The Tip of The Iceberg

"How do you suppose they'll go about contacting Leonard?"

"Leonard's been estranged from his family for some years now," Bill said. "He seems not to want to be in contact with them. He attended the funeral mostly out of respect and love for his brother. Being twins they were obviously close. He seems ambivalent towards his mother. The reasons of which I'm not completely too familiar in all the details. Now, far as I know both Leonard's and Lawrence's memories of the experiments were erased."

"Erased?" Hollister was intrigued. " How?"

"Two methods were used," Bill said. "The first was Benzodiazepines, a sedative known to impair memory function. Jack wasn't a hundred percent comfortable using drugs on his young boys, so it was recommended to go with Optogenetics.

"Optogenetics." Hollister repeated unfamiliar with the term.

Bill explained, "It was a fairly new procedure at the time and most studies were done on animals. Scientist would use a combination of fiber-optics or light and genetic engineering. A brain cell would then be targeted via a light-sensitive protein and that would activate or deactivate the subject's brain neurons with incredible precision.

"Fascinating," Hollister said.

"Now as far as contact goes," Bill said, "it will probably be the usual channels at first. Phone calls. Computer perhaps. Text messages. And…"

"We're monitoring those channels are we not?" Hollister inquired.

"Most definitely, sir."

"Go on, Hollister urged.

"If that fails or is not an option," Bill said. There's always… his mother.

"Meaning?" 

"Telepathy," Bill said. "Since she is the source of their unique gift, and it was inherited through her. They do have the ability to communicate over unlimited distances. However, the mother has shown a personal disdain for her abilities which to some extent has weakened her capability."

"But hasn't rendered them useless," Hollister assumed. 

"Correct."

"A gift you call this ability," Hollister said, mockingly. "This 'gift,' enabled Leonard to know he was being followed by one of our agent's?"

"More than likely," Bill confirmed. "His sensate ability was remarkable. Within a range of twenty feet, last we studied him as a child, I don't know, probably more since then, he can detect the full range of a person's emotions and can pinpoint with uncanny accuracy a specific individual by what we've come to term their feeling tone."

"Feeling tone," Hollister repeated, as his thoughts explored the word much like an adventurer a strange land. "Explain."

Bill tried, "It's likened to a psychological or emotional atmosphere if you will. An aura as unique to an individual as a fingerprint. In fact, many quantum physicists have come to believe the earth too is endowed with one. Like an energy field that emits distinct vibrations."

"And Leonard… he's able to tune into this aura?" Hollister surmised. "A person's aura."

"Yes. The agent obviously got within proximity. He's fortunate, however."

"Fortunate, why?"

"We don't have definitive proof yet, but it is quite possible, depending upon how far Leonard is advanced in his ability, that…." Bill paused.

"Well, man, go on," Hollister demanded.

"It's quite possible, sir, that Leonard very well can control an individual's emotions as well their involuntary nervous system, even their perception of reality."

"Christ almighty". Hollister could only imagine the possible ramifications of such an ability, and he experienced an emotion that under usual circumstances escaped him, absolute fear. "Are you saying he may have the ability to kill a person with his will?"

 "A remote possibility," Bill replied. "Scientific conjecture at this point. We didn't get to fully explore that before the project was scrapped. There's no solid evidence to support it, but…"

"A probability, nonetheless," Hollister added. "Why was the project scrapped?"

"Jack. He grew a conscience," Bill said. At some point in the experiments his wife had suffered adverse effects. Fearing his sons would suffer the same fate he pulled the plug. He no longer participated and refused to allow any members of his family to continue being guinea pigs for the CIA. But the MK-Ultra project itself secretly continued with what it did learn. Minus of course the Strahm family."

Hollister said, "What the hell did you people create?"

"Far as I know not too much after them," Bill said. "Their abilities are native. We studied them, helped them to develop and attempted to possibly understand their ability as much as we could. However, in the process we did learn a lot more about the human mind in general than we thought we knew before the experiments. We searched the globe for others that may have had similar abilities but with no success. At least that I knew of at that time."

"Other than termination, Hollister said, implicitly. "Is there any defense against this Leonard and his ability?"

"Yes sir," Bill said factually, "Keep a distance."

Hollister ponders a moment, then says, "This situation isn't out of control, yet. I want you to keep it that way. For now, we'll just monitor him and try to go the route of persuasion to join us."

"Yes, sir," Bill agreed. "Sir… I was thinking. What if Leonard goes to his brother's house?"

"I don't understand," Hollister said. "Why should that be a problem? You said we confiscated from there what we could. Searched every inch of the place and still didn't find what we were looking for. His brother's independent research findings weren't there. Am I right? Is there something you found out that I don't know about it?"

"No, sir, Bill said. "But just because we didn't find it doesn't mean it isn't there. Lawrence was notorious for hiding things. What if Leonard is just as notorious at finding?"

Hollister did not have to think about that for long. He quickly snatched up the car-phone and within seconds someone on the other end responded. "I want at least two agents dispatched, pronto. Give them explicit instruction not to apprehend the target or get within twenty feet of him. I want him followed if and when he leaves the place. I'll send a photo of him as well as the address where he might be." Hollister ended the call. "And Bill, I want a thorough update on any further developments regarding MK-Ultra. Would you have a problem providing that?"

"Not at all, sir. I still have official though limited clearance, but if need be, I can work around that limitation."

"Excellent.

Leonard stood awed in the vestibule of his late brother's house. He felt as though he had been magically transported into a fashion home design magazine and this display was the grand prize winner front cover. The subtle sweet scent of vanilla, probably from a centrally built-in air-freshener, hung pleasantly in the air, not under or overwhelming. Completely computerized the automatically adjusting temperature felt perfect. Under the soft, revealing easy-on-the eyes-glow of recessed ceiling lights the contemporary decor went beyond invitational. The flooring throughout the vestibule, living and dining rooms were actually made of leather tiles in the blended colors of brick and burnt amber. He had never seen that before, much less aware that it even existed as a flooring option. The choice of ultra-contemporary furniture with unique shapes and symmetry that seemed other-worldly, earthy wall colors and a variety of oil paintings that covered a wide spectrum from landscape to abstract blended smoothly together, enhancing one another in a strategic arrangement that was obviously feng shui in its conceptual design. He knew Lawrence had an appreciation for the extravagant, but he truly out did himself with this place. Leonard felt a nostalgic pride for his brother in both his taste and accomplishments and whispered admirably, "Well done, brother. Well done." There existed within these walls an overall atmosphere of warmth and charm, a tribute to and sign of Lawrence's gentle spiritual vigor, but Leonard also detected a lingering but subtle malevolence. Someone, or perhaps a few individuals had been here, and their intentions were far from good. From the weakened vibration of the energy they left behind Leonard knew their presence here must not have been longer than three or four days ago. He felt heartbroken. Not at the fact they had arrived here ahead of him, but that his brother's castle, his prided home had been violated, and an otherwise peaceful ambiance had been rudely disturbed and polluted by said intruders. Leonard thought to himself in that moment that perhaps even his own presence lent to that dower atmosphere, as his anger towards his brother's killers and his burning resolve to exact revenge only deepened. He wanted to leave so that he wouldn't further poison the air with his own negative bitterness, but for some unknown reason he was strongly compelled to stay. There was something here, something the interlopers had overlooked.