Trigger Locked: The Mind Control Assassins

Chapter 1

We were only 13 when the government halted Transhuman Development Project. It was because the microchip implant in the body caused side effects to the test subjects. As a result, many of them had developed some behavioral side effects. The known side effects were apathy, hallucinations, and cognitive dysfunction. Not only that, some of them died due to the brain death.

The lead researcher, Dr. Nobuhiko Hayama, insisted that the side effects were only temporary. But somehow, the side effects lasted longer than what they've expected. And they didn't expect death would occur to the test subjects. They believed that death was unlikely in this situation. Because of that, Dr. Hayama and the other researchers involved were pleaded guilty. Instead of being convicted, they were put under the surveillance.

There's no telling if the government decides to abandon the project for good. After all, this project is one of the best ways to solve the aging and declining population. This project will become another breakthrough for the aging population besides the medical advancements.

Well, that seems like a noble idea. But there are still some people who reject the thought of using a microchip implant on their body. Maybe this is about to change if they see the positive outcome from this project. But with the project's failure, I doubt that people are still okay with this idea.

The parents whose children were the test subject became furious with the government's action. They believe that the government still wants to continue this dangerous project. Despite their anger, there's nothing much they can do about this. At least, the government is willing to compensate for the damage incurred.

Of course, the compensation does come with a caveat, though. The government is willing to pay for the damage if the parents keep this incident as a secret. If they've decided to come clean, they will receive a death threat instead. No one will think that the government will go that far just to bury the secret. It's not surprising they're willing to do it as long as it won't cause a public outcry.

Luckily, the children who survived are now able to lead a normal life. It all thanks to the therapists who the government hired to reverse the side effect. It's not easy, but their effort pays off. But then again, the therapists still need to keep an eye on them. There is a possibility for any of the abnormalities to occur at any time. But for the time being, nothing strange happened to them so far.

While it's true that Dr. Hayama is the lead researcher on this project, he's more or less a puppet who runs the show. In reality, the key people who drive the research are Satoru Yuuya and Dr. Frederick Choo. Both of them are researchers from UC Berkeley. Dr. Hayama is only there to camouflage their involvement in this project. It was unfortunate that Dr. Frederick Choo died in a car accident later that year.

There's not much information about Satoru Yuuya. We only know that he used to be a biomedical engineer and neuroscientist in UC Berkeley. He was charged with a murder of his former colleagues while he was still working there. The cause of their death and the motive behind the murder was unknown. But FBI and CIA assumed that he must have used a microchip implant to kill them. Their death remains a mystery even until now.

Even until to this day, they're still pursuing him in the hope that they will find the truth. They only list him as a suspect, but they have no proof which indicates he committed the murder in the first place. They're only making an assumption based on his final research. At that time, he was doing research about using a microchip implant as a mind control device. They drop the assumption later because the research itself is incomplete. So, he's less likely to use such method to kill everyone in the research lab.