he finally had someone else with him on the inside. Being in this huge world alone was a terrifying thought.

He turned back to look at Kate, who was still staring out at the New York City skyline. “Kate?” Owen asked, making her turn her head from her admiration of the city to look back at him. “Follow me. It’s time for some real work.”

She pushed herself away from the railing, and then slowly jogged up to meet Owen at his side. Together, the two of them walked slowly back towards the rooftop door.

“What’s next?” she enquired.

“Research,” Owen answered plainly as he continued to walk towards the door that Nick was programming to take them back into the White Room. “It’s no good going into any memory without good, decent research first. It’s like trying to fly a plane without any training. You’re going to screw it up.”

“All of my research about Eli…”

“Is absolutely fine,” Owen said quickly, cutting her off. “That’s why you’re here with me. So that I can walk you through it.” He led the way and pushed the door open, seeing that The White Room now lay beyond the threshold. “The White Room," he continued. "As well as being a seriously important part of the entry process of PRoGRaM, is also a great place to combine all of your research about any given job.”

Collectively, Owen and Kate walked into The White Room before Kate turned and pushed the door shut behind her, instantly seeing that the light above switch from green to red. The noise of the city abruptly cut out as the door hissed shut and sealed itself.

“The walls of the White Room can show us all the information that we want it to show," Owen explained. "It can hold any thought that you want it to. For example, let me show you what we know, about... you.”

Owen lifted up his hands in front of him. Carefully, and with much concentration, he aimed the palms of his hands towards The White Room's wall directly in front of him. He pressed his fingers tightly together on both hands, but left the thumbs separated out and spaced away from the rest of his fingers.

Except for the thumb and forefinger on both hands, Owen clenched the other three fingers down into half a fist. Looking at his forefinger and thumb, the only two that were still raised, he saw an ‘L’ and and a backwards 'L'. He twisted both hands in opposite directions and touched the ends of his thumbs to the opposite hands forefinger, making a rectangular shape in front of him.

Owen quickly threw his hands apart diagonally, in an action to make the rectangle bigger.

Instantly, on the wall in front of him, a picture appeared. It was Kate’s FBI basic training graduation picture. Owen pointed to another part of the wall of The White Room, just to the right of the picture that had just manifested itself. Some facts about Kate started to appear. They were just the usual generic facts, such as her name, age, sex, height and profession. These were normal, non-confidential pieces of information that anybody with half a brain and a little skill on the right computer could gain access to.

As Owen was throwing up all the information around the room, he began to explain himself to Kate. “We have to make sure that everybody we work with inside PRoGRaM has a perfect track record. We profile all users, just like we’d profile any suspect, if not more vigorously. But lucky for you, you’re the perfect employee.”

The information that was surrounding them started to become more personal. Pictures of Kate's personal life filled up the four walls all around them. Kate and her friends, family pictures, pictures from her school life, pictures from the police training academy, pictures from her personal holidays with friends. A web of thin black lines began to appear, linking all of the events together and chronicling a timeline of her entire life. All of the photographs and information were gradually connecting together. The places that she had lived, the bars that she frequented when she was younger. Every score from every test she’d ever taken in her life.

"Impressive," she said, feeling massively overwhelmed and slightly embarrassed by all of the pictures and facts surrounding them. Owen clapped his hands twice, and all the information around them on the White Room’s walls instantly disappeared, leaving both him and Kate surrounded once again by only plain, white walls. He was satisfied that his demonstration had proved that his team could access anything, anywhere, and get to anyone.

“For this next part, you’re in control,” Owen said to her as he did his usual trick of pacing slowly around the room in a circle. “Using this White Room as a research centre isn’t too complicated, it’s
designed
to hold your thoughts. So, let’s see your research. And remember, I wont be here all the while. So if you have any questions, ask them now. “

Kate took a breath and stepped forward slowly. “Okay, so…“ She began by clasping her hands together and keeping them held tight in front of her. “Eli Roth is our target, 28 years old and from Boston.”

Kate threw her hands apart, up into the air in front of her, palms facing outwards. Several images of Eli Roth appeared in front of Owen and Kate, covering an entire wall of The White Room. The central image, plastered directly in the middle of the wall was a huge, high definition image of Eli. Even though he looked young in the photo, you could definitely see that he was at his late twenties. He had black spiked hair, but had no striking features on his face that made him stand out in a crowd. He looked like any other young American businessman in a suit, trying to work his way to the top.

The rest of the photos that cropped up were a mixture of professional images, and photos that had obviously been gathered from third-party sources or from social media websites that Eli frequented. “He’s a suspected cyber criminal,” Kate continued. “And our sources on the street confirm that he has links to pretty much all the major organised crime groups operating out of New York.”

Gang symbols appeared around the central image of Eli, and red lines fired out from the edges of his picture, each one leading to a symbol. “We’ve been keeping tabs on him for some time. We’d have no grounds on which to bring him into the station, but from what we can tell he’s some kind of conduit, working all the sides. We don’t know what for though. He’s smart enough not to get himself caught.”

Kate walked around the room, looking closely at all of the information that was up on the walls, feeling impressed with her own ability to show everything clearly. “But they slip up,” she said quietly as she turned back to face Owen. “If you’re watching closely enough, they always do.”

Owen nodded in response, impressed with what he was seeing around him, before letting Kate continue. “One of our agents tailing him recently marked him down as meeting with known affiliates of these gangs.” Next to several of the gang symbols surround Eli’s image on the wall, a small mugshot of each of the noted criminals appeared.

“He didn’t just meet with one of these groups either," Kate said. "There was at least one known member from each of these groups at the same place that Eli was. They didn’t all arrive at the same time, but the fact that they are all in the same place in the same timeframe is more than just a coincidence.”

“Where and when?” Owen asked urgently, knowing that these two questions were
by far
the most important ones.

“Echo Nightclub on December 2nd, just under a week ago,” Kate answered. On the wall to Owen’s left, some images of the Nightclub appeared, both of the interior and the exterior, as well as blueprints and floor plans of the place. It looked like a modern, loud, high profile club. Surveillance photos appeared, showing the outside of the building; The neon covered exterior, well lit ‘Echo Club’ sign, and larger than life bouncers on the door watching over a queue that stretched back an entire city block showed Owen
exactly
what he was expecting to see from such a nightclub.

“From your records, your surveillance… does he frequent this place often?” Owen asked inquisitively.

“For as long as we’ve been tailing him, he’s never once been there. Not until December 2
^nd
,” Kate responded with a shake of her head.

“Good.”

“Why is that good?”

“Two reasons,” Owen said, holding two fingers out to her. He grabbed the first one with his other hand. “Firstly. Because he’s not a regular to this nightclub, his memory of this meeting should be relatively unique. it won’t blend in with any other memories that this place shares in his mind.”

“That can happen?”

“Rarely," he explained. "Just remember this. It’s easier to bring forward a unique memory, rather than a memory of something that you do every day. For example, the drive to work. All those memories of that same event mix in together, and can be very difficult to separate should you ever need to pick a specific one out," Owen explained.

“That makes sense,” Kate said, nodding in response. “So we’re in luck here.”

Owen nodded back to her, eyes wide, and grabbed the second finger on the hand that he was holding up. “Secondly,” he continued. “The fact that Eli met these people less than a week ago should make it easier for the memory to surface, whilst it’s still fresh in his mind.”

Kate nodded at this new information, taking on board and listening intently to everything that Owen had said to her so far.

“These groups,” Owen asked. “The ones that Eli met with. They don’t talk to each other?”

“Normally?” Kate said, watching Owen carefully as he paced around the room. “No. We think they’re planning something big. We can’t afford to take any chances, and we need to know what’s going on. Between these gangs, they have enough suspected manpower and resources to pull off any crime they want to. Eli seems to be the one in charge. Or at least the one with the information that we need. That’s why we’ve brought him here.”

“Your research is good,” Owen said, finally coming to a standstill. “But that’s only half the battle. The real challenge is what you do with him once he’s in here.”

“I want to make him re-live his memory at the nightclub,” Kate replied quickly, clearly having already thought out this part. “By forcing him into the scene again, we can make him project his memories into PRoGRaM and give us the information about what’s happening between the gangs, what they’re planning, and how he’s involved.”

“Good tactic,” Owen said as he nodded his approval, conceding that Kate had made a good choice. She was slowly becoming a real professional, considering that she was new to this scene. Recreating the atmosphere in the nightclub would make Eli project his memories, giving them the information that they were looking for. What made the task easier for both Owen and Kate was that it had only happened to Eli recently.

“Right then, here’s the deal.” Owen began to sum up, ready to take everything to the next level. “We’re here to do a memory analysis on Eli Roth regarding the night of December 2nd. Admittedly, you could have brought him in under these circumstances for questioning, but the evidence is purely circumstantial. This would probably spook him and you’d lose his trail shortly afterwards. Looks like this is the only chance you’ve got to find out what’s going on.”

He took a small break from talking and looked away from Kate for a second. “Nick, we’re ready for the live operation,” he said, looking up as he did so. He saw that the light above the White Room door had changed from red to green. “Kate. I need you to understand that I’m going to be taking control from this point on. Don’t worry, you’ll get your chance another day. We can’t throw you into the deep end this early on. This is your first memory extraction, you’re here to watch.”

“I understand,” Kate replied.

“Good to hear. Now that that’s over, let’s bring him in.”

Chapter Five

Date: December 15th 2035 (Present Day)

Location: Unknown

“You see,” Owen said, continuing to explain the technology to Victoria. “PRoGRaM accesses a part of your brain called the temporal lobe. It’s a memory centre, where all of your experiences and memories in life are stored. It’s like the hard drive of the brain. Dying virtually inside PRoGRaM seems to wipe whatever memory is being accessed at the time, if any at all.”

“And this is where you come in?” Victoria asked, tapping her pen on the desk, impatiently wondering when Owen was going to get to the point.

“Almost,” he responded. “Upon further testing and experimentation, it did in fact turn out that if you were using PRoGRaM, and you
died
whilst inside, whatever memories you were synchronising with at the time, were lost, erased...
Assassinated
. A new found use for this machine had arisen, and so was fine-tuned to make the most of this new development.”