I opened my eyes and breathed heavily, and I heard the five individuals come running in from the door. One man said, “We have to wake him up!” I looked to my side and Boris was laying still on the floor. The bearded man approached me and raised my upper body straight up and said, “Why didn’t you wake him up Lina?” I hesitated and I said, “I did. I did. I told him to shoot me to wake up.”
The man looked at me and gasped. He was frightened and said, “You did what!”
The others turned around with scared faces and one woman said, “No!”
The man said, “Why did you do that? He would never shoot you. You controlled him. That’s not part of the plan.”
I looked at him and said, “What WAS the plan? To go back in time. To control time!”
He shook his head and then stared at me with disbelief. He finally said, “Lina. You collected and stored data in your mind. It was a plan to end all machines’ power. Remember machines exist to help us. Why destroy the help we need for survival?”
I said, “I don’t recall I ever did. Where did you get this information from?”
He said, “The data was implanted in your mind. You analyzed it, shared this information with certain individuals, and stored in your mind its progress.”
I said, “I don’t understand.”
He said sarcastically, “Your mind is a data collection warehouse, like a machine’s.”
I stared at him.
He continued, “The only way to get that data from you is to go into your mind and go through each scenario. I have no idea how they did it or took control of you. Boris went in with you because he thought he could stop that defence that was built in your mind, understand the plan and know where they are planning to strike.” The man looked back at Boris and said, “He knew it was dangerous. Nearly impossible to achieve, but he risked it anyways.”
I tried to say something. Anything, but another man near Boris said, “We have to try and wake him up.”
I was shaking and I wasn’t able to feel my hands. I said, “Why me?”
The bearded man looked back at me and said, “They didn’t want machines or any man-made data collection network to know of this plan. That’s why they monitor the results of the aptitude test. They are always looking for brilliant minds. You are smarter than any machine Lina, and you were always aware that it was just a test and changed the scenarios for your pleasure and success. That’s why it is easier to store data in your mind because it knows how to switch instantly from one scenario to another to ensure success and protection. General James, General Otto and Captain Evelyn found out quickly and made you go to the Intelligence compound to protect you. To protect that part of your mind that controls the outcome of each scenario.”
This was too much for me to comprehend. I stared blankly at him and then I said, “How did you all know that I was withholding this information in my mind?”
He said, “We didn’t. Dana found out and reported that information to Boris right away the night before she was murdered.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing and I said, “How did she know?”
The man said, “Oh… you may seem tough and very uptight, but you volunteered your time graciously to researchers.”
I didn’t understand and I said, “I don’t get it. I never…” He interrupted me and said, “Well, you talk in your sleep, and Dana was researching how REM sleep can induce a certain chemical in the brain to store memory permanently. She wanted to understand how it can be applied on advanced human-like machines. But in your case, you also talk in your sleep.”
I finally remembered the day before Dana was killed, I was in her laboratory volunteering my time to be her test subject. I wanted to help her analyze the parallels of machine’s data storage and memory collection. I was given a serum that accelerated sleep phases until I reached the REM stage. Did I really break my internal defence and tell her everything?
He crawled back to Boris and said to the others, “We need to wake him up.” He checked his pulse and said, “His pulse is slow, but we just might.”
I quickly said, “What if I tried to wake him up?”
The man said, “I think you have caused enough damage. It won’t work.”
All five of them lifted Boris off the ground and slowly walked through the door. I hurriedly got up and followed them. Then they laid him down on a long reclining chair in a room past the lab. A woman quickly strolled down a machine that had over ten long wires coming out of it. The wires all had a rubber flat edge that she stuck on Boris’s forehead and upper chest. She said, “It’s ready.”
She turned on the machine, and there was a low hissing noise. I didn’t understand what they were trying to do, but a man said, “I am not sure about this.”
Suddenly, Boris screamed and yelled, “Stop it. I can’t shoot her!”