As Michael rang Dr.Angus' bell, he carefully adjusted the mysterigen inside his sachet. "Hello, Dr.Angus!" He shouted as the doctor's head has popped out. As the doctor opened the gate, he started looking around, as if trying to look out for something. When Michael asks what he is looking for, Dr.Angus just shoved him inside and locked the gate very quickly.
As Michael sat down on the sofa, he asked the scientist one more time about what he was looking out for and once more got the clicking of the locks as an answer. When he looked over at him, all he said was "Well Mike, you're early today, why is it so?"
"I was just a bit quicker today." Michael reported quickly.
Fearing that the doctor may see through his lies, Michael shifted his head to the side and focused on the once ransacked drawers. Luckily for him, all the he got was a glimpse of an eying from him. "Ah well, if that is the case, I would advise you that you should be a little bit more punctual next time, I was just going to finish my tea. Just stay here for now."
"Sure." Michael agreed as he waited the doctor to leave. Then, hearing the door slam itself, Michael slid towards the drawers with the metallic note. He quietly pulled open the drawer, and double checking the kitchen door, he slowly lifted the pile of junk and pushed the sheet between them. As he peered over his shoulders to make sure that Dr.Angus isn't near him, and he saw the exact person staring at him!
Before Michael was able to react, the doctor grabbed him by both shoulders and asked in a shouting manner: "Tell me honestly, boy. Why did you take that away from me?"
"Well I was..." Michael lied, or tried to, but he found the face of the old doctor too stern and serious to just simply state anything off as a fact. So instead, he answered: "I was too curious last week when I found it on the ground."
Unlike how he expected, Dr.Angus instead loosened his grip and his face. "Well then, what did you do with it?" he asked in a more relaxed tone.
Feeling a bit more relaxed, Michael answered: "At first, I took it as just a simple sheet of weird material. But after reading multiple books, I found it to be a bit more than just that. I then speculated that it must be an encrypted message instead, so I tried to heat it to find out..." Knowing the doctor's temper, Michael prepared himself for a scolding, but instead, the doctor burst into a laugh, which surprised him very much.
Just when the doctor seemed to have calmed down, he started laughing again as he cried out, "Finally! You really are Michael Excelon! Yes!"
Confused, Michael asked: "Are you okay? What do you mean?" To which the happy doctor finally stopped laughing.
"Well this is going to be a long story, and I would like to say time is what we got, but this is not the time where it is. So, I will make this as short possible. Is that alright?"
Still surprised and afraid of the doctor's sudden changes in emotion and behaviour, he obliged by nodding his head in a shaky and slow manner.
Grinning, Angus asked: "Alright. Firstly, what do you know about this town of Olympia?"
Giving the question a deep thought, Michael gave his best answer. "Actually, now that I think of it, not much. It is quite a grand and famous town with a number of Noble Prizes in science and Medallions in the Super Bowls. The only problem in the place is actually just the customary stereotypes, but everyone said that that's just my problem and I'm some anomaly."
Giving a sigh, Dr.Angus replied: "Well, that is just what people, or I should say specifically, the culture was made to make you believe. Now, I'll need to tell you about my story. I know, for a person of my age, you'd think that my stories would easily fill up as much as any book can take. But there is no time and this is no place for us to hear the full story. So instead, I am going to skip to the part where everything started.
During my twenties, I had a job at the Olympia Laboratories, where I worked with Wright, my best friend, classmate and partner since college. We were one of the best, I tell you. Around fifty years ago, with most of the towns already founded or independent yet neither of them having a specialty of their own, almost fifty leaders and mayors agreed in a competition where each town and village has to present something to show off their intelligence or taste in art. Hence at the time, I was sent with Wright and one more person, Alex was sent as a group in the competition. I would admit that I can be a bit proud at times, but other than Wright, I'd say that Alex was the only other genius that I've seen in my life, she has degrees in psychology, neuroscience and computer science. Hence, with Alex as the leader, we created the obvious invention which we called the Therapy Hat. It was a very heavy and metallic hat, however, by shooting weak electric pulses in the correct spots, it can simulate certain feelings in your brain. It was intended to be used on very severe cases of depression, dementia or any neurologically caused illnesses. In fact, when we used it on a patient, it worked! We were obviously soon awarded with the winner of the competition, the annual Noble Prize and celebrated upon the fact that not only can we now save so many stressed out patients, but also on the fact that this very ordinarily named hat will soon open a new generation in science!"
"Wow," Michael answered, "but what happened? This invention of yours don't exist, and no one has ever heard of it before."
"Ah yes, I was coming to that. You see, the concept of using electric pulses to alter the neurons' electric pulses was actually something very new at the time, which obviously made experimenting with it was extremely tough. Of course, we tried testing it on dogs, chimps and rats. However, the results were very inconsistent. Not only was this unsatisfactory, it was also disappointing since we already had a possibly working machine made out yet we cannot perform an experiment with good results.
This went on for weeks, still with neither suitable nor willing test subjects. With only a few days more than a week left until judging day, Alex became very impatient, and decided to be the test subject. Wright and I found it an obviously bad idea considering that she doesn't really have any mental issues and tried to stop her. However, Alex insisted on the idea and said that we don't need to change anything about her mind and if it works, no harm should come to her. After a long discussion, we agreed on that we will try to insert emotions into her brain with the Therapy Hat, just to see if it can actually enter inputs into the brain without side effects. Well guess what, it worked! We didn't tell her exactly what we were put into her brain, yet she could always give the correct response. Even better, when we scanned her brain, everything was perfectly normal! With definite assurance based on that experiment, we got actual patients that require mental help and it worked on all of them. Soon, this assisted us in becoming the champion.
Sadly, soon after that we found out that we were wrong about the side effects of our marvelous invention. This side effect was not one that can be detected by a brain scan, and neither is it one that all the patients had. This problem was one that cannot be explained by any field of science, and ironically it has occurred upon Alex's brain. It was pride and obsession.
Neither Wright nor I have used the Therapy Hat, hence neither of us knew how it feels to use it either. Yet we soon found out about it. Ever since we tested the Therapy Hat on Alex, she started becoming very irritable in mornings, and soon we staring seeing her with eyebags and started yawning all the time. We thought that it was a side effect of the Therapy Hat, however she denied it and said that it was just her working overtime on her invention. Furthermore, the results from the other patients did not yield this result, so we ignored her conditions, at least for about five days. However, her conditions became more and more chronic and severe, as we found her being abnormally irritable and overly anxious at times with her face very pale. However instead of doing something about it, we still decided that since Alex was the leader and was the one saying that she was okay, which was also proved by the brain scanner. Then, after the announcement of our victory, we started to clean up the lab, and that was when Wright and I just realised that there was actually a build in hidden camera in the lab that we did not notice. Feeling curious, we played the tape on the camera to see what Alex stayed all night for. Then we found out that she has been using the Therapy Hat every midnight when we were asleep! Not only were we shocked by Alex's lies, we felt inquisitive at her sudden and bizarre actions and behaviour we saw on the tape. After a quick discussion among the two of us, we agreed that we would wait out in the laboratory and catch Alex in the act.
Just as we expected, when I suggested to Alex that I will be the one to be transfer the Therapy Hat over to the conference location, she told me that she would do it for me and I should take a break or go back to partying instead, where she then pushed me out of the lab and went to look for Wright. Soon after that, Wright also appeared out of the door being persuaded by Alex. However instead of going home after having her slamming the door of the main testing chamber with the Therapy Hat inside, we went up to the control room where the tiny television was connected to the surveillance camera, where we saw Alex pressing certain buttons of the Therapy Hat's control board, and sitting on the chair then putting it on her head, just as she reached for the 'Start' button, we ran down, and rammed through the door, just quick enough to catch her before she used it.
'Alex, what were you doing?' We shouted as I turned off the Therapy Hat and Wright pulls her off it.
Alex tried to deny her actions, however went speechless as we showed the pictures of her using the Therapy Hat which we printed, each of a different day.
Upon looking at the pictures, her face went from angered to shocked in less than a second. Then, just as we expected her to yield to us, she started giggling erratically. Then, using her hand to hold her hair back up, she sneered: 'Ah, yes, so you know! Yes, I admit it. I have been using my beloved Therapy Hat for maybe a few more times then I myself would recommend. I'd say you know that too, but I daresay you don't know what I have found out about it, do you?'
I felt quite offended by her comments, yet just as I clenched my fists, she continued: 'Well, I think you two boys will never figure it out, so I'd tell you to instead in the simple version so your dull little minds can understand. The Therapy Hat doesn't change your emotions by changing the electrical links between the emotion-controlling neurons. Yes, that was what we, Including me, have intended to create. However, in our mistake, we have made something better. It can change your memories! Don't you see? The advancement we've made aren't for therapies, it's an advancement that allows us to gain any types of control over the brain! By changing one's memory, we can give any command and it will be followed, without any questions by the subject! Isn't that just great? Just make him, or her believe that he or she is an agent or just needs to do it for the world or something! Hey, now that I think of it, I bet that we can create the opposite of my marvelous invention! We could make one to extract information instead! We can do that by...'
As she indulged herself in her own fantasy of whatever she calls science, Wright nudged me to attempt to contain her and call the authorities, and I agreed. As she went on and on, I sneaked away and went to the storeroom, where a straitjacket is stored for emergencies, and returned to Wright with it. Before Alex could start on her concept of tweaking brains, with Wright grabbing her by the arms, I fitted the straitjacket on Alex. It was quite a struggle however we were still successful in controlling her. We did not have an actual quarantine room, so we instead used a tranquilizer, tied her to a chair and called the authorities.
Soon thereafter, the agent arrived and after hearing our story, he told us that no matter what happens, we must not speak of this to anyone to avoid any rumours and spoiling the country's good name, which we obliged to as Alex is put behind the van. Believing that that will be the end of it, we headed off home.
However, after we were given the Noble Prize, we were telephoned by the mayor who states that Alex has escaped during the transport to the asylum, and has killed the transporters. He advised us to try to be more careful just in case, while on the other hand he will be reinforce the security, military and will soon reinforce the borders too. I discussed with Wright, and at first we did not do much to protect ourselves, however before long we got message stating that there was a break in in the storage and a hand few scientific equipments and bioweapons were stolen. Soon, we realised that if we must take measures soon and fast should we want to stay alive. When we got word that there is now a new tradition in which men are not allowed to have scientific degrees, Wright and I discussed about it and after agreeing that this was supposed to be Alex's act of tampering laws to bait us out, we decided to never make contact again, and for me I decided to migrate to McAllenson, then that was the last that I heard of my partners.
Well, that was until exactly ten years ago, when I came here as a traveller, I saw him. At first, I noticed him by accident as he drank black coffee with sugar syrup, which was a habit of his. After a few weeks of observation, I found out that he is indeed Wright, now under the name Ben."
"What a coincidence!" Michael interrupted, "My grandfather's name is Ben too!"
"No it's not," Dr.Angus replied, before taking a deep breath and continuing, " now make sure that what I tell you do not shock you, Wright was your grandfather, just under a new name.
I've found this out by accident, when I came here as a traveller a few years ago, and noticed him. Thinking that it has been long enough and it is already safe, so when I saw him drinking coffee alone at a shop, I went up to him and he was just as surprised and pleased as I was when he saw me. We didn't talk for long, but I was able to learn that he has a family, changed his identity, and most importantly, how you are actually his favourite grandson.
Sadly, the next time I ever met him again was truly the last time I saw him. That was less than a year ago, when he sent a letter to me, telling me that he wishes to talk to me for one last time. When I finally arrived to this town again, I found him quite literally on his death bed, so I identified myself as a friend to the nurse, and got myself to be able to talk with him.
As soon as Wright saw me, he started to tell me something that I did not expect: he has found out about where Alex is. 'Alex actually had a laboratory base in the Saharan desert,' I remember him telling me, 'you would not know this, as she only just mentioned this during the five minutes you sneaked away for the suit. We could move all of this to a small base I have, she said. Of course during the time I didn't care much about it, however when I got news that she escaped, it came back onto my mind. Since you have already left, I decided to investigate about it myself, and when I phoned a department in land ownership, I finally found it. Unfortunately again, I already had a family by then, which barricaded me from investigating it.'"
"Why are you only telling me this now?" Michael asked, "Why didn't you just tell me about it when you saw me?"
"Ah, things aren't that simple, Mike. Firstly, I've never seen you before, so firstly I had to make sure that you are indeed his grandson. Even after that, although I have heard your grandfather say that you are the only child he had that doesn't follow the new tradition in this town and still pursues in science, I still had to make sure that you have enough interest to understand what happened. Of course we also needed to understand a bit about each other in the process."
"What about the sheet of metal note then? It had several characters matching with a script that was found among official letters found by historians."
"Oh, no. That is not an official letter. It was a plan that was written by Alex about the Therapy Hat. The sheet that you took was a copy I made of another plan she wrote. If you were wondering, the metal was actually a special type of steel I have gotten when I had a project during the period when I was outside of this town. As you should have found out, it is a very special type of metal, I don't have time to go into detail here but I'd tell you that it does have some very special properties that most metals don't have."
"Well, in that case, how does me in a way being able to decode part of the metal prove that I am indeed the Micheal you were looking for? Anyone curious enough would attempt to decode it."
"Yes, curiosity is the point of all this. From what I've heard from Wright, you were the only person he ever saw in his life after the change of tradition in this generation to show enough curiosity and interest to attempt in figuring something out instead of asking someone else. Though I must say that this is quite a dangerous act, I can still be useful at times. In case you were wondering, I actually placed the code in my cupboard on purpose as I saw your friend at my door. Although I did not quite expect your friend to come, if at all, however I did predict his behaviour, so I decided to place this test for you."
"Okay, but if you don't mind, I have another question. Why did you decide to move here? Just because you wanted to tell me about my grandfather."
"Yes and no. My biggest intentions were to prepare myself for the journey to the Saharan desert here, while in the meantime also just to really see how much my hometown has changed, as I fear that if I were to really find Alex, this may be my last chance to be here."
"What? Why? What is so dangerous about her? She's probably just as old as you are now, so even if she is alive and free after all these years, how can she be a threat?"
"I don't know, for all I've got is a hunch. However you know what they say, treat every moment as your last. Anyway, I'm going away next week, so this will be a goodbye for us."
"Why can't I come with you? I want to go too! It's the holidays next week and my parents will be out of town for around a week or two, so it'll be perfectly fine. I'm sure that the the Saharan desert in just less than a day's journey if we take the bus!"
"I fear not, have you not heard what I've said? It could be dangerous, neither of us know what my crazy ex-teammate has in store!"
"Come on, please? I've never went anywhere outside of Olympia, and I wish to learn more about your works! I promise to not make any trouble!"
"Okay then, fine. You can come, but make sure no one else knows, and you must follow all my orders. Now, it's nearly time for you to go, so do you follow or not?"
"Yes, sir! I promise! Thank you so much!" Michael shouted, as he grabbed his sachet, and after greeting goodbye, he ran for home, not knowing what his promise will put him into.
Just as we expected, when I suggested to Alex that I will be the one to be transfer the Therapy Hat over to the conference location, she told me that she would do it for me and I should take a break or go back to partying instead, where she then pushed me out of the lab and went to look for Wright. Soon after that, Wright also appeared out of the door being persuaded by Alex. However instead of going home after having her slamming the door of the main testing chamber with the Therapy Hat inside, we went up to the control room where the tiny television was connected to the surveillance camera, where we saw Alex pressing certain buttons of the Therapy Hat's control board, and sitting on the chair then putting it on her head, just as she reached for the 'Start' button, we ran down, and rammed through the door, just quick enough to catch her before she used it.
'Alex, what were you doing?' We shouted as I turned off the Therapy Hat and Wright pulls her off it.
Alex tried to deny her actions, however went speechless as we showed the pictures of her using the Therapy Hat which we printed, each of a different day.
Upon looking at the pictures, her face went from angered to shocked in less than a second. Then, just as we expected her to yield to us, she started giggling erratically. Then, using her hand to hold her hair back up, she sneered: 'Ah, yes, so you know! Yes, I admit it. I have been using my beloved Therapy Hat for maybe a few more times then I myself would recommend. I'd say you know that too, but I daresay you don't know what I have found out about it, do you?'
I felt quite offended by her comments, yet just as I clenched my fists, she continued: 'Well, I think you two boys will never figure it out, so I'd tell you to instead in the simple version so your dull little minds can understand. The Therapy Hat doesn't change your emotions by changing the electrical links between the emotion-controlling neurons. Yes, that was what we, Including me, have intended to create. However, in our mistake, we have made something better. It can change your memories! Don't you see? The advancement we've made aren't for therapies, it's an advancement that allows us to gain any types of control over the brain! By changing one's memory, we can give any command and it will be followed, without any questions by the subject! Isn't that just great? Just make him, or her believe that he or she is an agent or just needs to do it for the world or something! Hey, now that I think of it, I bet that we can create the opposite of my marvelous invention! We could make one to extract information instead! We can do that by...'
As she indulged herself in her own fantasy of whatever she calls science, Wright nudged me to attempt to contain her and call the authorities, and I agreed. As she went on and on, I sneaked away and went to the storeroom, where a straitjacket is stored for emergencies, and returned to Wright with it. Before Alex could start on her concept of tweaking brains, with Wright grabbing her by the arms, I fitted the straitjacket on Alex. It was quite a struggle however we were still successful in controlling her. We did not have an actual quarantine room, so we instead used a tranquilizer, tied her to a chair and called the authorities.
Soon thereafter, the agent arrived and after hearing our story, he told us that no matter what happens, we must not speak of this to anyone to avoid any rumours and spoiling the country's good name, which we obliged to as Alex is put behind the van. Believing that that will be the end of it, we headed off home.
However, after we were given the Noble Prize, we were telephoned by the mayor who states that Alex has escaped during the transport to the asylum, and has killed the transporters. He advised us to try to be more careful just in case, while on the other hand he will be reinforce the security, military and will soon reinforce the borders too. I discussed with Wright, and at first we did not do much to protect ourselves, however before long we got message stating that there was a break in in the storage and a hand few scientific equipments and bioweapons were stolen. Soon, we realised that if we must take measures soon and fast should we want to stay alive. When we got word that there is now a new tradition in which men are not allowed to have scientific degrees, Wright and I discussed about it and after agreeing that this was supposed to be Alex's act of tampering laws to bait us out, we decided to never make contact again, and for me I decided to migrate to McAllenson, then that was the last that I heard of my partners.
Well, that was until exactly ten years ago, when I came here as a traveller, I saw him. At first, I noticed him by accident as he drank black coffee with sugar syrup, which was a habit of his. After a few weeks of observation, I found out that he is indeed Wright, now under the name Ben."
"What a coincidence!" Michael interrupted, "My grandfather's name is Ben too!"
"No it's not," Dr.Angus replied, before taking a deep breath and continuing, " now make sure that what I tell you do not shock you, Wright was your grandfather, just under a new name.
I've found this out by accident, when I came here as a traveller a few years ago, and noticed him. Thinking that it has been long enough and it is already safe, so when I saw him drinking coffee alone at a shop, I went up to him and he was just as surprised and pleased as I was when he saw me. We didn't talk for long, but I was able to learn that he has a family, changed his identity, and most importantly, how you are actually his favourite grandson.
Sadly, the next time I ever met him again was truly the last time I saw him. That was less than a year ago, when he sent a letter to me, telling me that he wishes to talk to me for one last time. When I finally arrived to this town again, I found him quite literally on his death bed, so I identified myself as a friend to the nurse, and got myself to be able to talk with him.
As soon as Wright saw me, he started to tell me something that I did not expect: he has found out about where Alex is. 'Alex actually had a laboratory base in the Saharan desert,' I remember him telling me, 'you would not know this, as she only just mentioned this during the five minutes you sneaked away for the suit. We could move all of this to a small base I have, she said. Of course during the time I didn't care much about it, however when I got news that she escaped, it came back onto my mind. Since you have already left, I decided to investigate about it myself, and when I phoned a department in land ownership, I finally found it. Unfortunately again, I already had a family by then, which barricaded me from investigating it.'"
"Why are you only telling me this now?" Michael asked, "Why didn't you just tell me about it when you saw me?"
"Ah, things aren't that simple, Mike. Firstly, I've never seen you before, so firstly I had to make sure that you are indeed his grandson. Even after that, although I have heard your grandfather say that you are the only child he had that doesn't follow the new tradition in this town and still pursues in science, I still had to make sure that you have enough interest to understand what happened. Of course we also needed to understand a bit about each other in the process."
"What about the sheet of metal note then? It had several characters matching with a script that was found among official letters found by historians."
"Oh, no. That is not an official letter. It was a plan that was written by Alex about the Therapy Hat. The sheet that you took was a copy I made of another plan she wrote. If you were wondering, the metal was actually a special type of steel I have gotten when I had a project during the period when I was outside of this town. As you should have found out, it is a very special type of metal, I don't have time to go into detail here but I'd tell you that it does have some very special properties that most metals don't have."
"Well, in that case, how does me in a way being able to decode part of the metal prove that I am indeed the Micheal you were looking for? Anyone curious enough would attempt to decode it."
"Yes, curiosity is the point of all this. From what I've heard from Wright, you were the only person he ever saw in his life after the change of tradition in this generation to show enough curiosity and interest to attempt in figuring something out instead of asking someone else. Though I must say that this is quite a dangerous act, I can still be useful at times. In case you were wondering, I actually placed the code in my cupboard on purpose as I saw your friend at my door. Although I did not quite expect your friend to come, if at all, however I did predict his behaviour, so I decided to place this test for you."
"Okay, but if you don't mind, I have another question. Why did you decide to move here? Just because you wanted to tell me about my grandfather."
"Yes and no. My biggest intentions were to prepare myself for the journey to the Saharan desert here, while in the meantime also just to really see how much my hometown has changed, as I fear that if I were to really find Alex, this may be my last chance to be here."
"What? Why? What is so dangerous about her? She's probably just as old as you are now, so even if she is alive and free after all these years, how can she be a threat?"
"I don't know, for all I've got is a hunch. However you know what they say, treat every moment as your last. Anyway, I'm going away next week, so this will be a goodbye for us."
"Why can't I come with you? I want to go too! It's the holidays next week and my parents will be out of town for around a week or two, so it'll be perfectly fine. I'm sure that the the Saharan desert in just less than a day's journey if we take the bus!"
"I fear not, have you not heard what I've said? It could be dangerous, neither of us know what my crazy ex-teammate has in store!"
"Come on, please? I've never went anywhere outside of Olympia, and I wish to learn more about your works! I promise to not make any trouble!"
"Okay then, fine. You can come, but make sure no one else knows, and you must follow all my orders. Now, it's nearly time for you to go, so do you follow or not?"
"Yes, sir! I promise! Thank you so much!" Michael shouted, as he grabbed his sachet, and after greeting goodbye, he ran for home, not knowing what his promise will put him into.
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