Chapter 23, The Next Experiment

“Ok, listen to everything I tell you Peter.” Jim said, hoping to make Peter realize how important the information was that Jim was about to share. “To begin with, I’m sure you’re wondering why it’s a burner cell phone that you’re calling.”

Peter was wondering why it was a burner phone, but he was wondering more about the strange number Jim gave him. “The burner phone isn’t what I’m most curious about, what’s really strange to me is how the number that you gave me is even a working number. How in the hell does a number like that even work?”

“Look at the number I gave you, think about the twelve numbers following the one at the beginning.” Jim told Peter.

Peter looked down at the paper again and thought it over briefly. “There’s nothing I can see that explains it Jim, so just tell me, would you?”

“Peter, it’s an IP address, the numbers after the 6, it’s an IP address.” Jim told him.

“Jim, you know I don’t know shit about computers, other than just enough to break them.” Peter said with the hopes of making the conversation a little less serious. Peter did know a little more about computers than just how to break them, but it wasn’t anything about IP addresses, or networking at all.

“There’s not enough time for me to explain how everything works, but in short, the 1 gets you an open line, 876 tells the phone to call a VPN, and the rest is an IP address in Azerbaijani.” Jim told Peter.

“Where the hell is Azerbaijani at?” Peter asked.

“It’s a small country outside of Turkey, but that’s not what’s important Peter, there’s things more important than the fucking phone number, I just wanted to give you a little bit of an explanation about the number. I don’t have the time to tell you how the phone number works, or why, it just works, okay?” Jim finished.

“Okay, Jim, what the fuck do you need to tell me then?” Peter asked.

“Four years ago, when you started at the company, we were in the middle of advancing our technology further than any other genomics company that we were competing against. Two of our lead scientists, Dr. Williams and Dr. Hastings, had come up with a way to use the DNA database for the government, a way to find the best soldiers for our military.” Jim said.

“Yeah, I know all that Jim, that’s the reason they sent my ass down here to Australia.” Peter told him.

“You know that part, but you don’t know the whole story. They don’t want you to know the whole story. I found out everything that I shouldn’t have known, that’s why you became the VP and I was asked to retire. One night I had to work late, but no one knew I was in the office. I heard Tom; you know the CEO of CSI?”

“Yes, I know who Tom is, remember, I took your position after you left. How the hell would I not know who he was?” Peter responded.

“Don’t be a smartass Peter.” Jim said.

“Sorry, continue then.” Peter said.

“Anyway, I overheard Tom in the hall outside of my office door talking to Dr. Williams about some new project. They didn’t say too much as far as details go, but I heard them talking about a project that they called Apex Telum. I had no idea what the hell Telum meant. I knew what Apex meant, but I had never heard the word Telum before. It sounded like it was something serious, so I decided to make note of what they called it as I was finishing up my reports for the board meeting the following day. I finished one the reports and was looking for a network folder to save it to when I saw a folder on the executive share drive titled AT. I knew I had seen that folder plenty of times, but after hearing Tom and Dr. Williams talking about some project named Apex Telum, the folder name caught my attention. I tried to open the folder, but it required a password. I tried our normal executive passwords that we use for just about everything, since the security at CSI sucked ass for the type of company it was. But none of those passwords worked.

I decided to save the report I was working on before anything happened to cause me to lose the hours of work that I had done. After saving the report on the share drive, and on a flash drive, I decided to go back to the AT folder. I figured out that Tom was the last person to modify the folder. I knew Tom was the most horrible person at coming up with secure passwords, hell the guy’s iPhone and laptop pin were all 4901, the month, day, and year that he founded the company, April ninth of 2001. I also knew his network password contained 4901 and had always guessed his ATM pin was probably the same damn number. So, I tried a couple of combinations using those numbers. I finally figured out the password. It was Cr3@t-“

Peter cut him off and finished what Jim was saying “!0n4901. I know that’s the password that we have to use to get into one of the new network drives now.”

“Yeah.” Jim said. “Anyway, I got into the folder and found numerous other folders and miscellaneous documents, but there was folder that caught my attention. It was titled ATTS in capital letters. It caught my attention because for some reason ATTS made me think of the initials Apex Telum Top Secret. Maybe it was just a lucky guess, but when I tried to open the folder it required another password. Every other folder allowed me to open them without an additional password, but ATTS was the only one that required a password. Seeing as how Tom’s sense of security sucked ass, I used the same password that let me into the AT folder initially. Sure enough, I got into that ATTS folder. In that folder was a huge number of documents, everything from Excel spreadsheets, to PDF’s. There were also folders inside of there, the folders all had NWO followed by what I had assumed was country abbreviations. There were a lot of different files and documents, but one folder in particular had numerous documents that explained a lot of what was going on with the company.

“There was a folder titled Subject 231, so, I opened that folder up and that’s when I found out more about CSI than I was ever meant to find out. There’s way too much for me to go into detail on the phone about, but you need to get the hell out of Australia, immediately.” Jim said.

“How am I supposed to get out of here Jim, I just got to Australia, there’s no way I can get a flight out. And why the hell do I even need to leave?” Peter asked Jim.

“You need to get out of there because if you don’t, you’re gonna end up dead, Peter.” Jim said.

“What the fuck are you talking about Jim? Why would I die? This ain’t a fucking movie man, what you’re talking about sounds like the shit that happens in movies. This is real life Jim, there’s no way- “Peter was cut off.

“Peter, reality is more fucked up than fiction, especially with what I’m talking about.”

“So, what exactly makes you think I’ll end up dead if I don’t leave immediately?” Peter asked.

“Do you remember me asking if you had anyone follow you from the airport to the hotel?” Jim asked.

“Yeah, and I told you there wasn’t anyone that followed me.” Peter said.

“But you did tell me that there was someone that you saw on the plane that you also saw at the airport staring at you” Jim said.

“That’s right” Peter answered.

“Was he wearing a grey suit with a red tie?” Jim asked.

“Yeah, how did you-“ Peter started to ask.

“And was he wearing sunglasses the entire time, like he was a part of the secret service?” Jim continued.

“You’re starting to freak me out Jim, how the hell do you know all of this?” Peter asked.

“You remember me telling you that I found that folder called Subject 231? Well, that’s how I Know.” Jim said.

Peter was now more freaked out by the conversation with Jim than he had been earlier when he talked to Jim at the airport. “Okay Jim, you’ve got my full attention now.”

“The guy that you saw on the plane and at the airport is Subject 231. One of the files was a picture of someone, more like something, that Dr. Williams and Dr. Hastings came up with.”

“Wait, wait, wait!” Peter said. “You’re telling me that you found proof that the lab invented a person? That’s extremely farfetched Jim, even with me keeping an open mind.”

“I know it’s hard to believe, and if I was you, I’d probably think I was senile; but I’m serious Peter, I’m not fucking with you. But it’s not exactly someone that they invented or made. When they first discovered what they could do with the DNA technology in the lab they recruited, well, more like forcefully recruited a candidate to become Subject 231. They worked out a deal with an inmate in the Mansfield Correctional Facility in Mansfield Ohio. Subject 231 used to be Inmate 5943B1, or Anthony M. Edwards. He was a convicted murderer. He worked for the Sinaloa Cartel as an enforcer. He was responsible for tracking down informants that worked with the FBI to turn over evidence on the cartel.

“They worked with the US government to get Anthony’s convictions overturned in exchange for him agreeing to work with CSI. What Anthony didn’t know was that they were going to implant a chip in him that allowed them to control everything he did.” Jim told Peter.

“Jim, what the hell does any of this have to do with DNA or what I’m here to talk to the Australian government about?” Peter asked.

“His DNA is the reason they chose him to be the first subject that CSI would recruit and train for the US government’s military, the military that the public doesn’t know about.” Jim continued.

“What the fuck do you mean the military that the public doesn’t know about?” Peter asked.

“I don’t know much about that Peter, I just read enough in the ATTS folder to know that there’s a part of the military that CSI is working with that they don’t talk about. They fund this part of the military with black budgets, budgets that have no details listed due to what they call “national security”.

“Anthony’s DNA was sent to CSI by the federal prison system to start a database on convicted felons, but Anthony’s DNA raised a flag within the software. They traced his DNA back to Nathan Hale. Nathan Hale was a patriot spy during the revolutionary war. Nathan was a specialist in gathering intelligence. CSI could see that the DNA traits that made Nathan a successful spy was enhanced with Anthony’s DNA. Anthony was the only federal inmate in the CSI database that was a descendant of anyone notable. So, they got Anthony’s conviction overturned. The first thing they did was implant a chip behind Anthony’s left ear. After they implanted the chip, they started Anthony’s training.” Jim said.

“What exactly did he need training on?” Peter asked.

“They needed to train him to be a soldier. He was used to doing things the way he wanted to do things, but the government didn’t work that way. And CSI sure as hell wasn’t going to let him become a liability instead of an asset. He had experience with intelligence gathering, but he needed further training. That was all part of the experiment though. The chip was designed to control his thoughts and his actions on command. The chip remotely communicated with a tactical software that the NSA developed.” Jim told him.

“What does any of that have to do with killing me? What in the hell does this guy wanna kill me for? Better yet, why does CSI want me killed?” Peter asked.

“You’re their next experiment Peter.” Jim told him.