kribban | Fic: Believe Epilogue

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Video of Charlie Rose interviewing President George W. Bush, 2008-12-12.

BUSH: So the question then is, do you use that kind of power for…for good, for the benefit of the American people or do you let it… do you risk it falling into the hands of evildoers.

STEWART: Ooooh! I know this one! You use the executive power of the Presidency to destroy the illegal research and the single existing copy of the device, thus ensuring that the technology will never fall into the wrong hands. I’m sure that’s the conclusion the President came to. Phew! I’m glad we dodged that bullet.

BUSH: So I made sure that the technology was developed enough so that it could be used against our enemies abroad.

STEWART: Motherfucker! I keep getting these wrong, I have no idea why. That brings us to our recurring segment: Changing hearts and minds – the literal edition. Let’s see how the President’s strategy turned out.

ROSE: Six months into the program one of the devices were stolen from an army research facility. It still hasn’t been recovered. Last year the program was discontinued after several of the prisoners committed suicide and several others displayed symptoms of acute mental illness. Has either of these developments led you to reevaluate your decision?

BUSH: No. I believe strongly that the only way to make America safer was to embrace the new technology.

STEWART: But it made America less safe! That you built more devices and placed them in facilities where they could be stolen actively contributed to the proliferation of the technology and increased the risk of it ending up in the hands of evildoers by, oh I don’t know, a million percent. This is the very definition of making America less safe!

But what is most astonishing about this interview isn’t President Bush’s hindsight blindness regarding his strategy, it’s his use of the word embrace. For a guy who was almost destroyed by Counter Thought, or as I prefer to call it, Surprisingly Stylish Soul Sucking Device, he sure seemed to be a fan of it.

BUSH: I think when you’ve reached the point of no longer being able to convince someone by talking then that’s the point where this technology could… could really make a difference.

STEWART: You heard right. If you’re unable to persuade someone with the strength of your argument, you’re allowed to break their mind open and tear it in the direction of your point of view.

Should your opponent then become psychotic or suffer from acute depression, become increasingly violent or even suicidal, you’ll know you’ve really made a difference. The important thing is that you’ve won them over.

But perhaps I’m just lacking the experience that the President had at the time when he gave this interview. Because I’d like to think that if I had almost had my mind torn apart by this invention or worse, if I had watched it used against someone I loved, I would do everything in my power to keep it from happening to anyone else. But hey, that’s just me.

***

COLBERT: Doctor, tell us what we’re seeing here.

STEINER: Okay, this is a scan of the human brain.

COLBERT: I sure hope it’s a scan of my brain, doctor. I didn’t spend all those hours inside a large, powerful magnet without getting some sweet high resolution images to decorate my bed room with. I mean, what better sight to wake up to in the morning than glossy, full-color shots of your gray matter?

STEINER: I don’t think this is your brain, Stephen. But you have one just like it, I’ll tell you that. Okay, so marked in green is the frontal lobe which is roughly the part of the brain that helps you make judgments.

COLBERT: Are you calling me judgmental? That’s not very polite of you, Sir. I had thought my reputation as a fair and just arbiter had preceded me.

STEINER: Well that’s exactly what judgment is, Stephen. Judgment is the ability to determine similarities and differences between things and events and to choose between good and bad actions. The frontal lobe also helps you draw conclusions and to anticipate the outcome of scenarios.

COLBERT: And this is the area that’s altered when someone is put through Counter Thought?

STEINER: Yes. We don’t know exactly how the area is affected because unfortunately there aren’t any scans of the victims’ brains prior to the damage, and the research will be classified for another thirty-five years. But there is consensus in the scientific community that one of the main things affected is the way you draw conclusions.

COLBERT: Doctor, I know you’ve seen the scan of my brain. Would you testify here and now that my frontal lobe is impenetrable?

STEINER: I, uh, I can’t attest to that Stephen.

COLBERT: Well clearly, if this is how the device works and it didn’t work on me than the only possible explanation is that my brain was powerful enough to resist the programming. Doctor, tell me, am I correct or am I right?

STEINER: (laughing) I haven’t studied your case in detail but I’m sure there are several possible explanations.

COLBERT: Spoken like a true scientist. We’ll be right back with Dr. Matt Steiner after the break!

***

Jon forced himself to take slow measured breaths until his hand had found the lamp switch. Within a few seconds the light bulb had warmed up enough for him to see Stephen, who was lying just a few feet away.

Tonight he was lucky. Stephen was already turned towards him which meant that Jon wouldn’t have to wake him up. He settled on his side, head propped up by his elbow, and focused on Stephen’s relaxed face and the sounds of his soft breathing. Bit by bit Jon felt his heart rate return to normal.

One of the more pleasant discoveries he had made when they finally got together was how peaceful his boyfriend was in his sleep. When he was awake he never seemed to be still for more than a minute, but the second he closed his eyes it was as if all that restless energy was shut off. Once asleep he lay perfectly still, unresponsive to sound, which made standard alarm clocks pretty useless. He had no nightmares, at least none that caused him to wake up, and he never snored or talked in his sleep.

It was as if his fierce determination had carried over into his unconsciousness, making sure nothing stood between him and a full night’s sleep.

It was yet another way he was Jon’s complete opposite.

Since being released from the hospital, Stephen had spent every night in Jon’s apartment. He seemed to need to be cuddled even more than before, which worked out great with Jon’s increased need to cuddle him. But except for that one rather pleasant change Stephen didn’t seem to have been effected by the kidnapping. He’d had two psych evaluations; one performed by the hospital and the other by the psychiatrist hired by the studio’s insurance company. Both had returned the same results; that Stephen had emerged from his ordeal unscathed, in every way possible.

Jon had not been so lucky.

During an average day he called Stephen six or seven times to make sure he hadn’t gone missing. He got stress reactions just from being in a locked room. He had stopped driving because it exhausted him to navigate the traffic. Handling a knife was out of the question.

He could see their tormentor everywhere; in the line to the studio, in the diner, in his audience.
Twice he’d walked out of production meetings to cry.

And then there was the fact that he was sleeping even less than before. His doctor had given him some Valerian but refused to prescribe anything stronger unless he started going to therapy on a regular basis.

Jon was starting to think that resuming production without any time off hadn’t been such a great idea after all.

He brushed the thought away as quickly as it had entered his mind. He was healthiest on his feet, not off them.

“Let’s make a deal, babe. I’ll get some reading done and when I’m finished you’ll still be here. If you don’t say anything, I’ll take that as a yes.”

Stephen didn’t respond. He stayed perfectly still, face slightly tilted upwards as if angling for a kiss.

Jon resisted the urge to drop a kiss on those beautiful lips and nodded. “Thanks. I appreciate it.”

The tablet was charging on the floor where he’d left it. He picked it up, arranged his pillows to support his back and resumed reading where he’d stopped.

He had always known that his crew was amazingly talented but they had really outdone themselves these last couple of weeks. It was as if the whole team had decided that the attack on him and Stephen had been an attack on all of them and that the best way to fight back was to put on an even better show.

Jon had pulled Nick aside and asked him not to compromise his job in any way but to send him everything he stumbled on that seemed relevant to Stephen’s situation. He had agreed and had so far forwarded dozens of articles in medical journals that Jon had barely been able to understand and write-ups by people who had been kind enough to use layman’s terms.

The theories laid forth on how the procedure could fail (all the articles were written before Stephen’s incident) were varied. Some authors theorized that a portion of the population had a natural resistance to the procedure. Others suggested that failure would be due to a handling error. He re-read the passage he had read right before going to bed and tried to let the words sink in this time.

One of the key elements to a successful procedure is the initial suggestion, colloquially known as ‘the hook’. The subject is given a mild sedative to make them more susceptible and is then manipulated, through visual stimuli or spoken words, into believing that participation in the process is the only way to help them achieve a specific goal. Because of this the process is sometimes referred to as an involuntary participatory process.

The operator is required to have some forehand knowledge of the subject’s personal history in order to select an effective hook. It is commonly believed that the suggestions used in the experiments conducted on Al Qaida operatives were religious in nature.

It is unclear as to what extent the effectiveness of the hook correlates to the severity of the subject’s programming. In theory the programming will not take hold if the hook does not appeal to the subject or if he or she is confident that the stated goal has already been achieved.

According to the trial testimony of Dr. Carrie Heron none of the initial subjects were suggested in this fashion as their participation was entirely voluntary.

Jon scrolled down to see if the comments added anything of value. Could this be it? Had Crowder misjudged Stephen and tried to bait his mind with something that didn’t appeal to him? Or something he already had?

It was frustrating to think that he’d never know the answer.

Stephen had clear memories up until the point where he was drugged and from the time that Jon showed up, but like most other victims he didn’t remember the procedure itself. It was a built in feature of the machine; a safety measure to keep the mind from futilely trying to reverse the process. It was a bit like when you put a cone on a dog to keep it from licking its wound.

Crowder hadn’t been of much use in that regard either. Apparently being at the wrong end of a weapon had been too much for the little shit, and he had suffered a nervous breakdown two days into his detainment. He’d remembered enough of his crime to sign a full confession, but the details on how he obtained and operated the device were lost.

This put Jon in the delicate situation of not knowing if he owed Stephen’s safe return to the incompetence of their tormentor. The other possible explanation, slightly insulting as it was, was a lot more preferable.

He cast a glance to his side. Stephen hadn’t reacted to any of Jon’s movements. He seemed to know on an instinctive level that Jon posed no threat to him.

The bed sheets were covering him from his chest to his knees and his hands lay limp and open on the mattress. He looked like someone who knew he was safe, who understood that the new locks and armed security and combat training should make him less afraid instead of more.

In this respect, Jon thought bitterly, Stephen was the rational one.

He opened his calendar and put in a reminder to schedule an appointment in the morning. He wasn’t ready to commit to an extensive period of therapy but if a few sessions could help him get over this faster, he’d try it. After a moment’s hesitation he made another note to ask his instructor to show him how to get out of a choke hold. He wasn’t ready for it yet, but if he waited he never would be.

When he had finished writing he put the pad back in the charger and moved his pillow so that it was right next to Stephen’s. He turned the light off and lay down, pressing himself as close as he could to Stephen’s sheet-covered body. His boyfriend was warm and alive and unharmed and being close to him made Jon feel better.

It didn’t matter how Stephen was spared. Just that he was.

Jon rested his feet against Stephen’s shins and closed his eyes.

Within minutes he had slipped into a bright dream where the two of them were heroes, fighting side by side to send shadowy villains back into the darkness.

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