A story exploring time travel and societal issues in the wake of 9/11. This is chapter 27. See previous posts for chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, and 26.
Trish and Thomas spent the rest of the day gaming out scenarios for if Reed was or was not behind the attacks. After staying the night at the ecovillage, Thomas went back to NIS. Once there, he secured four NSEA systems, consisting of four headsets and the latest software build. Placing these items in his trunk, Thomas found Reed idle in his office and started asking questions.
"What can you tell me about Drexler Systems Inc?" asked Thomas.
"They've put all of their eggs in one basket," said Reed. "An EEG based BCI. They can't compete with our tech, so I think they've decided to start playing dirty."
"Have they contacted you at all?" asked Thomas. "Contacted any of our workers?"
"Not that I'm aware of," said Reed. "But that doesn't mean much. They're our most direct competitors. They obviously want us out of the picture."
"Obviously," said Thomas. "So, tell me, when I asked you to provide NSEA testing data, you provided incomplete data. Why was that?"
"What do you mean?" asked Reed. "I did provide complete data."
"Okay," said Thomas. "That statement conflicts with the evidence, but okay. Tell me, where do you see yourself in a year?"
Panicking inside, Reed kept his composure. "I see myself overseeing massive adoption of NSEA. Games. Porn. Even outside of medicine, our system has major appeal."
"How much of the total NIS budget is for NSEA at this point?" asked Thomas. "Eighty percent. The other twenty percent covers all of the blockchain and web services projects, which is where all of our revenue comes from. Now, unless you can explain NSEA's revenue potential a little better to me, I'm leaning towards pulling funding."
"No!" said Reed, more forcefully than he intended to. "It's just ... this project has become my baby since T2 gave it to me. And we're ten or even twenty years ahead of the competition. It would be a mistake to stop it at this point, after we've come so far."
"You ask for thirty million," said Thomas. "I'm prepared to give you five. But only if you start operating with a little more transparency. Especially about the elephant in the room."
"What elephant?" asked Reed.
"The revenue potential if we sell NSEA systems to intelligence agencies for interrogations," said Thomas. "That elephant."
"Oh," said Reed. "T2 was always against that. Plus, there are logistical barriers. The software requires a valid neural signature. The tech could be modified to make it work, but I'm not sure there's the demand you envision. I inquired with my FBI contact and they definitely aren't interested."
"You inquired with the FBI?" asked Thomas. "Recently?"
"Six months ago," said Reed. "I didn't know anyone at the CIA, or I would've asked them, too."
"As the NSA expands from terrorism into domestic policing, maybe they'd like a shot at mind reading technology as well," said Thomas.
"Sorry, are you saying I should pursue this?" asked Reed.
"Money is money," said Thomas. "When drug cartels needed to launder vast sums of blood money, HSBC accommodated their needs. If HSBC is helping the bad guys, who is helping the good guys? Why not us?"
"My thoughts exactly," said Reed. "Do you think Ana might have contacts we could follow up with?"
"She just might," said Thomas. "I'll ask her. In the meantime, can you walk me through how the software would work in an interrogation situation?"
"It starts with the testing," said Reed. "The subject is shown an image series and readings are taken. The process is repeated until the subject's neural signature has been isolated."
"This could be done against the subject's will?" asked Thomas.
"We're just measuring electric fields in the brain," said Reed. "Will has nothing to do with it. And once these fields are measured, we can measure the brain's response to new stimuli. A person can lie in answer to a question. The brain's electric fields cannot lie."
"Nice pitch," said Thomas. "Email me the code you'd use for that. We'll find the right buyer."
Leaving the office, Thomas didn't feel the least bit bad about deceiving Reed. Thomas now had a clone of Reed's phone, and had placed a recording device under Reed's desk. If he was lucky, Reed would be sending him evidence that the NSEA could be grievously misused. This was all part of Ana's plan, unfolding more smoothly than expected.
Thomas flew back to Minneapolis and spent a week catching up on lost work. His ruse proved successful when Reed sent him the incriminating data. The code for reading an uncooperative subject's mind was there. So were records of more testing subjects than Thomas had previously seen.
A few days later, Ana called with an update. "We got the fucker," she said, in lieu of greeting. "He's trying to sell Rex Drexler the mind reading tech. They've got a demo set for tomorrow."
"What does that mean for us?" asked Thomas. "Oh, by the way, I got something too. Donald Orange was an early test subject. But after he was shot, Reed told police that he had no idea who Orange was. Now we've got proof that he lied."
"I think the demo means he's getting desperate," said Ana. "Now might be the perfect time to get him to send you the mind control code. He still thinks you're on his side, right? Tell him you reached out to the CIA and they're interested in licensing the tech, but they need to see the code."
"Okay, but he doesn't know I know about the mind control," said Thomas. "Just the mind reading, and he already sent me that data."
"Just try," said Ana. "If Reed actually demos the mind reading for Drexler, word will be out. That's the last thing we need."
"Alright, but what's our play here?" asked Thomas.
"We get him on industrial espionage," said Ana. "Selling company secrets to a rival. A friend at the Bureau said that there's already enough to pick him up for that. It won't stick if he's got a good lawyer, but the investigation should be enough to separate Reed from NIS and the tech."
"So then why the CIA story?" asked Thomas.
"We want him giving us as much of his hidden information as possible before he's picked up," said Ana. "We need to know exactly how big this thing is, how much damage is already done, and how much worse it could get."
(Feature image from Pixabay.)
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