Mindsiege (Mindspeak #2)(88)
Dr. DeWeese typed on the computer in front of him. A little boy playing in a very dusty street appeared on the large screen. “See this child? He is one hundred percent boy when he’s playing. But when his handlers activate the chip embedded in the center of his brain, he becomes approximately sixty percent robot. The forty percent of him that is human gets him near a group of military generals. The sixty percent of him that is robot records everything those generals say and reports back the location of the terrorists protected by his country… which in turn leads us to launch military attacks at those locations.”
“That genetically engineered boy was created by the IIA,” Sandra said.
“Get to the point,” I said.
“Friends of the United States are willing to pay unbelievable amounts of money for genetically manipulated human beings who can be controlled by a single computer program.” Her voice started to take on an angry edge. “That boy was sold to another country for enough money to fund our future facility for a decade or more.”
I swallowed against the taste of bile that rose to the back of my throat. “You’re running a freak show that grows robotic children so they can be controlled by a computer.” They were growing spies for the international community. “For what? For money?”
“Of course for money. You think the type of medical research and healing miracles we’re working toward comes cheap? You could be a part of this. You and Jack. You would want for nothing.”
Money? She thought I would bow down to her highness for money?
I eyed the computer in front of Dr. DeWeese. “So, that machine controls every person with a tracker?”
“The ones I’m in control of, that’s right.” Sandra looked pleased with herself. “Look how easily Ty got inside your head. And his manipulation was completely from a computer program.” She pointed to the computer Dr. DeWeese had been typing into. “He wasn’t cloned to do so. As you saw, I had complete control over him.”
Well, not complete control, I wanted to argue.
“If I wanted him inside your head, he was inside your head. If I wanted him inside Jonas’s head, who then got inside your head and forced you into a freezing swimming pool, then that’s what happened.”
“All because of the tracker?”
“That’s right.” Sandra was starting to use her hands a lot to over-explain some grand point. “And you’ll be a part of this. A part of something so huge. Or…” She tilted her head side to side. “Or you’ll be eliminated by those who will not risk information about our division of the IIA being released into the world.”
An imaginary darkness fell over my entire existence. I didn’t want the world to know that we were magical healers. But how could I knowingly allow these people to grow children to be used in this way? To be manipulated beyond their control? Was human life no longer sacred? “Terminated? Like you tried to do the night you ran Jack and me off the road?”
“That wasn’t me. You think I want my most prized creations murdered in a car crash?”
That almost sounded sincere. But if what she was saying was correct, then others had tried to kill Jack and me, and would continue to do so. I tried to suppress a laugh, but couldn’t. It bubbled up and out of me, but quickly turned to an escaped sob. “What about Ty?” I remembered the image of Ty’s glassed-over eyes when Sandra decided he was no longer useful. He was just a machine to her. I swiped at a tear that had escaped. “Is it true you birthed Ty and Jonas? You carried them as your own babies?”
“That’s right.”
“Yet, you felt nothing when you killed him in cold blood. Premeditated murder in the first degree.”
“I needed to prove a point.”
“Which was?”
“That I could.”
The speaker crackled overhead. “LAB WILL SELF-DESTRUCT IN TWENTY MINUTES.”
Dr. DeWeese’s face paled. I wasn’t sure if it was because he wasn’t aware that Sandra murdered her own son, or because this lab was set for some sort of death in twenty minutes—with him still in the bowels of The Farm.
“As you can see, we are about out of time. You can join us voluntarily, or I can force you. But it’s time you decide. Surely with everything I just told you—”
“That’s what all this was. You making your case to get me to join you?” I stood from my swivel chair. Jonas, Jack, are you seeing this? Could it be that one computer is controlling every tracker?
It gets better than that. Jonas said. The hard drive in the computer behind Sandra pops out of the computer from the back of the machine. If we can destroy that, we destroy the database of trackers currently in existence. There’s probably a backup, but getting that one will buy us some time.
“You will join us. We can protect you. We have no intention of keeping you locked inside one of our facilities forever. You can have freedom to roam, just like Jonas.”
“Freedom. Just like Jonas. You mean your other son that you admit to controlling with one of your trackers? So, you want me to give you permission to place a tracker at the base of my brain? Stuck to my spinal cord? So that you can what? Control my every move? My thoughts?” I circled the room. The two doctors watched me. Their eyes never left me. I understood what it felt like to have a laser pointed at the middle of my forehead.