Roy’s instincts made him suspicious as he inserted the key into his apartment’s door lock. The 35th floor of the Moscow skyscraper makes him dizzy on a daily basis but this was different. He pulled out his pistol and had it ready in his right hand. A quick sigh and he swung open the entrance door, pushing it inside with his left hand. He rushed inside and turned to his left to aim at the open floor kitchen. The rustling sound from behind the gas hob made Roy duck behind the black leather sofa next to the entrance door.
His heartbeat and breathing were stable. After all, Roy has been a spy in Moscow for past 5 years collecting intel for a private firm based in Washington. He has trained for handling conflicts on a daily basis. Roy reviewed the floor plan in his mind. The apartment has a open plan layout. There is a large living room that has a kitchen on the left and the bedroom with attached restroom to the right. Roy’s apartment faced the Moscow’s busiest business sector. As a result, he could scan all the skyscrapers comfortably from his place. The living room had a flat screen TV on the wall surrounded by 3 long sofas. Each sofa could be used as a cover in the time of need.
Another rustling sound confirmed to Roy that his abode has been breached. He opened his smartphone and used it to alter the glass wall of his apartment from transparent to opaque.Partially lit living room was now completely dark. This should prevent any outside monitoring. Roy then carefully crawled and took cover in front of the kitchen counter. Sensing no movement from the enemy during the same time was confusing to Roy. He suspected whoever it was must be lying flat on the floor behind the gas hob station. He carefully climbed over the kitchen counter and jumped over the gas station. He aimed the gun down and shouted, “Freeze”.
Two hazel eyes looked at him in the dark and continued to stare. A few seconds later, the cat meowed. Roy let his guard down and took a deep sigh, sitting over the gas hob. His mind was then thinking about the cat. He did not own one. From his surveillance study, none of the other 3 apartments on the same floor had one. It was impossible for a cat to climb over the 35 floors from the fire exit behind the kitchen’s balcony. Regardless, all windows and doors were closed. Someone must have visited him. Who? And, Why? Have the Russians at his Moscow workplace figured it all out? Do they know that he is not an arms and weaponry consultant but a covert level 3 spy? Roy quickly gathered himself and checked each corner of his apartment without switching on the lights.
Feeling no imminent danger, Roy pressed the code on his smart phone to switch on the lights. The white painted apartment came to life. Roy had come back to kitchen. The cat had not moved. She was very furry and very black. Sharp eyes of her had Roy’s attention. He put his pistol back in its cover tied to his back and lifted the cat in his hands. The cat showed no fight. Roy inspected her and found no obvious scars, cuts to confirm if she is hiding anything inside her big belly. He walked to the living room and sat on the sofa. Roy carefully kept her in front of him on the glass table. She did not move but continued staring at him. Her lack of reaction puzzled Roy. He was trying to understand the message sent to him.
Roy turned on the television and switched it to the HDMI mode. He had bugged his own house. He accessed an another application on his smart phone to display the camera recordings on the TV. As he expected, there were no videos for today but just black and white pixels fighting with each other all over the screen. Knowing it is a waste effort, he still called the building staff office to check if they saw anyone entering into his apartment. The obvious answer, “High sky apartment boasts of full security of its residents for last 15 years. We confirm to you that nobody has entered inside your apartment” angered Roy. In his frustration, he threw the TV remote on the glass table almost hitting the cat. It did not react. “What happened to the fucking cat instincts?” Roy thought.
Leaving the cat behind in living room, Roy went inside his bedroom. He decided to take a shower. A hot shower always improved his ability to read between the lines. Upon entering the bedroom, a gift wrapped box grabbed his attention. “Someone is onto me. That’s clear for sure.” Roy said to himself. He opened the drawer next to his bed to take out a small rectangular black device. It had a groove in which Roy slipped his phone inside with its screen still facing him. A few more keystrokes on the virtual screen and a black and white interface appeared on the phone screen. It was now a portable X-Ray device. Roy scanned the gift box with it. Nothing suspicious seemed obvious. Roy then decided to open it. He carefully unwrapped the gift paper to reveal a white box. The top of box had “Congratulations” written on it. Roy opened the lid to see what was inside.
A black colour plastic headphone was inside. The surface was extremely smooth and the ear covers were unusually bigger but soft. It was finely made. The two metallic spots identified in the X-Ray were in the centre of each ear cover, holding rest of the cloth like material together. Strangely, there were no buttons on it. Roy realised his cover is blown. They know that he has been recording conversations between Russian defence ministry and its allies. Roy has to now prematurely end the mission and work out on an exit strategy before it is too late. Roy wore the dummy headphone and lay down on the bed. He closed his eyes to concentrate.
The two metal pieces inside the ear covers of the headphone crumbled. Sudden and loud sounds of wires unwinding had Roy sit up on his bed. He could immediately feel two threads going inside his ears. He screamed in pain and reached his hand to remove the headphone. Before he could, the thread in each ear pierced the nerves inside Roy’s head and became tight. The pain was so excruciating that Roy fell from the bed on the floor. Roy could feel the head phone is pulling the nerves inside his head through his ears.
“What the fuck?” Roy said to himself, feeling enormous pain rising inside his head.
“You made me wait for so long, Mr. Roy!” Roy heard a voice from the headphone followed by intermittent coughing sounds.
“What the? Who the?” Roy tried to express his anger but was losing his command on himself.
“Relax! It is almost finished.”
“Son of a…”
“Wow! Congratulations! It is a success.” There was a joy in the voice that came from the other side.
“What is happening?” Roy said in a calm voice, standing up. He looked in the mirror at himself. The black plastic headphone did not match his grey colour suit. Blood was trickling over his right temple from his head. He had hit his head to the table lamp kept on the drawer set. Roy was confused. He could see the blood but felt no instinct to clear it.
“I have now full control over part of your brain that generates your instincts. You are my first human subject that is responding positively to my neural control program.” The man from the other side spoke with pride. Roy was confused beyond his imagination. He tried to concentrate and he could. He walked out to the living room and he could.
“What kind of joke is this? I can control my brain.” Roy shouted.
“I did not say that I have control over your full brain. I am still working on that project.” The voice kept its calm.
“Don’t bullshit me.” Roy responded.
“Another arrogant American spy. Let me demonstrate it to you.” Hearing his voice Roy started looking around the living room, suspecting sudden attack. He had his right hand on his gun again.
“Take out your smart phone and open the application you use to control your apartment’s utilities.” The man instructed from the other side. Roy being curious did the same.
“My device tells me you have just done as I instructed. Now, alter the glass walls back to transparent from opaque.”
“What? Why? I am not stupid. I will not do that.” Roy reacted.
“I am sorry. I am telling you to alter them and what are you saying?” The main spoke with authority.
“I will…” Before Roy could express his disagreement, he entered the required code and the glass walls were transparent again. Roy could not believe himself. His face turned expressionless as he stared towards the skyscrapers in front of them. Almost all of them were dark because it was midnight. Only a few were still alight. One of them was directly opposite to Roy’s apartment. Roy could see someone inside it was starting at him.
“Do you now understand, subject?” The man asked Roy. Roy did not respond.
“Let me dumb it down for you. Do you see the cat still sitting on your glass table?” Roy turned around to see the cat. It was still sitting at the same place where Roy left her. From the man’s voice, Roy understood that he could now see inside Roy’s apartment without any issue.
“Yes.” Roy responded.
“Kill it.” The man said.
“What? I .” Bang! Roy aimed and shot at the cat. The bullet from his pistol pierced through the middle of cat’s forehead.
Roy shivered with fear. He dropped the gun and retreated to the corner of the apartment, wrapping his hands around his torso. His face was now showing signs of fear. The heartbeat and breathing were rising.
“Mr. American Spy, I control your instincts. When we sense (see/hear/feel/dread) something, our brain triggers an immediate action for our body and we act accordingly. In your case, I could either let your brain send a normal response or I could alter it to my wish. In layman terms, I decide your instincts.” The words transformed the fear inside Roy to terror.
“What do you want from me?” Roy said in a shivering tone.
“Nothing! You are just my subject for few experiments.” The man replied. Roy did not know what to say.
“You see Mr. Roy; We knew that you were a spy from day one. We also knew that you are on an undercover mission. What it means is your government will not take responsibility for you. They will not confess that you work for them. Therefore, we can do anything with you. Since you are an American, the Russian humanitarians will not make much fuss even if anyone finds out. Concisely, no one will ask about you if you die during my experiments.” Roy listened to his statements while trying to figure out a plan.
“So, Mr. American spy! Are you ready to play?” The voice turned into devious laughter. Roy trembled with fear.
