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108 tolerable and intolerable to the ear. | was about to say something in a letter. | cannot remember what | wanted to say.” The interrupting noise contained “voices, in unison, in some (foreign?) language.” Under hypnosis, Amy constantly had difficulty talking about the events, and she often repeated the rule against “telling.” When Barbara tried to discuss the implanted blocks later, Amy was doubtful and couldn’t accept the idea of the Council programming such an inhibition. It wasn’t until she searched back through the old journals and saw entry after entry about not “talking” that she finally acknowledged the evidence of possible programmed control. Her memories of the November 1992 dream-event were much more detailed, and easily discussed, as if the programming were ineffective, at least to a point. She penetrated several screens, recognizing that the large spider was actually a floating probe device in the room with her and the human figures she’d recalled. She also realized that she was with them and the spidery probe, for part of the encounter, in her own apartment. But the most important information to emerge concerned the implants. When she described the flesh-colored object removed from her ear, she told Barbara that it was used as a transmitter and monitor. Amy said that the masked alien also explained the purpose of the implant she removed from the spine. “She said that it short-circuits and it can kill!” Amy said. ‘They can kill as many as they want. It’s in the neck. It’s old, but some people have them. When they want to kill them, they... don’t like that thing. It does many things.” “What other things?” Barbara inquired. “They make people like puppets!” Amy exclaimed. “She says they can control anyone that way. Bunch of damn robots walking around. But they’re taking them out. They’re old. Sometimes in the base of the spine, real low, but that’s only half of the control. The other half controls up and down. Up to the brain or down the body. Old. They use something else now.” “Where does the new one go?” Barbara asked. “Cerebellum,” Amy answered. “How do they put it in?” “Not in the back like the old ones,” Amy replied, pointing instead to a spot behind her ear. “You couldn't take it out, only they can. They can make... the people with the new ones and old ones in them... do what they tell them to do. If they don’t, they do other things, switch them like puppets, switch them off. They can kill them, or turn it, many different degrees.... they can use it as punishment, take away control but leave consciousness, or control the consciousness. Or they can kill. I’m mad! “On one end it can kill, the other end, control, and in-between levels. Punishment is in the middle where there’s consciousness but no control. Repetition, over and over, the fear takes over, and they don’t have to punish any more. Fear is paired with punishment, so they don’t have to move the switch so far. Fear and control. And if that doesn’t work, they switch it to kill. When the body stops, it disintegrates all implants. Electrical activity ceases. Huh! That’s gross but funny. They use our own brains as the batteries... feedback loop like a generator, through the implant and circuits back. When the circuit is broken, the implant dissolves. Little, like a Tic-Tac.” “How many people do you think have implants?” Barbara asked. “Is there a selection?”