Cognitive Breach

Captain David Guarnere ran his fingers along the top of his silk dress shirt, feeling the silver locket strung around his neck. He knew the tiny words etched on it by touch: Keep dancing. Even when the music stops. It was his sister’s favorite saying. But she’d stopped dancing.

Brigadier General Korhonen stood looming over David from the head of a large oak table ten yards away, a white screen behind him taller than he was. He probably had no idea how to use it. The mission briefing was coming together too rapidly for a PowerPoint, anyway. Since it was Sunday and everyone at the table had been called in for an emergency briefing, all the techs were at home. The last time his superiors had put something together this quick, people had died, and they’d covered up the conspiracy. Blake had done all the killing then, taking out the Genesis Project trash. Those who talked about it in secret nicknamed it Operation Mindwarp. There was nearly no paper trail outside of whatever was locked away in the archive.

Blake, aka Master Chief Powell, sat beside him with General Bradford and Major Lokey seated on the opposite side. David was the only person in the room that hadn’t seen active combat, though he’d seen plenty of dead bodies in nightmares just as real in the Genesis. There was something about knowing in the back of his mind it wasn’t happening to him that kept him sane. He gave a quick once-over to Blake dressed in combats and swiping the screen on his phone. David wondered how he could sit there looking disinterested after everything he’d been through. Blake was built different. Special ops guys always were.

“I’m giving Captain Guarnere the lead on this mission,” General Korhonen said, his thin eyebrows popping up and down like they were throwing punches at anyone who dared question him. As if his physiology overheard, David felt sweat drip from his armpits down his side. It would add nicely to the mixed smells of cologne, BO, and fat-cat cancer sticks in the room.

“Sir, I’m—”

General Korhonen’s eyebrows locked in a low position. “Happy to do your job, as ordered?”

David risked a glance around the room. He wasn’t imagining it. All their eyes were on him. Blake might have been holding back a smirk. Bastard knows I shouldn’t be taking the lead on special projects.

“Master Chief, you’ll be his second in command.” General Korhonen picked up a folder from the table and slammed it back down. “This is a major opportunity for Genesis to prove itself as more than a tool to resolve post-traumatic stress. Nobody has more experience in dream analysis and research than David. And given the case, none of our other operators are…so civilian. I expect you’ll be seen as less of a threat.”

Nobody in the room blinked. David’s mouth hung open, his mind searching for a reason to prove he shouldn’t be in command. He’d never been a leader, and he was completely fine with that. The medals and heroics were for guys like Blake. If they wanted him to wear combats, they should have told him to. They weren’t nearly as comfortable as Hugo Boss.

“Sir, I understand that—”

General Korhonen went on like David hadn’t spoken. “There are more initials attached to this investigation than there are states. FBI, DHS, ATF, NSA are just a few. And none of them got shit in two days of questioning her.” He flipped open the folder and tossed a thin stack of paper at everyone at the table. Every stack had the same face on the front: a Caucasian woman with light brown hair and warm blue eyes. Printed at the bottom of the photo was the name Doctor Lena Kurov.

David almost laughed at the contrast between all the US agencies involved and this cute young woman who looked as dangerous as a puppy.

“Not a single military acronym in your examples, sir,” Blake said, drumming the table with his fingers to the beat of a song only he knew—maybe “Fortunate Son.” He’d picked up the habit in the last few months. His therapist, Doctor Kendra, had suggested it as a solution to blurting out what he actually thought. Every time he played his fingers, David could only imagine what was going through his mind.

Major Lokey glared at Blake like he wanted to pounce on his hand.

“It’s not a military operation. I pulled a few strings with a couple of friends just to be considered for this, with all the agencies fighting for lead in the case.” General Korhonen cleared his throat and took a sip of water from the glass on the table. “A spy inside the DHS got wind of a planned terrorist operation to bomb an unknown location. When DHS searched the property, they found all the makings of a bomb, but no bomb.”

“And a woman,” Blake said.

“Yes, and Doctor Kurov sleeping in a bed in an upstairs bedroom. She’s not cooperating, despite some unethical interrogations.” General Korhonen spoke like the Genesis hadn’t just finished one of the largest immoral coverups in military history.

David did a double-take of Doctor Kurov’s photo. She didn’t look like a woman that planted bombs, or withstood interrogation. Maybe they’d failed to get information out of her because she didn’t have information to give. “So, we’re going into her dreams to see if we can find the target, the bomb, the terrorists, or all three.”

“That’s correct.” General Korhonen said. “If we can use Genesis for interrogation without wasting time or causing her unnecessary harm and trauma, we’ll have more budgeting dollars than any other acronym in the forces. Make no mistake, I want all three.”

Time, ethics, and money. Especially money. David missed Colonel Marks just a little. The Genesis project leadership, primarily DARPA—Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, responsible for the advancement of technology within the military—had removed Colonel Marks from command after a fiasco involving dream manipulation. Colonel Marks caused the death of an untold number of people, some by Blake’s hand, after the Colonel convinced Blake a terrorist had killed his daughter. But at least Colonel Marks was motivated to help soldiers. After his son was murdered by one of his own men suffering from PTSD, the Colonel made ending PTSD his life’s work. Unfortunately, some of his decisions had come at a tremendous cost. General Korhonen was all about budget and crossing all the necessary t’s to maximize funding, as if that money was being transferred to his personal bank account.

Blake continued to tap a tune on the table as he scanned the papers, flipping faster than he could possibly read.

“Familiarize yourself with the details.” General Korhonen scanned the documents like he, too, was seeing them for the first time. David realized the general meant now and started browsing.

They had little to go on. The files mostly contained large pictures of electrical parts David assumed had something to do with creating a bomb. The profile on Doctor Kurov read like a resume of her accomplishments in AI research. Her doctorate was in computational neuroscience, but David skimmed past the university names, more interested in her publications on autonomous systems. A few documents in the package included articles she’d written: “The Potential of Autonomous Systems,” “The Role of AI in Modern Warfare,” “The Future of AI Research.” David didn’t have time to read the details of the articles, but the opening statements read like someone supporting the military, not preparing acts of terrorism. What had flipped her switch? Assuming they weren’t wrong about her and she wasn’t just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

David skimmed through Doctor Kurov’s academic background again. And again, all he found was pure research in computational neuroscience and AI systems—complex work that seemed far removed from building bombs in an apartment. None of her published papers hinted at extremist leanings or anti-government views.

“Her background doesn’t fit the profile,” David said.

Blake glanced up from his phone. “Smart people snap too.”

“Maybe. But something’s missing here.”

“She’s brilliant, stubborn, and very capable of following through.” General Korhonen said.

“Sounds like my ex-wife.” General Bradford chuckled. “Doesn’t look much like her, though. Too bad. Might have kept her around longer.”

David had never heard a ranking officer speak so frankly, like he was one of the guys at the Saloon. The thought of the rundown bar made David crave a beer. Maybe two or three. He’d planned his day so perfectly, spending all of it with Helen and the boys, but now he had the impression his plans were on hold—indefinitely.

“Any timeframe on when we expect the bomb to go off?”

General Korhonen took a deep breath. “We have nothing. Could be in an hour. Hopefully we have more time than that. The FBI said with the trash they found, the time they’d spent building the bomb, and the bomb now likely in transport, it’s not looking good. Any timeframe is a guess, but they suspect it’s going off in the next few days.”

“FBI? I thought the DHS did the investigating,” Blake said, shaking his head and dropping the file hard on the table as if he’d read it thoroughly, though he’d only given it a cursory glance. “Too many moving parts.”

Major Lokey grumbled. “Focus on your job as number two, Master Chief. Don’t worry about civilian agencies.” Major Lokey spoke like he was talking to a toddler having suddenly seen a train set while playing with trucks.

Blake’s face turned red, and David put his arm out as if to hold Blake down in his chair and gave a quick shake of his head. Now’s not the time. Those two had hated each other ever since Major Lokey fought for Colonel Marks to stay with the project.

“What do we know about the spy that fed us this information?” David said, hurrying to change the subject and shift Blake’s focus to anywhere but Major Lokey.

“Nothing yet. The boots on the ground at DHS don’t want us involved, so they’re dragging their feet. Even with the National Security Advisor’s orders, the usual interagency cooperation has gone dark on this one. They’re holding out. You can always make a few calls, but don’t count on it.” General Korhonen checked his watch. David imagined he had other places to be. Time was money for him.

“So we have no idea what this is about, who is involved, or the target or timeframe. Essentially, the only thing we have is Doctor Kurov.” David didn’t bother to hide the disbelief in his tone. Not only did he not want to lead this mission, but there was almost no mission to lead. Going into her dreams with no focus was like throwing darts in the dark with no idea where the dart board might be located, or if there even was one. This was Blake’s type of mission. David opened his mouth to repeat his objection that he be primary, then closed it. An officer as high ranked as those in the room would stubbornly uphold their decision for the sake of not appearing wrong, even if that decision wasn’t best for the mission.

David followed up with a few more questions about the case and didn’t get any helpful responses. Mission pretty much impossible was being placed on him, and many people’s lives were in the balance. When the officers left the room, Blake smiled and smacked David on the back of the shoulder.

“Well hoorah, Davy. How do you want to tackle this? I was thinking tha—”

“I need to take some time to read through the documents. We aren’t rushing into this half-cocked.” David paused for a breath as he saw Blake’s smile fade. David wasn’t ready for the hammer, and all Blake saw were nails. Still, he had to give him something to do, and since he was primary, he gave Blake the job he didn’t want. “You can get on the phone with whoever in DHS will talk to you. I need to know as much as I can about the intel they received. Glancing at this package, there isn’t much to go on. I want to know how the spy found out about the bomb. Who told him? What do they know? There has to be more to go on than this.”

Blake nodded. “Copy. What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to talk to Doctor Kurov. I want to know what kind of woman she is. Her picture doesn’t jibe with the accusation. Maybe she really doesn’t know anything.”

“Don’t let a beautiful woman waste your time. Her dreams will tell us a lot more than she’ll be willing to.” Blake took another look at her picture. “Can’t imagine what she’s been through. She’s pretty attractive. Look David, get a feel for her if you want to, but let’s get in the Genesis soon and not waste time. You need to get home at some point. Don’t need Helen wondering if you’re having an affair again.” Blake held back a smirk. Helen had nearly lost her mind over a year ago when David took Blake to Tacoma and lied about it to keep it secret. He’d done that for Blake. She’d thought he was covering up an affair. He swore to keep nothing like that from her again, and he hadn’t.

“She knows this is an emergency briefing. I’ll call her after I see Doctor Kurov. Let’s jet.”