Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 83040 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 415(@200wpm)___ 332(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83040 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 415(@200wpm)___ 332(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
“All right.” He relaxes a little. “You got anything else to add?”
“Yes.” I look him straight in those unsettling eyes of his. “Yes, there’s more. It’s a story all its own, but the most important thing is that CORE has a way of instilling loyalty. And Olive told me some very disturbing things about the guy who handles her.”
“Handles her?” His anger is back now.
“You know how it works. You’ve got the field agent and the man who runs the field agent. And from what I can tell the one who’s running her has…”
Collin leans forward in his seat, his eyes sharp like a hawk. “Has what?” And he’s seething now.
“Manipulated her pretty bad with… sex.”
Collin rubs both hands up and down his face as he processes what I just said. He’s silent for nearly a minute, either getting himself under control or plotting twenty-five ways to kill this handler guy. When he looks up, I’m pretty sure it’s the latter. “Where can I find this man?”
I shrug. “Fuck if I know. I’ve been out of service for years.”
“Yeah,” Collin says. “About that.”
I put up a hand, already guessing where he’s going. “You don’t need to tell me. I get it. I’m here for a reason, I probably am a spy, and there’s that thing about the abnormality in my brain.”
“What now?”
“Well,”—I smile—“it’s nice to know that Penny Rider keeps her word. I will remember that forever. She told me that I passed the lie detector test, just as she told you. But she also told me that there was some unusual activity in my brain that could not be explained.”
“What’s that all mean, Shep?”
“Honestly, Collin, I can’t be sure. But obviously, I had a handler when I was in the field as well. I don’t know what program she came up in, so I can’t really compare us. But they do shit to us, Collin. To our brains. To make us comply. To make us… puppets.”
“Why are you telling me this? Are you trying to make me kick you out?”
“No. I just want you to know. And I really don’t think they’ve got any control over me. I think this brain activity is residual.”
“How could you know? I mean, if they’re all about mind-fuckin’ maybe your mind is just fucked?”
“Maybe it is. But the thing about puppets is that they need a master. And mine’s dead. So we don’t need to worry much about her, or me. But we absolutely do need to worry about Olive and the man who is pulling all her strings. Because I’m sorry to say this Collin, and I’m not gonna get into details, but that girl’s not right. She’s not right.”
“So what do I do? Kick her out and send her packin’, Shep? She’s my sister.”
“Technically, she’s not. At least that’s what she told me when she described how you killed the man who was trying to kidnap her.”
“Yeah, but… in my head she’s my sister.”
“I know. But I don’t have any answers for you.”
“How did you get away? How did you get your mind back?”
“I told you, my handler died.”
“How did she die?”
I scoff. “Take one guess, Collin. How the hell do you think she died?”
“You killed her.”
“I killed her. Not because I wanted to be free, just because it was all unraveling at that point. The brainwashing, ya know?”
“So what happened?”
“The programming started coming apart and nothin’ made sense anymore, ya know? I washed out. This programming they do, it’s complicated. The brain is a machine with many powers. And it’s got lots of backdoors. Not for those who want to manipulate it, but for us.” I point to myself. “It’s my brain, ya know? The common phrase is ‘coping mechanisms.’ A brain learns to deal with stressful situations by adapting. And there’s a lot going on in these programs. You really have to keep tight control over the push-pull dynamics. I think it’s pretty common that people break. I think CORE knew I’d be useless afterward and when I robbed that store and got arrested, I think they just figured it would be too much of a red-tape hassle to get me back just so they could kill me.”
“So they let you go to prison.”
I nod. “They did.”
“And then Charlie found you and sent you here.”
“I suppose.”
“All right. So…” He leans back in his chair and blows out a breath. “At least we’ve got a workable plan.”
“We do?”
Collin laughs. “Fuck yeah, we do. All we gotta do to free my baby sister from all this evil is kill her puppet master.”
18 - Olive
Asoft chime wakes me and when I open my eyes I’m rewarded with a spectacular view of an approaching thunderstorm through our floor-to-ceiling bedroom windows.
Brose stirs in the bed next to me, his voice thick with sleep. “Turn the chime off, Olive.”