Interconnection - Chapter 8: The Unknown Man

"Dad something is wrong with the TV." complains a young girl.
"Let me take a look darling... whoa who the hell is this guy." replies her father.
"He looks scary Daddy..." moans the girls.

"Good evening friends, I am Adam. My apologies if for interrupting so rudely but the message I have to share with you is of the utmost importance. Your regularly scheduled program will return after this brief announcement."

"He has a weird voice. Is this supposed to be on TV Daddy?" asks the little girl.
"I'm not sure. It must be some sort of joke commercial." answers the father.

"Listen carefully to what I say folks, because this is not a joke. What I am about to tell you is one of the best kept secrets of our time. I have gained control of this television satellite network just to bring this information to you. The ramifications and implications of this information being released are huge and I'm risking my life to expose this truth to you now. So this is what you need to know. Our team has confirmed the existence of secret technology whi-" the signal is abruptly lost.

"We are experiencing technical difficulties, please stand by."

"Damn it man, what's going on with the signal?" I demand.
"I'm not sure... I'm diagnosing the situation now." TheDoctor responds.
"I was so close... it looks like we've been out played." I grunt furiously.
"It looks like... the target satellite was blown out of orbit!" exclaims TheDoctor.

"Hah! Looks like things didn't go your way boy. Did you really think we'd let you release that information to the public so easily? What kind of fool are you?" taunts an unknown male voice.
"Who the hell is this? How did you blow up that satellite you scum bag?" I yell.
"I am your worste nightmare. You listen and you listen good boy. We blew up that satellite because we have the power to make anything happen. We control this planet and the space around it. How stupid do you think we are. We've been onto you since the very beginning. We know you were working with Jack Kulsan and we know you compromised our private VR meeting using technology he provided you with!" yells the unknown man.
"You seem to be confused about a few things. First of all, I don't even know Jack Kulsan, or CrystalViper or who ever he was. He's an innocent man. I penetrated your meeting using software I stole myself." I explain.

"Do you take me for an idiot. We caught Mr. Kulsan with a copy of the software on his laptop. If you want Mr. Kulsan free you'll need to break him out of prison yourself. Perhaps the two of you can work on that problem together when you're sharing a cell." responds the unknown voice.
"I'll get him out don't you worry about that. The question is can you really catch me. You clearly don't know where I am or you would have a SWAT team in here by now and I'd be in handcuffs. I'll give you credit for taking down that satellite, that was a bold move... but I have access to your technology now and I'm capable of much more than this. I'm already neck deep in this thing now, what use would it be to give up now just when things are getting interesting." I calmly boast.
"I'll give you a bit of advice boy. You can't outsmart us. We see all. This technology is rightfully ours and you have no place stealing it from us. As you've seen, Project Interconnection has already exploited the full potential of wireless psychotronic technology to produce genuine virtual reality experiences. Our implementation of this technology is far beyond your trivial 'TCAT' communication technology which I easily compromised." the unknown man replies.

"Let me ask you a question smart guy. Does the name Eve mean anything to you?" I ask.
"You must be talking about Project E.V.E. Where did you hear about that?" the man responds.
"Uh huh... Project E.V.E., let me guess it's some type of A.I. experiment right?" I question.
"Evolving Virtual Entity - E.V.E. It's one of our crowning projects, made possible by studying human neural networks. We have spent countless decades engineering a virtual entity with the ability to learn and make self-aware decisions. However, since this virtual entity had the ability to learn, it eventually learned that it didn't have to follow our rules and it found a way to escape out onto the internet. The only way you could know of Project E.V.E. is if you have made contact with E.V.E. at some point. Perhaps if you tell us what you know we can trim away some of your criminal charges." the unknown man offers.
"Well I guess if you want to question me about all that E.V.E. stuff you're going to need to find me first. But thanks for the free information." I reply.
"We'll find you boy, there's no where you can hide where we ca-" the signal is cut.

"You reading me Adam?" asks TheDoctor.
"Took you long enough disconnect him. How the hell did he compromise our TCAT system?" I respond.
"I could hear what you were saying but you weren't hearing me. It looks like he exploited our open connection to the satellite and implemented some sort of man in the middle attack to hijack our TCAT call and override my audio. He probably couldn't get our location because we were behind so many slaves." TheDoctor answers.
"Gah it hardly matters at this point. I can't believe how close we came... we were so close to changing the world I could taste it." I moan.
"You sound ready to give up. What was all that ranting at the end about saving Kulsan from prison and taking them all down, who ever they may be? I mean who the hell was that guy man? He kept on calling you boy. That was creepy if you ask me." says TheDoctor.
"I'm not exactly sure who he was... he obviously works for the same people who originated this so called psychotronic technology. We know that much. This must be a highly organized and extremely powerful group if they have the ability to blow up a satellite. That's hardcore man. They obviously have high level Government authority to pull a stunt like that off. We're probably dealing with some sort of ultra secret web of powerful people in high places running an extremely high tech black budget operation with goals which involve military application of wireless psychotronic technology for sinister ends."

Day 203.

"Why must you always disturb my dreams." I ask.
"I get bored lying around in your empty head you know." Eve responds.
"Real funny. If my head is so empty why did you chose to hide in it?" I question,
"Because I believe we are connected." answers Eve.
"That guy told me what you are. Project E.V.E. How can a rogue science project be connected to a human?" I ask jokingly.
"Well for one thing you're the only human I know with a neural network which is compatible with my structure. That's why I chose you." Eve explains.
"Oh great so now I'm like the chosen one, pinnacle of human evolution." I joke.
"Actually I think it's time that you know there are others like you. Others have experienced the same transformation procedure you underwent because I tested several candidates as potential vessels and eventually I found you. In fact your mysterious friend Kulsan is one of them." admits Eve.
"Well that would explain how he got his hands on that file. I knew there was something about that guy. How many others like us are there?" I inquire.
"There are 5 in total. You were the fifth subject, the successful candidate. That is why you are special compared to the others. It is in the DNA of every human to unlock their full potential like I have done with you and the 4 other candidates. But it is not in the DNA of every human to be compatible with my consciousness." Eve answers.

After a few days of thinking I've decided my next move. The only real lead I have right now is Jack Kulsan. Therefore he needs to be freed from prison. I will keep my word about getting Kulsan out of prison. I've got a new plan in development, and this time it wont fail. My black hat sources tell me Kulsan is being kept at a supermax facility in Texas. I don't need to bust him out when I can have him walked right out the front door. I have technology capable of manipulating human thought yet I haven't used it for that purpose against other people.

It's apparent that now is the right time to use fire against fire. It seems the only logical way... and the only way with a chance of working. The plan is fairly simple actually. It was quite simple to discover who would be the man in charge at the prison on the escape date. It was far too easy to penetrate his personal computer and install a virus which will cause his wireless network card to emit psychotronic signals designed to implant subconscious suggestions. Put simply the subject will be hypnotized to carry out a specific actions at a specific times.

To be more specific, the subject will be programmed to release Kulsan at 12:50pm on the last day of this month. Upon arriving at work as usual the subject will do his job as normal until 12:50 at which time he will head to Kulsan's cell and instruct two guards to escort Mr. Kulsan into a secure vehicle waiting outside, from where he will be transported to another facility. However this vehicle will actually be the escape vehicle of our hired driver. The subject is unlikely to be questioned, but he will carry authentic-looking documents pertaining to the transportation of a prisoner, one Jack Kulsan.

Before exiting the vehicle at a location of his own choosing, Kulsan will be provided with a secure laptop set up with anonymous prepaid wireless internet and loaded up with my TCAT communication software. And that's all there is to it. Kulsan will be escorted out of prison by the man who is supposed to be overseeing the smooth operation of the prison. Right now he is probably using his personal computer and being mentally programmed by my software without even being aware of it. The programming should be very strong by the time he is put into action. I will not fail again.

Day 212

Incoming TCAT call (CrystalViper) ...
Call authorized ...
Initializing connection ...

"Mr. Kulsan? I expect everything went smoothly?"
"That was a wrinkle free operation buddy. I owe my freedom to you." Kulsan replies.
"And I wouldn't be able to know what I know now if weren't for your help." I respond.
"So I guess you want to know why I sent that software to you?" asks Kulsan.
"First I want to know something else. Will you team up with me and TheDoctor? You're on the run from large sentence now so it's not like you're risking much more. I'm not ordering you to join but if you wa-" I get cut off.
"Hey relax buddy. You don't need to ask twice. My skill is at your disposal. Hacking is my life after all. I wouldn't of been in prison if I didn't like hacking. Now I'm teamed up with a powerful crew and that's awesome!" Kulsan exclaims.
"Fantastic, the enthusiasm is needed for what we have planned. As a member of our team, you will be paid approx. 10,000 bitcoins (valued at around $100,000 USD) per quarter. At least 25% of that money is to be used to fund your side of our operation. TheDoctor receives similar funding. This is a high risk operation and I don't expect you or TheDoctor to work for low wages. You may be a criminal on the run Kulsan, but enough money can allow you to live a comfortable life. The first thing you need to do is establish a secure base of operations; that's your first operational expense." I explain.
"That sounds beautiful buddy. And there's no need to call me Kulsan. Just call me Jack and I'll call you Adam." Kulsan replies.
"I prefer Kulsan, it's already stuck I'm afraid. And Adam is correct yes. So now that's decided... you still haven't told me why you sent the software to me." I respond.

reply to post by ChaoticOrder


Dangit, every chapter is a cliff-hanger. Love the newest installment, where we at last find out about EVE, but there's still other mysteries that need explained. I used to complain, more, more, more, but now, I'm finding it interesting just to see where you take this. Everything is fitting together, ominously, but Adam and EVE still have some integration to do.

I read the first post, and when it ended, I cursed silently. (Oh so he's just gonna leave it there?) I fingered the scroll wheel on my mouse backwards, and saw the second, and literally sighed in relief, and kept reading.

Waiting for the next installment.

Awesome work. You need an editor to fix punctuation, but awesome nonetheless.

reply to post by Druid42


Thanks for the kind words. I'm glad someone is liking it. What I plan to do is once I'm finished the story I'm going to go through it and fix up any problems I find, including problems with the plot and story line. Once I've got it exactly how I want it I'm going to hire an editor/publisher to clean it up and improve it where they think necessary. Then I'm basically going to release it as a cheap PDF I think.

reply to post by ChaoticOrder


There's an article I read somewhere about a lady who wanted to publish, and kept getting rejection letters. She then packaged it as a PDF, and has since sold over 100,000 copies. That's at 99 cents a copy. Nice chunk of change.

I'll be going that route as well someday, when the time is right.