CHAPTER 3: Fragments

　　My blood was boiling and enraged as the animalistic urge inside me came over me. The sensation that the monster inside me had been dormant for far too long and I was on a cliffs edge and inches away from loosing control over myself. "What do you mean& they`ll kill me?"

　　Brian licked his lips slightly and did his best to sound calm and collected in the moment. "Trevor& the technology that is inside your head, it can`t get out and into the public. Scalpel will gladly kill you off without blinking an eye, rather than risking the chance of another entity getting your head and try to access the neurochip`s technology."

　　Brian reached into his pocket and brought a cell phone up and tapped away as he found what he was looking for. He certainly worked in a quick and efficient manner as I kept my clutches latched onto him and had no inclinations of letting go. As I did my best to just breathe as I let Brian do his best to convince me why I shouldn`t pound him into a pulp. He flipped the phone screen to point towards me.

　　"Trevor. I`m your friend and I am trying to help you. I swear it." His deep Irish voice had a tone of seriousness and sincerity.

　　My eyes locked onto the image, and I could see it was a photo with he and I standing next to each other. Our arms were around each other`s shoulders as we posed for the photo. A gorgeous woman was on the other side with my arm wrapped around her waist. Two other individuals were also in the photo, but none of it seemed real to me because, I was drawing a blank.

　　"Trevor this was taken roughly a month before your last mission." Brian said as he tapped a button and showed a time stamp to me. "This was at a Scalpel retreat that we took together."

　　My grip started to loosen as my shoulders lifted and relaxed with each deep breath I took. My eyes darted back over to his. He still returned a genuine look of concern towards me. His lips pressed down together and his eyes lowered before they returned to the phone. Brian cleared his throat as his thumbed worked to swipe across the screen. I couldn`t help but assume that Brian now realized he could have approached things differently. His hand turned around and showed me the next image.

　　"This is your house in Monmouth Trevor. You bought this the year you left the Air Force and then a year and a half later you came to work for us." The photo was of he and I standing on the front porch of a house. There was a small waist high beige railing that he and I were leaning against as we stood next to one another. We had drinks in our hands and smiles on our faces. His thumb swiped to an image of just the house and I could see in Brian`s expression that he saw the light bulb had turned on.

　　"That& that is my house." My eyes were blinking wildly and my mind now raced with quick flashes of images from within the house. Each one was quickly transitioned through blurred cut scenes.

　　A smile appeared on Brian`s face, "Good! Trev tell me what you`re seeing, walk me through it step by step as best as you can." His deep voice had some high pitches of excitement while he slowly nodded and encouraged me to continue.

　　My grip continued to loosen, and I finally let go of his lab coat. I looked down at his wrinkled jacket where my hands had been and then lifted my gaze up to see Brian patiently waiting for me to continue. "I see what looks to be my bedroom. There are two windows across from me with the sun`s rays piercing through them. I`m travelling through the house, heading outside and through this, neighborhood. It`s beautiful, the houses and lush green grass. I`m jogging down the street. There`s a red food truck, trailer looking thing. An old guy is sitting with me outside it with food in front of me. Now I am back home, and, video games it looks like and wait&" I paused and shook my head as something within the last scene caught my attention.

　　"What is it Trevor?" Brian`s head tilted and his brow was scrunched as he focused intently on every word I said.

　　"There& there is a notification that flashes on the bottom of the computer screen. I`m trying to focus on it and see what it is." I was blinking rapidly as I mentally fought through my fragmented mental database and tried to continually replay this final scene. "It`s an email notification."

　　"Trevor, can you identify any type of feelings you may have had during that moment? What were you emotionally feeling? Do you remember?" Brian encouragingly asked.

　　"I have this sensation, something like feeling hopeful, having purpose, being&" My eyes widened and now the notification that had flashed across the computer screen was zoomed into my view as if I was back and sitting in front of the monitor, all over again. "The subject line says, Contingent Offer Inside.` I am skimming through the email and it says it`s from Scalpel LP."

　　"Holy shit&" Brian said.

　　"What?" I asked.

　　"Well, it would appear that your last memory was the day we brought you on board. I am happy to see that the photo of your house brought that flashback to light. But, if you don`t remember those of us in this image." Brian`s thumb swiped back to the one with the group in it. "I would assume that your memories of everything you`ve done while at Scalpel& they may be gone."

　　"Fuck me." I let out with a long sigh and brought my hands up and clasped both around the back of my neck. My elbows draping out and over my chest.

　　"Trevor, it`s okay, this is huge. I`m&look, I am sorry I may have jump started you into your reaction. I didn`t mean to cause you harm, but we now have a good starting point of something to work with. But I promise you, I am here to help you." He paused for a moment, "Let`s go back and have a seat."

　　I hesitated for a moment, but made sure it was clear as to what I was and wasn`t going to tolerate any further. My head narrowed in on the medical bed I had been resting on and gently sat back down as Brian followed me close behind. He returned to the chair he had been sitting in before I lunged at him following my electrified jolt.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

　　"So, I agreed to a having a chip inserted into my brain, huh?" I asked.

　　Brian looked back at me with a look that the answer to my question was obvious& "Umm& yeah& Well, when the agency informed you that you`d be paid about a quarter of a million dollars a year& you didn`t hesitate at all."

　　I could feel my mouth practically hit the bottom of the floor as soon as he told me that. "I`m getting a quarter mil at this job?"

　　Brian had a blank duh!` expression across his face. I felt I probably should have more refrain as I relearned all this information, but at the same time I couldn`t help myself. He stared at me and once he realized that the reality was still not sinking in&

　　"Yes& yes, you are." He said.

　　We both sat there staring at one another. I was in disbelief that he was serious regarding my paycheck. My hands reached up and rubbed my face, scrunching it and stretching my skin to try and awaken myself further. "Okay, so I joined an agency that does shady shit, and it pays me a lot of fucking money, but a part of all that was you planting a chip into my brain."

　　Brian`s head titled to the side, and he nodded slowly, "Basically."

　　Now that the pain had truly seemed to subside, I was more at peace with the situation. The more Brian started to spend that quality time alongside me, the more at peace I felt with having the interaction with him. It was taking me some time to truly process all this information, but now I couldn`t help the curious part of me that wanted to know more. "Fuck it&so why a chip in my brain?"

　　"Umm& well Trevor& because it makes you better& in a lot of ways." Brian ended with a slight chuckle.

　　I glared at him with some judgement and hoped he read my expression, realizing that added context was going to be his best friend for the rest of this conversation.

　　"The Neurochip tracks your progression, and allows you to choose where you wish to level up your enhancements as you continue to train and utilize your skills. This system works in a multitude of areas that you utilize daily but more specifically in your missions.

　　Your physical skills, weapon knowledge, tactics& Think of the neurochip as your brain and body`s ability to easily display your minds internal database of knowledge and experience. You can lock-in your skills along the way. Not only that, the neurochip allows us to actively communicate with you while you`re on mission. It helps you decrease the items you need to carry out and into the field on operations. No more clunky radios, cell phones that fall out of your pocket and into the ocean& Venezuela ring a bell?"

　　"No& it doesn`t." I shook my head as I made a smug expression.

　　Brian smirked after I answered and swiped away the sarcasm with his hand, "Doesn`t matter. The neurochip is by far the latest and greatest technology that allows us to enhance human performance. We are bringing technology together with the power of human willpower! It`s quite incredible."

　　I did my best to comprehend what Brian was telling me. My imagination did its best to picture everything within my mindscape. The image of an Arnold Schwarzenegger Terminator was all I could think of at the moment. "Sounds like you are making us super soldiers."

　　Brian`s finger shot out towards me with an excited look on his face. "That is exactly how you can think of it. The more you invest in all this, the more stronger you will be, powerful even, in so many areas."

　　I started to grasp the seriousness of all of this. "So that is why Scalpel would kill me& to protect the technology and how it could change everything if it got into the wrong hands."

　　Brian pressed his lips down and closed his eyes with a nod. I could read on his face there was so much more he was not saying or sharing. He opened his eyes to look back at me. "Precisely. There is so much more for us to discuss and get into. I didn`t and don`t want to scare you. But, Trevor, I know you can`t remember but there is so much more that I`ll work with you on as we start to take things one step at a time."

　　Brian`s sincerity was starting to shine and show itself as we spent those few moments together. I started to feel more comfortable with him. He at least approached me with respect and dignity, something I felt was completely different with the fat piece of shit who left screaming at me, and his twat of an assistant Samantha.

　　I gave a head nod towards Brian and asked, "So, what happened to this chip of mine then?"

　　A disappointed and discouraged look came down his face. "We`ve been having a problem with your chip ever since we recovered you from your last mission. I`m not quite sure what exactly happened, but my assumption is that some type of dirty bomb or other electro-magnetic pulse was activated near you. The result was that it fried the internal circuitry within the chip."

　　"We couldn`t design the chip to withstand that?" I asked.

　　"Traditionally, a Faraday bag is what you`d find commercially to protect from those sort of things. A Faraday cage is a structure built within government facilities that are doing high intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance on targets. The problem with neurochips is that technically we would need to create an encasing around the entire chip, but that would basically put more pressure on your brain than what we want. The neurochip is designed to connect to the multiple parts of the brain`s lobes. The frontal lobe, parietal lobe, occipital lobe, and temporal lobe. They are all interconnected to the chip. I haven`t come up with a fully protected casing for the chips, so yours is technically vulnerable in that regard. That is why I believe an EMP is the most likely cause for the shutdown of the chip. It is also why I believe that the result of your chip being affected in that manner, caused you to be in a coma for so long."

　　I rubbed my chin and looked down as I took in the information Brian was giving me. "So why now? Why would my body snap out of the coma after all this time?"

　　"Fuck if I bloody know! Like I said, we were all pretty sure you were gone at this point. I mean& I drew a dick on your face with sharpies every couple of weeks and even that ink has now worn off. That`s how long you were out for."

　　I pointed towards the door briefly, "That Samantha chick said something about seeing dots, or something in my peripheral vision. Why would she ask that?"

　　"Ahh! Yes, that is how you interface with the chip."

　　"How so?" I tilted my head.

　　"Think of the chip interfacing with you through Augmented Reality, otherwise known as AR. Or, even a HUD display from a fighter pilots helmet. If the chip is working properly, you should see what appears to be three dots stacked on top of one another, in the corner of your far peripheral view."

　　I went back to staring blankly ahead but then& I finally caught it. My eyes darted back over to Brian`s face and watched as his eyes began to wide with a questioning look on his face. His demeanor told me that I didn`t have to say another word, he knew as soon as the realization hit me square in my face.

　　[:::]