"The Perfect Blog" (6 of 6)

On December 2, Kaja walked into Agent Jamie Samal's office and found him reading the blog, quietly.

She didn't give the screen an instant's glance. She simply picked up the computer, yanked the plug from its socket, carried it out into the hall, shouted to make sure no one was in the way, and then dropped the computer down three flights of stairs.

She turned on her heel and walked briskly back into Samal's office.

Samal looked a bit confused, as if he'd run out of hot water in the shower before he'd expected to. But his arms still hung limp, and his eyes were still racing with the rapid eye movements of a lucid dream.

"Jamie?" she said, keeping her voice bright and encouraging.

"Uh-huh?"

"You can't read it any more."

"Okay."

"You're going to have some withdrawal pains, short-term memory loss, and you'll probably be depressed for a few days, but you can't read it any more. Understand?"

"...Sure."

"And you don't remember anything about it."

Jamie Samal nodded.

"And," Kaja went on nervously, "I definitely wasn't the one who suggested you as a guinea pig for this."

Samal blinked. "A guinea pig for what?"

"Don't think about that."

"Okay."

Kaja Danson half-turned as she walked out the door. By the time she reached the stairs again, the guilt was gone, replaced by a feeling of importance and power. She snapped open her cell phone and walked down the stairs two at a time.

"He seems to have taken the instruction, sir."

Jones's voice came back on the other end. "Limit his computer access all the same. We need to study long-term aftereffects after complete detoxification."

"So when do we start overrunning the world with our zombie slaves?"

"Save the jokes for our public appearances, Agent Danson. We didn't master mind-control tech in order to conquer the planet. We mastered it to keep the planet safe. It's a deterrent, like nuclear weapons. Remember that."

"Yes, sir."

"It's important for us to know that F.I.B. psych training isn't strong enough to resist the tech."

"Not when he was unprepared, anyway, sir. His journal indicated he realized what was happening, but too late to stop himself. Someone who recognized the threat immediately might be able to resist, at least for a while."

Kaja knelt by the remains of the computer. Anyone who really thought that there could be a private journal on an F.I.B. computer deserved what they got. Kaja would keep telling herself that until she believed it. That was her brand of mind control.

"Moving on to other business. Agent Mist has signaled his safe return from Dimension 6."

Kaja stopped walking. And squealed, "All RIGHT!"

"His vehicle has been skragged, though. Think you can fly on out and pick him up?"

"On my way, sir!"

"Forwarding the coordinates. Jones out."

Jones clicked off his connection. "Ms. Danson, you're the sweetest backstabber I've ever met."

There was no need to tell her that the six test subjects were not, in fact, being detoxified, but were remaining under the blog's influence as Jones's private "ultra-computer." They had volunteered with full knowledge that they might be reduced to vegetables; all of them had felt like utter failures in their normal lives, whether they admitted it in interview or not. Jones viewed their current state as something like assisted suicide.

Kaja snapped her phone shut. "He's back, he's back, he's BA-ACK..." She knew how silly she sounded, but she couldn't stop giggling.

And, somewhere in the middle of the coffee fields in Uganda, under the night sky...

Agent Mist pocketed his own cell phone.

Muttered, "Mind-control tech. Well. That's going to change the world."