Technosis: The Kensington Virus (15 page)

Jamie gave him a puzzled look and Agent Ganos looked shocked. “You had that with you?”

“Never know when it will come in handy,” Drake said.

Rosen got up from the chair in which he’d been snoozing, went to the tech array and picked up the rectangular data card. “You’re telling me this is an honest to God LBPD?”

Drake nodded.

“I know guys who’d give their left nut to have access to this. Hell, I’m one of them,” Rosen said, turning the data card end over end.

“Don’t get any ideas,” Drake warned.

Rosen looked at him and flipped the card so that it landed back next to the array. “You gonna tell Doc here how many international conventions that thing violates?” Rosen asked.

“We’re using it on KVs. It doesn’t apply,” Drake said.

“Yeah? And how are you going to make sure that some poor schlub doesn’t get hit with it? You know what that does to people,” Rosen fumed.

“Wait, what is this LBPD?” Jamie asked picking it up and holding it out to Drake.

“Back twenty years ago there was an agreement, an international agreement on forms of torture you couldn’t use. Things deemed so evil, so heinous, that civilized and uncivilized society said they couldn’t be used. Thrash metal, Def Leppard, Barry Manilow, Neil Diamond, Justin Bieber; pretty much all the favorite CIA, FBI and special ops top 20 songs were taken off the list. Then holiday music and pretty much all show tunes as well. The repetition of exposure was shown to cause permanent brain damage and internal organ hemorrhage. You might survive exposure to that stuff, but you would never be entirely human again,” Drake said.

“Like the KV?” Jamie asked.

Drake went over the inert 37 year old KV and checked her pulse. “Worse than a KV. Enough of you would survive to know that you weren’t you.”

“Are you saying that card has all of that on there? Manilow, Bieber, Diamond, show tunes and holiday songs all in one place?” Jamie asked in disbelief.

“Do I look stupid? Anyone caught with that is subject to immediate and aggressive corrective action. I wouldn’t even risk carrying an un-autotuned Jessica Simpson recording with me because of what would happen to me,” Drake said.

“Then what is it?” Jamie asked.

“Something worse. Not specifically prohibited, yet, but definitely in violation if anyone could figure it out.”

“When they took our toys away – or at least the ones we admitted to having – we had to look for alternative means,” Drake said, sitting down next to one of the other KVs who was sending a hate text to her mother. “We had a serious hard ass we were trying to break, central to setting up terrorist cells around the EU and North America. Without Manilow, Bieber and Diamond in the lineup and with holiday music and show tunes off limits, we were forced to improvise. We started off with William Shatner’s recording of Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds and Mr. Tambourine Man.”

“You used Shatner’s Transformed Man album?” Ganos asked.

Drake tilted his head and shrugged. “It didn’t touch him. The guy had been through training camps in London and New York. They’d dragged him through every dive pub and crap night club where a syphilitic teenager could be found to mount a stage with a guitar. The frequencies to which he was hardened were amazing. Even if we had Manilow and Bieber I doubt we could have made a dent.”

“Phew whee,” Rosen said.

“Exactly,” Drake agreed. “That was why we changed tack. We used looped episodes of Cop Rock and Barney to break him down.”

“My god!” Jamie exclaimed.

“Exactly, but those only softened him up a little. We were pulling out our hair trying to think of something. Then someone recalled a story that their great grandmother had told about these horrifying things that existed back in the late 20th and early 21st century. We had all thought they were urban myths, like female orgasms and tasteful corduroy pants. But one of our researchers found out that they did exist and were actually legal at one time. She collected as many as she could find in the archives and we tried them. We mixed and matched until we found the ones that worked. That is how we discover the LBPD.”

“But what is it?” Jamie asked.

“It’s too brutal to even contemplate,” Ganos shuddered.

“Illegal to even consider,” Rosen added.

“Pledge drives,” Drake said. “It was where broadcasters and programmers claiming that they wouldn’t accept commercial sponsorship would instead get commercial sponsorship for their shows, government underwriting and beg for money from viewers. That is where we found the deadliest known interrogation material ever made to break the human spirit: Leo Buscaglia Pledge Drives.”

Drake stroked the hair of the young woman who was messaging her mother that everything that was wrong with her life was her mother’s fault. “I’ve never seen anyone break so completely. This was a terrorist who had killed his own family rather than have them fall into our hands. After fifteen minutes of Leo Buscaglia on a Pledge Drive, he had given us the names and addresses of all the cells in his terrorist networks and provided us with all of the financial channels funding their network if we agreed to put the money to work in our community to support public broadcast.”

“Whoa,” Rosen said. “That is seriously screwed up.”

Drake shook his head and stood up. “That wasn’t the worst of it. He formed a drum circle a few minutes after giving us the information and never regained consciousness.”

“Damn,” Jamie said.

“Damn indeed,” Drake agreed. “Dr. Baxter, we have three solutions: the president throws the tech kill switch, or we throw the LBPD broadcast; in either case we will maim, disable or destroy millions of citizens; or…you come up with something better. The first two solutions aren’t acceptable. But we are running out of time, so if you don’t give us another solution they will become inevitable.”

Jamie went to the tech array and returned the LBPD to its previous position. Without a word he went to the KV who was messaging her mother. He slid the entrainment device into place, and gave her a quarter of a second exposure. Like the other KV, she dropped her tech, clawed at the air, screeched and was gone.

“Leave me,” Jamie said. “I’ll need to work with the LBPD by myself.”

Drake put a hand on Jamie’s arm. “Dr. Baxter, you might be impervious to the KV but don’t think that makes you invincible. LBPD destroyed one of our toughest agents. Now she is the head of the congressional budget office’s department of panglossian forecasts.”

Jamie hesitated. “She’s the one who says Congress and the president are nearing a resolution of the budget impasse?”

“Twice a week, and she believes it every time she says it,” Drake said.

Jamie shuddered. “I have no choice. I’m going to stay here and work with the remaining subjects and isolate out the elements of the LBPD that kill the KVs when amplified by Peruvian flute music.”

“I’ll stay with you, Doc,” Rosen offered.

“No. I have to do this alone.”

∞

Outside the medical bay the team found Fenwick and Blaise talking to the HMDP sergeant. “We’ve got rooms to bunk in just down the road from here. Homeland has a standing reservation for six rooms. They’re yours if you want them,” Wolinski said.

“We’re not putting anyone out?” Blaise asked.

“Nope, and you have unlimited access to the hotel bar,” the sergeant smiled.

“Thanks. You got a transport we can use?”

“I thought you would be driving your cars,” Wolinski said.

“Nah. Too conspicuous,” Blaise told him.

“I’ve got two transports on the third floor parking bay.”

“Great. Much obliged,” Fenwick said.

“One thing,” Wolinski began.

“What’s that?”

“Would you mind if…” Wolinski trailed off.

“Drive it home. Just be careful.”

“Really?”

“Sure. Why not?

“There’s an access code: ZZA2251,” Wolinksi said. “It will unlock all transmissions and give you the upgrade on the standard dinner.”

“ZZA2251,” Blaise repeated back. “Thanks.”

“What’s going on?” Agent Ganos asked.

“Just making arrangements for quarters,” Blaise said. “Where’s Doc?”

“He’s staying in the med bay tonight. He thinks he is onto something that will disable the KVs, but he said he needs to work on it alone,” Drake told him.

“Rosen?” Blaise asked.

“I offered to stay, but like Drake said, Baxter says he has to go it alone,” Rosen explained.

“Give me a second,” Blaise said, and knocked on the med bay door.

“What do you want?” Jamie yelled.

“Doc, it’s Jericho. Can I come in?” Blaise asked.

“What…hold on…just a sec,” Jamie called out. “Okay, you can come in.”

Blaise opened the door and found the Jamie holding a small panel that he had turned off. “Doc, you need to get some sleep.”

Jamie shook his head. “I finally had a breakthrough. Ganos and Drake helped me figure it out. Now I’ve got to test it.”

“Look, Doc, I get it. You are on to something and you want to stay on the trail. But if you don’t rest you won’t be any good to us.”

“If I can crack this tonight, you won’t need to worry about me one way or another because you will have the tech necessary to shut down the whole KV outbreak and the KVBs,” Jamie smiled.

“Doc, I’ve got hot showers, clean beds, hot meals and hotel porn for you, all compliments of Homeland. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity,” Blaise smiled.

Jamie hesitated. “No. I’ve got to stay here and work on this.”

“Ok. I’ll snag you something from the continental breakfast. But if you change your mind or have an early eureka and want to get some sleep, you let one of Wolinski’s guys know and they’ll run you over to the hotel.”

“If I need to, I’ll do that,” Jamie agreed, and ushered Blaise on out of the med bay.

“Just tell them to drop you off at the corner of Corporate and Crooks. That’s where the hotel is,” Blaise said, as Jamie shut the door behind him

CHAPTER 18

DR. BAXTER, SUBJECT TEST NOTES CLASSIFIED

“T
he KV appears to not only destroy higher brain function. It seems to alter the plasticity of the brain in a manner that causes a fixed set of reflexive responses that no longer require the full recruitment of the regions of the brain normally associated with conscious function. The activity we are seeing is not the normally regional functions of the brain associated with life. Even among most pathologies in which the brain demonstrates abhorrent behavior, there are those functions that are identifiable as life. The nearest I can find to a comparison is the ictal period associated with a seizure. The brain, once infected with the KV, becomes fixed in a manner where an obsessive recurrent behavior persists long after death and manifests itself as the outward sign of life,” Jamie recorded into the data panel.

“I have identified those regions of the brain that propagate the event. We have demonstrated on successive tests the ability to temporarily inhibit the neurological pattern. We have, with the help of specific tech, been able to terminate the pattern and achieve a complete extinction of neurological events in KV subjects without administering gross force and direct destruction of the compromised organs and structures.”

“That said, the technology necessary would damage, if not kill, uninfected individuals. It is now 04:11 and I have, without the entrainment device, permanently disabled two more KV individuals using the LBPB and Peruvian flute music as an audio video broadcast.” Jamie walked around the side of the bed of one KV who he had exposed to this. “As you can see, outward signs of KV behavior have ceased. Inane, hateful, repetitive messaging has stopped. Calculated insults sent incoherently in the late hours or when other sane and living people would be asleep or otherwise engaging in productive behavior is gone, as are all the animating forces of life itself.”

Jamie opened the eyelids of the extinct KV. “Tissue decay, delayed by persistent activity and cellular messages that interfered with normal putrefaction of inert tissues, have accelerated and are reaching those levels that are normal for the interval since the initial cessation of life. There is something, some aspect of the KV, that causes the individual to be dead but to not release life itself. An unfinished rage and unresolved issue that is neurologically seared as a pathway into the central nervous system. Without the entrainment system, subjects require a full fifteen second exposure to the LBPD Peruvian flutes combination as a broadcast. Agent Drake was right about my not being invincible. While I can be in the presence of the KV without injury, I sustained two seconds of the LBPD Peruvian flute broadcast and I have experienced noticeable deficits. I can no longer add or subtract figures exceeding two digits and I no longer know what the phrase ‘two digits’ means. But a scan by the med bay panel has informed me of this.”

“I…I have determined that I will use an attenuated version of the LBPD on the next two subjects. I’ve found a broadcast of John Gray lecturing on ‘Men Are From Mars and Women Are From Venus.’ I believe it will have what I call the Buscaglia effect, and cause final brain death and extinction of all neurological function in the KV, whilst being only mildly damaging to the uninfected.

∞

“05:37. I’ve used the JG Peruvian pipes mixture as a broadcast. It did extinguish two more KVs. It required a 30 second exposure for each, and only causes a discrete brain hemorrhage in a healthy homeland officer who I got to participate in this experiment.”

Chad Pollick sat drooling, strapped to the stick station. “Warrantless searches are unconstitutional…. No knock entry is for war zones in foreign countries not policing our communities…. Fake 911 calls to gain entry into a residence or building are unethical and illegal…corporate prisons create perverse incentives for the state to criminalize its citizens for profit…the militarization of police is the death of a democratic republic.”

“I have concerns,” Jamie said, looking at Chad, “that, however discrete the damage this transmission causes in otherwise healthy individuals, it could result in the destruction of the state and our governmental institutions. As you can see, sadly, Officer Pollick is no longer fit to be a Homeland officer.”

∞

“I have developed what I will call my unified pledge break theory as to why these work and what the commonality of these transmissions is,” Jamie said, staring with bloodshot eyes into the data panel. “As you can see, there is a low steady pitched frequency throughout the transmission. I have come to believe that what is said and how it is modulated impacts the 1b receptors in the orbito-frontal cortex and produces a crescendo effect, terminating the propagation of the KV wave pattern and the resident precipitation of those waves from the infected portion of the deceased brain. As a control, I’m keeping officer Pollick present for the next test.”

The recording stopped.

∞

At 07:00 Blaise and the rest of the team arrived at the mall. Blaise had made good on his promise and had grabbed a croissant, a hardboiled egg and an orange juice for Jamie. By 07:11 they had made their way down to the HDMP substation. After being scanned in they asked after Dr. Baxter.

“There have been some strange noises from the med bay,” the duty officer informed them. “But Dr. Baxter hasn’t come out at all.”

Blaise knocked on the door. There was no response. “Dr. Baxter?” Blaise knocked again. “Dr. Baxter, it’s Captain Blaise. Please open up.”

Blaise stopped as he thought he heard something. There was silence and then he heard it again; it sounded like a rattling gasp.

“Dr. Baxter!” Blaise struck the door.

“Blaise,” a faint voice spoke. “Is that you?”

Blaise stopped pounding. “Yes, Doc, it’s me. Can I come in?”

“You can, but just you.,” Jamie said.

There was a sound as the electric bolt retracted. Blaise walked cautiously into the med bay. He saw a figure lying on his side, breathing hard.

“Doc.”

“Not invincible,” the voice rattled in the man’s chest. “But not dead either.”

“Doc, what happened?”

“I can’t feel my legs.”

“How?”

There was a howling sound and Blaise looked over to see a man foaming at the mouth, strapped to a chair.

“What happened to that KV?” Blaise asked.

Jamie shook his head. “Not a KV. I destroyed all the KVs with different frequency broadcasts.”

“Then what the hell is that?” Blaise pointed at the man.

“That’s Chad Pollick, and he is very much alive and very suicidal,” Jamie rasped. “He was with me when I finally perfected a shutdown signal for the KVs. Unfortunately…it has…affected him.”

“Doc, we’ve got to help you and him.”

Jamie shook his head again. “He can’t be helped and I…I need breakfast. Did you bring me breakfast?”

“Yes, sorry Doc, here I got you a croissant, an orange juice and a hardboiled egg.”

Jamie looked up at him with pathetic, blood shot eyes. “Jelly? Did you get me jelly?”

“What…no, I don’t think -”

“Just give me what you brought, please,” Jamie said, and took the package in his trembling hands.

He tore open the package, downed the orange juice in a single gulp, ate the croissant in four bites and the hardboiled egg in two. He drew a deep breath and pulled himself up from the med bay floor. “I’m sorry,” he gulped. “I spent too much time with this…no breaks…no food and too much time.”

Jamie went over to the med bay cabinet, opened it and took out a stainless steel cylinder. From another shelf he retrieved a glass vial with a seal. “I remembered what Rosen told me about my ‘overhaul.’”

Blaise thought about it. “That we don’t all get an overhaul?”

Jamie nodded his head. “Dr. Gottfried said they hadn’t done a complete ‘reset’ on me. I wondered what that meant. Then, when I was working through the KV neutralizing broadcasts it occurred to me that he was talking about telomeres and cells. Resetting them back to an earlier phase, adding time.”

He held out his hand to Blaise. The flesh was still tight, and stretched over enlarged muscles, but there were small dots of white, nearly scale-like tissue, raised and smaller brown dots gathered around the white.

“What’s happening to you?”

“Cells are failing. It’s just a few clusters of damaged keratinized epithelial cells forming these patches. But if this is happening to my skin, I can only imagine what is happening in my body,” Jamie said, and screwed the glass vial to the metal cylinder until the seal was broken.

“What are you doing?”

Jamie, with a quick motion, jammed the cylinder into his leg. There was a clicking noise and Jamie grimaced. “I’m not stable. Gottfried balanced out the hormones, but he left me at my cellular age. Which means that the overhaul is starting to tear my cells apart. I think last night working in here accelerated it. “

“We will get you to a health campus,” Blaise said.

Jamie shook his head. “No.”

“Why not?”

Jamie went over to the panel and pulled up the report from the Cronus file they retrieved. “Look at Gottfried.”

“So? He looks old.”

“Fifteen years ago. He looks the same today. He said he couldn’t ‘reset’ me because there might be something special about my genetics. But I think I was built to fail. He is the only one of the three not dead. Cyber Warfare Base is compromised; Cronus had operatives inside, and Gottfried is still alive; I don’t think that’s a coincidence,” Jamie said. “If I show up at any health campus, he will know about it.”

Blaise was quiet for a moment. “Doc, what can I do for you?”

“Besides remembering jelly next time? Nothing. I’ve just injected myself with a stabilizer that should give me another day or so before the cell errors accelerate,” Jamie told him, putting down the injection unit. “There is some good news. I’ve found the broadcast signal to shut down all KVs.”

∞

“Data room,” Blaise addressed the group that stood waiting outside the med bay. “Fenwick, pull up the municipal grid and locate the interchange hubs for Detroit.”

“What’s going on with Doc?” Rosen asked.

“He’s got the answer, but it took a lot out of him,” Blaise said, and ushered everyone into the data room.

Fenwick had the data station up and the municipal grid on display. “We’ve got six interchange hubs…and only two are operative,” he informed them.

“That’s Detroit for you,” Agent Drake observed.

“No, that’s not it. Four of the hubs were blown out by KVB attacks in the last eight hours,” Fenwick countered.

“And nobody noticed that?” Blaise asked, stepping up to the panel to examine the map.

“There were a lot of attacks. But none of the attacks that knocked out these data hubs were made at the level of the data hubs,” Fenwick said, highlighting where the actual attacks had happened.

Blaise traced the red dots that were bright and clustered.

“Hubs have feedback mechanisms that keep them from being hacked externally. But the attacks,” Fenwick lit up the common grid points, “created a wave summation. It blew the hubs clean out. It’s like someone knew exactly the pattern to use.”

“Or like someone who had experience killing brains was applying the principle to the grid,” Agent Drake said.

“Where are the remaining two hubs?” Agent Ganos asked.

“One is near the old Comerica Park and the other is just below the Detroit Public Library,” Fenwick replied, and lit up the two points.

“Okay,” Blaise addressed the group. “Doc thinks he’s figured out how to shut down the KVs. He has a broadcast signal that, if he is right, will shut down every KV and might even shut down the KVBs. We need to get him to a municipal hub so that we can test it. Detroit is, as the president has said, expendable. We’ve got the Comerica hub, which will be the easiest for us to access. We will set up there, transmit and see what happens. Any questions?”

Rosen raised his hand.

“Yes, sergeant?” Blaise asked.

“How will we know if it works?”

“Detroit KVs will stop and drop where ever they are.”

“How many are we thinking?” Rosen followed up.

Fenwick pulled up some data. Blaise looked at it, then looked Rosen in the eye, “Based on the infection estimates for Detroit, about 300,000.”

“So success is 300,000 bodies on the streets, in their cars, and in their places of work?” Rosen asked.

“Failure is the entire population dead in the streets, in their cars and in their places of work,” Blaise said.

The room fell silent. There was a knock at the door. “Come in,” Blaise called.

An HDMP officer came in. “Sorry, sir, but you are the senior officer on duty and I need to report an incident.”

Blaise gave the officer a look of annoyance. “Can’t you report this to Sergeant Wolinski?”

The officer swallowed hard, but remained standing before Blaise. “That’s the thing sir. The incident is Sergeant Wolinski. He’s dead, sir.”