Fiona was glad she wore sensible shoes today; Mr. Kyle had turned the afternoon into something of a marathon, and although she was nearing the home stretch, she still had to run a good old-fashioned hundred yard dash to get to his office.
Glad I keep in shape
, she thought.
The whole day had been a mess for the Audits department; Mr. Kyle had been looking through the accounts of a Ms. Winnifred Chambers, and had found so many irregularities that he could barely imagine how she'd kept her account open this long. He'd sent Fiona to parts of the bank she barely remembered existing to ferret out files and paperwork in preparation for his three o'clock meeting with Ms. Chambers; Fiona looked down at her watch now, and saw 3:05. She took a deep breath and put on a final sprint to get to his office with the last file in her hand. She made a mental note to discreetly contact security, too. From everything she'd seen while gathering paperwork, this looked to be a rather ugly case of financial misconduct, and it might pay to have them handy.
She stopped just outside Mr. Kyle's office, took a few deep breaths to compose herself, checked to make sure her long brown hair was still perfect in its bun without a strand out of place, pushed up her glasses so that they sat straight on her nose, and very carefully and quietly opened the door. A good administrative assistant is always subtle and discreet, she told herself.
She heard Mr. Kyle's voice the moment she opened the door, but was a little bit shocked to find out that it wasn't the usual cold, cutting tone he used with obvious fraudsters. "...i...yes," he said, in a distant, slightly confused tone of voice. "...it all...makes sense..."
Fiona paused at the threshold. Ms. Chambers was speaking now, her voice self-assured, even a touch smug. There was something mocking to her tone, as if she was just managing to hold back laughter at Fiona's boss. "Then I presume that there'll be no need to inform the authorities?" she said.
"i...but the sums involved are...i'm not sure if i can..."
Fiona felt a pressure between her eyes as Ms. Chambers spoke again, almost a physical sensation, like someone was pushing hard on her forehead. Her eyes watered, and she blinked to clear them. "You don't need to bring this to anyone's attention, Tom. You'll destroy all the evidence you've found, and if anyone does learn about this, you'll let me know right away."
"i...yes, destroy the evidence..."
Fiona bit her knuckle to keep from gasping. She'd been working for Mr. Kyle for five years now, and she'd never in all that time heard anything like this. He took genuine pleasure in finding fraud and bringing down con artists; to hear him agree to help conceal evidence of irregularities, especially in that vague and distant tone of voice...something had to be wrong.
"You'll do everything in your power to make sure that this isn't traced back to me." Fiona felt that itching pressure in her forehead again. It throbbed in her brain like she was standing too close to a speaker, getting waves of sound so loud they felt like a physical force. Would it be worse if she was inside the room? Was that what was making Mr. Kyle act so unusual?
"...everything in my power, yes..."
"If you have to, you'll forge documents showing that you were responsible for the diversion of funds. You'll go to jail for me, and you'll be happy to do it." The pressure felt painful now, Fiona had to back up. It had to be something Ms. Chambers was doing with her voice. It sounded crazy, but it was the only explanation for why Mr. Kyle would be agreeing so easily with these crazy ideas.
"...yes..." The confusion had vanished from Mr. Kyle's voice now. He sounded happy to agree with this strange woman, happy to conceal embezzlement and fraud and god-knew-what else. More than happy, he sounded...blissful. Like he'd found a new religion.
"Good boy. I think we're done for now, but you can be sure I'll keep in touch." Fiona had heard enough. She didn't want to stick around, and she definitely didn't want to let Ms. Chambers know she'd overheard the conversation. She darted out of the office and down the hall as fast as she could. It meant leaving work a little early, but Mr. Kyle didn't sound like he was in a fit state to care.
*****
As soon as she got home, Fiona did a search for "mind control" on her computer. What she found terrified her. CIA brainwashing, MKUltra, a secret conspiracy involving Bob Hope and Henry Kissinger...just this morning, she would have dismissed it all as the work of crackpots, but after what she'd overheard in the office, she wasn't willing to laugh it off. She noticed the section on the use of high-frequency microwaves to induce mind control, and thought about that pressure in her head. Had Ms. Chambers used some sort of...brainwashing beam to make Mr. Kyle compliant? What if she knew that Fiona had overheard? She might have spotted the door left ajar, or Mr. Kyle might have told her about his administrative assistant. Fiona hadn't overheard the beginning of the meeting, after all. Maybe Ms. Chambers was expecting her to walk in, and not showing up was suspicious.
Fiona realized she had to assume the worst. Ms. Chambers might very well know about Fiona, realize that Fiona knew she was an evil mind controller, and be looking for her. Fiona immediately went to throw away her cell phone. If this website was right and it used high-frequency transmissions, there was a chance that Ms. Chambers could use that signal to affect her brain.
When she returned, she started reading on ways to disrupt the transmissions. She found a site on "orgone generators", made using quartz crystals, fibreglass resin, and chips of metal. That looked like the only way to disrupt the mind-control transmissions; it also looked scarily complicated, but Fiona knew she had to learn how to make them in a hurry. Ms. Chambers could be coming for her any minute.
Another site talked about using aluminium foil to disrupt mind control transmissions. That was easier to find. Fiona had some in her apartment. She went into the kitchen, grabbed a roll, and took it back to her computer to fold as she kept reading. The news just got worse and worse. Fiona read about the Monarch system--hypnosis, disassociative techniques, the use of sexual pleasure as a conditioner, drugs that made people receptive to hypnosis...it didn't specify what kind of drugs, which made Fiona even more worried. What if Ms. Chambers managed to slip them into her food or drink? Or pump them into the apartment, like a gas? Could the drugs be absorbed through the skin?
Fiona realized she was panicking a little. Some of the possibilities she was considering were downright crazy. She put on her tinfoil hat and felt a little calmer. She kept reading, looking for any websites that might mention Ms. Chambers specifically by name, but came up with nothing. Whoever she was, she'd obviously managed to keep under the radar. Which made Fiona worry even more. If she was that smart, that devious, she must have done her homework before walking into Mr. Kyle's office. Maybe she'd been preparing for that meeting for a while, using drugs and high-frequency transmissions to "soften up" Mr. Kyle for the final assault there in the office. And if she'd been softening up Mr. Kyle, was it really too far-fetched to imagine that she might had spent some time softening up Fiona, too?
If that was the case, Fiona realized, then the whole idea of "drugs in the apartment" wasn't as crazy as it sounded. Reading up on mind control made Fiona realize just how many things they could do to your brain, from microwave-based systems to directional narrowcast speakers that could make it sound like you were hearing voices in your head. She tried to think like Ms. Chambers did, think like an evil mind controller. Where would an evil mind controller put the mind-control drugs? What would she expect her victim to do? Fiona looked down in horror. She'd expect her to go to the computer and look up "mind control". The keyboard was probably dusted with chemicals that got absorbed through the skin.
Fiona ran to the bathroom to wash her hands.
*****
They started narrowcasting voices into her head that same afternoon. "Listen, Fiona," they said. "We know Ms. Chambers has been in contact with you. We know she's looking for you now. We can help." Fiona tried to block them out, though. She wasn't sure if she could trust them. They might be working with Ms. Chambers.
