Someone's In My Head (WATTYS AWARD WINNER 2015)

Epilogue

From: The Duke

Date: June 17, 2014

Timestamp: 09:31:21 PM

To: The Olympus Committee

Subject: RE: STATUS REPORT ON OPERATION ATHENA

Standing here, with the crucial experiment records and methodology in hand, I am proud to report that Operation Athena is a complete success.

Of course, there were several unforeseen circumstances, but that did not deter the operation in one way or another. Wong's untimely accident and the indiscreet removal of Dr. Gordon led to some serious police involvement, which not only caused our subject, Jarod, to vanish off the grid, but also posed as a huge impediment to our efforts in tracking and monitoring him.

Fortunately, our subject was clever enough to track down the correct position of the Athena Lab, but this was when a new factor entered the equation and altered it completely―Agent Miranda Lisanthe.

Agent Lisanthe is a Junior Field Agent assigned to my division a six years ago by the Agency. Much to my annoyance, she was assigned to work under me, but I had to accept in order not to raise any suspicion. She was a bright girl, and I knew I had to be careful so as not to compromise the operation. Of course, I briefed her on the Malader Organization, along with a hundred other 'criminal' organizations on our primary watch-list, but didn't elaborate any further for any one of them.

Unfortunately, a year later, Miranda managed to intercept an encrypted message incriminating Malader Organization of human experimentation and began her investigation after obtaining approval from our Supervisor. This was the same list Lenny had sent to Kristoff before killing himself―the Athena's Children list.

I had no choice. Inserting myself into the investigation, I tried my best to plant all kinds of false leads and fake information and fed them to Miranda. Then, when the 'cease and desist' letter came down from up high, I was more than grateful to tell her that we had to stop the investigation, although on the outside, I displayed otherwise.

So, when I finally realized that Miranda had established contact with our subject, it was too late. There was no way for me to dissuade her without sounding suspicious.

That was our first problem. But taking care of it was relatively easy; I had Wong lock her in the Holding Room back in LAMRAED while Kristoff and I worked on Jarod. She eventually got out by killing Wong and incapacitating the other captors, but that was the least of my problems then.

Our second problem surfaced when Kristoff tried to establish Phil's control within Jarod's host body. At that moment of time, Kristoff had been hiding the fact that the procedure was actually a complete success, which was a shame. If he had not done so, we could've saved large amounts of effort and completed Operation Athena 36 hours before schedule.

Instead, thinking that the procedure was a complete disaster, I ordered the chauffeur to have Jarod killed when I heard that Kristoff had allowed Jarod to visit Tanya (Phil's wife) at the Chambers' Mental Institute. After all, he had become nothing but yet another unsuccessful subject, just like the previous ones over the past fifteen years

He failed, of course, since Jarod had Phil―an experienced combat guru―guiding him along the way.

Then, Kristoff, who was impersonating Lenny in order to get Jarod and Phil to trust him, turned traitor by trying divulge information regarding Operation Athena to Jarod. It was a shame that he had to be taken out, a man as bright and diligent as him.

Not willing to be daunted, I sent another team of agents to take Jarod down at the Rembrandt Motel. Once again, they failed disgracefully. Then, the turning point came. I was still cursing the agents for their failure when luck came knocking on the door once more. Agent Lisanthe, who'd been nosing in on our operation for the last five years, had called in, and was telling us that she wanted to come in with the package.

It was like a miraculous deus ex machina.

When the two of them arrived, I put Jarod through a simulation, in hopes of trying to find out the fundamentals of the procedures Kristoff used to establish Phil's consciousness within Jarod's mind. Through that simulation, I managed to retrieve a significant piece of knowledge that changed everything.

Optogenetics. A simple, seemingly comprehensible word, but yet its potential is so endless that I would never have been able to conceptualize such an experiment on my own. But Lenny did. He managed to formulate a way to manipulate the light-sensitive quality of the protein Halorhodopsin into an inhibitor for the motor functions of the host consciousness over its own body.

But that discovery led to yet another discovery. As it was nearly impossible for either Phil or Jarod to comprehend the complex scientific theorem behind the manipulation of the Halorhodopsin protein, thus that situation could only mean one thing―that Lenny had been present within Jarod's head all along.

Remember five years ago, when Lenny had committed suicide by deliberately shooting himself in the head? Remember the suspicion I had regarding Lenny's choice to kill himself inside a freaking laboratory? Well, the suspicions are now confirmed.

Lenny had deliberately committed suicide to inject himself into the vials containing Phil's consciousness. In other words? He hitchhiked.

As soon as I realized this, I stopped the simulation. Once Jarod regained consciousness, I made him reveal the fundamentals of the genetic engineering and the neurological elements behind the mind control, knowing for sure that it Lenny―who was inside Jarod―telling me everything I asked.

It was an incredible idea, if not flawless. I have to admit that I was impressed by Lenny's ingeniousness and his radical procedures. But now, to make the plan work, I had to retrieve the fully documented methodology and the experiment records. And as Jarod was reluctant to comply, I had no choice but to threaten him. Honestly, I'm not particularly proud of this part, but thankfully, it got the work done.

Well, and the rest, I believe, is history.

As a final note, I hereby conclude that after a lengthy 17 years of research and experimentation, my part of the mission―Operation Athena―is complete. Next, it is up to the crew of Operation Hermes to pull off the second part of our mission. I send my sincerest wishes for their speedy success, for if we are to accomplish our mission within the 20-year limit that we'd agreed on, any more dilly-dallying is not an option.

Mission Olympus is a go.