Gennita Low - Virtually His

“Which is?”

Helen frowned. Damn. T. got her there. She hated it when T. won in NOPAIN. She shrugged, trying to evade. “I don’t quite know yet. After all, they pulled me out of training as soon as I finished Phase Two, and I’m still miffed about that! I was getting to be quite good at their stupid little tests. Why did they interrupt my remote-view training?”

T. continued turning one of her rings. Her amber-gold eyes were thoughtful as she studied Helen. “Maybe they were trying to keep within the time limit of the contract. Or maybe they didn’t want to lose you. You do know the high cost of the advance stages of the CIA program.”

T. didn’t mean in financial terms. She had been frank about the real dangers when the contract was offered but Helen had been intrigued. Getting a bird’s eye view of so many agencies was an operative’s fantasy. “Yeah,” she said, with another shrug. “The casualties end up in some mental ward and they didn’t want to risk me. Not too soon anyway.”

T. nodded. “You’ve been doing excellently. They’re eager to start with what you can do now. They told me those flashes you have are longer now.”

Helen turned back to the mirror. “I’m not supposed to elaborate too much about the project to anyone.”

“Darling, your state secrets are safe with you. When I want an update, the info I seek is your welfare. However…” T. paused, her eyes narrowing. “I can see I can’t depend on you for that.”

Helen met T.’s eyes in the mirror. Her reflex had been to be defensive because she had to be alert all the time and she knew she’d been doing the same with T. She allowed a part of herself to relax. “I can’t explain what’s happening to me, T.,” she said quietly. “It’s exciting and scary.”

“And it’s going to get more so, with this new phase. Remote viewing plus virtual reality is going to play with your mind even more. That’s why they decided that you needed to be connected with a real mind outside. This virtual reality trainer—he’s your anchor, Hell. You can trust him. You have to allow yourself to depend on him sometimes.”

Helen smiled and turned back around. It was now her turn to trap her operations chief. “Thought you said you didn’t know him?”

T. smiled back and took a few steps closer. “I didn’t say that,” she mocked. “I said I didn’t know everything. I could be talking to him through VR, too, you know. You have him looking like some blond beefcake. I myself prefer James Dean. Bad boys are more my style.”

Damn. Thought she had her. “What? You wouldn’t make him blond like your dear Alex Diamond? What will he say to that?”

The GEM grapevine was rife with gossip of what was happening between their operations chief and one of COS Center’s top commandos. Romance was the word being bandied around. A GEM sister had wittily called it Operation Covert Combustion, and it wasn’t too far from the truth, since T. appeared to be playing a game of total ignorance of a certain commando’s presence at the Center. Helen cocked an enquiring brow.

T.’s face was unrevealing, her gaze shuttered. “I’m sure he gets his fantasies taken care of, darling.”

Helen laughed. She bet. T. was also the master of disguises, a woman of a hundred faces. She could see how she confused her men, even Alex Diamond. She sobered. “I can tell you one thing, chief. Once you’re immersed in this program, you find that there aren’t any fantasies left in your life. Or maybe it’s one big fantasy now. Take your pick.”

She knew T. needed to know this. It was the operations chief’s job to make sure her operatives stayed as safe as possible. Any contract taken up by GEM had dangerous elements and right now, Helen’s was probably way up there on the list. She wanted to keep her chief in the loop as much as she could.

“Tell me how so?”

“Part of remote viewing is projecting imagery. Part of it is fortune telling. After a while you aren’t sure whether you’re doing that all the time unless you’re very strong mentally.” She gave T. a level look. “And I’m very strong. I’m going to get stronger. That’s what all these psychoanalysis and philosophy classes are for, to help me stay grounded.”

T. took one of her rings off and handed it to her. Surprised, Helen turned her palm out. “What’s that for?” T.’s rings weren’t just rings.

“Keep it on. It might be useful later.”

“You’re not going to tell me, are you?”

“Nope. Trust goes along with it.”

“Ah.” More NOPAIN. Helen watched as T. slipped the ring on for her. “This would mean something entirely different if you had a dick, T.”

T.’s laughter echoed in the tiled room. She stepped back. “Soon you’ll have to convince a bunch of suits with a demonstration. Are you ready?”

Back to business. Helen played with her new ring. “Yes.”

“By the way, you’re spending the night here at the Center.”

“Damn, why?” She was already spending too many nights here lately. She loved being surrounded by lots of color, but colors created natural mental blocks for some reason. “I don’t like their sparse comfort.”

“It makes sense to. You’ll have another VR session before the show. Center wants to make sure everything goes smoothly. That means the more they monitor your brain waves while you sleep, the better.”

They had been doing that the last few months. Helen spent a few nights there every week, sleeping on some kind of bed with enough straps and electronic gear on it to qualify it for an S and M contraption.

“Today’s test run went well—you two connected. You don’t know how much this operation depended on that outcome. Believe me, darling, there were quite a few high fives today. They had actually expected more problems, but from what you described and what they could tell, the synchronization was delayed because of lack of sensory data. Once you’ve gotten used to sharing brain waves, communication will be better. He wants to do it one more time before your big show and tell.”

Helen hid her surprise. T. loved ending their meetings with unexpected news. Provoking emotional reaction was her hobby. “So soon? He misses me already, huh?” She couldn’t help smiling, though, at the memory of what she had added to the avatar. “May I ask why?”

“He wants to talk to you about the coming test.”

“Really? How interesting. He’s concerned about my well-being, too,” Helen said dryly.

T. waved her ringed hand, signaling the end of the meeting, and headed for the exit. “Oh, by the way, he told me to ask you to think about Greek gods and their stories. He said you’d understand. Ciao, Hell.”

Helen frowned at that last comment. That VR trainer obviously loved to play games, just like T. Greek gods. Well, he was probably listening in when she was talking to Derek about her ideal man looking like a Greek god—a blond Greek god with chocolate eyes was what she had ordered. Now it made even more sense why he had picked the name Hades, the Greek god of the Underworld. Recalling that he’d known her nickname, she growled under her breath. She should have named him herself. She could see that he was going to be a challenge. A mischievous smile formed on her lips as she opened the door and sauntered out. A big challenge.

In a secret test facility, Virginia

“Okay, Agent 15, here’s your chance. Your operational status is green. Bilocate to target and tell us what you see.”

“Why is he shaking?”

Stop shaking. Concentrate, or you’ll lose their interest. Deep breath, deep breath…Zoom.

Dark. Dark. Tell them what you see…. “I see it now! Classified meeting. Nine men. Four in uniform, one with enough medals to add several pounds to his weight. Three in civilian suits and ties. Two in lab jackets. They are sitting in a half circle around a conference table, facing a media screen. Conversation is quiet, tense, with some of them shaking hands. Do you want me to go closer and get the conversation?”