Читать книгу: «Virtually His»
Gennita Low
VIrtually His
To Mother and Father
To Magic girl—Mom misses you every day
To Ranger Buddy, virtually bigger than life
To Stash, virtually mine
Contents
Acknowledgments
Author’s Note
Memo
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Coming Next Month
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
My special thanks to Maria Hammon and Dee Clingman, who patiently read and reread my chapters. I’m sorry I kept the secret identity of the commando from you two! You are gems. Terima kasih!
Hugs and love to my agent, Elizabeth Trupin-Pulli, who always believes in me.
Thank you to my wonderful editor, Tracy Farrell, who shares in my vision of Super Soldier Spy.
Thank you also to these special groups of romance readers:
1) TDD Delphites, especially Karen King, J.P., Mirmie Caraway, Katherine Lazo, Cherry Bo Berry Adair, Kylie “Susan” Brant, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Sandy “Sadista” Still, who have been my lifeline and support all these years
2) RBL Romantica Romance readers, especially Leiha Ha and Jaycee, whose love for the romance genre is legendary
3) GLow World Yahoo Readers Group, always there to answer my questions.
All of you have a special place in my heart.
Author’s Note
In 1975, research into remote viewing was initiated at the request of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) under a program called SCANATE (Scan By Coordinates). In 1978, after a series of successful tests, the Army Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM) initiated a project called GRILLFLAME utilizing military personnel to perform as remote viewers. These projects morphed into STARBURST, and then STARGATE. In 1995, information about these activities was finally released by the CIA and the American Institutes for Research (AIR) prior to the projects’ termination.
According to current release of information, there are no further remote-viewing experimentations in the military or CIA.
Other resources of interest from the Internet:
www.oddcast.com/home/index.php?id=141
Memo
TOP SECRET—ABSOLUTE CODE RED NOT RELEASABLE TO FOREIGN NATIONAL
CC: Intelligence Security Command (INSCOM), Task Force Unit Chief for Operation; Los Alamos Task Force Unit Chief Scientist for Operation <redacted>; CIA Remote Viewing Sector Task Force Unit Chief for Operation SuperVision (SV); Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) Asymmetrical Strategic Counterintelligence Warfare Task Force Unit Chief for Operation <redacted>; Armed Forces Medical Intelligence Center (AFMIC) Task Force Unit Chief Bio-Scientist for Operation Bio-Bot; COS COMMAND <redacted>
The new century calls for new measures of defense and Intel gathering. By the President’s orders under the Homeland Security Act, all the operations above will be combined under one new operation to create a new weapon.
In the last decade, COS COMMAND’s V-Program has proven very successful in our infiltration and search/destroy operations. Our COS commando unit remains one of our elite teams.
Welcome to our new and improved: The Supersoldier-Spy.
The resources from tests from all departments listed above will be shared to create a total soldier-spy of body, mind and spirit. His body will be trained by the best in our defense branches—military and covert warfare. He will be chosen from the fittest among his peers within the groups known for their fighting spirit and skills.
Out of these, he must also fit the CIA phase requirement. Once we find this soldier, his mind will be put through the supercovert remote viewing (RV) program, a system that will teach him to see with an inner vision. He is expected to use this skill to overcome barriers that our chain of command might create.
The spirit of our superwarrior will be naturally strong and fearless, with these essentials enhanced by a top-secret biochemical serum, created and tested by our Intel scientists. Our different versions have shown that the use of it curbs emotions, especially in times of stress, thus enhancing willpower, clarity and determination during the mission. He will need less sleep, and feel less pain when injured.
This serum will be the unknown factor. It has been tried under varying conditions, never with a soldier capable of remote-viewing. Our goal is to use both to our advantage.
The test-candidate will be difficult to find, but the V-Project, with our nine commandos, has proven that we can achieve a higher level in our warrior training.
This supersoldier-spy will be our new covert weapon.
Who will be the first candidate?
Prologue
COVERT-SUBVERSIVE COMMAND CENTER (COS COMCEN)
Virginia
Good morning. After introductions and theory yesterday, I thought we’d meet in the most important place in your life for the next few months.
This is the CVR room. You’ll notice that it’s all gray. The color is like white noise to remote viewers, blocking out distractions and mental interference. Yes, Miss Roston, that means psychic interference as well as sophisticated spy detection devices. No, it isn’t one hundred percent foolproof.
You’ll each have a monitor, and both of you will be assigned a unit number. I’ve been told some of you will have a co-monitor who will remain anonymous for the time being. Your main monitor will guide you through your remote viewing experiences. Your secondary monitor will observe and check your progress through each level.
Remote Viewing Training Session Three
Each time you practice this relaxation technique, we’ll extend the theta waves so you’ll go deeper. Yes, Miss Roston, it’s similar to a hypnosis state. It’s more like self-hypnosis so no, we aren’t manipulating your actions. Miss Roston, you should address your cynical concerns to your monitors.
Remote Viewing Training Session Five
There are secrets to remote viewing. Your reaction and problem solving will be evaluated by your monitors. To pass your tests, here are a few simple things to remember. One, you have to learn to relax quickly, even if you’re a type A personality. Even if you’ve been out in a hot and sweaty traffic jam, once you enter this room, you should learn to put all that behind you without any trouble. The key is to think of watching a flower bloom, and become that flower.
Two, you have to think outside the norm. Your day-today solutions won’t work in remote viewing. The key is in trusting that you can locate a target from ideas, concepts and feelings. The key is in becoming an observer instead of a participant, and processing what you feel and think.
Three, you have to be able to reduce outside physical and sensory interference. Things are hooked up to you sometimes. You are constantly monitored. The key is in the ability to ignore your physical body and absorb what your mind sees as your reality. That way, you won’t need to walk miles around this room simply because you happen to be doing that in a remote viewing session.
I think those three points are the most important, although there are always more secrets. Yes, Miss Roston, we do have a secret handshake. That’s between you and your monitor.
Remote Viewing Training Session Seven
Remember, you are sensing your targets, more than seeing them. At first, anyway. For example, coming out from a dark cave into sudden sunshine won’t be an immediate knowledge. You’ll just suddenly sense brightness, and then you’ll sense coming out of some space. It is up to you to turn around and look behind you and make the deduction of where you are, i.e. coming out of a cave. This is what your monitor’s duty to you is—as an anchor and a guide. He can’t see what you see but the more you trust him to guide you, the more he’ll see through your eyes.
Yes, Miss Roston, we do use experienced remote viewers as monitors, too. The problem is, the monitor who is very talented becomes so involved with the target that he or she involuntarily starts remote viewing as well. Then you’re left on your own. Yes, it’d be nice if there was a way we could communicate what we see, but that’s still not possible yet. That’s why your drawings are important. I’m aware your artwork is terrible, Miss Roston.
Remote Viewing Training Session Eight
Bilocation is your phantom body, so to speak. When you first bilocate, you’ll feel like you’re falling at a rapid pace. Or a stumbling sensation, as if you’d spent the previous night drinking too much.
Concentrate on your senses. We’ll teach you how to isolate one at a time so you don’t get confused. Inexperienced beginners have a difficult time adjusting and figuring out where they are. For example, we’d send them to Mount Fuji and even after several promptings to describe their sensations, they couldn’t deduce that they were on a snowy mountain.
You’re correct, Miss Roston, in focusing on the cold first, since that’s the obvious first sensation, to discover the source. That’s a good start.
Are we ready? Please sign the Human UseAgreement Form in front of you. Please read the part stating that you understand that you’re participating in an experimental program using humans, and that you’ll not hold the federal government responsible for any damage that might occur.
Remote Viewing Training Session Nine
This first exercise has to do with diversion from fixation on one’s body. Look into the mirror and study the reflection, including yourself. The object is to trigger the mind into “observation mode.” You’re essentially looking at a 2-D visual reflection of a multidimensional environment, thus making it easier for your mind to digest and process the needed information.
No, Miss Roston, I’m not saying you can’t trust your senses. That’s another exercise. Remote viewing is all about point of view, just like witnesses to an accident. We’ll work on point of view first. In other words, the “observation mode” enables you to filter out overwhelming sensations and interruptive perception. Now, each of you report to your monitor what you observed in the mirror.
Remote Viewing Training Session Ten
I’ll pound this into you all at every stage of our lessons. In remote viewing, the most important element is noncontamination of the remote viewer. Our Intel must be as objective as possible. That’s why we use multiple remote viewers who do not work together because we want to analyze and compare all the Intel given by them and not be worried about possible corruption.
Who decides the physical target? Someone not directly associated with the remote viewing process. He decides the target pool and has no contact with any of the remote viewing process. To preclude contamination and possible sensory leakage, a middle person is usually used between the person who runs the pool and the viewer.
There are various ways to reach a target. The novice remote viewer acts on the information in an isolated envelope, sometimes with coordinates. You’ll find that, as you progress, you won’t need that anymore. Sometimes an Outbounder, a physical presence at the target, is all you need. This is usually for very complicated targets.
Contamination of data happens easily. A monitor who asks too many questions or pushes a remote viewer too quickly can destroy a whole operation. No, Miss Roston, we don’t send remote viewers to the physical site after the collection of Intel. One, you’ll be too out of it, physically and mentally. Two, you aren’t trained to handle certain aspects of that Intel. Oh, yes, I do know what you all are being trained to do. It remains to be seen whether you can do it, doesn’t it?
Remote Viewing Training Session Eleven
I realize you’re experienced in combat training, so your belief system has been honed to rely on what is around you in the physical world, and the rules and restrictions around that. In remote viewing, there are no particular rules and restrictions. You can say that your conscious mind is delving into your unconscious mind for information and at each level, you’re tapping deeper. You’re “out there” in the ether, but you’re actually also relying on “in here,” whatever your belief system is—in the brain, in the mind, in your soul, in your head.
The level each of you can achieve depends on your belief system and your ability to get past what might be uncomfortable for you. Some of you won’t be able to do it and there’s nothing wrong with that. Forcing yourself won’t help at all; in fact, it will just make things worse. I’ve seen this happen in trainees too eager to please.
Now, the first simple step in talking about the unconscious mind is, perhaps, agreeing that there is a subconscious state of mind. Show of hands? For example, we’ve all done lucid dreaming at one point or another in our lives, finding ourselves in a dream and being aware of it, yes?
We have attempted to get the individual mind to do this at will, but so far, we haven’t had much success. Usually, the moment the individual realizes he’s dreaming, he wakes up, and loses control of whatever situation he’s been in.
Yes, Miss Roston, I would call lucid dreaming a sort of simple remote viewing, like a question-and-answer session between conscious and unconscious states. How interesting that you think it’s more than that. Maybe you’re in the wrong experiment.
Remote Viewing Training Session Thirteen
Please read the 1990 Report given by Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC). The organization sent an agency to test out a task for a certain remote viewing program. The task was specifically this: could an agent in the field be tracked through remote viewing, and was it possible to target what that agent might be doing? You will find the agency’s conclusions at the end of the report. I’ll give you a hint, Miss Roston. We received a special funding bonus in 1991.
Remote Viewing Training Session Fourteen
This partial quote hangs on the wall of The Monroe Institute in Virginia where we’re going for a visit this afternoon:
“I am more than my physical body. Because I am more than physical matter, I can perceive that which is greater than the physical world. Therefore, in these exercises, I deeply desire to Expand, to Experience; to Know, to Understand; to Control, to Use such greater energies and energy system as may be beneficial and constructive to me and those who follow me.”
You’ll learn today that there are many different techniques in achieving remote viewing and that there are other agencies besides ours who are actively working on their own programs. Yes, Miss Roston, we share some of our findings with them. Yes, Miss Roston, some being the relevant word here.
Remote Viewing Training Session Fifteen
We like to reword some popular sayings here. Today’s phrase is: Can’t see the trees for the forest. In remote viewing, you depend on your senses, but overstimulation can cause the viewer to lose sight of the target tree. That’s why we allow no stimulants in your system as your mind and body learn to let go. An experienced remote viewer can bilocate with stimulants present in his or her system, but always remember, something new will always affect the senses, i.e. the forest. To counter that, you, as a remote viewer, have to learn to control your emotional environment. There are different exercises you can learn to overcome the times that you feel yourself losing control and getting lost in the “forest.” I’ve read your file, Miss Roston. We’ll start with something simple for you; no coffee for a few weeks. I see nothing humorous regarding your comments, but yes, sex provides chemical stimulants in your brain, too.
Remote Viewing Training Session Seventeen
In remote viewing, we train you to consciously move your brain into theta waves. Most of you are familiar with terms such as “higher state of consciousness” or “altered state.” You’ll have to work through your belief system to achieve this goal.
Once you’ve crossed this hurdle, you’ll find it easier to go into RV mode. An experienced remote viewer can remote view without outside manipulation at all.
In summary, there are four brain wave states that range from the high-amplitude, low-frequency delta to the low-amplitude, high-frequency beta. These brain wave states are common to the human species. Men, women and children of all ages experience the same characteristic brain waves. They are consistent across cultures and country boundaries.
Yes, Miss Roston, you can synchronize brain waves during sleep. It has been done successfully to induce group meditative states. No, remote viewing is strictly done alone, so we won’t be going out and having “fun together.” Sorry to disappoint you.
One
COVERT-SUBVERSIVE COMMAND CENTER
(COS COMCEN)
Virginia
Did he really want this assignment? He was used to being asked to seduce, but never one of their own, and agreeing to do so would mean getting closer than a regular monitor and trainer. His fingers tapped on the well-used dictionary on the small table next to him. The word for the day was quintessence.
How appropriate.
Here at COMCEN, the quintessential element uniting all its operatives was danger. He’d perhaps been here too long, because now they wanted him to train the newcomer. Not just any newcomer.
If situations were assigned as some form of karma, there was no question that danger was his. He thrived on it, not out of necessity, but because it was what was natural to him. Danger called to him and he’d always answered.
And by design, if there was karma, then it always came to him in the form of dangerous women. Poetic justice, he supposed. Everyone had a weakness. He was one of the fortunate few who knew exactly what his weakness was. He again looked at the woman on the screen.
There was something enticing about a dangerous woman. He should know. He’d been married to one. He understood his inclination for them very well. They had the aura of toughness that he admired—and enjoyed stripping down. Their strength, intimidating to some men, was both sexy and challenging at the same time. It added an extra kick, knowing that the woman he was bedding might kill him in bed. It must be that poetic justice thing again, the secret wish to die while fucking around with danger.
His lips curled mockingly at the thought as he continued studying the screen in front of him. How could a woman everyone called Hell be anything but dangerous in and out of bed?
And he knew instinctively that sooner or later, he would be inside her. His eyes followed her movements, catlike and sure, as she went through her morning exercises. Even in a controlled environment, there was something untamed in the way she threw herself into the training. Wildcat. If they even made it into bed.
From the beginning, his reaction to her had been visceral. Any normal male’s would have been. After all, he’d watched her in training for months, watched her eat, sleep, drink, watched her take her clothes off whenever she went swimming in the pool. She didn’t like to swim with any clothes on, and he’d enjoyed those sessions, knowing that it was partly voyeuristic, partly because he knew she knew someone was watching her. Mostly, it was because of all the candidates, she had won. A woman who’d beaten out a bunch of men in mental and physical war games. He already knew that all the male operatives at COMCEN were curious about her.
She’d started her nude swimming innocently enough, and he’d enjoyed the undisguised pleasure of a woman comfortable with her body. He hadn’t forgotten that first time. Her hands carelessly unzipping her pants. Her long, long legs kicking them aside. And she’d looked at the warm water and a small smile had spread out, a glimmer of sheer abandon that had pulled at something inside him.
It’d caught him by surprise, that emotional tug. He wasn’t usually so easily moved. He’d had to stop himself from leaning forward, closer, as he continued taking in the sight of her slipping off her underwear.
He recalled that moment even now. She was impatient, as if she couldn’t wait to be free of the restrictions of clothing. He was equally impatient, too, in that male sort of way that was also restricted by clothing.
Her lightly-tanned body was surprisingly feminine for someone who’d gone through so much training. He’d caught a few seconds of soft feminine curves before she’d dove into the water. She’d surfaced with a small sigh of delight, sweeping her hair out of her face. Pure unadulterated delight. And that smile…he’d dreamed of that smile that night. He’d known it wouldn’t be there as soon as she figured out that there were always cameras at COMCEN.
The day had come. He’d felt the difference immediately. It was in the way she stripped her clothes, in the furtive motion of her eyes trying to find the camera eye. The interesting thing was, it hadn’t stopped her from continuing to swim naked. She did another unexpectedly interesting thing. She hadn’t gone to Kirkland, her medical advisor, or her any of her trainers. Instead, she’d asked the interactive supercomputer at COMCEN. He’d listened in to the conversation with interest.
“Hey, Eight Ball, am I being watched at this moment?” she’d asked aloud. “Besides by you, I mean.”
“Yes, Hell.”
“By how many people?”
He’d authorized certain information to be released. “One, Hell,” the computer had replied.
“Man or woman?”
“Man.”
“Is he my trainer, the one who’s been watching my workout every day?”
That question had amused him. He should’ve known she wouldn’t have bought into Kirkland’s explanation about it being standard procedure since she was now going into a new phase. She was smart enough to figure out that they had tapes and records of all her training since day one, so her asking now was for someone’s benefit. His.
“Sort of.”
“What do you mean, sort of? What kind of computer are you anyway? Computers don’t say sort of, don’t you know that? It’s either positive or negative.”
But Eight Ball, short for “Magic Eight Ball,” a prediction-through-computation program, was a different kind of computer. His programmer wasn’t averse to adding odd little programs that gave his creation a unique personality. The result was a computer that frequently mixed up its language usage between that of a surfer and a robot.
“It’s neither positive nor negative as of now, Hell. So…sort of, dude.”
“Where’s the camera?”
“I have not been authorized to tell you, dude. Do you have the password for information access?”
“For a computer that’s supposed to be way cool, you suck, Eight Ball.”
He’d laughed at her reaction. But since that day, that smile had disappeared. He’d kind of missed it, except that it was now replaced by a different kind of smile. A knowing, dangerous curve of those shapely lips, as if she were challenging him to show himself. She was, after all, a GEM operative; like all the female operatives in her elite independent agency, she knew how to get a man’s attention, even if she couldn’t see it.
If it was male reaction she was going after, he had plenty on his end. A naked dangerous woman like her didn’t get angry. She got even. Even though she couldn’t see it for herself, there was now a mockery in her eyes and her smile that told him she knew. Any normal man watching her slow taunting movements would combust from the heat.
But normal wasn’t a word usually associated with him. Ice water flowed in his veins. Women had accused him of having a lump of ice for a heart. He had wondered, sometimes, if maybe he’d forgotten what love was. So before they’d even met, they now played a game.
He kept watching, assessing how he could push this woman out of her comfort zone. She kept fighting him with a nonchalance that was targeted to make him feel male discomfort.
It had been a long time since he’d reacted to someone so strongly and thoroughly.
Not that he didn’t like women. Just mostly the dangerous kind. He sat very still as he watched the woman wrap her lithe body around the dangling chain, her hands looking small in contrast to the thick links. She pulled, testing it, her head cocked slightly as she looked up at her target.
Elena Rostova, GEM operative, now working for COS Command. Although others called her Hell, and she preferred to be called Helen, Elena suited her. There was something about her….
It must be that challenge thing again. His instinct told him that the lady had something to hide. But then, didn’t every operative? He had quite a few secrets himself, things that he preferred not to share with anyone. He respected an operative who kept certain things to himself because one who blindly followed orders and told every single detail exactly as it happened, like the perfect little soldier, could be very dangerous to him and his team.
His eyes narrowed slightly. Therein lay the problem, didn’t it? He watched Elena’s graceful body as she attacked her routine. The perfect soldier-spy. Every agency had been looking for one, training dozens and experimenting on countless others to find the perfect combination of traits. Someone high up on the covert chain had managed to convince different agencies to train special candidates, even as they sweetened the deal by giving them extra funds for which to compete. It didn’t matter. There were limited bodies to get to the finish line.
“Quintessence,” he murmured. He liked opening the dictionary randomly every morning to pick out the word for the day. Uncanny, how it fit. COMCEN wanted a supersoldier-spy, contracting the best available inde-operative from their new partner, GEM. Elena Rostova was very good at many other things besides soldiering. Supersoldier-spy. The quintessential dangerous woman.
And she was his. At least, he amended, for a while. Then, like all of them, she would go and do her job. Because she wasn’t just going to be a supersoldier.
In the end, COMCEN’s candidate had won the big prize, and to all intents and purposes, Elena Rostova was his to mold. She didn’t know that yet, of course. She’d been given the usual need-to-know-only information and she had apparently followed her contract to a T, so far. Well-paid for it, too, and now, very, very well trained. But a woman didn’t give up two years of her life just to train herself for an experiment. No, she definitely had something else she was keeping to herself. Knowing that pushed away some of his reservations a little. He didn’t want to be part of a program where the candidate was just an obedient contract employee out to make money.
She was an attractive woman—some might say exotic—with a natural strength and grace that showed in the way she used her body. From the different tests given, she’d shown that she wasn’t afraid of taking risks, almost foolhardy sometimes, but her report cards from various trainers before him sang nothing but praises. And these were from men he knew were very difficult to train under.
Having seen her on tape and close-up, he had no doubts about her extraordinary skills. Once he agreed to include himself as part of this experiment, they would find out for sure how good she was because he would be there to watch her. Not just physically, but mentally.
That was why he’d been watching her. Wanting a dangerous woman was one thing; agreeing to do dangerous things with her was another. And this coming experiment would mean he’d be a lot closer to this woman than he’d ever been with any other.
And watching her had become…a habit. The physical package alone would tempt a man, but he’d found himself wanting access to her mind, to know her as intimately as he knew how she liked to nudge one of her hands between her legs when she slept.
He’d seen her in action with other trainers; he knew her capabilities. Yet, there were moments when she’d let down her guard, when she’d thought no one was watching. He’d seen that look in her eyes, and had wondered what’d put it there.
And COMCEN—damn its knowing think tanks, always measuring and calculating—was waiting patiently, letting him walk into this himself. They hadn’t had him all these years without knowing a little about how his mind worked.
He watched as she climbed at a slow and controlled pace that showed the physical fitness some of the best from Special Forces had honed into her. The length of the chain extended for nearly thirty meters from ceiling to floor and she was halfway there already. He glanced at the stopwatch on top of the screen. She must be going for a personal record today.
He’d never seen a woman with such an intense need to succeed. There was something personal in this contract for her and it was the driving force that had motivated her from day one.
So there was a woman inside that trained body, even though she had kept it well-hidden for these two years. Smart, very smart. And his intrigue grew.
He tapped on the communication pad next to his hand. “Put Elena through Test Alpha.”
“Helen, darling. She prefers to be called Helen.” The low, distinctive voice belonging to GEM’s chief came through the intercom. “And if she passes?”
His gaze left the screen for a second. He hadn’t expected T. to be on the other end. These days she very seldom showed up at COMCEN. They must really want him to sign on to the experiment to bring her in. “Then I’m one step closer to being convinced to be Elena’s monitor,” he said, his attention returning to the subject matter.
