Nexus - 0220 - New Times Magazine-pages

Page Content (OCR)

subliminal data was fed to him via the television. media had trashed every single one. Fortunately for Special Julia Long glanced across at the innocent-looking 22" Sony TV Operations, it was beyond the capability of Joe public to believe in its carved wooden cabinet. It was a state-of-the-art Trinitron that he or she could be influenced in this way, much less be model with a revolutionary tube providing far better resolution brought under total control within minutes. In fact, the ELF fields than other models. Resolution was very important because this were quite capable of killing unwitting victims by remote control, particular television would be displaying two entirely different as Special Operations had proved on numerous occasions. pictures to Otto at the same time: the first clearly visible to his There were politicians and scientists out there who persistently conscious brain, with the second Pel qs fused to heed discreet intelligence ceived only by his subconscious. As with community warnings about their initial hypnotic induction and post-hyp- behaviour, which in turn led to them notic tion, Special Operations was being found dead in hotel rooms after way ahead of the eae Most m4 In fact, the ELF fields were avatily indulging in bizarre sexual a F « * I pa ere | tt | on simple 1/50th-second flashing mes- unwitting victims by remote tended to draw attention, so the rou- sages woven into the standard television | . i tine was occasionally varied with a frames: subliminal because they were too contro , as specia few being programmed to take: spec- fast for the brain to to see consciously, 1 tacular flying leaps from tall suspen- but far too crude for Special Operations. operations had proved on sion bridges, drive into buildings at Special Operations used fast, efficient numerous occasions. high speed, or hook themselves up to full-frame colour input that was also the electrical mains. completely undetectable. In room 350 With normal targets the procedure Julia Long had a series of VHS video- was easy enough. When the ELF tapes that would be used to interrupt the fields entrained the human brain with normal video films fed to Otto via the in-house hotel video sys- a binaural beat, it was standard procedure to ensure that the tar- tem. They looked the same simply because they had the same film _ get's breathing was brought under control. If starting in high Beta, content as those shown in the hotel TV guide. Unfortunately for slower Delta fields were steadily introduced to decrease the rate of Otto, each of Julia's tapes had been subjected to a special editing _ respiration prior to full electro-hypnotic induction. In order to kill process where ultra low-light images had been overlaid on the a target, the silent ELF generators were turned up to full power in magnetic tape. Too dim to be detected by the conscious brain or _ binaural inode. Completely at the mercy of the Special Operations by sophisticated ultraviolet analysis, every one of the thousands of controller, the target's physiology would be manipulated until sys- images would be readily absorbed by Otto's subconscious. The tolic and diastolic blood pressures became identical, at which Alpha fields from the ELF generators would force Otto to remain _ point the heart ceased to function and the target died. There was alert but completely relaxed. Experiments had proved full relax- | one drawback: powerful ELF fields always increased the level of ation to be a critical requirement: a single stressful distraction — serum-triglycerides in the target, which could prove embarrassing lasting a millisecond could stop the subconscious ‘seeing’ any sub- at post-mortem. It was a simple matter to splash alcohol into the liminal input at all. mouth of the target after death, then throw a bottle of booze on his As Julia Long finished her iced lime juice and walked out of bed or into his car. Basic stuff indeed, but it was enough to fool room 352, she smirked to herself. Though dozens of earnest _ most pathologists... authors had wamed of techniques such as these, the mainstream Otto Jewell stood in the office reading the chemical log, his lips compressed into a thin tight line. It was unbelievable! Gerald Smith had mixed ten times too much SA81, a chemical used to thin the drilling fluid and coat the particles of heavy minerals used to control the underground pressures. Otto now knew the nature of the beast and it was frightening. The only way to cure the prob- lem would be to add vast extra quantities of inert mineral particles until the massive chemical overdose was neutralised. Rapidly run- ning some tests, Otto found he would need to add 2,500 x 100 Ib sacks of the powdered mineral before the fluid would recover. It had never been done before and Otto wasn't even sure the pumps would hold out under the colossal load. It would stretch them to the limits and beyond. But what could possibly be worse than waiting for the inevitable blowout? It was crunch time, no doubt about that. Otto had a hurried con- ference with Osimin and the drillers, who rapidly agreed to give it a try. There was nothing else to do. Volunteer labourers were positioned at the hoppers to mix the sacks of minerals, while Otto and Osimin walked up the steps to the control panel on the rig drilling floor. Someone had to operate the pump controls, a job far too dangerous to delegate to the juniors. If the well blew out there would be scant chance of survival for those on the elevated rig floor, only feet from the mouth of the well. With an apologetic grin in Osimin's direction, Otto inched the JUNE - JULY 1994 44¢NEXUS