(Audiobook Link Below)
Part I – The Underbelly
A soft drizzle collected in a small water puddle on the edge of an old warehouse. A hooded man looked both directions, making sure no one followed him. He stepped over a small pile of trash in the entrance to the alley, placing his old boot into the puddle disturbing the water. He cautiously walked down the alley with only the faint glow of an old sodium city light that cast eerie shadows down the forgotten corridor.
“That’s close enough,” a man whispered. “Do you have the money?”
“I do,” the hooded stranger whispered.
“And you have the fantasy?”
“Yeah, I brought something.”
An old wooden door creaked open, allowing a small sliver of the old streetlight to shine a narrow beam of light into the dark room. The hooded man entered, and after, a porter closed the door behind him.
“Johnny will see you now.”
The hooded man nodded and walked toward a soft glow emitting from the bottom of a door. He knocked once and then walked in. The technology in the room juxtaposed the run down warehouse. A techno cave certainly didn’t seem the type of room found in an old leaky building at the end of condemnation.
At the far end of the room, a man with long, greasy gray hair sat perched on a stool, his hand on a computer keyboard scrolling down pages of text.
“I’m almost ready for you,” Johnny said in a tired voice.
“Take your time. You know what happens if this doesn’t work the way you described. Sheriff Bonson already has enough on you to send you to jail for the rest of your natural life. These ‘experiments’, as you call them, are not sanctioned.”
“I know the risks,” Johnny said, “And I know what I’m doing. Threatening me is not in your best interest. I’m the only one who can make your candidate win, after all,” Johnny said.
“The edge you can provide is the only reason you’re not in police custody already.”
“First things first. Give me the money and the fantasy.”
The hooded man reached into his pocket to retrieve a zipped up hard case. He ran his hand around the edge, discovering the zipper to open up the box. Inside, a stack of hundred-dollar bills sat atop a photo of a woman with some text scribbled on the back. The man handed Johnny the money and held up the photo.
Johnny flipped through the stack of bills, assuring they were all the same currency. He tossed the stack onto his desk and reached out for the photo.
“She’s pretty. Do you know her?” Johnny asked.
“Nope, just took snapped the picture. As you instructed, the fantasy is on the back. You said it would be vivid.”
“And it will be,” Johnny replied.
“The boss wants to know how this works. Will I remember the procedure as vividly?”
“If you are paying attention, yes. Nothing we do here will remove any memory. Remember, I am in the business of making them ex post facto.”
“Out of nothing?” the hooded man translated.
“Exactly. First, we need to prep you. That is the part you’ll remember perfectly. Then we need to place you in a dream state for the simulations to run. Then we wake you up and you will have experienced the most glorious passion you have ever experienced with this woman, and you will remember it perfectly. Are you ready for the preparations?”
The man nodded.
Johnny pointed him to a chair and gestured to sit down. Johnny retreated behind the chair, out of the man’s view. He felt his hood slide down, finally revealing his worldly hardened face. Johnny came back into view with some electrodes for an electroencephalogram. He attached them to the man’s face and then retreated before returning with some wrist restraints.
“What you are doing?” the man protested.
“I need to strap you down,” Johnny said. “The process might make you move too much. It works best when nothing becomes detached from the movement.”
“Go ahead,” he growled.
Johnny tied him down in the arms, wrists, and feet. Finally, Johnny affixed a mask resembling a virtual reality helmet on the man’s head.
We are just about set up. Now I have two serums I will administer. The first puts you into a dreamlike sleeping state. When you are in this phase, we execute the experiential virtualization. We will then administer our second phase that will place you into a REM sleep when we do the neuroplastic assembly to complete the memory implantation. Once solidified, we will then wake you up and you will have experienced the most passionate evening you have never had. Are you ready?
The man nodded in the affirmation, and Johnny stuck him with a needle. The man exhaled a deep breath once the needle punctured his arm. In a few brief minutes, the EEG screen indicted the man moved into the expected dreamlike state. Johnny hit a few keys on the keyboard and a light on the headset indicated a successful start.
----
The man’s eyes shot open as he immediately awoke, devoid of any grogginess that could ever accompany a twenty-minute period of sleep.
“How was your night last night?” Johnny chuckled.
The man turned to him, surprised to see someone else in the room. He looked down, expecting to be unclothed, and he looked for the women he was with.
“Where’d she go?” he said to Johnny.
“She was never here. But you remember her, don’t you?” Johnny said.
“That was the most passionate evening I have ever experienced. I remember every perfect detail, including the birthmark. I remember every position, every word, every feeling. Are you sure this never happened?” The man inquired again.
“I’m quite sure,” Johnny said. “Here is a tape of the whole time you were out. The process only took twenty minutes, but it felt like all night. This is how the technology works. A dream can take seconds, but it can feel like days. We create the dream, expose you to it, and then cement it into your mind. Hopefully now, your boss can see what I can do for him. Please, tell him all about your experience.”
