EMTU
Jason Mathews swore under his breath. “Damn, mistimed it again.” He looked at the
snow beneath his feet, and saw that his feet were sinking up to the top of his gaiters. This was
the second time in the past week that he had underestimated the time his route would take.
He stood in the soft snow at 14,000 feet above sea level, high up on Torreys Peak. The morning
sun was beginning to shift from a welcome warming friend to a cruel burning fiend. At 9:00
a.m, the sun was already well above the surrounding peaks, high enough that Jason had to take
off his jacket, leaving him with nothing on top of his sweat soaked t-shirt. After tucking the
jacket into his pack, he looked at the snow under him. Although he would have liked to be on
the summit right now, he was not in any serious danger. He carefully turned himself around,
facing down the steep snow slope below him, and spotted Jess, his wife. She was one hundred
feet below him, slowly making her way up. As she climbed towards him, he wondered how she
could do it. Whenever he watched her while she was climbing, she always went so slowly. But
she never stopped to rest. That was the key to her climbing prowess. Jason would sprint ahead
for the first thirty minutes, but Jess would always catch up after an hour or so.
“Looking good sweetie!” he yelled down to her.
“Almost caught you this time!” she replied back, not sounding out of breath in the least.
Jason grinned, and shouldered his pack. Within ten minutes, Jason had reached the top.
Before he had time to take off his pack and find a suitable rock to sit on he saw Jess’s skis,
immediately followed by her smiling face.
“Made it,” she said casually.
“I thought you were going to catch me there for a second,” replied Jason. “Well I was
going to, but I decided to take it easy on you old timer.” “Old timer?! I’m younger than you
are!” “Yeah, well that doesn’t mean you’re not old!” “Humbug. Twenty-five is the perfect age,
remember? I have the wisdom of a sage and the youthful energy of a hormonally imbalanced
teenager.” “I seem to remember when I turned twenty you saying something about me finding
a nursing home to live in.” “Well I was still in my teens at that point, so anything I said at that
time can be attributed to the aforementioned raging hormones.” “Well anyway, happy
birthday honey.” Skiing on his birthday was a tradition for Jason, initiated after his senior year
of high school. Jason gazed around, taking in the landscape. The peaks surrounding them were
still covered with snow, juxtaposing white snow on the dark grey rock. The snow acted as
makeup for the mountains, covering blemishes and accenting prominent features. The sky was
empty of clouds, save for a few wispy ones far to the west. Far off mountain ranges seemed to
be reaching for the heavens, trying desperately to remain in view.
The wind blew moderately as Jason surveyed the surroundings. Jason felt at home in
alpine environments. He looked at home as well. Many people who tried to describe Jason
Mathews came up with one phrase: mountain man. He had long, straight hair that was dark
brown except at the very tips where the sun bleached it partially blonde. He usually sported
short beard, and today his beard was a bit longer the usual. His beard was the roughly the
same color as his hair. Although most of his skin was covered up on this day, his skin was rather
tanned from all the time he spent outside. His eyes were a dark shade of green, and at first
glance most people thought they were brown until they chanced a closer look. Overall, his
features combined to give him a rugged facial appearance, although he was rather short and
very slim.
Jason’s eyes fell on Jess as they often did, and he surveyed her carefully. She too was
admiring the view, gazing off towards the west. Much in the same fashion as Jason, Jess was
short but with a slim, athletic build. Jess’s eyes were a soothing shade of brown, and they
matched her light brown hair perfectly. Beams of light trickled through her hair as it billowed in
the wind, a long tangled mass of brown with strands of gold thrown in as the sun saw fit to
bleach them.
“I can see our place from here,” said Jess as she pointed towards Lake Dillon far below.
“No way,” responded Jason. “Seriously, follow the roads, it’s a big grey thing just to the right of
that aspen grove.” Jason did as she suggested, and was surprised to find that she was correct.
“I could have sworn you were yanking my chain, but there it is. Well played indeed.” Jess
laughed, and started to take out her skis. Jason remembered that they really ought to be
getting down the mountain. If they waited even a couple more minutes, the risk of wet slides
would increase dramatically. He hastily put on a outer shell, helmet, gloves, and goggles. After
this, he stowed away his climbing gear and food, zipped up his pack, and fastened his boots. He
stepped into his bindings, getting mentally focused for the descent at hand.
“Hey baby, put your boots into ski mode,” Jess reminded him.
“Oh yeah, good call.”
“I always forget about that. Even after nearly killing myself last year from not putting
my boots into ski mode I still forget. I need to focus right now.” Suddenly Jason’s facial
features hardened. He was no longer concerned with the glory of the mighty peaks
surrounding him and his wife, or even the small talk he carried on with Jess. His mind was
solely concerned with the line he was about to ski. At this point, nothing else mattered.
“Alright, let’s meet after the crux, right at the top of the couloir.” Jason hardly needed
to say this, as they had skied this route many times over the past four years, but nevertheless it
was worth confirming.
“Ok, I’ll see you there.”
With that Jason pointed his skis toward the edge and peered over the edge. The first
two hundred feet of the route went directly from the summit down the east face of the
mountain. The slope was steep, but there were no obstacles. Just out sight from his airy perch,
cliffs lurked lower down on the face, spelling certain death should he take an uncontrolled fall.
Although Jason was skilled, fit, and experienced, he never forgot the fact that if he should err, it
could be the last mistake he ever made. “Three, two, one, dropping.” This was his mental
countdown as he inched over the edge. He made his first turn and found the snow to be soft,
but firm enough to calm his fears and allow for fun, carefree skiing. He continued on in a
smooth, controlled fashion down the steep slope. With one final turn to the left, he exited the
steep upper slope and stopped at the top of a deeply inset but straight couloir. Once he
stopped, he waited for Jess.
He remembered the first time they skied this route. On that day, the weather was much
the same, warm with piercing sun. Jason had skied the same slope in the same fashion and
stopped at the exact same place. But four years ago he had experienced a nagging worry in the
back of his mind that Jess would miss a turn and slide to her death. He harbored no such
thoughts today. In the last four years, Jess had proven herself to be not only an excellent skier,
but overall a very safe decision maker. She knew her abilities and her limits. She also knew just
how far she could push both and not get into trouble. After a minute of waiting, Jason heard
the sound of metal edges on snow, and moments later saw Jess as she gracefully exited the
upper slope and stopped right beside him. Their eyes met, and both knew what was to come.
Below them was 1200 feet of beautiful turns. Jason went first. His turns were short and quick
at first, but as the angle of the slope decreased he gradually changed to wide, arcing turns.
Jason’s thoughts never wandered while he was skiing. There was only the next turn. The sound
of his skis contacting the snow and his racing heart were the only thing to be heard on this
beautiful June morning in Colorado. Jason had been skiing for fifteen years now, but the joy of
it was never lost on him. Even on this run, which he had done many times before and in better
conditions, he was exuberant the whole way down. In what seemed to be the blink of an eye,
Jason was skiing down the apron of the couloir into the valley below. He stopped just above
the valley floor and let out a passionate cry laced with adrenaline and bliss in equal amounts.
He felt simultaneously overwhelmed with the beauty of life, and prouder than a caveman who
singlehandedly slayed a mammoth. He grinned like a drunk as he turn around to see Jess
coming down the couloir. She had a very controlled but fluid style. She didn’t make big turns,
but she made it look easy. Within two minutes she was out of the couloir making her final turn,
stopping quickly right in front of Jason, spraying him with wet, heavy snow.
“Jerk!” he yelled playfully.
“Gotcha! You have to be on your toes if you don’t want to get sprayed. Before I forget,
Shooooooey!”
“Comaniyea-hah!”
“What?!”
“Its from a movie. A rather obscure reference if I do say so myself. Speaking of movies,
lets proceed shall we?”
“Lets.”
After this friendly exchange they traversed down the valley, staying as high as they
could to avoid the agitating rock field they found themselves in the first time they skied this
route. After avoiding the rocks, they had to remove their skis and take a short walk up a small
hill. Once they gained the top of the hill, the skis came back on, and they swiftly skied down the
now wide open lower valley. This valley was a place of solitude in the winter, crowds in the
summer, and beauty in any season. As they raced across the valley toward their car, Jason was
pleased to notice that his thighs burned only slightly. His conditioning regimen was paying
dividends, and Jason was thrilled to actually notice his progress. They made some easy turns
down one final pitch and skied all the way to a bridge spanning a rapidly flowing alpine stream.
As the happy couple took off their skis, they bantered about fun experiences each just
had. “I jumped over a baby tree on that last slope!” “Two turns into the couloir I almost ate it
when I nicked a little embedded rock.” “Check out the lines on Edwards! At the bottom of
Goatfinger I spotted a totally doable sixty foot huck.” This continued as they crossed the bridge
and approached their car. Jason was glad to be out of his ski boots. Despite how much he
loved them, flip flops were his footwear of choice after March. Jason took off his wet clothes
and changed into his favorite t-shirt and shorts. He found the cooler in the trunk and pulled out
two beers.
“Cheers to another excellent day in the mountains,” said Jess cheerily.
“I’ll drink to that,” added Jason.
“Cheers to your twenty-fifth birthday for that matter,”
“I’ll drink to that as well!”
As Jason and Jess basked in the sun and enjoyed a cold beer, Jason couldn’t help but
think of the circumstances in which he met Jess. Jason had been a junior in college. He
enrolled in an English course focused on British literature. Jason was fond of reading, but the
particular works they read for this class just didn’t catch his interest. When he was assigned to
write a paper detailing the importance of recurring image in The Tempest, Jason knew he would
need help. He was a solid writer, but tended to receive poor grades for papers he didn’t really
connect with, and this was the case. As it happened, Jess was in a similar situation. She was
enrolled in a Physics course, and although she was a bright student and good with math, she
was conceptually lost. Jason had noticed her in his English class early on in the semester, and
later on in the year met her as he left the lecture hall for Physics. They struck up a
conversation, and eventually agreed to aid the other in their area of deficiency. Jason proved
an effective instructor for the concepts of physics with which Jess struggled. Jess in turn helped
Jason with his English assignment tremendously. Not only did Jason produce a quality paper,
he began to truly enjoy the works they read in class.
As Jason fondly recalled these memories, he was returned to reality when Jess spoke for
the first time since they sat down. “What are you thinking about?”
“The first classes we had together back in school.”
“Haha. The net work done by gravity on me since we left the car this morning is zero.
Gravity is a conservative force, so the path taken is inconsequential, only the initial and final
positions matter. I’m sure glad I know that. Without that essential knowledge we would have
been in big trouble today.”
“I’m serious. I was thinking about how you made me appreciate all of that literary
treasure I had discarded before. Do you remember how much I despised all Jane Austen works
when we met?”
“I certainly do.”
“You helped me see the clever side of Austen. Northanger Abbey is not only satirical
and amusing, but contains some truly wonderful writing. The story is typical of the romantic
era, and at the same time unique. Without you, I would never have known about all those
things. Thank you for opening my eyes and making me experience new things.”
“You’re welcome. I do what I can.”
“I love you.”
Jess smiled, and Jason smiled back. A pleasant thought crossed his mind. “This is the
perfect birthday.”
As they finished their refreshments, Jason packed the remaining items strewn across the
ground behind the car into the trunk. Jason stepped into the driver seat while Jess took the
passenger. Jason made good time down the dirt road to the interstate. Jess turned on some
1980’s rock, and the happy pair attempted to match the vocal gymnastics of Freddy Mercury
and Steve Perry. The drive home went by quickly. As they unloaded their equipment, Jess
asked Jason what his plans were for the rest of the day.
“I believe that the most recent version of the plan goes as follows. At eight o’clock
we’re going to a bar to watch the US versus Russia match, followed by a poker match. Once
we’re done I’ll give you a call so that you can drive my buddies home, because I’ll be surprised if
any of us is not intoxicated. When they’re all home safe and sound, you and I can watch a
movie and snuggle.” Jason was quite pleased with this plan.
“Perfect.”
The remaining hours of the afternoon whizzed by faster than seemed physically
possible. Jason made a huge turkey sandwich, watched a soccer game, and did some errands in
town. Jess joined him for lunch and errands, but instead of watching soccer took a luxurious
bubble bath. Jason’s evening was a raucous affair. He and his friends had a few too many to
drink and were nearly thrown out of the bar when the US soccer team conceded a late goal
against the Russians to give up a draw. Their poker game was quite brief, as their drunken state
made them quite rash in their decision making. Before midnight Jess had given Jason’s friends
a ride home and instead of watching a movie Jason and Jess went straight to bed to enjoy a
good night’s rest after an exciting but exhausting day.
Chapter 2
Jason often had dreams at night. His dreams were usually disjointed and strange.
Although generally pleasant, he rarely remembered exactly what happened in his dreams.
Tonight was different. He found himself in a small, non-descript room. The walls were a shade
of light gray and a dim lamp hung from the ceiling far above him. Usually in Jason’s dreams he
was either an observer watching a scene take place in front of him, or he inhabited his own
body but had no control over what was actually happening. This dream was particularly lucid.
Jason was seated on the floor with his back leaned up against the wall. His initial thought was
that this dream would eventually shift and he would be flying on an elephant orbiting Mars,
watching a gallon of milk sing the national anthem, or any other random scene he cared to
imagine. But he remained in the room. Nothing out of the ordinary happened. For what
seemed to be about ten minutes he didn’t move and waited for the dream to wisp him away.
After ten minutes passed Jason grew impatient and began to pace around the room. He
scanned the walls carefully, finding no exits. The tiles of the wall looked as though they could
be broken. He slammed his fists into a wall tile with all his might. The wall tiles were
undamaged. Jason’s fists were not. Jason had expected his violent action to rouse him from his
dream, but nothing happened to release him from his mental prison. Jason yelled for help.
Then he tried to forcibly steer his dream somewhere else. All of his efforts were in vain.
Eventually Jason resigned himself to simply sit and wait for something to happen that would
hopefully result in him leaving this room.
Jason waited for about an hour. Worrisome thoughts began to cross his mind. He
entertained thoughts that he had a sleep disorder, or something worse. What if he had
somehow gone into a coma? A stroke could do that. Thoughts of nearly inexplicable ways to
rationalize his current situation flashed through his mind. “I’ve been abducted by aliens and
this only seems like a dream because of some drug I’ve been injected with! Or perhaps the
government has found a way to control my mind via dreams.” Jason lost track of time. After
what felt like a day he felt his eyes start to droop. “How can I be sleepy, I’m dreaming!”
Despite his skepticism, sleep came easily and swiftly. After Jason fell asleep in his dream,
awoke to reality with a jolt. He awakened to find Jess slumbering peacefully beside him as a
gentle cold breeze wafted over their bed, giving him a slight chill. “The cold air gave me a bad
dream. I saw on the internet that cold air can give bad dreams.” Pleased with this explanation,
Jason closed the window, climbed under the sheets and went back to bed. He slept
uninterrupted till morning, and awoke feeling refreshed and upbeat. His strange dream was
nothing but an afterthought that fleeted out of his mind as he made a cup of tea.
The morning was Jason’s favorite time of day. Nature reserves a special part of its
splendor for the morning. The high country of Colorado is routinely swept by gale force winds
that howl like a pack of ravenous wolves and chill to the bone. But for some reason, these
winds are usually absent in the morning. On this particular morning, Jason stood in the kitchen
anxiously waiting for his water to boil. When the microwave timer went off Jason furiously
dunked his tea bag, spooned in a dab of sugar, and dunked the tea bag few more times to
ensure proper stirring. With a sense of anticipation he left the kitchen and quietly opened the
front door. He was pleased to find that this was a tranquil morning with nary a breath of wind
to be heard. Jason closed the door behind him and took a seat on his front porch. For ten
minutes he sat there in silence sipping his tea. For many years his morning drink of choice had
been coffee. When he met Jess in college she opened his eyes to the wonders of tea. Coffee,
despite being soothing in an olfactory sense, was a harsh morning drink in Jason’s eyes. He
enjoyed the taste somewhat, but it always seemed to be a drink for people who had to get up
in the morning. Coffee got people going early in the morning contrary to their wishes. Tea on
the other hand is soothing, calming. Tea is a morning drink for those who are up in the morning
because they want to be. The taste of tea complements the mood of a peaceful morning to the
point of absolute perfection.
As Jason sat on his porch, he thought of one of the most special moments of his life. It
happened in late September the year he met Jess. Jason had been planning a camping trip for
while with his friends from school. His original plans had been to take a large group of his
friends up into the mountains, camp on Friday night, and go for a hike on Saturday. The trip
was intended to be a party in the mountains, more focused on drinking than on anything else.
But the time came to drive up to the mountains, and everyone in his group had made other
plans. All of his friends bailed, except for Jess. Jason knew Jess fairly well at this point, but they
were not yet a couple and spent hardly any time together outside of class. They debated
whether it was worth the two hour drive up to the mountains if they were the only people
going, but eventually it was decided in favor of the mountains. As they drove, the conversation
became gradually more and more interesting. At first the conversation focused on school, but
eventually they talked about all sorts of things. Jason put on some of favorite music, and was
thrilled when Jess revealed similar taste in music to his. This theme continued throughout the
drive up. As the car sped towards the alpine regions of the state, Jess noticed large patches of
aspens draped in brilliant golden hues.
“Aspens are the Johnny Depp of the plant world,” she remarked.
“Why is that?”
“Because they look good no matter what look they opt for. Aspens in the summer are
tranquil, emanating serenity. In the fall, they put on an outrageous yellow, red and orange
costume, yet still manage to be even more beautiful than before. Even in winter when their
leaves are gone, there is a certain tragic feeling of beauty about them. They have beauty even
in death.”
The dirt road up to the trailhead was newly graded, allowing Jason to drive at
tremendous speeds for not being on pavement. As Jess looked out of her window, the aspens
along the road blurred together with the pine trees and the rocky hillside. The result was a
collage of color that had no boundaries and no distinct form. When the car arrived at the
trailhead, the collage abruptly ended and form was restored.
Jason’s camping trips up this point in his life had been focused more on drinking than on
enjoying the scenery. This was a pleasant change of pace. The warm September afternoon
showered gentle light into the valley, allowing Jess and Jason to remain in shorts while
collecting firewood and organizing their campsite. As darkness fell they prepared a fire. Shortly
after the sun sunk below the horizon the temperature plummeted and both campers added a
few layers. For the next three hours, Jason and Jess sat at their campfire eating smores and
discussing everything from sports to childhood experiences to personal beliefs. At long last
they grew tired and retired to their sleeping bags. That night, the moon was absent and the
mountains blocked all of the light from Denver, resulting in the most spectacular display of stars
either of them had ever seen.
At one point Jason oriented his sleeping bag towards Jess and said, “Even though I’m
not really religious, I can’t help but see something supernatural in the cosmos. I know that’s a
very caveman thing to say, but I can’t help it. Look at that! If by some extraordinarily low
chance some sort of higher power does exist, we are staring it in the face right now.”
After sleeping for at most three hours they awoke to the same incredible night sky,
slightly rotated from when they had gone to sleep. Although this insanely early start was quite
a chore, Jason and Jess were confident that in three hours it would be well worth their while.
Still in the dead of night, they turned on their headlamps, shouldered their packs, and headed
up the trail. After an hour they were halfway to their destination. During a short break for
water Jason glanced towards Jess. He expected her to be tired and have an expression of toil
on her face. He found that she sported a wide grin, and seemed to be breathing less hard than
he was. In another thirty minutes, Jess and Jason sensed the first advances of dawn. The
horizon looked as blank as ever, but the dark, sensuous blue of the night sky began to brighten
ever so slightly. Not wanting to miss any of the sunrise, both hikers increased their effort and
reached the top in a surge of exertion. Immediately hammered by winds and cooled by the
sweat produced from their push to the top, they quickly put on every piece of clothing they
brought with them. Taking a short while to find rocks to sit on, Jason and Jess prepared
themselves for one of the most stunning sights Colorado has to offer.
From the top of the mountain, their view stretched for miles in all directions. To the
west, night kept a firm hold on the mountains, but the clarity of the atmosphere allowed for
gorgeous views of far off peaks shrouded in darkness, illuminated only by the glow of the
heavens and the few shreds of light that attempted to penetrate the air above them. To the
east, the long, flat horizon of the plains began to flow with a faint light. The light only trickled
through at this point. Only right where the sun would eventually break the horizon was slightly
yellow and green. The rest of the sky was light blue directly around the sun’s eventual arrival
point, quickly fading the darker blues and quickly after that to a star filled night sky. Although
the lights from Denver were always twinkling, the plains beyond the city were still dark a full
eight thousand feet below them and over one hundred miles away. The sun slowly
approached, turning the entire horizon a gentle shade of pink. When the air is this crystal clear
and the horizon is this flat, the sun’s rays refract off of the surface of the Earth, creating a
perfect rainbow that spans the entire horizon, flanked on the bottom by vast, dark plains and
on the top by a still starry but brightening sky. The transition from night to morning was
magical. The sky directly over their heads was still deep blue, but as the sun neared their line of
sight the sky to the east turned pink, then red, and eventually a shade of fiery orange that
meant the sunrise was imminent. The sun finally appeared, only as a sliver of flame cresting
the horizon at first, but soon as a huge molten orb. The early morning rays hit the granite of
the mountains at just the right angle to create a mystical alpenglow, making all the peaks
around them to the north and south appear light red. For Jason and Jess, it felt as though they
were on the edge of infinity. As the sun rose higher in the sky and the wash of color faded
away, their eyes met. No words were passed between them, but at this moment Jason felt for
the first time romantic feelings for Jess. Although this particular trip was frequently brought up
as a fond memory for both, that one piece of information Jason had kept for himself.
Ending his reminiscence, Jason finished his tea in one last gulp. Looking at his watch, he
decided to get in the shower immediately so he could take a longer shower than usual. After a
luxurious shower, he got out and got dressed for work.
During college, Jason had been a good student. Although his grades weren’t the best,
they were certainly good. He started out his undergraduate career as a physics major. For a
long time, he had been intending to attend graduate school and attempt to work for NASA or a
major aeronautics company. But after he met Jess, something in his attitude had changed. His
grades didn’t slip, but his desire to continue school after college did. His plans to continue
school and work at a high paying, high stress job just didn’t appeal to him anymore. After
college, instead of getting another degree or starting a career in a more traditional field with at
least some kind of advancement opportunities, Jason became a ski instructor.
The job suited him well. He got to live in the mountains, the pay was enough to survive
on, he got to work outside, and he got great discounts on ski gear, not to mention a season
pass. For the first two seasons, he worked with young children. After finally getting the proper
certification, Jason was finally able to teach intermediate and upper level classes.
This situation was perfect for Jason. Sure his job didn’t give him the prestige or money
that many of his friends from school enjoyed, but those things were less important to him than
happiness, and he knew that as long as he could ski and be with Jess that he would be happy.
Although Jason counted himself primarily as a ski instructor, this job only took up six
months of the year. For the rest of the year he took whatever job he could find, and this
usually involved construction. Mountain homes were in high demand, and construction jobs
paid almost as well as his upper level ski instructor job. The work was more work and less fun
than ski instructing, but he still got to work outside, which was a big plus for Jason. Also, Jason
met some of his closest friends while working in construction.
Jason got on his bike and rode to the house he was working on. When he got there he
was greeted by his closest friend Matt. Matt’s story is surprisingly similar to Jason’s. After
attending college in Utah, he decided to move back to Colorado. He currently lived with his
parents, but was completely self-sufficient. They met while through their jobs as ski instructors,
and it was Matt who had used his connections to land Jason his first construction job.
Jason greeted Matt in the usual way, with a friendly fist bump and a friendly, “How’s it
going?”
Matt responded enthusiastically as always. “Great man. Last night was crazy huh? I
couldn’t believe those damn Commies pulled off that last minute goal. That was pretty
depressing. At least I got some consolation from beating you in poker!” he joked with a wink.
“I think next time I won’t drink so heavily before gambling with you. Last week I played
a few hands with Jess and her friends, and I forgot that you actually know how to play. What
did you do when you got home?”
“The same thing I usually do. I played video games for about an hour, then read my
book till I fell asleep.”
“What are you reading now?” inquired Jason?
“Well I started reading the Canterbury Tales in Middle English, but that is nearly
impossible to do without looking up the translation for every third word, and that is way too
much work for me when I’m that tired. As you might have guessed, I decided to be lazy and
read a modern English version of it instead.”
“Why are you reading all of these old books recently?”
“I actually have two reasons. I took an English class in college and I didn’t read a single
book we were assigned to read. Just to see if I enjoy any of the classics, I have decided to read
all of the books to which I was assigned.”
“What’s the other reason?”
“Huh? Oh yeah, the real reason! The other reason is so that I can sound more
sophisticated and well read to the ladies of course.”
“Of course. Why didn’t I see that one coming?” said Jason amusedly.
“After knowing me for three years you should have mate.”
As they spoke, their employer’s car drove up the driveway to the under construction
house. After they were briefed on what to do, they all got to work. There was still a few more
walls to put up on the first floor, and this was Jason’s project for the rest of the morning. After
three hours of hard work, Jason was getting hungry. He was relieved when lunchtime rolled
around. He met up with Matt and a few other co-workers to eat a quick meal. Jason had
packed himself a pretty typical lunch. He reached in to find a peanut butter and jelly sandwich
with hearty applications of chunky peanut butter and grape jelly. He had also packed some
crackers and cheese, a banana, some carrots, a few cookies, and a soda. After this delicious
and only slightly nutritious meal he was back to work.
They all worked hard until nearly 6 o’clock at night. When it was time to be done, his
supervisor told everyone that today had been a very productive day and to keep up the good
work. As everyone went home with their bicycles, motorcycles, and cars, Jason and Matt
decided to go to the gym to play basketball and lift weights later on that night.
Jason rode his bicycle home. Even though Jason owned a car, he much preferred to ride
his bicycle whenever possible. This was partially to save money, but Jason also saw it as an
opportunity to get exercise. Bike riding was Jason’s primary pastime from mid-July until the
early autumn snows cut him off. Today was a wonderful for riding. The roads from his job site
to his home were generally free of traffic, and although the sun was hiding behind the clouds
on this particular day, the clouds did not hold the menace of a storm as afternoon clouds often
do during a Colorado summer day.
When Jason got home, he was greeted briefly by Jess. She was deep in concentration at
the moment. Her goal for the summer was to write a novel. During the fall, winter, and spring
she was a high school teacher, but during the summer she often took on some extravagant
project to fill her time not filled with attending the job related events the summer held. Last
summer, her project was to train for the Leadville 100. For those who don’t know about the
Leadville 100, it’s a one hundred mile mountain bike race. After two months of religious
training, she completed the race. She got very good at drastically changing her daily schedule
during the summer months to accommodate her yearly project. This year, her novel writing
took up most of her time. This week she didn’t have any teaching commitments, so she had
committed the entire week to writing.
“Hi honey,” said Jason as he entered the door.
“Hey. How was work?”
“Well, it was work. But overall it was alright today. I’m not terribly tired, and I think
that Matt and I are going to the gym later. Would you like to join us?”
“I don’t think so. I’m kind of in the zone with writing here and I want to get as much as
possible out of this spell.” Jess looked a little upset that she couldn’t join Jason, but she had a
determined look on her face that Jason had seen many times before. Although Jason wanted
her to come along, the sight of the unmistakable look on her face told him that she couldn’t be
turned from her purpose for a simple trip to the gym.
“I understand. Well would you like me to make you some dinner?”
“Could you? That would be great.”
“How does taco salad sound to you?”
“Taco salad sounds absolutely delightful. Are you sure you don’t want any help?”
“Trust me, I’ve got this. Making taco salad is practically muscle memory for me.” Jason
wasn’t kidding when he said this. Taco salad was their most common meal. Jason loved the
fact that it was almost a meal in itself. The only thing they ever had to accompany taco salad
was bread. Jason usually put on some music when he prepared food, but he made the meal in
silence today so as not to disrupt Jess’s writing. Jess had found that if she listened to music
while writing it affected the tone of her writing, and she didn’t want anything extraneous to
affect her writing.
Not even half an hour had passed when Jason was finished, and he called Jess to the
kitchen. As they ate, Jess talked to Jason about her novel.
“I can’t figure out what to do. I feel like I have writers block as far as the plot goes, but I
like everything I write. I go back over it and the language is great, but I’m not moving the story
along. What do you think, do you get agitated when books don’t move along as quickly as you
want them to?”
Jason thought about this for a moment, and replied, “I don’t like it when the author
dawdles on unimportant things, but I like it even less when something important is rushed
through.”
“I guess you’re right. I don’t want you to read it yet, but will you read it when I’m
done?”
“Jess, you would have to physically restrain me to not have me read this book when it’s
done. I’m having a hard enough time not peeking at your draft when you’re not around and I’m
just sitting here indisposed.”
“Thanks. Look at the time, it’s almost 8 o’clock, shouldn’t you get going so you aren’t
late to the gym?”
“Oh, how right you are. Can you clean up this stuff?”
“No problem. Get going, I’ll see you later tonight.”
“Ok, good luck with writing,” Jason said as he grabbed his duffel bag.
“Thanks. Now off with you!” Jess said as he exited the room.
Jason put lights on his bicycle and mounted it once again. After a brief ride through the
chilly summer night he reached the gym in Dillon. After locking his bike he went inside and put
his things in a locker, then proceeded to the exercise room where he rode a stationary bike for
a couple of minutes until Matt showed up.
After exchanging pleasantries, they decided what sort of workout to do. Both of them
were feeling rather energetic, so they decided to do a lower body plyometric and weight
training workout. Jason loved these sorts of workouts, and not just because they helped him
keep in top form for skiing. He had always had powerful legs, giving him explosive lower body
power. Jason and Matt liked to really push themselves, so after all sort of ladder drills, box
jumps, and shuttle runs, they did some squats. Jason used to despise squats, until he finally
committed to doing them regularly and really giving his best effort on them. After this
commitment, Jason noticed his quickness improve drastically, and he gained a couple of inches
on his vertical leap as well. Jason had to strain through his last set of squats, but he made it
through without help from his spotter.
Matt enthusiastically remarked, “You’re a monster, man! Why didn’t you play lacrosse
when you were a kid, you could have played Division I ball so easily!” Matt played lacrosse in
high school and college, and had often made this remark to Jason when they went to the gym.
“That probably would have been a better choice given my physique. All throughout high
school I thought never thought I would grow another three inches and gain another thirty
pounds, but it happened. I guess it just wasn’t meant to be, eh?”
“There are only a handful of soccer players with your build, but practically every single
midfielder in the NLL looks exactly like you from the neck down.”
Jason chuckled in response as he always did. After taking a deep breath and letting out
a long sigh, he spoke in a very tired manner. “I’m exhausted. Let’s do something to stretch out
and cool down. Stationary bike or basketball, what do you think?”
Matt pondered this for a second, then said, “The last time I played basketball right after
one of these workouts I was really sore the next day. Let’s just do some low intensity spinning.”
The two men walked over to the corner of the room where the stationary bikes were
located, pleased to see that they were the only people using the equipment. They each hopped
on a bike and started pedaling at a leisurely rate with low resistance.
Jason struck up a conversation after he felt his heart rate approaching its normal
rhythm. “What’s going on between you and Kara? I haven’t heard you talk about her in at least
two weeks now.”
“Oh, that ended a while ago. She is really cool person, but something just wasn’t right
with her and me together. Do you know what I’m saying?”
“I think so. I thought she might have been a keeper for you, buddy. You seemed to be
really happy with her.”
“I was, but everything we did just got boring at an alarming rate. How do you manage
to keep things interesting with Jess a few years into your relationship?”
“I never really thought about, I haven’t had to try to keep things interesting, they just
are naturally I guess.”
“My guess is that what you just said is the only way it works out in the long run. If you
really have to put in an obscene amount of effort to keep a relationship interesting, the said
relationship is doomed to failure when your effort wanes.”
“As pessimistic as it sounds you may have a point there. Have you done any more
reading since work?”
“Yeah, I was reading the Wife of Bath’s tale. I didn’t know what to think of it.”
“Is that the tale where the knight rapes a maiden, has to find out what women truly
desire most of all, gets an old hag to help him, and is forced to marry her, but it turns out she
transforms into a hot chick at the end?”
“Despite your incredibly poor grammar, you are basically correct. What did you think of
the wyf’s answer to what women really want?”
“I don’t know man. If I had to wager one way or the other I’d say it’s true. Jess is
certainly in the driver’s seat of our relationship. I think it’s better that way.”
“So your answer is yes?”
“Maybe. I’ll have to get back to you on that one.” Jason looked at his watch, and
noticed that it was getting late. “I’m feeling pretty loosened up, I’m going to head home.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
“Say hi to your parents to me will you? I feel like I haven’t seen them for ages.”
“I’ll do that. See you tomorrow.” With that Matt walked toward the front door while
Jason had to go back to the locker room to grab his duffel bag. Jason loaded up his bag, slowly
walked to his bike, and very deliberately pedaled his way home. He usually rode home from
the gym very quickly due to the low temperatures at night, but tonight he brought lots of warm
clothing, so his riding speed was significantly slower than usual. When he finally got home he
glanced at his watch and saw that it was already past eleven o’clock. Jess was still sitting with
her computer in her lap puzzling over what the write.
When she noticed Jason’s footsteps approaching her, she greeted him in a disinterested
fashion. “Hey baby. How was your workout?”
Jason was interested only in getting into the shower as quickly as possible, so his answer
was brief. “Fine. Matt and I really worked hard. I’m feeling kind of nasty and tired, so I’m just
going to shower and get in bed. Will you be staying up?”
“For a while. I just couldn’t bring myself to write another word for the past hour, so I
want to get another three or four pages before I go to sleep.”
“Alright, I’ll see you in a while then. Good night.”
Jason took a quick shower, which felt marvelous, but he was so tired that he didn’t
linger under the stream of hot water and instead dried himself off and went straight to bed.
Chapter 3
For the second consecutive night Jason’s sleep was filled with dreams. He first dreamt
of running over water. He couldn’t actually see his body running, but he felt his muscles flexing
in the manner of running, felt water splashing on his feet without touching solid ground, but
didn’t feel water on the rest of his body. Eventually his body started to take shape. Jason was
dressed in combat fatigues. He felt his head and felt a cap, and looked down at his feet to see
large black combat boots. All of a sudden, he heard a noise behind him. He twirled expecting
to see some large animal, but instead saw nothing but air. He was standing on a plain with tall
grass. For a moment everything around him was still. Then, he felt a presence. Jason had that
unnerving feeling where you feel like you’re being hunted, but you don’t know what’s hunting
you. The presence was looking for him, and Jason knew that if the presence found him, the
result would not be pleasant for him. Although his first instinct was to run as fast as he could,
he knew that even in his dreams he couldn’t outrun a feeling.
He decided instead to face it head on. Jason stood up tall and waited for the presence
to approach him. Jason looked in all directions and didn’t see even the slightest hint of
movement. Nevertheless, he felt the cause of his anxiety approach. Jason expected to see a
terrifying sight and be wakened into reality. Instead, he was gripped by an invisible force with
enormous strength, and searing pain pulsed throughout his body. The pain was blinding and
focused, as if every neuron that sensed pain in his brain was firing at full capacity. After what
seemed to be a full twenty seconds of white hot pain, Jason awoke with a gasp, breathing hard.
He looked over at Jess, who had been wakened herself by his violent awakening.
“Are you alright Jason?” she asked groggily.
Jason patted down his body quickly. He felt fine. But the dream was so vivid, the pain
so real and intense that Jason couldn’t help but feel that something was amiss. Still, he
convinced himself that it was nothing more than a silly dream.
“I had one of those sports dreams. I tried to kick something really hard, you know how
that can sometimes result in my leg kicking really hard in real life. Let’s just go back to bed.”
“Ok baby. Good night.”
Jess closed her eyes and quickly fell back into a deep slumber. Jason stared at the
ceiling for a full ten minutes, perplexed by his strange nightmare. Finally deciding to ignore the
whole thing again, he drifted back to sleep, passing the rest of the night in dreamless peace.
When Jason awoke in the morning, Jess was gone from their bed. “Wow, she must be in the
zone for book writing,” thought Jason as he dressed himself and headed to the kitchen for his
morning cup of tea. Sure enough, Jess was already sitting on the couch deep in thought. Her
general pattern was to type for about a minute or so, and then spend about thirty to forty
seconds contemplating what to write next.
Jason sat in silence, enjoying Jess’s company this morning just as much as he had
enjoyed his solitude the previous morning. After a short time he spent reading a magazine left
on the table, Jason went to get dressed and went to work. Jason arrived a bit early than was
necessary, so he had to wait around for about ten minutes until Matt showed up.
“Good morning buddy,” said Matt cheerfully. “There’s a bit of chill in the air this
morning. It made me think a bit of winter, even though this ski season is far from over.”
“I’m getting excited for it as well.” Jason quickly glanced around the make sure his boss hadn’t
arrived yet. “Even though this gig is not bad, ski instructing is what I really like doing. This is
nice and all, but teaching just gives me that satisfaction I just don’t get from building houses.”
“I agree. I’m looking forward to getting back on the lifts as well. I might request to
teach a few younger kids classes this season again. I haven’t done it in a while, and little kids,
while they can be a hassle, are really fun. They are so innocent in their attitude, and I think
they refresh my own mindset on skiing. Its worth it worse pay, for a little while.”
“Teaching kids is fun, but I think I’ll stick with the powder lessons. Getting paid to teach
those, I feel like I’m just cheating the system. I love every second of it, and I get paid for it.”
“Amen to that. Hey, I’m thinking of trying to charge up Loveland Pass after work on my
bike, want to join me?”
“Probably so. That sounds pretty like an excellent workout. Lets plan on it.”
The work day flew by for Jason as it often did. Even though he didn’t enjoy construction
work as much as ski instructing, it was still a job that he didn’t mind and sometimes even mildly
enjoyed. Much of his enjoyment was because of the camaraderie he had with his co-workers,
especially Matt. Jason often thought that construction work would be really dull if he had to do
it alone, or with a group of people who weren’t as friendly and upbeat as his current coworkers. But those thoughts were rare for Jason, and today he actually enjoyed his labors and
by the end of the day was looking forward to a fun bike ride with Matt.
After riding home at a quicker than usual pace, Jason greeted Jess.
“I’m going to ride up Loveland Pass with Matt, would you like to come with us? It could
do you some good to get out of the house for a while.”
“That sounds like a good time, but I just got back from a run about an hour ago and I
was just about to go to the grocery store, we’re running low on almost everything. You go
ahead and have fun, we can ride the Pass together soon.”
“Ok, I’ll see you later.”
Jason rode his bike down the flat, straight stretch of road to the edge of Dillon Reservoir
and saw Matt already there, primed and ready to go.
“Lets do this thing!”
“I’m ready, lets dominate this hill. Did you bring lights for your bike?”
“Yeah, I thought I would rather make it to the top and end in darkness than have to quit
early and get home while its still light out.”
Their brief conversation ended, and the two men started to ride their bicycles up
Highway 6 towards Loveland Pass. At this point it was only about six o’clock, so they had a fair
chance of making it to the top and back down before dark. The first bit of the ride whizzed
past. They traveled along a bike path paralleling the Snake River, and made great time despite
the slight uphill grade. Once the bike path terminated and the pair were forced back onto the
highway, the climbing got much steeper. After passing a small spring on the side of the road,
Jason struck up a conversation with Matt.
“Do you dream much?” Jason asked Matt nonchalantly.
“Every once in a while. But they’re usually very abstract and I can never remember
what goes on. Why do you ask?”
“Each of the last two nights I have had a weird dream. Not weird in that super strange
things happen, but weird in that the dreams were incredibly realistic, and I could actually feel
pain.”
“Wow, I’ve never heard of anyone feeling pain in a dream before. You actually felt real
physical pain in a dream?”
“Yes, and I’ve been trying to figure out why I’ve all of a sudden had these dreams.”
“I bet its something like you ate something that went bad before dinner on both nights
and it gave you freaky dreams.”
“That wouldn’t surprise me. The milk I had both nights did smell a little bit odd. You’re
probably right.”
They continued riding up the beautiful valley. Jason loved riding up here, because the
road was steep and challenging on the way up, but with few sharp turns to inhibit their speed
on the way down. Jason and Matt reached the top of the pass just after the clock struck eight.
The sun had set, but plenty of light remained. They didn’t pause long to appreciate the twilight
glow caressing the mountains, because that very same twilight glow would not provide
illumination for their descent for much longer. After roaring down the mountain road at top
speed, the two friends reached Keystone at about 8:20, at which time they stopped to mount
their lights. At the intersection where they met not even three hours ago, they parted ways till
the next day.
When Jason arrived at his house, Jess had already prepared a meal. Jason ate
ravenously and afterwards showered before getting into bed. He felt confident that his sleep
would not be plagued with any more strange dreams, but he harbored a sneaking suspicion
that another strange night awaited him.
Chapter 4
The dream began the same way as the night before. Jason had the sensation of running
on water. His body took form soon after, and he was dressed in combat fatigues with black
combat boots, and he stood in a plain with tall grass. Just as before, Jason felt a presence
coming towards him. Not wishing for a repeat of the painful experience the night before, Jason
turned his back to the approaching presence and ran. He ran as fast as he could for as long as
he could. Jason’s lungs burned after a short time, but he felt his pursuer closing in and dared
not slow down. Inevitably Jason grew tired, and the presence finally caught him. In the same
fashion as the night before, Jason was seized by an immensely powerful, invisible force, and he
felt the same searing pain course through him. He screamed in agony, and after it seemed he
could take no more he awoke to the utter silence of night. This time he didn’t rouse Jess from
her slumber, so he just laid back down in an attempt to sleep once again. Jason felt confused.
His confusion bordered on fear. “Why is this happening? Do I have some sort of mental
disorder? What is going on here?” These questions swam through his head freely and with
some frightening answers, but Jason once again sunk into dreamless sleep.
Jason arose the next morning and had a day much like the one before. He enjoyed the
calm morning hours with Jess, went to work, exercised with Matt, then came home and spent
the evening with Jess. That night, Jason expected another strange dream. Instead, he awoke
the next morning exceptionally pleased with his first night of unmolested sleep of that week.
Jason dismissed his outlandish dreams as a fluke due to sickness, ingestion of bad food, or just a
by-product of a weary mind trying to straighten itself out. For about a week, Jason slept like an
angel. But then one night a week after the most recent dream Jason once again found himself
in a grassy plain with the same clothing as before.
Although Jason was upset about the fact he was having another of these dreams, his
anger subsided when he remembered the excruciating pain this dream ended with twice last
week. Immediately he attempted to think of a new plan to avoid the presence. This time,
Jason simply dropped to the ground and attempted to blend in with the grass of the plains.
This plan seemed to work for a time, but the presence eventually found him, and after a third
round of pain Jason awoke. This time, Jason walked to the bathroom, splashed his face, and
stared at himself in the mirror for fifteen minutes. “What is wrong with you?!” he asked his
reflection.
Jason had the same dream each of the next four nights. Jason thought about seeing a
psychiatrist, hoping to gain some clarity on the situation. However, he dismissed this option for
two reasons. First, Jason knew that seeing a psychiatrist was expensive, and while he made
plenty of money for the lifestyle he was currently living, he didn’t have a lot of money in
savings. Secondly, Jason had always thought that people who needed to see a psychiatrist were
weak. Jason saw this as a test of his willpower, so he simply attempted to fight through his
mental hardships and hoped the dreams would go away. Every night, he felt confident that his
strange dreams wouldn’t come back. But every night, the little voice in the back of his mind
that told him the dreams would come back was right. For four more nights, Jason attempted to
avoid the presence. Each night, he tried something different in his dream in an effort to avoid
the pain that followed his failed encounters. One night, Jason tried to crawl away through the
bushes and sneak away from his pursuer. This worked for a while, but eventually Jason was
caught, he was subjected to the almost familiar pain, and he woke up frustrated and tired. On
another occasion, Jason at first snuck away, and then when he felt the presence fading away he
got up and ran. This turned out to be futile, as he was once again caught. This time Jason
didn’t run until he was caught, but ran until it was clear to him that he could never outdistance
the thing that chased him, and he turned around to face it head on. This strategy also failed.
After the seventh straight night of having these strange dreams, Jason felt himself on the brink
of calling a doctor for help and a referral to a good psychiatrist. However, on the eighth night,
Jason’s sleep was normal.
Jason was cautiously optimistic at first. He worried that his dreams would soon be
pestered by his vivid dreams again, but for a week he slept soundly and without interruption.
However, just when his awful, vivid dreams began to seem like a bad dream, another dream
plagued his sleep.
Chapter 5
Jason found himself once again dressed in combat fatigues and black combat boots. But
this time Jason was standing in a cold, barren, and windswept valley. Jason could tell that he
was not in Colorado because of the strange vegetation surrounding him. Jason realized that
this time he was equipped with a dagger and a handgun. As he unsheathed the dagger, a small
piece of folded paper fell from his pocket. Jason reached for it and read the short message.
-Jason Mathews, you are in hostile territory. Heavily armed militiamen patrol this area. If
captured, I assure you that you will be tortured. Your only chance of escape is an evac
helicopter that is scheduled to pick you up in three hours. The landing zone is three miles due
north of your position. The helicopter will not stay on the ground for longer than five minutes,
and the pilot will not hesitate to leave you behind. Good luckWhen Jason saw this note, the first thing he did was find cover. He had been standing in
the middle of the valley, and anyone within a mile of his position would have spotted him
easily. Once he found cover behind a rock, Jason scrounged through his pockets praying that
he had a compass. He breathed a sigh of relief when he pulled out a small plastic compass.
Because Jason abhorred the idea of another episode of pain while he was asleep, he decided to
move as quickly as he could due north while staying as covert as possible. After reading his
compass, Jason saw that north was straight up the mouth of the valley. Jason moved quickly
from safe spot to safe spot, attempting to spend as little time in the open as possible. This
proved difficult to do. The only things he could use for cover were large chunks of volcanic rock
strewn across the valley floor. Jason would crouch as low as possible, move quickly to the next
rock, and look for his next place of cover while he caught his breath. Every now and then a
withered tree would appear, but they were few and far between in the desolate place. After
half an hour of running, Jason noticed the valley shrinking in width as he approached the exit.
He assumed that this would be an ideal place for patrolling guards to catch him, so he carefully
planned out his escape route. In order to escape the confines of the valley, Jason had to either
run up a two hundred yard slope of what appeared to be loose gravel, or he had to directly up a
rock formation for about fifty feet. Jason chose to run, as he didn’t know how long the rock
climbing would take, and his combat boots didn’t seem like ideal footwear for rock climbing.
Once he caught his breath, Jason began his dash for the valley’s exit. He ran quickly
towards the side of the slope in the shadow of a long wall of rock. Once he got to the wall,
Jason turned uphill. In about a minute, Jason reached the top of the slope. Jason reached the
top of the slope and quickly looked around to figure out where he ought to go. The landscape
was similar to the bottom of the valley he had just exited, except he was a small group of trees.
Jason decided that these would make excellent cover, and ran towards them. As he reached
the trees, his concentration began to wander. He wondered how far he had traveled. He
wondered if he really should follow the instructions on the note. While these thoughts
distracted him, Jason failed to notice a tripwire strung between two trees. He felt the tripwire
engage, but couldn’t react fast enough to avoid the net that sprung up from its place of
concealment in the ground below him. Jason felt a thick net engulf him and when he stopped
moving the net was suspended five feet above the ground.
Jason tried to reach his dagger. His arms were both caught in awkward positions, but
Jason was barely able to reach it. He was able to cut himself free after being caught for no
more than five minutes. Jason hit the ground hard, but the adrenaline pumping through his
body made him impervious to such trifling pain. When Jason stood up, he heard the sound of
footsteps closing in all around him. Jason hardly had time to act before he saw the outlines of
men wielding AK-47s materialize in the small grove of trees. Jason knew he couldn’t get away,
but he also had no desire to be tortured. Jason reached for his handgun and prepared to take
cover and shoot as many of the approaching militiamen as possible before they inevitably killed
or captured him. But as he reached for his handgun, a powerful blow to the back of his head
knocked Jason unconscious.
Jason sprung awake. The dream was over, but he felt a phantom adrenaline rush still
coursing through his body. Once Jason calmed down enough to control his thoughts, he came
to the conclusion that these dreams might never go away. But he was convinced to fight them
as long as possible. “In all of these dreams, I have an objective of some kind. Maybe if I can
accomplish every dream scenario’s objective, I can stop having the dreams.”
For the rest of the week, every night Jason would try to get picked up by the helicopter
in his dream. On the fifth night of the week, Jason found a way out of the valley and through
the lands to the north without being spotted, killed two guards at his landing zone, and got
picked up by the helicopter. When Jason entered the helicopter, his dream stopped, but he
didn’t wake up. He continued to sleep peacefully. This cemented Jason’s theory that if he
could accomplish the goals set forth for him in his dreams, he could eventually not have the
dreams anymore.
The remaining months of summer continued in much the same way for Jason. He would
have a similar dream every night for about a week, and followed by one to two weeks of
normal sleep. Jason decided to attempt to make the dreams go away by immersing himself
into his dream world and conquering his dreams. Whenever Jason was presented with a
scenario in his dream, he thought about how he could accomplish it during his waking hours.
Jason experienced one dream scenario where he had to assassinate a man in a large
military compound. He began the dream in the woods a few miles away from the compound
and had to sneak past dozens of patrolling troops in the woods to get a clear shot, but on his
third night of attempting this scenario, Jason got past all of the guards and waited till he had a
clear shot of his victim. Jason shot the man without knowing what he had done, but Jason
didn’t mind, because this was simply a dream. Jason was a decidedly different person in his
dreams. He was cold and unfeeling towards all other people, because they weren’t actually
real. But having this attitude began to seep into Jason’s waking personality. The stress of
having the dreams seemed to exacerbate this slight personality change. Jason’s demeanor was
most noticeably changed when he was in the process of completing a dream scenario. For
those three to seven days, Jason was not only more on edge, but also a little less caring in
general. But these changes went by unnoticed by Jason.
Chapter 6
The month of September came up on Jason almost without warning. Time was flying by
almost as quickly as it did during his college days. Jason was enjoying life to the fullest. On a
morning in early September, Jason got up in much the same fashion as he always did. The night
before had been stressful because Jason had encountered a new dream scenario. This time, he
had been imprisoned in a dark, seemingly primitive prison. Jason had attempted to escape, but
after finding a way to bend his prison bars and disarming the first guard, he ran into a larger
patrol of prison guards and was captured. When Jason got up in the morning, his mind was
focused on this new dream. Jason greeted Jess absentmindedly, not really listening to her
response.
“Good morning babe. When do you have to go to work?”
“I have to grade some homework this morning before class starts, so a bit earlier than
usual.”
“Alright, that sounds good.” Jason made some tea and sat at the kitchen table while
pondering his latest dream. Jess gathered her things and rushed out the door, bidding Jason a
quick farewell. Jason responded with a noncommittal grunt. He sat at the table, absorbed in
his thoughts. This happened more and more often as the school year started and Jess had to
leave early each morning. Jason was different in the mornings. He no longer enjoyed his tea in
the same fashion. Jason used to get absorbed in the warmth and gentle taste of his tea, but
while Jason had thoughts about his dreams he just drank his tea with really thinking about it.
Jess noticed these subtle changes in him. She sometimes talked to him about it, but the
conversation never really lasted long. Jess wasn’t terribly worried about such slight changes,
and Jason now avoided talking about his dreams with anyone else.
Jason rode his bike to work as usual, which was now much closer to his home than it
had been at the start of the summer. The ride to the construction site once again flew by as
Jason’s thoughts were solely on how to conquer his newest dream. Once he got there, Matt
greeted him cheerfully as usual.
“Jason, how are you my friend? This morning feels like a fall morning, doesn’t it? I’m
getting pretty stoked for ski season.”
“I’m stoked too. We are going to have to squeeze in as much bike riding as we can
before the winter hits though.”
Although Jason said he was excited for the ski season, this was less true than usual.
Jason was very much looking forward to getting outside and skiing with Jess and Matt. Ski
instructing seemed like a less fun prospect than usual though. The thought of having to teach
people how to ski didn’t seem as appealing to him as before. Most of the time he simply
dismissed this feeling as a general opposition to working, something that nearly every human
being feels at some point in their life.
“Are you getting excited to get back into ski instructing? I know I am,” said Matt
“Oh yeah, I’m excited too. I’m even more excited for ripping some powder, that’s what I
really can’t wait for.”
“I can’t argue with that sentiment,” said Matt as they prepared to get to work.
Matt noticed the changes in Jason as well. It wasn’t in the way that the two interacted;
their friendship was as strong as ever. Every morning at work Jason and Matt would converse
casually and pleasantly. On most nights of the week, after work they would meet to do
something fun. They oftentimes went to the gym to hit the weight room, swim, play basketball,
or just ride a stationary bike. On weekends, they would often go to a bar with the rest of their
co-workers to watch sports and drink. It wasn’t during these times that Jason seemed a bit
more a bit more of a daydreamer than usual. But sometimes Matt would catch a glimpse of
Jason while they were working, and Jason would not be as focused as usual. Jason prided
himself on being an excellent worker, but with increasing frequency Jason would make minor
mistakes due to a lack of attentiveness. They weren’t enough to cause alarm in Matt, but he
did sometimes wonder what was causing this shift in Jason. Although they both shared very
personal and private information and feelings with the other, Jason never once mentioned
anything that Matt thought might be the reason for his slight behavioral change.
For the rest of the autumn, the changes in Jason’s personality were becoming less
fleeting and more noticeable. During October, when the aspens were sporting their most
stunning and glorious colors, Jess asked Jason if he wanted to spend the afternoon driving
around enjoying the views of the autumn colors. Jason would usually spring at the opportunity
and be enthusiastic about it. But this year, Jason agreed to do it without any vigor. He still
wanted to go, but Jess didn’t see the passion in him that was usually present. Jess concern over
the changes in her husband grew as the year progressed, and at the start of November she
finally had to sit down with him and talk about her worries involving him.
On the last day of his construction work, Jason arrived home. He looked more tired
than usual, but Jess was determined to voice her concerns.
“How did things go today?”
“The house looks great. We’re all done with the outside, but there’s a lot of interior
work still to be done. Good thing I’m not involved with that sort of stuff huh? Even though the
whole construction gig is not my favorite mode of employment, I’m actually a bit sad to be
done. I get a lot of time to just think on the job.”
“What do you think about?” Jess asked innocently, trying to steer the conversation
towards his dreams, which she knew he still had, and with increasing frequency.
“I think about lots of stuff. I think about you. I think about skiing. I think about my
dreams some.” Jason looked decidedly uncomfortable when he mentioned his dreams.
“Ok, I’m just going to come out and say it. I’m worried about you. You have changed
recently. I’m worried about you, and I don’t want you to dismiss that.”
“There’s no need to be worried. I’ve got the whole dream thing under control. I’m
doing better at just working through them. There’s no need for me to get help. We both know
that we wouldn’t be able to afford it if I had to get protracted treatment.”
“I’m not sure what I want. But I do know that I see changes in you, and they’re
becoming more pronounced. You don’t seem to notice, but I see it increasing every day you
have one of your dreams. Could you even try them explain it to me?”
“Look, I’ve already told you, I don’t like talking about them. I think that those dreams
are somehow supposed to be personal to me, and I don’t like talking about them.”
“I’m asking you to talk about them to me. Please, it would really help me understand
what’s happening to you.”
Jason was not really in the mood to talk about his dreams after such a good day at work.
But he realized that a conversation of this sort with Jess was inevitable.
“If you insist. To be honest, I think about the dreams most of the day at work. If I don’t
think about the situation I’m in, then I keep having the same dream over and over and that’s
when I feel super stressed. Recently, I’ve had to be more violent in my dreams. Last week, I
strangled someone in my dream. It was so vivid, but I know it’s a dream so I try not to let it
affect me. Still, I saw a man’s face, and I crushed the life out of him.”
“I don’t think that you’re personality change in your dream is confined to your dream. I
think it’s spilling over into your real personality.”
“Really? I haven’t noticed anything of the sort.”
“Well, you’ve been increasingly distant. You haven’t spent any time with anyone except
me and Matt since the summer. I’m afraid that becoming less caring about other people.”
Jason heard this, and he realized that it might be true. This statement was synchronized
with his growing feeling of not wanting to return to ski instructing.
“Wow. I don’t even know what to say. I think you might have a point.”
They both sat in silence for the next minute. Jason was deep in thought, and Jess
observed him carefully. Eventually Jason looked at Jess and said in a very serious tone, “I don’t
know what’s happening to me, but I won’t let dreams change the man I am. I am going to
consciously take action to prevent any sort of mentality I have in my dreams from crossing over
into my waking personality.”
Jess thought about this. What she really wanted was for him to see a psychiatrist and
talk about these dreams, but she knew that they really couldn’t afford it and also that Jason
would never willingly submit to such a thing unless he attempted to make changes on his own
first. So she smiled at him and said, “That sounds good, but I want to talk about this sort of
thing more. I know that you don’t like to talk about these dreams, but maybe that’s the reason
all of these changes are happening is because you’re keeping everything inside. From now on,
you talk to me about all of these dreams.”
Jason really didn’t want to talk to Jess about his dreams even after his realization that
they may be affecting his mind in ways unnoticed by him, but he knew it was the right thing to
do, so he agreed.
“You’re right. I’ll talk to you about them from now on. I’ve been having more of them
recently. I get fewer days of no dreams before I get a new one. Also, they’ve been getting
more intense. I have to do more and more difficult and violent things. But it’s the frequency
that both worries me and excites me. I’m hoping that maybe if I have them often enough, they
will just seem like regular dreams, and I’ll solve the problem by simply getting used to the
dreams. My other hope is that I’ll stop having them, but I’ve been hoping that would ever since
June.”
“Let’s talk about it more tomorrow. I feel like you’ve already made a lot of positive
progress just with this conversation. I don’t want to burn you out with this one conversation
though. Lets make it a habit to talk about your dreams a little bit each day, and then move on
to other things. By the way, there’s a letter addressed to you. There’s no return address, but it
looked important.”
“Thanks. Ah, here it is.”
Jason reached down and opened the letter. In it there were two things, a short letter
and a flyer. He looked at them, and rather amusedly put the contents back on the table.
Jess, who had started to make dinner, asked him, “So what was it? Who was it from?”
“There was a letter from some army guy saying that my name was on a short list of
possible candidates for some special government experimental training program. They want to
try out some new training techniques and thought I would be a good test subject or something
along those lines.”
“Huh. So do I assume correctly that you’re not interested in the least?”
“Bingo. I’ve never wanted to be the in the armed forces, and no stupid violent dreams
have changed that.” Jason threw the letter into a pile of stuff to be discarded. He still found it
strange that he had received such a letter. Jason had never given any information to the
military in any way, and he couldn’t think of any way in which the armed forces could know that
he was an excellent candidate for some special training program. He came to the conclusion
that this must be some mass letter, and he was one of millions of American men to receive one.
The letter sat in a pile of papers for two weeks, and Jason never thought about it again.
That night his sleep was dreamless. For a whole two weeks, Jason didn’t have any
dreams. He once again optimistically thought that his vivid dreams might be a thing of the past.
He had talked to Jess about his dreams more often since their conversation in early November,
but these conversations centered more on the lack of dreams than the dreams themselves. On
morning in late November, Jess and Jason got up to go to work. Jess had to go teach
schoolchildren, and Jason had to go teach people how to ski. Jason actually enjoyed his tea for
the first time in a few months this morning. Jason had the feeling that this would be a good
day. It was a wintery morning, with snow falling gently in the cold, dry air. Jess and Jason only
owned one car, so Jason had to drop Jess off at the school before driving to the mountain.
The drive over the school was snowy, but Jason and Jess were both confident and skilled
at driving in the snow. When Jason pulled up to the school, he kissed her goodbye, and Jess
hurried into the school to avoid collecting snow on her jacket. Jason then drove over to
Keystone for another day of ski instructing. The lessons were finally getting interesting, as
more terrain was opened up. More terrain opening up meant more classes to teach and more
space on the mountain in which to teach. On this particular day Jason was supposed to teach a
mogul skiing lesson. These were always fun, because the only skiers who took mogul skiing
lessons were serious about improving. His student were usually athletic, determined, and had a
good fundamental knowledge of skiing, which made teaching a breeze. But when Jason arrived
at the mountain, he felt something was amiss. Many of his co-workers approached him to ask if
he heard the news about Matt and if it was true. Jason had no idea what all of this talk was
about Matt, so he searched for his boss to get clarification about what was going on.
Jason walked into his boss’s office and was forced to wait while his boss completed a
phone call. Jason’s boss, a man named Dan, was an affable man that every employee liked. He
was not only an excellent skier, but a humorous man who always enjoyed a good laugh and
brightened everyone else’s day. But today Dan was in no mood to laugh. Dan’s face told Jason
that something serious was going on, and it wasn’t good.
“Jason, it’s good to see you. Have you heard what happened yesterday?”
“No, and that’s why I’m here. What is everyone chattering about? All I know is that it’s
something involving Matt.”
“That’s true, it does involve Matt. If you haven’t heard yet, this will be hard for you.
Matt has been accused of soliciting sex from one of the girls in one of his classes.”
Jason was dumbfounded. “Well that’s obviously not true! Matt would rather die than
do something so perverted. He is the most moral and decent human being I have ever met!”
“I know. I wish this were all just a bad dream Jason, I really do. But the fact of the
matter is that the accusation seems to have merit. You know as well as I do that we can’t
afford to be seen taking a soft stance against misconduct of this magnitude, and last night an
order was handed down from the admins to fire Matt immediately.”
“This is a farce! This must be some kind of sick joke.”
“I don’t like it any more than you do. But there it is.” Dan looked at Jason, and saw a
look of utter bewilderment in his face. “Would you like the day off? Perhaps you should go talk
to him.”
“Yeah, I guess I’ll do that. I’m certainly not going to be able to teach mogul skiing in this
condition.” Jason grabbed his things and returned to his car. The whole way, he halfway
expected to wake up and have things returned to normal. Jason knew without an ounce of
uncertainty that Matt would never make any sexual advances on minors. He reached his car,
and drove straight over the Matt’s house. When Jason arrived, he was afraid to get of his car.
A part of him was worried that the accusation was true. Was it really possible that his closest
friend could go so wrong without any signs at all?
Jason got out of his car and walked through the snow to the front door. Each step
seemed to take ages, and the snowflakes danced before his eyes in slow motion. Time passed
slowly because Jason knew almost absolutely that his relationship with Matt would never be
quite the same ever again. Jason knocked on the front door, and it was opened by Matt’s
mother. She was a thin woman with graying hair and a kind smile. As always, she was glad to
see Jason.
“Jason, I’m glad you’re here. Matt is in his room.”
“Thanks, I’ll go up there right away.”
Jason walked up the stairs of towards Matt’s room. He slowly opened the door to find
Matt packing his things.
“Matt, is it true?” Jason asked in a calm voice.
Matt paused, and turned around to face Jason. “No. Not for an instant. You know I
would never do anything so heinous.”
“Yeah, I know. Do you know why it happened?”
“No idea. One of the girls in my intermediate class from last week is the supposed
“victim”. She was in my class, but nothing out of the ordinary happened at all. The only thing I
can see causing this is that she thought I was hitting on her with my body language or
something. But the fact of the matter is that I got fired, and no other mountain is going to hire
me until the air clears.”
“What are you going to do?”
“During the summer, one of my buddies from college offered me a job in Denver at his
company. I called him and told him about what happened, and he said the offer is still on the
table. So I’m packing up my things, and leaving tonight for Denver.”
This news hit Jason like a freight train. But as much as Jason didn’t want it to be true, he
knew that this was the only option left for Matt.
“There’s no way I will be able to get a job around here until this whole situation is
figured out. I’m sure it will get figured out at some point, but I need a job now. My parents
offered to let me stay here, but I’m no freeloader. I’ve been paying them rent for years now,
and I have no excuse to stop now. I know you’re upset, but don’t worry. This situation will
clear up, I’ll get my job back, and I’ll move back up here.”
“I hope so man. But until then, I’m going to miss you.”
Matt paused and exhaled a long sigh. “I’ll miss you too man.”
“Jason looked around the room and saw that Matt had a lot of things to pack. “Would
you like some help packing?”
“No, I can do it. It gives me time to think anyway.”
Jason, understanding this sentiment completely, realized that Matt needed some time
to be alone. “Alright, I’m going to go back to the mountain and see if I can still work a half day.
Don’t leave without letting me see you one more time, ok?”
“Sounds good Jason. I’ll see you later today.”
Jason bid Matt’s mother farewell and returned to the mountain. By the time he got
there all of the lessons were filled up and he wasn’t needed at least until noon. Jason decided
to ski a few runs and think about the events that had unfolded that morning.
When Jason got back to the mountain, he quickly made his way to Outback Express, the
place he knew would hold the best snow. Because it was a weekday, the slopes were not
crowded, and Jason got to ride on most lift chairs by himself. Usually on a day like this, Jason
would enjoy the snow falling around him, blanketing the mountainside and creating a snowy
playground for him to play in. But today Jason barely noticed the frigid winds and heavy snow
that buffeted every inch of skin that he left exposed to the elements. His mind focused more
the thought of living life without his best friend. Jason knew that he would eventually recover
and get used to the loss, but he knew it wouldn’t be an easy process.
Jason’s thoughts were mostly concerned with Matt’s well-being. He knew that being
accused of being a pedophile would strike Matt hard. Although he wasn’t religious, Matt was
the most strictly moral person Jason had ever known. The thought crossed Jason’s mind that
Matt may never be the same carefree, spirited individual that he had grown to be best friends
with.
When Jason reached the top of the Outback lift, he looked at his watch and realized that
he would only get to ski about three or four runs before he had to head back to the base area.
He decided to ski a run that began in light trees and soon opened into a wide open and very
mellow run. Jason often skied this run when he felt like relaxing. Today, he found a few inches
of new snow on top of the groomed base, which made for very smooth turns. As Jason glided
down the mountain, he took a step back and thought about the big picture. “Look at
precarious all of this is. If one silly little thing goes wrong, all of this can be wiped out. Matt
had everything going for him, and within twenty four hours has been fired and is moving away.”
Jason lost his train of thought as he hit a rough area under the new snow, abruptly bringing his
attention back to the turns he was making down the mountain.
For a moment, Jason cleared his mind of all the troubles that engulfed his mind on this
turbulent day and focused on skiing. He carved long, graceful arcs through the powder, moving
quickly but not charging at full speed. At the apex of each turn, an extra large cloud of snow
erupted from the point where his edges contacted the snow, throwing the fluffy snow up into
the air. The cloud of snow covered his lower body, so to Jason is appeared as though his torso
was floating on a cloud that hovered right over the surface of the snow.
This gentle powder skiing helped to calm Jason down, but he was still very distraught
when the time came for him to head down to the base of the mountain. Jason arrived back at
the ski school headquarters just before noon, and found that there was a class available for him
to teach. A family wanted a half day lesson, so Jason was assigned to teach them. When Jason
met with them, he was pleased that they seemed to be a hardy bunch. Even in the toughest
times, Jason always put on a happy face for his classes. For the remaining three hours of the
day, Jason rode around the mountain with the family of three, instructing them how to really
dig in their edges on turns, how to link turns together smoothly, and how to use pole plants to
aid in shifting weight distribution.
When the day was done, Jason walked to his car quickly so he could go pick up Jess. The
snowy conditions prevented him from making good time to the school, and darkness was
already settling in when Jason arrived at the school. When he arrived, Jason called Jess to let
her know he was there. About two minutes later, Jess came out and quickly made her through
the snow. The opened the door and jumped in, seemingly in a good mood.
“Hi! Today was a good day for me. In every one of my classes we got through a lot of
material, and the whole class really understood the concepts I was trying to get across to
them.”
“What were you going over in class today?”
“Well, in my English Lit class I’m having them read Rime of the Ancient Mariner. By the
way, you gave me a great suggestion. You told me to show my class the version of the poem
done by Iron Maiden. I think they really liked that. Hey, are you ok? You look a little bit sick or
something.”
“Matt got fired today. He’s moving to Denver.”
Jess looked at Jason, half expecting him to laugh and say it was a joke. When she saw
the expression on his face not yield one bit, she knew he was serious.
“Why?”
“There have been allegations that he made sexual advances on a young girl in one his
classes.”
“How is that possible? Did you talk to Matt about this?”
“I went over to his house as soon as I heard. He said that the accusations were false.
But he can’t afford to be unemployed, so he’s moving to Denver. He has a job lined up there.”
Their drive home was passed mostly in silence. The shock of the news was hitting Jess
with all of its implications, and Jason was simply pondering whether it was feasible for Matt to
ever return. Jason eventually decided that it was fully possible for this situation to blow over
and for Matt to return. Not only would the accusations against Matt turn out to be completely
unfounded, but Matt would realize that he missed living in the mountains and would promptly
return. Jason began to think that he might be making a bit more of a fuss about the situation
than he ought to be.
When Jason and Jess finally got back into the warmth of their house, Jess turned to
Jason and said, “I know that this whole crazy situation must be hard for you. Just remember
that I’m here for you whenever you need me. Nothing can change that. I’ll always be here for
you.”
“I know. But it’s still nice to hear you say that.”
Jason decided to give Matt a call. No matter how painful saying goodbye would be, he
knew it had to be done. Jason found Matt’s number and pressed the call button, and waited
for Matt to answer. Jason was alarmed when he heard Matt’s voicemail message play over the
phone. Unpleasant thoughts ran through Jason’s mind. “Did Matt forget to see me before he
left? He’s my best friend, how could he not want to say goodbye to me?”
Jason’s fears proved groundless when he heard his phone ring and caller ID showed the
caller to be Matt.
Jason answered the phone with a relieved tone. “Hi Matt. I thought you might have
skipped town without saying goodbye.”
“No way buddy. There is no way I would ever move out without giving a proper farewell
to my best mate. I have my things packed, and I’m going to head out. Mind if I stop by your
place on the way?”
“Sounds like a plan to me.”
“Ok, I’ll be there soon.”
Jason waited anxiously for Matt. In about twenty minutes, Matt’s car pulled up in front
of Jason’s place. Matt walked up to Jason’s door and the two friends sat down to talk.
“I still can’t believe this is happening. I’m going to miss you Matt. But I’m sure you
know that.”
“Yeah, but I still like hearing you say that. I can hardly believe what’s happening either.
Wasn’t it yesterday that we were just teaching classes and relaxing in the snow and sun for
lunch? I guess life can change faster than you think, huh?”
“True. I just never thought anything like this would happen to anyone I knew. I mean,
you hear about accusations of sexual harassment in the news, but when you read about it in a
newspaper it just doesn’t seem quite real. I wonder if all of those cases are as much of a joke as
yours?”
“That’s a good question man. A question I really want to know the answer to.”
“Will you live with the guy who is offering you the job?”
“Only until I can find my own place, and he assured me that there’s plenty of places to
rent in the area.”
“Do you think you’ll come back up here?”
Matt had to pause for a moment. When he responded, he wore a pained look on his
face. “I don’t know. I wish I knew. I wish I knew what was going to happen, but we live in a
crazy world. I guess my answer is that I hope to come back, but in reality who knows whether
or not that’s feasible?”
Jason was upset. His best friend was leaving, possibly forever. Crying was not in Jason’s
nature, but his eyes were damp when Matt walked out the door down to his car.
“Have a safe drive. I hope you enjoy Denver. Also, keep in touch. I want to know how
things work down in the Front Range, and you have to keep me posted on how the potential
lawsuits and such are going.”
“Sounds good to me. I’m sure that I’ll be a little bit preoccupied initially, so I may not
talk to you for some time. Until next time, take care of yourself Jason. Don’t worry, I’m sure I’ll
see you sooner than you think.”
Jason waved as Matt drove away. When Matt’s car was out of sight, he went back
inside and sipped some hot chocolate Jess had made after she bade Matt farewell. The warmth
of the beverage did little to raise Jason’s spirits. Jason wondered how long it would be before
he saw Matt again. The thought that he would never see Matt again crossed his mind. This
was an unwelcome proposition. He assured himself that he would see Matt sooner than he
thought, just as Matt had said.
Jason Mathews never saw his best friend again.
Chapter 7
The days passed slowly for Jason, but December finally rolled in, accompanied by a
succession of medium sized storms. It just so happened that Jason’s work schedule allowed
him to enjoy multiple days of fantastic skiing. Twice in the same week, Jason got to ski by
himself in the morning in the storm, getting first tracks on every run. In the afternoon, he
would teach a class when the weather cleared up. As a result of the cooperating weather and
the new snow, these afternoon lessons were extremely enjoyable. During the workday Jason
would forget about his worries, but when the day was over Jason missed having Matt to talk to
as he got ready to leave.
On the weekends, Jason would usually request a day off from work so that he could go
skiing with Jess. Usually the weekends left the ski areas crowded with mobs of “weekend
warriors” from the Front Range, many times they would take a trip into the backcountry for
some fun skiing in the solitude and beauty of the mountains. On the first weekend of
December, Jason didn’t have to work on Sunday, so he and Jess planned to ski a fun gladed area
just close to Loveland Ski Area. They would hike up into a beautiful valley called Herman Gulch
and traverse back to a low angled glade that provided excellent powder runs in relatively safe
terrain.
On Saturday night, he and Jess packed their things in preparation for the next morning.
Jason went through his mental checklist. “What do I need? Water, food, beacon, probe,
shovel, helmet, goggles, gloves, jacket, layers, pants, socks, skis, boots, and poles. Got all of it.
What else do I need? My camera would be good. I haven’t taken any good skiing pictures in a
while. Everything else I need is already in my pack.” Jason quickly and efficiently packed his
things. Packing for a day trip was practically second nature for him because of the frequency of
these sorts of trips. When he was done packing, he asked Jess if she wanted to watch a movie.
She thought that sounded like fun, and it was only 7 o’clock, so they had a lot of time before
they needed to be in bed. Jess walked up to their movie collection, scanning it carefully.
“Jason, what do you want to watch?”
“Something funny. I’m not sure if will be able to get through anything intense or
serious.”
“Well I have a BBC production of “The Tempest” that I’m showing in class next week.
What do you think?”
Jason was not terribly excited about the prospect of watching Shakespeare, but he
didn’t want to completely kill Jess’s enthusiasm, so he had to calculate his response.
“Well we could, but honestly when I said something funny I meant something funny and
crude. “The Tempest” has its humorous moments, but I was thinking more along the lines of
watching something that doesn’t have a deeper meaning.”
“I know. I was pulling your leg. Let’s watch one of those movies you’ve been trying to
convince me to watch for a while now. You know, one of those movies that the guys who write
South Park made.”
“We could watch “Cannibal!: The Musical”. I believe that movie is sufficiently crude for
me at the current time.”
“What is it about?”
“Cannibal! Is a classic of CU-Boulder movie literature. Trey Parker and Matt Stone made
it while they were still in school. Trust me, it’s awesome.”
“Well if you say it’s awesome, I don’t have the right to decide you’re wrong until I’ve
seen it.”
Jess resigned herself to watching this movie that Jason had insisted she see for years.
Jess expected the movie to be done in the same style as every other movie done by this duo of
former CU-Boulder students, with crude humor, insensitivity to every group of people in
existence, and over the top violence. Besides the over the top violence, she was pleased to find
that this movie was different. It was much more quirky than their other titles. Jess was a bit
reluctant to admit this to Jason, but she actually enjoyed the movie. When the movie was
done, they went to bed. The clock had not yet reached 9:30, but they needed to get up early
the next day in order to get in a few runs. She was decidedly against Daylight Savings Time.
“Whoever decided to make the sun set an hour earlier in the day is totally not cool,” she
thought as she brushed her teeth. Jess quickly fell asleep, looking forward to a fun day of
skiing.
Jason and Jess woke up bright and early. At 5:30 in the morning they were up and
about, Jason preparing their breakfast and Jess making and packing their lunches. Jess never
really ate much before skiing before she met Jason, but at Jason’s insistence she started eating
breakfast early in the morning before skiing, and it made a world of difference. She found that
she hit the wall much less frequently in the afternoon, and that her concentration and
awareness went up considerably throughout the day.
Jason finished preparing their breakfast, which consisted of a few scrambled eggs with
green bell peppers and onions thrown in, apples, and milk. Since Jess was done with packing
lunches before Jason finished making breakfast, she fetched her laptop and looked at the
avalanche forecast for the day. Avalanches are a fact of a backcountry skier’s life in Colorado,
and Jason and Jess checked the avalanche report every morning before any sort of backcountry
skiing, and on checked it anyway on most mornings purely out of habit.
Jess opened the lid of her computer and quickly navigated her way to the Colorado
Avalanche Information Center website. “Ok, I’m opening up the Front Range forecast page.
Overall the danger is moderate, with pockets of considerable on slopes facing east through
north above treeline. Specifically it says that on the aforementioned higher risk slopes there is
a possibility of the formation of a hard slab by wind loading. For the whole snowpack it says
that although the old snow seems to have bonded well to recent snow, weak layers do exist
close to the ground. One last thing, the forecast calls for a clear day and possible warming later
in the afternoon. Overall, I’d say we’re pretty safe today. Didn’t you measure the slope at
twenty three degrees max?”
“Yes I did, but that’s only a couple of degrees lower than the “ideal slope angle” for an
avalanche. I agree with your statement of it being relatively safe out today, but let’s still do a
shear test when we get into the trees. Also, it sounds like when the afternoon rolls around
we’ll have to keep an eye on the temperature.”
“I agree. Are those eggs done yet?”
“Just about. Could you grab some plates to serve them onto?”
“Absolutely. Did you put on some of that new seasoning I bought?”
“No, I forgot to! Would you like to put some one really quick before I overcook the
eggs?”
“Yes, that would be great.” Jess quickly found the steak seasoning she had purchased at
the grocery store a few days ago and sprinkled some on the eggs. The smell given off by the
steaming peppers, eggs and seasoning was intoxicating.
Jason suddenly felt much hungrier than he had only moments before. “These eggs are
done. Let’s eat!”
Jason split the eggs into two roughly equal portions, and the happy couple ate their
meals quickly. When the eggs were gone, they each ate their apple and downed a glass of milk.
Jason cleared their dishes followed Jess to the bathroom where they both brushed their teeth.
With excited grins on their faces, Jason and Jess got into their car and started the drive towards
Eisenhower Tunnel. On the way, the musical selection ranged from Bob Marley to Nickel Creek,
as long as it had a good beat and was happy music. As the car neared the exit of the tunnel,
Jason started to get really excited about the day. He felt as though this day might be a turning
point, a day in which he could start to let go of the pain of having Matt move away. As they
pulled up to the small parking lot beside the freeway, Jason grabbed the note he had written
before they left home and put it under the driver seat. The note described where they were
going, what they intended to do, how long they intended to be gone, and had their phone
numbers on it. Jason had been taught to always leave one of these when doing something in
relatively low-traffic areas, because that way if something bad happens to you and search and
rescue find your car, rescue teams have a much better idea of where to look for you.
The sun was up, but not visible from the valley in which Jason and Jess stood. The chilly
December morning called for the intrepid skiers to wear many layers of clothing. Jason
intentionally underdressed slightly, knowing that after five minutes his body heat would warm
him back up. Before the clock struck 7, Jason and Jess were on the move. They skinned quickly
along the first quarter mile of flat ground. Although most of the route was exceptionally
beautiful and fun, both Jason and Jess disliked this first quarter mile. For this stretch, the trail
was in fact a service road paralleling Interstate 70. The sound of motorists roaring by at
seventy miles per hour honking their horns at the slightest grievance was something that Jason
and Jess usually didn’t associate with skiing. Skiing, especially backcountry skiing, was for them
an escape from society. In the mountains, you could escape from everything and everyone.
The mountains were a place of peace and beauty. On mornings such as this one, there was
nowhere else Jason or Jess would rather be.
After that stressful start to their ascent, the trail turned uphill, leaving the freeway
drivers to wallow in their frustration and stupidity. Jason and Jess’s state of Zen quickly
returned to them as they climbed up through the silent forest, barely able to hear a slight
rumble from the cars below them. Jason set a good pace for them, fast enough to make good
time, but slow enough to not make them sweat profusely and get tired before the descent. As
always though, Jason was simultaneously relaxing and being supremely on his guard. Jason
truly appreciated the beauty of a winter morning. The sun was not yet on them, but ambient
light gave the trees and snow a slight glow. Jason always interpreted this glow as the forest
returning to life after the blanket of night was lifted. This feeling was enhanced by the sounds
of birds, ever present at this early hour. All manners of birds sat in the branches of the trees, a
few summoning the energy to take flight between the trees. Each bird sang a different song,
but all were beautiful. Jason always thought that the songs of birds were the perfect
soundtrack to a morning like this, and Jason never listened to music at this hour.
However, Jason was always keen on safety. He took careful note of the amount of new
snowfall, wind patterns that resulted in crossloading, and all of the other factors that were
included in the avalanche formula. Jason also thought carefully about route selection. Jason
had long ago come to the conclusion that even on the lowest risk day, there was always at least
one slope somewhere that could slide, and on the other hand even on the highest risk day,
there was always at least one slope that wouldn’t slide. On this particular day Jason knew the
risk of an avalanche happening to them in this particular area was quite low, but he made it a
point to never let his guard down.
Jason and Jess glided silently up the valley. When they reached the terminus of the
road, Jason’s awareness level increased. He knew that this slope was not only steeper, but
much less traveled (and hence much less compacted), both resulting in some real avalanche
danger.
“I think this looks like a good spot to do a quick shear test,” Jason said before they had
ventured more than a few feet off of the road.
“Capital idea. Are you sure you don’t want to dig a pit?”
“You read the report this morning. Not only is overall danger relatively low, but we’re in
a particularly safe area. Low angle, protected from wind, and with pretty decent snowpack
cohesion. If the shear test fails at a really low level, then maybe we should dig a pit. Otherwise,
I don’t think it will be necessary.”
“Alright. Would you like me to do it or will you do it?”
“I’ll do it.”
Jason found an undisturbed patch of snow he thought was relatively representative of
the slope they intended to ski. Jason knew that the lower layers were already pretty solid, so
he only dug for a shear test. The digging took him about thirty seconds, and he tested the
layers with his fingers. They separated with a moderately large amount of force from one
finger, meaning pretty decent bonding between layers for December. Jason deemed a
rutschblock test to be unnecessary because he felt supremely confident with the results he just
saw. However, he kept in mind that if anything changed, such as temperature, slope exposure,
or steepness, he would have to be more cautious.
They proceeded through the trees with growing excitement for the fun skiing that
awaited them. After ten more minutes, they felt the sun’s rays begin to hit their backs
occasionally through the cover of the pine trees surrounding them. In twenty more minutes,
they noticed the forest beginning to thin. Within five minutes, the forest had become half as
dense, and the sun was quickly warming their cold extremities. Jason looked at the altimeter
function on his watch and saw that they were approaching the elevation of the top of the run.
Perfectly on cue, Jason spotted the point where the skin track turned sharply to the left,
beginning to traverse to the southwest across the lightly treed face. Some low angle powder
skiing was only ten minutes away. Jason and Jess traversed for a couple more minutes until
they came to a spot that would feed them back onto the road at the end of the run. They
quickly took off their skins, cleaned their bases, zipped up their packs, and fastened their boots.
Jess received the treat of going first. She pointed her skis down the hill, and quickly
gained speed even in the fluffy, shin-deep powder. She began to link graceful turns together,
occasionally letting out a “WOOP!” to signal that this was going to be an excellent run. After
thirty seconds, Jess was out of sight, and Jason started his run. He couldn’t decide if he wanted
to parallel her tracks, criss-cross them, or simply find his own way. He eventually decided to
criss-cross. Because of the trees, he was unable to perform a perfect criss-cross track, but he
did a decent job of making their two lines mirror each other. The powder was the incredibly
light stuff that Colorado is famed for, and the angle was low enough to provide for carefree
turns. The thickness of the trees provided some minor cause for concern lower down the run,
but Jason and Jess dealt with them expertly as they had many times in the past, still making fast
turns while avoiding the tree trunks. The view of the mountains across the valley was exquisite.
The most recent storm had been a calm storm without much wind, giving the mountains an
abnormally coating of snow. Pure mountainsides, while not as dramatic as the jagged peaks to
the west, set the mood for his relaxing ski run perfectly, allowing Jason to enjoy his visit to the
state of pure bliss.
At the bottom of the run, Jason and Jess traversed to the left in an effort to avoid the
quarter mile of road beside the freeway. Their attempt succeeded, although at the bottom the
sounds of traffic could still be heard. This minor setback did nothing to dampen their spirits
however. In all their years of skiing, they had just skied some of the best snow to be found
anywhere in the world, and the last run held its place in the upper echelon of their skiing
experiences.
“Face shots! Oh yeah baby!” Jason proclaimed with genuine vigor.
“First tracks are my favorite thing ever! Blower pow, face shot after face shot after face
shot, couldn’t be better. Did you criss-cross me or find your own line?”
“Criss-cross. I haven’t done criss-cross in a long time. Not as fun as first tracks, but still
amazingly awesome.”
“Let’s get back up there. I’m pretty sure I saw another group of skiers a few minutes
behind us, and we have to poach the powder before they do.”
“Ok. Damn that was awesome!”
After they were done sharing their favorite moments from the last run, Jason and Jess
put their skins back on and ascended the mountainside once again. The second time up always
seemed a bit more tedious than the first time up, only because the second time up he knew
exactly how much farther he had to go to reach the top, and the anxiety would gnaw at him
mercilessly. The second time hiking up they went a bit faster simply because of how perfect the
conditions were. For the second run down, Jason and Jess traversed a bit farther at the top of
the slope, past where the other group of skiers had ridden down. The second run was just as
good as the first, and at the bottom they were just as eager to get back to the top as they had
been after the first run.
After their third run, the sun was getting high in the sky. Jason and Jess decided to take
a short break and consume the lunches they packed. Sitting in the parking lot, the sun’s rays
warmed them sufficiently, counteracting the cold December air. Jason sat eating his sandwich,
thinking only of how perfect this day had been. He began to think that even though his best
friend had moved away, he would at least always be able to have days like this one. They soon
finished their lunches and were hungry for a few more runs. Their fourth run was a bit more
laborious than the first three. Both Jess and Jason always dragged a bit directly after eating
lunch. The skiing was just as spectacular as it had been for their first three runs though. After
their fourth run, Jess and Jason agreed to have six runs be their goal for the day. The fifth run
was much easier than the fourth, but at the end of the run Jason noticed something that
concerned him slightly. There was a tiny convexity that they skied under at the bottom that
worried him. Jason realized that this little slope posed a potential threat to them if they
weren’t careful around it. When the happy skiers completed their fifth run, the smiles on their
faces were unchanged since early in the morning. Jason didn’t mention the dangerous
convexity he saw specifically, but did give Jess a reminder to ski cautiously and avoid high risk
slopes.
On their last run, the exertion from the first five laps started to take its toll on Jess and
Jason. Although their progress up the mountain was faster than it had been right after lunch, it
wasn’t much faster at all.
At the top, Jess looked at Jason and said, “Last run! Lets bomb down this thing.”
“Jess, you never say “last run”. It’s bad luck to say “last run”. The tendency is for that
run to become your last run, but not because you want it to be.”
“I know you’re a bit superstitious, but seriously cut the crap. I can just as rationally
argue that saying “last run” will renew my lagging awareness and make me even more
conscious of danger on this run.”
Jason knew that she was right, but sometimes he was just a superstitious person. Jason
usually associated irrational belief (such as superstition) with stupid people, but sometimes he
couldn’t help it. Jason simply pushed this silly thought process to the back of his mind and
began to think objectively. They were both skiing well, they were mentally focused, the
conditions were safe, and they were well prepared for any incident that could befall them.
“Well how about we meet up a few hundred feet from the car and ski down to it side by
side?”
“That sounds great. I’ll try to stop in a very visible spot.”
Jess went first again on this run, and once again Jason waited for about thirty seconds
before getting started down the mountain. He tried to be extra creative with his turn selection,
going through tight gaps between trees, making turns with a lot of edge, and even jumping off
of an upright snow-covered stump. When Jason found Jess, they had both had their fill of skiing
for the day. Simultaneously they set off skiing down the slope.
Jason saw the slope that had sparked his worries after their last run. They would travel
well clear of it, and Jason was happy to not have to steer clear of it. The last few turns they
made were smaller and more controlled, but still fun.
When Jason and Jess were about three hundred vertical feet from their car, Jason saw
the most terrifying sight of his whole life. On a slope he had deemed completely safe, he heard
a distinct whumpf. He saw a crack shoot out past him. The avalanche propagated before he
could react and warn Jess. Before he knew it, he was being swept down the slope. Jason tried
to stay up and ride to the side of the avalanche, but his ski tips dove and he fell into the sliding
sea of snow. As he fell, Jason felt his ski bindings release, which he knew was a good thing. But
as he fell, he caught a glimpse of Jess, who was also caught in the avalanche. As he slid, he felt
a sharp pain in his leg, but the terror that gripped Jason far surpassed the pain. Jason felt the
debris slowing, and he tried with all his might to remain at the top. This effort proved to be in
vain, so he made an air pocket in front of his face just before the avalanche stopped. The
debris stopped. Jason knew that his best chance of survival was if he conserved what little
oxygen was available to him. He always wore an Avalung, and he was never more grateful for
this fact than right now. Jason sat encased in snow, not knowing what would happen. He knew
that the chances of him surviving were slim at best. His only realistic hope was that Jess had
escaped the avalanche or been able to self-rescue. He was completely unable to move.
Jason was calm and composed. Although he was terrified that not only would he die,
but that Jess would die, he knew that his best chance of survival was if he could conserve his
oxygen and breath into his Avalung, dispelling the carbon dioxide his body made into the
snowpack behind him. Jason realized that he was roughly face down and perpendicular to the
slope. He was pleased that he was not buried head down. Had that been the case, he probably
could have changed his chances of survival to approximately zero. Still only a minor concern,
Jason felt a considerable pain in his lower left leg. He realized that he might be injured, and
that it might be serious. “If I’m dead, I guess it doesn’t matter if I break my leg,” thought Jason
darkly, in partial mocking of his own stupidity. He quickly went over the circumstances that had
led to this disaster. Jason could not think of any indicators he missed, any tell tale signs he
should have seen and reacted to. Jason began to feel his breathing constrict. His oxygen was
running out. He heard footsteps above him, and muffled voices. Jason knew that the chances
of anyone else being in the area to respond to his situation were slim, so he logically concluded
that Jess must have escaped burial and be looking for him.
“Jess! Jess, I’m right here!” Jason yelled at the top of his lungs.
This effort failed, and Jason could feel the oxygen running out at an alarming rate.
Suddenly, his back was poked hard by what he knew to be a probe. He heard the sound of
shovels contacting snow, and this gave him hope. His lungs burned, and he could no longer
breath. With one last thought of, “Please save me Jess!” Jason lost consciousness. His last
memory was of a shovel hitting his back.
Jason slowly opened his eyes. For a moment, he could not remember where he was or
the events that had just transpired. Jason felt a splitting pain in his head, and an equally fierce
pain still emanated from his leg. Jason was on his back, staring straight up into the clear blue
sky. For a few more moments, Jason stared at the sky in a daze of confusion. He heard voices,
and for the first time noticed two people standing a short distance from him. Still disoriented,
Jason mumbled something incoherent, and one of the men responded, but Jason couldn’t
comprehend what the stranger said. Jason laid his head against the snow once more, observing
the sky. Clouds were nowhere to be seen, and Jason was happy to be outside on such a nice
day. For reasons unknown to Jason, this thought jump-started his memory, and suddenly he
remembered what had just happened. Memories rushed back into his mind and he was
abruptly brought up to speed on the horrifying reality of the situation. The slope had fractured,
he had been caught in the avalanche, been buried, and heard Jess searching for him as he
blacked out.
“Can you move?”
Jason took a couple of seconds to realize that not only was someone speaking to him,
but it was a man’s voice. Jason was still woozy from the short lack of oxygen he experienced,
but it was clear to him that he had suffered no lasting mental damage. He realized that he had
been saved by someone other than Jess, and this left Jason with only one thing on his mind.
“Where’s Jess?”
“Let’s slow down for a second. You are bleeding pretty profusely from your leg. I’m
going to try to stop the blood flow. You just stay still.”
Jason did as he was told, but was not deterred in the least from obtaining an answer.
“Where is Jess?”
The stranger rolled up his pant leg to reveal a bloody mess on his left leg. Jason realized
that the pain in his leg was swiftly transitioning from negligible to excruciating. Jason held is
breath expectantly while waiting for an answer. The stranger went about clamping jason’s
contusions and felt his leg tenderly.
“I think your leg is broken. Hold still, we already called Flight for Life. They should be
here soon.”
Jason began to feel slightly nauseous at the sight of his mangled leg, but he could not
wait for an answer any longer.
“God damn it, where is Jess?!”
The stranger continued to work on Jason’s leg, but Jason could tell that his demeanor
had changed. The stranger let out a barely audible sigh and looked Jason squarely in the eyes
for the first time. The stranger was a man roughly the same age as Jason. He had a much more
clean cut appearance than Jason, with short blonde hair, a clean shaven face, and piercing blue
eyes. Before the man spoke, Jason could tell simply from the look of the man’s eyes that Jess
was in bad shape.
“I’m assuming that Jess is the other skier we found. Is that correct?”
Jason nodded in acknowledgement with a sense of resignation, preparing for the worst.
“We found her. We found her before you actually. She’s alive. But she’s not doing as
well as you. She didn’t have as good of an air pocket as you did. When we uncovered her, she
was already unconscious. We tried to resuscitate her with mouth to mouth. We’re still trying
as I speak. She has a pulse, but her breaths are very shallow. Like I said, Flight for Life is on the
way.”
Jason tried to take all of this into account. She was alive. This relieved Jason, but only
slightly. Jason started to get up, but the stranger tried to stop him.
“Don’t get up,” he said as he tried to restrain Jason. “For Christ’s sake buddy, your leg is
broken. Just sit still!”
Jason struggled harder and harder against the man, eventually succumbing to the anger
and rage building inside of him.
“Let go of me! I have to see her! God damn it, let go of me!”
“We’re dealing with her, but you’re not out of the woods yet. You’re losing blood and I
don’t want you to go into shock,” he said in a calm voice. As Jason continued to struggle, his
voice became harsher, and within seconds the man was yelling at Jason and using all of his
strength to hold him down. “Sit down! Trust me, we have this under control!”
“Fuck off, I have to see her!” With this exclamation, Jason threw the man onto his back
and stood up, ruining all of the dressings the stranger had given to his wound. Jason briefly
thought, “This should be extremely painful.” But Jason felt no pain at all as he hobbled over to
where another group of men stood huddled over another body lying on the snow. He shoved
the nearest member of the group out of his way and found himself looking down at the
seemingly lifeless face of Jess. Just as the stranger feared, Jason went into shock. His entire
body went numb. Jason started to feel the effects of the blood he had lost, the sight of Jess in
such a state contributed to his rapid decline. Jason began to yell incoherently, and knelt beside
Jess.
“Jess, I’m here! Wake up! Please don’t leave me! WAKE UP!”
Jason was pulled away from his wife’s motionless body by the joint efforts of the group
of skiers who had aided him. Jason continued to scream for Jess, and his head began to swim in
a sea of terror and pain. Jason struggled against the blackness that began to consume his
vision, but soon his vision faded to black as he succumbed to shock.
Jason and Jess were hastily evacuated by a helicopter to a hospital in Denver.
Paramedics attended to the injured skiers the whole way. To Jason, the whole thing was a
hellish collage of waking panic mixed with equally frightening dreams. He first awoke after they
were already loaded into the helicopter and on the way to the emergency room. Jason could
no longer feel the pain in his leg after receiving an injection of morphine. The drug dulled the
pain from his leg, but he still ranted incomprehensibly about Jess when he was awake and while
he slept. When he was awake, all he could hear was a cacophony of voices, all talking about
how to care for the injured skiers. During his unconscious moments, Jason didn’t dream, but
instead was washed over with feelings of general dread and bewilderment. After what might as
well have been a helicopter ride through hell for Jason, he could tell that he helicopter was
about to land. The already hectic scene aboard the helicopter only intensified as they landed.
Jason and Jess were hurriedly transported. Jason’s last memory from the worst afternoon of
his life was seeing Jess’s trolley path diverge from his.
With one last breath, he simply screamed, “JESS!”
Chapter 9
Jason awoke briefly the next day. His mind was still under the influence of sedatives,
and his thoughts were disconnected as he attempted to determine his surroundings through
the fog of the drugs. He noticed an IV in his arm and noticed a splint on his leg. When Jason
finally awoke with full consciousness, it was late at night on Sunday. Jason had no idea what
had happened to Jess, so he yelled until someone came to help him.
When a nurse entered the room, Jason demanded to know what was going on. “Where
is my wife? Where is Jess?”
The nurse was a young woman, but she didn’t know the answers to his questions. She
ran out of the room to fetch a doctor who could satiate Jason’s thirst for knowledge of his
wife’s condition.
When the doctor entered the room, Jason could instantly tell from his body language
that the news was at least mostly bad.
“Jason Mathews. I’m glad to see you looking so well. When you came in yesterday, it
was a crapshoot whether you would make it through the night or not. You were in shock, and it
was mostly luck that we were able to control the TNF-alpha levels in your body when we did. If
you had arrived even fifteen minutes later, you would probably be dead right now. As it is, you
have a broken fibia. You were bleeding profusely from the area, causing the blood loss that led
to the shock. I was worried that your burial might have deprived your brain of oxygen for long
enough to result in some brain damage, but I’m happy to say that your rescuer’s speedy
response saved you any brain damage.”
Jason took all of this information in stride. He was thrilled to be alive and mostly well,
but he still didn’t know his wife’s fate. “Doctor, what happened to my wife?”
The doctor looked at him directly. “I hate to tell you this, but we couldn’t save her. She
was deprived of oxygen for too long and suffered severe brain damage. She made it all the way
to the hospital, but she suffered cardiac arrest and we were unable to revive her. I’m sorry.”
Jason stared blankly at the wall. The full impact of this reality only began to sink in. His
wife was dead. Jason finally gave in to his grief, and tears poured from his eyes as he let out
sobs of utter despair. The doctor turned away and exited the room, leaving Jason to grieve.
For at least an hour, Jason’s sobs wracked his already weakened body. After an hour his body
could take no more, and he slipped into an uneasy sleep.
For the next few days Jason felt numb. Jess, the love of his life, was dead. Nothing
could change that. The day after his recovery, the man that had attempted to splint Jason’s leg
came in to give his condolences and to relate to Jason the whole story from a third party
viewpoint. The man entered the room cautiously, unsure of the reception he would receive
from Jason. Jason was still depressed, but knew that this man deserved his gratitude, and he
extended it as much as possible.
“Hi. How is the leg feeling?”
“Much better now. They splinted it and I’m still getting morphine.”
“I’m not sure what to say first. I guess the first thing I should do is formally introduce
myself. My name is Keith Morrison.”
“It’s nice to meet you Keith. My name is Jason Mathews. I’m sorry about shoving you
the other day. I was freaking out as you probably noticed. I’m still just grateful to you for
saving my life.”
“Think nothing of it. I heard about your wife. I’m terribly sorry for your loss Jason.”
Jason’s mood noticeably deflated at this comment. “Thanks your sympathies Keith.”
“You look like you don’t want to talk about her. I came to tell you about what happened
on Saturday. Would you like me to tell you, or should I take my leave?”
Jason knew that hearing what happened would be painful, but he was already so numb
to any more pain that he obliged Keith to tell his story.
“Well my party, including myself, were riding that same slope as you two were for the
whole day. On your last run, we were actually a bit in front of you. We were riding to the west
of you, and we all stopped for a pow-wow on line selection and our general plan. We heard
what sounded like an avalanche, so we traversed over to the sound after checking to make sure
secondary slides weren’t an issue. We picked up your signals, dug you out as fast as we could,
and the rest you pretty much know.”
Jason realized that he was lucky to be alive. “Wow, I’m a lucky guy. I look back on it,
and I can’t identify anything we did wrong. Did you notice any signs of avalanche danger that
day?”
Keith looked conflicted for a moment as he thought about his answer. Keith timidly
said, “I did notice a good sliding layer underneath the new stuff. There were some hard slabs
underneath that looked a little dangerous. I think what happened was somehow the slide
extended all the way from that convexity you skied by.”
Jason could only sit and think over and over about what happened. He bandied a few
more petty words with Keith, but Jason didn’t want to keep Keith for too long.
“Once again, thanks for coming in and talking to me, I really appreciate it. For the
second time, thanks for saving my life.”
“For the second time, no problem.” He turned toward the door to leave, but suddenly
stopped and looked back at Jason. “I won’t go into details, but I once had something like this
happen to me. My advice to you is to find something really absorbing and spend all of your
time doing that one thing. It helped me get my mind off of the pain.”
Jason was somewhat intrigued with this statement, but didn’t pursue the matter any
further. “Thanks, I’ll try that. I hope to see you around Keith.”
“I hope I see you too. You seem like a good guy Jason. Take care.”
Keith walked out of the room. Jason genuinely thought he seemed like a nice person,
and the visit slightly brightened his mood during an overall miserable day.
Jason was released from the hospital a three days after being admitted. He got a ride
back to the mountains from Matt. Matt had been on a business related trip during the whole
fiasco, and had been unable to visit Jason in the hospital as a result. Their car ride was passed
mostly in silence. Jason had been looking forward to seeing Matt again, but certainly didn’t
expect this context. In the short time they had been separated, their connection and ease of
communication already seemed a bit hindered. Jason had hoped that Matt would be able to
console him a bit and make him feel better, but this was not the case. Matt did express his
sympathies to Jason, but the conversation stayed mostly in the realm of formalities, with little
actual feelings being shared by either party. Jason did discover that Matt would not be moving
back up to the mountains for some time. The legal proceedings for his case were going slowly,
and his case would take at least another year to resolve.
Jason arrived at his home shortly after dark. Matt gave him a big bear hug in the same
manner as he always did when something emotional happened. Jason tried to appear grateful,
but the effort was in vain. Matt drove off into the night, and Jason had never felt more alone.
He had no idea what to do. Besides Jess, the only person Matt had talked with on a serious
level since college had been Matt, but for some reason he just hadn’t felt the same connection
with Matt as before. Jason sat down on his couch and decided to play video games. Jason
hadn’t played video games in five years, but for some reason he felt the urge to play video
games. He had put his old game system into storage. Despite the discomfort movement
caused him, Jason convinced himself that playing video games would help him to forget reality
and lose himself. Jason retrieved his video game system and the few games he had for it. He
couldn’t decide what to play. Eventually, he decided on a game to play. After setting up the
console, Jason started playing. Even though Jason had thought that playing video games would
whisk him away from reality, he was pleasantly surprised when this actually happened. Jason
absorbed himself in the world of violence. For hours Jason played video games and let himself
be absorbed into the world of the game. He became so involved that when stopped to look at
a clock, he noticed that the sun had already risen. Jason realized that he needed to call his boss
and tell him what had happened.
“Hello? Hi, it’s Jason Mathews.”
“Jason, I’m glad to hear your voice. I heard what happened, and I’m so sorry.”
“Thanks for your concern. I was actually calling to talk about work.” Suddenly, Jason
popped back into reality and memories of Saturday rushed through his mind. Involuntarily,
Jason screamed and hung up the phone. “What has happened to me? I can’t even think about
skiing without remembering Jess. Well it did just happen. Maybe over time, I’ll be able to ski
and not remember Jess. But that’s not what I want. Whenever I ski, I want to think of Jess. I
can’t decide whether I want to think of Jess or not! This is killing me right now. Even though I
may be able to ski later in my life, I cannot continue to ski and teach skiing when my wife died
right before my eyes while skiing.” Jason knew what he had to do.
“Hello? Hi, this is Jason Mathews again. I know that because of my injury you have to
keep me on the payroll until it heals, but don’t bother. I can’t keep skiing. The memories are
too painful. I’m going to leave this place and start another career……Yes, I’m sure…..Well that is
a very generous offer. If I ever decide to get back into instructing, Keystone will be the first and
only place I apply to…..Yes, thank you once again for your kindness. Ok, I hope we meet again.
Goodbye.”
Jason hung up the phone and realized that whole chapter of life was coming to a close in
more than one way. In less than month he had lost his wife, his best friend, and his job. On top
of that, he was injured, had bills from the rescue that would take years to pay off, and had no
immediate source of income. Jason knew that rationally he should have waited to quit his job
until after he healed, or given it some time to see if he could still work and not relive the painful
experiences of last Saturday. But Jason also knew that he literally could not bear to work in any
capacity involving skiing after what had just happened, and that this was the right choice.
After Jason hung up the phone, he began to feel tired and went to bed. His bed was a
lonely place without the presence of Jess beside him. Jason tried to fall asleep for twenty
minutes, but found himself unable to shut his eyes. After the twenty sleepless minutes had
passed, Jason realized that he would have to be a bit more proactive if he was going to get any
sleep. Jason showered, drank a large glass of milk, brushed his teeth, and put on some soothing
music in an attempt to fall asleep. Even after all of this work, Jason still could not sleep for
another half of an hour. Jason finally closed his eyes in an uneasy sleep.
Jason awoke in darkness. He looked at a watch and realized that he had slept through the rest
of the daylight. For two hours Jason sat on his bed and either wept, talked to himself, or stared
at the ceiling. He kept on hoping that this was a dream, but knew that it was anything but.
Jason went down into the kitchen and ate for the first time since returning home. Out of
curiosity he weighed himself. He had lost ten pounds since Saturday. Jason looked at his watch
and realized that the funeral for Jess was scheduled for later that day. Jason knew that this
would be a difficult event for him to attend, but a necessary one. Without anything else do to,
Jason decided to do some rough calculations regarding his financial situation. Jason had just
received his final paycheck for instructing and would receive nothing more. Besides owning a
small amount of stock in various companies, Jason had a meager amount of savings. A thought
occurred to him that made him laugh in an incredibly dark way. Only a few months ago, Jess
had asked him whether they should get life insurance. After some deliberation, they had
decided against it. Jason chuckled, and immediately reproached himself for doing so. Jason sat
at his kitchen table doing some very rough calculations. After about fifteen minutes worth of
math, Jason realized that he could get by for about a month with his current savings and the
money he could make from selling his various stocks and his more expensive personal
belongings. Jason knew that his first order or business would have to be finding another job.
Jason began by ruling out what he did not want to do. He did not want any sort of job
involving skiing or even the winter sports industry. Furthermore, he didn’t want a job in the
Summit County area. He broadened this requirement to not wanting to work or live in the
mountains at all anywhere. For his first order or business, Jason looked online for jobs. He
looked for at least four hours. Jason perused every employment website he could find,
including the websites of certain companies he could remember from his college years. Jason
sent as many emails in those four hours as he had in the last two years. Jason filled at least
twenty online applications for employment. He was skeptical, however, whether he would get
any responses, let alone job offers. The jobs he applied for all involved either physics or were
just general employment opportunities. Jason knew that spending the last few years as a ski
instructor didn’t give him any advantages in most fields of employment.
Jason’s next plan was to call some old friends from college and see if they could connect
with an employment opportunity. This proved to be as fruitless as the online job search, and
even more painful. Many of the old friends he contacted asked him about how things were
going, and a couple inquired about Jess. Jason’s usual response was that he had lost contact
with her. This was obviously a complete fabrication, but for Jason the tragedy was still too near
to talk about it with friends he hadn’t talked to in years. This took another hour, and when he
finally depleted his calling list of old college friends Jason felt exhausted and frustrated. In a fit
of frustration, Jason slammed the phone onto the table and paced around the kitchen. Jason
wished that his parents were still alive. Jason’s mother had passed away tragically when Jason
was very young, and his father had passed away only a few months after Jason graduated
college. Jason’s father had been involved with the CIA for years, and had assured Jason that he
could get Jason an entry level job at the CIA if he ever needed it. At the time Jason had laughed
at this proposition, but right now Jason was willing to take almost anything he could find.
Jason’s pacing continued for a few more minutes, but soon Jason realized that he could
do something useful while worrying about how he was going to find a job. He decided to clean
up his kitchen area. He began with sorting through his mail. Most of the mail Jason, just like
most other people in the world, received was junk mail. He patiently sorted through all of the
letters. Jason’s favorite method was to only look for return addresses. If there was no return
address, then it wasn’t important. Jason threw away magazines that he didn’t have any
interest in, letters offering him credit cards he had no ability to pay for, and other random
letters that didn’t concern him in the least. But Jason found one letter that from about one
month ago that immediately caught his interest. “Hey, it’s that specialized government training
program. They give me a place to live, meals, a “decent paycheck”, and all expenses paid
travel. Wow, this would be perfect,” thought Jason. “I wonder if they will take me after my leg
heals. No matter, I’ll call right now.”
Jason picked up the phone and dialed the number on the letter. After ringing for a few
seconds, a woman’s voice answered on the other end.
“Hello Mr. Mathews. I’m glad you have decided to call us. If you’ll wait one moment, I
will get one of my superiors to speak with you. Can you hold for one moment please?”
“Yes, that’s fine.”
“Thank you. This should only take a moment.”
Jason waited anxiously. He had not responded to the letter for over a month. Perhaps
the program was already filled. Perhaps this golden opportunity had come four weeks too
early. Still, Jason had a shred of hope that this could be a perfect opportunity for him. These
thoughts became so absorbing that it took him longer than usual to realize that someone was
talking to him on the phone.
“Mr. Mathews?.....Jason Mathews?”
“Oh, sorry! Speaking.”
“Hello, my name is Neil. I assume that by making this call you wish to express interest in
our training program?”
“Well, yes. I was calling to express interest in your program. But I also have to tell you
that I just broke my leg. I was hoping that I could partake in your program when my leg
healed.”
“Your broken leg is of no consequence. You will be able to undergo the training
program as necessary even without use of your legs for the first few weeks. We would love to
talk to you about our program. You must understand, however, that this program is not a
temporary thing. If you decide to join, you will be with us for at least two years, in all likelihood
more than that.”
Jason heard this news and tried to contain his excitement. “That will be great. You said
that this meeting will be non-obligatory in the letter. Is that correct?”
“Yes, completely non-obligatory. After the meeting, the choice of whether to enter the
program or not is completely yours. If you decide it isn’t for you, we’ll fly you back for free.
We’ll even compensate you for your time.”
Jason thought this sounded too good to be true. No cost to him, with payment, and no
obligation. “What’s the catch? You’ll understand my skepticism, this sounds a bit too good to
be true.”
“When you work for the military, these sorts of things can be arranged if you take
orders directly from the top dogs, Mr. Mathews.”
“What branch of the military do you work for?”
“I work with a special research division, not associated directly with the branches I’m
sure you’re familiar with. I’m sure your next question will be how you can know whether you
can trust me or not. I know its not what you’re looking, but my answer is you don’t really have
a way of trusting me. It’s too great of a risk for us to tell you anything more over the phone.
What do you say Mr. Mathews?”
Jason would have normally never considered anything like this in the least, but with all
of the stress bearing down on him and the desperate nature of his situation, Jason made a
fateful decision. “I’m in. Where do I meet you?”
“I’m glad to hear that. We will have a car waiting for you outside of your place in three
hours.”
“No, that won’t do. My wife died very recently, and her funeral is tonight.”
“Oh. I’m very sorry to hear that. I’m assuming that her death is what made you call this
number in the first place?”
Jason had to think before speaking on such a personal level to a complete stranger over
the phone. “Yes, it is. But I would consider myself complete scum for the rest of my life if I
didn’t go to my own wife’s funeral. It’s painful, but necessary.”
“Well in that case we can go tomorrow. What do you say to a car picking you up at
noon from your house?”
Jason hesitated momentarily as he entertained his last serious of pulling out of the
whole affair. The moment passed, and Jason’s mind was made up. “That will work just fine.
What should I pack?”
“You may want a change of clothes. I expect this meeting to only take a few hours at
most, but you may fly home the day after depending on certain factors.”
“I’ll be coming home even if I enter the program?”
“Yes. That way you can tie up loose ends. You know, sell your place, put your
belongings in storage, and say last goodbyes to friends and family.”
“That makes sense. Fine, I’ll see you tomorrow at noon.”
“Oh you won’t actually see me. But you may see me when you arrive at our facility in
the afternoon.”
“Whatever. Well, goodbye Neil.”
“Goodbye Jason.”
Jason put down the phone, hardly believing that he had actually been accepted into the
program. He wondered what exactly they would have in store for him. He consoled his fears
by saying that if the car came in the morning and he didn’t want to go, he could just say so.
Jason had lied to Neil on the phone, but it was only a white lie, and he hadn’t even meant to do
it. Jess’s funeral had been a few days ago, while Jason had still been in the hospital. But Jason
did have one more thing to do before he said goodbye to his old life forever.
Jason awoke the next morning and knew what he had to do. When they had been
married, Jess had told him that she wanted to be cremated. She had never told her parents
this, but since both of Jess’s parents had passed on, Jason had been in control of what
happened to her remains. Even Jason had a broken leg, he knew what had to be done. Early in
the morning before the sun rose Jason drove up to Loveland Pass. Although the going for him
was incredibly slow, Jason managed to hike a short ways to a high point along the ridge that
connected to the pass. Jason reached his destination after a painful and tiring ascent. The hike
would have usually been nothing more than afterthought to him, but on this morning Jason
carried a large pack. Jason gingerly set down his crutches and took off his pack. Soon enough,
the light from the sun began to penetrate the darkness, and the sunrise was as glorious as the
one he had seen from the top of a mountain not far from where he sat a few years ago. Jason
took out the urn that held Jess’s ashes and talked in a gentle voice.
“I did what you asked. This is the place. We have a great view this morning. The
sunrise is just as amazing as it ever has been. Arapahoe Basin is right there. Grays and Torreys
are only right there. I can see mountains in every direction. They’re all beautiful. But mostly I
see memories. Memories of you in particular.” Then Jason turned his gaze to the northwest,
and saw the mountainside where he and Jess had been buried in an avalanche not even a week
ago. “I guess this is a more fitting place than you ever expected it to be.” Although mornings in
the valleys are oftentimes calm, a light wind was in the air on this morning. Jason found this to
be very appropriate.
When the sun had come fully over the horizon, Jason opened the urn and slowly spread
her ashes into the air. The gentle wind blew them off of the summit into the air beyond where
they eventually faded into nothing. Jason watched with great sadness. But he knew that this is
what Jess would want. Somewhere in the back of his mind he knew Jess would want him to
keep skiing and continue doing what he loved, but he didn’t feel strong enough. “Maybe in a
few years I’ll come back. I hope I come back.” Jason spread the whole contents of the urn.
When the final ashes faded into the morning air, Jason felt a few warm tears streaming down
his face. This final closure was good for him. Jason was overwhelmed with sadness, but
something inside of him saw the spreading of Jess’s ashes as a thing of beauty, and knew that
this is what Jess truly wanted. Jason did feel a shred of irony. The mountains were the place
where Jess died, but also the only place where Jess really truly lived to the fullest. Jason started
his long, painful descent on his crutches. He hadn’t realized how much more challenging going
downhill would be on the way up. Jason reached his car after nearly falling four or five times.
On the drive back down to his house, Jason felt considerably better. He still had wrenching
feelings of sadness and emptiness that he knew would stay with him for months or even years,
but he did feel much better than he had felt since last Saturday.
Jason packed for his trip immediately after getting home. This took Jason all of thirty
minutes, so Jason spent the rest of the morning sitting around watching television or reading
news articles on the internet. The hours went by slowly, but eventually Jason looked at his
clock and saw that it read 11:45 am. Jason made himself a small lunch and quickly ate it. For
his final preparations, Jason brushed his teeth, washed his face, and packed a few more things
with which to entertain himself. An unmarked SUV pulled up to his house with seconds of the
clock striking noon. Jason left his house, locked the door, and walked up to the car. A man
wearing a black suit and sunglasses stepped out of the passenger seat and spoke to Jason.
“Jason Mathews?”
“That’s me.”
“Get in the back. I’ll take your bag.”
“Oh, thanks. What’s your name by the way?”
“My name is Shepherd. Just get in the car, we’re on a tight schedule here.”
Jason was partially taken aback by the seriousness of this. When Neil had informed him
that this was a research division of the military, Jason had expected his pickup to be a little bit
more informal. Still, Jason found it hard to complain. The car ride passed in silence. The driver
and Shepherd were silent unless he spoke to them, in which case they would give him concise
answers that prompted no further conversation. Jason could tell that they had been instructed
to not engage in conversation with him beyond what was absolutely necessary, so he didn’t
push the matter any further.
The car drove on I-70 towards Denver. Once they reached the outskirts of Denver,
Jason began to wonder exactly where they were going. He realized that they were not heading
to the Denver International Airport.
“Where are we going?”
“I’m not authorized to disclose our final destination, but I can tell you that right now we
are bound for the Centennial Airport to the southeast of Denver.”
“Oh yeah, I remember Centennial Airport. That’s the old one that only serves private
planes now, yeah?”
“Correct. Although we have to resources to fly you around the country, we are as frugal
with our spending as we possibly can be.”
True to his word, the driver drove towards Centennial Airport. When they arrived, Jason
was not altogether surprised when the car drove out onto the tarmac right next to a small jet.
While the jet was not snazzy, it was certainly not the biplane he had been expecting for the
latter half of the ride after the driver’s comment about frugalness.
Jason was escorted from the vehicle into the plane. Jason carried his own bag,
preferring not to let others be bothered with his belongings. Once onboard the plane, Jason
took a seat in a large chair in the main cabin. Jason could tell that although this was not an
executive transport, it was a privilege to be flying in this jet. Jason had never been so
comfortable onboard a plane. Jason saw another man enter the room. He was a short man,
and rather heavyset. Jason could tell from the instant the man entered the room that this
person was actually going to tell him what was going on.
“Jason Mathews. I am Neil. I spoke to you on the phone yesterday.”
“I remember. How do you do?”
They briefly shook hands. The strength of Neil’s grip surprised Jason. “You look a bit
flabbergasted. Want to tell me what’s on your mind?”
“You told me yesterday on the phone that we probably wouldn’t meet. Yet here you
are, on this flight that as far as I can tell has been specifically chartered just for me.” Jason of
course had a lot more on his mind than this, but he felt no need to inform Neil of his more
private emotions.
“Yes, well I usually don’t make these sort of trips. Most of the time when we fly
someone out for an interview I’m not asked to personally attend to them, but this time it was
different. Last night I was told to be on the flight to pick you up, so here I am.”
“Fair enough.”
“Jason, is there anything you would like to ask me during the trip? The more formal
conversations with my superiors will take place once we arrive at our destination, but I’d still
like to attempt to fill you in with as much information as I can.”
“Just start with the basics about the program and move on from there.”
“You’ve given me quite a lot to talk about. I hope you’re in the mood to listen, because
this will be a lot to take in. I guess a good place to start would be to tell you where we’re going.
We are headed to Langley, Virginia.”
“The CIA headquarters? I thought you said that you were a special research division of
the military”
“Well the CIA and the military do cooperate on many things. As it turns out we do have
a loose affiliation with the CIA, but this is mainly because we use some of their facilities. We
don’t take orders from them, but we do have to co-exist with them. We actually take our
orders from the Secretary of Defense’s office.”
“Ok, that sounds reasonable I guess. You’ll understand of course that I’m starting to get
the feeling that you’re lying to me.”
Neil looked Jason squarely in the eyes and said, “We do our best not to lie to possible
trainees. But there are some things you will learn that will make certain actions of ours appear
to be underhanded, dishonest, or just downright wrong. Unfortunately in our line of work,
these sorts of things are inevitable. Much of what I tell you today you will just have to accept.”
Jason thought about this statement. He wasn’t sure if he would like this concept of
accepting half-truths and partial deceptions as fair play, but he knew that this whole trip was
their courtesy, and he decided to play along with their games. “Tell me more.”
“I’d be willing to bet another thing you’re interested in is how we selected you. I’m sure
that you remember the dreams you kept having over the past few months. Those dreams were
not natural. We in fact planted a device on your body that induced those dreams. We were
able to see everything that you saw and judge your actions. The dreams that you saw were a
preliminary training program for the training you will receive later. Those dreams were
designed to serve as an indicator of the success you would have in our program. You did
exceptionally well in these exercises.”
Jason could hardly believe his ears. One month ago, the knowledge that someone made
him have those stressful dreams intentionally would have infuriated him. However, this
knowledge only slightly annoyed him given the gravity of recent events in his life.
“How do you feel about that?”
“You mean how do I feel about the fact that you made me go through all those stressful
nights involuntarily? Honestly I would usually be pissed off, but so much shit has gone down
since those dreams that I hardly even care about it anymore.”
“Huh.” Neil nodded and stared at Jason observantly. “Well what else can I tell you?”
“What exactly is this training? Also, what are the commitments and the benefits if I
commit to the program?”
“Those are all excellent questions. I’ll answer them in the reverse order you asked them
in, because that makes the most sense to me. Your salary will be $150,000 per year. On top of
this, your training is all free, and we will supply your lodging and food. However, once you
commit to the program, you must stay on for two years. During those two years, you will not
be allowed to contact any of your old acquaintances, even your family. I won’t lie to you, it’s a
lonely existence. The training will take you approximately six months. After that, you will
spend the rest of your time commitment doing missions and participating in studies.”
“Missions? I thought this was a experimental training techniques program.”
“It is, but the best test of any product or technique is to see how it works in the real
world. We will experiment with how best to train you, and then see how it works in the field.”
“What exactly will I be doing in this training? And what sort of missions will I be going
on?”
“Those are questions best left for when we arrive. Is there anything else pressing you
would like to ask me about?”
“Only one more thing. Where is the bathroom on this plane? I have to go really bad.”
“Go towards the back of the plane and it’s on your left. Don’t fall in.”
“Haha.” Jason laughed half-heartedly and went to use the bathroom. When Jason
returned, his remaining conversation with Neil was a bit more informal. Jason decided to keep
anymore questions he had for when he arrived in Virginia. They talked only sparingly for the
rest of the flight. Neil took a short nap, and Jason felt himself nodding off for a while towards
the end of the flight. When they landed in Virginia, Jason was escorted into a vehicle that
looked exactly like then one he had been picked up in from his house that very morning. The
two men in the front seats reminded Jason of Shepherd and his morning driver in both dress
and demeanor. The drive to the CIA headquarters went by quickly. Jason had been here a
couple of times during his youth, but he had a feeling that today he would be seeing more
interesting parts of the building than most other people ever got the privilege of seeing. Jason
walked double time with his escort through the busy hallways by the entrance, but as they
progressed deeper into the building the hallways were deathly silent and completely deserted.
Soon, his party reached a nondescript door towards the end of a long hallway. The escorts told
Jason to wait inside for his interviewer to arrive. Jason entered the small room, which
appeared to be a conference room. Jason was just glad that it wasn’t an interrogation room.
Jason sat patiently for ten minutes. When those ten minutes passed, Jason began to get
anxious. “What if this was a big mistake? What have I gotten myself into?” Just as these
thoughts crept into his mind, the door opened and a lanky old man wearing an officer’s uniform
entered the room.
“Jason, my name is Greg Westchester. I’m in charge of the EMTU.”
“What is the EMTU?”
“EMTU stands for Experimental Mental Training Unit. EMTU works fine though, it less
of a mouthful. Let’s get down to business shall we? For starters, this is not an interview in the
tradition sense. If you accept our offer, you’re accepted into the program, no questions asked.”
This knowledge made Jason extremely happy, but he tried to hide his enthusiasm under
a somber expression.
Westchester continued to explain the situation to Jason. “Jason, you’re here because
you were the best preliminary test subject we’ve ever seen. Neil has already informed you of
the simulations we put you through. Your scores showed that you have incredible reflexes,
adaptable thinking, persistence, patience, a remarkable drive to excel, and an ideal MM
coefficient. In other words, you are perfect for this program.”
“Before you go any further, I have a question. I actually meant to ask Neil about this.
What is the test subject pool? Why was I selected to be a part of your test in the first place? Or
do you give the test to every person in the country?”
“You were automatically put into the preliminary testing pool because of your father.
He was an outstanding field agent for the CIA. We put you into the test group just we were
hoping that as your father’s son you might have some of his characteristics. Our preliminary
tests suggest that you have the potential to be even better than he was.”
“What about other people? Surely you don’t just test the offspring of former CIA
agents?”
“Of course we test others. In fact, there is usually a round of testing that takes place
before the one you went through. These tests are administered in a much less intrusive way.
They are still felt in the form of dreams, but they are much less realistic and intense. They are a
quick and easy way to test a larger group of subjects. We oftentimes issue these tests on
military bases, large apartment building complexes, and really just about anywhere there is a
large concentration of people that are all roughly your age.”
“Isn’t that illegal? You must realize that those dreams had a very negative impact on my
life. How do you get away with all of this? Those dreams fucked with my head. How can all of
this happen in this nation? I thought that we had no secrets. I honestly thought that all of the
conspiracy theories about the government running secret law enforcement agencies were all
bogus.”
“We all wish that the government could function smoothly by obeying all of the rules it
sets down. But we have a very utilitarian-like set of values in this organization. We believe in
creating the greatest amount of good for the greatest number of people. We were created in
the spirit of doing possibly illegal and even immoral things to help the greater good of the
American people. You’ll find this to be the overarching theme of our work here.”
“Why am I not surprised? Usually I would have found that speech to be incredibly
archetypal, but for some reason I’m actually buying it.” Jason’s thoughts were still decidedly
against this program, but he wanted to keep an open mind. There were some very positive
things to be gained from entering the program.
“What does my age have to do with it?”
“Your age group generally has the best MM coefficient.”
“That’s the second time you’ve used that phrase. What is an MM coefficient?”
“MM stands for mental malleability. Mental malleability is basically a measure of a
person’s total conscious and subconscious ability to change their mental characteristics. People
with an exceptionally high level cannot be changed and molded very easily. It takes too long, or
the person simply refuses to abandon their old ways of thinking. If the MM is too low, the
person’s mental characteristics are too easy to change. Attempting to prompt a change will
lead to polarity beyond our intended range. Also, the changes lack permanency. Jason, your
MM score is a happy medium between these two. We will be able to mold you with a decent
amount of effort in a controlled fashion and the effects will be lasting.”
Jason had completely lost track of what was going on. “What are you saying? I think
you need to tell me what this “training” actually is. Also, what will I be doing for the year and a
half afterward?”
“In all honesty, your training will be six months of living hell. We will start you out with
an intensive mental training regimen, and once your leg heals we will put you through physical
training so intense it will make basic training seem like a week at the spa. We are going to put
you through mental training simulations and subject you to other stresses, such as lack of food,
water, and even certain techniques that can be best classified as torture. We have even
developed techniques that allow us to change certain facets of your personality that will work
while you sleep. When we’re done with you, you will be a completely different person. You
will be hardened, sharpened, and refined. We will drive every ounce of decency out of you to
mold you into the perfect agent.”
“What in god’s name makes you think I will want to do submit myself to this?”
“We actually have a couple of compelling reasons for you to do this. First of all, you will
be well compensated. Your yearly salary will be $100,000. Since we operate outside of the
boundaries of many federal laws, your salary will be tax free. Also, during your tenure with
EMTU, we will pay for your every expense. That means that if you stay with us for five years,
you will walk out of here with half a million dollars.” Westchester paused when he noticed the
skeptical look unchanged on Jason’s face. “There are more reasons, Jason. Haven’t you ever
wanted adventure? This job is the adventure of a lifetime! Haven’t you ever wanted to make a
difference? For the last few years of your life you have been a ski instructor. I’m sure you had
a lot of fun living that life, but didn’t you ever want to do something that really mattered? If
you join us, you will be forced to do things that you right now find disagreeable. But I assure
you that after your training, you will have no qualms at all with your assignments. We don’t
always operate within the boundaries of the law. But when our enemies don’t operate within
the bounds of the law, how can we afford to? You will be a top agent in our organization, an
organization that is instrumental in national security. Think about how much good can be
achieved with only a little bit of self-sacrifice and wrong-doing.”
“Listen, I’m not an idiot. I know that every soldier goes into his duty thinking he is a
hero and that he’s doing his country a great service and leaves a different person. Killing other
men is not glorious. I don’t condone murder just because the men running this country deem it
necessary.”
“Jason, I think you misunderstand the nature of what your missions will be. It is true
that we have carried out assassinations in the past, but such an extreme action is reserved for
only it is absolutely necessary. Many times you will be a spy. We will have you infiltrate the
enemy’s system. These may be long term integrations or simply snatch and grab missions.
Either way, most of your missions will be non-violent.”
“Will I ever be assigned to kill someone?”
“Probably so.”
“Well then I can’t do it. Thanks for the offer, but I’m ready to go back to Colorado now.”
Jason got up to leave the room, but Westchester continued to talk. “Jason wait. Many
prospective agents have walked out for the same reason as you. I think that before you make
your final decision you really ought to listen to the last reason. If for any reason when your
time with us is over you want to have certain memories deleted, we can make that happen.”
Jason was convinced he hadn’t heard that right. “You’re telling me that if I assassinate
someone, you can take the memory out of my head and make me think it never happened?”
“Technology sure is swell isn’t it?”
“So if I don’t enter the program, will you use this device on me right now? I’m guessing
that you don’t let people walk around with these sorts of secrets.”
“Yes, if you decline we will erase your memory of this conversation and of all contact
you’ve had with us. But we will still pay you as promised. We always take care of that before
the mind wipe as we like to call it.”
“So what it boils down to is that I have a choice between walking out of here right now
with one hundred dollars and no recollection of what happened, or walking out of here in two
years $200,000 and no recollection of what happened.”
“You nailed it.”
Jason paused. He knew that this whole thing was crazy. What was crazier was that he
wanted to say yes and submit himself to two years of horror. He might not even be himself
anymore after the two years were up. But somehow, Jason let the promises of money and
heroism go to his head after he swore to himself that they wouldn’t.
“Before you make your choice, I should probably say one more thing. This will be both a
reminder of old information with a bit of new information thrown in. Should you enter our
training program, you will be allowed no contact with the outside world. Starting now and
ending when your time with us is done, you will never be allowed to communicate with your
family or friends. That is what you already knew. What you didn’t know, however, is that if you
say yes your time starts right now. We will send our people to take care of your residency and
your possessions. We will listen to your requests regarding each. I believe I’ve covered
everything. Think about your answer carefully. Do you accept?”
Jason sat in the small conference room in a big building in Virginia and thought as hard
as he ever had his whole life. Jason could tell that Westchester expected this last piece of
information to be something that sounded negative, something that would discourage him
from saying yes. But in fact this was just what Jason was looking for. Jason did acknowledge
that a very quiet and meek voice in the back of his mind as telling him that this whole thing was
crazy, but he heard a much louder and more confident voice telling him that this program was a
godsend. He wanted to get away from it all. This job would distance him from his problems
mentally, physically, and for at least a two year span. He needed money. This job offered him
plenty. As far as leaving behind friends and family, Jason was unconcerned. With no parents,
no wife, and a somewhat estranged best friend, he was not concerned in the least about being
cut off from his past relationships for at least two years.
“Greg Westchester, I accept your offer. I will commit myself to your absurdly brutal
training in order to prepare myself to do whatever is necessary to defend this nation.”
“Good. I’m excited to put you through our training program. Ever since I saw your
preliminary scores I’ve been very excited to see what you can do. But first we need to clear up
a few things. What would you like us to do with your house and your personal belongings?”
Jason already knew the answer to this question. “The house you can sell. I get the
money from the proceeds right?”
“Of course you do, it is your house. How about your possessions?”
“A storage unit would be acceptable.”
“No problem. I’m not sure if this is a concern for you, but any remaining bills you
haven’t paid can be paid with the money obtained through the sale of your house. Is that
acceptable to you?”
“Completely acceptable. What do I do now?”
“For starters, you can follow me to the dressing room. From now on you will be wearing
the clothing we provide for you.”
“One more quick question. If you possess the technology to actually manipulate my
personality and mental characteristics, why didn’t you do implement those changes first and
then test me?”
“I may sound like a broken record, but there are multiple reasons we didn’t do that. I’m
playing the money card again. While the technology for mental modification is surprising small
and portable, it is expensive to make and expensive to operate. For such a small device, the
power demands on it are quite large. Also, we have found that our technology is much more
efficient when the subject has made a conscious choice to use it. Subjects that are exposed to
our training techniques without prior knowledge of it or without consenting to it tend to resist,
and achieving any sort of permanent change is next to impossible. Finally, our overarching goal
is provide well-being for the American people. If we changed everyone’s personalities in an
obtrusive and stress-inducing way before we tested them, we would be worsening the lives of a
significant portion of the population. That is something I want you to remember throughout
these next six months. You are being altruistic. No matter how painful it is, I want you to see
all of this training as a way to help others, because that’s what it is.”
Jason walked down another hallway with Westchester in what he imagined as the
catacombs of this building. They entered a room that looked like an emergency room at a
hospital.
“Just wait here. Your training will begin momentarily. I suggest that you prepare
yourself. Remember, six months of living hell.”
Jason sat on a chair at the side of the room. He looked around and saw that there were
very few actual machines the room. Besides a large padded platform he supposed he would
have to lie upon, the room had a sink, some cabinets, one larger bench of tools that looked
medicine related, and a small movable trolley with an assortment of bottles, jars, and other
small appliances. A man in a lab coat entered the room, and Jason greeted him cordially.
“You can breathe a sigh of relief, I’m not going to ask you to drop your pants, turn to the
side and cough. You do have to take off you shirt though. Great, now lie down on the platform
please.”
Jason did as he was told. “How often do you do these sorts of things?”
“You’re the first new one in quite some time, almost a year I think.”
“So does it hurt?”
“The training sequences? They certainly can. I’d less concerned about the physical pain
than the mental stress you go through. I’ve seen guys with shell shock and near death
experiences looking better than some guys after they take their first really intense training
sequence. Don’t worry. I heard you kicked ass on the preliminaries, so the first few of this
sequence shouldn’t be too bad for you.”
Jason was happy to hear that. After he sat down, Jason saw the doctor reaching for a
mask to put over his face. Just as Jason expected, the mask became filled with an airborne
anesthetic. Jason lost consciousness in a matter of seconds. He was bound for the world of
realistic dreams, except this time he knew what to expect. His only concern now was that
someone might be watching. Jason was apprehensive. Not only were his dreams going to
return with a vengeance, now he was being evaluated on his performance in those dreams.
Jason’s training had officially begun.
Chapter 10
Jason’s training was every inch as brutal as Westchester promised. I won’t go into every
gritty detail of Jason’s grueling six month training, but I give you an overview. Jason spent the
first two weeks getting eased into the mental training simulations. For the most part, Jason
was only awake for a maximum of six hours per day. Most of these waking hours were spent
eating, doing some short core body workouts, and learning more about EMTU. The most
interesting thing Jason learned was that he was to be a W-class agent. W-class was nicknamed
“Lone Wolf”. W-class agents were strictly assigned to solo missions. Because of this, the
training they received was a bit different than those agents that operated in teams. Agents that
operated in teams, or P-class agents, were taught not only to be independent thinkers, but also
to listen to the rationale of others. Their training made them extremely proficient at this
teamwork , but Jason’s training was all about self-reliance. If Jason couldn’t think on his feet
and be decisive with his plans, he was as good as dead. Jason was taught valuable lessons that
field agents could only learn through experience in the past. Jason was confused to find that he
was less stressed out for his first two weeks of training than he had been in months. Jason was
rarely disrupted when he was simply sleeping. Knowing the training sequence schedule
allowed Jason to get into a groove. This virtual reality experience was handy, because Jason
had no other agents to talk to. Jason was never to make any sort of contact whatsoever with
any other agent.
In six weeks, Jason’s leg had fully healed. Jason’s schedule changed when his leg healed.
Most of the time Jason had been spending in classes and even some of the time previously
devoted to going to the bathroom and eating was now devoted to physical conditioning. For six
months Jason trained with a level intensity unmatched by any other military agency in
existence. After six months, Jason was a completely different person. His build was the only
aspect of him that remained unchanged. The differences in Jason were not only numerous, but
profound. Jason’s almost grungy appearance in December had changed to a clean shaven,
short haired, and more formally dressed look. In December, Jason had been a caring person.
The old Jason genuinely cared about the people that he called his friends and family. By June,
Jason was a completely self-centered person. However, a casual observer wouldn’t have
noticed the change. Jason had also changed into a very calculating and manipulative person.
On the last day of his training, Jason had one last talk with Westchester.
“Today’s date is June 21st. Jason Mathews, you have completed your training. How do
you feel? Are you excited to begin to really serve your country?”
“I am. I will do whatever we deem necessary to defend this country.”
“Let’s go over your general routine. Your house is in Langely, not even ten minutes from
here. Every morning, you will drive to a destination at a certain time given to you the night
before. At the rendezvous point, a black, unmarked SUV will pick you up and take you here.
Once here, you will have a training day or a mission. You will never attempt to contact us. We
will contact you. Under no circumstances will you make contact or attempt to make contact
with other agents. Do you understand?”
“Yes I do. What is my first mission?”
“Easy tiger, we don’t have anything for you yet. We’ll give you a ride home. You just
find some way to entertain yourself until we find a need for you.”
Jason was dropped off at his new house. The house was in a middle class neighborhood.
Although the house itself was a little bit run down, the property was very easy on the eyes.
Jason’s new house had a slight sense of decay about it. The house was not dilapidated, but
Jason decided that instant he arrived that cleaning up the house would be his first priority. The
air of decay around his house was something that drew attention to his house, so Jason wanted
to change it. The interior was acceptable. It already had plenty of furniture, and it was in a
decent state of repair. Jason saw his master bedroom and immediately remembered that he
needed to buy some new clothes. Jason’s first day out and about was promising to be an
interesting one, and an expensive one. Jason went into the garage and found the car that had
been left for him. The car was a Jeep Liberty. “Great. Those cheap bastards couldn’t even get
me a V8. Why am I complaining, I get a car. Might as well use it. I need to do some cleaning up
around here.”
Jason went to the local hardware store and purchased all kinds of things. He bought a
lawn mower, a trimmer, a hose, paints and paintbrushes, and work gloves for starters. The list
goes on and on. He also went to the grocery store and purchased enough food to survive a
short famine. When he got home, Jason put away all of his food and went straight to cleaning
up the outside of his house. Jason made a rough estimate of how long all of his desired
improvements would take and decided that if worked quickly he could be done in three days.
“I wonder how long this will actually take. Maybe I’ll get lucky and I won’t get called for an
assignment in a while.” Jason decided to get a start on his projects and his first priority was
cleaning out his gutters. This didn’t take very long, so Jason moved on to mowing his lawn and
trimming some of the overgrown bushes.
While Jason was trimming bushes, a family of neighbors came over and introduced
themselves. Jason greeted them politely, but wished the whole time that they would leave. “I
understand that you’re trying to be friendly, but I have no desire to talk to you people. Why
can’t you understand that I don’t want to talk? I’m giving you all of the signals besides outright
rudeness.” They inquired into Jason’s line of work, and he replied that he worked for the CIA at
Langley at a desk job. This was the standard lie that all every EMTU agent told when inquired
about their profession by civilians. While Jason was talking to this family of seemingly decent
people, he thought of something that made him laugh internally. “My job is all about making
sure that people like these are protected and have a good life. Personally, I could care less
about these individuals. I care more about this somewhat abstract group of people called
“American citizens” than I care about individual members of that group. Why should I care
more about those people just because they were born in the same country as me? Its just part
of the job description.” The family soon went on their way. Still, Jason couldn’t get the thought
out of his head for the rest of the day. “In order to be better able to serve people as a whole,
I’ve been trained not to care for them individually.” He found this to be a laughable oddity.
The night passed without him receiving a call for action the next day, so Jason went to bed.
Jason woke up very early in the morning just like he used to, but his routine was very different.
Jason brewed some coffee and opened up his laptop. Jason spent two hours reading the news.
Jason even bought an online subscription to the New York Times and the Washington Post.
Jason read these papers mainly for political content. Jason decided that if he was to help shape
the scenes behind the scope of the media, he might as well have some idea of what’s going on
with the political scene.
The day passed in the same way as the last one did for Jason. During the day he mostly
spent his time reading or watching television. At midday, he went for a thirty minute run. In
the afternoon Jason continued with his yard work. That night at five, Jason got a phone call. He
was instructed to meet in the parking lot east of the mall the following morning at 8:00 am.
Jason was only slightly let down that he couldn’t complete his cleaning projects. Jason was
excited to go on his first mission. The night passed slowly. Jason got up even earlier the next
morning. After reading newspapers, Jason still had an hour to spare. Jason had been given no
information regarding the nature of his activities for the day. For thirty minutes he just sat by
the fireplace and wondered what he would do the rest of the day. “I know I will probably have
another day of training, but what if I actually get to go on a mission? Maybe I’ll get to infiltrate
a terrorist hideout, or have to go undercover and become on of them. I wonder if I’ll have to
carry out an assassination.” Jason had of course never done any of these things in real life.
Still, he felt confident with his training. He had gone through countless simulations of many
scenarios. Although Jason had never harmed another human being in his whole life, he felt as
though he had done unspeakable things to people. In his fake reality training missions, Jason
had killed men, stared right into their eyes as they died. He had even tortured people to
extract information from them. Jason was mentally going through all the many things he might
do when he realized that he needed to leave in order to make his 8:00 meeting time.
Jason drove over the speed limit on the way to the mall. He parked in the large parking
lot in the front. Just as he thought that his pickup was late, he saw the unmarked SUV in the
opposite corner of the lot. Jason drove over the SUV, locked his car, and got into the back of his
pickup vehicle. When Jason entered the vehicle, the man in the passenger spoke to him in a
slightly irritated tone.
“You’re five minutes late. Don’t be late again.”
Jason was surprised to hear this tone from someone he had considered his inferior.
Jason wanted to fire back with a snappy retort, but instead he simply said, “Why?”
The man in the passenger seat replied, “We are not supposed to stay in one place for a
long time, it looks suspicious. If you get here when we tell you to, then we can minimize our
time at a standstill. We are trying to be covert here.”
Venomous thoughts crossed Jason’s mind. “Jackass. I don’t give a damn if you have to
wait here for five minutes. What a tool.”
The rest of the drive to the building was passed in silence. In order to avoid contact
with other agents, the vehicle pulled into a garage underneath the building and stopped right
next to an elevator. The elevator took Jason down to his floor. He got out and went into
Westchester’s office.
“Jason, you’re late. Please get to your pickups on time.”
“Sorry to sound confrontational, but what if I don’t get there exactly at the right time.
Who cares if I’m five minutes late? Realistically it doesn’t matter.”
“Jason, that is not true. Sometimes we will need you to be here exactly when we say
and not a minute later. Many times your assignments are last minute and we can’t afford you
the pleasure of a belated arrival. Also, if you’re late too many times I will consider it
subordination, and your post-duty compensation will be reduced. The moral of the story is
don’t be late.”
“Less money for me. That’s a good reason not to be late. It won’t happen again.”
Westchester grinned. “Good. Now for today’s assignment. We’re going to put you into
dream land for a few hours first, then it’ll be time to run an obstacle course.”
Jason was a little let down when he heard the news. He had been looking forward to
some excitement. He resolved to work extra hard whenever he had training with hopes that
this would put him on the fast track to exciting assignments.
For two weeks, Jason was called in every other day. Each day Jason was put through
some mental training exercises and a considerable physical workout. For the first week, Jason
was patient. He realized that he would only be assigned a mission when Westchester and the
other people that observed his training. His only option was to work hard and show that he
was ready. On his off days, Jason would exercise, read, do housework, and watch a little bit of
television. As the month of July crept closer on the calendar, Jason patience was tested. Jason,
however, was determined not to voice his restlessness. Patience was a virtue of his that
Westchester had mentioned as a positive. The Fourth of July came and went, and Jason was
getting even more restless. Two weeks had passed since Jason had “graduated” from the six
month training program. Jason finally decided that if he voiced his restlessness to Westchester
it would show his supreme confidence that he could succeed in any assignment given to him.
On the morning of July 5th, Jason walked into Westchester’s office.
“How do you feel this morning Jason?”
“I’m good. Before you get started, I want to tell you something. I’ve been performing
well on every training mission given to me, yes?”
“Yes, you’ve done very well. Although you don’t have the highest scores on each
individual simulation, your composite scores are the highest we’ve ever seen.”
“My physical conditioning is going well as well. I’m in the best shape of my life, and I’ve
been working out and exercising my whole life. With both of those things in mind, I think that
you should send me on a mission. I want to get out there and see how I do in real life.”
“I’m glad you feel that way. Today, I’m assigning you your first mission.”
Jason couldn’t believe his luck. “In that case I’ll shut up. Go ahead, what do I have to
do?”
“Jason, your first mission will not be easy. Don’t take this too lightly just because it is
your first one. I’m not assigning you to get cats out of trees or direct traffic. You are in the
most elite special forces program on the face of the Earth, and we usually only do the things too
challenging or risky for the other agencies. Before I begin, I must remind you to not get cocky.
Even though you feel like a veteran, you have to remember that in the real world failure is not
an option.”
Despite how excited Jason was to finally be doing something he knew that Westchester
was right. “Thanks, that’s good advice.”
“Your first assignment is in Africa. Do you keep up with the current political scene?”
“I do, but if this involves local African politics I may need you to clear up some details.”
“As you probably know, five years ago a large coal deposit was discovered in a remote
southern part of Algeria using a revolutionary new technique of for locating underground coal
deposits. The coal deposit is larger than every deposit of coal in the United States combined.
Shortly after the discovery, companies from every developed nation rushed in to get their share
of the new found deposits. All of this commercialization was opposed by the old prime
minister. Three years ago, the government nationalized the entire coal mining industry, mainly
because they were opposed to a bunch of Westerners running around this country. This
essentially eliminated our nation’s stake in this important resource. Last year, the nation
elected a new prime minister that reversed the nationalization of the coal industry on the
grounds that this action would allow more investment in the country, improving the lives of the
average citizen. This past year, there have been multiple attempts on the new prime minister’s
life. Yesterday the prime minister announced that in three days he will be making a speech in
Algiers in defense of his actions. Polls show that the populace is divided, with a large
proportion calling for the return of the old prime minister. The second in command of the
nation has yet to truly declare where his political allegiances lie. We fear that if the prime
minister is assassinated, the number two guy will become loyal to the old regime out of fear for
his own life. Your job is to stop any sort of assassination attempt.”
It took Jason only a second to realize that security was much more than a one man job.
“Sir, isn’t it quite likely that an assassination attempt would come in the form of a suicide
bomber, or a car laden with explosives, or some other method that I have no training about and
will be powerless to stop?”
“Quite so. But we cannot afford to be seen backing this prime minister too strongly.
While our politicians have expressed support for his reversal of the nationalization of the
industry, part of his plan was to not let any American military into the nation, even for his own
defense. It was because of this addendum that he was able to get enough support for his plan
to ensure the bill’s passage. We will have to leave that aspect of the security to the Algerians. I
wouldn’t be too worried. They seem to do very well with that aspect of security. The prime
minister may not appear to be prudent, but in fact he is a very cautious man. You have to be
when walking a tightrope over exile and execution.”
“So I’m just advanced crowd security?”
“Essentially. We want you to be on the lookout for any would be assassins. You have a
lot of training in assassinations and VIP protection. I expect you to anticipate any possible
assassination attempts. Evaluate the area, and identify potential sniper positions. During the
speech, take up a position that gives you a good view of these positions and be on the lookout
for any suspicious persons. But before you jump on the plane, I have a warning for you.
Remember that your mission is pre-emptive. We have not received intel regarding any
assassination attempt. You must exercise restraint. I don’t remember how many times we’ve
told you this, but I’ll tell you again. If you are captured or killed, no one is coming for you.
Remember that. You are completely on your own. Don’t shoot anyone just because you think
they might be an assassin. You wait till they pull the gun. You’re the best of the best, and I
expect you to perform to the best of your capabilities.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Let’s go back up the garage. Our ride is waiting.”
Jason walked with Westchester back to the underground garage. They entered the
waiting car, which drove to the airport Jason had landed at six and a half months ago. Once
again the car drove out onto the tarmac and stopped right next to the small jet. Jason and
Westchester boarded the plane and took their seats as the plane took off.
“So where are we flying to? I’m guessing that we’re not allowed to fly directly into
Algeria.”
“We are heading for Siciliy. There’s a small private airport on the island that we are
allowed to use.”
“I’m surprised that this jet has such a large range. I expected to fly to another airport
and board a larger plane.”
“We have access to some pretty nifty gadgets as I’m sure you’ve noticed. Super efficient
gasoline is one of them. It was only developed in the last few years.”
“So what’s the catch?”
“Excuse me?”
“Why isn’t this gasoline being mass produced and sold on the open market?”
“It’s all about practicality. Right now, it isn’t economically viable. Even though it’s
roughly one hundred times more efficient than regular gasoline, it’s also about one thousand
times more expensive to produce.”
Jason was briefly interested, but his mind soon returned to the mission at hand. For
most of the flight, Westchester filled Jason in on the more minute details. He gave Jason
information on what to do and on what to expect along the way.
“Once we arrive, we’ll have a cab waiting to take you to the public airport. We’ve made
an Canadian passport for you.”
Jason took the passport and briefly looked at it before putting it in his pocket. “Why the
hell would a Canadian want to go to Algeria?”
“That’s a damn good question, and one we hope you won’t have to answer often. The
best excuse is to visit family. Chances are that most people won’t speak English or at least
won’t speak English very well, so that shouldn’t be too much of a problem. We don’t have the
time to fit foreign language learning into our training program, so we simply give you a
Canadian passport. Canadians speak English, look exactly like we do, and are less mistrusted by
the majority of the world population.”
“Why not use English passports?”
“Canadian passports are easier to counterfeit, and England is a bit more of a prominent
world player in the grand scheme of things. Greater chance you would run into with that hates
England than someone who hates Canada. Getting back on topic, your flight will land in Algiers
at 6:30 am local time. The speech is scheduled for 7:00 pm local time.”
Westchester continued to brief Jason on the details of his trip to Algeria, and also of
what to expect once there. He gave Jason a brief lesson on specifics he should watch out for.
But the most important things were two items he gave to Jason. He gave Jason a set of clothing
that was typical for an Algerian man and instructed Jason to put it on after he landed in Algiers
once he got a chance. Westchester also gave Jason two small objects that looked like hearing
aids.
“Westchester, what are these?”
“Even though you won’t be able to talk to anyone very well, you will certainly be able to
understand what they are saying. These little things are universal translators. They fit inside
your ear in the same manner as a hearing aid, but instead of amplifying sound, they translate
foreign languages into English. If someone speaks in a foreign tongue, all you have to do is
listen. There is a small delay, but you’ll be able to understand every word. They’ve already
been tested in the field with great success.”
The flight to Sicily took up the rest of the day and they only landed in Sicily around noon
the next day. Jason was driven to the airport directly after he exited the plane. At the airport,
Jason had to wait a few hours for his flight. He only had a backpack with a handful of items in
it. Most of his tools, weapons, and other suspicious equipment he would pick up once he
reached Algiers. Jason slept for a while at the airport in preparation for his assignment. The
flight was pleasantly short. Jason had expected another flight that took up the majority of the
day, but he had overestimated how big the Mediterranean was. When Jason’s flight landed, he
was temporarily detained in customs. Although the airport guards thought he looked
suspicious, in the end there was nothing suspicious about him except for the feeling he gave
the guards. Jason went on his way. Jason took a cab to the downtown area. Jason went to the
US embassy as he was told by Westchester. When he was there, he asked if a package had
arrived under his Canadian alias. The receptionist kindly handed him a large briefcase, and
Jason went on his way. After he left the building, Jason went into the largest, most Western
looking department store he could find. He went to the bathroom, and changed into the
clothing given to him by Westchester. The loose fitting clothing covered his entire body except
his eyes. Jason left the department store.
Once back on the street, Jason blended in perfectly. He made his way to the place
where the speech was to take place. It was a large public square. Lining every side were large
buildings with many windows. Jason knew that his assignment would be challenging. He
assessed the situation from a sniper’s perspective. The perfect place would be somewhere he
could shoot unmolested and then get away afterward without anyone spotting him. Jason
checked the buildings in the immediate vicinity, and the only exits were right into the square.
Suddenly, Jason saw the place he would go if his mission had been to kill the prime minister. A
smaller building sat at the end of a road that fed into the square. The building was about half a
mile from where the stage was now being set up. There were plenty of windows, and behind
the building was an area of small, clustered buildings. This would be a perfect place to have an
escape vehicle waiting, or simply a place to vanish into the crowd. Jason decided to set up shop
in that building and wait for any potential assassins there. The Algerian army would be able to
deal with more noticeable threats themselves. Any attempt to shoot the prime minister from
one those buildings could be seen from plenty of vantage points. Jason felt confident that if an
assassination attempt was to take place that the smaller building at the end of the road would
be its staging point.
Jason made his way to the building. He discovered that is was a small office building.
He went inside and talked to the clerk at the front desk. Thankfully the clerk spoke some
English, and Jason politely made some small talk with the clerk. He eventually got around to
asking what the hours were for everyone there. She replied that they usually work until six
o’clock, but because of the speech everyone was getting off at 5:00. Jason talked for another
minute and then excused himself. He had a couple of hours to kill, so he found a fast food joint
and ordered something to eat. After eating, Jason made his way back to square. He surveyed
every possible spot while looking as casual as possible. When the time was nearing six o’clock,
Jason made his way back to the end of the street. He was pleased to find that he had a view of
the two other possible positions for a sniper to strike from. All he had to do was quietly break
into the building and wait. Jason walked confidently around to the back of the building.
Without even looking around to see if anyone was watching, Jason pried open a window and
slipped inside. Jason had learned from training that when breaking into a building in a crowded
city it’s best to act like you own the place. Most of the time people will think that you do own
the place and that you’ve been locked out. Casting your eyes about and looking around to see
who is watching is a perfect way to tell the world you’re worried about getting caught.
Jason was quiet at first. He took his briefcase with him as he walked up a few flights of
stairs, all the while listening for sounds for workers lingering. He heard nothing, and proceeded
to the third floor. He didn’t have a view of the stage from the first two floors, and there was
only one staircase in the entire building. Jason was confident that he could effectively guard
the entire building from a perch on third floor. Jason put his briefcase on the floor and opened
it up. Inside was a treasure chest of goodies, including all the parts necessary for a collapsible
sniper rifle. Jason also had a tripod to rest the rifle on, a handful of smoke grenades, extra
rounds, a handgun, a knife, and some mace.
Jason looked out the window and saw that people were beginning to congregate in the
square. Jason sat by the window patiently. He thought about opening the window, but he
didn’t want to do anything that might give away his presence. He kept the lights off and
listened for sounds of another break-in as he looked at the other sniper spots. At 7 o’clock the
speech began in front of a crowded square. Jason estimated that the number of people there
to be around one hundred thousand. Jason was certain that if an assassination attempt was to
happen that this would be the place. With that in mind, he sat with his knife and handgun at
the ready so as not to be caught off guard. The sniper rifle was kept handy, but not at the
ready. For ten minutes Jason watched and listened. The sound was too muffled inside the
building to hear what the man was saying, but occasionally his earpiece would say a couple or
words in English to him. “I guess that thing is pretty sensitive,” thought Jason.
Ten minutes into the speech Jason startled himself a little bit. He swore that he heard
the sound of footsteps in the stairwell. For a minute, Jason did nothing else but stare at the
stairwell door with his handgun aimed and ready to fire. After a minute, Jason was able to
convince himself that he had conjured up the noise in his mind. When Jason looked back at the
two other sniper positions and thought he saw a glint at one of them. Jason reached for his
sniper rifle. He looked through the scope and saw a man assembling a sniper rifle similar to his.
Jason had to think fast. He didn’t want to shoot an innocent civilian. “Well he’s assembling a
sniper rifle on a rooftop over looking the prime minister’s speech, so he’s obviously not a
civilian. He could be a police officer setting up to prevent an assassination. I don’t think so
though. A police officer would probably be wearing a uniform of some kind, and would have
gotten there a long time ago.” Jason decided to use restraint. He would wait to shoot until he
was the man finish assembling the gun.
Jason very quickly opened the window of the room and moved to the back of the room.
This allowed him to take his shot with a lesser chance to being spotted by onlookers. Jason’s
sniper rifle was heavy and oblong when fully assembled. Jason set up tripod and looked out
towards where the assassin lurked. The man was screwing on the silencer. In what seemed like
minutes to Jason the man had a complete sniper rifle and turned to look towards the prime
minister. Jason knew his time was now. He had been trained in how to aim a sniper bullet, and
it involved the simultaneous factoring of millions of variables, such as range, elevation,
humidity, and at long ranges the curvature of the earth’s gravitational field. Millions of tiny
calculations whizzed through Jason’s brain. Even though this was the first time Jason had
actually handled a sniper rifle, the motions were practically muscle motion for him. The
calculations were completed in the blink of an eye. Jason held his breath and squeezed the
trigger. Even though Jason was half a mile from his target, the flight time of the bullet was
negligible to any human. Jason knew he hit the target when he was a splash of blood erupt
from the man’s chest as he fell over backwards. Jason’s silenced sniper rifle hadn’t made
enough noise to be heard over the speakers projecting the prime minister’s voice. The prime
minister continued to spout his rhetoric and the crowd continued to listen. Jason looked
around to make sure that the police hadn’t seen the muzzle blast or heard anything. Jason
waited around for two more minutes to make sure that no one else stepped up to take the
assassin’s place. During those two minutes, he was nearly in shock that the security forces for
the prime minister of a nation could be so stupid. The spot that the assassin chose should have
been covered by a police team. Jason seriously questioned the capabilities of the Algerians to
defend their own prime minister. He did admit that there was a chance to this lackluster
protection was the result of meddling by the opposite party. In fact, after thirty seconds of
thinking Jason decided that the poor protection was due to a buyout by the opposing
politicians. Jason couldn’t stand to think of being used like that. “Here police chief, take this
bribe. Now that you’re not protecting the prime minister from an amateur attempt at an
assassination, here’s your money. Well too bad. Thanks to me you’re not going to get any
money now!”
The speech lasted for fifteen more minutes. With that last thought still on his mind
Jason decided to pack up and leave the building as the crowds came. Jason went down the
stairs to the window he originally pried open. Instead of opening the window and jumping back
out, Jason simply opened the back door and walked out into the alley. He looked like a worker
who was just leaving work after a long day. People were streaming through the alley, and in an
instant Jason blended right in with them. He walked in an alley perpendicular the road that led
to the stage. After five minutes, he turned back towards the main road. His plan was to make
his way to the outside of town, dispose of his weapon, and take the return flight to Sicily. Just
as Jason was about to round the corner onto the street, he overheard two police officers
talking. Jason swiftly tucked himself behind a dumpster and listened intently to their
conversation.
“What happened? I haven’t heard yet.”
“Two officers watching from the stage saw a man with a rifle as he was about to shoot
the prime minister. As the guy lined up to take the shot, he was shot by someone we didn’t
see. We didn’t want to cause a panic, as that might create an even more dangerous situation
for the prime minister, so we allowed the speech to continue. We sent a unit up to the place
where the sniper got shot. One of the men determined the area the bullet came from by the
angle of the entry wound and saw a man in a white robe in a window with a clear view of the
stage and the sniper’s position. We saw him disassembling something that we assume was a
sniper rifle, similar to the one the victim had.”
“So we’re just trying to bring him in?”
“Yes, but keep it quiet. He’s a suspect, but we’re not certain of anything. Also,
remember that he’s holding a briefcase. Come with me.”
Jason heard approaching footsteps and instinctively jumped into the dumpster. He was
completely hidden from view when they came around the corner. He knew that all he had to
do was wait for them to pass, dump his suitcase, and everything would be fine. He decided to
not uncover his face till getting a bit more removed from the situation. Should he be seen
running away from police, Jason didn’t want his face to be identified. The two policemen
walked only two feet away from Jason’s hiding place as they walked towards the alley Jason
had just left. When they were only a couple of yards past Jason’s position, they stopped. They
were talking with another policeman.
“You saw the guy come in this alley? Well I didn’t see him leave. Look for doors, maybe
he went into one of these buildings.”
Jason knew that the alleyway didn’t have any doors. They would soon scour the
dumpsters lining the alley. Jason knew his hiding place was good enough to keep him
concealed from passersby, but not good enough to keep him concealed from an active search.
Jason readied himself for action as the sounds of searching grew close. Jason had been
instructed to leave behind his gun in only the most compelling circumstances, but he had no
choice. Jason stashed the weapon underneath some trash bags lying in the dumpster. The
opportune moment was close at hand. Jason heard two of the men searching towards the far
end of the alley, while a lone police officer searched closer and closer to him. Jason crouched
just beneath the opening of the dumpster. The dumpster was so large that it had a built in
ladder that one had to climb in order to see inside of it. Jason hadn’t been able to hide
underneath the debris without making enough noise to call attention himself, so he devised a
plan. When the policeman climbed the ladder, Jason crouched right underneath where his
head would pop out. When the man’s head came into Jason’s line of sight, Jason jumped up,
grabbed the man by the shoulders and threw him into the dumpster. The policeman was dazed
from the fall, but Jason knew that his companions would have heard the noise. Jason
immediately pulled the pin out of a flash grenade and threw it towards where he reckoned the
other two policemen to be. Four seconds later a loud sound and a blinding flash of light
erupted in the alley right in front of the two policemen. Jason used this opportunity to leap out
of the dumpster. The officers expected him to run towards the street, but Jason was
anticipating this. He instead ran directly through the smoke cloud that the grenade was
spewing, bowling over one of the officers in the process.
“Damn it, he knocked me over! Chase after him!”
Jason didn’t need to look behind him to know that he was being pursued. Just in case
there was any doubt, he heard a voice yell after him, “Hey you, stop!”
Jason took the first turn available to him into the cluster of smaller buildings that sat
opposite on the other side of the alley from the main street. As Jason passed the corner he
heard a gunshot and heard a bullet whiz past. “They’re not kidding around. I need to take this
guy out right now. If I can take him out, I’ll go find a change of clothes and be home free.
Thank god for societies where having your face covered isn’t out of the ordinary.”
Jason ran through the buildings until he saw that most of the buildings were houses.
Jason spotted a run down house and decided it was a perfect place from which to spring his
trap. He slowed down his pace and allowed the officer to catch up to him slightly, never giving
the policeman a clean shot before running down a different alley. The house was small enough
that Jason could jump up and pull himself onto the roof. Jason rounded a corner and vaulted
up onto the roof. When the policeman rounded the corner in hot pursuit, Jason jumped down
onto him, striking the man on the collarbone. The man only managed a short yelp before Jason
struck him on the temple, rendering the man unconscious. Jason knew that although there
were no policemen in the immediate area the police would soon converge on him unless me
moved quickly and changed his appearance. Jason ran in front of a house that had some
clothes hanging out to dry from a clothesline. Hardly breaking stride, Jason snagged some
men’s attire from the line. By the time the family realized what had happened, Jason was
already around two more corners. He made his way through the maze of houses until he
spotted a house that was boarded up and looked decidedly abandoned. Jason broke the
boards down around a window, knowing that the locals would hardly care. Jason entered the
old building and hastily changed his clothes. Jason tore up his old clothes after taking them off
and stashed them underneath a rotting bed mattress. He now wore black trousers with a grey
top and a grey cloth he wrapped around his face. Jason quietly exited through the rear of the
house. He decided that if he walked nonchalantly back to the street he could blend in with the
crowd. Just as Jason approached the end of the clustered houses and was about to re-emerge
onto a large street, he heard the cries of multiple men. For an instant, Jason thought he had
been found when they ran right for him, but Jason stayed calm. The policemen turned another
corner, and Jason re-integrated himself with the crowds on the sidewalk. The plan worked.
It was a simple matter for Jason to make his way back to airport. He briefly considered
going to retrieve his briefcase that still held his sniper rifle and a few other things, but Jason
decided to leave it behind. EMTU was always careful not to use equipment that if found
identified their operatives as American. Jason knew that although it would be ideal if he could
return with all of his gear that it simply was not a wise decision in this situation. Jason took a
taxi back to the airport. He purchased a flight back to Sicily and contacted Westchester. He
told Westchester about what happened at the speech, and gave him a brief surmise of the
events afterward. Westchester listened intently, and congratulated him on a job well done.
Jason bought some food to snack on and waited for his flight.
Jason arrived in Sicily and waited for his ride. Jason was picked up promptly and with
twenty four hours of escaping from the police in Algiers he was on a jet back to the United
States.
“Jason, you performed admirably. I really hope that you’ve seen first hand how
important your work is.”
“I really did. I actually made an impact on the world, and it’s a great feeling. I made
things better for millions of people. Finally getting out into the real world was great too. On
the flight to Algiers the thought crossed my mind that all that mental simulation training may
be an inadequate training tool, but those doubts have been completely dispelled. My instincts
were all perfect, I adapted well to the changing elements of the situation, and I even had
muscle memory for a lot of things. That was the first time I’ve ever fired a rifle, and it felt like
I’ve been doing it forever. The crossover was so smooth. Has it always been this good?
“What? I don’t understand what you’re saying Jason.”
“Have the mental training simulations always been so great at giving people
experiences? Did the training program need some tweaking at first? Now that I think about it, I
have a lot of questions regarding the training program. How does it all work? How long have
you been working with it?”
Westchester laughed a little bit, and Jason couldn’t figure out why. “Jason, lets leave
the gritty details about the training program for another time. I have a few more things I need
to ask you.”
Jason was irritated that his questions were being brushed to the side, but he was still in
debriefing. “I will want to know more about it later. But I understand that right now we need
to focus on the matters at hand. Speaking of the matters at hand, is it going to be a serious
problem that I left the rifle there?”
“You took out all of our specialized gear, right?”
“That was the first thing I did after getting the briefcase.”
“In that case no. The gun and the other goodies in there are all commonly used in many
other countries. We just want you to bring your accessories back if possible to save money. So
I’ve been meaning to ask you. How did you feel? Did you get a big adrenaline rush? Were you
frightened?”
“Surprisingly no. I was totally calm when I shot the guy on the rooftop. The only time I
felt an adrenaline rush was when I was shot at. I was never frightened, but the adrenaline was
there.”
“Perfect. That’s exactly what we aim for. Adrenaline is a bad thing for sniping, it can
make you a little bit less steady. But for other pursuits adrenaline is wonderful. It increases
strength, stamina, reflexes, and aggression, all without clouding judgment. Feeling frightened is
what forces you into making stupid mistakes. If you’re ever frightened, remember that being
frightened gives you a greater chance of having your fear realized than if you assess the
situation rationally.”
For the whole trip back to Virginia Jason and Westchester talked about details from the
last few days and Jason’s overall emotional state after his first assignment. When Jason arrived
back in the States he was very tired. The last few days had taken more out him than he
originally realized. “I guess that shooting people and running away from the police is more
tiring when you do it in real life and not just in a dream.” Jason was barely awake when he was
dropped off at his car. Jason knew that dying in a car accident after he just completed a vital
and daring covert operation would be just about the stupidest thing ever, so he used his
foolproof method for staying awake while driving. Jason kept a continuous supply of cinnamon
mints in his car for driving with a lack of sleep. Jason hated the taste of cinnamon mints, and
the terrible taste somehow kept his brain alert. Jason’s drive home was quite short, but he
took no chances. Jason arrived home and immediately went to bed.
Jason woke up the next day feeling much better. Jason looked at his watch and realized
that he had slept for almost twelve hours. He felt refreshed and looked forward to having a day
to rest. Jason spent most of the day reading. He was expecting to have at least the next day off
from work, but later that night Jason received a call telling him to meet in the public library
parking lot at six o’clock the next morning. Jason was taken aback to the rapid turnaround, but
knew that he probably should have seen this coming. Just to make things even harder on him,
Westchester or whoever was in charge or his training regimen was putting a training day right
after his first real mission just to toughen him up. Jason decided to go on a very brief run as the
sun was setting so that he didn’t pass the entire day without exercising. After Jason ran for
about twenty minutes, he ate a short meal, brushed his teeth, and went straight to bed.
At five o’clock the next morning Jason awoke. He was not excited to be up so early and
not have time to eat a proper meal, but Jason was determined not to be late to any more
pickups. He arrived at the pickup spot two minutes before his six o’clock. The truck came by
and took Jason to headquarters. Jason took the familiar route down the elevator and over to
Westchester’s office.
“Hi Jason, how do you feel?”
“I’m a little bit tired, but yesterday I slept a lot so it’s not as bad as when I got off the
plane. Honestly, I thought you would give me a little bit more time to recover before more
training.”
“Sorry Jason, but in this job a consistent work schedule just isn’t plausible. And you’re
not going to be training today; you’re going on another mission.”
Jason was extremely surprised to hear this. Once the information settled, Jason found
that he was excited to get out into the field once again.
“What am I doing this time?”
“We’re working a lot closer to home today. You will be going to Washington today.”
“DC? What’s going on there? I’ve been catching up on politics recently and I don’t
remember anything important going on in DC today. Congress isn’t in session. What’s going
on?”
“In order to make you understand what’s going on, you need to know something first.
When you have finished your time with us, there are certain things we will erase from your
memory. We will have to erase anything that could allow you to unveil our organization to the
world. This has become standard procedure for EMTU in the past ten years. We implemented
this procedure as soon as the technology was available. Prior to that time, the only thing we
could do to make former EMTU agents not sell secrets was to take away their compensation
and press charges of treason. However, some as some of these agents grew older they became
disillusioned with the role they played and decided to sell secrets to other governments. We
have captured or eliminated most of the former agents who attempted to sell secrets to foreign
governments. There is one, however, that we haven’t been able to catch.”
“What’s his name?”
“His name is not relevant information. This guy worked for us for ten years. He was a
W-class, same as you. We really didn’t think that he would present a problem on the outside,
but a year after he ended his time with us we had a couple of catastrophic missions in Russia.
We suspected said agent of leaking information, so we sent a whole P-class team to his house.
He killed every single team member. He’s been on the run ever since. Recently we received
intelligence that the North Korean military was attempting to make contact with an ex-EMTU
operative. This man is the last ex-agent with any useful information to give, so we assume he
must be the agent they’re trying to contact. We got lucky with the incident ten years ago. Two
months after we lost all those agents in Russia, the Russians joined the EU and NATO. Both
countries opened up to each other, and the information that was leaked became free to them
anyway. If he gives information to the North Koreans, we could be in big trouble. We must
eliminate him before he can betray us. Just trying to arrest him is too dangerous. He is willing
to use lethal force, so we have to reciprocate. We have just received word from the FBI. They
spotted him in Washington, DC. We believe he will try to make contact with the North Koreans
tomorrow night. You have to eliminate him before he makes contact.”
“Where will he be? Do we know where they will meet?”
“Their meeting is scheduled for tonight at 9 o’clock in the public library. This will
provide a challenge for you. You’ll have to either get him on his way in, or follow him inside
and finish him with your bare hands. The choice is yours. Here’s a picture of him.”
Jason took the picture. The man in the picture was short and stout, built like a wrestler.
Jason decided that his best chance was to shoot the man on his way into the building. “OK, I’m
ready. Let’s go.”
Just like always, Jason got into a black SUV that took him where he needed to go. Jason
got dropped off in Washington a few blocks away from the library. Jason took a new briefcase
and made his way to the public library. Jason had plenty of time to survey the scene and come
up with a plan. The streets were busy with people, so Jason felt no need to disguise himself or
sneak around. He looked like any other person in the crowd. Jason took time to look around
the exterior of the library. The only entrance or exit available to the public was the main
entrance, which faced a busy street. Jason knew that this place would have heavy pedestrian
traffic at all times, so breaking into a side door wouldn’t be an option for his target. Jason
decided to check all of the smaller entrances to make sure they were locked. This would force
his target to enter the front door, giving Jason a clean shot. One shot was all Jason would need.
For the next hour, Jason painstakingly snuck his way around the restricted parts of the library,
checking every door to make sure it was securely locked. His target couldn’t possibly find
enough time to break into one of these doors unseen. By three o’clock Jason’s work was
complete. All he had to do was find a position to shoot from. Even though his target was not
suspecting anything, Jason knew that someone with ten years of EMTU experience would
instinctively check obvious gunman positions when entering such an exposed building. Jason
was slightly worried that he would be unable to identify his victim as he entered the building,
but Jason knew when he would enter, what he looked like, and even his characteristics. Jason
knew he could identify an EMTU agent in the way he moved and surveyed his surroundings.
Jason felt confident in his abilities. He also assured himself that if things went wrong he could
always use his grappling hook to lower himself to the street, run into the library, and attempt to
kill the man with only his fists. A public library of this size and stature had x-ray scanners and
metal detectors in this day and age. Jason smirked. “You have thought all of these things
through so well. There so many elements of your plan that you think are so clever, yet you’re
playing right into my hands.” Jason stopped in a convenience store to use the bathroom and
get a bite to eat. By the time Jason had found a perfect position to shoot from, the time was
already five o’clock. Jason had two hours to wait, but he knew that it was always wise to be
ready long before action was required. He was perched on the roof of a building that stood
about three hundred yards away from the front steps of the library. He had snuck onto the roof
and lowered himself down onto an inaccessible corner of the roof using his grappling hook.
Even if someone happened onto the roof, they couldn’t see him unless the jumped down to his
position, a twenty foot fall. The railing by Jason was broken at the corner, giving Jason the
perfect place to fire from. Jason had a view of the entrance, and he could see every person that
entered the library for at least one hundred yards before they reached the entrance. The
situation was perfect. All he had to do was wait.
Jason waited for three and a half hours. He saw no signs of his target or of his North
Korean contacts. For the last half hour, Jason was constantly at the ready. He didn’t have his
finger on the trigger because he had been taught not to in order to prevent accidental weapons
discharge, but he was ready to shoot on a moment’s notice. As the hour of nine o’clock
approached, Jason started getting antsy. He knew that his target was coming in a matter or
minutes, or even seconds. Jason knew the moment was nigh when he saw a black car pull up to
the library and watched as four Korean men stepped out and made their way into the building.
The meeting was going to happen as planned. Jason bided his time and watched carefully for
his target to walk by. Five minutes passed, and Jason saw nothing. He glanced down at his
watch and saw that it read 8:59 pm. Jason returned surveying the library entrance and noticed
something move above the roof of the building.
Even though night had fallen, Jason immediately recognized that a parachute was
coming down towards the roof of the public library. Even though the parachute was all black,
the reflections from the city lights had momentarily given it away. Jason flipped on the night
vision mode of his sniper rifle and looked up towards the parachute. Just before the parachute
disappeared below the top of the building, Jason managed to catch a glimpse of the man
controlling the parachute’s face. Jason had found his target. Jason had been warned that this
man was an ex-EMTU agent, but Jason had still underestimated his target’s creativity. Jason
could only think a single thought. “Clever bastard.” Jason left the empty briefcase and the fully
assembled sniper rifle in the corner of the roof and got out his grappling hook. Jason took the
grapple and found it a good place to attach to. He then rappelled down from his five-story high
perch to the street in a matter of seconds. Jason knew that time was working against him now.
Jason had only once choice. He formulated a plan and ran with it.
Jason ran towards the busy street. A long line of cars was stopped at a traffic light on by
the corner of the building. Jason ran towards the line of cars with a fragmentation grenade at
the ready in his pocket. As Jason ran towards the line of cars that took up the entire road, he
changed his trajectory and ran right behind a man in a trenchcoat, intentionally tripping on his
feet. Jason fell face first in between two cars in the street. While he was on the ground, Jason
pulled the pin out and discretely threw the grenade down the street in between two long lines
of cars. Jason got up and turned angrily on the man in the trenchcoat.
Jason started to say, “Hey asshole, you need to watch where you’re going! I could have
been killed-.“ The moment that Jason said the word killed, a huge explosion thundered out
from two cars forty yards down the street, setting the closest vehicles to the blast on fire. The
whole street instantly became a mass of screaming people fleeing for their lives. Jason feigned
terror and ran across the street toward the library. Jason ran along the wall of the library until
he saw a place where he could fire his grappling hook. In the confusion, no one noticed or
cared as Jason was quickly pulled up from the street toward the roof.
Jason reached the roof and put away his grappling hook. He was thankful the entire
roof was one large, flat area. However, there were numerous structures littering the area. He
walked around cautiously and in an instant saw a discarded parachute and backpack. Listening
carefully, Jason heard a man’s voice.
“Yes, I heard it…..No, we’re doing this transaction right now or never!......I’m on the roof, I can
be down there in a less than a minute…….If someone was trying to kill you, they would have
mowed you all down as you entered the building!....The explosion was just a
coincidence……Hello? Damn it!” Jason stepped around a corner to see a man on his cell phone.
The man had his back turned to Jason and obviously was unaware of Jason’s presence. Jason
decided to attack immediately. Jason only had the element of surprise for this instant, and he
took it. Jason took out his knife without making a sound. He crept forward for a few steps until
he was only 5 yards behind the man. With a burst of speed Jason lunged forward. The man
turned to see Jason lunging directly toward his abdomen with a knife drawn. With a cry of
alarm the man attempted to deflect the blow. The man succeeded in deflecting what would
have surely been a fatal blow, but the knife still caught him on the flank. Jason could
immediately tell that this man had been trained in hand to hand combat. Jason’s enemy
instantly had Jason’s arms in a hold that Jason had never encountered before. The man
succeeded in knocking the blood stained weapon from Jason’s hand and in the same fluid
motion reached for his breast pocket. Jason knew that his target was reaching for handgun.
Although the man had immobilized Jason’s arms for a split second, Jason reacted quickly. He
lowered his head and lunged forward with all his might. This move obviously surprised Jason’s
enemy, shown by the grunt of surprise his enemy emitted as they tumbled to the ground in a
tangle of limbs. Jason and his enemy each rolled away and stood up. Jason couldn’t see where
the handgun had fallen to, but he did see the knife. Jason dove for the knife, but he felt his legs
get pulled back by a pair of strong arms. The man retrieved the knife and turned around the
look at Jason. The man was short and strongly built. Jason knew that he was an ex-EMTU
agent. No one else would be able to so aptly anticipate his moves. The man surveyed Jason for
a few seconds. Jason thought he was going to say something for a second, but instead he
leaped towards Jason and went straight for Jason’s throat. Jason rolled out of the way and
laughed at the feeble and expected attack.
“Is that really all you can do? I can tell that you’re ten years out, you don’t have it
anymore.”
Jason was a little taken aback when the man responded. “I should have known it would
come to this. Only this morning did I realize how imprudent I had been yesterday afternoon. I
should have expected the FBI to have a camera in that plaza. I know you’re with EMTU.
“And I know you’re trying to sell secrets to North Korea. How could you betray your
country after risking your life to protect the nation for years?”
“It really wasn’t that hard.” Without warning the man attacked Jason again. Jason had
been ready for this surprise assault and deftly avoided multiple swipes with the knife. Jason
pretended to trip as he backpedaled, and his feint incited the man to lunge toward him with the
knife. Jason regained his balance effortlessly and sidestepped the attack, disarming the man in
the same way he had been disarmed not thirty seconds earlier. Jason retrieved the knife and
turned back toward the man, but the man had disappeared. Jason cautiously looked for him,
holding his knife at the ready.
Jason’s first priority was to guard the exit. Jason saw the door leading back inside the
building, and knew that if his target made a break for it he could throw a knife into the man’s
neck before he got through the door. Jason had been through mental simulations like this
before. Jason knew that the man was trying to look for his handgun. Jason knew that he
couldn’t afford to sit and wait for his enemy to get a superior weapon. Jason couldn’t afford to
let his guard down for an instant. Jason stealthily made his way over to where he imagined the
handgun may have fallen.
Jason moved over to where he had first encountered his target. Jason saw the handgun
on the floor right next to a ventilation exhaust vent. Jason knew all of the tactics his target
would use. One of the classic tricks of the EMTU was to leave a lost handgun lying in the open
and when the other person went in to retrieve it, grab the gun and shoot them at point blank
range. Jason realized that this was probably what was happening. Jason also realized that his
enemy expected him to recognize this and to try something else. Jason decided instead to walk
right into the trap. Jason quietly made his way toward the gun. Jason almost crawled across
the open part of the roof until he was with ten yards of the gun. At this point Jason took off at
a full sprint but instead of going for the gun slid just in front of the ventilation shaft. The man
stepped out from behind the far end of the ventilation shaft expecting to see and shoot Jason,
but he saw nothing. By the time he realized what had happened, it was too late. The man spun
around just in time to see Jason come at him with the knife. This time he had reacted too
slowly. Jason’s knife plunged through the man’s throat. For safe measure Jason disarmed the
man for a second time, but when Jason removed the knife the man dropped to his knees and
fell onto the floor in fits of agony.
Jason retrieved the handgun stuffed it into his shirt. Then Jason walked away from the
dying man and looked for a good place to lower himself back down to the street, but he heard a
gargling voice say, “Good job kid.”
Jason whirled around to see that the man was speaking to him, even while he lay on the
ground dying. Jason was speechless, but his eyes met with the eyes of the man he had just left
for dead.
“You have to admit that for an old man I put up a pretty good fight. Aaaah!!!” The
man’s words were laced with cries and gasps of pain. “You asked why I would betray my
country. It’s not my country I would betray, I would never betray the United States. EMTU I
would betray in a heartbeat. They’re not doing things for the interest of the country. I figured
out that EMTU is just a method for corporations to pay the government to do illegal things that
are in their own selfish best interests.”
“Sorry old man, but I have no time for your fanciful stories. If you could give me some
proof I might believe you, but the back story I was given for this mission turned out to be true. I
heard you, trying to sell secrets to the North Koreans.”
“Those weren’t North Koreans, they were employees of the Washington Post. I’ve been
working to expose EMTU ever since I got out. I finally collected enough hard facts to expose
EMTU and bring them down.”
“Even if those things were true, why the hell didn’t you say something before I stabbed
you in the neck and left you to die?”
“I know you’re what you’re trained to do. You would never have let your guard down
enough to actually think about what I was saying.”
Jason knew that these things all made sense in conjunction with each other, but he
knew better than to be deceived by someone he knew to be selling secrets to enemies of the
United States. Jason decided to put an end to this man’s troublesome life.
“If you’re done, I think I’ll do you a favor and put you out of your misery.”
The man said nothing, but his face was suddenly awash with a look of even greater pain.
“Fine then. If you’re not going to believe me, just put me out of my misery.”
Jason pulled out his knife and approached the man, intending to stab him in places that
would puncture his main arteries and blood vessels, expediting his death. As Jason knelt down
beside him, the man made one final desperate attempt to steal the gun Jason had retrieved and
put into his shirt. Jason hadn’t expected this last ditch effort, and the man actually did manage
to fire off a round before Jason could restrain him. The bullet grazed Jason’s right shoulder, and
Jason saw blood seep through his shirt. Too caught up in the moment to feel pain and suddenly
enraged at this man’s attempt to kill him after lulling him into a false sense of security, Jason
stood up and unloaded the rest of the clip into the man’s torso. After the serious rush of
adrenaline had passed, Jason realized that he had indeed been shot. The wound was mostly
superficial, but it was bleeding profusely. Jason knew that blood loss wasn’t a concern from a
relatively small wound, but having a bloody shirt would identify him as a suspicious person to
the police roaming the streets below. Jason removed his shirt and looked at the wound. The
bullet had only grazed him. He could clean the wound later. Jason reached into one of his
pockets and grabbed out a small pouch that at first glance looked like a tea bag. Inside of the
bag was a powdery substance that Jason poured onto his wound. Letting out a brief moan of
pain, Jason looked down to see the blood flow stopping almost instantly. Jason quickly used
some water to clean up the dried blood on his arm and chest. Jason’s shirt had a considerable
amount of blood on it, but Jason reached into his pocket once more and grabbed his
instantenous stain remover. After dabbing all of the areas turned red from dried blood, two
minutes later Jason’s shirt looked perfectly clean.
“That slimy son of a bitch! He tried to trick me, all to get in one last shot. Damn it,
someone will have heard that. Hopefully no one will think of looking on the roof of the library.
That tricky bastard. I should have known he would have tried to pull something like that. I just
wasn’t ready for it to make so much sense.” It was at this time that Jason remembered the
briefcase. Jason had seen a briefcase in the man’s hand just before the fight began. “I
shouldn’t look inside this thing. It goes against everything I’ve been taught. Don’t complicate
things beyond the bare minimum. My mission is complete. I ought to destroy this briefcase
and get back to headquarters.”
Jason had an incredibly strong urge to open the briefcase and see what was inside. He
dissuaded himself from doing it by convincing himself that no matter if the man was telling the
truth or lying, the contents would be roughly the same. It would be full of information
regarding EMTU. On top of that, Jason convinced himself that he had been taught not to
complicate things for a good reason, and that he shouldn’t disobey orders just out of curiosity.
After making his decision, Jason hastily set fire to the briefcase in case he later had a change of
heart. Jason watched the briefcase burn and put the whole experience behind him.
All of the pedestrians had fled the area after hearing the gunshots. Jason saw that the
police were not patrolling the area directly behind the library. Jason walked the edge of the
roof by the back of the library and used his grapple hook to lower himself to the street. When
Jason came to a rest on the street, he nonchalantly concealed anything that looked suspicious
and made his way to the building had originally planned to snipe from. Although Jason still had
to retrieve his rifle and make his way back to headquarters, he allowed himself the liberty of
some internal celebration of a job well done. Jason arrived back at the EMTU headquarters via
the same black SUV in what seemed to be a blink of an eye.
Jason debriefed by talking to Westchester about the mission. Jason accurately depicted
the whole mission. He told Westchester about his reconnaissance, his original plan, the
modified plan, and the fight with the target. But when Westchester asked Jason about what
happened after he stabbed the man in the neck, Jason felt a sudden onset of indecision.
“That was a nice move. Use his knowledge against him to get the kill. What happened
next?”
“Um, what happened next? Right, a wait a second, I’m drawing a blank here.” While he
stalled for time, Jason thought, “What should I say? What reason do I have for hiding the
truth? Still, if there is no reason to hide the truth, why do I feel like hiding this information
would be prudent? What if I have to explain more about what he said? Westchester might
think that I believe him and I might feel some negative effects as a consequence. Why should I
have to get in trouble for what someone said to me? I’m not going to tell him.”
“Jason, are you ok?”
“What’s that?”
“You stopped talking for an awfully long time. Are you doing ok?”
“Oh sorry, I was just daydreaming for a second. Sorry, I’ll get back to the debriefing.
After I stabbed him and disarmed him I took the handgun and shot him a couple more times for
good measure. I know it wasn’t a smart thing to do, but I was still a little jacked up from the
fight.”
Westchester looked at him suspiciously, but in the end he had no reason to suspect that
Jason was lying. When Westchester had asked all of the questions, he gave Jason his overall
impression of the mission.
“You got away with a pretty egregious error today Jason. If you hadn’t been on an
isolated place like a roof you would have been in big trouble. You were lucky to get away
unseen as it is. Anyway, overall I have to commend you for a job well done.”
“Thank you sir.”
“Jason, you are dismissed. Go home and get some sleep. I hope to give you a few rest
days before training or a mission, but we can never be too sure. Go on, get out of here.”
Without another word Jason left the office and got a ride to his car. Jason got home late
and only had the energy to brush his teeth before passing out on his bed. For the next three
days Jason didn’t receive any phone calls telling him to report for duty. Jason used these days
mainly to rest. He hadn’t realized that his high stress situations in real life would require as
much energy to get through as a professional level sports match. After three days of rest and
relaxation Jason felt ready for anything. He was pleased to get a call on the night of the third
day telling him to report for work the next morning.
For three days straight Jason underwent training days that involved minimal amounts
mental exercises and unpleasantly large and strenuous physical workouts. Jason figured that
Westchester and his associates thought Jason needed to be in slightly better shape, and Jason
wasn’t one to complain about increasing his fitness level. Jason had to do timed runs through
obstacle courses, suicide runs, and more crunches and push-ups than he ever thought possible.
For three days straight Jason was put through punishing workouts that lasted the better part of
four hours. Westchester even gave Jason a tub of water soluble whey protein to have each
night right before bed. Jason simultaneously hated and enjoyed these workouts. He found that
during the actual exercises he pushed himself so close to his body’s maximum exertion that the
exercises weren’t enjoyable anymore, but after the exercises he felt great. Another result of
these longer workouts was that Jason ate more food without even realizing it. On the night of
the third day of tough training, Jason got home and realized that he had hardly any food at all.
Jason quickly devoured what little food he had left and drove to the grocery store.
Jason walked into the store and grabbed a cart. Jason never liked going to the grocery
store without making a list beforehand. Whenever Jason was at home, he could always think of
at least three or four food items he wished he had. But when Jason went to the grocery store
without a shopping list, he could never think of what to buy even though he literally had no
food at home. Jason decided to walk down every single aisle and get everything that looked
tasty. Jason was so hungry that just about everything looked good. Jason had only been down
four aisles and his cart was already half full. He was thinking that he needed to be a little more
selective with his food selections when he chanced to glance at the checkout line. He didn’t
believe his eyes at first. Jason rubbed his eyes and looked at the checkout line again. Jason was
sure he hadn’t made a mistake. He was looking at Keith Morrison.
Jason was tempted to go say hello. “It might be nice to have a friend I can call on for
house sitting when I’m away and other such things.” Jason began to make his way towards
Keith, but something made him stop. “What are the chances that Keith lives here? This is too
big of a coincidence to be just a coincidence.” Jason suddenly thought back the man he killed
on the roof of the public library in Washington, DC. “What if he was telling the truth? Could
EMTU really be a corrupted branch of the CIA that exists solely to make a profit?” Jason
decided to follow Keith home. Jason knew that if Keith really was a fellow EMTU agent that he
would be exceedingly adept at spotting and eluding pursuit. Jason knew that he would have
little margin for error. Jason slipped out of the large sliding doors in a crowd of people,
effectively camouflaging himself in the crowd. Jason reached his car and quickly pulled out of
parking spot then went back in so that his car faced outward and didn’t have to turn around
when he pulled out of the spot. Jason spied Keith leaving the store. When Keith started his car
Jason started his, and stayed at least one car behind Keith as he left the parking lot. Keith drove
the opposite direction of Jason’s house when he turned onto the main road. Jason had been
taught the fine art of following someone without making them think they’re being followed.
Jason stayed far enough behind Keith that Keith had no reason to expect he was being
followed. After fifteen minutes Keith turned off of the highway onto a smaller street into a
residential neighborhood. Jason almost lost him for a moment, but to his relief Jason saw
Keith’s car turn onto another side street. Jason lost sight of Keith’s car again, but he was fairly
certain that this was the final street. Jason turned onto the street and drove rather slowly,
keeping his eyes trained for a car with lights still on or a figure with grocery bags walking into
the house. When Jason approached the top of a hill, he found what he was looking for. He saw
a man with grocery bags walking from his car into his house. Jason drove by, taking note of the
address. When Jason satisfied himself Keith’s car had not continued onward he turned around
to verify his findings. Jason squinted in the fading light and was able to confirm that the car in
the driveway belonged to Keith. Jason was pleased that his plan had worked so well.
As Jason drove home, the rest of his plan started to come together. On days that he had
off, Jason decided that he would drive over the Keith’s neighborhood in the early morning and
look for Keith’s car. He would follow Keith a couple of times, and if Keith ever rendezvoused
with a SUV like his and got into the SUV, then Jason could be sure that Keith was an agent. As
Jason drove toward home, he realized that he still hadn’t gotten any food. Jason decided to
make another attempt at grocery shopping. At this point Jason was even hungrier than before,
and the cart almost burst with all the food he purchased.
Jason awoke the next morning at an absurdly early hour and quickly dressed himself. By
four in the morning Jason had driven over the road leading into Keith’s neighborhood. He
parked his car in a hopefully inconspicuous spot and waited. At first Jason watched intently.
He was nearly convinced that Keith was an EMTU agent. Jason had brought his breakfast with
him, so for about an hour Jason slowly snacked on his meal. After the food was gone, Jason
listened to music to keep himself entertained. Jason was patient, but by nine in the morning he
was getting restless. Jason began to entertain thoughts of going up to Keith’s house to snoop
around, but Jason knew that this was a much safer plan. If Keith discovered his presence and
told EMTU of his suspicions, Jason could be fired, have his memory erased, or even killed. Jason
made a promise to himself that he would come here every morning he had free from work and
watch for Keith’s car until he became convinced one way or the other about Keith’s
involvement with EMTU.
For an entire month Jason spent every free morning waiting for Keith. Every day that
Jason didn’t have to work, he arrived at his surveillance spot at four o’clock in the morning.
Jason kept tally of the number of morning he spent in his car parked at the exact same spot.
After one month, Jason’s tally was nine. He had spent nine mornings sitting in his car waiting
for Keith Morrison to drive out of his neighborhood. On the tenth morning around eight o’clock
Jason was beginning to question his mission. “Perhaps ten mornings is enough? It’s been a
whole month. I have not been on any more missions. Maybe Keith actually does live here. This
is a free country, and people can live wherever they choose. I don’t care at this current
moment. I’ll decide whether to continue my stakeouts later today.”
From eight until half past eight, Jason considered packing it in. He had stopped seriously
suspecting that Keith was an EMTU agent over two weeks ago. This had become almost more
of a project for entertainment than a real stakeout. Then Jason saw Keith’s car pull up to the
stop sign on his road. Keith’s car turned left onto the road. Jason had stopped expecting Keith
to come, so he had to scramble for a moment to find the keys. Jason found the keys and he
sped away in pursuit of Keith’s car. Once Jason regained visual contact with Keith’s car he just
tried to maintain the distance between them. After five minutes Keith’s car turned onto a side
road and stopped by a run down gas station. At the gas station Jason saw a black SUV. Jason
quickly turned his car around and drove away so as not be spotted as the SUV drove by. Jason
could hardly believe what he was seeing. Jason had verifiable proof that Keith was an EMTU
agent. Jason’s rage built up quickly. He had been lied to by EMTU. Not only that, but the
missions that he thought were benefiting the nation were only benefiting the corporate bigwigs
rich enough to buy favors under the table from the government. Jason was livid with rage, but
calmed himself down. “I need to make a plan. I need a way to trap Keith so I can interrogate
him to my leisure. Looks like I need to visit the hardware store.”
Jason drove to the local hardware store. Jason’s plan was to break into Keith’s house,
set a trap in Keith’s front door, and wait for Keith to come back. For hours Jason roamed
through the store thinking of all the elaborate traps he could create. Eventually Jason decided
to not set a trap. His new plan was to hide in the kitchen, spray Keith with mace when he
entered the room, then beat the hell out of him. Jason’s rage wouldn’t allow him to do
anything less. Jason’s only purchases for the entire day were one spray bottle of mace and an
aluminum baseball bat. Jason drove to the outskirts of Keith’s neighborhood. Jason parked his
car and took his newly purchased items with him. Jason made his way to Keith’s house. Jason
saw an open window on the upper floor. Jason was mildly concerned about being seen, but his
great and passionate rage made him a bit more reckless and clumsy than usual. Jason did
manage to enter Keith’s house without anyone noticing.
For two hours Jason waited in Keith’s kitchen. For two hours Jason let his wrath grow
uncontrollably. Had anyone been there to see Jason, they would have seen that he was in the
sort of state that any rational person knows not to talk a person in that state out of fear for
their own safety. The only difference was that this was a not just any enraged man, but an
enraged man armed with perfect training, exceptional physical strength, mace, and a baseball
bat. Jason heard a car enter the driveway. He fancied a look at who was getting out of the car,
just to verify it was indeed Keith Morrison. If Jason maced some poor innocent person in the
face, not only would he be remorseful, but he would have lost the element of surprise for his
attack on Keith. With a quick peek Jason identified the blonde hair, blue eyes, and general
clean cut appearance of Keith Morrison. “You’re not going to look quite as clean shaven when
I’m done with you Keith old buddy. Jason, Jason, show some restraint. If you beat him to death
you’ll never get the information you want. Remember to beat him up right and proper, but give
it a rest before he’s been killed.”
The front door opened, and Keith walked toward the kitchen. As he rounded the corner
to the kitchen, Jason reached out from behind a corner and sprayed the can of mace right into
Keith’s eyes.
Keith staggered backwards, yelling, “What the fuck?!”
Jason stepped out from behind the corner and saw his defenseless victim still flailing
and rubbing at his burning eyes. Jason grinned in a particularly evil fashion and wound up for
his first swing of the bat. The first swing hit Keith in the ribs, dropping Keith to his knees. Jason
heard a satisfying crack the he recognized as the sound of bones breaking. Keith gasped for
breath from the vicious blow. Jason took the bat to Keith five more times, hitting him with
malicious force, but planning his assault so that Keith would live and be able to talk afterwards.
Within fifteen seconds Jason furious attack was over. Keith lay on the floor moaning in pain.
Jason grabbed him by his shirt collar and raised him up to eye level.
“Remember me? The last time you saw me you told me that you hoped to see me
again. Does that statement hold true? Say something!”
Keith sputtered and coughed up blood. Jason relinquished his grip and let Keith fall to
the ground. Keith spoke in a calm voice. “Jason? What the fuck are you doing, and why are
you here?”
“Like you don’t know. You set yourself up to be my savior. What were you doing in
reality? Following orders. You killed my wife you son of a bitch! Give me one good reason I
shouldn’t kill you right now.”
“You’re no different from me Jason. Also, you can put the bat down. I know you’re not
going to kill me. If you were going to kill me you could have shot me as I opened the door.
Also, you’ve worked me over pretty good. I’m in no state to attempt an escape or an attack. So
why don’t you just lower the bat and I’ll tell you everything I can.”
Jason shouldn’t have been surprised. Keith was an EMTU agent, and he knew how to
deal with these kinds of situations. “Fine.” Jason lowered the bat, but kept it at his side.
“You’re going to answer all of my questions. If I get the idea that you’re lying, I promise you
that you will leave this house in a body bag.”
“I have no motivation to lie in this scenario. Go ahead.” Keith crawled over to a couch
and sat down. Jason had attack had been brutally efficient, shown by the apparent pain Keith
experienced with every movement of his body.
“First things first. Are you an EMTU agent?”
“Yes, I am.”
“Last December, you killed my wife and broke my leg by intentionally triggering an
avalanche while we were skiing near Loveland Pass. Do you deny this?”
“No, I do not. Jason, let me explain. I think I’m beginning to understand what’s going
on here. Last December, we were assigned a mission in Colorado.”
“Hold it. We? You’re a member of a P-class team?”
“Yes. We were told that your wife was an undercover spy. The back story we were
given was that she had been raised in Russia, but later defected to China. Her mission was to
wait until receiving further orders from Chinese officials to kill eminent US political figures
when they took skiing vacations. Do you remember the US senator who was the spearhead of
the movement in favor of raising tariffs on Chinese consumer goods? He died skiing at
Breckenridge. According to what we were told, his autopsy revealed the presence of a drug
known to be used by Chinese operatives that induces the same symptoms as alcohol
intoxication. It was only during December that they finally found out where she lived.”
“What did they say about me?”
“We were told that the husband was uninvolved in the scheme and was not to be
harmed if possible.”
Jason listened incredulously. As Keith told more of the story, Jason began to see how it
fit together perfectly, same as the story told by the man on the roof.
“We wanted the death to seem like an accident. We knew that if the death was
unnatural that an autopsy would be performed and she would have a background check. The
whole point was to eliminate her but have it seem accidental so that the issue of the senator’s
death wasn’t brought up again. We watched you both for several weeks and eventually
decided that dying of asphyxiation buried under an avalanche would be a perfectly plausible
way for her to die. On that weekend in December, my team was the party of skiers that was
riding the mountain with you the whole day. We spent the whole day observing and predicting
where you would ski and planned our descent routes so that by the end of the day you would
descend near that convexity. We placed explosives on both sides of the slope you were going
to ski down. One of our agents climbed a tree to tell us when to ignite the explosives. When
we saw that you were skiing side by side we had no choice but to set off the slide to trap you
both. Once we saw that you were both caught in the slide we rushed in to extricate you. Your
wife we extricated after she had been buried long enough to cause almost certain death. We
hadn’t factored in that you were both wearing Avalungs however and when your wife was
being evacuated the paramedics and almost saved her life. The rest of the story you know.
Ever since you came in here though, I’ve been putting the pieces together of the real story.
Jason, I swear on my life that I didn’t know what was actually going on at the time. EMTU
fabricated the story for us. They wanted to kill your wife so that you would come work for
EMTU. Think about it. Why would they tell us that you were of no importance to us when you
were in fact a prospective EMTU agent? It was because they didn’t want us to know the
methods used to recruit EMTU members.”
Jason was stunned. Even though this could be a clever lie by Keith to save his own skin,
Jason somehow knew that this was the truth. It all made so much sense. EMTU used whatever
means necessary to recruit agents, at which point they carried out illegal operations on the
payroll of American corporations. The agents were kept blind to most of the process except the
training dreams. Telling the agents that the dreams were of EMTU’s doing was their method of
establishing trust with prospective agents, and the EMTU higher ups fabricated stories to tell
agents as background information to their missions.
“Keith, I have to apologize for the mace and the assault. I was just so infuriated at you
because I thought you killed my wife knowingly. I thought you were in on the whole racket,
when in fact you’re just a tool like me. We are exactly the same.”
“I always did my missions without question. We have been used in the meanest way
possible. They built up these visions of grandeur and fed us all of these lies. We weren’t doing
evil to promote the greater good. We were doing evil to further evil.”
Jason and Keith sat in silence. For ten minutes they just looked at each other, stared at
the floor, or closed their eyes. Jason finally came to his senses and asked Keith if he could help
him with the injuries he had caused. Keith asked him for some ibuprofen, a glass of water, and
a couple of ice packs. After Keith took his pain killer and iced his injuries he looked to be in
much less pain. For a couple of minutes Keith had to convince Jason that he didn’t hold
anything against him. Jason was convinced that Keith must hate him for what he had done, but
Keith truly understood Jason’s motivation.
Jason began to feel a familiar feeling creeping over him. He felt numb, the same way he
felt after learning of Jess’s death. Jason knew that his entire life would change. “How can I
carry on? I have to find some way to carry on the work of the guy I killed. I have to find some
way to bring down EMTU. They need to be exposed for the corrupt organization they are. But
how can this be done? My only access to the kind guns such a mission would require is through
EMTU, and even if Keith helps me we could never hope to mount any sort of assault on the
building. Even if we could manage a way in, how would we get out? It can’t be done.”
Keith spoke in his same calm and confident manner. “Jason, I cannot continue to work
for EMTU. I assume you feel the same way?”
“I do. Keith, I’ve been going over in my head how to expose EMTU for what they really
do. I’ve been a part of that corrupt system, and I feel a responsibility to do something. I’m not
the kind of person who can bide his time on the outside and collect information to bring their
activities to light. EMTU has completely destroyed my life, and I won’t be able look at myself in
the mirror if I don’t do something about it now.”
“Jason, I must ask you to reconsider. You know that attempting to attack the EMTU
headquarters is a suicide mission. I honestly have no idea now extensive the EMTU area of the
building is, but I have a decent enough idea of how big the CIA building above ground is. Jason,
there are twenty-thousand people in that building. I’ll be surprised if at any given time there
are less than two hundred armed men in that building. Even if you can sneak in, I do not see a
way to sneak back out. If you’re concocting any plans that involve both of us forget it. I’m
willing to spend the rest of my life doing the right thing and looking for information to expose
EMTU, but I am under no circumstances going to throw my life away for the sake of a rash plan
we know to be doomed to failure.”
Jason had been thinking about his options for some time. He knew that an open attack
on the entrance would quickly culminate with his death. “Keith, I think there might be a way.”
“Jason, you’re not listening to me. I will not take part in your plan. I welcome you to
join me in fleeing from the EMTU and collecting information to expose their corruption.”
“Keith, I think this plan will work. I can get away. We can have our cake and eat it too,
so to speak.”
“I’m interested. Enlighten me.”
Chapter 12
Jason went home an hour later. He helped Keith dress his wounds. Thankfully the only
lasting damage Jason had inflicted was two broken ribs. Keith knew he could pass these off
from just about anything, such as a sports accident. After Jason and Keith had finalized their
plan, Jason once again profusely apologized for his violent attack. The two men exchanged
phone numbers, and Jason went on his way. When Jason was on the way home he received a
phone call telling him to report to work the next day. He responded cordially, hiding his
newfound hatred for the organization that employed him. His morning meeting time was set,
and Jason drove the rest of the way home in silence, pondering all of the life-changing
information he had discovered in the last twelve hours.
The next day Jason met his ride and they drove him to the same parking garage
underneath the CIA building. Jason got out and spent his walk down to Westchester’s office
praying to a higher power that he wouldn’t be assigned to go on a mission today. Jason’s entire
plan might be compromised if he was sent on a mission that day.
Westchester greeted him in the same mildly pleasant as always. “Jason, how do you
feel? I hope that you’re ready for a big day of training, because that’s what’s in store for you.”
Jason had a great inferno of pure hate burning inside of him, and it was all directed at
this man. Westchester was the only person associated with EMTU besides Keith Jason had
made contact with since the end of his training, so all of the hate that Jason had for EMTU was
directed at Westchester. Jason thought it ironic that the training he received courtesy of EMTU
was what allowed him to deceive their personnel. Westchester suspected nothing of Jason, or
at least made no indication of it. Jason made every effort to sound as he always did, and in a
short amount of time he was walking towards the training room. Jason wished dearly to be
able to skip or skimp on his training, but Jason knew that he had to appear exactly as he always
did in order not to arouse suspicion. Jason completed his training satisfactorily. It wasn’t his
best performance, but also not his worst. At the end of the day Jason had a small workout after
which Westchester bid him goodbye.
For the rest of the day, Jason prayed for the conditions to be right. Jason spent most of
the afternoon literally begging his phone to ring. Just as night was settling in Jason’s phone
rang, and Jason was full of delight when he heard a man’s voice ordering him into work the next
day. When Jason got off the phone, he was even more anxious than before. Jason had to wait
until a very late hour to call Keith. When Jason finally made the call, he was giddy with
excitement.
“Keith, it’s Jason. I got called in for tomorrow. What about you?” Jason’s anticipation
was nearly unbearable, and it seemed like an age had passed before Keith answered.
“I didn’t get a call. I will not be going in tomorrow.”
Jason couldn’t believe their good fortune. After only two days the conditions were met.
Jason was called into work, and Keith wasn’t. “Wonderful news. In that case, the plan is a go
for tomorrow. Do you need to go over any of it?”
“No, I remember it down to the letter. But if I find myself doubting anything I’ll call you.
Jason, remember to think on your toes if things go awry. Also, good luck. I’m confident that
the plan will work once my role comes into play, but your part if much more of a risk. I believe
you have a good shot of succeeding, so don’t let me down.”
Jason let out a quiet sigh. “Keith, my solo part of the plan will work. I will see you
tomorrow as planned.” Jason hung up the phone. He had an errand to run.
Jason drove to Washington, DC. When he got there the first thing Jason did was go to a
jewelry store and buy about five thousand dollars worth of jewelry. As soon as he had bought it
Jason found a pawn shop and sold all of the jewelry back, but he was reimbursed with cash.
Jason now had two thousand dollars to spend. Jason then went directly to a firearms store.
Jason knew that he would only need a handgun, so he purchased a handgun that looked and
felt similar to the one he was accustomed to from his training and missions. Jason bought a few
extra clips of ammunition along with the gun. Jason also bought a stun gun. After these
transactions were complete Jason drove home and got in bed. He knew that tomorrow his life
would once more change forever.
Jason awoke the next day. For the first time ever the thought crossed his mind that this
might realistically be the last day of his life. Jason made breakfast absent-mindedly, constantly
going over in his mind the plan for the day. Jason ate his food and for the first time since Jess
died he really enjoyed it. “This might be the last thing I ever eat. Why couldn’t it be a steak?
Still, this is the most delicious peanut butter toast and orange juice I have ever eaten.” Jason
spent his morning appreciating things he had not appreciated since the death of his wife.
Twenty minutes before his scheduled pickup Jason drove his car to the designated stop. For
the first time, Jason brought a handgun, extra ammo, a knife, and his stun gun. Jason had a
strange feeling for the entire ride to headquarters. The feeling stayed with him as he walked
the corridors to Westchester’s office. Jason decided that the feeling was his body trying to tell
him to abandon his plan and flee. Jason, for the first time in years, was experiencing fear.
Jason had to calm himself. He knew his plan was rash. His plan was so incredibly rash that it
was completely unexpected from someone of Jason’s level of training. Jason was breaking
every single rule of hostage taking, hoping that no one would be able to react before he was
already out of the building.
By the time Jason walked down the last hallway leading to Westchester’s office, his
doubt and fear had melted away. Jason was collected and confident. All that remained was the
execution of the plan. Jason entered the office and sat down in the same chair he always sat in.
“Good morning Jason. How are you?”
Without hesitation Jason pulled out his handgun and aimed directly at Westchester’s
forehead. “I’ll be honest with you Greg, I’m pissed off. Before I begin, I’m going to lay down
some rules for you. You will speak when spoken to. If I have any reason to suspect you have
alerted anyone else of what’s going on in here, I will put a bullet in your head. Do you
understand?”
Westchester looked surprised, but he kept his composure. “Jason, I understand. Go
ahead and say what you want to say.”
“As it turns out, my curiosity is insatiable. Remember my last mission? I’m sure you
know that the guy I was supposed to kill had a briefcase full of information regarding EMTU. I
misrepresented the truth about what happened. I told you that we didn’t exchange any words.
In fact, he told me that he was in fact trying to expose EMTU for the corrupt bastards we are,
and everything that he said really started to add up. I told you that I destroyed his briefcase.
That was also a lie. I simply hid it on the roof and retrieved it the next day. In the briefcase, I
saw some very interesting information. EMTU is a branch of the CIA that performs illegal
operations not on the orders of the government, but instead as guns for hire for American
corporations. Furthermore, EMTU orchestrates a complete downward spiral of the lives of
potential EMTU agents that pass the mental training. Do you deny this?”
“Jason, what you are saying is completely true. Think about it. The CIA takes care of the
missions that the government wants to be carried out. We still serve a purpose. Jason, do
realize that all of our surpluses go directly into the federal government budget? Well they do.
Also, think of it like this. Does it not benefit the American people if the interests of big
corporations are furthered? Fewer people get laid off, and the salaries of the employees
increase. Isn’t that still helping the American people? I guess it depends on whether you
believe in the “trickle down” theory.”
“I don’t care to hear your justification for something that is obviously illegal and
immoral. EMTU is responsible for my wife’s death. I don’t care if all of the money goes directly
to orphaned children, no cause is noble enough to sacrifice innocent people’s lives along the
way.”
“Jason, I think that your mind is attempting to reverse your training.”
“Good! I hate what I’ve become.”
“Jason, this was your choice. You volunteered for this.”
“I volunteered for this program as a broken man! I was dead inside! There was nothing
left! You took my physical body and did with my mind what you would. Admit it! You ordered
the murder of my wife!”
“Jason, I have an offer for you. I know what you’re intending to do. It’s bold Jason.
Coming in here, using me as a hostage to escape. But what then? What will you do once you’re
on the run being chased by every law enforcement agency in the area?”
Jason was growing tired of Westchester’s word games. “I thought you had an offer for
me. If you don’t get the point right now, I’m going to end this conversation by decorating that
wall with your brain tissue.”
“Right. Jason, I will go with you. You need not hold me at gunpoint. I will not tell
anyone what is happening. I will walk out with you a car and we can go wherever you want to
go.”
“Why the hell would you do that?”
“Let me finish Jason. You must realize that this is a good offer for someone in your
situation. Within twenty seconds of an alarm being triggered in this building, armed guards will
swarm the hallways. If you kill me, you will most likely be shot on sight. You might take a few
of them with you, but you would be killed. If you attempted to force your way out using me as
a hostage, your fate would be very similar. I’m making you this offer because you are a
amazingly good agent and I don’t want to lose you.”
Jason laughed in a sadistic, twisted way. “You still want me to be an agent? Isn’t it
obvious that I intend to either die today or spend the next few years bringing about an end to
EMTU?”
“Jason, I have some news for you that you will find very interesting. Your wife is not
dead.”
“Excuse me? I went to her funeral. I spread her ashes on top of a mountain!”
“That’s exactly what we wanted you to think. Jason, we’re not quite as evil as you have
convinced yourself we are. Your wife is in fact alive and well. With this knowledge, will you
accept my offer? I will take you to her right now if you wish. We can walk out of that door and
pretend that this whole incident never happened.”
Jason was skeptical. Every voice in his head screamed “TRAP!!!” Still, he couldn’t resist
the opportunity. Even with this unexpected turn of events, his plans with Keith were still intact.
Jason spoke to Westchester in the most menacing voice he had ever uttered.
“If you are lying to me, I will kill you.” Jason didn’t need to elaborate for the statement
to be poignant. “Westchester, I accept your offer. Let’s go.”
Jason and Westchester left the room. Jason trailed behind Westchester, ever wary of a
trap. The walk to the parking garage went smoothly. Once in the parking garage, Westchester
walked up to the closest parked vehicle. Jason got into the passenger seat and they drove
away. The drive was passed mostly in silence.
They drove for a couple of miles in the opposite direction of Jason’s house. Westchester
turned the car into the parking lot of a small medical plaza. Westchester parked the car and
walked into the largest building with Jason following close behind. Westchester and Jason
entered an elevator and went to the bottom floor. After snaking their way to the opposite side
of the cluttered basement Westchester came to a door that had no handle and no obvious way
to open it. Westchester reached into his pocket and produced a small keycard. He waved the
card by the ground about five feet to the side of the door, and the door slid open. Westchester
and Jason stepped through into another elevator. This elevator had only two stops, top and
bottom. Westchester and Jason took the long ride down to the bottom. When the elevator
came to halt the two men stepped out into a large, brightly lit room, and Jason could hardly
believe his eyes. The room was filled with tall cylindrical cases.
“Westchester, is this what I think it is?”
“Jason, welcome to the future. Cryostasis was a madman’s crazed fantasy twenty years
ago. As you can see, this is no madman’s crazed fantasy. Jason, your wife is in here.”
“Take me to her right now. I have to see her.”
Westchester gave a hand signal of approval and they walked to the center of the room.
Each cryostasis tube had on it a name, a registration number, and a clear glass window that
sufficed to show the interned person’s face. Westchester stopped and directed Jason’s
attention to one of the tubes. Jason read the tube hardly daring to believe it could be true. –
Registration #00048395: Jessica Mathews- He looked through the window and saw what was
unmistakably Jess’s face. Jason felt a rush of overpowering joy, but this emotion was tempered
with confusion.
Jason turned to Westchester and incredulously asked, “How is this possible? Tell me
what really happened.”
“When you were both buried in the avalanche we had laced Jess’s Avalung with a
compound that makes the victim go unconscious and appear to be dead, but in reality it
actually helps them restrict blood flow to their vital organs, allowing them to live longer in
periods of oxygen deprivation. When Jess got to hospital, all we had to do was fool the doctors
into thinking she was dead. With all the drugs available these days, this was a pretty easy task.
She looked pretty dead when the doctors had a look at her. We kept her on these drugs until
after the funeral, at which point we provided you with some random person’s ashes and took
Jess to the facility to be put in cryostasis and await your return after you were finished at
EMTU. Come, its time for us to go. You’ve seen all there is to see.”
On the elevator ride up Jason was torn over what he felt and what to do. On one hand,
EMTU had deceived him many times, in many different ways. On the other hand, the benefits
of continuing with EMTU were quite considerable. Jason and Westchester stepped out, and as
they wound their way back to the elevator two men in suits walked toward Jason and
Westchester. The two men reached for their guns. Jason immediately grabbed Westchester,
held the older man between him and the men in suits, and placed his gun against Westchester’s
temple.
“Don’t come any closer. I’ll blow his brains out. I’ve got nothing to lose.”
Jason was not surprised to hear Westchester’s voice. “But Jason, that’s just not true
anymore. Your wife is alive. Even if you still don’t believe me and you think that EMTU is
corrupt, think of it this way. If you choose to let me go and continue to work or us, less than
two years from now you will have a considerable sum of money, have your wife back, and if you
wish have no memories regarding EMTU. If you choose to continue to be as stubborn and nearsighted you’re being right now, then I’m afraid these gentlemen will have to kill you.”
Suddenly, both of the men with suits were shot in the back. They both fell to the floor
bloody and lifeless. Keith Morrison stood in the elevator door, with a silenced gun in each
hand. Keith walked out and kept his gun trained on Westchester.
Jason released Westchester and couldn’t resist the temptation to gloat. “I know that
you’re upset, but sometimes that’s just the way it goes. You shouldn’t have trained me as well.
I suspected you had notified someone of your plight. The hidden homing device was clever.
Unfortunately for you I had already prepared for this and dispatched Keith to follow me and
eliminate your rescuers. Keith, good job.”
“Thanks Jason. Hurry up and say what you want to say so we can kill this bastard and
get out of here.”
Jason stepped back from Westchester. Keith kept his guns aimed at Westchester.
Jason was thrilled at the perfection of his plan. “Westchester, will you come with me
and expose EMTU’s corruption to the media? I will take this chance to remind you that if your
answer is no I’m going to shoot you now.”
Westchester smiled as he responded. “Jason, I’ll give you one last opportunity. Come
back to EMTU. When you’re done, we can erase all of your memories from your time with us.
You will be back together with your wife, have money, and have a completely clean conscience.
Jason knew that this was a trick. Jason was tempted to say yes, but he knew that even
though saying yes was in many regards a smarter move it was time for him to do the right thing.
“Jason, if you want to return to EMTU you will have to do one thing to prove your
loyalty. If you wish to return to EMTU, you must shoot Keith.”
Jason looked at Keith, and their eyes met. All Jason had to do was fire one shot at the
man who had killed his wife and be absolved of guilt. He could return to EMTU, work for
another year, then return to his old life. But Jason knew that he couldn’t do it. Jason and Keith
had a plan, and the two men confirmed their alliance through their eye contact.
“Sorry Westchester, but I’ve listened to you for too long.”
Jason aimed his handgun at Westchester’s head and hesitated for an instant to savor
the moment, but then he heard a sharp sound and felt agonizing pain in his chest. He looked
down and saw his shirt stained with blood. Jason looked at Keith to see one of Keith’s guns
aimed directly at his chest. Jason couldn’t comprehend what was going on. Keith had betrayed
him. Jason dropped his gun out of pain and despair. Jason fell to the floor, and Westchester
walked over to him.
“Jason, you were terribly naïve to think that we would let you run into Keith randomly at
a grocery store. We knew that you had seen and talked with him before. I’m a little surprised
at how easily you believed that you just happened to run into each other. Oh, Jason. I really
am upset that things turned out like this. You were one of our best agents.” Westchester
walked away, his face expressionless.
Keith walked over to Jason and stood over Jason still holding both guns. “Sorry Jason.
You do seem like a good guy, but duty calls.”
Jason was in too much pain to trade meaningless words, but he did manage to say two
more words. “Finish me.”
Keith looked remorseful for a split second, then with a look of resolve aimed his guns
down at Jason and fired four more shots. Jason felt excruciating pain for a few more seconds,
but then his body went numb as his sight became dim. Jason faded into darkness.
Jason awoke to the sound of a voice in his head. “Jason Mathews, you have failed the
final test of your mental training sequence. You will not be offered a position with EMTU. Your
mental train sequence is over, and you will experience these sorts of dreams no longer. You
will be compensated for your troubles caused by the training.”
Jason’s eyes slowly opened. He was in a small white room sitting in a bed. Jason
recognized the room as part of a hospital, and he couldn’t understand what was going on.
Suddenly Jason saw the most uplifting and confusing sight he had ever seen. Jess rushed into
the room, ecstatic with joy.
“Jason! Oh Jason my darling! You’re awake! The doctors weren’t sure you would ever
wake up.” Jess came to Jason’s bed and flung her body onto his.
Jason cried with joy. He sat in his bed and embraced Jess for five minutes. They would
occasionally exchange phrases of affection, but Jason was mainly concerned with holding the
wife he had thought to be dead for most of a year.
When their embrace finally ended, Jason looked at Jess and asked, “Where are we? And
what’s happening?”
“Jason, you’ve been in a coma for two weeks. When we got to the hospital two weeks
ago you went into shock from all of the blood you lost. The doctors weren’t sure you would
ever get out of your coma, but I knew you would.”
“Jess, I’m so incredibly happy to see you. I thought you were dead.”
“It was close. They said that on the way to the hospital I went into cardiac arrest. But
thank god for the timely response of that other group of skiers. Without them, we would both
be dead right now.”
A nurse entered the room and told Jess that she should let Jason rest. The last thing
Jason wanted was for Jess to leave his sight for another instant, but the nurse insisted that
Jason needed to take it easy for at least twenty four hours as he recovered. During his time
alone Jason figured out what had happened. Everything since Jess’s death had been a dream.
Keith Morrison, the training, his missions, his death. All of those things were in his head. Jason
only then remembered the voice he had heard just before waking up. “That coma was one last
training exercise. I failed it. EMTU will never bother me again.”
The next day Jason and Jess left the hospital. The clerk told them that the hospital had
received payment for every medical expense they had incurred over the past two weeks from a
mysterious benefactor. Jess was utterly bewildered, but Jason had a pretty good idea of who
the benefactor was. Jason and Jess returned home. On the drive Jason and Jess talked in the
same manner as when they first met. Jason felt as though he had been given a second chance
at life, and he intended to savor every second of it.
“Well with this broken leg I guess I’ll have to take a few weeks off before I can ski or
instruct again.”
“Keystone has to find some other mode of employment for you till you heal right?”
“That’s correct. Maybe if you train hard during these next few weeks you’ll be able to
beat me up the mountain when I recover.”
Jess laughed and smiled at Jason. Their eyes met, and Jason knew that his life was more
perfect than he could have ever hoped for.
Chapter 13
Westchester sat in his office and typed one last entry into the database concerning
Jason Mathews. –Jason Mathews. Although the subject performed exceptionally well on every
other training sequence, the subject failed the final training sequence. The subject composite
trait scores were some of the most promising we had seen in years, but in the end the subject
showed that he didn’t have the necessary loyalty to be an EMTU agent. The subject moral
conscience prevented him from having the loyalty to obey our commands when he didn’t agree
with our missions and goals from a moral standpoint. We have removed our training induction
machinery from the subject, and no further training tests will be administered to him. We have
paid for his medical expenses and we have deposited five thousand dollars into his bank
account. This is the final entry concerning Jason Mathews. Greg Westchester