by Thomas Shaw
Hussein asks a few more questions about Nazila but seemed more interested in whipping Tom with the Cain pole; after all he was just another infidel who didn’t deserve to live if he didn’t believe in Allah. Ever since the age of five years old the Madrassas he had attended taught him to hate the Jews and the great Satan of the West, the United States. Each time he swung the Cain pole and heard the responsive screams he felt like it was cleansing his soul and Allah must be looking down on his efforts with great satisfaction. This went on through the night until Hussein grew physically tired and made some supper for himself and stretched out on a cot in the corner of the basement. Tom was left hanging by his arms listening to SAM as she was telling him to hang on, that they were working on a way to get him out of there.
“I hope its Seal-team 6,” Tom said under his breath.
The bucket of cold water brought Tom back to the reality that he was being tortured. He tried to take in some of the water but by the time he realized what was going on it was too late. Tom’s arms and body ached beyond belief but he knew if he asked for relief it would only be denied. Then out of the blue the rope was cut and his weakened body fell to the floor. A few minutes later he was back in the chair with his legs and arms bound as before. This was some relief but not much, as he had been denied food and water ever since he had been kidnapped.
Hussein started out again, “Since you haven’t been forthcoming with any of my questions I want you to see if you recognize this,” as he holds up a picture of a pile of rubble.
Tom just shook his head.
“Well let me help you out. It’s what’s left of a miniature drone helicopter you used to blow up our little operation I showed you the other day,” Hussein said clearly agitated.
Tom choked out the words, “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” and immediately felt the sting of the Cain pole across his chest and legs. It was clear that this was going to be a long day.
Back at the safe house Julie was just getting up from a sleepless night and attempting to make some breakfast when SAM made her presents known. “I need you to go to the bakery and pick up a package but you can’t leave until after three o’clock this afternoon.”
Julie asked several question about where Tom was; what was in the package; how long was she going to stay in this house. But SAM’s response was always the same, “We are working on it.”
It was clear to Julie that something was in transit to the bakery and it must be coming from the United States because of the delayed delivery time. She had no other option… she had to wait.
Back in the basement Tom was enduring the sadistic torture at the hands of Hussein just like the day before. He was strung up so high with his hands above his head that his feet barely touched the floor.
Hussein went over and over the same questions as he had from the beginning. It was clear to Dr. Merrill that Hussein was an amateur interrogator but his main concern was hoping that Tom could just hold out a little longer.
Hours seemed to drag on like days but it was finally three o’clock when SAM told Julie it was time to go. She was already sitting in the Mini Cooper just to familiarize herself with this different car. It seemed like it took forever to open the garage and back out but Julie was finally able to close the heavy Iron Gate and headed off to the bakery. For a small car she found it easy to drive and was soon weaving her way through the streets of Tehran toward her destination. SAM was instructing Julie to act normal so she wouldn’t attract any unwanted attention as she entered the bakery. Jhameel greeted her with a warm smile and looked forward to chatting with her in English but this was not to happen at least not on this trip. Julie picked up the usual two loaves of bread but the cake box was so heavy that Jhameel had to load it in the car for her. SAM kept warning her to watch her speed, the last thing she needed was to be stopped by the police.
Finally she was back at the house with the car safely in the garage and having transferred the cake box to the kitchen table. The first things she removed from the box were three canisters about two inches in diameter and four inches long. Next item was a box of what looked like ear plugs. After removing more packing material she opened another box that held what looked like some space alien ray gun. When she asked SAM what it was, she was told that it would be explained later. At the bottom of the box was the reason it was so heavy. There were two metal containers about eighteen inches long each weighting about ten pounds. As Julie spread these items across the table SAM focused on the three cylindrical canisters. After going over the operational procedures and the purpose of the canisters, Julie selected one of them and put it in her empty backpack along with several ear plugs, a knife and a pair of side cutters. Once again she went through the process of getting the Mini Cooper out to the street. This time SAM was directing Julie to a new location that only she was aware of.
It was almost eight o’clock when Julie pulled up to what looked like a seedy part of Tehran. She was dressed completely in black from head to toe from clothing that SAM had conveniently provided along with the stocked pantry and other amenities she found in this “safe house”.
After parking the car in the shadows of a building, Julie made her way toward her destination. As SAM guided her to a deserted building Julie was quietly describing everything she saw. “There are two men standing by the entrance of this building,” she whispered.
“Prepare the canister for deployment,” SAM responded. “Once you’ve activated the canister you must move quickly following my instructions.”
Julie pulled two earplugs from her fanny pack and pushed the micro switches to the “on” position and inserted them in her ears. Next she removed the canister and activated the device confirming to SAM that she sees a flashing green light then returned the canister to her fanny pack.
When she looked up she saw the two men that were standing about twenty yards away drop to their knees and begin vomiting violently. As instructed she ran past the incapacitated men pushing open the doors and entered the building. The canister she had just activated was a recent invention out of Area 51 that created a special frequency causing the cilia (which are the sensory transducers in the inner ear) to vibrate uncontrollably which induced severe vertigo to anyone within one hundred yards of the device. The special earplugs Julie was using created an electronic “white noise” that canceled the effects of this frequency.
Julie ran toward the location she was being directed to by SAM. “You are standing right by him,” SAM stated.
“What do you mean?” Julie said sounding exasperated. “I’m standing in the middle of an empty room;” as she shined her flashlight in every direction.
“According to his GPS location he has to be right there,” SAM replied, and then quickly added “he must be above or below you.”
Julie shined her light around the empty room until it illuminated a door along the wall.
“It’s a stairwell that leads down to what may be a basement,” Julie said as she shined her light down the stairs. “Move as fast as you can,” SAM urged her.
Julie flew down the stairs and saw a single light hanging from the ceiling. As she drew closer she could just make out the images of two people in the dim light. One was sitting in a chair and one was lying on the floor a few feet away, both were throwing up violently. The person nearest to her was lying on the floor, she shined her light in his face… it was Hussein. She quickly shined her light in the face of the person sitting in the chair who was almost unrecognizable but she knew instinctively that it was Tom. Julie pulled two more ear plugs from her pack and switched them on and quickly inserted them into his ears.
The room stopped spinning but Tom still felt nauseous as someone was pulling at his arms and legs. Julie was using the side-cutters to free him from the tie wraps that bound him to the chair. She splashed some water on a rag and gently tried to wipe some of the dried blood off his face.
“It’s me baby,” she kept saying as she tried to pull him to his feet.
“See if
he will drink some of the electrolyte solution,” SAM interjected. “You’ve got to get him out of there quickly.”
Julie tipped the thermos up against his lips so he could take the first liquids he had been deprived of for the last couple of days. She found his clothes lying on the floor but was only able to get his shirt on due to his weakened condition. She pulled Tom’s arm over her shoulder and pulled him up with all her might as he slowly got to his feet and headed for the stairs.
“Press the destruct button and leave the canister there,” were SAM’s instructions.
Julie pulled the canister out of her fanny pack and pressed the button activating a red flashing light. Then with her left hand she tried to throw it as close to Hussein as she could. Maybe if this thing explodes it will kill that bastard, she thought. Once again she retrieved the thermos and tried to get Tom to take some more liquids then moved toward the stairs. Tom was so weak that it was a struggle to take one step at a time.
“You’ve got to hurry,” SAM urged “we’ve only got 90 seconds before detonation and we lose the vertigo effects.”
Julie redoubled her efforts to help Tom climb the stairs; they were just exiting the building when they heard the muffled explosion coming from the basement. They stumbled past the two men still retching uncontrollably. Julie was afraid to look back as she turned all her efforts toward getting Tom to the car.
As Julie pulled up to the first red light, SAM told her to remove her ear-plugs and turn them off. She also suggested leaving Tom’s ear-plugs in place as she was sending him a synthesized Alpha wave frequency that would help him sleep and the “white noise” would eliminate any outside interference. Julie was anxious and relieved at the same time as she looked over at Tom leaning against the passenger door fast asleep.
Once inside the “safe house” Julie set about trying to clean Tom up as best that she could. Under instructions from SAM she drew a hot bath and poured in a measured amount of Epson salts and olive oil along with a couple of other ingredients she found in the pantry. Tom eased into the tub as Julie used a wash cloth to wipe away the blood caked around his lips, nose and face. Tears were rolling down her cheeks as she kept saying, “Things are going to be OK,” over and over.
17
Tom slept almost straight through for the first fifteen hours, only to be interrupted by Julie trying to feed him a few spoonful’s of chicken noodle soup.
Julie had covered the king sized bed with bath towels because Tom was still bleeding from the various wounds on his back and legs.
While he slept Julie was busy listening to instructions from SAM about the strange looking chrome device she had retrieved from the cake box. As she picked it up she realized it had a pistol type grip with a trigger and a short stainless steel barrel which extended about 2 inches beyond the top of the trigger. SAM had her screw in a small CO2 cartridge in the back of the pistol where the hammer would normally be. She then opened an insulated box that held two small glass ampules labeled “A & B”. At this point SAM asked Julie to pull the trigger a couple of time. She did as instructed and heard two distinctive “pops” of air, confirming that the air injection gun was working properly. Julie attached the vial labeled “A” to the underside of the barrel just in front of the trigger. She pulled the covers back until Tom’s legs were exposed; he was lying face down. She moved his legs apart until she could position the injection gun firmly against the inside of his upper thigh near the femoral artery. She pulled the trigger and heard the gun “pop”. SAM was telling her that this special chemistry she was injecting would help Tom recover in record time because it would enhance his own immune system. She left out the part that there were other experimental chemicals she was injecting as well. This process would be repeated twice a day for the next four days.
Just like SAM had predicted Tom’s recovery was miraculous.
Neither one of them had been outside of the house for the past four days and were both anxious to get some exercise but SAM had refused them the luxury of even walking or jogging around the block. Instead she had them set up a makeshift gym in the garage. Ropes hung from the rafters were turned into a TRX exercise bar like they had uses at their 24 hour fitness center back home. Cans filled with water connected with a mop handle became their weights. SAM could tell that they were both getting anxious so the decision was made to start phase II of this operation sooner than later.
Tom and Julie sat opposite each other around the kitchen table while they had a meeting with SAM and Dr. Merrill. In the middle of the table was the injection gun and the vile labeled “B”.
Dr. Merrill started the conversation, “As you are aware SAM did an extensive search on psychics’ and other people who have shown the capability of looking into other people’s minds or finding a missing person by handling the clothes of that person. We have tried every psychic we can get ahold of but have not been able to come up with any tangible leads as to where your father is. But further research on one of the candidates, SAM found that this particular person could not only get into the mind and thoughts of other people but could determine the illness and prescribe a cure. But more importantly he could also tell you the location of that person. Unfortunately this person died in 1947, his name was Edger Casey.”
SAM went on to tell Tom and Julie how she had found the Edger Casey research center in Virginia and how this organization had kept all the personal items belonging to him in a museum. One of these items was a hair-brush that just happened to have some of Mr. Casey’s hair in it. After the curator had communicated with the highest levels in our government some samples of his hair were sent to a special lab in California which used the cover name of Genentech. They were able to extract the DNA from one of the hair follicles and isolated the genome they think gave Edger Casey his extraordinary power. The injections you have been giving Tom to build his immune system has also been injecting him with special stem cells that if activated will allow him to develop a portion of his brain, giving him the same capability as Mr. Casey. This brings us to the vile in front of you labeled “B”. This ampule has the modified DNA with the genome of Mr. Casey added to the helix, that if injected into Tom will activate the stem cells already added to his blood stream that will create a new area in his brain that may allow him to find his father.
Tom looked at Julie and simply said, “What’s the down side?”
“It may do nothing, we just don’t have any stats to compare it to,” SAM said “In fact there is a 90% chance that nothing will happen. There are two reasons that make this probability so low, one is we are not sure this is the correct genome required for the job and two, it will require Tom to learn how to use this new phenomenon and we only have limited information on how Edger Casey used it.”
“Let’s do it,” Tom said without hesitating. He removed the vile labeled “A” and inserted bottle “B” pulling the trigger a couple of times to clear out any remaining chemicals.
Using her finger, Julie was instructed to find Tom’s carotid artery which feeds blood along the sides of his neck directly to the brain. She placed the end of the barrel against the pulsating artery and pulled the trigger.
For the next couple of days Tom continued his rehabilitation process but was often interrupted by violent dreams of being tortured by Hussein only to wake up drenched in sweat. Something had changed deep in Tom’s psyche. He started communicating with Julie, by hand written notes, that he was becoming obsessed with the urge to kill Hussein and didn’t want SAM’s interference with this compulsion. Julie tried to calm his feelings of retribution but secretly felt the same desire.
After four days had passed it was time to start the learning process that would hopefully give Tom the ability to do something that hadn’t been done since 1947.
SAM was explaining to Tom how to enter into a self-induced hypnotic state and then at the exact moment before he would enter the sleep mode, he would be asked a question or given a statement asking for a specific resolution. After a couple more days of tra
ining Tom was consistently able to hypnotize himself and at the proper moment SAM would ask him if he could see an item that had been placed in another room. So far there was no sign of success, at which point SAM asked Julie to stand in different rooms to see if Tom could “see” her.
Still no luck.
After a few more days of negative results SAM and Dr. Merrill were talking about aborting the efforts of Code-5 and bringing Tom and Julie back to the States.
Later that evening as Tom and Julie were getting ready for bed Tom handed her a note.
[In a few minutes I’m going to put myself into a hypnotic state. I want you to hold my hand so I can signal you when to ask me this question;
Where is Hussein Javid?]
Julie paused for a few seconds, and then nodded her head in understanding.
Tom settled into a comfortable position on his back while Julie sat next to him with her legs crossed holding his hand.
SAM didn’t think much about it when she heard Julie say, “Where is Hussein Javid?” But that all changed moments later when she heard Tom’s voice say in a measured cadence, “I see him in a room, he is in bed, there are two chairs, a floor lamp; I see a semi-automatic pistol under his pillow.”
“What are you doing?” SAM broke in, breaking the rapport Tom had in his hypnotic trance.
Julie jumped in saying, “We just wanted to see what would happen if I asked the questions, and it looks to me like it’s working.”
Just then Tom intervened, “What happened? Did it work?”
He had no idea what he had just said.
The very next day Dr. Merrill called everyone together for an early morning meeting. SAM had explained to Ed about the positive response Tom experienced when Julie had asked the questions under an emotionally charged situation. During this meeting Tom decided to share his feeling about how much he hated Hussein and how strong his feelings for retributions were. SAM deduced that the emotional impact of the torture Tom endured at the hands of Hussein where having a positive impact on the DNA enhancement they were experimenting with. After several minutes of discussion it was decided that SAM would provide as much Intel as she could to find and eliminate Hussein under the guise of developing the physic capability Tom needs to find his dad.
