Cross My Mind

BITING THE BAIT

Garba, Mila, Lucy and the Bulky Military player woke up in their rooms back at the research facility on the unknown island to find themselves surrounded by other players that have been eliminated early in the game cheering for each of them. Garba sat up in his room full of people asking him a question he himself is dying to know the answer to.

“What was that knife throw just a few seconds before the end of the game?” one of the people in the room asked, but Garba was too deep in thought to bother responding.

The entire facility now boomed with Dr. Nora's voice over multiple public address systems set everywhere in the facility.

“All subjects should please return to their rooms immediately for a compulsory medical checkup routine, dinner will be served to individual rooms immediately after the checkups. Some selected parts of today's survival game have been recorded and would be available in our archives, you can watch them later on at your leisure time”

All the other players quickly returned to their rooms to have their routine checks.

Some minutes passed and Dr. Nora walked into Garba’s room with his usual rugged customized tablet, he asked Garba a few standard question and told him all is right with him. Garba wanted to ask Dr. Nora if he knew what happened at the end of the game but remembered how he was lied to about when they arrived at the facility and how out of place everyone’s answers sounded to him; he decided to keep it to himself this time around and just ate his food and went to sleep.

Dr. Nora walked out of Garba’s room and went straight to Dr. Akihiro’s table in the control room.

“we now have five subjects with synergy rates above seventy percent, it seems Garba is not the only trophy subject we have here. Within the play of last game, we have five more people whose synergies have drastically increased; I am hoping that we can find a factor that is responsible for the difference in synergy rates in the next stage of the experiment” Akihiro said to Nora before he could even say anything at all.

"you are not going to believe this, we have two new subjects among the five that have synergy rates of eighty and above percentage. Mila Goldenberg is currently at eighty three percent while Marcus Carson is currently at eighty one percent. But the truly mind baffling fact is that Garba Danladi is currently at ninety one percent synergy rate” Nora said

“you mean Carson Marcus the discharged Navy guy?” Akihiro asked

“I don’t believe it either, but I doubt MEDULLA makes such small mistakes in it’s computation” Nora lamented.

Akihiro quickly got off of his bench and excused himself out of the control room. He pulled out his satellite radio phone and dialed.

“this is Akihiro, Mr. Lockwood we have just achieved the first objective of stage one of the experiment, we are about to proceed soon to the main event, I beg of you to get Dr. Reece back on the project before we begin the next stage. we may be looking at cerebral computation that has never been explored before; we need her expertise to maximize efficiency of what we are developing here”

A few seconds of static radio noise was followed by a click.

“Senator Baker John on the line, this is a three way radio now, I have been directed by the chief of defense to monitor and report your progress on project Ragnarok, I heard you have made quite the progress this time, looking forward to seeing your progress with my own eyes” senator Baker said and went silent. Another click followed.

“you heard the senator Akihiro, we have full protection and unlimited cash flowing in for this so don’t screw this up no matter what, it must be usable and stable. Regarding Dr. Reece, I will fly to her place later this week on a last attempt to get her back on the project; in the mean time, proceed to stage two as soon as you can” Jefferson Lockwood said and ended the call.

The next morning Garba met Mila and Lucy for breakfast, they sat in their usual spot and discussed the game played the previous day at length, they were both Curious about Garba’s miraculous dagger throw but unfortunately, he had no idea it was going to happen or why it happened. He just threw a dagger without hesitation and the effect manifested itself. It was the same with the rope he threw at the second guy, it was just meant to distract the guy or at least hit him in the eye to make him easier to attack but the rope was powerful enough to even knock him out. It was as if the game itself was assisting him, he explained to them.

(Department of Software Engineering, California Institute of Technology Campus.)

Dr. Reece Mallory has just passed through an army perimeter set around her faculty, this is the first time she is seeing this and for the life of her, she cannot understand why no one told her that the president or one of the higher government officials is visiting because she thought based on the security detail she has noticed, that is the only logical conclusion. Dr. Reece managed to meander through the heavy traffic of pedestrians and parked in her space tagged ‘Head of Department’.

The moment she walked out of her car, she heard a distant buzzing noise that keeps approaching and keeps getting louder by the minute. She gathered courage and reminded herself of the bugs she has to find and remove from the software of a new NASA automated telescope prototype and walked into the building, entered the lift and pressed the key for the top floor where her office and research lab are located.

Once she was in her laboratory, Reece forgot all about the commotion outside and focused on her work, although an incomparable programming genius, what she is known the most for is her ability to work efficiently alone and to make a team of post Grad researchers look like amateurs.

Although Dr. Reece has completely ignored the commotion outside at first, it has become impossible for her to do so now that she can say with certainty even without peeking out of her window that at least three helicopters have just landed next to her departmental building. She picked up her phone and dialed the number of the only person in the entire campus who can answer her questions, the school Vice Chancellor.

Once the phone got answered, she pulled up the blind of her window and went on.

“Why are there three choppers landed outside my window, I know I told you that I am always busy with my research and codes but don’t I at least have to know if three helicopters are going to be landing next to my laboratory?”

“This may come as a surprise to you too but I was hoping you can explain to me what the hell is going on, why there are military checkpoints inside my school or why three God damn choppers just descended on my campus without my knowledge” the vice chancellor said.

Dr. Reece was about to respond to the Vice chancellor when she peeped out her window to notice the figure of a very familiar person stepping out of the helicopter in the middle.

“hold on a minute, I think this one is on me, and you too for taking his money to buy a super computer just to compete with Princeton” Reece said

“you mean…..”

“yes I do, it is your Trojan horse Jefferson Lockwood, My ex boyfriend. Should I send him to your office when we are done?” se asked and the Old professor who is the current Vice chancellor of Caltech simply just cut the call and switched off his phone.

“Sneaky geezer” Dr. Reece shouted and put her phone back in her hand bag hanging on the coat holder near the entrance of the lab. She immediately saved her progress on the screen she was working on and left the lab for her office to welcome the fifth Richest man in the world.

A few moments after she sat in her office, three men walked inside the office, two of them studied the office for the first ten seconds and then walked out and shut the door.

“well that Is new!!” Reece said and the man seated opposite her smiled with a tablet in his hand and said

“How I have missed having you around”

“The entrance is quite new and the security seems a bit too stressed, are you receiving new threats?”

“Not particularly. This whole Military thing is Baker’s idea, he said I am a national asset now and have to be protected properly” Lockwood said.

“You work for senator Baker now, I almost forgot” Reece said. She stood up and showed her surprise visitor her wrist watch, started walking out and said

“I have a ton of bugs to fix in many important programs so if you are here just to show me your new guards, I don’t have the time to entertain you unfortunately”.

Mr. Lockwood stood up, grabbed her hand and said;

“I want you back on the team for Neuraface, the Neuraface would be nothing without your smart solutions. i want you back in the field”

“you know more than anyone on earth why I cant do that. I will not be part of any research to turn a piece of beneficial technology into a weapon of any sort. My own MEDULLA innovation is what you are turning into a military weapon. I gave up all my exclusive rights for my own creation because I want nothing to do with the making of weapons of mass destruction. So no, but no thanks” Dr. Reece shouted at him and left.

‘I know this would be the result in the end but at least I tried’ Lockwood muttered to himself and immediately storm out the building.

From the window of her Laboratory, Dr. Reece watched as the three helicopters fly away the way they came, the military perimeter around her Department dissolved and left.

An hour Later, Mr. Jefferson Lockwood arrived in one of his personal jet hangers, he left the helicopter and boarded his personal jet. Inside the jet, senator Baker John sat with two marine admirals waiting for Lockwood’s return, apparently, he had left them four hours ago to try and bring back Dr. Reece into Project Ragnarok one last time as advised by Dr. Akihiro and senator Baker.

“She is still not interested” Lockwood said to Baker and the two admirals while opening a fifty thousand dollars bottle of wine.

“In you or the project, is she not interested in you anymore or Project Ragnarok?” Baker asked

“Apparently Both I guess, she is still as stubborn as ever” Lockwood responded.

He picked out his secure radio phone and activated pager mode, he went ahead and typed

‘Liquidate the lower synergies, propose the bait to the top fifteen synergies and tell the blue guard to prepare the stage for our biggest show yet. Be sure to follow the Processes I outlined and don’t make any mistake, I have already informed the rest of the facilities to move the final subjects to your end’

(UNKNOWN ISLAND SEVEN HUNDRED AND SIXTY KILOMETERS OFF THE COAST OF LOUISIANA)

Back in the facility, Garba has finished taking his dinner and gone to bed, instead of his usual nightmares of bad childhood memories, Garba was having a bizarre lucid dream where he is conscious that he was dreaming. He was standing in a room filled with light streaks that resemble computer glitches and a voice deep within the whiteness of the space has been drawing his attention. He knows there is something or someone in the endless whiteness but cant exactly pinpoint who, what or where it is.

“Garba, this is our first time of meeting and I am the one that called you here, I have been observing your dreams and action and I have deemed you worthy. I will protect you by hiding your potential from them. We will meet again” a glitchy robotic but deep voice said and slowly, the dream transitioned into deep sleep.

Garba woke up the next morning to the blaring announcement from the public address systems embedded in the ceiling all over the facility.

A new notification bar has appeared in his augmented vision notifying all subjects to gather up at the dining hall for general announcements. Garba took his bath, brushed and went to the dinning hall, breakfast was already made and distributed round the tables; Mila, Lucy and the rest of the players joined a few minutes later to have their breakfast and hear the new announcements.

Garba and a few others begin to notice that a few other volunteers are missing and it became obvious instantly that something had secretly happened the night before.

Just at this moment, the inner wall of the building to the left pulled itself open, revealing Dr. Akihiro, fifteen other people dressed in white lab coats and about twenty five others dressed in sky blue uniforms among which about fifteen of them were holding fire arms.

“congratulations ladies and gentlemen for making it to the final round of the experiment, as of this moment, all of you are entitled to twenty thousand dollars and can leave with it right after we perform the removal surgery in cash or in your various bank accounts. Your contract has expired as of this moment” Dr. Akihiro mentioned over a public address system.

The entire dinning hall burst out with noise from people murmuring and talking to each other.

Dr. Akihiro pressed a button in his hand and a projection slowly materialized on the sidewall to the left showing a simple caption.

“stage two awaits only those willing to take their chances and make big gains”

“For those of you that want this to be the last bus stop in their journey, you can walk away now with twenty thousand dollars only, right after we remove our device from your brain. and for those who are willing to take another risk and give themselves to test the limit of technology, at this very moment Neuratechnologies is offering a whooping sum of two million dollars to each volunteer who simply participates and a total sum of twenty million dollars to the winner of the event we are going to organize for the volunteers” Akihiro said and stepped back, giving the speaker in his hand to Dr. Nora

“If you want to leave with the prize you have earned so far, please proceed through the door at the end of the hallway into the hospital once you are done eating so you can have your removal surgery done as soon as possible. But if you are even slightly interested in the twenty two million dollars cash pool, you can go back to your respective rooms and await our lawyers to arrive tomorrow morning with a detailed review of your next contract with us, thank you”

All the volunteers went back to their rooms except one man who decided he has had enough of the trials and want out. The rest went to sleep that night with the thought of how much two million dollars can change their lives.

The next morning, fourteen volunteers were given contracts and all of them signed the contracts.

During lunch, Garba felt a familiar sense of occurrence as if it is Déjà vu. Soon as everyone finished their food, they fell asleep on the table. He could see as everyone including Mila and Lucy slumbered up leaving him to be the only one with his eyes yet to close.

After a few seconds, his eyes gave up and sleep snatched him out of his consciousness.

The sky blue dressed people walked into the room from all doors.

“I was sure to dose him appropriately this time around”

One of them said and Dr. Akihiro said, take them to the ship, we’ll sail in two hours exactly.