The President appeared to struggle to keep up with the revelations.
‘So they stole something that we developed and then weaponized it?’
‘That’s pretty much what happened,’ Ethan said. ‘They forced the NSA abductees to perfect the technology and then tested it on them. The body of one of the abductees washed up on a Kowloon shore two days ago, his frontal lobes a mess. We’re assuming the other three operatives are now dead.’
‘What about the terrorists out of Basra? How do they connect to all of this?’
‘They were hired by the Chinese to smuggle the technology into hospitals used by United States military personnel working in Iraq. During routine medical procedures, the Chinese had paid off senior medical staff to insert the implants into victims under general anesthetic, either within Iraq or at other military installations around the globe. We believe that this was how General Thompson and Commander Veiron were implanted.’
The President didn’t take long to figure out the rest.
‘Something with the deal goes bad, the terrorists take off with the technology and the know how to implant people and they head here.’
Jarvis gestured to one of the screens in the bunker, where an image of a rugged looking Middle Eastern man had appeared.
‘Abrahem Nassir,’ he identified the grainy image of a swarthy man photographed in a bustling market street in Iraq. ‘His father, an engineer, is believed to have been forced by the Chinese to smuggle implants into Iraq to be inserted into American service personnel during the 2003 invasion. Abrahem’s family were murdered shortly afterward in a place called Aljazaer Park, an act which we think he believes was conducted by American soldiers but we think may have occurred at the hands of Chinese spies disguising themselves as Americans, intending to clear up any loose ends.’
‘So the Chinese ensure that Abrahem targets the United States,’ the President surmised.
‘That may have been their intention,’ Jarvis confirmed, ‘but we have information that Abrahem’s wife and two children were killed in 2008 during an American bombing raid over the south of Basra. If he harbored any doubt over who was behind his father’s death, he won’t care about that any more. He’s the one we’re looking for because he has both motive and means.’
The President stood and looked up at the image of Abrahem; the dark and hooded eyes, the dense stubble on his chin, the thick neck and arrogant glare.
‘Is he in the country yet?’ he asked.
‘We don’t know,’ Jarvis admitted. ‘Despite tracking him down to a militant hideaway in Somalia, a Special Forces team that accompanied Ethan and Nicola here was unable to apprehend Abrahem. We’re sure he’s coming here from the interrogation of his accomplices, so we must assume that he is even now planning his attack and attempting to enter the country.’
The President turned back to Jarvis.
‘Is this brain control even possible?’ he asked. ‘I cannot believe that we would have created technology like this, that we would have attempted something so inhumane?’
Jarvis sighed.
‘Sadly Mister President, it’s not the first time that something like this has happened and this time there may be elements of our own intelligence service hoping that Abrahem’s attack goes through.’
The President froze in motion as he stared at Jarvis.
‘That’s a weighty claim to make, Mister Jarvis,’ he rumbled. ‘I hope for all our sakes that you have something to back it up.’
Ethan spoke for Jarvis as he looked up at the President.
‘Our agencies did something like this once before,’ he replied, ‘and the country compensated the families of the victims as a result.’
The President sat down.
‘Tell me, everything, right now,’ he said.
XXXII
The President sat expectantly at the head of the table as Jarvis stood up and paced back and forth across the bunker as he spoke.
‘The whole thing was started by the CIA back in the 1950s. They initiated a series of experiments that by any measure would be considered the stuff of science fiction even today, let alone back then. The whole initiative was operated under the umbrella of something called MKULTRA.’
‘What was MKULTRA?’ the President asked.
‘That project’s details are veiled under Executive Order three — zero — one — zero — five,’ Jarvis replied.
An Executive Order was a directive signed by the President of the United States and a policy that transcended administrations.
‘Which one of my predecessors signed,’ the President reminded him. ‘The Executive Order shields the project from the public, not from this office. Go on.’
‘MKULTRA was the name of a covert project run by the CIA under various different guises throughout the second half of the twentieth century,’ Jarvis explained. ‘Its origins occurred during Operation Paperclip, a mission to apprehend German scientists after World War Two who had been responsible for torture under the Nazi regime. Project Bluebird developed from this operation and was tasked with the study of mind control, enhanced interrogation techniques and behaviour modification. It was renamed Project Artichoke in 1951 and run by the CIA Office of Scientific Intelligence, before then becoming Project MKULTRA in 1953. The program was run by the CIA’s Technical Service Staff, via the designator MK, and it received the highest security classification rating, ULTRA.’
‘And what did this project do?’
Jarvis continued to pace as he spoke.
‘It started with a comprehensive study of the phenomena of hypnosis, before moving into exploratory projects using forced morphine addiction and withdrawal, the use of chemicals and deprivation of sensory stimuli to produce amnesia and vulnerability in subjects,’ Jarvis explained. ‘In a memo dated 1952, an officer involved stated that the project’s main goal was being to ask: “Can we get control of an individual to the point that he will do our bidding against his will and even against fundamental laws of nature, such as self — preservation?”’
The President looked at Ethan. ‘That’s just the kind of mind control that you’re saying the Chinese, and by extension Abrahem Nassir, are wielding.’
‘The work of MKULTRA was semi — passive,’ Jarvis said. ‘It worked using drugs rather than direct manipulation of the brain, weakening the victim’s resolve and resistance to suggestion. The project continued right through the 1960’s with experiments on unwitting American subjects both military and civilian. Agents injected drugs like LSD into drinks and water supplies, hallucinogens were administered without the subject’s knowledge or consent and so on. It eventually progressed to deep — hypnosis programs designed to create unwitting assassins who were then stationed in politically volatile countries and could, upon a given command, carry out attacks on enemies of the state. It was intended that their actions could be explained away as psychosis or similar, divesting any blame on the USA.’
‘Sleeper assassins,’ the President acknowledged. ‘Similar programs were uncovered in Russia after the Cold War.’
Jarvis nodded.
‘MKULTRA developed an overseas arm, MKDELTA, which was responsible for the spraying of aerosolized LSD onto the village of Pont — Saint — Esprit in France in 1951. The event resulted in an outbreak of mass psychosis, with seven French citizens dead and more than thirty committed to mental institutions.’